My New BOL/Allotment Diary

[junmist]

Done both with carpet put it down and picked it up

[dannytsg]

Saturday 21/03/2015

Another small update on our seedlings as this was my birthday weekend and not much got done at the allotment.


Sugar snaps peas now emerging


Kale coming through


Leeks ready for pricking out and individual planting


Parnsips through. Early risers but hopefully will yield good results.

More work will be being done this weekend

[dannytsg]

28/3/15 & 29/3/15

Last weekend was minimal at the allotment due to it being my birthday weekend. This weekend however was more productive, even if the rain was torrential at times.

My daughter and I donned our rain suits and along with the help of my brother achieved a good bit of planting as well as some DIY fixing.

This weekend I have managed to repair the broken panels in my greenhouse, fix some broken boards on the summerhouse along with putting in nigh on 50m of water pipe from source onto the allotment. This will offer me the chance to pipe fresh water into the summerhouse kitchenette, add a timed irrigation system into my poly tunnels and also allow me to use a hose on the beds rather than a water can.

As for planting, this weekend saw us prick out our leeks into bigger pots, plant some peppers, carrots and gooseberries and also chart the progress of our other vegetables as show in the pictures.


Luxury greenhouse flooring


Kale coming through


Sugar snaps emerging


Broad beans


Rhubarb


Leeks pricked out


My daughter helping


Sweet peppers


Happy with gooseberries in


Carrots in the tunnel before watering in

I have some more ideas on the horizon, especially in the greenhouses as I want to install solar heating using a panel, fan, tubing and heat sink.

[Arzosah]

Those are great photos! And what wonderful progress on the photo of the kale, is that the roots you can see at the bottom of the photo?

I was just watching a download of Kew On A Plate yesterday, they were talking about how wonderful peas were - and they used the pods to create a pea broth (blitzed them like crazy in a food processor, mind).

[featherstick]

Lot of the old boys have a water butt in the greenhouse. The thermal mass gives off heat at night, balancing the temperatures, and the water warms up so that the seedlings aren't shocked by cold water straight from the mains.

[dannytsg]

Arzosah those aren't the roots, it's deceiving but that's actually outside the greenhouse.

That's a good idea featherstick! As the weather gets warmer now it won't be much of an issue but as we get along into the winter the greenhouses will need some frost protection.

[dannytsg]

04/04/2015

2 hours spent today up at the allotment watering the poly-tunnel, checking on the seedlings and doing a bit more planting. We have put some chives and coriander in, pricked out a lot of tomatoes and planted a few pumpkin seeds ready for later on in the year. We are also going to be doing some heavy digging on Monday to turn over as many beds as we can ready for potatoes, carrots and parsnips to go in.

We are also on lamb watch at the moment as our new lamb is due any day now. Once born i'll post an update here with some photographs and then our little allotment/smallholding will be complete in structure but with plenty more work to do.

[dannytsg]

06/04/2015

Well lovely sunshine has meant that I could get a lot done today. The main aims were to get my potatoes planted as well as strimming down a lot of the overgrown areas and starting to dig things over. Here are the pictures:


Half weeded and half not


Fully done


Grounds for your garden, free from Starbucks


Grounds in


New compost on ready for planting


Buckets prepped for spuds


Spuds ready for planting



Spuds in


Repurposed greenhouse shelving





Strimmed down


Started digging over


Finally at 5PM I stopped to enjoy the sunshine. Our plot is south south west facing so from 2pm through until sundown it gets a lot of sunshine and the decking is a good place to soak it up from.

Still no sign of the lamb but it's arrival is imminent.

[slugbert]

Really enjoying this mate keep it up

[omega man]

I too am enjoying this thread

we are virtually doing the same things at the same time on our plot lol, such a rewarding feeling isn't it!

Keep it coming..

Cheers OM