Planning Out The Digging

Firstly, a 'Hello' if you have come here after I was brave enough to post about my blog on Beansprouts.

I have been up to the allotment since my last post, but I forgot to take the camera. The picture wouldn't have been very interesting though. Imagine lots of grass and weeds, with a bare patch of earth in the middle. And I was oh so proud of my digging too.

The amount of digging that I need to do is huge, and time is running out to get it done! I can only really get up to the allotment every other weekend, assuming that nothing else is happening. Unfortunately, there is a lot happening over the next few every other weekends. This means that I may have to be choosy over what I can plant as I am simply not going to have dug over enough ground to get it all in.

And so I need to plan out what seeds I have and when they need to go out so that I can dig accordingly. Boring, but I got to get it straight in my head.

• Potatoes will be going out quite soon, so I need somewhere for them.

• The carrots and leeks also need to go out fairly soon, so they are next in the list. The patch that I have been digging over had tomatoes in it this year, so I can't put the potatoes there. Leeks and carrotts have just had their new home identified me thinks.....
  

• The seeds that need propogating are (in order of sowing): Chilli peppers, tomatos, sweetcorn and pumpkin. They can all go in the allotment from May/June time, so that gives me some breathing space for getting some digging done. Will the first early potatoes be done by that time? I think so. Woo hoo! Less digging!

Okay, planning done. Now will everything run to plan? Course not.......

Spike Me No More......

.....or at least not until it's time to pick the gooseberries!

Yep, I've pruned them. That's another job off the list. It was a glorious day on Wednesday morning - really sunny. So I thought to myself that I would enjoy the sun and get the job done. I drop the lil'gal off at playgroup, trot down to the allotment, get out the car, and the sun goes away. Predictable really, but never mind.

Here's a pic of my pruned bush (oh er missus!):

Pruning those Spiky Things

Got up to the allotment today and did a bit of pruning. Only 20 mins worth, but 2 of the gooseberry bushes are done. Goddamn they are spiky! I'm supposed to aim for an egg-cup shape so that it is easier to pick the gooseberries. Well, I've tried, but I'm not sure how successful I've been. Anyway, I have lots of new scratch marks over my hands for my efforts, and the mother of all bushes yet to be pruned.....

Picture coming!

3rd Stint

So today I feel like I have actually made progress with the goosberry bushes - yay!


The picture isn't very clear as it was getting dark, but you can actually see the bushes. So now all I have to do is to prune them, and dig over all the rest of the allotment.

Oh well, at least I get to plant something soon!

2nd Stint!

Today I spent about an hour on my second stint at the gooseberry bushes of doom! Here's my progress:


I have to post progress, otherwise I'll just lose heart at how little progress I seem to be making! Can you see the difference? (See how I talk as though someone is listening?!)

I also pruned the grapevine and blackcurrant bushes. The blackcurrant bushes only needed dead wood taking off, and there wasn't very much of that. Here's a picture of the grapevine, just for the record:

I need to weed around it sometime. Yet more digging. I hope the pruning is done OK. It's not quite how I thought it would be. Oh well, we'll see.

Garlic in the Ground

The Garlic that arrived recently had instructions to put into the ground by early december, or else in the new year. I don't trust me keeping it until the new year, so I wanted to get it in now. Once again though, events are getting in the way! Lil'Girly came down with a bug, so playgroup was out last week. It's Christmas events for the next 2 Wednesdays, so I have to give up a Monday to get the Garlic in. So instead of Christmas shopping, I headed up in the freezing cold (and it was *cold*!) to lift up the mixed lettuces, and put the garlic in.

The garlic variety is 'Solent Wight', and when planted in November it should be ready in July - once the foliage turns yellow and dry. I'm assuming that I can take a couple of the bulbs from this years crop as next years starters. So much learning!


Here's a picture of them before I covered up the cloves. I hope they are far enough apart. I also put them possibly a bit too far in the ground, but the onions sets are showing bulb so I have put the garlic a little lower.
The garlic is in next to the big gal's wall flowers. One of them is flowering - in December! Awww.

The onions are growing well - here's how far they've got. I'm really pleased to think that I might get something useful from the allotment this year!

Next Year's Seeds!

Here's next year's seeds - it's just so exiting!!! I know, I'm going a bit overboard with it all, but I am excited!!

For next year I have carrots (on a seed tape - I'll see how it goes), peppers (DH's choice), sweetcorn (extra sweet - I'm hoping to convert Big Girlie), pumpkins, tomatoes and leeks.

I also have some garlic that's in the picture too, and some seed potatoes comings. Oh, and some Rhubarb!

I'm so exited, and I just can't hide it, La La la la la etc

I just hope I get enough allotment dug over to get it all in!!