How the plot has changed - three months

Peas (foreground) Pak Choi (middle) and Hispi Cabbage at the rear (the tiny seedlings along the back edge are new Spinach)

Broad Beans

The Broad Beans...

some more of the plot

The carrots are bottom right, Red Onions and Shallots, left, and nearest the corrugated iron are the Jerusalem Artichokes...

Spuds

...and these are the Jersey Royals...

The two lines of British Queen spuds with a streak of spinach down the middle...

Mmmm

I ate the first produce from the plot just now, some Pak Choi and some Spinach...

Stir fried both gently in some olive oil - delicious!

The rest of the stuff seems to be doing really well, and I'm hoping for rain over the coming days to spur it all on further...

The Hispi cabbages I planted out from home were a bit weedly and spindly, but they've mostly recovered and started putting on a bit of bulk, and have all now got collars on to protect them from cabbage root fly... most of the beetroot is through, though really small, as is some of the Kohl Rabi next to it... second patch of spinach up already, and I'm toying with the idea of putting in some perpetual spinach once it's been harvested...

Potatoes look like they've made a complete recovery, and if I get a chance this week, I'll earth them up a bit. Broad beans going from strength to strength, will have to spray later on for blackfly, though they don't look too bad at the moment. I've now tied the peas to their stakes as they didn't want to hang on themselves, and I've interplanted with loads more to crop later in the summer (the first pea pods are just showing now)

Carrots will need thinning, but I didn't have the heart tonight.

Promise to post pics soon!

All in!

It's all in at last! All the plot is planted up... Had a bit of a scare last week, the frost looked like it had completely massacred our spuds, but they're growing back strongly; their yield might be down a bit but fingers crossed... all 30 are up, which is amazing!

PLUS: Two rows of Beetroot, two of Kohl Rabi, two wide beds of Spinach, one of Spring Onion. A double row of Pak Choi, three rows of Peas, four rows of Carrots (four lates to go in late June), tons of Broad Beans, 6 Jerusalem Artichokes, 9 Shallots, 25 Red Onions, two rows of Summer Cabbage and a partridge in a pear tree!

Spuds are up at last!

Had a lovely two hours up at the lotties tonight, and was overjoyed to see that most of the potatoes are poking their heads up, in fact, all ten of the British Queen maincrop and about twelve of the twenty Jersey Royals... gave them all a good soaking, made a mesh tunnel over the broad beans (all but three out of seventy two have come up, nice and strong) and weeded between the onions... All of the shallots and all of the red onions are up, all six jerusalem artichokes, and even some sign of the early carrots, and their border of spring onions...

Friday morning will see more weeding, planting the beetroot (next to the potatoes) and taking up thirty or so pea plants from the upright greenhouse at home...

My cabbages and pak choi are doing great in there too, but are a bit leggy, may try and bury the stalks a bit when they go into the plot...

Back to weeds

We're back, after an extended stay in Venice, thanks to the volcano...

Checked into the lotties last night, and the onions and shallots are doing great, so are the jerusalem artichokes, and almost every one of the broad beans are poking their heads up, nice and strong...

No sign of the spuds yet, disappointingly... and there are alot of little weeds, though helpfully they're just big enough to grab and pull out whole...

At home, all the peas, give or take, are sprouting in the upright greenhouse, as are the pak choi, pointed cabbage, and some of the spring onions... no sign of the celery yet though...

Photos up soon...

Going away, hope it's all going to be ok

Planted carrots yesterday, in half of the eight alloted rows, leaving room for intercropping later... bordered the whole carrot plot with spring onions to deter carrotfly, let's see if it works.

No sign of the broad beans yet, but raked, fertilised and watered the bed, then applied green netting to deter birds if the beans decide to spring up while I'm away...

Almost every single red onion is sprouting, along with most of the shallots, and four out of the five jerusalem artichokes have broken through...

So, fingers crossed, there should be alot to see when I get back!

The spuds are in!

Planted all the potatoes today, 20 Jersey Royals and 10 British Queen (good for roasties)

They've taken up a bed and a half, so need to think about what's left in terms of space, and what I've got left to plant up...

Aahh

Sunset! Time to go home for a bath.

Fine tilth

The newly raked bed for the broad beans, spring onions and carrots...

Looking NNW

This is the plot looking toward the new compost area (behind the blue water butt) I have put paths in between each end of the plots to make it easier to get to the rows of plants. The really finely raked bit in front of the butt is for the broad beans, and spring onions and carrots in the same patch nearer the spade.

More planting

Missed posting this last weekend, but broke the soil up some more on Saturday, raked a nice seedbed and planted 72 broad beans in 6 rows... Worked out that should yield around 50lbs of beans... Also prepared the two back beds for the potatoes, and will aim to get them in over the long weekend...

No sign as yet of the Jerusalem Artichokes, but the red onions seem firm in the ground which means their roots have taken...

Back at the house, have put all the seeds into their trays in the upright greenhouse, totals as follows:

96 Pea (Kelvedon Wonder, a high cropping 2' pea plant)

24 Pointed Cabbage (Hispi)

40 Celery

80 Pak Choi

80 Spring onion

Little bit of sunshine will get them all germinating.

More soon!

Leveling the land

I spent a good five hours today just breaking up the larger clods and raking over the next bit to become a seedbed, ready for the broad beans next weekend. The soil, on the whole, breaks up easily, helped by a bit of spadework, the rake, and the new riddle, which has worked out really well. Chris and I finished bolting the compost bins together, and they look suitably wonky, fitting in with the allotment style. Once the soil is dug out from the bottom, they'll be lined with turf and are ready for, er, stuff to make compost...

The upright greenhouse is built, and hopefully one evening this week, I can plant the seeds in their trays... Cabbages (pointed and pak choi), peas, celery, leeks, kohl rabi and spinach...

The carrots are best planted straight into the ground, apparently, as are the spring onions (to deter the carrotfly) and the beetroot. They all might go in over Easter weekend...

The first plantings

Well, I feel it was a momentous occasion, and Saturday 13th March, we put the first things into the ground. 10 x Shallots (they'll each divide into lots of little clumps, 10 - 15 to a bunch) 5 x Jerusalem Artichokes, and 50 x red onions... Maybe have to see if they're overcrowded and move a few. So, the ground raked up nicely, we levelled this bed off, evened the compost and grit, and got rid of weeds, big rocks (not many of those) and generally broke up the bigger sods of clay. Today I bought a riddle, not too fine, to help create more seed beds for the Broad Beans, Carrots and Beetroot; and also some seed compost and vermiculite ready for the upright greenhouse.

Next weekend I'm helping Chris build the compost bins out of skipraided timber and pallets he's kindly brought to site this weekend...

Spring has sprung*, and the digging is done**.

*It looks like spring is finally here, but it's definitely below zero at night still... Not quite time to put those seeds out...

**We've dug the whole plot over thoroughly, mixing in 100kg of grit, and 700 litres of sh*t... but I fear there might be more digging to come...

Nice weather but cold if you stop moving, and the ground has dried out so much... digging was (almost) a pleasure. Next time we put the fork over the plot, it will be easier still. Jerusalem Artichokes may go in next weekend. Photos will appear soon...

The seeds are here!

All the seeds have arrived, including some cut-and-come-again salad mixes from my lovely aunty Wendy...

Spuds are chitting, next to plant (when it dries up) are the onion sets, broad beans, and jerusalem artichokes...

Then in mid-March, I can push the upright greenhouse into service in the back garden, with 320 seed compartments... need to check which seeds can be started in there, and which go straight into the ground. Also need to get loads of well composted manure and loads of grit, just to help with drainage as the soil's typical London clay...

Rain all weekend

This rain is really going to delay any digging, fertilising, planting... it's depressing me!

Chitting begins

The 30 potatoes are chitting! 20 are Jersey Royals, 10 are British Queen...

The planting list

So, plant list:

Jersey Royal potatoes (aka International Kidney)

British Queen potatoes (for roasting - second earlies)

3 types of squash

Kohlrabi

Jerusalem artichokes

Pak Choi

Pointed cabbage

Leeks

Red onions

Shalotts

Spring onions

2 types of carrot

Broad beans

Peas (high yielding Kelvedon Wonder)

Plus:

Wild rocket

Spinach

Beetroot

Celery.

er, think that's it...

I know that's alot, but a little of each will stop us getting bored and having a massive surplus...

The waterlogged pitch

First blog, though it's about the fifth visit to the quarter plot. The bit of the allotment which is ours was soggy today, and now i have backache from the heavy digging. Hoping the weather improves for more next weekend, and also that we can get some manure and dig it in. Tubers and seeds will be arriving soon...