Allotment Life

It’s Been 1 Week

There was no post last week as me and my family went on holiday to Wales. With everything that is going on in the world we were sure it wasn’t going to happen but we were lucky and the holiday went ahead. It was so good to get away and recharge the batteries. Wales is a beautiful country with so much to see and do but it didn’t stop me from having withdrawal pangs for my plot. When we got back home I couldn’t wait to get down there to see what had changed.

I was fully prepared to find all the weeds back and lo and behold they were. I’ve got a good couple of days of strimming and weeding ahead of me to get back on top of it. But the weeds weren’t the only things to have grown! There are florets appearing on my broccoli, the runner beans are huge and in flower, I have 3 big pumpkins growing nicely and my courgettes have gone crazy.

The day before I went away and checked the plot over, I had not a single courgette growing. Plenty of flowers but nothing more. Today I find a good haul of big courgettes and a massive marrow. I can’t believe it grew this big in just 1 week.

My wife is now scouring the internet for the best courgette recipes she can find. She is already talking about chutneys, cakes, cookies and a whole load of other things she is going to make.

Courgettes weren’t the only things to be harvested today. I also got my first lot of beetroot and also some of my daughter’s atlas carrots were ready.

I decided to make use of all of the veg for dinner tonight and made a chicken and veg tray bake which was served with runner beans I got from my dad’s garden. It went down well with all the family and is definitely going to be made again. If you like the look of it the recipe is below but the measurements are rough estimates as I made it up as I went along.

Chickens and Veg Tray Bake

4 chicken breast

3 courgettes

3 beetroot

4 atlas carrots

Olive oil

Garlic granules

Mixed herbs

1) Preheat oven to gas mark 6

2) Place chicken breasts in an oven tray, drizzle with olive oil and coat in garlic granules and mixed herbs. Place in oven for 20mins

3) Chop all veg up in to chunks and place in the tray with the chicken. Baste the veg with liquid in the tray and return to the oven for another 20mins or until chicken is fully cooked.

March of the Pumpkins

Finally got the weeds back under control after they had gone mad with all the rain. Took me an age to do but I found it quite therapeutic.

The pumpkins are still going strong. I’ve curled their shoots away from my leeks but now they are crossing the path between the bed they are in and the bed with my tomatoes and lettuces! Really not doing them again, they take up too much room! But baby pumpkins have started to grow so the kids will be happy at Halloween.

Sown some more radishes after finishing off all of my first crop. I’ve gone slightly different with the next lot and gone for Spanish Black Radish and Bluemoon and Redmoon F1 Hybrid mix (given to me by one of my lovely alotment neighbours). They will bring some funky colours to my salads, I just hope the taste isn’t funky as well!

Freebie with the Kitchen Garden magazine

I want more unusual varieties like these radishes as I don’t want to just grow stuff I can pick up at my local shop. Next year when I plan ahead properly, I’m going to be opting for things/varieties that I can’t just go out and buy from the shop or that is expensive to buy. If I grow carrots and they taste just like the ones I can get from the shop for 50p then I don’t want to waste space on my plot on them.

I found I had a bit more room in one of my beds to sow some more seeds. Well, I say that I found some more room, however it was down to some keen hoeing of weeds that actually turned out to be beetroot seedlings… I have decided to put some turnips in there now. Fingers crossed I don’t destroy these!

Weeds

I didn’t get down to my allotment much this week due to it raining most of the time. So I went down on Sunday and got stuck into the weeding. After all the rain we have had the weeds have come back with a vengeance. I spent all of Sunday afternoon weeding and then only got 2 beds cleared. Going back to do more today. Whilst I was hard at work my son discovered a new favourite from the plot. Nettle tea. He picked a few baby leaves, put them in a cup with some sweetener, covered with boiling water and let it brew for 5mins. He absolutely loved it! He now wants me to grow nettles in my back garden just for this. That’s not happening! He can keep it as a lottie drink. I am tempted to harvest some and make a soup though…

I like the idea of trying to use everything from my plot, including the weeds. We have already bottled loads of comfrey tea. This tea is for the plants and not my son. This is apparently a really good source of nutrients for the garden, so in my mind it’s a welcome addition to my plot.

To make the tea we stuffed loads of the leaves from the plant into some bottles and then filled with water. After leaving them for a month I started to use some on Sunday. I filled a watering can with one part tea to 10 parts water and gave everything a good feed. One warning about the tea is it really stinks!

Apart from harvesting weeds, I finally got some bits to eat. It’s only been salad at the moment but it was still tasty.

Below are a selection of pictures from my garden and plot. These are more for my benefit to keep me motivated by showing myself the progress I’ve made. That would be one of my top tips for people that are just starting out like me.

Patiently Waiting for Crops

Not too much news to report with regards to the plot, everything is coming along nicely but nothing to harvest as of yet.

I did get a cloche from Amazon to protect my cauliflower from the pigeons and I must say I love it. So easy to build and the net easily slides up to allow access for weeding and it looks so much better than what I have been throwing together. It cost £22 which is a bit more than I would like to spend but is still cheaper than others I’ve seen.

Getting impatient for crops. I thinned out some lettuce and used the ones I took out in some burgers. Wasted them really as I couldn’t taste the lettuce over the bbq sauce, cheese and meat. Also thinned out my carrots today and let the kids eat the tiny crops.

I’ve already decided I am not growing pumpkins next year. The ones I’ve got now are taking up so much space and they are only going to get bigger!

Pumpkins on the march to take over the rest of the bed.

This allotment journey has really given me inspiration and motivation in all aspects of gardening. I’m now planning on changing up my front garden and being as creative as possible with it. So glad I started this as it has really done me a world of good. My mental wellbeing is better and my fitness will be improving too. I really recommend this hobby so much.

An AA meeting

After a week of sun and heat, we finally got some of the wet stuff over the weekend. Our weekend started on Friday with a visit from my father in law. He has always been an avid gardener and came to see how I’ve been getting on down on the plot. He was really impressed and also gave me some tips. He told me to take the excess grass cuttings and other trimmings from the lot that won’t fit in the compost bin and dig it into the clods of mud and grass I got from creating the beds.

Later on that day, we went to an allotment get together that my wife had arranged. It was a good evening having a few drinks and meeting other allotmenteers. It really highlighted the community and I met some really good people.

The next day I had a quick trip to the plot to put up some more brassica nets and my mate fixed the missing windows in the kids’ shed. I also then started to dig out the flower bed at the top of the plot. Hoping to get some companion flowers in there to help the veg and some perennials including foxglove.

I’ve started the foxglove off in my propagator on the window sill but have now realised I have sown them wrong. Apparently the seeds need to sit on top of the soil as they need sunlight to germinate but I covered them in a light layer of compost. So that’s a lesson learnt.

On Sunday, me and the family went to a couple of garden centres I had heard were good. The first was just outside of Luton and was called Bridge Valley Nursery. It’s a small nursery and it appears that the current global bastard has had an effect on this business. We were greeted by the owners as soon as we arrived and they were quick to apologise for the lack of pots they had because they were in lockdown when they were due a delivery. But the stock they did have was lovely and we ended up leaving with some beautiful dahlias and a few other nice plants all for a reasonable price. Definitely will visit here again.

Next stop was Vanstones in Codicote. Bigger place with a bigger selection but also bigger prices. I do really like this place because the grounds are nice with a big pond, ducks, geese and a miniature train for the kids to ride. Obviously the train is not on at the moment and the bridge over the pond is closed because of the pandemic.

All the bits I got were for the garden at home. I had started doing it up at the beginning of lockdown and got distracted once I was offered my plot on the allotment. I was also a bit pissed off with the fact that after I put in a lot of hard work, it was quickly ruined by my cats. The bottom part of my garden was an overgrown mess. I dug it over and took out as many weed roots as possible, then I put down a weed suppressing membrane and covered it in slate chippings. Finally I placed some pots with flowers in on top. My feature piece was to be my kids old wooden sandpit that was repainted and turned into a big planter. I then filled it with flowers and I was happy. Then came my cats and turned my new garden into a really expensive litter tray; they dug up all of the plants in the planter and crapped everywhere. I hate my cats! I hope they don’t touch my new stuff or I might have to turn them into slippers.

Failed Project

So I want this to be an honest account of my allotment journey. To do this I have to show you the stuff that I don’t get right.

After my success of making my compost bin out of pallets, I decided to see if I could make a mini greenhouse/cold frame out of pallets. I had a quick look on the internet for ideas and full of confidence I went off to make it.

Sitting back now I can see exactly where I went wrong, the biggest thing being planning. A quick Google search and then trying to build something just from a rough idea in my head was always going to fail; measurements are essential.

No tape measure and no plan, left me with not enough materials and a wonky looking, half built pile of wood that is going to look lovely on a bonfire. I left the allotment that day in a bad mood. Some might even call it a tantrum.

The failed project has found a home behind my shed in what will now be called my pile of shame. To cheer myself up I went out and bought myself a electric windowsill propagator. It will do the same job and is less aggro to put together, also not too expensive at £35.

So the lesson of this story is remember the 6 P’s: Prior planning prevents piss poor performance!

Addiction

Allotments should come with a health warning. All I can do is think about my allotment. I’ve had to work the whole weekend and all I could think about doing was getting back up to my allotment. And seeds! Why am I buying so many seeds? I know I can’t grow all of them but I keep telling myself that I will do at some point.

A gift from my wife which I seem determined to fill!

I am currently sitting on my allotment as I write this and it is raining feathers. I’m guessing my neighbour, the sparrowhawk is having his dinner. It’s nice to share this space with him but I wish he would stop dumping his leftovers all over the place! It’s a daily occurrence to find pieces of entrails and/or whole limbs of some animal. Until we saw the sparrowhawk, I started to wonder if some people were making sacrifices to harvest gods on my plot!

Future Plans

Now all of my beds have been dug, and filled with seeds and plants, I’ve now been thinking ahead. Before next year I want to put in another two beds at the top of the plot. These will be for flowers and herbs. I also want to have a few pots of flowers dotted about the plot for colour as well as companion plants to help the veg.

I’m looking to also change the paths. Once I’ve got all the beds in and at their final size, I’m thinking of putting gravel or bark down. Swaying more towards the gravel as that will hopefully help prevent slugs and snails.

My wife wants a patio area at the top of the plot that runs off of the kids shed and to the new shed I’m planning on getting. This area will be under the trees that are around the edge of our plot and will provide us with shade.

I am looking forward to having people round for BBQs and sitting in this area on balmy summer evenings. Everyone will be welcome (except the people that keep on at me about chickens!).

The kids are planning to paint their shed and kit it out with chairs they find from charity shops. My daughter wants carpet but I keep telling that this is not feasible.

All of this will come slowly but surely. For now I’m just happy to be able to sit back and enjoy watching the veg grow whilst having a nice cuppa.

Back-Breaking

It’s been a busy couple of days at the plot. It started on Friday afternoon when I finished work and we took the kids down to the garden centre. I had been telling them from day one that once I had my first 4 beds in, I would give them a bed each. Since the 4th bed was nearly done, I told them they could pick their plants to go in the beds. Jack went with Sprouts, Sugar Snap Peas and Romanesca Cauliflower. Lucy picked Cucumber, Globe Carrots and Sweetcorn.

Now I had to finish the 4th bed and get the theirs done quickly before the repeated questions of “can we plant them yet?” would make me want to bury my own head. That meant staying late on Friday night to get it done.

I stayed at the plot until 9pm and then went home and watched Gardener’s World. It was as I was sipping my tea and watching Monty Don that I realised how different my life is after having an allotment! After just 2 weeks, I had gone from fighting, shooting and blowing shit up on the PlayStation and watching Marvel movies to digging all evening before having a lovely cup of tea whilst watching Monty Don plant sweetcorn.

This morning, I was back down to the digging and again I enlisted the help of my old man. He set to on the kids’ beds and I finished bed 4. He left after lunch but I carried on. Finally at 8:10pm this evening, I finished! Not the job but just for today as I am in agony. But bed 4 is done, as is Jack’s bed. Lucy’s has been started, so all in all not too bad. Will definitely get it finished tomorrow!

Now I’m soaking in the bath dreading my 6am alarm to go to work before going back to my plot later in the afternoon.

Comfrey Conflict

Got my Dad down the plot today to help out. He kept my daughter busy helping her prune back the bush next to her shed. I on the other hand, started on my 4th bed. Not too sure what is going in this bed yet but I have a lot of seeds to choose from. Thinking Edame beans, Cabbage, Chinese kale and more salad leaves. But that could all change in a couple of days. Hopefully next year I will plan properly and stick to it because at the moment I am just flitting from seed to seed and throwing them in the ground willy nilly.

So I found some comfrey growing on my plot and was very excited because I had read many books and articles saying how good it is as a liquid feed. I want to grow it and harvest it regularly to make some good feed for my veg. But my wife is more hesitant as she has read how it is an invasive weed that will take over the whole plot. So we are at an impasse. More research will solve this hopefully!

One thing that I have truly loved since getting my plot, is the great sense of community. Whenever you arrive people always wave and say hello, which always puts a smile on my face. I’ve also been given plants and seeds from others due to them having too much. This has really made me feel welcome and a part of something special.

Found some shoots coming through in my first bed.