I had a plan.....

I had a plan yesterday. I was going to spend the full day at the lottie digging, hoeing, planting raspberry canes, mucking the beds with the bags of rotted horse muck dad gave me. And the plan got scuppered because I woke up with a dodgy pelvis so couldn't do anything. So, today I thought I might go and do a few light jobs, maybe a bit of hoeing. I got up, looked out of the windor, and LO! two inches of snow everywhere! I am simply not destined to get to the lottie this week.....

Allotment plan November '08

This is my plan so far .... and rather a nice plan it is too! The things which are in and growing, are in black, and the things I plan to put in are in pencil. I'm sure there'll be many changes in the months to come, but at least I have a vague plan.

pinkys lottie

October 2008 - new fork

This is me posing with my brand new beautiful gardening fork which my lovely colleagues got for me as a leaving gift. The bow and ribbons are still on it! Overwhelmed and happy.

Note the tall purple sprouting broccoli and brussels sprouts to the left in bed 1, also the newly planted broad beans to the front in bed 2. I also now have a lovely pallet gate and a fence around the whole plot which is keeping all the pesky rabbits out. I still have birds, moles and even a nest mice in the compost heap, but none of these 'pests' seem to be a particular problem and I quite like having them (especially the mice!).

21st September 2008 - flowers

The sunflowers shot up while we were away, and the dahlias just kept on flowering.

21st September 2008 - healthy and flourishing

Despite the potato blight, my plot remained healthy and flourishing and the courgettes and french beans in particular just kept on cropping over and over. The carrots were surprisingly nice too despite no preparation to the ground at all. They were rather odd looking with lots of forked roots!

August - general update

For some reason I didn't take any photos during August, I think it's because I was so busy working at the allotment that I didn't think to take the camera. For at least a 6-week period I didn't buy ANY vegetables at all, and for a further month very few. Not bad at all for a first timer who started late in the season.

I invested in a strimmer and me and my sis cut back all the second half of the plot again, covering ourselves in wet weed strimmings! I re-glyphosated the paths too. Dad gave me eight dahlia plants which I planted in the bed near the shed. The sunflowers were doing really well near the shed too. In the middle of August, just when everything was doing so well, we went away on holiday for 20 days........

Upon our return I was horrified to find that the potatoes had got blight while we were away and the foliage was all black and slimy. I quickly cut it all back and bagged it before digging up all the tubers, which thankfully were lovely. I picked the last of the cauliflowers and blanched and froze them in florets.

1st July 2008 - overgrown 2nd half

Hmm, time to think about investing in a strimmer for those weeds I think....

1st July 2008 - first crops!

Here are MY very own delicious home-grown crops!!!! Cauliflower, broccoli, courgettes, french beans, lettuce, onion, shallots, cherry tomatoes (hanging basket). FABULOUS!

1st July 2008 - bed 5

My lettuces are coming up on the left, and my carrots on the right. I've picked a few lettuces to thin them a bit, and they are delicious! The fleece edges came off in the wind so I'm using the fingers crossed method to keep the carrot flies away....

1st July 2008 - bed 4

Bed 4 is where I 'killed' the pumpkins. After that disaster, they started to come back to life, so I removed the mulch, dug them out, dug the whole bed over to get all the perennials out, and then re-planted them. They are flourishing. I also planted kohl rabi, turnip and beetroot and covered them with my wire cloches.

1st July 2008 - bed 3

Spuds are looking great! I've not sprayed them with anything as I'm trying to be pretty organic. Other than glyphosate on the paths I'm doing well so far.

1st July 2008 - bed 2

French beans in the background are growing well as are the sweetcorn. The two courgette plants are very productive and the onions and shallots are continuing well, despite some rabbit nibbles off the top of the shallots.

1st July 2008 - bed 1

A couple of spare spud plants at the front are doing well, as are the caulis to the left. The PSB and sprouts are getting tall in the background too.

1st July 2008 - a working plot

Here's my lovely, productive plot! I've just started to bring home some home grown crops.... and they are DELICIOUS!

1st June 2008 - 2nd half

Although I doubted I'd get around to doing anything with the 2nd half of the plot in the first year, I decided where I wanted my beds to be and covered them with black mulch.

1st June 2008 - new roof for shed

My lovely dad came by and put a new roof on my shed, as well as guttering and a water butt round the back. As my shed was looking so gorgeous, I thought I'd put a trellis up and plant a nice wild sweet pea plant. I also put in some sunflower and sweet pea seeds along the side near the windows. It's such a girlie shed now!

29th May 2008 - shed views

Here's the very tidy interior of my shed plus the view of my plot through the shed windows. Simply divine!

29th May 2008 - disaster in bed 4!

Oh no! We lovingly grew two pumpkin plants from seed in our conservatory, then the boys planted them through slits in the mulch fabric. in bed 4. Then a few days later I found that they were looking a bit sad with yellow leaves. It was only then that I remembered I'd put glyphosate down before laying the mulch cos I hadn't intended putting anything in the bed this year - oops!

29th May 2008 - more progress

This is bed 2 with lovely shallots coming up on the left and onions under the wire cloche on the right. The courgette plants are just visible in the middle as well as the sweetcorn at the back.

29th May 2008 - progress

Here you can see in bed 1 my brussels sprouts on the left, purple sprouting broccoli on the right, and cauliflowers to the back - aren't they all doing well?!

26th May 2008 - 5th bed

I took an 8 metre length of black mulch fabric down the side of my plot between the shed and the composter to make a 5th bed. I split it into two and just worked on the far end of it initially. I planted two rows of carrots and two rows of mini gem lettuce through slits in the mulch fabric, and erected a fleece barrier around that end to keep the pesky carrot flies out.

In bed 2 I put up bean canes and planted french beans and sweetcorn under them. I planted two courgette plants too.

15th May 2008 - contents of 4 beds

So, here they are, all four of my beautiful beds!


Bed 1 has cauliflower, purple sprouting broccoli, brussels sprouts, butternut squash, aubergine plus a few marigolds.




Bed 2 has onions and shallots planted through the black mulch.







Bed 3 has three rows of maris peer potatoes.







Bed 4 is covered with mulch to suppress the weeds and has two pumpkin plants planted through slits in the fabric.

15th May 2008 - 4 beds

My allotment at last is starting to look like a proper working allotment. I have four beds marked out, three of which are edged, and three of which have actual STUFF growing in them! It's hard work but thoroughly enjoyable.

13th May 2008 - more beds

I edged bed 2 and covered it with black mulch, started digging bed 3 and covered bed 4. I 'watered' all the paths with glyphosate to help keep the weeds at bay until the ground becomes more trodden. It's all been hard work, but it's a labour of love.

11th May 2008 - first plants bed 1

I was SOOOO pleased to get cracking with my first bed. I dismantled my old garden fence and made my raised bed using the panels and small garden sticks. Then, I got my first plants in! I planted cauliflower, purple sprouting broccoli and brussels sprouts, as well as two butternut squash and one aubergine plant. I cut and nailed old fence posts together to make rectangles and hooped chicken wire over it which I fastened on with small plastic tie wraps. These are my wire cloches to protect my lovely new crops from pesky rabbits and birds until I get some fencing up. My very own invention!

11th May 2008 - composter

I blagged some pallets from a nearby farm and within half an hour I teamed them with some long plastic tie wraps and lo! a composter! I thoroughly enjoyed blagging too. I was driving by a farm looking for somewhere I might buy timber from, and noticed a huge pile of pallets overgrown with brambles. I was honest, and drove down the drive and spoke to the farmer - explaining that I lived locally and had just taken on an allotment. He was very friendly and more than happy to please and be relieved of a few of his pallets. Brilliant!

11th May 2008 - Shed!!!!!

My shed, my beautiful shed!

10th May 2008 - shed prep

I blagged a shed!!! On the offchance, I checked Hull Freecycle and lo and behold there was someone in the next village giving away a shed. I collected it in five trips on the roof of my car and set about preparing the ground for my concrete foundations. I did it alone, and managed to get all the concrete pieces level with a spirit level. It was empowering!

6th May 2008 - the digging starts here!

This is my first almost-dug bed, and it took me AGES to do! It was full of dock and thistle underneath which had obviously been rotovated too. I think I spent about two hours just digging this half bed and painstakingly picking out the roots.

4th May 2008 - marked pathways

I marked out where I wanted the pathways to be. Here are my first four beds!!

4th May 2008 - my first bed!

My first bed!

4th May 2008 - marking out my plot

First, I marked just half of my plot with string, so I could concentrate on that for the first year. Then it didn't seem quite so daunting! Then I began to mark out where I wanted my first beds with canes and string.

2nd May 2008 - first picture of 'Plot 1'

This is the sight I was greeted with when I first went to view my plot. A fairly recently rotovated expanse of land. I remember feeling totally overwhelmed and considering taking just half a plot. This picture was taken from the far corner of Plot 1, looking across Plots 1-4. My new plot is 27m x 10m!

My first entry on blog

Well, I've started a blog, even though there is nothing on it yet! My aim is to get all of my allotment photos on here, plus updates from when I began in May up to the present time (November).