Start of the harvest

Well, things have been running pretty well at the allotment, even with a weeks holiday in the Balaerics in the middle.

One of the encouraging factors is that even though we came in to this part way through the year in our first year we still did quite well, and that in our second year we improved. This is our third year (or second full year) and not only has the site and the yields improved, they have actually gone through the roof!

As well as the mixed lettuce leaves that we've been picking for six weeks now, we've enjoyed beetroot, radish, broad beans and mange tout. Over the weekend we dug half of the second early potatoes (about 30lb) and a fair portion of the peas (once taken from the pods, about 5lb's).

In fact, despite giving a fair amount of produce away we're struggling to keep-up. The courgettes, squash and pumpkins overcame the threat of the slugs and are producing nicely, and we've got about 6 courgettes in the fridge and this sunny weather means that they are coming through at a fast rate.

We never accounted for cost as one of the factors for getting the allotment, but I guess three years later its now more of a factor, and we're seeing a real difference in our shopping bill. In fact, we don't need to buy vegetables at all, really we need the soft-fruit to establish as thats where we spend.

So next year will see an emphasis on more soft-fruit canes and plants and better protection for them, I also plan to get a small polytunnel to grow more tomoatoes, cucumbers and chilli's (we eat load of those both fresh, dried and pickled!).

In terms of break-even this year, I estimate we spent about £250 all-in (bearing in mind we spent £120 on transport of manure). In terms of produce we will easily get the equivalent of 100 bags of lettuce (we eat it every day) which costs about £1.50 per bag, potatoes (we've got a huge swathe of plants growing) will be about £30, peas £20, so we're easily coming in at a 'profit' and I think we'll recoup about £500 worth of produce, so a £250 saving!

Not only that, the quality is better (for example none of the lettuce has a single spray or artificial fertilizer on it), and it doesn't have to travel so its fresher and better for the environment.

So, the benefits are there to see, but i can't sit here typing, I've got more to harvest!

Allotment visitor

You've seen Bill Oddie on Springwatch, well this week I've been on Slugwatch, Hinckley's less-televisual version.

Yes, my courgettes, squash and pumpkins have been decimated by slugs, little baby blighters. Monday night I collected 27 and tonight 9 (I guess the numbers are falling, which is encouraging). Luckily reinforcements have been helping in the form of my little friend pictured. I'm pleased with the image, taken on an 18-70mm lens, and of course cropped on the computer! But its my image - honest!

Fantastic weather this week has meant really strong growth on the crops and the maincrop potatoes are catching up and the peas/mangetout are almost in flower.

So its on with the weeding and back to slugwatch - Robin, you take the first watch!

June 2008 and images at last

At long last I've been motivated to bring my camera and take a few shots of the allotment. We are, for a change, about up to date with everything on the site - but those weeds keep coming and coming and it seems like a never ending battle to keep on top of them.

One area that I am pleased with is the parsnips which are going strongly, as can be seen here - growing alongside Salsify, which I've never even eaten, let alone grown! I have thinned out some of the parsnips and they are about 4 inches in depth although still very thin, so I'm hoping that some good thinning and we'll have some good parsnips over the winter!

The maincrop potatoes that we were late planting are now starting to come through, lets hope for a blight free season! The first and second earlies are doing well so far, the first earlies should flower in 2-3 weeks from now and I'm hoping to start getting them up at the end of the month.

The Brussels are now in place and are going well, I've really prepared the ground this year as we've always struggled with brassica's and they do appear to be responding. The pigeons have had a nibble at some and I'll have to get something to cover them from the cabbage whites which are fluttering around at the moment - I've never before got far enough to worry about them before!

Finally, my beans - what can I say? The weather over the bank holiday had a good go at them, and when they recovered snails decimated their foliage, I've got more planted but its a race against time, as you'll see from this image of the plot, everything is in place for them, but it looks lonely without the plants at the moment.

An explanation of the bottom photo - this is the angle from the main gate, the very foreground is an area still to be cleared, then the permanent runner bean support, parsnips, salsify, first and second early potatoes. The a plastic covered area for pumpkin, squash, courgette and patty pans. The maincrop and salad potatoes. The onions (red and white), peas, mange tout and sugarsnap, then celeriac, then brassica's. Behind where I took the photo is soft fruit and rhubarb.

More photo's to come - and I won't wait a year to do them!

May update

We've been hard at work on the plot, and in-between that and a very busy work schedule not really had time to update the blog, but here where we are at the end of May:

All the potatoes are in, the maincrop were a little late, but hopefully the blight will keep away long enough for us to get a harvest! Peas, sugarsnap and mange tout are growing well, parsnips have germinated really well (thanks to Jack on the accompanying plot who gave us some of his saved-seeds). The new raspberry bed is coming-along nicely and the strawberries are doing better than last year. We have a couple of new trials in the form of celeriac and salsify which we haven't grown before and also got jerusalem artichokes which were donated by my boss.

At home we have lots of plants waiting for this colder spell of weather to end. Runner and French beans, plus a whole host of pumpkins, squash, patty pans and courgettes (these were all battered by the gales we suffered over the bank holiday weekend).

Finally, I've got all the brassica's to plant, the only problem being that as I over-estimated how many spuds to buy, bought too many and use-up far more space than I originally anticipated. The upshot - no room for brassica's. Oh well, I'll have to clear some of the overgrown areas, at least a full allotment is better than an empty one!!

February progress

Of course the whole blog would be much better if I could remember to take my camera to the allotment with me, but as I always forget I'll have to paint a picture in the readers mind!

The spring weather has been kind, so we've therefore made good progress. Thanks to a friendly neighbour we've reclaimed a couple of hundred slabs heading toward landfill and have now got a series of paths in situ. This has divided the plot in to three main areas, plus a paved permanent runner bean area and a permanent raspberry bed.

Of the three areas, one is completely dug and manured. One is about 25% dug and manured and the third is covered in black plastic (and will remain covered until next spring).

We've sown parsnips, and today I've planted broad beans. The potato tubers are here now (there is rather a lot of them though!) and I've ordered raspberry canes. So really, its a case of keeping on top of the digging and watching for any rogue weeds and getting things in to place.

More of the same weather please!

How we got where we are

We took over our plot in 2006, our main drivers being:

• We became more aware of the environment and the need to reduce food miles
• We became concerned about the use of intensive farming
• We wanted our then four year old daughter to appreciate where her food comes from

It came to our attention that a new allotment site was being built less than a mile from us, we applied to the council and after the obligitory council beaurocracy finally got our plot.

As we came-in mid-season and the site was pretty neglected we couldn't do too much in year one, we had success with some carrots, onions, beetroot and cabbages but the oncoming autumn finally defeated us.

One of the main problems we encountered was the heavy clay soil and the fact that the ground had lied dormant and been used as a car-park (the site is opposite where the Hinckley United football ground used to be) meant that the ground was compacted with a pan. The slightest shower meant flooding, and heavy downpours left rivers running through the site.

2007 was our first full year and plenty of digging and some double-digging meant that we had much better drainage. The addition of manure, compost and sand improved the soil, however the fact that we initially rotavated compounded the weed problem, particularly with the doc leaves (showing that there is no short-cut to weeding).

The wet summer of 2007 cause problems in itself, seemingly every weekend proving a wash-out and the planting time shortened. There were some successes - the Desiree potatoes were outstanding despite the plants getting blight, carrots were good, beetroot again, runner beans and peas, mangetout were on the positive side. Negatives were all the brassica's (not a soggy sprout to be had) and the tomatoes which all succumed to blight.

So on to 2008 and as you would probably expect from a site in its infancy owned be a couple at work full-time we're still developing. Plans include more paths using reclaimed slabs to provide some structure and the addition of lots of organic matter to further improve the soil.

One of the areas we hope to make an impact in 2008 is to grow a lot of soft fruit, an area that we spend a lot of money during the summer. So look out for posts on strawberrys, raspberry's, gooseberry's and I'm even tempted to try Goji berries!

So, please visit again and we'll update the site to show all the latest news.