Spring has Sprung!

Well, here we are again, finally getting around to blogging after a few months of work on the allotment! We've had some very strange weather this spring so far, excessive rain, drought (allegedly!), frost, all sorts!! Sadly our lovely bargain basement greenhouse fell victim to a rather nasty storm a few weeks ago and all the seedlings we had on the go were scattered across the allotment and sadly met their very watery maker. Thankfully we've been doing all sorts of stuff on the allotment over the past few months and not all of it has been in vain. We've had a couple of sunny weekends and today was a great day to do a bit of pottering about and soak up the sun whilst christening the BBQ.

So far we've got onions, potatoes, beetroot, lettuce, peppers, chillis, strawberries, peas, tomatoes and garlic all peeking out the ground (some much more than others!). We've also recently sown carrots, radishes, squash, pumpkins, spring onions, beans, cucumbers, aubergines and courgettes so hopefully some of these will make an appearance soon.

We've also got some fruit bushes starting to flourish, including raspberries, blueberries and blackcurrants, as well as a cute little apple tree.

The shed has also had a new lease of life, thanks to Matt who's put in a lot of hard work re-roofing and re-painting it and also installing all the guttering and the new water butt. It's looking much smarter and the water butt is a god send!

Winter Progress...

Well, it's been a while since we updated the blog but here we go! It's seemed as though there wasn't much point blogging each time we went down to the plot over the winter as all we did was dig and there's not a lot to write about that! Looking back at our last post though we can see how much progress we made, despite the torrential rain we seemed to have most weekends.

We've totally cleared the left hand side of the plot and dug it over a few times. Our weed mountain has been moved, added to and turned over a few times. A lot of the stuff in there has now died off which is good to see and there is a lot of salvageable soil in there now.
We've marked out a few beds for planting in so we can concentrate on keeping those weeded and tidy. We've had a big pile of manure delivered which we'll spread once we've got ourselves a wheelbarrow. Today we also erected a plastic greenhouse which we bought a few weeks ago. Cheap and cheerful but we hope it'll do the trick. There's plenty of room inside to walk around so we'll pop a table or something in there and get some pots to start some seeds off in.
We've just had a week of frosty weather so we're glad we didn't start planting the week before (we were debating it but thankfully decided to wait). We're now at the stage where we can get planting so that will be our next job. There are some other important things to do such as installing guttering and a water butt as well as re-roofing the shed as it is getting a bit damp and looking a little ramshackle! Matt is also going to get some grass seed as we've set an area aside as a sunbathing/BBQ patch in the hope we get a decent summer so we want to have some nice grass to sit on.
This is my first attempt at blogging from the phone so here's hoping it works!

ANOTHER sunny October day!

We didn't have much spare time this weekend as I was at a craft fair all day Saturday and Matt was at the gym Sunday morning, but we managed to get down to the allotment for a couple of hours before doing the weekly trawl around Asda. We thought we'd get a lot done in those two hours as it had been a nice cool morning, but no.... as soon as we arrived the sun came out and it was sweltering again! We really shouldn't complain but when there's lots of digging to be done the sticky heat doesn't exactly help. 

We had a big fire today and got rid of some dry grass and weeds, Matt moved the big pile of earth we dug up last Monday (in which we found a tiny toad and a mouse!) and he started digging up the grass and weeds on the next section. I went back to raking and digging over the patch we cleared last time as there are a lot of roots in there that need bringing up to the surface and removing. We had to leave after a couple of hours to get to Asda if we were to have any food in the fridge this week so we covered the 'weed mountain' up with some black plastic to try and inhibit growth while we're not there. Matt tidied up the shed too as it was looking like a bit of a bombsite inside. Next weekend we'll have plenty to do on the plot. We have to have our flu jabs on Saturday at midday so let's just hope we don't both have dead arms! Can't wait to get the one side of the plot all dug over. I've never been so excited about soil and worms as I have these last couple of weeks!

Birthday Weekend

This weekend was Matt's birthday so we knew we wouldn't be at the plot as much as last weekend but luckily we had some extra time off work so we could get down there Friday afternoon and Monday. Friday afternoon we had a couple of hours on the plot where we managed to finish digging and raking the first section and finally the big bank of earth at the back was removed. We were visited by Chester and his dog Harvey who gave us a hand digging the earth. Harvey that is.... Chester does it for a living so we thought we'd let him off!

After a weekend of fun, frolics and cake, we headed down to the allotment on Monday morning and got back to work. We moved the great big heap of grass, weeds and roots that we'd dug up from the first section out the way to the other side of the plot and then commenced digging the next section. We have found that marking out a section and working on it before we move on helps as you can see a light at the end of the tunnel and it gives us something to aim for in the short term. We dug the grass and weeds off the whole area we'd marked out and made a start on turning the soil over and raking, although we'll need to go over this a few more times like we did with the first patch to make sure we've got all the weeds and roots out. All this digging means we've made another great heap of earth so we plan to get some black sheeting to cover it over with while we're not there to help it rot down a little. A lot of it will have to be removed or burnt but anything which hinders the weed growth in the meantime will be a help! We've dug approximately a quarter of the plot now so still a long way to go but today we really felt like we'd made some progress!

Sunny Sunday Afternoon

Wow, today was another scorcher! We wait all year for weather like this and then it finally arrives in October and we've spent the day cursing it as we've been trying to work in it! We arrived at the plot with a cool box full of soft drinks and a strimmer full of fuel. It was pretty much straight back to what we'd been doing yesterday, I strimmed another layer of grass off (I'm starting to think it's never ending) and Matt digging the soil over and removing the stubborn weeds. It feels like we're not getting anywhere while we're doing it but coming home and comparing today's photos with yesterdays helps as we can start to see the changes.  


There was a lot of dry weeds to burn that Matt dug up yesterday and these went on the fire along with a lot of the rotten wood from the old compost bin which I finished demolishing. All the half decent compost was saved to put in our swanky new plastic composter, kindly donated to us by Steve and Jill Williams - thank you! I found a toad hiding in the compost so we moved him well out of the way of my shovel to a safer spot. The new compost bin takes up a lot less space and looks much tidier too. 

At lunchtime we were joined by a very persistent wasp who showed a particular interest in my salad. Didn't let him have much of it though ;) I don't know if he wanted to help or if he was angry that we were demolishing his allotment but he followed us both around for most of the day. We remained sting-free thankfully!

We're not sure when we are going to have our next full day at the allotment as next weekend is Matt's birthday, but I hope to pop over a few evenings after work in the week and rake up the grass cuttings. I might even do a bit of digging if I feel energetic enough! Plus we have very cute neighbours that I rather enjoy chatting to.....

Day One - Where to start?!

Today was our first day working on the allotment and also the first time Matt had seen it. We'd already managed to get some tools from someone selling them in the local paper but we needed a few more bits before we could begin. Fortunately my boss is lending us his petrol strimmer for the weekend (thanks Richard!). After a trip round B&Q to get some last minute essentials such as a rake, spade, 'toilet' (bucket!), and a padlock for the shed, we headed down to Chyenhall. You'd expect October 1st to be a lovely cool day for digging but it was a real scorcher! The wellies came off almost as soon as they'd gone on, it was way too hot for that. With trousers rolled up and our suncream on, we set about making a start.

I started by strimming back some of the long grass and Matt got to work on digging out some big chunky roots and also breaking down a large bank of soil and grass that has been dumped at the back of the plot. I got the strimmer over about half of the plot when the petrol ran out so that meant I had to find another job to do. We were already boiling hot and sticky at this point so time for lunch and lots of cold drinks.

We were soon back to work and we worked together to make up an incinerator with some mesh off-cuts from work. Matt made a start on demolishing the old compost bin which was made from pallets that had started to rot. When we looked at what was in the compost bin, it was all sticks and dry roots so most of it went in the fire! 

 Matt worked really hard clearing grass at the back whilst trying not to disturb the rhubard that had been hiding in there. We might as well try and keep it alive seeing as it's lasted all this time on its own!

By about 4pm I was starting to feel very weary (I blame the sun!) so we got our stuff locked up in the shed and poured water on the remains of the fire to stop it smouldering. Tomorrow we will refuel the strimmer and carry on cutting back and digging up the grass and weeds. Lots to be done!

Top of the waiting list!

Welcome to our blog which will track the development of our first ever allotment.

After living in a flat with no outdoor space for almost 3 years, we decided it was time to take the plunge and try and get an allotment.

We both enjoy 'growing our own' and we had some experience of this in our previous flat but this was all in grow bags and pots. We also craved a place of our own to soak up the Cornish sunshine (not that we've had much of that lately!), get fresh air in our lungs, enjoy a BBQ and so on. After months of driving past our local allotments we decided to make enquiries and get ourselves on the waiting list. Only 2 months later and here we are! The rent was paid yesterday and I went down there today to get some 'before' photos so we can look back and see just how the development of the allotment is progressing.

There is plenty of grass to cut back so we have a busy weekend ahead of us of strimming, digging, soil turning and so on, not to mention the fact that we need to go and buy a load of tools first. We were lucky to be able to buy the shed off the previous tenant so that is one job we can tick off the list!

 

We already seem to have some raspberries growing in the long grass. We never expected to have crops this fast! Just can't wait to get digging and clearing now so we can plan what to grow and where. I am quite certain that a weekend of manual work will leave me stiff as a board on Monday morning. May be worth stocking up on the Radox now.......!