Over the last couple of weeks I've been focused on clearing and planting new pots for both the garden and the allotment. Despite having 2 allotments my garden at home is a bit of a disgrace! Mr L doesn't want to have a proper garden and so at the front it's covered with slate and while I did have some pots I forgot to water them during the summer and they all ended up drying up. I decided to use grasses as my focal plant and build around them. I love the ornamental cabbages and used them across all the pots and I added solar lights to brighten it up in the evening.
I'm really pleased with how they turned out, I think they're really pretty; the purple in the cabbages and the purple fountain grass (them main grass in the top left picture above) really compliment the slate in the garden. Both of these arrangements are close to the house and I'm thinking about moving the one in the top right closer to the fence.
In the allotment I have planted the table outside of my shed with a heuchera, some Christmas roses, 2 white cyclamen and some ivy. This table already has a hellebore in it but I think that one is pink, rather than the white of the Christmas roses but it should still look nice against the heuchera and I could add some pink cyclamen to balance the colours if I think it needs them.
In front of the table I have 2 pots that I've again planted with a mix of grasses and ornamental cabbages. I've used primula to fill the gaps and ivy to spill over and mirror the planting table; I've also used a yellow capsicum for colour; I don't know if it will overwinter but I think it's really striking and the clashing colours against the purple grass.
I have moved the fig, peach and lemon trees into the polytunnel to overwinter. I know the fig is hardy but I think it fruits better if I've had it inside and the peach needs to be inside to avoid peach curl in the spring. I'm also assuming that the lemon tree would be better indoors. I've also brought in my wisteria which is still quite small and in a terracotta pot so again, while I know it's hardy I wasn't sure if it would survive the winter outside.
Every year I also give the polytunnel a good clean. It's always amazing to me how much dirt is collected on the floor; I usually sweep it up but it's usually quite hard. This year I tried using a trowel and dustpan which was very successful. I also gathered up the old and broken pots to throw them out. Unfortunately they can't be recycled and so I can only throw them away but I have used them until they're beyond being used any more. I have still got a big stack of pots under the staging that I'll use or give away. It's very difficult to keep use of pots to a minimum when every time you buy a plant it's in a pot that can't be recycled.
A nationwide pot recycling scheme is being launched, garden centres can join to recycle pots and many of the plant=carrying trays for reprocessing into other products. You can find out more information about it in the following link. http://tinyurl.com/y7pplrxz
I've also been busy planting my winter onions in the bed that I had my potatoes in. There is still a pepper plant in there that has 1 last pepper on it. I don't know if it will ripen, or survive if there's more frost but I didn't want to pull it up while it was still growing and healthy. I may try potting it and putting it into the polytunnel to see if I can overwinter it.
Along the side of the bed I've also planted approx 50 more onion sets in pots ready to be planted into a bed in 86a when it's ready. I have some garlic that also needs planting into that bed and I think I'm going to have to put them into pots for now to get them going or it will be too late to plant them.
I still need to spend time clearing the paths and generally tidying up. I've neglected some of the weeding this year and I want to try and get back on top of it before next season starts. I'm also keen to sort out the fence between 85a and 84, which is extremely overgrown and because it's multiple layers of chicken wire it is impossible to clear. I want to take the whole lot down and re-do it with a single layer of chicken wire; which will be much easier to manage. I will have to wait until the perennials have died back and then I can get in to cut back the brambles before taking out the fence. This winter I need to get 86a sorted so this might end up being a job for next winter but we'll see how it goes.
I'll try to do better at blogging over winter and especially as I'm hoping to get things down on 86a, hopefully I'll have more to update you on that I have in previous years so until next time...
Happy Gardening x
Well here we are again at the end of the season. I had an interesting surprise when I got up to the plot yesterday; my neighbour had ordered herself some topsoil and ordered some for me too 😊 I wasn't expecting it but I do need it so it was a good surprise! I had to persuade Mr L to come up today and help me get it up the hill, I prepared the bed (cut out the membrane, stapled it to the side, covered the bare soil with cardboard) while Mr L brought the soil up. It took a whole bag to almost fill one of the beds so I'm going to order a couple more and fill the other big bed and top this one up.
I should also say that the first bed, which I mentioned last time, I planted with spring bulbs last weekend. I wanted to have a bed filled with mostly daffodils and tulips that I can use as a cut flower bed. I do want to think also about what I can plant for summer flowers that will fit in between the bulbs but my plan is that this bed will be for cut flowers.
I've been thinking about what I'm going to do with the rest of the plot. I think I can fit 5 more beds along the top. They will be smaller than the three I have so far because there won't be enough room for the same length and the 2' paths that I like to have around my beds. This means that the beds will be around 9' x 4'. This means that I'll need 10 more boards to get the beds reads for filling. I think I'll then need around 5 more bags of soil plus the manure to add nutrients for planting.
As you know I currently have a compost bin next to the shed but I've decided that I'm going to put the greenhouse there and then I'll move the compost bins to the opposite side of the plot. I will introduce a 3 bin system again, which I've found is very successful and produces a good amount of compost for the size of the plot. As a result of the way I've placed the shed and where I'm going to put the beds I'm going to have a big space in front of the shed. My thought at the moment is to make it a seating area with a fire pit; I do like having a fire and having a space to sit will be really nice. Alternatively I could put a flower bed there but it will be perpendicular to the other beds.
In 85a I made a start clearing some of the beds this weekend. The onions that I put in over the summer haven't done well (I suspect because of the drought) and so I decided to pull them up and clear the bed. This bed will be for peas next year and so I thought I'd move the supports I made to the new bed. I've also placed bamboo canes along the whole bed because I'm going to use the same system again to grow the peas in the whole bed.
I'm not sure you can see very well on the picture but I've managed to get or 4 lines of bamboo between each blue hoop. Some of them will be right up against the hoop and the one at the bottom I've actually fastened to the hoop to stop it from leaning into the path. The first 3 have chicken wire to the top of the bamboo but then the next 2 only have it halfway; it will depend on the variety of peas that I choose for me to decide if I need to extend the chicken wire or if I can manage with a shorter support. I will also think about putting toppers on the canes to avoid any eye injuries; I'm very careful about toppers on canes because they can be really dangerous, especially some of the shorter ones.
I also started my annual clear up of the shed. I don't know how I manage it but this table particularly seems to end up covered and unusable for the majority of the season! I have tried to be a bit more organised this year; I've cleaned out an old tub and put all my plates and cups in it to protect them from anything that might seek refuge in the shed over the winter. I've also put a lot of my netting into some of the old bird seed tubs to try and stop the mice from shredding them again! I need to decide what can go into the new shed in 86a to try and clear some space and then I can clear the shelves in 85a. I also want to think about maybe putting a shelving unit in 86a so that I can share the plant food and bits like that between both plots; which will help me avoid having to come backwards and forwards between them for these things.
I have been working on a project for the allotment society. Some pieces of wood were cut from some trees that had been felled and I'm using a pyropen to make lane markers and a sign for the gate at the clubhouse.
I made a decision not to smooth the wood itself before I started writing on it because I think it looks really good with the cut marks from the chainsaw, even though that did make it slightly more tricky in some areas for me. I have 6 more to do for each of the lanes that originally were just called A to G and we've named after various flowers or vegetables. I will treat them with some teak oil and then I think we'll also have to varnish them but I think they look really good; I'm pretty proud of myself if I'm honest!
To finish off this week I want to mention the coffee morning for Macmillan Cancer research that my lovely allotment neighbour put on. She got an extra piece of land behind her plot and she, with her husband Mike, have worked really hard to clear it, after it had been left to get quite overgrown. She borrowed 2 of the gazebo's from the society and raised £145 from everyone who came along. Mike guessed that around 30 people had come along and Sian had been super busy baking some really tasty treats, that were all vegan and gluten free so that everyone had the opportunity to eat everything on offer. Well done Sian and Mike! 💗
In the allotment I have planted the table outside of my shed with a heuchera, some Christmas roses, 2 white cyclamen and some ivy. This table already has a hellebore in it but I think that one is pink, rather than the white of the Christmas roses but it should still look nice against the heuchera and I could add some pink cyclamen to balance the colours if I think it needs them.
I've also been busy planting my winter onions in the bed that I had my potatoes in. There is still a pepper plant in there that has 1 last pepper on it. I don't know if it will ripen, or survive if there's more frost but I didn't want to pull it up while it was still growing and healthy. I may try potting it and putting it into the polytunnel to see if I can overwinter it.
