Friday 3 November 2017

Autumn

Hello Folks!!!

Once again I have been away from my blog for far too long!  For that, I once again apologise. 

It has been a whirlwind since July.  We have had birthdays, house moves, and the general day to day life we all encounter.  But the allotment has been fabulous over the last few months.  We have had so much wonderful fruit and veg from the plot, the greenhouse has been amazing! We are still harvesting the last of the tomatoes and peppers in November!!!! Well worth the £80 plus we paid for it.  And best of all, it survived Storm Brian! 

As the leaves are falling and the green of the land is falling into decay, it is time to start prepping the plot for winter.  We have had so much rainfall and everything is like a mud bath we haven't been able to visit as often as hoped.  We intend to visit this weekend (4th/5th) but, once again there is bad weather forecast. The grass is in desperate need of cutting and we need to clear the weeds so we can cover the ground for winter!

If we make it up there this weekend, I will gladly share our news.

Don't forget you can follow us on Instagram - allotment14and15

Sunday 16 July 2017

July

Hi All!

Well, it's been over a month since I last posted.  We have been busy!  Everything is bursting into life and we have started to harvest some of the crops. 



We have already had a good crop of cucumbers, peas broad beans and strawberries.  The blueberries are coming thick and fast as are the courgettes. We tried our first carrots, and they taste so much better than shop bought carrots.  We are the only people on the site with the ability to grow them here.  We must be doing something right!

The tomatoes are beginning to change colour in the greenhouse, so we are expecting a bumber crop of these soon.  The sweet peas we have planted around the arch are coming into bloom and we pick a bunch everyday! They smell so sweet and look amazing!  Flowers have been a new thing this year.  And they have certainly done their job!  The nasturtiums have kept the black fly away from our sprouts and kohl rabi.  And the sweet peas have drawn away all the aphids. 

We have unfortunately suffered blight to our potatoes again this year, and our rhubarb didn't survive! 

All in all it is busy season now! So much needs to be harvested and the weeds need to be kept under control.  We are hoping for a successful crop this year!






Sunday 4 June 2017

Summer - Here we come!

Good afternoon Allotmenteers.

I hope you are all well.

Exam season is now over, so my focus can now move back towards working on the plot.

I took a trip up there today for a look at how everything is coming along.  I haven't visited for a week, having been a hermit and stayed in to revise.  Everything there has grown another couple of inches over the course of a couple of days.

My sister and brother-in-law spent the day weeding every bed yesterday before their holiday.  Today we have seen that the weeds have grown back in one night of rain!  This time of year you really have to keep on top of things!

We have planted some sunflower seeds in pots today, and have put them in the greenhouse, after all the ones I planted in the ground have been munched.  The butternut squashes have started to come along from seed, and we hope to get these in the ground soon over our arch.

The flowers we planted from seed, (Nicotina and Pertunias) have now grown big enough to be planted around the plot and in pots on my deck at home.  I have been nicknamed "The Flower Girl" by one of the old allotment resisdents, who feel flowers are a waste of growing space, but I find them to be worthwhile as companion plants and the attraction they possess towards bumbles.

We need to save the bees!

Now I have more free time, I will try to produce a more regular blog.  Happy growing everyone! :)











Thursday 25 May 2017

On the Plot this May

Hello Allotmenteers!

Hope you're all well. 

It has been a busy month so far.  The plot has taken up a lot of time alongside revision for my forthcoming English Degree Exams next week.  So I apologise for the late postings. 

Every time I visit the plot at the moment, everything grows a couple of inches each day.  We have had some beautiful sunny weather, but also a couple of spells of bad rain this month, which is good for the plot and water butts, but not so much for my mood. 

We have covered our spouts and kohl rabi with anti moth netting to try and stop the Munchers eating them this year.  The onions we planted are growing extremely well as are the carrots which were both unsuccessful last year.  The strawberries we moved from the bed into pots with a view to chucking them have burst into life and we may even get a few nice strawberries off a crop we thought was ruined by the rain last year. 

Our peas unfortunately went a bit yellow due to unexpected late frosts.  They were particularly late for Cornwall, where we usually avoid the worst of the cold weather!  But then again, we haven't had snow worth worrying about for nearly 10 years. 

Today is an absolutely stunning day, clear blue skies, a light warm wind and peace and quiet.  Watering takes place in the evenings when it is cooler, but the current forecast says thunderstorms for the bank holiday weekends, which will ruin a good 3 days working on the plot. 

Having said that, every time I visit, all this sunshine and rain is doing wonder for the plot. 

I will try to make my Sundays Blog day once my exams are over next week! 

Happy Growing everyone!









Sunday 30 April 2017

Marching through March and Awesome April

Hello again all!

Once again I have neglected my posts!  I am sorry.  I am going to try and making this a Sunday Morning ritual, to keep up to date!

We have been busy bees on the allotment over the past 2 months.  The greenhouse is up, with a half plastic roof created by my father due to the glass not fitting correctly. We constructed it in some poor weather, but we enjoyed sausage sandwiches on our break.  Every good allotment needs a stove of some sort. We have been growing seedlings in the greenhouse since it was completed. 

In the greenhouse we have been growing the following:
Peppers, red, yellow, green.
Cucumber
Tomatoes
Courgette,yellow and green
Radish
Broad beans
Runner beans
Leeks
Onions
Spring Onions
Peas
Sweet peas
Flowers

We have planted out 6 redcurrent bushes
5 more blueberry bushes
2 dahlia
Betroot in lines
Potatoes
Sunflowers
Carrot
Spinach
Lettuce
Radish
Rhubarb
Rosemary

Everything we grew from seed in the greenhouse is slowly making its way into the ground.  Broad beans and peas are out along with the sweet peas.  Unfortunately, some very late frosts have damaged a couple of our sweet pea plants, so these will have to be replaced.  All the allotments are slowly coming to life and you can tell that spring is here.  Birds are in abundance, bees are on the move and sunshine is more prominent.

I will continue to keep you posted on the happenings on plots 14 and 15 and you can also follow me on Instagram : allotment14and15

Happy planting!











Tuesday 28 February 2017

Good morning Allotmenteers!

Good morning all!

I must apologise, I have neglected my posts for far too long.  Last year turned out to be a crazy end to the year.  We had my sisters wedding to prep for and unfortunately the allotment suffered from lack of attention. All this aside, we still had a wonderful crop of beetroot, lettuce, peas and beans.  Raspberries were still in abundance into November. Last year I also seperated from my partner of 7 years, whom I worked on the allotment with, so I habitually avoided it for 6 months in case he was around.  He has subsequently moved on and left me with my plot to which I have added another!

We now have two plots.  One full size and one half plot.  The second plot we are hoping to grow a vast number of veg and we have expanded our fruit beds on the existing plot.  We have given the shed a splash of colour and have laid foundations for our greenhouse.  We were hoping to put this up today, but it is extremely windy here in the South West, so this may have to wait until the weekend, which is delaying our seed sowing. 

Some seeds are already being sown on sunny windowsills across our houses and these will be moved into the greenhouse once it is up.  Excellent manure was added to the ground along with lime and chicken pellets, which has now left us with a rich, worm filled soil which we hope will create a bumper crop this year. 

This time of year is difficult as it is coming towards exam season for my degree and trying to fit everything in is hard work.  But as soon as June 2nd has passed I am a free agent until October! Yippee!

We plan to also grow a large number of flowers to attract the good bugs and draw attention away from our crop.  This too should hopefully add a joyful amount of colour to our spot. 

Apologies for the long post, but it has been a while!  I will continue to post again this year and keep you filled in with the plots.



Happy growing! 

Ellie

Sunday 23 August 2015

Awesome August

There has been a real bloom this month.  Everything has suddenly burst into life and we are eating more veg then we thought we would ever grow.
The tomatoes are red and are delicious.
The strawberries provided tasty fruits.
The carrots have come up and are delicious.
The peas have finished and died back along with the broad beans.
We have had endless amounts of cabbage and beetroot and these are still providing a crop.
The sweetcorn are growing steadily and getting ready for eating.
And we had a couple of raspberrys of the bushes we planted earlier this year.
New leeks are in the ground.
And the sunflower is nearing 8 foot tall :)