Whats growing at the plot?

Here are my Garlic, we order from the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm, always get a good crop. Last year we bought from a garden center as I was late in buying them and they were not as good as the Garlic Farm



I Iam trying to grow carrots at the plot for the first time, I grew them at home in pots at home last year. I am using an old waterbutt to grow the carrots and fill with compost. I have also planted some in the ground and at home i pots



Broadbeans are growing well




Potatoes are just starting to show there heads. Some other plot holders planted there spuds before us and they have been effected by frost that we had a few days ago

We have been Busy

We have been busy planting and digging at the beginning of 2011, we managed to dig over and add manure to a big area on the plot which has given us a great start to the growing season. It has allowed us to prepare the ground for the beans, normally I just plant my beans but this time I have dug out a trench and added manure and paper to see if it makes any differences.

The area is just in front of the car.

We have loads growing in the greenhouse. We have Peas, dwarf beans, courgettes, onions, Broad beans, cucumbers, toms, and my last set of spuds chitting.

I have already planted in my allotment Garlic, one set of Broad beans, one set of onions, one set of peas and a few carrots in a old water butt cut in half. I was thinking why I always plant my Veg and not plant in batches, no idea, so I am trying it this year.

Arthur is helping me water the Broad Beans I have just planted.

A Picture of my Garlic, From the Garlic farm Isle of Wight. Growing well

The raspberries are in there somewhere, we need to give this bed a weed but due to the warm weather the ground is really to hard. This is our first job when it rains

Quick visit

I am off from work for a few days so the first place to visit while I am off is the allotment. Its mainly wedding and a bit of digging at the momment. I am growing alot of veg in my greenhouse at the momment, so once they have got bigger I will then plant at the allotment.

I have just been down the allotment for a bit of weeding and thought I would take a few photo's for a quick update on the Veg growing on the plot.As mentioned before my broadbeans not doing very well, had to get rid of a few yesterday as they where just all black. Here is a picture of one of the plants

The Garlic is doing very well, I have loads growing in the allotment and a few in pots in my back garden. Here's a quick photo of the Garlic

The Brocolli and Spring Cabbage are doing really well - they have been protected by mess to stop any animals eating them. I took it off today to sort out all the weeds that have developed - I would say I got rid of 95% of them. I am really impressed on how these are growing. Don't really do much to them, just maybe water them a bit but thats it.

The Winter onions are also doing very, I need to go back and weed the area and be very careful I don't dig any of the onions up. Here's a few photo's

Quick Visit

Went for a quick visit to the allotment to place the cold frame, plant a few carrot seeds and generally see whats happen on the plot as it been a while since we have visited the plot. Took a few photo's on my mobile phone.

I took a quick picture of the inside of the shed, as she can see a few tools and the most important thing in the she is in place - the kettle! Having a cup of tea at the allotment is vital, keeps you going. I recommend this tool to EVERY person who owns an allotment, a camping stove is also required

The cold frame has also been put in place, planted 2 rows of carrots which is one side of the cold frame, going to plant on the other side in a few weeks so we have a long suppy of carrots and not all at the same time, thats the plan anyway. My carrots in the back graden did not do very well so I am hoping for a better result at the allotment.

Here are a few photo's of the process of the Veg growing on the allotment

This is the onions - all seem to growing well. I did have them covered with some mesh but have now taken that off. I read of another blog not to leave it onto too long as the onions sometimes get stuck in between the holes in the mesh and as you take the mesh up you bring the onions with you!

This some of the Garlic, Got a bit of this growing - even got some in pots in my back garden, I love Garlic!

The Broadbeans are still nicely covered, They are growing very well, got a few flowers appearing so thats good! Going to leave the fleece on for a while as it seems still a bit cold at night.

We are not the only mad people

We went to the allotment straight after work to cover the Broad Beans in Garden Fleece, we both had head torches and parked the car so the headlights where facing the allotment and used the lights from the car lights for extra lighten. We had only really started and another car had turned up - It was about 7pm and very dark so you can imagine the shock. Our car was parked straight over the main car path so we had to move the car - not a problem. Well I couldnt find the car keys - finally found them but it took about 5 mins.

The owner of the car was one of our neighbours, not meet him but have meet his wife Karen. He had come to fix his Green house that had broken in the wind. It was really funny has we all had head torches and was busy working away - the people who live in the house which are at the back of the allotment must have thought you was mad!

I dont care - my Broad Beans are now covered and protected.

Another night visit to the allotment

As the weather forecast perdicts a heavy frost I have just been to buy Garden fleece for the Broad Beans. Might have to go down tonight with the head torch to place the Fleece over the broad beans to protect them.

One of our neighbours Stan recommend to me if we get any more frost to protect them with some fleece as I told him some had turned Black last time.

Also emailed the council as one of other neighbours - Karen from 13a, her Green house has been damaged in the wind - Steve managed to fix it a bit but not 100% so hopefully the council will let her know and she will fix it.

A bit of Sunday gardening

This morning to drove to wickes to get some timber for the new frame for the large broken plastic green house and a cold frame. While steve built the new base I put the small plastic green house together and found it a new home. Our Garden gets really windy so it is now near the front door. Actually lost my temper several times while putting the stupid thind together as poles kept coming apart. Managed it after a while and having to come into the house twice to calm down!

Also planted a few onions in pots. Not to many, only 4 as they are suppose to exibition size but the tempt has to be hot in the green house, as I think I would not be able to get the temperture required ( 2o c) I did not want to waste too many seeds so done 4 to see how they process.

Also planted some Sweet Peas and Red Hot Poker which will mainly be planted on the allotment and a few for the gardens at home.

Did not get around to making a cold frame, maybe a job for next weekend.

We also paid a visit to the allotment - just a quick visit to see if we had any wind damage and also to put the water butt back - Steve Screw the Water Butt to the pallets - hopefully it should not move!

The only Wind damage we had was my Broad beans, only a few broke, nothing to get worried about, I have loads anyway. The ones left are doing very well.

The leeks are still growing so we are going to leave them in the ground for a while. Both the red and white onions are all growing well, red better than white. They wont be ready till about August, which we thought was a very long time, we planted them in Oct 2006. Oh well thats what the instructions say.

We have some other onions to plant aswell so I think we will be over run with Onions but Steve uses Onions loads in cooking so it wont be a problem, if we have to much, then we just give to family.

The Brocolli and Spring Cabbage seem very happy in the little tent we built for them, which is great. I dont eat any of them but maybe Steve will get me to try them!

Garlic is also growing well

My Peas are not gwoing well - a little bit of growth but maybe they might start growing soon.

Wind Damage

Today has been very windy - I left work early as I heard loads of trees where being blown onto road and causing problems for drivers. As I drove from Slough to High Wycombe I drove past many trees which have been ripped out of the ground. One of my Colleagues who lives near me and we take the same route to and from work rang me to tell me a road was blocked and to find a new route. Luckily he rang me in enough time to change my route. I found a new route and got home safetly. When I returned home our small green house was on the floor and the other green house seemed to have travelled a long distance. No Major damage but I think the large green house is offiically broke!

I dont even want to know if I have any damage at the allotment - I have just remember my Broad Beans - they get damaged in the wind, hopefully I have tied them well enough to the poles, Just have to wait till the weekend and see.

Few photo's

Me and Steve went to the allotment at the weekend to set up a few more beds and a bit of weeding, while we was there on saturday Steve noticed our Water butt had disappeared - it had been blown away in the wind and was now on out next door plot, it was halve full of water but no longer. We was not happy. Steve is going to find a way to screw the Water Butt to the bits of wood it is standing on.

We also had ind damage in our back garden, we have a plastic greenhouse that got a bit damaged but Steve managed to fix it and my small 4 tier green house got thrown around. Luckily I had taken out the Garlic I had planted to give it some water, thank god they are save! Also severals bits of wood where blown from one our sheds.




Here are my new beds - managed to dig 2, which will contain Raspberry canes, onions and maybe carrots.


Picture of one of our cabbage's, which are doing very well.
We also decided to take up a few leeks - they wasnt very big but we used them to make leek mash potato which was lovely.

Also decided to seperate some of the broad beans as I decided I had planted them to close to each other so I seperated them a bit and placed them in the beds with the peas and garlic.

Update on Broadbeans

I checked the Broad Beans the other day and they seem fine, I think now the weather is not so cold they have recovered!

The Leeks seem to be doing very well, not sure when I can use them but I might just have to use my judgement as I think I lost the packet they come from :-(

All the other Veg seem to be doing very well which is good.

Just cant wait to get started.

Ordered loads of potatoe seeds which I cant wait to arrive. I am planning to plant them at the end of the allotment, out of the way, which should fill a empty space.

Some weeding may be needed next time I visit the allotment.

Broad beans Black!

I also noticed a few of my Broad Beans have turned Black! Looked on a few web sites and asked on GYO and it seems they may have been affected by the frost, hopefully they should be fine now

more photo's

Just a photo of the leeks - which are growing very well. Cant wait to eat them!

Broadbeans are doing very aswell.

Early Sunday Morning Visit

This morning I went to the allotment in my own. Got up at 8.15am and left the house about 9.30am. Steve was still in bed when I left. I wanted to get some work done on the allotment today but had to get up early as we have tcikets for a rugby game today, Wasps v Bath.

I mainly wanted to do a bit of weeding and tie up my broadbeans - got to the allotment and realised I forgot the the string. throught I might have to go back home but luckily two of my neighbours came to introduce themselves and I mentioned I needed to go home and get some string,luckily they had some in there shed so they very kindly gave me some string- woohooo.

I love meeting new people on the allotment. Everyone is very friendly and they give some excellent advice. As we are new to growing veg we take all advice we can.

It also seems one of the nearby overgrown allotments has been cleared by council so someone should be taken that plot soon. I do feel sorry for them taking on an allotment in November!!

These are the strawberries we planted. The two varieties are Florence and Alice. They seem to be liking there new plot. I think they where very squashed in the pots I used.

Yes we are mad!

We planted the onions last night ( around 7.3opm)

We had head laps and the car lights to help us see what we was planting.

I need to go back very soon and tie up my broad beans. They are getting very long and starting to bend over.

whats on the allotment?

Well we only have a few items growing as we got the allotment out of the growing season.

At the momment I have leeks which started life in my back garden. I went mad when I was sowing the leeks, I sowed the whole packet so i ended up with loads - I did not have the space so I gave them away on a recycle web site to give them away as I could not bring myself to throw them away. I sowed some in my back garden and some in my allotment - luckily we was giving the allotment when the leeks where big enough to be placed in the ground.


I also have peppers, my mum bought me a pepper plant which I have got about 4 peppers of the plant. I did have them in my garden in pots but decided to plant them on my allotment, its a bit late for them to be out but they seem to be doing all right. I might pick the bigger ones tomorrow

We also have broad beans,Cabbage and Broccoli, these are all new to us so we are trying to get loads of advice on them. Our neighbour recommend us to cover the cabbage and brocoli with some wire as the birds loves them and she lost some last year. They where growing great and then they was gone :-( I had a look at the cabbage when I took this photo and they are growing well.