Coming along

Having been late starting this year, I picked my first load of food from the plot this weekend and it was well worth the wait.  We’ve been eating the rocket and chard for a while but there’s now some small carrots, courgettes, spuds, and broad beans.  The smaller beans are ridiculously tasty - washing off the balckfly seems to have helped (or at least done no harm).

I’ve been tidying the plot between beds with weed suppressing material and bark chips but there’s still a whole area to get sorted.  I’ve also ggot to find something else to put in where the birds massacred by brassicas - probably some lettuce as it always gets eaten.

The last thing to do will be sorting out my composters.  They’re a mess - I hardly ever turn them and really don’t trust half of the stuff that seems to be in there (some of it looks like it’s growing!

Blackfly breeding in the dead of night

I spent most of yesterday afternoon down the plot. The intention was to get on with the dreaded thinning but, as ever, I found something else to take up most of my time - cleaning blackfly eggs off of my nascent broad and french beans.

I’ve no idea if this will work or not but they looked a right state so thought I’d give it a try. A neighbour suggested putting ladybirds on them as they love a blackfly snack, but I couldn’t find any ladybirds. Instead I ripped off a corner of that black weed-suppressing material and used it as a cloth to wash the beans with: on the stems, under the leaves and all over the place.

Below is a picture of what they looked like before. I haven’t taken a new one yet but will let you know how it goes. Grateful for any other tips on how to deal with them.

Thinning: is it murder?

Television is often good at demonstrating how brutal nature can be. Whether it’s David Attenborough narrating the killing of a lion cub by hyenas or Bill Oddie showing Hannibal the barn owl eat its siblings on Spring Watch, it’s all there to see and we all know it’s perfectly normal. Survival of the fittest, etc.

The trouble is, away from the telly, I get the heebie jeebies about it. I reckon I could kill a chicken or stick a pig - meat is fine, no problem. But put me in front of a row of Swiss Chard that needs thinning and I dither. Suddenly a spot of weeding somewhere else looks like a great idea.

I’ve grown these little blighters, and now I’ve got to sacrifice about a third of them. I understand perfectly the logic of it but still feel a pang of regret at pulling them out of the ground. Why can’t nature do it? Why can’t the smaller, more useless ones just wither away beneath their stronger siblings?

Completing one row of Chard (on the far right in the picture) I quickly became wary of the murderous zeal with which I polished of the last dozen. It was easy by then, I was numb to the pain. Next I’ll be butchering the rocket. When will the madness stop? I’m already having nigthmares about bindweed attacks…

Rain stops play

Thanks to the organisers for ringing around about the barbecue this bank holiday weekend.  It was a shame the weather let us down, especially given the amount of planning and shopping that people have done, but it was clearly the best thing to do.

At least all that rain must have been good for our plots! I was down there on Saturday and quite a few people commented that we could do with a downpour.  According to the five-day-forecast the rest of this week should be sunny, followed by more showers on the weekend. Grrrrr…

Looking forward to a re-arranged date when we can all get together.  I imagine it’ll be on the gate and in the shed again.  Once I’ve spotted it I’ll post it on here too - or someone could do that themselves, or leave it in a comment below, etc..

Covent Garden

I think it’s finished now, but Covent Garden has been hosting a Spring Renaissance festival for the last few weeks. Half of the northern section (the side that leads up to the tube) was turned into an allotment. From the photo below (borrowed from the Evening Standard website) it looks really good.

There’s another enviable public allotment in St James’ Park, just up from the restaurant. Last year it had interesting exhibition material on the ‘dig for victory’ campaign from World War II and there was an Andrews Air Raid Shelter in the corner. Someone has posted loads of pictures on on Flickr.  In fact, looking at their website, I think it’s all linked to the Churchill Museum off of Horseguards Parade. Ridiculously well tended, mind you - very humbling.

better late than never

The bank holiday weekend has given me a good opportunity to catch-up with a lot of sowing and planting that I’ve left until very, very late.  Not to mention the edges that I’ve finally got ’round to trimming!  Almost everything is in, finally, although there are some bits and pieces to bring from the garden when they’re ready.

My posting here has been about as regular as visits to the plot over the last few weeks so hopefully both should pick-up a bit.  I’ve been spurred on by the amount of people who’ve mentioned this site to me over the last couple of days - do get in touch if you’d like to post things here too - it’s dead easy!

Anyway, this is my lunch hour so more later.

Raising beds

The six new raised beds on my plot are almost complete. It was a lot trickier than I imagined to make them: getting the timber, measuring it all out, cutting the wood, leveling the ground, filling the beds with soil - it was all pretty tiring really.

Just one more bed to fill and the edges to tidy, then it’s all done. I’ve been quite fortunate with my plot. When I got it last year it was a shambles but on corner had been left as a compost heap for ages. I spread this over a quarter of the plot last autumn and covered it for the winter. It’s now proved very handy for filling the beds with something useful, rather than having to wheelbarrow it over to the far end of the site for compost.

New seeds have also come through this week from the Real Seed Catalogue so I’ve got plenty of planning to do. Next up I think I might make or get a clod frame for the sunny end of the plot.

Slow progress

I’ve got two more raised beds to make and intend to re-jig the position of an existing one. Then most need filling with compost from the back of the site. Progress has been slow on this as I got sick last weekend and haven’t been near the plot since. Hopefully I can get back to it next week.

I’ve also been really behind on getting seeds, particularly given the weather we’ve been having. To make up I’ve just ordered a whole bunch of stuff from the real seed company. Their little booklets are great and the website has even more useful information. I look forward to seeing how they turn out.

Details in the shed

I’ll write some information about this website on the whiteboard in the shared shed this coming weekend.

The idea is that any plot holder should be able to post news and updates here if they wish. We can also use it for announcements, minutes, advice, and summer barbecues, etc.

I hope you think this is a good idea and let me know if you have any suggestions.

If anyone has some photos to share that’d be great. The one at the top here is all I had to hand at first and doesn’t show the site in its best light!

Gareth

Spring is coming

I’ve started digging the plot over again these last two weeks, having been absent for much of the winter. It’s less of a mess than anticipated so there’s room for optimism.

Last year was my first as an allotment holder and I learned quite a bit from others on the site and friends. The main change I’ll be making for 2008 is the introduction of raised beds. They look far easier to manage and, from what I’ve read, are good for cultivating soil.

By the time it’s all built there’ll be three at either end of my plot. This should leave room for the berries, beans, rhubarb and herbs that I’ve got planned.

Also I hope that my neighbour and I can get to grips with the grape vine this year.