Plot Seven

Saturday Sillyness

2011-09-24T20:02:00.003+01:00

Hi all,
Sorry for the lack of updates , today however I spent clearing and digging up the allotment getting ready for winter to make it a litle more easier in the newyear. It was a nice day and I managed to get over half of the plot done ! whoo hoo.

Urk, Calander 2012

2011-03-12T08:08:00.000Z

Hi all, I really hoped the trip to the GP would sort out my recent problems , however the tests came back and the results were a little on the bad side, so more tests on Monday and a trip to the hospital for further examination and a endoscopy planned . I wanted to get a lot done down the plot this weekend, however I think I will contend my self with just planting seeds at home and the like !

Twentyfifth.

2011-02-25T21:30:00.000Z

Greetings,
Been under the weather today , booking made for blood samples and I took a breath test at the pharmacy to check for Helicobacter pylori.

The GP has given me some leaflets to read and indicated that it was treatable.

In any event with the crippling stomach cramps that happen as well , I couldn't do much today so I covered the seed beds to warm them up before I make use of them later.

I have started on the greenhouse,(only the base) and moved some of the roof tiles to be a path in the center. Did not have any tools to carry on building the rest , I guess that's a job for later!

Around the allotments, there are a few people starting to appear and make a start for the new year clearing and digging, hard to believe that March is on our doorstep already.

Tatties

2011-02-22T15:25:00.001Z

Greetings, This year I have decided to concentrate on just two types of well known potato's - Maris Peer and King Edwards.

As you can see the Maris are ready to be planted this weekend, so fingers crossed for some semi OK weather ! Plus if it is good I am going to chance putting in a short row of Marrowfat peas as Mrs Seven adores them in mash !

Poop !

2011-02-13T11:21:00.000Z

Poop!, horse shite, Manure.
Call it what you will there is nothing better than it been FREE !

Free yes indeed. I and like many others dropped in to the allotment site yesterday morning to find a very helpful local chap who had some horses sitting in a small tipper truck wondering if we wanted his muck!

Well , after been dumped I think it took less than an hour to two whole loads of golden muck to be hefted away by everybody.

The community spirit as people filled barrows,bags and buckets was great , the sun was shining and soon the cold drinks were also out. What a great day.

Feb Fun.

2011-02-06T21:27:00.000Z

Seed bed. Not quite the bed I was hoping for on a cold morning, however out comes the spade,fork and rake and the start of the prep work for the spring months ahead.

This patch area pictured , had green manure last year that was cut down at the end of summer and covered over the winter. Dug over and left to break up for a few weeks and now had a final dig over and rake. It's a bit to early to get the seeds in as there is still frost and the ground is still cold and very wet.

I took a walk around the site and took some pictures and uploaded them on the Heath Road Caterham Allotment Blog. Why not take a look !

Digg it.

2011-01-05T15:35:00.001Z

I had gone out in the hopes of catching a look at the eclipse 2011, but sadly the cloud cover prevented that , so two hours later, and the first beds for 2011 are taking shape for sowing and planting.

I got an awful lower leg cramp when taking of my wellies and despite working the muscle I still feel a lot of tightness and pain , that will teach me not to take it easy when getting back into the flow. Anyone "warm up" before working the plot ? I think I will have to consider it in the future , ha !

I also noticed the plant bulbs I planted last year starting to peek out from the soil all along the bank in front of the communal compost heaps, fingers crossed for a nice display along there as apposed to the ugly wire I normally have to start at.

Next plans are to hit free cycle and the local trades to source some wooden pallets to build a larger compost bin.

Whats that coming over the hill? Is it an Onion?

2011-01-04T14:32:00.001Z

Hi all, and I hope you all had a fantastic start to the new year.

With the snow just melted away I wanted to see what state the allotment was, Imagine my delight to find that the garlic & onions are already poking their heads up despite the frozen ground and smothering of snow they had.

Returning home to a warm cup of soup I have taken a look at last years plans and started to draw up this years planting !

Snow 2010. Again !

2010-12-05T18:44:00.000Z

Snow !
Some quick shots of the recent snow, over a foot fell in 24 hours and coated everything in a nice blanket of white !

Birr Vember !

2010-11-21T09:59:00.000Z

Down the plot yesterday and I note that the first frosts have hit here in Caterham, quite late in the year I though until I was corrected by the old hats on the plot.

The green manure has spurted up and appears to give a decent cover to the empty spaces, fingers crossed this will mean less weeds come spring !

The onions and garlic have all ready started to sprout, and the leeks are well underway developing nice thick stalks.

I have finished moving the strawberries and raspberry canes, and a number of flower bulbs have been set in the borders to brighten up the plot for next year. A further job completed was the cutting down of the artichoke stalks so the winter winds don't pull up the tubers like last year. All in all not a bad days work.

Berry berry much.

2010-10-11T19:36:00.000+01:00

A quick update and early look at the new strawberry bed under development, there simply was to much grass to deal with this season around the plants so I hope this will help keep the weeds & grass down.

Brrrrr October !

2010-10-04T20:19:00.000+01:00

October 2010

What a load of...

2010-10-03T19:47:00.000+01:00

Manure! After having the whole plot dug over and weeded in the last few afternoons, I have sowed green manure ( rye grass & trefoil/Clover) in all the empty space left after harvest to improve and maintain plot seven's soil.

I hope that they will be forming a green carpet that stops weeds colonising and prevent nutrients from being washed away.

Last season I had cast some green manure in the vacant bed and I am well impressed in the improvement in soil quality. So fingers crossed.

Blubs & holes

2010-09-16T11:35:00.000+01:00

Well, I had a spare hour today before the boss got home so I ducked down to the plot and got 50 garlic cloves in. They came from this years harvest , so fingers crossed. I hope they do well with the 50 red onion and 50 shallots that are neighbours. I plan to have rows of marigolds between them in the new year. I really like all the plots I have seen with them this year and they can't harm keeping the bugs and weeds down! I also removed the last if the sweetcorn and I placed the shafts in next years bean trench for added composting, hopefully this should give an added boost that the beans didn't have this time. On Sunday I finished putting down a small decked area at the front of the shed. I plan to have the boss sit here during the summer months to supervise, I was told to make it nice with a chair and pimms on tap !!!

Lots of digging...

2010-09-12T20:18:00.000+01:00

Bounty

2010-08-08T22:12:00.000+01:00

Harvest time is by far the most rewarding of times at the allotment. The boss and I have spent the day picking another load of the fruits of our labour . Marrow,beans,potatoes,carrots,spring onions and lettuce has been our targets for today. With the weeks "shopping" at the allotment collected we retired home to a lovely bottle of red wine while putting away and storing the food. I have already started to plan where next years garlic, etc are to go and I have learned a lot this year. Tomorrow we will be harvesting half the sweetcorn ! Yum.

2010-07-18T17:44:00.000+01:00


Garlic


Marrows


Beans

Lifted the garlic yesterday and they have spent the day drying in the brilliant sunshine, I have taken them home today to string up and dry further, the Marrows have started to "fatten" and the Beans are still climbing and I have taken some harvest all ready from them. Yum !

Sweetie corn !

2010-07-12T15:48:00.000+01:00

YUM !

2010-07-11T11:45:00.000+01:00

Sunshine

2010-06-26T14:57:00.001+01:00

Bright Bright Sun

Wow what a scorcher ! I went down to the plot this morning to make sure everything had a really good drink of water, the taps down on the allotment are still working but the pressure is very low indeed so I took my time and used a watering can to ensure I didn't waste a single drop !

Fingers crossed that we don't end up with no water at all !

Allotment Photos

2010-06-23T20:56:00.000+01:00

Allotment piccies today !

Allotment Strawberries

2010-06-23T16:13:00.001+01:00

Allotment Strawberries, despite a sudden burst of grass on the strawberry section on the allotment, I harvested these and oh wow , Yum !

Longest day of the year 2010

2010-06-21T07:00:00.001+01:00

Today is the longest day of the year 2010, and the end of the spring harvest !
Down here at the allotments in Caterham it is clear that Midsummer is upon us and planning now for Autumn and winter crops should be underway (Or at least considered).

Things to grow this month ;

Another row of beetroot , Spring Cabbage for next year , Chicory ,Another row of carrots ,More lettuce , spring onions, and few more rows of cabbage , cauliflower and kale.

Jobs to do;
Turn the compost heap,weeding , pea and bean care , heavy watering the potatoes.
Sort out water collection and guttering for next year.
~~Dig over and cover summer manure area.~~
Build that dammed greenhouse !
Net cover the brassicas.
Lift garlic.

(Update this with pictures later!)

Photo bonanza

2010-06-18T17:29:00.000+01:00

Hi there, Still cant do all that much at the moment apart from pick at the odd weed and water the veggies.

I took some photos to cheer me up, everything is growing so fast !

A nice pair of melons

2010-06-08T17:59:00.000+01:00

Plot seven , caterham on the hill , allotment growing fantastic melons :)

Sweet Sweet Sweet Corn !

2010-06-02T15:00:00.005+01:00

Popped down the allotment to have a look at whats growing and the sweetcorn is rushing along, with the warm weather I had to give the patch a real good soaking with some nice cool water to ensure they stay the course!

I ask you this, what is it with the weeds, they grow faster than the veggies !

Grow my little ones , grow !

2010-06-01T16:47:00.004+01:00

June 2010

Wow what a June, the weather has been fantastic and I have been laid up with my ribs unable to do more than watch stuff grow! I am slowly recovering and just about able to start bending over to weed (about time!) and plant out seedlings again. The boss has been helping me keep on top of things and has been great, but i think the help is only to make sure the strawberry's are looked after and kept well !

Veggie sticks

2010-05-23T21:00:00.000+01:00

How cool are these !

15th of May 2010

2010-05-15T20:51:00.000+01:00

Peas coming along

Lettuce bed

25 Leeks after a drink

Taken on the 15th of May 2010

Half way thru planting the sweet corn.

Ouchie.

2010-05-07T16:12:00.004+01:00


Beans beans good for your heart...

Well it is going to be an interesting few weeks, due to a domestic mishap (New mattress), a trip to the GP led on to a trip to hospital and that I have fractured a rib!

Boy it hurts. Pain management is the only offer I have while it will take 6-8 weeks to heal fully and I am very glad I did all the heavy digging months ago on the allotment as there is no way in hell will I be able to swing a spade or fork in anger for at least two months.

I cannot even put on my socks with out the better half helping !
That been said I did venture down and took a risk in planting out the beans. I think they are hardy enough to survive for the next few weeks. I will keep the sweetcorn however in the potting shed for another fortnight taking them out for a few hours to harden off before dropping them in the plot as the loss of the shed beside me will mean they will be more exposed than last year and I want to give them the best chance of giving a large crop this year.

Well that's it for now, going to be resting a lot with my feet up, so I think simple potting on and succession seedlings will be my lot for a while, unless I can convince the boss to do some heavy work , other than ice cream and teas !

April pictures

2010-04-26T16:20:00.000+01:00

Days of sun

2010-04-25T13:32:00.001+01:00

After a fantastic fortnight of a spring / summer sunshine what a great start to the new growing year!
(Despite having to water every day!!) Nearly every seed bed is now planted out or has been 'seeded' in the allotment with spaces cleared and prepped for sweetcorn and late summer planting for winter crops , ( I know planning already !)

The boss managed to source a free broken down greenhouse on free cycle so that has been sent down but not yet stuck together with twine and spit ! :)

The peas started to break the ground yesterday as have the runner beans! Everything else is also poking little green shoots of happiness up and starting to grow !

I love this part of the season just as everything kick starts up.

Saturday 27th

2010-03-27T16:56:00.005Z

Is it spring ?

2010-03-24T19:34:00.009Z

Got home with a few spare hours today and Mr Sun had come out to play , so the potato trenches have been dug, carrot and leek bays made ready and seeded plus an added bonus of the flower bulbs have burst out ! yay!

Grow grow grow.

2010-03-12T18:18:00.007Z

Hey there, a quick update on some tomato,Chili and lettuce seedlings that I had in the guest bedroom that I left on the window above the radiator :!

Time to transfer them to their own little pots!

I hope they enjoy the new homes and flourish .

Digging the plot yesterday I realised that I will have to build some sort of wire cage tops for the beds as I noted local wildlife had attempted to dig little holes in the beds. I think some 3,1 bits of wood and wire netting stapled on top should do the trick

Dig dig dig dig

2010-03-11T14:40:00.001Z

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

More groundwork.

2010-02-26T15:32:00.004Z

Hi all,
With the roofing slates, I set some down as a path under the bean frame to allow access to the crop and help divide the allotment up.

I also had used the remainder to build a small raised bed section to try my hand at some Capsicums or Chillies.

While the rain may have stopped there was a very strong westerly wind today , in the past this was countered by a large old pigeon shed that was my neighbour but has since been taken down to provide better access and a new gated area. I will have to come up with a plan to reduce the effect this wind direction may have on the allotment in the coming months.

Freecycle fun!

2010-02-25T12:52:00.004Z

Collected a load of concrete roofing tiles from freecycle at the weekend. I am using them as a temporary edging along the plot and a raised herb bed.

I will have to get some grass seed for the path and some more green manure seed for the recovered section of the plot.

The cabbage and garlic are going strong still.
Also a bit more work under the bean frame and dug in some fresh manure and shredded paper.

I am pleased with the work diving the allotment up in to sections before the new season starts !

Paper pot time !

2010-02-21T20:50:00.009Z

Yes, it is that time of the year again and I have sat in front of the telly and made up my supply of paper pots for the pending seedlings.

So in no time at all, I whipped up this little batch for the tomato's,peas and beans to go into.

The paper pots are great as you can then just drop them into the allotment without having to disturb the roots and last year the sweetcorn really benefited from this method.

Next job, potatos !
PS - What do you think of the sites new look :D

2010 Seeds

2010-02-15T11:12:00.005Z

The nice post person from royal mail attended today bearing a nice little box full of seeds!!!

This year I am going from seeds all from one company( whhoooooooo) as I had good results last year from them.

I also had picked up some really cheap runner beans from wilcos for the frame I built.

Worth having the day off work just for that alone, Maybe later today I will get down to the allotment.

Bean Frame

2010-02-06T17:11:00.005Z

Today, I spent the morning down on the plot, the soil was still a heavy and wet so I did very little groundwork other than tidy the grass path and verges.

I also built the Bean frame early, as I had the time to do it now before I finish dividing the plot up for this years season.

As the frame is a semi permanent fixture, I sourced some decent 2x2 posts which have been dug in 2 foot down in the soil, and is south facing to allow the beans to grow up and over the top of the frame.

This will allow me to collect the crop form underneath ! The raised beds are now all in and filled for carrots and beets for the early season, I am going for raised beds for the carrots as I had carrot fly last year and I hope the few extra inches of the ground should give a better chance this year.

The strawberry bed also has been given a wooden log roll border , this will help me slowly raise the bed up year on year and provide better composting options for the strawberry's.

The garlic and cabbage are doing well under the netted wigwams, and I also can see the tops of the daffodils and tulips on the border poking out !

Feb 2010

2010-02-05T16:59:00.006Z

Caterham Allotment Feb 2010

Winter Snow

2009-12-19T00:25:00.003Z

Dec 2009

2009-12-11T10:34:00.004Z

Planning for 2010...

2009-10-24T17:29:00.002+01:00

I have been using the growveg website to plan out the plot for the next year and I have found it a lot of fun and very handy as you also get a planting/harvesting guide automaticly built based on your selections.

Update

2009-10-08T16:47:00.010+01:00

Been down to the plot today and did some digging and prepwork for the next year...
(pics... )

New shed !

2009-09-16T11:59:00.003+01:00

New shed & compost bin

Water water water

2009-05-03T11:57:00.003+01:00

With a lovely long sunny and warm bank holiday in full force this sunday,
I spend a few minutes watering the three rows of potatoes, they are all coming along fine and are getting complements from others around the site.

The 3 mini rows of garlic are in , and a weed around the stawberries is done.

The next job is a general cut back of the border grass and the sweetcorn to be planted out.

Pictures to follow when done.

An update of work

2009-04-23T09:47:00.007+01:00

Just a quick update with photos of the groundwork undertaken so far to make a small start for the growing season this year so next year will be easier to manage and control.

A quick dig

2009-03-09T17:17:00.005Z

I found myself having an hour spare today (very rare) So I legged it to the allotment under the guise of going to the shops ..(Shame I forgot the milk on the way back.)

A 1/3 of the plot dug over in under an hour with the Azada I was surprised on how much I got done in such a short period of time. What a great tool, I really did think it would take me hours upon hours to dig the whole plot over and now it looks like I could get it finished this weekend if the weather holds

I also have a plan to sink the bathtub that was left by the previous owner to make a small water pool at the top edge of the plot, but I have to make enquiries if thats allowed as I don't see any other "water features" around the site.

Sowing

2009-03-07T09:03:00.008Z

Attached some pictures of my intial sowing for 2009 , I hope you enjoy
( also note the paper pots for the sweetcorn )

Some seedlings on the quick lettuce allready (Planted monday !)

Lasy Sundays

2009-03-01T17:53:00.008Z

Hi,
After spending the early morning sowing seeds and building paper pots to grow sweetcorn, I have sat down and decided that I am going to divide my plot in to 4 areas to keep things simple and straight forward for rotation and so I don't forget what I have planted where

I spent ages doing the paper pots as I know sweetcorn doesn't like been messed about with so these can go right into the ground when ready to plant out, the potting shed at home I have noted has not dropped below 10C for the last week so I guess I will be safe sowing out my broad beans , peas , carrots and lettuce to start.

I have also ordered after much research on the Internet and speaking to other plot holders an Azada to dig the plot over.
I hope to use it this weekend and attack the allotment giving it a decent dig over !

Seeds & plans

2009-02-22T17:54:00.002Z

All day today (sad) I have been planning my plot and what to grow.
I have been using a website called growveg to plan the allotment and its a nice tool, but pen and paper has its charm, what is handy about growveg is its planting calender and the crop rotation tools that indicate areas you should not plant in for a subsequent time.

Feb 09 Snow

2009-02-02T15:09:00.004Z

It has been dumping heavy snow for the last 48 hours here and over a foot has settled locally

Midday sun

2009-01-29T15:18:00.002Z

Origin

2009-01-29T11:00:00.000Z

Hi,

This blog is a chronicle of plot seven. I have been home growing food for a few years and now I have taken ownership of a 250m2 plot / allotment near to me.

It is going to take some time, It is going to take some work.

Let the adventure begin.

2009-01-29T10:57:00.000Z

2009-01-29T10:48:00.000Z