The noob allotment adventures..

Not sure if I should be offended that my fella reckons I'm planning some kind of murder suicide...

 

I have planted things! Quite chuffed today as managed to plant sprouts, lettuce, kale, garlic, coriander, thyme, basil, chives, salad leaves, wild rocket and cress. There's so much space in my coldframe! Won't last long though..

Looks so much better with stuff actually in the beds. Have netted them over so fingers crossed not too many will suffer an undignified death at the hands of critters.

Have a variety of things in the propagators that need thinning out so all that lovely coldframe space will soon be gone though.


Sprouts in the left, lettuce and kale on the right.


Garlic next to my existing carrots. Hard to tell if the carrots are doing ok. Mainly because I have no idea what I'm doing! They're still there though they don't look all that different and there's some biggish weeds pushing stuff around so will deal with that another day.

Next job is to resow and cover over broad beans before starting work on the other beds.

 

Feels like I haven't done much but I've been doing odd bits. The Easter school hols limited what I could do but I'm getting into a nice little routine and making progress.

I'm making a start on building a rabbit fence. Have run out of wood though so need to go scavenge more from somewhere.


Nice finished bed which now has garlic, parsnips and onion.


Today I've finished a bed, and am halfway through another. The clay soil has dried out and compressed so it's tough going. I'm definitely earning exercise brownie points. Shame I also got sunburnt...

Big 'ol concrete bed which is going to be for bee friendly flowers and plants to help pollinate everything. This was tough going, those blocks were bloody heavy!! Got them off freecycle, which it was very impressed with. Underneath is the old trampoline netting. Hurray for up cycling!



The picture is crappy, but this is the broad bean bed which has been redone as it wasn't very successful the first time. It's had more manure, plus topsoil. I did find 5 or so broad bean seedlings that had just started sprouting so have replanted them. Have enough space for some peas too now

Back up there tomorrow to carry on with another big bed and two smaller square ones. No rest for the wicked.

 

Finished off another bed yesterday

can't remember what I'd decided I was going to put in it though... Doh! I spent last night drawing up a plan though so I'll soon remember.

Also treated myself to a nice new centrepiece plant. It's a lonicera should look really nice once it's settled and flowering. Also put in a couple of sweet pea and scattered in some wildflower mix. Looking forward to seeing it established!





Caught in the act!

 

My planned work at the allotment got rained off today, but we did manage to do some bits. Couldn't dig the next bed obviously but hopefully I'll get a chance before the weather turns.

Managed to grab a bargain plastic garden storage box for £20 as the packaging box had been opened, and its made a huge difference to how neat the allotment looks now. Really glad I had the splurge and got it.

Got a few big tarpaulin sheets from a local freecycle type group for a fiver. Took down as much of the weeds as I could using a hedgetrimmer (plan on hiring a petrol strimmer when I've got some spare cash so I can get it right down to ground level) and then have covered a decent sized area over now in a bid to kill the weeds and grass off ready for tackling next year. Could do with another couple of big tarpaulins but I'm happy with it for now until I can get it strimmed.

I've started drawing up a proper plan of the plot as well as a list of what's in and what's planned to go in. Will be really helpful to see it as a big picture!

Speaking of pictures, didn't get chance to take any today because of the rain, but will do when I get chance

 

Phew what a day!
Ended up having a full on reorganise and sort out. Here's what I did:

• Planted 6 more seed potatoes in pots that were well past chitted
• Sown french dwarf runner beans and peas
• Got together the Pak choi and beetroot ready to be planted at the allotment once the frost passes, and worked out that the next to go in after that will be the sweetcorn and popcorn fiesta. Was surprised how early in the season those get planted out!
• Moved my back garden's storage box so it swapped places with some seedlings and they can get more sun. Looks much neater now with more room to get by too.

• Weeded the back garden patch. I AM SO SICK OF CHICKWEED (The chooks like it though... I'm glad someone does!)
• Cleaned out the chicken coop as well as treating it for red mite. We don't have any but prevention is better than cure. They've been loving the sun today.

• Have sown some chamomile, as well as removing some potted mint and chocolate mint from the garden as it was getting suffocated by my rhubarb. I want to move the chocolate mint to the allotment so am giving it a bit of TLC until it's recovered a bit.
• Given everything a good water, as even though we had rain overnight it's not really done much to make up for weeks and weeks without rain here in Staffordshire.
• Went up to the allotment with the kids, where we dug over, composted and topsoiled two new square raised beds ready for the pak choi and beetroot. Also put down a bit of weed membrane but was only able to do half a job due to lack of time/supplies.

The empty longer raised bed will house our sweetcorn and popcorn fiesta once the frost passes. After that I've run out of raised bed frames and have to wait til the end of May/Early June to plant the next lots (Tomatillo, Tomato, Aubergine, Courgette, Cucumber, Pumpkin and dwarf runners.) so have some time to get the paths sorted and ground dug over where I want to beds.

Blimey what a weekend! Loads done but I don't think I'm ever going to get the soil staining off my hands at this rate.

 

Now the frosts have passed I've been out and planted the pak choi and the beetroot. Need to have a general tidy up and weed, but there's not a lot more planting I can do at the minute so plenty of time to relax and do some general maintenance and tidying up


Pak choi


Beetroot!

 

Fantastic job so far. Well done!

 

Like a numpty I forgot that I have leek ready to be planted out. D'oh! I have an empty bed they can go in though so it's not too much trouble. The main problem is I've run out of net and am skint at the mo so wary about planting them out unprotected.

Those waiting for the warmer weather are:

Pumpkin
Courgette
Aubergine
Cucumber
Celery
Celeriac
Sweet corn
Popcorn fiesta
Tomato
Tomatillo
Hot Pepper
Sweet (bell) pepper

I'm wondering whether any of these could be planted out under mini polytunnels though, seeing as up to now they've been in my coldframe quite happily so in imagined they've actually become reasonably hardy.

 

Sarah you really have done a great job, it looks fantastic. Well done . It's so nice when everything starts coming together, I bet like me you can't wait to harvest your produce!
I'm really enjoying watching your allotment take shape,

 

Just a few updated piccies for today!


The comfrey which has decided to show it's face and take over my carrot patch.


So many weeds, so much digging...



My nettle butt! Making nettle soup to fertilise everything. Looks like the comfrey will be joining it too!