The Allotment Site

After showing a photo of my allotment in my last post, I thought I'd show you a photo of the whole site. Unfortunately, you can't see much of it due to the very high brambles half way down, but you can get an idea of it. There are four allotment sites in our area and the one which my allotment is on is the smallest. There are only six plots which are two thirds of the size of a full plot. The first allotment is to my left as I'm taking the photo. It has a row of raspberry canes on it, but apart from that, there are only potatoes, and sometimes onions, grown on it. My plot is the next one along, then the one after belongs to the chap who lives behind it. He has a large rhubarb patch, which you can see, though I don't think you can really judge the scale from the photo. He didn't grow anything on the plot last year, but he's started clearing it ready for the coming season. The next plot is in a bit of a state, and I've just heard that it's become vacant. I don't envy whoever takes it on as there's some major clearing to be done. There's another plot after that, and then the very last plot is divided in to two halves. As you can see, there's room at the top of the site to bring the car in, which is really handy as we don't leave any tools down there.

Last week, I potted up my onion and shallot sets. They've gone in to modules and they'll stay in the cold greenhouse until they've started shooting, then they can be transferred to the plot. I've started them off like this for the last couple of years. I got a great harvest two years ago, but they were rubbish last year, which I'm putting down to the weather. I've also moved the onions which I've started from seed in to the greenhouse. My peppers have now been potted on and are residing on my son's bedroom windowsill, which is the sunniest in the house. He hates this time of year as he has to share his room with many seedlings. Some more seeds have also been started off, pea - Early Onward, leek - Autumn Giant 2 Argenta and sweet pea - New Horizons Mix. All these are in the greenhouse, so I hope they manage to germinate out there in the cold.

I've started a couple of containers of potatoes off. They're in the greenhouse but wrapped in fleece to give them a bit of added protection. I'm hoping that they manage to get going as it would be lovely to have an early harvest. I always look forward to the first new potatoes of the season, covered in lashings of butter and mint. Yum.

My Allotment

This blog is all about my allotment, but I've never shown any photos of the whole plot, apart from those when I first started blogging. Many of you have asked to see a photo of the full allotment, and I finally remembered to take one when I was down there yesterday. As you can see, there's nothing growing at the moment. I'd just pulled up the last of the leeks, which weren't up to much so were composted, before I took the photo. It's about two thirds of the size of a full plot, and this is reflected in the rent, which was £28.00 this year. This includes the Allotment Association subs. I don't pay for water as there's no water on the site, but you can see that I have three blue water butts at the top of the allotment, I have to make sure I collect the rain water. I also have three compost bins, two wooden ones made from pallets and a black plastic one. Also at the top of the allotment is an old bath which was left on the plot when we took it on. We grow carrots in the bath, it's elevated just enough to avoid any damage from the carrot root fly. After the photo was taken, we managed to get some of the beds dug over. When I first got the allotment, we made the bed sizes ten foot by four foot but soon realised that this size wasn't very efficient. We now have beds which measure ten foot by ten foot. The ground has dried out somewhat, which is good news, but it's still a little claggy.

The only fruit I've got on the allotment at the moment are strawberries, but I've got some other fruit waiting to go in. There's a red thornless gooseberry, a blackcurrant and a rhubarb crown. I've also got a tayberry, but Hubby is going to have to build some sort of support for that. I'm still deciding where abouts they should all be planted.

It's been a lovely weekend and we've managed to get quite a bit done. I really wish they'd leave the clocks where they are instead of putting them back an hour in winter as there'd be time on an evening for Hubby to pop down after work, but it won't be long now until they spring forward again and give us that extra hour of daylight on an evening. Let's hope we get some more weekends like this one, then we may be able to get on top of things before the onslaught of the sowing season.

Blog Of The Month - February

This year, I've decided to do a monthly post titled Blog Of The Month. This is where I'm going to feature a blog I enjoy reading. Some of the blogs will be new to me, others may be blogs I've been reading for a while. I hope that by doing this, I can introduce some of my readers to other, interesting blogs, though I know that some of you will already read the blogs I feature.

The blog of the month for February is Annie's Little Plot. Annie lives and gardens in Huddersfield, which isn't too far from me. She's had her present allotment for a couple of years, but had a previous allotment in Cheshire. If you look at her recent posts, you can see how she transformed both her allotments from the bare earth she took on, to productive plots. Annie also has a wonderful garden, as you can see from the photo, but it didn't always look like this. Take a look at her very first post, and you can see how it started out.

Annie takes us out and about with her, as she also writes about visiting various gardens. Her latest post is all about the snowdrops at Hodsock Priory. I couldn't write this post without mentioning Bob, Annie's cat, who has made a few guest appearances on the blog, especially when we had snow, he didn't particularly like it, a bit like me.

I hope we've seen the last of the snow now, so that Annie and Bob can get plenty of time in the garden, and the rest of us too. If you don't already know Annie, do pop over to her blog and have a read, and don't forget to tell her that I sent you.

Primroses For February

This year, I'm taking the late Geoff Hamilton's advice and visiting a nursery each month with a view to buying a plant which is in flower for my garden. Doing this should ensure that I have something blooming in my garden every month of the year.

I've got one primrose in my garden at the moment, but I adore primroses, so I decided upon seeing some plants in flower in the garden centre, that I would add to my lonely specimen and make the primrose my flower purchase for February. I don't know what it is about primroses that I love so much, they seem such dainty things, almost fragile with their pale, buttery yellow blooms, but they're actually quite tough little things putting out flowers in the coldest of months.

I've been meaning to increase the number of primroses in my garden for a while now. They can be propagated from seed, it's best to sow the seed when green, and apparently, they're quick to germinate. I shall definitely have a go at it this year so that I can have even more primroses in my garden.

Chit Chit Chit Chit Chitting

As well as collecting the mystery seeds last weekend (see last post), I also collected the potatoes I'd ordered. I've gone for Arran Pilot, the same variety I grew last year. I was really impressed with them, the yield was good, they tasted very good and they were versatile. I'll be growing them in containers rather than in the ground, firstly to free up space for other things at the allotment, but also because they come out so clean when grown in containers, with no damage at all. My potatoes used to suffer dreadfully from slug attack when grown at the allotment. This is the first time I've ordered my potatoes from the allotment shop and I was pleasantly surprised by the price, just £2.25 for half a stone, which is a little over the 3kg nets which are sold in garden centres for considerably more. They've now been set out to chit in the conservatory, this is just some of them. It's a good job I've got plenty of containers as I'm going to need them. I've also got a small packet of Anya potatoes which I'm growing for the first time, and I may get another small bag of another variety to try this year.

The peppers and onions which I sowed are doing very well. One job I must make time to do this weekend is to pot on the peppers as they could now do with moving out of the seed tray and in to individual pots of their own. The onions were sown in to modules, so they'll be able to stay in there until they're planted out. I sowed one seed to one module and about thirty out of the forty have germinated so far, but I haven't given up hope of the others pushing through yet as the ones already growing have germinated at various times. I've just noticed that another couple have poked their noses through the soil overnight. They obviously germinate over a long period. Some people would sow a couple of seeds to each module just in case one of the seeds doesn't germinate, but I don't mind if I end up with a few empty spaces.

The snow which was forecast for yesterday didn't fall here, though Hubby did hit a patch on his way home from work. He was at a meeting in Salford so would have to cross the Pennines which usually catch any snowfall which is around. It's forecast again today so we'll see if that materialises, then it's forecast to snow all tomorrow morning. I hope it isn't too bad as it was my son's 18th birthday this week and we're having a bit of a party tomorrow night. I hope I don't have to go in my wellies.

Surprise Surprise

I usually buy the majority of my seeds from The Garden Centre Group when they reduce all their seeds to 50p per pack at the end of the gardening season. There were a few things I didn't get last year, so I placed an order at the allotment association shop at the same time as I ordered my seed potatoes at the end of last year. I should have kept a copy of what I'd ordered as I couldn't remember, I'll definitely make a note next time, so it was a surprise when they were collected at the weekend. There's a pack of French beans - Blue Lake. I grow these every year, they're a great performer and taste delicious. I've gone for broccoli - Rudolph, which is an early variety, parsnip - Tender and True, and sweetcorn - Extra Early Sweet F1, they're supposed to have long cobs filled to the tip, so I'll see how these do this year seeing as I haven't had much luck with sweetcorn since having my allotment. I'm giving squash another go this year and have opted for two varieties - Queensland Blue and Crown Prince. These are both winter squash so they're suitable for storing, providing I can manage to grow some this year. I keep saying that I'll grow some stocks as I love them for the house, they have such a gorgeous fragrance, but I've never got round to it yet. I've bought the variety Ten Week Mixed, so I shall definitely get round to sowing some this year.

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to visit a garden centre where they sell onion sets loose. I don't need a whole bag as I don't grow that many, and I'm also having another go at growing some from seed. The garden centre I went to did sell the onion sets loose, but they were still charged for by the scoop rather than by weight. Luckily, they allowed me to mix what was in the scoop, so I got some red onion sets too. I still came home with far too many than I actually need though, so I shall plant any surplus sets in to containers and pull them when small to eat as spring onions, or I might even pickle some.

The weather was gorgeous at the weekend, but apart from visiting a couple of garden centres, I didn't do any sort of gardening. It's typical that I'm really busy and have lots of errands to run when the sun is shining, but at least I wasn't having to dodge any rain whilst going about my business. I think it will take more than a weekend of sunshine for my allotment to dry out though, and a few snow flurries are forecast for the next few days again so it doesn't look as though much will get done this coming weekend either.

The Miracle Of Life

It's such a miracle how a tiny seed, sometimes no bigger than a speck of dust, gets sown and watered and it springs to life. It never ceases to amaze and excite me when I see that the seeds I've sown have germinated, so I'm very happy at the moment as all five pepper seeds that I sowed have germinated, and the onions are just nudging their way through the compost. Speaking of onions, as well as growing them from seed this year, I'm also going to grow some from sets. I don't need a whole bag full, so I used to buy them loose from the local nursery, but it closed down last year. I'm missing it so much as I used it all the time and I haven't found another good nursery, which is local to me, to take it's place. I asked at the allotment shop if they sold them loose, but they've stopped selling them altogether because of poor quality, but they did tell me where I could get some from, so I'll be having a trip there this weekend.

The potatoes I ordered from the allotment shop have now been delivered, as have the seeds I placed an order for last year, but I haven't collected either yet. That's another job for me this weekend. It'll be quite a surprise actually, because I can't remember which seeds I ordered, I didn't keep a copy. I know that the potatoes I ordered are Arran Pilot, a variety I tried for the first time last year and liked so much that I decided to grow them again this year.

We had snow again yesterday. There was actually quite a covering, so it's surprising that it's all gone now already. I'm not complaining though, I'm glad that it hasn't hung around. Take a look at my Through The Keyhole blog to see who visited me in the snow.

Here We Go Again

I have to admit to being a little neglectful of the broad bean plants which are residing in the greenhouse. They were sown in autumn ready to plant out in spring. It was a while since I'd checked on them, and when Hubby went in to the greenhouse last week, they were desperate for a drink. A few days later, I thought I'd better make sure they were ok after being watered, and it looks like I was in the nick of time, just look at what I found. To add insult to injury, the slimy slug who did the deed was lounging on the top of one of the pots in full view. I'm so squeamish when it comes to killing anything, I just can't do it, and as I was home alone at the time, the munching mollusc got a reprieve. He was scraped off the top of the pot and catapulted in to next door's garden, I just hope that no one saw. I'm pleased to report that the rest of the broad bean plants are doing well, but I definitely need to check on them more often.

The onions and peppers which I sowed last weekend haven't germinated yet, though I'm not too worried as they can take much longer than a week to do so. I shall be sorting through my seed packets this weekend and looking for other things which can be sown now.

I'm seeing bulbs bursting in to bloom on lots of blogs at the moment, yet I haven't got a single one in flower yet. It's probably for the best as we're forecast yet more snow tomorrow. The birds have been very busy on the feeders this morning, I wonder if they know they're going to be nest bound tomorrow.

Seed Sowing

This morning saw the first seeds of the year being sown. I've sown some Corno di Toro Rosso peppers and some Bedfordshire Champion onions. They both need a long growing season so I wanted to get them sown early. The peppers are a long variety which I've grown before. I've started them off in a heated propagator as they require a little heat to get going. I'm hoping that I can manage to keep them from growing leggy, which is a problem when starting things off early because of the low light levels, but I shall start some more off at a later date too, just as an insurance policy. I've sown forty onions, but I'm going to be growing some from sets too, as well as shallots, so I don't want to start too many off from seed. They didn't do well at all last year, so I'm hoping that I can do better this time.

My propagator is a Super 7 Propagator, which is designed to fit on a windowsill. It holds seven quarter size seed trays with vented covers. I actually have two of these propagators, but I've been thinking of putting a different type of propagator on my wish list. I like the Super 7, but it's not ideal if you're wanting to grow large amounts of something, and it's not very adaptable. I'm thinking of getting one where the lid covers the heated base rather than individual trays, so that I'm able to start things off in different sized pots or trays.

Now that the seed sowing has started, I really need to sort out everything I'll be growing this year. I have a box which is divided up in to monthly sections, and I file the seed packets according to the month they need to be sown. It helps me to remember what to sow and when. I like systems which help me to stay organised.

Blog Of The Month - January

Anna, over at Green Tapestry, often showcases new blogs which she's enjoying reading, and I thought it would be a good idea to do the same. I've decided that I'm going to make this a monthly feature titled Blog Of The Month. Some of the blogs I feature will be ones I've recently discovered, while others will be ones I've been following for some time, but which I think deserve a mention.

The Blog Of The Month for January is A Whole Plot Of Love. Joanne started the blog in June of last year, and she writes about gardening in her North Wales garden where she has a small vegetable plot. It's amazing how much she manages to fit in to her garden, certainly more than I manage on my allotment, she even has numerous fruit trees and bushes growing in pots to maximise space. Like most of us, Joanne is currently finalising her list of seeds to sow this year, and working out what she still needs to buy. You can read about the things she's already decided on in her most recent posts.

Joanne's husband has just embarked on quite a large DIY project, knocking down the dividing wall between the kitchen and dining room and making a kitchen diner. I'm looking forward to hearing about progress on this. Joanne also includes snippets about her two boys, one of which is now at university. I love to read Joanne's newsy posts, not just about her gardening exploits, but about other things too, as they help you to get to know the person behind the blog.

I wish Joanne all the very best for the gardening year ahead, and I shall be following her progress through her blog. I know that some of you already follow Joanne, but if not, do pop across and have a read, and don't forget to tell Joanne that I sent you.

Cyclamens For January

I mentioned in one of my posts that I don't have much in the way of colour in my garden during the winter months. I had a comment, quite a while ago, telling me that the late Geoff Hamilton had once suggested going to a nursery once a month and buying something for the garden which is in flower. That way you know you're going to have something blooming in the garden every month of the year.

I've decided that I'm going to follow Geoff's advice this year. We had a great little nursery close by but unfortunately, it closed down last year as the owners were retiring. There's another nursery a little further away which I've visited in the past, but it wasn't as good as my local one. It's some time since I visited it, so we had a trip there today to see if it had improved. It does look as though they're trying to build the business up a bit, but they could really do with a wider range of plants. The prices were very competitive though, and it is only January still, so I'll certainly be making a return trip when the gardening season gets under way, and I hope to see a wider selection of plants available then.

Following Geoff's advice, I had a look for plants which were in flower and found some very healthy looking Cyclamen. I was very careful in ensuring that these were outdoor Cyclamen as there's also an indoor variety which wouldn't do very well being planted out in the garden. There was a good range of colours and I decided that I'd buy five plants, each in a different colour way. These cost me a total of £5.00, which I think is very reasonable.

I think this is a great way to ensure there is colour in the garden throughout the year, so I shall be plant shopping again in February.

I also succumbed to a couple of Cowslips. At £1.25 per plant, it would have been rude to leave them behind.

Paperwhites

My Paperwhites have just come in to flower. I saw these bulbs in a half price sale after Christmas and decided to buy them as they're so pretty. They're part of the Narcissus family, often forced to come in to flower at Christmas, and highly fragrant. Not everyone likes the scent though, as I've just found out. These have had to be moved in to the conservatory, well away from Hubby who thinks they smell like public toilets. There's no accounting for taste.

With the cold weather we're experiencing lately, I'm making sure that the bird feeders are kept topped up. I'm being rewarded with a good variety of birds which are visiting the garden, sparrows, starlings, blackbirds, robins, coal tits, blue tits, an occasional great tit, collared doves, wood pigeons, and although we've seen the occasional greenfinch in the past, they're now visiting in greater numbers and are a regular visitor. I hang niger seed in the hope that I can attract some goldfinches, they're such colourful birds, and I've had the odd one or two in the past but haven't seen any for quite some time now. It's just as important to provide water as it is food, as many of the regular places where birds drink and bathe turns to ice in these conditions. It can be quite a task keeping the water from freezing though. Next weekend, it's the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch. Over the period of an hour, you watch the birds in your garden or a public park, and record the highest number of each bird species you see at the same time. These numbers should then be reported back to the RSPB, and it helps them to monitor trends and give an understanding of how birds are doing. I'm hoping to set aside an hour during the weekend in order to do my bit.

The snow hasn't been too bad here, we've still got a covering, but we missed the heavy snowfall which was forecast in the early hours of Saturday morning. The prediction now is for heavy snow tonight and in to the early hours, and it looks like we're in for these type of conditions well in to next week. I'm hoping that the school stays open as my son is taking exams towards his A levels this week.

A New Variety

I had a wander around Wilkinson's at the weekend. They've cleared their shelves of Christmas paraphernalia and have now stocked them with gardening items, ready for the new season. They've already got their seed potatoes in, and although I've got my Arran Pilots on order from the allotment association, I couldn't resist trying a new to me variety. I've gone for Anya, a potato mentioned on many blogs before, but which I've never grown myself. Anya is a cross between Desiree and Pink Fir Apple and is supposed to have a nutty taste. I'm hoping that it will produce a good salad potato. I'll be growing all my potatoes in containers again this year, I find they grow much better and cleaner this way, and frees up the allotment for other things.

I've decided that I'm going to grow peppers again this year, after giving them a miss last year. I've never had a huge harvest of peppers, but I'm hoping that by increasing the number of plants I grow, I may get a worthwhile yield. I haven't checked my seed stash yet, but I'm sure I've got a few varieties still in there. I'd like to get some sown quite early as they do tend to need a long growing season. The problem is judging it right, too early and the plants will grow leggy, too late and there won't be enough time for the peppers to ripen.

We woke to a little more than a sprinkling of snow yesterday, and throughout the morning it continued to snow. I really didn't think we'd had much, but I noticed a snowman in one of the gardens nearby when I took Archie for his walk this morning. Most of the snow has gone now, but it's trying it's hardest to snow again at the moment. We keep getting a flurry, but it doesn't seem to be settling, thank goodness.

Stumped

I usually get lots of gardening gifts for Christmas, but it was a little different this year, I think everyone is running out of things to buy me for the garden now. I did get an Amaryllis - Red Lion. The bulb was already planted, so all I have to do is water it sparingly. I was a little worried at first, as the bulb just looked like a stump without any life to it at all, but it didn't take long after watering for it to show some green, and it's growing by the day. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for it to bloom.

I still haven't had a trip to the allotment yet this year, but Hubby went and collected some manure from the stables near by at the weekend and took that to the plot. He didn't get nearly as much as he'd wanted to, as he didn't have much time before darkness fell, so if the weather stays fine this weekend, he'll be making another trip.

It's forecast to get much colder than it's been recently. We've had a very mild January so far, but it's noticably cooler today. I had to make a mercy dash to school this morning as my daughter's trousers had split. I saved her blushes by taking her another pair, but I had to de-ice the car before I set off. At least the frost should kill off some nasties before the start of the growing season.

They've Bean Growing

The broad beans - Aquadulce Claudia which I sowed in autumn have been growing well. I wondered if they'd grow leggy with the low light levels, but they're not doing too badly. I started them off indoors and then moved them in to the unheated greenhouse where they'll stay until I plant them out at the allotment in spring. I'm hoping that by sowing in autumn, it will give them a head start and I'll get an early harvest.

I forgot to mention in my last post that Hubby visited the allotment to dig up my three parsnips to have with Christmas dinner. I was hoping that the growth beneath the soil was doing as well as the growth above, but in all honesty, they weren't huge. We did eat them with our Christmas dinner, and they tasted delicious, which is the main thing, but I won't put parsnips on my list of successes for 2012. Only three germinated from three sowings, and I only got one meal out of them. I'll try again this year.

I haven't visited the allotment since before Christmas, we've had so much rain over the festive period that it's just not worth bothering. I know that there'll be standing water in some parts, and that the rest of the plot will be too wet to do anything with, so I'll wait until the weather improves a little. That's not to say that I'll be sat twiddling my thumbs, I've got every intention to start my onions off soon, I think they're one thing which can be started off now, and I'm itching to get going, so why not?