Our Allotment Journey - Day 1 !

spirit

Sounds like you've been very busy in the garden! I've no experience of globe artichokes though - sorry.

I have spent all weekend so far at the lottie - despite the rain! All of the raised beds have been dug, i've sown carrots, parsnips and beetroot. I've covered the carrots with some fleece using some metal cloche thingies I found at the lottie.

Also i've dug the big bed where the manure heap was - raking it is tricky at the mo since it is wet and sticks to the rake. We have chalk soil in Winchester, but when wet it still gets heavy etc. I've put up my bean canes and have my pea sticks ready to put peas and mange tout in - when it stops raining.

My neighbour helped me put up the new shed last weekend so at least when the rain gets too much I can retreat there and have a cuppa!

There is a large apple tree on the edge of the plot and a couple of biggish branches were overhanging where my beans will be and shading it too much. so I took the ladders and bow saw down yesterday and managed to saw it back quite a bit - despite it being rather late to prune.

the last big job to do is fit the polytunnel cover. again a job for when it stops raining. Somehow I need to figure out what to do about a door for one end. Some others on the site with much bigger tunnels have old front doors on theirs - mine is smaller and an old front door would be too big.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day today whether you are gardening or not.:beer:

shaz_mum_of__2

Never grown artichokes nyk sorry but i know they get really big

Rained all day here but managed to plant some summer bulbs in pots in the shaed and pot on some more plum tomatoes



Dug up the last of the kale(in the rain) and blanched and froze it as it was starting to bolt and flower
there was enough for 8 meals for the 4 of us
Going to clear the last of the leeks today and freeze as i am in need of the space!!


Have a great easter sunday and remember easter eggs are good energy givers for gardeners !!!

Shaz

Rummer

Ah! That's what I can do with the leeks that are taking up the rest of my bed! I have been tapping my foot with impatience just waiting for them to be ready to be pulled and eaten but I can pull them now! Do I need to blanch them first?

We sadly will not be able to spend a lot of time in the garden today as we are going to a family event, it is a bad sign when I would rather just stay at home and work in the garden than go to an all day party! Maybe we can sneak away early and get some things planted this evening!

Nykmedia the pond is finished now apart from the plants which are not in any of the local garden centres yet. I have been doing my research so that I only get ones native to the uk and don't accidentatly buy one that will take over the world!

How much compost should I put in my cold frame as it is really long and deep and I don't want to put in too much or too little.

Anyway I had better go the guinea pigs are singing! Hope you all have a great Easter!

Lotus-eater

Pull all the leeks up and heel them in, in a great big bunch all together, they won't mind this at all and then you can just pull as required. I've never bothered freezing leeks, can't see the point as they sit there until you are ready to eat them. They will go to seed if you leave them over the summer though,

Top_Banana_2

Next thing for me is onions and carrots. I've decided to do alternate rows of them in the hope of confusing carrot fly.

jtb2412

Morning everyone and Happy Easter !

Got back from Mum and Dad's late last night - had a fantastic week with them, it was nice to relax and not do much

Couldn't resist popping out as soon as we got in the door to check everything was ok (we popped everything in about 2 inches of water and prayed they would be ok - worried about things rotting off but didn't really have any other choice as we don't know anyone down here to come in and water for us). Was totally shocked at how much everything had grown :eek: Cabbages are ready to go in, aubergines have sprouted, tomatoes are doing great and I don't think we've lost anything along the way (apart from two beetroot plants the slugs have had in the garden :mad: ).

Have had loadsssssssssss of rain here, both water buts are full :j and my rhubarb in the garden resembles a space monster :rotfl: - I'll need to pick some today :T .

Anyway, we're off down the lotty this morning to see how things are (fingers crossed !) I'll take the camera (promise ) and pop some pics up on here later tonight. DH plans to stay down there all day but I need to come back after lunch and do some washing and start off some seeds in between that so i'll be pottering in the greenhouse this pm. I think the weather is set to be pretty good here today so we've come back at the right time .

I'll catch up with all your posts later tonight over a glass of wine - hope you've all been having fun !!

TTFN xx

Rummer

Hehehehehe I had a fabulous day just enjoying my garden, I didn't do a stroke of work, just kicked back and enjoyed all my hard work.

Rummer

Where is everyone??

I had another good gardening day today. The brassicas that I replanted in the greenhouse are doing well although I think I will loose a few of them over the next couple of days. The tomatoes however are thriving and are getting huge and there are good signs that the beans are beginning to sprout.

Today I planted some lettuce seeds in my raised beds (the first things to go in) planted up some tubs with carrots and parsnips and planted trays of rocket, mixed salad leaves and kale. I also transplanted my courgettes and squashes into their new pots and they look very happy.

It has been a total joy planting things while looking out onto my new pond! The new cold frame is looking very bare and empty as we haven't been able to get compost for it yet so I have emptied the old compost from last years pots into it to give it a start. Not ideal but it will be topped up with good quality compost soon.

Finally my OH finished digging out the potato bed so they are safely in and the spare ones I put in the newly extended shallot bed, not ideal but it fills a space. I also moved some of the crops I had started in the greenhouse out into the garden including the brussel sprouts. That has made me more soace so that I can start even more seedlings for my garden.

jtb2412

Hi Rummer (I'm still here lol) et all xx

Had a really busy few days (weather has been great !) - potting on things, sowing more seed, more digging down the lotty, tidying garden etc etc ....

We had a huge thunderstorm here at 5am this morning (was very exciting ! lol) so the water butts are now full to brimming and everything is nicely watered.

We popped down the lotty this pm before shopping and my potatoes have sprouted :j , parsnips are doing great even though I transplanted and you're not supposed to , cabbages have settled in well although some leaves have been munched :mad: and the weeds are also doing well :rolleyes: .

I've been picking rhubarb like there's no tomorrow and I can see we'll have a freezer full by the end of May if we're not careful :rotfl: . We had our first radishes yesterday and finished off the spring onions that i'd been overwintering in the garden. Another week and I think we might be able to start picking the salad leaves. Cucumbers have gone outside up against the house in growbags - they should be fine there but if we get a cold night forecast i'll fleece them. DS giant pumpkins are getting too big for their pots so I'll have to think about popping them in the ground within the next week or so, they'll need fleecing too - I just hope they survive and produce some nice big pumpkins for him, he's looked after them really well .

Plans for the rest of this week:

Tomatoes need potting on
Sprouts need potting on
Sow more seeds (mainly salad and leeks)
Sow some more flower seeds (need to check what I've got and when they need sowing)

Then if the weather holds up, to the lotty this weekend to tackle the second strawberry bed (which I can't actually see the strawbs through the dock, nettles and other weeds :mad: ), dig some more of the large bed and keep up with all the other weeds :rolleyes: .

I confess I forgot the camera last time so I've put it in our tea/coffee bag ready for the weekend.

Hope the weather is kind to you all for the rest of the week

TTFN Xxxx

Frugaldom

Hello

Weather's been a bit mixed here and I have chicks due to hatch, so keep running backwards and forwards to check the incubator. 2 out so far.

I STILL haven't managed to make a start on the pond and was so annoyed when I saw a 5' plastic moulded pondliner on Freecycle and then worked out that it wouldn't go in the car!

I've now moved all my seedlings into the greenhouse and dragged the big 'trugs' round there too. I have potatoes in the 2 extra large ones, onions and carrots in another two and a fifth still awaiting planting. My runner beans have shot up, and the chilli peppers will need thinning soon. If we could just get a few more warm, sunny days then it would really help. I checked back my notes for last year and we had a mini-heatwave the first week of May. Let's hope it's the same again this year for the holiday weekend

I'm still working out where I can plant all my artichokes, as they need about a metre of space each! I am considering just planting them along the front fence, as they need about 2' of space between them. I've read quite a bit about growing these but there's not an awful lot said about starting them off from seed. Apparently, if I can get them to grow this year, I could harvest up to 12 heads from each next summer. I'll probably need to sell quite a few of the plants this year as I certainly don't have enough space to grow 30+ of them. :rotfl: