We’re just beginning to warm up now! After spending the day (Sunday 9th) outside the chill gets into your bones. Your fingers start to feel numb despite the gloves and your feet never seem able to warm up properly. Still, it’s better than sitting inside all weekend. We get so much done, in the one full day we can spend there in the week – work allowing. If only we lived nearer, like a lot of the other allotmenteers do – and had the luxury of just pottering about for an hour each morning/evening.
The bulbs have really begun to put on growth. We filled the half barrel planters with daffoldils – huge bags of bulbs were on offer a couple of years ago – so we filled each planter and they have not let us down. We have put a Hot Lips Salvia in the centre of each one so when the daffodil colour passes, the red and white of the Salvia will take over.
There are also some hyacinth and – we think – alliums, even though its far too early, beginning to break the surface.
The spring bulbs are beginning to come up in the boat also. The sedum, which you can just see in the corner in the right hand photo, had to be thinned out last week, it had almost taken over the whole bed. The crocus, Decorum, really is one of the most beautiful flowers. It often gets overlooked as it’s one of the first to bloom of the spring season
The Japanese quince we bought a few weeks ago was potted on. Literally within a couple of hours it seemed to bud up and some flowers opened. It’s going to be trained up against the back end of the poly-tunnel, next to the pear trees.
We had a delivery. We had never ordered from Farmer Gracy nurseries before, but their offers were good and we had heard favourable reports about them. Sometimes you can order plants/bulbs/ etc and they can arrive dried out or damaged. Not these. We had ordered some roses – Everglow Ruby – a climber, came in a pack of three – and some dahlias. All of them were in excellent condition, the roses even had some growth on them. We potted them up and did the same to the dahlias. Hopefully we can get them to break dormancy a little earlier so we can get some cuttings. Always greedy for a free plant!
There was also a lot of painting – creosoting – the shed and fences. there are a lot of repairs this time of year. The winter winds really hammer the wooden beds, it seems like all we do as spring is nearly upon us is replace anything wooden on the plot!
Yay! It’s February! The longest month of the year is over. I know some people hate January, I don’t mind it too much, but we’re getting nearer to Spring and the longer sunnier days. Hopefully we’ll have some frost – just a bit, to help kill off any predators, like aphid eggs- as opposed to the damp wet weather we’ve had.
The parsnips have been sown! Hooray! They have been sown in the bed by the garlic, where we had success with them a couple of years ago. Last year was a bust. Never got any. This year we’ve used seed – sown thickly – that is older. The second row was with brand new seed. Apparently that is the best way. We shall see.The new variety is Hollow Crown and the older is White Gem. They may be a bit too close but here’s hoping we get some parsnips in a few months.
The straggly leeks were pulled today and surprisingly quiet a few of them are perfectly good to clean, chop and freeze for future eating. They were planted last summer, and while not the biggest, they’ve survived a lot of bad weather. The smell of them was amazing, even thought they look like big spring onions.
They don’t look much …A good wash is all they need!
Bought some Honeyberries for the fruit tunnel. They came from B&Q and were £13.99 for a pack of 3. They arrived in good condition and with some growth on them. We potted them into slightly bigger pots just until the weather gets better. The variety is Balaleika. We would order from B&Q again.
Not bad, and got some growth on them.potted on
We’ve been picking up some dahlia tubers, just in case the ones that are asleep under the soil and wood chip decided not to return … and because we can’t resist them. Some are cheaper, while other more expensive varieties will be delivered in a few weeks from the various nurseries they’ve been ordered from. No doubt they will all be lovely, and we’ll take cuttings from them because we can’t resist it!
Temptaion is too much …!
The days are – very slowly – getting longer. The soil is warming up, even though it is a bit claggy. Have a good week everyone.
Storm Eowyn has been wreaking havoc across the country over the last few days. Thankfully we seem to have got off lightly. The fence that came down after the previous storm, stayed up as did the newly repaired fruit tunnel. Phew! It’s as though we don’t have a proper winter now, just a storm season. Some allotmenteers hadn’t even finished repairs on their plots from Storm Darragh a couple of weeks ago.
We had been given a couple of small (baby!) decorative Christmas trees and had brought them to the plot to pot on. Tabs the allotment cat gave them her approval. We have a row of them each of varying heights and varieties, where we’ve brought them to the allotment after the Christmas holidays. Eventually we should end up with a hedge!
sniffing the growing medium…approval!
Went for another visit to a garden centre – Lady Lever in the lovely village of Port Sunlight – and, of course, came away with another tray of winter pansies and some potted bulbs, a variety called ‘Jimmy’. We put the pansies into some old hanging baskets, we just needed some colour around the shed. The tulip bulbs we potted on – good job – into a bigger pot. Look at the roots!
Jimmy!Some winter colour
The strawberry bed was in need of a good weed and some maintenance. The wood around the bed and the gate next to it had collapsed a bit, not because of the storms, just age. We repaired the wood and gave them a quick lick of paint before any rain fell. We also had to attach some netting to the strawberry bed because certain tabby cats like to use it for their ablutions – ahem! It looks a bit sparse but all the beds seem a bit like that at this time of year.
After a weedingnetted!repair & paint job!
Progress was made on the new brick beds around the pear trees. It’s just to smarten this little area up really, and make more space for the herb pots. We managed to scrape up some fresh wood chippings from the remnants that had been left by the other allotmenteers. The site gets a delivery every so often. A huge pile is left and it’s every allotmenteer for themselves to get some for paths etc. It’s wheelbarrows at dawn!! Think we missed the last delivery, that’s why our paths look so muddy at the moment. Anyway, this little area is beginning to spruce up a bit!
Looks a muddy mess now, but come spring & summer it will be lovely. Guarenteed!
We hope you are all doing ok and getting through all the horrendous weather that is being thrown at us. Everything seems so unsettled at the moment, what with the winds and floods, fires and snow in Florida! Still, it’s nearly February, a new month and nearer to Spring and longer daylight hours.
The letter informing us of the annual allotment meeting arrived yesterday (Saturday 18th). Prices have stayed the same for us except for the water bill. It’s risen A LOT. Seeing as we have about 15 water butts on our plot to catch and use rainwater, while certain plots don’t have one and are happy to just use the hose pipe for hours ( exaggeration !) seems a bit unfair, but what can you do???? When we popped in yesterday to feed her majesty Tabs the cat – there were quite a few allotmenteers there tidying up which is always a surprise as you don’t really see a lot of other allotmenteers from about October. The letter always brings them out!
We began today with some repairs – a fence needed new wood across it to keep it upright and a lick of paint and it was all good. The ground is very muddy through the thawing of the snow, there hasn’t been much rain but everywhere just seems damp.
Beneath the dried out sweet peas that were found last Sunday in the greenhouse, was a pot of gladioli corms. They had been planted last spring in a huge pot, but had not done as well as the ones in the soil, so they had been dug up … and forgotten about! They’ve been replanted in the bed next to the Chillian Guava, hopefully not too late. They had so many baby corms attached to them and they seemed to be in good health, so they should be OK
.
lots of babies!sprouting
The wood around the pear tree bed, bit the dust. It had been there for years, and was laid when it used to be the broad bean bed. So, despite the mud and random bulbs, we decided to try something different and arranged some old bricks around one of them. Hopefully, as they bed in they won’t look so odd. We need to add some wood chip or fresh compost inside the bricks to smarten it up a bit.
will look better … eventually!Leaves space for some herb pots
Spent quite a lot of time moving self seeded seedlings ( that’s a mouthful!) around. There were a lot of lychnis seedlings, all of which were moved to the entrance of the plot. They give such a great burst of pink colour in summer. There were a lot of digitalis seedlings also. They’ve been replanted by the old barbeque area.I love free plants!
digitalis seedlinghellebores & winter pansies
Had to get the hellebores outside. Something was nibbling away at the flowers, so we made a little winter display with some pansies in a bucket! A bit of colour always cheers you up.
We did so many repairs today as well as a proper tidying for the oncoming season. There are more bulbs to be planted – even though it may be a bit too late but they’re better in the ground. We emptied the composters – Coco and Carl – onto the bean beds. The compost was amazing, very rich, better than any you can buy. The bush beans should be a bumper crop this year.
We’ve had the lowest temperatures here than we’ve had for a few years. It got down to -5 at the plot over the last couple of days. Good for the garlic bulbs who like to freeze for a bit but not for a lot of plants, which we think we may have lost but won’t know for a while. This is what happens when you have very mild winters for a few years – you get used to leaving the more tender plants outside or just shifting them somewhere more sheltered instead of moving them into the greenhouse or poly-tunnel.
Went for a visit to Ince Blundell Nurseries garden centre just to have a walk around. It’s an excellent garden centre. It just deals with plants / seeds etc rather than selling candles and clothes like a lot of plant nurseries now do. Anyway, we saw this particular shrub/fruit tree and could not resist. Think it was the colour of the flowers that attracted us. It’s a Japanese Quince. We don’t know where it’s going to go on the plot but when it thaws out – it was frozen rock solid – there’s a nice bigger pot for it to go in, so it can be moved around. Apparently you can eat the quince that fruits but it has to be cooked.
beautiful tangerine coloured blossombees love itcan be thorny
The fruit tunnel took a battering during Storm Darragh, and then the following snow storm caused its collapse. It looked like the bendy plastic poles had twisted, so we had to find a new way to keep the netting up and off the fruit bushes. Eventually – the job took longer than expected – we used the expandable metal poles that you use to keep washing lines up, with square plant pots on each corner. It raised the netting up a lot, but it’s stronger and hopefully will withstand any more snow storms.
CollapseMetal green polesNewly repaired tunnel
While sorting out the greenhouse, we found a load of dried sweet pea pods. We grow them up the side of the fruit tunnel and they do well. So well, that we kept the pods – just wish we had remembered where we had (too safely) stashed them! They’ve now been podded and some will be sown very soon. We don’t sow them in November, they tend to go straggly because of lack of light.
After a trip to West Kirkby – the beaches are beautiful there – we bought a couple of hellebores that were being sold outside of a veg shop in the village. Think they were left over from the Christmas sales. Thing is, the ground is too frozen to get them in some soil. They’re very pretty though.
Bursting with seed!Beautiful!
We hope you’re staying warm. Spring is on the way, the daffs are popping up. Happy plotting!
Some of that white stuff has fallen from the sky and the country has come to a stand still. Remember when we were kids and it would really snow! Yes? Happy days because the school boiler would always pack in and we would all be sent home, and there was always one kid who couldn’t find his gloves so wore a pair of socks on his hands!
So I was going to write about the orchard, and the plans for it. It really comes into its own in the spring. There are a lot of bulbs planted as well as the hellebores, corydalis and clematis that grows up each fruit tree. Today though, my plans have been scuppered by the snow. The photos below are of the apple trees, and a plum tree which we had to cut right down, but is slowly returning. It was covered in a type of greenfly, that had spread throughout the allotment site. The pear trees died and were replaced in another area of the allotment by the poly-tunnel.
The raspberry cage in the frontoldest apple tree on the leftThe plum tree in recovery!
We used to always sit in the orchard, and spent many a happy summer evening in there watching the birds. The bench and table is covered up although the odd plot cat likes to hid underneath them. We’re going to make a lot more use of the orchard this year, its a lovely spot on the allotment.
Sad to see the poor old fruit tunnel! We had repaired it this time last year from the snow, and the same happened again this year. Those bendy pipes just don’t seem to be able to stand up to the white stuff, so it’s more repair work on the cards.
After last week’s pruning and clearing session, we could see more of the daffs poking through the soil. Spring is on the way folks! These daffodils were bought in a huge bag as end of line stock from The Range a couple of years ago, and they’ve never let us down. Always the first to display a beautiful show. The rose bed is completely covered. Some bulbs were planted there last week – I had forgot about them and found the bag lingering in the greenhouse. They’re red coloured iris, I hope they survive the cold. Unlike me, who had to return home earlier than planned because my fingers were going numb!
We hope you had happy and safe new year celebrations. The weather was awful here in England and many of the celebration/ firework events were cancelled due to the very strong winds. The rain has also caused a lot of problems. We decided to visit the allotment today to wish it a happy new year – as you do – and was struck by the amount of flooding on the actual site, not just our plot. There was some surface flooding on ours but nothing to get too worried about. On others, well put it this way, they would not be able to walk around their plot without wearing wellington boots, and would maybe be better suited to growing rice! Something needs to be done about the flooding, but it seems that it is just being allowed to get worse and allotmenteers should just ‘put up with it.’ Hmmm.
The Olive TreeThe Handkerchief Magnolia in bud
The plot does look bleak this time of year. Last week we had a good clear out of the poly-tunnel. It was full of leaves from the grapevine and bags of compost. The squirrel – my nemesis – has not found his way inside …yet, but we moved our supply of pumpkins and squash just in case. The garlic is still caged like a prisoner, but every clove we planted has begun to shoot.
The green house, despite housing our fruit trees – peach and cherry – is also home to our resident guest, Tabs the Tabby cat, who has made it her place and now has her own cat flap to get in and out. We joke that the greenhouse is now her conservatory! Anyway, the fruit trees, bubble wrapped and cosy, seem to be OK, apart from a small kiwi we bought last summer. I’m nervous about taking the bubble wrap off it, in case it’s gone to the great fruit tee farm in the sky!
We also took some cuttings from the peach tree prunings in late autumn. They seem to be thriving. Even if just one sets roots then that’s a win.
What lurks under the bubble wrap?!Looking good. Fingers crossed.
We bought some seeds from Real Seeds, always optimistic for the coming season! They include seeds for the North Georgia Candy Roaster – we saw it on Instagram – it was recommended as sweet tasting, roast with the skin on and you can grow them up poles, for space saving. Looking forward to them.
Melons & Beans also.Got to have more flowers!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this little post and some of the pics that were taken around the plot. The final part of the year at the allotment was a bit, shall we say, eventful and not in a good way ( apologies for the click bait type mystery ). Allotments would be great if the people there, really wanted to be there and not just take up a space that others could use especially in these difficult times, with the rising prices of vegetables and fruit. Anyway, enough of the moaning. It’s a new year! New Adventures and most of all, HAPPY PLOTTING!!!
Ivy geranium in the greenhouse.The shed door. Bit faded.
Our plot is now very shaded by our neighbours trees on either side. Some crops have failed before Summer even got started. Due to the poor weather at the beginning of the season we have no peaches, grapes (lack of sun, lots of leaves though) cherries and salad stuff – lettuce & cucumbers mainly.
We do however have a lovely black cat who visits us! Tempted by nibbles, she likes to argue with Tabs the tabby who lives by the plot. The pumpkin you can see next to her is called Racer. They matured very early. We have already had to pick some of the pumpkins – Jack- o- Lantern, because they were huge! Not complaining. The butternut squash are beginning to come through also.
Nom NomThe pumpkins are in there …somewhere
The beans – french, climbing borlotti and Greek – have all done really well. We’re leaving them to dry out on the nets a bit before we pick them to save for autumn/winter. You can see how much thinner than usual the french beans are due to lack of light. ( I know! Stop moaning!) The root bed – it was a strawberry bed – has been amazing! There are lots of turnips, swede, beetroot as well as celeriac and parsnips still to be cropped. It’s safe to say it has been a success.
Sunshine on the beans!looks messy, but it’s productive
The staple crops, have been excellent. The onions grew well in their new bed – another old strawberry bed – and the copious amounts of rain at the beginning of the season seemed to help. Same with the spuds. We mainly grow them in tubs now – we planted some in a spare piece of soil and will dig them up this weekend to compare. The tub spuds have been excellent croppers. The spare beetroot that were sown in the salad bed were a nice surprise, especially when you forget that you’ve sown them there!!!
Love the smell!Tubs tipped in the squash bedForgot we had them!
In spring we planted a hollyhock that we had grown from seed – underneath it somewhere are some Honesty plants – not expecting it to flower this year. We have been delighted to see it slowly bloom! It’s huge! well over 6ft and such a glorious dark red colour. A nice surprise to what has been a bit of an off summer season.
There should be another post very soon, showing the fruits and flowers that we have managed to grow this summer.
It’s spring … no really it is. Not just ‘winter lite’, but spring. It’s the end of April and the air is still mostly cold, there have been frosts, sharp winds and rain rain rain. The weather is unseasonably horrible and trying to grow in it has been difficult at times BUT it’s not all doom and gloom. Let’s begin with some blossom. Always a pleasant visitor to the plot.
Apple blossomThe dwarf cherry
The apple blossom seemed to just pop out very quickly, after waiting so long. The orchard is always at its best in the spring. We have had the cherry for about two years, and it’s only now that it seems to have become strong enough to put on blossom. It’s very pretty and we hope we get a decent crop from it. Unfortunately the peach blossomed way too early. It was still in the poly-tunnel under some fleece when we noticed it had already begun to blossom. Despite us trying to hand fertilise it with a very soft make up brush, which has worked before, the blossom did not set. No peaches for us this year. No worries, let the tree have a year off.
Like a whale …The new cover.
The cover of the poly-tunnel had more holes than cover after such a harsh winter. We bit the expensive bullet and bought a new one. On the first non windy day we whipped the old one off and in true comedy style managed to get the new cover over the bare bones of the tunnel. Please excuse the mess, but the grape vine ( Babs) is looking good and right now is about to begin her growth spurt for the year. Hopefully we should get some grapes!
Some repairs & a coat of paintSpring colour & Bunting
The boat, HMS Liverpool, is beginning to look grand ( if a bit ramshackle ! ). The old boat had eventually collapsed so we added bits of wood and gave her a coat of paint. We even added a spot at the front ( aft? Stern? ) for a pot of flowers. The spring colour from the saxifrage, tulips and hyacinths etc have produced a beautiful display. The obligatory bunting has been added.
Started in early MarchA few weeks later …
The onions were started from sets in early March. We have turned one of the old strawberry beds to the onions. We’ve added lots of rotted vegetation and compost to give them a boost. The second photo is a few weeks later. As you can see, the white onions are romping away, and were ready to go in the ground. We put them in, covered them up – the pigeons had their beady eyes on them – and had to wait a couple of weeks for the red onions to catch up, which they did. They’re all very happily co-habiting and have not yet become bird food!
Broad bean seedlingsteenagers …They’ve left home.
This seasons broad beans have just left home – the greenhouse – and have been planted in the soil. They were very strong seedlings and seemed to need potting on within a couple of weeks of being sown. Last year we began them way too early and they grew quite stunted at first but then caught up. This year, not even a late frost damaged them despite only a thin gauze covering them. Just shows you. They’re even in the same spot where we had them last year. Looking forward to a good crop.
Early peas plantedRunner beans about to be sown. Overlooked by Tabs the cat.
The peas were sown a few weeks ago. The germination has been a bit patchy, so we’ll sow some more in the ground to fill in any gaps. The mange tout all germinated and are doing really well, but not one sugar snap popped up. We’ve sown some more, maybe it’s a problem with the packet?
The runners were started under the supervision of the allotment cat, Tabs. They seem to be doing well and will soon be growing their way up the canes. This time seems to come around quicker every year …
Struggling seedlings!The salad bedSweet peas are in!
We used to have two strawberry beds by the shed – we had to move it to the far end of the plot where we have much more sun, so the onions got one bed and the other is going to be used for some root crops. As you can see, a frost got to them. Good job we have some spares. There are three varieties of beetroot – we like a lot of roasted beetroot in our house – swede and turnip. A row of parsnips have been added even though it’s probably too late, but hey you’ve got to try. Hopefully when the warmer weather eventually comes the seedlings may perk up a bit. Fingers crossed.
Some salad crops have been sown directly in the soil. Lettuce, spring onion and radish. We always leave some twigs and branches on the surface to deter the local cats from using it as a litter tray or the allotment dogs from deciding to dig it up!
The sweet peas are in the ground! We decided to plant them in the fruit cage again. This gives them lots of growing space for them to climb up. Last year there was a great display. Most of these seeds sown were saved from last year’s blooms. Nothing as lovely as the smell of a bunch of sweet peas in the house.
Phew. That was a lot. Haven’t even mentioned the flowers and fruit … or herbs … or brassicas.
We hope you are well and looking forward to the change in the seasons ahead.
Well that felt like a really long month! January does though doesn’t it? We’ve seen on a lot of the socials (as the young people say) that a lot of chilli/aubergine/ tomato seeds have been started off. Good luck to you, but we wait a while. We do use a heated propagator, but this year it’s just going to be for some flowers that take a bit longer to get going – echinacea & rudbekia – and in a few weeks the squash and pumpkins. We don’t use grow-lights and the light levels at home can make our seedlings weak and leggy, so we ‘re going to wait with the greenhouse crops. There’s no panic.
Have a look at these Hellebores! How lovely are they? This was a small plant bought in a garden centre a few years back. We eventually planted it in the orchard and it seems to have made a home there. It always surprises us. This year it’s especially lush. The Honesty seedlings are doing really well, and since this photograph was taken, they’ve been potted on. These are the purple and white variety. More summer colour!
HelleboresHonesty
We had snow! Yes proper snow, not just half an inch of slush that gets everyone in a panic. This was proper, send the kids home from school snow. The kind that makes a crunchy noise when you walk in it. We paid a quick visit to the allotment to check up on the queen of the plot – Tabby – and it was a good job we did. The weight of the snowfall had made the fruit tunnel collapse! Everything just sort of bent inward. It didn’t take long to fix and looked worse than what it was. At least the fruit bushes were OK. Some of them have actually begun to bud up, as has the peach tree in the poly-tunnel …
Bendy piping took a dip!
The repairs continue. Behind the shed and the greenhouse need some love. The honeysuckle on the shed needs pruning – we let it go wild last year, the bees loved it! – as well as the lavenders in the trough underneath. We have some crocossmia and some bugloss that grows around it – the whole area needs a good weeding. As does the area behind the greenhouse. Because this area gets full sun all day, we planted our baby melons in there. They did OK as did the chamomile that grows around the base of the trough. The bird cage might look a bit weird but we grow nasturtiums in it and they always look lovely and self seed in there. Every plot needs a little bit of eccentricity! The plastic tarpaulin covering the top of the greenhouse is there until we can get the leak fixed. It’s right at the apex – the most awkward spot of course, and looks like another job for when the weather is a bit better.
Honeysuckle gone wild!Needs a tidy up!
We hope you’re all doing well, and preparing yourself for the growing season ahead ( if you’re in this part of the world!) Spring is coming!
PlotDaze 