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.