A Trip or Two Down The Allotment

I had a couple of trips down the allotment in the last few weeks to get things moving with my new raised beds... first thing I needed to do was get some compost for the strawberry bed and the root bed. I opted for the councils recycled material compost or as they call it 'soil conditioner'. I picked up 40 bags of it from our local tip.

Each bag contained 40 litres, I had to make 4 trips. The paths at the allotment was so bogged down I couldn't risk taking the car up the tracks in case I got stuck. So I had to carry each bag 100 yards. I can tell you I was exhausted after doing that 40 times! To make it worse I kept slipping on wet sloppy mud! Further more after loading my last 10 bags and about to leave the tip... the guy who took my money then told me that I could of actually got it delivered to my plot! I took the chaps number and said I would do that next time... Not my favorite allotment trip!

As you can see I had no energy to place them down nicely

Then I lugged those 40 bags down the plot to empty them into two beds. My strawberry bed took 12 bags and my root bed took 28 bags, my root bed is not yet fully filled but it will do for this season I think!

The root bed...

The strawberry patch...

The main reason why I bought this compost is the price... £2 for 40 litres is very good price so I came to the conclusion that I will use it as a bulking agent and at a later date I would be able to add better quality compost or farmyard manure. I will also be using seaweed extract liquid that I got from Shropshire Seaweed.

Last week a local brewery delivered a few sacks of spent hops! So of course I nabbed myself 3 sacks and one sack went into the strawberry bed and the other two sacks went into the root bed.

The spent hops

The hops before I raked them in

The hops smelt gorgeous when I first got them but after a few days they stunk, as my wife kept telling me yesterday. I have heard good things from other plot holders that spent hops work really well for them. So I took the chance and mixed them in my new compost. 

Yesterday myself and Lauren popped down the lottie to plant the new strawberry runners that I bought from Thompson&Morgan. I got three varieties... Elegance, which is a mid season variety. Florence, a late season variety and Flamenco, an ever-bearing variety which should flower from May to November. Its a good thing that myself and Lauren love strawberries. 

Me separating the strawberry runners (I think I need a tan)

We have a week off this week so hopefully we can get a few jobs done at the lottie like taking a few trips to the tip to get rid of some rubbish and getting the ground ready for planting for the coming spring. 

So all in all I have had a trip or two down the allotment....

Thanks for reading...

Stuart (@allotadventures)


 UA-38992916-1

My first constuction project

Hi everyone, well I decided to buy some scaffolding boards and I wanted to make four main beds and two raised beds at the back of the plot. So last week I recruited the father-in laws help with driving the Transit van and we traveled an hour and a half to pick up the boards. When we got there we saw a French flag flying proud. The chap who was selling the boards to me was a Scouser, so not the typical French man. So when we loaded the boards on the van we had to ask "why the flag?" It wasn't much, he was only in the French Foreign Legion for five years! A man you want to be with in a pub!

Anyway back to the plot we went... First of all the gate was broken so we couldn't get in the site! So I had to jump the gate and the father in law passed the boards through the fence near the plot. We only had 36 of them! We had 16 3mtr boards and the rest was 6ft boards. So after stacking them all on the plot I had no energy to start so I decided to leave it till yesterday.

The plan was to have the main beds 4.5mtrs x 4.5mtrs. Lauren started to measure and it would take a full 3mtr and I had to cut some off a 6mtr board so we would have a lot of off cuts. So we decided instead to construct the beds 4.5mtrs x 3mtrs.

The first bed constructed

As you can see from the pic I constructed the first bed, with this bed I used a hammer and nails, what a mistake! It took me ages! So the wife went to her Dad to get a drill for me! Life saver! Its not a perfect bed but it does what it says on the tin. Eventually this will be filled with organic matter but I'm not overly concerned about that at this stage. This will be done through the years.

This is my sawing bench!

So with the aid of a power drill it made the process a lot easier!

The second bed was constructed. As you might see in the pic, you can see quite a mistake. Look at the gate... is there anything wrong? haha now it can not shut fully! So when I'm at the plot next I'm going to switch the hinges so it opens outwards.

So after most of the day I got the four main beds constructed! As we had to change our plans I have a lot of space still for other beds. So what I am going to do on Thursday (my next day off) I am going to see how much timber I have left and I will construct as many raised beds as possible. I say I used only half the plot for my main beds so hopefully I can construct around 6 raised beds in the available area.

All in all I had a good day, I made the plot my own and I have added structure to the place, this enables crop rotation to be easier, weeding will become easier as I will see separate areas to weed instead of a whole plot.

On another note my rhubarb is starting to make an appearance :)

Spring is almost upon us! I can't wait for the long evenings and the warm sun... and wearing shorts!!!

I hope you enjoyed reading this....

Twitter @adventuresallot

Allotment T-Shirt Venture

Hi guys, I hope everyone is fine... I have created an allotment themed t-shirt which is good quality fabric and printing. I hope that I can sell them and create more designs in the future. Here is a picture of what I have created :)

 The War Is Still On!

They come in small, medium, large and extra large. They retail at £7.99 plus £2 P&P.

If you want one please e-mail me on... allotmentadventures@hotmail.com or you can buy one on eBay Allotment Adventures New T-Shirt - eBay

I hope you like the t-shirt :)

Thank you for reading

Stuart

Compost, Manure and everything else

Let me first start with it is a fundamental principal that you must replace any goodness to the ground that was taken out by growing vegetation. This is a basic skill that every grower must do to ensure good yields season to season.

However there are many manures and composts that can be used, not only natural manures as in cows, horses, chickens and pigs. You can also buy man made plant food, for example you can buy brands like 'Miracle-Gro' and 'Osmocote' which gives plants and veg all they need. This is really only good on a small scale as products like these cost a lot more money compared to a trailer load of manure from your local farmer. Of course they are not organic so would not suit everyone. (I use them, as I am not a 100% organic grower).

Everyone knows what cow and horse manure is, it's that steaming pile of crumbly, rotting poo that sits on a farm, this is great stuff if you can gain access to it, it comes in the trailer load and it spreads lovely on your veg patch. However it must be well rotted before use as it will burn most vegetation. So you must plan a head when you want to use it. It normally takes between 6 - 12 months for it to be usable. Some crops doesn't like the ground when it has been manured like carrots as these will fork and split. As good as cow manure is, it does have a disadvantage, it can sometimes carry weed seeds, so when your spreading it on your plot you are also spreading weeds. For me it is not a major concern as my plot is full of weeds anyway but for some people this is a BIG no no!


This takes me on to Chicken manure, you can buy chicken manure pellets from your garden centre, and most hardware shops like B&Q. I use chicken pellets as my main manure as they don't have any weed seeds in them, they are easily distributed, you can store them away in your shed and they don't cost much. If you struggle to get manure I would strongly recommend using chicken pellets as they are easily obtainable. You can also buy them in a organic form!


I don't know whether it would fit in the category of manure or compost, but I have a worm farm which I have in my back garden, two reasons why, they make a great compost also they make a tea, this tea makes a great instant plant food. It has to be diluted 10 parts to 1, this shows how strong it is. I haven't yet used any, so I can not tell you the results! If you want to own one of these please keep the farm from direct sun light as this will cook the worms alive! Also in the winter make sure that they are somewhere in which is frost free. There best temps are between 5 - 10 degrees, for the next few months my farm is safely tucked away in the shed.

Compost is great as it uses up all your kitchen waste, I think local councils should issue a free compost bin to each household as it reduces waste dramatically, after we got our new bin it cut our waste down to one black bin a fortnight. Any kitchen scrap which is a raw vegetation can go into the compost bin, any old paper and cardboard can go in there too. Give it a year and all that scrap will be turned into a brown crumbly heaven in which you can spread on your plot or use as a potting compost. If you don't have a compost bin you can dig a trench or hole and throw your scraps in there and dig them over, in a year this will be a thriving place for worms and plants. You can also buy compost from your local garden centre, not badly priced as well.

You can now buy lots of things from the garden centre that will get the goodness back into the ground. I have only scratched the service, you can buy things like 'Grow More' 'Fish,blood and bones' 'Nitrogen' and many more. One thing you should always remember, don't go season to season without giving the ground attention, you will only regret it as you won't have big yields and each year they will get smaller and smaller.

Digging Up The Strawberry Patch

Well I popped down the plot on Thurs just to check out my onions, well I ended up staying for four hours. I love when that happens (the wife isn't too fond of it).

 Impressed by my winter onions

So I decided to dig up the strawberry patch, I didn't save any runners as I didn't know what variety they were. The books say you should only have your strawberry plants for three years and as I only took the plot over this year I have no idea how long they have been there. I will be buying bare roots for the next growing year.

 A Strawberry flower but no bees to pollinate

The strawberry patch after it was dug over

 

The person who had the plot before me also laid down some weed membrane, I don't like this stuff as I believe it doesn't do the soil any favours also weeds was growing through it anyways! So I pulled up all the weed membrane and dug over the patch. She also put the membrane down under the fruit bushes, I put a hand full of chicken poo pellets down for them but I thought the goodness won't get through the membrane so it had to come up. I mixed it with the soil, so hopefully this will give them an extra boost for next Spring.

As I was giving the fruit bushes some chicken pellets I thought i'd give some to the rhubarb.

My rhubarb crowns

 

I can't believe that the rhubarb will grow into such a giant compared to what it is now! If I took the plot over this week I could of quite easily without knowing dug up the crowns. What a crime that would of been! 

I am making plans for next year, I have ordered my seeds already and should be arriving in the next couple of months. I ordered them through the allotment assocation so I don't know how and when they will be delivered. 

I shall be going up the plot this week if the weather permits just to tidy up the place, get the paths sorted and make a compost area. I will also need to think about constructing a raised bed for the new strawberries that will be going in next year.

Thank you for reading and I will see you all again soon

The Winter Dig

Hi guys, I hope everyone has had a great weekend and what a weekend have we had with the weather. I woke up Saturday morning and the sun was shining... so after visiting the butchers and green grocers (the green grocer advised me to spray 'round up' on all my plot weeds and crops so that I will come more often!) and after all the hello's in town I walked down the allotments, I was faced with a challenge my first winter dig. I had an experienced hand advising me how I might go about it, I asked him whether he used any horse muck, he said no as it has a lot of weed seeds in it so he only uses chicken manure pellets, his allotment is producing a lot! So it must be working for him, so I might try the chicken pellets as I have a few tubs of the stuff in the shed and the car actually, I must get those out of there soon. He gave me a marrow which was very nice so I got some good advice and some of his produce... bargain!

Before

After

So I started with the dig, it was hard work but fun, as you can see I have left the soil in big chunks as the frost will do the hard work of breaking the soil down, I think working with nature is a partnership, if I do some hard work I expect nature to do some aswel :). I had plenty of time to think about next season while digging. I've decided against converting my whole plot to raised beds as it is a big expense which isn't necessary, so what I will do is if I can get any timber for raised beds I will do one by one. I will be planting my strawberries in a raised bed so I can control the soil and be able to put up some protection for them.

So it took me around four hours to dig over half the plot. I am glad I did it yesterday as a hard frost was upon us last night. So when I got home I thought a nice hot bath would be great for my aching muscles.

So today my muscles are aching but it is a good ache as I know I did something with my two hands and next year I will get my rewards with a lovely crumbling soil!

At home I have a worm farm which I have had for about four months, the worms don't like direct sunlight or low temps. Many people leave there worm houses in direct sunlight and all this does is bake them alive, not very nice for the worms or our noses! So if your thinking about keeping one, keep the house in the shade and in winter make sure they go somewhere which is inside so the frost won't kill them. So I have moved them to the shed which keeps the frost off.

 The worm farm, before being moved in the shed

I hope you guys have a good week and lets hope for a few more frosts to get rid of those slugs and snails!

What a few weeks

First of all sorry for not updating as much, its been a busy few weeks, with getting a new puppy 'Pixel' and getting her to the vets each week. It almost seemed like it has been raining everyday! Going to the allotment was being sacrificed. I finally had time to go to the allotment on Saturday and what a day, the sun was out and no rain! So I went down for about five hours.

My main objective was sowing my 'over-winter onions' white and red, my peas and broad beans. I had a patch covered with carpet and plastic which my very nice neighbours lent me a few months ago. The first thing I had to do was to return them, a heavy and messy job. There was some big puddles on that plastic sheeting! I was covered with mud at the end of it, I didn't mind really.

Then I went to pulling up my runner beans and canes, I was tempted to dry out the pods so I would have free seeds for next years but I wasn't to sure whether you can save F1 beans or not??

So after pulling carpet and plastic sheeting around the allotments, I was finally able to sit down in the sun and have a very nice sandwich and Chelsea bun :)

While in the middle of sowing my onion sets I discovered a lot of ants, there is a nest somewhere. It must of been a brilliant home for the little insects under plastic sheeting. Are they dangerous to the onion sets and veggie in general?

Well I sowed 160 onions, two rows of broad beans (they say broad beans support themselves, is this true?) and two rows of peas, I constructed a support for the peas that will hopefully climb on, I used whatever I could find on the plot, I found 3 sturdy posts, and a length of plastic green fence thingy that was very popular in gardens when I was a kid. Anything I can use which is free is brilliant.

My red onion sets, hopefully with correct spacings!

My pea support made with recycled materials! Popular fencing from the 90s

I couldn't believe how early it is getting dark already, by 7 o'clock it was dark, so I guess my visits to the allotment will get fewer and fewer with the on coming months. What do allotmenters do in these coming months? Many things can't be started in pots till after xmas, so what is there to do? Prepare the ground before the frosts come, buy new canes etc or just sit in the warm till March!

Tidy rows?

So on my next visit to the plot I shall be de-weeding all the ground, and digging over the soil for the winter, I'm trying to get my hands on some well rotted muck, if I can't get hold of some I will just have to use chicken pellets when ever I sow something!

This Friday night there is an awards evening for the allotments, So i'm looking forward to that, it is my wife's and my first allotment gathering. So it be good to see and speak to other plot holders other than my neighbours.

Well I hope I haven't just waffled on about nothing and I hope to see you all again!

Happy allotmenting