Just like cricket, the covers are off.

My plot has been hiding under plastic all through the winter but at the first sign of warmier weather I decided it was time for action.

It is a choice between leaving the plastic on the warm the soil some more and digging the ground over and letting the birds eat the bugs that will get to the veg before me!!!

For the beds that will be spuds and onions I decided that bug free was probably more important than heated, so off came the covers, out came the spade and a good dig over and a liberal sprinkling of Growmore was in order.

I constructed a couple of wooden frame type thingeys to put polythene over for clouches for carrots and parsnips in a couple of weeks, i've another to do for lettuces soon.

The coldframe now has glass and the leeks have taken up residence in there, along with a couple of grow bags in which a line of radishes and spring onions has been sown.

at night if it is looking too cold then I throw a blanket over it and pop in a couple of bottles of hot tap water, which are able to raise the temp by 2-3 degrees to ward off frost.

Is Spring Here Yet!!

I was out on my bike on Saturday an while it was still cold, the sun made it feel very spring like and gave me the urge to plant something and get going with this veg growing business. So I put a few lettuce seeds in modules in the propigator, in the hope I have the cold frame finished before they get too big.

Visited the lottie with some compost and found it a hive of activity, the 2 plots next to me which looked abandoned have sprung back to life. One was owned by an old chap who had heart trouble last year but is back this year and has rotivated the lot ready for some planting and the half plot which was an overgrown weed bed except for 1 leek now has 4 beds in it. It seems everyone is making a new effort this year.

The Leeks



As you can see these are coming up nicely in their cardboard tubes, once they get a bit bigger I will thin it to one per tube and grow them on in the cold frame ready for planting out in about June.

Spuds



A small problem here, I swear I put the bag labels in the trays so i would know which was which!!!!!. I am assuming that the ones with the bit chit (ooer) are the earlies (Foremost) and the others the main crop (Sante), but to be honest I have no idea.

I bought these from Mr Fothergills, only then to find a good selection in my local market a lot cheaper, well you live and learn, and this is my first year.

The Cold Frame



This seems to be taking ages, all it needs now is a final coat of white inside to help with the ligh and some glass. should prove big enough for my needs I hope.

Roll on warmer weather

Some Progress

A few minor activities to report, my seed spuds have arrived and are laid out in trays under cover, they have started to develop shoots but I'll keep them under cover a bit longer as it's a bit early.

The white onions I ordered didn't look like enough so i've been out and bought 100 more of a different variety as well.

I have started the cold frame, bought the grow bags to go in it etc, but run out of wood, it's about twice the size I intended.

I checked the soil PH at the lottie the other day and it looks good, hopefully just a liberal spread of growmore (which B+Q sold cheap) is all that will be required as part of a light digover as I get ready to plant. The weed control seems to be working on everything except the garlic chives which appear to need niether light nor weater!!!!!!!!!!

Soon Be Planting

It's sad but I'm counting down the days until I can start planting, leeks first, a couple of early tomato plants for the green house, salad stuff in the coldframe (when I get round to building it!!!).

All I can do for now is keep topping up and turning the compost bin and make sure my plastic weed control stays in place. the strawberries are doing OK and all showing signs of new leaves etc hopefully there will be a few nice ones for the summer.

I'm Bored Now !!!

There's just not a lot I can be doing down the allotment. I made the decision not to plant anything until next year but to use the winter for weed control and planning, so I'm bored now.

All I can do is keep visiting to fill up the compost bin and attack any new weeds in the last bed before I cover it for the winter. A few of the strawberry plants I dug in instead of removing them him made a reappearance so I just pull them out for compost.

I'm looking at companion planting, seems like a black art, I might swap the leeks and carrots around, hoping carrots with onion will mean less carrot fly and apparently parsnips don't do well next to carrots, we'll see next year.

Hurry up spring!!!!!!

Finished The Digging!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally I've finished the digging, all 4 beds are now all turned over and ready for spring, I've just got to plastic over the last one and thats it all tucked in for the winter, ready for a weed free spring (I hope). Have to raid some skips to find some more bricks etc to hold the stuff down though...

As you can see the strawberry plants I selected from that overgrown mess and transplated have taken OK and even put on a little growth. Next year I'll take runners and replace these as some could be quite old.

i need to get those paths cut, if only it would dry out a bit first!!!!!!!!!!!

The transplanted strawberrys



The old strawberry mess



Another view of the plot

Strawberrys and Wind

Last weekend I cleared most of the last bed. I inherited a load of strawberry plants which seem very healthy, but because no one looked after them last year loads of runners have rooted so they are over grown. I plan to take 25 plants or so and move them to a new bit before removing the rest, that's the plan for this weekend.

The lid of my nice new compost bin has blown off. I put a brick on it but a compost contributor may have forgotten to put it back on. Luckily the lid from my dustbin fits perfectly.

Been a bad week weather wise, so not a lot of progress.

The Seed Man Cometh

Damm it's easy to get carried away with seeds catalogues, marked all the ones I wanted and then realised I have enough for about 2 acres of planting and would need a greenhouse the size of the palm house at Kew!!!!!!!!!.

I decided to order the whole lot from Mr Fothergills to keep it simple, that, plus the seeds left from this year and off various magazines should do me for the season (might do a germination test).

I tried to find varities that matched my needs, spuds that can stay in the ground, long croppers etc, time will tell if I made a good job of it.

As you can see there is plenty to keep me going.



For next year I will mostly be growing..... (hopefully)

Potatoes: Foremost, Santes
Onions: Centurion, Red Baron
Sweetcorn: Swift F1
Radish: Sparkler 3, Big Ben
Carrot: Early Nantes 2, James Scarlet Intermediate
Parsnip: Merlin F1
Pak Choi: Riko F1
Leeks: Musselburgh
Lettuce: Red Salad Bowl, Lobbots, Little Gem, Sangria
Tomato: Marketmore, Gardeners Delight, Golden Sunrise
Peppers: Pepper Apple
Broccoli: Red Arrow, Marathon F1, Romanesco Natalino
Cucumber: Marketmore
Runner Bean: Best Of All
Courgette: Orelia, De Nice Fruit Rond
Pumpkin: Halloween (Sunny)
Squash: Butterrnut
Chilli: Ceyenne
Spring Onion: Ishikura

The plan is to pot sow most stuff at home and then pot it out, that way I can keep a better eye on them.

Some Pictures !!!!

I took these over the weekend, hard to get a good angle.

I have everything from the water stand at the bottom ring to the compost bin at the top left, most of it is now safely hidden under plastic for the winter. I don't think the shed can take much more and it isn't secure but it will do for hiding bottles and pots, if I go on next year I may replace it.

The paths could do with a cut and I stupidly gave away a petrol mower earlier in the year, didn't realise I was going to be getting a lottie..............!!!!!!!!!

The Layout.....Hopefully

I felt the need to plan my layout for next year, can I fit it all in, do I need more seed etc?.

Here is a plan of my plot and how I hope it will look next year, if everything fits, I space it right and it all grows.........................

I have 4 beds about 18.5 feet X 8 feet, they all vary a bit. hopefully doing this I can rotate the crops year on year, any comments on this are welcome.

A bit of history.........

I took over this half plot in sunny Chelmsford in August this year, it’s only a half plot and had been used the previous year by a Chinese couple who apparently grew loads of fast growing stuff most people couldn’t recognise. I wonder if a local take away was getting some locally grown produce.

They grew in a raised bed system, which has disappeared, presumably when the council mowed it. I’m sticking to the original beds layout to make it easy to rotate the veggies and to dig.

I’m lucky that apart from some deep rooted chives and some strange onion type things there is little to clear and only a few weeds, no bindweed or any of that horrible grassy stuff. Also as a bonus I’m right next to the tap :-)

So far I have cleared and dug 3 out of 4 of the beds, all of which are roughly 18 feet by 8 feet, (I did have some help), they are being covered in thick plastic for the winter for a fresh start in spring.

The compost bin has been started and hopefully the shed can survive the winter!!!!!

Welcome !!!!

Welcome to my allotment blog, a record of my first year on my plot, weeds and slugs and all. The wife thinks I’m mad, friends think I’ve lost the plot (a-ha), but hopefully the veggie man cometh.

It’s only a half plot, should do me, it’s only a hobby, I used to like the Good Life on the telly but I’m not going that far. Something to keep me busy and hopefully cheap and proper food

Check back for progress reports.