Allotment 2011 - My second season!

Balcony, you are making good progress on preparing for the coming growing season. Your allotment clearing is impressive....even down to the strawberry sectionn and all that weeding.

Your seeds from Spain certainly are packaged in volume!! You will be able to sow in stages so everything doesn't mature at once. Best of luck with all your 2011 plans too.

Lots to do on your plot to control those weeds! Nice to see your garlic looking so strong - just like mine! I did the same as you - planting into 'plugs' then transplanting into the ground. Hope grows when you see things wanting to be taller doesn't it? March now - not long to some decent weather and temperatures. :o)

All looking good! I invested in a good hoe last year, excellent at keeping the weeds at bay!

Balcony, I really enjoyed your block very much. You bring back to me sweet memories of the past. I will tell you my story. I used to have something similar to yours some 25 years back and I even won many first prizes at my local shows. I was so addicted to it that I stayed there all day on Sundays. My good lady of course was not very happy with it and wanted me to give it up. In order to put pressure on me she refused to eat my vegetables! One day I decided I had enough, I packed my tools and said good bye.
I now grow mostly flowers in my back garden. I cannot grow many vegetables due to restricted space and some trees shading my garden. I will be following the progress of your plot and enjoy it............. thinking it is mine!!

Wow- a lot of work there! Good luck! Loved the autumn colour of the pear tree .

nice to see your allotment... you have been busy with it...good luck with it all.......

wow your going to have a bumper crop this year Balcony, you have been busy, budleia has been savaged lol, love the pear tree so pretty ,hopefully we will get some nicer weather soon, been very cold and frosty here, im off next week in hope to get in my garden and tidy up, your doing well Balcony, keep up the good work :o))

Thank you all for your great comments! :-)) I love the feedback we get on this site - I find it very encouraging! But please don't keep back any "not so encouraging" thoughts for fear of hurting my feelings!

Whistonlass: There were so many seeds in a packet that I could plant the whole allotment field with Lettuce seeds alone!

I'm thinking of a way to show people just how many seeds come in a packet perhaps taking a photo of them of a piece of paper with the seed packet alongside & then posting it on here. 5g doesn't seem very much but as seeds are so tiny 100s, if not thousands, are needed to make up that weight!

I was a bit annoyed with my wife when I found out how much she had paid for the seeds as I could have got them a lot cheaper over here but now I think they were a bit of a "bargain" after all!

I shan't be sowing all of them from any packet as there are far too many for our use even if I don't get a good germination rate! Judging by the germination rate for the lettuce seed I sowed that won't be a problem! I'll still have far more than I can use!!!

We don't seem to have a swap service on GoY but members do share plants & seeds so if anybody is interested in a few seeds just send me a PM with your name & address & I'll send you some - it'll be a pleasure! :-))

You are right, Nariz, the Garlic is growing away nicely! I've never ever grown it before!

We are all looking forward to the temps rising this month so we can get out on the land & do our gardening! At the moment here in the East of the UK we have low cloud off the North Sea & cold winds from the North-East keeping temps very low.

Lulu, I agree with you, a good hoe is essential for keeping the weeds down! I bought myself one a few weeks ago.

Cos: I could easily spend a whole Saturday down on the plot but I have to leave it around 3pm, the time my wife finishes work, so as to get home (10 min walk) & make a start on lunch before she gets home! She is always exhausted on a Saturday & I always feel sorry for her, so I like to get lunch ready by 4pm if possible.

Thank you for following my efforts, I'm new at growing veg, this is only my 2nd season! If you are interested you could always read through the fortnightly blogs I made up last year! That's a whole lot of reading to do!

Red Aly: I thought the pear tree look very nice as well, it looked just like a column of fire - unfortunately it did nothing to warm up the chill autumn days! LOL!

Holly: I did most of the digging towards the end of November - fortunately! The soil is also quite light & so it was easy to just turn it over with a fork. I was very surprised at the progress I made as last year in April when I attempted my first digging it was real agony for my back & I had to go down on my knees to be able to turn a forkful of soil over! The people who saw me must have thought this poor guy has absolutely no idea whatsoever of how to dig - or they thought, more likely, I was mad!

San: Gerry said he was going to "prune" the Buddleia but I didn't imagine for one moment he was going to be so drastic! If I'd had had the time to do it myself I wouldn't have been nearly so drastic! But Buddleias, fortunately, don't "sulk" & just get on with trying to replace what has been taken away in as short a time as possible! This summer it will still be flowering its head off & the flower heads will probably be bigger hopefully attracting many more bees & living up to its common name of Butterfly bush!

Hope you get some better weather so you can get out & make a start on all those things we just have to do!

Well done, it must be very rewarding having an allotment, and so good for you in all ways, exercise and healthy eating, look forward to the next one.

There's plenty to be done now the season is changing. Good luck with your allotment this year ! I hope you have great results :o)

Thank you Dd & Hywel for your great comments. It's quite rewarding working on the allotment,yes. You get plenty of exercise alright! Last year I wrote in my blogs about eating sun warmed fruits - some for the first time in my life! There's always a lot to do on the plot as well. There's always something to do & it's difficult just to sit down for a few minutes for a tea or a bite to eat!

Thanks for the good wishes, Hywel! I hope the results are even better this year than last.

im sure your right Balcony the butterfly bush will live up to its name by summer, iv lots of plans this week for getting my garden up and running again, soon get into it once we start :o)

You have a lot of work to do but the results will certainly be worth it! I was actually so inspired by your blogs from last year that I decided in 2011 I would plant a LOT of vegetables. I haven't done much yet but order the blueberry bushes and strawberry plants, but over the next couple of months I'll be building some raised beds for tomatoes and beans.
I did plant brussels sprouts in a raised bed last fall, but I planted too late and I thought my sprouts were history. But as the weather warmed up I noticed that not only had all of the plants survived, they were growing! It was my first real attempt to grow vegetables since I was a child.

Sandra I hope you are able to get out & do some work this weekend.

I'm glad you were inspired by my blogs from last year, Lauram! It's good to grow some of your own veg. At least you know you're not adding to your "carbon footprint"! It will certainly be worth the effort!

Today I planted some lettuce seedling, that had been growing in the greenhouse, into the allotment soil. I planted 2 rows. I now have 3 seedtrays of lettuce seedlings in the greenhouse. I'm going to wait a couple of weeks before I plant them out.

I also sowed a row of beetroot seeds but I also have a seedtray full of seedling in the greenhouse. Again I'm going to wait a couple of weeks before putting the outside.

As the GH is unheated they have a similar temperature inside as outside though without the wind & rain. It obviously gets warmer when the sun comes out but we've seen very little of that for over a week now! Monday we are forecast a sunny but cold day. But I hope to do something more on the plot.