Thursday 29th October 2009 Hello fellow gardeners...! Well Autumn draws on and the jobs of tidying and cutting back are upon us all. Im hoping to maintain this blog and website, in the same fashion as Dave and Miranda have since its creation - and thanks to them for providing us with a method of all keeping in touch. If you have any ideas of what you would like to see on the website please speak to me onsite, or mail me at clerkmark@gmail.com or marklin1@hotmail.co.uk and i will do my best to get things up and running. MarkB (plot 48a Organics)
 Today Marc and I really needed to get plants in at the lottie. Blimey it was grim and really wet :( Luckily later on this afternoon the rain finally stopped and I got out into my back garden. I had an entire table full of bedding plants to pot out; petunias, coleus, impatiens, lisianthus. I found a random climbing french bean so I put that in my flower bed also! I planted out some asters, dahlias, a new gooseberry bush. My sweet peas went into their pot. I sowed a second sowing of carrots (Royal Chantenay) and finally got round to sowing salad. I am now pooped and think a glass of wine is in order. Labels: asters, coleus, dahlias, impatiens, lisianthus, petunias
  This weekend the pond was dug out by Gary, John, Steve, Marc and a little help form me (I think I probably just slowed everyone down more than helped!) But oh my it was brilliant fun!!!!!!!!!!! My favourite was the little scoopy Bobcat thingie I'm sitting in. The digger was cool but it took some serious hand eye co-ordination and not being very good at computer games I think my hand eye co-ordination is a bit ropey! I am amazed at Gary and Steve they just kept on going for two days solid. It was worth it thought, the pond looks amazing :) I am now sitting at home with huge sunburn, despite wearing factor 15, I have the worst skin ever. It is typical 'Welsh never sees the sunlight skin'. I'm considering buying a Craghoppers shirt with built in UV protection. Cool and practical, so when I feel my skin has had enough I can pop it on. I need something... More pics of the digging weekend can be found in the gallery section. Labels: Bobcat, Craghoppers, Digger, wildlife pond
Composting event
by Mi
at 2:46 PM
  Despite the rain (and there was lots of it!) our composting event went very well indeed today. A lovely lady called Sallie came from WRAP and talked to us all about the In's and Out's of composting; Which bugs live in your compost (Primary eaters such as bacteria, fungi and fruit flies, Secondary eaters such as Springtails, and Tertiary eaters such as beetles and centipedes). What to add and what not to add (Yes to things such as veg peelings, green garden waste, cardboard, citrus peel, annual weeds before they seed and even such things as hair and vegetarian animal bedding. No to such things as perennial weed root although these can be dried or drown then added, meat, dairy and cooked food). Things that were thought to be by many unsuitable for the compost bin such as rhubarb leaf are fine. Although toxic for consumption the toxins break down when being composted. Luckily we managed to squeeze inside our storage container as the rain came down very heavily a few times! Leicestershire county council also have a 'Rot-a-lot' home composting club that you can join for free and you will receive information and a free home composting pack (that includes a free composting caddy). Email compost@leics.gov.uk I hope everyone who went enjoyed the event despite the weather. Please remember to pass on your comments good or bad on to the social committee at the site, or email us( socialcommittee@redhillallotments.co.uk) so that we can improve the events we offer, or the way they are run. Also if you have an idea for any other events you would like to see at the site please email your suggestions also. Labels: Composting, recyclenow, WRAP
 Things are starting to speed up now. It's getting to that crazy time when all you seem to be doing is planting out! Today the broad beans, peas and mange tout went in. Marc did a cracking job making the wigwams and getting the plants in, he even put a layer of poo all round so hopefully they will get a good feed as well. I can almost taste them already, the veg that is... The pumpkins in the greenhouse already have flowers on them but there is no way they are going out for a few more weeks, I'd rather chance losing a few flowers than losing the actual plants with a late frost. I think everything else we have will wait a few more weeks before they go in so there is less fear of frost. We came home with a lovely crop of rhubarb, which was boosted generously by a donation from Gary. I'm going to attempt my first ever rhubarb jam. I never get enough for making jam as we usually end up eating all of our crop straight away! Labels: jam, Planting
Potting on.
by Mi
at 10:16 PM
 I seem to be spending most of my life potting on at the moment! The mini greenhouse is officially full, the windowsills are full and the patio is filling up fast. That is even without mentioning the vast amount of plants that Marc has at his house, I don't think he has a surface free in his greenhouse or on his windowsills either (far bigger than mine with proper glass and everything, the greenhouse that is...). Now the worry is 'have we sown enough...' it is hard to tell, especially as a lottie is such a vast amount of space compared to our greenhouses and patios. So far I have counted in my little greenhouse and patio alone; 27 healthy runner bean (french, traditional etc) plants all hardening off and ready to go into the ground, 8 courgettes a lot of various pumpkins & squashes, 20 Swiss chard, 15 perpetual spinach, onions, Italian black kale, broad beans... I think we are getting there and the big plant off begins on Sunday (weather permitting). Hopefully the fear of frost is now minimal... I was watching Gardeners World on Friday and I see they have a fab new campaign called 'Dig In'. It is rather good, and novice gardener Radio 1 DJ Sara Cox is blogging her progress on growing veg. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/digin/ After 4 years I still feel a novice so it's good to read about other people who are also starting on the path to veg growing enlightenment :) Labels: Dig In, Gardeners World, Potting on, Radio 1
Wildlife pondpond area
by gary.c.
at 8:45 PM
 Hello everybody, can I start by saying a BIG thankyou to Miranda,Dave,and Mark for introducing me to the world of Blogging. So here it goes. My name is Gary and I live at plot 44. I have been given the task to oversee the creation of a wildlife area incorporating apond. As you can see we have started to clear the area and are now waiting to recieve the grant monies so we can press ahead. Many thanks to everyone who has helped so far,will keep you all posted (if this blog actually works) Gary. The next pond day is on 30 April 6.30-dusk.We will be getting things ready for the digger. Labels: wildlife pond
Wild life pond
by gary.c.
at 9:57 PM
It's all going on.
by MarcW
at 11:15 AM
 Just a reminder to all of you who pop down to the allotment that we have a notice board just behind the gate. I admit that I often forget to check this, but as you can see from the pic there is a great deal of information and contact details on there. There is also a postbox should you need to contact Iris when she is not on site, just drop her a note. This can be used for suggestions about the Redhill site or just general enquiries.
 After the rotavation and the planning the hard work has finally begun, and the potatoes are in. After a brief weeding session there are now 7 rows of potatoes in the ground, chitted for a week, and the rows marked by a fine line of manure to aid banking up. Cara and Saxon this year so will be interesing to see how these perform against some of the others on site in terms of yield and quality.  Must have been on a roll today as the garlic is also in. Unfortunately this required hoeing, proper weeding and digging over as this was a patch left untouched by the rotavator. This year marks a sowing of garlic obtained from the garlic farm on the isle of wight, who have something of a reputation for their garlic. Not to say that we have high hopes but it will certainly be interesting to see if their reputation is justified. Onions next... Labels: cara saxon garlic farm isle of wight
|
