Plot 18

Managed to get to the allotment today for an hour while Theo played watchdog as little Dirtgirl slept.  She is under the weather with teething today and the weather was wet so no possibility of taking her with me.

First off I was turning over in my mind the having failed for less than 25% cultivation part of the inspection and I wasn't quite happy in my mind.  I knew how much digging I had done and how much we had in the ground and it didn't feel right that it was under 25% when I stopped to think about it.  So I took a measuring tape today and played at some basic math.

The leek, broccoli and onion patches measure a total of approximately twenty feet by seven feet - 140 square feet.

The triangle potato patch measures no less than four feet by seven feet (I wasn't in the mood to use my advanced math to work out the area of the triangle exactly) - 28 square feet.

The big raised bed near the shed which is now full of potatoes is approximately six feet by eight feet - 48 square feet.

The narrow brick bed behind the shed where we have broad beans, cabbages and a cranberry bush is ten feet by two feet - 20 square feet.

Total square footage cultivated is therefore in the region of 240 (allowing the few extra square feet for inept measuring of the triangle).

Our allotment is only 504 square feet.

More basic mathematics tells me that is in the region of 47% cultivated.

I feel a letter to the allotment committee coming on!

There wasn't a great deal I could do in my hour but fortunate timing meant that the scrap metal men were going around the allotment and they very kindly scoured the allotment for everything metal that wasn't wanted.  They took the tyres with the middles in which was great as we had no use at all for those, but didn't take the big tin coal bunker thing as I think they ran out of room this trip.

I did however get a good half of another bed dug up in the old greenhouse base area.  Next Wednesday I will be able to get this finished and at least some of our remaining seed potatoes in the ground.

I did also pick up the watering order and took that down to the shed.  It was raining today so no need to get it set up straight away.  I also got a small hardwood trellis to run the pumpkins over to keep them off the ground.

Allotment day!

Started it by collecting the 'you have failed your inspection' card from the gate.  We failed on 3 of 4 counts, we passed on the state of the hedges but failed on the grounds I did not have time last week to clear the outer hedge bottom of weeds, that we have 'non garden' rubbish present and visible,  and that we do not seem to have 25% of our allotment under cultivation.

I fixed the hedge bottoms then and there, only a fifteen minute job but last week I literally ran out of time.  As to the non garden rubbish, I am taking this with a pinch of salt because absolutely none of it is ours, it was all inherited on the plot and we have no means of removing rubbish and the allotment site skips are infrequent, rare and very small.  I had a look around with an unbiased eye and I think we are at about 20% cultivation.  So we should be able to bring that part up to standard before the next inspection.

Theo came down with me today and he took on the leek patch as it needed weeding.  He focused on the leek bed and only on the leek bed and I swear that he managed to extract three quarters of a wheelbarrow full of mare's tail root as well as a few other assorted weeds.  I wish I had the patience to weed like that!  Once he had finished I levelled out the empty part of the patch and planted our broccoli plants.  They filled up the patch nicely.

I ran the hoe quickly over the onion patch.  They are coming up strong now.

I dug over the triangular patch of ground that had been broken before and pulled another wheelbarrow load of roots and weeds out of it.  Then I planted all of our Vanessa seed potatoes in it.

I dug over the raised bed and pulled yet another wheelbarrow load of roots and weeds out of it.  I didn't work on the very inner edge because there are some big clods of earth still waiting for the weather to break them down there.  Once that was done I levelled the bed and then sowed potatoes:  the outer edge row was all Picasso, the second row was all Charlotte, four more tubers of Charlotte in the next row closest to the gate, and then the rest of the bed is King Edward.  Still got four more sets of seed potatoes waiting in the shed to go in the ground: they will take priority next week.

Last but by no means least I planted the cranberry bush and the redcurrant bush properly.  One of them had a space waiting at the end of the cabbage and broad bean patch, for the other I had to clear out a quick space in other overgrown bed.  However I did take half an hour to clear the small path between the beds.  This went quicker than I had hoped since there was a layer of earth over a brick or concrete layer, so it really gave me a base to work from and looked pretty brilliant when it was done.

So what next - more ground breaking, more weed pulling.  The watering paraphenalia order hasn't turned up at the local Wilkos for collection yet due to the bank holiday so I'm hoping I will be able to collect and install it this weekend.

As to the rubbish well the worst we can do is move it behind the shed so it's not visible from the gate: a pretty sad thing to have to resort to but frankly the committee secretary is fully aware of our inherited rubbish and lack of personal transport to tip it ourselves and if they can't put a note on the inspection committee's list then frankly I'm not sure it's worth the breath to argue the toss.

The squash seeds are ready to be moved out of the propagation tray into small pots, I will do that this week.  The pumpkins are also ready to be moved out of the propagation tray but as they are sprawling they will only be put into small pots for transport purposes.  They will need to go in the ground next week and I am thinking about running them over some trellis to keep the fruits off the earth when they grow.

Allotment afternoon.

Weather not quite as nice, overcast but humid, was working in shirtsleeves again after half an hour or so.

Announcements up on the board that there will be garden inspections next week (day not given), I was pretty confident about this until I got to the allotment and saw the sea of yellow dandelion heads waiting for me.  In the last week all the weeds have just shot up and taken over.  We might scrape through, with effort put in over the weekend to tidy under the outer hedges.

The onions are peeking their heads up enough for me to weed around them today.  I accidentally weeded one of the green stems off one of them, wasn't paying attention.  Didn't need to weed the leek patch today as not much movement there at the moment.

Dug/forked over the big raised bed next to the shed, cleared a lot of clumps out of this.  I didn't want to use it as a potato patch as one or two buckets of earth from last years potato patch got put into it, but with our 63 teeny tiny Brussels sprouts plants growing slowly at home and the 8 kg of spuds at the allotment getting ready to go in the ground soon, I think we may have to use what we have ready and put some spuds in there.

Dug and forked over the small bed next to the raised bed, got a lot of grass clods out and the earth ready for some spuds to go in there.

Pulled/forked up a wheelbarrow load of dandelions.  Made a very small impression on the overall concentration of yellow dandelion flowers.

Weeded the broad bean and cabbage patch.  Broad beans are looking okay but the cabbages are definitely dry.

Spent fifteen minutes wrestling with the hose pipe.  The tap connectors change every time they are put back on when the water goes back on, so managed to break my hose connector on the new tap before I realised what an idiot I was being.  The hose connector would have fitted on the tap the other way down the avenue but by then I had broken it and the hose wasn't long enough.  Spent another ten minutes struggling and getting wet and muddy realising these two points.  Do not have watering can at the allotment.  Swore loudly and will get a new hose, hose connector and watering can for next Wednesday.

Picked up a cranberry bush and a redcurrant bush at Wilkos this morning.  Disappointed by poor stock levels and clearly uncared for plants (did not buy the solitary very dead olive tree or the solitary very dead tiny orange tree).  Took them out of their boxes to soak in water as instructed but by the time had finished wrestling with the hose pipe I had no energy left to prep the bed where they are going.  So I cheated and shovelled some earth into their bucket to let them live until next week when I can put them into their proper home.

The eating apple tree is now covered in leaf and blossom.  Surprisingly the cooking apple tree has also come out in glorious leaf and blossom nearly all over.  Last year we were discussing how to cut the thing down as it was 'clearly dying'.  I won't hold my breath for apples but the early signs are looking better than last year.

The mare's tail is happily trying to peek up everywhere again.  I have been frantically weeding it out of the cultivated areas.  Leave my veg alone!

All in all a good trip today and lots of work done, disappointed I had to move priority to a more visible area of the garden because of the inspection (you can't see behind the current shed from the front, which is where the inspection team look from, so no point in weeding/cultivating there before the more visible areas).  Disappointed in the collapse of the hose and connectors but in fairness we did buy really cheap hosepipe last year just to get us through the year, and it did, so we mustn't complain too loudly.  Next week must definitely get some potatoes in the ground and get water to everything.

Slightly belated update from the 14th.  The sun was out, I was working in my shirt sleeves and thinking that I could have done with remembering my sunhat.  I must remember to take it down there tomorrow.

The leeks went in, it took a while to get them in as the ground there had only been dug and forked over once so every time I dug a hole to settle a leek in the bottom of I had to haul out a handful or two of mare's tail root.

I dug over one of the old brick beds near the eating apple tree and planted the broad beans and the cabbages there.  I think I planted the cabbages a little closer together than recommended but we will have to see.

The eating apple tree was leafing up.

The perimeter fence at the rear of the allotment was finished and was very smart.  There is a gap between us and 19, but the contractors fenced up the larger gap left between us and 17.  17 is the plot with the dog so that's good.  We have some left over old fence panels that we can put to use, and some left over wire mesh that we can cut in half to reuse again.  There is some razor wire that needs to be wound up and given to the committee to deal with.

Our broccoli plants were delivered, unfortunately they spent a week malingering in the postal system because the postman failed to translate the words 'live plants open immediately' on the package into a check mark on the 'perishable' box on the 'while you were out' card.  When they were opened they looked a little sad and yellowed but I am pleased to say that after another week of recovery all of them have greened up and are looking viable.

The Brussels sprouts plants are surviving our little DirtGirl's tender ministrations, I think maybe only one or two at the moment are visibly failing after some rough toddler love.  Most of the pumpkin seeds are up and we have never seen anything grow as quickly.  I think we will have to rehome them soon as they are starting to sprawl somewhat.  We also have several of the squash seeds up out of the earth now.

We have planned that during May we will get a swing and a small slide for DirtGirl.  She already has a tent and in June we hope to add a sand and water playtable.  I will source some appropriate fencing this week to create a little area we can barkchip and lawn for her, not to exclude her from the rest of the allotment but to proscribe her ability to run about in the areas we have not yet cleared of rubbish yet.  Once this play area is under way then this will expand our ability to spend time on the allotment with DirtGirl along.

Bit of a plant update:

Brussels sprouts have been pricked out and we currently have 63 baby plants in a propagation tray.  I think we will lose some, but as we have a very small child involved in the gardening process this year then we can afford some casualties if we keep all the seeds and not just the strongest ones.

As there were some spare slots in the propagation tray when I had finished, I planted 5 seeds of squash (Cucurbita moschata "Waltham") and 8 seeds of pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo "Baby Bear").

Also the first instalment of the plug plants ordered in arrived today.  We have 45 leek (Albana), 16 cabbage (Greyhound) and 10 broad bean (Listra).

We are still due 16 broccoli (Green Magic) and 16 sweetcorn (Earlybird F1).

All the plug plants are still here in the kitchen although I have unpacked and watered them and put them in the sunlight.  Wednesday will be a digging day, also I hope by Wednesday the fencing contractors will have finished work on our allotment and we can start any tidying up required.