There’s been stacks of progress over the New Year break and I’m sitting here at the end of the day with a labor intensive back ache. Good job I’m going back to work tomorrow, I need a rest! I popped into a garden centre on my way back to London...

site preparation

For Christmas this year I got a couple of packs of mushroom “seed” or more accurately, packs of wooden dowells impregnated with mushroom mycelium. I went up to Yorkshire for a few days so I split them with my Dad and we had some fun trying to bash the little...

fungus mushrooms

We may have just hit the point of mid winter but it wasn’t all that bleak down the allotment today, jolly misty, a bit chilly, but not bleak at all. In fact it was quite a joy to be down on the site, the old apple trees are looking particularly...

Well there was no eviction notice tacked to the front of the shed so I may start to relax now. Mind you it was so windy today that any notice would have blown away, I was surprised the shed hadn’t taken off in fact. Despite the horrendous weather (Dad take...

shed

Well it hasn’t been all that quiet it’s just been so stressful recently that I’ve kind of gone into blogging hibernation. I mentioned in my last post that I had been offered a super shed for use on the plot and I’d roped in the help of my mum, dad...

site preparation family shed

I took the plot on in mid-September and worked hard to clear enough area to get some crops in before winter. Thanks have to go to my parents who came down and worked liked Trojans for a week.

month in pictures

After last weeks struggle with the compost I decided it was time to invest in a high tech conveyor - a wheeled contraption is required for lugging the heavy stuff. This particular model is the Revolution Cargo trailer by Edinburgh Cycles. It normally goes for £125 but I managed to...

compost bike trailer

I staggered across to my allotment today, laden with compostable materials. Not sure what the heck happened on the waste front last week but I’m going to blame the veg box. I could barely carry the bag of peelings, vacuum crud and shredded paper and by the time I added...

compost site preparation

It didn’t look like a great day for spending on the allotment. However, I had a number of tasks that needed to be ticked off the list so I headed off early to beat the inevitable rain. I took the plot on rather too late in the year to sow...

planting

How pretty is this little delivery? Following my thwarted search for local food last weekend, I thought I’d try out a veg box scheme. This little box came from the organic delivery company, who apparently source local organic produce from the Covent Garden fruit and veg market. They have an...

local food

There was a lovely treat awaiting me when I got home today, which just about made up for the terrifying night-time cycle commute. Two seed packages had been delivered, one with 3 packets of organic freebies from Thompson & Morgan and the other containing my purchases from the Real Seed...

seeds

I’m feeling inspired by “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” and am considering an attempt at my own local eating experiment. I wouldn’t start it yet of course, the allotment hasn’t really had a chance to start supporting a healthy appetite, but it’s never too late to start researching my options. On Sunday...

local food

I acquired a few off cuts of pond liner from the amazing freecycle group and after using them to suppress weeds for about 2 days, I decided I may as well get on and build a pond. I took a fairly haphazard approach to the design and was lucky that...

site preparation pond

I had a late night trip to the lotty this week to deliver a load of compost bins that I’d managed to scavenge from my block of flats. It was interesting seeing the site in the middle of the night. I had to use my high power halogen torch to...

compost

In the end I had a very successful weekend down the allotment, thanks to the weather and a distinct lack of a social life. I turned up around Saturday lunchtime and became almost irreversibly melancholic as it seemed the previous weeks’ hard work had been wiped out by the irrepressible...

planting