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 ...