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

Harvest the Garlic

11072009044.jpg,
originally uploaded by lozza1.

As the Garlic was looking a little rusty we decided to harvest half of the crop. Arthur decided to help daddy but found it more funny hitting the garlic against our neighbours shed!!! The grandparents can have that one hehehehe!

Garlic - Solent wight

I decided to dig up one row of the Garlic as they where getting a little rusty. They look fab now they have been cleaned up. Now making the Kitchen smell of Garlic

2009 Garlic

Our Garlic growing lovely in our alloment. I bought my bulbs from the Garlic Farm in the Isle of wight.

Trying onions in pots

It seems the Warmans went a bit mad this year on buying over wintering onions. I think if we planted all of them I am sure the whole plot would nearlly be covered!!!

I have planted a few and they seem to be doing very well. I started weeding them today,as the onions where big enough to know they where onions and not weeds. Due to have loads over I have decided to see if they will grow in pots.

As it is a lovely day today I managed to spend about an hour at the allotment with Arthur. Planted two buckets of onions and three garlic.

Should be interested how they turn out.

Update

Managed to get to the allotment on Sunday Afternoon, we spent the morning at helping out at the Hazlemere Garden center, its a place that is only open on Sunday mornings 10-11am but it sells cheap garden related materials. You pay a few quid to become a member but you must help out in the shop once a year. Steve helped with the lifting off the Compost and I ( as I am 30 weeks pregnant) collet tickets at the exit. This ensured goods had been paid for before people left the area.

We went to the allotment after our shift ( only 2 hours) and dug up a loads more spuds. We got a very good crop, some better than others but as it our first full year we are just grateful for anything.

I also took the spuds I need to plant for Christmas. I have placed a few in Potato barrells, and I will plant a few in the ground and see what happens. Also plan to plant a few at home aswell.

Need to order Garlic and Over Wintering onions very soon.

Harvested Garlic

27062007.jpg,
originally uploaded by lozza1.

Here is a picture of the Harvested Garlic - Don't they look great!!

Garlic

Not looking good. But once harvested they look great.

Quick Update

Just come back from a trip to the allotment. Planted a few flowers, Borlotto Lingua ( Climbing) and some cauliflowers which have been growing at home in small pots in the spare room.

The potatoes we planted a few weeks ago have started to appear, the onions, strawberries, garlic, raspeberries, peas are doing well. The broadbeans are still not doing well. I was close to pulling them all up but relised I have a few growing. I think I may have enough for one meal but not holding my breath. As mentioned earlier I will not be growing winter ones again.

The asparagus is also doing very well. We have heard it really hard to grow but we thought we would give it a go. Most of the spears have started to grow and produce the flower. They will be ready next year.

I have a few things growing at home aswell. They are:-

Various types of toms
Butternut squash
Sweetcorn
Various type of onions
Green Beans (Dwarf)
Pumkins
Brocolli

We also have another set of potatoes to plant which we will plant in a few weeks.

I will wait till these are a bit bigger than I will plant in the allotment

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.

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.

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.

More Garlic

It seems I have gone mad on Garlic. Planted loads on the allotment and planted a few pots in the back but I still have some left over.

I do love Garlic but I think I have planted for atleast 6 months use I think!

Time to Spread the Manure

We thought it would be a good idea to start placing the manure on the plot rather than it sititng on the side doing nothing. Steve had the hard job of sholving the manure in the wheelbarrow and then walking it down to the other end. I had the easy job of just spreading it. I did try it once but It was decided Steve did a better job then me.

The picture is Steve working hard while I chat to our neighbour. Well this was the first time we met so its important to get to know your allotment neighbours










This is my hard work!



We still have a bit more to move but we made a good dent in the pile.

I also planted some Peas and some more Garlic. I love Garlic. I grew some in my back garden ( Elephant Garlic) and they worked out really well.

Also picked 2 green pepers as they where ready to eat.