A year on the allotment: April 2016

April is the time when the growing season begins in earnest on the allotment. Suddenly the place becomes a hive of activity with plot-holders digging, rotivating and make a start on planting crops...

Whilst we've done plenty of digging and rotivating, crops are still thin on the ground at the moment. We pulled out the last of our leeks at the start of April. Yes, I know they look like spring onions, but trust me, they are leeks. They actually tasted really delicious.

This April has been particularly cold, so we're behind with planting certain things out. Only the other day I had to do a double take when I saw snow and hail falling outside my kitchen window. Here's hoping May is going to be warmer so that we can catch up with seed planting.

I have planted out some parsnip plug plants, but they look a bit battered in the cold and wet weather we've been having recently. Hopefully they will perk up once some sun hits them. We also have onions and garlic happily growing away. I managed to put in two rows of spuds, but will wait until May to put more in.

We've rotivated most of the open beds on our plot ready for planting. Magoo loves to help with raking the soil, although she often declares that "it's hard work", and she's not wrong. Watering is her favourite activity, but we have to guide her away from the cans. More water is something we certainly don't need at the moment. I'm thinking of putting aside a 'muddy area' where she can pour water and stomp about in her wellies to her hearts content...

One job ticked off the list this month was painting the shed. Magoo and her cousin did a sterling job of painting most of the wood before they got fed up and started to play hide and seek. Magoo's cousin chose the colour of the paint and I think it looks fantastic, it lifts the whole plot.

Over the past year we've struggled to keep the surrounding grass from invading our beds. Mr M and Magoo have worked hard this month putting edging wood around the plot. Hopefully this will help to hold back the invasive grasses that can swamp us if we're not careful.

We've also found a great source of cheap woodchip from our local disused quarry. There is a tree surgeon who runs his business from the quarry and there's always a huge pile of woodchip for sale. You can fill a large garden waste bag for just £2, which is a bargain. We've covered the main path running up the middle of our plot so far. We plan to use the woodchip around the whole plot as a mulch to keep weeds and grass to a minimum. Lets hope it works!

April has been busy month for prepping the plot and we've got lots of jobs done in the lighter evenings. We just need a warm spell in May to get some crop growing underway.

This week I am linking up with these lovely blogs:

Country Kids over on www.coombemill.com

How Does Your Garden Grow? over on gemmagarner.com

Making Home over on www.mrscraftyb.co.uk

A year on the allotment: March 2016

March has been a busy time on the allotment. We've been visting the plot three or more times each week. There's loads to do, mainly digging and tidying up after the cold Winter months. Everyone is waiting for the soil to warm up before the planting gets into full swing.

Despite the soil being cold and wet for most crops, we did manage to plant some garlic and onions. Magoo enjoyed breaking the bulbs up into individual cloves. Planting garlic and onions is the perfect gardening job for little fingers.

Whilst we were busy planting the garlic and onions, Mr. M was cracking on with the digging. I'm glad he enjoys it so much because it's back breaking work, especially when the soil is so damp.

Once the planting was finished, we stopped for our all important picnic lunchbreak. Chunky sandwiches and tea from a flask taste so much better in the Spring sunshine.

After lunch Mr. M carried on with the digging, closely supervised by Magoo. Plus there was a robin keeping a close eye of proceedings. He darted down and ate one or two fat worms as they were dug up. It's so nice to see these beautiful native birds up close.

At this time of year the allotment gets regular deliveries of horse manure. Large mounds of the stuff appear from time to time and everyone is welcome to help themselves to it. We filled our wheelbarrow and started spreading the muck onto freshly dug soil. Magoo didn't need to be asked twice to get involved with the 'poo throwing' as she called it. We all agreed she is a pretty good dung flinger.

In other exciting news, we finally have a new shed. In my February post I explained how Storm Imogen turned our old allotment shed into firewood. Mr. M and my brother worked for over six hours last weekend putting it together. They are more fiddly to construct than you'd think. It's lovely to have a shed on the plot again and it looks great...we just need to paint it now.

This week I'm linking up with these lovely blogs:

"How Does Your Garden Grow" over on the beautiful mammasaurus.co.uk

"Point + Shoot" over on youbabymemummy.com and www.snowingindoors.com

"Making Home" over on mrscraftyb.co.uk

"Whatever the Weather" over on lifeunexpected.co.uk and monkeyandmouse.co.uk

"Share with Me" over on letstalkmommy.com

"Blogger Club UK" over on www.cuddlefairy.com and mudpiefridays.com

"Country Kids" over on www.coombemill.com

August on the allotment: tayberries and strawberries

One of the best things about Summer is growing, picking & eating soft fruit. We have to wait through all the dark, dreary Winter months here in the United Kingdom until the Summer comes around and we can feast on berries again. On our allotment this year we have found the strawberries a bit disappointing, but the tayberries were a big success. We manage to pick quite a few each time we visit, but they never seem to make it home...funny that. My argument is that soft fruit does not travel well, so we prefer to find a spot by the shed and eat our bounty there & then. If Magoo goes home with berry juice on her dress and fingertips, then it has been a good day at the allotment.

I have just bought two new raspberry plants for the bargain price of £1.79 from good old Aldi. The raspberries we inherited from the previous owner have been swamped by blackberries. So a few days ago my Mum & I attacked the blackberries with secateurs. We already have a large blackberry hedge at the top of the allotment, so we're happy to lose some to make make room for raspberries.

Once we had cut the plants down to the ground, we let Mr. M do the hard work of digging the roots out. I know you can buy poison to kill blackberry roots, but we prefer not to use that type of thing on our plot. So it was down to brute strength to dig them out. Can't say it was an easy job for Mr. M, in fact he snapped a spade handle at one point trying to get the roots out. They are hardy things those blackberries. I know it's hard to eradicate them and I'm sure we haven't got all the root out, but I'd rather dig them out than use chemicals. Once the patch was clear, we dug well-rotted horse manure into the ground and planted out the new raspberry plants. Fingers crossed we will have some healthy plants by this time next year...

I'm linking up with 'How Does Your Garden Grow' #HDYGG over on the beautiful mammasaurus.co.uk

I'm also linking up with Country Kids over on www.coombemill.com