Raspberry

I can't tell you how honoured I am to have been invited to contribute to this blog - thank you sooo sooo much M. You are so very kind. Seriously, I'm happy to be starting on the allotment again after all this time. Even though it was all your fault, M, for us not being able to go up and carry on what we started all that time ago, I can forgive you (just the once) and I'm looking forward to arguing about something different with you. First though, we have to go up, harvest the bumper crop of rasp and goose berries, and reclaim the tools from somewhere beneath all that horrific bramble. We've got a babysitter for Saturday (my dad and step mum). Hopefully when H and C can get started, it won't look too daunting - and that will be their reward for being brave enough to say yes to this folly. Or we could leave a bit of bramble for them...

OK, so let's start again ...

Alright, admittedly we've let things slide with the allotment. This is in fact the first post for more than a year, but we have had a very good reason. We are now the proud parents of little E, a beautiful girl who has been filling up more than enough of our time until now.

We have, however, more good news. We're in negotiations with a couple of neighbours, H and C, who are also new parents of little boy G, to start working the plot together. They have been wanting to get down to some serious growing and, like us, have nowt but a yard behind their house. We all went and took a look at the plot last Saturday and they've agreed in theory to take it on with us which is great as we stand a much better chance of doing something with the plot with regular help, rather than the now and then help we've had and very much appreciated from my parents and brother and D's mum.

We also have something we can harvest! Yes, even though we've done sweet nothing for sixteen months! Two of the unidentified bushes have turned out to be raspberry and gooseberry which is brilliant. The raspberry has started to get a little unruly so when we start to take control of the plot again, we'll get it under more strict supervision.

Anyway, the shed of doom's days are numbered. I've already started looking for a new fortress of solitude*!

* More commonly listed on websites as a "8' x 10' Apex Double Door shed".

A mixed bank holiday weekend ...

This was going to be a post full of joy as yesterday my parents and my brother came over to help us with the allotment and we got masses of brambles and other weeds cleared away. It would have taken us a hell of a lot more time to do it with just the two of us and we've also found two beds that are almost usable.

However, we went down to load the tools into the car this morning and some bastard had nicked the rear wheel. Bad enough, but this follows on from Saturday night when somebody, probably a drunk parking up to use the nearby cash machine, has bashed in our rear passenger side door. May they rot in whichever personal hell would make the dishonest gitbags suffer the most!

Anyway, rant over. Lets get back to the plot.

We got a huge amount done yesterday, met a few of our allotment neighbours and made some very nice discoveries too. The main task of the day involved cleaning weeds and rubbish. Underneath the weeds we discovered two beds which had clearly been in use 'recently'. In one bed, we found a number of spuds and also a number of nasty little cutworms, so we'll not be putting spuds in there again this year. That said, the beds, which are now nestling cosily under some nice weed supressing fabric, should be ready to use very soon, probably towards the end of April. Today, we were going to dig another bed to go with them so that we could start to plan our rotational crops, stick in some left over onion sets that my dad's donated and plant a Champagne rhubarb crown which D's mum bought us, but that'll have to wait a few days now.



Above: Our two lovely beds, snuggled beneath their sheets. In the background is the vast pile of waste we generated yesterday. Ulp!

One of our aims in taking on this plot is to encourage wildlife as much as possible and to use said fauna to help us control any pests we may encounter. We want the plot to be organic, peat-free, wildlife-friendly, water efficient, carbon neutral - any good practice you'd care to name, we want to do it. That was why it was lovely to see the little fella below hopping around when we'd cleared a few areas.



Above: A little frog. Aaaah.

We also had several visits from a nice little Robin, but I didn't get any clear pictures of it. Never mind.

Our clearing also uncovered the fact that our allotment is, as an estate agent might put it, "Sited in a pleasant spot in the south of the city with good views and a rustic outhouse with inbuilt toilet. Carpeted throughout." Yes, inside the Shed of Doom there is a loo and there was quite possibly more carpet hiding beneath the growth we cleared than there is in our home. This does leave us with the worry of what to do with a thousand square metres of soggy Axminster, but it will have kept some weeds at bay anyway. Below are a few clearer views of the Shed of Doom (I've spared you a look at the loo).


Above: The exterior - charmingly ramshackle and lethal as hell!


Above: The interior - a well-organised working space ... erm!

Though the interior shot was taken with my arm outstretched, I did later take my life in my hands and venture in to find a new (old) shovel and rake, both in good working order. Throughout the day, we'd also uncovered a pair of loppers, several soil sieves, a propogator and assorted pots and trays which can all be cleaned and should all be OK.

We met a few neighbours for the first time too. One bloke wandered past a couple of times and gave much-welcomed, good-natured encouragement as he did so. A few plots down there was a very pleasant gentleman who spent a good quarter of an hour giving us a potted history of the site and helping us to find the nearest water tap. He modestly said we shouldn't take his allotment as an example of what can be achieved, but it was actually great! A smart, well-organised layout with a pond, canes ready to accept beanstalks, composters slowly ... erm ... composting. He took his plot over three years ago and admits to having a shed that was probably even worse than our wreck.

There's hope for us yet!

More mystery growth ...

Some more mystery growth which I hope people can help us identify. I suspect that both of these may be crops which have just overgrown and gone to seed since the last allotment tenant gave up and scarpered. I feel like I should find out, because if they are some kind of pesky weed and there are problems like deep taproots that I should be aware of, I can do something sensible about it rather than just hacking and slashing indiscriminately and exacerbating the problem.


Sorry for the blurriness of this picture, but it was on the end of a tall thin stalk and I wasn't tall enough to get any closer. The blurriness is caused by a tight zoom and hand shake. I have a feeling this might be a carrot plant that's gone to seed. Am I right?


Another crop gone to seed? If so, what?

Be cheeky!

Just some thoughts on cheekiness. Now normally I'm an anti-social bugger who likes to shun the company of humanity, but I've begun to realise that some contact with other sentient bipeds can be of use.

Yesterday, while wandering back from the pet shop with a heavy bag of dried cat food under one arm and an even heavier bag of litter under the other, I noticed a couple of hefty exterior doors leaning against a house. Our plot is in need of a door to make it secure so I asked the feller if we could take one and he seemed only too happy to agree. Cheeky, I know, but we've got to take advantage of these opportunities now. It's also good for the old carbon footprint to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as you can manage, so salvaging in this way is ethical too.

Of course, finding something else even heavier to carry was perhaps not the best thing for our arms, but, as the cliched mixed metaphor says, never let a gift horse pass you by.

Book reviews

Here's a few books that we've been reading in preparation for getting our plot. Believe me you need to do some research before taking this on. It's been a revelation to see just how little we knew about what we've decided to get ourselves into.


The Allotment Keeper's Handbook: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Growing Your Own Food by Jane Perrone (RRP £14.99):

This one's a corker. Wonderfully reassuring and full of great advice, this is a must for anybody wanting to get into organic gardening. Perrone, who writes for The Guardian and whose blog (see links) is also a great source of advice, has a friendly style which is a pleasure to read, but she really packs the book with great information. One particular plus is that she acknowledges the huge number of mistakes that she made early on (mistakes that ... ahem ... rather echo our own) and her later successes offer great encouragement to carry on. It's a little short on illustrations, but is written in a clear manner, which fully explains any of the bewildering new jargon which you'll have just been exposed to. Highly recommended!


The Allotment Specialist edited by Alan and Gill Bridgewater (RRP £4.99):

This is one of those wonderful books that takes you through everything step-by-step, with lots of painted illustrations so that even fools like me can understand. It's much less-detailed than Perrone's book, but complements her work wonderfully by concentrating just on the basics. I've often sat there with these two books and the HDRA Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (see below) open side-by-side, flicking between the three of them to expand my knowledge on a given subject. It's also very cheap. D's ma picked up a copy of this and another in the Specialist series for just a couple of quid. A real bargain.


Allotted Time: Twelve Months, Two Blokes, One Shed, No Idea by Robin Shelton (RRP £12.99):

Unlike the other books, this isn't a reference work. It's an account of the first twelve months of the allotment that Shelton and his best mate Steve took over after Shelton left his teaching job with stress and as such it's a very effective example of the nourishment that allotmenteering can give to the soul as well as the body. We follow the two pals through some tricky times, but it's clear just how valuable Shelton finds his allotment in terms of his recovery. He also makes the food sound great. Shelton comes across as a nice bloke and creates an appealing impression of what allotment life and people are like. While there is little in the way of direct advice, that's not really what the book's about anyway. Just read it, enjoy it, and look forward to your first shed and your first crop. The copy we read was the hardback which we borrowed from a mate (we've still got to return it - sorry Phill!), but the book has since been released in paperback at £7.99.


HDRA Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening edited by Pauline Pears (£18.99):

The HDRA (Henry Doubleday Research Association) has since become Garden Organic, the UK's leading organic gardening charity (see links), and as you'd expect this huge book is a key text for any organic gardener. Aimed not just at the allotmenteer, this takes in all aspects of green-fingeriness, giving advice on lawns and decorative gardens too. It's thorough, authoritative and illustrated with some stunning photographs, although the double-page spreads on beneficial insects and pests and diseases are stomach churning (I know that they're good for the garden but ladybird larvae are the hideous stuff of nightmares!). It's got great advice on composting, water conservation, green manures, natural pest control and anything else you'd ever need. I know you can buy a lot for £18.99, but believe me, this book will pay for itself many times over.


The Vegetable and Herb Expert: by D.G. Hessayon (£7.99)

I remember Dr D.G. Hessayon's Expert series from being a child. My grandfather was a keen and skillful gardener and always had this book to hand, so it reminds me of the sweet, soothing smell of beautiful, plump tomatoes ripening on the lip of the sash windows, their colours running the full spectrum from deep green, fresh from the vine, through yellows and oranges to the most vivid blood reds. Mmmm. Anyway, there is much to commend this book. It's a detailed reference work to every aspect of growing hundreds of crops, from soil types, diseases and pests, sowing and harvesting times and anything else you'd care to know really. On the negative side, it is a little out of date. The vast number of chemicals that Dr Hessayon suggests using to kill off all manner of nasties is actually rather shocking. It is, however, an interesting insight into what's changed in veg growing over the last few decades and like any advice, you can of course pick and choose which bits you want to take. Whether the cover's claim that it is "The World's Best-Selling Book on Vegetables and Herbs" is true or not, it is a very useful book. It just seems extreme to napalm your cabbages just to rid them of a few blackfly!

What is this?

Above: Mystery green thing.

Help! We don't know what this is. Can anybody indentify it? I've not found it in any of the books yet. I'll be honest, we're probably going to dig it up anyway, but it would be nice to know.