Dodging the showers

"Add some photos" people keep saying. "It hasn't been the weather" has been our response.

Today was to be the day. Here are the first of hopefully many pictures to document progress on the allotment. We should have taken one or two on the day we took over the plot (or at least before we started work) but unfortunately we didn't.

So here we are. After lugging 6 pallets (thanks Kim!), two water butts (both acquired from men named Mark - nice butts boys!), and five or six buckets full of rock released from the Lincoln Grove quarry after some good freeze/thaw action over the winter, we built a couple of paths between the beds and took a few photos.

Welcome to our allotment!

Photo 1: The Allotment, a work in progress.

Photo 2: First path completed. Stones gathered from Lincoln Grove quarry and the allotment.

Photo 3: Hard at work. Emily building the second path.

As the day was continually interrupted by heavy rainfall we took the opportunity to go and buy a few bits and pieces for next weekends building project - the water catcher. The previous tenant of the allotment left behind a basic structure which I intend to strengthen and extend using the pallets to give us a 'deluxe' water catcher.

A trip to Wickes and a £35 spend later resulted in the purchase of 4 corrugated plastic roofing panels, one length of guttering and some downpipes and a selection of screws. Power tools, sledge hammer and the like will make an appearance next week.

Weather permitting there'll be more photos next week, hopefully of some rather impressive DIY!

Beware, Spines!

Our fruit bushes have arrived. They were delivered on Wednesday, but as we weren't home our neighbour took them in for us. The package had a label saying URGENT - PLANTS so Charlotte opened the bag, put her hand in to remove them and was attacked by our gooseberry! It has the most vicious spines. We owe Charlotte lots of fruit come summer.

We have just dug them into the garden temporarily while we prepare their home on the allotment - depending on the weather either tomorrow or next weekend.

Photos next time, I promise (not that there's much to show at the moment!).

Exam Day

Today was Exam Day. Unfortunately it didn't go as well as I had hoped, the new exams are really time-critical and I was still writing at the end of all four. I think I did enough to pass three, but I didn't come close to finishing the plant propagation exam. It was the one I had worried about the most and revised the hardest so not finishing it was incredibly frustrating.

I remember having time to read through the questions and review your answers in exams at school/university - in was all part of the technique. It seems these days you scribble as if your life depends on it and if the answer doesn't come to mind immediately, tough luck!

It was a lovely sunny evening when I got home so I went to the allotment to take my frustration out on the weeds. Well, parsnips to be precise. Who knew they were so persistent? Or perhaps it's because ours have developed into such misshapen monsters that they are so difficult.

The foliage had died over winter and we had pulled many out, but hidden in the depths were more contorted giants and along with each splinter we had inadvertently carved with our spades, they were proudly sporting their new spring leaves.

An hour later and a sackful of parsnips, rotten onions, failed garlic and weeds are now on the compost heap. It was a beautiful evening. The allotment is so quiet and the church bells are a lovely way to be told the time. I love to see how things are changing. Each week one or two allotments have been cleared a little more, or manure spread a little further. In the last week someone (or two) has cultivated almost an entire plot, digging in plenty of manure along the way. An amazing effort.

Our corner isn't looking too bad. The beds we dug at the beginning of the year have broken down much more than I thought they would, but the one Rob dug last weekend has a way to go yet. The paths are doing their job as I wandered up and down them today without compacting the areas that we are going to plant.

The bottom end of our plot still looks a little messy, but the good news is we have a stack of materials to get building with. We are the (very) proud owners of 6 pallets and 2 large plastic-bins-turned-water-butts. All without spending a penny! We treated ourselves to dinner in Woodstock on Friday evening and bumped into a particularly fine pallet leaning against a shop wall. It was very tempting, but we didn't think the taxi driver could be bought and we were too tipsy to return in the middle of the night. Pity, I think it would have liked the allotment life...

Dig 3 - A windy one

Emily's exam is looming so she stayed in the house today to revise for her RHS level 2 qualification. Propagation techniques and soil nutrition were the order of the day.

To keep out of the way (no distractions needed from me when learning how to spell Latin plant names) I headed up to the allotment to dig the third bed.

A blustery wind on the allotment made for a refreshing dig. A few dry weeks had resulted in a much less claggy soil to contend with. Having left the new spade in the shed the old faithful Yeoman cut through the ground like a warm knife through butter and within an hour the job was done.

The cold and dry weather of recent weeks has resulted in the clods of soil on the other two beds breaking down into a fine till (Emily tells me 'tilth' is the technical term for this). Things are looking up on the soil front.

During the past week the bulk of our seed order arrived from the Organic Gardening Company. We are now just waiting on the fruit bushes. These should be with us over the coming weeks but the delay is welcomed as we haven't yet prepared the allotment for their arrival.

Today we also added to our selection of seed potatoes with the purchase of 'Sharpes Express' and 'Pentland Javelin' varieties. These are earlies which will compliment our main crop potatoes nicely. We tried to grow Sharpes Express last year in the garden with limited success so fingers crossed for a bumper crop in July.

A Seedy Evening

The Organic Gardening Catalogue (www.organiccatalogue.com) are a few pounds richer this evening. After much deliberation over the type of carrot to purchase and the number of onions we might be able to eat (500 seems a little excessive Emily!) we've decided on a growing list for 2011. The final list was decided on after a moment of panic - we must remember those winter veg.

A bottle of white wine and much debate later, here is the list of crops that you will no doubt be helping Emily and I to consume in the coming year. Woodstock Farmer's market here we come!

Vegetables:

• Dwarf French Bean 'Royalty' - Purple
• Dwarf French Bean 'Aiguillon' - Green
• Borlotti Bean 'Barlotta Lingua Di Fuoco'
• Sprouting Broccoli 'Rudolph' (expect these in winter)
• Carrot 'Yellowstone' (yellow carrots?)
• Courgette 'Soleil' F1 (watch out Lewis, these ones are quick)
• Kohl rabi 'Superschmelz'
• Salad Leaves 'Italian Blend' (does what it says on the tin)
• Lettuce 'Lizzy' (that ones for you sister)
• Leek 'St Victor' (not sure who Victor was but apparently he grew fine leeks)
• Onion 'Sturon'
• Shallot 'Red Sun'
• Pumpkin 'Tom Fox'
• Potato 'Orla'
• Potato 'Arran Victory'

Fruit:

• Rhubarb 'Champagne' (sure to make your cork pop apparently, also good with custard)
• Raspberry 'Malling Jewel'
• Gooseberry 'Invicta'
• Blackcurrant 'Ben Hope'
• Blackcurrant/Red Currant/White Currant - mid season varieties (TBD)

Flowers:

• Dahlia 'Dwarf Mixed'
• Cornflower 'Double Mixed'
• Delphinium 'Magic Fountains' (sadly no roundabouts)
• Nigella 'Miss Jekyll'
• Stock 'Brompton Mixed' (recommended by folding bicycle riders)
• Scabious 'Tall Double' (why can't they just be 'Very Tall'?)
• Sweet Pea 'Old Fashioned Mixed'
• Sunflower 'Generic'

In addition to these new additions we have a back catalogue of seeds which will make an appearance:

• Pea 'Carina'
• Parsnip 'Tender and True' (not a chance they will be true in the clay soil of the allotment)
• Leek 'Varna'
• Carrot 'Autumn King'
• Carrot 'Chantenay'
• Beetroot 'Egyptian Turnip Rooted' (a good crop achieved in 2010 from these seeds)
• Rocket 'Saturn 5' (Growing in tribute to the Inspiral Carpets)
• Tomato 'Gardener's Delight'
• Lettuce 'Buttercrunch'
• Salad Onion 'Ramrod' (as recommended by Alan Titchmarsh. Apparently he swears by a good Ramrod)
• Turnip 'Atlantic'
• Radish 'Rudolph' (not sure they'll go with the Broccoli 'Rudolph')
• Borage

There's plenty of sowing to be done over the coming months and hopefully plenty of veggies and fruit to be harvested later in the year. Not sure where Emily is planning to put them all but I'm sure she'll give it a good go (on the allotment that is).

Best get digging that third (fourth and fifth) bed.

Spade issues - a question of design over simplicity

Today's plan was to get going with bed number two, and possibly even number three. The soil was heavy and wet due to a week of on and off rain but we were up for the challenge.

Soil sticking to the blade of the recently purchased 2011 of the Yeoman 'Digging Spade' (purchased for the inaugural cutting of the sod last week) made it practically useless but the 2009 version steamed through by comparison. What looked to be a useful design addition, a small 'step' to help push the spade through the soil, only helped to clog it up by preventing the soil 'escaping' over the top. It was that useless that Emily went onto weeding duties whilst Rob finished the digging.

Bed two is now ready to go, with bed one expertly weeded too. Progress is a little slower than hoped for but we'll definitely be ready for the sowing season. We have a source of wood to build the water catcher (a necessity as the nearest tap is over 200metres away in the church yard) and the compulsory compost heap.

We're on the look out for barrels for the water catcher. If anybody has any we're happy to come and collect them. Lugging a watering can 200metres would keep us fit but...

Day one

After a delay of over a month due to adverse weather conditions and Christmas celebrations we finally found time to go to the allotment. Armed with two spades (one shiny and new bought yesterday), a ball of string, some bamboo canes and a tape measure, we headed off to take our first steps into the world of allotmenteering.

We started by measuring our plot: 8.40m x 12.80m (which is approximately 9yd x 14yd or 4 and a bit poles). It's actually a bit bigger than that, but we are planning to build our compost heaps, water catcher and tool shed down the end under the trees, so we measured out our dig-able area.

We have decided to divide the allotment into two: vegetable beds at the top end and the fruit further down where the allotment turns into compost making and tool storing. After trying and failing to get a spade into the very top of the allotment where the previous tenant stored his grass clippings (and the stones removed from the cultivated soil!) we started digging a bit lower down. An hour later we had dug over vegetable bed number 1 (8.40m x 1.50m) burying weeds and clearing parsnips and plastic labels as we went.

Next week vegetable bed number 2 (and some photos).