Allotment Diary January 2007

Tuesday 30th January
Me, mum and dad went around some garden centres to find our seed potatoes and get some more onion sets.
We bought:
Onion sets – Stuttgart Giant (100) and Red Baron (100).
Potato (first early – Pentland Javelin, second early – Wilja and Nadine, Main Crop Desiree, King Edward and Romano).
Mixed chilli peppers to try out that can be planted indoors from February.
Greenhouse “w” glazing clips.

Monday 29th January
Dad weeded on the bottom plot and mum weeded on the strawberry bed.

Sunday 28th January
Me, mum and dad walked to the plot down the back. The golf course was very wet and it was a good job we had put our walking boots on! We had a cuppa at the allotment using the new cooker and straightened the black matting that the wind had caught again. Luckily everything was still in tact. On the way back it was nice to see that it was still light after 4pm and we found a couple of fence posts and carried them home as well.

Friday 26th January
Mum swept the tall greenhouse and cleared up remaining broken glass, hoed around fruit bushes and a little around strawberries. Dad checked over clips and glass on the greenhouses, retrieved the drain pipe from the water but and fitted it back to the greenhouse gutter and secured with a screw this time so it can't fall in the water butt again. Adjusted fall pipe, drainage from shed. Weeded on bottom plot.

Tuesday 23rd January
Mum and dad went down and harvested leeks and turnips. Was still very wet under foot. Brought home more broken glass.

Sunday 21st January
Mum and dad took some pieces of perspex to mark out ready for cutting to size to fit to the sloping sides. Fastened the sheet of old shed plastic roofing to the greenhouse door with many pieces of wire as a temporary measure until we can find some second hand perspex to do the job properly. Took the perspex home to jigsaw, then took it down and fitted it in place. Tall greenhouse now secure again.

Saturday 20th January
Mum and dad went down and replaced the glass in the greenhouse on the middle plot and assessed what could be done to mend the other one as the glass pieces were the ones with sloping sides without having glass cut to size. Brought home some broken glass.

Friday 19th January
Me, mum and dad went down after yesterday's gales to check things out and found that the door on the taller greenhouse had lifted out of the track at the bottom, the glass in it had all broken, some panes of glass to the right of this door had broken, and a roof pane had broken also. The greenhouse on the middle plot had panes broken at the water butt end, one from the roof and a couple down the side too. Tried to tidy up the broken glass, but was still fairly windy and there was quite a lot of devastation around the allotment site, with sheds blown to bits, blown over, broken greenhouses, frames not just glass. We were all a bit shell shocked. We thought we might look into repairing with perspex instead of glass. Mum and dad looked into it but the cost is very prohibitive.

These pictures are from the allotment site website but I have borrowed them to show what the weather can do!

Click here for full size pictures on the wakefield allotments website (possibly dead).

Wednesday 17th January
Me, mum and dad planted a beech hedge across the middle plot and onto the bottom one to help stop the wind battering the greenhouses and crops so much. Currently it is only about 1 foot high so it needs to do some growing!

Monday 15th January
Mum and dad planted buddleia cuttings along road edge above compost bins and to right side of shed and mum weeded under black matting on top plot and dad weeded on bottom plot.

Sunday 14th January
Dad replaced yet another broken pane of glass in the greenhouse on the middle plot (courtesy of Karen and Alastair) and checked other panes were secure still. Mum painted the shed with two coats of paint. Dad harvested leeks and turnips. Dad weeded and tidied around.

Saturday 13th January
Me and dad went down to check the glass in the greenhouses after the winds again last night. We used the wheelbarrow to bring some more logs from the car park. Later on we went to a garden centre and bought some green beech hedging (25 bare root about 1-1.5ft high at 85p each. These may provide some protection to the greenhouses once established.

Friday 12th January
Mum and dad went down to harvest turnips and parsnips and found that some more glass had broken in the high winds. They replaced two pieces on the greenhouse on the middle plot.

Tuesday 9th January
Mum weeded under black matting at the roadside on top plot and dad weeded seeding weeds and grass on the bottom plot.

Sunday 7th January
Me and mum went down to weed under the black matting at the roadside on the top plot. I also set a fire and burned some of the weed pile, although they are very wet, smoked a lot and not many went. We used a new cooker to have a drink with water from the tap at the plot as well.

Thursday 4th January
Me, mum and dad went and did an hours weeding in the afternoon, also collected some logs, canes and poles from the car park area where there is a lot of rubbish being dumped.

Monday 1st January
Started to plan the vegetables for the bottom plot, paper, pencil and a ruler seem to be the best option. A4 landscape drawing of each half plot using 6mm to 1ft grid seems to work really well.