Sunday, July 23, 2006
Overrun by courgettes...
We've been overrun by courgettes! Clearly seven plants is too many... we've eaten them nearly every day for the last couple of week, given them to anyone who will taken and I've still got 12 in the fridge....
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Food!!!
Courgettes and potatoes are doing really well!
And look! We've actually got food to eat! Loads of potatoes and courgettes! The potatoes below are just from 3 or 4 plants - we've plenty more yet to dig. We've had quite a few courgettes already, and they just keep coming... maybe too many plants (6 or 7...)
We've also had loads of rasberries as well, and should get a few more.
On the down side, my Khol Rabi got eaten as soon as it grew. The perpetual spinach is looking OK at the moment though.
And look! We've actually got food to eat! Loads of potatoes and courgettes! The potatoes below are just from 3 or 4 plants - we've plenty more yet to dig. We've had quite a few courgettes already, and they just keep coming... maybe too many plants (6 or 7...)
We've also had loads of rasberries as well, and should get a few more.
On the down side, my Khol Rabi got eaten as soon as it grew. The perpetual spinach is looking OK at the moment though.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Perpetual spinach and Kohl Rabi
Planted Perpetual spinach and Kohl Rabi yesterday. Purple sprouting and sprouts are looking OK and raspberries will soon be ready.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Lots growing and first crop (just!)
It's been a warm sunny June so far, and things are growing well, including the weeds. I've just planted most of the rest of the sprouts and purple sprouting. The first batch I put in seem to have settled in well. As it's warm we've been doing lots of watering.
Roger has tried an interesting way of growing carrots - he dug a trench, lined it with newspaper, filled it with compost, and then transplanted some carrots from his greenhouse. Idea I think is to keep the weeds away - our last lot got drowned by weeds. No idea if the carrots will take, or whether they will manage to break through the paper though.
We've also got three rows of runner beans going now:
Finally we had our first, tiny crop - strawberrys! The plot was covered with them (in amongst the grass) when we took it over - we had to dig most of them up, but put some in a big tub, and left a few around the edge. Look....!
Roger has tried an interesting way of growing carrots - he dug a trench, lined it with newspaper, filled it with compost, and then transplanted some carrots from his greenhouse. Idea I think is to keep the weeds away - our last lot got drowned by weeds. No idea if the carrots will take, or whether they will manage to break through the paper though.
We've also got three rows of runner beans going now:
Finally we had our first, tiny crop - strawberrys! The plot was covered with them (in amongst the grass) when we took it over - we had to dig most of them up, but put some in a big tub, and left a few around the edge. Look....!
Saturday, June 10, 2006
June Update
It's been really sunny for the last week or so, we've had to do a lot a watering, and Roger has done loads of weeding...
I'll add some photos shortly, but things are growing really well. The potatos with purple flowers (Maris Pipers?) are looking great, and the white flowered ones (maybe these are the Maris Pipers...) aren't far behind.
Roger's courgette plants are now have little courgettes growing, and the pumpkin plants are also looking good.
I've added a few purple sprouting and brussels sprouts - not sure if they will survive the heat though, but I've got some more in the green house. Also we didn't have any lime, which we are told we need to keep some sort of brassica killing thing away (no idea what it is).
The plot is almost full now, thought we've got a nice empty row where the carrots failed (Roger has dug a trench there now - can't remember what for, and we've room for a lot more pea plants on the pea row (only about 5 grew...).
I'll add some photos shortly, but things are growing really well. The potatos with purple flowers (Maris Pipers?) are looking great, and the white flowered ones (maybe these are the Maris Pipers...) aren't far behind.
Roger's courgette plants are now have little courgettes growing, and the pumpkin plants are also looking good.
I've added a few purple sprouting and brussels sprouts - not sure if they will survive the heat though, but I've got some more in the green house. Also we didn't have any lime, which we are told we need to keep some sort of brassica killing thing away (no idea what it is).
The plot is almost full now, thought we've got a nice empty row where the carrots failed (Roger has dug a trench there now - can't remember what for, and we've room for a lot more pea plants on the pea row (only about 5 grew...).
Monday, May 22, 2006
Runner Beans
The mother-in-law, the kids and I planted some runner beans yesterday. I'm trying to grow some in my greenhouse, but the slugs keep eating everything, so I bought some from Usk garden centre. The sticks we used to make the frame were prehistoric ones we found on the allotment, so will probably break when it gets windy!
Roger left a message on my mobile to say well done - I guess he thinks they are the ones I'm growing! I suppose I'll have to confess tomorrow...
Roger left a message on my mobile to say well done - I guess he thinks they are the ones I'm growing! I suppose I'll have to confess tomorrow...
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Early May
Haven't been able to get down to the allotment for a couple of weeks as I've had a cold. Just been now though. Lots of small weeds have popped up all over the place!
Good news is that the potatoes have come up (not sure we've done it right though! everyone else's are at the top of mounds, and ours are in little trenches!). Cauliflowers haven' been eaten, and the onions, shallots and garlic look good, as do the courgettes.
No sign what so ever of the carrots though. Same for the radishes. And only one or two peas seemed to have come up.
The rest of the plot is looking a bit sorry for itself. The sprouts and brocolli are doing ok in the greenhouse, but we might have to cheat and see if Gareth has any good plants for sale in the Caerleon ironmongers.
Good news is that the potatoes have come up (not sure we've done it right though! everyone else's are at the top of mounds, and ours are in little trenches!). Cauliflowers haven' been eaten, and the onions, shallots and garlic look good, as do the courgettes.
No sign what so ever of the carrots though. Same for the radishes. And only one or two peas seemed to have come up.
The rest of the plot is looking a bit sorry for itself. The sprouts and brocolli are doing ok in the greenhouse, but we might have to cheat and see if Gareth has any good plants for sale in the Caerleon ironmongers.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Things growing
Hurray! Things have started growing:
If you look really carefully you can see some courgette plants (started in Roger's greenhouse), and if you enlarge it you might just be able to see that our garlic and some of our onions have sprouted. We also had a potato pop out, but I thought it was a weed and pulled it up (don't tell Roger...).
Radishes have also grown, but the lettuces have been eaten - there is no trace at all of them.
If you look really carefully you can see some courgette plants (started in Roger's greenhouse), and if you enlarge it you might just be able to see that our garlic and some of our onions have sprouted. We also had a potato pop out, but I thought it was a weed and pulled it up (don't tell Roger...).
Radishes have also grown, but the lettuces have been eaten - there is no trace at all of them.
Couch Grass
Part of our allotment was cover in grass, strawberries and saplings:
Roger had already dug half of it, and I attacked the other half this morning - here's what it looked like after:
When I'd finished a gardener from the plot next door popped over (farmer for 30 years, so he knew what he was talking about), and told me it looked like a bad case of couch grass!
Apparently this isn't good - it's hard to get rid of without weedkiller (something like Roundup). I'm much rather keep organic, so we'll try and dig it out, but it looks like it might not be easy.
Roger had already dug half of it, and I attacked the other half this morning - here's what it looked like after:
When I'd finished a gardener from the plot next door popped over (farmer for 30 years, so he knew what he was talking about), and told me it looked like a bad case of couch grass!
Apparently this isn't good - it's hard to get rid of without weedkiller (something like Roundup). I'm much rather keep organic, so we'll try and dig it out, but it looks like it might not be easy.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Our allotment
Welcome to my blog about our allotment! We've had our alloment, which is located in Caerleon, in Wales, for a couple of weeks, and I'm going to use this blog to record how we get on. The 'we' is me (Michael) and Roger (and our wives and kids!). We've never had an alloment before - the idea came from a night in the pub...
We were on the waiting list for almost a year before we got it. Its what's known as a '5 Perch', which is a half size allotment (plenty big enough though!).
The Caerleon allotments (self managed, but owned by Newport council) are great. There is a really friendy and dedicated team of volunteers managing the site - they made us feel welcome straight away, and the facilities are excellent. You can borrow power tools such as rotavators, buy fertilizer etc from the shop, and there is even a kitchen.
Our plot was pretty overgrown and abandoned, but luckily half of it was covered in carpet, which meant the weeds weren't too bad.
We spent a few hours (over a couple of days) digging it.
Mike (one of the committe) then brought a rotavator which made life a lot easier once we managed to control it, so we finally got it in a state ready to plant things...
On the second weekend (last week) we planted our first crops. So far we've planted:
We've also got pumpkins, purple sprouting, sprouts, cauliflower and french beans growing in our greenhouses.
So far the garlic has sprouted, and the radishes look like they've been eaten!
I'll record our progress in this blog! Wish us luck...
We were on the waiting list for almost a year before we got it. Its what's known as a '5 Perch', which is a half size allotment (plenty big enough though!).
The Caerleon allotments (self managed, but owned by Newport council) are great. There is a really friendy and dedicated team of volunteers managing the site - they made us feel welcome straight away, and the facilities are excellent. You can borrow power tools such as rotavators, buy fertilizer etc from the shop, and there is even a kitchen.
Our plot was pretty overgrown and abandoned, but luckily half of it was covered in carpet, which meant the weeds weren't too bad.
We spent a few hours (over a couple of days) digging it.
Mike (one of the committe) then brought a rotavator which made life a lot easier once we managed to control it, so we finally got it in a state ready to plant things...
On the second weekend (last week) we planted our first crops. So far we've planted:
- Potatoes (two types - don't ask me what!)
- Onions
- Shallots
- Garlic
- Carrots
- Radishes
- Peas
- Courgettes
We've also got pumpkins, purple sprouting, sprouts, cauliflower and french beans growing in our greenhouses.
So far the garlic has sprouted, and the radishes look like they've been eaten!
I'll record our progress in this blog! Wish us luck...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)