sunday 31st win some then lose some

A picture of my grandson, Leo, helping on the allotment this weekend.

My next door (or allotment) neighbour, Jason, came by on Saturday and asked if I’d like to take on some of his allotment, as he was struggling. We agreed on an area that I would take on and | spent a day worrying that I had bitten off more than I could chew. Anyway, on Sunday he contacted me to say he was giving up completely. A full size allotment is really a big undertaking, especially for one person. And you don’t really ‘save money’ on vegetables. Your costs are always going to be a couple of hundred a year, even without buying tools etc. And if you factor in your time… ! So you have to look at it as a hobby, which will have costs, time and money. But the taste of your own ‘home grown’ veggies, can’t be beaten, and the sense of achievement. wonderful!

So, tasks completed this weekend. Overcast and damp, by the way.

Dismantled the compost bin, made from pallets, from behind the shed, and made this into a BBQ area. By the time I had moved about eight barrow loads of compost to the front of the allotment and filtered out all the plastic netting and old bits of mulching, a job I estimated would take one hour turned out to take three hours!

Then burnt a load of old wood etc. on the communal bonfire.

On Saturday, June and I laid a patio behind the shed, then we had our first BBQ of the year with our Reuben, Liz and Leo – see above.

On Sunday I tidied up next to the shed, I’ve widened the path, so that the lawnmower goes through more easily. Then time to go home as the rain started again.

 

 

 

Thursday 28th completing winter chores

Sunny today, thank goodness after another few days of heavy rain – the tail end of the hurricane over north America. Cycled to the allotment and got stuck in – so good to be working outside in the sun, Malcolm was there, haven’t seen him since September. Started by tidying the borders around the comfrey bed, its a job that doesn’t often get done, as comfrey isn’t really a pretty plant, although the purple flowers really attract the bees in the summer, although as the leaves are scythed down four or five times during the season the bees seldom get to enjoy the flowers. Then weeded the two large bags next to the compost pit and manured. Then Cliff from across the way came and said that there were slabs going from one of Richards two allotments. He has been ill and has given up his allotments. So managed to grab 33 of these. Great! They’ll come in useful for the braai area. Then completed the border on the path between my allotment and Jason’s. Then I removed the old plank borders from the strawberry bed and the raspberries. There is going to be a onfire on Richards old allotment tomorrow, so I threw them on the pile. Then used our new budza to weed the fruit bush area. So a really productive four hours today.

January

Sunday 3rd. very wet.

This is the first time at our plot for me for a couple of weeks as I’ve just had a hernia op. So on light duties for a while. Steve arrived with a trailer load of cow manure – one year old and organic, he doesn’t even feed antibiotics to his cows! I’ll store this pile until the end of this year, so by then it will be well rotted down. Cover it to keep the weed seeds out. £50 for the load.

Sunday 10th. overcast.

June piled the manure, in about eight wheelbarrow loads, onto the last of the allotment to be covered. Its taken us from about October, because of holidays, bad backs and other inconveniences! I pruned the gooseberry and blackberry bushes and did a little weeding (  light duties.) Unfortunately the heavens then opened, so June couldn’t spread the manure.

Tuesday 19th. Bright sunshine, and a frost this am.

I cycled up to the allotment, and broke down the manure June had piled up, and then racked it over the last area to be covered. Fantastic! The allotment looks like a gigantic bar of milk chocolate. Two inches of muck over 250 square meters! A bit late but I then planted two rows of Asda garlic cloves. Then weeded and manured the rhubarb bed. Brought home the last of the beetroot for pickling.

Thursday 20th. Bright and sunny, another frost this am.

Replaced the wire on the grape vine supports with 3.5mm. Drew up a plan for the strawberry net cage. Re-cut the edge between mine and Jason’s plot. At long last measured the exact size of the plot. 41m long by 6.5m wide.

Saturday 23rd. sunny to overcast

Drove up to the allotment with Leo to buy the seed potatoes. Was a little early so walked around the site for half an hour or so. Bought 3kg Nicola, 3kg charlotte, both early varieties, 3kg Picasso and 3kg of sarpo mira both of these maincrop. Also bought 500gms red sun and 500gms Stuttgart onion sets. Had a chat with Cliff and co. outside the shop. Have had a lot of people leave, so Cliff ‘inherited’ a few apple trees.

Have bought a proper budza on amazon, really chuffed, everyone uses them in Zim. a lot quicker for weeding and digging then a spade or fork. Its really a very big hoe. (£17.05)

Have also had a delivery of seeds delivered from Kings. Tomatoes, winter squash or gem squash, another Zim favourite, broccoli, chard, cucumber, courgette, celery, watermelon, pumpkin, fennel and skirrit.

Skirrit is a root vegetable which hails from China, but probably came to Britain with the Romans. It was very popular in Europe write up until the end of the seventeenth century, but then carrots, which was a new variety, took over.  Skirrit is a perennial and provides lots of thin, pale coloured roots which can be divided, and replanted. Because its thinner than carrots, and so more work to prepare, it lost its popularity when carrots ‘came in’.

Monday 25th. overcast.

Brought out the upright cloche from the garage. Sowed cauliflower, sweet peas and  peas.

 

 

 

 

 

About me

I have lived here in Bournemouth since leaving Zimbabwe in 2009. My wife June was eager to get an allotment as she was a keen gardener when she was younger. Both her parents enjoyed the garden, her dad growing vegetables, and her mom flowers. I never had a clue! I did make a rockery when I was young, but my father said that it looked like it was something that had fallen off the roof – it was positioned against the front wall of the home. So I threw off my gardening gloves for life, or so I thought.

We became the proud tenants of the allotment two years ago, and spent about three months clearing it, as it had been abandoned for a couple of years. The good thing about this was that it had not had any pesticides, herbicides or any other nasty chemical concoctions thrown over it for some time – and we wanted to be organic. Since then we’ve not used any ‘chemically things’ on our plot; we just blanket it at the end of each year in an organic manure, and make compost and we grow a bed of comfrey, from which we make up a ‘tea’. All good for the wildlife, and hopefully our stomachs too!

So, the diary is really to make me become more disciplined in recording my ongoing gardening activities – its good to look back and see what worked, what didn’t – and therefore hopefully improve my knowledge!

So, lets get started!