Feb Fun.

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.

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?

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 !

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 !

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.

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 !

October 2010

What a load of...

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

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...