Allotment 8/3/10

March 8, 2010

The sun has remained visible so I have continued to get things into the ground. I’ve been removing stones from the soil and adding my own compost. It all looks lovely. The problem is you have nothing to show for all of your work except for some lovely bare soil.

  Here for instance are my carrots,

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And here are my parsnips,

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And today I put my onions.

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Yes that is just 3 pictures of soil but it is lovely soil.

 The bare-for-a-long-time soil problem is the reason I advise people who are starting out to grow salad crops (Yes, I know that it’s odd that people ask me for advise as I know nothing but they do) because they grow really quickly. I planted my parsnip seeds last week and I will start digging them up some time in October but radishes only take about a month. You don’t get that nothing is happening feeling if you are picking some leaves after about 6 weeks.

 There is some life on my patch, here, for instance, is my garlic bed,

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I am pretty sure that onions are the easiest things in the world to grow; well they are if you use onions sets (little onions). If you grow your onions from seed then you are just showing off. And if you grow them from seed you saved yourself from last year then you about to be hit in the face with a shovel, smug git (I am aware that I am growing so stuff from seed that I saved last year but this is different. Why? Because I say so, alright.)

I do hope that this lovely weather continues.

 

Allotment 1/3/10

March 1, 2010

Quick! The sun is out! Get outside and do stuff!

 As you may have guessed I got to the allotment and, finally, got those seeds in that I wanted to last week. Just to remind you, this is my attempt to grow early salad leaves and radishes under plastic cloches. I think it will work just fine as a few plants that were covered have survived the winter here. Yes I know that my winter wasn’t as bad as yours, I had much less snow, ...


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Allotment 22/2/10

February 22, 2010

Just because it is cold and wet (really wet) doesn’t mean that nothing is happening at the allotment.

 Well, when I say the allotment I really mean my kitchen and back garden. I was supposed to go and plant some seeds today but the rain was so hard that I decided against it. The plan involved early carrots and salad things (spring onions, radishes, salad leaves) under my ugly but useful plastic cloches but the weather put pay to t...


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Allotment 25/1/10

January 25, 2010

I have finally made it back to the allotment. There has finally been a break in the not-letting-me-get-to-the-allotment weather. After weeks of frozen soil and snow followed by a lot of rain, today is just grey. It is cold but not cold enough for the soil to be impenetrable to my fork.

 It has been about a month since I had last been there so I expected the worst. I expected all my crops to be dead, yet I also thought t...


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Allotment 4/1/10

January 4, 2010

Happy New Year to one and all.

Sorry I haven't written anything for a while but what with Christmas and all I haven't really had the time. That and yet another weather moan. During November I complained about the rain quite a lot because it stopped me getting out there.

I did manage to get to the allotment 2 days before Christmas so that I could get some veg for the seasonal meals, however the soil was frozen solid. I could barely get the fork into the ground. Past episod...


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Allotment 9/12/09

December 9, 2009

Sorry I haven't written anything for a while but have you seen the weather out there? Bloody Awful. It seems to have rained for about 5 weeks, constantly. I had standing water in my strawberry bed. The river is constantly threatening to burst it's banks but has, as yet, been contained. Rather than building raised beds I have been building an Ark.

Anyway, today I made it to the swamp in which I attempt to grow things today. During another dash between the showers a week or so...


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Allotment 16/11/09

November 16, 2009

I want to start with a question, (I do that quite a lot I’ve noticed. Should stop) have you ever seen a mole alive? I ask because I’ve just got back from the allotment where I found yet another dead mole. I find at least one a year. They are very pretty and soft looking but they are always dead. Are moles ever actually alive or was this mole just playing dead? You know, with the maggots being in on the joke and stuff.

 At ...


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Allotment 5/11/09

November 5, 2009

Whilst some of you are out setting fire to the, recently built, homes of hedgehogs and throwing an effigy of a Roman Catholic, as someone on radio 4’s PM described your bonfire’s Guy (terrorist my friend, terrorist), on top, I have a question for those who have remained indoors. A question that the internet failed to answer. Ok, it was a very, very quick search, whilst at work this morning but still, no answer. I did find the a...


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Allotment 30/10/09

October 30, 2009

One of the problems I have with growing root vegetables is the fact that I don’t have any patience and they take a very long time to be ready. That and the fact that they grow underground and I can’t see how well they are growing. You don’t know how well you are doing with them and how well your soil preparation went.

 Before the, usually futile in my case, attempt to get the seeds to germinate you need to remove as many ...


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allotment 23/10/2009

October 23, 2009
Hello my allotment blog reading friends. Sorry I haven't written much lately but not that much is going on. Nothing is growing very much and what is there I have already talked about. I did plant my Garlic for next year in, what is now, my garlic bed. I would show you a picture but who wants to see a picture of several square feet of bare earth. About 80 little gloves are sitting just below the surface ready to spring forth with lovely, thick green shoots that are really garlicky when you...
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