6th May 2006
Tim and I were bowled over by the activity on the plot over the past week. Having sown some herbs just last week in seed trays, the basil, coriander and chives were all sprouting. Courgettes, squashes and sweetcorn were all beginning to sprout and even the globe artichokes were coming out in the greenhouse.
Outdoors, the desiree potatoes were all sprouting with their gorgeous looking green foliage, the beetroots were coming out and everything seemed to have just emerged from nothing. It was really satisfying just to walk around the plot and see things growing for the first time. After this we needed to dig the third section of our plot. It seemed to be pretty slow-going, largely because some of the ground hadn't been dug before. We never did manage to dig right down towards the bottom of the plot! We dug and dug, removing brambles and so much bindweed.
We extolled the virtues of digging by hand and how great we were for doing so. We were really chuffed with ourselves. Monier, from the plot above us, came down with his rotavator and we soon ate our words. The earth was left looking beautiful after just five minutes with the rotavator. After all that hard graft, we were sold on the machinery! Curses!!
9th May 2006
Su and I went up to the allotment in the evening to water the plants in the greenhouse. Suey and I left after watering the greenhouse plants. But were around long enough to see a couple of visitors briefly...
Tim and his daughter, Leanne, came up as well to water the plants and bank up the early potatoes.The earlies had reached the right height so Tim did one half and Leanne did the other... well that's what Tim said (I reckon he made Leanne do all the hard work). They also gave the weeds a good hoe on the top patch. They're good lads.
13th May 2006
After some shocking lightning storms in the week, we found the plot well watered. With water comes weeds, however! There was some weeding required in the fruit patch, which Tim sorted out. Nigel had given us some plastic chairs to sit down and enjoy our plot with. We boguht some bamboo canes from Gordon's shop ready to put some wigwams up.
Roger asked us to dig out the asbestos sheets that separated the weeds in the neighbouring plot from our fruit patch. The weeds from the neighbouring patch would now be free to spread into our plot. Aaarrgghh!
On the third patch we'd marked out, we dug and hoed the ground to get rid of as many weeds as possible. There seemed to be a concentration of bind weed in one particular area of the plot.
We put four wigwams in and planted up some beans and peas to trail their way up the canes. We then went round and round the canes with some cling film in an attempt to protect them from any frosts. We also planted out some courgettes 1 metre apart. They require so much space! We also planted up some Red Duke of York potatoes and some Mayan Gold potatoes, that we had managed to get through Thompson & Morgan through an offer from Grow Your Own magazine. These spuds won't be commercially available until 2007, so we've got a “taste” of things to come. See what I did there?
Monday 22nd May 2006
There was no allotment for either of us on Saturday 20th May because we were both busy with work. Then Tim went on holiday on Sunday to Gran Canaria. I had a week off work and decided to spend a couple of days on the plot. Sadly, the weather had taken a turn for the worse this week and my enjoyment being on the plot was sadly diminished as I tried to work in the rain. I banked up the main crop potatoes with a potato hoe that Nigel's parents had bought us for £1 at a car boot sale! I dug a little bit of the fourth section of the plot and got a load of bind weed and grass out of there to make way for some veg.
Tuesday 23rd May 2006
I went to the plot again and rendered the dwarf wall that the greenhouse sits on. It took me a few hours to do this because I had never done it before. I think I did a pretty good job.
I managed to get a row of Tumbler tomatoes, Aurora tomatoes and Cream Sausage tomatoes in. These are all bush/determinate varieties and I only gave them a short cane to tie them up. I had also cut and dug in the top halves of some plastic bottles so that when it came to watering the tomatoes the water would be directed to their water-seeking roots and not just their feeder roots.
I didn't really get very far today because of the weather and also because I wasn't as motivated as I was when Tim is there. I was also still awaiting my Swiss oscillating hoe, recommended by Grow Your Own magazine, so I still hadn't weeded the plot.
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