Busy watering again

It was a lovely week last week. No rain and temperatures that meant sweaters were discarded and shade was sought.

The downside  - of course there always is a downide - was that we had to spend much of our time hauling watering cans around the plot. According to an app on my phone, on Sunday  I walked 2.7 km, (just over one and a half miles), whilst at the allotment and most of that was spent watering.

We put off most of our planting as we thought it was easier to look after the plants at home  but we needed to plant out our second batch of sweet corn. At least the soil wasn't too dry to make digging a hole difficult and to give the plants the best chance of settling in, I filled the planting holes with water before planting. Th plants were also given a good water after planting and so far they have survived.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

It feels like spring - or even summer

The weather was very kind last week. We seemed to have skipped spring and jumped straight into summer. 

We have had four very productive afternoons at the allotment as well as some long walks with Ruby. This means this post is longer than usual but if you want to read it in two parts, there is a natural break which I will indicate when you arrive there.

One down side of sunny, dry weather is that the watering can is busy again but I mustn't complain. 

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Beds are starting to fill up but steadily

We spent three busy afternoons at the allotment. Martyn, spent time strimming as the grass is growing at an alarming rate. The conditions are ideal for both grass and weed growth so Martyn strimmed and I weeded.

We did, however, fit in quite a lot of other things too.  

 

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Swan Lake

We spent much of the time tidying and strimming the grass  - nothing that really lends itself to interesting photos. The conditions are ideal for grass growth and it almost seems as though the grass immediately grows back again after it has been strimmed.

We did some planting too.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

April in pictures

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

A double dose of bluebells

Last week we managed to do quite a bit of work on the allotment, as well as fitting in plenty of walks with Ruby.

First, let's catch up with work on the plot. We still have a few beds to clear and till so we have a production line going; I dig out and clear any weeds and as beds are cleared, Martyn moves in with the tiller.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Above ground planting

Last week was very mixed weather-wise so we just visited the allotment when we could.

We still have plenty of tidying up to do, including weeding. It never stops does it? Some empty beds needed clearing of weeds ready for tilling but I also weeded the bed of sweet Williams that are growing well.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

One potato, two potato

One of the main tasks at the allotment last week was to plant potatoes.

Firstly, Martyn tilled some of the beds whilst I weeded and cleared more beds.

Three long beds were tilled, two of which - or rather one and a half - were earmarked for potatoes.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

At last some planting

Last week the rain abated and at times the sun shone, so we took the plunge and started planting. Fortunately, beds had been dug over earlier in the year so we could start planting straight away.

The first to be planted were the early potatoes. Some compost and fertiliser were added to the soil and two rows of potatoes were planted using the trowel method which seems to provide us with as good a yield as going through the backbreaking task of digging deep trenches. Once the seed potatoes were planted, mounds of earth were drawn up over the rows and more earthing up will be done as the tops emerge.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

March in pictures

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Soggy, soggy, soggy

The months are ticking by and we still haven't started any planting at the allotment. We've managed the occasional trip to the plot but our activities have been confined to tidying, pruning and a little harvesting.

We have harvested a few batches of leeks. As they will soon start to grow, the leeks that we didn't need to use have been frozen for use out of season.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Always worth a try

We have two camellias in our garden – a red one and a pink flowered one.

If left to their own devices the camellias would outgrow our garden and so every so often they need severely cutting back.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Managed a little gardening

Although the weather is conspiring against us, as Martyn described in his post, we did manage some gardening last week.

It may not seem very spring-like to us but the fruit trees are raring to go. I am a bit concerned though that the plum trees don’t appear to have many flower buds. I hope the bullfinches haven’t snaffled them.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Someone's busy

We were having breakfast on Saturday morning when our attention was drawn to a dead tree fern stump.

The day before I had cut back all our ferns including those growing around the base of the tree fern stump.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

A touch of snow

We thought that the snow that was falling on other parts of the country was going to miss us but on Friday we awoke to a very wintry scene.

Fortunately, we weren't treated to the gales that were forecast to create blizzard conditions and compared to many places we escaped quite lightly.

We don't suffer from snow very often, but when we do our system doesn't cope well. News reporters become very excited reporting of stranded motorists, planes grounded, train and bus services suspended and schools closed. In the nearly thirty years that I was teaching we didn't close the school once for snow. I remember getting up early and trudging the two and a half miles to arrive at school before the children started to arrive. Playtimes were extended to allow for snowball fights and the building of snowmen.

I guess that nowadays they fear accidents that will result in schools being sued for negligence.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

It as all going so well

I finished tidying the All Gold autumn raspberries.

Some of the plants have started to shoot but the redness on some of the young leaves is an indication that they are not enjoying the cold temperatures.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Looks like spring - feels like winter

We did go to the allotment last week but I didn’t take any photos. I had intended taking a photo when we revisited the plot later in the week but we never had a return visit.

I cut down the old growth of the autumn raspberries and started tidying the bed so I was going to take a photo when I had finished hopefully that will be sometime this week.

Martyn, had another fire so managed to clear most of the debris from cutting back bushes. The laurels were cut back last year and the ‘prunings’ had been piled up for a year so were very dry and burned quite quickly.

We had a couple of walks around a local park where there were carpets of crocuses. The roadside was edged with yellow crocuses which surprisingly were untouched by birds.+

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Cracking on

All that was left of the huge pile of ‘prunings’, that we had piled up, was a modest pile of ash.

This will be put to good use and spread on the bed.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Going quackers

The forecast is for wet or drizzly weather this week, so last weekend we decided that we had better have a fire to burn the huge pile of ‘prunings’ that we had gathered.

The ruling on our site is that fires should only be lit one hour before dusk so before we started on the fire we had a few others jobs to keep us occupied.

I cleared the roots from last year’s brassica bed and did more weeding and hoeing.

Martyn, decided to clear the old lavender plants. The plants had become very woody and straggly and were infested with couch grass. Now that the lavender has been removed we will need to dig out the grass roots. Once the lavender was cleared it revealed an unexpected resident – a rather large frog. He or she was gently transferred to another hiding place.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

New beginnings

We've upped our pace a bit this week having not only spent an afternoon at the allotment but also spending some time tidying up in the garden. 

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

RSPB big garden bird count

We’ve taken part in the RSPB annual bird count for over ten years but this year we nearly missed it. Last Saturday night, Martyn asked if we should have been counting the birds. The count took place from 27 January until 29 January which meant that just left Sunday to squeeze in a count.

For the benefit of those who haven’t heard of the bird count, you are asked to count the highest number of each species of bird, seen from your vantage point, for one hour. We usually watch from our side window which overlooks the bird feeding area so we don’t actually manage to count the total number of birds to visit the garden just the ones that visit this particular part of the garden.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

February in pictures

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

January in pictures

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

A bit of housekeeping on the plot

We actually did some work at the allotment last week the focus of which was to do some tidying up

Some of the beds that had been dug over last autumn had been battered by the rains and also a few weeds had sprouted before winter set in. I hoed as many beds as I could and cleared away any weeds. The beds not only look more presentable but hopefully, it will prevent any crusting should they ever start to dry out.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Stocking up

Last week was another non-gardening week. It was cold - very cold - and we also had some fog at the weekend. We couldn't keep the bird-bath ice-free but fortunately, the birds could drink from and bathe in the pond.

Martyn posted about the

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

First allotment visit of 2023

Firstly apologies if this post ends up flaky. I'm working on a new laptop. I'm used to working on a desktop computer with a mouse and where I am used to where all the keys are. Now I am using a strange laptop where keys are arranged differently - why there isn't a standard format - is beyond me - and a touchpad. I'll probably buy a mouse later but haven't got around to that yet.

Anyway onwards. The weather was miserable again last week. when it wasn't raining, we were treated to strong, bitingly, cold winds. We managed a few shorter walks with Ruby but didn't risk Nostell, as if the rain had started we would have had quite a trek back to the shelter of the car.

We made one visit - our first of the year - to the allotment. Had it not been necessary to harvest some vegetables,  we probably wouldn't have ventured out. As it was we didn't stay long.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

A two birthday week

I don't have much to report this week. 2023 started very miserably - drizzly and dull. We did manage a couple of walks with Ruby but the weather was such that if it hadn't been for her needing some exercise we wouldn't have ventured out.

At Nostell, t was very different from the previous week with hardly anyone other than people walking their dogs sharing the grounds with us.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

December in pictures

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett