recycling taken to extremes

November 22nd 2008

Thankfully the parents are having an extension built, and so I was able to use the UPVC fascia offcuts to make the first raised bed! I say I, it was in fact Mr Lumpyjumper who built them! Meanwhile daughter was digging one of the beds and I was networking with my fellow allotment holders and passing encouraging words to both members of the family!! I did actually weed the beds as they were being dug, pulling up the couch grass roots!! Here is the plot after 90 mins of work.

Pegging out!

So next was to peg out the areas for the raised beds.

The large bed at the far left hand end is for my fruit cage, the other beds are all 2x1m.

I think the red and white tape is quite striking :o)

A little more clearing

25th October 2008

Owner of plot 53B for 36hrs, half is cleared and I manage another quarter on my own in 90mins but can't move the next day for a bad back!!

Weather has been rubbish ever since so not much more has happened. Must find a dry day to go and do some more, itching to get back up there and mark out the beds.

I have my allotment

The Council phoned to say a half plot had bedcome available and keen as I was I went up in the pouring rain to have look. Husband took some pictures.

The following day we managed to clear about half the plot in an hour.

Preparation for the growing season

Well I've been pretty busy in the garden since I last blogged and the lighter nights and the warmer days have seen me outside when I can.

I've put in the structures for the peas and beans in the left hand veg bed. The tall wigwam is for my beans and the smaller structure has wires strung horizontally for the peas.

I've also bought myself a new couple of pots, a very large one for the transplanting of my existing rhubarb that took over the left hand bed last year and with it I shall put the new one I bought this weekend, and when it comes to rhubarb size certainly does matter! The smaller pot is for a new gooseberry, the one in the bed above was munched well and truly by the sawfly last year so may not crop so well this year, so I've bought a new one and we'll see how we do.

The potatoes are continuing to chit ok I think, Geo on the GYO forum had very long chits but mine are definitely smaller.

They are on the windowsill in the utility room and I was concerned that they weren't getting enough light but apparently they are fine!

You might be wondering how Polly pea is doing? ( or then again you might not!) anyway she is in the front porch which is unheated but protected from the wind, and is growing more slowly but just as healthily as you can see from the picture right. She's been joined by 4 other pea seedlings at various stages of development and I will probably plant them out at the end of March.

So I was hoping to get out and plant my potatoes this weekend but the forecast is for another very cold spell at the start of next week so I think I might just wait a little bit longer. I've never been very good with patience!

Is it February already??

Where do the weeks go?

I got rather carried away with the fine weather and the fact that I'm now number 2 on the list for an allotment!

I planted 8 Rondo peas on the 26 January and by the 30th one had already germinated and I've named her Polly.

As you can see she went rather mad and is still the only pea to have germinated!

Today she is huge! I really need to slow her down or she'll be too far advanced to be planted out when the soil warms up.....there's early and there's early and she's far too early!

This is the picture taken today

I also put some seed potatoes out to chit on the 2nd of Feb and they are coming along quite nicely too, I didn't have any egg boxes or apple trays so I cut the cardboard inner tubes from a kitchen roll and made each potato a little stand. How versatile am I????

So that's it for now, at least until the weekend when hopefully the weather will cheer up and I can get out and do some more. The decking needs a good clean and the saucers around my pots are overflowing with green water, yuk.

Happy gardening one and all.

Start of a new year

Well Santa was very good to me this year gardening-wise, I was given a nice new set of secateurs and gloves, I bought with my Christmas Money: some new tools (2 for the price of one! how could I not!???) and a bright pink and bright purple trug! I also picked up some seeds for some peas and tomatoes, I couldn't help it, they were calling me....I also got tempted by some seed potatoes but decided to leave those for another day.

The guys on GYO forum have been most helpful with my pleas for help over my goosegog bush which looks a bit sorry for itself, but I've found a book ( another Christmas purchase) and the one in the book looks the same in the middle of winter so maybe it's not dead it's just sleeping(!)

I've put some further pictures on here of how my two raised beds looked last May after a month of planting, it surprised me just how much they had grown when I compared them.

I spoke with the Town Clerk today and she said there had been some movement on the allotment waiting list so I shall wait and see where I've moved to up the list....hopefully not too far from the top!

That's all for now, plans are to get in the garden this weekend but it's not looking particularly good weatherwise....still, skin is waterproof ( to a point!)