A sunny day! And of course I'm working for most of it...

Well after a busy day at the Cafe I collected a few things together and went down to the patch to try and do a little bit more.

Jasmine stands guard by the messy greenhouse.

We have 8 beds kind of in place, the site slopes from the centre so we have found it hard to find a level.

The top end of the Allotment has been covered in a hope that some of the weeds die off, whilst we were covering the top part of the site we found that something had made itself a little home and quite a network of burrows and tunnels connecting each one.

Unfortunately they move a little to fast to catch in a photo but it seems that we have a small family of mice setting up camp. Not so much of a problem now I suppose but come growing season I'm sure I will want them moving on.

I need to have a read up on the good and bad wildlife that I should be encouraging and defending against.

I took the gear down to give the Greenhouse a scrub as recommended by Monty (Gardeners World), I removed quite a bit of moss and Bird gifts! But only managed to get around half of it done before the light really started to fail.

 The worst part is that after around an hour or so of scrubbing and annoying quite a few Spiders it didn't look that much better than when I started!

I decided to call it a day, bit tired and grumpy and questioning whether all this will be worth it in the end, had a sit down before I left and remembered, that even if I don't get that much out of the plot over the next 12 months I will still get to spend time relaxing and pottering around with no one bothering me, no stress and just the sound of the birds to accompany me!

Not a bad view to finish the day with...

Bad Weather stalls progress...

Well the recent terrible weather has resulted in a slowing of progress at the Larder.

I have used the time to complete the application for the Shed to be installed on the plot, looking forward to my first plot born cup of Tea!

We are going for a 6' x 6' Apex shed from Harts Timber Sheds (www.gardenshedbolton.co.uk) I have been and had a look and they look well made, tongue and grove board rather than shiplap so it should last.

We just need to sort out a nice flat area next to the greenhouse.

We have also selected our seeds and we are putting our order in with Kings Seeds.

We have chosen quite a few (probably far to many) but we are eager to try as much as possible in our first year. So all being well we should have the following growing on our little plot:

Brussel Sprouts, Cascade F1.
Cabbage, Deadon F1.
Rainbow Chard.
Borecole, Winterbore F1.
Broccoli, Summer Purple.
Carrot, Eskimo F1 & Trevor F1.
Cucumber, Cucino F1.
Leek, Tadorna.
Lettuce, Great Lakes & Little Gem.
Pepper, Hungarian Hotwax.
Pumpkin, Hundredweight.
Swede, Best of all.
Tomato, Tigerella & Sweet Million F1.
French Beans (Corona, D'oro)
Sugar Snap Peas.
Onions, Sturon & Stuttgart Giant.
Potatoes, Epicure, King Edward & Maris Piper.


For the Herb Garden.
Sweet Basil.
Coriander (Cilantro).
Greek Oregano.
Rosemary.
Thyme.


We are also looking at putting some Garlic in the ground as soon as possible as we have been told that it makes for better return next year.

At the moment we seem to be spending a lot out but we are looking long term to try and make the plot easier to manage through the years!

Hopefully the weather will clear a bit over the next few days so I can get on with some little jobs. Will snap some pictures and update soon...

Mark.

A little update on progress...

'The Larder'

Starts to take shape...

So here is a little update on the goings on at 'The Larder' This is the name we have given our little plot!

We bought a few basic tools as we only had a lonely spade at home! We had no idea how must even just the basic tools would cost, it was a little surprising but they will do the job to start and then we can replace with better ones as and when money allows.

We cleared the Blackberry bushes and some of the rubble...

We were left with quite a lot of thick roots to remove, I will be honest it was a bit daunting at this point and we did wonder what we had taken on.

Ian clearing the bushes root systems...

The warmer weather we had has helped with the clearing process and with the burning of all the wood waste.

Joe the Allotment secretary kindly lent us his burner... 

While some of the Allotment folk gave us some of there surplus to help us see 

what all this work will bring...

It really helped us get on!!

We cleared the plot some more and made plans for some raised beds...

The plot is around 4 meters wide and 18 meters long, at the bottom near the greenhouse the plot has quite a slope leading to the path on the right hand side which would make the raised beds a bit difficult to lay level but we stuck with this plan and after quite a lot more digging, weeding and head scratching...

We had a tidy looking area ready for some beds!

Then the following day we picked up some Decking boards from B&Q (Other stores available) and knocked up some tidy looking raised beds.

We have tackled around one third of the plot and we plan a shed by the side of the greenhouse for the tools and obligatory brew making facilities! Along with a cold frame and compost bins.

It's a start and we still have tons of work to do before we will start seeing anything in the ground but we are choosing seeds at the moment and enjoying seeing the plot transform, whether that continues during the cold winter months remains to be seen.

:-)

Mark.