Happy Festivities!

Dear Readers, Friends and Family,  Have a lovely time this festive season whatever you are up to, and wherever you are in the world: gardening, allotmenting, eating, drinking, sitting and thinking, partying, whatever!

Made from allotment materials!

Hopefully this time next year I will be able to join some of the great allotment blogs I have enjoyed this year, in reporting back on what we have produced.  But, at only 2 months in, no veggies or fruits to show so far, though we've just managed to keep some tomatoes from our garden going until Christmas day! And we dug up some very  long radishes yesterday that the previous allotment holder had grown. I haven't dared cut into them yet to check if they are edible.  And we are already growing garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, peas and broad beans, and learning that the greenhouse mice are very hungry little fellows! 

Watch this space in 2013 and thank you for reading! XXX

Making Paths

There are a number of existing  path styles on the plot- grass paths between plots, concrete slabs and stepping stones at the front by the flower bed. The grass ones look good but are a bit muddy at present.  Slabs and stones are nice and permanent, but slippery when muddy and good at hiding couch grass roots.

When we got the plot in October we took up all the old carpet that formed the paths at the back of the site.  These were doing a reasonable job at supressing weeds, but they were now decaying into the ground and generally being yucky, slippery and unpleasant. I know, too, that on some allotments sites they are banned due to toxic chemicals from fire retardents and cleaners leaching into the soil.  After we'd done away with the carpet we laid down a double layer of thick cardboard and topped it off with wood chippings donated by a fellow plot holder. It was pretty easy really! 

At the front of the plot we found there was a criss-cross of four paths dividing the space into four beds.  By getting in there with a spade it was just a case of shovelling off the strawberry runners and build-up of old leaves etc. Underneath was some very thick rubbery path material.  This we left and covered with chippings.

Before.....

After......

So that is our paths in a nutshell!  We'll see how they fare in terms of weed suppressing, a good firm surface (including for wheelbarrows), and looks!  I'll report back....

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday 19th December 2012

Happy Birthday L!  Hope you liked this allotment themed cake......

Welcome Readers!

I just thought I'd say hello to any new readers and thank you to people who have been reading so far.  I'm new to blogging so am probably making  mistakes, but I'm enjoying it!

Thought I'd post a picture taken at the weekend to show what a lovely green and pleasant place the allotment site is:

As we are but a 10 minute train ride to Liverpool St Station in London, I am very happy with that view!

Also seen at the site on Sunday this flower- a bit out of focus but can you name it?

Finally, also from this weekend, some fungi on a log at the front of a neighbouring plot, showing that by not clearing everything away and neatening up our plots and gardens nature will do the work of creating something beautiful itself:

Enjoy the sun whilst it shines!

Pea-ved

So it begins... the battle twixt pea shoot and mouse. We were greeted by a scene of devastation at the greenhouse today: the pea seedlings were down by about a third.  Several were bitten off cleanly at the base.  First we suspected Dino- he does look a bit suspicious here:

Then Motorbike Boy:  Motorbike Boy, what's that on the back of your bike?

But I think it is actually mice......

So I've put some netting over them now, I'll pop down in the week and see if it has worked. If anyone else has any  (non- mouse-death-related) mouse deterrent ideas I'd love to know!

Guitars Are Not The Only Fruit

The Corkscrew Hazel is now coming into its own- the catkins are out, but I also spotted this unusual fruit amongst the wiggly twigs.  Don't know where it came from !

I may only just be starting in allotmenteering, but I think even I can tell these are the more typical "lambs' tails" of hazels:

Elsewhere on the plot it's all looking generally like Winter now, as it should!

The tayberry has lost its leaves, but you can see here the frame L has constructed to support it: sometime soon we'll have to make a fruit cage for the tayberry and currants, or the buds and fruit will be lost to the pigeons.

Finally today here's a picture from the back of the plot ("the wilderness"!) towards the green houses: beyond them you can see the lovely (lime?) trees that border the allotment and really look lovely: majestic in winter, gloriously zingily green in the spring, providing dappled shade in summer, and lovely whippy future plant supports and leaf mold after gales in the autumn!

Still to come, in future posts: path construction (I know you've all been waiting for it!) and a pea and broad bean update!

Pre-Christmas Deer Cheer

I didn't get up the lottie today despite the lovely winter sun.  I was busy being driven around Essex, secretly enjoying ordering game for my family's christmas meal, despite me being a vegetarian for over 20 years! So I have reserved a haunch of muntjac deer and a pheasant, both of which will hopefully have had jolly lives before obliteration. I'd prefer the obliteration to not have to happen, but then the family will be eating meat anyway, so we may as well make it as happy-before-death as possible. This is where we get it  http://www.ashlynsfarmshop.co.uk/

Anyway muntjacs have spent the last 40 years making a delicious feast of Mum and Dad's veg and flowers in their lovely garden in Buckinghamshire, and a muntjac wrote off my cousin's car, so we could consider this apt justice.

Essex Sundown 08/12/12

Then it was on to the garden centre: the aim was to purchase some allotment supplies for my family to give to me for christmas- and I was excited at the prospect. I knew they have a huge range of seeds, and their perennial plant selection is extensive and imaginative.

http://www.harlowgardencentre.co.uk/

However there was nothing I wanted this time: they didn't have any peat free compost and I couldn't locate any labels or string. I'll visit again if we need fleece or netting, as it all came by the metre and was good value.  This time the one thing I did take away from the visit was, coming through into the main retail area, I had the impression I'd accidentally wandered into Santa's Grotto-On-Acid.

Essex Festival of Psychedelic Penguin and Reindeer 08/12/12

Wordless Wednesday 5th December 2012

 

 

Birdlife

The robin is the bravest and cheekiest of our avian visitors. There's a number of robins, and they are busy sorting out their territories at the moment I think, to judge by their stand-offish behaviour to each other.  This one found a lovely juicy caterpillar as we cleared the paths of leaves.

Other than Mr/Mrs or Ms Robin, N noted these birds at the allotment on Sunday:

Ring-necked parakeet   (many!)

Crow    (ditto)

Starling  (ditto, roosting)

Goldcrest  (one)

Great tit  (several)

Blue tit  (several)

Long-tailed tit  (many)

Wood pigeon (several. Overheard co-oing, "Non-netted brassicas eh? Nom, Nom, Nom")

Mistle thrush (a pair)

Herring gull (Don't ask me how many they all look like seagulls to me- Ed)

Black-headed gull (Ditto)

Magpie (3- for a girl)

Chaffinch (several)

Robin (several)

The noisiest are the parakeets. The cutest is the goldfinch! 



On the subject of wildlife this flower gives really welcome nectar over winter to any bees, wasps or flies which are still around. It's from quite a thuggish shrub called Fatsia Japonica or False Castor Oil Plant.  In our small garden we cut it back hard in the Spring so it doesn't take over, but it really earns its place come Autumn/ Winter for the insects,  and the dried flower heads look nice in a jar in the house.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/Wisley/About-Wisley/Plant-of-the-month/November/Fatsia-japonica   

Feeling Non-Groovy

Today and for the past few weeks I have been feeling distinctly non-groovy. The antithesis of Simon and Garfunkel's 59th Bridge St Song. So I thought I would try to outline what ME/CFS can feel like under these circumstances:

1. Unconquerably knackering

2. Debilitatingly dizzy-making and nauseous

3. Like I am about to go down with a hideous case of flu, feverish and wobbly

4. Or, like I am just recovering from the worse case of flu, but unremittingly, for weeks

5. Achey-breaky and generally flaky

6. Like I have a really crap hangover (Ah, those were the days,  when I could actually drink...)

7. If I was working... (Ah, those were the days, when I could actually work...)... I would be phoning in to say I feel goddam awful and I'll have to take the day off.  However feeling like this will go on for weeks if not months, and I can't take my life off.

There are lots of other symptoms, too tedious to go into, but an odd one is when I have an intense bout of ill-health like the one at the moment I seem to lose a lot of hair! My hairdresser remarked on this first (Ah, those were the days, when I could actually afford a hairdresser...sorry it's getting boring now), and over the last six months of better health my locks came springing back but now it's coming out again- arrgh what does it all mean?!!

I still have questions as to the cause of this, as it feels like a really intense virus I can't shake- I sometimes nearly do, but then something will bring it back (this time I think a cold, followed by a weird stomachy bug, maybe then topped off by the flu jab?)  Who knows, but I wish it would BUGGER OFF!  I really want to get back to work (and desperately need to financially). What's more I hear the sound of the allotment calling.....

New Door!

Not a very exciting blog title admittedly! But it was very satisfying today to see the results of L's hard work creating a new greenhouse door from scratch. Wood was scavenged from the plot and perspex came from freegle some time ago (the rest had been used to make 2 cold frames for the garden)
Here are the steps for making a new greenhouse door:

1. No door!

2. Make a door!

3. Put the door in place!

4. Ta Da!  Door!

And that's it- new greenhouse door in 3 easy steps.  Next time: path making in 2 easy steps.