The fun begins!

Last weekend at the plot we worked hard, fitting a new water butt tap, lifting the last of the weeds and grass and mulching the heck out of everywhere; great work but a boring blog post, ahaha. However yesterday Andrew had a day off and we spent it making notes in our
new allotment planner book, going to the local nursery for netting and an oscillating hoe (the best thing EVER) and going to the plot to make further plans.

Andrew and the new oscillating hoe. Look at that soil, lovely

On the plot at the moment - 
the Purple sprouting broccoli is ready, the garlic is flourishing and the kale has bolted.

We have decided that the back of the plot is going to be home to our 2 fruit bushes, rhubarb and fruit trees. The rhubarb 'glaskins perpetual' crowns are just poking their sweet heads up through the thick mulch now and I for one am very excited. We are going to get 2 more crowns and simply fill that space up with rhubarb-y yuminess.

The damson tree is going to get a friend in the shape of a cherry 'stella' tree, we're just waiting on it arriving. The blueberries are just going to stay the way they are and the apple trees support arch is coming out now that they have established and are happy (the timber is rotting away anyway).

The seed buying started at the weekend and more last night and more this afternoon. Little but often, getting our favourite varieties for the best price and new fun types to try alongside. It's almost the most exciting time of the whole allotment year I think - this panning and anticipation.

The potatoes are chitting away in the shed - 'Pentland Javelin' first earlies.

There shall also be changes made around the shed and compost areas but I'll leave those as a surprise. Oh and we are taking a big interest in the hedgerow line behind our shed and are going to make it a better place for all the many birds and insects that live in there. All shall be revealed in time :)

Hugs
Carrie

A triumphant plot departure

OK, before I tell you a single plot thing or show you one photograph we must address a very unexpected and wonderful piece of allotment related news...

This past Saturday I walked home from an afternoon at the plots by myself! All alone, on my lonesome, unaccompanied and indeed, solo. WHAT? Yes my friends it is possible, though it has taken me a good few years now to even think of trying. I did it, I survived and I may even do it again 😌

****

cheeky fern

It was a cold day and though the sky was blue there had been a lot of rain the night before = a soggy field of plots. Never mind though; we had plans to enact and dreams to conjure up about our little slice of Eden.

Toby guarding the weeds and my bag at the blueberry bed

Toby at the path between the trees

I finished off weeding the blueberries (finally) and got the areas under the apple trees and path cleared too. It doesn't sound like much but boy it was a hot mess and the weeds were wicked and had long roots.

rotten apples at all stages of decay under the trees

Andrew finished his bed too which was mainly grassed over and then he tackled the external paths (those between the different plots) and used the strimmer the hack back the knee high grass there. The whole place is a lot safer now.

Next up we thought about our hedge and tree options for the make over. Plus this coming weekend there shall be skips on site and we have a lot to get rid off so we're really looking forward to it.

See you soon,
Hugs,
Carrie

Back on the plot

Two days at the plot, reclaiming it from the weeds and general neglect has given us a boost that was sorely needed - friends we are back in love with allotmenting (or as I keep calling it in my head 'aplotmenting'!?).

** The first day back was Sunday afternoon on the 6th of the month and Andrew planted the garlic! The Solent Wight is in and I have my fingers crossed it will do much better this season. We planted the last lot last April as plug plants and they simply didn't do, maybe because it's best to plant your garlic direct in the autumn and let it get a darn good freezing before it starts to put on the growth in spring.

looking good

Andrew got the two espalier apple trees pruned that day too whilst I continued my struggle with reclaiming the plot from the grasp of nature. Honestly I felt unwell and too weak to enjoy the activity and the sight of the place so overgrown and in need of tremendous renovation and filled me with dread. Usually I'm excited by tidying up and improving but that day it all felt so overwhelming.

pruning the apple trees

No photo, sadly (oh how I tried) but I saw a lovely frog on the plot and there was such bird song and more worms than usual. But my mental health was just too poor - I felt utterly ashamed to be myself even though no one could even see me. Time to go home. (I'm getting panicky even thinking about it)

** On Saturday 12th we were back and I was in fine fettle and ready to work hard! Oh we have exciting plans I so hope we can achieve :)  A new shed, lots of fruiting trees, and a curtain of wonderful native hedges to provide shelter and a sense of a secret garden for me.

exciting new plan!

The rain tried to put us off but we simply waited the worst of it out in the car and then got started. Both of us tackled the re-wilding of the plot and by the time it was getting cold and darker we had reclaimed some paths and most of the rotation beds - hoorah! We even had time for a freshly brewed tea there on the plot bench.

stopping for tea

The new wee slit paths are being put in so as to facilitate my shortness and inability to reach anywhere near the middle of our beds to harvest or tend to the plants. Incidentally, we brought home a harvest of potatoes, a last sweetcorn cob and some kale :)

harvesting potatoes

Love and hugs to you all - I hope you will tag along for our renovation journey
Carrie xx

September's plot visit

I come today to my blog with a confession - I only visited the allotment plot once this past month! *you all point and say "shame" at me* But at least I went, right? And it got me feeling bad and wanting to work harder over the winter to have a better growing year this time round :)

We are going to plant more trees on the plot and more flowers in the hedgerow for the fabulous bees. It's rather exciting. First we need to clear and cover the beds and gather seaweed and other organic soil improvers and plan, plan, plan! Oh and how I would love a new shed, but alas we can't have everything.

Anyway that visit saw us clear one bed and gather a pretty surprising harvest. Please enjoy the story through the magic of my photos.....

The plot from the far end looking back at Andrew 

and Toby

A BEFORE of bed 1 😟

AN AFTER of bed 1 😀

Toby doing a stop check on the apples we harvested

Most of the harvest before the heavy rain came 

Yep, we got thoroughly poured on just as we have finished the first bed clearance and gathered up what we could as a harvest from across the plot. I have some nicer photos of our wee harvest though....

The loveliest squashes, only a few apples but they were wonderful with our bounty of damsons in a couple of crumbles :) And we ate a good lot of the potatoes and scallions with the climbing beans for dinner!

I mean I know it's not great and you aren't sitting there gobsmacked, but I should remind you that in comparison to the work put in this was a lot of good tasty food.

We were away all weekend camping and walking and I look forward to sharing that soon. I hope you are all happy and have your bulbs picked, if not planted already - our garlic arrived today, hooray!

Love and hugs from (a sleepy)

Carrie

Blueberries, apple blossom and garlic

What weather we have been experiencing! - it's beautiful and all that but please my darling friends, know that this is climate change and we can't with all good consciousness celebrate it popularly. This is a problem and we should not be sunbathing in April with temperature records being broken and being portrayed as exciting - this is not right.

In saying that I am sitting outside with my two boys (Andrew and Toby the wonder dog) drinking a cheeky shandy in the shade and having a lovely late afternoon. If that makes me a hypocrite I'm sorry but it is brightening my mood and depression is an evil mistress....

So, what does all this weather mean for the allotment? Well let me tell you, the hosepipe ban from years ago is still in affect and that is a little annoying. We all have thirsty seedlings and trees in our plots and most of us are not young and fit enough to use umpteen watering cans (back and forth over and over again). I'm sad for a lot of of my plot pals but that's life I guess.

But anywho - at the plot we have got our new blueberry plants in and are excited; very excited at the glorious blossom on the apple trees (see also the new header when I finish it) . I am obsessed with blossom and all new growth these days - such HOPE!

The blueberries are a variety called Vaccinium ( blueberry) 'corymbosum' which you can learn about here. For a comprehensive guide to growing delicious blueberry bushes you can not go wrong with following the advice of the RHS. Here is the relative link, I encourage everyone to give them a go 😀 

We also planted out the young garlic plants! It's the first time in absolute ages that we have had to use new stock as last season saw the end of the 'Gault' strain but we are happy and optimistic about 'Cristo'  and the root systems looked very healthy.

**** 

I am collating a list of our permanent fruit varieties and the seeds we are growing this year so you (and we) can see how well they do over the coming months. It will have it's own page which you can click into on the menu bar. Remember we are in Northern Ireland so much of what we experience weather wise may be different than yourself.

Hugs and love
Carrie

12th season on the plot!

It's a Saturday afternoon and here i find myself all alone. Andrew is off in the Mournes hiking and Toby has found a little rectangle of sun through the patio doors to lie in. I sit here with my thoughts which is OK because I haven't felt well enough to write in ages and now I can.

It's our 12th year on the plots! That's pretty amazing, right? One down side is that we need to replace all the fencing and all the timbers for the raised bed edging but on the good side, we don't mind the hard graft and are excited to see it all look new and with improvements. (Frown turned upside down).

The potatoes were finally planted last weekend into the 4 or 5 big pots we have for them. We're only doing Pentland Javelin this year because we like them and because we can never eat all we grow. (We didn't plant all of the above by the way). Sadly there isn't a place here where you can get unusual varieties or choose a few different loose ones and try experiments.

I spent a long time clearing the very neglected blueberry bed of grasses, thistles and dandelions. We have dug up the old bushes and are getting new ones to replace them as after 12 years they're a bit tired. We also really wanted to put a path down the side of the bed to help with harvesting; sadly the plants were where we wanted that path.

But, look..I found this little self seeded strawberry plant in there. I have it here at home now in a little pot out in the back garden :)

There are beautiful blossoms on the apples and plum trees, I love me a pretty blossom. In the same bed, the new rhubarb crowns are settling in nicely and maybe next year we can harvest a couple of stalks.

Elsewhere on the plot, the beetroot has started to bolt magnificently so I lifted a good few for consumption and the leeks continue to get fatter and stronger (we lifted a few of those too - yummy).

Apart from that we have broad beans and garlic here at the house looking good in their seed trays and hopefully soon to be planted. Plus new baby leeks, kale, peas and spring onions are hopefully germinating and will soon poke their leaves through.

*******

I have a feeling we are going to have a good season at the plot and the allotments in general have a happier air about them with abandoned plots being taken over by new excited people and more evidence of everyone getting suck in :)

Hugs and love
Carrie x