lots of seeds in...

It has been a busy few weeks and I have planetd the following:

Main crop of spuds, Runner beans(Scarlet Emporer), Peas (Greensage), mixed Lettuce, Autumn Gold Carrots, Beetroot and Spinach.

As you can see I have built my runner bean canes. This was very easy to do.

As things are ticking along I have been spending a bit of time tidying the place up.

Running out of space????

When I took over the plot I was given a full plot size (10 pole) and after a few months I thought that I may give half of it back as it would be too much to handle.

Thankfully I didn't!

At first it was quite daunting - the picture below was 9 months ago so I started to slowly get a grip on it and by working on it all through Nov & Dec. I have started to use the top half of the plot.

The top half already had 2 redcurrant bushes, a friend (Lukerman) also gave me a further 3 bushes and these have been planted by father-in-law. He has also cleared a small area at the top of the plot and discovered a further 10 rhubarb crowns, so the top half will just be for fruit bushes.

The plot to the left of me belongs to Murray (a Kiwi-Arsenal season ticket holder) and he, like me, is new to allotments so it is quite good to chat things through and see how each of us are doing.

One of the good things about the allotment is that you share resources. I have a shed on the allotment and have given Murray a key so he doesn't have to lug his tools up every time. In return he has given me some horse muck and a few raspberry canes from his plot. And these have been added to the top of the allotment.

I have been finding out that I have been running out of space, so a strip of land that I was not going to use will now have my spuds in it - It has been sheeted for 6 weeks so it should be ok.

The last bit - probably the size of 2 raised beds - is quite rough, so it will be sheeted for the next 2 months and I will look to grow my winter caulis, broccoli and sprouts in it, so that will hopefully mean that all of the plot will be utilised.

I am now starting to think about what to fill the plot with once the first crop has finished, ie once my broad beans have finished in July - what will I grow in that spot - eg Kale ready for winter, still that is a while away but worth a thought.

So in total I should have about 10 raised bed that about about 1.3-1.5m across - how much this will all produce remains to be seen......

What has happened in March?

I think it was quite easy to get carried away in early March as it was quite warm but this was followed by a cold spell - and it even snowed (& stuck) (pitched, says the wife who's from the West Country) in Henley town which has not happened for a couple of years.

So I have been quite careful in what I have been doing and only last weekend (31st March) did I plant my potatoes. Essentially March has been further preparation and seeding in the gereenhouse.

3rd March I seeded quite a lot of peas and broad beans (short pod - Sutton), radish, carrots and some lettuce, summer cabbage and brocolli in the greenhouse at home

17th - I planted out the broad beans that had been in the greenhouse for 1 month, they are the long pod variety.

24th March - planted more broad beans (Sutton) directly into the ground - seeded some lettuce under cloches in the ground

31st March - Planted early potatoes - seeded the runner beans in the greenhouse

I have also nearly finished digging over the beds with just one left. I have also built the canes for the runner beans.

So it looks like I am all set - I feel pretty confident that I have things under control - though I think I am running out of space..........

The first batch of 'homemade' compost

At the weekend I had to move the compost bin in the back garden - (to make way for 2 more chickens). For the past 18 months we have been putting all our veggie/fruit scraps into the bin and wondering whether it will work.

Well I can say that it has - and with minimal effort.

I thought I would just write down what we did as you hear lots of stories of what you need to do so here is our version. It really has been easy.

When we bought the house we inherited the green compost bin - it is one of the standard issue green ones from the council.

We put it on some lightly dug soil and made sure it was level. For the past 18 months we have added in the following.

• All vegetable peelings (any left over cooked veg gets eaten by Rita & Mavis - our chickens)
• All receipts/bank statements (can't imagine anyone digging in the compost bin to nick my identity)
• Grass cuttings
• Some chicken pooh
• Any rotten fruit

All we have done is buy some compost worms - I bought these for £2 of ebay, and once every 6 months I stuck a garden fork in the top of the bin to mix things up - in total this has taken me 15 mins.

We have had some tiny white flies inside the bin but this is normal and they don't cause any problems.

We have had no problems with rats/foxes etc.

Anyway there we have the first bag of compost, roll on next year!

A few Pictures - Garlic doing well & Spud bed prepared

Planting Plan

All seems to be going well?

I am getting worried because things seem to be under control and I keep thinking that I have missed something!

Since my last post I have have finalised my planting schedule and have started a few crops in the greenhouse.

I have only have about 1/3 of the plot left to dig. Areas which have not been dug are still under the black matting.

On 27 January I seeded 30 broad bean plants. These have been in the green house for 4 weeks and are all doing well.

Last weekend I finished a small raised bed and put in 70 shallots.

This weekend (25th Feb) I have prepared another bed and put in 12 Jerusalem Artichokes tubers. I have never grown these before so I have given them small plot in between the rhubarb and onions.

I have also seeded the following in the greenhouse:
Cabbage (Greyhound)
Brocolli
Tom Thumb lettuce
Radish

The next few weeks

This is roughly what I am aiming to do over the next few weeks, I have found it best not to make too big a plan for the next 8 weeks as I find I end up changing my mind:

03-Mar - Seed Parsnip/Leeks /Peas/Radish/Beetroot in the greenhouse
10-Mar - Nothing
17-Mar - Seed Parsnip/Leeks /Peas/Radish/Beetroot & Plant out (Jan) Broad Beans
24-Mar - Plant Early Spuds
31-Mar - Seed Parsnip/Leeks /Peas/Radish/Beetroot

Also I have started to work on the other half of the allotment - this is quite overgrown but I have started to clear this in the hope that I could get some stuff in later in the year.

A few more pictures.

Here are a few more pictures.

Everything seems to be under control......

Well the black matting seems to have done the trick. Those areas that have been sheeted are free from any grass or weeds.

The garlic and Onion that I planted on 4th Dec are now about 6 inches tall and are coming along well.

The rhubarb crowns are now starting to sprout.

I think I am getting there......

Well things have moved on a little further despite the rain. It seems that all it has done for the past few weeks is rain. Still things are moving in the right direction.

3-4 weeks ago I got some black matting and this has been laid across all of the raised beds to prevent any grass and weed growth. It seems to be doing the trick. So far I have 4 raised beds; 3 are still covered but the other has now been planted out with:
Red Garlic - I have been told that Garlic is the easiet thing to grow - last year I did grow some in the garden but it wasn't very productive. Hopefully this year will be more successful.
Onions - I have planted some winter onions - these are a hardy variety that need to be planted before Xmas and will be ready next June. Again I struggled growing onions in the back garden - so I will have to wait and see what happens.
I have left some space for some Shallots that will be planted in the New Year.

Fianlly I have moved 6 rhubarb crowns into one end of the raised bed.
I will be keeping a close eye on this uncovered raised bed to see if I have got rid of all the weeds.

Over the next month/Christmas I have the following jobs to do:
Build 2 more raised beds
Dig over the other beds (5 to go)
Weed in between the beds
Apart from that then I have got all my seeds ready and I just need to finish off my sowing/planting schedule.

Also I will aim to get a few pics on here very soon.

Building raised beds

Being the type of person who likes things neatly organised and in a logical order, I have decided to build raised beds on the allotment.

People have different views on raised beds, some people think they are a waste of space, some feel they create more work, some say they drain too quickly and others think they just make the allotment nicer.

I prefer raised beds for a few reasons, but mainly they help you to organise your planting and therefore help your crop rotation.

Last summer I experimented with a couple of raised beds in the back garden (see the picture) and I found they helped me (the complete beginner) to control the planting and helped keep me orgainsed.

Therefore I decided to build raised beds on my allotment – so far I have built 4, and may squeeze in another 2.

They are really quite straightforward to build – the ones in the garden were built from rough cut timber I bought from a local timber merchants. But the ones at the allotment I have built from old pallets. As with everything once you have done something you start to spot things that you could recycle or re-use etc. If you get pallets then you will have to break them down which can take a bit longer but it is free!

Basically my mate Lukerman emailed me some simple instructions to build the raised beds and I just followed these. This is what he said

4-6' high beds usually enough unless you're disabled - any higher and they drain too quickly

Best to use rough sawn treated timber boards 150 x 25 (or better 32mm) in lengths as required. And make the beds 1.5m wide so you reach the middle from both sides

Secure boards with 600x50x50mm timber pegs and galvanised nails every 1-2 metres. All this should be available from any good fencing/builders merchant (cheap as chips).

Sleepers probably an overkill - new ones expensive, old ones full of creosote which is carcinogenic

To get the extra soil without getting extra stuff brought in dig out 4" deep topsoil from between beds and work in 4" of well rotted pooh every year and it'll look after itself.

Dig Dig Dig........

It has been an interesting couple of months on the allotment; work ground to halt in early September as I had a knee operation but things seem to be coming along. At my last post in August I managed to get a few seeds into the ground and we had a small crop of turnips and lettuce.

However, the area of ground I had prepared in the summer turned into a lawn of grass in about a week. So you can imagine what that felt like! I have to say it was bloody depressing as I have spent quite a bit of time on it in the summer. However I did have one small consolation in that someone else took over a similar plot to me about 3 plots up and they did exactly the same as me and they have the same problem. So I decided to ask some of my neighbours about what to do and I got a few suggestions/comments:

One chap said just rotivate it and see what happens.

Another said they had a similar problem and they rotivated it and the grass came back.

And another told me that I had to weed the whole patch - and that there was no short cut. So I have let the grass grow to about 6 inches, I fork it up, grab the grass, shake the soil out and dump the grass and roots in the compost bin! And I have to keep doing this across the whole patch.

Digging the whole patch like this is a lot of work and I wanted to make sure it would work. So I ran a couple of sample patches and left it for a few weeks and lo and behold no grass grew back - my neighbour also said that the best time to dig was in late Oct and Nov and to forget it in the summer. So I am now in the process of digging half of the allotment. It is actually quite hard work and after about 2 hours you really have had enough.

I have also decided to try a different approach on another part of the allotment - on this part I have put down some Roundup and sheeted it with black matting - I have been told that the combination of the weed killer and matting should do the trick - well, we'll have to wait and see.

From what I have picked up then there is no short cut and it is all preparing the ground and trying to stop on top of the weeds.

Still there is no great rush to have it all ready right now as there is little you can plant at the moment.

At last some seeds are in!!!!

As you can see from the pictures the allotment looks a lot different from how it did in June. Sometimes I have felt like I have not been getting anywhere but having seen the photos the place does look a lot different.

After some further digging I have been able to sow a few seeds in the hope they can be harvested before winter sets in. I have planted beetroot, carrots, turnips, spinach and some mixed lettuce. I have also transplanted my strawberry plants form the back garden along with 18 strawberry plants I got from the local garden centre for £1.47 - bargain. I would have planted some winter potatoes but the useless supplier - Dobies.co.uk has so far taken 2 weeks to post them - how difficult can it be!

Over the next few months I will dig up the remainder of the allotment in 1 yard strips; this way you can see progress and not get too disheartened. Once I have dug each strip over I will cover it with black plastic in readiness for spring. I am currently using blue sheets and these are not ideal as they do let some light through and hence weeds can grown underneath.

I also need to tackle the small problem of a wasp's nest that is in the middle of the allotment. I did have a good go at drowning the buggers and filling in the the holes so hopefully that may have done the trick!

Also you will see that there are 3 yellow seats on the allotment - these are in fact part of the subs bench from Wigan Athletic's old ground Springfield Park!

2 steps forward and 3 steps back.....

...well that's what it feels like... the past few weeks have been hard work on the allotment mainly due to the weather and the fact that I am also ripping out a kitchen at home!!!! (Still I need to crack on as the football and rugby season is nearly upon me!)

But still I think things have progressed. Since my last post I have borrowed the next door neighbour's petrol strimmer and cut back the 6 foot high grass/weeds. And I have put weedkiller on 3/4s of the allotment - I used Roundup as this was recommended by other Allotmenteers!

On the other quarter I have started to dig this over in the hope that I can get a few seeds in the ground before summer is over. I have ordered a few seeds/tubers and fingers crossed me and wifey should be tucking into a few veggies before December.

The highlight so far has been that I have inherited a couple of fruit bushes so we have already had a bumper crop of red and blackcurrants.

Over the next couple of weeks I am planning to slowly dig another quarter of the allotment, but insetad of planting in this I am going to sheet this over and start to plan for next spring...........

The Hut is clear

Well I have made a start and have cleared in and round the hut and dumped most of the contents in a skip. The tools which the previous owner left are now in the shared group shed.

I had planned to start strimming the weeds but unfortuately I had a problem with the strimmer - so this will have to be saved for next week!

Where shall I start!!!!

God knows!!! after a bit of head scratching it finally all sinks in how much work I have to do before I can plant a single crop. Though not to be deterred I have come up with a plan.

Stage 1 is to clear the contents of the 'hut' and chuck all unwanted items in the skip! This includes bits of carpet and a few bags of old plaster.

Stage 2 is to strimmer the whole patch using a petrol strimmer (no electricity on this allotment!), scrape up all the mess and put it on the compost heap. This alone will take a few hours.

My plot is 10 pole and is the standard allotment size plot, for those who don't know what a pole measurement is - 1 acre is made up of 160 Poles so you get about 16 allotments in an acre.

For those who don't know what an acre is - 1 acre is 43, 560 square feet and is a piece of land that is 209 feet square/70 yards square. So a 10 pole allotment is 70x70/16 = 306 square yards which is about 1/30 of the size of a football pitch. Bet that helps!

The wait is over!!!!

After a 2 month wait I have been given the option on an Allotment in Henley-on-Thames.

I am a novice to allotments, but for the past 6 months I have been growing a few veg in my back garden, but as I was slowly taking over the garden, the wife suggested that I get an allotment!!!! Maybe she just wants to get rid of me!

In this blog I will try to describe what I have been doing in lingo that a novice gardener can understand!