Plot Blog

A Quick Message

2008-03-06T00:45:00.003+01:00

Just a quick message to say that as this PlotBlog has sadly fizzled out over the past year or so, and since I no longer have a proper allotment plot to write about, I've started up another blog over at MiniPlot. Notes on small suburban gardening. Smaller amounts (but hopefully still many types) of veggies, due to lack of space, but also more on other stuff: Ponds, trees, flowers and worms....

We, sow the seed... Nature, grows the seed...

2007-05-23T22:24:00.001+01:00

I spent a relaxing hour or so this evening finishing off my raised bed, and sowing some veggie seeds. I topped off the bed with a mixture of rotted horse manure and (peat free) compost, and added a bag of perlite. I then divided the bed into 1 x 1.25 foot sections using bamboo canes, giving me sixteen rectangles to play with. Depending on the crop I either sowed a few seeds into a grid of holes in each rectangle, or broadcast them randomly.

So far I have sowed:

American Land Cress
Spinach
Turnips (for harvesting when small)
Chinese Broccoli (never tried it, worth a go)
Swiss Chard (Bright Lights) - sowed into two rectangles, as I'll only get a few plants per rectangle
Lettuce (Leibacher Ice)
Lettuce (Red and Green Mixed)
Carrots (Early Nantes)
Radishes (French Breakfast)

Beetroot (Detroit Red Ball)

Hopefully something will start to grow before long! I will get a photo posted soon.

Raised bed

2007-05-21T15:12:00.000+01:00

I spent a pleasant few hours on Sunday afternoon listening to the cricket whilst I constructed a raised bed in the back garden, so I can grow a few veggies at home. It's eight feet long by two and a half feet wide (i.e. long and thin!) but it will allow me to grow a few bits and bobs, especially if I adopt the Square Foot Gardening approach.

I'll post a photo when it stops raining long enough to take one, but it's quite basic, made from gravel boards and wooden stakes for strength. Building the thing was easy, getting it level(ish) then filling it with soil was the hard bit. I could hardly move when I tried to get out of bed this morning!

Wigglers

2007-05-08T15:23:00.000+01:00

I set up my wormery on Friday evening, which proved to be very simple. I then spent the next day or so worrying that the initial worm bedding material was too wet and the worms were drowning, or that I'd added too much waste in one go as nothing was happening to it. However, by last night there was clear indication of worm activity amongst the food scraps, so all seems to be well.

I am sure my wife thinks I'm a bit mad as I keep on checking under the lid to see how they're doing. I haven't given them all names yet though. I think I shall use the collective name Geoff for all of them, as they're a bit difficult to tell apart.

Introducing Geoff the worms.

The Worms! The Worms Are Here!

2007-05-04T13:21:00.000+01:00

To cheer myself up a bit after having to give my allotment back, I bought myself a Can-O-Worms wormery for the garden, from these lovely people.

It arrived this morning, and although I have yet to add the worms (tonight's job) I assembled the wormery in the garden.

Very swish. In a few months or so I hope to have a good supply of compost and 'worm juice' from all our kitchen scraps.

Letting go...

2007-04-19T13:49:00.000+01:00

After having a bit of a think I've decided to let my plot at the Royal Paddocks Allotments go. What with our new family and moving house last September, I've just not had the time to do enough to keep the plot shipshape, not to mention growing and tending crops.

I harvested the last of my leeks a few weeks ago and started to clear out my shed. There is apparently a long waiting list so I'll be glad to let the plot go to someone who hopefully has the time to look after it. They'll inherit my shed, water butt, compost bins and cold frame too, so they're getting quite a good deal!

I'm sorry to have to stop allotmenteering for the time being, as it's been very enjoyable. However I am not stopping veggie growing entirely, as with my greenhouse and a couple of small spaces in our little garden at home I am hoping to keep my hand in, and I will no doubt post about my efforts (and hopefully results) here from time to time. I've already sown a couple of varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and aubergines under glass, and planted four strawberry plants into a container on the patio. Sam has also sown a handful of sunflowers - he know exactly what to do (at 15 months old!) when I gave him each seed, planting it into each pot without having to be shown how! Green fingers indeed.

Who knows, perhaps one day I'll be able to afford the time to get another plot somewhere - maybe if Sam is a little older and wants to help grow his own food.

My son, the gardener

2006-10-13T16:24:00.000+01:00

Not much news from the plot recently I'm afraid. The new house and garden have taken priority. I am planning on getting down there sometime soon if the weather holds, to hack back the no doubt rampant weeds, tidy up and see whether my pumpkins and squash are ready for harvest.

In the meantime, this is a photo of our son Sam, with a little pot of cress that he grew at nursery (with a little help from his friends). It seems that I may have a new under-gardener...

Our Garden

2006-09-05T10:42:00.000+01:00

Anne has taken some great pictures of our new house to show people who can't get to visit just yet, including a couple of our garden:

It's quite small, but easy to maintain, although some of the plants are quite 'mature' and are going to need trimming back a bit to expose the flower beds, although I'm not going to do too much to it this year, to see what flowers and when next year and how it looks. The tree is a flowering cherry, which may or may not be suffering from canker, but it seems to be healthy enough at the moment.

The triangular 'bed' at the back of the picture above actually contains a small pond, in which I have put my single remaining goldfish and pleco. They seem to be happily coexisting with the resident pond snails and frog, which we see fairly frequently. Natural slug control! Through the arch is my greenhouse on the right, the roof of which is currently covered in an unidentified plant. Removing that to let some light in is a pressing job! To the left is a small bed which once cleared of another bamboo (and a small eucalyptus tree of some kind) should allow me to plant a few veggies outside. Also in the photos you can see one of my birthday presents from the weekend - a clay chiminea which I have yet to try out. That should keep us warm in the chilly evenings.

New House

2006-08-30T15:26:00.000+01:00

We've just moved house, from a rented two bedroom flat to our own three-bedroom house. Unfortunately all the to-ing and fro-ing means that trips to the allotment have been few and far between lately, but hopefully normal service will be resumed shortly. Our new place is now a car trip away from the allotment site, but I might see about getting a new plot a bit closer to home sometime. In the meantime our new house also has a small garden and a greenhouse, so I will also be dealing with that in the coming months. I am at the very least looking forward to some good crops grown under glass next year!

Overgrowth

2006-06-23T09:39:00.000+01:00

Spent a very brief period on the plot yesterday afternoon, as I was off sick with a stomach bug but desperately needed to get some fresh air. Couldn't believe the amount of growth on some of the plants, whilst others seemed to be coming on very slowly. The artichokes are now over six feet tall (and wide!), and have quite a few globes maturing on them. Only one of the six courgette plants I originally planted seems to have survived the slugs intact, with two others looking as if they are on their last legs. The survivor is one of the yellow ones, and we had our first little courgette from it yesterday! The leeks have grown amazingly in a few weeks - from tiny wisps to almost spring onion dimensions. The sweetcorn, however, doesn't seem to be doing much at all. Very sluggish, but I suppose it might take off soon. The squash plants and the pumpkin I was given by a nieghbour are doing OK, and I was amazed to see that one of the original "Jack Be Little" plants that was decimated by slugs has made a bit of a comeback. We may get some weeny little pumpkins yet!

My first proper harvest this year (quite late, but then it's understandable) was broad beans. The plants are huge, and I harvested over a kilo (shelled weight!) of the larger beans, and last night froze them for later consumption. There was quite a bit of blackfly on the plants, but it doesn't seem to be slowing down bean production too much, and I was really pleased to see a huge number of ladybird larvae on and around the plants too. I can put up with blackfly if they are feeding ladybirds!

The weeds, however, are back with a vengeance. I'm afraid I had to resort to Glyphosate on one particularly bad patch of bindweed, but these days I simply don't have the time for frequent repeated weeding by hand. Bits of the plot also need a good going over with the strimmer, but I wasn't feeling up to it yesterday, so will have a go at it this weekend if I get the chance.

Scorching Saturday

2006-06-03T21:28:00.000+01:00

Today was an absolute scorcher. I spent the longest time so far this year down on the plot - most of the morning as well as going back with the family in the evening. Everything is growing pretty well, although I have lost all my "Jack Be Little" pumpkin plants and three of my six courgette plants to slugs. That was very sad to see when I arrived on the plot this morning. The slugs have also had a go at the first row of my potatoes, which I have never seen before on my plot - they must have been hungry. Luckily one of my neighbouring plot holders offered me one of her spare pumpkin plants - it will produce full sized fruit, but at least we'll have something for Halloween!

I spent the morning tidying up a bit, and planted out my leeks and brussel sprouts (at last!) and three butternut squash plants. I then sank pop bottles (with the bases cut off) nozzle-down next to all my sweetcorn plants, the squash plants, as well as the remaining courgettes. The idea is that by filling the bottles with water it will get right down to the roots of the plants, instead of just sprinkling it on the surface where most of it will evaporate in this weather. We'll see whether it works.

In the afternoon Anne, baby Sam and I went back to the plot and tidied up a bit further, mowed the grass, sorted out the area around the shed a bit and planted some new marigolds in the flower bed. I also covered the brussel sprouts with netting to keep the pigeons and butterflies at bay, and liberally sprinkled slug pellets all around the crops that had already taken a bashing. I do try not to use any nasty chemicals on the plot, but there are so many slugs about that something needs to be done, and pellets are it (I don't have the time or the stomach to wander about with a torch at night picking them off one by one). I do use pellets that claim to incorporate something that deters other wildlife from eating them, which I hope is true.

Anyway, we rounded off a really nice (if tiring) day with a BBQ on the plot, the first one we've had for ages. Yum.

Cornish delights

2006-06-03T21:15:00.000+01:00

I haven't had much time to blog for the past week, but have to relate the fabulous sights we saw during our holiday in Cornwall the week before last. Unfortunately it poured with rain for 90% of the time, but that didn't stop us wandering around both the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project, and indeed the weather may well have kept the worst of the crowds at bay.

Heligan was excellent, the productive gardens are a real eye-opener. The rest of the gardens are just stunnig too - especially the Jungle valley, which we nearly didn't go and look at because it's a bit of a walk from the rest of the gardens, and it was raining. However I'm glad we did because it was fantastic.

The Eden Project just blew me away completely. You cannot comprehend the size of those biomes until you are actually standing next to one - pictures just don't do them justice. The humid tropics biome is simply amazing (and very very hot!). So much to see, I could fill up pages, but I will just say go and see it!

The first photo is a shot across the ex-clay pit towards the humid biome. The second is a shot of one of the waterfalls and lakes in the humid biome itself.

Plant Sale

2006-05-17T14:17:00.000+01:00

Helped out at our annual plant sale at work today. Despite the slightly damp weather it looks like we made around £700 in under two hours.

I was being very good and not buying any plants, as we're off on holiday on Friday, and they'd die in our flat while we're away. However, the chap who grew most of the plants for the sale said he'd look after anything I wanted to buy until we got back, so I bought:

Peppers (two each of Californian Wonder and Sweet Banana)
Two trays of marigolds (African Crackerjack)
Basil (Genovese)
Lavender
Sage - which will be used in a dish I'm cooking tonight.

A losing battle?

2006-05-14T19:01:00.001+01:00

Arrived on the plot yesterday morning to find that the grass had taken over again since I was last there. Grrrr. The plot is rife with couch grass and it's the bane of my gardening life. No matter how carefully you turn the soil and try to remove every last bit of root, the darned stuff comes flooding back within minutes. It's one thing I shall not miss if I have to give up this plot when we move house.

However, after a couple of hours digging and raking I had a few more beds prepared. I planted sweetcorn into one; a block of 12 plants, each 18 inches from it's neighbours. I must say that growing sweetcorn in the cardboard tubes from loo rolls has been a success - the tubes stayed in one piece, and there was no disturbance to the root systems as I dropped each tube into the ground. I shall definitely be doing that again, and for other plants as well.

In between the sweetcorn I planted three pumpkin plants, in the hope that they will provide some ground cover around the corn stems, and not choke them entirely.

I also planted six courgette plants, three green and three yellow.

All my previous plantings seem to be coming on well, despite the couch grass - the onions are poking their heads above the soil, and the potatoes have started to show, after only two weeks! The broad beans are in flower, and we'll hopefully get a good crop soon.

Once I'd done the planting I set to work again with the petrol strimmer, hacking back the overgrowth on the grassed area and around the plot edges. Anne joined me after a while and did some stirling work collecting all the grass, tidying around some of the beds and turning over the old flower bed section, which was heavily inundated with... yep, couch grass.

We're off on holiday for a week next Friday, so I'm hoping to be able to get back down to the plot before then to plant a few more things I've got in the flat - namely brussels sprouts, squash and sweet peas. Unfortunately my tomatoes won't be big enough to plant out before we go away, so I'll have to enlist some help looking after them for the week, or they'll all die of thirst before we get back. We're off to Cornwall, and I'm hoping we can visit both the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan while we're there. Fingers crossed for the weather...

Pinch, punch...

2006-05-01T19:00:00.000+01:00

...first day of the month, and I spent a good few hours on the plot. Despite the weather forecasters predicting continuous rain, it didn't rain once in Hampton Wick all day!

I couldn't believe (but shouldn't have been surprised) at the speed that the grass and weeds had grown over the past few weeks. So the first job was to crank up the old petrol strimmer and cut back the grass along the paths around the edges of the plot. After a bit more tidying up I then cleared a bed to plant my spuds - eighteen each of Pentland Crown and Anya. Should be enough. I also raked over the bed I dug during my last visit, and planted my onion setts (48 each of white and red onions). They're going in a bit late, but we'll see how they do.

There have been major developments for us over the past few weeks. We've recently had an offer accepted on a house! The vendors are currently finding somewhere themselves, and we are awaiting the outcome of surveys and all the other legal stuff, so we won't be moving that quickly. Unfortunately the new place is quite a bit further away from the allotment, so I don't really know what will happen with it. The rent is paid up until October, so we'll see whether I can still manage to get down there to tend to it frequently enough from the new place. There are allotments closer to the new house, so depending on waiting lists I might be able to get one there. The new house only has a small garden, mostly laid to paving but with a few beds (and a pond), but one big plus is that it's got a greenhouse! How exciting. Being able to grow tomatoes, aubergines, peppers etc. without depending entirely on the vagaries of the English Summer!

Toms

2006-04-19T13:51:00.000+01:00

At last, I've sown some tomatoes! It's a little late but I'm sure they'll catch up. I've also sown a few lettuce (red and green mixed) and three varieties of sweet pea that I found I had left over from last year. I don't know if they'll germinate, or indeed where I am going to put them if they do, but it felt like a good idea at the time!

Most of the seeds I've sown recently have started to come up - the butternut squash have been taking their time, and are just starting to show, but the rest have been pretty quick to germinate. I saw a good tip the other day - those free plastic shower caps that you get in hotel rooms fit nicely over a standard seed tray (or a group of pots) to make a DIY cloche/propagator! Worked a treat on my sweetcorn. Hotels around the country will suddenly find that their complimentary shower caps are actually being used! Any that I visit certainly will!

As an aside, on Easter Saturday I visited Oaktree Nurseries near Bracknell with my Brother-in-Law. I haven't visited many 'proper' nurseries, and it was a real eye-opener. It's a fantastic place, loads of plants and not just a handful of each varieties like your average garden centre, but huge swathes of plants in massive polytunnels/greenhouses that stretched over 25 acres! Everything from the tiniest bedding plants to huge mature trees. Definitely worth a visit if you're over that way and in the mood for plant shopping.

Curse of the Were-Rabbit

2006-04-10T09:19:00.000+01:00

Life follows art.

Sow...

2006-04-02T19:25:00.000+01:00

As I half-expected, I didn't get down the plot today! The weather has been alternating between sunny and chucking it down all day, so the ground would have been unworkable. My muscles were complaining this morning as well, so going out for Sunday lunch with a friend was an acceptable alternative!

However, I did sow some seeds indoors, as the picture shows. At the far end I have 12 loo roll tubes into which I sowed sweetcorn - the plan is that I can plant the entire thing, roll and all, into the ground when the time comes. Sweetcorn needs to be planted in a 'block' rather than a row to aid pollination, so hopefully 12 will be enough. I actually don't like sweetcorn much myself, but the wife does and you never know, I might like the stuff I've grown myself! If we've got it coming out of our ears (sorry) come harvest-time, I will probably be able to offload the excess on friends and family.

Other pots contain: Two type of courgette (Zuboda, which give green fruit, and Gold Rush, which are yellow), butternut squash and pumpkins (Jack Be Little variety this year). In each case I sowed more than I have space for on the plot, in case they don't all germinate. If they do I might give the extra plants to my brother or my folks.

The two square pots closest to the camera contain four seed each of Brussels Sprouts. I have not been able to get Sprouts beyond the seedling stage since I've had the plot, they never seem to survive on the plot for some reason - but I'll try again this year!

On the plot!

2006-04-01T19:12:00.000+01:00

I finally managed to get myself down to the plot today. I don't mind saying that it's looking a bit of a state, but nothing that a bit of weeding, digging and pottering about won't cure. Now the clocks have gone forward I am hoping to be able to get down there for an hour so a few evenings a week, which should help.

I started by digging over one of the beds. Couch grass was rife. I removed most of it, and buried the rest (I know it'll pop up again, but I'll be ready with a hoe when it does). I'm intending to plant my seed potatoes there tomorrow, depending on whether I can move in the morning!

The bed that had spuds in it last year was still miraculously weed free, so I raked it over and planted my broad beans in there. They've been going great guns in their rootrainers, and needed planting out before they got too leggy. As it was quite windy today I covered 2/3 of the (35!)plants with ex-water bottle cloches (until I ran out of bottles). If the remaining exposed plants don't make it then I should still have enough protected to give a decent crop of beans. The bottles will stay in place for a week or two, until the plants have come on a bit.

I also attacked the grassed area on the plot with my hand-push lawnmower (definite glutton for punishment today!). Just a rough cut, I'll have to have a go at the paths and edges with my strimmer soon.

It was nice to get down the plot again for a good few hours. I've actually been missing it, so hopefully I'll be able to get down there a bit more from now on.

Cheap seeds

2006-03-10T11:19:00.000+01:00

Bought a few more packets of seeds yesterday from Alan Romans Seeds. By not producing seed catalogues and printed seed packets (all sowing info is on their website) they can sell their seeds for only 50p per packet! If you buy over £5-worth then the postage is free too! They also have a huge variety of seed potatoes, although I've already got mine for this year.

I only bought sweetcorn Extra Tender & Sweet, courgette Gold Rush and brussels sprout Montgomery, as I've got most of the other seed I need for this season. Even with postage it was still cheaper than most garden centres!

Ready, steady, GO!

2006-02-26T21:34:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been a long time coming, but today I actually did something gardening related, now we've recovered slightly from the shock to our systems that was having a little baby in the house.

I spent an hour or so pottering around our local gardening centre this afternoon, and made a few purchases. Earlier this evening I laid out some potatoes to chit (Pentland Crown maincrop and Anya salad potatoes), sowed some broad beans (Masterpiece Green Longpod) into rootrainers, and some leeks (Autumn Poristo), basil (Sweet Genovese) and rocket into seed trays.

So they're all sitting in our enclosed balcony, getting any sunlight that might come their way over the next few weeks. Fingers crossed!

Whilst at the garden centre I bought some onion sets (Stuttgarter and Red Baron) and some other seeds for later use: Tomato Marmande, that gives irregular 'Mediterranean style' fruits, parsnip F1 Albion, butternut squash Avalon F1 and pumpkin Jack Be Little that apparently gives lots of mini pumpkins around 3-4 inches in diameter, which sounds interesting!

I also had some garden centre vouchers left over from Xmas, so bought myself a new stainless steel fork with a lovely oiled wooden handle, as my current (cheapo) one is past it's best. I also got a free pair of anvil cut secateurs thrown in! Nice.

Hopefully in the next few weeks, weather permitting, I'll be able to get down to the plot and clear away the weeds that will have poked their heads above ground, and get some parsnips and maybe the onion sets into the ground.

As an aside, after visiting the garden centre we didn't want to go home directly, so took advantage of our recently-bought National Trust membership and popped in to Ham House gardens near Richmond. The house doesn't open until the end of March, but the gardens were a nice surprise (and the tea room was very welcome as it was so cold!). I've lived in the area for over 10 years and never visited before. The grounds were obviously a bit bare at the moment, but the kitchen garden especially shows promise for later in the year.

Happy Birthday...

2006-01-20T23:32:00.000+01:00

...to Samuel Joshua Scoggins.

Rattus Norvegicus

2006-01-15T19:46:00.000+01:00

...better known as the common or garden Brown Rat.

I went down to the plot today to deposit a load of kitchen waste and shredded paper in the compost bin, and got the shock of my life when I took the lid off the bin and was confronted by a large brown rattus norvegicus sitting on top of the rotting vegetables!

I had seen evidence of rats near the bin before - holes being dug right next to the bin - but had only ever seen a rat at a distance on the allotments. It was my fault I suppose - he (or more probably they) were most likely attracted by the rotting pumpkins and squash I had put into the bin recently.

Once my pulse rate had dropped back to normal I decided to relocate the bin to the other end of the plot, away from the shed. Obviously (short of laying down poison) I doubt I will be able to deter rats from hiding in my compost if they want to, but I would rather that they were as far away from my shed as possible! However, moving the bin even just half a plot length (25m) was easier said than done. Kicking it over evicted Mr Rattie, who headed off into the undergrowth like greased lightning. I then re-sited the empty bin and started to transfer the compost by shovelling it into my large tub trug, carefully digging it over to check there were no baby ratties in residence (although Lord alone knows what I would have done if I had come across any).

On a positive note, the bottom two thirds of the bin contained pretty good looking compost - very heavy to move by the trug-load but evidence that the bin works. Now this has been well mixed in with the semi-rotten stuff during transfer, it should all rot down nicely in a couple of months.

Not a job I was expecting to do today, but I think that the bin is now in a better position - and there's plenty of space for a second (and maybe third) bin at that end of the plot, which I might add later this year.

Urgh

2006-01-03T10:33:00.000+01:00

I got a bit of a shock when I poked my head into my shed at the weekend. All my remaining pumpkins and butternut squash had gone off, in a big way. Either the frost got to them (the shed's not heated and it's been very cold over Xmas) or it's not as dry in there as I thought. They all ended up on the compost, which was quite a horrible job as some of them were very green and squishy. Ah well, I'll know not to store them in there over winter next year. I've still got one huge squash left in the flat, so that will either go for soup or roasted veggies when we've got friends visiting at the weekend.

Happily, none of the spuds I've got stored in the shed were affected, so I've still got plenty of those. The only thing left growing on the plot at the moment are a few cabbages, which seem unaffected by frost or rain.

When I've got a moment I shall have to go through my seed packets to see what I've got left from last year, what I need to buy, and plan what I need to get underway soon for those early crops.

Pressies

2005-12-29T10:43:00.000+01:00

I hope everyone got what they wanted for Xmas!

Among my pressies were a couple of gardening books, a little one with some interesting tips (the name of which escapes me at the moment) and a copy of Monty Don's The Complete Gardener. People seem to have mixed views on Monty, but I like him and his ethos (you shouldn't take Gardener's World as his final word on gardening). I find his books a very good read when I can't get onto the plot - I can almost hear his voice in my head as I'm reading!

I also got a hand cylinder mower for Xmas - very useful as we have no power on the allotments and the two petrol mowers kept by the association always seem to be in very high demand (or not working) when I want to cut the grass on my plot! I shall have to rearrange my tiny shed to accommodate it, but I think it will be very useful in the summer.