Posts from the ‘Fiona, Malahide Allotments’ Category

iCarrot

Fiona’s Blog  -  http://fionagrowsfood.wordpress.com/

This is what it’s all about, biting into your very first ever homegrown carrot and realising, you’ll never feel the same way about carrots again. It’s the most delicious carrot I’ve ever eaten. In fact, I may just grow carrots on my plot next year and nothing else. I’m considering starting a carrot related advertising campaign to entice people to garden but I think a certain famous company which shares it’s name with another healthy food (I’ll give you a hint, it’s not an orange) might take issue with my slogan.

If you don’t see me for a while, I’m probably busy being sued

Seriously though, grow carrots. Grow them seriously, or for fun, just grow them. I planted my carrots late. In fact, I forgot to plant carrots until the second week in June and wasn’t quite sure they’d even germinate. I had very palpable fears about the carrot root fly, I’ve heard and read some scary stories. Horrible creatures that burrow into your carrots and eat them from the inside out. I’ve had Night of the Living Dead Root Fly nightmares. Plus, we haven’t had the best summer for carrots, so my hopes weren’t very high. Imagine my delight when today I decided to pick some to see how they were progressing and what I ended up with were delicious, crunchy carrots. I of course, ate one straight out of the ground, muck and all. Cue many happy and appreciative noises which I’m sure raised a few eyebrows among my neighbouring allotmenteers. Oh, and another thing, my carrots are straight, very straight, and long. Obviously the 6 hours myself and Dave spent sieving a tonne of soil (literally, a tonne) for the carrot bed paid off.  All that hard work, that hot March day, breaking our backs wheelbarrowing soil to the plot, cursing ourselves, sieveing for hours, raking, raking, more raking, it was totally worth it.

Of course, the carrots aren’t the only crop we’ve harvested this September but they are definitely my favourite. We’ve also had, borlotti beans, celery, red cabbage, spinach chard, peas and of course my onions, which have been drying away in the back garden for three weeks and are nearly ready to eat. I did have to rip up my ridiculous perpetual spinach and swiss chard today as they were taller than me and had bolted, and were quite frankly, a disgrace. I might plant some more for over the winter months.

Spoils

Me with a red cabbage

Artichoke

September isn’t just harvest season though, there’s plenty of jobs to keep me busy in the garden. Of course there’s weeding, because, well, there’s always weeding. There’s plenty of tidying and maintenance to be done but there’s also plenty of planting. It’s time to get the garden ready for overwintering crops, winter onions, garlic, winter lettuces, spinach and of course spring cabbage. Today, I planted two blueberry plants, which are one of the things I’ve known from the start I wanted to grow. These are best planted in autumn, in acidic soil, the lower the pH the better, but around 5 is perfect. I did measure my soil pH in March and the reading was 5.5, so hopefully the bluberries will do well. It does help to aid them though, a good mulch, bark, grass cuttings, leaves, whatever you can get your hands on, and the pine needles from my christmas tree will definitely find their way to my blueberry bed.

Blueberry bushes

September also sees the arrival of the brand new community room on site, it’s a lovely big room, with a fridge, microwave, tea and coffee and snacks, and of course, tables, inside and out, to take a well earned tea break when the work gets too tough. It’s a great way to meet fellow gardeners too, I have hopes of making a few friends here.

Community Room

I did attempt to make the plot look a bit nicer today, I spread some bark mulch around the path near my fruit section of my plot but it took about 400 litres to cover a tiny area so it looks like it’ll be a while before I can do the whole plot. I also attempted a makeshift patio area. It’s not great. I had visions of a lovely decking area with potted plants and a table and chairs. In reality, I placed some planks of wood on the ground, thats about it, but it’s a start, I would put up a photo but I can’t bring myself to do it, it’s that bad.

The bark is a big improvement on the weeds

September is also planning time. Get planning. It’s amazing how much a planting plan will help in the early spring.

As for carrots, if you’re not growing them, do it next year, you’ll thank me.

Midsummer Murderer

Fiona’s Blog - http://fionagrowsfood.wordpress.com/

I’ve had a pretty busy few weeks and I wouldn’t say that I’ve neglected my plot, but I haven’t been to it nearly as much as I would have liked either.

The weather has been pretty odd for June, a mix of horrible rainy days and milder dry days but nothing like the hot, sunny weather we had two weeks ago. It’s hard to believe that midsummer’s day is only a week away. The warm weather did however, start a growth spurt on my plot and it’s looking significantly greener than it did a few weeks ago. Most of the greenery, however, is weeds. They seem to be trying to take over the plot, within a week, they went from tiny seedlings to tall bushy weeds all over my paths and on the parts of the plot that are still unused.

I visited the plot on Sunday and spent over four hours just pulling weeds up from the paths and from the paths around the outside of my plot in an effort to stop them from spreading onto my plot. In fact, I did so much weeding that I gave myself a hoe-ing blister on the inside of my thumb, ouch!

Poppy

Beetroot, swiss chard and perpetual spinach

I did feel a little guilty tearing up some of the lovely red poppies but it had to be done. I truly felt like a murderer though, when I had to thin out my beetroot and swiss chard plants. After all my weeks of careful nurturing, I had to pull out about half of each to give the rest space to grow. It did give me a chance to have a cheeky nibble on the baby chard leaves though.

I planted out my borlotti beans which had been hardening off at home for a week and I finally planted some carrots, a bit later than I wanted but it couldn’t be helped. This weekend, I hope to plant some florence fennel and pak choi too. Unfortunately, my pumpkin plants all died, all three of them, and my courgette plant. I have literally no idea why this happened, they had been thriving before. I have heard they are very easy to grow and really prolific so god only knows why they died, it seems I am having trouble with plants that are seemingly easy to grow and no bother at all growing the trickier plants. I’m just going to chalk it down to bad luck and try again next year.

Borage. Spot the ladybird?

Apart from that, the plot is thriving, my potatoes plants are huge and my jerusalem artichokes finally showed up, after months of nothing. My rhubarb which had disappeared in the bad weather in april, is back with a vengeance and is now pretty huge. My borage grew far larger than I expected and the two plants are a lovely addition to the plot, I’ve seen lots of bees buzzing around them. My first sowing of peas are starting to really climb now and the second aren’t far behind. I also have lettuce, rocket, salsify, cabbage, onions, shallots, celery, purple sprouting broccoli, artichokes, red currants, raspberries and strawberries growing very strong, in addition to my tomatoes at home and my herbs. Not bad for the first three months of my gardening adventure.

Rhubarb

Peas, borlotti beans and early potatoes

Broccoli, celery and cabbage

It’s amazing how different the allotment looks since I started it in March, it’s difficult to get the whole plot into the pictures but you get the idea. I still have a million and one things to do, I need a gate, some proper pathways, a patio area, and lots of other bits and pieces. I’m also hoping to get some food out of it soon, that is, after all, the whole point.

Plot P26 on the 10th March 2012

Plot P26 on the 10th June 2012 – 3 months later

Fiona – Malahide Allotments

Bloomin’ Beautiful

We’ve had a beautiful stretch of weather here in Dublin the past 12 days. It’s been warm, dry and sunny, and it feels like summer is finally here. I’ve even been able to get out in my shorts and terrify the world with my so-white-they’re-reflective legs. I’ve been trying to visit the plot in the evenings to water it, the clay soil seems to totally dry out in the sun and becomes cracked very quickly.

The good weather has caused a wonderful growth spurt on the plot and everytime I visit, something new is growing of something has doubled in size. Everything is beginning to bloom. My main crop potatoes are coming up very quickly and I planted peas last Monday and they had germinated by Thursday!

Potatoes

Pumpkins

I had to thin out my beetroot, chard and perpetual spinach the other day. I felt like a murderer but it had to be done. I’m just pleased they’re growing, they were looking like they’d never come up. I also planted out my courgette and pumpkin plants, they were just too big to keep on the windowsill anymore, thankfully they seem to be adjusting well to being outdoors.

My strawberry plants have come back to life, having been battered by the wind a few weeks ago, and they are thriving. They have lots of beautiful white flowers and I can see some of the flowers starting to develop into fruit. I covered the bed they are in in weed control fabric, this is so the fruit won’t be sitting on wet soil when it grows as this causes the fruit to rot. Straw is also good for this purpose, just spread it under each plant for the strawberries to rest on. I also made a cage of sorts to protect them from birds, I simply used bamboo and wire to make it and draped netting over it to protect my strawberries .

Strawberries in bloom

Strawberry cage

When I first got the allotment, I knew I wanted to grow Borage. I had read about this wonderful plant in a few different books and loved how it looked. Borage is an annual herb, with beautiful blue star shaped flowers and a mild cucumber flavour. I planted two borage plants in early spring and in the past week they have literally tripled in size and burst open with gorgeous blue flowers, I’ve already seen a few bees buzzing around them.

Beautiful Borage

Another one I planted to attract bees is lavender. It was very (very) slow to start and I didn’t think I’d see any life on it this year but lo and behold, the sunshine has done it wonders and there’s lovely stalks of lavender beginning to form

Lavender

My rhubarb has come back to life too, it’s amazing what a few days of heat and sunshine can do for the garden. It’s great to be able to sit out on the plot on a sunny day and just enjoy my surroundings. This weekend, there is an open day at the allotment site, there’s to be a barbeque, music, entertainment etc, I’m really looking forward to it.

This weekend also sees the return of the Bloom in the Park festival in phoenix park, an annual gardening and food festival held in Dublin. If you have the time, it’s worth a visit, especially if this weather keeps up.

We have big plans for the plot in the coming weeks, we’re going to finally rebuild our gate, install a patio area, compst bin, water butt and we’re working on a little project to attract some unusual wildlife in, watch this space.

Plot P26 in the sunshine

Shelter

Fiona’s Blog  -  http://fionagrowsfood.wordpress.com/

Myself and Dave were chuffed the other day when we visited the plot and discovered our shed had been put up. It’s a 6ft by 4ft shed which is small but it’s big enough for our needs and we didn’t want the shed to take up too much space on the plot. Finally we have somewhere to store the tools, the car was destroyed with all the muck etc, it also means we can cycle out to the plot now as we don’t have to carry all the tools with us.

Dave already put the shed to good use the other day. I spent a couple of hours  pottering around, watering, weeding etc and he sat in the shed reading a book avoiding getting his hands dirty and hiding from the rain showers.

I planted another crop of peas the other day. Succession sowing means I should (hopefully) have peas throughout the summer. I tidied up the plot the other day, there’s a lot of weeds to deal with and I’m trying to keep them in check.

I put some collars on my cabbages to protect them from the dreaded cabbage root fly. I wrote a blog post about how to make them yourself, you can find it here if you want to try it yourself, it’s very easy. I also put netting around the bed to protect the cabbages from the birds. Dave hammered a small length of wood to each corner of the bed and we just draped the netting over using twine to hold it up. You’ll notice I also have some CD’s in the bed, this is to try scare the birds away, I’ve heard it helps so fingers crossed.

Other than that I haven’t done much on the plot this week, again the weather hasn’t been great. You can tell by my photos it’s been very grey and dull. Things are looking up though, the weather forecast tells me we should have a dramatic improvement in weather this week, we might even get some decent sunshine and a raise in temperatures. I’m just hoping for at least one day when I can get out on the plot in my shorts, is that too much to ask?

I’ll leave you for now with some shots of the plot from the other day.

Rain pooled in lupin leaves

View from the shed window

Spuds

Borage

Grey skies

Keep Calm and Pot On

Fiona’s Blog  - http://fionagrowsfood.wordpress.com/

I’m sitting here, looking out at a very rainy day, the May bank holiday hasn’t been the warm, gardening filled weekend I hoped it would be. I’m starting to get quite frustrated with the weather the past few weeks, I feel like I haven’t seen the sun in far too long and the garden is starting to suffer for it. I wouldn’t mind the rain so much if the temperature was good but it’s far below average for this time of year and on Friday night, it got down to One degree. So much for summer!

To fill the gardening void in my weekend, I’ve been looking for other things to spend my time on. On Friday, I began sprouting some chickpeas, I love chickpeas and couldn’t resist trying this out. Chickpeas are basically dormant seeds, which when kept moist, begin to sprout. I simply dampened a few sheets of kitchen towel and placed  them on a seed tray and spread the chickpeas out on the wet towel. It reminded me of school, when we would grow cress and alfalfa sprouts on wet paper towels in the science lab. The chickpeas should sprout pretty quickly and I’m looking forward to trying them fresh as they are much nicer and contain higher nutrient content. Chickpeas are very low fat, high in fibre and vitamin C and are great for blood pressure, and of course, they’re very tasty. I’m going to make some  homemade hummus and falafel with them when they’re ready so keep an eye out for the recipe.

Borlotti Bean

I also had to spend an hour or two, potting on my chili and tomato plants which were fast outgrowing their small pots. I should really be moving my tomatoes outside by now but the weather is still a bit too nippy, I’m going to hold off for another week or two. Instead, I had to be content with potting them on and hoping I don’t somehow kill them in the process, I seem to have bad luck with the potting on process, especially with my tomatoes but thankfully I had no casualties. My borlotti beans are finally showing themselves, I think the cold weather had stunted their growth a bit, even though they were in the greenhouse, I’m going to waith until mid June to plant them on the plot just to be safe.

I visited the allotment breifly to plant my red cabbages and celery, I had to cover these up though as there was frost predicted. I used fleece to cover the cabbages and for my celery, I used old plastic bottles as cloches. I only had two of these to hand so I fashioned a homemade cloche from wire and plastic for the remainng plant, it looks a bit mad but it does the trick.

Homemade cloches

The one thing that seems to be thriving in the current weather is my early potatoes, I had to earth them up the other day as they were getting pretty large, I even noticed some flowers starting to form. Even if the bad wether ruins everything else, at least I’ll definitely have some spuds!

Dave earthing up the spuds

My strawberry plants took a beating during the week and are looking very bad indeed, however, I noticed some new rhubarb growth, looks like the wind didn’t kill it completely and it’s coming back which is a great sign. All in all, it’s been a quiet week on the plot, hopefully, next week we’ll be getting our shed, the poor car is covered in muck from hauling the tools back and forth, it’ll be nice to have a place to store them on the plot, and of course to hide from the rain showers.

Potting on

Red Cabbage

New Rhubarb growth

Snails Pace.

Fiona’s Blog  -  http://fionagrowsfood.wordpress.com/

Having an allotment is not just about growing vegetables and fruit. It is a place to go when you need a break, It is a haven from city life. It is a hobby like no other. It is a garden for those without.  It is a place to bring the kids at the weekend, or to sit down with a flask of tea and simply enjoy the view. Some people have them simply for one crop, some people only grow fruit, some people don’t grow food at all and just use their plots for growing flowers.

Myself, I’m growing whatever it is that takes my fancy, whether it be pumpkins, strawberries of some flowers for the bees. I’ve been reading about companion planting lately, a method of gardening where you plant different plants in close proximity which benefit each other, wether it be by pollination, pest control or nutrient uptake. I have planned out a four year crop rotation for my plot, and strict companion planting methods do not necessarily fit into my plan, however, I have planted a few things with other crops in mind. I am growing chives, which I will plant near my carrots as they help deter carrot root fly. I planted borage, beside my strawberries to help encourage pollination and repel pests. I have been growing some marigolds to attract the pesky slugs away from my brassicas, and attract the slugs they do! I started my marigolds about six weeks ago, in pots at home. They germinated well and I moved them out to the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago.

Nibbled Basil

Yesterday, I went to water my plants in the greenhouse, but when I opened it up, my marigolds had all but disappeared! Gone. Eaten. Savaged overnight. There was telltale signs of slugs trails on the soil. Exasperated, I took everything out of the greenhouse, but could not find the culprit. As I was disposing of my destroyed marigolds (sniff), Dave found a small snail on the side of one of the pots, little bugger. One tiny snail had destroyed all twelve of my marigold plants overnight, so much for moving at a snails pace! I suppose the marigolds did do their job of attracting him away from my other plants, my tiny lettuces were left alone, he did have a nibble of one of my basil plants though. I now have zero marigolds for my allotment. One can only laugh. We got rid of said snail, and dave made a few beer traps in the greenhouse for future slugs and snails to hopefully fall into.

Snails Dinner. This was the only one left standing.

Sunflower

The windowsills at home are becoming more and more green. The chilli and pepper plants are thriving and I will move them out to the greenhouse in a few weeks. My tomato plants succumbed to whatever illness it was that was killing them, I declared failure, swallowed my pride and bought myself some tomato plants in a garden centre. they’re a far cry form my measly efforts. A few weeks ago, I gave my dad some of my tomato seedlings and his are thriving! I obviously gave him the best ones (that’s my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it). My courgettes germinated in a few days and are thriving so far, I was surprised to see how strong they are. Only half of my sunflowers took, but at least thats better than none and I also spotted a green shoot about to pop up in one of my pumpkin pots. No sign yet of my celery or borlotti beans but patience is the most important tool at my disposal and I need to learn to use it more!

Courgette

All in all, it’s been a quiet week, we’ve only been up to the plot once, for an hour the other day, we dug out another potato bed and we’ll plant our maincrop spuds this week. They’ve been chitting away since February and have lovely strong green shoots on them.

I took the time to go for a little walk around the site and it’s great to see some of the wonderful plots, It’s amazing just how much the place has changed since early March. Every plot has it’s own personality and you’d be amazed at how many ideas you’ll get and how many people you’ll get chatting to if you walk around. Gardeners seem to be the friendliest bunch, always happy to share some advice, or ask for some when it’s needed. It really is a great community. There was a gazebo on site the other day where they were selling  plug plants, they had a great selection, including some unusual varieties. There’s such a great set up on site, the allotment shop has a great selection of all things garden related and the best thing is, all the proceeds go to the Epilepsy Care Foundation so it’s worth buying on site. You can even buy your shed for a great price and they will install it for you. I’m a particular fan of the tea/coffee van that visits every weekend, and last weekend, I spotted an ice cream van on site with a queue of allotmenteers lining up like kids to get their 99′s. I think I’ll stick to my cups of tea for now though, there’s still quite a chill in the air.

Pumpkin

My pitiful tomato plant compared to the garden centre plant

Batten Down the Patches!

Fiona’s Blog  -  http://fionagrowsfood.wordpress.com/

Get your wellies ready and your raincoats out, we’re in for a rough ride, or so the weather forecast tells me. We’ve had some pretty heavy rain showers the past two days and it’s very blustery out there. We’re due some very strong winds tonight and tomorrow and there’s a gale warning in effect.

I’m quickly learning that a lot of my time gardening is spent putting preventative measures in place to protect my plants from extreme weather, slugs, pests and birds. The wind seems to be my greatest foe at the moment. My rhubarb has been all but destroyed by the strong gusts and my artichokes have some snapped stems too. I was trying to figure out a way to protect them from the strong northerly winds. I toyed with cloches, netting, fleece, with no joy, until Dave had the brilliant idea of making a barrier around that section of the plot by extending some windbreak netting out from the fence. We drove a stake into the ground as with the perimeter fencing and used wire and staples to attach the netting. Not only does it protect my fragile plants, it breaks the plot up and gives it a bit more structure. I extended the flower bed around it too. It looks much better than before and my rhubarb, artichokes and fruit bushes are now well protected.

Simple but effective wind barrier

Much improved, hopefully my rhubarb will be safer now

I also covered my strawberry plants up with some of the windbreak netting today to protect them from the wind tonight as they’re doing so well so far, I’m not sure if it will be of any use but it can’t do any harm and I’d be disappointed if the wind was to snap them. I have my peas and asparagus covered with some fleece too, just in case the temperatures drop again. It’s been all systems go in order to protect my plants from the gales.

If you’re reading this and you have one of those plastic greenhouses, on your plot or in your garden, I strongly suggest you tie it down, weigh it down or do whatever you can to secure it to the ground, I spotted one about to take flight this afternoon!

There’s been a growth spurt on my plot the past week. My early potatoes are growing very strong and very fast! My strawberries have a few white flowers in bloom. I noticed quite a few pea shoots the other day too, I had been concerned about these as there was quite a bit of frost last week and I feared it might have killed them, thankfully, covering them with horticultural  fleece seemed to have been a good idea and most of them have germinated. I also noticed a tiny asparagus spear poking it’s head above ground the other day, I nearly jumped for joy, I wasn’t entirely convinced these would grow so too see one was a nice surprise.

Pea shoot emerging

It’s not all good news though, my poor little tomato plants are suffering, from what I do not know. They are getting plenty of sunlight, I’ve been watering them regularly (but not too much of course) but somehow, the leaves are simply turning limp and dying. This has happened to three of my six plants now so I’m starting to think I’ve done something horribly wrong to them. I was concerned they had been overwatered but it doesn’t seem to be the case. There’s not much I can do really, I just hope they perk up a bit. At least the other three seem to be healthy.

It’s hard to believe how much the plot has changed since I first laid eyes on it a few weeks ago. It seems there’s always new plans afoot and I’m never short of something to do. I’ve set my sights on getting a shed sometime in the next few weeks. We began digging and leveling the area where it will go as I’d been neglecting that section of the plot. I also hope to put in a compost bin, water butt and a small seating area too. There’s a good bit of planting to do soon and It’s looking like it will be another busy few weeks on plot P26; once the bad weather passes, that is. Until then, I’ll be snuggling up with cups of tea and watching the rain from the comfort of the sofa.

Fiona, Malahide Allotments

Okie Dokie Artichokie

Fiona’s Blog – http://fionagrowsfood.wordpress.com/

Easter has been and gone, I’ve eaten far too much chocolate and I need to get out in the garden to burn off those easter egg calories. The weather however had other plans for me. Easter Monday was miserable, grey and wet, I was grateful for the rain though, it’s the first real rain we’ve had in weeks. We’ve been experiencing some stereotypical April weather this week, lots of rain showers, very windy, some hail, warm when sunny, bitterly cold when it’s cloudy, the weather doesn’t know what to do with itself really. At least now that all the raised beds are finally built and the plot is taking shape, I’ve been able to focus on planting.

Globe Artichokes

You may remember, I planted some Jerusalem Artichokes a few weeks ago, there’s still no sign of these but they do have a very long germination period. Jerusalem Artichokes are not actually from Jerusalem and they aren’t really artichokes. They’re a cousin of the sunflower and are a root crop. The reason I mention them is, on Tuesday, I planted two Globe Artichoke plants. These are worlds apart from the Jerusalem artichoke. These are actually a perennial thistle which grow large edible buds which are delicious to cook with and are often found in Mediterranean cuisine. I love artichoke hearts so I can’t wait to harvest my own. Each plant has a yield of about 12 hearts per season so I planted two, this should be enough for me. There has been some frost of late so I fashioned two cloches out of plastic bottles for my artichokes should they need the extra protection.

It may only be April but I’ve already been planting some winter crops so my plot doesn’t look totally bare in the leaner months. I planted some Salsify this week. Salsify is a root crop that has a long cropping season and will provide a nice winter crop when other crops are scarce. The long roots taste like oysters and are often named “oyster plants” for this reason. It needs the same soil treatment as carrots and parsnips, fine, well drained soil, I planted it in the same bed my carrots will be planted in. I bought some purple sprouting broccoli today, this is another long cropping vegetable and will not be ready for harvest until early next spring, but this will give me something to pick when nothing else is ready in the garden.

Planting my Pumpkins

Today I planted Pumpkin seeds and Borlotti Beans, I’m growing a miniature variety of pumpkin called Baby Bear, they are quite a lot smaller than average pumpkins but each plant should give me 5 pumpkins, I plan on making lots of pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup and the seeds are delicious when toasted, pumpkin seed bread is particularly yummy. Borlotti Beans are a variety of french bean, great for drying for use over winter. I got a dwarf variety which don’t have quite as high a yield as the climbing varieties but I planted twenty plants which should be enough for a good crop. The beans are very pretty (I may have bought them purely for their aesthetic quality) and apparently make the best beans on toast, Dave’s favourite!

Borlotti Beans

Borage

It’s not just winter planting I’ve been focusing on. I’ve also been getting ready for summer. I planted some Borage this week. I’ve been looking for borage seeds everywhere the past few weeks and couldn’t find any. I have a thing about growing plants from seeds, nothing beats seeing your little seedlings poke their heads above soil, but I’ve had to buy my artichokes and borage in plug plant form as I can’t seem to find the seeds for either anywhere. Borage is a herb, it has beautiful blue star-shaped flowers that are wonderful for attracting bees. The leaves have a cucumber flavour and the flowers have a sweet honey like taste and are one of the few naturally blue-coloured foods. I planted one of my borage plants near my strawberries as it is said to protect them from a lot of pests. I planted some lavender, cornflower and sweet peas too, I’m hoping these will not only attract some pollinating insects into my plot but also provide a splash of colour in the summer months.

Hopefully this will be lovely and clourful by the summer

I planted some lettuce to be transplanted to the plot in a few weeks, I planted two varieties, Little Gem and Lollo Rossa, both easy to grow and delicious in salads. This week I also planted courgettes, celery and beetroot so all in all it’s been a very busy planting week. The plot is still looking very brown but there is some colour starting to creep in, the onions are starting to throw out green shoots and the potato shoots have a lovely, velvety purple/green hue. There’s some flowers on my strawberry plants too. My little greenhouse is really filling up and the windowsills are full of chili and tomato plants. All in all, I’m starting to feel like the hard work is paying off, before I know it, it will be summer and my plot will hopefully be green and full of life.

Onion Shoot (and quite a few weeds)

Muck!

Fiona’s Blog - http://fionagrowsfood.wordpress.com/

Muck. It’s everywhere, it’s on my wellies, it has stained my socks, it’s encrusted into my favourite black jeans, it’s lodged under my fingernails, it’s in my hair. It’s all over the car, it’s on the floor of the house, I’ve even mysteriously found some in my bed. Thankfully, that’s not the only bed it’s in, it’s also in my raised beds, which as of today, are all finally full of soil. We’ve spent the past week hauling soil back and forward in wheelbarrows for the beds. I’ve had some help doing this, Dave and my friend Mark have been helping me with it, nothing like having a couple of men around to help with the lifting, without them, it would have taken me three times as long as it did. All in all, It took about sixty trips back and forth with the wheelbarrow. We sieved the soil into the beds and added compost. The plot looks very different now with the beds filled and it means I can get a lot more planting done in the coming weeks, which is ideal as it’s planting season.

Raised beds finally full

The weather this week has been drastically different to last weeks glorious sunshine. It has been cold, grey and miserable with strong winds and ground frosts, we even had some light snow and hail. I didn’t make it to the plot much this week, thankfully I’d had the foresight to cover my peas and other crops with some horticultural fleece on Monday, hopefully this will have protected them from the frost. My rhubarb was not lucky enough to escape the weather, It got battered in the wind and when we finally made it down to the plot today, two of my rhubarb plants had been damaged. Hopefully they’ll recover.

Myself and Dave got quite a lot done today. We filled the sixth bed with topsoil and rejoiced that they were finally all done! I’m hoping to add in four more later in the year when I’ve harvested my potatoes and onions, but, for now, no more wheelbarrowing and hopefully no more sieving! I also filled my small raised bed today and planted some strawberries. I covered them with fleece for tonight to try to protect them from the wind, it will probably do no good but it’s worth a try. I’ll put some netting around them in a few weeks to protect them from birds, who cannot resist eating the fruit. I also planted three raspberry plants. I drove two stakes into the ground and ran three lengths of wire between them, this will act as a support for the bushes, which they need as they get bigger.

Strawberries and Raspberries

I planted some swiss chard and perpetual spinach. I planted a variety of chard called “bright lights” which has beautiful, multi-coloured stalks and should bring a lovely splash of colour to the plot. Perpetual spinach is very similar to annual spinach, however, it is far easier to grow and less likely to bolt. These two plants are also known as leaf beets and  are should be treated the same as beetroot. For this reason, I included these in the root section of my crop rotation. Three of each of these plants are more than enough for a family and if taken care of, will crop for a year.

Red Dukes growing strong

I’ve noticed quite a few weeds popping up the past couple of weeks, especially in my potato bed. They are only tiny stalks at the moment and I’m pretty sure a lot of them are actually grass seedlings. I’ve been keeping these in check as much as possible by pricking them out while they are still young shoots. Today, while checking my potato bed for weeds, I noticed that a few of my potato plants had popped their heads above soil. I’m very pleased, this is the first thing to grow on the plot, everything else I’ve grown so far has been in pots at home. It’s rewarding to see the hard work pays off and even though there’s still a lot of work to do, at least I already have something growing. My onions are starting to grow too, I’ve noticed a few green shoots poking out of the bulbs.

I’ve also been busy planting at home. My lovely Mam gave me some sunflower seeds. She gave me four different varieties, including one called “Teddy Bear” which looks particularly nice. I planted these in 5 inch pots and they are sitting on a sunny windowsill while they germinate. I also planted some sage, which, surprisingly, germinated within a few days. My other herbs are doing well in my little greenhouse and should be ready to plant out in another three/four weeks. My marigold are growing strong and my tomato and chilli plants are coming along nicely too.

Tomato "Tigerella"

The next week will be a busy one on the plot. I have plans to dig out a new flower bed and I need to tidy the place up, particularly the pathways. The back of the plot needs a good dig and hopefully in a few weeks I might get a small shed. I need to build a new gate too, the one we made last week didn’t last long unfortunately, these things happen though and next time I’ll go about it a different way. The wood didn’t go to waste though, I used it to build a small fence around my asparagus bed to stop anyone from treading on it.

All in all, it’s been a productive week despite the weather. I ‘ll most likely spend a good few hours on the plot again tomorrow, make the most of the weekend. Hope you all enjoy the bank holiday weekend.

Happy Easter!

Fiona, Malahide Allotments