Walking the plank

The fruit cage is in a bit of a mess. The grass has become entangled in the netting, making it very difficult to strim around the base of the cage. Consequently it's been cut with hand shears but some roots have grown through the netting and we've never dealt with it properly until last week. We unpicked all the roots, rolled the netting up and are in the process of slotting planks into the base to make a strimmer proof edge. There were a few old planks at the allotment that we'd started to use but yesterday, on the way to the bread shop, J noticed a skip with a pile of very long planks resting against it outside neighbour Bill's house. Last night we walked the plank (well, two planks) up to the allotment. They were about sixteen feet long so there was a long gap between us and we had to shout to hear each other speak. Crossing the road was interesting. However, we made it, and when we got there we headed straight for the fruit cage and the planks turned out to be an exact fit. Amazing! J's up there now, doing a quick bit of plank installation while I write this. What a brilliant find. Thanks Bill!

Happy gardening

Potatoes in the news

I've just got back from planting some Maris Piper potatoes in rather an experimental way. I read somewhere recently that it helps keep the potatoes free from slugs (and we grow a lot of slugs) if you line the trench or hole with newspaper. So I've just put six nicely chitted seed potatoes into their bed with the travel section of last weekend's Guardian. I hope they don't decide to go off somewhere exotic.

Six potatoes may not seem many but there's another twelve waiting at home and the salad potatoes (Charlottes this year) are going into those large pop up bags or any other container I happen to have free. I started one bag off at the weekend and it will just sit in our tiny garden. The growing plants need more attention in containers, but they're also more likely to get it, being right outside the back door.

Happy gardening

The Playpen

Well, here is J in his wonderful construction which we have immediately nicknamed the playpen (you can see why, can't you?) but it's really going to be a protective cage around the sweetcorn (that I wasn't going to bother with this year) I definitely will grow some now, if only to see how high badgers can jump. I'll have to stake the allotment out at night and watch out for the pesky varmints giving each other a leg up to climb over the top and get at our sweetcorn. This'll make it difficult anyway.

It's sort of recycled too because the wood came from a futon that Roo broke, although we bought the wire netting. Oddly enough it's the second futon that the dear boy's broken. Lovely lad, just a bit hard on futons.

It's the end of a fabulous day spent doing various gardening things, planting seeds at home this morning and thwacking great lumps of earth around with a spade this afternoon at the allotment. J even managed to get a balloon flight in this morning. Whoopee, I think it could be spring!

Happy Spring gardening (it'll probably snow again now!)

Plan 2009

This image may not work - I'm not getting a preview of it on my page. If it works when I post it, this is the plan for the allotment this year. Maybe there's some kind of discrepancy between OpenOffice and Blogger because all I can see at the moment is six lines of weird code.

If the plan is visible, you should see a long, thin, (16ft by 100ft) plot with the various beds and permanent features marked on it. I'm pencilling in the veggies as I plant them. Actually, I've managed to get mud on it already too. Yesterday's additions were as many of my broad bean plants that I could carry to the allotment in three trips. It's now blowing a gale again so I'm worried that they'll have snapped their poor little stems. The plants from the second sowing will be ok, they're a sensible height but the first ones were put into pots on November 3rd and they were at least eight inches high and spindly. By the time I left they were wearing a fleece as protection (me too!) but it wasn't pegged down very well so I'll be up there again tomorrow to check on them. In my fleece, obviously. Lets hope the beans are still wearing theirs.

Happy gardening

The ongoing plan

Oh dear, such a long time since I wrote anything here and so much has been happening. In real life as well as on the allotment. However, this blog isn't about the complications of my life (thank goodness) so I'm just briefly going to record some projects we've got going.

1) The pond - part way through Febuary I noticed a rip in the black plastic and rather than heave all the occupants and plants out to replace the liner, we've done a stunning "mend" with off cuts of plastic, glue, waterproof tape and gaffer tape. Seems ok so far and we were just in time for the frogspawn. Whew. It meant I got round to having a bit of a pond clear out too which was never going to happen if it was just a job on a list

2) The plan. We've drawn up a neat little computerised A4 sheet showing all the beds and the idea is that I fill them in as I plant stuff. So far, onion sets and parsnips but I'm about to go shopping in a minute for red onion sets (red baron if possible) I haven't been able to source any locally yet.

3) More of the plan. I've divided most of my beds into four rough quarters and the intention is to plant in blocks this year and cover each block with netting. We've got wire netting to make a moveable cage (like a guinea pig run) and even bought some of that blue plastic plumbing hosepipe to make hoops. The first lot of hoops are on the sofa in the dining room at the moment as our first attempt yesterday to plant out and net off broad beans was a bit of a wash out. And a wind out. If I'd planted them yesterday they'd be half way to central Europe by now.

Happy gardening
So....not a lot of blogging, but thankfully a bit of time well spent.

My special chill-out place

I wasn't tempted to sit down! I did spend ages taking photos though – everything looked so perfect and pure and the light was stunning. I think I was the only person who had been on the allotment, but mine weren't the only footprints. The animal tracks crossed and re-crossed everywhere I looked. The bigger ones were fox tracks and there were lots of bird footprints too. I followed the path to the woods and stood for a while watching a fox, waiting to take his picture when he moved away from the bushes but my camera timed out and switched off with a whirring sound so he melted away into the undergrowth. Even so, we were close enough to have made eye contact.

The snow will be brief here. This transformation of the landscape is fleeting. I feel priveleged to have seen the snow work its magic on my familiar allotment.

Happy gardening – enjoy the snow

Pruning with the ancient gods

To successfully prune an old apple tree you must first remove any diseased or dead wood, any branches that cross over each other and also any that have sprouted up much higher than you want the tree to go. Then you should look at the shape of the tree, taking care to leave a cup shape of branches with an open centre. Only after this should you begin to prune the twigs by cutting the leading twig on each branch back by about a third to a good bud and the other twigs back by two thirds. That's what my book says, anyway. The reality is a bit more hit and miss with some branches too high for me to reach so they got missed out, and some twigs just too confusing for proper pruning so they mostly got all chopped off. However, today is Imbolc, a good day for tending my tree for the coming year, so to make up for the haphazard saw work I have tied ribbons to some of its branches and cast its fate to the old gods of the wildwood. Safer hands than mine!

Happy gardening and light a candle for Imbolc tonight