Allotment Update...

This is the first of many visits to the allotment, I had thought I was starting later than I usual do, turns out I'm a bit earlier this year than last year, and as it happens we have started most of our seeds off earlier than we have in previous years.

Doesn't look like much was done, but you have to start somewhere.

Here's the video -

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment update (a bit late posting) ...

I'm a bit behind with posting due to work and other things, so I'm combining the last two allotment visits into one post.

The fist video is us harvesting our borlotti beans and some squash plants, and the second video is us picking this years apple harvest, which isn't as big as it has been in previous years, but we still got enough to make some wine and juice and the rest my wife cut up and froze for pie fillings through the autumn and winter.

There's not much on the plot now, we will get some kale and chard and we should also get some sprouts for Christmas dinner, but for now the plot has been left alone and once Christmas is over I'll start fixing the fences that are damaged (and anything else that needs fixing) and come spring I'll start moving plants about, we have two gooseberry bushes in the gardens at home which are being relocated to the plot, and there are some small fruit trees on the plot that I want to move.

So look out for more allotment posts next year, and in the meantime I'll try and finish off some of the Christmas makes I've started and post / make videos about.

Picking the beans and squash - 

Picking the apples and juicing -

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment Update - Harvesting potatoes...

It's been a while since I posted one of these, but here's a video of the latest visit to the plot, today I've dug up our spuds and now we have 18kg of good potatoes, not bad really.

I haven't had quite as much time lately so the plot has got a little wild, but I've started clearing and making plans for next year, and I have been back since this visit to pick beans and squash, as well as the apples.

Here's the latest update -

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment update - More squash, Beans and Prep work...

This is a little behind where things are at on the plot, this was just a quick visit to the plot to get the other bed ready and to plant some more plants (squash) out, also planted some bean plants and got the polytunnel ready for our melon plants and birdhouse gourds.

We've had a lot of rain in the last few weeks, what we really need is more sun so the pumpkins and other squashes can get going.

Here's the update.

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment update - Beetroot, Salsify and Red chard...

Just a quick trip to the plot this time, planted out some beetroot plants in between the borlotti beans, which is a good use of bare space that might have not been used otherwise, also planted six salsify plants, these are a new plant for us, we're growing them at home as ornamental plants and on the plot as a crop, the whole plant is edible, but we're growing it for the root and lastly I've put in some red chard plants as a cut and come again crop.

Not much left to go into the ground, we may plant some quick crops later once things have been picked and harvested, but for now it's waiting for things to grow and keeping up with the weeding, I might even have some free time to make some stuff in my work shop.

Here's the video - 

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment update - Squash, Snake beans and Kohlrabi

The trips to the plot are getting more frequent now that there's more growing, this visit is mainly for getting some of the squash plants in the ground, but I also planted out the snake beans and some kohlrabi (first time growing it this year) and it seems someone has cut their way into our plot and some of the other plots on the site looking for things to steal, no real damage was done but they did knock off a load of gooseberries when they cut into the neighbouring plot.

It's worth reporting any break in or damage to your allotment plot to both your local council and the police, the chances they'll catch anyone are slim but you should always report these things, it's also a good idea not to keep anything too expensive on your plot, we only keep a few basic tools on ours anything else is kept at home and taken to the plot as and when we need it.

The latest trip -

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment update - Beans, beans and brassicas

Another trip to the plot, this time it's bean planting, I've put in two types of beans, borlotti and dwarf beans along with some russian kale, sprouts and one lonely spinach plant.

Things are doing well, we've got loads of radish coming up and I harvested more rhubarb and the gooseberry bushes are loaded with berries so it should be a good year for our fruit crops this year.

It's hard to keep up with everything that's going on on the plot now, amazing what a bit of rain and sun will do, but we're getting there, things have moved on a fair bit from this video.

Here's the video -

Thanks for visiting.

How to build a bean frame...

A quick guide on building a bean frame for climbing beans, I've used normal bamboo canes for this frame (I've been using them for years) but any straight stick would do, like hazel, or even lengths of timber just as long as it's relatively straight and the right height, for climbing beans you'll want canes at least two metres (about six feet)

Here's the video -

And in case you don't have time to watch the how to I've attached a few basic diagrams of how to make a simple climbing bean frame.

Step 1 -

Step two - 

Step three - 

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment update - Leek scapes, rhubarb and bean frames...

Work is progressing on the plot, more prep work done, this time I have to deal with the rhubarb flowers, and the weeds, it does feel as though we're getting somewhere with things now, just waiting for the weather to pick up.

I've also made two simple bean frames for some of our climbing beans, it was a nice sunny day and I'm happy with the work so far, it'll soon be time to plant out the beans and squashes and all the other stuff.

Anyway here's a video from the latest trip to the plot -

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment update - Strawberries,Radish,Bees and a Butterfly...

Finally got the fruit bed sorted out, so now the strawberries, black currants, gooseberries and rhubarb are weed free (ish) sowed some radish seed in a blank patch of earth while we decided what to do with it.

Didn't get round to moving the skirret, but as it's started to grow I'm leaving it where it is for now, and really it's just getting ready for planting stuff out, once it's grown.

We've loads of stuff on the go in the greenhouse, beans of various types, squashes of various types and a host of other things, but the weather has been a bit bad for the time of year so we're holding off on planting a lot of stuff out.

Another productive day though and I'm pleased with the results.

Here's the latest video -

Thanks for visiting.

How to identify Foxgloves and Comfrey...

If you've ever had trouble telling Foxglove from Comfrey which is a mistake I've made in the past (and recently) hopefully this post will help you (and me) avoid future mistakes.

It's easily done especially when the plants are young, I recently moved some plants about on our plot and thought I'd moved 3 Comfrey plants, turns out it was 1 Comfrey plant and 2 Foxgloves, either way I'm happy the comfrey will make a useful feed for plants and wildlife and the foxglove is a great plant for bees and such like as well.

If you don't want to watch the video I've added a couple of pictures as well as a guide to -

Video -

Picture guide (you can click on the images for a better view)

Foxglove -

Comfrey - 

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment update - Blackcurrants, Leeks and Big Bud Mite...

Another productive session on the plot, relocated the self seeded leeks, made a new bed for our black currant plants and discovered that some of the black currants have big bud mite, which I talk about a couple of times in the video, but basically it is a sap sucking mite that gets into the forming leaf buds and they become swollen, there is a diagram in the video that shows the difference between a good leaf bud and an infected one.

I didn't manage to move our skirret plants, so that'll have to be done on the next visit, and as the weather warms up we'll start sowing seeds for a variety of crops.

Here's the video, I hope you find it useful -

Thanks for visiting.

How to remove dock...

One of the perennial weeds found on allotment plots and in gardens is dock, it's a problem plant, but it can be controlled by removing as much of it as possible, this includes the roots, which can be very long as you can see in the video below.

You can just hoe the tops off, but I prefer to dig them up using a fork which helps loosen the soil so you can get as much root out as possible.

This is how we deal with them on the allotment, and some of the other weeds.

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment update - Spuds, Horseradish and Velvet mites...

Work continues, and as the weather warms up we need to put in more hours on the plot, this time it's planting potatoes, horseradish and the tidying continues as well, and there are some bonus velvet mites, we often see them on the plot, I've seen them in garden as well.

We get a lot of other critters on the plot, some welcome, some not so much but it's all part of gardening in general.

Anyway here's what I got up to on this visit -

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Allotment update - Onions, shallots, beans and weeds...

Another day and another set of jobs, this time some actual planting, we've put in some shallots, onions and some broad beans and carried on tidying things up.

Probably not the best day for digging, it was very wet and muddy, but time waits for no one, all in all I'm happy with what we got done.

The days work -

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Allotment update - Grape pruning...

So the first actual working trip to the allotment occurred recently, it doesn't look like much was done, but the main job was sorting out the grape vines, so that's out of the way now.

We use more of a no dig method now than we did when we first started out, which is why there's weed control fabric all over the place, we started using it last year (mainly due to time constraints) but noticed a difference in the crops we got.

As an example we grew squashes in two beds on the plot, one that was dug over and prepared the usual way and the other we used weed control fabric and we got a better crop of squashes from the bed where we'd used weed control, so we've expanded the use of it for this year, and as I said it saves time.

Below is the video I took - 

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment update...

 It's been a while since I put an allotment update on here, so here's the first for this year.

The plot isn't as bad as I thought considering we haven't been near it since October last year and for the whole of last year we weren't able to spend a lot of time there due to work and other reasons.

It will take a bit of graft to get it ship shape, but not too much and we've changed the way we do things over the years to make it a little easier.

Anyway here's the state of our allotment plot, we'll be starting work down there soon.

Thanks for visiting.

Allotment update (all be it belated) part 2...

Welcome back, so if you remember I left off at the end of July, this post is from August up to now.

Not much to say about August, we harvested a good crop of onions (best I've ever grown) and other things were starting ripen up ready for picking.

Pumpkin starting to go orange -

Looks like a good one.

Started getting the plot ready for next year, this section has green manure sown into it, this will be where the squashes go next year, we also sowed some swedes, turnips, carrots, raddish and lettuce for a late crop, and we'd been letting some things go to seed, like the lettuce plants so we can collect the seed for next year.

Preparing for next year - 

Still plenty going on.

We found some Russian kale plants reduced at our local garden centre, so we put those in, they'll over winter, along with other things we'll be putting in before December, like onions and garlic.

Russian kale - 

Looks tasty.

Borlotti beans, we'd already harvested one lot, this was the second flourish - 

Looking forward to eating some on stews over winter.

Borlotti beans ready for drying - 

They look great.

The apples on our inherited trees were doing well, we're not sure of the varieties yet -

Apple 'A' - 

Apple 'A'

Apple 'B' - 

Some kind of russet maybe ?

If you read part one you'll know we put various things in our polytunnel, and I obviously under estimated how much room things would need, jungle like is a good description.

No room here - 

There's veg in there, I can feel it.

And onto September which was basically frequent visits for harvesting purposes and a lot of time spent making stuff out of the things we took home, here are a few examples - 

Apples from both trees (about 40kg in all) - 

This wasn't all of them.

Which we (mostly my wife) turned into dried apple rings, apple dumplings and wine, the rest were blanched and frozen for pie fillings and obviously we've kept a load of the best ones for eating.

Apple rings - 

the kids loved them.

Apple dumplings, a family favourite - 

Awesome.

Home grown rhubarb and custard ice cream - 

It was awesome.

Pickled lemon cucumbers (grown in the polytunnel) and pickled onion slices -

Very tasty in sandwiches.

Courgette relish in the pan - 

We make it with pumpkin as well as courgettes.

Grape cordial we froze a load for Christmas as well, just add some sparkling water for a homemade sparkling grape drink - 

The kids love it, it's good with vodka as well.

The grapes that didn't get turned into cordial and jelly (yes we made grape jelly as well) have ended up as wine, quite a bit of it in fact, I don't know what variety of grapes these are, but they are the same as the grape vine we have in the back garden, they don't make good dessert grapes but they do make excellent wine.

Wine, it'll be ready next year - 

I need more demijohns.

This is just a small amount of what we've grown and turned into various things, every year that goes by we get better at preserving and growing, and now with the larger plot we intend to grow and make as much of our own stuff as possible, it saves money, it's better for you, it's a no brainer.

And so with that in mind onto October, we've been clearing up and sorting things out, there are plants that will over winter that we can eat, and we've started preparing for next year, we'll be putting in onions, garlic, shallots and broad beans soon, and we've started planning where things will go next year.

Our latest harvest - 

Bit of everything there.

We cleared out the polytunnel and are making use of it over winter, we left the chilli plants in as there's a chance they'll survive the winter in there, it is possible to over winter chilli plants and the ones we have at home will be bought in to see if we can do it, we have also put in some grape vine cuttings, and when I've pruned the currant bushes at home we'll be putting a load of currant cuttings in as well, and probably some other assorted cuttings.

Polytunnel cleared - 

I'll plan the planting better next year, but for now it'll act as a nursery.

grape vine cuttings - 

It's as simple as sticking a stick in the ground (apparently)

By the end of this month we should have the plot cleared and all the beds prepared for next year, yes there'll be some weeding to do in spring but hopefully not too much and we'll also have a head start with the onions and such like, I will put another crop of onions and broad beans in, in the spring.

Next year we'll be trying out some new stuff, like cucamelons here's a picture of some of the seeds, I got these for 46p a pack in a sale - 

Looking forward to the Turks turbans.

All in all it's been a good year, next year (fingers crossed) will be even better, but for now the plot is pretty much dormant apart from the things we plan to over winter, but the work will continue.

The plot so far - 

Not too much to do.

And that's it, just need to figure out what to do with this lot - 

Happy Halloween.

Thanks for reading.

Allotment update (all be it belated) part 1...

So another year done, and to be honest it's been a bit of a mixed bag for us, we decided early on to focus on the new full sized plot and we've had some good results, and some not so good, but we're still learning about the new plot, even though it's on the same site the sun hits it differently, the soil is a little different as well, but stuff grows well which is the main thing.

Rather than write large posts I'm going to post some of the pictures we've taken over the last few months, split over two posts.

Things were doing well in May (we moved the shed) -

Moved the shed, quite a big job.

We put in the squashes, pumpkins, courgettes etc and the corn, the plot was looking good - 

A vast improvement on how it looked at the start of the year.

And we put some chilli's, peppers, tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, melons and butternut squashes in the polytunnel - 

Plenty of room for everything, as it turned out no there wasn't.

On to June, I made a net from rope to train one of our grape vines across - 

Needs more support now, grape vines are heavy as it turns out.

We put in some assorted brassicas (cabbages, kale etc) - 

We netted them well, still got caterpillars on them though.

Things carried on growing well, the weather was good - 

The hard work seems to be paying off.

And so onto July (which was a busy month) the plants continued to do well - 

Corn doing well, two types growing here.

Squashes doing well - 

Should get some good pumpkins this year.

And then around the beginning of July we had some bad weather, high winds and the like and our polytunnel suffered a small set back, in fact it got shredded by the wind, whether this was because I hadn't stretched the polythene tight enough or whether it wasn't up to the task I don't know, but it did set us back a little.

Some repair needed - 

There was a lot of swearing.

The plants however continued to do well, so there was that, and as we were giving up our old plot for this bigger one we decided to make a start on moving some of the plants from the old plot to the new plot, we started with the asparagus, now generally speaking it wasn't the best time to move the plants, it should be done in early spring when the plants are dormant least that's what the books say, but we weren't able to wait.

Asparagus in their new home - 

Fingers crossed they'll be happy here.

We were worried they might not survive given the weather was warm and dry and we were concerned the crowns might have suffered too much in the heat.

However they seemed to be fine, in fact they started growing again, but we'll have to wait and see how they do over winter.

Asparagus starting to grow again - 

They seem to be fine, despite the move.

We learnt that rats like to dig up and eat potatoes, so we harvested what we had which turned out to be around 35kg.

Exhibit 'A' your honour - 

You learn something new everyday, didn't know rats liked spuds.

You're not getting your paws on these Mr Ratty - 

Bagged up and ready to go, love new spuds.

We harvested some of our grape vines for leaves to make dolma (stuffed vine leaves) - 

Another way to use things we grow.

The grapes continued to grow well - 

These will end up as wine.

Our borlotti beans were coming along nicely as well, not grown these before but they did well and we grew them for drying and storing, which again is a new thing for us, but we got a lot of beans from a small amount of plants.

Borlotti beans growing - 

They look great.

Pumpkins and other assorted squashes continued to grow well and we set about fixing the polytunnel and that was it for July.

Polytunnel fixed with slightly more robust material - 

And it's still standing, and performing well.

One of a few pumpkins coming along nicely - 

Should be a good one.

And I'll leave you with a small white butterfly caterpillar eating one of our brassica plants - 

They've all gone now and most of the plants survived.

Thanks for reading and look out for part two, which should be along shortly.

Allotment update (part 2)

Welcome back, this is part two of my current allotment adventures, I had to break it into two posts as it seems I've done quite bit.

So this is pretty much where the new plot was at in part one -

Oh look weeds, some things never change.

The first job this visit (it's now March the 18th by the way) is to prepare some areas for sowing more seeds, and do some weeding.

Bit of digging and raking and voila - 

On to sowing.

You may have noticed that I haven't sorted out pathways and such like yet, this is because I'm taking the same approach with this plot that I did with our half plot, that being I'm letting it evolve, I will eventually put in a path that runs the full length of the plot, I'm also not having a load of defined beds for growing things, apart from the fruit, and I need to put in an asparagus bed, but that will be it for beds as I like to move things about.

After a while the newly prepared section is done, I've sown carrots, parsnips, three different types of radish, mixed salad leaves as well as lettuces, mud fruit (beetroot) pak choi, and spinach, although I suspect the parsnips won't do anything, every seed from that pack of parsnips has failed to germinate, even the ones I've sown at home to see if they'll grow.

Sown areas sectioned off and watered - 

Looking like it might actually be productive.

And now we get to April, this visit consisted of putting in some canes for beans and peas, I also rescued a few more alliums and put in some more parsnips, this time from a different packet of seeds, I'm also pleased to report that the grape vine I moved is showing signs of life, it may not produce any fruit this year, but at least it's still alive.

Pea and bean canes in, peas (Kelvedon wonder) and beans (borlotti) sown and watered - 

About half of the plot is now doing something.

Rhubarb is coming along nicely now as well - 

Quite a lot of it as it happens.

And that brings us up to date, I have recently finished the main frame work for a home built polytunnel which needs to be put on the new plot and be covered in plastic, I will write about how I made it so keep an eye out for that, and obviously there will be a few more allotment updates throughout the year, but for now I'll leave you with a picture of a hedgehog, I found him stuck between a gate and gate post on the site, I set him free and he seemed to be fine, hopefully he'll repay me by coming onto my plot and eating all the slugs that usually eat all my veg.

He's not very talkative - 

He was a good weight, at least a kilo.

Here's the plot as it is now - 

A far cry from what it was just a few months ago.

Thanks for reading.