Winter Planting 03-10-11

As the freak Indian summer comes to a close we've started looking forward past those frosty mornings to next spring! And in preparation we're getting some plants in the ground to make sure they are established before winter and can get a sprint start next year for a really early harvest.

So above we have Rich putting in some onion sets.

And here is Eleanor putting in some Broad Bean, we've only planted 10 broad bean just in case another really hard winter kills them off. The rest will be planted early next year.

Today we also planted some garlic cloves to give us a crop of garlic in late June/July next year.

Garlic need the winter snap to start their life cycle so it's important to get them in now...

In other news, don't buy cheap tools!

Matt

Summer creeps to an end 21-09-2011

So as summer comes to a close (summer, what summer?) our plot is starting to look more and more bare.

Leeks are still coming on a storm, should mean we have something to harvest in the late autumn months

Izzy's shotgun carrot bed still is giving significant thinnings, eventually we might get to the point we can just grow our carrots!

Runner and french beans in abundance

Not a bad haul for today, 1 large courgette (OK marrow), 2 swedes, 2 bitesize beetroot, handful of carrots and a bag of mixed salad leaves! 

Matt

potato harvest 22/08/2011

So here are our onions, coming on a treat, a tad on the small side but they did go in very late so to be expected, in thae background we have Izzy's carrots, more on them later...

So the potato harvest! 

As the leaves turned yellow Pippa began the rooting around, again the bounty is on the small side but that gives us room to improve next year!

The collection from about a third of the total, about 4 plants worth. 

Not bad at all...

A winner of a carrot here, lets just say it didn't make it off the site. 

As everyone says you haven't tasted a carrot until you've grown you're own, just really carroty-tasting!

Matt

Glorious abundance 29/07/2011

I haven't got a lot to say for this post, I just thought some pictures of how great the plot is looking at the moment would be quite enough...

Matt

Pests 26/07/2011

So as nothing is really happening at the plot except everything getting bigger and fatter and more excellent. 

So I thought I'd mention our counter terrorism measures, against the ongoing threat of PIGEONS! 

I have to be honest I thought it was slugs at first causing havoc but I have been assured that this swede  damage is classic pigeon. Notice the leaves stripped leaving only the spine of the leaf, whereas slugs aren't so picky...

We have therefore resorted to a swede tent to keep our lovelies protected. 

A few pea sticks and some net and the pigeons are foiled!

We also harvested some of the smaller (!?!) beetroot to leave space for the others to grow!

All exciting stuff...

Matt

Potato Flowers 06/07/2011

After a slow start the courgettes and beans are finally starting to do something! Although the courgettes have the smallest leaves I've ever seen flowers are emerging. The beans we planted from seed straight into position seem to have done far better than ones raised in pots and transplanted so we now have too many beans on some poles! A good problem to have...

The plot is looking very tidy at the moment, just keep picking away at those salad leaves...

The potatoes are clearly enjoying the sun, rain, sun, rain, sun combination...

Matt

More green than brown! 28/06/2011

Look at all this green! The plot is really getting into its stride now thanks to days of bright sunshine followed by almost tropical afternoon downpours.

Rich supervises the first harvest of baby Swiss chard leaves.

Close up...

And the result... Perfect salad fodder.

Today we had 3 people asking us about the plot, all very impressed with how it's going and how nothing has been knicked or damaged! (Touch wood)

Matt

First Harvest! 14/06/2011

The first Harvest! Wahoo, 5 beautiful radishes, juicy with a smart little kick at the end.

Chris was so keen he tried his leaves/roots/soil and all...

Other big news is permission from the council to use the garden of Chatterton house, adjacent to the plot. The council leader Barbara Janke suggested it initially and the lease is now signed!

On the condition we keep the front of the house weed free, a small price to pay...

At the moment we have a sea of woodchip covering weed membrane with weeds growing all over the path and on the membrane, so looks bad but shouldn't be too much work to get it into a beautiful kitchen garden.

Matt

A celebrity visit! 09/06/2011

What an honour! The Leader of the Council Barbara Janke spent her lunch time visiting our humble plot.

I think it's fair to say she was impressed and made a few suggestions about how we could use Chatterton house to our advantage, such as; water butt, compost bin, fruit in the walled garden, chickens...

Ok, maybe not chickens.

After a brief tour we had a group photo and I was blown away with the response from the office, absolutely fantastic so many people came down to support us. Thanks again!

And finally somewhat cheesily we had the leader of the council and the leader of the allotment shot. Very nice.

Matt

Beautification 08/06/2011

So tomorrow's the big day; the day our little allotment (might) make it into the press!

In preparation a few of us spent lunch time doing a bit of tidying/weeding.

Getting rid of leaves and dead grass, cigarette butts and other litter meaning the plot now looks much lovelier...

Matt

Teenage plants 03/06/2011

Here we have Barry as he reaches teenager-hood (so called as Chris BOWIE-Hill was by far and away the most excited about radishes). The way things are looking the radishes are going to be the first product of the plot. Lets hope Chris isn't worried about eating a namesake...

David tending his pride and joy, the onions. The aim of this visit was to give some very much needed moisture to the vegetables (and explode the myth that watering during the middle of the day damages the plant)

We managed two loads of wheelie-bin water, thanks to Dave and Sam for providing the muscle...

An all round view of the plot, we can't wait for it to be full of green but for now we'll have to make do with brown with green spots!

Matt

We need rain!!! 01/06/2011

It's been a while since I last blogged, but don't worry we have been busy just I've been slacking on the picture front. The big news is we've had the driest march ever on the back of the driest april ever. So we've mostly been watering, Although you wouldn't tell as we have had some sad news with regards beans which I'll describe in a bit...

As we can see the beans are looking a bit forlorn, in fact this was the second attempt at planting beans and neither attempt lasted more than a week. We need rain!

The biggest success so far; the onions! Here we have Sam looking on with a paternal air although Dave is the one doing all the work...

Success in waiting are the potatoes, we can just see their little heads poking up and Dave is welcoming them with a gentle sprinkle of water.

You can just see on the left the plastic containers protecting the chard from predators, these mini-greenhouses also keep in moisture and warmth, just don't let the plants get too big for them! Th eradishes in front of the bottles have just been released for that reason and look very healthy. Lizzie and Isabel can be seen tending the courgettes which to be fair are struggling, bed 1 not doing so well....

Here comes the girls 12/05/2011

Quite by chance the second lunch time session attracted a significant number of female allotment team members, so we have; Lizzie, Eleanor, Joanne, Liz and Anne. They are planting our second variety of bean; the climbing bean. With 25 plants each of both climbing and runner we’re sure to be snowed under with beans. (As long as it rains a bit...) And in the foreground are our 6 beautiful courgette plants. Traditionally giving a huge amount of courgettes and, if you let them, marrows. 

The two Liz’s planting a fine array of beetroot, 30 odd in total so even if we get all of them there will probably be a bit of a scrap over who gets the A1 specimens.

Today we managed to get in the ground carrots, climbing beans, beetroot, leeks, courgettes and spinach.

And we’re off! 11/05/2011

The team hard at work, digging over the beds to ensure a “fine tilth” before planting begins!

David B making short work of the potatoes, with beautiful St Mary Redcliffe church in the background.

Pippa making the Rainbow Chard comfortable

Sam and David F showing off their scouting skills lashing together the bamboo supports for the runner beans and I’m planting up the 50 radish seedlings Chris BH demanded...

The finished product, planted today, runner beans, chard, swede, radish, onions, potatoes.

Still to go, climbing beans, courgettes, leeks, parsnips, carrots, beetroots, spinach...