Allotment Diary July 2005

Sunday 31st July
Went am to weed some more muck heap and pm to plant some firethorn cuttings in compost. After lunch went to garden centre at Middlestown and bought a large plastic tub for some mint to go in for £2.25. Then went to the garden centre at Durkar and bought two pear trees for the plot for £10 each (reduced from £20) and a mint for £1.

Friday 29th July
Been a bit drier today, went down pm with dad on bikes to check the greenhouse. It was still well watered and the water butt is now full up to the tap. Harvested some spinach leaves for tea.

Thursday 28th July
Been raining all day, on a plus note it should be helping to fill up the water butt from the greenhouse, will just have to wait and see how full it has become.

Wednesday 27th July
Go down in the afternoon to fit some chicken wire to the window to stop birds getting into the greenhouse, hopefully we wont come back to birds trapped between the window and the wire! Set up a fall pipe for the water butt by buying one from B&Q, the water butt is on bricks and a flagstone to ensure that we can get the watering can or a bucket under it.

Tuesday 26th July
Plant some more seedlings from home including 5 cauliflower, 3 spinach and 3 kohl rabi. The seeds in the greenhouse including lettuce, cabbage and swede have mostly germinated. All three of us weeded and began to rake out the muck heaps on the middle plot. After tea go down with mum on bikes to see how easy it is, there was a bird in the greenhouse so we let it out.

Monday 25th July
Mum and dad weed while I lay four small flagstones outside the greenhouse and then I weeded a little. We spent a couple of hours again, its surprising how much vegetable waste we have for the composter!

Sunday 24th July
Go down and assemble compost bins that are made from wire frames. Feeling a bit off colour and have sore throat etc. Feel a bit better because the radish and lettuce are germinating and I can see the leaves \o/

Saturday 23rd July
Begin to plan the plot properly using Visio 2003 so that I can see how big the plants will be and how many I will get etc. when I get to planting! Do a couple of hours weeding am, water and plant 6 lettuce, 8 turnips, 8 cabbage and a row of swede.

Friday 22nd July
Go down before lunch to water again and then go down before tea to water and plant some more firethorn cuttings as well as trying another route to the allotment! I have decided with my parents that the shed should be put on hold as it is going to cost far too much money to get one new and it would be a lot of hassle trying to get one second hand.

Thursday 21st July
All weeded for a couple of hours, muck heaps and on the plot. Later we went to B&Q for some compost and some Roundup weed killer to treat some heaps that have bindweed in them. It’s not much fun trying to remove bindweed so we will resort to chemicals for this small area! Before tea we went to plant some lettuce, cauliflower and swede as well as some firethorn cuttings which can be used to form a security barrier if they take well.

Wednesday 20th July
Decide where to put compost and manure heaps on the plots. The fire from Monday was still hot enough to chuck something on and it catches fire even though it has rained a couple of times! We all weeded quite a bit more for an hour or two (I was weeding the piles of waste that people have piled up along the edge of the plot when it was disused so that we can get the car onto it). Went to allotment meeting at the Shepherds Inn in Horbury, security and grants were discussed as well as creating a composting toilet area and compost heaps! Pub seems really nice as well since they serve Timothy Taylor Landlord.

Tuesday 19th July
In evening go to water seedlings and seeds I planted.

Monday 18th July
Have a big burn with a small bonfire, took all morning and we still have more to cut down! In the evening plant out some seedlings and plant some fresh seeds. The seedlings were Courgette, Kohl Rabi, Turnip, Cabbage and Pea, the seeds were Radish and Lettuce (two varieties of each) and two rows of peas.

Saturday 14th July
Mum and Dad put matting down in greenhouse and move benches inside.

Friday 13th July
Put glass into greenhouse while dad helps and does some weeding. Buy some weed suppressing matting/fabric for inside the greenhouse.

Tuesday 12th July
Move greenhouse and benches in trailer to allotment site and assemble the greenhouse frame. It is definitely easier to take them apart, but it didn’t take that long to put it back together.

Monday 11th July
Dismantle greenhouse and move from Alice’s garden into ours. Managed not to break any panes of glass, hopefully it will go back together just as easily!

Sunday 10th July
Went for a few hours in the morning, took out bigger roots and began to level an area for the greenhouse. Looked at B&Q and the 7ftx7ft shed looks to be built quite well and only costs £229.

Friday 8th July
All went to allotment until lunch to clear more brambles, plot 2 is now well on the way although it all needs weeding thoroughly!

Thursday 7th July
Talked to Alice next door about her greenhouse and she says she isn’t using it and that I can have it for the allotment. I think I will pay her though because they cost so much new!

Tuesday 5th July
Went for a few minutes to plant some brassicas what that been growing in the flowerbeds at home (although not growing very quickly compared to those in my small veg plot at home). Rang about a free water butt and collected it from horbury, it just (only just!) fit in the car boot to take it down to the plot.

Sunday 3rd July
Went am for a few hours again with mum and dad to clear, weed and get rather hot! We planted a courgette plant and spinach plants (that there was no room for in the garden) as well as 5 tomato plants (free from my sisters’ school). In the afternoon some brassicas were moved from the flowerbed into pots for taking to the plot. Some peas (42), cabbage (4), lettuce (4+4), kohl rabi (4), turnips (4) and swede (4) were planted in pots.

Saturday 2nd July
Went am. Mum and dad weeding and clearing with me. Did quite a lot! We also harvested some raspberries from a large, hugely overgrown and rather prickly raspberry bush that I will have to remove. Luckily there are some thornless ones on the third plot.

Friday 1st July
Went in the morning, did about 2hr 30min weeding, made some more progress. It is surprising quite how much of it there is to weed!!!