Well, what a great weekend it has been. Spent several hours up at the allotment. We managed to clear a small area and installed 2 tyres to grow potatoes in. Neil on the UK Allotment Forum has advised me to stuff the tyres with straw as they have toxic oils in them that could poison the potatoes. The next job will be to source some straw for this very purpose. Might use shredded paper instead as we have a supply of that. It will also mean we will use less soil to fill the tyres which will be a bonus. We have used potatoes from our veg basket that were sending out shoots, some were new salad potatoes (no name) and the other were the small ones left from our first earlies last year called 'Foremost'. They were a bit scabby because of the very wet conditions, so hopefully these few will be enough for a couple of meals at least. 4 spuds per tyre.
You can just see our Plum tree in the 'before' picture. It is in bloom, so we are hoping for fruit this year. We have tip pruned it, weeded it, fed it and watered it so fingers crossed. We have been told it is a Victoria Plum - lovely.
My lovely assistant, Michael also cleared and levelled the ground in front of our very substantial compost bins and laid some conveyorbelt fabric and then topped off with 4 large paving slabs which will make it easier for me to walk on. We will fill in the gaps with stones. The very rotted compost in the left bin has all but gone now so we are in the process of making more in the right bin and also we have 2 green plastic dalek types that are getting slowly filled up.
We took the covers off our Broadbeans too as they were getting so tall the tops were bending over. Didn't take a picture of them, so will try to remember to do it next time.
This doesn't seem very much for the 3 hours we spent up there but we certainly feel the 3 hours work. We ache!
I have added this picture which I took when we returned from the lotty and it is the first butterfly I have seen so far this year. It was taken on the step by my patio doors at home. The poor thing looks like it has a torn wing, but hey aint he beautiful - summer must be coming.
Well, that is all for now, thanks for looking.
3 comments:
Looking good guys :)
Never seen spuds grown in tyres before... Interesting... Is it supposed to be better than conventional planting and earthing up then?
Just spent an enjoyable time reading your blog. What alot of work you have put in since you became plot holders.
Did you manage to get some parsnips germinated? I use the chitting before planting method. Did you cover the container with clingfilm before you put them in the warm cupboard? I find that if I do this they don't dry out, and they germinate pretty quickly.
Thank you for your nice comment Jo and the advice on chitting my Parsnip seeds. I didn't cover them with clingfilm or anything else, which is probably why they were not successful. Thank you for the tip and I may try again today.
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