What I did today. 30th April 2011.

I planted dwarf green beans today. There are still loads left to plant though, If they are all successful there will be beans coming out of mine and Lyle's ears. I'm going to try my hand a Borlotti beans too. The rest of the beans will be going in this bit. Before and after shots from today's work. I had planned to get the whole patch prepped but I got freaked out around 6pm that I was the only person left on the allotments. Turned out there was a few folks but just all down the other end.
This is what removing three barrow loads of weeds gives you. I reckon another three to go then it gets beaned up.

Baby Plants

The first courgette seedling is showing. Another is on it's way but not visible enough for my camera yet. It's so exciting seeing the wee little things appear. All brave and ready to face the world.

Rhubarb Crumble

It was pretty underwhelming. Crumble not buttery enough, not enough sugar on the rhubarb but, it is the first thing from the plot that I have eaten this year so that deserves a post.

April 17th in the allotment

Last weekend, when I was putting in some work on my allotment I was thinking that I should take more photos of it so that I can really see the changes that happen from week to week and year to year.

I guess I should have started earlier in the year when I hadn't yet done anything but I'm starting today instead.

So number one thing is 4 courgette plants that I planted  yesterday in the bathroom. In the bathroom because that is where the most space is.

I'm planting both my summer squashes and winter squashes inside and will plant out when they are established.

I'm doing them in sets of 4 because I only have three domes to keep them covered for the first week or two when they go outside. These seeds should have been planted last year so I expect that they will not all be a success.

This bit, its quite obvious, I have yet to do anything with this year. I planted the early things in the bits of land that were easy to manage so that I feel like I have already done quite a bit before I tackle these horrible bits.

The whole plot used to be grassy and weedy like this but I've been putting in raised beds and they have made a world of difference. So much easier to work with.




I can't really take any credit for this rhubarb, it just grows by itself. But it's looking especially good just now and I brought some home to make a crumble with tonight.

These Broad Beans are the only plants that are showing much so far. They are growing in the new raised bed kit that I built up this year.

They grew last year in the first raised bed that I put in, and did really well, it was the best crop I  have ever had. In order to manage my crop rotation system I'm putting Broad Beans in each years new bed and they'll be followed round by the crops based on the order that I built the beds. So this one will have radishes and beetroots next year because that's what I'll be planting in the other bed this year. These are growing in my home made compost. I didn't sieve it though so it has got a few lumps in it and some of the compostable bags that I use have not quite composted yet.  A peach pit and an avocado stone have also been spotted.

This is a before and after shot of what I did today. The Broad Beans are to the right of the picture and I planted nasturtiums to the left. They are best pals as the black fly that attack the Broad Beans prefer the nasturtiums.

Bees love the nasturtiums too and I love listening to the sound of them droning away on a summers day. When I was digging and clearing this today I removed some planks that were at the side and found a poor  frog or toad squashed between two planks. I think it might be my fault and I feel a bit sick about it. It looked pretty freshly squashed and when I moved the planks lots of flies appeared. Poor thing!

Here you can see the offending planks at the back and this section to the left before I dug and weeded it today.

To the right is going to be my bean patch. Sweet Peas planted so far and no sign of them yet. I'm going to plant dwarf green beans and borlotti beans here too. I'll nee to put in some netting for them to cling to.

Radishes. They are just starting to show. This whole bed wont just be full of radishes. I'll be planting beetroot in one side and radishes in the other half once it's time for the beetroot to go in. I've got more radishes to plant still because I didn't want loads and loads of them all to be ready at the same time.

 The radishes are in the bed at the front in this picture.

The middle bed has purple sprouting broccoli planted to the right of the cane and Brussels sprouts went in today to the left of the cane. I'll need to put some netting over this because last time I tried to grow either of these crops the pesky birds ate the all.

The back bed in this picture is potatoes (Charlotte)

Potatoes!! In the stupid big raised bed. Our allotment zealot built this for me while I was on holiday last year. He had offered to put in some paths for me which was great and has been really helpful but he also took it upon himself to build this for me. It's too big, I have to climb in to it to dig it which does defeat the purpose of a raised bed to some extent.
       He also took it upon himself to plant seeds in my plot last year. Anyway, I'm probably going to pull this down next year and he seems to have moved on to 'helping' my new neighbour.