Diary 2007
The Winter Potato Experiment
In August, after losing our main crop of potatoes to blight, I decided to try growing new potatoes in time for Christmas. I grew these in pots at home. I chose the Charlotte variety of new potatoes. I planted 6 containers, 3 plastic potato buckets and 3 potato "bags", all contain a combination of compost and top soil. I put 2 seed potatoes in each container. The weather wasn't brilliant but I made every effort to shield them from the worst, until they succumbed to high winds. Most of the stems snapped. However, I left them in the tubs in the hope they would grow a bit more. We emptied one in November and got enough spuds for a meal for 4 adults. We emptied the rest on December 22nd. We didn't get many but there is enough to do tasty roast potatoes on Christmas day plus a few extras. All in all, a worthwhile venture providing the plants are sheltered from wind and frost!
December 2007
December 22nd: The last visit to the allotment before Christmas. There's is nothing to do as everything is frozen solid! Our friendly cat came visting as did a robin but all we did is dig up the last ready spring cabbage.
December 15th: Decided to cut down the sprouts today. They've not been as successful as last year so we'll be having baby sprouts for Christmas this year!
December 2nd: It's raining! The allotment is flooding! All we maanged to do today is dig out the four remaining savoy cabbages before the slugs had them for tea. But blimey, they're big 'uns (the cabbage not the slugs). The sprouts are looking in a sorry state, we will just get enough for Christmas Dinner I think, but we might have to pick them early and blanch & freeze them instead of having them fresh. Our mystery visitor turned up again just as it started to rain, he stayed in the shed sat on a shelf (he's a cat by the way!) while we stupid folks went out in the rain!
November 2007
November 18th: A chilly day today, so just popped down to the allotment to check everything was ok. We picked a savoy cabbage (which I later blanched and froze) and a spring green which are ready too early!
November 11th: Another Sunday at the allotment. The savoy cabbages are growing well as are the spring greens, which are ready now! We had a visitor to the allotment today, a cat, this is his/her second visit. It doesn't look like a stray though. Dad turned over one of the beds which will have our main crop potatoes in next year, while I moved the flowers from the pumpkin/courgette bed to the flower bed.
I have already placed my order with Mr fothergill's for my potatoes for next year! I've picked Arran Pilots as the first earlies, kestrel as the second earlies and Picasso as the early main crop. I haven't gone for a late main crop as we keep losing them to blight. I might grow some in tubs at home though, if we need any. Speaking of tubs, the charlotte potatoes I am growing at home seem to be doing well. They have taken a battering with the windy weather so I moved them to a more sheltered spot. They have been surrounded by fleece to act as a windbreak. I'm keeping them watered to encourage the potatoes to swell. Let's hope there are some growing.
October 2007
October 28th: Had a good clearout at the allotment today, taking down netting and canes etc, clearing the beds ready for next year. We haven't decided if they need turning over for winter or just covered with fabric until spring. We decided to dig up all the swede and put them in storage. Three had already been attacked by slugs but the rest (12) were good. Cleaned these up and they are now stored in a sack in the garage. The last of the beetroot have come up now, so all that is left is savoy cabbage and sprouts, real winter veggies!!
October 20th: Went to the allotment first thing this morning, it was freezing cold! We harvested savoy cabbage, swede, dwarf runner beans, courgette, tomato and pepper, then decided it was too cold to do any work!!
I haven't updated the diary for a little while. There is not a lot going on at the allotment at the moment, it's mainly keeping an eye on the veg to ensure it doesn't get eaten. We did decide to remove the cover from the sprouts though as they were not growing very well. Hopefully, this will encourage them to grow big and strong. We are enjoying the swede, very tasty, I would recommend growing swede as its relatively easy.
We are expanding! No, we're not getting another allotment, but we are re-designing the garden at home to add a greenhouse and two small beds for growing salad crops and any other delicate crops that don't do well at the allotment. The greenhouse will be used to start seedings off, so I can spend more time with them!
September 2007
Saturday: 21st: A good harvest today - aubergines, tomatoes, dwarf french beans, courgettes, and the first 2 swedes!
Thursday 19th: A quick trip after to work to check that everything is ok and to water the greenhouse vegetables. Everything outside is growing well, the swedes and savoy cabbages look especially good. The courgettes are coming to an end, but we have 1 good size marrow and 1 pumpkin growing. Let's hope they grow before the frosts come.
Tuesday 17th: Oh no, the first frost has caught us out. Hurried down to the allotment tonight and covered the spring greens with a fleece. The more well-grown ones were ok, but the little ones we planted on Sunday have wilted. All the courgettes, marrows and pumpkins have blackened leaves. Lets hope they recover.
Sunday 16th: Lots of planting of daffodils this morning, as well as weeding. Those beds that are now empty of vegetables require a lot of weeding. We had a good bonfire and burnt the tomatoes (possibly blight infected so just in case).
Saturday 15th: CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! Someone has stolen 2 savoy cabbages from the allotment! There were covered with a fine mesh and weighted down with bricks. Someone had removed the bricks and cover and dug to of them up. I'm absolutely appalled and fuming mad!!!
Thursday 13th: Five more courgettes ready tonight. Oh no, not more! Also dug up some beetroot. The savoy cabbages are growing huge as are the swede. We should have plenty of veg over winter. My Charlotte bucket potatoes have sprouted too. These are growing at home out of blights way and will hopefully make up for the blight ridden main crop potatoes that we lost.
Tuesday 11th: Picked the first of the sweetcorn today and it tasted delicious.
Sunday 9th: The spring greens have a new net around them as they were pushing against the cloche. The tomatoes have now finished. We had a poor crop this year, we think they might have succumbed to blight but not 100% sure. The crop we did get was good enough though. Picked loads of french green beans ready for freezing as well as two more (normal sized) courgettes. Plenty of weeds still remaining though!
Saturday 8th: Well, it's been a week since my last diary entry and visit to the allotment. The whole family have spent an enjoyable week in Somerset. But enough of that, how has the allotment faired?! Well, most of the tomatoes have ripened, some too much and have gone moudly. But Dad picked over 20, most of which we have frozen. The beefsteak tomatoes and the cucumbers haven't faired so well and it looks like we will have to compost those. The beetroot and turnips are still growing steadily as are the savoy cabbage. The cauliflowers, despite being tied up to keep the heads white, don't look like they are growing well, but they are little sprouts forming on the Brussels which is good news.
The courgettes have gone completely mad, and we picked too giant ones (see September pics). we are still uncertain about the sweetcorn. They are some good size cobs but the weather hasn't been right, we'll see in another couple of weeks.
August 2007
Thursday 30th: Everything is still growing! We are picking about 6-8 tomatoes every other day which is good although they are not the best looking tomatoes in the world they still taste big. The courgette are coming to an end although they are still producing plenty. Another couple of weeks and they'll be finished. The savoy cabbage are now forming heads as are the cauliflowers. Our one and only pumpkin is growing altough I don't remember them being yellow last year.
Sunday 26th: Spent a good 3 hours clearing the flower garden today. It's been a bit neglected of late but now it looks a lot better. The weeds have been cleared and the roses have been pruned back. One of our allotment neighbours gave us some fresh blackberries and cooking apples today, which meant we went home with a lot of produce. Fantastic! From our own plot we had courgettes, tomatoes, dwarf french runner beans, Madeira beans (borlotti beans, we call them Madeira beans 'cause that's were we bought them from), and a handful of strawberries.
There was a lot of angry allotmenteers today as someone decided to park their car in front of the allotment gates this morning (probably someone taking part in the football). Despite the sign they blocked the entrance up until after midday. A note was left for them and they got a bit of stick as they were leaving. Some people are just completely stupid and incosiderate of others. What's worse, there's a car park for the playing fields but its further away from the pitches then our allotment entrance, so I guess that means they were too lazy to walk a distance. This picture was taken just after a car parked to the right of the car in the centre of the photos left, you can see why no one could get into the car park.
Mon 20th - Friday 25th: Just short visits every evening this week to water the tomatoes and pick any courgettes. Looks like we have a couple of pumpkins that have set and are beginning to grow and the sweetcorn tassles are going brown. The swede is doing really well too and the cauliflowers have started to form.
Thursday 16th: To help the tomatoes ripen we cut down any stems that had no tomatoes/flowers on them, plus any stems that were covering existing tomatoes. Hopefully, the tomatoes will begin to ripen. Someone delivered a pile of old scaffold boards for anyone to use, we picked out the best ready for making new beds for next year. Another courgette was ready! Oh no, who's going to end up with it now? I think probably one of the Hubbits!!
Friday 10th: Another two courgettes picked as well as 6 tomatoes and a few peas. Everything is looking well and benefiting from the bit of sunshine we have had. Deadheaded the roses, there are still plenty of buds.
Weds 8th: Just watered the tomatoes tonight. I left some marigold flowers on the marigolds rather than deadheading all of them and now I have at least 100 marigold seeds to put away for next year.
Monday 6th: I didn't go to the allotment today, I spent the evening making Courgette chutney with all the courgettes we picked yesterday. Never made it before hope its ok. Instructions are to leave it in a dark cupboard for 2-3 months so only time will tell. I hope its alright as I have 6 jars! Mum went with Dad to the allotment tonight to water the tomatoes, and she managed to trip over a piece of bamboo cane and fracture her elbow!!
Sunday 5th: Wow! What a glorious day. Sun is shining not a cloud insight and I come home with sunburn! Today Dad burnt all the potato plants to stop the spread of blight. Meanwhile, I cut down the pea plants that had died and replaced them with the new plants I've been growing under cover for the last month or so. I also cleared a lot of the broad beans and picked a bagful. The one and only marrow is still growing and there are loads of courgettes. We're having a glut! The allotment open day is approaching on the 1st September.
July 2007
Sunday 29th: It's all change at the allotment! Firstly, we pulled up the last of the onions and moved the netting/piping to cover the savoy cabbage. Then we moved the net cloches that had been covering the cabbages to cover the beetroot (which had a plastic cloche)! Phew! Everything is growing well. The few days of sunshine we have had recently seems to have done all the plants some good. There are now tassles on the sweetcorn (first sign that we'll get some corn), there are two pumpkins beginning to grow, and the marrow is huge! By the end of the day we took home broad beans, peas, 4 courgettes, 30 onions, 3 lettuces and 8 carrots (still twisted).
Sunday 22nd: Blimey it must be wet, there was a moorhen strutting around the allotment when we arrived! Today was the today to check our blight-ridden potatoes. The desiree came up first, they were infected spuds but we managed to get half a sack (about 30lb) from 2 rows of potatoes. We decided to leave the Maris Piper and the Kerr's Pink for another week as there were very few potatoes growing. Maybe they will have grown a bit by next weekend. Also dug up most of the onions, 120 good, 18 rotten cause of the rains. Not bad going, but imagine what its like to sit in a Micra driving home with 120 fresh dug onions in the boot. Phew what a smell! Anyway, they are now drying out in the garage and it stinks!!
Thursday 19th: I owe the slugs an apology! Here's me blaming them for eating my courgettes and marrows and all along it was a mouse!! I sound very calm, but when I turned the marrow and a mouse shot out from underneath it gave me a fright. I'm just about getting used to bugs (especially spiders) and now I have to contend with mice!!! Argh!!!!
Tuesday and Wednesday 17th and 18th: Just popped to the allotment to water the tomatoes. They are growing well, still no signs of any aubergines forming though, plenty of flowers but they are not setting into fruit. It's probably not warm enough.
Monday 16th July: Oh no, looks like the main crop potatoes have the dreaded potato blight. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a fungal disease which basically destroys potatoes. It can live in the soil for a while too, which means avoiding growing potatoes again in that area for as long as possible. See the July photos for pictures of what potato blight looks like. I decided to cut off as much as the infected leaves and stems as I could, they will be burnt not composted to stop the spread of the disease.
Sunday 15th July: Three of us at the allotment today, all working hard to clear the weeds while the weather was fine.
Sunday 8th July: We had a really good day at the allotment today. We finally planted out the swede and beetroot!! That's all the veggies planted out now and everything is growing well, unfortunately so are the weeds!
Friday 6th July: Another short visit, watered the greenhouse, weeded the carrots (some look a bit dodgy) and planted some more peas. It might be a bit late for the peas but you never know.
Tuesday 3rd July: We dug up half a bed of second early potatoes tonight. Despite the heavy rains they have grown really well. We've got about 100lb spuds (Kestrel and Wilja), and we still have half the bed plus the main crop potatoes to come yet! The first marrow is beginning to grow, its about 3 inches long so it has a bit of growing to do.
June 2007
Saturday 30th June: Just a flying visit to water the tomatoes today. They are growing sturdy and strong. The aubergines are flowering, but no sign of any aubergines forming yet. Might be too cold for them.
Thursday 28th June: Hoorah! I've picked our first courgettes tonight. Two were ready to harvest and there are a few more that will be ready soon. The tomatoes in the greenhouse are also doing really well.
Sunday 24th June: Still too much rain! Today we planted out the savoy cabbage and had a general tidy up. There are weeds everywhere, as soon as you dig one up, a dozen more grow! Spent the last 12 days just general housekeeping. We even managed to clean out the shed and put everything back so we can find it again!! The Brussell Sprouts are growing well so we built a cage around them and used very fine mesh to prevent any bugs getting in.
Tuesday 12th June: Hoorah, the flood waters have gone! There doesn't appear to be a lot of damage, quite a lot of muddy plants and a few carrots exposed where the finer soil has been washed away but that all!!
Monday 11th June: Another hot day which ended in extreme rainfall throughout Preston. Dad went to allotment without me tonight to water the tomatoes, and found 3/4 of the allotment under water! What a nightmare, the pumpkin plants aren't even visible. Hopefully everything will recover but who knows! :(
Sunday 10th June: We've got cauliflower!!!!!! Yes, the 3 cauliflowers that I planted a few months ago now have a fist size curd in the middle! We were so worried about them especially as two had to be dug up because of cabbage root fly. Today was so hot that we decided to go early morning. We dug up the new potatoes (Arran Pilots), every single plant had at least 4 good size potatoes, so now we have about 1 1/2 sackfuls of spuds! I then tackled the cauliflower/cabbage bed hunting down and destroying caterpillars and slugs, as well as removing hundreds of eggs. God only knows what could have hatched from them!!!! While I was doing that, Dad cut the roots off the potatoes and composted the leaves. We picked over 30 strawberries today as well as lettuce. But by the time we got home the lettuce leaves had got so limp that half of them were no good :(
During the week Dad and myself came down and watered all the allotment. Can't believe we've had no significant rain for over 2 weeks! All the plants are looking thirsty, despite our best efforts.
Sunday 3rd June: Spent most of the time weeding the carrot bed today, then planting the extra carrots I propogated in the greenhouse to fill any gaps from carrots that haven't grown. Dad finished setting up the greenhouse for the tomatoes and planting radish. We used a fence sprayer to spray the greenhouse glass with cool glaze shading.
Saturday 2nd June: Just a quick run down to the allotment this afternoon to water everything and open the greenhouse. Dad went back in the late evening to shut everything up as its still cold overnight.
Friday 1st June: Went to allotment after work, Dad was already there. Worked hard tonight moving everything out of the greenhouse and setting up a mini seed station under the netting were the strawberries are.
May 2007
Monday 28th: Lots of little jobs today - collars around the brussels sprouts, planting out of lettuce and more cauliflower, tidied the greenhouse ready for repotting the tomoatoes, seeding the savoy cabbage and dwarf runner beans, dug out a new bed (as we have run out of room), planted the cucumber in the cold frames.
Sunday 27th: It's amazing what can grow in just a week. After a brilliant weeks holiday, the first early potatoes are beginning to flower, the second earlies have grown twice as tall, the peas and beans have all survived the changing weather, just everything is growing!! Spent the day planting the sweetcorn. I've used a weed membrane and cut holes in to plant through, this will, hopefully, save time on weeding. I also planted out one of each of pumpkin, marrow, courgette and a guord of some variety that was given to me! As the maincrop potatoes were coming through, Dad rotovated down the troughs and piled the potatoes with soil.
Saturday 26th: Just a quick trip to allotment to check everything was okay after our holidays. Picked plenty of strawberries, first of the season!
Thursday 17th: Argh! My friends at the grow Your Own forum have confirmed that my cabbage is infected with cabbage root fly. two of the cauliflowers are beginning to show the same signs. Dug up the infected cabbage and there were maggots in the roots. I do have some more cauliflower growing the greenhouse but I won't be able to use that bed again.
Tuesday 15th May: Out went the Brussels sprouts and the peas tonight. Hope it doesn't rain too much over the next few days. The brussels have been netted under a cloche for now until they start growing, this will protect them from heavy rain. The peas are in the "mighty net cage"! I also weeded the cauliflower/cabbage bed. One of the cabbages is looking a bit sad, not sure what's wrong with it though.
Sunday 13th May: Weeding, weeding and more weeding, that's all we did today. I weeded the last onion bed while Dad weeded the potato beds, then we both weeded the bed for the Brussels sprouts. Phew!
Thursday 10th May: Made a start weeding the onion beds tonight. It took Dad and myself over an hour to weed one of the three beds (see the May photos), hopefully we'll finish the rest at the weekend if the rain stops.
Monday 7th May: The main crop potatoes went in today, a lot of back ache walking up and down the rows making holes, dropping in the spud and covering with compost. Also finished the garden.
Sunday 6th May: A full day at the allotment today. Dad used the Mantis rotovator to get the sweetcorn plot turned over and also to make the trenches to plant our main crop potatoes. I worked on finishing the flower garden. There is still a patch with no planting, but thats were I am going to plant the pumpkins this year, hopefully the bees attracted to the flowers will also visit the pumpkin flowers too (thus pollinating them). I used some old rocks boken up from out home garden to make a rockery in a corner of the flower bed that has poor soil. I have planted some shallow rooted flowers. I'll take pictures tomorrow.
Saturday 5th May: Just a quick visit to water everything. Everything in the greenhouse is growing well. sweetcorn is looking especially good, as are the pumpkins, peas and haricot beans. No sign of the courgettes and cucumbers. Bought a marrow plant from a local garden centre, not sure where I'm going to put it!
Friday 4th May: Went down to water the greenhouse tonight and decided to plant the rest of the sweetcorn and start the peppers off. The peppers I planted last month all failed so fingers crossed for these. But the weeds in the onion bed are terrible!
Thursday 4th May:Went down to water tonight. Did the strawberries in the growbags too as they were a little dry. Everything is growing well. First early potatoes are looking really good and secodn earlies have started growing through.
Tuesday 1st May: Went down to water the greenhouse tonight and decided to plant up the courgettes and cucumbers.
April 2007
Sunday 29th April: Full day at the allotment today. Dad tacked the dandelion weeds that run along one side of the allotment. He strimmed them all down and covered the ground with black plastic to form a path. Hopefully this will stop the weeds from re-growing. We planted another row of broad beans, ensuring we put slug gel around each one this time, as our others have been nibbled. I planted some marigolds and nasturtium flowers in the cauliflower/cabbage bed to repel white fly and cabbage white butterflies. We both then tackled the garden, I weeded (what a nightmare, creeping weed everywhere) and then we put plastic down. I'll plant "real" flowers through it.
Thursday 26th April: Half an hour at the allotment after work to water all the plants in the greenhouse. I also seeded the sweetcorn in a propagator.
Tuesday 24th April: Just popped to the allotment after work to ensure that all was well. I couldn't believe it! Someone has left 2 potted hosta plants just inside the gate. I don't know who, but someone must have heard about the stolen plants! I shall be planted them soon. I also potted some more cauliflower seeds and filled a tub with compost and planted my first radishes.
Sunday 22nd April: Time for the carrots to go out. WE sieved a patch of allotment to ensure that the carrots would grow as well as possible, then transplanted the Autumn King I'd had already started off in the greenhouse, and planted some Flyaway variety directly into the plot. To protect from carrot fly we surrounded them all with fleece.
Saturday 21st April: So far the onions have been covered with fleece because we haven't had time to net them, protecting them from birds. We tackled that today using old water piping and nets. Boy, was there a lot of weeds.
Friday 20th April: Shocked and disgusted! Popped down to the allotment tonight to find that two plants from the flower garden had been stolen! Yes, stolen, pulled up and nicked. Can't believe someone would stoop so low. Not only that, but whoever stole them also tramped across our potato plot and we had to rebuild the mounds and ensure all the potatoes were replanted properly.
Wednesday 18th: One of our fellow allotmenteers told us that the mains water had been switched on so we took advantage and gave everything a good water. We were beginning to think that we wouldn't have any water for the summer. I planted 9 pumpkins seeds, again starting them off in the greenhouse to give them chance to grow strong. This year I've chosen a variety called "Big Max" which should be giant!
Tuesday 17th: Taking advantage of the sunny days and longer evenings by spending an hour or so at the allotment after work. I planted 24 peas, they will stay in the greenhouse for a few weeks until they have strong roots. Because of the sunshine we are rapidly running out of water.
Sunday 15th: Another good day for working on the allotment. The first earlies are now growing strong and the rubarb is taking over! Spent the day netting the pea frame that we built out of bamboo canes and tennis balls. Then planted the 8 broad beans that have been growing in the greenhouse.
Thursday 12th: Had a good shopping trip around the local garden centre and boughts loads of new plants for the garden part of the allotment. Spend the evening planting them and enjoying the evening sun.
Easter Weekend: Well, its 1.30pm on Easter Monday, and it's just started to rain. All those people I saw heading for Avenham Park to roll their Easter eggs are going to be mightly fed up. But, for me and Dad, we're happy as we've done all the jobs we wanted to do over the last four days despite Dad recovering from a bad cold.
On Good Friday we planted 225 onions, some white and some red. In nice straight rows (well, we hope).
On Saturday we planted lots more seeds into trays in the greenhouse and transplanted some of the larger plants into bigger pots. The marigolds are growing strong, so I have seeded some more along with Tom Thumb nasturtiums, both grown for deterring and confusing bugs from my brassicas etc. I've seeded the brussels for this year as well as a few more cauliflower. The broad beans have sprouted, once they've grown a bit more I'll plant the peas and dwarf runner beans. My very first carrots are now showing through which is brilliant.
Sunday was a rest day!
On Easter Monday we planted our second early potatoes. We have 24 Kestral and 36 Wilja. Last year's Kestrals were delicious, this years seed potatoes were so big that we bought the Wilja as we knew we wouldn't have enough.
To top the entire long weekend off, just as we were leaving Dad spotted that one of the first early potatoes we planted a couple of weekends ago has started to grow through! Hoorah!!!!
March 2007
March 31st: Another glorious day at the allotment, so much to do, so little time! I wish I didn't work full time ;( Today we built a frame for the beans and peas using bamboo canes joined with tennis balls. We did the same last year and it works well. The canes are rigid enough to stay in place by being pushed into the ground, but do sway in the wind which stops them being blown totally over. There are 10 broad beans peaking through in the greenhouse. Another couple of weeks and they'll be ready to go in.
Meanwhile, I exposed the cauliflowers and cabbages to a bit of fresh air. Time to remove the plastic cloche before they become to leggy and don't develop properly. I did place a cloth cloche over them when I was leaving as it's still a little cold at night, plus it helps protect them from the rabbits. There was just one cabbage that had been nibbled on which I think was either a slug or caterpillar, but its gone now.
The strawberries which have been stored in the coldframes have suddenly grown so they have gone back into the net cage still in last years grow bags. I going to add some feed and tidy them up a bit and see what happens. One of our allotment neighbours gave up some cutting last year plus I bought new plants from Suttons Seeds, via the local scout group, to increase the stock.
March 24th and 25th: A glorious weekend to spend at the allotment. The first grown cauliflowers and cabbages have gone outside under mini cloches to keep them snug. The first early potatoes (Arran Pilots) are now planted, after being chitted for over a month. By Easter we should have the second earlies and onions planted out, and the strawberries established in grow bags. Well, that's the plan!
March 10th: A good day today spent mainly in the greenhouse. My first 5 cauliflowers are growing so I repotted those along with 3 cabbage. I then planting some more seeds, cauliflowers and aubergine. As Dad brought back a lot of strange bulbs and seeds from his holiday to Madeira, I also potted them. Who knows what will grow! dad spent most the time outdoors, trimming the strawberries and finishing the beds.
March 3rd: Strange how Dad happened to working on the day the skip came to the allotments. Spent a good couple of hours clearing the allotment of anything that couldn't be recycled. Then is started rain!
February 2007
February 25th: Another day spent generally tidying up and turning over beds. We planted a pear tree which is brilliant, it'll be 3 years before we get any fruits though! I extended the rhubarb section and added another Timperley Early variety. Roll on summer.
February 17th: What a glorious day! The sun was shining and there was only a light breeze. Dad carried out rotovating (there's a lot to do). He also built the first 3 beds ready for vegetables later on in the year (see the photos section). I did a lot of tidying up, the net cage was a bit floppy! So I re-tied some more wire across it and made sure there were no gaps in the netting. I also re-tied up the netting around the main fence of the allotment and made a container for bamboo canes by putting holes in the bottom of an old dustbin and standing it upside down (see photos section).
February 11th: Just a couple of hours spent at the plot today. Still cold so spent most of the time in the greenhouse. I planted my first seeds, five cauliflowers. Dad rotovated two of the beds ready for planting in a few months.
January 2007
January 21st: Back to the allotment to tackle the fence. between sunshine, showers and hailstone we managed to replace the fence posts and screw the fence panels back into place. Hopefully, they will still stay up ready for next weekend.
January 20th: Just a quick look around the allotment today to see what damage the high winds have done. The oldest fence of our allotment has come away from its posts. that is going to be a big job. Everything else ok, even the Brussells are still standing! had a trip to B&Q to buy wood to use as fence posts.
January 16th: Went back to the allotment on my day off, wow I'm keen! Carried on with the weeding of the flower garden. Didn't quite have the energy to finish it. Let's hope the weekend will be good.
January 14th: Wow, what a fantastic day its been here in Preston! A bit windy but sunshine all day, a perfect plot day! I decided, after putting it off for too long, to tackle our flower garden part of the allotment. I managed to clear about half of it in 2 hours! But that bit is now weed free and I didn't pull up any plants that I'd deliberately planted last year!!!! It's supposed to be dry for the next couple of days so I'll be tackling the rest soon.
January 7th: First day of a new year down at the allotment. Although there is not much growing there is still plenty to do to prepare the allotment for this year's growing season. We still have a few brussel's sprouts growing so the first thing I did this morning was to dig out the roots of the sprouts that I had cut down over christmas, then re-arrange the netting so that it covers the sprouts that are left. I gave a couple more sprout "trees" to fellow allotmenteers. Meanwhile, Dad build a fleece cover using bamboo canes for his rhubarb. It's an early variety so now is the time to warm up the soil. There was already a couple of shoots poking through the soil.
Two years after starting our first compost bin, we have now emptied it and have loads of lovely compost. This has been spread on the plots where the new potatoes will be planted. We have started the compost heap again with all the leaves from the sprouts.
We also cleared out the old strawberry grow bags. These are all in a net cage that we built ourselves on staging about waist height. It keeps the strawberries away from ground pests and makes it easy for picking.
As we were packing up to go a robin flew inside the net cage and we had to take a side down so it could escape.