Not done an awful lot on the plot this last week or so, we have sown another lot of peas and in the greenhouse have started off the marrow.pumpkin ect. The onion and garlic are romping away and we have planter out a couple of rows of seed sown plants.
He we are one year on from taking on our little oasis, and what a difference a year makes. Looking back over the year the desparation of taking on a plot at the beging of the growing season and the rush to get it dug and seeds into the ground has been replaced by impatience of the months to pass so as we can start off a new season of growing. The plot has come a long way in the last year, growing from just half a plot to full plot size. The pond has been refurbished and now is home to a large number of Tadpoles and Water Boatmen. The whole plot is now set out in a deep bed format and we have errected a small plastic greenhouse for some of the more tender crops. As for the growing side of things over the last year things were pretty good although there were one or two failures which have to be expected and hopefuly we have learned by these mistakes. On the plus side the Greengage tree we bought for a fiver last year is growing well and just coming into flower and we stil have some veggies left in the freezer from last year crops.
A couple of the tadpoles in the pond
Over the last few days we have planted our seed potatoes, carrots, the last of the garlic and another short row of Peas hoping for a good sucession of picking. We also enlarge the flower border to one side of the pond which will give Jeanne a bit more space for her flowers and more specimens to photograph. In all the first year has been great we have had many hours of pleasure from our plot and now look foward to another year of the joys of growing our own veg and the peace and tranquity of our little Oasis
Our small greenhouse
Realy have the spring bug in the blood now, have a few days off from work and am spending some of them on the allotment.Today we put up the small poly greenhouse this will be used for our sweet peppers and tomato’s. We also planted 1 row of garlic 2 rows of shallots and 4 rows onions.
The spring bulbs are still giving us a spalsh of colour and a supply of nectar for the bees that brave the odd warm day. The Green gage tree we bought last year has started to show the first few green shoots of spring, along with the many other fruit trees around the site.
It has been another couple of glorious days of warm sunshine here and we made the most of it as seeing it fell on my days off. On arriving at the allotment yesterday we found that the site had two nice new piles of good quality woodchippings courtesy of a contractor who had been pollarding some large trees that grow in the school grounds on the otherside of the lane. These were made good use of refreshing the paths between the deep beds. The plot now looks fresh and clean ready for the new season and best of all it did not cost a penny, just a little sweat moving several barrel fulls in the warm sun.
With most things done on the plot for the moment we headed off to our favourite garden centre, although not the nearest it the best and tends to have some good offers on. This trip we purchased two hanging baskets of Primula for £5 each
We also picked up a pot of winter planted Garlic with five plants in for 99p and a large 3 mt enviro mesh cloche for £12 instead of £25 in all not a bad couple of hours
Athough te first day of spring is not officialy until the 22 March the weather here sure felt very spring like over the weekend. Down on the plot is was a pleasure to be under clear blue sky and a warm sun that gave a promise of things to come. We spent a few hours plodding aroound doing odd jobs and clearing the last of the winters rubbish. The bulbs in the flower bed are looking good and are attracting early bubble bees in search of nectar.
We have errected the chicken wire support for the peas and over the next couple of weeks will put up the bean supports and errect the polythene greenhouse we bought at the end of last year and also plant some Internation kidney potatoes under a fleece cloche. Hopefuly these will give us an early crop of new potatoes.
It’s been a raining most of the day here, not a good day to spend on the allotment. The bed that had the parsnips and swedes in is now empty and waiting to be dug but it will have to wait until the soil dries out a bit. Time has not been wasted though as an afternoon spent in the garage/workshop has produced a nice suply of labels for the plot . Made from a couple of lengths of 30mm x10mm and cut into lengths of 300mm and given a coat of wood preserver before burning the names onto them they should last a couple of seasons and be easy to read without bending down. The hole in the top will allow for a small tag to be tied for variety and date sown ect and also to hang up for storage when not in use
A few of the labels
Took a stroll down to the plot this afternoon.How things can change in a few hours. it’s hard to believe that early this morning the tempature was down to -9c yet this afternoon is fine sunny and feeling quite pleasant at a reasonable +5c.As far as the plot goes most of the ground had thawed out accept for the patches which were still in shade. The frost has not appeared to had much affect on the winter sown broad beans, they look realy healthy and show promising signs of a good early crop. Jeannes flower patch is starting to come to life with a few crocuses around the pond already in flower and the daffodils in the main part going well and forming nice buds. It’s nice sunny winter days like this that make us yearn for the warmer days of spring so we can get started sowing this years crops and spend more time out on our little oasis.
Winter sown broad beans
Took the kitchen waste to the allotment today and looking at the frozen ground it was obvious that there was nothing that could be done today, so it was off for a trip to the garden centre to buy a few odds and ends. We bought some onion sets and also some gladioli corms for the flower plot. On the way home we popped into the local Aldi store and while shopping picked up a pack of soft fruit bushes . There was 3 small bushes in each pack ! gooseberry and 1 each of a red and a yellow raspberry although small the 3 were only£2.49 . @ 83p a plant I would say the are a real bargain although I dont expect any fruit until next year
We received a large pack of Lima bean seeds from Canada today. Lima are a climbing bean that is grown in North America and Canada I have not found any mention of them in any of the UK seed catalogues nor have I found any pacific guide on growing them in the UK, from what information I have obtained they are grown much like a runner bean and tolerate about the same weather conditions. If successful in growing these we will use some fresh and the rest will be dried for winter use.
We will keep you posted on how the trial of these goes through the season
If anyone has grown these and has any tips they would be very welcome
Todays visit to the plot was eventful, on arrival we seen a fox roaming around the site it looked quite healthy but no doubt on the look out for food. Once we got over this distraction we noticed that someone had taken a fancy to our cold frame we bought at the end of last summer, well suppose they thought their need was greater than ours hope they get pleasure from it.
The plot itself is looking quite bare now as we decided not to plant any over wintering veg so we had an empty canvas to work with over the winter to set things out how we wanted them. A hour or so was spent tidying things up and weeding, I like to stay ontop of the weeds and not give them chance to get a hold as I was told every weed killed today is a hundred less to kill next month. Jeanne tneded to her flower patch which is full of spring bulbs and some Sweet Williams and pansy which are growing well and give promise of a nice bit of spring colour. While weeding she found some unusual Fungi it was Birds nest Fungi which as the name implies it looks like something has made a nest in the middle of.
Birds Nest Fungi
