Alan's Allotment

Mushroom compost. Literally, yes, I've brought a tonne. I don't think my back will thank me for it, but hey ho! Mushroom compost is a useful by-product of mushroom farming. The compost is made by using organic materials such as hay, straw, corn cobs and hulls, and poultry or horse manure. These products are formed into a rich organic media. Once a couple of mushroom crops have been grown on it, it's discarded by the mushroom farm and people like me can buy it. Mushroom compost is a type of slow-release, organic plant fertiliser. It's sterilised before use, so it shouldn't have any weed seeds in it either. I'm hoping it will not just go towards filling my new beds, but also condition the soil, provide valuable nutrients, and also help improve my chalky soil. If I use it on top it should be a pretty good mulch over the winter before I dig in come the spring. UPDATE - A tonne doesn't go a long way. it's all shifted through to the back garden and 2 and ...

The idea of having a herb area outside the kitchen door has always been something I wanted. At our allotment, we grew some amazing herbs in car tyres. They grew huge and loved their position. Oregano, chives, thyme, mint, rosemary, Egyptian walking onions meant we had a continuous supply of herbs for food and (very importantly) drinks, however, it wasn't ideal having them at the allotment. We couldn't just pop outside to get them as and when we needed.   We were quick to mark this area as our herb garden. When we moved in, we were given sage, rosemary, mint and lemon thyme (which is great with a bruschetta by the way) which we planted in the trough and sink.  I cleared the wall this week to allow us to get the sage, oregano and thyme from the allotment in the wall. There was a tonne of bindweed running just below the surface. I think we'll be at war with it for a good few years! We're hoping that this area will have a Mediterranean feel to it come the summe...

At the back of our new garden we have 6 apple trees. We're unsure what they all are. Some could be eating apples and some are definitely cookers.  Given that we've already eaten several crumbles and pies, we thought we'd turn our hand to cider.  Several years ago we got a lot of beer and wine making kit from Freecycle. One item we'd never used was a fruit 'crusher' which attaches to a drill. After a couple of goes with the battery operated drill, I upped it to the mains drill and had much greater success.  We'd brought the press online just after w moved in as a present to ourselves, hoping that we'd get round to cider this year and now we were ready to use it. In all we got two demijohns (2 gallons) of juice. Dutifully following the recipe in the book I'd got with all the free kit, we then sterilised the juice with a couple of Campden tablets in each. Unfortunately, I then read a few blogs which advocated using the ...

I got home from work while it was still daylight today so took the opportunity to pop up to the greenhouse for a few minutes. Over half term, I sowed a number of different seeds and today I have seedlings! Both the 'All the year round' cauli and the basil have germinated in the greenhouse. True to it's name, this little beauty does grow all the year round! Nothing else poking through yet, but I remain confident. I pruned my sage back in passing too today. All the clippings in a carrier bag in the freezer so I'll still be able to use it for (mostly) sage and onion stuffing throughout the winter. On my onion bed, it's still a case of man vs. magpie. As quickly as I poke the sets back in, they pull them out. At least I can see that the sets have roots and shoots so it shouldn't be long before they hold their own and the magpies lose interest (fingers crossed). Anyway, the magpies have found a much more lucrative past time...flying into my bird feeders and shaki...

Given that it's still October, and I've just prepared my new vegetable garden, I thought I'd try and see whether any late sowings would come to fruition. Alongside the greenhouse I've made up a small cold frame out of a couple of spare panes of glass (for some reason I had an extra pane in the delivery - and, no, there are no gaps in the greenhouse). I took a chance on Thompson and Morgans 'lucky dip' perennials - 12 for about £5.99. These are all potted on for the winter and with a little protection over the cold months they should be good to go in the garden in the spring. So what did I get in my 'lucky dip'? Some I've never heard of, and others I'm more familiar with. I've also popped some Nigella seeds in pots outside to overwinter ready for spring. Inside the greenhouse, I've planted basil seeds (lemon and red leaved), Spring Greens, White Lisbon spring onions, All the Year Round Cauliflower, Spinach Matado...

I thought it was cold last night! As I walked out to the car this morning I saw the glistening of a frost coating over the roof, bonnet and windows. I don't think it's bad that we've lasted this long without one ... it is November after all.

The picture below shows the garden we inherited when we moved in. Within a fortnight, I'd ordered a new shed and replaced the rotten old one. We also had two massive pine trees at the back which blocked a lot of light and were stunting the apple trees growing behind them. We had them down quite quickly too and put almost all of them through my shiny new shredder. All the mulch has gone down under the orchard area and covered the bare weed suppressing membrane that was there.  You can see the difference already, and with the new greenhouse in and two paths laid, it's time to get on with the hard landscaping of the new vegetable area.  All the turf lifted so far is piled behind the greenhouse to break down over the winter ready to be spread as loam in the spring.  Using the timber taken from our allotment, we built two raised beds which have taken a load more of the lifted turf. There will be more on this side in due course, but they can wait until ...

So the main hob for half term is to get the greenhouse up. The site has been carefully selected on the south facing side of the garden. The greenhouse was delivered back in September and has been sat patiently in the garage waiting for this week  Here's the site that I've picked:  All started well on Monday morning. The weather was fine and I was out in the garden ready to start with digging and marking out the base. The problem came when I started digging and within two rows of pigging out turf I hit something hard. Yup, in true TimeTeam fashion, I uncovered something under the lawn. A 6'x6' concrete slab! SO after a bit of head scratching, I moved the base up 2' and continued. At the end of day 1 I'd got the base down and moved an awful lot more earth than previously anticipated. With Day 2 being fine as well, I set about getting the frame up. I'd ordered online from https://www.greenhousestores.co.uk/Greenhouses/ and the best th...

It's with a heavy but happy heart I write today. After 12 long years together, me and my allotment said goodbye to each other. My garden is ready to take over the reins and so I dug out what I could and after 3 full car loads that was it. I've got 2 redcurrant, 2 blackcurrant, tayberry, loganberry, 2 different rhubarb and all my herbs out. They're now in the garden soaking up a big drink. As much of the hard landscaping as I could manage came too. I left the pallet coldframe and the hotchpotch of raspberries. Strawberries stayed as I've got new ones on order. Comfrey stayed and all my bright light chard was left for the new owner. They were sad to see me go and the Chairman said they would have to be very careful as to who they let take on my plot. I walked him round what was what and then handed over the keys. Tomorrow I start marking out the garden and laying paths for my new veg patch  and the onions, garlic and broadbeans will be going in as I start again the v...

So I'm appreciating the scale of the task in hand now! I decided that the old tool shed had to go... the bottom slats and the base had gone rotten all the way round to the point that the outside was coming through to the inside! Once the roof was off, it literally crumpled. With half an hour before the dump closed I managed to get half of the old shed away. The rest is propped up ready to go next weekend.  I started putting up the new shed yesterday and got as far as levelling the base and putting the 4 sides up. This evening after work I've managed to get the door and roof on. Hopefully the felt will go on later this week. Now, I'd initially thought that I might be able to do something with the old shed and turn it into my new chicken coop over the winter, but alas it's not going to happen. I'll need to go back to the drawing board with that plan for the spring. The local DIY store managed to only deliver part of my hard landscaping order so a...

Well, my plans to become a serious and regular blogger didn't really take off... but I'm back now! I still have the allotment, and its been really successful but this autumn will be my last. After 12 long years, I'll be  saying goodbye. Why? No, I haven't realised my dreams of buying a smallholding and becoming self sufficient. nor have I opted out of the system and found myself living in a field surrounded by chickens. In the 6 years I've been away a lot has happened. I'm now married, and have just moved into a new house. we've been here a week now, and its got the most fabulous garden, in which I will be able to grow away to my hearts content. In the week I've been here I've already moved my compost heap and wormery to the new home, I've started on my powertool crusade and my belated birthday present of a greenhouse has been ordered. I'm so excited after living in a flat for 14 years with no outdoor space, to be in my element. I hope ...