84 leeks

Planted out 84 leeks today.......... just another 100 or so to go.

Food!

We are finally getting some food, pulled some rather large garlic today,
along with some shallots, and of course new potatoes!
It looks like we re going to get it all at once!

It is pretty hard to tell when some things are ready to harvest,
still very much being a beginner, when there is no local wisdom
around I do feel rather lame.
So I normally google it or re read my Monty Dom book.

GOLDEN NUGGETS

MM pulled up a few of the early potatoes yesterday........ and the crop is GOOD.
each root has plenty of good sized potatoes.
Now we have FOOD!
Courgettes are hit & miss, some are happy, some are very unhappy!
so far 3 courgettes to eat, more to come soon, fingers crossed.

The only problem I don't think we can do much about is the amount of slugs.
Theres millions of them!

Paddy fields?

The allotment site has a slight decline.

We have two allotments, number 1 being on the slightly higher ground.

But number two is just a bit lower, so the bottom row off allotments

are suffering with a lot of standing water.

This photo ( excuse the finger) is of the plot next to mine, ours is not 

too bad, as we had rotovated just before the rains came, 

so the soil depth is still quite high.

Lots of standing water all around the bottom of the allotment site, 

7 hours after it had stopped raining.

The good news is when we do manage to get our main crop potatoes in, this is 

where they'll be going, they should like the extra water this allotment will give them.

BUTTS

We now have well over 2500 litres of rain water in our water butts, which is great news.
If I had been asked 4 weeks ago when we finished putting both of the EMPTY 1000 litre IBC
in there final position, if we would get them filled, I would have said
"not before christmas"
but here we are, there full!

Now for some sunshine?

1000 litre IBC on allotment 2 

Radish

Something is eating the radish leaves?

Mobile blogging

Will mobile blogging make it easier for me to blog?

Rain

It's been raining which is very good news, and thanks to JH The shed on allotment 2 now has some massive guttering Alongside a newish roof. We modified the old roof, taking out the rotten timber, Replaced one whole side of the pitched roof and refelted. It's not pretty but as of today the water butt has about 30-40 Litres in it, just another 960 more to go until its full! The thing about collecting water, it's all about surface area! As the 100 litre butt on the house filled in one night. The aim is to have over 3000 litres of stored rain water This should see us through....... For how long is just a guess but it's a start!


some photos of the shed roof, not massively exciting. Nice weather tho.

New roof on very old shed

Water Butt in place

All the guttering has now been changed

A massive THANK YOU to JH

After we had finished, I am pretty sure that bit of roof won't leak,

butt there's a hundreds of other places it will

No photo with the new felt, so I ll sort that asap or imot.

But basically we slapped on some black sticky glue, then a neatly cut sheet of felt

and hammered plenty of clout nails in.

Busy Busy

Busy day today, planted most of the shallot sets. Dug in some of the cow's manure that's been on some of the ground over the winter. Mulched the autumn raspberries with well rotted manure Which should increase water retention and suppress the weeds. Watered the fruit trees we planted last autumn, even tho it's winter the ground is dry where there is no mulch, so they need mulching soon. And I have done lots and lots of hoeing...... Made first contact with my nemisis for 2012 when I was digging today, Horsetail is all over one of our allotments (Allotment 1) which has been in hiding all winter ,waiting...... I ll talk more about Horsetail another time, it is A big pain in my backside. Some info on Horsetail
www.allotment.org.uk/articles/Weeds_and_What_to_do.php
www.sherriff-amenity.com/technical.asp?newsid=3

Potatoes

Check out our potato story so far.....

Plastic netting

Keeping our food safe

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This is the spot, where my life might have just changed forever.