Hello Esther, and anyone else who reads this.

Good news from the plot. Food production is going well, but there's no chance of us getting fat yet.

The potatoes recovered well for their earlier frost related problems, and are now flourishing. Lettuce and salad leaves are going to be ready to harvest soon. Onions are doing well, and the bigger of the two rhubarb has produced another crop (ready for pie tomorrow- yum!) The carrots in the ECB are doing well too. I have got high hopes for them.

Beetroots are still very small, but most survived transplanting. I have sowed the seeds for a whole forest of sweetcorn, but so far nothing has appeared, but it's early days yet. I still haven't dug over the ground where I am going to plant them, so there is no rush there.

The big success of the spring has been radishes. I know radishes are so easy to grow that you give them to kids to get them started, but that doesn't make it any less exciting when I can pop up to the plot to water and come back with a fistful of veg. This year I planted red and purple ones (Amethyst). They have both performed well. The reds look great, and have a good crunch, but the purple ones are nice and peppery.

Welcome to Leon, my first follower. It seems a bit weird having a follower. I generally write this blog to amuse myself, and didn' t know anyone else read it, except for my dad, when I remind him. Anyway, cheers for joining up Leon, and perhaps I can inspire you to get your own allotment!

Things had been going slowly down at the allotment, as I have been busy with so many other things. Just listing them would stress me out, but you know- life and stuff. I have been struggling to find the time just to do basic maintenance, like weeding and watering. I had a further blow to my confidence last week when I found all the tips of my potatoes plants crinkled and black. I spoke to one of the old timers, who confirmed my fears- it was frost. In mid May- I ask you. Apparently it is considered unwise to leave potatoes uncovered before the end of May, which is news to me.
Luckily, the potatoes seemed to have recovered, and with the fine weather we have been having I have managed to commit more time to the plot, and even drag Corinne and the kids down there for a bit of extra help. now things are shaping up well.
This week we have weeded the beds, constructed another raised bed (it still needs digging over), planted out salad vegetables, sowed more radishes, transplanted beetroot seedlings, put straw beneath the strawberries and generally spruced the place up a bit.
We have also eaten the first fruits of our labours to, in the form of some radishes and rhubarb (not at the same time). I planted two varieties of radishes, one a nice shinny red, your classic salad radish, and the other small and deep purple coloured. The purple one has a more intense, peppery flavour, which is my favorite. More of those got eaten at the allotment than made it home to the salad bowl. Well you have got to try these things.
When I first planted the radishes, I did them in two neat rows, one purple, one red, interspaced between the onions. Now Eleanor has emptied both packs of radishes into the carrier bag the seed packets were in, so they are all mixed up together- now I wont know which one I am pulling until it's out of the ground. Ho hum.
The rhubarb we had in a pie, with some apple- very simple, but very tasty. Charlie doesn't eat cooked fruit (I think he is afraid it might be good for him) but Eleanor tooked in, with great gusto.
Charlie seems to have gone off the allotment at the moment- I think he sees it all as a bit of a waste of time, which is sad and disappointing. remember that this is the boy who said, rather pointedly, that "this is our allotment, daddy, and not just yours!". Today however, after some persuasion (some might read that as 'moral blackmail') he was more helpful, helping me build the bed and putting straw down for the strawberries. hopefully he new found enthusiasm might last a bit longer than the weekend.

Little Brother

Good news of the Rhubarb front. The rhubarb plant I thought had died has just shot out a single, tentative red stem. When I dud it up I had noticed that there was some early signs of life, although nothing to compare to the other robust specimen. Thinking that it was worth giving it a shot, I spared it from the compost bin and roughly shoved it into a pot of muddy soil. It rewarded me for my effort, although it has a long way to go to catch up to it's big brother!

Big Brother

Spring Progress Report

I continue to make progress in this lovely warm weather we are currently enjoying- the ground is beginning to dry out a little, and so I have managed to doe some more planting. The two central raised beds are in the best condition. I added the bulk of last years compost bin to these two beds, and dug them over. I planted one with potatoes- Charlotte and Maris Piper. The other contained strawberries that I planted last year. A few of these had died so I replaced them and added some protection in the form of clonches made from pop bottles. Hopefully that will help them catch up. I also had a bit of room left over so I planted up a few first early potatoes- I forget which type.

Corinne helped me dig over one of the beds at the wetter end of the allotment- the ground was still sticky and heavy, and so I added a lot more soil and compost to try to raise the surface up and dry it out. I planted onions in this bed. Normally onions don't like a wet spot, but I am hopeful that they will enjoy that location as it is now high and dry.

Struggling with the heavy, sticky wet soil

Charlie and Eleanor came down to 'help', which seemed to consist of jumping in muddy puddles and playing in the car. Not actually that helpful.

Experimental Carrot Bed

I have finally completed the Experimental Carrot Bed (E.C.B). This is something I blogged about a while ago, and is the natural evolution from my Bucket-of-Carrots experiment last year. The principle is simple- Build a wooden frame to support two deep containers. The legs of the stand must be 2 1/2 foot high. Fill the bottom of the containers with a layer of grit, for drainage, then fill the rest of the container with a mixture of soil and compost. Add a net to keep off the pigeons, sow in some carrot seeds - Autumn Gold, which worked well last year.

The rational for this is that Carrot Fly, the principle pest for carrots, hovers at no higher than two foot, and so will be unable to attack the carrots, as they are above this height. It should also be an effective deterrent to mice and slugs- I hope. It has the added advantage of being a good height to work without bending down. I sieved the soil to remove any roots and small stones- even small stones can deflect a carrot root. leading to misshapen veg.

I covered the container with plastic sheeting to act as a mini-poly tunnel to increase germination, to gain another head start.

As this is an experiment, I also planted a control (ie, a line of carrot seeds in the soil, not enjoying ant of the protection and advantages of the ECB. If the ECB proves a success I will make a much larger one next year. If not, well there's no harm done, as I made it entirely out of recycled and reclaimed materials.

Well it's April already and I have broken my new years resolution to post on my blog every month. In my defence the weather in February was so bad that it put me off, and March has flown by in a whirl of rainy days, over time, weddings and other distractions. But now April is here I am once again reaffirming my vows to post at least on a monthly basis.

I went down my allotment today. It is Easter bank holiday weekend, and I expected it to be very busy, but I was the only one there. I think the forecast of a wet rainy day must have put some people off, even though it was very pleasant this morning (in between the April showers), and perhaps some people were away. I too the chance to take stock and have a good look around at what was growing, and importantly, what wasn't.

I managed to harvest some leeks and spring onions. The leeks, I have to say, have been a bit of a disappointment- and it is quite hard to tell them apart from the spring onions. The bed the leeks were in is very wet and boggy- so presumably that had something to do with it. I have considered turning it into a paddy field and growing wild rice, but I think it might be more practical to build it up into a raised bed. The garlic I planted at the end of last year is sprouting, and one of the Rhubarbs is doing amazingly well (the other has died- I won't be buying any more of that type). Some of the strawberries have survived the winter, but are not really thriving. A few were not so lucky, and I have some gaps in my strawberry bed. Likewise the raspberry bed is filled with nothing but dead canes. The whole bed will have to be dug out, more soil added to improve drainage, then put over to some other purpose.
My plan for April is to plant the potatoes- I have been chitting them on my study window sill. This year I am planting a lot more than last year, with the hope of a much higher yield. I have also decided to stick to well known varieties we like, so I have gone for Maris Piper and Charlotte, as well as a variety of early cropping new potatoes too, just to get us in the mood. I will be planting more strawberries to replace those that died during the winter. I have a new raspberry cane from ALDI that will go where the dead rhubarb plant was. I also have carrots, radishes (two types- purple and red), yellow courgettes and red and white onion sets.

I want to build at least three more raided beds, and my carrot bed, and press on with digging out the paths. I think that I might have to compromise my morals and buy the timber I need to build the raised beds I as I have just not been able to get my hands on exactly the right type of wood for the job. I also need to transfer my compost from one container into the other to help speed up its composting proses. I think I might be busy in April.

I can hardly believe that I haven't updated my blog since September. My new years resolution is to update my allotment blog at least once a month.
In fact, I haven't been down to the allotment much since September, as the result of moving house and having a very bad back. Things are settling down now and so I am keen to get back on with the Allotmenting.
As it's the beginning of a new year, and almost twelve months since we started with out family plot, I thought it was a good opportunity to review the previous years affairs, think about what we have learned.

So, what grew well?

Potatoes- The early potatoes produced a reasonable crop, but were exhausted to soon. I need to plant more variety of potatoes to ensure a more sustained crop throughout the year, rather than a glut in early summer, then nothing.

Carrots- I managed to grow fistfuls of baby carrots in my "Bucket of Carrots", as well as some quite impressive autumn and winter crops in the main beds. Carrots are very popular in this house, and I am thinking of building a raised carrot trough to grow more in this year.

Onions- I grew them from seed, not sets. Many of the old hands gazed longingly at my handsome onions and commented how they never managed to grow them from seed.

Rocket- which I grew from plugs- very tasty and easy to grow.

Sweetcorn- Didn't crop that well, but they were very tasty!

Iceberg lettuce- bought from church fair as plugs- tastes like lettuce should, not like the watery insipid stuff you get form the supermarket.

What didn't grow well?

Leaks- They look more like spring onions

Spring onions- Don't get me started on the spring onions

Broccoli and Cabbage- well I hope the caterpillars and pigeons enjoyed them.

Pumpkins- the size of tennis balls

Sprouts- the size of peas.

Tomatoes- died when we were on holiday.

Butternut squash - grew well but never produced any fruit.

The jury is out on the rhubarb, strawberries and raspberries, as they haven't cropped yet.

Things that I have learned so far (great words of wisdom)

1. don't buy ALDI compost- it might be cheep, and it's probably fine for soil improving, but it add nothing to the nutrients in the soil- This year I will add a better brand of compost.
2. It's better to buy plugs than grow things from seed, with one or two exceptions (carrots and onions). Their more reliable and have already had a head start.
3. More raised beds (and thus more timber) will be needed. My earlier policy of only using stuff I could scrounge to make the beds has meant that I have only managed to build two big beds and two small, but I think I want at least another four large ones this year. I rather like the Mad-Max-post-apocalypse-shanty-town look, but I think that this year I might have to bend the rules and buy some timber. I will, of course, buy sustainably sourced wood, but I cant help but feel I will have let myself down a bit.

So there you go. That was 2009. In 2010 I will be planting more potatoes, oinions, carrots and sweetcorn. I will invest in better protection for my cabbages and broccoli, and I will be having another go at pumpkins. Wish me luck.

Progress report

Harvest time for the onions and the garlic- I pulled up lots, and they are currently drying on my barbecue in the garage. I think that is about the best use for a barbecue grill this summer- so much for the Met office and their fabled 'Barbecue Summer'. They are very smelly, but they keep the vampires away (the garlic, not the Met office).

I planted some strawberries for next summer, and some spinach and Chinese salad for over winter. The sweet corn is still progressing well, and the pumpkin is about the same size as it was last time I reported on it, but has turned a nice orange colour. I hope it is going st swell a bit in the next few weeks, or it is going to be useless come Halloween. Well may be we can eat it instead.

The tomatoes have all died while I was away on holiday. Typically the two weeks we go abroad are the only two weeks without rain all year! Oh well. The raspberry canes don't look too happy either.

Worst by far was the cabbage and broccoli, which I covered up with mesh after they were mauled by marauding pigeons. Now they are being stripped bare by a biblical plague of cabbage white butterfly caterpillars. The cabbage looks more like Swiss cheese, and the Broccoli is strait out of the pages of "The Hungry Caterpillar"!
I took the mesh down- let the bloody pigeons do something useful for a change and fill their boots with big fat caterpillars!

Yummy!

This bunch of carrots is the result of my 'bucket of carrots' experiment. Earlier in the spring one of the old hands down the allotment saw me wandering about with a 12 inch plant pot that I had found in my garage. "You know what you want to do with that?" he said "Sieve some soil and compost into it and sow carrot seeds. Stand it up on a stack of pallets two foot off the ground and keep it well watered." The rational for sieving the soil is to encourage nice straight carrots, as they tend to deflect and fork if the hit even the smallest stone. The idea of standing it two foot off the ground is to prevent attack by carrot fly, which flutters along below that height, apparently operating under the misscomprehension that all carrots grow in the ground.

I followed the old guys advice, and sowed baby carrot seeds (and I sowed another lot when Charlie accidentally kicked the first lot off the wood pile, scattering them to the four winds). I put a Tesco carrier bag over the top to encourage them to germinate, and that was that. The ridiculous rainfall we have had this year meant I hardly even needed to water them. The carrot fly were suitably confused by the wood pile, and we have got a big bunch of sweet baby carrots. Next year we will be carrying this experiment on, perhaps with other varieties, and sowing them at two weekly intervals to give us sustained cropping. This method is easy, successful and, best of all, doesn't involve any digging. You could even do this on a sunny patio.

Not that all the carrots ended up dart straight though. This one is a particular oddity. It reminds me of a mandrake root from Harry Potter.

Bad weather has meant we have made little progress in July. We've had the odd nice day, and managed to get down and do some weeding, but in general the allotment is staring to look a bit wild around the edges.

The blasted pigeons continue to decimate the sprouts- I think the chances of having any sprouts for Christmas is slim. We have just one pumpkin growing- so unless the other pumpkin plants buck up a bit and get on with setting flowers, it looks like we are going to have to fight over it. Currently it is about the size of a grapefruit, and is a nice dark green colour. Onions continue to thrive, and the sweetcorn is now about four foot high and at least one of them looks like it will soon produce a corn! I dug up the last of the potatoes today, and they are very nice but the tubers are a bit firm and need some cooking- next year I might try a better known variety- King Edwards or something like that. Rhubarb, raspberries and beetroot continue to put on a fairly uninspiring show.

One of the surprise star performers is the mint. It's a surprise because I never planted any- at lest ten foot square of the allotment is covered in a dense mat of mint, which thrives in the environment- no doubt it is the left overs from some previous tenants herb garden. People say that mint is a bugger to get rid of, but I haven't even tried yet. Its very pleasant when crushed under my wellies in the evening, as it releases an aromatic scent. It allows keeps any other weeds under controls, so I am going to leave it in peace. At least until I need that area for my own bed. I have pulled up a massive bunch and I am going to make some mint sauce today. I'll let you know how it goes.

We bought a black plastic compost bin with a screw top from the council. It is big and cylindrical, and has been christened the Darlek. I got Charlie and Corinne to carry it down to the allotment. They got some funny looks of passers by but just smiled and waved as if it were an everyday occurrence. We don't need another compost bin, as I have already built two out of pallets, but its is a useful tool store, protecting our spades and forks from the elements.

The only other progress we have made is in the paths- which were overgrown and scruffy looking. I have been digging out the paths, weeds, grass and all, and the lining the pit with black membrane (hand-me-down form my father-in-law, not bought- right on Mr Flowerdew!) then lots of where barrows full of bark chip supplied free of charge to the allotment by the council, who are only to happy to get rid of their shredded hedgerows and bushes. Charlie had been helping me in the endeavor, and although progress is much slower than I would have liked dire to the ground still being completely sodded (and this is august!) it is beginning to look quite nice.

Well, summers here, along with lots of sun and rain. The allotment is doing OK, but the weeds are thriving; it's like a jungle! There is no chance of us winning the best looking allotment 2009.

I have taken to digging the paths between the beds, and lining them with membrane, then covering them up with mashed up bark chippings we get free form the council. It is really hard work, but worth the effort. The rain has prevented me making too much progress with this job, but if it OK tomorrow I will try to press on and do a bit more.



The soil I have dug out from the paths I have piled in one corner of the plot, and I am going to use it to level some of the beds that slope down too much. This should help eliminate the problem of the beds filling up with water in the winter and early spring.





We have had a meal off the allotment! Potatoes, whilst not really thriving, have produced some yield. The radishes were very tasty, or at least the slugs seemed to think so, as they took the lion's share. We had some baby carrots too, which were a bit thin, but very tasty. I got the seeds for the spinach beat free with a magazine, and I planted them up, not expecting much. They have grown quite well, and are very tasty. We even had two raspberries!

The lettuce, however, whist looking lovely, tasted bitter, and had the texture of shoe leather. I am asking around for someone who wants some fodder for a rabbit or similar.

Bloody pigeons!
I have dug another vegetable bed, and planted broccoli and cabbage. I thought about covering the young plants up, but never got round to it before the inundations of rain we experienced last week. A week of unseasonable rain put me off going down to the allotment, and when the sun finally returned, I wandered down to find nothing but the skeletal remains of my plants. Even my sprouts, that I planted last month, have been pecked to the very brink of extinction.
I quite like pigeons. We live in a semi-rural area, and have pretty looking Wood Pigeons around here, not the rough urban 'feral' pigeons. At my garden at home I always leave out a few handfuls of grain each day, and welcome the bloaty grey birds when other, less sympathetic gardeners invest in 'pigeon proof' bird feeders and so on. Which makes it all the more galling when the ungrateful feathered thieves treat our allotment like an eat all you want buffet!
In order to discourage the bird-burglars I have erected a tent of mesh and canes, and have made a bird scarer, cunningly fashioned from bits of string and ribbons of plastic cut from old bin bags. I checked the plants last night, and it looks like I might have done the right thing. The skeletal plants have began to put out new leaves, and so hopefully they should recover. I have learned a valuable lesson- from now own those blasted feathered footpads will have to go else where for breakfast!

I am conscious that a lot of time has passed since my last blog entry, which is certainly not because I have been idle in the allotment. The allotment goes from strength to strength, and it is a busy time of down there. That, coupled with being distracted by some other projects, has meant I have fallen behind with the blogging, and rather than write a massive block, I figure the best bet is to update the 'story so far' in a few instalments.

After building the rhubarb bed, I inherited six raspberry canes off my aunt and uncle's allotment. They had been clearing out an overgrown patch, and rather that throw them on the compost they gave them to me, wrapped in soggy newspaper. I must say I was rather uninspired to receive half a dozen wet twigs, each ending in a gnarled ball of roots, but, in the Bob Flowerdew inspired philosophy of reclaimed timber and salvage, I thought what the hell, and built another bed for them besides the rhubarb.
So far, the results have not been spectacular, but each of the six canes had sprouted a few green leaves, and one or two even have flower buds on them, so at least they haven't died.

That brings me on to my new "Allotment Classifications System" that I have devised for monitoring the success of my growth. Basically it consists of three levels of status for the plants: Thrive; Alive and Died. So far, I would say that the majority of my plants fit into the middle category, Alive, because they are just plodding along. The sweet potatoes that I was so proud of on the windowsill propagator never really made it out of the cold-frame, and are defiantly in the latter category. They are now in a 'better place' (ie, my compost bin), while the onions I grew from seed, and my wife planted, are defiantly in the first category, Thrive, as they are looking splendid, and are attracting envious looks from my fellow allotmenteers.

Easter Sunday has seen some remarkable progress at the Bresnen plot. Dry, if not particularly sunny, weather meant we could spend some serious time down the allotment getting everything ready for spring. If B+Q had been open, or I had the presence of mind to have bought what I needed in advance, we could have made even better progress.

Charlie and I headed down first, and he helped me sow a row of baby carrot seeds, radishes and garlic. He was really keen and engaged, and worked well for about an hour. After this he wandered off to play with my electric screwdriver and some scrap wood, but I was delighted to have his so keen to help- an hour is a long time when your are eight-nearly-nine years old. I can't wait to see how he will be when we actually start pulling veg out of the ground. The radishes we sowed will crop in just four weeks, so I wont have to wait too long.

Eleanor and Corinne came down later. They sowed another row of carrots (Autumn cropping this time). Eleanor's seeds were widely broadcast, to say the least, but she was keen to help too. I was disappointed that I didn't take the camera so I could take a rare photo of Corinne with her hands dirty!

Later Eleanor 'helped' by sitting on a deck chair eating a hot-cross bun while supervising Corrine plant a row of onions. These are the ones I started off in the propagator on my window sill, and which are now very health looking. I received envious looks from fellow allotmenteers, who said that it quite difficult to grow onions from seed.

Corinne wore her new wellies today, for their inaugural allotment session. They're a strikingly fashionable duck egg blue with a pattern of red Labradors all over. For Corinne it is important to look good at all times, even when your grubbing about in the mud.

I extended my rhubarb bed, to accommodate a new plant my mum and dad bought me for my birthday, and added another row of beetroot too.
In theory at least, by summer we should be feasting on radishes, baby carrots, beetroots and new potatoes. I can't wait!

A momentous week this week. We have planted things in the allotment!

Saturday was the eventful day. I dragged the family down to the allotment for the grand ceremony. There, amongst showers of stinging hale and driving Arctic winds we planted two rows of first early 'Rocket' seed potatoes. Eleanor, perhaps wisely given the inclement weather conditions, chose to remain in the car and watch through the window and beep the horn in moral support.

The hale stones and a bitter frost proved to be winter's last spiteful sting. Spring has sprung here, and the weather has turned notability warmer. By Wednesday (my birthday) Corinne and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed down to the allotment for some serious digging. Following some expert advise from an old hander I dug over the seed bed again with a strange hoe, which looked like something quite medieval, rather like the sort of thing you expect to be wielded by and angry mob of peasants. This hoe made short work of the solid soil, enabling me to dig in more compost and sand to improve the clay soil. It was hard work but I confidently expect it will be ready for seeds with just a few more digs over. We also planted a crown of rhubarb.

Good news today. My dad delivered six lengths of old scaffolding planks for my raised beds. I am looking forwards to getting started on the next set of raised beds.

A progress report is overdue, but here's the news form last week. With it being mother's day weekend, we didn't get down the allotment, but the fine weather on Tuesday meant I managed to drag Corinne out to finish digging out the fourth bed. They are all dug over now, but two of them need breaking up a bit.

Bad weather for this week has hampered my progress, but this morning I made best use of a dry, if blustery day, to get two hours in down the allotment. I finished my first raised bed, made entirely from reclaimed pallet wood (reclaimed by me, out of a skip- see earlier entry). Bob Flowerdew will be proud.

I also prepped another bed ready for the seed potatoes. I haven't planted them yet because I am hoping for a dryish day tomorrow, because I feel it is something all the family will want to be involved in. The first planning in the Bresnen Plot deserves to be something of an occasion.

Seedlings continue to trouble me. The cabbages keep dying, and I don't know why. The leeks and onions are progressing very well, and the butternut squash have shot up like triffids! They have been in the compost for two weeks and are already seven inches tall!

What a weekend!
We have had glorious spring weather, and have manged to spend some quality family time down the allotment. Saturday morning Eleanor had swimming lesson, and so Charlie and I were going to go down the plot, but he preferred to go to watch his sister swimming, and so I went on my own.
I was delighted to see that the beds I have started to dig over have dried out a bit, although the rest is still a boggy mess of weeds and mud (With scenes reminiscent of the Somme. Only with out the trench foot. Or the artillery.) I was a bit under the weather and I didn't feel like digging, so I dismantled one of the pallets I pinched out of the skip earlier in the week.
Saturday afternoon saw a dinner date we had arranged cancelled, and so I leaped at the chance of dragging the whole family down to help out down at the plot. Eleanor as weeding, Corinne digging and Charlie was making the sides of the raised bed while I... well, I was over seeing. The art of good management is delegation after all.
Charlie got frustrated at not being able to use the electric screw driver but was able to take that frustration out bashing clods of earth up in the newly dug over bed. He did a grand job too, and the bed almost looks good enough to plant into.
Sunday was fine too, and Corinne took Charlie off to his Grandad's, so I was left with Eleanor. We had some quality father-daughter bonding/retail time down B+Q, buying compost and sand (and ice-cream). Then we moved the seedlings to the cold frame, and Eleanor made herself useful cleaning the cold frame while I forked the sand into the beds to improve the drainage of the heavy clay soil. She lasted a whole twenty minutes before she asked to go home.
That's real progress!

I did my first bout of skip-raiding today.
I was driving past a skip on the drive way of a local house, when I noticed a couple of intact pallets poking out. I pulled over. It took me a few minutes to pluck up the courage to do anything about it- after all, someone rooting though your skip must be weired, right? With a deep breath, I got my story straight and walked up to ring the bell.
No answer. Damn.
Looking around, I could see that there was a "To Rent" sign in the garden and there were no curtains up at the windows. A quick glance up the street to make sure now one was coming, and I furtively skulked up the driveway towards the skip. Still no one challenged me, and so I slipped the pallet out of the skip and carried it over to my car. The point of no return.
I pushed it into the back seat of the car, dived into the driving seat and shot off, heading to the allotment before anyone noticed.
Having been brought up to be law-abiding and honest, it seems strange to take something that does not belong to me, even something that someone had thrown onto a skip and would soon be land fill.
That said, it didn't stop me going back for the second one.
There is no turning back now. I have started on the slippery slope of reclaimed materials. What next: Hey mate, if your not going to use that bath tub I could make a nice water feature?; Hey Buddy, don't throw that old tire out, I could grow potatoes in that. It's a short step from fishing pallets out of skips to becoming a fully fledged member of the Order of the Sandal-wearing Hippy Vegan Flowerdew crowd.
Are you going to throw that away?

Another week has passed since my last blog entry, and the slow but steady progress continues at The Bresnen Plot. In the week I began work on laying out where the raised beds are going to go with string and stakes. As I was working some of the old hands stopped by to give me tips and advice, and as a consequence I ended up changing my design as I was going along. More than once; That said, the benefit of their experience was welcome, and the allotment is slowly taking shape.
As the soil is quite waterlogged I decided to dig a couple of drainage ditches down either sided of the plot, and across the top to take away the run off from the road. Most of the other allotmenters think this is a sound idea, and worth the effort, and we can always use the soil we dig out of the ditch to top up our raised beds.
I spoke to Christine, the lady who has the plot below mine on the slope, and she agreed that the idea of added drainage was good, but then it occurred to me that the nice new raised bed she has just built for her asparagus could end up getting washed away by the run off from my plot. I suggested that she could always plant rice instead, but she didn't seem taken by the idea of a paddy field allotment. We decided that the best bet for both of us is to dig two deep holes at the bottom of my drainage ditch and to fill them with gravel to act as drain-away. Now that I am committed to the idea of only using reclaimed or recycled materials in our plot I have to find some where that sells some suitable rubble or waste material for me to use.



On the topic of recycling, I now find myself peering into skips in the hope of finding a pallet or timber to use on our plot. My wife thinks I am very strange. I have not had much luck so far. We did find one at the back of an old building, but I couldn't fit it in the car because the kids were in the way. I did consider leaving Charlie behind, but Corinne gave me 'The Look', and so I dropped the idea. Shame though.


Work continues this week on the seeds in the propagator. Truth be told, I don't think the windowsill is light enough, but I haven't got much choice. The seeds that have come up have a tendency towards legginess. I have put them out in the garden to catch a few rays on the warm days we have had this week. I have pricked out some of my cabbages, but some others I have left a bit too late, and so I have just thinned these out a bit. Hopefully the next batch I sow I will be able to catch before they run wild.


This morning I went down to our local garden center to get some toy tools and gardening gloves for Eleanor to use down the allotment, in the hope of engaging her in the idea of gardening. Below is a rare picture of Eleanor helping with the weeding. After this was taken she told me it was too cold, and she wanted to go home. She spent the rest of the time playing in the car. Well it's a start.




Today's task was to make a start double digging the ground where the raised beds are going to sit. Blimey that is hard work. We made some progress, but there is lots more to do because the ground is very impacted, and has a heavy, clay consistency. It's going to need lots of good organic stuff adding to it to improve it's consistency. It's good to get the spade in the soil though. It feels like a real step forwards.



It was nice to get down to the allotment as a family, even if only for a short time. Although Eleanor still thinks the whole thing is a bit pointless, Charlie remains very enthusiastic, if not actually that helpful. Even Corinne managed to get her new spade Christened by helping to double dig one of the beds.

Corinne looking windswept and interesting.