24th and 30th June

24^th June

Today the leeks began to be planted out into section 2. I went to the allotment at lunchtime and planted out 34. Keen observers will note that is the same number as last year. Quite so! Time is of the essence nowadays since my work pattern changed and I can only spend lunchtimes at the allotment, and I did not have time to increase the number of slots cut into the membrane, so last years’ holes are full and I will return to make more and plant them later. I gave them a good drenching, a good dose of slug pellets and went home for lunch.

30^th June

I took my remaining curcubits to the allotment to fill in the gaps/replace eaten plants and planted out all but one green courgette plant, 3 pumpkins and a butternut squash. I spent about as much time watering as I did planting. We have certainly had a good old fashioned ‘flaming June’ and today was an absolute scorcher. I still need to plant out the 2 extra cucumbers and it wasn’t until all spaces were full that I remembered them!

Next post: 2nd July

16th - 18th June

16^th June

At lunchtime I potted on some sprouts plants into plastic cups as I will definitely be needing replacements at the allotment. I must grow them big and strong before I put them out. I planted out the last few ageratums in the evening and potted up some cinerarias for the window box in the playhouse. I gave the garden a really good drenching tonight. Today has been a really hot day and I fear for the smaller plants that have not yet established as well as all the container ones.

Great news! The first sweet pea has flowered. Both the white and the magenta one which has one dark petal and one light petal – very pretty, and very pleasing. There are more of both varieties budding up but not yet from the blue and reds (the ones I sowed myself).

17^th June

Do I have some capacity for tempting the weather, particularly the rain? A lady at work now warns me not to have a barbeque when she wants to be outside of a weekend and today I was just mowing the lawn when the rain started – after the great watering I gave the garden last night! Mind you, although I had just started mowing I had also just stopped, or rather the mower had just stopped after making an unhealthy sound, and a fight for life followed by a steady stream of cloudy smoke which continued long after turning off. For an electric mower, I don’t think this is good news.

Before all the rain (and we had a good downpour followed by extended lighter rain – just what we needed) I had been to the allotment to cover the carrots with fleece, trim some of the long grass round the edges, refill the slug traps (yes they had worked) and sprinkle more pellets about the place. I had also gone to Hilliers this morning and bought 5 courgette plants – 2 green and 3 yellows all for £2.98.

Thursday 18^th June

At lunchtime I forked over section 2 which went very well as the soil is light and untrodden, and covered it in membrane. This is the section for the leeks but then later I read in a magazine of one gardener talking about their produce and saying their leeks were hit by slugs. Last year I assumed the rabbits ate my leeks (they do!) and thought that, like onions, slugs are not interested in leeks. What with the under the membrane slug problem in other sections, should I fear a slug attack on the leeks?

Next post: 24th June

15th June

15^th June

The weather has improved dramatically over the weekend and into today. It’s been very hot indeed. So I needed to go to the allotment and get on with some watering. Looking around I saw that the sweet corn, the brassicas that have not been eaten and the onions are doing well, the onions fantastically so. It seems that just recently the onions have bulked up and their leaves have got even bigger. There are a few that are still small and scrawny but most are doing well with some looking like they will grow into real beauties. On the other hand, the squashes look rather weak and feeble. They are trying to resist slug attacks which never help and I am thinking that perhaps I did not sow early enough to allow them to grow large enough to be planted out at the normal time and be big enough and tough enough to handle the slugs which they usually do. The peppers are also lacking in vigour and again I fear that is because I kept them in smaller pots for too long and stunted them. The sweet peas are still waiting to grab a hold on life, they look thin and pale although one or two seem to be producing a new stem that looks like bolting skywards. The carrots are still there, little sprigs of leaves in rows that have plenty of gaps, such is their temperamental mentality. The garlic looks OK but not as good as they did last year. The leek bed is producing a mass of lovely bind weed and other weeds that I aim to fork out soon then lay the membrane and plant out the leeks from back home where many are ready to go into their final growing places.

Whilst at the allotment I saw Jim from the committee. He was giving out information about a show on the 20^th September for allotment holders. There are 29 show categories with prizes for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places as well as commendations. These give you points and the plot holder with the most number of points overall is the grand champion. The cost is 50p per entry per class and it looks like a bit of fun. I intend to enter.

Back at home it is safe to say we are well and truly in strawberry season which, due to our variety being one that crops from May to September, is going to be a long one. Most fruit grow quite large and we picked a couple the middle of last week but that was only the first flush. We have now picked the equivalent of a supermarket punnet. I usually love them with sugar and cream, so much so that my taste buds almost demand the sweetness added on so I’m very glad to say that our strawberries taste really good and sweet just as they are. Other great news from home is that one white and one magenta sweet pea is ready to bloom any day now. The hanging baskets are now in good bloom mainly due to the surfinas in the back garden which look like petunias but without their flowers being as sticky – thankfully. The basket in the front has a mass of red and white petunia blooms which surprised me a little as according to the label they were both red! The white bush rose in the back garden is the best it has ever been having over 50 blooms out all at once – so many the branches are flopping over.

10th - 13th June

10^th June

I managed to get to the allotment to plant out the remaining squashes to find that slugs have had their wicked way with a number of the ones already planted. They’ve completely eaten 2 yellow courgettes, most a green one and a whole cucumber plant. Thankfully they either don’t like butternut squash or were too full after eating the other stuff, or perhaps the butternuts are big enough to look after themselves. I planted out what I had and gave a good sprinkling of pellets. I’m wondering if the weed suppressing membrane is helping the slugs. They live in the soil and so will come to the surface of an evening, meet the membrane and travel round underneath it in the absence of vegetation until they find a nice opening and fresh air and lo and behold, there’s a young juicy plant to eat! At least 8 sprout plants have also met the same fate as too have some cauliflowers. The calabrese however are progressing well. At home I asked my wife to get me some cheap beer from the supermarket when she goes tomorrow. Just in case you don’t know, beer traps are rather successful in catching slugs – I’d hate you to think I was desperate for cheap beer – or even expensive beer, despite how slugs might drive you to it.

12th June

In what may seem like a truly wino-like moment, I found myself on the allotment at 9am cracking open cans of Asda lager. I can honestly say though, it wasn’t for me. I dug 5 holes for plastic cups and filled them with the lager. I have sited them on the edge of a few sections underneath the membrane so that they can entice slugs to their deaths. Cue: maniacal laughter.

13^th June

After a day out with the family I planted out the cineraria and the ageratums into the borders.

5th -8th June

5^th June

I bought 2 rolls of 8m x 1.5m weed suppressing membrane and after work I pinned out one along section 8 and planted my 16 sweet peppers, staked them and tied them in followed by the customary watering. I then laid out more membrane in section 6 in the small brassica section and planted out 10 cauliflowers. There are more to go out but I’ll need a little more membrane first.  Then more watering and the sprinkling of slug pellets.

The Kitchen Garden at Kew Gardens

At home I planted out my last lavender that was still in a small pot. The fathead variety went into the rockery. I potted up the nicotianas, 7 into a large container and 3 into hanging baskets, then I finished planting up the pots for the play house window box with a mixture of laurentias and cinerarias.

It has been much cooler today and my rise in energy is a result. The weather forecasters have been warning of rain at the midweek point, but nothing yet.

6^th June

A lazy day at home where I planted out about 40 salvias and in doing so found 2 slugs in the tray. They must have found their way in when I had the tray out in the border to get some sunshine a few weeks ago, and the slugs, spoilt for choice merrily munched on them back in the greenhouse. I also found space for a few rocket plants in the borders. All the rocket has been allowed to grow lanky in the back of the greenhouse so it does not look appetising or bulky enough to ease an appetite. It just flops over and lies in the sun. I trust in a recovery. What are looking strong are the sweet peas as they rocket skywards – most heartening.

I took the 5 year old to the allotment with a long list of plans, but left it too late in the afternoon. We laid down membrane on section 7 and I cut crosses for courgettes. Two yellow ones went in, with space for one more that has only recently germinated at home, and 3 green ones, one of which I managed to slice out of the pot with the metal end of the tape measure I had used to mark out the right distances so that one went back into the pot with hopes and prayers. We laid more membrane in section 9 and planted out 6 butternut squash with space for more, again, coming on at home. I planted a cucumber plant at each end of sections 7 and 8 and put in a stake for each. The 5 year old did some watering for me but that was all we had time for what with various needs of aforementioned young chap and thus had no time left for planting out the pumpkins, the crown prince squashes or the remaining cauliflowers, or for weeding the leek section and laying out membrane on it, or for preparing some more carrot furrows and sowing carrots or for lining the compost bin with some plastic sheeting I have there. It’s just as well I didn’t take the shears to cut the grass as that would have been another activity I wouldn’t have done. Never mind, it was an amount of work done that was equivalent to a stop off after work so it is all beneficial.

 7^th June

I was woken in the early hours by thunder and the sound of heavy rain and I was slightly concerned about the newly planted courgettes, cucumbers and squashes but grateful for the removal of serious watering tasks and for the fact that it was just as well I hadn’t sown more carrot seeds yesterday. I rolled over and slept well once more knowing my water butt was probably full again already.

Monday 8^th June

Not a great deal of work done, just a resowing of another pot of basil and a shallow tub of rocket, planting out a few laurentias into spaces in the hanging baskets and potting up 7 decent sized basil seedlings into their larger summer pots.

4th June

4^th June

Again I went to the allotment at lunchtime and after work. At lunch, I erected a wigwam for each trio of sweet peas and strung some twine around and tied them in, and I put in some poles along the line of sweet peas by the compost bin and did the same with string there too. It was a worthwhile stop-off as this job took half an hour and would have seriously detracted from other work at the end of the day. After work I laid some weed suppressing membrane at one end of section 9 and planted out my 10 sweet corn plants and watered them in. I raked the manure around the areas that needed it and watered the carrots and cornflowers. It is a joy and a relief to see the carrots coming up after last year when I had 3 which were all eaten before reaching a point anywhere near maturity. It just goes to show that you have to have the right soil for carrots, and also how good a rabbit defence mechanism is, not just for carrots, but the onions which are all doing fantastically. The leaves are big and bold and fat and juicy, I just hope the bulbs are in a similar condition come harvest. Then there are the leeks that will be planted out too. All these would be devastated by rabbits were it not for a £20 wire mesh fence – what a false economy it was last year not to have one.

 

The Kitchen Garden at Kew Gardens

In the evening I had to clear a load of junk away from in front of the back gate. There was an old BBQ cover that is all mucky, a slimy and dirty plastic washing up bowl and a nearly rusted away tin bin. I also had to cut back the lilac tree where it impinged access to the gate, and scrape away a mound of soil that has accumulated over years from various organic material, mainly that which has blown down from the trees and rotted down into an incredibly fine, sandy soil once one sieves out the stones and clears it of roots, which I did, and stored to be used for further carrot sowings at the allotment as it is tremendously fine and I hope very well stocked with nutrients. All this was for the fact that workmen need to get into our back garden tomorrow.

More run of the mill gardening tasks were potting up rocket into large containers and planting out 4 salvias into open ground – heavily protected by slug pellets and porridge (the slugs have to eat their way through that to get to the plants and hopefully are too stuffed to eat any plant when they get there!) – and 4 into pots made from the bottom section of 4 pint milk containers. These containers have been cut so that they can sit in the window box of the play house. Four of them will fit in but as the box is in the shade, I am making 8 and then rotating them so they spend time in daylight.

1st - 3rd June

1^st June

It has been an absolutely stinking hot day. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far and today has topped that. When I checked on the allotment I found that the tray of cauliflowers had wilted rather significantly so I dug a trench and planted them all out in the middle of the section and drowned them in water and hoped for the best. I attempted to put up the netting over the larger brassica enclosure and managed one length with the springy netting which I had measured earlier and found that I could cover the entire patch with 2 lengthwise strips. However, by the time I had pegged it out it was too far stretched in one direction to meet in the middle with any more lengths from the other side. I left it at that – time that was wasted as far as I could see as I would need 3 lengths, more stitching or sewing and I might not have enough netting for that amount. On my travels I had to buy another large bag of compost (£4.99).

Back home I tied in all the sweet peas along the fence, at the wigwams and in the containers which now have wigwams of their own with twine wrapped round to climb up.

2^nd June

I’d had time to think about the brassica netting overnight and decided that I would attempt to use the scaffolding netting that made the walls as a roof as well. It rolls up at the edge very well to peg together without leaving gaps for animals to get in through. After watering the cauliflowers  again (they seem to be responding well) I got on with the task of the netting roof and managed one strip at one end. It went up pretty well and I’m very optimistic about this scheme. I planted out my spare sweet peas – 2 wigwams in section 1 by the garlic and a row in section 9 where there is a wider portion by the compost bin.

3^rd June

I am determined to crack on with the tasks at the allotment before it gets too late to be planting out so it was a lunchtime trip to finish the netting – 2 more strips and it looks great – all finished. After work there followed another trip to plant out 20 fillbasket sprouts plants into section 4 with freshly laid weed suppressing membrane down as well. It’s the watering that adds on so much time down there. I didn’t want to stop before I’d finished planting all the sprouts, and then of course, each one needs watering too. Anyway, I am very pleased with a good couple of tasks completed.

At home I potted up the fifth hanging basket with 2 salvias for bright colour, a chilli pepper for foliage plus I needed somewhere to plant it, and some laurentias. Unfortunately, the sweet peppers looked like the cauliflowers did after the weekend, all dry and limp so they had a good drenching, as did the rest of the garden. Temperatures continue to be high and I would feel we were entering decent summer weather were it not for the fact that this warm spell is forecast to break up by the end of the week – typical!

As far as progress goes in the garden, there are some flowers on the surfinas in the baskets, the roses are out, the white rose bush is a wonderful flurry of blooms and the carnations in the rockery are the best they have been. There are many carnations out in bloom and more buds ready to come on a little later. The salvias in the tray show evidence of slug attack though.

26th - 29th May

26^th May

I took the cauliflowers and calabrese to the allotment to plant out after work. I also took a roll of weed suppressing membrane which had been opened but I thought only for a small strip to line a container (something I forgot with all following container fillings!). I couldn’t understand then, why it covered less than half a section, then looking around I remembered that I had already used most of it for the onion section. So it was only the calabrese that I planted, 20 of them. After digging out some newly rampaging bindweed I cut the holes 8 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart so that now I have a neat little section all watered in and protected. I left the cauliflower tray there as it is protected and gave it a good watering too. I don’t really want to keep moving trays of plants about in the car if I can help it. I’ll return with more membrane later on.

27^th May

I had thought that a hot dry summer was on the way after the weekend, but today it was raining most of the day, so no allotmenteering or any progress with the jobs at home which at present run to a fine little list: sow more sunflowers; sow sprouting broccoli and more basil; sharpen shears and axe; plant out sweet peas at the allotment; pot up rocket, leeks, sprouts, laurentia, lemon balm; plant out cauliflowers and sweet corn, spread the manure and collect some more; sort out the netting for the larger brassica enclosure and the strawberries. After that lot is done it will be time to get more membrane out and plant out the squashes and peppers!

29^th May

While I was at work, my family were on a jolly to the beach, but they joined me back home to relax in the garden in the sunshine whilst I sowed my last seeds for this year for the vegetable patch – 20 seeds each of the purple sprouting broccoli varieties rudolph and claret. I also sowed about 10 more sunflower seeds. I finally got round to potting up the lemon balm seedlings which are proper miniature plants now, and the laurentias into yoghurt pots. The laurentias have holly-like leaves but they are soft and not prickly, and unlike nicotianas which I had thought they were similar to judging by the pictures on the packets.

25th May

25^th May

We were out all of Saturday and had guests yesterday so thanks to it being bank holiday today it was a welcomed day at home and, against British tradition, we had a scorching day for it. It was so hot that I pottered gently in the garden for a while then went and sat in the shade to cool off, so work was slow but I accomplished what I set out to do. First of all, I planted out the 5 year old’s sunflowers. I broke one off at the base but still planted it – you never know (well actually, I do know – the slugs will get it before I ever see any sprouting) and one had its stem snapped, but 3 made it to the border, were protected with a sawn of milk carton, watered heavily and laced with coffee grounds inside the container to deter slugs. I set up 3 wigwams each of 3 bamboo canes and planted out 6 sweet pea plants to each wigwam and tied up supporting string. The varieties were all mixed up – including one variety (supreme mix which is a mixture anyway) as I want these wigwams to be a mass of different colours, not like the fence panels which I want to be sections of one colour each. As the plants grow up these supports I will put horizontal canes across from the tops of the wigwams so that the plants can grow across as well – just to add to the colour effect. I had 6 cupani and 5 swan lake plants left over so I planted them up into a container for each colour and I will place them out in the front garden – after I’ve done some weeding there! The leftover plants will go to the allotment. Having planted all the sweet peas I was going to, I then went round tying in the ones that needed to be, as well as snipping off the lesser shoots so that they concentrate energy in sending a good strong stem skywards – to where we’ll see the blooms.

Someone we know has given us a self-supporting hammock and we erected that for the first time yesterday. Due to the heat today, I spent some time out on it, in the shade of course. From that restful position and the new angle at which you look at the garden I was able to appreciate the swifts swooping across the sky pretty much all the day. I also saw a blue tit fly in and out of a small hole at the end of our fascia board at the eve of the back of the house. I could actually hear chirping from inside the loft when the bird was out – definitely a nest there, it’s quite exciting and obviously my loft is a more desirable a location to raise a family than the purpose built nesting box I put up the autumn before last which I saw being inspected but not inhabited. The place was also buzzing with bees and a fair few different species of bees as well which is encouraging given the bee crisis we are facing. Apart from that, a tortoise shell butterfly kept visiting a plant throughout the day, much to the relief of our 5 year old who has been watching cocoons at school and seen butterflies emerge and be released – to his hysterical distress (he thought they had left him for ever) – but now he believes that one of the freed butterflies has sought him out and come to live near us so that he can see him again. I chose not to burst the illusion. As long as the butterflies stay off my developing brassicas, I’m happy too.

In the cool of the evening, it was time to give the garden a good drenching with water, especially to the newly planted items. Job done.

20th - 22nd May

20^th May

Today I enclosed section 6 with the netting. The reason I did not go for all 3 sections at once was to allow for some degree of accessibility but mainly for 2 years time when the rotation system means that I’ll have brassicas back in sections 7, 8 and 9 and there will be a much larger gap between sections 8 and 9 (and a high one too with the apple tree there). Forward planning hey? I also popped into Hilliers to buy 16 metres of small meshed netting to go over the top of the brassica enclosures – the builders stuff would be too heavy. That set me back £11.20 plus I got a red wired hanging basket for our one and only tomato plant for £2.49.

Later in the evening I potted up 3 basil plants each for two ladies at work and for us. I also potted up the basket with the aforementioned tomato and hung it up over the strawberry bed. This coincided very nicely with it suddenly being significantly warmer yesterday and today and thus appropriate for the plant to come outside. I am itching to get the brassicas in the ground to make a bit of space in the greenhouse as I need to pot on a few lemon balm seedlings and the laurentias. I also need to get the sweet peas out too. I have been waiting for the spring bulbs to die back which they have done to a fair degree. I gave the border a good clear up of weeds and assorted debris and I will attempt to plant out the sweet peas over the weekend. I will take some to the allotment as well as they are good bee attractors. As far as plants on the allotment are concerned I have seen neither hide nor hair of the poppies I sowed. I still have some cornflowers to sow which I’d better get a move on with, not to mention sunflowers both there and at home.

21^st May

I made an extra trip to the allotment at lunchtime to sow the carrot seeds. In section 1 I sowed 2 rows of chantenay and 2 rows of autumn king and 1 row of tendersnax as that was all the seed I had left over. Apart from the 4 x 3 seeds each for the family in our tubes at home, that is 250 tendersnax seeds used up. How? Last year I actually sowed seeds 2-3 inches apart so as not to disrupt the soil when thinning which can attract carrot root fly – and also to save money. As well as being very stingy, it doesn’t help when you have a low germination rate. This year it is no expense spared as the seed was sown thickly, will be thinned and covered with horticultural fleece for all of £1 from the Pound shop. Back home there are the sure signs of germinated carrots in our tubes, as well as the first carnation flowers out.

On my second trip to the allotment I tried to sort out how I was going to secure the light netting over the top of the brassica enclosure. My idea of stitching the 2 materials together is more than possible however it is rather fiddly and incredibly time consuming. After a length completed which was about as long as my arm, I gave up in a bad tempered frustration and came home, cheered by my adoring family and the latest addition of Gardeners’ World Magazine having arrived in the post today.

22^nd May

Pegs are the answer! Armed with 4 packets of clothes pegs bought for a total of £2 from the supermarket, I managed to close off the top of the brassica enclosure. I also sowed 3 rows of cornflower seeds in section 1.

18th - 19th May

18^th May

Well, we have had some good rainy days and the ground is much better for it. On Saturday I went to the stables and fetched 6 bags of horse manure which today I emptied out over section 9. I pondered at some length whether to begin putting my newly acquired netting around the posts to enclose the brassica patch. The netting is a fine green nylon mesh that I got from a builders merchant and is the type that is put around scaffolding to stop debris flying off and hitting people. Quite a few plots have it. I decided it was too windy.

In the evening at home I sowed some more squash seeds – 6 butternut squash, 4 pumpkins, 1 cucumber 4 green courgettes and 4 yellow courgettes (I presume that as there were no seeds left in the packet but 4 in the container – I deduced these had fallen out of the packet – we’ll see later in the summer). This was done because I seem to be having a poor rate of germination with the ones sown thus far. I scratched around in the compost and found some seeds that had just sprouted so I quickly buried them again, but still, I don’t want to risk bare patches at the allotment where squash plants could be – seeing as I have good results and yields from them. I potted on the last 4 sweet peppers, sowed a pot of parsley seed as my wife said she would like a supply of it and a large container with mixed oriental salad leaves and potted up a snowcap fuchsia cutting into the front hanging basket and the fourth basket in the back garden.

19^th May

So it was netting day at the allotment and I was rather pleased at how well I got on. I managed to surround sections 4 and 5 as one unit and screw on batons over the netting to the main posts to make a secure wall. I have left a good fold at the base so that I can tuck the ends under some chunks of wood that will be there anyway to hold down the weed suppressing membrane. This should stop butterflies getting in at the bottom.

12th - 13th May

12^th May

The wind continued but the rain is not here yet so I went to the allotment where today I started making some upright poles for the protection system for the brassicas. Dad had acquired an abundance of 2x2 poles of decent length and with an axe I made points on them. This was not good for my right elbow which I twinged a month or 2 ago whilst forking for the first time in the year and have felt little pangs or worse on and off since then. Clenching an axe, lifting it and forcing it down really brought it out in pain again. Anyway, like the stubborn chap that I am, I completed the pointing and got most into the ground using a lump hammer which further aggravated the elbow. By the time I got home after cycling uphill into the strong wind I was rather worn out.

13^th May

No wind to mention and only a very light rain, a drizzle really. I’m beginning to think that maybe the forecasters have not got it quite right – can that really be the case? It meant though, that I could complete posting at the allotment which I did. I then tore up a lot of the long grass around the compost bin and generally in the wider area between sections 8 and 9 so it looks tidier and feeds the compost. I found a lot of wooden sticks and batons that I have laid across the top of the compost bin and collected up all pieces of wood that are not really going to be of any use and put them in Dad’s incinerator. In not a great deal of time this week I have got to the point of being ready to put up the netting for the brassicas, then I will lay down the membrane after we have had some rain (presuming we actually do!) then I can plant out the brassicas that are ready. Then I can get some manure down for the squashes and peppers, put membrane down there as well and be all ready to plant them out so that all there will be to do will be carrots and leeks and watering and sit back and wait for the harvest to start rolling in. Funny, something tells me it won’t be quite as simple as that.

11th May

11^th May

It was my birthday on Saturday and we were all out celebrating, so no gardening. Sunday was an extended birthday so it all started again today. At lunchtime I potted on the cineraria seedlings into yoghurt pots – 77 seedlings in all, and I also potted on the 10 sweet corn plants from the 1 pot I bought them in into 10 recycled plastic drinks cups.

After work I went to the allotment and forked over sections 5 and 9. The end of section 5 was the rest of that really hard, compacted and deep weeded patch and so when I moved on to the end section which had been covered with the membrane, the work became suddenly far more enjoyable and faster. Whilst doing that, a chap came by and gave me a hearty well done for being at work. From a distance he thought I was working on the plot behind me and he came over as he was on the committee and they had done an inspection yesterday and wanted to speak to plot holders of some unruly plots. He said mine was alright. That was a relief as I do need to do a bit of tidying, however, you can see that I am active and there are no tall weeds or areas that are completely out of control. The people behind me took over their plot last year and have done a good job of the first half, but the back half has a large cherry tree which is underplanted with raspberries. I guess the plot holders don’t think they can cultivate under the tree or round the raspberries, so they don’t do anything and end up with a small jungle of tall weeds. The chap said that a few plot holders were going to lose their plots as they have had warning letters in the past and no improvement has been made, and with a waiting list of 34 it is not fair that existing allotmenteers leave their plots go to rack and ruin. This time last year there were vacant plots and nowthere's a hefty waiting list. Two plots either side of the gate have recently been taken on and have been transformed. Both were a mass of weeds and grass and now are a great example to us all as we come in – an obvious amount of hard work has been done. One of them has sprouted raised beds and enormous compost bins all made out of pallets and plenty of manure thrown around.

Back home I mowed the lawn for only the second time this year and it needed it. I read recently that if you think your lawn needs cutting you should have done it yesterday. Well, 2 weeks ago for me! I was, of course, ably assisted by my 2 assistant gardeners. After that it was a case of battening down the hatches and securing all movable items as it has been very windy today and reports predict gales of 50mph over the next couple of days and rain for the rest of the week. As I came in through the conservatory I saw that the first squash has germinated, one of the cucumbers.

8th May

8^th May

I had a good couple of hours in the garden with my 2 year old. He ‘helped’ me make a miniature raised bed for the new rosemary plant to live it. Being a Mediterranean herb, rosemary likes a well drained soil that is not that rich. I have wondered if the reason my 2 or 3 year old rosemary is just 3 twigs with some leaves attached is due to the fact it sits on a water retaining level in decent soil. It is now about 4 inches off normal ground level in mainly recycled garden soil with a little topsoil to improve the appearance. There is a good handful of gravel under its roots as well so it is not sitting in a wet patch.

My timing is impeccable sometimes! I bought a pot of French tarragon because I was convinced, after much searching and waiting, that last year’s tarragon had not survived the frost. When I went to plant it out into the sunken bucket, before my eyes was a little sprig. I dug up the old roots and separated them – this is the only way to propagate the French variety – and potted it up, and replaced the root part with the sprig back in the bucket just in front of the new plant.

With both boys I got some sawn-up sections of drainpipe and buried their bases in the ground, the names of all four of us written in gold marker pen at the top, then proceeded to fill with soil and compost, and watered them down. When the soil is not quite so waterlogged (thank you boys!) we will each plant 3 carrot seeds, thin down to 1 carrot plant and see who can grow the largest carrot. The idea is that each carrot will grow long in the pipe. I have heard that competition growers do this with pipes tall enough to reach an upstairs window.

Later on I got out the 5 hanging baskets from the shed and hung them up and then worked my way along filling them and potting them up. I managed to get the first 3 done before it was time to call it a day (the day is called either by the severe lack of daylight or by my wife calling me for a meal – otherwise I would be out there all hours!). The 3 fuchsias from last year are now in their summer homes joined by the various trailing plants I bought some time ago and have been growing on in the greenhouse just itching to get out. It is quite a balancing act in the greenhouse and the shelves in the conservatory with potting-on plants and sowing more seed. I seem to be getting it just about right in managing the space. Some go out as others are sown. There will be over half a shelf free once I get the remaining sweet peas out but I really want to wait until the spring bulbs have fully died down so I can give the borders a good clear out of dead leaves and weeds before I plant out the sweet peas. I need to get the fillbasket sprouts, the cauliflowers and the calabrese out into the ground and sow the purple sprouting broccoli soon, but the allotment is not ready yet. I fear a repeat of last years’ butterfly and caterpillar attack if they go out before protection is up. Well, I don’t just fear it, I can guarantee it.

7th May

7^th May

Lunchtime was high time to do something with the leeks. The seedlings have been fine in their little seed trays but there is not much room for their further development and they are too small to be planted out at the moment. In a skip at work I have found a series of wholesale vegetable boxes that I have rescued and brought back and one of them I lined with a plastic bag, filled it with a mixture of soil and multipurpose compost and transplanted 95 leeks into it. There they can grow more until they are thick enough to plant out – the famous pencil thickness. Before actually eating lunch I just had time to plant out 5 more teasels at home along the back of the rockery.

At the allotment after work I forked over section 5 which was the membrane-covered one from last year. The membrane certainly works well, and not only is the soil fairly weed free except for the slits where the plants were, but the soil is light and friable – really easy to stick a fork into and give a little twist to loosen up the soil. I think the fact that the membrane was down and therefore I did not walk over it helped the soil to not become compacted. The other end of this section was a totally different matter however. This area seems to be the epicentre for bindweed production with some thicker, older stems plunging down deep into the clay subsoil a foot below the surface. I cleared as much as I could. The ground was very hard and needed a lot of effort not only to fork up a section but to break it up and clear away the thistle, dandelion and bindweed roots. I didn’t finish the section simply because this end piece where the membrane had not been laid was so riddled with deep rooted weeds and compacted.

6th May

6^th May

At lunch time I put out a few trays of plants to get the air and sun and I thinned the 2 pots of salad leaves – the mixed salad and the rossa lettuce. After work I again visited the allotment and before forking over sections 7 and 8, I planted out 5 teasels. 3 were in a line next to the poppies, and 2 were between the garlic. Speaking of garlic, I found one growing from last year so transplanted that to this years’ garlic area. In the evening back home I pricked out and potted on the best of the ageratum – I managed 45 into 3 plastic egg cartons with their lids underneath as drip trays. Using the same system I potted on 15 nicotianas. Both these plants are still tiny, it’s hard to believe they will grow into tall, strong flowers. I would have called it a day then but I noticed that the one pot holding the batch of calabrese plants I bought last week was now holding some very wilting and lifeless specimens. These were potted up individually into recycled plastic drinks cups and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had 20 plants even after discarding 2 or 3 poor ones then they were given a good watering. I hope I don’t lose them.

Thinking of calabrese and brassicas in general, I have these calabrese, 20 cauliflower, 20 fillbasket sprouts and a host of brigitte sprouts before I even get out the sprouting broccoli seeds. I love all these vegetables and as I was saying to my Dad the other day, we could do with 4 allotments between us and concentrate on one type of crop per plot and work a good and full rotation that meant I could grow a whole plot of brassicas. I eat loads of them, and they freeze well so it would be a beneficial, no waste approach!

3rd - 5th May

3^rd May

It seems a little overdue (although it isn’t) but today I have sown most of the squash seeds, with maybe a few more to follow. The early ones I sowed a little while ago have not materialised as yet so today I sowed 6 green courgettes, 5 yellow courgettes, 6 butternut squash, my last remaining 2 crown prince squashes, 2 more cucumbers and 1 pumpkin (time was pressing!). All the pots are now filling up the space in the conservatory on the shelves.

5^{th May}

I managed to squeeze in an hour at the allotment after work. Sections 4 and 6 were forked over to remove couch grass and dandelions and a few sprigs of bindweed. The grass on the paths between sections has really grown and that will need clipping down. I remember it was about this time last year that we went away for the week and came back to find a mass of weeds had shot up all over the allotment. At least this year I’m ahead of the game. Section 5 is last years’ leek section and it has the black matting on it which has now been raised from beneath by weeds growing, so that will be a big task. I have a few of last years’ leeks growing there. They are a biennial plant although harvested for food use after 1 year.

24th - 29th April

24^th April

A late day from work so not much time for anything in the garden except a good watering session. The sweet peppers looked very dry, with some withering. On the seedling front, all is looking good. Some herbs are emerging, the rocket has, well, rocketed up, the lettuce and salad leaves are showing in the large containers, the salvias and teasels are great – very strong seedlings now, almost ready for transplanting to small pots I think. The newly sown sprouts are sprouting and the older sprouts and cauliflower are coming on strong. The tiny leaves of ageratum and nicotiana have become greener and a little larger after I put them out in the sun for an afternoon the other day. So all is looking good. Apart from that I gave a trim to the lavenders as suggested in today’s topical tips on Gardeners’ Question Time.

25^th April

The sweet peppers look very green and healthy after their drink yesterday. After a day out with the family (me, not the peppers), I started potting on the salvias into little yoghurt pots. They have come on good and strong lately and have been calling out to be moved into more roomier accommodation. I got the 2 smaller recycled trays potted up; the rest will have to wait. I took 3 cuttings of the phlox and 5 of the new fuchsia.

26^th April

It was play time in the back garden this afternoon with the boys although I did deadhead the yellow and red tulips so there are now only the light purple ones left in flower. In the front garden we have been enjoying the yellow and red tulips for a while. They have come up large and tall and are the same colour as the ones that have just died off in the back.

27^th April

I found a new nursery that I tried out today. I was looking for replacement herb plants of rosemary, French tarragon and a new one of borage (I’ve read that the bees love it). They didn’t have any borage but I did get the other 2 for £1.60 each, a bargain. It has rained quite heavily the last 24 hours so no gardening today.

28^th April

I told my Dad about this new nursery having cheap tomato plants as he was looking for some replacements as he has lost all but 1 of his so far. So I returned and bought him 2 alicante and 2 cherry types. Whilst I was there I bought a cherry type one for us, a pot of summer calabrese and a pot of sweetcorn, all for £3.97.

29^th April

Tonight I finished potting up the salvias. I have a total of 70 which is more than enough considering the other plants I hope to go out as well. I am again at a point where I feel there is a rush of work ahead of me. I need to fork over some of the allotment and make up some netting supports as brassicas will need to go out soon. I need to pot-on the sweet peppers, prepare allotment ground with manure for the squashes and peppers, and sow pumpkins, squashes, courgettes and cucumbers and plant out the sweetcorn. I had a really busy week last week and this week is turning out to be the same.

23rd April

23^rd April              St George’s Day

After an absolutely grotty day at work it was good to vent frustration with some digging. My boss’s boss received an email about me from someone who has only been with us a few weeks who alleges a ludicrous action on my part which would be hard to explain the rhyme or reason of the actions had they actually happened. The worst thing was that he was intent on believing it despite the fact that I had witnesses to verify that the opposite had occurred and the complainant was miles away at the time! I have been known to my boss’s boss for 4 years and never given him reason to consider me untruthful. This supreme lack of trust I find most hurtful. He is a person who has made people cry after dealing with them but as he gets the job done, the company are happy with him. It is interesting to observe that he surrounds himself with young impressionable people that he can push around or older ones who are the sort who are too shy to lift their heads to you in the corridor and say a confident ‘hello’. This shows he doesn’t want anyone standing up to him – no defiant types, a characteristic of many bullies. He had picked on the wrong sort of person with me though. I started to defend myself and after his initial protests that I was wrong, my insistence of the facts made him move on to saying ‘lets move on from here’. Funny how it was an issue when he wanted me to be wrong but as soon as he realises I’m standing my ground and won’t give in to him it is a matter to be dropped. Instead he withdrew a perk of my job for a thinly disguised ‘other' reason. I’m sure that despite his house out in the sticks, he is not a gardening sort of fellow.

So there was I, shovelling the excess soil from section 1 to section 2 at the allotment under the flag of St George with the thought of slaying certain dragons firmly in my mind as I worked out my anger.

I bought a new snowdrop fuchsia for the back garden as the one I raised from a tiny plug plant last year fell foul to the frost. I was hoping to get another plug plant but they were out of them at Hilliers so I had to settle for a potted-up one for £2.99. Mind you, with it being larger I can take a few cuttings straight away.

I raked the beds level – well, sort of – and sowed 2 rows each of red and yellow poppies in section 1. I also made a mini raised bed frame for the left end of section 2 where the main frame falls short. This will be a small flower bed.

20th - 21st April April

20^th April

I discussed with my 5 year old assistant gardener and consultant on garden design about what colours of sweet peas should go where. I want to again go for one colour for each of 4 fence panels. Little dots of different colour en mass are all well and good, but for impact in our garden, you need a large block of colour. After steering him away from putting blue next to magenta, we decided that the colours would go red, blue, white, magenta which was almost what I had thought myself (just swap the red and white). So today after work I planted out 7 of the white Swan Lake sweet peas that I bought from Hilliers along the third panel. I dug holes and put in some compost mixed with season-long fertiliser pellets and put in the plants and watered. Later I had to sprinkle some slug pellets – again, the organic ones – and felt the sink of ‘here we go again with the slug fight’ feeling. I wanted to put up some netting on the fourth panel but found that the little I had would not be anywhere near enough so I came up with the plan of stapling garden twine to the fence making 2 rows across. More can follow as the plants grow. I would have liked to plant out more sweet peas but I had much to do indoors instead.

21^st April

At lunch time I borrowed a van from work, put in some long pallets that I found waiting to be thrown away (they will make good raised bed frames) and a few wooden battons, then drove off to my brother-in-law’s house to load up the remaining 32 bags of soil – back breaking. Then off to the allotment to unload and then back to work to drop off the van. A job well done.

After work there was no decision time necessary as it was a most definite plan to get out in the garden at the earliest opportunity to continue planting out the sweet peas. 8 Each of Scarlett along the first fence panel, Blue Danube along the second and Cupani along the fourth. I have quite a few spares of each in case any don’t have the energy to grow much like a few last year. There are extras of the ones I bought from Hilliers, plus the ones I sowed myself both of the successful blue and red ones and the poor white and magenta ones as well as the ones of the mixed packet, so a fair few colours especially when you consider I have 2 types of white and 2 types of magenta as well as any in the mixed lot of similar colour. These will provide the display growing up the canes in the wider border in front of the privet hedge.

For each plant I dug a hole and put in a trowel full or 2 of multi purpose compost mixed with some slow-release fertiliser and prized out the plant and root ball very carefully. Most did not come out as a clean, pot shaped compost ball. My 2 year old, ever the adventurous and inquisitive chap he is, came along and very gently but definitely lifted out a plant by the stem and out it came, smoothly and cleanly with a perfect root ball! Next year I think I’ll get him on board with planting. Once again a good watering-in session followed by slug pellet sprinkling ensued.

18th April

18^th April

I have had a great Easter break with my family and thus no gardening. Thankfully I was far enough ahead with things that it has not been a problem. The allotment was fine without me now that the onions are in and the fence is up and all is rosy in the garden. The daffodils have all died off so they have been deadheaded, and the tulips are in full colour as are many of the bluebells (and ‘whitebells’). It looks good.

Today was an opportunity to crack on with more sowing. First was some coriander that was sown in a deep pot. Last year I lost the entire batch of coriander seedlings to slugs but with the greenhouse I can avoid the same fate this year. In the shed I found an old packet of Oriela yellow courgette seeds that are from 2 summers ago but are just still in date. There were 3 seeds so they were sown so that if they still germinate I’ll have some plants cropping a little earlier than the main set I’ll be growing. On the same line of thinking, I sowed 1 cucumber seed. The remaining leek seeds were sown in a small tray – basically a recycled food container. I sowed a small tray of lemon balm. I have a packet with a few hundred seeds but the plants are annuals so what will I do with hundreds of plants? I hear the car boot sale calling. A tray of Brigitte Brussels sprouts were sown, and a pot of thyme. I already have a thyme plant but it doesn’t look brilliant at the moment. In 2 larger containers I started off some summer leaves. One was for lollo rossa lettuce, the curly red leaf type that is a cut and come again variety, and the other was for ‘mixed salad leaves’. That is what the packet says but without being any more specific than that. With the greenhouse they can be germinating without too much concern and I can make successional sowings through the summer. On the flower side I sowed some laurentia seeds. They are merely a back up for my nicotianas of which not many have sprung up yet. I transplanted 3 ornamental grasses into pots for some friends of ours, and cut back the mint, stripping many of the roots away and re-potting with fresh compost ready for a vigorous growing season. We don’t use much, but it’s nice to have it! A quick weeding session followed. It’s so much easier to do little and often.

Finally I got round to washing the boys’ toys from the dirt and grime accumulated from too long laying in the edges of the garden. My wife had a Bob the Builder pop up bin and my excited 5 year old and I went round the garden collecting all the homeless items of play and putting them in. We also managed to squeeze into the play house and garage some of the scooters and sit on cars so that now the garden actually looks tidy. What with a late evening leaf clearance from the lawn, I think I’ve got as close to my dream ‘tidy garden’ as I have since this journaling began. All that is still required is to tidy the end of the garden as there are a few bowls and assorted items that could do with a little organising, but it’s pretty much there. Keeping it tidy is the next step.

8th - 9th April

8^th April

It was this time last year that I sowed the onions whereas this year they went out 2-5 days ago after 6 weeks of growth. That has got to be an advantage. We’ve had some rain the last 2 nights but it has been sunny and warm during the day. The last few weeks have been warm, and everything is coming on apace in the garden and greenhouse. Today was an ideal opportunity to get on with a few small jobs as I knew the rest of the family would be out shopping when I came home from work so I had at least an hour to get on. I can fit much more into an hour in the garden when I’m on my own.

The first job was to take out the 3^rd rose along the border as it has weak pinky flowers that get covered in mould or rust really quickly. That got excavated and cut up into the council green waste bag. Far better to put plants harbouring disease into that bag as it goes to a massive heat treated composter and the fungus gets killed. In my compost bin it can live on to re-infect. In its place I put the wonderfully deep red rose that has been overshadowed by the pampas grass right at the end of the border. All went well but I am fully aware that planting a rose where a diseased rose has been is asking for trouble. After pruning the new one and watering in I planted out the oregano and 2 sage containers that have successfully overwintered just placed on the top of the soil in the herb area. I simply dug holes, placed in the pots and filled around, then lifted the pots, removed the soil and slotted into the exact size hole that was now there. Mind you, I had to remove the little polystyrene chunks I put in last year. Yes, they took up space and helped drainage and were light, but they are a pain when you remove the plant and soil. Broken crocks are far better and I have been saving up some for future use. After this I clipped the lower, pest nibbled leaves of the chards. I really must pick some for eating, they’ve been growing happily for nearly a year and I haven’t even tasted them yet. Then it was time to plant up one of the lavender plants I received last summer from an offer in Gardeners’ World magazine. I decided on the Papillion one. I lined the base of a largish plastic pot with weed suppressing membrane as this allows drainage of water without losing soil, then put in some broken crocks – see, useful already! – then part filled with a mix of manure and old soil, then filled up with multi purpose compost and planted the lavender and watered. It looks a bit small but I trust it will take up the challenge to spread. Then I deadheaded some daffodils which have faded. This year I still have quite a bit of a display from the daffodils whilst the tulips are out. Last year the large red tulips had their leaves blown off before the other ones flowered (the ones whose petals have an orangey edge which blends into a main red petal. This year, although the large red ones came out first, they are still around to flower with the other ones. The last job was to plant out the daffodils that we had in 2 small pots from our bulb planting workshop at Hilliers last autumn. I ran a census on the sweet peas and we are now up to a 42% germination rate.

It was a great day to be out doing all this as the sun felt great on my back and the air seemed fresh and clean. When we get into the heat of summer, (or should I say if) I don’t really fair too well. I head for the shade and keep work away from the heat of the afternoon, but this weather in April and May is just great for me, I can enjoy it and work hard.

9^th April

Before finishing for an extended Easter break (I have until this time next week off work) I went to Hilliers to buy some replacement sweet peas. At home I have 18 of 20 Blue Danube and 11 of 20 Scarletts so they are not a problem, but I have 3 each of Duo Magenta and White Supreme, so I wanted to get those colours. For £1.49 each I got a pot of over a dozen Cupani (similar to a Duo magenta in colour and in that they have 2 colours) and a white variety called Swan Lake.

4th - 7th April

4^th April

After a day out with the family I had a spare bit of time and so I sowed about a dozen teasel seeds. These grow into thistle like plants that feed both birds and bees. I also sowed the complete packet (only 80 seeds) of the salvia. This needs a fair bit of warmth to germinate so here’s hoping for plenty of sunshine hitting the conservatory roof.

6^th April

To the allotment again to complete the onion planting which was duly done in a little more than the time allotted. I planted out a row of centurion, then the best of the rest into the fourth row making 19 settons and 18 sturons. I watered them in and as I looked at the section as a whole it does look a little odd that there is almost space for one more row but not quite. It makes the 4 rows off centre, but the green shoots coming out of the black does look good. It was tricky in deciding which onions to plant given that I had too many for the space. Some had great shoots but others had even better roots, whilst some had large bulbs to start with. On which basis do you decide which onion is growing the best? Does good root development mean better leaf growth to come for instance?

7^th April

The first lawn mow and rake of the year. This is when the compost bin starts to get busy. Just as well I am at the start of one again.

3rd April

3^rd April

Now that my plot is devoid of marauding rabbits, I began planting out the onions into section 3. They have certainly started off very well under cover in their modular trays at home and now with the weather warming up and the rabbits looking on from a distance, I look forward to the onions growing properly and getting a decent harvest. Perhaps I planted them too early for an indoor start because there were certainly many roots on show that had grown rather long, some even curling round the bottom of the modules. I laid the weed suppressing membrane and weighted that down, then stretched out my line and cut little crosses along the line every 6 inches. I fitted in 37 planting spots along the length repeating the rows 12 inches across. The first row I planted (furthest from the entrance) was the setton variety, the next was the sturon. By this time I had run out of time so resolved to continue next time. Looking at the section it seems I will only fit in 4 rows which would give 148 onions. This is less than last year and I didn’t even complete one row as I ran out of onions. I began wondering if I should have spaced out the rows by 12 inches or less! I watered them in and returned home. Back at home I consulted my book and found it should have been 10 inches. Couple that with the fact I started a little way in from the edge I have used up too much space. Oh well, next year I will have to make sure I set the membrane over a little bit to make space for an extra row. I’m already making mistakes to learn from for next year!

Back home I investigated whether I was going to see any more sweet peas by poking around to dig up the seeds, knowing full well that one seed was planted right in the middle of each module. In some the seed has vanished, I presume rotted away, in others the seed was unchanged from the day I planted it so I rubbed of the hard coating which was now soft (alright, so therefore they are not completely unchanged!) and I just hoped for success, whilst on about 5 there were tiny little shoots, so they were put straight back. All were re-watered. The instructions say water after sowing but not again until seedlings emerge. The trouble with that is the seed needs moisture to soak up to soften the casing and swell to open up, but if they haven’t germinated by the time the compost dries out, what good is that?

2nd April

2^nd April

I finished the wire mesh around the allotment which gives a great sense of an important task accomplished and of some achievement as well. Not achievement like climbing Everest, training a child or managing to get your address removed from some unwanted insurance company’s mailing list, but achievement in the sense that now the plot should be rabbit proof and I can plant things out with carefree abandon. I can remove the scrawny little strip of mesh that has just been placed gently over the garlics; I can plant out all those onions that are fast outgrowing their nursery trays in the conservatory and greenhouse and when the time comes I can plant out the leeks too without worrying that this year they won't be nibbled. I have overcome the false economy saving of last year when I didn’t use such sure means of rabbit barrier because I thought it would be too expensive and thought I could manage without. That foolish thinking led to the failure of a whole section of onions and one of leeks, not to mention the equally foolish false economy of having no anti butterfly netting over the brassicas leaving a complete decimation of 2 sections of sprouts and cauliflower and 1 of sprouting broccoli. The achievement is one of learning from past mistakes which is what this year is going to be about.

Already I have started off onions at home to give them a head start, and sowed leeks in trays to get them going ahead of the time the ground would be suitable for them. I’ve fenced out the rabbits and I will cover the brassicas with netting and I will wait awhile before I sow carrots. I will use weed suppressing membrane instead of relying on all too infrequent hoeing and weeding. I did sometimes wonder if last year I attempted too much for a first attempt given the failures I had. I don’t think so because if everything had worked I would have never have looked back. The more things you attempt, fail at and learn from in one year, the more things you learn to do right the next, or at least learn not to make exactly the same mistake again, and by a process of elimination this should lead to success on all fronts.