This weekend hasn't been very productive in the allotment because of other commitments but I still managed to get up for a short while and was so excited to see a newt in the pond. I have seen one before but I wasn't able to take a photo; this time the newt stayed in the same place for ages and I managed to snap a pic of it. I am now even more hopeful that some of the tadpoles in the pond are newts as well as the frogs.
I also shared a jar full of water from my pond with 2 of my neighbours. I can't remember if I mentioned last year that I was struggling with really green water. I packed my pond full of oxygenating plants and I got some water treatment products but the water was staying stubbornly green! My neighbour had a beautifully clear pond, even though hers was smaller than mine but she had brought a jar full of water from her home pond, which was also crystal clear. She shared a bottle full of water with me and it was full of tiny bugs that eat the algae. I put it into my pond and within a couple of months my pond was clear and has stayed clear. I had mentioned it to a couple of people so was happy to pass on the benefit and share some of my water with other people.
The site also had a delivery of bark chippings for mulch on Saturday. It was a £30 charge shared between 10 of us and I got 3 barrow loads to mulch my flower bed, which I think now looks fantastic. I hoed the bed before I mulched but in hindsight should really have given it a really good soak as well. Despite forgetting to water the bed before mulching I really do think that the value of mulching any bed cannot be overstated. Mulching helps to keep the moisture in the bed (and this bed seems to be particularly dry) as well as helping to keep the weeds down. In the middle of this picture you can see that I've lifted the netting that I've been using to protect my sweetpeas from the pigeons. I'm hoping that they're established enough to be safe now and so I've just lifted the netting but I decided not to remove it completely in case I'm wrong and I need to cover them again.
The other exciting news I have is that the nest box I have in the hedge does seem as though it's being used by a bird this year. I saw a while ago that it had been filled with some nesting material but then it looked as though it had been abandoned. This weekend it looked as though the old material had been pulled out and lots of new stuff has been put in there. I still haven't see any birds near it but I'm really hopeful that there will be eggs in there very soon. I am trying to keep as far away from it as possible (this was super zoomed in to get the pic) so I really hope that me being on the plot won't disturb them.
At the end of the day today I collected some cast iron arms of a bench that I'm hoping to clean up, repaint and restore to it's former glory. I got them from Freegle, which is a site I love and use regularly. I have the chairs that I put in and out of the shed every time I go to the site but it would be nice to have some seating in different places where I can sit and enjoy the plot from different places. My plan is to use a spray paint (probably one that you would use on a car) and get some wooden slats that I will just oil instead of painting; I'm hoping they will look good.
You might remember that I use the Chelsea Flower Show as an indication of when I should plant out. That means that at the moment my polytunnel is pretty packed. I've also sown over 120 peas today. Lots of people talk about how peas don't like their roots disturbed and that they should only be planted directly outside but as I have problems with mice eating them or moles disturbing them I've found that creating plug plants has given me significantly more success than trying to plant direct. I've also sown some cornflowers for the first time and I'm hoping to get a few of them to pop into the flower bed.
I am hoping to get back into the allotment for much longer next week and will be busy preparing the rest of my beds for when it's time to plant out. Until I see you next week, I hope you have a fabulous week - happy gardening!
Well, as I'm sure you've seen I've started a YouTube channel, which was a bit scary (and I need to stop saying 'erm') but I'm hoping it's a nice addition to the blog and will bring some of the posts to life - literally! Please let me know if there is anything you would like to particularly see me do.
I can't remember if I told you that it was the allotment inspection a couple of weeks ago. We have inspections twice a year, normally one in the spring and one at the end of summer. They aren't about seeing what people are growing but more about checking that the plots are being cultivated and looked after and that tenants don't have carpets on their plots (one of the few rules we have).
Because I am the site representative I have to do the inspections with the council's allotment officer and so I was slightly mortified to have one bed that was sooooo overgrown. I therefore cheated and covered it with weed membrane so that she couldn't see how bad it was lol. I'm sure that she wouldn't have been at all bothered but it was important to me.
I do occasionally use a weed killer from QVC (part of the Richard Jackson's range) but I do find it particularly satisfying to get on my kneeler pad with a hand fork and clear the bed by hand. It took 4 buckets full of weeds to clear it but as you can see all I need now is a good covering of manure and it will be ready for my brassicas to be planted out. I will say though, that last year I used the council manure and when I cleared this bed I could see that the majority of the weeds were just in the top couple of inches, or just in the manure from last year! Lots of manure will come with weed seeds so whilst manure is great for adding organic matter to your soil but you should keep a close eye on it to keep on top of any weeds that might appear.
I have this weird love of wood and stumps, I really think an old rotting stump is amazing; the life they hold as well as how pretty they are (I know, I'm strange!) I was looking for some old bits of wood to add to my woodpile in the corner for all my little bugs and creatures to hide in next to the pond, and I came across a really lovely old stump that I have put next to the pond. I think it looks lovely and can't wait to see what happens to it over the coming years. I also helped to cut down part of a willow tree that had got really overgrown into the path and I managed to grab a nicely shaped stump that is going to go where my England Gnome currently stands. It has a nice shape in the middle that I might be able to plant something into so that could be a really pretty feature.
My polytunnel is still jam packed full of plants waiting to go out, I think I've said before that I don't plant out until after the Chelsea Flower Show because by then I know that I'm totally safe from frost and so there's still lots going on behind the scenes but at the moment the beds all still have their covers on and I've started to put the manure down ready for planting. I can't wait to get going and so some of my more hardy seedlings will probably be out in the next couple of weeks and then it will definitely look more like a worked allotment.
My final pics this week are two that I took after I left the allotment at around 8.30pm on Bank Holiday Monday. My allotment is in the valley of the town where I live and my house is at the top of the hill. As I drove up the hill I had to pull over to take pictures of the sunset which just looked amazing. I really do love it when you stand looking over the town and see the sun setting over the Yorkshire Dales in the distance, it reminds me how lucky I am to live in Yorkshire, despite how cold it still is up here when other people are frost free down south!
I hope the weather has started to turn now and we can look forward to some warmer weather. Until next time then....
Happy Gardening!
I can't believe it's been so long since I last wrote anything, where on earth do I start with what happened over the winter and since I got back to the plot?!
Well, to start with I was very excited to be able to harvest my sprouts at Christmas and we had them for our Christmas lunch. I planted some winter veg but the pigeons had all of it :-( I had managed to get all but 2 of my beds covered so I only had 2 beds (the one that I had tried to grow the winter veg and the old flower bed) that were a bit of a mess. Then over winter we had storm Doris. Thanks to the hard work of Mr L the Polytunnel and shed were fine but my fruit cage took a battering and was damaged beyond repair.
I was late getting back to the plot because I got the flu and so I've felt like I've been on the back foot from the start. The first thing we did was sort out the fruit cage. I told Mr L that I needed something more robust to avoid the same thing happening again next year so Mr L bought timber and built a fantastic structure that will definitely stand up to most winds, even on my very exposed plot. I was able to save the netting and because Mr L has put a door in for me I can fasten the netting down all around; which I'm hoping will stop any more birds getting in.
I've also managed to completely clear the old flower bed and move it next to the shed. Last year I grew some beautiful sunflowers but the rest of the bed was over crowded and didn't do as well. In addition to that it was next to my brassica bed and the netting meant I couldn't actually see the flower bed anyway. I've made a conscious effort to reduce the number of plants in the bed. I've put 1 foxglove, 1 rose, 2 peony's and 6 gypsophelia in the bed. I've put some bedding plants in for colour and I have some sunflowers to put in at the top of the bed.
I've used KGI Garden Planner again (although they've changed it's name to Seed Money) and I've got all of my plans in place for this year. I like the planner because as well as helping me plan my beds it reminds me where I've planted in the past for my crop rotations so if I try and plant in a bed that I've had something from the same family in before it flashes red.
I'm really hopeful about this season, I learnt loads last year and I plan to use all those lessons this year. I have only done one bed of potatoes this year, which means I have a bed for roots, and after the success of the sprouts but total failure of the broccoli I'm going to try cauliflowers this year. I'll also put some leeks into the allium bed because they few I grew last year were good.
I've still got loads to do before I'm fully ready for planting out. I think I said it last year but I don't plant out until after the Chelsea Flower Show when I know that all risk of frost has passed. Next week is supposed to be really cold, and perhaps even with a risk of snow, so I'm glad I don't use the rule of planting out after Easter that other people seem to use. I'm hoping to get more beds ready next weekend; until then...
Happy gardening everyone
This weekend hasn't been very productive in the allotment because of other commitments but I still managed to get up for a short while and was so excited to see a newt in the pond. I have seen one before but I wasn't able to take a photo; this time the newt stayed in the same place for ages and I managed to snap a pic of it. I am now even more hopeful that some of the tadpoles in the pond are newts as well as the frogs.
The site also had a delivery of bark chippings for mulch on Saturday. It was a £30 charge shared between 10 of us and I got 3 barrow loads to mulch my flower bed, which I think now looks fantastic. I hoed the bed before I mulched but in hindsight should really have given it a really good soak as well. Despite forgetting to water the bed before mulching I really do think that the value of mulching any bed cannot be overstated. Mulching helps to keep the moisture in the bed (and this bed seems to be particularly dry) as well as helping to keep the weeds down. In the middle of this picture you can see that I've lifted the netting that I've been using to protect my sweetpeas from the pigeons. I'm hoping that they're established enough to be safe now and so I've just lifted the netting but I decided not to remove it completely in case I'm wrong and I need to cover them again. 
