Last bed and clearing the second half.

Today I had company up the allotment. My OH came up the allotment to finish the last raised bed and got stuck in and helped clear the second half. I also resowed some seeds in the root bed. I got a row of beetroot, parsnip, onion, carrot and leeks. Managed to cut back a lot the weeds in the second half of the plot and clear all the left over wood. It's looking really good now and it was great to enjoy it with someone today, although I'm not too sure if my OH saw it like that. Hopefully we will have a warm Autumn so I can get away with a few late sowings.

Seeing the light at the end of the weeds!

Weather was grey with light showers but I decided to go up the allotment as my OH is going to be coming up with me tomorrow to finish the last raised bed so I needed to get the area clear. All I need to do tomorrow is clear the pile of wood and clear the weeds under the wood and soil bags.







I have decided to practically start again in my root bed as so many of the seedlings were entangled with weeds making it hard to untangle the mess. I did manage to save a couple of carrot, leek, onion and swede seedlings. At least this time round I can try and sow in a straight line.








I have noticed that something has been nibbling at my ripe strawberries. I will have to find a solution for that possibly build a structure with a netting. There was one bright red strawberry so I waited until I finished my work and ate it. It tasted so sweet, I haven't tasted a strawberry that sweet, ever!

I See Soil

My body was protesting but I got up the allotment and I was determined to find my plants in my beds and I did. I think I ripped out a few of the plants while weeding as I am not sure and if in doubt rip it out!

I also got reminded of the joys of having an allotment today. I saw squirrels running around and the little robin came to say hello and feast on what I had dug up but the highlight was seeing a mother feeding her chick and then the chick went for a bath in the pond if you look really closely you can see the baby in the water.

Potato Worries

As you can see from my post below I harvested my first potatoes today and they look delish.

But shock, horror aghhhh!!!
The same time I harvested these I noticed marks on the leaves on a couple of the earlies, what is it, is it blight??? I have posted on the INEBG forum and I am now awaiting some help!!!

Weeds aghhh!!!

As you can see from my last posts I haven't been up the lottie recently due to illness and then I had to go away examining work for a bit but my Summer Holidays are finally here and after looking at the allotment today I think it's going to take me until September to sort it out.....

I spent three hours manually trying to cut through all the weeds and grass and it still looked like I hadn't touched it as you can see from the images.
Left - Before
Right - After


The amazing thing is that the plants are surviving. I'm going to have trouble in the root bed telling the difference between weed and plant but it will be a learning curve. I could clearly see me broad beans, peas and strawberries fighting through the weeds.



It was really tiring today but I can't wait to get up there and do more and to cheer me up I harvested the first of my potatoes and we are going to have them tonight for tea!!!!

Me vs My Body

I went up the allotment yesterday and after putting all my plants in the wheel barrow and getting them up the allotment I felt like I was going to pass out and had a very bad hot flush! The doctors are still trying to find out the cause!!

Anyway I went home after not feeling to good and tried again today.....

Take 2

I managed to get up the allotment today, still feeling rough but I was determined to do something. When I got up there I almost had that oh no so much to do feeling but I had a good word with myself and realised I can do it and most of all I will enjoy doing it.


When I took over the second half of the plot I inherited two boxes so I decided to use the deepest one to protect my beans and tomatoes until I have more time and energy to sort them out. I also noticed that I have inherited a number of potato plants. It's really strange seeing things appearing when you didn't plant them.






I got given a number of kohl rabi seedlings this week. They have managed to survive in my house all week so I had to get them out today. I found an area in the new half of the patch that had some strawberries already growing in it so I decided that looks like the least amount of work, so they went in there. I had some mulch mats for the first couple and I then used some slate for the rest, hopefully this will stop the slugs!

Me vs Nettles

The lady that I was supposed to be sharing my plot with decided to give it up as she didn't have time to do anything with it so I have now taken on that half so my plot has now doubled in size!!

The downside is it is waist heigh in stingy nettles, so today I went out there armed meaning business!! I had a pair of garden hand shearers (I think that's the technical term). I got through half the plot and my arms are now offcially hating me.



I did still have enough steam left in me to do a bit of weeding on my the better half and I planted sowed some carrots and leeks. Here's a few pics of the plot so far...