January plot tour

Its been a busy month on the plot building wise, Ive done a little tour of what I've been up to on the plot.

January 22nd 2020

The Poly tunnel is up!

After having to wait a few days for storm Brendan to whistle on by I managed to get the Polly tunnel up on the plot, Its a Von Haus Tunnel,
and I think it probably sits quite comfortably in
the "Blow away" category, Knowing this I put quite a lot of effort into ensuring it was well anchored to the ground, I built a wooden ground frame and drove long steaks at angles into the ground to attach the frame to then once the metal frame was assembled I used lots of thick cable ties to secure it to the wooden frame, once the cover was on I stapled it all around the bottom to the wooden frame and so far its survived a "Blow the wheelie bins over" strength wind so I'm pleased that its pretty well secured.
The tunnel itself didn't have the ability to lock so I attached some wood to the outside (Also this means I wont destroy it with my strimmer) and that allowed me to place a lock on the door.

My plan is that this year I'll be growing my big tomatoes, Aubergine & Peppers in there along with some pots with very early stuff in and the odd early lettuce.

I have bought 10 25l pots so I can get some potatoes going in the tunnel now, filling 2 pots every two weeks to ensure I'm never short of a spud!

Ive also started to put the net over my one of my Brassica beds, this one is the biggest on my little plot and its one I can walk in, I'm trying to keep it neat as possible as it is going to be a permanent structure for me to move around the plot year after year.

This bed also got a Manure mulch after I found a stables that would let me fill up with as much as I wanted (I'm sure I'll be making a few trips this year!)

so far this month I've sewn Peas, Cauliflower, Leeks, Aubergine, Sprouts, Calabrese and two varieties of lettuce (Butterhead and cos), the plan is to get them all up to the Poly tunnel once they have started up, The peas and Cauliflower went out into the mini garden greenhouse today and will stay out whenever the temperature is above 6 degrees for the first week then I'll leave them down to 4 degrees the week after so they get enough light and used to a bit of a chill.

That's the plan anyway, and plans along with the weather quite often change...


Best wishes
David

This years plan

Being able to start a fresh mid way through last season meant I was able to put into practice all the lessons I'd learned from our first plot.


As much as we loved the layout for our first plot it made rotation a little tricky and when we did rotate things that needed netting we always had to make the frames from scratch because every bed was a different size, so on our new plot I've divided the area into quarters and mapped out a bed plan that ensures each quarter had the same shaped beds, It may seem a little over the top but I really hated having to make all my frames new each year... good net is expensive!

This is the new layout.

I've yet to get all of the beds in (about 70% so far) but I'm hoping to have the rest in by the end of the month, I am also yet to purchase the Polytunnel (2x3m) but that should be in this month also.

I'm using a planting calendar I found on line (it breaks each month into 4x week segments) and will be hoping to do a lot more succession planting this season to save myself the pain of a glut of anything (no one needs 30 beetroot at the same time!)

So far the over winter sewings of Onion, Shallot, Garlic and Broad beans are in, the Garlic and Broad beans are up but the Onions and Shallots are lagging behind (it might have been to wet for them)

This month I'll be sewing my Leeks Indoors in the 3rd week (Most likely the 18th of Jan).

Which reminds me, I need to buy my Leek seeds.... and wash my propagator!

All the best, David.

January, New beginings

Some setbacks can be positive... some

We begin this new decade on a new plot with a desire to move on from the negativity that blighted our previous season, and in order to move on I feel the need to re-visit once more the circumstances that have led us to our new beginning.

We began 2019 slowly, a devastating family loss had left its mark on both us and the plot, I simply didn't have the spirit to get down to the plot, planting windows were missed and it didn't matter to me, weeds grew instead of vegetables.
if you leave a plot to its own devices even for a few months its amazing just how quickly it will become overgrown, a wasteland greeted us when we finally got up the strength to visit.

I embarked on an aggressive strimmer campaign and after a week of daily visits I had the plot back in order, it was late spring and I was just getting the season back on track, or as close to it as I could considering my late start, I was enjoying my time on the plot once again.

As summer began in earnest then also began the unwanted visits to our little plot, I started noticing my shed left open every time I came down, my chairs left out and the remnants of joints left behind.

My plot had become a hangout for kids to get stoned, knowing the chances of getting the police to visit were next to zero I left a sign for them asking that they don't damage my plot and always close the gate, I had a month of peaceful visits, then one afternoon I went with my wife and kids to harvest the onions and found that the peaceful period had come to an end!
my shed window was smashed, beds trampled, chairs broken and thrown around, I can honestly say I was devastated, that was it for me, I didn't want anything to do with the plot anymore.

You don't realise just how much of yourself you put into every seed you sew, how much you're investing whenever you tend your plants so to have them destroyed for no reason really hurt me, thankfully my wife gave me a good talking to and helped me look for a way forward.

The way forward for us was to relocate, our plot was on the boundary of the allotments so easily accessible for the vandals so we found an unused plot in the centre and applied to take it on, I also reported the trespass and damage to the police who informed me that they would not be taking any action, It was agreed by the allotment management that we could have the new plot and keep the old one until September to move things across.

The first thing I took was the shed, I must say I enjoyed taking away the vandals hangout! It got upgraded too with a sturdy inner frame, new roof and very strong locks, then I moved across all the wood and began building our new plot, our new neighbours were all very kind and I started to feel quite happy with the decision to relocate.

So this is where the start of 2020 finds us, on a new plot with a new layout (nearly finished) and a new found enthusiasm for what the seasons may bring, I'm hoping to post often on my blog so I can look back in time and see where we are and how we arrived there.

I'm also investing in motion sensor cameras! If the buggers come back I'll make sure I've pictures of them so the police actually do something about it!

Happy new year to you all and may the seasons treat us kindly.

David.