It saddens me to say that we are no longer the tenants of plot number 16. There has been a bit of a mix up and basically it is no longer ours.
We were so excited to finally have plot number 16, and to have to give it up almost immediately is a real shame.
We really enjoyed the 1 day we were the tenants of plot number 16.
A more indepth post will follow tomorrow..
Martin
We are Martin and Amy and we live in a cosy Warwickshire market town where we enjoy growing our own fruit and vegetables on our allotment and we also keep chickens in our garden. We both love cooking and especially baking bread. Welcome to 'our good life'..
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Monday, 27 February 2012
Plot number 16
It's been 10 days since we last posted. We've been agonising during that period because of the wait for the town council to give us a ring and tell us which plot was ours. We had been drawing up fantasy plans in our head and on paper, and today the letter came telling us which plot was ours.
I could not believe it when I saw which plot we had. Plot number 16.
The reason why we could not believe it is because it is directly in fron of my old alloment. Plot number 17. During my 3 years of allotmenteering on the site plot number 16 had never, ever been touched. It was just a weedy patch with a big fruit tree on it.
It was strange going back to the site today, I expected to walk straight past plot number 16 and on to plot number 17. It looks like in the 2 years I have been away from the site, plot number 16 has remained deprived of the sight of a spade the whole time. Something will be changing over the next week or so when we both recover from our winter colds.
Let me introduce you to plot number 16...
The plot starts at where I am standing and goes all the way past the big tree and then back to the greenhouse that used to be mine. It is a good sized plot, very narrow, but a good size. You can see the two plots either side of me are tended to so mark the boundary. There is a very small path (one foot in front of the other) between the plots.
The huge tree, I think if I remember correctly is an apple tree. But which variety, I do not know. It will be interesting to see what fruit starts forming on there this summer. Here is the view of the plot from the tree down to the houses...
Despite feeling ill, we've been drawing up plans and shopping lists so we can get started quickly...
We really feel that a shed is an absolute essential for the plot, it is somewhere to store tools, shelter from rain and to do all of the small potting jobs in the summer. We are going to ask for permission to erect a shed from the town council tomorrow when we go to pay the rates for the year. For £25 per year you have to admit this really is a bargain. However, it has gone up £9 since I vacated plot 17 just over 2 years ago, which is quite an inflation!
I've written a comprehensive shopping list and a production target for each vegetable (You can tell I study operations management at university) and I am going to work out how much it will cost us to start up the allotment this year against how much the worth of our veg should be.
We are both completly excited about the project and can't wait to get our hands dirty as soon as we rid of this cold!
Thanks for stopping by and reading. With spring now in the air we hope to bring you lots of interesting updates over the coming weeks about the advances on the plot!
Martin
I could not believe it when I saw which plot we had. Plot number 16.
The reason why we could not believe it is because it is directly in fron of my old alloment. Plot number 17. During my 3 years of allotmenteering on the site plot number 16 had never, ever been touched. It was just a weedy patch with a big fruit tree on it.
It was strange going back to the site today, I expected to walk straight past plot number 16 and on to plot number 17. It looks like in the 2 years I have been away from the site, plot number 16 has remained deprived of the sight of a spade the whole time. Something will be changing over the next week or so when we both recover from our winter colds.
Let me introduce you to plot number 16...
The plot starts at where I am standing and goes all the way past the big tree and then back to the greenhouse that used to be mine. It is a good sized plot, very narrow, but a good size. You can see the two plots either side of me are tended to so mark the boundary. There is a very small path (one foot in front of the other) between the plots.
The huge tree, I think if I remember correctly is an apple tree. But which variety, I do not know. It will be interesting to see what fruit starts forming on there this summer. Here is the view of the plot from the tree down to the houses...
Despite feeling ill, we've been drawing up plans and shopping lists so we can get started quickly...
We want to have 6 beds on our allotment and we will rotate the crops grown in each bed every year to ensure good crop rotation and ensure we care for the soil correctly and avoid diseases building up. The six beds will be for soft fruit (which will be permanently fixed), squash, potatoes, roots and beans, brassicas and alliums. The top 1/5 of the allotment will hopefully be slabbed with the shed and a table positioned there. There will also be a couple of compost bins and a raised bed for growing salad leaves and a few lettuces. The beds will be divided by maintained grass paths to enable easy access around the plot.
We really feel that a shed is an absolute essential for the plot, it is somewhere to store tools, shelter from rain and to do all of the small potting jobs in the summer. We are going to ask for permission to erect a shed from the town council tomorrow when we go to pay the rates for the year. For £25 per year you have to admit this really is a bargain. However, it has gone up £9 since I vacated plot 17 just over 2 years ago, which is quite an inflation!
I've written a comprehensive shopping list and a production target for each vegetable (You can tell I study operations management at university) and I am going to work out how much it will cost us to start up the allotment this year against how much the worth of our veg should be.
We are both completly excited about the project and can't wait to get our hands dirty as soon as we rid of this cold!
Thanks for stopping by and reading. With spring now in the air we hope to bring you lots of interesting updates over the coming weeks about the advances on the plot!
Martin
Friday, 17 February 2012
We're going to need a few more seed potatoes...
We only bought 21 seed potatoes for our small little patch.
But today we had the news that we're getting our own very big patch. The town council called to say they had an allotment with our name on it. It will be ready for us from the end of next week which of course is very, very exciting.
We have a lot of plans running through our head already. We can't wait to put the spade in the ground for the first time very soon!
Martin
But today we had the news that we're getting our own very big patch. The town council called to say they had an allotment with our name on it. It will be ready for us from the end of next week which of course is very, very exciting.
We have a lot of plans running through our head already. We can't wait to put the spade in the ground for the first time very soon!
Martin
Saturday, 11 February 2012
Bread of Heaven
Well that certainly tasted good.
The other day I thought I would teach Amy how to bake bread. It is something that I really enjoy doing and the taste and texture of a home made loaf is far grander than a shop bought one. I've really got the knack of it now and would never use a bread machine again.
I realised I give my bread quite a thorough seeing to in the kneading process, but Amy seemed to show a lot more gentle love and affection to the dough. She certainly has the right knack anyway because it tasted absolutely scrumptious and it looked good too...
I look forward to her baking many more loaves for me in the future.
Delicious!
Martin
The other day I thought I would teach Amy how to bake bread. It is something that I really enjoy doing and the taste and texture of a home made loaf is far grander than a shop bought one. I've really got the knack of it now and would never use a bread machine again.
I realised I give my bread quite a thorough seeing to in the kneading process, but Amy seemed to show a lot more gentle love and affection to the dough. She certainly has the right knack anyway because it tasted absolutely scrumptious and it looked good too...
I look forward to her baking many more loaves for me in the future.
Delicious!
Martin
Friday, 10 February 2012
Frustration
There is nothing more frustrating than wanting to do something, but not being able to do it.
We're at war with the elements at the moment and this is what we are having to fight against...
A soft sprinkling of 2cm of snow surprised most of us last night. However at least it wasn't the 10cm that we had been promised last night on the weather forecast. Amy and I watched the snow sprinkle over the road from our bedroom window until midnight and we envisaged waking up to a collossal level of the white stuff. However just the small sprinkling was all that was left at 8am but it did pick up again at 9am and it hasn't stopped lightly snowing ever since.
The reason why I am so frustrated is that I really want to get a move on with preparing the ground for the new growing season. I've already dug over half of the patch and covered it with organic material but because of the snow at the end of last week I have not been able to do the other half. The last thing I want to do is to lock the extremly cold ground temperatures in to the soil which could of course prohibit this years plants from growing as quickly as we would like.
In this situation the best thing to do is definately to wait. But I'm just so eager, so I'm going to have to find something to do inside instead. It's a good job I bought a mini propagator last week then isn't it?
Have a good day, and keep warm!
Martin
We're at war with the elements at the moment and this is what we are having to fight against...
A soft sprinkling of 2cm of snow surprised most of us last night. However at least it wasn't the 10cm that we had been promised last night on the weather forecast. Amy and I watched the snow sprinkle over the road from our bedroom window until midnight and we envisaged waking up to a collossal level of the white stuff. However just the small sprinkling was all that was left at 8am but it did pick up again at 9am and it hasn't stopped lightly snowing ever since.
The reason why I am so frustrated is that I really want to get a move on with preparing the ground for the new growing season. I've already dug over half of the patch and covered it with organic material but because of the snow at the end of last week I have not been able to do the other half. The last thing I want to do is to lock the extremly cold ground temperatures in to the soil which could of course prohibit this years plants from growing as quickly as we would like.
In this situation the best thing to do is definately to wait. But I'm just so eager, so I'm going to have to find something to do inside instead. It's a good job I bought a mini propagator last week then isn't it?
Have a good day, and keep warm!
Martin
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