It's been another glorious day! I made it down the allotment feeling pretty hungover last thing this afternoon, I was at a wedding in Harlow last night.

I've almost finished digging over the plot now, I've just been slowed down by some serious stinging nettle roots down the boundary fence with the allotment next door. She's got carpet on her path and doesn't pull the weeds that come out from under it, so they encroach on our plot with their roots coming through the chicken wire fence. I've ended up just reaching over and pulling both the plants and roots up from her side of the fence as well.


I should get some spuds and parsnips soon, I just need to start thinking about where I'm going to put everything first though!

Mine's a Carling...

After years of just having a bird table, my old man has gone all out lately to find the ultimate squirrel proof bird feeder. He's tried all kind of different hanging contraptions and poles but the pesky grey critters always seem top find a way around things. Dad's got quite close to the squirrels during all this and named the two young ones Boris and Ken.

He has eventually settled on a pair of cage balls and something that looks a bit like a spaceship which stops them from getting up the pole. It's quite fun watching the Boris and Ken trying to climb up and just sliding straight down again. I'll try and get some video footage to post!

Up the creek

After both getting stuck with poor Sunday train services, Henry and I attempted to get some manure on Sunday. The first load went OK. We went back to the farm we got it from last year, forked the well rotted cow manure into the trailer and dumped it down the end of our plot.

It was on the way back with the second load that it all went wrong. A tyre on the trailer burst and we didn't have a spare. We had to wait around for an hour to get it picked up by the breakdown recovery truck. Then, rather than get it to the plot, it had to be taken to Henry's house. This meant that we had to shovel it all out into wheel-barrows and take it down the end of the garden, and we still need to find some way of getting it to the allotment!

Mutant Parsnips

I dug up the first of my parsnips just in time for Christmas dinner. Most of them weren't that big but I did find this for legged mutant whopper!

Unfortunately the sprouts are nowhere near ready. Should have planted them much earlier. Making slow progress on the allotment digging but at least I'm getting somewhere...

Getting started in earnest

It's been two weeks since Henry and I moved into our plot. Although Henry used the last week of British Summertime to make a good start at evening digging and I managed to get an hour or two in last weekend, it was only this week we really got going.

I had Friday off work and Henry had just gotten back from holiday so we decided to get to work with our forks that afternoon. We managed to dig about a third of one side over by the time it got dark.


Our progress was slowed by continually picking over the earth to pull out the tough, long, white and yellow roots of stinging nettles and couch grass. We've been told by the guy opposite, Clive, that we can't leave any race of these in the ground or they will grow straight back. We're also told that they won't compost so have been piling them up to dry out and burn.


We're also not helped by the plot next to us, which is overgrown with nettles along the fence that borders our plot. I ended up reaching over to tug out all adjoining roots as well.

Another issue is the carpet that has been used to cover all the paths in between the existing beds. We've decided to rip all of this up because it's infested with weed roots - but this leaves us with the dilema of what to do with it.


As dusk settled, we got a small bonfire going and piled some of our roots on top to burn and smoulder, hopefully leaving us with some nutrient rich ash in their place.


A hard days work done, we headed down The Running Mare for a pint or two too many.

Patch update, allotment goodies and loads of nuts!

I spent the morning doing things on my patch. I untied the old tomato canes, took down the pea climber and composted all the stalks. I've left the roots in for nitrogen fixing goodness.

Then I staked my brussel sprouts and what's left of the broccoli. I've started putting pennies around the bases as slugs don't like copper, although when I went out this evening there were still some chomping away.


Meanwhile, I've got some late peppers flowering in my mini greenhouse. I doubt they'll fruit but I'm curious. I've also got some lettuce still growing as baby leaf which we've been eating bit by bit.



After a bit of work on the patch, I wlaked down to the plot with Mum to collect some dried french peas and runner beans for re-planting, the other slug addled pumpkin, a yellow courgette and the butternut squash.


On the way back we picked bagfuls of chestnuts and wlanuts from some trees by the Portsmouth Road. We had to stop when it got too dark to see though.

Moving in to Plot 18

Today we officially moved into our plot. I cycled down earlier this afternoon to have another look at what we've got to sort out. Unlike some people I know who have taken over new plots recently, ours isn't too overgrown. It's currently arranged into overgrown beds with overgrown carpet paths in between them all.


We're probably going to pull most of it up, make bigger beds, re-lay some carpet covered in wood chippings and put down some horse manure and/or a green manure over the winter.


While having a look I found some left over veg from the previous tenant. It felt a bit like a post mortem on someone else's growing season. Found dried French beans, Carrots, loads of Fennel, two pumpkins, a butternut squash, some knobbly cucumbers and some bush runner beans.