Successful Carrots!

My first carrot!

Autumn Update!

We've all been very busy over the summer, and just got back from two weeks away to find plenty to dig up (especially twitch!).

Dug out some great potatoes, picked some lovely beans and some monster corgettes. Now all we need is an organic pig and we've got a whole meal!

RIP Speckley

Sadly, one of our French Morans has died in mysterious circumstances so we're back down to 3. She is the white one seen here with her sister. We're wondering if the others will miss her, or if they even notice? What do chickens think exactly?

After a slow start, she laid an egg most days which was lovely - she was a nice calm bird compared to some we've had!

This is me planting my first carrots.

No April Fool - its ours!

The allotment is officially ours now, so I took the day off especially to gear up for the big occasion. This meant a trip to B&Q for a boot-full of digging gear and of course, a shiny new wheelbarrow!

Our plot has been abandoned for a while (see earlier posts) due to the poor health of the previous tenants (who, by the way, are more than welcome to come and visit whenever they like) which means we've got lots of digging to do before we can start planting anything - digging up old plants that have gone over, digging up the weeds and the grass etc. There's quite a bit of rubbish to get rid of too, as if we didn't have enough already.

Its quite a big plot and we're not quite sure how to tackle it yet to be honest (rows, patches, raised beds?). We've had a peak at the other plots, but they all seem to be fairly dormant at the moment, presumably waiting for the growing season to start. But they do all look very neat and tidy, with nicely hoe'd, weed-free beds - something for us to aspire to!

After a couple of hours of digging we were all pooped (it was quite cold today too actually!) - as can be seen by the state of the boys!

Back tomorrow (hopefully) for more!

Hurrah, we take over the tenancy of the allotment on April 1. The boys and I went out to Wilkos and bought a load of onion sets, seed potatoes and seeds. The potatoes are starting to sprout now. Typical last year they did nothing for ages but now I want them to hold back until we get the allotment ....Carrots seem to be very popular, however I have never had much luck on our heavy clay soil. The resulting carrots have always been some what embarrassing. I sowed some Orange Berry and Sanmarino tomatoes which are now toasting in the propogator in a bedromm. The kitchen windowsill is full of begonia corms. I can't wait to grow some new exciting plants that I haven't had the space for like asparagus and artichokes. I wonder if the allotment is as snail invested as my garden. Mind you at least the chickens won't be able to destroy the plants.

The good news is we've now received all the paperwork for the allotment, which we need to sign and send back. The bad news is we can't have it until 1 April, so any plans of popping over there today are out of the window! However there's not a lot we could do now anyway, considering the ground is frozen solid and everything looks very dormant - and no-one else can be seen on their plots either.

Apparently the previous owner of the plot has had to give it up due to ill health, which is a shame. We've offered to help him dig up the last of his crop, and hope to make him welcome to pop back whenever he likes - we may need his help afterall - especially with his accumulated knowledge of the ground conditions etc.

First visit to our allotment

Today we skipped along to our potential new allotment to check it over for the first time. It wasn't hard to work out which one was ours, considering all the rest looked neat and tidy, even if it is still winter.

It's a good size plot, around 10m wide and 25m long as can be seen in the photo. Looks good for a wide range of fruit and veg, though we'll have to check out the soil etc first. We'll have to visit some other people's plots and get some local advice.

Whoever used to own the plot has been growing, from what we can make out of what is still left (and some of it is edible too!): sprouts, onions, leaks, strawberries, rhubarb, cabbages and a few other things too.

It needs a bit of tidying up but is generally in good shape, so we can't wait! Now we just have to plan out what we're going to do with it. The kids want their little share too.

It started with a phone call...

Around about 2004 we put our name down for one of the allotments over the road from where we live. Last week, ie 6 years later (!) we got a call from the council asking if we were still interested... still interested, are you mad? we thought!

A £10 deposit secured the key, with a plan of our plot. We have to look over it first to see if its to our liking. That's the plan for today... and the kids are very excited!

Back soon...