Helpers!

Yesterday, nana and grandad accompanied us down to the plot. It was quite exciting, as it was the first time Si and I had had a full day down there together, so we were revelling in the lack of time pressure. Thanks to the time and extra helpers, we achieved a lot. Si and grandad put the first path down. It is very stable and makes the wheelbarrow-ing go a lot more smoothly, with less chance of injury (although with me and tools, there will always be a reasonable risk, I'm sort of a Daddy's Girl in that sense). 

Grandad and I planted the dahlias and another plant, the name of which currently escapes me but is quite like a large colourful daisy. The new flowers look gorgeous and really brighten up the plot. 

After Si had finished digging out the rest of the trenches, we also put the maincrop of potatoes in. I sprayed our early potatoes with Dithane, as the allotment site has previously had a lot of trouble with potato blight, so we are hoping this will fight it. (Please note I was in charge of a serious chemical and everyone is currently alive and well).  I find potatoes and other tubers quite worrisome, as you can't always tell how they are doing until they come out of the ground. It's very much a surprise. Hopefully, from the healthy and bushy-looking leaves, it will be a nice surprise. 

Nana and Grandad also erected a netting contraption over the front of the greenhouse. This small stroke of genius means we can leave the doors open and keep flies out. When the weather has settled down, we can leave it open overnight so they can breathe more easily, as it does get ridiculously hot in there! We were also given 3 more tomato plants, which are looking good as we are a bit more clued up on what to do with them now. Our original 2 (which you may remember were subjected to a lot of love, worry and attention in their early days) are surviving on luck and quite a lot of tomato food...

The boys also got stuck into the wilderness that is the second half of our plot. Don had already given them a head start, with the strimmer, but it's still quite a challenging area. However, quite a lot of progress was made, so it shouldn't be too long before we get some fruit in. 

We had another quick visit to do some watering and general pottering today, and managed to harvest a cucumber! It is the most delicious and cucumbery-tasting cucumber I have ever had, and we put it into a completely home-grown salad for tea. Hooray for cucumbers!

We had a small set-back recently during the winds, as our small cloche which protected the lettuces was blown away and destroyed. We are currently in disagreement as I want another, but Si says the lettuces don't need it. I'm not at all happy about them being exposed, but we have agreed to look into other cloching options to try and come up with a compromise. I suspect Si may be right, and that this is only my innate desire to protect things, but I can't let it go. In fact, a new garden centre has opened near Wigan, and a visit may solve this very problem. (Except it is apparently not a garden centre, but a "gardening, home and leisure destination", according to the brochure. I haven't told Si yet, as he is likely to refuse to go on the basis of that pretension).

That's all for now from the Green Team!

Plot Cam 13

Beccy and Roy plant up the dahlias
The plot when we arrived
A quick break for a brew	The maincrop potatoes going in
Roy and I start to tidy up the back
There's plenty of discussion (and pointing)	Another angle
The cucumber is definitely nearly ready for picking
The plot's coming along well
The dahlias are settling in already	Roy and I start laying the left path
That's PlotCam!

A quick visit

Today's visit wasn't particularly long, as it was extremely windy, quite cold and we really only went to make the most of the weather before it turns. A quick rundown:

Carrots - we are fairly sure they are appearing, but it is hard to see exactly which may be carrots so we have avoided weeding there.

Lettuces - on the brink of world domination

Baby lettuces (from seed) - coming on strongly, the outside ones are outgrowing their bottles

Rocket - doing well

Spinach - currently no sign (it's been a while since planting, but they are next to the rocket)

Spring onions - appearing

Potatoes - amazingly leafy, growing ridiculously quickly, flowers starting to appear

Onions - looking good

Radishes - 2nd crop coming on well, the thinned out ones are not doing as well, but there is still some of the old crop left

Beetroot - developing many more leaves (interestingly, Si does a truly excellent impression of a beetroot being watered, it really is a treat for the eyes and ears)

Herb garden - doing REALLY well, much of the bits and pieces that seemed to struggle at first are well bedded in, and Si's birthday lavender is looking more at home. Weeded today.

Tomatoes - the larger ones are looking a bit perkier, and the mini one has started to fruit! It's very exciting, as they are a but fussy

Cucumbers - growing very fast, one is BIG (for a baby, it's not ready for picking yet)

Chilli - looking healthy but no sign of fruit. Some research is needed here. It is, however, the lowest maintenance plant ever and always looks healthy and happy

The Nigella plants I planted are also appearing

In an accessories update, it was the first outing for the pink wellies when Simon was present, and I think I can honestly say he was rendered speechless (in a good way, I'm sure). We also acquired a wheelbarrow, in anticipation of laying our path slabs later this week, and a hose pipe, for the bargainacious price of £4 (thank you to Wilkinsons on both counts!) We nearly brought Wilkos to a standstill upon request of the wheelbarrow, but we got there in the end. The hose pipe made watering a lot easier, as we have now reached a size where the constant filling up of the watering can is a bit tedious. 

Off to bed now, as it's been quite a busy day and Indiana Jones has exhausted me. He's quite tense, I think he needs an allotment. 

Plot Cam 12

	Potatoes: unstoppable
New watering equipment in use	Cucumber growth: unprecedented
Beccy's new wellies	Me taking a rest

OFFICIAL ALLOTMENT ANNOUNCEMENT

We have too many lettuces. Any visitors to the Edsforth/Turner household over the coming weeks will receive a lettuce (provided we have enough notice that they are coming). If anyone arrives bearing a lettuce spinner or crisper, they will receive 2 lettuces. 

Flying solo

Tonight was my first lone visit to the plot. I find people are a lot more sociable when I am on my own, they appear to be much more inclined to come over and I received a lot of visitors. I was very excited to see that the radishes are nearly ready for harvesting. I decided not to pick any, as it was the first thing Si and I planted so I think our first harvest from seed should be a joint affair. In our excitement, we may have planted them a bit too close together so it would seem some didn't develop, but there are definitely a good few which are peeping out. So far, we have managed to harvest some lettuces, although we didn't grow those particular ones from seed, so the radishes will be very exciting indeed. 

On a slightly unrelated note, on a quick trip to the gym this evening I entered a competition. If Christiano Ronaldo or Paul Scholes scored first in the football final, I won. Thanks to the moody Portuguese one, we are now the proud owners of a Jamie Oliver barbecue and flavour shaker. The flavour shaker is actually a lot better than I expected, I had expected it to be a gimmick. We will have to wait for the weather to improve to test the bbq, but are seriously considering an allotment party. 

Accessories

We have had a recent increase in gardening accessories, which I feel is worthy of note. The most significant addition would probably be my new pink wellies (photos to follow). I had been paddling about in green ones for some time now, and they just don't feel right. They feel "practical", and that's not really me (ask Simon). As luck would have it, Sarah-Jane (sister of Charlotte) was in the mood to get rid of her pink wellies, and so they have made their way from Yorkshire to Manchester, via Lancaster, to me. And very welcome they are too. I have now brought a new level of style to the allotments, and it's really up to the other residents to raise their game. 

Simon's birthday also brought a new book. Books have been one of my favourite things about the allotment. I like buying books anyway, but gardening books are the best. The pictures are fabulous (it's ALWAYS sunny in Gardening Book Land, they must shoot in the Maldives) and they look so nice on the bookshelf. 

The book in question is "Grow Your Own Veg" by Carol "Gardeners' World" Klein. It's gorgeous. The pictures are lovely, and there's absolutely loads of information. It's an excellent browser and resource. Carol, it turns out, is not really one for gardening accessories. In fact, she's in dire need of some pink wellie boots. 

The second book was a complete surprise. It arrived in the internal post at work from Jimmy and Sarah, ex-colleagues. This may be a way of apologising for the excessive ribbing I have received from them as a result of the allotment. "Your Allotment" is really useful. It covers all the basics, such as watering, which plants are "thirsty" and which aren't, an excellent guide to the different types of fertilising and a lot of help with maintaining the plot to keep it at its best. I think the thing which sets this book apart from many others is the protective plastic cover which it comes in. Allotment books are so nice, it's always a shame to get mud on them so they tend to stay away from the plot, but this one can travel! Hurrah. And the lady who wrote it is not averse to a bit of glamour. I suspect she will have some pink wellies somewhere. 

On a similar note, you may have seen our greenhouse in the photos. Si did an excellent job putting it up and weighing it down thoroughly. It is extremely warm and is doing an excellent job protecting our tomatoes, chillis and cucumbers. When we were down on the plot, with my grandparents who had come to visit, one of the other residents came over to admire it and ask where we got it from (Barton Grange, should you wish to know). We were very excited to see that he has now purchased exactly the same one. We are allotment trendsetters! No sooner had we recovered from this news, I opened the new book to find that the exact greenhouse is also featured in there as well! It's good to know that, at this early stage, we clearly have an instinct for these sorts of things. It's obviously a technique I have developed over many years of shopping practice. 

A helper

Today we had help down on the farm, in the form of Alex. We started by planting the lavender he had bought Simon for his birthday, and he was very helpful in transplanting the seedlings into larger pots. We then watered them all in thoroughly (if slightly haphazardly). However, Alex's heart lies very firmly with digging. Wherever he was, Alex dug. His favourite digging spot was where Uncle Simon was digging trenches for the maris pipers, but unfortunately he also discovered that it was rather good fun to knock down the mounds of earth Si had piled up. After fashioning himself a small seat in one of them, he proceeded to dig the soil from the mounds back into the trenches. Si's exasperation apparently made this process even MORE good fun, and so the decision was made to leave the trenches until our next visit, and concentrate on chasing Simon up and down the walkways, which went down much better with all parties!

Alex's visit caused a lot of interest from the other residents, as there are not many children to be found on the allotments (in fact, there aren't generally many people under 40). We received many visitors throughout the day, some of whom Alex found more interesting than others. One lady was mid-sentence, asking him how his gardening was going, when he announced "Bye bye!" and walked away. (She took it rather well, as it happens.) On the whole, he appeared to find the residents slightly bemusing, which is pretty much in line with our assessment, so he is clearly a very perceptive child. 

After over 3 hours of digging, running, squealing, telling Simon off and running back and forth to the car to fetch things, Alex was fairly exhausted. Even a slight mishap with a watering can was met with indifference, so we packed up fairly quickly and headed back home, where we all collapsed in front of "Piglet's Big Movie" with a cup of tea. 

Plot Cam 11

Planting up the lavender
Watering in
The digging begins	Inspecting the digging
Having a wee rest	A handy helper
Look: salad!	The middle bed, going strong
Cucumbers are on the go

Cutting the cord

Tonight, after weeks of living alongside us and being tended, nourished and generally pampered, the tomato, chilli and cucumber plants have moved into the greenhouse. It was a big moment, and they all seem to be settling in well, having been thoroughly watered. In some ways, it is a positive thing, as they had already outgrown the patio doors and were in danger of taking over the guest bedroom. After a conference call with our personal gardening adviser last night, and the fact that Ed was coming this weekend and needed the guest bedroom, the decision was made that they needed to go in. We can now have guests again (although they still can't use the en suite). We can also open the windows in the guest bedroom without significant debate as to the impact it will have on the kids. 

Photos of the experience are to follow. There are a couple of the hilarious journey to the allotment, during which I felt I was in a bit of a rainforest, with 4 leafy plants on my lap and a very large cucumber between my feet. Si was unable to change lanes to the left, as he was unable to see who may be lurking in that direction. Then there are some of the greenhouse. It is serving its purpose exceedingly well, as it is very warm inside, but we have left the doors weighed down, but slightly open at the bottom in order to improve ventilation to try and combat grey mould (get me and my terminology!). 

We are considering another visit to the allotment tomorrow, to see how they fared their first night, but are debating whether or not this could be considered excessive. We will be going on Sunday (with visitors) but I think concern and curiosity may get the better of us. 

There were other developments tonight. We planted some new flowers, which are slightly over the Simon-imposed height restriction, but he won't find that out until they have grown. We set off a new set of leafy salad seedlings as our others are doing so well, and returned to find our basil is developing nicely. It looks like the radishes are actually developing into something which looks like a vegetable, rather than the mass of leaves they have been so far. The lettuces are almost outgrowing their cloche, and the potatoes are rapidly outgrowing the piles of soil we use to cover them (to prevent burn). It looks like we may have to be visiting every day for the next few weeks to support everybody through this challenging time (Simon and myself included - there are a lot of supportive high fives and whoops on the allotment).

It's an interesting thought that we first moved into this flat in the hope that the second bedroom/en suite would be filled regularly with friends and family, but that they are now playing second fiddle to chillis. Ah, well!

Cheers, here's to the radishes!   

B x

Plot Cam 10

Beccy waters in the carrot seeds	The middle bed
The salad is coming on well	Beccy sets up the new radish crop

Plot Cam 9

The alpine flowers	Inside the cloche
The seedlings are ready to plant.	Planting some outside
more planting some outside	The plot is coming on well
The seedlings are in the ground
The new green-house in place... ta dah!
Potato growthlings

Feeding the inner children...

Another EXCELLENT day on the farm. To be fair, we are yet to have a bad day, but that doesn't detract from the fact that today was excellent. It was my first viewing of the potatoes, and they are looking very healthy. Potatoes were the first (and most obvious) thing we decided to plant, so their progress has always been something of a benchmark for us. Now they have started to grow, we feel we are well on our way. 

The main purpose of the trip was to plant up some of the lettuce seedlings which have been growing indoors. We selected the best ones to grow under the cloche, but as we had got so many that were looking pretty good, we also put some more outside to see how they fare, as it seemed a shame to waste them for not quite making the cut. As you will be able to see from  the plotcam, they were all thoroughly watered in and slug pelleted. (Judging by the amount of dead slugs we have, we are currently winning the war against them, but I think Operation Beer may have to be implemented soon.) Planting the seedlings was a big step. We have nurtured them so far, but they are on their own now. I suspect this is how my mum felt when I left to go to university, although I probably wouldn't have appreciated her putting a yoghurt pot around me to survive on the mean streets of York. There will be photos of Si planting them up and the new beds/cloche arrangement in the plotcam, coming later this evening, once we have had tea and are settled in front of "Indiana Jones". 

We were also able to get some photos of the new greenhouse, which is looking fab. We are still deciding about the arrangement of plants to go inside, and having to harden up the tomatoes, chillis and cucumber before they can go into it, but we still go inside on every visit because the concept of a small house appeals to our inner children. 

Alongside the new developments, some of the current allotment residents have also had a small spurt. The lettuces look fantastic, especially the lollo rosso, and we arrived to find the alpine flowers had bloomed fully (except the ones which, strangely, appear to snooze in the summer). The herb garden is not looking brilliant, I wonder if these things thrive indoors rather than out, but we will see how it develops. 

Off for a shower now, as it was quite a muddy experience after all the rain. Still, it's good for the greenhouse and the excessive dirtiness also appeals to the aforementioned inner children. I just hope Alex, who is an actual child, finds it as exciting when he visits in the next couple of weeks.

Bye for now!

B x 

 

Potato Growth

Went down to the plot today after work, I was wearing my work clothes but I was only going to water around. Being a saturday the allotment was teaming with activity and there were plenty of people popping over to see how we're getting on. So far they've all been very complimentary and a few have already admired the new greenhouse. Most though look at our lettuces with hungry eyes, and one today even suggested eating them even though they're babies! Well maybe some of the red lettuce, but the butterheads have yet to come on fully. So whilst I was watering I found that the potatoes are breaking through!!! Brilliant. I was a bit worried about them because so far there was no movement and they've been in the ground for nearly 2 weeks, but they're coming through strong now, and they seem quite thirsty.

Sorry though that the plot cams have stopped coming through but my phone, the usual piece of equipment, has broken. It's gone to the big phoney place in the sky. This will be rectified eventually but until a suitable alternative makes itself known you'll just have to use your imagination.

In further news the Northern Moor Gardening Society is having an AGM a week tomorrow and we've been invited, as members, watch this space for exciting news.

We have lift-off!

Tonight, we finally erected the greenhouse. I use "we" in the "Simon" sense of the word, obviously. It looks splendid. It's very big, so much so that we are currently in discussion as to how to put the paths down to allow access to everywhere. Unfortunately, Si's phone is no more and mine was low on juice, so the photos will have to wait until tomorrow. It is firmly buried in, with guy ropes (which are NOT called "guide ropes", no matter how much you may argue they are) and pegs. As we were leaving, I was struck by the thought that it looks a bit like a space ship has landed on our plot....I'm not sure why, perhaps it's the green. Whilst Simon was busy digging, I was carrying out some essential plot maintenance. The lettuces required dead leafing and refreshing, as the heat and humidity in the cloche does not have a particularly beneficial effect on the slug pellets. In fact, they go very furry indeed. So it has all been dug over and weeded, and looks much better for it. The rest of the plot was also weeded thoroughly, although 'm not sure how long that will last as they're quite determined. It does look a lot better though. I was not looking forward to the weeding/dead heading stage of the plot, as I felt it was going to be a bit dull. However, I had my ipod on (with a specially selected Allotment Playlist) and it turned out to be a very relaxing and satisfying couple of hours. MANY thanks to the grandparents for the kneeler, though, it was MUCH appreciated!

Greenly yours,

B x