Monday 24th January 2011

OK, nothing much is happening but I need to keep this up to date this year so here we go. So far I have ordered some seeds from Marshalls which should be arriving in the next few days. The allotment shop opens in a couple of weeks and so we shall get the seed potatoes, beans, shallots, onions and anything else I fancy ! Will update again soon.

Saturday 17th July 2010

I have not been good and kept this up to date so will try and remember everything we have been doing in the last couple of weeks.

Today we picked some more peas, took up the rest of the garlic in the 'onion' bed - except the elephant garlic which is still there. We also picked some gooseberries as these had gone red - I'm over the moon about that as I thought it was a green gooseberry bush and red are supposed to be tastier :-) There is a nice size pumpkin growing on Henry's plant so hopefully that will get nice and big for Halloween. We planted the leeks that were still in the tray in the greenhouse into the bed where the beetroot was. On the way out of the allotment we met a local farmer who asked whether we wanted free manure - he had a trailer load - he brought it down and we shovelled it into a couple of the spare beds, he said he would come back later on and drop some more off for us - timing is everything !

We have so far had 2 tomatoes (golden cherry), and there are plenty on the plants so they will come into their own soon. There are piles of chillies on the plants - none ripe yet but they look big and juicy - looking forward to trying them ! The 2 pepper plants look absolutely fine but as of yet - no flowers. We are keeping our fingers crossed for them !

In the last couple of weeks we have also harvested all the onions and shallots, staked the two apple trees which look much better and are also laden with apples ! We have tried some small borlotti beans (whole), and they taste very much like runner beans - the rest we are leaving in the ground to dry out so we can use them in stews in the winter.

Tuesday 29th June 2010

I went down on my own today as Henry was round at Jimmy's playing after school. I moved the fruit cage we had built and put it on top of the blackberries as they are starting to form now.

I then sorted out the tomatoes by tying them to the canes and also tying the canes to the structure of the greenhouse to make sure they don't fall over with the weight of the tomatoes as they are all starting to produce them now. I picked a lettuce for Julie (Jimmy's mum) and then gave everything in there a good water - I noticed the chillies just seem to be starting to grow after a couple of flowers - it'll be nice to see the different chillies we get this year. No flowers on the peppers yet but they are supposed to be more difficult to grow, we'll keep our fingers crossed and see !

Then I went out and sowed some more spinach seeds where the gaps in the row were, and also 2 rows of beetroot as we will be harvesting the majority of the beetroot this weekend coming - it looks lovely !

Redcurrant City !

We went down at the weekend and picked Henry's redcurrants - we ended up with 1kg which was really good considering we had about 12 last year ! Once they had all cooked down we made 1 pot of redcurrant jelly and a small bottle of currant shrub (some ancient alcoholic recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's preserves book).

We did a bit of tidying and weeding and then pulled up the onions - only about 3 were infected with white rot which again is better than last year. We have 64 onions drying in the garage at home now !

Thursday 24th June 2010

Henry and I popped down to the allotment after school today - his redcurrants are bright red, juicy and looking ready for picking - we'll do that this weekend I think. The gooseberries are also ready for picking as well.

We sorted out the raspberries (allowing 3-5 main shoots per plant and cut the rest out) after Grandad advised us on Tuesday. They look so much tidier and there are some small raspberries forming already which is lovely to see as I thought I had messed them up this year !

We gave everything a really good water as it has been so hot lately and then we tied up the borlotti beans. The onions are starting to fall over so maybe they are not far off being harvested - we noticed Max's dad had harvested some of his.

We picked a lettuce for Tina, did a touch of weeding and then came home.

Weekend of 12th June 2010

On Friday Dave had the off and we went down to the allotment to water the greenhouse, pick a couple of lettuces from the greenhouse and then just as we left we sprayed a load of wasps who had very kindly set up home in the small birdhouse we had on the tree next to the shed. Nasty beasts ! Luckily the wasp nest destroyer was superb and we left after a massive spray !

On Saturday morning we went down to check the wasps nest and found just a couple of small wasps around the nest but no more activity so we sprayed again and then picked a lettuce for Grandma and Grandpa and went round to visit them.

On Sunday we went down again and luckily the wasps nest was completely destroyed and Daddy took it apart so we could see the insides of the nest and all the grubs - mmm, nice ! Then we picked all the remaining leeks, some of which we gave to Nanna and Grandad, and some of which we have in the fridge. Then Mummy planted out the Green Trevi Cauliflower. All of the brassicas are being attacked quite badly by pigeons, I only have 2 Kale plants left now, 2 died after being planted and then I think one was pulled out by a pigeon. So we all made a netting cover to go over the top of the cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli. I just need to construct another one over the rest of the cabbage, kohlrabi, kale and brussels sprouts. We gave the greenhouse another water and noticed that there are some flowers coming on the chilli plants (Hungarian Carrot look closest to flowering) Fingers crossed for that soon !

Monday 7th June

I had the day off work today as we got back from France at the weekend. We had a lovely holiday and it wasn't so good to be back, BUT when we visited the allotment on Sunday morning it had really grown and everything was looking really well so that was nice.

This morning I spent a good couple of hours down there doing some major weeding, then I tied the tomatoes up and pinched out the bits inbetween the branches. I then planted out 2 tomato plants (Uncle Carl gave us them) into Henry's plot. I planted the climbing french beans (Corona Del'Oro) in Henry's plot. I planted a squash plant (Little Dumpling) next to the pumpkin, I also then planted out all the kohlrabi (Purple Delicacy).

Then I found a load of sticks for pea sticks and put those all in. I snipped the top off all the leeks to stop them flowering before we harvest them later this week to make leek and potato soup with !

I then gave everything a good water and noticed that a few of Henry's redcurrants had started to turn pink :-)

Sunday 23rd May 2010 - Phew ! What a Scorcher !

Well, we went down to the allotment first thing this morning and it was baking hot then ! We planted out as much stuff as we could - two lots of Cabbage - (January King and Greyhound), Sweetcorn, Kale (Black Tuscany) and then we watered everywhere where we had planted new seedlings and also in the greenhouse.

We picked 2 rocket plants to add to Mummy's salad's during the week and then we went to find Erica and Nick's plot (16), Erica was busy weeding (a large job - their quarter plot looked just like ours did when we got it !). Then after a chat and we gave them some leftover cabbage we had grown we went home and Mummy got changed ready to do the Race For Life.

Thursday 13th May 2010

Henry and I popped down after school today to check how things were going, despite the very cold frosty weather the beetroot and lettuce all seem to look fine. The courgettes look a bit frost bitten (or slug bitten!) If all fails we'll buy a couple of plants from the garden centre. We watered the greenhouse, picked a load of rhubarb (for Mummy to make rhubarb and custard muffins with tomorrow), and picked some rocket for Mummy's salads. We also took some photos. This first one is of Henry with his patch in the background and his newly protected redcurrant bush next to him !

8th/9th May 2010

We planted the lettuce out today - most of them in the greenhouse in between the tomatoes, chillies and peppers, and then the rest went into Henry's patch and next to the beetroot and also inbetween the courgettes. We did some tidying and then came home.

Bank Holiday Monday

We planted out the 3 brussels sprouts plants - Bedford Fillbasket (next to the row of peas), and Henry's pumpkin (Spellbound) next to the Jerusalem Artichokes. Then we planted out all the beetroot (some in Henry's patch - Kestrel) and some in ours next to the potatoes (Detroit Crimson Globe 2 and Kestrel). Everything that has been outside seems to be doing quite well and in the greenhouse nearly everything is through and doing well.

We then did some re-arranging in the greenhouse so we could plant the 7 chilli plants (4 Hungarian Carrot and 3 Cayenne Yellow), and we also planted out the 2 Pepper plants (Carnival Mixed). We also planted a tray of Cauliflower (Green Trevi), and a tray of Kohlrabi (Purple Delicacy). 2 things we haven't grown before - green cauliflower and strange little purple spaceship looking things !!

May Bank Holiday Weekend

Well, predictably the weather is nowhere near as nice as last weekend ! Of course, it is a bank holiday and that is what happens !

We went down on Friday morning to water as Daddy had the day off with Mummy, then we went down on Sunday morning. We built a frame with netting to go around Henry's redcurrant bush as there are lots of redcurrants on it, although not starting to turn red yet so we've caught the greedy birds out ! One of the gooseberry bushes is starting to produce gooseberries, the smaller 2 that Uncle Carl gave us last year don't appear to be but we need to be patient ! At least they look nice and healthy. In the greenhouse everything looks great, the borlotti beans, swiss chard, climbing french beans, sweetcorn and the kale are all through and looking great. Mummy planted the broccoli (Parthenon) out in the large bed that had potatoes in last year. We have 3 rows of them and have kept some more in the tray in the greenhouse in case anything happens to the ones we've planted out. There are quite a few more things that need planting out so we'll go down again tomorrow if the weather is nice and sort some more stuff out :-)

Weekend of 24/25 April 2010

We watered all the plants in the greenhouse on Saturday and then on Sunday morning we went down early - the weather was lovely and really quite warm. We planted the maincrop potatoes (Cara and Sante), 3 rows of 5 potatoes and then 1 row of 5 potatoes in another bed. Everything is doing well in the greenhouse, still no sweetcorn, green beans or borlotti beans through yet. There are no sign of the peas outside yet but the new broad beans are beginning to come through.

Henry's redcurrant bush is covered in flowers, as are the apple trees and the gooseberry bushes. Graham arrived after we had been there a while and gave us some parsley and some rocket as well so we have planted them in the greenhouse.

This afternoon we sowed some radish and some lettuce leaves in the guttering Uncle Nige got for us. Then we sowed a small tray of rocket and some flowers (Petunia, Sweet peas and Mesbrymanthemums (or something like that !!!)). All of these we are keeping at home for easy picking !

Weekend of 17/18th April 2010

Only watered yesterday and collected a load of rhubarb to make jam with but this morning Henry and I went down and the weather was lovely. We sat outside the shed and planted trays of borlotti beans, Kale (Cavolo Nero - from Rachel at work), climbing french beans (Corona D'Oro), lettuce and sweetcorn. We had a lovely time, watered everything and most things are through now which is great. We watered the chard, peas, spinach outside and harvested one of the leeks for tea.

This afternoon when tidying up the back garden we noticed that one of the potatoes (Amorosa) has come through which is good to see !

Weekend of 9th-11th April 2010

We went down on Friday as Daddy had the day off to spend with us. He measured up the shed so we could put a shelf in on Saturday and I checked on the trays in the greenhouse. We took the tomato plants down and planted them, the chillies and peppers are still too little to go in properly yet though I think, so they are in the greenhouse but in their pots.

On Saturday we went down, dug a load more manure into the empty beds, sowed a tray of Greyhound Cabbage and also a tray of January King cabbage. Some beetroot, lettuce and broccoli seedlings were coming through already which was nice to see :-) Daddy and Henry fixed the shelf up in the shed and we had a good sort out of all the stuff in it and tidied it up nicely. Daddy also put some nails up for Henry to hang his tools on. There is now plenty of room in there and it looks really neat !

We went down again on Sunday morning because the weather was so nice. Daddy and Henry used the hacksaw to cut a piece of wire that was stuck in one of the beds, and I planted a row of Hurst Greenshaft peas outside in one of the beds.

Easter Monday - April 5th 2010

We went back down to the allotment again this morning as the weather was OK. We dug over all of the remaining beds so they are ready for when we need to use them. When we went down on Saturday we didn't manage to plant the 2 trays of cabbage (we ran out of compost so we're ordering some more and some manure too which should be delivered later this week). Next weekend if the weather is good we are hoping to put the tomato plants into the greenhouse and sow some more trays of seeds, and also a row of Swiss Chard and Spinach outside. We didn't sow a row of peas either as we thought we would wait for the manure to arrive and dig that in first.

Good news from behind us at the allotment as well - it is defintely going to be a chicken house again - it looks really good, and the hut was in this morning. It'll be nice having chickens next to us again :-)

Easter Weekend

We all went down on Good Friday morning before the rain came. We put the manure in the bed we are using for potatoes and also in the greenhouse. It was all dug in and watered into the greenhouse. We did some general tidying up and I planted some Sutton broad beans where the Claudia Aquadulce ones had died from the harsh winter. Hopefully the worst of the weather is behind us now.

We are off shortly (Easter Sunday) to plant 2 trays of Beetroot (Kestrel and Detroit 2 Crimson Globe), 2 pumpkin seeds (Spellbound) and 2 Squash (Little Dumpling), 1 row of Hurst Greenshaft peas directly into the soil, 2 trays of cabbage (January King and Greyhound), 1 tray of Brussels Sprouts (Bedford Fillbasket), 2 trays of lettuce (Lollo Rossa and Tom Thumb), 2 courgette plants (Italian variety Uncle Carl brought back from Italy a couple of years ago - we'll only plant 2 seeds as we will be overrun with them otherwise and we are likely to get some from Carmine !!), a tray of leeks (Musselburgh), a tray of Broccoli (Parthenon - the one that Graham gave us !), and finally a row of Spinach (Tirza), and Swiss Chard (Bright Lights) next to the remaining leeks.

Sunday 28th March - Summer is here !

Well, initially we thought Summer had arrived as the weather today was lovely - we have even got the garden furniture out of the garage but are now quite disappointed as the weather has turned wet, cold and even the chance of snow tomorrow !!! How did that happen - maybe we jinxed it by getting the chairs out !

Oh well, we managed to put the early potatoes in behind the garage (a row of Foremost, then Lady Balfour and then a row of Amorosa). Then Henry planted a row of parsnip seeds too (which he brought back from school). We are aiming to go down to the allotment on Friday (Good Friday) morning and sow a few seeds, plant the tomatoes in the greenhouse and generally see how things are getting on down there.

Friday 25th March 2010

All 4 Bulgarian carrot chillies are through now, 3 cayenne yellow chillies and one of the Carnival Mix peppers. We'll have to pop to the allotment sometime this weekend as we have things that need sowing now the weather is getting better.

We're going to split the potatoes and sow the early ones at home in the garden as Daddy has cleared a space for some veggies at home as well.

Tuesday 23rd March 2010 - Henry's Birthday !

The update as of this morning is that 2 Hungarian Carrot chillies are now coming through, 2 Cayenne Yellow chillies are through, 1 of the pepper plants is just poking through. The tomato plants are growing nicely (about an inch and a half tall now). Still no sign of the Big Boy tomato plants - if nothing comes by the weekend we may sow another couple and see what happens.

Sunday 14th March 2010

Well, we now have all 3 Golden Cherry tomato plants growing, the 2 Shirley tomato plants and the 2 Gardener's Delight plants. So far, no sign of the Big Boy tomatoes (2), Carnival Mix Peppers (3), Hungarian Carrot Chillies (3), and Cayenne Yellow Chillies (3). Still time though, apparently the chillies and peppers are slow to germinate !

Went to see Graham yesterday at the allotment shop to get the Calabrese (Broccoli) seeds he promised me (he gave me them as they were last years seeds !) Cool, so hopefully this year we will have proper big heads on the broccoli rather than the sprouting type. Fingers crossed !

Thursday 11th March 2010

Hooray - two tiny seedlings (Golden Cherry Tomato) were peeping through the soil this morning when Henry did his usual checking :-)

Still no sign of the others but hopefully it'll be any day now !

Sunday 7th March 2010

The weather was beautiful today (exceptionally cold and frosty but bright sunshine) so we went down to the allotment about 9 o'clock in the morning and planted some garlic at the bottom end of the bed with the Jerusalem Artichokes in. We put some new wire around the posts to support the raspberries when they start growing again. We also noticed some small green buds on the gooseberry bushes so things are starting to look up :-)

We then dug up the remaining parsnips in Henry's bed and the one next to his. We had 3 bags full of parsnips and some of them were about a foot and a half long !!! When we got home I made some Spicy Root Soup using some of them (a recipe in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Book 4), and also par-boiled a pile of them and froze them for easy roasting ! We gave a bag to Dave's parents and we have about 5 large ones left in the garage, and I'll probably make more soup once we've used the Root soup up.

Weekend of 27/28 February 2010

I called to the allotment shop on Saturday morning to pick up some shallots and garlic for Les at work, Graham threw in an extra bulb of garlic as they are trying to get rid of the last few remaining Spring planting bulbs.

We bought some special vegetable growing compost and on Sunday afternoon we planted 4 Bulgarian Carrot Chilli seeds, 4 Cayenne Yellow Chillis seeds, 3 Carnival Mix Sweet Pepper seeds, 3 Golden Cherry Tomato seeds, 2 Big Boy Tomato seeds, 2 Shirley Tomato seeds and 2 Gardener's Delight Tomato seeds. They are all in the front bedroom and hopefully within the next week or so we should see little plants starting ! Henry has been to check the progress at least 4 times already !

In the morning we had popped to the allotment to pick up the seeds we needed for the afternoon and I also planted the Yellow Moon shallots I had bought a couple of weeks ago (in the same bed as all the onions and garlic), as there was an empty row where we had removed the pak choi a few weeks ago.

Weekend of 20/21st February - more snow !

I went down when the allotment shop opened this morning to buy Les his potatoes and get his membership, and also to buy my Maincrop (10 Sante, and 10 Cara). We had Cara potatoes last year and they were lovely, but we haven't tried Sante before so that'll be nice. Donna, Mark, Izzy & Olivia came over for the weekend and so we popped down to show them the allotment first thing in the afternoon before going down for an afternoon of fun at Blue Bear's playbarn !

We woke up this morning to about 3 or 4 inches of snow ! I thought we'd seen the last of it for this year ! At least it is melting so fingers crossed that was the last lot - I'm getting impatient now and want to start doing things down at the allotment !

Sunday 14th February 2010

Henry and I went down to the allotment this afternoon, it was overcast and a bit rainy but we managed to do some tidying up. Henry found a very useful old paintbrush in the tip which he used to clean the outside of the greenhouse with the help of his metal bucket from Great Grandpa's. Then we both planted all of Great Nana's bulbs around the edge of the rhubarb patch, raspberry patch and in the rough ground at the edge of our plot. When they all flower it'll be lovely to think of Nana :-)

Mark (next door plot) or his grandad Carmine have obviously been building something in place of the chicken run that was previously there - quite a high wooden fence now, very professional looking - unfortunately they weren't there so we still have to guess what they are up to ! We are both secretly hoping for more chickens though !

We dug over a couple of the beds and removed some weeds, and then we put the remaining compost we had in the shed, and the worm wee that Erica gave us into the soil in the greenhouse and dug it over and watered it in.

We dropped off the borlotti beans in the shed and stored them with the other seeds we have.

Saturday 13th February 2009

Henry and I popped to the allotment shop when it opened this morning to buy some Borlotti beans - we bought 12 for 10p !!!! Amazing value - if we like them and they do well, we'll buy even more next year. This year we are splitting our beans (half Climbing French, and half Borlotti :-))

6/7 February 2010

Well, the allotment shop opened this weekend and I bought our first and second early potatoes (7 Foremost, 7 Lady Balfour) then for joining the allotment association as a member we receieved some Amorosa potatoes as well. We also bought some Yellow Moon shallots to put in next weekend. We were going to buy some borlotti beans as we fancy trying them this year but they didn't have any (but then later in the morning Andrea rang and told us she had found some loose and would save them for next weekend so I must remember to pick them up on Saturday !

On Sunday Henry and I popped down to the allotment in the afternoon and were pleased to find that the garlic had all started to come through, and the rhubarb too. I did some pruning (gooseberries, redcurrant bush and the raspberries as well). We dug over the greenhouse and got the inside ready for when the weather gets a touch warmer and we can start the tomatoes and chillies off :-)

Sunday 27th September 2009

Yesterday I bought some garlic and onion sets from the allotment shop. I bought 1 blub of Solent Wight garlic (£1.60), 1 bulb of Picardy garlic (£1.60) and 1 bulb of Elephant Garlic (70p), and also 150g of Radar overwintering onions (90p), so today we put in 4 rows of onions, 2 rows of Solent Wight and 2 rows of Picardy garlic. We sowed the Elephant garlic in the corner of the onion bed next to the row of Pak Choi.

Daddy tried to get some scaffolding poles into the ground for the raspberries for support but the ground was too hard, so he will try again with Uncle Nige next weekend when I am on my Pamper day at Aries. They are hoping to make a compost heap as well for us next weekend :-)

Daddy & Henry dug all the remaining potatoes out of the potato bed and yesterday we removed all the cauliflowers as they had started to bolt. We had cauliflower bhaji last night, spicy cauliflower soup today, and still have plenty over.

We also removed the runner beans today as the only beans left on had gone too big and stringy. Some of the garlic bulbs that were left over went into Henry's plot as well.

End of August 2009

Well, the weather hasn't been great in the last couple of weeks. We were pleased to find the tomatoes are now ripening but disappointed that the ones Uncle Carl brought back from Italy have no taste really so we have used them to make tomato soup this weekend. The crystal lemon cucumber plant has been in overdrive and we have lots of cucumbers which we have been handing round to people !!!

Henry and I planted a row of Pak Choi outside where the Corona Del Oro yellow beans were and also a tray in the greenhouse. We planted a couple of trays of lettuce as well but as of now it appears the slugs have found them as nothing is through !!! May try that again this week. The melons seem to be doing well, and we have alot of chillies turning red so that's good, as we seem to be inundated with purple chillies !

We picked a few carrots (Resistafly) and half of these were OK, which is good, but there were not many of them and Henry had them for his tea ! We tried to see if a corn on the cob was ready as the tassles had turned brown but it wasn't ready for eating yet - the corns were still white.

We are hoping the allotment shop is open this weekend as looking at the diary from last year - it was about now we bought the garlic, over-wintering onions and so we want to buy those and would like to try some over-wintering Spring Onions this year too. Looking forward to finding out what they have for sale !

Monday 17th August 2009

Henry and I popped down to water the greenhouse and noticed that some of the other golden cherry tomatoes are ripening so thats good. Everything else looked good.

Sunday 16th August 2009

We all went down to the allotment for the morning to continue tidying up. I removed some more of the branches and blight stricken tomatoes from the greenhouse. I also made little nets to hold the melons up as they are getting heavier day by day ! We have noticed that the cucumber plant in the greenhouse has now started to produce cucumbers - maybe it's because I cut off the ends of the flowering branches and it is concentrating it's efforts into producing fruit now rather than growing ! Hopefully that is the case. The chillies are still growing - there are still flowers on the plant for heavens sake !!!! None of the ones on the plants are red at the moment but we have hundreds that are purple (which is the colour just before they turn red).

In the bad winds the previous day the Corona Del Oro beans had been blown over and uprooted so we had to harvest all of the beans on the plants and get rid of them. We already have some so we gave some to Tina and some to Mum & Dad. We pulled up all but one of the courgette plants as they have gone past making courgettes now - think they put all their energy into making those marrow like ones !!!

Then we generally tidyed up, weeded and put down more bark chipping to make the pathways better. The guy next door chatted to Dave & Henry and said he has Jerusalem Artichokes growing (which we thought were sunflowers) and he will save some for us for next year ! Looking forward to trying those.

We then harvested all the beetroot and I pickled them in the afternoon (Mrs. Beetons Pickled Beetroot No. 2).

Tuesday 11th August 2009

Popped down before my Body Vive class tonight to water the greenhouse. I noticed one of the tomatoes was starting to turn red but another 2 on another plant looked like they might have been infected with blight so I removed them. Fingers crossed the others turn red soon !

Sunday 9th August 2009

Our first visit to the allotment for 3 weeks having been to France. We had a lovely holiday and the allotment was now like a jungle !! We did alot of clearing up, weeding, watering and also some major tying back, and pruning in the greenhouse - we couldn't go in, as the tomato plants had grown so much !! None of the tomatoes are red though - whcih was what I was hoping for, but that is because they have been concentrating on growing rather than producing ripe fruit ! Now they are tied back and trimmed hopefully we will get some red ones ! Still no cucumbers on the greenhouse plant, but we do have some melons on the melon plant so thats good.

Outside, there were about 10 courgettes which were actually now marrow sized, 4 that were a normal size. We harvested some yellow french beans, all of the remaining peas, pulled up the old broad bean plants, and a lettuce.

Beginning of July 2009

This weekend just gone we harvested the radar onions, and the some of the remaining garlic (there is still some in Henry's bed and with the other onions). We have put them all in the garage to dry out, the shallots and the garlic we brought home last week are drying out really well.

We noticed there are tiny little tomatoes appearing on some of the plants, and courgettes are very abundant all of a sudden ! The melon is now flowering as well, so we are waiting for fruit on that and the cucumbers.

Today we planted a new row of Hurst Greenshaft peas where the broad beans used to be, and also noticed one of the squash plants had come through, all 3 of the pumpkins are through and seem to be doing well. We removed the spinach as it has grown too tall and leggy, and did some weeding and watering.

Tuesday 30th June 2009

Nanna & Grandad set off for France today. We can't believe we'll be joining them in a little over 3 weeks :-)

Henry and I popped down to the allotment after school to give the greenhouse a good water, and we noticed there are yellow flowers on the cucumbers in there, we gave everything a good feed as well as a water and tied up the melons a bit more, they have really taken off !

Then we pulled up all the remaining shallots as we thought we would have to get rid of them all because of the white rot, but I would say about 65% of them were ok and not affected, so we were really pleased. We separated them out and left them to dry in the garage at home for a couple of weeks.

End of June 2009

We have all been down to the allotment fairly regularly as the weather has been a lot better recently, its been warm and also given us lots of rain which the plants seem to love ! Everything has gone crazy. All of the courgette plants now have flowers on and we harvested the first two baby courgettes yesterday. We took down all the Aquadulce Claudia broad bean plants and this revealed a few Rooster potatoes near the surface so we harvested them too ! We then planted pumpkin (Spellbound) and Squash (Little Dumpling) in part of that space as the original sowings in used compost didn't come through. Must make a mental note not to reuse compost !

We have been collecting raspberries (from Dad's canes from Lauriston) for a while now and this weekend we collected all of Henry's redcurrants and made a rhubarb (Uncle Carl's), redcurrant and raspberry crumble which was very nice indeed !

The greenhouse is looking marvellous, all the tomatoes (apart from the Big Boy Beefsteak, as we had to regrow them a bit later), are on their 2nd truss of flowers and are needing tying to the canes regularly, the melons have taken off and are being tied to canes as well, and the 2 crystal lemon cucumber plants have flowers buds on them as of yesterday. The chillies are everywhere, and are still growing, I must feed the chillies, pepper plant (still small), and the tomatoes later today as it will be a week since they have been fed.

So all in all, everything is going well. The only upset I had was that the shallots seemed to be needing to be harvested so I pulled up 2 clumps yesterday only to find that they have white rot - what a disappointment. So they have had to go in the bin, I'll try and harvest the rest today and see how they are. Apparently you can't grow onions/shallots/leeks/garlic in the same spot for 8 years !!! Fingers crossed not all of them are affected.

Tuesday 16th June 2009

Mummy & Henry went down after school today and gave the greenhouse a good water. We picked a lettuce and also some spinach which Mummy used with the broad beans to make a broad bean, pea and spinach soup ! We tied the tomatoes to each cane and also the melon plants which seem to have grown alot over the past few days !

Sunday 14th June 2009

Uncle Carl came round this afternoon and brought Henry some runner bean plants for his patch which we put in. Then Uncle Carl taught Mummy how to pinch out the extra bits on the tomato plants to get them to grow upwards rather than like a bush. The first set of flowers are on nearly all of the plants now - just waiting to open !!!

Henry's patch which at the moment has a couple of sunflowers, some Cos & Lollo Rossa lettuce, parsnips, garlic and radish. And the other photo shows the 'Legumes' bed with broad beans, peas, Cos lettuce and climbing french beans. The Italian man in the next plot gave Henry the Cos lettuce :-)

More photos - early June 2009

The chillies at the front of the greenhouse with the Tom Thumb lettuce in front of that and the other corner of the greenhouse with the 2 melon plants and Lollo Rossa lettuce in front of them.

Photos - early June 2009

The back of the greenhouse showing the different tomatoes, Lollo Rossa lettuce, 2 seed trays with cauliflower and beetroot in, the pepper plant and the 2 cucumber plants

Early June 2009

Everything is coming on really well in the greenhouse, and we have started harvesting the broad beans, which taste so lovely. The trays we sowed the other week of cauliflower, beetroot, squash and pumpkin are all growing now so that is nice to see. Henry's redcurrants are definitely turning red now so he is very excited about that !

The pigeons have attacked our cabbage and broccoli but hopefully they will come good anyway, and the apples are growing nicely which Henry was also very excited about !

Daddy's Birthday Weekend !

We have had another lot of lovely weather and we have spent quite bit of time down at the allotment, working around Daddy's birthday, BBQ's, Grandad & Nanna visiting, splashing in the paddling pool and generally having fun in the garden at home.

We have put a net around the redcurrant bush as the redcurrants are just starting to turn pink, so we want to keep the birds away ! The early potatoes are just starting to form flowers which is nice to see. Daddy & Henry did a huge pile of weeding and general tidying of the plot, and Mummy sowed some more seeds :

1 tray of Clapton F1 Cauliflower
1 tray of Kestrel F1 Beetroot
2 Pumpkin plants (Spellbound) - for Henry's Halloween Pumpkin !
2 Squash plants (Sweet Dumpling).

After sowing all that we did a massive water of everything as everything looked in desperate need ! Then we put some slug pellets down to try and stop the slugs ans snails munching on our veg !

Bank Holiday weekend - 23-25th May 2009

Well, for once we had lovely weather this Bank Holiday weekend. On Friday mummy was able to sort the greenhouse out and has planted all the tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucumbers and lettuce in the greenhouse. She also harvested the leeks (made a lovely leek & potato soup) and a few radish.

Then today (Monday) Henry and I went down and did alot of weeding, planted the sweetcorn where the leeks used to be. We added some more peas in their rows as only a few of them have come through - pesky mice !!!

Tuesday 19th May 2009 - And still it rains !

The weather doesn't look to be improving at all, but Henry and I popped down after school today to water in the greenhouse as Mummy is on a course for the next 2 days and not going to get a chance to water anything - not that anything outside needs watering I might add !

We planted 4 tomato plants in the greenhouse from the trays, 4 Lollo Rossa lettuce in front of them, and we planted 10 climbing French bean plants outside where we had put the cane structure ready for them.

On the way home we noticed the leeks are looking like they have a flower developing so we'll have to gather the leek harvest this weekend and make a leek & potato soup. We bumped into Dave as well on the way back to the car and he had a look at Henry's radish and said it was fantastic - there are quite a few ready for picking - about the size of a 10p !

Sunday 17th May - Rain, Rain & More Rain !

We took advantage of the short break in the rain today and went down for about an hour after lunch. Mummy weeded 2/3 of the bed at the back next to the rhubarb and planted out 12 broccoli plants which had been growing nicely in the greenhouse in one of Great Nanna's seed trays. She also transplanted 3 more Lollo Rossa lettuce outside into Henry's plot to replace the small ones which have obviously been munched away by greedy slugs & snails !

Daddy weeded inbetween the shed and greenhouse and behind the greenhouse and then put black matting down and covered it with bark chippings so it's looking really good and neat now.
Henry helped out doing a little bit of everything :-) I think sometime soon it will be time to plant the other things which are still in trays in the greenhouse - I'm looking forward to having more plants actually in the ground in the greenhouse rather than in seed trays !

Monday 11th May 2009

Went down after school for a quick water of the greenhouse and we also decided it was time to plant the courgettes into their new home outside ! We put one in Henry's patch, 2 at the end of the 'Roots' bed and one at the end of the potato bed too.

Sunday 10th May 2009

Henry and I popped down after lunch today before Kane's birthday party. We put up the support ready for the climbing French beans, and we also put up a circular support in Henry's patch as he wants some too ! We watered everything in the greenhouse, transplanted some Lollo Rossa lettuce to Henry's patch from the greenhouse and also transplanted some Tom Thumb lettuce out of their tray into the greenhouse in front of the chilli plants.

Saturday 9th May 2009

We all went down to the allotment first thing this morning to water the greenhouse and spray the broad beans as they have the start of black fly on them. It was a successful visit and Daddy was please to see the purple and yellow chillies growing !

The courgette plants are not too far of needing to be planted out I think - they are giant !!! The peppers have come through now as well, so we are doing well !

Thursday 7th May 2009

Henry and I popped down after school today just to do a quick water of the greenhouse before Henry had his second swimming lesson at Waterworld. We were so excited to discover the chillies have started to grow now - I don't know why, seeing as they have done nothing for quite a while, but it is nice and satisfying to see now !

Friday 1st May 2009

I went down this afternoon, whilst avoiding the showers, just to water the plants in the greenhouse. Everything looked fine and was coming on nicely in there. Still no chillies on the plants despite the flowers so will have to read up about pollination for them.

I also planted 4 Brussels Sprout plants in the bed with the Spring cabbage in at the moment at the front of the allotment. Then I dug up one Spring cabbage plant to have with our tea tonight !

A view of the whole plot - 24th April 2009

Even more photos !

The raspberry bed and the flowering Aquadulce Claudia broad beans that over-wintered, with 2 rows of Rooster potatoes that were sprouting in the kitchen cupboard !!

More photos

The pots of herbs are coming through - especially the rocket. The second photo shows the peas and broad beans coming through and the chicken wire protecting the second sowing of peas fro birds !

Blossom on the apple trees !

More photos of Seed Trays !

A few photos !

Here are some photos of the chilli plants looking nice and healthy in the greenhouse, and the seed trays of Great Nanna's containing the some of the tomatoes :-)

Monday 20th April 2009

Henry and I popped down to water things in the greenhouse after I picked him up from Grandma's.

To our excitment we noticed the Tom Thumb lettuce had started to come through, and also the broccoli, in the greenhouse. Outside, more peas and broad beans were poking through the surface, and the pots of dill and parsley seem to have some small green bits poking out too !

Sunday 19th April 2009

We all went down early to the allotment this morning. Daddy & Henry got rid of alot of the big weeds behind the greenhouse and next to the chickens. Mummy planted the following in the greenhouse:

1 tray of Crystal Lemon Cucumber
2 trays of Climbing French Bean - Corono D'Oro
1 tray of Sweetcorn

We gave everything a good water in the greenhouse and shut it up.
Then Mummy planted a row of Carrots (Autumn King 2) and another row of Sutton Broad Bean and a row of Kelvedon Wonder peas. Daddy made a clever bird protector from Grandad's chicken wire he gave us last year to put over the peas. The broad beans and peas that Mummy sowed a couple of weeks ago have just started to come through.

Tuesday 14th April 2009

Henry and I visited this afternoon and sowed a lot more in the greenhouse in Great Nanna's old seed trays. We sowed:

1 tray of Lollo Rossa lettuce
1 tray of Tom Thumb lettuce
1 tray of Summer Cabbage - Greyhound
1 tray of Broccoli - Autumn Calabrese
1 tray of Courgette - Zucchini Genovese (Uncle Carl brought them back from Italy last year).

We noticed the early potatoes (Accent & Anya) had started peeking through the surface, and the rocket had started to grow in the terracotta pot.

We sowed a row of Beetroot - Kestrel in the 'Roots' bed and then gave everything a good water, and came home.

Bank Holiday Monday

Uncle Carl & Auntie Julie popped down to see the allotment today and to bring Henry his Easter present and egg ! Uncle Carl bought us two gooseberry plants which we have put in near the rhubarb, where the Blueberry used to be. He thinks one of them is a red gooseberry, so we are hoping it is !

Then Nanna & Grandad came round after having a stall at the Car Boot Sale in Chirk. They did quite well and managed to get rid of a lot of stuff they had accumulated ! They wanted to pop and see the allotment and so we went down to see it, and Mummy gave them a leek, and on the way out Graham called us over and gave them a cabbage from his greenhouse. Nanna & Grandad rang last night and said they were the nicest tasting leek and cabbage they had had in months ! I must remember to tell Graham next time we see him !

Saturday 11th April 2009

Henry and I went down to sow the things in the greenhouse. We used Great Nanna's seed trays and now have:

a tray of Italian Pomodoro tomatoes (Uncle Carl brought these back from Italy last year for us)
a tray of Golden Cherry tomatoes
a tray of Big Boy Beefsteak tomatoes
a tray of Shirley tomatoes
a tray of Gardener's Delight tomatoes
a tray of Mixed Peppers - Carnival
a tray of Cyrano Melons

We gave everything a good water, earthed up the Rooster potatoes next to the broad beans and then went home. So I wonder how long it will take to see the first seedling :-)

Good Friday morning !

We all went down to the allotment this morning with Uncle Nige. Daddy & Uncle Nige put the new pieces of glass in, and replaced the glass panel that had cracked.

Mummy & Henry put the remaining maincrop potatoes in (Cara & Desiree), and then we planted the chilli plants we had grown at home in the greenhouse. We gave everything a good water and then came home to get ready to go to Nanna & Grandads for a meal and to stay overnight.

Henry helping with sorting the rocks and the rubbish found under the greenhouse

Sunday 5th April 2009

We all went to the allotment this morning as the weather was so nice ! Daddy was digging out the greenhouse soil and removing whatever he came across, and Henry was helping. Mummy potted up some Coriander Confetti, Rocket, Dill and French Parsley in some of Great Nana's old terracotta pots. Then Henry and I sowed a row of Carrots (Resistafly) next to the parsnips in the 'Roots' bed and also next to the radish in Henry's bed.

Then Daddy came across something really big buried in the greenhouse and so we went to pick up Uncle Nige to help us move it. Eventually they managed to get it out, a massive concrete post with rebar, and also a big iron pole !!! Phew ! Then we dug it over and put some fertiliser in there, put the concrete slabs in the middle for a footpath and it was done apart from the new glass which should be in before the weekend.

Then we watered everything and came home.

Saturday 4th April 2009 - The greenhouse gets its glass !

We picked Uncle Nige up at just gone 9 this morning and then all went down to put the glass in the greenhouse. Everything went really well, and about 10:00 Henry and I went down to the allotment shop to see what we could buy ! We chatted to Graham and Andrea and ended up with a bag of red onions to plant. Graham said the ones we over-wintered would be ready to come out the ground in June and these would then take over and be ready in September time. It cost 50p and we had 74 !!!! So we put them in the rest of the space in the bed where the leeks and radar onions are already in.

Then Uncle Nige and Henry and I went to Boyles in Pandy to get the two new glass panes, however we found they were shut on Saturday - how silly ! So we'll have to get those in the week.

But apart from those 2 glass panes the greenhouse is now finished :-)

Friday 3rd April 2009

Henry and I went down to the allotment for a while this afternoon as Henry has now finished school for the Easter holidays ! We planted the 5 free Yukon Gold potatoes we got given for being members of the allotment shop, and we did some clearing and weeding.

We 'think' the lollo rossa lettuce are slowly coming through, but they are just too small to be able to tell yet ! Fingers crossed.

Tuesday 31st March 2009

I popped down after work today and managed to post a row of peas (Hurst Greenshaft), a double row of broad beans (Sutton Dwarf), and a row of mixed salad leaves at the end of the potato bed as they should mature way before the potatoes crowd them - hopefully !

Henry's radish have come through a little more and the greenhouse looks right at home at the bottom of the plot :-)

View of the allotment with greenhouse frame in place

Sunday 29th March - the greenhouse arrives !

We all met Nanna & Grandad down at Great Grandpa's at 9:30am and Daddy & Grandad got straight to work dismantling it. Nanna was doing some more cleaning of the house and I was chatting to her ! And Henry was doing a little bit of everything - mostly showing off his new lunchbag with cars on !!

At about 11am Henry, Nanna and I went to visit Great Grandpa in his new home, Newton Hall. He seemed very happy and his room was lovely. He was very pleased the greenhouse was coming down well, he was worried it may fall apart I think. We had a chat and Great Grandpa had a Whiskey and then we went back to see how Grandad and Daddy were getting on. We found they had almost finished taking down the frame.

After they had taken down all of the frame we stopped for a picnic - Henry's highlight of the day ! We all had some sandwiches and a drink and then Grandad, Daddy and Mummy loaded up the trailer whilst Henry and Nanna picked some daffodil's to put in a vase at home. Nanna picked a special bunch for Henry and this had some blue flowers in called 'Forget-Nots (!)' so Henry wouldn't forget Nanna - he now has these in a vase in his bedroom !

Once we had packed everything we set off for the allotment. Despite looking like a mish-mash of metal, Grandad and Daddy appeared to know what they were doing and the greenhouse frame went up relatively easily. As time was plodding on we decided to leave putting the glass in until the weekend when Uncle Nige can help us too (and we needed to buy 2 new pieces of glass for the door as they broke on the journey across).

Saturday 28th March 2009

We all went down this afternoon to prepare the bottom of the allotment for the arrival of Great Grandpa's greenhouse tomorrow. We are meeting Nana & Grandad at Great Grandpa's and 9:30 tomorrow and then dismantling the greenhouse, transporting it to the allotment, and putting it back up (hopefully !!!).

We measure out the area (6ft x 8ft) and then flattened it off and edged it with bricks, making sure it was all level as well. Henry supervised whilst he was eating sweeties !

All the trees and bushes are looking healthy apart from the blueberry which we thought was possibly dead last time we were down ! We've left it in for now just in case though, if not we'll buy a new one in a couple of weeks time. We had to move the Bramley Seedling apple tree a bit because of where the new greenhouse is going, but that is all fine now in its new place. We also put in some rhubarb from Grandpa's garden which Uncle Nige got for us.

Henry's radish are coming through, as are the potatoes we planted a few weeks ago (the ones which had sprouted in the cupboard at home) - I think they were Rooster potatoes. No sign of the lettuce, spinach or parsnips yet, although I think Dad told me parsnips had a long germination period, so we'll wait and see.

The raspberry canes that came from Lauriston are doing really well (full of leaves), the others are not doing anything just yet. The cherry tree has lots of leaves coming, as does the 2 apple trees.

Early potatoes are in - hooray !

I ran down in my lunchbreak today to plant the early potatoes. So we now have a row of Accent potatoes and a row of Anya potatoes. Everything else seemed to be doing well, nothing appearing yet from the new seeds we sowed but patience is a virtue !!!

Just need to pop down sometime, maybe tomorrow and sow a row of peas and broad beans.

Monday 16th March 2009

After school today Henry and I sowed a tray of Musselburgh leeks and a tray of Bedford Fillbasket brussels sprouts. Gave tem a good water and put them in a sunny position in the garden :-)

Sunday 15th March 2009 - The Sowing Begins !!!

We all went down after lunch today as the weather was so lovely. Daddy dug out the remaining bed up near the raspberries and apple trees so that is now ready for planting the broad bean (Sutton Dwarf), and the early pea (Hurst Greenshaft) which we are hoping to do in the next week.

Henry & Mummy planted a row of Lollo Rossa lettuce, Countess F1 parsnip and the free trial radish we got from Marshalls seeds (Radish MSC 7695 - Yellow Radish) in Henry's bed. Then in this years 'Roots' bed we planted one row of Countess F1 parsnip, and in the end of the bed with the red onions and shallots in we planted one row of Tirza F1 spinach.

All of the fruit trees are starting to bud and produce leaves which is lovely to see. And the blueberry might look slightly more lively than last time we were there ! Fingers crossed. There are 8 spring cabbage and they are starting to get a bit fuller now as the weather improves a bit.

Henry and I are hoping to go down sometime after school this week to plant the early potatoes (Accent & Anya), one row of Hurst Greenshaft peas and one row of Sutton broad beans.

1st March 2009 - St Davids Day & March is here !!!

We went down to the allotment after lunch for a short while today. We transferred the 3 raspberry canes that were in the back garden down to the allotment and also the thornless blackberry bush that we had.

Having done a little tidying, weeding and put the plants in their new home we picked a leek to pull up for Henry's tea and then came home.

Monday 23rd February 2009 - Free Seeds

Today the free seeds came in the post which I'm chuffed about - it seems ages ago we sent off for them from the Daily Telegraph voucher Dave's Dad gave us. We got 10 different packets (Autumn King Carrot, Bedford Brussels Sprout, Moneymaker Tomato, Salad Bowl Lettuce, Detroit 2 Crimson Globe Beetroot, Greyhound Cabbage, Bouquet Dill - Herb, Coriander Confetti - Herb, Rocket - Herb, French (plain-leaved) Parsley - Herb).

Looking forward to March now and I can start sowing things and watching things slowly growing again !

Spring is definitely coming - Sunday 22nd February 2009

Well, the weather was lovely again today so Daddy, Mummy & Henry all went for a work-out at the allotment ! First of all we dug over and weeded one of the new beds near the shed, and then Daddy dug over and weeded the smaller bed next to it ready for the rhubarb (which we must remember to ask Uncle Nige to dig out of his garden !).

Next Mummy & Henry planted some potatoes that Mummy found all sprouting nicely in the kitchen cupboard yesterday ! We think they were Desiree, and they may not survive being planted now but otherwise they would have just gone in the bin so we will wait and see ! We have put them in next to the broad beans.

Then we dug over and weeded Henry's patch and checked the 9 garlic plants Henry has in his patch were doing well. Then we dug over and weeded the final bed at the front of the allotment, so that is now clear apart from a few spring cabbage plants.

Henry and Mummy checked all the fruit trees and bushes and they all have little buds coming - the apples seem to have more than the plum or cherry tree - maybe they come a bit earlier - will wait and see. The gooseberry bush is showing signs of life too. The only things not showing anything at the moment are the raspberrys and the blueberry bush.

The front of the plot looking a little tidier !

Henry digging the potato bed over - 15th February

Henry did enjoy trying to do the digging but he wanted to use Mummy & Daddy's fork, not his own one which is sized especially for him - hence it was a slow process !!

Sunday 15th February 2009

Well, it felt like the start of Spring this morning. The weather was alot milder and there was 'almost' sunshine !!! Henry and I decided to go down to the allotment this morning to give it a good sorting out in readiness for the Spring planting to begin.

We arrived about 10am and were the only ones there at that point, but during the morning we saw quite few people arrive (Graham came, Maxie the dog and his Daddy, Mark the chicken man, and the tall Royal Mail man who gave us the leeks last year). It was nice to see it getting busier again, its been so quite recently.

Everything was looking well, all the trees and bushes had little buds starting so that was nice to see. The first thing we did was to dig over the new large bed ready for the early potatoes in a few weeks time. Apart from a couple of bricks and a bit of metal wire, this wasn't too bad. And Henry helped !!!

The next photo is looking at the broad beans (which are not doing as badly as I thought after the snow, they seem to have picked up a bit), and you can just see the new fruit trees as well in the background. Unfortunately the photo also illustrates all the work we still have to do digging out the back end next to the shed and getting ready for the greenhouse.

Sunday 8th February 2009

We all went down early this morning, the snow was still on the ground and it was freezing but under the snow the ground was soft enough to be able to plant the 3 fruit trees (Bramley Seedling apple, Dual apple (Sunset & Golden Delicious) & the dual plum (Marjorie's Seedling & Cambridge Gage). We had a brief look at the other things but couldn't see alot of them for the snow. The broad beans are not looking too good, but we'll see what happens when Spring come properly and the weather gets warmer ! Fingers crossed it won't be too long !!!

Saturday 7th February 2009 - The Allotment Shop is open !!!

Hooray ! The allotment shop is now open once again for the season. I went down fairly early to get my potatoes and seeds - very pleased with my purchases. I bought 7 Accent potatoes (1st early), 7 Anya potatoes (2nd early), 10 Cara potatoes & 10 Desiree potatoes (both maincrop). I also got 5 free Yukon Gold potatoes (these are early potatoes too) which came with the membership.

Membership has gone up to £3 for the year but the savings on the potatoes and seeds must easily pay for that. Graham has set up a website as well for the allotment so I'm looking forward to looking at that later on tonight. I also bought Broad bean - Sutton Dwarf, Climbing French Bean - Corona D'Oro, Cucumber - Crystal Lemon, Sweetcorn - Early Sweet, Squash - Sweet Dumpling, Cauliflower - Clapton, Pea - Hurst Greenshaft, Leek - Mussleburgh, Lettuce - Tom Thumb & Parsnip - Countess. The whole lot including membership cost about £17.50 !!

Sunday 18th January 2009

Well, we are trying to get together a list of which seeds we want to buy, which we already have, where we need to buy them from (Allotment shop, or seed catalogue !). Nearly sorted now as Dave's dad managed to get 10 free seeds packs from The Daily Telegraph for £1.99, so we have sent off for those, there were 3 herb packets in there which will be nice.

Henry and I walked down to the allotment this afternoon, the weather was quite nice, a little cold, but sunny. It was really muddy down there but things were not looking too bad. The Broad beans had been buffeted about by the wind and some of them don't look too good, but we will see. We put some more string around them to hold them up a bit, to stop them being damaged by the wind.

We dug over about 1/5 of the bed so its ready for the early potatoes in a few weeks time, and we picked some purple sprouting broccoli, 2 leeks and the last cabbage.

The garlic and onions have come on in the last couple of weeks and hooray - the shallots have started poking through the soil - I thought they were a dud batch !!!

The bare little Stella Cherry Tree

This poor little tree will hopefully be full of life and cherries by later this Summer - fingers crossed !

Photos of the allotment on 30th December 2008 - Very cold !!!

30th December 2008

Henry and I walked down to the allotment today to burn off a little of that Christmas excess !!!! (certainly on my part, not necessarily on his !). It was a long walk and he needed refreshments when we arrived (see photo of him in the shed !) We then spent the time we had down there doing a little bit of digging, checking how things were going in general. We removed some of the celeriac as we dug a couple up and there was no real big root at all, so we threw them away. We picked a leek, some purple sprouting broccoli, and a small cabbage for Henry's tea, and then we came home.

Wednesday 10th December 2008

Henry and I went down after school today to see what was happening as we hadn't been down for what felt like ages. The whole place was deserted, but then not much is growing at this time of year ! No new weeds had grown which is always good, and after checking the cherry tree, broad beans and the raspberrys, we did a bit of tidying up. Some of the lettuce's had gone a bit mushy and so we removed those ones, we also pulled up all the broccoli plants, apart from the purple sprouting which still seems to be going strong. We also pulled up one cabbage to take home for tea. Everything else still looks ok, apart from the Winter spinach which doesn't seem to have done very much at all - maybe it went in too late ?

Sunday 16th November 2008

The weather was quite nice this afternoon so after a trip to the zoo and a lovely lunch we went down to the allotment to see what had been happening.

We planted the cherry tree (eating cherry - Stella) between the large potato bed and the broad beans (which are doing really well). Then we dug over the raspberry patch and planted 6 raspberry canes. I took the camera down to take photos but completely forgot so will try and pop down after picking Henry up from school this week to take some photos. Then Henry gave them a really good water in.

We pulled up the beetroot, and decided that they had been put in too late really, there were only 4 worth saving !! The shallots still haven't come through but the garlic and onions are doing well. Picked loads more brocolli and had it for tea :-)

Sunday 26th October 2008

Henry and I popped down before lunch today to see how things were getting on. We picked a lot of broccoli, some radish, a little Gem lettuce and also disposed of the Butternut Squash plants. The squashes on there were not getting any bigger and some had started to rot. The leaves on the plants had started to die back as well.

We noticed the garlic had started to come through alot more but still no movement with the shallots yet. The slugs had been chomping on the Spring Cabbage but they still look OK. We also pulled up a tiny weeny cauliflower (about 4cm in diameter !!!).

The broad beans are still doing well and also we noticed the gooseberry bush we put at the front had the startings of a little leaf !

Saturday 18th October 2008

This afternoon we all went down to the allotment as the weather was really nice. We used the remaining decking boards to put an edge around the bed where the raspberries will be going later on this year (it is about 11 feet long by 2 feet wide, allowing for 1.5 feet between each raspberry plant then we would fit about 7 plants down that line). Now we just need to decide whether to buy a pack of 10, or whether to use the 4 that Grandad gave us from his old garden, and then try and get 3 more ? Will make that decision later !!!

Then we planted a blueberry bush down by the shed next to the bed that will have the rhubarb in, and we also planted a gooseberry bush at the front in the middle of the bare patch where the shed used to be.

We picked alot of broccoli, some radish and also some Swiss Chard. I also took the largest celeriac out as it seemed to be huge, although it wasn't big enough to do anything with, so it went on the compost heap, I think maybe they need longer (November/December).

In the morning I popped to the allotment shop to buy a couple of garlic bulbs for Les in work and Monty gave me some bonemeal to go in the ground for the blueberry plant.

Video of the whole plot - Thursday 16th October 2008

Plot 122 (our new plot), and both plots (121 & 122)

Photo's of the young Spinach & Red Onions

Thursday 16th October 2008

I popped down to the allotment today to have a quick look how things were getting on. It was nice to see the broad beans we put in looking very healthy (left), and everything else coming on quite well. The butternut squash plant looks like it is on it's last legs because of the cold I think, but there are still squash's on the plant (albeit small ones !) so we'll leave it there for the moment.

I took some photos of the allotment and also a small video which I'll try and upload.

Monday 13th October 2008

After picking Henry up from school we both went over to visit Great Grandpa. It was nice to see him and he has also said we can have the greenhouse from the garden to put in the allotment. I can't wait to look up what I can grow in there now !!!

So, when mum & dad get back from France we'll have to arrange a convienient time to take it down and get it to the allotment in dad's trailer.

Sunday 12th October 2008

The weather was lovely today - it could have been Summer ! We went down this afternoon and planted all the broad bean plants (Aquadulce Claudia) we had sown at home in the big square bed on the new plot. We have 3 double rows with 11 plants in each row (66 plants !), and the whole lot cost us 70p !!! So fingers crossed they will do OK over winter.

Henry was very busy watering the garlic, onions and the spring cabbage, while Dave & I rigged up a cane/twine structure round the broad bean plants to try and prevent them being buffeted by the wind. Then Henry gave them a good water too.

Saturday 11th October 2008

We all went down to the allotment this afternoon, after looking at the weather on the television and being told by the weatherman it was going to stay dry ! The weather man had not given much thought to the weather in Wrexham and while we were there we had drizzle from the moment we got out of the car. It wasn't too bad though and we managed to do some really good work.

First we built the last bed and a small bed for rhubarb attached to an existing one, then we used the black weed matting to cover alot of the new paths in the new plot and then barrowed loads of bark chippings to cover them. We left an area free for the raspberries to go in, and covered the rest of it, apart from the very bottom where we are putting apple trees and hopefully a greenhouse eventually.

After doing all of this the rain finally decided to set in and we decided to go home and have a shower to get warm and clean again !

Sunday 5th October 2008 - The new plot and the chickens

There are three photos I took yesterday afternoon, one looking down to the area of our new plot (where you can see the pesky weeds covering it again, but you can also see the new beds taking shape), the second looking at our bed with the Radar onions, Little Gem lettuce, garlic, leeks, carrots, radish & Swiss Chard in, and also a couple of the chickens from the plot next to ours :-)

Sunday 5th October 2008

Henry and I went down this afternoon after Sunday lunch to tidy up things really, as the weather has been so awful lately we haven't had a chance before now. Unfortunately the weeds have grown back where we had cleared them all on the new plot - BUT there are mostly surface weeds and also where the paths are going and we're covering this with the weed control fabric and then bark chippings eventually so that's OK.

So first we removed the courgette plant which has served us well, but has finally come to the end of it's life really ! It must've produced in excess of 50 courgettes so it was well worth the money ! Then we dug over the are where it had come from and removed the carrots and weeds that were growing underneath (Carrots all had carrot fly, and were really small, but that wasn't surprising considering they were underneath the huge courgette plant !). Then we planted two rows of Spring Cabbage plants and covered the area with netting. We also removed the cramped beetroot plants and spread them out into 3 rows to give them a chance at growing.

Then we removed all of Henry's strawberry plants and cleared out his bed (apart from the remaining broccoli & cabbage plants). Then we collected more brocolli, our first butternut squash, a cabbage and some Swiss Chard (which we haven't picked before).

The Radar onions have started to come through now, but the shallots and garlic haven't yet.

Dave came over and gave us a couple of leeks from his plot which were huge ! I said ours were still quite small and he said they were unlikely to do much more now, but our fingers are crossed that they will suprise us ! Then the tall man came over to see how we were getting on and for a chat, he said we had done really well this year, and it was lovely to see how much Henry enjoyed it !

Thursday 25th September 2008

Henry and I popped down to the allotment after school today to plant the shallots and garlic.

We put two rows of Shallots inbetween the Red Electric onions and the Little Gem lettuce, a row of garlic (Solent Wight) inbetween the Red Electric onions and the Shallots, one row of garlic (Purple Moldovan) inbetween the leeks and the Radar onions, and one row of garlic (3 Solent Wight, and the rest Purple Moldovan) in Henry's patch which he was very pleased about.

The spinach we planted has started to come through and most of the Red Electric onions have grown too.

When we got home we noticed that the Broad Bean plants have started to grow up through the soil as well so that is good, so far we can count 18 plants !!!

Sunday 21st September 2008

All of us went down this morning and managed to build 2 more beds in the new plot. It's looking really good and I'll have to take the camera down later this week and take some photos.

We also cut the first cabbage - it was in Henry's patch which he was very pleased about and it was a good size and tastes lovely !

Saturday morning - buying garlic & shallots !

Henry and I popped to the Allotment shop on the way back from town this morning to see if the garlic had arrived. On the way in Graham stopped us to tell us it had and there were some good shallots as well, so we went in and bought one large bulb of Purple Wight (it is supposed to be earlier than Solent Wight and ready to lift from June), and a bulb of Solent Wight which is ready for lifting from July. We also bought 95p worth of Shallot Griselle bulbs, then came home.

Wednesday 18th May 2008

Henry and I went to the allotment after school today and first we planted the onion sets that we had bought from Graham in the allotment shop - we put 3 rows in where the runner beans had been. We then tidied up some of the other beds and we did some digging in the big new bed. After this was partially dug over we sowed one long row of spinach. After labelling everything we went to have a look what else was ready to take home to eat. We picked some green and purple sprouting broccoli, then we cut 3 courgettes. The butternut squashes are growing well - there are piles of them all over the plant !

Then I had a look at the cauliflowers, they really are a mystery - they have gone to seed. We called Graham over to have a look and he said they had gone to seed, this is apparently to do with the weather and nothing we have done so thats good - I just wished we had picked them about 2 weeks ago though ! Never mind, you live and learn. He had a look at the cabbages though and said as I had suspected that he thought some of them were ready so we'll cut one of them this weekend maybe.

Then he took us to his plot and gave us a cauliflower, 3 beetroot, 4 tomatoes, a sweetcorn cob and a giant tomato too ! We were very pleased. We cycled home and Henry had the corn on the cob for his tea !

One of the baby Butternut Squashes

The plants are heaving with these - the biggest being about 10cm long but I could get to that one to take a photo !!

Making the first bed on the new plot !

This bed will be used for the potatoes next year, and here is Daddy making it !It is huge ! 2.4m wide and 3.6m long - lots of lovely potatoes next year !