Well My Onions Are Growing
Well, since my last post about finally getting around to planting something, things are on the up - the onion sets are starting to sprout. Only just, but it’s great to see something growing. Actually, I’ve had quite a few of these small onion bulbs popping out of my light soil and I’ve simply been plonking them back into the soil. Broadbeans are doing okay I think?
My potatoes that I’m chitting have only sprouted a little whilst they’ve been sat in my garage. Plan to plant them in a week or so - looking forward to that.
On recent visits I’ve been digging up more of that bleedin’ couch grass. I had a fire a week or so ago to burn some of the dryer weeds and stuff but the couch grass is way too green to burn so I’ll keep on bagging it up and bringing it home to brown bin.
Spent an hour on the plot this afternoon and met my neighbours Simon and Sabina. We’ve not seen each other on our plot for weeks. They’ve made some progress too and have managed to get some stuff planted including some onions and some raspberry canes. Talking of which, my raspberry plant in the fruit cage is looking a tad wild and maybe I need to prune it some more - am I too late?
Getting a little concerned that I’ve not got seeds etc ready for sowing. Beetroot, carrot and the like can all start going in now and I’m not really geared up for it yet! Think I need to be getting a bit more organised.
Other thoughts: Need to get the glass back in the roof (at least) of the small greenhouse to catch some rainwater. Need to come up with a way of guttering my side of the main greenhouse to catch a lot of rain that is currently going to waste. Also want to create a flickr account to have all my plot 69 photos available to the world.
Enjoying it all a lot!
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.
Hoylake Allotment Association AGM
Attended my first AGM on Friday evening, held at Hoylake Social Club. I’m not normally one for meetings but I actually quite enjoyed it.
Got speaking to a couple of new plotters; Ros from plot 38 and Jean (an old neighbour) from a plot near the shed.
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.
Grow Your Own Veg
Interested in growing your own veg too? Well, as you can see from this blog, I’m hoping to do the very same thing this year myself. Other than growing a few spuds in my mums back garden when I was a young lad I’ve never grown anything.
If, like me, you’ve been watching the Carol Klein series on BBC2 recently then you might fancy treating yourself to her new book. It’s available from amazon - just click here.
Thanks for visiting! If you’ve got your own “growing my own” blog leave a comment here and let me know the address of your blog and I’ll take a look with interest!
You can view more of our posts here.
Cheers
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!
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Seed Shopping
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