Monday 4 May 2009

Busy bank holiday weekend

From this (taken when I got the allotment - 08APR09)...

...to this :) - click the photo to see what's where.

Hooray!! It's starting to look like a proper allotment now! Must say a MASSIVE thankyou to my mum and dad for helping me do all we did in 3 days. We got so much sorted and all my plants are now in the ground/re-potted in the shed as well as a lot of tidying up. So, here's a tour of what we did...

...the above photo shows runner beans planted in the 'empty' cane row, garden peas (feltham first) planted at the other end of the row. Sweet peas planted on 3 tripods on the left, a vine on the far right tripod. Charlotte potatoes planted in the top left of the bed, red onions (red baron) in a single row next to them, next to that broccoli and cauliflower (both netted).

This is the same bed from the opposite corner. Netting not perfect but hopefully it will protect the brassicas until they are properly established then I'll redo it. Again, click the pic to see what's where.

We also got another much smaller bed dug. This one's about 1.5 x 4m. It's directly infront of the shed/waterbutts/seat and is going to be my herb and flower bed. Lots went in here. More herbs to go in eventually. Click the pic for another what's what.

You can see the flower & herb bed outside the shed window. I put the tomato plants (money maker) in a grow bag (to be pruned when they grow bigger) and mum potted on 4 aubergine plants (money maker), 4 basil seedlings and 3 delphiniums. These will all stay in the shed for now. Here are a couple of closer pics...

money maker tomatoes

aubergine, basil, delphiniums

I also had a quick hackback behind the shed. I needed somewhere to put the wheelbarrow and better access to the 2nd compost bin there (black one). The pond needs some light too. I'll get onto clearing that out more sometime. This is what behind the shed looked like before...

...and here is the same space now. Seems so much bigger. :)

More surprises around the front of the shed too. This, we think, is a kiwi vine. Not sure if it will bear fruit...

...however, mum and I trained the vine around the shed after removing some of the junk on the shed (a plastic planter and some wall hanging baskets). There were also a lot of tree shoots to remove which must be growing from the roots of the tree above the seat/shed. They are going to be annoying!

Got some swiss chard planted too - bright lights. Just enough space for this between the asparagus and spring onions already in. Looks a little limp as this pic was taken just after we planted it.

And finally, my super duper helpers clearing the strawberries and soft fruit of pesky couch grass. Bless their cottons. :)

We all have earned a bloody good rest now!

4 comments:

Kella said...

Wow! you guys got a lot done, I was busy too and I've got aches and pains to prove it :).

Are you planning to grow the tomatoes in the shed or will you be moving them outside when the warmer temperatures are more consistent?

Steph said...

not sure about the tomatoes. might need to construct something to keep them happy if i put them outside. will see if the nice 'bbq' summer promised by the met office happens!

i am aching all over too :P

Kella said...

what about something like this for your tomatoes

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MINI-GROWBAG-GREENHOUSE-FOR-PEPPERS-CHILLIS-TOMATOES_W0QQitemZ190304532789QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Home_Garden_Garden_Structures_Fencing_CV?hash=item190304532789

it should be easy to build once you get some polythene and stakes or if you bought one you could secure it further by adding stakes to the four sides and tieing them to it. But then again monemaker i believe is an outside variety and should be able to cope with the british weather.

Jo said...

You've all worked really hard. I'm sure your mum and dad will be repaid with lots of veggies and fruit from the plot.
I'm ashamed to say that I didn't do a thing on my plot on bank holiday Monday. It rained all day. Typical bank holiday weather!