The Floodlit Allotment

Seedy days

Helena — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:34:01 +0000

It’s been the month for planting little seeds!!!

About 3 weeks ago, I started off with broad beans and peas. I was a bit lazy and put 2 seeds in each hole. Interestingly, the peas didn’t mind this so much, but the broad beans didn’t take to it too well at all. In any case, I soon sorted them out into degradable peat pots, and they thrived. I’m going to start hardening them off in my yard at home soon. I think this will help also, as there seems to be some mould building up around some of the plant roots. I also planted a bunch of tomato seeds. They are STILL seedlings, so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong or if they really take that long…

Today I planted 30 sprout seeds, as requested by Alsie, a sprout fan! I’ve also put in 16 pepper seeds (they cost £3 for 16 seeds!!!!). I tried to separate out some of the tomato seedlings, but they’re still too delicate, really. SO I planted a few more seeds in individual pots to see if they prefer that.

What else can I plant? I’ve got runner beans and dwarf beans to come, and also some squash plants, but I found them a bit tricky to harden off last year, so I might leave it till it’s a bit warmer.

I wonder how much my flatmates are loving all my seedlings?! Nice to see signs of life, but when it comes with soil everywhere, it’s not as ideal!!!

Green resolution?

Helena — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:51:42 +0000

So, I have to fess up. I have ignored the allotment rather tragically. Well, it was summer, and everything dried up, which made me sad (no water in the water butts…), then in September I broke some ribs, which made everything nigh impossible. Then I was in Aus for a month, and then it was bloody cold for 2 months. So I was beginning to feel v guilty and wonder whether it was all worth it…

Anyway, then some friends came to stay and showed such enthusiasm that I went down to the lot on 22nd Feb. It’s really lovely up there. Just quiet and nice. And cos it’s winter, the weeds aren’t towering above my head, and it seems a little more manageable.

Through work, we got sent links of some Wellcome Trust gardening tips – what we should be doing week by week. Good start. So, on 22nd, I:

- harvested lots of jerusalem artichokes
- pruned my rasps
- pruned my roses (from my Dad’s front garden – miraculously they travelled well and are ALIVE!!!!!)
- weeded a bit
- fashioned a cold frame from a desk made by my uncle, and a shower screen, and put some strawb plants in from runners which were produced over autumn

Felt good!!!!

Then, yesterday, I

- Got some rubble so I could lie out more ground cover properly.
- Re-laid out lots of the ground cover so it covers most of the front half of the allotment. This makes me happy! (Bad news – I had to move some of the pathing stones, cos you couldn’t see the stones anymore – they were in danger of just getting lost in the weeds.
- harvested the rest of the artichokes
- put the rest of my strawb plants in the cold frame. (They like it in there!)

- weeded, composted and dug over the raised beds ready for new seedlings.

- planted many seedings at home (yesterday)
- got rid of more big weeds!!

Good results, eh?!?!?

A lot better than some of my ropey produce:
- the smallest beets ever:

- some neglected kohl rabi:

- the some really ropey purple broccoli:

Better luck next year!!!!

Brill web shop

Helena — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:37:17 +0000

To buy plants in season – for the lazy of us!

http://www.organicplants.co.uk/

Shed Mahal

Helena — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:52:45 +0000

Well, it’s been a while! But things have been going on…

Loukik and I bought a shed!!!! There were some hairy moments, which we may describe if you ask us nicely, but we may choose not to share. Anyway, then I got all lazy (read had to work hard even in the evenings) and Loukik, unbeknownst to me, managed to put the shed up ALL ON HIS OWN!!! I genuinely don’t know how he did it. He even put on a new roof! It’s SOOOO exciting!!!!

The weeds are seriously taking over though. I totally see the advantage of raised beds. It means that you have a small area to focus on. Also, ours are more amended with manure and stuff, so less grows there anyway. Loukik and I have decided to try to weed lots and cover the areas with some ground covering / mulch so that it becomes lower maintenance. Fingers crossed!

So, what else is new?
Aubergine plant from friends in Brighton, nasturtium from Strawberry Fair, to help to de-bug the tomatoes, four lavender plants from Cambridge market
Cabbages being eaten by slugs, strawberries ripening (just a couple!), teeny toms on the plants!, broad beans starting (as spotted by Al), courgette plants lookng happy, seedlings such as rocket and pak choi are coming up nicely.

More pics to follow!!!

Soggy bank hol

Helena — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:51:19 +0000

I put off the allotmenting this weekend, but it made no difference in the end. Showers ahoy!

I visited a friend yesterday and discussed allotments with her, her hubby, and his Dad! Lots of expertise! Also gifted courgette, tomato, climbing bean and cabbage plants!

So, amid the rain, I pinched off the tops of the broad bean plants. This is to get rid of the nice juicy plants which attract the black-fly. (Should be done when plants start to flower.) Indeed, a few of the plants did have black-fly nestling there, so I squished ‘em good! I was going to wind the runners around the canes, but I have a horrible feeling that they’re not going to recover from last weekend’s frost. I guess we’ll see. Not much happening to them anyway, apart from grim-looking-ness.

I put the squash (including my pumpkins) and tomato (mine and the gifted, much bigger, ones) plants in the greenhouse, where I hope to harden them off. This is a process of allowing them to acclimitise to the cold, wind etc, and get tougher stems, gradually. I think that the absence of this hardening off might have been the death of the butternut squash plants a few weeks ago…

I planted out the pea plants, new broad beans, new runner beans and climbing bean plant in the raised bed. Fingers crossed. It’s windy as well as wet today!

And finally (as John Craven would say) I piled up soil round my jerusalem artichokes. I don’t know if they needed it, it seems to be an optional phase, but I thought I’d give it a go. I was pretty wet through by now, so it wasn’t much fun!

Loukik and I have some pretty exciting news in the offing, so watch this space!

Other tips I’ve picked up:

- cabbages like alkaline soil, so I’ve obtained some univeral pH indicator paper.

- grass cuttings act as a good mulch for things like beans – water well underneath before putting it down.

- tomatoes will benefit from having their side shoots (not the flowers though!) nipped off during growth.

- marigolds are good at putting off nasty pests, especially near tomatoes. I’ll build this into the plans.

- lavender (named from the Latin – to wash) also scares away pests, and borage attracts them away from other things!

Potatoes & Artichokes

Loukik — Fri, 23 May 2008 09:38:39 +0000

Growing potatoes is definitely not a difficult task. They don’t need much water and are apparently happy with most soil types. We planted our first batch of chitting seed potatoes on the 16th of April (around 15 of them) and Helena planted the second batch just last week.

The first batch has made tremendous progress in a month. The shoots are nearly 10 cms tall and they all look healthy (until the frosts at least).

We read up that in order to get a good crop and to prevent the yield from turning green, its necessary to build up soil around the base of the plants. This part confuses me a little. The shoots are covered with leaves completely and quite close to the ground. So, I am thinking that the built up soil may bury the leaves and decrease the growth rate!

Anyway, we wanted to build up the base yesterday but Helena’s allotment guide book suggested that we wait until the shoots are 30 cms tall. I reckon this may just be a couple of weeks away. So, I just dug up the soil around the plants and prepared ourselves.

Further reading suggests that we should build up quite a few times during the plant’s life cycle. This article has a very nice illustration. We may start with a little bit of building up later today.

Meanwhile the artichokes are doing very well. I read up yesterday that Jerusalem Artichokes can grow up to 3 mts! Ummm…. We may have planted these too close to one another.

Frosts in MAY?!?!?!?!

Helena — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:33:15 +0000

Loukik and I have been giving the allotment more structure. We managed to get hold of a couple of pallets and broken paving slabs on Sunday, through freecycle. So we have paths etc. I bought some dinky picket fencing to go round our garden area, and installed that mostly too! It’s looking a lot more homey.

Then weeding the herb garden actually made it clear that there are herbs in there, among all the grass that’s regrowing!

I planted lots more seeds on Sunday too: mini beetroot, perpetual spinach, pak choi, brussel sprouts. And sunflowers!!!! I also potted four strawb plants in my strawberry planter!

Today I went to the recycling centre and was covertly allowed to nick a few bits of wood from the timber bin! So I have started to build a frame for my raspberry canes. It helps to point them out as a feature too.

I took the strawbs out to the allotment, as well as planting a borage plant in the herb garden. But, I have a feeling that’s not a great idea. It’s baltic out, and apparently due to drop to 2 deg C overnight. What?!?!?!?! It’s late MAY!!!!! The runner beans are already struggling – the leaves are darker and wilty. BOOOO!!!

Oh well, I guess we’ll see….

The Weedin’ Project

Helena — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:02:48 +0000

My first proper go at the allotment in yonks. I’ve been at the EDEN PROJECT over the weekend, with a friend who got an allotment before me, and so I’ve been very inspired!

It’s been really hot and dry for the last week, and things in the greenhouse are a bit the worse for wear. Poor things.

First off, the herb garden. Mint going mad in its pot, as predicted. Phew. Rosemary has bedded in nicely. Sage and thyme not the best, but still alive. Today, the basil and chives went into the patch, along with some bronze fennel, which is very pretty and which I bought at the Eden Project.

Then I noticed that there were a couple of upright weeds. Except not weeds; asparagus! Oooh! We didn’t even plant them! But it is the season!!!! Yum!

Various plants which I bought a while ago, and which are a bit with the dry at the mo, I planted out in the raised bed, which I had dug over and stuck in some compost and dug that in too. So there are two butternut squash plants and three chilli plants at the far end of the raised bed.

Watering was pretty easy today. Lots of water in the butts. Beans done (looking good!), onions and garlic done (not showing up yet), artichokes and potatoes done (nice shoots – not quite high enough to pile up yet).

Our potatoes we bought a good while ago are finally chitting. So I dug two trenches today for them. It’s a bit late, but I’ll plant them out tomorrow…

I also planted some rocket, pumpkins, peas, as well as a second batch of broad and runner beans, in the kitchen a couple of days ago.

Water palaver

Helena — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:28:36 +0000

We seem to be having a mini-drought at the allotment. Apparently there’s a leak in the pipes that supply the water butts. So it’s been switched off and the water dwindles fast. But I did what I could.

Excitement: the potatoes and jerusalem artichokes are starting to come up! Wheeeeee!

And my beans just get more and more beautiful!!!!

The race begins

Helena — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:59:27 +0000

I’ve not been up to the allotment for over a week. Well, I’ve mostly been out of the country, or at least county, so there’s an excuse! Loukik has, however, been planting onions and doing wonderful things which he alone can relate.

The first thing I noticed this evening was all the grass popping up! Like spurious pubes under a pubescent arm, nature is beginning to rebel against this organisation malarky.

Thankfully I was dealing with a raised bed today, which has had layers of topsoil, manure and compost added to it over the past weeks, so is not suffering from sproutage.

I added a bunch more compost, which Loukik had bought, set up my little bean wig-wams (I know: we don’t care what they’ve been, we want to know what they are now), and went to the greenhouse to see how my darling beans have been doing without me. Very very well, it seems! A veritable bonsai jungle of bean plants awaited me! Thrilled does not begin to describe my excitement! Anyhoo, I popped them in the ground – broad beans around one wig-wam, runners round the other – at what I considered to be a decent separation, and watered them in.

Here they bean:

In other news, rasps and blackberries seem to be taking well to the terrain. Herbs are OK, getting a bit grass-ed. No sign of life from the jerusalem artichokes or pots yet, but there’s plenty of time!!! (Not so much thyme. Boom boom.)

Our current plans look like this: