2nd October 2016 - Football and preparations

Today started with Littlest L having her first football match with her new team.  She only joined the team yesterday and they had her playing today.  She scored within the 1st minute and scored a hat-trick and played her socks off!  They lost 4-3 in the end but I am now officially a footie mum and so my Sunday mornings are going to be taken up taking her to games!  That's not so bad when they're playing at home because the pitch is just down the road from the allotment but for away games I'll need to go to the lottie on a Saturday and perhaps have to miss Sunday depending on where they're playing!

When I did get up to the plot I had an autumnal pot I wanted to get planted.  I had a witches cauldron that was supposed to be for sweets but I drilled some holes in the bottom and decided to plant it up!  I think it looks fab with a heuchera cherry cola as the main plant and the trailing plants that were rescues so I don't know the names of them (if you can identify them please let me know!)

I have made some decisions about my beds.  I will definitely be moving my flower bed to next to the shed.  The bed that had the onions in this year will be for potatoes so I have cleared the few weeds and dug up some onions that I missed when I harvested (they were little ones that hadn't grown) and covered it with a weed membrane.  The bed that is currently covered will be for onions, I've already bought my sets and some garlic so I'm debating whether to lift that membrane and plant the sets now or plant through the membrane, which will help keep the weeds down or wait until the spring to put the sets in.  Once I've decided I'll let you know - probably with photos if I decide to plant through the membrane.

The other bed that had potatoes in has already been planted with some brassica's but I also popped some beetroot in there, which I might lift and put into the polytunnel.  I'm also not happy with the brassica's that are in there.  They're all being munched so it's very possible that they'll come out and be replaced with something else.  The current brassica bed, which is looking full of sprouts at the moment although the broccoli isn't looking so great, will be for peas and beans and the current flower bed will then be for roots, which I didn't grow this year.  I have previously tried to grow carrots but they were rubbish because of the carrot root fly so I need to try a few different things this time to avoid it.

I had a bit of a problem with my fruit-cage today.  My neighbour has mentioned that he's had to let a bird out of it and today there were 3 dunnocks in there.  I am really careful to make sure that the netting is pulled tight and that there are no gaps but today I found that the netting had been lifted slightly at the back and I have no idea how that might have happened.  After picking the raspberries I therefore re-did the netting and put extra tethers to try and keep it down.  Hopefully that will sort it out!

I wasn't able to measure the height of my sunflowers today, which I'd wanted to do, because I was there on my own and I didn't think it was safe for me to be climbing on my stepping stool on my own!  I would guess that the tallest is at least 12' high though and they all have loads of heads.  They look amazing and I'm happy to leave some for the birds but I did decide to harvest some to bring home.  I'm also going to try and save some of the seeds for next year because they have been brilliant so it would be fabulous if I could grow them again next year.  

The next few weeks are really going to be about planning for next year and thinking about how to get the best out of my plot.  I have space in the polytunnel but I have no idea what I'm going to plant in there next year now that I've discovered peppers and chilli's are from the same family as tomatoes so they can't be grown in the same bed which is a bit frustrating!  I might use that bed for the pumpkins or I might do some cabbages in there.  

Hopefully this week will still be mild, I'm hoping to get up to the plot in the week because it's my birthday next week and littlest L will be playing against Bradford City Girls so I have no idea what time I'll get up there!

Happy gardening everyone :-)

25th September 2016 - One Year On

Well it's a full year since I swapped plots; I can't believe everything that has happened in a year.  I have worked so hard and I'm really happy with the results.  I was lucky to have started with a blank canvas and all the work Mr L did with the structural elements of the plot and then all the planning and planting I did have made it such a successful plot.  I told you last week about winning an award for my container garden and I'm already planning on what I can do next, particularly with the planting table I got from freegle.  I've also started to think about the things that have and haven't worked on the plot.  I've decided that I am going to move my flower bed to next to the shed.  I haven't really been able to appreciate the flowers because they were hidden behind the brassica's.  I would like to tidy it up as well when I replant.  I had never grown flowers before so Littlest L and I just put them all in where they fell.  My freesia's therefore haven't done so well, hopefully if they're properly positioned they'll do better.  Having said that, for the first time I was brave and cut some of the flowers for the house.  I chose them just based on what was ready so the colours don't exactly match but I don't care - they're lovely and the roses smell beautiful.  I'm hoping to still get more now that I've been brave enough to cut them but if not I'll be happy with these for this year. 


It really is a funny time of the year, there's still harvesting but the things that are growing don't need much work and the weeds seems to be starting to die off.  I took up all of the ground elder and wildflowers from next to my pond a couple of weeks ago and last week I sprayed a particularly rampant doc with Richard Jackson's weed killer.  I don't use lots of weedkiller but I do like this one and I was struggling to dig it out so it got sprayed.  This week I have planted about 40 English bluebell bulbs and sowed some wildflower seeds.  I wasn't sure if I could sow the seeds now because the packaging recommends sowing in the spring but my gut tells me that the wildflowers are sowing their own seeds now so I decided to do it anyway.  I have kept half of them back so that if they don't germinate I have more to sow in the springtime.

I took the decision today to remove all of the tomatoes in the polytunnel.  They had blight and it was starting to affect the fruit so it was time they went.  I had to harvest both ripe and green fruit and so I'm hoping that they green fruit will ripen on the windowsill but if they don't I will make some green tomato chutney.  I think the red tomatoes will need to be made into either a pasta sauce or tomato soup.  I do also need some to make a chilli jam although I can't decided whether to make a jam or a sweet chilli dipping sauce.  Mr L likes the dipping sauce but I'm not sure that I have enough chilli's yet.  I also need to dry and chop some chilli's - I use dried chilli's all the time and I prefer these to chilli powder so it would be great if I can make my own. 

I also decided to clear out my pepper plants which have been a big disappointment.  I only got 4 peppers from them and the rest had all been eaten by something (probably slugs).  I really want to think about what I can do better next year; I think I'll plant the peppers directly into the bed and I think I need to consider some better support for them to avoid them drooping down, which resulted in some of them breaking.  I have never had a good crop from any peppers that I've grown so I am determined to find a way to get a good crop of ripe, red peppers!  They are a vegetable that we use very regularly and so it is definitely worth my while to master the art of growing them!

My final thought for the weekend is regards to the changing season.  We have had some lovely weather in the last couple of weeks but I'm expecting that it will very soon turn cold.  I still have plenty to do so I'm hoping that even if it's chilly that the rain holds off. as it did last year.  Today I had a little bit of rain, but luckily I was working in the polytunnel.  I did however come out at one point and found a full rainbow over my plot.  I was particularly taken with how the light seemed to shine on my little plot and how the sunflowers were so bright against the sky.

So, until next time I hope you all have rainbows over your endeavours, whatever they may be!

18th September 2016 - Best Container Garden!

Winning container garden

This week we had the allotment awards at Bradford City Hall (which, by the way is an absolutely beautiful building) and I won the best container garden for my fairy garden.  They liked that it was something different and that it had a fun factor to it.  I had also entered some of my photos into the photo competition and I had entered best plot.  My photos were shown in the run down of those that were entered and there were 27 entrants in the best plot and mine was named in the top 5 so I was super pleased with that too.  I've put my certificate up in the shed and hopefully it will be the first of many!

In the last few weeks I've been busy making jam and this week I also made a tomato sauce for pasta.  It was a very basic recipe, just some onions, garlic, herbs and the tomatoes.  The garlic wasn't from the plot but the onions and tomatoes were and I made 2 jars so will be looking forwards to making some chilli or spaghetti bolognese with those this week.  I have now bought some oranges because I've got the bug and I want to have a go at making marmalade, I also picked some more apples today because I want to make ginger marmalade.  Interestingly you make an apple jelly and then add some preserved ginger to it so I need to preserve some ginger and then make the apple jelly.  I'm really looking forward to having a go with it and hopefully I'll have some orange and some ginger marmalade to give to people at Christmas (orange and ginger together might be nice too!!)

Talking about picking apples, today I had a fledgling robin following me around and whilst I was picking the apples it was perched at my head height less than an arms length from me.  I was chatting away to him and he was chirping back at me.  It was really lovely to have him trust that I wasn't going to hurt him.  He'd also followed me around earlier while I was weeding the brassica bed - I suspect he was hoping that I'd dig up some worms but unfortunately I didn't.  I did offer him a couple of caterpillars though which he was very happy with!  I decided to take the netting off the brassica bed because they were being munched by something and it was just hard to get to them to check.  I know there are still cabbage whites around but at least now I can check more easily and therefore it's likely I'll check more regularly.  I was very pleased when I had a look at the brassica's.  The sprouts are really looking nice and whilst the leaves do look like they've been munched by something the sprouts look like they're forming well so I really do need to keep a close eye on them.  I'm not sure how the purple sprouting broccoli is going to do though; one of them did bolt a couple of weeks ago so I'm hoping they others don't follow suit.  I also seem to have some lovely looking swede in there and a couple of nice leeks although the smaller ones that were hidden under the foliage of the broccoli I've pulled up as 'baby leeks' and I'll use those because they were never going to get any bigger!

Sad news this week though is that my Christmas spuds have blight :-(  It was always a risk to put them in and leave them outside at this time of the year but I was keeping everything crossed.  I really should have bought some blight resistant ones and I didn't.  I'm going to have to scrap them but I'll use the compost on one of the beds that I had potatoes in this year so that it becomes part of the rotation.  It's also worth commenting that people seem to be confused about what to do with blighted plant material.  The roots, tubers and fruits should be burnt or disposed of without putting them on your compost.  The leaves and stalks can be composted because blight spores can only survive on live plant material and as soon as it's cut the spores die.  For those doubters amongst you, I had never heard of burning blighted plant material before I got an allotment and joined some allotment groups on facebook and so I've always composted anything with blight and yes, sometimes I do get blight but other times I don't.  I've grown tomatoes in my homemade compost for years, mostly when they're in the greenhouse I don't get blight because I keep the doors closed during blight season but occasionally I've had it when it's been very warm, prompting me to open the doors, but also very humid as it often is in Yorkshire!!

On a brighter note I found 3 actual melons on my plant today.  They're still small and it's very possible that they won't get much bigger now as the weather starts to turn but it's an interesting development in terms of learning for next year.  I'm not intending to grow tomatoes in the polytunnel next year as I don't want to have them in pots in there, there isn't really room now I have staging on the right side.  That means I could melons into the bed and make sure that the doors are kept closed most of the time; that should keep the temperature hot enough for the melons to grow and if I also grow chilli's and/or peppers in there I think they'll like the warmer temperatures too.  

We're now nearly at the end of September and my Autumn Gold raspberries are fruiting nicely.  I need to keep harvesting them to keep them fruiting.  Last week I spent some time tidying them.  I tied up a lot of the canes that I thought had actually gone bushy rather than grown up (they hadn't it was just they were all tangled up).  I also prune off any that were very very new growth because it's too late in the season for them to produce fruit.  Just as a reminder for anyone who isn't sure; summer fruiting raspberries fruit on last years new growth but autumn fruiting fruit on this years new growth so in January I will cut them all back right to the ground and they'll grow again from scratch.  I also spent quite a lot of time weeding out all of the couch grass that had worked it's way through the hops.  I used the empty and covered bed to put it all to dry before I burnt it all today.  

I am really happy with what I've achieved this year; for me gardening is a super way to relax and to exercise.  I started this time last year with a blank canvas and when I look at what I have now I am actually really impressed with the hard work both me and Mr L have put into it.  Mr L has done all of the construction for me.  All of the beds (including carrying most of the topsoil up the hill), the compost bins, the polytunnel and the shed and then I've done all of the design, planting, weeding, feeding and general gardening jobs; between us we've created a space that I view as my haven - the place I can go to unwind and relax but also provide healthy food for my kids.  What more could a person ever need?

4th September 2016 - Crop Rotations

I've now harvested both beds of potatoes and the onions so I'm starting to think about my crop rotation.  I know that brassica's ideally go into the bed where the legumes have been but I haven't really grown many this season so I've put kale and cauliflower into one of the potato beds.  

I will plant my onion sets and garlic in the next couple of weeks into my second potato bed and then in the spring I'll plant only one bed of potatoes into the onion bed.  In the meantime therefore I'm going to get a good layer of manure and compost onto that bed and cover it ready for spring.  I've also decided that the 3 sisters weren't really successful for me and so I'm going to have just a bed of peas and beans (where I currently have the sweetcorn and pumpkins but didn't really manage to grow any peas) and then I'll have a bed of sweetcorn and pumpkins next to the flower bed.  

I have already started to collect the insides of toilet rolls to plant my peas, sweetcorn and sweetpeas.  I've seen some negative comments about using toilet rolls but it has been my experience that they are very useful if treated correctly.  Peas, sweetpeas and sweetcorn do not like their roots disturbing so if you don't have a deep root trainer the toilet rolls work perfectly well.  Snip about an inch up around the bottom in 5 places and then fold the bottoms in.  Fill with compost and put them into a gravel tray with a thick layer of newspaper (or some capillary matting) and keep the paper very wet but not sitting in water.  That way the cardboard becomes very damp and keeps the compost damp enough for the seedlings. Before you put the cardboard tubes into the ground you should water them really well, so that the cardboard is very wet.  This will then help the cardboard to breakdown faster when under ground - remember that cardboard does not just disappear but don't be put off - the roots grow through the cardboard and the roots are not disturbed when planting.  It's also a free resources so everyone wins!

I'm also preparing myself to grow more from seed this year.  I have a plug plant tray and a number of seed trays that I'm going to use and I'm determined to try and not buy as many plug plants next year (if any at all).  I have both a polytunnel and greenhouse so I should certainly be able to grow from seed and I'm going to challenge myself to do that this year.  

I finished today by harvesting the ripe tomatoes out of the polytunnel, I was also given 1.5kg of plums and I picked 2.5kg of apples from a plot that is about to become vacant (after asking permission from the current plot holder), I also managed to pick 1.3kg of blackberries.  I then realised that I don't have enough jars to make jam so I've asked all of my friends to save them for me.  I'm going to make apple sauce and I'll make some apple pies as well as including some in the blackberry jam (the kids really enjoyed blackberry and apple jam).  I was also considering drying some of the tomatoes and bottling them in olive oil, but again I am devoid of appropriate jars which is very frustrating!  

I think all in all, I've had a great first season on this plot.  It's only my second season growing on an allotment and I really think I've had a significant amount of success - even with my limited knowledge.  I feel as though I can only continue to learn and grow and hopefully that will be reflected in my harvests.  

29th August 2016 - harvesting

Well here we are again, at the end of a Bank Holiday Weekend wishing that we'd won the lottery so we could spend all of our days at the allotment (or is that just me?!)  This was also the last weekend before my boys went back to school, Littlest L has another week off much to her delight and her brothers disgust!  So Saturday was spent shopping for school shoes and trainers and the last bits and pieces that absolutely HAD to be bought.  The whole time we were shopping the sun was shining and it was warm.  As soon as we got in the car to come home the heavens opened and so there was no allotmenteering for me :-(

Sunday however was a much more productive day.  I decided a couple of weeks ago that I was going to clear the area next to the pond ready for sowing a mini wildflower meadow as well as planting bulbs and a couple of shrubs.  I have decided that next year I'm not going to allow it to grow completely wild because it did end up looking quite messy albeit that it was good cover for anything coming out of the pond.  I easily cleared the right side of the area because the mole had been doing it's work there and as a result the weeds just pulled up really easily and I could get my fork into the ground to remove some of the roots.  I planted my hydrangea next to the wood pile because I decided that will still give good cover in that area and it will look nice close to the shed.  I should also note that I didn't clear the ground elder from in and around the wood pile as I didn't want to disturb anything hiding in there.  The left side of the pond however was a nightmare.  The ground is so hard I can hardly get my fork into it, never mind trying to dig out all of the roots.  I had already pulled up all of the leaves before I realised so I can't even spray with my Richard Jackson's Weed Killer (which as you know I use sparingly).  I will therefore need to think about how I'm going to deal with that moving forwards.  On the plus side I did discover a few plants that I put in last winter that appear to have survived being covered over so hopefully I'll have a little bit of colour while I'm sorting it all out.

I also managed to harvest my onions on Sunday evening.  I was really pleased with the crop and they're currently drying in the polytunnel.  I watched a YouTube video from 'GrowVeg' about how to harvest and store onions. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py2kPbSsgmA 

As suggested I will leave them for a week and once the skins are dried and flaky I'll have a go at hanging them.  I've never done it before so I'm hoping it will turn out ok.  I've got a mixture of sizes but I like to roast onions sometimes so the small ones I'll just throw straight into the mixed veg drawer for roasting and the rest I'll hang for use over the winter.  I need to sort out my pantry, which is currently used to store mostly shoes, to make sure there's a space for hanging veg for storage.  At the moment there is a sack of potatoes on the floor but I'd prefer for them to be hung up
Today I've spent the afternoon harvesting the last of my potatoes, they were King Edwards but the harvest wasn't nearly as good as the Maris Pipers.  I found that they had more slug/wire worm damage and they produced less even though they had significantly more leaf growth.  After harvesting I weeded the bed really well (helped along by digging up the spuds and removing loads of roots from the weeds that were in there, covered the whole lot with a thick mulch of the free manure/leaf mould mixed with my garden compost and planted in the kale my neighbour got me as well as the golden beetroot and red little gem lettuces I bought from the garden centre the other day, with a voucher my friend gave me.  I remembered to net them to keep the pigeon's off so hopefully I'll still get a harvest from them this year. 

I also managed to harvest some more blackberries so I made another batch of jam tonight and I'll keep harvesting them as I see them.  Hopefully we'll be able to avoid buying any more jam for the rest of the year (unlikely with the amount my children go through but it's a nice thought!)  I think all in all it was a very successful bank holiday weekend and I'm thrilled to be able to start actually eating some of the produce I've grown.

Until next week - happy gardening!

21st August 2016 - Jam Making

After a week off work today was at last a busy one down on the plot.  I arrived at 11 to meet a new tenant who has taken one half of a very overgrown plot.  It frustrates me that we have plots that people haven't worked and whilst the council are actually quite good and on top of people they still have to go through two inspections before they are evicted which means that someone can have their plot un-worked for a full season before they are evicted.  The poor lady taking the plot has to now clear waist high weeds; although on the plus side she has got a shed on there :-)

I was absolutely determined to get the wires up on my fence and the cherry tree fanned against it.  I got some galvanised wire which included 10 vine eye screws from Amazon.  I put 3 on each side with 2 fence posts in-between.  I screwed the vine eyes in only half way and drilled holes through the 2 fence posts to feed the wires through.  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017E1KHQY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Once I got the wires onto the vine eye screws I then tightened the screws to tension the wires; which worked really well.  As you can see I then fanned the tree against the fence and pruned off 2 branches that were left sticking out into the path.  

On either side of the cherry tree I've also added the two grape vines I've had in the polytunnel for a few weeks.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them but my neighbour has hers outside and I thought I'd give it a try.  I will prune them but I wanted to give them a week to bed in before I do it.

So, going back to the title of today's blog.  I picked around 450g of blackberries from my plot and from the paths around the allotment.  I realised that wasn't really enough to make anything with so I asked my lovely neighbour if I could scrump some apples from her.  I have never in my life made jam before but I thought I would give it a go (eek!) I bought 2 lemons (because my lemon tree is teeny tiny and has no fruit on it yet) because I read that blackberries don't have any pectin in them and so you should use lemon juice. I put the peeled and cored apples (450g after prep) the blackberries and the juice of the 2 lemons into a pan and simmered it together for about 10 mins.  Then I added 900g sugar (normal granulated, not jam sugar) and raised it to a rolling boil for another 10 mins.  In the meantime I chilled 2 plates in the freezer and washed 2 jam jars before putting them in the oven at 150oC to sterilise.  After 10 mins I put 1 teaspoon of the jam onto one of the chilled plates but it didn't wrinkle so I boiled it for another 3 mins and then did the wrinkle test again and it worked - I was sooooo excited.  I left the jam to cool for about half an hour before ladling it into the 2 jam jars AND IT SET!!!! 


The kids then had the little bit that was left on their toast and told me that it's nicer than the bought stuff.  Middle L told me I should sell it on eBay lol

I am ridiculously proud of myself, I know that most allotment people make jams and chutneys all the time but I have never done it before and I have read about how difficult it is to get jam to set.  I thought the lemons might work but I didn't really expect it to so yes, I'm ridiculously proud!

I'm away with work all week this week so I won't get to the plot at all during the week.  My lovely neighbour is going to pop up and water in the polytunnel for me but otherwise it will have to take care of itself.  Hopefully all will be well. Until next week then - happy gardening everyone :-)

20th August 2016 - Potatoes!

Well after an eventful week I got up to the plot today with the intention of lifting my potatoes.  I wasn't sure if I would manage to do both beds but I was worried that my bed of Maris Pipers wouldn't give me a good crop because the plants themselves had been a little pathetic.  I do a little bit of prep before lifting potatoes - I cut the plants off right to soil level and weed the whole bed.  Then I put my fork in (hoping to not hit any potatoes) and lift the whole plant out - give it a shake and pick up the potatoes.  I often have to fork the area again to catch any that dropped off as it was being lifted but I find that's the best way to try to ensure that no potatoes are left to grow next season!

Anyway, I needn't have worried.  This picture is from one half of one bed (the Maris Piper bed) and I've ended up with a sack full of potatoes from that one bed.  I haven't weighed them because I can't find my travel scale but I'm really happy with them.  There's a mixture of sizes and whilst some have holes in them from slugs or another critter I'm not worried about cutting around the holes.  I saw only 2 that had scab and none of them were squishy (which is a sure sign of blight).  Just a note on blight, while I'm on it...

Lots of people worry about blight and what to do with their plants if they have them.  I've seen loads of pictures of perfectly healthy plants being destroyed because the leaves have yellowed and then people saying they've burned them because they don't dare compost them.    

Blight starts with small, dark spots on leaves (usually around the edges) which often have a light green halo around them.  In warm, wet weather you may see a fine white downy growth which can release thousands of spores every day.  The spores can also be washed down the stem into the tubers, if the tubers are infected they have brown or purple marks on the skim and reddish/brown markings in the flesh.  Tubers might be firm when lifted but will rot during storage.  If your plants get blight you should cut off all of the foliage and put it in the compost.  You can compost leaves and stems because the spores can only live on live matter.  Once you have cut the stems the plant is no longer live and therefore can be composted.  You cannot however compost the tubers because they remain live and can grown new, blight infected, plants.  

If your potato plants have flowered and the flowers have died off, you're seeing green tomato like pods on your plants and your leaves are going yellow your plants are dying off at the end of the season just like they're supposed to.  In that case the potatoes are ready to be harvested, you don't need to destroy your hard work.  

I mentioned in my last post that I'd got a planting table from freegle.  I am still not sure what I'm going to do with it (Littlest L wants to make it into a bee table) but whilst I'm deciding I have lined it with weed membrane and put the pots onto it.  I do like the idea of a table of plants that attract bees and I might combine that with a fairy garden just because they make me smile and the idea of a bee fairy garden is appealing to me.  I don't know yet what plants I'm going to put in there, but given that we're nearly at the end of August I've got plenty of time to think about it before I need to plant it up so in the mean time I'm probably just going to keep my pots in there.  I like that they're raised off of the ground and away from the slugs (and it's a good place to put my drink!)

I've also decided that next year I will do more with the 'wildlife' area next to the pond.  I've got a couple of shrubs I'm going to plant there and my neighbour is giving me some yellow rattle seeds which should help to reduce the grass and let me grow more of the wildflower seeds.  On the plus side the moles have been working in that area and so hopefully it will be a bit easier to dig and plant into.

Tomorrow is the last day of my holiday and I'm hoping for good weather.  I really want to get the wires in place on the fence so that I can fan my cherry tree against it - watch this space!

17th August 2016 - what a week!

So I am away from work this week and I thought I would be able to get the final bag of wood chips to do my paths, I wanted to see how successful I've been with the netting against the squirrel and I wanted to lift my potatoes.  It was biggest L's birthday on Tuesday and Mr L had decided to go biking on Monday so I thought I'd pop up to the plot on Monday afternoon with Littlest L to have a quick potter about, check on the corn and deliver my new planting table that I got from Freegle.

I'd just picked up the table and was putting it into my car when I got a call from Mr L who said that he'd come off of his bike and could I come and take him to the hospital for an x-ray.  "I think I've sprained it" he says.  I drove home and took one look at it and absolutely knew that he'd broken it, it was pretty horrible and so off we go to A&E where we spent the next 8 hours with him being x-rayed and pushed around the hospital.  We eventually ended up in resuscitation where they needed to manipulate his broken wrist before getting it into a cast to help reduce the pain.  They said he will have to have an operation and the wrist specialist said it's pulverised.  They kept him in overnight and the next day (Biggest L's birthday) they wanted to do a CT test.  They kept him in all day and didn't do the CT, he had to go back on Friday for the CT and they didn't do the operation, he has to go back on Monday for the operation.  

The main point is that Mr L will be ok, he will have his operation and he'll be fine - he'll not be able to bend his wrist properly and he'll definitely not be riding his bike any time soon.

So, it's now late on Wednesday night and I haven't been to my plot at all; I haven't checked if my netting stopped the squirrel, for all I know it's completely shredded.  I haven't watered anything on my plot, all of my tomatoes might be dead and dried out.  I haven't finished the bark chippings,

Tomorrow is Thursday, it's the penultimate working day of my week off and tomorrow I will go to the plot.  GP Gills opens at 9.30am and I will be going to get my chippings.  I will have to do it on my own because Mr L can't help and the Little L's won't help so I'll go and get my own bark chippings and I'll transport them up the hill and I'll finish my paths.  I'm also going to see about drilling holes through my fence posts for the wire that I'm gong to train my cherry tree onto.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that the weather is good ;-)

14th August 2016 - Swapping blog sites

I'm unfortunately having to swap blog sites because my old site suddenly wants to charge me quite a lot of money to blog with them.  I have copied all of the posts in relation to my current plot but I've lost all of the blogs from my old plot.  I do like, however, that on this blog page I can put more than one photo into the blog :-)

Moving on though, I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged - it's been busy at work and on the plot!  I had the final round of judging last Friday but unfortunately I didn't know they were coming and I was super busy at work so some of my pots looked a bit wilted when I got up there yesterday.  I also had the b*&#%^d squirrel eating my sweetcorn so there were 4 stripped cobs on my plants which were not only heartbreaking after working so hard to get them growing but also looked horrible for the judges to see!  I also wasn't able to finish the woodchips on the paths because GP Gills had been closed for 2 weeks - so that's a bit frustrating!

Anyway, onward and upwards.  I have been and created a net cover so I'm hoping that will stop the squirrel from eating the rest of the corn.  I've also planted 2 potato bags with my winter potatoes which hopefully will be ready for Christmas.  I decided to put them in bags to protect them from the frost and I've also put them right by the polytunnel door so I can easily drag them inside once we get closer to frosty weather!

I also used my little BBQ for the first time today, I bought it from The Range for just £6 in their sale and thought it was a bargain!  Mostly it will just be me so there's no need for a big BBQ, the only downside is that it's really close to the ground so I have to bend over it, which feels a bit dangerous to me (being super clumsy!)

I took a Slimming World burger and sausage and had salad from the garden with it - how lovely is that?  You cannot get any fresher than straight off of the plant and onto your plate.  The tomatoes are soooo tasty too; you literally cannot buy tomatoes that taste like home-grown ones.

Now that judging is finished I'm going to lift my potatoes, the King Edwards plants looked great so I'm hoping for good things but the Maris Piper's never really seemed to take off.  My neighbour thinks that there'll be loads of tubers and all the work has been done underground but I'm reserving judgement.  I'll be super disappointed though to not get a good crop after managing to avoid blight.  I have noticed a few dug up spuds, which I think is the handy work of the b*&#%^d squirrel again!

On the plus side I'm off work all week and although it's Big L's birthday on Tuesday and Mr L is planning to go mountain biking tomorrow and next weekend I will get to finally finish my paths and spend some time just relaxing at the plot.  I'm also starting to plan what I'm going to grow over the winter in the polytunnel (which is very exciting) and start thinking about my rotations for next season.  I am considering moving the flower bed to next to the shed so that I can see them better and then the three beds at the top and the two at the bottom will be the rotation beds.  I may still make one of those bottom beds into an asparagus bed but I haven't made a final decision on that yet.

23rd July 2016 - Full points :-)

Last week was first round of judging, I got up early on Saturday morning to get up to the plot and collect another load of chips to try and get my paths completed but unfortunately G.P. Gill's were doing some work on their woodchip store and so the woodchips weren't as good as they normally are and I only got one load.

It did, however, give me change to weed and get the last lot of hops onto the fruit bed so that bed looked lovely.  I also weeded all of the remaining beds and down the back fence (where they come over from next door).  The ladies who visited my plot got to the gate and said "wow!" which is always a good start.  They walked in and one of them said she felt relaxed already.  I showed them around and they awarded me full points, saying that it was almost as though I'd read the criteria... 

I will have a second round of judging from the professional judges so all of the little bits I wasn't quite happy with I will have to get resolved.  That means that this weekend I'm still carting woodchip up the hill and I'll need at least 1 more bag to finish it next week and I need to keep on top of the weeding to make sure that it doesn't go mad with the nice weather.

I also want to get some seeds in the polytunnel for planting after the potatoes have finished.  The potatoes are actually ready to harvest but I don't want to have 2 empty beds when they come come back to do the second judging so they'll have to stay in the ground for now.

This week I got 2 more loads of woodchips and so now I only have 3 of the north/south paths that need covering and it will be done.  Hopefully that will just be 1 more load although I'll probably still get 2 and perhaps use it for mulching in the strawberry and/or sweetcorn bed.   Talking of the sweetcorn bed, as you know I tried out a variation of the 3 sisters but it hasn't been hugely successful in terms of peas.  The sweetcorn are looking good (except for the ones that the birds have munched) and the pumpkins look fantastic.  I have 3 good sized pumpkins already and at least 1 more that looks promising.  I've used some of the leftover strawberry mats to rest the fruit onto.  They are impregnated with copper, which will hopefully keep the slugs away and they will mean that the pumpkins aren't sitting directly on the ground.

The sun was so hot again today that I left at lunchtime with the intention to go back this afternoon to water everything (especially in the polytunnel) and trim the lower leaves from the tomatoes to help them ripen.  There's no way I could have done that at lunchtime because the polytunnel was sooooooo hot it was unbearable to be in there.  In the mean time I've come back to the house; Mr L is cutting the tiny patch of grass that we have and I've tackled the weeds in the drive and at the front of the fence.  I don't understand why we seem to get loads of weeds on the path in front of our house when nobody else does but we do and so I need to keep on top of that.  

The other things I need to add to my to-do list for this weekend is to net my strawberry bed, which surprisingly given when I planted them in have started to flower, and I want to get some wires in to start training my cherry tree against the back fence.

10th July 2016 - Judging!

It's the time of year when all of the allotment competitions are going on.  I've entered for best plot and one of my containers for best container.  I am quite competitive and I've therefore been working hard to try and get my paths finished before judging.  I haven't quite managed it but hopefully with just another couple of bags it will be done.  As you can see I've covered the entrance and the path to the end of the plot.  I've done the first side path on the right and part of the path at the top adjacent to the fence.  I made a decision to put 4 slabs in the middle of the entrace which I can then use for a BBQ or fire pit or even to move my burning bin if I want to.  

I think I've mentioned before that I get my wood chips from G.P.Gill in Shipley, they are a tree surgeon who give away the wood chips for free - you just need to go and collect them.  From talking to other gardeners it seems that loads of tree surgeons do the same so it's a great free resource to look into if you're looking for a mulch or path covering.  People do sometimes talk about not using chippings as a mulch because it draws the nitrogen out of the soil.  I've done a little bit of research and that only happens very slightly if you dig the chippings into the soil and it's really not enough to worry about.  There are huge benefits of mulching the ground that far outweigh any worries about losing nitrogen.  It's also worth making sure that you are getting chips and not shredded wood.  You want smaller chips which will break down over time but that will also hold in moisture and keep your roots cool on hot days.  One of the downsides I've experienced from using mulch (of any description) is that they can be a home for our slimy friends.  Slugs like cool and moist places and of course mulch provides that habitat.  I'm not going to get into slug control today (I might do on another blog) but there are loads of different ways to keep slugs under control and I think even the problem of slugs do not outweigh the benefits of mulching.

I have a few pots left over from when I was doing the summer pots and hanging baskets in the garden and they had been left on the table outside my shed.  Today I decided that I would try and make my compost bins a bit more interesting.  The gaps between the bins are perfectly sized for some of my plant pots and so I've essentially ended up with 3 rows of 3 pots on each upright to make the compost bins look a little bit nicer.  I wouldn't normally bother but they are on your right immediately as you enter the plot and it seems silly to not put the pots there if they're just sitting about waiting for me to decide what to do with them!

I also got some more spent hops for my fruit bed.  The hops I put on last week aren't keeping the weeds down and so I went for some more and my plan is to pull out what has worked its way through before putting a thicker mulch on.  I'm not sure that it was the best idea to mulch without a weed membrane but if it doesn't work I'll have learnt a lesson!  The hops will keep the moisture in the soil so it will still do a job even if I need to still weed I'm not going to complain.  Someone pointed out that spent hops can be particularly attractive to slugs - I haven't experienced that so far but I'm keeping an eye on it.  

I was very excited to find some red tomatoes in the greenhouse and whilst the polytunnel ones haven't caught up yet I have green tomatoes in there and I've also got teeny tiny cucumbers, peppers and chillis so that's exciting.  I also have flowers on my melons so it will be interesting to see if any of them develop into fruit.

Next week I'm hoping to finish the paths completely, which means that I'll need to tidy up the very last bit of overgrowth behind the strawberry bed.  I've offered the last of the slabs to my neighbour so hopefully she'll have taken those (and if not I'll stick them in the wheelbarrow and bob them down to her) and I need to move the green bin that has been left on the plot.  The area behind my compost bins is very overgrown with nettles and comfrey, which I've left for the bees.  I'm not going to cover ground but I think I'm going to leave it all for now and then once it dies back in the autumn I'll tidy the area  and then let it continue to grow in exactly the same way each year - ultimately using them as fertiliser.  Once that's all done I will be able to potter about doing just a bit of weeding here and there and watering as needed.  How nice will it be to be able to just enjoy the fruits of my labour?!

Until next week then, I hope you have a lovely week and happy days spent in the garden.

4th July 2016 - Almost finished!

I want to get all my paths covered with woodchips and to that end I was up early on Saturday morning to get to the tree surgeons and fill 2 ton bags with the free chippings.  I'll be having a few early Saturday mornings until I've managed to sort out the chippings for all the paths, which I want to do in the next couple of weeks.   

My lovely neighbour dropped off some of her spare chippings which she put in front of my shed for me.  Those chippings are a different colour to the ones that I collected myself which I think is again going to differentiate the little area in front of my shed as different to the rest of the plot,  If it really looks bad I can just mix them all up of course but I am expecting it to look cool.

I've entered my plot into the allotment competition - eek!!  I have entered my fairy container garden in the container category and I've entered the plot in the best plot category.  I don't think I've any chance of winning the best plot but you never know; I am hopeful on the container one though because it really is lovely (even if I do say so myself!)

The other free thing I discovered this weekend was spent hops from my local brewery.  The brewery want to try and avoid sending the hops to landfill and I am super keen to use free resources.  I did a little bit of research and found...

Spent hops are regarded mainly as humus suppliers and are used in the preparation of ground for planting and also for mulching established plants. The best results are obtained when they are incorporated thoroughly with the top 15cm (6in) of soil at the rate of 5kg (101b) per square meter (yard) during the winter. For mulching purposes spent hops are very effective in keeping down weeds and retaining soil moisture in shrub borders and soft fruit plots, provided the ground is covered really thickly. If you apply a layer 10-15cm (4-6in) thick it will last for two years before rotting noticeably. The material gives off an objectionable odour after application but this usually disappears after 2-3 weeks. Although spent hops are slightly more acid than most soils they are used with great success for practically all trees and shrubs except for some of the outstanding lime-requiring plants.

As you already know I have such a problem with weeds in my fruit bed and I have used the hops I collected as a mulch on that bed to try and surpress the weeds.  It is my intention to go back at the end of this week and get another batch to put a thicker layer onto the bed which will then hopefully give the appropriate thickness to keep those weeds down.  I don't expect it to work on the bindweed but I'll keep my fingers crossed.  The only other consideration to give on using spent hops is whether it will attract the slugs.  We know that beer traps are really effective and so it should be expected that they will be attracted to the hops (which 3 days later have still left a beer smell in my car!)  

I have said before that I use Richard Jacksons slug and snail control pellets.  I know some people are really against any types of slug pellets and are very cynical about anything that retailers say but these pellets are certified as organic and pose no threat to pets, birds, hedgehogs, worms, bees and other useful insects.  

http://www.qvcuk.com/Richard-Jacksons-Slug-&-Snail-Control-1.2kg-Advanced-Formula.product.502952.html?sc=PSCH&cm_sp=VIEWPOSITION-_-6-_-502952

One of the main things to remember when using pellets is not to use too much.  The pellets should be scatter, not put into a pile - I used 3 small handfuls on a 6'x13' bed and you really don't need more than that.  Also with these pellets you have to remember that if they're disappearing that's because the slugs and snails are eating them.  I tend to apply them at the weekend and then mid-week.  I've put them on the spent hops and I've put them on the brassica bed where I have the veggiemesh and the frogs can't get in.  

I actually left the plot at around 5pm on Sunday because I had done all of the jobs I'd wanted to do for the weekend.  That is the first time that's happened since I got my plot and it's very exciting.  Mr L keeps asking me what I'm going to do when all the jobs are done, I'm actually looking forward to being able to pop up to the plot, do a bit of weeding and watering and relax by the side of my pond.  It's also getting close to harvest time - the potatoes are flowering and the onion are really coming on.  

Until next week then, happy gardening x

26th June 2016 - Paths and stuff!

I see lots of questions about what people use for paths.  There are many pros and cons but personally I like bark chippings.  I've talked before about the weed membrane I use from amazon.  It is 50m long (1m wide) and comes with 40 plastic pegs for £22.99 with no UK delivery charge; I'm impressed with the quality of it because I have been walking on it for a weeks now without anything on top of it and it's absolutely fine.  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006H1N0SA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I get my bark chippings from our local tree surgeon, they let you collect it for free and they even sometimes have some lovely stepping stones.  The only downside is that they close at 11.30am on a Saturday and they're not open on a Sunday so this weekend when I wanted to make a start on covering my paths they had closed by the time we'd finished ferrying the kids around the place!  

It did however give me a chance to finish off the weed membrane against the back fence, it's not an area that I particularly walk on a lot so the weeds had gone mad and my poor neighbour, who keeps his plot beautiful, was probably cursing me with the weeds growing up and through the fence!  It's also great that I got that finished because it would be sensible to start in that corner to put the bark down and work back towards the gate so I'm not barrowing over what I've already put down! Next week I will be getting up super early on Saturday to start filling my ton bags with chippings and hopefully I will get at least 3 loads done before they close and then we'll see how much I'm actually going to need.

I've also decided that I'm going to cover my fruit bed again; you might remember that some weeks ago I uncovered it because there were weeds pushing up around my fruit bushes and I was met with an absolute mess of weeds.  I cleared it all and left it uncovered.  I really wish I'd trusted my original decision.  I originally decided to cover it because of a number of factors...

1. the bed it too wide for a normal bed (6'6") and therefore much more difficult to weed because it's a stretch to reach the middle.
2. the fruit bushes are all spikey and it's really hard to weed around them
3. the bird netting that is over the bed makes it really awkward to get in and weed regularly

Since removing the membrane from the bed I have of course struggled to weed and therefore this weekend I needed to clear the bed again and so I have decided that I am going to cover it again and then mulch with bark chippings.  Today I finished the weeding and managed to get the rhubarb into the ground.  I know it's not an ideal time to transplant but I removed all of the stalks and had minimul disturbance to the rootball and crown so hopefully I'll still get some more stalks from it.

I was also excited to see a Jay on my plot (photo in June 2016), I've never seen one before so it's always fabulous to see something new.  On the downside I also have a squirrel (Mr Squibble) that has started visiting and has already trashed one of my bird feeders.  I love wildife but I think I'm going to have to look at a baffle to discourage it.

I moved 2 of my sweet potatoes up to the plot with the intention of putting the into one of my potato bags but I didn't get a chance.  I've left 2 at home in the greenhouse and whilst I'll also put them into potato bags I will keep them at home so that I can compare how they grow in the different areas.  

Until next week - happy gardening!

19th June 2016 - Hand v/s Hoe!

I have often commented that I believe hand weeding is better than hoeing.  I felt that because I'm pulling the weed out at the root and not leaving it on the soil it must be better.  I have used a hoe and haven't really liked it - I'm scared of catching something and breaking it or going too deep and getting into the roots.  The hoe however is excellent for earthing up potatoes.

I therefore left my tomato bed in the polytunnel for about a week and a half so the annual weeds really had a chance to grow (I can't tell you how hard it was to not weed!)  I decided to do it in the polytunnel because I thought that it would reduce the amount of outside influence to the weeds so no seeds blown in or dropped by the birds.  

I have 8 tomato plants in the polytunnel so I hand weeded up to the first 4 plants and then got my hoe out for the second 4.  I didn't remove any hoed weeds from the soil surface (I've seen people saying that the sun burns them up so you don't need to).  I did pull a few weeds by hand close to the stems of my tomatoes to protect them; as you would if you were hoeing anyway. 

pro's and cons...

Hand weeding

pros

• you get more weeds right out at the roots
• there's less liklihood of damaging tender plants
• you can easily remove and compost the annual weeds
• you notice any perennial weeds (not that I had any) and so you can remove them properly

cons

• it takes much much much longer to weed by hand

Hoeing

pros

• it's super quick

cons

• it's easy to catch a tender plant
• it's easy to catch roots if anything is shallow rooted
• you only cut out the heads of the weeds and leave the roots

I thought I would measure the results based on how it looks a week later.  This week I therefore went up to take a look and there was very little difference between the 2!  The hoed side had some bigger weeds, that had either been missed or re-rooted itself and some new little ones, the hand weeded side only had the little ones so if you were being picky you would say that hand weeded side won but if you prefer hoeing I'd say it's just as good!  I will probably do a mixture - I do like hand weeding because I find it relaxing but if I'm in a rush I won't feel guilty about hoeing.

This weekend I also managed to strim the boundaries of my plot and get weed membrane down along the fence at the top of the plot.  I've been meaning to do that for ages and it already looks 100 times better.  I've also strimmed down the side of the fruit cage and next to the next door fence.  I've been feeling guilty about my neighbour who keeps his plot lovely and the path down the side nearest his plot was overgrown with weeds.  I've now cleared all of them and whilst I haven't got the weed membrane down yet it's much tidier.  I didn't dare strim at the side of the polytunnel so I'll have to get my shears out and do that by hand before covering it.  

Once I have the last of the weed membrane is down I can start to think about getting the bark chippings to cover it.  I have a local tree surgeon who gives the chippings away for free so I will be making the most of that service (hopefully next week).  Littlest L is away on cub camp and so I've asked Mr L if he would mind coming to help me get as many chippings as we can on Saturday morning.  Littlest L needs to be at the camp drop-off place at 9.30 and biggest L also needs dropping at school at 9.30 for his rehearsal but that should hopefully give us plenty of time to get some chippings.  My thought is that if we get a ton bag filled and then if we can get it out of the car one of us can start transporting it up to the plot while the other goes back and fills another bag.  Let's see how we manage with that but if I can get 2 bags it will give me a good idea of how much I actually need (loads I think!)

Over the coming weeks I'll have less to blog about with regards to getting things in place and sorted, all of my 'building work' is done and so once the chippings are in place my work will be all about the crops.  It will be interesting to see how I get on with blogging after that - I'll have to have more thought about content to keep myself (and hopefully you) interested!

Anyway, until next week - happy gardening

6th June 2016 - Wear Sunscreen

As you may have worked out from my title this week, I really burnt myself this weekend; I knew it was going to be a sunny day so when I arrived I put my sunscreen on my face, arms and the back of my neck.  I use Ultrasun which is one that you put on at the start of the day and you don't have to reapply.  It is really good and I have always found it to be great, when I put it on.  Unfortunately however, I was so hot yesterday that I decided to roll up my shirt and tie it with a hair tie (like I used to do at school) and completely forgot to put sunscreen on my back.  I am therefore burnt to a cinder and in lots of pain.  So for goodness sake, don't forget to wear your sunscreen all the time!

Anyway, on to happier things.  This weekend I had all my beds in place and all I had to do was fill my last one.  I debated about getting another ton of topsoil but at £40-£45 it seemed like more than I needed and whilst buying bags of topsoil/compost/manure is costly if you're going to do it to fill all of the beds as a one off with a total cost of £29 I have saved a minium of £11 if I could have gotten the cheaper topsoil.  This bed is my rogue bed of flowers.  I wanted to have a cut and come again flower bed but also I'm hoping all of the flowers will attract lots of pollinators to my crops.  

The other job I had wanted to get done this week was look at my irrigation system.  I work full time and often long hours, it's not unusual for me to arrive at site as everyone else is leaving in the evening.  My thought was that if I could set up an irrigation system that I can arrive on site, turn on the tap and be doing other jobs while my crops are being watered.  

http://www.waterirrigation.co.uk/watering-kits/outdoor-watering/drip-kits/kingfisher-micro-irrigation-set.html

I used a micro irrigation set, which includes the tubing, drippers, connectors etc.  I'm worked hard to set the system up and thought a lot about ensuring the drip lines were set correctly, it recommends the first line is higher than the next and so on, my plot does have a slight slop and luckily the tap is in the right place to help me make that happen.  It recommended that the drippers were 12" apart, which I did but then there weren't enough of them.  I also don't know what I expected but 1 line in a 3' wide bed isn't enough to really water the bed fully, so I need to do more work on it but I'm hopeful that I can make it work as I want.

I really feel now like I'm atually going to start to be able to focus on growing, all of my building work is done and whilst there's still areas to tidy up and I still need to get the rest of my weed membrane down, before transporting (I can't even imagine how much) woodchips up to cover the paths.

I will be back up at the plot tomorrow, hopefully with a last piece of MDPE pipe for my cloches from Freegle, I know that my potato beds need weeding and I'm pretty sure that I saw some bind weed on my raspberries as I left and didn't have time to go back and look at properly.  

So until next week - happy gardening