Our Allotment Journey - Day 1 !

shaz_mum_of__2

spent the day potting up and tidting and sorting out what is for keeping /selling/swapping i now have about 100 toms and 100 peppers for selling and about 50 strawberry plants(last years runners) as well as 25 strips of bedding begonias all ready for the boot sale

JTB when do you put the sweetcorn outside i have some plants that are almost 6 inches tall but i think its still to early

We have had home grown lettuce everyday this week and we are having psb and runners from the garden tonight!

I must not sow/buy anything else until i have planted stuff outside now ...................once the netting for the new frames arrives i can put out the brassicas at least roll on may

Having our first batch of beer tonight too i didn't think the second fermentation had happened but it is fizzy!!

Shaz

jtb2412

Hi all, not long back from the Jumble sale (success !) so will catch up properly in a bit.

Shaz, sweetcorn I'd plant out around May (I did beginning last year as we were going away and it was fine). Mine are growing rather quickly so I think i'm going to pot them on before I put them outside (probably mid-May). I'll see how the weather goes though and how quick they grow ! I'll have a look in my book (while i'm having a nice soak in the bath) to see what they say.

Right i'm off outside to water the greenhouse and have a bit of peace and quiet after a very noisy day !

Catch up later xx

Frugaldom

Well done on the homebrew, Shaz. :beer:

Today I spent most of the day weeding, planting, sowing more seeds , thinning and putting right the chaos that the neighbours hens had cause by getting into my potato patch! :mad: I spent ages sorting out that corner, fencing it all off to keep my hens out of it and then 'the Warhammer' (neighbour's Welsummer cockeral) comes strutting along the road with his 2 hens and reaks havoc by flying over the wall into my garden! He'll get another bucket of water over him if I get close enough!

In the greenhouse, my courgettes are looking good! I've never grown them from seed before, but 5 out of the 6 seeds I planted have sprouted and I'm hopeful of getting the 6th now that it's warmer. 2 of them will be going into the square foot garden.

I picked my first radish today! :j It was more by accident, as I had to thin them out and hadn't realised they were as well grown. Anyhow, it tasted delicious and even DS ate some with his dinner! :eek:



Managed to get more onions planted and earthed up the potatoes in the pots (again). The ones in the small buckets are now topped up as much as possible - what do I do now?

Hope the sun shines again tomorrow. It's been great here all afternoon but the rain arrived around 7ish. Good for the garden if we could get dry and sunny daytimes and rainy nights, though.

Hoping to have some ducklings hatching within the next 24 hours, so I'm very excited about that! Too much going on at the moment and it's making time fly! It'll be May before we know it and then time for the greenhouse plants to be moved and start concentrating on the tomatoes and peppers. :j

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and managing to get loads done. Fingers crossed for sunshine tomorrow.

shaz_mum_of__2

nykmedia wrote: »

earthed up the potatoes in the pots (again). The ones in the small buckets are now topped up as much as possible - what do I do now?

keep watering well and wait ...............

mine are all well over the tops of the buckets and drying out in the heat :mad:


Planted some more BNS as the last lot not germinated but the acorn type doing well too

Quiet day today as not much needing doing i have planted some old seeds that the MIL gave me but they are 20 years old mainly cacti desert flowers and .........a joshua tree or two

Shaz

Frugaldom

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

...Quiet day today as not much needing doing i have planted some old seeds that the MIL gave me but they are 20 years old mainly cacti desert flowers and .........a joshua tree or two

Shaz

They sound interesting. I have a cactus type plant named Phyllis (because I can't remember the full name but it sounds like Phyllis something or other) that I got from a freecycler last year. It had beautiful, huge pink flowers and I was told that if it fruits then these will be edible. Phyllis has just recently started to flower again.

Yesterday's haul also netted me 2 juniper bushes, each in a wooden planter, so I now have them either side of my front door, for want of a better place to put them. Shaz, are the Joshua trees really slow to grow here? I don't think I've seen a real one, only pictures, but Googled to find out a little bit more about them

shaz_mum_of__2

If they grow at all i will be surprised but if they do it will be years

lots of interesting seeds at www.jungleseeds.co.uk too like monkey puzzle trees and yard long beans

my Mil gave me a big (old cheese biscuit tub ) full of unopened packets of seeds some from holidays in the canaries and new mexico as well as traditional ones . I have been trying some out without success so far but can't bring myself to throw them away so trying little and often and not expecting anything


Shaz

ps the only one i have ever seen was on a U2 album cover

spirit

I am very envious of lottie-ers who can keep chucks on their plots. I'm not sure I can on mine. Never mind, i've got lots of other things to keep me busy!

this week i've moved the bonfire pile to the back ot the plot and started to dig the bed where the old pile was. The polytunnel cover has gone on along with the door my neighbour made and fitted yesterday. Today I got some wire netting from the allotment shed (shop) and put in the top 'window' of the door and polythene at the bottom. My thinking is that it will let the pollinating insects in, and the baddies out :j

I have peas and mangtout seedlings coming up, summer cabbage and beetroot.

the before picture...









This morning (it being my birthday today) I went to the farmers market in town and bought myself some plants for the polytunnel. I got some strawberries, aubergines, peppers and tomatoes. I bought a slice of carrot cake and sat in the polytunnel eating it - could have done with 1 candle on it though :rotfl:

Melonade

Happy Birthday spirit

WOW your plot looks great and the polytunnel looks amazing!! I really wish I had more space, maybe not an allotment just yet but a little bit more garden to dig up :rotfl:

Today we've planted some carrots, salad, spring onion and all my strawberry plants are now out (a bit late ) and we've planted more peas. We've added some more compost over the spuds now the leaves are showing and fenced off the raised bed with chicken wire... hopefully enough to keep the dog out, unless he see's a cat in there :eek:

Finish the 2nd bed tomorrow and then it's time to sort out the paths round the outside :T Hopefullt we'll get the rain thats forecast so I can also make a start digging, weeding and levelling the garden for some new turf and filling the pond in so we have a nice space for the sunflowers :j

meinerc

jtb2412 wrote: »

Hi everyone

Some of you will know that we've been on the list for an allotment for a long time now ! Well, we've managed to find someone to 'share' with (a lovely lady !) and I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread (for my own sanity partly !) to show progress .

Basically, we've got about 365 sq feet to sort out (pics to follow). Beds need digging (a few existing ones need clearing/tidying) and the shed and compost heaps need a good tidy up too.

Seeing as this is a money saving site, we're going to try and manage this as a money saving exercise and spend as little as possible on it (hoping to blag some stuff from freecycle, pallets from various companies etc etc). We've already got lots of seeds etc and can start things off here at home (managed to get a huge greenhouse from freecycle earlier in the year).

Have to pop the kids to school now but will be back later with photos of the plot as we took it on and some pictures of how it looked after our first day.

Please feel free to post any pictures of your plot(s) as I'd love to see them and get some ideas !

:j well if you are like us you must be over the moon we got an allotment 2yrs september you will not be disappointed I have enjoyed it we have made our own shed from scratch my husband got some wood from skips and stuff and its ok. Where is your plot mine is in coventry.
It was hard work to start as it was overgrown but its looking better this season we introduced a couple more beds this year so we got space and just got a large polytunnel fram from a auction on site so need to get the covering now so yes it takes time and worth it.
Christine

spirit

this one shows my new shed and the bonfire heap nearby. I moved the heap from the area which is now covered by Mypex. I am now digging this area.