Sunday Visit

We spent a few hours down the allotment today, Arthur was very well behaved and slepted in the car to allow us to get some work done. We managed to dig over the area for the spuds and also weed the onions.

We also noticed one of our neighbours had used some bark to make a few paths so we decided to do the same, someone has dumped aload of bark so you can help yourself. We managed to put a bit by the onions before Arthur woke up for his next feed.

When we got home I decided to get my spuds out in the greenhouse and start chitting them, hopefully this year they wont get blown over and get all mixed up, this happened to me last year.

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.

The big dig has started

well the only thing to do now is to get the ground ready for the growing season and this involves loads of digging and weeding. Due to not being down the allotment for a long time I have LOADS of weeds.

I am trying to dig over the area where I had my spuds growing last year, I am planning to plant some over-wintering onions there and some garlic. I think I have done the worst of it.

I have also ordered myself a proper green house. The plastic green one was not working out. Just waiting for a delivery date, I cant wait, hopefully should help a lot this year.

Spent about an hour doing a bit if digging today. I think the best way is to dig a bit once a day and I think you achieve more.

Hopefully I will be able to plant some more over-wintering onions. planted a few in oct which need weeding BUT I need to wait till they are bigger as I am not really sure which are onions and which are weeds :-)

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.

A theft at the allotment

Went for a quick visit to the allotment last night to plant a few veg plants I haven't got around to planting yet - Pumkin, Brocolli and a Pepper plant. Also decided to harvest all of my white overwintering onions as they have all folded over. Some and really big, a few small ones but wanted to harvested them before the slugs start to eat them. A few had already been started on!!!

Below is a picture of the onions drying in my plastic green house. I should have left them drying on the ground but its too wet for that.
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Also found out our Shed was broken into aswell - not sure when. The only things taken where the Camping stove and kettle - the fact they took the CHEAP IKEA kettle really made me laugh. Luckily we took the advice from the council and they told us NOT to lock the shed as they sometimes do more damage getting into the shed and even burning the shed down!!

Another thing I finf really strange - nothing else really moved or broken ( they moved my box of milks i have but thats it) no boxes gone through and no tools taken. If you didnt know I had a stove you wouldnt know someone had been in there. It was in the same state I left it in.

Beautiful Onions

Look at our lovely onions - some of them are HUGE! I think we will harvest the bigger ones very soon. They look lovely.

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

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.

Pictures of Onions

Here are the onions we planted with the help of car lights and headlights!

I do need to get some netting to stop the birds pulling them up when they do start growing.

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.

Onions have arrived Today

Well they finally arrived this morning, now do I plan some night time gardening tonight or shall wait till the weekend?

Sunday morning Vist!!

We spent sunday morning down the allotment. Our onions that I bought from ebay have still not arrived but it gave me to time to sort out the area they will go into. Lucky the area have had carpet on it since about September so no weeds but still had to dig it to get rid of any bine weed. Also added some manure. I am hoping the onions will arrive this week, so I can plant next weekend

This is be digging the area for the onions. If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see the Bine weed!!! Loads of it.

We also decided to take the strawberries we had in pots down to the allotment and plant. As we are new we did not know the plants can last for about 4 years!!! When we took them out of the small pot we realised strawberries needs loads of room. If you grow strawberries in pots we would recommend planting them in large pots.

The carpet is now starting to be removed and three new beds have been created today - still keeping the carpet for paths but it finally seems we are getting somewhere with the allotment.

We also bought a few tools and a Wheelbarrow from Wilkinson, bargin price £9.99 for a wheelbarrow. They are selling all there garden gear half price. We will be taking that down to the allotment next week.

whats else to grow?

As you can imagine we are retricted on what we can plant. We want to try and grow as much as we can as we have a lot ground to cover and we have to show we are going to use the allotment. Some of the people on the allotment seem to get really upset when new people turn up for a few times and then they never come back. At first I was offended by this sterotype BUT I sometimes take time to walk around the other allotments and there are a few sites just full of rubbish and not much growing happening. Yes our allotment is mainly full of carpet BUT its only to keep the weeds away and hopefully when the growing season starts we will be using the carpet for paths.

I have been on the The Grapefine Forum http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/ to ask for advice on what to grow, I actually asked about onions as I found out there where some winter onions which we can grow. I have just order some electric and radar Onions from ebay. Hopefully should get them before the weekend so I can plant them at the weekend and move some of the carpet :-)