allotment
I love our new allotment. There are no child-unfriendly hazards (broken glass, concrete steps, 3-foot drops onto concrete and broken glass, aggressive neighbours with aggressive dogs, cat poo everywhere, etc) and when we took possession it was totally new -- a blank slate full of potential. The old plot was full of problems caused by the previous tenant's neglect, which took a few years to sort out.
This site is in the countryside, and they've provided a picnic area with seating. And we can use the toilet in the church next door (brilliant! Allotment sites seldom have toilet facilities). And they built sheds for everyone. And there's going to be a big polytunnel and beehives. And an orchard. And a hedge of nuts and berries. I love it!
We knew we only had a limited time to get it going -- reasonably assuming it'd be hard to do intensive allotment work with a toddler AND a newborn baby.* With 10 years' experience behind us we knew that the most important thing was to stay ahead of the weeds. Matt has been regularly attacking the soil with the hoe before any weeds have had a chance to do more than sprout. There's nothing more daunting and dispiriting (in the allotment, anyway) than having to dig out established, mature weeds.
River has mostly been very enthusiastic about helping us -- especially with watering and, recently, harvesting. Mum bought her a small wheelbarrow and trowel set and she's enjoyed digging up pebbles and carting random loads of soil around.
We bought a portable greenhouse tent thing, which totally collapsed after 2 days. Got a refund, and Matt spent another day rebuilding it with wooden stakes in place of tent pegs, and some leftover water pipe to sheathe the shattered sections of pole. It's now a bit over-stuffed with tomato, aubergine, cucumber and pepper plants. Lots of fruit there but none ripe yet -- except for one (delicious) cucumber.
We spent quite a lot on fruit plants -- blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries. Not much to harvest this year, but we should have some fantastic harvests from next year. I do love soft fruit, and it's so expensive at the shops. Even if nothing else works, the fruit alone would make the allotment worthwhile.
With the strange, bitterly cold start to the spring (worst April ever! We were all too ill to go out and have fun in the snow) we were a few weeks late getting the potatoes and onion/shallot sets in -- but we did eventually plant them. They've used up half of the non-fruit space on the plot. Ideal in the first year, really, as they're pretty low maintenance and are bound to grow if the weather is halfway decent.
Mum gave us courgette, cucumber, sunflower, chard, broccoli, pak choi, cabbage and ornamental gourd seedlings, which have taken up a lot of space and helped to keep he weeds down. A friend gave us some lettuce and borage seedlings. And we sowed a row each of turnips, carrots, beetroot, more chard, spring onions, peas, mange tout and 3 varieties of French beans. For my bitrhday in April I got a trailer load of horse manure. Matt dug it into the whole plot and I'm sure that's why everything is growing so beautifully. It currently looks like the most productive plot on the site. Nice to be proud of our allotment for a change, instead of having to apologise for all the weeds etc.
We've already enjoyed home-grown courgettes, cucumber, chard, pak choi, turnips, onion, strawberries and raspberries. Looking forward to plenty of cheap, tasty meals over the next few months! I'm especially looking forward to the tomatoes. Still blows my mind that these delicate little flowers can turn into something so sublime.
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* Actually, not that bad. We have a couple of chairs stored in the shed, and a big umbrella for sun-shade, so I can do a spot of breastfeeding while Matt and River potter about. But obviously I'm not able to do much in the way of gardening at the moment so the workforce has been halved.
This site is in the countryside, and they've provided a picnic area with seating. And we can use the toilet in the church next door (brilliant! Allotment sites seldom have toilet facilities). And they built sheds for everyone. And there's going to be a big polytunnel and beehives. And an orchard. And a hedge of nuts and berries. I love it!
We knew we only had a limited time to get it going -- reasonably assuming it'd be hard to do intensive allotment work with a toddler AND a newborn baby.* With 10 years' experience behind us we knew that the most important thing was to stay ahead of the weeds. Matt has been regularly attacking the soil with the hoe before any weeds have had a chance to do more than sprout. There's nothing more daunting and dispiriting (in the allotment, anyway) than having to dig out established, mature weeds.
River has mostly been very enthusiastic about helping us -- especially with watering and, recently, harvesting. Mum bought her a small wheelbarrow and trowel set and she's enjoyed digging up pebbles and carting random loads of soil around.
We bought a portable greenhouse tent thing, which totally collapsed after 2 days. Got a refund, and Matt spent another day rebuilding it with wooden stakes in place of tent pegs, and some leftover water pipe to sheathe the shattered sections of pole. It's now a bit over-stuffed with tomato, aubergine, cucumber and pepper plants. Lots of fruit there but none ripe yet -- except for one (delicious) cucumber.
We spent quite a lot on fruit plants -- blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries. Not much to harvest this year, but we should have some fantastic harvests from next year. I do love soft fruit, and it's so expensive at the shops. Even if nothing else works, the fruit alone would make the allotment worthwhile.
With the strange, bitterly cold start to the spring (worst April ever! We were all too ill to go out and have fun in the snow) we were a few weeks late getting the potatoes and onion/shallot sets in -- but we did eventually plant them. They've used up half of the non-fruit space on the plot. Ideal in the first year, really, as they're pretty low maintenance and are bound to grow if the weather is halfway decent.
Mum gave us courgette, cucumber, sunflower, chard, broccoli, pak choi, cabbage and ornamental gourd seedlings, which have taken up a lot of space and helped to keep he weeds down. A friend gave us some lettuce and borage seedlings. And we sowed a row each of turnips, carrots, beetroot, more chard, spring onions, peas, mange tout and 3 varieties of French beans. For my bitrhday in April I got a trailer load of horse manure. Matt dug it into the whole plot and I'm sure that's why everything is growing so beautifully. It currently looks like the most productive plot on the site. Nice to be proud of our allotment for a change, instead of having to apologise for all the weeds etc.
We've already enjoyed home-grown courgettes, cucumber, chard, pak choi, turnips, onion, strawberries and raspberries. Looking forward to plenty of cheap, tasty meals over the next few months! I'm especially looking forward to the tomatoes. Still blows my mind that these delicate little flowers can turn into something so sublime.
--------------------------------------------
* Actually, not that bad. We have a couple of chairs stored in the shed, and a big umbrella for sun-shade, so I can do a spot of breastfeeding while Matt and River potter about. But obviously I'm not able to do much in the way of gardening at the moment so the workforce has been halved.