A Quick Bit Of Weeding
Short on time this week so it was nice to sneak about 45 minutes weeding in this afternoon - the bed that contains my strawberry plants looks a bit smarter as a result.
Nice bit of sunshine at 5pm was very welcome but according to the just-seen weather forecast it’s going to be wet and windy again.
Said hello to Fil as I cycled past on my way home.
Family Trip To Our Plot
We all walked down to the the plot this afternoon Youngest managed to push her plastic wheelbarrow all the way from home with her mini gardening set and watering can. We managed to get a bit of weeding done around the onions.
Watering the tomato, cucumber and aubergine plants in the green house and explained to the girls that eventually the pea seeds that I planted will (hopefully) sprout soon. Think I might have planted them a bit too deep.
Apologies for lack of postings recently - too busy working on websites for weddings, books and whatnot! Will endeavour to do better!
Finally Planted Something
After several weeks were each visit has simply been a weeding session I finally got around to planting something on Saturday (yesterday). I’d spoken to Dave at Friday nights AGM and he told me that he had a 1lb of onion sets left to sell and also a few kg of seed potatoes.
So on Saturday afternoon I met Dave and his wife Sally down at the site and bought myself the Sturon onions (for 80p) and about 6kg of seed potatoes for a fiver. Dave also kindly gave me 6 broadbean plants.
So I weeded again the back section of the plot and planted the broadbeans and all the onions. Should be alright for onions for a while if they grow well ! I planted them at about every 6 inches - I understand that planting them further apart gives rise to bigger onions.
Here are the broadbeans; obviously need to stick some canes in at some point.
Here are the Sturon onions, spaced at about 6 inch intervals. I’ve got quite a few rows, 5 I think. I pushed them into the soil with the tops just peeking out. I think that they should be ready to harvest around August.
I’m hoping to plant out the potatoes toward the end of the month, though I gather the traditional day is St Patricks day. Today, Sunday, I placed all of these seed potatoes in plastic trays so that they’ll start to sprout - chitting as it’s called. I’ve just put them in my garage where they’ll get light but not direct sunlight.
Also today I popped down to the plot to pick up the spuds that I’d forgotten to bring home yesterday. I did a bit of pruning on the big raspberry bush in the left of the fruit cage. Not quite sure what to prune really so I sort of tidied it up a bit and removed any branches that were heading off along the ground. Need some advice next season on how to prune it and train it properly.
More Of The Same
Walked my daughter round to her dance class pushing my bike and then rode down to plot 69. Got down there for about 4.30 pm and waved hello to Rose and a couple of other plotters.
Did more couch grass removal for an hour - it’s not going dark now until 6 or later, so the light was fine. As I’m not composting the couch grass (on the advice of some fellow allotmenteers) I’ve got quite a few trips with my (t)rusty barrow to get it all back home and into the brown bin.
Really enjoyed being out in the fresh air today. Because I’m not running at the moment due to a bloody annoying cold it’s great to be outside.
More Couch Grass Digging
Another session of digging up couch grass today for an hour. Seem to be digging for ages without getting very far at all!
Weather is mild if not a little breezy.
My neighbours at plot 68 don’t seem to have had time to do much (like me!) but Frank and Dave have obviously been busy preparing for the new growing season.
Mild Today At Plot 69
A mild day today down on plot 69 at The Sandringham Avenue allotment site. Wanted to run around Hoylake today but I haven’t shaken off a heavy cold so it was an opportunity to do more weeding.
Walked down pushing my trusty (and rusty) barrow so that I could bring back some bags of nasty, dug-up couch grass. A few plotters have told me not to compost this tough-as-boots weed, so I bring it home and plonk it in the brown bin for recycling.
Did more weeding today on the rear section where I think I might plant some spuds. A helicopter was flying over quite a bit - suspect someone was having lessons or something.
Said hello to Les & George (I think it is) - they seem to be regular allotmenteers, though I seem to recall that they manage 3 plots. I think there are new plot holders at number 38 - they’ve put up a smart new fence on the front of their plot.
Rain, Sun and Weeding
Popped down the plot today for a quick weeding session. Having been on holiday for a week I hadnt been down to the plot for quite a few days.
The weather was a bit of a mixed bag with a bit of rain then bright sunshine.
Did a bit of weeding on a section at the back of the plot, removing pieces of broken greenhouse glass as I went along.
Won’t be too long now before I actually plant something to grow.
Bagged Up Some Weeds
Bagged up some previously pulled weeds and did some tidying up in the fruit cage. Only had an hour to spend so didn’t get a great deal done.
A little bit of icy snow around:
The apparently resident pheasant took flight as soon as I arrived. And the apparently resident robin was around too.
Barrowing The Weeds
Went down to the plot this morning and got there before 9am. Said hello to a couple of other early visitors. Really mild for 01-Feb and quite nice with the birds singing away.
Spent an hour or so bagging up some weeds and couch grass that I’m trying to do a good job of clearing. Every other plotter I speak to suggests that I need to really attack the couch grass because it can be such a pain.
Then barrowed some of it back home to throw in our brown, garden waste recycling bin. Spot the Tesco carrier bag …flask, empty, inside!
Visit Report
An hours weeding on a gloomy Saturday afternoon.
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Seed Shopping
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