Saturday 1st March 2008

Tim had been up the plot since 10:30am and Suey and I turned up at around 12pm. We had popped into Lidl to get some fruit trees that were on offer at £3.99. We bought two apple trees, a plum, a cherry and a pear. When we got to the allotment, Tim had marked out the areas using string where the rows of fruit needed to be planted. The gooseberry bushes were a bit out of alignment, it seemed. We had some sandwiches and a cup of tea before we started work. We dug out the blackcurrant bushes from around the plum tree and dug some holes to plant them in our freshly dug fruit patch. These blackcurrants were the ones Tim had bought from Victoriana nursery two years ago. We added some manure and sand to give them a little bit of drainage and then pushed the soil over their roots. Tim added some really stinky fertiliser around the fruit bushes and watered them in.

There were some blackcurrant bushes at the top of the plot that we needed to relocate. We dug them up and divided some plants into two because they had grown quite big. We planted these up too in the next row along. You could really tell the difference between the varieties just in the shape of the bush.

  
                       
 
                                             
 
                                             

Nigel had wondered why we were bothering growing blackberries seeing as there were so many brambles around. The simple answer would be... because we want to. However, that would ignore the fact that we can now claim ownership of some blackberry plants. All the blackberries around the plot aren't easily accessible, nor can we guarantee that we'll get there first. So to have our own means that we can actually ensure that we get some. Seeing as it's the first year maybe we won't get them this year but subsequent years should be successful. We had some plants that we'd bought from Lidl for 99p per plant, which looked very small. There were also five stronger looking, thornless plants that I'd bought from Wilkinsons. These even had their own baby cane supports, so looked a bit healthier. We dug some small holes a trowel depth down, aded some fertiliser and firmed the blackberry plants in.

Next up would be the raspberries. We left enough room for a pathway and then Suey, Tim and I started to dig the raspberry plants up. It was around two years ago that we first planted up the 20 canes that Tim had received from Victoriana. Since then, the number of Polka raspberry canes we now have has nearly tripled.

 
                       
 
                                             
 
                                             

We separated some of the canes because some of them were connected via a runner that had created a new cane. The weather was getting a little dodgy as the day continued and we were running out of light in order to get the raspberries in. While we were doing this, Suey planted up the fruit trees we'd bought in some pots as a temporary measure. She'd also re-located our strawberry plants as well. She's a good girl!

We finished up at around 5:30pm and went home, feeling shattered but very proud of the amount of work we'd done.

  
                                             
  Saturday 8th March 2008

Tim and I got up to the plot at around 11am this morning. On account of the rugby game that was taking place and also the light rain, there was hardly anyone up on the plot today. In fact, it was just us and an Italian guy, it would seem. I think that most people were probably sensible whereas Tim and I had an agenda! I certainly had an agenda when I saw that the Italian chap had received a delivery of horse manure. Jeepers! I had to find out where he got it from. I then saw Tim was already on the case with John, the guy who supplied us with all our manure needs last year. Superb. Tim handed him some crisp sterlings for two truckloads of poop. We would have our first dump before the day was through, he promised.

We had a look around the plot and looked underneath the rhubarb bins. We'd been forcing it and our older rhubarb plant wasn't doing as well as the new one, which was looking fantastic. It was nice, pale and tall. We went further up the plot and noted that the raspberry canes that we were trying to propagate were looking promising. Tim tried last year and they hadn't worked. We'll see.

                       
 
                                             
We discussed our plans for next week, as we needed to plant out some asparagus crowns that I'd bought from Blackmoor nurseries. We decided to plant them where the blackcurrants had been at the top of the plot. This way we'd have a massive asparagus patch with lots of different varieties. The only downside to asparagus is how horrible your wee smells after you've eaten it. It's like you've eaten an entire bag of sugar.
                                             
 
                                             
 

It began raining a bit more heavily as I measured out the weed suppressant material to fit amongst our fruitcage pathways. We cut out 6 strips of weed suppressant to the dimensions we required and then started shovelling a layer of bark chippings around the fruit plants and on top of the weed suppressant. This took a lot longer than either of us expected and it was about 2pm by the time we'd finished mulching it all. We'd even run out of bark chippings and had to get some fresh chippings that had been delivered in the week. The colour of the new chippings didn't match the old and it looked like a right mess. I threatened Tim with a spade because he'd allowed this colour mismatch to happen. We'll never be able to live this down on the allotment site. What will Nigel say?

After finishing this, John the manure chap arrived with his pick-up truck and dumped a load of horse manure at the top of our second plot. It wasn't as well-rotted as last years batch but it was manure and that's all we needed to condition the soil. We can spread this around the patch where we intend to put the elusive polytunnel, after we've dug this plot... one day.
                       
 
                                             
Tim began to dig the patch where the fruit bushes and raspberries had been so that he could plant out the rhubarb he'd grown from seed. They were looking fabulous and needed planting ASAP. The fruit trees I'd bought last week also needed to go in as soon as possible because their roots were very restricted. I cleared the area where they were going to go and I emptied out the compost bin because it had burst open and I needed to move it away from the bees area. Last year we were at risk from being stung everytime we put some household waste in there. I managed to get three manure bags full of homemade compost. How fantastic. It was only peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds and old vegetables. It's incredible that we managed to get such fibrous growing matter from a load of old rubbish.
                                             
 
                                             
I sowed some F1 red cabbage seeds in a seed tray with the homemade compost to see whether they'd sprout. The rain got even heavier and we decided to leave at around 4:15pm. Although we'd worked really hard, it didn't look like we'd worked hard. It was only a slight visual difference in the way of the bark chippings but this should work wonders for keeping the weeds down. This is a permanent bed, so hopefully won't need any other work than the occasional watering and picking of fruit.
                                             
                                             
Saturday 15th March

What a surprise, it's raining again and boy did it rain. Oh and Luke is nowhere to be seen. He has done a runner and gone to see his father for the weekend. John the manure man dropped off another pile of steaming poo for us (this load will need to rot down a bit before we can use it), then another 2 loads for other people on the plot. As I was the only person on the site that day, I gave him a hand with his deliveries (am I mad or just committed... or should I be committed?).

The rain was so bad that I had to take refuge in the greenhouse so I decided to sow some seeds. I have been trying various different
containers for this purpose. For example, empty milk cartons cut in half, egg boxes, old yoghurt pots and basically any carton that I can recycle. I managed to sow Pak Choi Cabbage, cucumbers, squashes, celery,
tarragon and Victorian climbing peas.

Once the rain stopped I tried to do some digging but I was fighting a
losing battle. The rain started again after about 20 minutes so I headed
for the shed for some shelter. I was in there for 15 minutes, how sad am
I?

                                             
 
                                             

While I was in there I was watching the birds that were feeding on Luke’s nuts (ouch that must hurt, if not it must make his eyes water). I saw 7 different species all feasting on the bird food. Not bad for a little plot in a big city.

It was 4pm when I admitted defeat and decided to swim home !!!!!!
                                             
 
                                             
                                             
  Saturday 22nd March 2008

It's Easter and as the daylight grows longer the more time we can spend up on the plot, it seems. Tim and I were up the plot fairly early today and we had some digging to do. One of the panes of glass in the greenhouse had smashed with all the blustery wind we'd had over the past week. I was surprised that there was only one. Tim took it upon himself to sort this out and found a sheet of plastic and cut it to size with the help of Sam. Nigel provided some spare window clips and the greenhouse was repaired! We took a look at the rhubarb again, as it's our tradition every time we come up here. We looked under both bins and the one that hadn't being doing so well was now looking fantastic. We took some stems from the plant that had been doing really well. It's so nice to be harvesting again.

We had seven fruit trees that needed a new home right in front of the bee hives. Luckily, the weather was a little windy so the bees didn't come out and sting us. In fact, even when the wind died down a little the bees were still very well behaved. We didn't have one problem at all, which is quite amazing considering we were making quite a lot of movement right in front of their entrances, albeit with a mesh fence in front of it.
                       
 
                       
While Tim was fixing the greenhouse with sticky tape, I continued clearing up the area. It had been used as a dumping ground both by us and whoever had the plot prior to us. There were asbestos sheets in the ground, bits of wood, a pair of shoes, rusty shears and a few other bits and pieces.
                                             
 
                                             
  I dug the ground near the shed and worked my way towards the greenhouse. I just wanted to ensure that we don't get any weeds coming up where we don't want them. It's a horrible job to get all the roots out from the ground but always necessary. The worst culprit in this section appeared to be nettle roots. Tim joined me and we dug the ground as quickly but thoroughly as possible. It's always astonishing just how many roots and weeds can take up residence in the earth. We must have had seven barrowloads at least, just from the patch we were digging. We got three sheets of asbestos out of the ground too.

Once we had dug the ground over it was time to choose where we would plant the trees and which ones would go where. We decided that the apples should go toward the top while the plum, cherry and pear should go a little further down. We dug a nice hole to accommodate the root system of each tree, added some homemade compost, some fertiliser, mixed it up and added some water. We then planted up all six trees. We went to the top of the plot and had a look at what we'd done and it soon became apparent that we had tried to cram too many trees into a small space.

                       
 
                                             
We hadn't read the instructions as they said that the trees could reach heights of 6 metres. Yipers! We thought that we'd better sort that out pretty quick. We removed the plum and relocated it beside the bee cage. The other trees were then replanted further apart so they'd have room to grow. However, we will have to keep a check on them so that they don't get out of hand. We will need to prune them to ensure they don't row too tall.
                                             
  We also had a fig tree, which Suey's mum had given to us. We thought that we'd train it against the side of the shed. However, in order to ensure it didn't grow too big, we employed a little trick I'd seen on Victorian Kitchen Garden. We dug a large hole beside the shed and put a paving stone at the bottom of the hole. We filled the hole in a bit so that we could plant up the fig tree. By restricting the tap root from going too deep into the ground, the tree won't grow very high. This was what the Victorians did before fruit trees were grafted onto dwarf root stock.

In order to ensure we don't get any rogue weeds, we put down some weed suppressant material, which was quite difficult as the wind picked up. We then transported a load of bark chippings from the car park and emptied it over the weed suppressant. At the end of the day, the patch of ground that had been such a mess now looked absolutely incredible. Five fruit trees, a fig against the shed and a whole load of chippings to make it look a lot tidier than it once was. It's so nice that we can actually see a difference in the ground. The second plot has been such a mess for so long that it's really lovely to see it all taking shape, little by little.
                       
 
                                             
                                             
Monday 24th March 2008

We were all excited about getting the fruit cage set up around the fruit bushes we'd planted. I had ordered a fence post borer from our local HSS on the interweb. I went to pick it up and found that it was closed. I phoned the HSS hotline and found out that all HSS stores were closed until tomorrow. Apparently, the fact that it was Easter Monday was significant. Oh dear. I would have to go and face Tim and let him know that I buggered it all up. I had Suey with me for protection and it turned out that Tim had his daughter, Leanne with him. He had hired muscle! It turned out that he was fine and that Leanne had come up to help. Phew! This gave us the opportunity to dig the rhubarb patch, which was where all the raspberries and blackcurrants had been.

I had bought some fence posts on Thursday and brought them up to the plot for building the fruit cage. I asked Suey whether she would mind painting the bottom sections of the fence posts with roof sealer. It's a replacement for bitumen and is really good for waterproofing. I have used this before for fence posts and should guard against them rotting in the concrete. While Suey did this, Tim, Leanne and I dug the rhubarb patch and got rid of the weeds.

 
                       
 
                                             
Leanne looks young and fit but started to slow down digging after about half an hour. She seemed to lose the will. Maybe she's sensible. Tim and I would quite happily spend the entire day digging the ground but maybe it's not for everyone. She seemed happier starting the bonfire up with some kindling but ultimately, after leaning a little too much on her father, she decided to leave us to it. I don't blame her, really.
                                             
 
                                             

Suey painted the door of our shed green. It wasn't a womanly thing, where she thought she'd bring a woman's touch to things. It had always been my plan to paint the door bright green but Suey and Tim thought it was hideous. I thought it was gorgeous. She also painted the side of the shed with the roof sealer because the original paint had begun to flake off due to the weather conditions. First off, though, she decided to paint what a fig tree will look like. She seemed very pleased with herself, the naughty little tyke!

Tim and I continued to dig the ground. There had always been a hug bed of nettles in the area we were digging. It's funny how you can recognise the weeds by their roots. Our two arch nemeses are; stinging nettles, which have a long yellow cyclindrical root system; and bindweed, which have very white cylindrical roots that snap very easily to create MORE bindweed. I hate bindweed. No matter how thorough we are it just never seems to have been eradicated from the plot. Ugh!

There were also some flowering currant bushes, which had to be removed because they were rubbish. Flowers and no currants? What's the bloody point? Burn it!

 
                       
 
                                             
 
                                             

The bees were bringing in pollen and ignoring us, even though we were digging near their hives. We found lots of rubbish, aside from weeds in the nw rhubarb patch, It was a total nightmare. We noticed that the plum tree was beginning to get some buds and some were even starting to flower. How fabulous. Another crop of plums, although this time I won't put a load of cinnamon in the plum jam I make (it was a little overpowering). Suey went home to replenish the tea and Tim and I continued our digging extravaganza.
                                             
 
                                             

Once it was all dug over and weeds removed, we dug some holes for the rhubarb. Tim had grown the rhubarb from seed, which I found really impressive. I didn't think it was very easy to grow rhubarb from seed but it's kind of like asparagus. It just takes a while. We filled the holes with some of our homemade compost and also some organic fertiliser. We mixed it all together with some water and then planted the 13 rhubarb plants into the ground.

Suey came up at around 4pm with a flask of tea and some cakes. How fabulous. We then started to get some bark chippings that had been dropped in the parking bays for allotment users. What I don't think the council realise is that Tim and I seem to have used the majority of it in recent months. I hope they replenish it soon, otherwise we may have an angry mob of fellow allotmenteers demanding their cut. After a few barrowloads, we finally managed to get the rhubarb patch covered in bark chippings. It looked fantastic. We had hoped to get the asparagus in but that can wait until Saturday. We just wanted to get one job done right.

  
                       
 
                                             
 
                                             
                                             
  Tuesday 25th March 2008

Tim and I had both taken a day off today to get the fruit cage prepared. The post hole borer craziness, however, continued. I booked the borer online again and when I went to HSS to pick it up I was informed that there was only ONE 2-man borer in the country. I thought that this was a little ridiculous. The only 1-man borer available was in Bridgend. Aarrgghh! Something is conspiring against us and our fruit cage plans. I booked it for Saturday and went up to the plot empty handed once again. Grrr.

Tim and I decided that if we couldn't bore the holes then we'd sort out the area for the asparagus. Both Tim and I were feeling a bit achy from all of the digging and shifting we'd been doing. We certainly didn't have the energy we had when we first started on Saturday. We do tend to overdo things. We started with the Elderflower bush that was growing on the border of Nigel's and our plots. The bark had grown through the wire netting, fusing itself with the man-made fence so that it made it even more difficult to remove fro the ground.

                       
 
                                             
Tim used his saw to cut through the base and the metal fencing and then we prised the roots from the ground so that we could remove it once and for all. Every year we seem to cut it back so we felt the only way to stop this nuisance bush was to rid ourselves of it entirely. Tim stood on a piece of wood with a nail in while we were doing this. I don't think he appreciated it all that much.
                                             
 
                                             
  We thought, seeing as we were going to be planting asparagus that we should clear the entire patch of ground. We didn't think it would be that bad, considering we'd cleared the plot two years ago and left blackcurrant bushes in there last year. WRONG!! It was as though we hadn't done any weeding whatsoever. I don't know whether we had been slapdash in our first year and left loads of roots in but it was just full of bindweed, stringing nettles, dandelions, mare's tail, everything. We had a few barrowloads out of a narrow strip.

We had some blue plastic pipe, which we were planning to use to transport the water from the top of the plot to the centre of the plot. This would help us in the summer months making so many trips back forth from the waterbutt. When you have as much land to water as we do, you need a lot of water. We dug a little channel for the pipe between the two asparagus beds. This would also be where our path is. We backfilled it and made sure that the pipe was sloping slightly so that the water flowed freely through it. We didn't continue to channel the pipe. We just took it to the pathway and stopped for the time being, We had more pressing matters to attend to.
                       
 
                                             
 
                                             
  Once we had cleared the ground, which took a lot longer than we'd thought, we did little penguin steps across the ground to firm the soil up again so that we could dig two channels to plant the asparagus crowns in. This took us a while and our backs were beginning to ache quite a bit by this point. Once this was done, we put some compost and sand at the bottom of the channel and made a little mound out of this mixture and spread the asparagus crowns on top of the mound, spreading out the root systems. Once we had done all 30 crowns we backfilled the channels and made sure everything was firmed in. We were feeling shattered after the three days on the plot. Easter was not relaxing for us but it was very productive.
                                             
 
                                             
                                             
Saturday 29th March 2008

I was up the plot by 10:15am because I knew we had loads to do, the weather was quite bad again but not raining during the morning. Luke rang me and said that he was not coming up to our land today because he was waiting for a parcel to be delivered. How convenient that Luke hadn't come up and the weather was not looking good. Well I have heard it all now. If he doesn’t want to come up to the plot he only has to say so... not make up some elaborate story!!!

Anyway back to me. Once I knew he was not coming out to play I decided to do some proper work. I dug over an area of ground that we had grown squashes in the year before which took me about 2 hours and then started to plant up our first early and second early potatoes. In all I planted 36 tubers of Arran Pilots and the same of Charlottes, Nadine and a mystery variety that we were given by Gordon the shop keeper.

I also planted up some broad beans seeing as mice had decided to eat the seeds we'd originally sown. I had been growing some in the greenhouse and they had grown quite tall so needed to go out. I put some netting around them as well to stop and rodent thieves from getting in there again.

As the day went on the weather got wetter and wetter, after planting our taters I watered the greenhouse and tidied up the plot a little. By 3pm it was chucking it down so I gave up the will to live and went home.