Allotment 21/06/09

Well, yesterday and today I have been feeling a little bit down about the allotment as we still aren’t eating anything from it yet, the rabbits have had a good feed from it though! But then I thought about it with a more reasonable head on and we’ve only had them for just over two months, so really we’re not doing badly at all, and it’s not like I have been planting ‘quick crops’ on it either.

I don’t have any photo’s for this post but since last time I have planted out a whole bed of courgettes and some tomato plants that we were given (thank you Mrs Green at MyZeroWaste) and a few cabbages. It is very almost full up there now, at home I have lots of dwarf french beans, some more runner beans plus some more to be sown, sweetcorn and squashes still to be planted out up there. I also have a whole try of broccoli and another of purple sprouting that are getting desperate for potting on, there is also a small tray of brussle sprouts to be potted on and kale as well so I guess a fair few evenings this week are going to be spent doing just that.

Counting shoots

Everything is starting to come through nicely now, the two rows of spring onions that I was worried weren’t going to do anything they had taken that long are through. The kale and the rocket are nice little plants now (or most of them are, there are a few that would be if it weren’t for the slugs) and the french beans are stiring in their paper pots. Up on the allotment the beetroot, carrots and peas are just making their way through the ground.

Just waiting for signs of the leeks, caulies and cabbage now.

Time to sow seeds

Moon planting isn’t going so well, I have been trying to stick to it and have got some things right. Last Sundays potato and spring onions seeds went in on the right day but basicly I’m just not organisated enough for it at the moment and trying to plant things on the right day is just meaning I’m not getting seeds sown.

Take last night as an example: I got home from work at about 6.30pm, Mon – Weds I work two jobs each day so by Weds I’m normally pretty tired. By the time I come in say hello to people and catch up on the days news with a cup of tea it is at least 7pm, then there are jobs to be done, feeding everyone, etc. then I have to get ready for work the next morning and MAKE myself be in bed by 10pm or I just can’t get up the next morning.

Last night I should have been sowing cauliflower and broccoli but I hadn’t managed to be organisated enought to have enought paper pots ready, or any compost, so it just didn’t happen. Tonight I should be leaf plants but I haven’t even had a look in my box to see what I could/should be planting so I doubts that that will happen either.

Given all this I think it’s going to be best if I just abandion moon planting for this year, and maybe just keep a note of what went in on what moon phase.  I have three days off this weekend and know I can get loads sown if I’m not restricting myself.

I went past the field that will have our allotments on on the way home and they have been ploughed and the plots started to be marked out, another reason I just want to get on with it now, there is so much I want to grow this year.

Boxes by the goats

I had a bit of a rubbish day yesterday, for a few reasons my ‘main’ job is not the funnest place to be at the moment, then on the way home (from my second job) I ‘broke-down’, or let the van run out of petrol. Luckly it didn’t happen until I got to the bottom of the hill, but I did have to push the van all by myself back up a little bit of a hill before I could push it of the single-track road then walk up the hill home.

I was pleased with myself though, yes the van was empty but I did push it and get it moving up (a small) hill, and then walk almost a mile home up a very steep hill in complete darkness and all in about 25 – 30 minutes. And I wasn’t too out of breath when I got home or to cross, walking by myself makes me cross, it always has done. I’m fitter than I thought I was!

When I got home mother made me a cup of tea and gave me a box, that had been left by the goat house. My heritage and heirloom seed potatos, yay! There is 180 of them, all different colours, all seasons for all uses. I won’t be growing all of 180, there just isn’t enough space however much I’d like to, I’ve arrange a ‘potato share’ through LETS and the local Frercycle Cafe but I will at least get a few of each kind to try out.

I’ve still waiting for one more varity, a untra-earily call Mimi. They look like little cherry-potatos and are breed for growing in containers or small sizes. I’m planning to grow them in buckets i the polytennel and, if they would just arrive, we could be having home grown spuds for Easter.

Now all that is left to get, is sweetcorn seed, a problem I think ‘ve solved. For months now I’ve been looking for non-F1 sweetcorn seeds, they are THE LAST seeds left to order for this year now. Unless I find something interesting, which of course I won’t be able to live without, but that really isn’t how I should be thinking, I have far to many seeds to be able to grow them all this year and I hate the thought that even a single one of the little seeds I have won’t be given the chance to sprout and grow.

T&M use to sell a varity called ‘Idian Summer’ but they seem to have stopped for some reason, I’ve tried ebay and the other seeds companies I use but haven’t come up with anything, until I remembered The Real Seed Company, I’m been on their website a few time, they have some very useful information on there about things like seed saving but I’ve never bought anything from them.

They have just want I’m after, two different types of non-F1 sweetcorns that will grow well in the UK. perfect! I even have a plan in my head, I just need to sit down and work through it all to add the final touches.

Well, winter is finally here

Outside it is snowing, huge flacks but it’s been raining all afternoon so the ground is, touch wood, to wet for it to settle.

October has flown by; I’ve spent most of it working. I work right though from the 13^th until the 22^nd, two days off and now I’m back at work. Officially I’m on holiday, but only from one job this week. Next week though…

Everything is mostly indoors now, on the 12^th I almost completely cleared up the vegetable garden. Planted out the kale and spring cabbage plants, pulled up all the nettles, potted up all the strawberry plants. The garden looks bare now, the purple sprouting plants are coming back well have being completely massacred by caterpillars. The sprouts are coming back as well, but the ‘sprouts’ aren’t forming as sprouts but leafy bubs. I thought that some of the red cabbages had survived the caterpillars but the remaining cabbages are rotting away at the stream and falling over.

We also mated Keris, Kniteshade is such a good boy. He could easily flatten any and all of us if he wanted to but he just does as he’s asked. Mother has taken him out for a few walks with the other goats and he’s been really good then as well.

Indoors I’ve been pickling lots of quail eggs, they are all indoors for the winter now and still laying at least one egg a day each. Working on pegloom-carrier-bag mats for the next LETS meeting.

Tonight mother took me out to buy my 21 birthday present, I didn’t know what I wanted when it was my birthday. I now have two drop spindles and a big bag of ‘rolls’ to play with. A while ago I was thinking about self-sufficiently and clothes, it’s just not practical to try to make all of your own clothes while working, tending to animals, processing food, etc. there just isn’t enough hours in the day but something on a small scale is doable. So I’m learning to make socks, right from spinning the wool to knitting them. That’s my plan any way, and that’s what I’m working on re-learning to knit and now spin.