Our Derbyshire Allotment

Rain, Rain, Sandwiches!

2009-06-01T11:45:00.003+01:00

Never let it be said that the weather can spoil a day on the plot...

We took the opportunity during a break in the rain to do some digging ready for the carrots. The kids were all togged up with wellies and spades. We bought some lunch on the way to the allotment.

Unloaded everything from the car and began work on digging the ground. After 5 minutes the heavens opened so we took shelter in the greenhouse and enjoyed a splendid picnic dodging the drips from the leaking roof!

Fruits of Our Labour

2009-05-27T06:56:00.002+01:00

It's all gone a bit mad on the allotment in the last few weeks. Weeds have taken over everything. Thankfully our veggie growing neighbour has strimmed most the the tall grass but we still have plenty of nettles and weeds to battle with.

Despite the Mediterranean conditions on Sunday, we spent a few hours constructing a runner bean wigwam and planting several rows of carrots.

This evening I called by on my way home from work and dug up a small handful of new potatoes...

New Compost

2009-04-11T16:07:00.003+01:00

Finally built compost #2.

This one is constructed from a packing crate I recovered from work. It's seriously over engineered and weighs a tonne so I enlisted the help of my wife's nephew to help me get it into place.

April Sunshine

2009-04-05T10:50:00.009+01:00

Another sunny day and a chance not to be missed, so down the allotment for a few hours of VGF (veggie growing fullfillment)!

Garlic and onions are doing great.

Planted some more rows of spuds.Spread some compost on them.

And dug a bit round the greenhouse.

Sunshine, Spuds and Sorrow

2009-03-21T07:03:00.000Z

Saturday morning and a very early start for all the family. Whilst everyone else got ready for drama class, I familiarised myself with the route to the NCT sale to drop off a bag of retired baby clothes. Once that was out of the way the morning was mine to spend at the allotment.
Got there to find the wind had whipped out a few panes of glass from the greenhouse. Amazingly, nothing broken. Just two panes lying neatly on the grass. I'm a bit slow in replacing some of the original missing glass so I've only got myself to blame. Got the spuds in though, well half of them anyway. I'll plant the rest in a few weeks to try and extend the harvesting.

It was a nice day. Lots of sun but still chilly. I'm hopeful the last of the frost has passed and my spuds will stand a good chance this early in the season. Did I mention what an idyllic setting my allotment is in? Just on the edge of the Peak District National Park, surrounded by hills with a restored steam railway running a few hundred meters from my plot. Bliss.

Not so the rugby score this weekend. The final match of the Six Nations, Wales v Ireland. Much at stake at the Millenium Stadium. Wales, last years victorius Grand Slam champions, the dragon ready to pound the Irish into submission. They Lost!

New Year, New Start

2009-01-11T19:05:00.004Z

First visit of 2009 to the plot. The onions and garlic are doing quite well although the couch grass is springing up small shoots - need to keep an eye on those. The proposed potatoe bed also had a few small couch shoots but we turned the soil over and got rid of most of them today. I took the fleece off the onions a few weeks before Christmas and am now using this to warm the soil ready for planting the spuds which are chitting nicely.

The potatoe tubers which arrived early December have, up until now, been stored in a closed box in a disused room. Today we removed them from the box and placed them in trays on the window sill. All bar a few have small shoots so are ready to be left in the cool and light.

Looks like we've had some clever birds on the plot - this one had a new years feast on snails by cracking the shells open on a pile of stones I dug up.

Happy Christmas 2008

2008-12-22T09:38:00.002Z

Well Christmas is in full swing in our household. I spent most of the weekend doing some last minute present shopping while the rest of the family finished off making decorations and Christmas crackers. Yes, homemade crackers - another great use for the empty toilet roll!

Sunday I was employed, glass of port in one hand and pastry cutter in the other, mastering Nigella Lawson's Frangipane mince pies recipe.

Tonight we begin wrapping the mountain of presents. Every year we have a rule not to overspend on presents, but every year we each have our own agenda and end up buying more than is healthy. Oh well, the kids love it and that's all that counts.

Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year.

P.S. We plan to begin potatoe chitting in the new year.

2008-12-18T15:09:00.002Z

Well, it's been an icy cold December so far. I lifted the fleece off the onions and garlic about a week ago now that they are established. The weather has been rotten so very litle has been done. However, we did plant a few more onion sets at the end of plot#1 and some more in the kids plot. I bet they do better than mine:(

My potatoe tubers arrived on Wednesday. They're still in the box in the unheated spare room. I need to get round to chitting them soon.

2008-11-04T20:59:00.002Z

Not much happening on the plot for the last week or so, due largely to the birth of our third child. A lovely bouncing baby boy. So while he takes up all our time the allotment has taken a short back burner. I did initially have dreams of small slots of time during my paternity leave to nip and do a bit here and there on the plot, alas, my memory failed me about how much time a new baby needs.

I did however manage to get some horticultural fleece over my onions and garlic just before baby #3 arrived and a day before the first frost. (N.B. 27th October - first frost of the year).

Crop Rotation Plan

2008-10-13T07:03:00.004+01:00

I thought I'd stick this in the blog as I've spent so long working on it. I'm working to a 4 year rotation plan but for clarity this image just shows the first 2 years. Click the image to enlarge.

A Sunny Autumn Day

2008-10-12T20:05:00.008+01:00

It was fantastic sunny weather to day. Up in the high teens this afternoon. Kids have gone to a birthday party so I grabbed a few hours to start the glass in the greenhouse and get some more beds dug ready for next years planting.

So much has happened in the allotment since my last post. The greenhouse frame is up, more beds have been dug and I've planted some onions and garlic bought from Chase Organics.

Hardy onions and garlic in the ground and a new bed for next years spuds.

Chase seem pretty reasonable and are certified organic suppliers but I've had an offer from Scott's Garden, my local organic vegetable supplier, for some seeds and tubers etc. I'll hold Chase in reserve and use Scott in the future.

The owners of next doors plot turned up whilst I was there today. Introductions were non existant and conversation didn't get beyond 'hello'. Still, at least they've started tidying up there plot.

The guy on the other side of me has also been busy and has lifted some of the sheeting to reveal some lovely weed free soil just ready for digging and planting.

I put some weed cover down in the floor of the greenhouse. I'll attach this to the wooden base with a staple gun and hope that will suppress the couch grass.

Rain, Rain, Rain...

2008-10-01T14:17:00.005+01:00

Yep, It certainly rains in Derbyshire. I'll have to check on the conditions at the allotment on my way home from work tonight.

Onions & Garlic

2008-09-27T14:10:00.002+01:00

We planted 40 onion sets (radar) and approximately a dozen garlic bulbs (thermidore) in bed 1 today. There's a small bit of the bed left to grow some leeks next year.

I decided to cover the loam/couch grass pile with plastic sheeting. After several hours digging and weeding on beds 2 & 3 I decided the couch grass situation isn't quite so bad after all. Hopefully I can keep on top of it.

I'l need to dig another 2 beds this weekend, if I have time, for the spuds and lettuce and spinach.

The Good, The Bad and The Evil...

2008-09-25T20:29:00.007+01:00

GOOD NEWS

The base of the greenhouse went down last Saturday and the frame erected on Sunday (pictures soon).

Yesterday I took delivery of a small bag of garlic and onion sets :). This is great news as now me and the kids can get started on planting.

BAD NEWS

The bad news is I found out just how bad couch grass can be:(

Apparently it is relentless despite all efforts to pull out the weeds. My plan of attack is to dig a trench, spade depth, around the edge of the plot and place wooden planks in the trench to hold back any couch grass roots around the borders.

I've cleared 95% of the surface weeds from all the area I've dug but some green shoots are already springing up. Hopefully the plastic sheeting and carpets in the top half of the plot will supress any further weed growth until next year when we're ready to expand into that area.

This evening I spent an hour working on plot 1, weeding, fertilising and raking the soil to get it ready to plant the onion and garlic.

Trish (town clerk) turned up with a prospective new allotmenteer and we discussed our progress. I'm glad we've made as much progress as we have because she's already talking about evictions for those who've neglected their plots.

Black Hawk Down

2008-09-13T17:48:00.003+01:00

Decoded that means Greenhouse has been dismantled. Glass safely stored behing garage. I managed to keep the sides intact. Need to buy some replacement bolts and glass springs. But apart from that a very successful job.

2008-09-12T06:48:00.002+01:00

The large box in the hallway turned out to be the organic fertilizer, no garlic or onions. So looks like I'm working on the greenhouse this weekend. My man at the timberyard showed me some alternatives to railway sleepers. At £17 each these would work out a bit expensive for a greenhouse base. I think I'll go for the 7x3"x 4.8m at £16. They're thinner than the sleepers but twice as long so the final cost should be halved. I'll concentrate on dismantling the greenhouse first then work on the base later.

Delays

2008-09-10T23:06:00.002+01:00

Disaster - I won't be able to collect the pick-up from work on Friday as I have to travel to Dewsbury so not much chance of picking the railway sleepers up. On the bright-side I just arrived home from Band Practice and found a box of garlic and onion sets in the hall. So plans for this weekend have changed to some honest planting out instead of greenhouse construction.

Greenhouse Freebie

2008-09-10T09:30:00.000+01:00

Our neighbour has kindly said we can have his old greenhouse. He even cleared a patch through his overgrown garden so we can safely reach it.

I've cleared al the old pots and trestle tables and spiders out. Marked up the panes of glass with my cunning designed code. Hopefully that will make it easier to put the correct pane in the right hole when it comes to re-assembly.

Spoke to a guy at Tansley timberyard yesterday who can let me have some railway sleepers for a base. Measured up the greenhouse for the base so now I can get it cut to the correct size and get some 180mm coach bolts to hold it all together.

This weekend will see the first pane of glass come out I hope. And I might be able to get the railway sleeper base down too.

2008-09-03T17:47:00.000+01:00

Just placed an order for our first set of potential crops. Some garlic and some onion sets from Chase Organics.

1 x GARLIC Thermidrome 150g October Delivery (GARL1) = £3.95
1 x ONION SETS Autumn Planting Radar FOR SEPTEMBER 2008 (OSRA) = £4.75
1 x CHASE ANIMAL FREE FERTILISER 4kg (OFAF) = £10.25

Both crops can be planted in September/October and are hardy enough to withstand all the Derbyshire winter can throw at them. I thought I'd ordered a fleece to cover the onions too but that didn't appear on my email confirmation. I can get some pretty cheap from my local hardware supplier.

Looks good on Paper

2008-08-27T04:00:00.000+01:00

This is what we've been working on for the last few days. A plan of how we want our allotment to look. We've incorporated a greenhouse and an area for the kids to plant whatever they want. Plus a shed which I'm still trying to source.

We're going for a 4 plot crop rotation plan because we so much space and we want to grow lots.

23 August 2008 - Digging

2008-08-23T09:15:00.000+01:00

Starting to take shape at last. At least I know where the paths are now. I found some plastic sheeting in the shed at home and got some underlay off freecycle to cover the back half of the plot. I can leave that fallow for a year to let the remaining grass rot down to loam.

The soil digs very easily. Turned it over nicely and started a pile of turf at the front of the plot. This will slowly rot down to loam.

Dan reckons we've got couch grass. What's that?

And my first structure. The compost bin. Crate curtesy of Paddock Motors in Tansley.

And here's the pile of pigeon poo kindly donated by the pigeon racers who also occupy a spot on the allotment. This can go in the new compost as an accelerator. Not too much though!

10th August Clearance Day 2 - Sunday

2008-08-11T07:09:00.001+01:00

Finished with the strimmer today. Good job too as the nylon cord finally ran out. Just a few nettles at the back to get rid of. Might leave those there as they don't take up much space and will make a good mulch later in the year.

Lots of little helpers to clear the cut grass. Nice day too.

9th August 2008 Clearance Day 1 - Saturday

2008-08-10T06:58:00.002+01:00

Here it is in all its glory. Our first plot. The shed to the left is not ours but the grass in the middle is! Oh, and you can just make out a black plastic bin on the far right which I found buried in the grass - might be useful for mulching etc.

Right, where's the strimmer?

Time for a tea break first. It certainly rains in Derbyshire. By now we're all sodden. Off to the shops for some milk whilst I get started with the hired petrol strimmer.

Not a bad effort for 3 hours work. Home for a shower and well deserved slice of cake!

7th August 2008 Day One - The Viewing

2008-08-07T21:32:00.000+01:00

We met up with Trish, the Town Clerk, today to view our possible new and first ever allotment. We'd expected weeds. There was bound to be weeds. But the weeds in the first plot we were shown were monsters. Killer veg eating alien weeds!

Trish showed us another plot, twice the size but fewer weeds.

Now the dilemma - Trish and her hubby had taken the plot next to monster weeds and were already well into clearance stage 1. Hubby had dug a deep trench to tackle the bindweed and there was a very grand set of fence posts running the full length of one side which Trish explained would mark their wildlife loving hedgerow.

All very ambitious with the potential to make our attempts look very half-hearted if we were right next door. Bit like the 'always park your old rust bucket next to an even bigger rust bucket in the carpark to make it look less rusty than it really is' syndrome.

After some deliberation, during which time the kids stung both themselves on nettles and got muddy wet feet in a huge puddle, we finaly chose the plot three rows down from Trish which was twice the size (i.e. twice the work) but much less weeds. The extra size also means we can fit a greenhouse and shed in at a later stage.

Okay so now the hard works starts...