Newt's Allotment 2018

[Greenleaves]

Let's remember a plot is for growing, not necessarily for showing....well that's my excuse anyway

[Snadger]

Let's remember a plot is for growing, not necessarily for showing....well that's my excuse anyway

....................on a similar note, today's covering of six inches of snow make my plot look as good as anyone's.

[Newt]

Got a heavy weekend ahead, so I've decided to try to actually plan it out a bit.

Things To Do:

• Purchase inexpensive cordless drill
• Order additional straw bales for next weekend delivery
• Visit hardwood supplier who advised they have suitable logs
• Take logs to allotment
• Take bare-root fruit bushes, gallon water bottles, toilet roll tubes, additional tea supplies to allotment
• Make simple cold frame from leftover wood boards and corrugated plastic
• Pot up round-seed peas in toilet roll tubes in cold frame
• Plant fruit bushes along North fence

[Newt]

Here we go! Actually dry today, there was even some sun and my knee is getting better and better.

Had to cancel the trip to get logs, as the company I'm buying off still hasn't confirmed how much they'll charge for them, and I'm not travelling all the way up there on the train, bus and a mile walk to find out I can't fit them in the budget this month. But that's okay, the spores are doing fine in the fridge and I can leave them there a couple months if I need to quite happily.

Stocked up on drinking water for the allotment, got some peas in toilet roll tubes full of dirt to germinate, collected my fortnightly manure delivery and added it to the now completely-full compost bin, and checked on my sprouting broad beans, mystery beans and spinach in the propagators that are all doing well.

As the weather was more suitable, I was able to have more of an explore of the space I've got, too. I've discovered that there's enough space between the shed and the wall behind it that I could move the water butts there, and as that space is packed earth it'll be safer than the rotting pallets the previous tenant balanced them on, especially as they're overflowing right now. I'm going to pick up another one from the nearest garden centre so i can decant some of the water into it, and then get them moved and the guttering altered accordingly.

The space back there is currently a small treasure trove of items. I discovered loads of wooden boards, some very long bamboo canes (I may be able to avoid needing to buy 10ft canes for my peas!), some pretty good-looking thick wood fence posts, and enough of the forked metal posts that I was able to make a wire fence for the North side for training plants up.



Of course, I didn't discover the little pile of junky treasure until after I'd made my cold frame. It's a wonky thing. very slapdash and made from the slightly rotten wooden planks that I've been weighing the fresh hay down with and uses the least rusty nails I could find in the bucket-o-pointy-things that was in the shed. And the corrugated plastic is just held down with bricks. I'll be surprised if it lasts past this Summer, but that'll do to get me started and I'm still proud of it considering it cost me nothing.



So the new plan for tomorrow is:

• Check list of coldframe seedlings for this time of year
• Get some more propagator bases for the cold frame
• Get some more stuff propagating
• Improve the wire in the fence
• Investigate possibilities of starting the replacement front fence with the salvaged posts
• Get a third water butt
• Move the water butts off the pallets and get the pallets up
• Move the water butts behind the shed
• Rearrange the drainpipes and guttering
• Plant the fruit bushes
• Order the hay for next week

[Newt]

Had a pretty good weekend. Sunday was wet for so much of the day that I stayed home for it, but I was up on the lottie for most of Saturday which let me make some good progress tidying it all up.

First thing first, I pulled out some scrap materials from behind the shed, and using old wood posts, bamboo cane and some twine managed to jerry-rig a fence at the West side of the plot that I can grow my peas up once they get big enough.



I also got gifted some wood pallets by another member of the allotment, which I supported with some more wood posts and old nails, and which will make a good basis for me to grow some strawberries, herbs and maybe some nasturtiums and other edible salady things in while keeping them off the ground.

Garlic, onions, beans, spinach, cabbage and peas are all sprouting nicely under cover, and I got some more early brassicas sown in insulated trays either in the shed or in the cold frame.

I've also been advised by the allotment manager that we're allowed to have small ponds and other decorative features on our plots, even small ones like mine, as he likes to encourage people to make habitat for some of the wildlife we get in the area. The site is apparently a popular one with slow-worms, toads and newts, and he's hopeful that we might be able to adopt some rescue hedgehogs for the site soon as it's walled-in and secure, so I'm currently mulling over ideas for little habitat spaces I could fit in around the place.

I've been keeping back the old animal-feed bags the fortnightly poop delivery arrives in, and I'm pretty sure I have enough now to use for all my potato growing for the year. My landlady mentioned she quite misses something called "fuzzy pink lady" potatoes so I'm going to see if I can track those down and grow some for her this year.

[Newt]

I'm not going to be able to get to the allotment until... probably Tuesday. Visiting family this weekend, with a couple weekdays off for travel and recovery. So I went to the allotment yesterday after work to just check on everything.

Thankfully everything in the cold frame survived the recent cold snap just fine, fence is still upright, and everything in seed trays is doing well. I realised I've not started nearly enough peas yet so set myself up with a whole bunch more of those on the go. On Tuesday I'll get the strawberries planted out in the pallets, as well as start my non-log-needing mushrooms off in material in the base of one of them.

[Newt]

Tuesday was a wash in the end - one of the cats went missing Monday evening, so I spent my day off frantically scouring the landscape for her. Right during a 2-day-long bout of high winds, rain and a drop in temperature. Eventually found her Thursday evening cold, wet, too scared to move from the spot she'd wedged herself in, and eventually got her in. She's spent the last few days alternately an inch from the fire or gripping Spouse's lap like she never wants to leave his side again, so whatever happened out there she's probably not going to do it again any time soon!

Fortunately the weekend was brilliant and made up for it - lovely weather so I was able to get loads done without freezing my fingers off!

The pea fence now has reinforcement by way of several additional woven-in canes, and the pallet wall planters are now secure with posts either side, and I made the planting pockets for them both. Top level of both is now full of strawberries, and the bottom level of both is full of straw mulch and some wine cap mushroom spore. Middle levels will contain salad leaves, edible flowers and some herbs once I get them going.

I got the broad beans planted out, the garlic and some early cabbage and spinach, with the mulch pulled back just enough. Pulling it back also provided me with some handy heaps in between the planting rows, which have also now been seeded with edible mushroom spores after following the guidance of a grower on youtube who has successfully turned all the borders and boundaries on his space into productive spaces.

The mystery beans I potted up before didn't take, but I've planted up another set under cover, as well as increasing my onion, pea and brassica seeds on the go, all either in the shed by the window or in the cold frame. Some of the chitting potatoes were ready and have gone into bags, which I'll continue to fill over the next few weeks.

I also got really lucky after sharing some extra wine cap spore plugs with an allotment neighbour. We got talking about mushroom growing and, after I mentioned the varieties I plan to grow in wood, he presented me with a hardwood log he'd just pruned off an overhanging tree! So I've now got a cordless drill on order and will hopefully spend next weekend getting the first of many more mushrooms growing!

It's all finally starting to look like I've actually got an allotment! Not that I've got any photos to share - I did take a bunch, but the light was so bright they came out too high contrast to see much clearly.