Party Polytunnel!

What else to do with the signs left over from my 50th Birthday Bash?? There've been a few cans drunk in there anyway, and my trusty allotment radio provides the tunes... :)

A few days of getting stuck in and my allotment is a different place

At last I got back over to the plot in April, to find that my broad beans and peas were peeping out of the soil and even the parsnips were making a bit of an appearance.  

Lovely strong healthy little broad bean plants have pushed their way out of the soil, albeit in incredibly wonky rows!

Peas!  Added a little of my home made compost to them when they appeared in the hope that the richness would seep through the soil for them.  I had planned when I planted them to give them some nutrient-rich growing matter but it was such a rush to get something planted last month that I was unprepared.

Great to see the parsnips making an appearance.  It looks like I was more sensible with my seed placement this year and they won't need such harsh thinning, which always seems such a terrible waste with parsnips, as unlike carrot thinnings - what can you do with teeny parsnips?

The weeds, brambles, nettles and dock were once more intent  allotment domination, so I enlisted some helpers in the form of Oscar and his mate.

Many scratches and stings later Oscar had
heroicially achieved this. I have no idea
how to deal with this area. Unless we succumb
to weed killer this is going to be a yearly job.

    

This one was taken back in March.
By April it was eve more overgrown.





 

                                     

 

I was very aware that the season was moving on fast, so I dug another bed and we worked so late one night that I was planting my first row of potatoes and onions practically by moonlight.  

Meanwhile in the tunnel my carrots and spinach were just peeping above the soil.  We emptied some old compost into the remaining tunnel area, I added chicken poo pellets and a couple of barrows of the really rich compost made from rotting veg at home and raked it in hoping this would rejuvenate the tired soil in there since I hadn't got round to getting hold of any manure.

Three rows of carrots, two rows of spinach, something which I've forgotten - maybe chard - and a few early lettuce leaves are actually appearing.  I raked in the garden compost wherever I could and distributed chicken poo pellets all over.

The grapevine planted last year is looking healthy.  It's leaves appeared quite late and the early ones were attacked by slugs but now it's looking good.

On the last day it was time to call on a man with power tools, so Mark appeared with his smelly, noisy mower and strimmer and seemed to achieve in a few hours as much as we had managed in two entire days.

The pile of rubble bottom right is the old concrete plinth from a previous greenhouse.  I'm hoping this year to turn it into a pleasant spot for sitting and watching the garden grow... if I ever have time.

Quick Strongbow break and it was on to smelly noisy power tool number two....

Strimmer

Meanwhile, avoiding the flying painful stones from the strimmer, I planted a second row of potatoes, put a few in my rotted down compost bins and sowed some swede and beetroot seeds.  I then got down to digging another bed.

Rounded the day off with a bonfire to burn some of the old wood we've got knocking around the plot.  I wasn't allowed to burn the bramble mountain, too green, too smoky apparently, so they've been dumped in a giant builders bag with the promise of their removal really soon.... we'll see.

Can't beat a good fire to round off a day in the allotment.

2014 is running away with me

This year I've had a whole new bunch of changes to my life, altering the amount of time I have to spend on my plot, and how much time I find to write a blog.  Doing a degree at university meant there was no time for an autumn tidy up or a winter dig, and when I would normally be getting to grips with the garden in the early spring and sowing seeds on my window sill, I was in the throes of writing essays galore.

Luckily for me, this was also the year I was asked if I could spare a bit of land for some friends to grow a few veg, which I willingly agreed to.  Mother in law May cleared the polytunnel too, so I had no excuse to give up on the garden.

In March, I made it over to do a bit of digging and to assess the situation.

I was relieved to find my polytunnel was still standing after the extreme winds we had had, although the doors were once more in tatters at one end.  Decided to purchase some proper polytunnel plastic as the coloured stuff just goes brittle in the sun and needs replacing every year.  Paid £26 from Amazon in the end, and although it is thinner than the original body of the tunnel, it will hopefully last longer than a year and there's plenty of extra for when I do need it.

Inside the parsley was the only thing alive, and it was thriving.

Outside the leeks were not very fat, but looked healthy enough.  A lovely surprise was the purple sprouting broccoli.  I'd been given a few plants the previous summer but thought they had been decimated by caterpillars as the last time I'd looked the leaves were like lace.  Fab to find out that they are really hardy and had thrived through the winter.  I pinched out the top sprouts and the side shoots grew bigger, eventually giving me three dinners worth of purple sprouting.

The amount of work to be done was quite shocking however, as the brambles and nettles were threatening to take control of the place, and without a winter dig the beds had disappeared into grass choked meadow. 

 I matched the work my friends had done by turning over the soil in a bed, then went through a section of it very carefully til it was suitable for planting then got a couple of rows of parsnips sown and sowed my broad beans directly into the soil.

A rough dig over was hard going since the whole plot had turned into a field.

Much later than last year, I sowed my precious parsnip seeds into the soil I'd worked.

Inside the tunnel I threw in some carrots and spinach and vowed I'd come back really soon to carry on the daunting work that really needed doing, but relieved that at least some things had been started off.  

It was, in fact, a month before I really had the chance to come back and get to grips with the place.