Further progress

So progress has been steady on the allotment so far. Things are starting to come through the soil and the salads are coming on well. The first construction project has been a frame with netting to protect the brassicas from the birds although the dears might be a bigger issue seeing as they have attacked our strawberries.

The chilli plants also went into the ground today as they have been nurtured from seed. They seem to be coming on well so hopefully they should have some good fruit on them. We used a bit of the compost left by the previous owner which seems a good quality compost so that should help them along as well.

All in all things seem to be progressing well.

The chilli plants going in - 9 planted in total so
hoping for a plentiful supply for curries later in the year!

The first structure on the allotment - total cost about £8. Just waiting
on a staple gun from ebay to finish of the netting but will protect them
from the deers at the moment. Might have to make something similar for
the strawberries!

Another busy day on the allottment!

Well this weekend has been very busy indeed. Saturday involved digging out the top raised bed ready to plant the onions as well as cutting the grass in the walkways (with hand shears - think we might have to find another way!).

Today we had some help on the allotment from my parents, sister, brother in law and niece. It allowed us to do a lot on there today. We started off digging out the two remaining raised beds ready for planting. Into these went some more potatos (maris piper main crop), some cauliflower plants, red and white onion sets and some peas with plenty of space left for other items later in the season. We also dug up the remaning leeks and trimmed the raspberries and gooseberry bushes and moved one of the compost bins.

So all in all a very busy weekend and lots achieved. The main part of the allotment is now sorted and we can now tidy up and plant the rest of it at our leisure.

Thanks to Mum, Dad, Dot and Darren for your help and also little Chloe (who slept through the whole thing!)

The pea trenches being dug and some of the home made compost being put in the bottom.

Onion sets have gone in here - going to be a lot of onions later in the year!

Maris piper main crops potatoes and the cauliflowers at the end. We need to get some netting to protect the brasicas from the birds!

Some more rows of the salads have gone in to stagger the crops!

The whole allotment - a work in progress but is going well. Later in the month the broad beans will go in and the chilli plants should be closer to going into some of the spaces.

The first shoots of spring

Well we havent had much time to do much else on the allottment at the moment but what we have already planted seems to be coming on well.

There are many shoots coming up mainly from the salad crops.

This weekend we will dig the two and half remaining raised beds and dig the bean pit and get some onion sets in the ground as well so a busy weekend ahead.

The Tom Thumb lettuces

First sign of the radishes

Potatoes and Parnsips

So got home from work today, nipped in the house got changed and headed straight out to get on with the next raised bed. This was to be the first real challenge as the weeds were much more thicker in this raised bed. Still 90 mins later the be was clear and dug through. This soil seemed much sandier than the others but there was some compost put through it. It might not be ideal for the potatoes and parsnips but unfortunately we found signs of potatoes in the other 3 beds we dug out yesterday so in the interests of crop rotation this was to be the one for the spuds!

We planted out 3 rows of Charlotte potatoes to save a bit of room for some later potatoes like a Maris Piper or something. We also did 3 rows of parsnips at the other side of this bed and just managed to get them in before the light disappeared. So another good evening and it was important to get them in tonight as time will be limited over the next days so will be restricted to keeping on top of what has been done already before starting anything else.

Here is a pic of the pots and snips bed with the heaped lines for the pots.

The first plants and seeds

So taking over the allotment from someone who had already installed raised beds has really allowed us to get a headstart on the digging and planting. This morning we set of to the local garden centre to purchase a number of seeds that we wanted to grow that needed to be planted in April. Below is the rough plan for the allotment to start with.

Thats the basic plan anyway - we will see how it goes. So now onto what we got done this weekend.

We managed to get another 3 beds dug out and weeded allowing us to get the first things planted. One of our neighbours kindly gave us some strawberry plants and raspberry shoots. These went into our Herb (ish) garden along with some corriander, thyme, chives and mint.

Then we got onto planting up our lettuce garden which included cos lettuce, tom thumb lettuce, radishes, spring onions and rocket lettuce. We are doing a row of each for the moment and then will plant another row in a couple of weeks so we stagger through the season.

The next raised bed contains carrots and beetroot for the moment again in small rows so we can add to them later in the season.

Finally the central bed in the allotment will contain flowers so one third of it was planted with random flowers seeds. So all in all a good first weekend for us and we feel that we achieved a lot to start with! Lets hope it keeps going this way.

One of our strawberry plants

The planted herb garden with strawberries and raspberries

The salad garden with a few rows put in

The three beds that were dug today and planted up

Help identifying these plants...

So these are all on the allotment already but not quite sure what they are. They are some sort of bush probably raspberry, gooseberry or similar...

So these are all on the allotment already but not quite sure what they are. They are some sort of bush probably raspberry, gooseberry or similar...

01/04/11 - The first digging...

So we went over for our first hour on the allotment tonight and dug out the first bed. All went well although I think this one may have been a bit too easy and can't see the rest of it being quite so easy. Michelle seems to have taken to it well and only nearly hit me in the face with the fork twice.

Some leeks the previous owner left

Some weeding to do here

The whole allotment

The first raised bed to be dug out...

And the finished product - this is to be the herb garden