Merging Blogs

I have 2 blogs, one for allotment and one for everything else, but I have decided to merge them into one. A lot of the stuff I am wanting to post lately kinda spans them both. Life isn't easy to cut up into distinct parts, well excluding work, but no one wants/can hear all about that. 

So all future posts will be made on my Little Sue Doll blog, I will tag all the allotment stuff with "On The Allotment" so it can be filtered. 

https://littlesuedoll.blogspot.com/

Frankenshed

Let me tell you about Frankenshed, the shed Bill built almost completely from recycled materials.

The only new things we bough was a bag of nails, some tool hangers, a sign, and a bolt and padlock to secure it. All the timber used was gathered by Bill from companies who where discarding it. The door and window where acquired the same way, rescued from land fill. 

To some it may look like a monstrosity but we love it. 

The roof is covered in plastic, the same that we used to cover the plot to kill the grass off. So now instead of taking up space its been reused as a roofing material. 

Its also a lot tidier than before, we built some shelves to store small things, and with the longer tools hanging we have lots more space. 

The Big Recap

OK so I have forgotten to post anything for a long time, my bad, lets see if we can do better this year, hopefully. 

So lets start with a recap of what is now our only plot, will explain later. Where better to start than the beginning.

This picture was taken when we first took on the plot back in April 2017. The grass is over grown, there are brambles popping up all over the place, and there is even a few shrubs. It was in need of a lot of work but it was a good size space and we saw a lot of potential. 

Through May, while I watched over the first plot, Bill cut back the grass and dug the brambles out of the main area. There was still a stronghold of them in the far corner but we had a good area to work with. 

In July Bill built some compost bins.

Then in August we covered most of the plot with plastic to kill of the grass. It was too late to plant anything and killing the grass and weeds would make the digging later easier later. That is how it stayed for a while, we focused on the top plot waiting for the time to dig.

In January we started to dig, I say we, but really it was mostly Bill as my health let me down and I wasn't up to much physical labor. He worked really hard and finished the area we planned to make into the beds, he did it in amassing time. Seeing it turn from a tatty patch to lovely dug earth was so nice. 

Then came the battle of the brambles, that patch of brambles in the bottom corner needed to be tackled. It didn't look that big but it took a good few weeks to clear, and when it was done the space was much bigger than we had thought. I had assumed that the plot was square but when we finished it was clear that the bottom was longer than the top. 

In March we used our newly acquired secondhand cultivators to finish up the ground prep. Sadly it was too wet when we came back the next week to dig out the paths (hence the spade left in the ground). But we did have us a lovely area ready to be planting in. We also built the frame for the vines, you can see it in the back of the plot. 

In April we planted some broad beans and 3 trees. We worked out that we could fit 5 beds 1.5 meters wide with 3 0.5 meter paths and have 1 meter section that we decided would be perfect for 3 fruit trees. We plan to train the trees along a frame.

In May we planted the runner beans. I carefully raked the bed flat and built 2 wigwams. I was very disappointed when I came back the next week to find the dry weather had left it hard baked a cracked. The good digging time of the year was over. 

Then also in May, we planted more trees, 2 each of pear, plum, and cherry.

Later in may we had the unexpected joy of fruit on one of our first trees. Being their first year I really didn't think there would be fruit. Regretfully we never got to try it, I suspect that the local squirrels has it, they got the strawberries from the other plot, I caught them read handed. 

In June we built our poly tunnel. We had been wanting one for a while, ever since our neighbor had showed us his. It took some work but we built it in a day and soon filled it with tomatoes. We also planted some outdoor girl tomatoes in one of the beds. 

In July we picked our first tomato, a perfect little outdoor girl. It wouldn't be long before we had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with it.

  

In August we harvested potatoes, lots of tomatoes, had tones of runner beans. It was a big month for harvesting, of seeing our hard work bear fruit. 

This was a slow week, on the best week we filled the trug with tomatoes and needed a carrier bag for the runner beans. We do not need that many plants, it was hard to use all of it, I had to give away bags of food to friends the week Mum and Bill went away. 

August was the month of a big decision, we thought about it for a while and made the hard decision to give up the first plot. It had been good to us but it wasn't big enough for our needs/plans/dreams. Trying to manage 2 plots wasn't working either, we had been focusing on the new one so much that the first was falling behind. Neither of them was completely set up so we made the decision to give up the first one and focus on the main one. We may look to take on another plot if a suitable one becomes available but not until we have set up the current one just how we want. 

Having decided to give up the top plot we needed to adjust our plan. We decided to move the compost bins so that we could put the fruit where they were, it  is a sunnier position. Later we would move the rhubarb under the vines. We left behind the strawberries and pineberries, and I will miss the tree.

In September we trimmed back the tree that over hung the new compost bins and was just about touching them. Bill got to use his new loppers so was very happy. Then we started the prep for next year.

With the growing season about done in October we stared clearing the plot and getting ready for next year. The area below the poly tunnel has been designated as a orchard, with space set aside as an experimental bed and a little bit of a garden with pond. But that area was getting a little over grown so we needed to clear that. 

November was the joyful task of rotarvating, turning all that rough dirt into lovely soft fluffy, crumbly soil. With the whole plot now cleared we manages to do most of it. We went around the trees and fruit bushes of course. 

It was a two day job, and the second day we marked out the beds, raked out the paths and penguin walked them flat. Unlike any point before, it felt like it was all coming together, we could see our plan physically taking shape, and it was beautiful. 

In December we received out order of 24 raspberry canes. We had looked them up on line while sitting on the allotment enjoying our work, and talking about what to grow in the last 1/4 of the fruit cage. We decided that as most of us really liked raspberries, filling half the cage with them was the way to go. 

Then came the new year.

Back on the plot the beds are still tucked in for the winter under their weed suppressing sheets. Every thing is sleeping, waiting for spring now. So while we wait for the warmth to return to the soil we are building.

This week we put in the 4 main posts for the fruit cage. In the month to come we will build the rest and the fence around the outside.

The difference in the plot from when we took it on.

To now

Is quite amassing, and I am so proud of what we have achieved, and so thankful for the opportunity to do this and for Bills support as he joins me on this wonderful project. 

I am looking forward to a wonderful growing season this year. I will try my best to make the updates a little more regular. 

Week 5 - The battle of the brambles

As the name suggests we had quite a fight with some brambles at the bottom of our second plot. It took 3 weekends to clear them all, but finally the battle was won.

That large pile behind us is all the brambles we dug up. They are now waiting for a fiery end as soon as the weather allows. 

As you can see we are very happy about having completed this task.

Now they are gone we are quite surprised by just how much space we have in that bottom corner. Plans are under way for a little garden/seating area with bath tub pond. 

Time Laps, One year on the allotment

In reverse order, a picture of one year on out first plot.

January - Year Two Begins

I know there has been a huge gap between posts, my health over the last six months or so has not been good, chronic migraines have been stealing my life from me. New medicine and extra care of my diet and life in general have started to allow me to regain my self.

The winter so far has mostly been hiding inside from the rain to plan and in the dry days digging, so much digging. The second plot spent most of the time since we took it on covered in black plastic to kill all the weeds, now the cover is off and we have been digging, well I say we, its almost completely Bill. Although I did manage to take of some of the reaming grass as my strength returned and have been helping clear the last corner of brambles.

The brief days of sunshine are lovely on the allotment, the cold crisp air filled with the smell of freshly dug earth. A time full of dreaming and planning, a time of great expectations. As the days slowly get longer, the warmth slowly returning to the land, its a lovely time full of hope and promise.

There are plenty of jobs coming up. like rotarvating the beds, building a fruit cage, assembling the newly purchased poly tunnel, planting some fruit trees, digging a pond or two, and of course sowing lots and lots of seeds.

I am really excited to see what we can grow this year.

Arms full of goodness and a tiding up a bit

As the title suggests this weekend we harvested literally an armful of  veggies. I loved my mothers reaction when she opened the door and there I was trug in hand and piled up to my chin with veggies. She was so surprised and proud of us, it was amassing. 

We also tackled the big task of moving the compost. Now we have the second plot and the lovely compost bins that Bill built we thought it was time to move the contents of the old compost bin down. The top corner of the plot around the compost has always been used as a dumping ground but now we are clearing it out so we can have a nice place to sit and look at our work. Above is a picture of the area before and below is a picture of after. 

It looks much better now. We took the metal box down to the other plot for now but will be getting rid of it. One day in the not to distant future we hope to have a nice little area where we can sit after the hard work is done and survey our a veggie kingdom.

Generally its all going quite well. The salad may be bolting, the beans may have bugs, the carrots have been decimated, but there is lots of wonderful thing happening too. We have harvested cauliflower (something Bill hadn't managed to do till this year), we have tons of onions looking big and strong, the apple tree has so many apples we are going to have to take some off. The beetroot are lovely, the beans are plentiful, even the troubled yellow one are swelling nicely.

And then there is the tomatoes, after last year mediocre harvest following the decimation by slug I have a bit of a thing for the tomatoes. It may be the smell of the tomato plants or it may be the fruit in huge numbers swelling beautifully on the trusses, but I love them. 

And then there is the runner beans, so many beans, and they taste so good. It feels so good to be growing my own food, to sit at the table and count up how much of it is grown by me. To be able to share my veg with others be it family or friends, it feels so wonderful.