Allotment Triumphal Arch

Isn’t it lovely?

As to why it’s triumphal – the two bits of arch that aren’t arching (if you see what I mean) were just about the first things we took to 201 seventeen months ago! And today, while I was minuting an allotment committee meeting, Himself installed the arch and made the archy bits that go over the top. So possibly it should be a triumphant arch rather than a triumphal one ...

On one side I’m going to plant purple/black Ipomeas and on the other, Achocha: a sort of climbing vine from South America that produces small, spiky cucumber-like fruits!

Labels: allotment -leeks allotment-seeds, allotment-achocha, allotment-arch, allotment-structures

Allotment plots, pots and publicity

A lot of our plots are being divided in two, so that we can double the number of people getting to grow their own. It’s very exciting and involves lots of red and white striped tape being put up where the plots are halved – which makes me think of crime scenes … And we are getting a lot of younger allotment-holders, as you can see!

A question about pots? Has anybody tried these devices that make plant pots out of old newspapers? We have a problem every year with not having enough pots for our spring germination programme, but then for the rest of the year we have towers of empty pots that fall on us whenever we open the shed door. Degradable pots are a nice idea but pretty damn expensive if you use several hundred every year, as we do … so what do you do when you’re germinating vegetable seeds?

And publicity – we are very excited to have been mentioned in Kitchen Garden magazine this month!

Labels: allotment -leeks allotment-seeds, allotment-holders, allotment-pots, kitchen garden magazine

Greenhouse growing in February

It’s all about germination right now. Looking back on last year, when we planted 50 pots of peas (that 150 pea seeds) and nearly all of them were in strong growth by the last week of February, I’m a bit shocked to realise that this year we’ve planted the same number of pots, but with only two seeds each, and several weeks later, so that today we only have a dozen pea seedlings, rather than the hundred plus that we had this time last year. And I’m trying not to panic about it, because actually, it got really difficult last spring to get all the pea seedlings in the ground in good order – the weather turned wet and nasty and so we ended up having mammoth planting sessions that were back-breaking and even then a few peas began to falter in their pots and had their growth checked. We said we’d start later this year and so we have … but it feels all wrong not to have vast acres (okay, vast square feet) of growth going on under glass!

The first of the leek seedlings have appeared – I always forget how miniscule they are for the first few days of life. We didn’t plant enough leeks last year, so I’m hoping that this year we can really get enough in the ground to carry us right through the winter.

Last year’s saved nasturtium seed has rotted off – very strange. I’ve never had that happen before.

Three tiny Nantes carrot seedlings have poked their heads through the compost in their container. They’ll be grown in the greenhouse in the ten inch deep pot they’ve been sown into, to give us very early fingerling carrots.

The picture has been drawn in the window of a neighbour's shed - can't work out if it's graffiti or bored half-term grandchildren getting creative!

Labels: allotment -leeks allotment-seeds, allotment-greenhouse