Posted on Jun 25, 2008 under Diary |
Well, it’s been a while! But things have been going on…
Loukik and I bought a shed!!!! There were some hairy moments, which we may describe if you ask us nicely, but we may choose not to share. Anyway, then I got all lazy (read had to work hard even in the evenings) and Loukik, unbeknownst to me, managed to put the shed up ALL ON HIS OWN!!! I genuinely don’t know how he did it. He even put on a new roof! It’s SOOOO exciting!!!!
The weeds are seriously taking over though. I totally see the advantage of raised beds. It means that you have a small area to focus on. Also, ours are more amended with manure and stuff, so less grows there anyway. Loukik and I have decided to try to weed lots and cover the areas with some ground covering / mulch so that it becomes lower maintenance. Fingers crossed!
So, what else is new?
Aubergine plant from friends in Brighton, nasturtium from Strawberry Fair, to help to de-bug the tomatoes, four lavender plants from Cambridge market
Cabbages being eaten by slugs, strawberries ripening (just a couple!), teeny toms on the plants!, broad beans starting (as spotted by Al), courgette plants lookng happy, seedlings such as rocket and pak choi are coming up nicely.
More pics to follow!!!
Posted on May 26, 2008 under Uncategorized |
I put off the allotmenting this weekend, but it made no difference in the end. Showers ahoy!
I visited a friend yesterday and discussed allotments with her, her hubby, and his Dad! Lots of expertise! Also gifted courgette, tomato, climbing bean and cabbage plants!
So, amid the rain, I pinched off the tops of the broad bean plants. This is to get rid of the nice juicy plants which attract the black-fly. (Should be done when plants start to flower.) Indeed, a few of the plants did have black-fly nestling there, so I squished ‘em good! I was going to wind the runners around the canes, but I have a horrible feeling that they’re not going to recover from last weekend’s frost. I guess we’ll see. Not much happening to them anyway, apart from grim-looking-ness.
I put the squash (including my pumpkins) and tomato (mine and the gifted, much bigger, ones) plants in the greenhouse, where I hope to harden them off. This is a process of allowing them to acclimitise to the cold, wind etc, and get tougher stems, gradually. I think that the absence of this hardening off might have been the death of the butternut squash plants a few weeks ago…
I planted out the pea plants, new broad beans, new runner beans and climbing bean plant in the raised bed. Fingers crossed. It’s windy as well as wet today!
And finally (as John Craven would say) I piled up soil round my jerusalem artichokes. I don’t know if they needed it, it seems to be an optional phase, but I thought I’d give it a go. I was pretty wet through by now, so it wasn’t much fun!
Loukik and I have some pretty exciting news in the offing, so watch this space!
Other tips I’ve picked up:
- cabbages like alkaline soil, so I’ve obtained some univeral pH indicator paper.
- grass cuttings act as a good mulch for things like beans - water well underneath before putting it down.
- tomatoes will benefit from having their side shoots (not the flowers though!) nipped off during growth.
- marigolds are good at putting off nasty pests, especially near tomatoes. I’ll build this into the plans.
- lavender (named from the Latin - to wash) also scares away pests, and borage attracts them away from other things!
Posted on May 23, 2008 under Diary |
Growing potatoes is definitely not a difficult task. They don’t need much water and are apparently happy with most soil types. We planted our first batch of chitting seed potatoes on the 16th of April (around 15 of them) and Helena planted the second batch just last week.
The first batch has made tremendous progress in a month. The shoots are nearly 10 cms tall and they all look healthy (until the frosts at least).
We read up that in order to get a good crop and to prevent the yield from turning green, its necessary to build up soil around the base of the plants. This part confuses me a little. The shoots are covered with leaves completely and quite close to the ground. So, I am thinking that the built up soil may bury the leaves and decrease the growth rate!
Anyway, we wanted to build up the base yesterday but Helena’s allotment guide book suggested that we wait until the shoots are 30 cms tall. I reckon this may just be a couple of weeks away. So, I just dug up the soil around the plants and prepared ourselves.
Further reading suggests that we should build up quite a few times during the plant’s life cycle. This article has a very nice illustration. We may start with a little bit of building up later today.
Meanwhile the artichokes are doing very well. I read up yesterday that Jerusalem Artichokes can grow up to 3 mts! Ummm…. We may have planted these too close to one another.
Posted on May 20, 2008 under Diary |
Loukik and I have been giving the allotment more structure. We managed to get hold of a couple of pallets and broken paving slabs on Sunday, through freecycle. So we have paths etc. I bought some dinky picket fencing to go round our garden area, and installed that mostly too! It’s looking a lot more homey.
Then weeding the herb garden actually made it clear that there are herbs in there, among all the grass that’s regrowing!
I planted lots more seeds on Sunday too: mini beetroot, perpetual spinach, pak choi, brussel sprouts. And sunflowers!!!! I also potted four strawb plants in my strawberry planter!
Today I went to the recycling centre and was covertly allowed to nick a few bits of wood from the timber bin! So I have started to build a frame for my raspberry canes. It helps to point them out as a feature too.
I took the strawbs out to the allotment, as well as planting a borage plant in the herb garden. But, I have a feeling that’s not a great idea. It’s baltic out, and apparently due to drop to 2 deg C overnight. What?!?!?!?! It’s late MAY!!!!! The runner beans are already struggling - the leaves are darker and wilty. BOOOO!!!
Oh well, I guess we’ll see….
Posted on May 14, 2008 under Diary |
My first proper go at the allotment in yonks. I’ve been at the EDEN PROJECT over the weekend, with a friend who got an allotment before me, and so I’ve been very inspired!
It’s been really hot and dry for the last week, and things in the greenhouse are a bit the worse for wear. Poor things.
First off, the herb garden. Mint going mad in its pot, as predicted. Phew. Rosemary has bedded in nicely. Sage and thyme not the best, but still alive. Today, the basil and chives went into the patch, along with some bronze fennel, which is very pretty and which I bought at the Eden Project.
Then I noticed that there were a couple of upright weeds. Except not weeds; asparagus! Oooh! We didn’t even plant them! But it is the season!!!! Yum!
Various plants which I bought a while ago, and which are a bit with the dry at the mo, I planted out in the raised bed, which I had dug over and stuck in some compost and dug that in too. So there are two butternut squash plants and three chilli plants at the far end of the raised bed.
Watering was pretty easy today. Lots of water in the butts. Beans done (looking good!), onions and garlic done (not showing up yet), artichokes and potatoes done (nice shoots - not quite high enough to pile up yet).
Our potatoes we bought a good while ago are finally chitting. So I dug two trenches today for them. It’s a bit late, but I’ll plant them out tomorrow…
I also planted some rocket, pumpkins, peas, as well as a second batch of broad and runner beans, in the kitchen a couple of days ago.
Posted on May 08, 2008 under Diary |
We seem to be having a mini-drought at the allotment. Apparently there’s a leak in the pipes that supply the water butts. So it’s been switched off and the water dwindles fast. But I did what I could.
Excitement: the potatoes and jerusalem artichokes are starting to come up! Wheeeeee!
And my beans just get more and more beautiful!!!!
Posted on Apr 30, 2008 under Diary |
I’ve not been up to the allotment for over a week. Well, I’ve mostly been out of the country, or at least county, so there’s an excuse! Loukik has, however, been planting onions and doing wonderful things which he alone can relate.
The first thing I noticed this evening was all the grass popping up! Like spurious pubes under a pubescent arm, nature is beginning to rebel against this organisation malarky.
Thankfully I was dealing with a raised bed today, which has had layers of topsoil, manure and compost added to it over the past weeks, so is not suffering from sproutage.
I added a bunch more compost, which Loukik had bought, set up my little bean wig-wams (I know: we don’t care what they’ve been, we want to know what they are now), and went to the greenhouse to see how my darling beans have been doing without me. Very very well, it seems! A veritable bonsai jungle of bean plants awaited me! Thrilled does not begin to describe my excitement! Anyhoo, I popped them in the ground - broad beans around one wig-wam, runners round the other - at what I considered to be a decent separation, and watered them in.
Here they bean:
In other news, rasps and blackberries seem to be taking well to the terrain. Herbs are OK, getting a bit grass-ed. No sign of life from the jerusalem artichokes or pots yet, but there’s plenty of time!!! (Not so much thyme. Boom boom.)
Our current plans look like this:
Posted on Apr 24, 2008 under Diary |
So, this is going to be a useful blog. A mechanism for keeping tabs on what’s going on down t’allotment. A way of pestering my flatmate to plant things. An aide-memoire, if you will!
As it’s taken a while to sort out, here’s an update on what’s happened so far (in reverse order!):
19th April
Took plants and seeds up to the greenhouse.
Placed a tub of water in the bottom of the greenhouse to make it more humid and mean we don’t have to water as much!
17th April
More compost from work - mainly into the raised bed, and also over raspberries, potatoes and artichokes.
Bought a few plants from Homebase: chilis, butternut squash, bluebells
Runner beans beginning to sprout!
16th April
Loukik and I pick up 8 bags of topsoil! Not so hot on the suspension!
Take it to the allotment.
As dusk draws in, we garden by the handy floodlight of the adjacent
Cambridge United football ground. (Hence blog title!)
I check on my herb seedlings in the greenhouse erected by Loukik and
water them. All are coming up, including spindly chives. (Also flat
leaf parsely, coriander, basil.)
I plant 9 donated raspberry canes. These have beautiful roots, and I’ve been told to plant them in one row 18-24 inches apart. This I do, alternating new topsoil with the clayey stuff we have for more support.
I water them in and mark them up.
My little sage and thyme plants aren’t doing so well in their packs, so I plant them in the herb patch in lots of topsoil.
I move on to the jeruslaem artichokes. I dig a trench about 10cm deep. (Hard to tell depth - pretty dark by now!) I place a chitting artichoke about every 6 inches. Total of approx 20. I cover them with a layer of top soil, and then finish with the clay from the trench. Water in well and mark up with canes. Could use some compost / manure.
Meantime, Loukik has been doing similar with some chitting potatoes.
Rest of the topsoil goes into the raised beds - still not enough!
It’s now 9pm and I head off to the gym!
15th April
Met a chap who saved my car keys weekend before last. He says I should get in touch with Sarah, a part-time gardener at Sidney Sussex who’s apparently about my age & build!
I source two Belfast sinks as planters.
Sowed Gardeners Delight tomato seeds indoors.
Broad bean shoots already coming up!
14th April
Loukik and I both sourced local topsoil - Ebay and Freecycle.
Our current plan looks like this:
12th and 13th April
Loukik did a bunch of stuff that he can write about…
9th April
Sourced Donarbon compost: our own domestic waste, composted and delivered by the load to Whitehill allotment society by the skip.
Marked out more areas with canes and twine.
Planted rosemary
Planted Wilko bramble - on bed of manure as instructed. Harvest in Autumn, prune in November.
Sowed beans indoors (runner & broad).
8th April
Used canes and twine to mark out the path
The first raised bed went in - it’ll need lots of topsoil / manure / compost to fill it!
***First plant in - mint in pot***
Second plant in - a donated blackberry plant! Yum!
Here it is!!!!
7th April
Sourced some compost at work. Just sitting in a skip outside the door! Bizarre, but I happily nicked lots!
6th April
Big trip to Wilkinsons in Ely. Bought many useful things. Sincerely after lots of manure and a shed!
Revised plan 1 to plan 2
Sourced manure from a stud farm near Newmarket.
Was gifted some raised bed frames!
1st April
Visited the plot with Loukik - it had been rotavated!
Visited some top organic veg gardener friends and got v useful tips!
Devised plan 1
22nd March
After lots of enquiries and mentions of long waiting lists, I got THE CALL! From Whitehill Allotment Society! I popped along and got an allotment! Not much to look at. Big, unused for the last 5-6 years, basically grassland. The lovely Jim offered to mow and rotavate it for me!
14th March
Loukik and I, cosily drinking wine on a chilly night, got inspiration and decided to get allotment.