Woohoo, my first piece of produce – Garlic.  I noticed one of the garlics was a lot smaller than the others so decided to dig it up to make sure there was nothing wrong.  There wasn’t, it’s just smaller!  I’m currently drying the garlic out in the garage as it was starting to stink the kitchen out!

I’ve done some more reading today and it appears that some of my potatoes are ready to be dug up as the foliage is dying back – I thought it was a watering issue.  Also I need to cut the heads off my garlic, this will force the garlic to put all of its growth into the bulb rather than the flower.

The broccoli is not looking its best at the moment due to the initial pigeon damage, but most of the other plants are coming on OK.  I’m hoping to plant my peas and beetroot today, we’ll have to see how much time I have.

For some reason I cannot post pictures today, I’ll try to update later.

The plots looking good even if I do say so myself.  For the past few weeks we’ve managed to re-weed most of the plot and also add some more veg.  We’ve add some cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli and broad beans to the site and the pigeons had a field day!  We returned 4 days later to find the plants decimated – we knew something like this was going to happen but just tried to chance it.  We paid the price.  I had to replace 50% of the plants yesterday with new ones from the garden center.

I guess you live and learn.

I then purchased some netting for the plants and using some of my daughters ball pit ball’s made a nice little ‘cage’.

I’ve also added some Globe Artichoke and 2 Butternut Squash – we’ve now run out of space. 

Next year I’m going to plan the space a little better and hopefully take over the back part of the plot as it’s now severely over grown.  We’ll see I guess.

I’ve been lucky the last few days, firstly the weather was great and secondly my parents came on to the plot to help me get a few things in order.

First job was to earth up the ever growing potatoes – I am soooo annoyed I forgot to note what type they are, but they’re looking good.

I wanted a path as I found that I was putting things too close together, I used some weed suppressant and then some shredded wood that the council drop off on a regular basis.

As for the front of the plot you can see the garlic, it looks great can’t wait to try this soon.

 We then had to start weeding again, I’d previous dug this section before but not covered it with weed suppressant material.  So after a few hours we had our area ready for some runner beans.

Fingers crossed I’ll get them in this week, even though I will have to buy most of them from the garden centre.

The Broad Beans are growing now but I’m still not convinced that they’ll come to anything, fingers crossed though.

Been to the allotment again today (also went last Friday)!  The garlic is growing at a rate of knots, I’m very happy.  Also on Friday we had to earth up the potatoes as the foliage was quiet high.  Whilst my dad was earthing up it became clear that my ‘rows’ weren’t up to scratch   There were some places with plenty of earth to use and other places very little.  During my watering visit today I was surprised to find that I needed to earth up again.  The glourious weather we’ve been having has certainly helped the plot grow – this also includes the weeds on the empty part of my area.  Thats this weeks project.

The Broadbeans seem to be doing ok, I’ve a feeling that the next few days it going to be a make or break situation.

On the home front, my 6 tomato plants, 1 Chile plant, roughly 13 Soya bean plant, 12 leeks, 6 aubergine and 7 runner bean plants are growing like good ‘uns.  I do have 2 sweetcorn plants on the go but they look a little ropey, I’m trying to protect them by using pop bottles with the bottom cut off as cloches.  We’ll see.

I’ve got lots of pics I need to post but haven’t got time at the mo, I’ll try to get some more shots tomorrow as I need to pop over and see if the ground is soft enought to dig.

All in all it been a great weekend.

The Brussel Sprout have died.  I think this may have been something to do with the weather, it went from freezing to boiling hot every other day.  I popped round Friday to have a little look and they we shrivelled up.  On a  plus side the garlic still looks good, but no sign of potatoes or broad beans yet – I’ll have a little more patience.

I did get a chance to do some work on the plants growing at home though.  After a visit to Caerphilly Garden center I purchased a some compost, runner bean plants and some bamboo cane.  I’d decided to start growing some Runner Beans in a large pot in the garden, I’m not sure how successful it will be but, hey ho, we’ll see.

25p for 6 brussel sprout plants and 25p for 6 Leeks!  Bargain.  Homebase in Llanishen we’re selling off some of their plants on Saturday and I picked up 3 Brussel Sprouts and 3 Leeks.  My new advisor and mentor (dad) popped over with me about 4pm to get the brussel sprouts in the ground.  The only down side was that the row had to be re-weeded, them weeds are a pain in the posterior.

An hour later I had a freshly weeded area filled with about 9 brussel sprouts in a row.  No pictures as I forgot my phone but I’m hoping to pop over during the week to get the leeks in and also some runner beans planted.  Regarding the runner beans my dad was rather enthusiastic about them and suggested that we create a row or 2 growing up some bamboo canes – definitely like that idea!

Also I bought a Blueberry plant from Homebase and transferred it to a large cheap pot from Tesco.  By all accounts I need to make sure that the soil in slightly alkali as that is what is prefers.  For this I’ll have to purchase a soil testing kit during the week.

One area that I’ve not given enough thought too is the topic of pest control.  My dad recommended using slug pellets, I wasn’t fussed on this idea so he suggested that we could use a beer bath.  Basically we just sunk 5 pots into the ground that was then filled with beer.  The idea is the slugs will go for the beer and drown.  I guess I’ll have to see what state things are in when I go round in the week to see if I need to look for an alternative.

I appologies if this post makes no sense but I’m knackered and need to sleep – tara.

Phew, finally got of my expanding butt and got over to the allotment.  The UK had snow, Cardiff had glourious sunshine!

First job was to turn over some of the soil again, this was going to be easy I thought, until I saw all the couch grass roots everywhere.  So after an hour and a half of weeding again I started to plant the potatoes (I can’t remember for the life of me what type though).  I planted 1 row and it recommended the next row be 28″ apart, I spoke to John from the one plot over and he said there was no need for this – just use 12″.  Excellent, this meant I have 3 rows planted next to the garlic.

Next, Broadbeans – I am sooooo excited about these I absolutely love ‘em.  These I decided to plant near the top of the plot as they can grow a few feet high I believe.

2 rows of broadbeans, wooohoooo.

I’d done enough by this point so I headed for home, but I had a closer look at the garlic first – looking good.

Not been over the allotment for a while, haven’t had a free weekend for ages.  Good thing is though the nights are getting lighter and I can pop over and do stuff.  I’m thinking of going over tonight after work to see what state the plot is in.  Probably overgrown with weeds again!!

Also at home, I’ve started growing some tomatoes in my small cold frame.  They germinated in the house and I moved them out and their about 1 inch high at the mo.  Fingers crossed they’ll still be ok with the frosts we’ve been having and I can get them into a grow bag in early March.

I noticed that my potatoes I bought a few weeks ago are chitting nicely, looking forward to getting them into the ground soon!

I’ve been spending my hard (well sort of) earned cash on the weekend, I’ve invested in some early potatoes – can’t remember what type at the mo. 

Seeds:-

• Courgette.
• Broad Bean.
• Spinach.
• Parsnip.
• Runner bean.

and I’m sure I’m forgetting something!

I also started a tomato plant off in the house just for fun, oh yeah we also bought some chickpea’s that we’re currently soaking – curious to see what they’re like.

 Regarding all of the above purchases I just need to figure how and when to plant them, I also have to put some paths in between row’s to avoid standing on the seedlings.  I think I’ve got to wait till the last frost has passed too, which is a bit of a nightmare with the current weather conditions we’ve been experiencing.  I’m looking forward to getting the potatoes in soon as I’ve been told they help break the soil up even more and can help control the weeds.

Another exciting thing I’ve found on the plot is that the garlic is starting to sprout woohooooo, I’m officially growing something.

Due to lack of activity due to the weather and lack of time I’ve not been able to do much on the allotment at the moment.  This work ‘thing’ is getting in the way too, I need find a job that pays me to work on the allotment.

I’ve been doing some more reading and speaking to people and I’m not sure that I will go with the raised bed system this year, I think I’ll go through this year and see what happens with a normal plot.  I’ve still got a 3rd to dug up but hopefully if the weather is ok this weekend then I’ll get it finished. 

 Had a bargin this weekend just gone, 3 tayberry bushes for £4.50 – I absolutely love them sooooooo sour mmmmmm.