Potatoes

The potatoes are chitting nicely on my conservatory windowsill.
They are in a bright position but out of direct sunlight,oh and also out of view of Hubby,he doesn't know they are there because they are hidden behind the sofa LOL.
A couple of weeks and they will be planted,she says LOL :)

Peas

Uncovered the peas to add another row of plants variety 'Meteor'.
The peas planted a few weeks ago are growing nicely with lots of flowers now.
Covered them up again with fleece.

Blue water butt

Came up with a new idea for the blue water butt.
Instead of sawing off the lid completely leave about 5 inches and bend back.
Now you have a top the opens up to let rain water in and to close on a sunny dry day to stop evaporation....well i think it's a good idea :)

Filling the beds.

Hubby and I managed to fill 2 of the raised beds today...phew what a back breaking job that was!!!
We must have moved just over 4 tons of the topsoil which was damp and made work harder but had to be done.
I am well pleased though but will not plant anything in them yet until after a rainfall because the rain is bound to sink the soil down slightly and then will need to be topped back up and then planting begins.

Raised beds & topsoil.

Finaly got the topsoil delivered a few night ago,only 7 tons for now and 2 more loads to follow.
The soil is top graded,very pleased with it as when you squeeze it together in your hands it stays together which means it's a good loam.
The picture was taken after 6pm so quite dark.

Transplanted my peas this weekend.They are in flower already!!!covered them with horticultural fleece until they get established then will recover with netting to allow the bees to do their bit.

Raised Beds

Well now the weather has decided to warm up a little Hubby and I have been busy making the raised beds out of the scaffolding planks.
We made 6 measuring 13 ft x 5ft x10"deep..
We are now digging out all the weeds in the beds now they are in place.
The topsoil has been ordered,all 16 tons of it!!!!

Low Cost Flights

Had a delivery of scaffolding planks to make raised beds.

The centre of my allotment has very poor drainage so it makes it impossible to walk on any cultivated areas when it rains heavily.

With having raised beds i will be able to work on this area all year round come rain or shine.

The beds are in process but before i can put them into place i have to clear out the weeds and then going over the ground with the rotovator avoiding the marked out pathways.

Will post a photo of this next time :-)

January 2009

Been absent for some time on this blog but i intend to keep it updated this year :-/

Been busy cleaning out my small raised beds which i call my salad beds.

I have added mushroom compost to three of the beds for peas and beans,garden compost to a few of the beds for carrots and parsnips and very well rotted horse manure for other goodies lol.

The horse manure as been under black plastic for over a year and half and now resembles cow pats!!!!

Covered a couple of beds with black plastic to warm up the soil so i can sow my carrots, parsnips and peas in the next week or so.

I am in the process of laying down thick black plastic around the beds,this will then be covered in wood chip/bark to make neat paths.

Spring has Sprung

Hello .

What a busy start to the season already.

I have the majority of my plants in the ground already and it is only mid April,I am quite lucky because we don't generally get frost now where I am.

I have 3 types of peas on the go,one variety is Kelvdon Wonder which is approx 8" high now.

A few types of carrots which are mainly carrot root fly resistant.

Butternut squashes are doing well.I have 3 varieties this year.

Two types of courgettes one being yellow and one dark green.

Sweetcorn a few inches high growing with pumpkins.

Broad beans and french beans.

Sprouting broccoli and cauliflowers.

Leeks and onions and garlic.

Potatoes which are Maris bard,Deserrie,Nicola,King Edwards and Kestral.

Parsnips have been sown but no sign as yet.

Strawberry,gooseberry,currants are all in flower and the raspberries are full of bud.

Who would believe it is only April.

The cows in the field next to me are enjoying the good weather too with the calf's leaping around like lambs.

cucumber

This is a photo of my cucumber plant growing in my conservatory.There is two cucumbers that are already approx 6" long and 12 plus smaller ones on the way and it's only mid April.

January update

Greetings to All
Went up to my lottie today,was cold but the sun was shining.
The main reason for going was to check for storm damage.Nothing realy apart from branches fallen off trees,a good thing realy has they do cast shade over the lottie.

While up there i was very surprised by a unexpected harvest....
Carrots,potatoes,parsnips,leeks and cabbage.
The leeks and cabbage i knew of and what i thought would be the odd carrot but to my surprise i bagged up half a carrier bag full of carrots.
I knew i had a small section of potatoes which i grew on the surface of the soil under black plastic....i thought these would be no good has they should of been harvested in autumn but when i pulled the plastic away there lay loads and loads of beautiful spuds some of which are big enough for baked potatoes.
The parnips was the biggest surprise.Again i knew they was there but i didn't think that they had developed so i just left them until today.Got a delightful shock when i decided to clear the bed,there laying in wait was a fantastic crop of beautiful sweet scented parsnips.
So all in all when i got home i had roast spuds,roast parsnips,carrots and cabbage along with roast chicken yum yum.

I know i was a bit late but i also prunned my raspberries while there and covered my rhubarb with large upturned pots without drainage holes to bring forward the shoots.
Was amazed to see the roses still in full leaf...one even had a small rose on.

Anyway i am now going to start making plans for this years crops with a few changes here and there of which i will let you know in time.

AUTUMN

Had a wonderful supply of sunflowers.Here is a picture showing a container full of sunflower heads which i have cut off to dry out.The birds in my garden absolutely love them especially the tit family and the finches.I put the whole sunflower head on the bird feeding station facing upwards so the birds can come along and help themselves.
There is more than enough here to keep them going through the winter.





This is my rainbow chard.The leaves are cooked like spinach and the stems i like to cook in the oven wrapped in tinfoil with a knob of butter...yum yum.
It is still growing like mad,the more you pick the more it grows.
The colours range from white-yellow-orange-red.

AUTUMN

Well the weather as been fantastic to say that we are halfway through October!
It is now starting to look like autumn now though with the leaves on the trees changing colour and the Robin echoing all around the garden,how sweet it is too!

Because of the long spell of good weather i have had an excellent year for carrots...this picture shows a bunch that i pulled in one go...i didn't thin them out but they still grew big and healthy,the picture doesn't really show their size,they are bigger than they look.

This is a picture of my brassica cage which is made out of 1cm square netting.My second attempt at making the cage as the first time around i used 1" square netting which allowed the cabbage white butterflies in.This time around it as worked well.

I have both savoy and hispi cabbages growing in there along with some purple sprouting broccoli.

The cabbages are forming lovely hearts so it will not be too long before they are ready.

LATE SUMMER

This is my third batch of sweetcorn which is a late variety...the cobs are beginning to really swell now....i am still harvesting batch no.2.
The carrots was sown at the end of July so i would be able to harvest these for winter...they are growing a lot quicker than i expected them to.The variety is 'Flyaway'....I have had a fantastic success rate with these all season...really recommend them.

LATE SUMMER

What an harvest i have had this summer!!!I am well chuffed with all my onions,the red ones are so strong in flavour,the picture shows just a few off them that needed to be dried off a wee bit more and the rest are in my shed in an hessian sack.Next to the red onions in this picture are my garlic corms which i grew from two corms from the supermarket...what a success they are.The other picture shows a large amount of shallots which i will be pickling most of very soon and saving some for replanting in autumn.Also i have a sack full of large cooking onions.

Sweetpeas.Took this photo after i had stripped the plants to make several bunches of sweetpeas to take into work for my freinds,it is my birthday this Sunday so i took them in instead of cream cakes along with 3 carrier bags full of mixed veg,well they all tell me they are on diets :)
My youngest son Lewis doing a bit or should i say a lot of strimming for me,the weeds grow faster than the veg!!!
Yellow courgettes,had 9 courgettes off this one plant so far,yummy.I am also growing 'black night' which is a dark green variety.

These are one crop of my 3 varieties of sweetcorn,this one is 'minipop'.I have planted a pumpkin plant in the middle of them which was given to me a couple of weeks ago,it as grown a fair bit since i took this photo last week.

This is one of my salad boxes,they are approx 36" x 48",i got them from hubby;s work,they are fold up crates that also stack onto each other to make deeper boxes...have 12 so far!In this box i have 3 rows of mixed salad leaf lettuces and 3 rows of baby beetroot.When thinning out the lettuce i pull the whole plants out and use them allowing the other plants to grow better.


Here i have beetroot growing in the forground followed by parsnips then red onions and behind them are hundreds of shallots.The rows are approx 20ft long....goodness knows what i am going to do with it all!!!Think i best save glass jars from now onwards for pickling.