17th May 2013 Update from the Allotment

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Digitalquill

We spent three hours on the allotment this morning. I planted 6 iceberg lettuces in the greenhouse, cleared a fence and weeded a new patch to get two more rows of potatoes in and also some more onions that were ready into the raised beds. Cheryl did some more work in the strawberry patch clearing more weeds.

Here are some pictures of the progress

Shallots in the greenhouse waiting to go into the raised beds

Parsnips and brocoli waiting to go into the raised beds Cucumber, not looking all that healthy but the same thing happened last year so we will see what happens…

Tomatos looking very strong and healthy

I planted 6 iceburg lettuce plants in the greenhouse, hopefully they will come and be harvested before the tomatos get too big

I had an impulse buy at Homebase this week, I got some Celery, I have never grown it so will be doing some research. Raspberries starting to bud Leaves are coming out on the apple tree Gooseberries starting to develop Blackberry we planted last weekend is growing well and will need tying to the wires agian very soon Blackcurrents developing Pear blossom has now gone, blown away by the wind, but hopefully we might see some pears starting to develop The two fruit trees, apple and pear Two new rows of potatoes Onions and Shallots in the raised bed, I put some more onions in today. Carrots are starting to come through, not sure which are weeks and which are carrots yet so will let them develop a little before weeding, Onions in the raised beds, the ones I planted first some 4 weeks ago are looking very strong. Potatoes coming through so will be earthing up more in the next few daysThe Onion Bed

I also did a video update and here it is:

Weekend Update and Free Horse Manure

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Digitalquill

This weekend we have not had a great deal of time at the allotment, and to be honest, we have not been down was much as I would have liked over the last week due to the weather.

Thankfully, we had a couple of days of sun the last two days, but again today it is back to rain! The plants are really starting to struggle with the lack of sun light. Everything is looking rather yellow and drab.

One might assume that all this rain is fantastic for the plants, and while yes they do need water, the shear amount is causing problems, as indicated above they are not getting enough sun-light, but also this amount of rain has a devastating effect on the soil, leaching out nutrients especially nitrogen from the soil, setting back the hard work of digging in all the organic matter.

The rain has been so bad that some of the allotments at the Boothferry road site have been flooded.

Flooding at the Allotments

I can only imagine how it must feel to see all your hard work in that state. I don’t think the flooding lasted for very long so hopefully those affected will be able to recover for what is remaining of the season.

Although our plot is on the same level as all the others, it has been built up over the years with manure and compost, so its level is a good 30-40 cm above many of the others, so we were not affected so badly, although we did have some standing water.

Standing water in the Strawberry Patch

We have had some good fruit from the allotment this week, I made 4lbs of Strawberry Jam, and we must have had nearly 20lbs of Strawberries in the last 6 weeks or so.

We had a small crop of Gooseberries, there are plenty more, but I wanted to thin them out so that the rest fo the fruit had chance to swell. Cheryl made a fantastic crumble with them.

I have been avoiding the Jesus Christ Super Star thing on ITV which Cheryl watches avidly, so for the past two nights I have taken an early evening walk to the allotment. All is quiet down there at 8pm! no-one else crazy enough to be working at that hour!

I managed to get a few jobs done, I tied up the Tomatoes which are looking a great deal happier now they are in the soil and have had a good feed. I have also been gently going round the beds with the howe to try and keep on top of the weeds.

The good news is that the netting seems to be keeping the Pigeons off the brassacas. I am not sure if they will amount to anything due to the damage they had, but we will see what happens later in the year.

On Sunday I picked a load of rotted Horse Manure up, free to those who will collect, I collected a trailer load and will go back for more. We now have a manure heap at the bottom of the plot, I will leave it there to rot down some more, although they said it has been there for 3 years.

Horse Manure Heap

Here is a video from Saturday night, showing the progress on the Allotment.

Creating a Sub-Plot for Eva

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Digitalquill

We visited the allotment today, after being rained off in the morning we finally managed ot get down at about 2pm. As it turned out the weather was glorious. A little on teh hot side if anything.

The main aim of today was to create a sub-plot for Eva, so that she could have here own little area to grow some of her own plants. Of course there was still the hard grafting clearing the areas of the allotment we had not touched yet.

I set about weeding the area for Evas sub-plot, trying to keep her attention on the weeding jobs is rather difficult, but we got there and as soon as you are onto the digging bit she loves it, getting in there and getting dirty.

I turned over the soil and then market out two beds with bricks.

Evas Sub-Plot at the Allotment market out

In one bed we were going to plant the Pumpkins, so I had bought a bag of well rotted Farmyard manure, which Eva found rather funny, planting into Cow Poo! We emptied the bag onto the top of the soil bed and did not dig it in too much, planting the pumpkins directly into the manure.

Cow Poo is always funny

Eva Pretending it smells

In the other bed we planted a tomato, chili pepper, a row of 5 leeks, 5 white onions and 5 red onions. When we were just finishing another neighbor came and introduced them selves with a gift of Cabbages and Lettuces. The letters we planted straight into Evas plot.

Evas Sub-Plot at the Allotment Finished

While we were doing this, Cheryl was hard at work weeding through the Raspberries and Gooseberries, she did a sterling job, and now the fruit bushes have a fighting chance of giving a good crop of fruit this year without being strangled by the weeds.

The Raspberries cleared of weeds

All in all we had a good day and progress was made. Here is a video of how it is looking.

First Video from Allotment Plot 131

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Digitalquill

We went to the allotment to make sure all was well and watered up, we have not been able to get down there to do any work due to the weather and commitments with the business, but it is still looking good. I hope to get down there on Wednesday at some point weather permitting.

This video gives an overview of the allotment, and re-introduces Eva to our YouTube viewers who last saw her aged 2 working on our last allotment plot

Video – Progress on the Allotment – 24th May 2009

Posted on May 24, 2009 by Digitalquill

Its bank holiday Sunday and everything on the allotment is blooming. It is a glorious day, blue sky and the world could not be better!

Have a look at my quick video of the progress

Progress 3rd May 2009

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Digitalquill

Had a good day on the allotment today, managed to get the rest of the potatoes in, that means that the whole of plot 3 is planted up with potatoes. I then tackled the raised bed and spent over an hour picking out weeds which had begun to take over, it is amazing at how quickly they start to come. You will see from the photographs in the next post the different a little time made.

I also took the opportunity to thin out the carrots, beetroot and parsnip and then planted another row of carrots and parsnips. I would have liked to get another row of beetroot in but I ran out of time.

I also got my beans planted, french beans and runner beans and replanted the row of dwarf french beans that had not come.

In the cloche I picked some radish which went nicely in a salad with our fist BBQ of the season, planted a row of Chinese radish and replanted the lettuce as they had not done anything.

Have a look at the video to see the progress.

Gooseberry, Blackberry and Black Current Planted

Posted on March 8, 2009 by Digitalquill

I managed to get three more fruit bushes for the soft fruit area. Homebase are doing a 3 for £10 deal for good sized year old plants.

I bought the following

Gooseberry – Hinnomaki Green
Blackberry – Waldo
Black Current – Ben Lomond

I got them planted today and the soft fruit area is now looking good. Just need to get some strawberries to fill in the gaps and provide some fruit this year as most of the fruit bushes will not fruit this year.

Soft Fruit Area - Rhubarb, Raspberies, Blackberry, Black Current, Gooseberry

Soft Fruit Area - Rhubarb, Raspberries, Blackberry, Black Current, Gooseberry

The Rhubarb is coming along fantastically. I would guess that another couple of weeks and we will be picking those first tender shoots… Mmmmmm!

I am presently surprised at how they are coming along. Just two weeks after been planted, two weeks after being split and all this after they had been dug up and left in a bucket for two months!

Rhubarb Progress 7th March 2009

On The Allotment

Everything that happens down at the allotment

Category Archives: Gooseberry