Over Winter Onions & Garlic

I've finally got round to planting the onion sets and garlic that I bought from the Allotment Association shop a couple of weeks ago.  I've postponed digging up the rest of the potatoes, and cleared the corn and weeds on my onion spot for next year.  Part of my plan for the allotment is to limit bed width to 1.2m wide, to limit my having to compress soil.  This theory is working already!

There's been a couple of nights of frost earlier this week, so I was worried that I'd left the onions a little late.  I found a new cloche tunnel in the shed, so I built that over the onion and garlic.  Hopefully that'll protect them from frost and animals pulling the sets out.  Fingers crossed it doesn't blow away!

Mystery Fruit Bushes Comclusion

Blackberries and Gooseberries.  Good stuff!

Mystery Fruit Bushes

I've got a couple of bushes in the fruit and wild flower section that I'm not sure what they are.  I'm assuming fruit bushes.

This one I'm thinking is gooseberry...

















Not sure about the one below.  It's got a frame over it, which I imagine is for netting.  Redcurrents maybe??

If you have any ideas, please let me know!

1/2 way there...

Spent a few more hours at the allotment this afternoon.  It's amazing how a couple of cold nights have killed off the courgette, squash and runner bean plants.  Good thing I got all of the vegetables off them earlier this week.  I rescued the giant green squash-pumpkin thing today!

I also continued with my potato plot digging mission.  I'm half way there.  I managed to dig a whole row between potato mounds, and found a rhythm!  No potatoes made things much easier!  That means that things should be easier in other beds in the coming weeks.

Planning

I spent some time this morning planning what I'm going to plant at the allotment over the coming year, and where everything is going to go.  It feels good to know what I'm doing!  Also sorted a list of jobs to do, in order of priority.  Once I've got all the potatoes out, I shall have to get started on making way for the over-wintering onions and garlic.

Progress!

An evening's digging

I spent a couple of hours digging again this evening.  Rhythm would be easier to find if I didn't keep chopping potatoes in half, and having to stop to extract them all!

Shed news

I also got the key for the shed today.  There's loads of netting in there - birds and animals beware!

Vegetables already!

Pete and I popped up to the allotment this evening to rescue the veggies that are still there from the frost.  We got quite a haul...  Beans. squash and huge courgettes.  There's still a green pumpkin style thing up there, beet-roots, parsnips, leeks and all those potatoes.

Bargains!

I didn't manage to get to the the allotment today - too much housework to do (which didn't give my aching back a rest!).

On the plus side, I did manage to visit the Trading Shed at the allotments, and got garlic and over-winter onions at a fraction of the seed catalogue list price.  Hurray!  Now, I must finish digging that potato bed so that I can plant them.

What have I got?

With Pete packed off to London for the afternoon, I headed down to the allotment.  First job: working out what I've got!

Shed and two water butts.  There's a bench on the other side of  the shed too.  I've not got the keys for the shed yet, so I don't know what mysteries lie in there!  Hopefully I'll get them on Monday.

Compost heap.  The structure is leaning a bit, so I'll need to fix that once I've emptied it.  On closer inspection I've noted that the majority of the contents have broken down sufficiently so that I can use them over the winter.  I am pondering how to convert this to a two section heap - I'll get on Freegle and see if I can acquire some more pallets.

The bed at the far end of the plot (behind those tall weeds) is covered in black sheeting, so is probably weed free.  It's a narrow strip, and I'm tempted to leave it as it is for now, as the other four (much bigger) beds will be more than enough room for me!  The weeds are on the path between the beds. 

This bed isn't in too bad condition.  It's got leeks (at the far left of the photo) and some onions (right side), but these have gone to seed, so I'm not sure if they'll be ok.

This bed has all sorts in it!  There's runner beans, parsnips and beetroot (I think) as well as lots of stuff that's gone past, including some rather impressive bolted lettuce!  At the front right of the photo you can see an arch with blackberries growing over it.  Unfortunately most of them have gone past too.

Here we have GIANT courgettes, and squashes.

And, the final big section: what turned out the be a bed of potatoes.  I decided to work on clearing this one first, and am hoping to get some green manure seeds from the trading shed.

This bed runs the length of the plot and contains strawberries, raspberry canes, a couple of things that I have identified as yet, roses and lots of wild flowers.

So the digging begins

I focused on the potato bed.  First task: removed as many of the weeds as possible.  Second task: dig the section over, removing potatoes as I go.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so I quite enjoyed my time on the plot.  Unfortunately I found a small amount of bindweed.  I took out what I found, and if any grows back I'll have to judge what I do - more digging or systemic weed killer.  I'm on an end plot and the bindweed seems to be coming from the grassy area next to me, which might make it had to eradicate manually.

The soil is very clay-y, so I could dig out great clods of the stuff.  A lot stuck to the potatoes!  I didn't get very far with my digging over; I didn't find the rhythm that apparantly is easy to get into during such tasks!  I shall return tomorrow to finish off.

My handiwork thus far.  The front right section has sage and thyme in, so I've left that.  I only manage to dig over the front left area.

Potato haul so far.  I've had to compost 4 times this amount, as they've gone rotten, or are completely green, having not been earthed up.

Just enjoyed a dinner which included some of the above potatoes!  I didn't expect to be doing that so soon after taking on a lottie!

And so the Big Allotment Adventure Begins

Last week I go the call to say that I had made the top of the allotment waiting list!  I'd only been on the list for a month; renewal time is October, and as a Brickhill parish resident, I get priority!

So I went down this afternoon to select my plot.  I got the choice of two: 10 poles of grass, or 10 poles of land that, up until recently, had been well managed.  The latter option had a shed, water butts, beds in place, and fruit and veg growing (albeit somewhat wildly).  Guess which I went for!

I'll get keys later in the week, so hopefully I can start digging over the weekend!

Cloche Tunnel...

It's still there.. and the garlic have started growing!