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 :)

Jolly July

It has been a while since I updated my blog - but July has been busy!  Everything went into bloom and grew 3 times the size really quickly!

We enjoyed the fruits of our labour which included strawberries, peas, broad beans, lettuces and beetroot.  The onions and garlic finished growing so they have been making their way into many meals.  The leeks had gone to seed so had to be removed as they became woody.
Tomatoes have begun to ripen on the plants

Joyful June

The weather has been fine and the plants are blooming!

We unfortunately had to pull out our potatoes as they got blight, but we managed to salvage some for eating.  

The lettuces were delicious and a new lot has gone into the potato bed.  

Some sunflower seeds I planted have started to grow and are now 1ft high.  I am hoping they will grow to 6ft, but I may be expecting too much! 

The mountain of cabbage we are growing is flourishing as are the lines of beetroot.  the peas, broadbeans and sweetcorn are all growing fast!

May Madness Cont.

May has been fairly busy at the allotment and life in general.
We have had good sunshine which has caused everything to bloom and look increasingly green.
We have made regular visits and the list of what is in the ground continues to grow.
We now have growing :
Potatoes
Carrots
Cabbage
Lettuce
Sweetcorn
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blueberries
Beetroot
Chard
Broad beans
Peas
Tomatoes
Onions
Garlic
Shallots
Herbs

Unfortunately our leeks went to seed so have had to be discarded, but its a lesson leaent for next year :)
We have a new herb bed, the water butt if serving its purpose and we have gained slabs to line the path. Everything is progressing nicely

We have even had time for sausages and tea whilst spending a day here :).

April showers and May madness

It has been a little while since I last updated my blog.  We have been busy but we have slotted time in for digging up the allotment.

We have been regularly watering on the hot days we have had throughout April. But today has been busy!

Today we have :
Put up guttering and connected water butt
Canes have gone up for the broad beans
Lettuces, sweetcorn, cauliflower and beetroot have gone into the ground
Carrot seeds have gone into the tyres.
We have planted companion flower seeds.
Beds have been lined with recycled glass bottles
The potatoes have been built up.
Paths have been dug up and turned with any weeds or grass removed.
In the shed we have added a shelf for pots and seedlings

All in all it has been a busy but productive day :)

Early April

We have now got the broad beans that have been grown from seed, into the ground and areprogressing nicely. The raspberry plants that went in are now beginning to form shoots and new stems are growing. We have flowers appearing on the strawberry plants which areall looking healthy. We plantes some extra shallots which a growing quickly and several pea plants have started to appear with the addition of some extra plants grown from seed. The potatoes are starting to grow and we now have 25 plants showing. We are currently still growing tomato, sweetcorn, cabbage and courgette seedlings.
All is progressing nicely. The borders and beds now need excess grass and weeds removing and the shed needs guttering for the water butt and repainting. All is progressing nicely.

Marching through March

So far, over the last two weekends has involved addition of two more raised beds.  We have planted tomato and cabbage seeds into seed trays which have successfully started to grow. Into the ground we have planted shallots and garlic along with peas and extra strawberry plants. The ground has been turned again and the shed is ready for painting. The broad bean seeds we planted into seed pots have taken well and will be able to go into the ground soon. We are successfully marching through March.

This weekend

This weekend we aquired a shed for £20 which was an absolute bargain!! So that was constructed by my assistants.
Planting: in one of the beds this weekend we have planted (in the pouring rain), 2 rows of charlotte potatoes and 2 rows of maris piper potatoes. I have also today planted 2 raspberry bushes.
Two of the beds have been turned over and I have weeded the strawberry bed to reveal just the new leaves on the strawberry plants.
The broad bean seeds we have started are beginning to grow and should be able to be planted out soon.
All in all its been a successful weekend, except for the rain!!

The allotment in January

I visited the allotment in January, but unfortunately there was not much we could do at this time as the ground was hard and the frosts were still occurring.

My allotment

Last year I aquired an allotment locally.  My plan is to hopefully become self sufficient in vegetables this season. I have never done anything like this before, but with the help of my sister we shall see what we can create and grow.

When I took over the allotment it was overgrown with long grass and weeds. We cut this back to reveal a bed of strawberries, from which we had a few fruit at the end of last season.

At the end of last season we made several raised beds and planted some onions, leeks and garlic. We hope to harvest these in early summer. As we spend more time up there, as the weather becomes clearer, I hope to keep updating posts like this as a record of our progress and share any problems or triumphs we have over the forthcoming year.

I will keep you posted :)