Progress

I have spent every spare minute of every day at the allotment since last Tuesday when we took over our new allotment, Plot 114.

I have been going to university in the mornings and then getting home for a few hours of digging and on my days off on Wednesday and Friday I was there from the moment I woke up til it was time to go to bed.

We want everything ship shape and ready to start growing in the next couple of weeks.

The next picture shows you what we have done so far. We have dug out the first three beds on the left hand side which will be home this year to our courgettes, potatoes and beans. The courgette and potato beds have been covered with some old carpet and cardboard to surpress weed growth until we are ready to grow. We've also dug a trench in the bean bed for the runners and have put in a load of grass clippings and horse manure in the hope of getting a fantastic harvest.

We've also started the right hand side and cleared the area where the onion bed will be and the area we have designated for a table and charis for Amy to relax on. The seating area will also be great for my grandparents who love visiting the allotment my Grandad was up on the first day we got plot 114. He used to be the chairman of the allotment society in Derby and had 4 plots of his own and managed over 300 for the society. He is a true fountain of knowledge when it comes to allotment gardening.

In the foreground bed you can see the established rosemary bush which I have cleared of weeds and planted two rhubarb crowns on the other side too. Our allotment neighbour, John, gave us a Rhubarb crown as a moving in present which was very kind of him. John has been on the site for a very impressive 31 years and he is full of great advice. My Grandad and John got on very well comparing tips, advice and stories.

Another picture from the other end..



We have started clearing the soft fruit beds. Amongst Raspberries there are Blackberry and Gooseberry bushes and we also discovered a grape vine which is rather exciting. We need to get a frame ready to help support it's growth for the summer. John gave the vine to the last plot holder as their welcome present and it still remains. He says that almost everybody on the site has a grape vine from him and they produce the best British grapes he has ever come across, so fingers crossed.

If you are observant you might also notice that we have brought the mini greenhouse up to the plot from the house. In here we have some brussel sprouts, cauliflower, brocolli and cabbage in seed trays. We also have some lettuce underway ready for our salad raised beds.

Amy has suprisingly been pulling her weight too. She helped to dig one of the beds and she was also excited to sow the seeds. Amy was definately looking forward to sorting out the shed, and hey presto..

We managed to get the table from my grandparents as they conveniently bought a new one a few weeks ago. The table is covered in our potting essentials as well as our seed potatoes, garlic and onions which we will be planting in the next couple of weeks.

We've also been greeted by our little friends every time we have visited. I thought there was two of them but there definately seems to be three. Here is one of them watching over me as  I clear some weeds from the soft fruit beds..

We have done even more than I have outlined in today's post over the last two days, but I've only just got around to uploading this installment, so you'll have to wait to see the rest.

Thanks for reading. I'm just catching up on my blog list, so if I haven't commented on or visited your blog recently then I will be in the coming days.

Have a good day!

Martin

Our New Home - Plot 114

If you've been reading our blog over the last few days you will have joined us on the rollercoaster ride we've been on. We had an allotment. We had 2 allotments. Shall we have both. Let's just have one. Which one?

All of those questions and topics have been discussed in the previous blog posts, but today's blog is designed to give you an insight in to our new home.

Why did we choose Plot 114 over Plot 16?

It has the contradicting type of soil. (Retains moisture, but has good drainage) - We felt this was far better than the chalky/dusty soil on Plot 16. I took advice from my Grandad the allotment guru and he said he'd rather have 1 allotment like plot 114 than 10 of the plot 16 because you'll probably grow the same amount of produce with less work. Our winning soil was definately one of the winning factors.

Plot 16 had a massive apple tree as it's only feature. Plot 114 has a shed in mint condition. Inside this shed is tools a wheelbarrow and lots of other nifty neceseties like netting and poles. Outside this shed is a composter and 2 water butts. Where Plot 16 had apples, plot 114 has raspberries. 2 whole rows of the things.

Ok, Plot 16 was closer to the water supply. But Plot 114 isn't too far at all from the site water supply and is definately reachable by a hose. With the two water butts too we should be able to use some of our own water harvest if it ever does rain again this year.

The really cool thing about Plot 114 is I can even park my car right next  to my shed! At Plot 16 you have navigate down a narrow alley in between 2 houses to get there, no good for carrying heavy things. At Plot 114 I can park up and transfer heavy and odd shaped things with ease.

So thanks for reading, here are the photos!

Here is a view from our lovely shed! You can see that it needs a bit of work but it definately has a bit of potential. This place is covered in 'useful junk' such as stakes and small raised beds which would be ideal for sowing salad...

The allotment goes up pretty much all of the way to the shed in the background minus a few ft.

At the end of the allotment there are 2 rows of raspberries and blackberries followed by a strawberry bed. Here is a view from the alternative end...

You can see how the soft fruit area is a bit overgrown and is in desperate need of pruning. You can just about see my car poking out from behind the shed too. (Advice regards pruning and mulching raspberries would be greatly appreciated.)

Walking back down to the shed, we meet these two little fellows who were watching us the whole time...

The pair or Robins did give us a good source of entertainment for a while.

Reaching the shed, it's time for a peak at what is inside...

2 hoes, a spade, fork, 2 rakes and a few planks of wood are on the left hand side as soon as you walk through the door.


Well Plot 114 is certainly going to take some work, but we believe we've made the right choice.

We're now feeling a bit better and can't wait to share our adventures with you. From planting the onion sets in a couple of weeks to harvesting pumpkins in September.

Thanks for visiting us and reading our blog we really appreciate it!

Martin and Amy x

Plot 114

Well, I hope yesterday's post left you in suspense.

Well here's the story..

Early last year we applied to join the waiting list for an allotment on any of the local sites. At the time Amy filled out the form and we sent it off dreaming of a smooth process and hopefully in 2012 we would get the call and would be granted a lovely allotment.

Well that day came just under 2 weeks a go when we got the call whilst shopping in Solihull. The town council outlined that they had a plot for us but they had no idea which one! Fantastic. We couldn't wait to see where it was and really get going with it. They were going to let us know within a week and then it would be all spades go! Well on Monday Amy got a letter through the door. We were now the proud tenants of plot number 16! You can see plot number 16 here. We went up to visit with our noses streaming and we were really pleased with our new acquisition.

We got our pencils out and made plans on Monday night. We even popped in to Stratford Upon Avon on Tuesday despite feeling under the weather and bought some raspberry canes and some other essentials that we needed.

It was only when we got home on Tuesday evening that we got a huge shock. At my house was a letter from the town council. We were now the proud tenants of Plot 114. You may be wondering how we managed to be prescribed 2 allotments.

Well when we first applied to join the waiting list we listed Amy's Dad's address on the application form. However, seeing as he has a very long garden which just touches the Parish of Arrow. We were considered to be outsiders and therefore would not be preferred over other people within Alcester parish and would have to pay £5 a year more rent for our allotment.

Being the super scrimper and understanding how much of a demand for an alloment there is I filled in another application form with my address. We told them to withdraw Amy's application and proceed with mine.

Amy was 12th on the waiting list when she joined, and I got an email a few days after my own application saying I was now 12th on the waiting list, so I presumed Amy's application had been dropped as asked.

Well it turns out there was an oversight and both of our applications proceeded. We therefore had a choice of 2 allotments, however they are on completly different sites which meant different soil type, different facilites, structure etc.

We initially thought that Plot 16 was going to be perfect. We thought we were very loyal to it and we liked how I already knew the people either side of us. Well when we visited Plot 114 we didn't think much of it at first but we did quickly fall in love. We did think of having the two of them and then dedicating one to strawberries and pumpkins and doing the majority of our growing on the other. But we decided that this was too much and we wanted to have one 'really good' allotment rather than 2 average ones.

After consideration of the 'really important things' we plumped for Plot 114, our new home.

I will save pictures of Plot 114 tomorrow, so make sure you come back for a look! You won't be disapointed. But here is a small teaser...

Have a good day!!!

Martin

Don't forget to come back tomorrow!!!!

Bye Bye Plot Number 16

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

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 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