Coming soon: The saga of a new(old) greenhouse......

 Coming soon........

The seed potatoes have arrived - Happy Potato Day!

Like a child waiting for Christmas I eagerly count down the days until Potato Day, that wonderful day in February each year when the seed potatoes and onion sets arrive. 

Despite the lack of a jolly fat man in a red suit and with a white beard, the complete absence of reindeers, and a lack of surprises (I know what I'm getting for Potato Day, as I ordered them), it's a very exciting day - as for me it marks the start of the growing year.

And today is Potato Day, so I wrapped up warm and headed down to the allotment.  Despite the glorious sunshine, it was a chilly four degrees with a "feels like" of zero degrees - a perfect day to be in the shed!  

This year we're growing Caledonian Pearl as first earlies, Kestrel as second earlies and King Edward as mains.  These varieties were picked as they give good results in our soil and we enjoy the taste of each of them.   For onions we've stuck with the reliable Sturon that we grow every year.

As with most things allotment related there are a million and one different opinions on how, when and where to chit potatoes but I stick to what works for me - I put them out on racks in the shed on the day they come and let nature do it's thing.  

And now we wait until planting time........

B&M fruit trees for the mini orchard

We recently took on a second plot with the intention of growing fruit and flowers.  The idea was to create a mini orchard on the bottom third of the plot, with fruit trees and soft fruit bushes growing amongst short  meadow grasses.

Where possible we try to adhere to the traditional allotment principles of spending as little as possible, recycling, upcycling and "make do and mend".   With this in mind the obvious source for fruit trees was B&M.

A lot of places sell bare root fruit trees, with many costing up to £40 - but the trees from B&M are a bargain at £7.50 each, or two for £12!   They sell a reasonable selection of apple trees, pear trees and cherry trees and despite the low price they are decent trees that grow well.

The previous occupier of our second plot had already put a few fruit bushes in and what looks to be a two or three year old pear tree (variety unknown).   So we decided to add two apple trees and a cherry tree.   

The variety of cherry tree wasn't important as it's primarily being grown for it's beautiful blossom, but we wanted something traditional with the apple trees.  After rummaging through the boxes of apple trees in our local B&M we found two Cox's Orange Pippin trees - perfect!

Yesterday was a beautifully sunny and vaguely warm winters day, so I headed up to the allotment with the three trees and got planting.   If you've never planted bare root trees before the process is really straightforward.   

1. Unwrap the clingfilm from around the roots and pop the tree into a bucket of water for half an hour to an hour. 

2. Dig a hole, with plenty of room for the roots.  Remove any weed roots from the soil (to minimise competition for water and nutrients, your new tree will want these once spring comes).   

3. Put a short wooden stake into the planting hole to give the tree some support during windy weather while it establishes itself.  

4. Plant your tree into the hole, making sure to plant it at the depth indicated by the soil mark on the trunk, and backfill with the soil you removed.  Then firm it down to remove any air pockets.

5.  Attach the tree to the stake with either a tree tie or, as I do, with a piece of fabric of about 3cm width in a figure of eight around tree and stake.

6. Given the trees a top dressing of growmore and water them in.

7. Mulch them with bark chippings or home made compost, to keep the weeds down and give their roots some protection against frosts

And that's it.  Our new mini orchard has four trees and the total cost was £19.50 - bargain!

Did we survive Storm Éowyn?

After losing our polytunnel in a named storm in December 2023 I get a bit nervous when we get hit by storms.  So it was with great trepidation that I headed to the allotment this morning to survey the damage!  

Walking along the entrance track I noticed a few plots had some visible damage, but nothing too serious.   Thankfully, when I got to our plots they were both exactly as I'd left them on Thursday - the only sign that there had been a storm at all was my wheelbarrow had moved a few feet.  Phew!   We got away with it - this time.

After having a celebratory cup of coffee in the shed, I took advantage of what has turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and got stuck into a few jobs that needed doing.  As always, a few hours spent working on the plots was most enjoyable.

Plot 1

Plot 2

Our allotment journey so far

Two years ago (in April 2023) we took the plunge and got our hands on a full plot on an allotment site in Derby.   As is always the way, we inherited an overgrown and neglected plot that was infested with bindweed and invasive comfrey.   

April 2023

We got stuck in and cleared the lot over the summer, planting as we went along.   We removed vast quantities of rubbish, laid paths and a patio, dug a wildlife pond, and erected a polytunnel (which lasted one season before being destroyed in a winter storm, such is life!).   Our efforts were rewarded with bumper crops and an award for "Best improved plot by a newcomer" at the local horticultural society's annual show - which was a wonderful surprise.   Along the way we had a great deal of fun and soon became addicted to allotment life.

October 2023

We spent the winter making improvements and preparing for our second growing season.   2024 was a great year, despite the "interesting" weather and we had decent harvests of all the important crops - especially potatoes and pumpkins (we grow a lot of pumpkins).   

Summer 2024

October 2024
Just some of our pumpkins

After two fun growing seasons it became obvious that our plans and aspirations were larger than our plot, so we approached the allotment committee about getting a second plot.   They were kind enough to offer us a plot about 10 metres away and we're going to clear it over the coming months and use it to grow flowers for cutting and also plant fruit trees and bushes.

So, that's our story so far - we hope you'll follow this blog as we record life on the allotment over the coming year.