clare's Diary 2008

You can still read the 2007 diary here.

May 2008

May 2nd: A sunny evening saw three of us at the allotment. I weeded the broad bean bed (the broad beans are now about 6 inches high), David turned over what will be the brassica bed, while our extra helper, Myra weeding the flower garden. All in all, a good evening.

Meanwhile, in our home greenhouse we've now grown from seed: cherry tomatoes, brussel's sprouts, brocolli, cauliflower, sweetcorn and broad beans. With summer cabbage, dwarf french beans, squash and courgettes planted but which still haven't germinated.

April 2008

April 20th: In between the showers we managed to plant out one bed of second earlies, Picasso, following on from David's successful planting of the first earlies yesterday (Arran Pilot). I finished planting the onion sets in the remaining two beds with a mix of Red Baron and Centurion varieties. I also plant two rows of peas, covering them with empty plastic bottles that had been cut on half to make mini cloches. David is hoping to take advantage of his day off tomorrow to plant our second variety of second earlies, Kestral. We decided against planting any main crop potatoes this year as we have had two years of blight.

April 6th: Blimey, snow, rain, hail, wind, is it really April. we decided to bite the bullet today and plant something. Two rows of broads beans have gone in, as have 3 rows of onion sets. All undercover as snow is predicted for the next few days, but we're keen and eager to get started. we would normally have our first early potatoes in by now but its either too cold or too wet to start. Maybe next weekend?

March 2008

March 23rd: It's been a while since the diary page was updated. The weather just hasn't been good for spending the day at the allotment but today was an exception. Despite the predicted snow the weather remained dry and sunny but ith a cold enough breeze to need to keep your hat on! Took the Mantis to most of the allotment beds today and got them all turned over and paneled in ready for planting. Unfortunately, most of my seedlings have succumbed to the cold nights so I will have to start again with those. The potatoes are still in the 'chit' stage and hopefully, will be ready for the first earlies to go out some time next month.

February 2008

February 24th: Hoorah! At long last. I'm not sure who (preston or South Ribble council), but someone has repainted the hatched lines outside the allotment gates. At long last, we've been waiting for ages for them to be repainted to stop people (mainly those using the football pitches) from blocking the entrance. We spent a good few hours at the allotment today planting the perennials I bought for the flower garden. I bought them through a catalogue in the Daily Express. I also bought two miniature apple and 1 miniature pear tree for the patio at home. The allotment flower garden is looking good! The brocolli and cauliflower are still growing strong as are the tumbling tomatoes I planted. All the potatoes are now "chitting" in egg boxes. They should be ready for planting through March, April and May.

February 17th: Brrr, we had a frosty start at the allotment today. Anything in shade was frozen solid. Luckily the allotments are a sun trap so we were able to keep warm. today we turned over the two beds we will need first, the onion bed and the first early (new) potato bed. I started to clear the flower garden ready for my new plants which are already on order. At last we are making a start to the season. Last week I planted cauliflower and brocolli seeds in a propagator at home, so far 19 of the 20 brocolli have sprouted but no sign of the cauliflower.

February 2nd: Oh dear, we are getting off to a slow start this year! we had great plans to fix the fence, board in the beds etc and so far this year we have done not a lot. The bad weather plus a sudden illness in the family has meant that we won't be doing much in the short term. I have bought a mini greenhouse to go in the garden to start of the seedings and I have also found all the egg boxes from last year to start chitting the potatoes. Lets hope the weather and our health improves soon.

January 2008

Janaury 11th: A damp, cold start to the year. There isn't much growing at the moment just a few spring greens. Now is the time to wrap up well and start preparing the beds in terms of building frames. the ground is still too wet to turn over. We spent an hour transporting planks and bricks to the allotment. We intend to recyling some old bricks to use as edging to turn the larger beds into numerous smaller ones to make it easier to weed.
Our cat visitor turned up again today. We did spot a lost cat poster but the owners came to have a look and it wasn't their cat. He (or she) seems in good health but he must belong to someone!
Despite wearing 5 layers of clothes it still didn't take long to get cold so we only stayed an hour or so!