Bonfire

Had bonfire and sparklers tonight. Kids enjoyed it and most of my rubbish burnt. Good times

The guttering...

Today I got the guttering up round the shed. Have got one water butt and hopefully the offer of some more so am hoping to be saving a lot more water.

Still very muddy but hoping that the guttering will also help take some water from the area.

Still have more digging to do. If it stays dry will get some done tomorrow.

Halloween

Just a few pictures really... Carried on digging

Digging and clearing

The title says it all. Today was a digging and clearing day. Digging next years potato bed and cutting back and clearing some brambles and bind weed! Have two bonfires now...

October half term

First time down the allotment for about 5 weeks due to being a little busy... Its not looking great but a bit of work over the next few days should have it ready for next year.

Still eating our onions, have lots left. A shame that nothibg else really worked this year.

Been a while since the last post, but to be honest not much has happened this year!  My only successes seem to be my onions - will put a photo up later of them all over my kitchen.  Apart from that the weather and lack of time meant that nothing much grew. 

I think it is time to start planning for next year...  And getting a lot of the landscaping jobs done that need doing. 

Seed planting and the changable weather!

Being a teacher, it's the beginning of the holidays, and if last week was anything to go by, I was looking forward to having a good few days of warm weather to dig, rotavate and get the potato's in!  Hah!  Snow, or at least sleet is forecast for tomorrow so that should be interesting!

I have been busy recently though.  Have continued to dig up new areas, taking out a couple of paths to fit more potatoes in and also to try and keep on top of the weeds and grass situation. 

The broad beans went in last week, along with some early salad and all the onions and shallots have been planted.  Hoping they do well this season.  I just have two  small beds to sort out now and then it is all ready - this year looks like we will use almost all of the plot for the first time which will be good. 

At home today I planted up some seeds to get going while we are away - Have got some runner beans, french beans, a seed tray of leeks, some courgettes and some pumpkins.  Will get some cabbages and sprouts going as well soon.  Am using newspaper pots again as they did a good job last year and make planting out much easier.

Have started some earlies in old tyres and compost - trying to get a good crop at different times this year.

Altogether I am quite happy with where I am at the moment.  Now to keep it going all year!

My Allotment plan for the year

 These are the plans for my allotment this year.  It is not quite to scale but gives an idea of what I am planning to do over the next few months.

Obviously things like Leeks etc will be planned in as well (normally where the early potato's are) but we will see...

This weekend I went seed buying and, on onions and seeds spent £24.  I am also going to keep a list of what I spend on the allotment and also what we get off it and therefore have saved.  Will set up a google docs spreadsheet and record it as I would love to see if we break even!  (I suspect that I spend more than I save and I will not be taking into account hours worked either!)

I have planted some onion sets today and also have started getting prepared for seed planting.  Will again post a list of what I have planted and when to check for timings etc.

A Spring Weekend

It was a lovely weekend here and (for at least some of the time) I spent it down at the plot with the family.  Still mainly digging the plot over, cleared another bed this weekend and made another slightly larger. 

This week I plan to start some of my seeds off.  Will blog about that later hopefully

Muddy but happy

 Back at the allotment today for a bit more tidying and digging.  A lovely afternoon, cold and a bit breezy but bright sunshine so that was nice.  My 2 big boys enjoyed getting muddy - the grass down by the shed looks more like glastonbury at the moment!

Finished doing some digging around the Purple Sprouting Broccoli - waiting for it to sprout at the moment - hopefully it will as it looks good.  Also began to sort out the stawberries ready for a move to a new home.

All in all things are looking good at the moment - hoping for another good season.  Still eating the potato's and cabbages from last year (1 cabbage left) and hopefully tonight will sit down and plan what seeds etc we need. 

The start of a new year

It being Feb half-term, it has given me a little time to get a few things done at the Allotment ready for the 'new' planting year.   The whole family had a trip down today to do some tidying and some weeding / digging.  the beds are getting there now.  The bottom corner is like a rice paddy at the moment, but at least we have a shed we can shelter in. 

Have begun to plan for planting.  Need to sit down and go through all my seeds to see what I have and what we need to buy.  Have got potato's chitting - trying some new ones this year so that hopefully will be good.  I will also endeavour to keep this blog up to date - last year started of well but then faded a little around May time.  Must do better.