20 January 2008 - A game of two halves

Today's blog is a two part story of dashed hopes and happy serendipity. To start us off, here is a picture of our home-made cold frame - not quite sure what to do with it yet.

The various seeds we have ordered have come through the post. Now we await the early potatoes (Arran Pilot). We have put all our seeds into order (really) and have disinfected the seed trays and various pots in readiness. It is with some trepidation that we now begin to face the reality of sowing, growing and tending crops. It is also with some stern realisations of the challenges we face.

Today, after a bit of a staggered start in a none-too-welcome climate, we discover that the tops of our five strawberry plants have been nibbled/partially destroyed. This is vexing. Our neighbours also, who helped us with the shed, have had an incursion and their cabbage seedlings have been ravaged. Admittedly, we had not put any particular protection around the strawberries, but still - very worryingly, our neighbours are much better organised in that department.

We seek counsel from Nettle Guy who says it is rabbits. Our fence is simply not high enough and the bank at the back gives the little sods additional leverage (like pole vaulting). They are cunning. We never find any "evidence" - other than destruction. We decide to get some tall fence posts and supplement our fence vertically by more chickenwire. Admittedly, it is cold and winter and the critters are desperate for any greenery, but what will happen in the midst of summer? We take on board the lesson that unless we get serious about protecting our crops, there is no point in putting anything into our soil.

N has made another compost shack with the pallets and has manfully and on his own cut up the carpet we freecycled yesterday into good paths and a "sitting room" bit.

The second part of today was rather different and inspiring. Readers will recall that the cage project is half-complete due to lack of wood (admittedly we had changed the dimensions from the original plan). We ponder how to get wood. We look at freecycle - no wood. We go to a local building supply place just to see where it is. Then we remember our original freecycle wood donors (cf. the second Trailer Incident) and we think why not just pop in? They are only just down the road.

And hallelujah! There is wood aplenty of exactly the right sort, enough to finish the cage and guttering and pallets - and a couple of fence panels to fetch another time. Our freecycle friends are graciously pleased to see us and even saw up the wood to the right length. There are jovial comments about the "poor car". It only occurs to us later that we pitched up unexpectedly at lunch time. They are pleased we took the wood, we are pleased that we had the chutzpah to arrive on their doorsteps with muddy boots and wild allotment eyes.

We have invited them and their kids to visit in the spring. We will contemplate some sort of plaque on the Cage to commemorate their contribution to our project. (What is referred to, in the fundraising game, as a 'naming opportunity'.)

It is now safely delivered to our plot (heavy lifting as we could not take the car up to the plot due to mud). And the chicken wire has been ordered and we will get tall fence posts. All will be well and all manner of thing shall be well.

12-13 January 2008 - Already used the best Cage heading

A Saturday morning meeting with our neighbours, who valiantly volunteered to help us shift our shed.

In the end we decide simply (hah!) to pivot the shed, so that its door faces the compost container, rather than - as originally planned - shift it toward the rasberries to form one end of The Cage. This is partly because the ground between the shed and the raspberries is alright - good enough to grow things in, unlike the soil (stones) parallel to it, but closer to the potatoes.

This led us to contemplate extending (in the future) The Cage still further toward where the shed is now, forming a cage of around 230cm x 550cm, but also leaving us a Social Section between The Cage and the shed. Even i'm bored by this amount of detail.

The ladies were a tremendous help. While P and I got on with the labour, K and J provided much-needed commentary (when K was between international calls). The shed now sits proudly (and solidly) on two pallets, and we have retrieved the several rubber mats on which it used to sit for use on paths. Many thanks to our kind and supportive neighbours.

We then borrowed five very heavy bags of hearty mushroom compost (smelling of mushroom) from Mr G's plot, and spread this and some chicken manure (smelling of a chicken's behind) over our four raised beds as well as the area on which will sit The Cage.

Then we covered each bed (aside from where the elephant garlic is growing) with black plastic. Our friends the worms will spend the next couple of months dragging this delicious goodness into the soil in readiness for planting.

Sunday, we return to build The Cage. A basic framework is developed, using the Freecycle boards and leftover shelf brackets. We have enough wood to make the first of our cage modules 230cm x 230 cm. My keenness on headroom, plus our limited ability to countersink the posts, left us with a framework rising, I would guess, 250cm high. Well, that high in some corners, less (and more) high in other corners.

So, the frame stands It's not the most square of structures, nor the sturdiest - there were some high-anxiety moments in construction and erection - but it was still standing as we left the allotment. We have a fond hope that we will be able to see it in the morning from the train station platform.

I had developed a doorway, the frame of which has had to be removed for the moment (until we secure wood for the other modules). I now wish to redeployed our conservatory venetian blinds to act as a cool door. K is pictured within the doorframe.

On our way out, we have a brief chat with plotters near the gate. They are constructing a very orderly set of prefab plastic raised beds, interspersed with bark-covered paths. We agree - despite ramshackle construction, splinters, backache and the likelihood that our efforts will become a pile of pick-up-sticks when exposed to a stiff wind - that homemade is our prefered method.

Even (especially) when it looks like this.

Joyous news from Freecycle on the carpet front. This will help turn our paths into paths rather than mudbaths.

Weather: overcast, windy but mild.

Compost corner: We left the stalk of the sprout plant sticking up out of the compost heap. Something has been nibbling.

Sheep nearby.

5/6 January 2008 - La Cage aux Folles

Much of our final days of holiday were spent in plot.

We picked up some raspberry canes and strawberry plants at a new (to us) garden centre, Aylett's Nursery, and commenced digging the area (230cm x 460 cm) which will form the base of the fruit cage. This involved clearing bits of turf around the edges, digging in some well-rotted horse manure and, finally, digging the whole thing over.

The next day we constructed the makings of our pallet-walled composter, affixing wire mesh inside it and adding the new turf plus our old friend the remains of the Brussel Sprout plant. In due course, a companion composter will join it, to better facilitate the turning over of the compost.

To our existing three or four (it's a little hard to tell because they procreated) raspberry plants, we added two Autumn Bliss variety and five canes of Malling Admiral. The new plants won't be allowed to fruit this year, in order that they build up their strength for Summer 2009. It's good, in these instant-gratification times, for our patience and sense of perspective.

Then, at what will be on the left side as you will one day enter the fruit cage, we planted five strawberry plants (Elsanta), leaves snugly sticking out of black plastic.

I counted and measured our remaining wood - much of it from the Freecycling floorboard guy who broke our trailer (now, hurrah, rivetted back to working order) - and think we have exactly the right amount for the cage. I want to be able to stand comfortably inside, so it will be about two metres high. We will also move the shed to form one wall of the cage. To achieve this, our neighbours promised us help next weekend.

Sadly - or, rather, disturbingly and infuriatingly - our neighbours suffered some loss of spring onions to rabbits because someone (some toerag) had assaulted their fence. Someone had also damaged our other neighbour's fence and left thier shed door open. No damage to ours, but someone smoked a cigarette in our plot and left the butt. K spoke with Mr G earlier, who had already had several complaints about intruders. We suspect that Mr Fox has been sniffing about too, judging from the pawprints in one of the beds. As long as he gets rabbits we don't mind.

When that's done, we need to give some thought to what to do with the space where the shed and palettes are now. And we need to acquire some more carpeting; parts of the plot are a bit of a mudbath at the moment.

Meant to note the other day that as we worked in the afternoon, several sheep were just ten yards away from us in their pasture. And Mr Robin was keeping a sharp eye on us meddling with his property. This is all far better than urban allotment-keeping.

Weather note: cold, crisp, sunny (occasional rain).

30 December 2007/1 January 2008 - New Year Revolutions

And a Happy New Year to all our readers!

We have been very busy planning for our growing year. In the midst of internet searching, seed packet reading, spreadsheet construction and chasing of mushroom compost, we had an unexpected visit from Mr B, our friend from Suffolk and the donor of the raspberry bushes. He was, we think, impressed with the size of the plot and commented on how much work we had put in. Seeing as his original gifts are doing so well, he has kindly offered to bring us some more on his next visit. Woo hoo!

After a less than sober New Year's Eve celebration with The Neighbours, we eventually staggered to the plot and made two exciting discoveries - (a) that digging in the fresh air is an effective hangover cure and (b) the carefully piled up piles of grass upon which the pumpkin had grown and which had to be distributed from the final raised bed had formed the most fabulous loamy topsoil stuff - the definition of friable. This is exactly what they said would happen in the book, but it was a revelation - on how soil could be improved and on the easy patient natural process which produced it. We finished that bed thinking that this may well be the seed bed due to its superior quality.

N dug the second of the small parallel beds for the potatoes. We have to prepare the trenches with cardboard and potato fertiliser, exactly as we did at the very beginning - but this time in advance so it can rot down. We anxiously await the mushroom compost. The delay is - mysteriously - attributed to a dodgy gearstick in a white van. Hmmm.

We'd like to share with you our detailed growing list but unfortunately the technology is a bit beyond us at the moment. If we cannot find a way of linking to our planning spreadsheet we will list them in another posting - but it won't be as cool.

Some things we have ordered via the interweb, others we already had and others we bought recently (e.g. raspberries and strawberries). We do not intend to grow everything on the list, for example the raddichio which failed to come up last year, but thought it best to list in case we change our minds. The things we like best there are two varieties of - potatoes (Sarpo Axona - blight resistant!), peas, carrots, broccoli, french beans, onions, garlic. We are rather impressed by the macho names of some of our potential harvest - Ironman F1 broccoli, Napoleon and Red Baron onions - and hope they will get along. Other things will be grown in pots in our garden (tomatoes, salad) and still others as accompaniments on the plot (marigolds, sunflowers). Very pleasingly we managed to find comfrey seed which will be great for the compost; it grows fast and makes perfect green manure.

The process of choosing what to grow is interesting in itself. There is no particular rationale. Some varieties were chosen because we saw them in a gardening magazine; others because we had them already; and still others (internet ones) because we liked the look/description. And we will have to dig and prepare the space for the raspberries and strawberries (the beginning of the fruit cage) purchased this afternoon from the excellent nursery up the road - this weekend! The New Year has begun with a vengeance. Let the growing begin.

26/27 December 2007 - These boots are made for digging

Planning well-advanced, we get down to the dirty business of implementation. N has new boots for the allotment, K has a new Double-Ender Thermos for tea and such. V exciting.

We are alone on the allotment, for the second day in a row, and we suspect that the other plotters are either less dedicated or more organised than us. The garlic has finally made its first appearance. Its sturdy shoots presage the phenomenal plants we anticipate (Elephant Garlic) some time in the summer.

Some Local Youths arrive on their choppers (bicycles), intending to wreak the havoc that only bored and undisciplined kids can do. This reminds me of an episode of vandalism in October (from which I think I shielded you, Gentle Reader) which involved the latch on our gate being broken (probably someone kicking at our swing gate) and a pumpkin (thankfully, not our Halloween highlight pumpkin) being stabbed by our old plot number spike.

I make a stand (sharp spade in hand) and courteously but firmly remind the little bastards that they are on private property. I realise that this will probably result in our shed being burnt down, but if One Man can't make a stand to protect public decency, then the whole country will go to the dogs.

If I sound old and grumpy, bored youth breaking things (or even littering) stands in great contrast to everything our allotment means to us: connection to the land, greater self-sufficiency, productivity over destruction, efficiency over waste. In effect, the allotment system (and its wartime origins in growing on public land for personal and communal survival) means that we have a contract with our local authority to make the most of our patch - which is the public's land - on loan to us. Being public land, it is to some degree vulnerable. These snotty, surly youth would benefit more from compulsory labour on public land than they do from junk food and Wiis. (Blimey - Ed.)

Anyway, we cobble together the remaining spare floorboards and form four walls for our fourth raised bed (note - change of plan from previous post - we have gone for one large rather than two small because of the wood situation). Mushroom compost is on order, chicken manure will be obtained (best you don't ask) - these will be added in a layer over the four beds, which will be covered and left for a couple of months. In that time, worms and such will arise from the soil, drag the good stuff down into lower levels, and by the time we unwrap (March, say), the soil will have been broken up and improved. The worms are, in so many ways, the true heroes of our tale.

Still about ten days left in our holiday, and still much to do. Weather = mild, cloudy, dry.

25 December 2007 - The final harvest?

Christmas morning comes, and we venture up for probably the final harvest of the year: our Brussel sprouts, who have been invited to join us for Christmas dinner.

Something has been at the sprouts. Because there appear to be scratches on the stalks, and they have only been eaten up to a certain height, we think it must be mice or rats or voles or something else on its hind legs. Later, we remember that on our last visit we removed the mini-fence and netting around the sprouts (in anticipation of laying the fifth bed) and conclude that it is probably birds.

Despite the attack, there are more than enough for dinner, and they are delicious when cooked with bacon cubes and chestnuts and marsalla. Well, most things would be.

They make a delicious part of our Christmas dinner, along with turkey from a local farm.

We also measure the plot, and its components, for planning purposes. Over the next few weeks, we anticipate finishing off (digging, walling, composting and covering) our beds in preparation for spring planting (spring, here, being a March/April/May affair).

Much discussion ensues about what to grow where, and where the compost centre should be, along with the fruit cage, the shed and what I think of as the lounge. Proper measurements ensure a rational, non-heated discussion. In parallel, we need to prioritise what crops and other enchantments will be grown and when.

Initial work is done on graph paper, which is useful but does not quite capture the undulating nature of our boundary fence and non-straight beds. Also, at slightly more than 106 square metres, some attempt must be made to take account of the curvature of the earth. A second attempt is made, therefore, along the lines of a Peters Projection. To say that this attempt clarifies our thinking would be charitable.

Also to be taken into account is crop rotation, or crop sequencing. Knowledge of those elements that certain crops add to and take from the soil during their growth allows beneficial planning of which the sequence in which different crops are planted, season-by-season. Also, it is suggested that if you keep the same crop in the same soil year after year, diseases and pests which prey on that crop tend to build up.

Plant experts group different crops into the categories of Root, Brassica and (terminology varies) Other. Generally, Roots follow Brassicas which follow Other. (There's also a category, which we have not yet named, of things that can go anywhere or things that stay where they are forever.) I suppose old-school farmers left the fourth year fallow. I'm not sure we have the patience or life-expectancy to allow for that. We have to factor in a seed-bed somewhere, despite the existence of a pre-dug bed from earlier this year (courtesy of AN). The part of the plot which has not been "bedded up" will be used for potatoes and flowers on one side, and the cage, parallel to the shed, on the other.

Here is the proposed crop list for the next year, based on what we like eating, with varieties we have chosen from magazines to be ordered where known (nb. the varieties may well change according to availability):
Roots
Sweet potato (T65, Beauregard) (might be tricky)
Potatoes (Sarpo Mira, Axona - blight-free but probably all gone now)
Carrots (Siena F1)
Brassicas
Broccoli (Ironman F1)
Winter cabbage
Kale - after potatoes
Other
Onions (RIP overwintering onions)
Peas (Keleveden Wonder)
Leeks (Malabar)
Garlic (Elephant and Solent White)
Other other
Spring onions
Radishes
Lettuce/salad
Raspberries (Galanta) - in the cage
Butternut squash (Hawk F1)
Pumpkin - on the bank
Strawberries - in the cage.

There's a further concept: companion planting. This intends to maximise performance by planting particular things together - because they help or protect each other (for example, marigolds masking the carrot scent, which otherwise the Dreaded Carrot Fly can smell up to one mile away). In our case, this means we will try three crops together in one of the beds:
Courgettes/Zucchini (Optima F1)
French beans
Sweetcorn.

15/16 December - In the Bleak Midwinter

This weekend we have managed to spend quite a bit of time in the plot. This is because the weather was not wet and indeed quite sunny though very cold as the picture on the left shows (ice on puddle). We thought we should Go For It.

A very sad sight met our eyes when we first got to the plot. It looked as though something has eaten the vibrant growing tips of our over-wintering onions. It is particularly distressing as they were doing very well only a few days before and were grown from seed. We don't think it was rabbits, probably mice. The garlic planted a little while ago has yet to make an appearance, so we are wondering whether to call it a day on this bed, cover it with compost and start again in the spring. Bah humbug.

First task, the digging of the third bed. N did his usual magic with the long boards, three nailed together on each side and we slotted the frame into the neatly dug trench (marked out with poles and things). Now we can dispense with double-digging to condition our soil, we just pile it up and rake it a bit.

This soil has a real load of nasty stuff still in it, wire, plastic etc. Yeuch.

Then there was seasonal tidying up. Farewell to the amateur rabbit-proof fence round the bed with the sprouts (still going and very tasty) and celery. Farewell also the celery, which remained in my view an enigmatic crop whose potential was never fully realised nor (probably) understood. Intrestingly there were a couple of radishes still growing, set probably from the seed of bolted plants.

Then we had a long ponder about the Way Forward, or what people where I work call The Direction of Travel.

We decided that we had to begin to break down the heap of loamy soil (the former pumpkin bed) and relocate it after jettisoning obvious weeds etc to the new just-dug bed and indeed to populate other beds on the area where it is currently situated, as well as two new small beds. This is rather a curious conundrum. There is no point moving the soil somewhere just to move it back but it needs to be moved somewhat because the trench needs digging. That area (near the compost bin) is rather large, so that is why it is going to be two small beds.

The boundaries of the two mooted small beds will be such that we had to move our current plastic compost bin - and compost. We duly moved it temporarily to the other end of the plot near to the shed. The idea is to eventually put our pallet-compost-thingy there and to move the shed round.

N did a tidy up too of our various wood holdings. Unfortunately we do not have enough of the really long boards to make the new beds, so we will be trying Freecycle or some such to get some.

Anyway. We thought you'd like to see what the allotment looks like from the main entrance in the lane. This was taken at the end of our labours on Sunday. It is a view that never fails to cheer us up when we set off to the plot.