Plastic greenhouse with Tomatoes, Chillies and Summer Squash.

Fine looking specimen ( well trained)

Salad leaves, radish and carrot seedlings all growing in old bath.

Early Peas showing first flower.

Cold frame with seedlings.

Netting cloche, covering early cabbage

Friday, 10th April

Well, been busy on the plot over the past week or so. Been digging again with Grahame today and after we've finished this bed there is only one more to go. Hoorah!
We had a phone call to say that one of our cloches had torn in the wind one evening when it was very blustery and our friends Sonia and Eric have anchored the other one down for us a couple of times. We swapped the one covering some cabbages and a few early peas with a netting cloche today which hopefully will not have the same problems with wind.
Think I may have planted out the peas too early as I noticed that one of them already has a flower on it and they are only about6 inches high. Oh well, I live and learn! ( think that might be my Mantra this season)
Grahame dug a pit which we have turned into a coldframe with the help of a couple of secondary glazing panes. There are Gherkins, Squash (Butternut, Crown Prince, Red Kuri) Lettuce, Petit Pois, More Early Peas, Leeks and possible something else that I can't remember, all growing away in there. Can't believe how warm it gets in there even when overcast.
We had our first harvest today: salad leaves growing in the bath added to our sandwiches and a radish each. Hope thats not it for this year!

Tues 17 March 2009

So this is the plot so far. The blue bins and fence are at the bottom of our plot and the top of the plot below us (if you follow me). In the top right of pic are the Strawberry and Rhubarb beds, and the Asparagus bed. To the left of them is the onion/garlic bed. The Cloche and the bed below will be for brassicas and to the left of them are 2 potato beds. To the right of the cloche are the fruit canes. So far we have dug and cleared 9 beds, 5 to go.To the side of the shed is an old bath. Because the soil has so many stones I will grow my carrots in the bath this year and clear a bed for roots properly next season.
The plan below is a bit small I know but I wanted to show you what can be done on the site www.growveg.com Its well worth checking out and you can get a free 1 month trial.

The plot is 218.5 sq mtrs which seemed HUGE and very daunting when we first saw it.We had our fair share of glass and metal to clear and lots of troughs and compacted earth which had turves buried under it where the diggers had been. Also a Blackthorn which the council removed. They have left us with 2 small trees which we are allowed to keep. Have no idea what they are yet. Will have a look at the leaves when they come
.

Grahame strimming the bottom of the plot helped by our new friend and plot neighbour Eric.
Shed beforeAnd after.

My Allotment

This is dedicated to my Dad, Reg. I wish you were here to share it with me. X

Well this is my first attempt at "blogging", I mostly started it so that I can share my Allotment with you. For those with the same interest in GYO as me, I hope you enjoy it, For all the others, I'm sorry to bore the pants off you. All I can say is that this is something I never dreamed would interest me, I am now well and truly hooked. Spending the day digging, weeding, nurturing, generally enjoying yourself in lovely weather surrounded by nature ( not to mention the odd glass or 2 of wine with new found friends and plot neighbours) there's not much that can make me happier.

So. Grahame and I decided that we would like a plot at our local allotment ( about 2 and a half mins, walk away) and to cut a long story short we applied and took on "PLOT 4" in October 2008.
We couldn't do much work at first because the plots had all been cleared by the council and we had no boundaries measured out.
Finally all was done and the work could start. The first good thing to happen was my Boss (lovely man) gave me his shed! Yep, just like that. Had fun dismanteling and re building but we got there (Thanks Dave) and , you know its so surprising how quickly you can fill it with junk.
So here are some pictures and comments: