BlogAllotment
allotment update photos: pathway!at the allotment day 1 & 2: can we dig it?at the allotment day 19at the allotment day 20at the allotment day 21at the allotment day 22at the allotment day 23: burn baby burn!at the allotment day 3 & 4: we came, we saw, we dug!at the allotment day 5 & 6: our dirty little secretat the allotment day 50 (approx): veg boxat the allotment day 6 (ep): light yet fillingat the allotment day 7 through to 13/14?at the allotment days 15 to 18?at the allotment: backfill
allotment update photos: pathway!
only had time to work on the lotty this sunday, even then it was cut short because of the rain. still managed to get a path built. lionel thinks its a waste earth, i think its respite from the weeds go fig.
at the allotment day 1 & 2: can we dig it?
the story so far
friday night felt like christmas eve, i couldn’t sleep and wanted it to be saturday already.
whilst we made an early start on saturday we still had to get tools, we wanted a pair of spades and forks, a tub trug (a rubber bucket/bag type dooda) and work gloves. what we got was a pair of spades and a tub trug, which we paid far too much for. travis perkins were selling them for twice as much as we could’ve got them from b & q!
we met our plot neighbour, lionel, who was friendly and incredibly helpful. he helped us identify what was weeds and what wasn’t. we do have couch grass and mares tail which are really tough to get rid of.
we spent about three hours there (we had other chores to do) and had dug up (and weeded) a 1/8 of the plot.
after a rest stop at chez boolou, we hit b & q and got gloves, a hand fork, a fork, a soil sieve and stuff to propagate our seeds.
sunday was an incredibly productive, but tiring day. we completed a whole 1/4 of the plot.
i think towards the end of the day i found a technique that allows maximum soil shiftage whilst minimising on the splitage of the weed roots. sadly it didn’t involve the soil sieve, which whilst allowing me to indulge in a little csi cosplay, didn’t yield enough weed free soil in the time allocated. i will try to take some video next time we dig to show you the BOOYAA technique of de-weeding.
prior to the “dig” we also “liberated” a shed from an abandoned plot. again lionel came to the rescue by helping us to dismantle the shed so we could transport it to our own plot. i kept my plan to cart the whole shed to our plot using only his wheelbarrow to myself, as i think he would’ve done himself an injury from the amount of laughter than would’ve arisen from imparting this idea.
the shed is currently in bits under a tarp and will prolly remain that way until we have enough nails, a new lock and a suitable underlay to place the shed on top of. the tarp is also covering the ground we dug up so any weeds that escaped are starved of sunlight.
mrs booyaa has come up with a fab design for the plot, i’ll get it scanned so i can add it to a future blog post.
as part of my own research jobs, i’ve been tasked with working out how to set up a compost bin. ideally we want one that we can continue to add our kitchen waste (fruit and veg scraps) as well cardboard and paper. it looks like the common diy method of compost bin making is to use four shipping pallets and a carpet to keep the heap warm. the allotment shop has some spare pallets so i’ll have to bag a few. i doubt we’ll actual get the bin made next weekend, as we’ll only have sunday as a full day on the allotment and we’ve already planned a big fire to burn our weeds.
facts and figures
our current expenditure is about £89 (including the daylight robbery that occurred at travis perkins).
time spent on allotment: 10 hours
at the allotment day 19
hey gang! i’ve managed to lose count of which days we’ve been to the lotty. i think with the exception of one weekend we’ve been going, just not been posting about it.
sadly the horse tail obliterated our carrot and spring onions. we have a small row of carrots growing away. the beetroot is also doing well.
last weekend we enjoyed a bumper crop of raspberries and there are plenty more ready for this week. the woodlice have pretty much claimed the strawberries as their own.
we got a nice lettuce head growing, which to our surprise has not been nibbled by slugs.
we’ve started growing a few more in pots with copper tape around them, no point hoping for continued good fortune.
finally the best news saved for last, our taters have started to flower
and of course when flowering begins, so can the harvesting!
they tasted lovely, very creamy and sweet. can’t wait till we can harvest more!
at the allotment day 20
last night i popped over to the lotty to do a few jobs:
- feed the compost bin with our kitchen waste (yes, can haz compost bins!)
- harvest taters
- pick some raspberries
- weed around the toms
- water everything
foolishly, i thought i could do this in half an hour, it was more like an hour and a half!
i’ve still got to water the rasps and weed the toms, i may have to do that today.
but, the effort is still worth it for the rewards:
at the allotment day 21
just a very brief visit today (less than an hour), mostly to give everyone a drink, and weed the tomatoes (finally).
if you look very closely in the photo below, in the background you can seen our new additions the daleks (aka compost bins). these are 220L jobbies which proved very difficult to get to the allotment, a bus driver refused outright to let us on despite it being an early saturday morning, with no one else on the bus. we’ve already filled up the first one (with our grass and weeds), we’re gambling that we can get the bins hot enough to kill the seeds. we’ll let you know of our progress in a year or two.
and on a parting note, here’s our fruits from our tomatoes, woohoo!
at the allotment day 22
mrs. booyaa planted more carrots, peppers and border plants today. we’ll have to make a carrot fly box soon to protect our rotters from those pesky pests.
no surprise what yours truly was doing, i was weeding! this time it was the turn of fox town to get a bit of tlc.
before
after
not a bad job if i do say so myself!
yes that is sweet corn you can see on the right. lionel, our plotbour, gave us some small plants and as you can see in the photo below they’re coming along nicely!
the charlottes have very pretty looking flowers, it’ll be time to harvest a few of them soon.
finally here’s another update photo of the whole plot. err half plot.
at the allotment day 23: burn baby burn!
we finally bought an incinerator (called arnie) and boy can it burn. i tried to make a bonfire on previous occasions and failed to get it hot enough to turn weeds and wood into embers, this guy is the real deal. it was hot enough at the spout that i could’ve cooked a jacket potato on top, which i may do next time!
we’re still fighting the horsetail, we rarely see any couch grass which makes me wonder why people complain about it so much. i spent a good deal of the time weeding near the potatoes which appear to be suffering from a magnesium shortage (they’re going yellow and blotchy).
the next photos are of the beetroot, lettuce, sweetcorn and purple podded peas. everything is looking fab. we harvested one of the lettuces last weekend and we’re impressed by how long it kept.
after much grief from plants and seedlings drying and dying out in the greenhouse, we finally came up with a solution. by sticking all the pots in a seeding/gravel tray they retain the water.
the result of which was that we finally have some courgettes to plant out!
mrs booyaa added more flowers to the “blue” border
finally we came up with a novel use for our leaky tea pot, stick some lobelia in it!
at the allotment day 3 & 4: we came, we saw, we dug!
saturday was a sizzler fo rizzle! and with the threat of sunday being damp and soggy it was a case of get as much done as possible. if there was any doubt about my commitment to the lotty i think it ended when i decided to dodge a party so i could have more time onsite. m if you’re reading this blog post, i am incredibly sorry about ditching on you!
anyways.
before heading to the lot, i needed to get some more tools as we were going to reassemble the shed and if possible buy timber from travis and perkins to make the raised beds. so off to b&q to get a rake, claw hammer, a toolbox saw and galvanized nails. whilst i was there i did a quick reccy on clear plastic to replace the broken window in the shed, a 4×2 foot would cost about £14!
in addition to lot diy-ing we wanted to burn down the pile of dry grass and weeds. so after placing bricks around our pile of grass, small bits of wood (without paint) and various dried out parsnips we lit it. i was surprised how quickly it took and soon we had a nice roaring fire.
it was at this point when some crazy kid came over and wanted to help us with our fire. my main concern for this urchin was that he might become part of the bonfire. furthermore his claims to be an “expert” in fire making were seriously doubted after he started to pull at bits of new grass and trying to put them on the fire whilst a strong wind blew. he seem rather pleased that he “landed” a few on the fire itself.
luckily the parental units did whatever they do to call their offspring back, that or the child grew concerned about how violently i was stabbing the dry bits of grass with my fork that he went back to his own plot.
so with fire blazing it was at this point our other lot neighbour malcolm came over, probably to distract us enough so that the fire would die out as it was smoking him out something rotten. he came over to have a little chat and find out what we were planning growing. during the conversation we mentioned our plan for raised beds. it was at this point that he advised us against it, simply because the soil here is sandy and all the beds would do is dry out the soil faster. it was interesting to hear one of the old skoolers talk about how raised beds have only become fashionable since shows like gardeners world started featuring them. also he pointed out how the old timers didn’t have raised beds and it was only the n00bs.
with this in mind, me and mrs. booyaa made a strategic decision to ditch the beds, mostly because we anticipate we’ll struggle to keep up with the watering demands during summer and if the beds are going to exacerbate this issue further then let’s eliminate the problem now.
whilst talking with malcolm we got on to the subject of potatoes and onions, turns out the allotment shop has a clearance sale on the taters and onions and since we no longer had to wait for our beds to be built it seemed a good time to buy them and stick them in the dirt! in addition to the javelin variety of taters we bought we also got the guy who runs the other allotment shop to bring us some charlottes on sunday.
lou made a start on prepping the soil, whilst i denailed the shed, it was a very trying time for the multi-legged
inhabitants of the various nooks and crannies that made up the shed. eventually i was ready to raise the shed. in a word: tricksy. the shed seemed to have a mind of its own and would often move where the wind was blowing. despite being difficult, with only me and mrs. booyaa assembling it, the shed eventually was up. i wouldn’t sleep in it, it’s far too rickety and doesn’t feel at all stable. my in-laws will be over for the last may bank hols and my dad-in-law is a wiz with diy, so i’m hoping we’ll be able to make it stable.
finally to end the day we planted the taters.
today (sunday) i just popped in to setup the compost bag. i dumped our two weeks worth of veg scraps, coffee grounds and tea. i forgot to get paper to layer the wet. the bag is a stop gap until we can build our permanent bin.
facts and figures
our current expenditure is about £148
time spent on allotment: 14 hours
at the allotment day 5 & 6: our dirty little secret
this weekend we’ve managed to put in two solid days of work. we’ve almost cultivated a skinny half of the plot. i must say i’m incredibly exhausted so is lou. saturday’s digging was mostly a rush to move the shed (with the help from our other plot neighbour “dave”) to its permanent spot in the corner of the plot. i keep meaning to take a screenshot of our plot plan. i will see if i can get copyright clearance from mrs. booyaa.
unfortunately now that shed is in place its made it impossible to use that corner to do my before and after photos. i will have to pick a new vantage point.
anyway here’s a before and updated (i think “after” pic is still some time away).
before
updated
If you click on this photo you’ll be taken to the flickr version which has notes to point out what we planted. from left to right: 2 rows of potatoes (pentland javelin), red onions, 3 rows of potatoes (charlottes), 3 alternating rows of purple spring onions and carrots (lisse de meaux).
the view from the trenches, possibly spring onions.
in other news we bought an electric propagator, our window sills seem to be incredibly cold and our seeds are taking far too long to propagate. we switch it on during the night, its off during day time and venting. i will do a separate post for this rather handy device.
sorry for the boring post, but we’re absolutely shattered and all we want to do is watch aliens the director’s cut.
facts and figures
our current expenditure is about £180
time spent on allotment: 26 hours
at the allotment day 50 (approx): veg box
not quiet joe swift’s veg box, and our first load of “large” harvest, but we’re very pround of it.
we had roast veg this evening, twas fab. the sweetcorn was so good we had it raw, none of that starchy taste you get from normal sweetcorn!
at the allotment day 6 (ep): light yet filling
i should probably warn you all that this week is gonna be allotment heavy i.e. i will be posting frequent updates. the reason for this, is that i somehow managed to accumulate a sizable amount of leave at work that needed to be used up, so i decided to use it up on the lotty.
today’s visit was a fleeting visit, mostly ’cause me and mrs. booyaa were still knackered from saturday and sunday’s heroic effort. i made a start on the area that would be host to our peas, jicama and beans. this part of the plot was previously called “fox town” because it was once used as a hideout by a fox (or so we’ve been told by our plot neighbours), but don’t panic wildlife fans, uncle boo did check several times before digging it up to make sure the fox hadn’t set up home, no tell tales like cigarette butts or hen fancier weekly were to be found, nor did a fox come bounding out demanding to know what the hell we thought we were doing.
whilst digging i kept finding bits of rotting wood. it was starting to look like an archaeological dig until lionel (who appears to spend as much time as we do at the lotty) said that the previous plot owner had his compost bin in that area. mystery solved.
mrs. booyaa was seeding like a torrent freak, she started on a half row of white beetroot and row of mixed wild flowers. the wild flowers aren’t just for our enjoyment, they’re also for the bees and insects honest.
next up was (from front to back, left to right) was
- first row - 3 x 6 pot trays with chamomile (for our lawn surrounding the shed),
- second row - 3 pots of majoram, 3 pots of parsley
- third row - 2 x black cherry toms (which we got from lionel), the rest of the row is lettuce
- four row - lavender
facts and figures
our current expenditure is about £180
time spent on allotment: 30 hours
at the allotment day 7 through to 13/14?
sorry guys i’ve been slacking off, i haven’t abandoned the lotty i’ve just been bad at updating.
remember that i took about 8 days off to work on the lotty? well here’s the result:
compare this to the the before photo when we first got the plot:
i’d call that significant progress.
mrs. booyaa took a few days off to join me and she managed to plant marigolds around a few of our crops. she also managed to salvage the excessive space that was left after i sowed (or is is sewn?) the peas and beans.
we were away last weekend so we didn’t get up to much, however this morning i noticed on gardener’s world 7-day forecast there was a risk of air and ground frost tonight. so this evening i dashed over and tried to protect some of our precious crop.
strawbs under fleece (secured using a few tent pegs)
various plants in plastic bottle cloches (finally we get to recycle them ourselves on-site rather than relying on the council!)
no budget or hours twitter is acting up so I can’t go through my notes.
at the allotment days 15 to 18?
bank (public) holiday weekend
sorry guys, still not getting the hang of regular updates. this post is going to cover what we did for the 2nd may bank holiday. the shed was finally made safe (thanks arthur!), in addition to this we now have shelves, a drop leaf table and window (lionel gave us a bit of perspex to replace the broken one)
we also had 4 legged company in the form of tinker (mrs. booyaa’s parents’ dog)! with a bit of coaxing namely in the form of a dog biscuit we were able to get her to “bury” her treat along with the seeds we were planting.
this weekend
this saturday we came to the allotment to discover that the weeds have firmly established themselves, in particular the mares tail was in full force. we spent a good hour or so trying to get rid of the weeds that could be plucked out with little or no effort.
saturday before
whilst tidying in the shed i made a cloche totem to keep the plastic bottles out of the way until next year.
also now that the rasps and strawbs are starting to ripen we thought it was time to protect our fruit so we built a fruit cage.
sadly our joy was short lived, as lionel pointed out that because the netting was so close to the fruit, it would mean the birds (our primary pests) would have a perch on which to eat the fruit. so we would have to do some thinking and try again on sunday…
with the exception of the onions and taters we haven’t had much luck with the rest of the seeds we’ve trying to grow, but we did spot three carrots!
in addition to making the cloche totem, fruit cage, we also managed to make some scarers out of unwanted cds. also we laid some chip bark on the pathways. we’ll need to buy some more next weekend, but hopefully this will start supressing the weeds!
saturday after
sunday before
we dismantled the original fruit cage and made a better and improved one which had a bigger gap between the fruit and the netting. it feels slightly flimsy so a big assed pigeon or a keen squirrel might cause the whole structure to collapse.
i threw more mulch on the side paths as a makeshift cover until we get more chip bark.
mrs. booyaa planted out three sweet pea plants which she plans on training to climb against the new willow trellis we nailed to the side of the shed.
at the allotment: backfill
many eons ago we applied for an allotment. last week our dream came true and we were asked to pick out our allotment. yup you guessed it, blog focus switch!
over the next few postings i hope to record our (i plan to link to missus booyaa’s own blog posts on the matter) experience of maintaining an allotment whilst doing the ole 9-5.
my name is booyaa and this is my story…
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