Alan's Allotment

I've had 9 months (almost) since I took over my new garden and I thought it was time to look at a before and after picture. The first image is once we took down the large trees. Unfortunately, I haven't got any of before we started any work which is a shame. The second is this morning in the glorious sunshine looking magnificent. We're currently self sufficient in cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, spring onions, broad beans, herbs and, of course, eggs. Garlic will be harvested in a couple of weeks and I've already pulled up the last of the spinach that was sown last year - it bolted but went to the chickens so not a waste. Currently in the ground are onions, peas, French beans, soya beans, parsnip, carrot, beetroot, lettuce, sweet corn, tomatoes, courgette, several squashes, cucumber, and an array of brassicas. I'm growing potatoes in bags and hope to do the same with my sweet potatoes. Ive never grown sweet potatoes so its a first for me. In the greenh...

I wrote earlier in the year that I was going to try sowing my tomatoes in three batches. Here are the first sowing and the second lot (Moneymaker and Gardeners Delight) went in the last week of March. I sowed sweet peppers and chili peppers with the first batch back in mid February. The sweet peppers had a good germination rate but I only got 1 chili germinate. So far there's nothing poking through from my aubergines...I'll keep waiting! Given the reduction of growing space from my allotment, and not knowing how far I would get in clearing my patch, I decided to grow potatoes in sacks this year. I'm growing second earlies only and opted for Wilja as these were the very first crop I sowed when I took on my allotment 13 years ago! UPDATE - I forgot to post this blog so to UPDATE... all aubergine are terminated and almost ready to go in the ground in the greenhouse. I have to clear a few more lettuce and spinach to make space. Potatoes have been earthe...

All three are in full lay now. Even with giving some away, 21 per week is still a lot to get through.  One had a bit of an upset tummy (I know not scientifically accurate) last week. She was sick a couple of times, just water, but this is the something chickens are supposed to do. A few massages of the crop and a couple of bowls of my special mix - oats, live yoghurt and some cider vinegar to restore ph balance and beneficial bacteria and yeast - and she was right as ninepence in 2 days. She never stopped laying and was full of life every day so I was happy to let her be. 2 recipes I've tried this week are a cheese, pasta and spinach soufflé and a moroccoan/African inspired dish called Chachouka. Both recipes courtesy of Hugh F-W River Cottage Veg Everyday. A recipe book I'm going to be delving into a lot again this year.

Not only are the chickens doing a first class job of clearing my veg beds, weeding form me, breaking down the lumps of soil and fertilizing it...theyre helping the lawn too. Ive built a small moveable pen for them as i cant be letting thwm roam the garden now ive got so many seeds in. Every couple if days i move it around the lawn is into a different veg bed.The chickens dutifully scarify the lawn, pulling out all the moss and at the same time fertilize it for me to boost the grass growth. Chicken manure is used as an organic fertilizer, especially for soil low in nitrogen. Of all animal manures, it has the highest amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. In trying to recover the lawn and boost the nitrogen in the soil for the grass to out compete the moss, I've found my girls to be a fantastic help!

I can't believe it's only been 6 months since I started work on the veg patch. I'm harvesting rhubarb by the armful. The 4 transplants I've left alone but I have one large clump left in situ which is doing a sterling job! This is the inherited rhubarb, just behind my autumn sown broad beans. This is the one I'm harvesting. These are the four I transplanted from the allotment. I'm not picking these this year while they get their strength up. I read in a magazine last week that Sweet Cicely is a great herb to cook with rhubarb. I'd never even heard of it before. It's supposed to be sweet (as the name suggests) with an aniseed flavour. I brought a small plant online to grow up. It can tolerate shade so it might not be suitable for the herb garden as my herb garden is in quite a sunny spot. I've potted it up and left it in the greenhouse while I decide what to do with it. Sweet Cicely  I usually cook rhubarb by itself or with the z...

On the 29th January we got our three hens. We decided on three different breeds - a Splash Orpington,  Crested Legbar and a Cemani. They would give us three different coloured eggs (blue, brown and white) and the Cemani is  good winter layer (so I am told). Having been beaten by the weather, they spent the first week in the greenhouse while I finished building their house. That was actually quite good thing in the end as they gave the ground in the greenhouse a thorough weed, rake and fertilise ready for sowing. Having got them at 6 weeks of age, they were not yet ready to lay (usually 18-24 weeks old is when they start) but each day we still checked for eggs. I closed off the nest boxes at first so as to not get them into the habit of sleeping in there. This is a really easy habit for the chickens to get into, but a hard one to break. We don't want them soiling the nest boxes and eggs!  Knowing that the day was getting close, last week, ...

This month in GYO Magazine I've been lucky enough to get five different varieties of tomato seeds free. This is my first year in a long time that I've had a greenhouse, and I'm excited to be growing under glass so I'm thinking ahead already. Having read around a bit...I've decided that I'm going to try and grow for a successional crop...and according to what I've read, I could be in Tom's until November.  So, here's my plan: Growing the largest fruiting varieties first, in February, with a second day sowing of a standard tomato in April, and a third sowing in June of a cherry type. So it will be Roma and Marmande first, with moneymaker and gardeners delight second. Some of these will end up outside due to space. Then I'm going to raid my seed box for some cherry ones to go in last. That's the plan...I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm inundated with monthly newsletters telling me what to do in the garden each month. Here's my own version of the monthly newsletter with what I'll be getting up to this month. In the flower garden • Prune overwintered fuchsias back to one or two buds on each shoot. I brought 3 hardy fuschia plants in the autumn for a splash of colour. It's time to cut them back ready for them to burst into life again.  In the vegetable garden • I'm sowing parsnips ourtdoors. • Hoe vegetable seed beds. The frosts have broken up the clumps in the mushroom compost I have spread. • Plant out winter brassica under cloches. These were a bonus as I planted a load of seeds in November and they all took. I'll be planting out All the year round cauliflower, spring greens, perpetual spinach and chard bright lights. I've gone for cloches as they're still young. In the fruit garden • Plant out strawberries. I opted not to move strawberries from the allotment for two reas...

I received my email 'to do' list via Gardeners World and thought it opportune to see how well I was doing myself, and look back over the month to assess my progress.  January Jobs Winter prune apple and pear trees to remove any dead, damaged, congested and diseased branches  - Yep...done. All six apple trees have been 'tamed' and are ready to burst into bud once the weather warms up.  Sort out your seeds, throwing away empty or out-of-date packets and noting down any to buy for the coming season - Well I'm a sucker for old seed packets and I know I have a few beyond their dates!  Plan this year's crop rotation to ensure you grow each type of crop in a different bed to previous years  - Done. I have divided up my new beds into 4 and hope that I'll have enough space. The jury is still out as to whether or not I'm going to do potatoes this year. You can’t beat home grown, but space is now limited so I may have to go without.  Prune goo...

After much deliberation I've decided on my chicken run. In reality, the biggest factor was cost, but once my budget was set, I was looking for quality, floor space and the ability to stand up inside to clean it out. This one has approximately 36sqft of floorspace and comes in at about 5ft tall. I will have to stoop, but it allows me in easily to tend the birds. I'm aiming for three to start with, but know these things have a habit of growing in number. Whilst I was doing my research, I had a number of locations in the garden in mind. Now I've chosen the coop, I have to site the thing. And that's easier said than done. So I've build it in sections and carried it out to the garden, placing it in various points around the garden. It looks like I'm going to have to move the fruit bushes as it looks best right where I put them in. Not a problem, I just need to wait for the ground to thaw as it's been frozen solid for the past two weeks. I'm going to...

Winter is definitely upon us and the heavy frosts we've had this week mean work in the garden is slowing.  I've turned my attention to the 'structural' job of tree pruning. We have 7 apple trees in need of a 'short back and sides', a plum tree which needs turning back into a plum tree, a small lop sided cherry and a large/massive ornamental purple tree (possibly plum/cherry decedent). Knowing not to touch the stone fruits at this time of year I set to the biggest of the trees first. Here's the before pic: Given that it blocks a lot of sunlight from the garden (it's on the south side), the advice of 'prune no more than 20%' had to be discarded.  I needed to tame this beast and would use all the shredded limbs to form the walkways between my veg beds. Larger limbs would form my log pile at the back of the garden to encourage even more wildlife. This turned out to be a longer job than anticipated. Working well into the dar...