Allotment update after 2 week break

Things are looking grassy. Its not pretty.

I can't believe how much its grown in 2 weeks. Maybe if I was working on it full time, maybe I'd be able to keep ahead of the weeds, but I doubt I would have been able to anyway.

The wild flowers are loving it, as are the bees. So I'm feeling bad about having to dig them up. But I do not want them to go to seed for next year. 

At the least the carpet patch is doing its job!

Cleverly went to the allotment with my new boots. 

I had a quick check up on the tree cuttings I stuck in the ground.

 

Deed.

Again, things are looking bleak. I'd say most of the bits I put in the ground are dead. Fairly dead. I'd maybe need to plant them again at this time of year when the plants are dormant. However, nothing lost. It was worth a go.

There has been some success though! The American honeysuckle and the willow cuttings seem indestructible.

Hopefully by next year they'll start pushing up new shoots. Next spring, once the place has been rabbit proofed (the sooner the better really, I noticed a lot of the cuttings had been nibbled to death).

Speaking of rabbits, they have finished off all my onions that I put in the ground.
This is the patch the onions used to live in.

No onions. Replaced with poop. Probably infused with onions.

 

My brussel sprouts are looking good though! The lower leaves near the edges of their protective buckets are looking rather nibbled. However, they're looking so much better than they were a few weeks ago. Starting to really fill out. I hope they buckets protect them from the wind.

With any luck these nubbly bits will produce some sprouts! But we'll see. Ever pessimistic.

Back from holiday to a broccoli explosion

My partner and I have been away for 2 weeks to Tenerife. It was great, but towards the end I was looking forward to getting back to my plants.

It turned out that I'd totally forgotten where I'd planted broccoli and where I'd planted brussel sprouts.
The sprouting broccoli wasn't finished and there's now 2nd huge crop with much slower growing plants. Great! But many of them had gone to flower. If I'm extremely lucky I may get a few more heads before they die off for the winter.

Not only that, but I have 4 peas! Yay! I steamed them, shells and all, because to be honest I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with them, which variety I'd sown. After doing so, I can only assume they weren't designed to be eaten pods and all, haha. 

Broccoli bouquet

I thought I wasn't going to get any peas this year as I sowed them so late! But this is extremely cool. I know what not to do this year and so next year's will be better attempted.

Closh before and after

4 months difference between first planting and now. Not bad considering how rubbish the soil is and how close they were planted. Goes to show that its not impossible to grow things even in a tiny space!

Collecting my own seeds

For a while now, I've been trying to collect some seeds from the plants I've grown this year.
So far, my first attempt was to collect borage seeds. Most of them had already blown away by the time I inspected the plants.

Something that I've learned in doing this, (something that I probably SHOULD have known) not all seeds develop properly. When you buy seeds most have been graded and only the best quality seeds are sold. In DIY seeds, the percentage of bad seeds is easily 30% in the plants I've seen so far.

I have managed to collect a few different seeds and put them in envelopes to dry. Poppies of various varieties and other flowers. I'm still waiting on my perpetual spinach seeds to ripen. I desperately want to grow them again next year.

I'm hoping to try and collect livingston daisies too, before the plants are put in the compost bin.

Not to mention the seeds I've bought for next year. I have rainbow carrots, rainbow beetroot, rainbow chard. I have pink currants ordered and on the way. I have PINK blueberries ordered. I have yams on order, Shetland black tatties. Anything weird and wonderful, I'm going to try it.

I can't wait for next year. 

Continued war on caterpillars and other Saturday shenanigins

Today my partner has the car, so I'm still at home in my pajamas.
Since I can't get to the allotment, I decided it was finally time to do some things in the post-stamp garden this morning. First task. Caterpillars.

I thought I'd rid myself of most of them after last week. But nope. I'd seen a few in passing to the compost bin a few days ago. But its worse than I thought.

I'm going to have to make a daily effort to go out and check that there aren't more fat hairy worms on my poor brussel sprouts. They're not looking happy.

I had less mercy with them this time. I put them in the compost bin. Probably not a good idea, as the bin is basically next to the poor plants BUT, I did do a lot of weeding and tipping out of wet old icky soil on top of the caterpillars, so they should be entombed. Even talking about caterpillars and I can feel them all over me. It makes me itch! Yuck.

Next up was onions. I wanted to dig them up. We're going away on holiday soon and I didn't want to leave them until I got back- although they most likely would have been fine. I have to laugh though as they're only about as big as they were when I put them in the ground.

This is due to the poor soil, the density of planting and the fact they've hardly been watered all summer. AND I pulled them too early. Its my own fault but it was fun to try. They're drying in the shed.
I never expected them to work properly in that location anyway. I'm going to try a lot harder this next year in the allotment with them.

I finally separated out the Rogue Pot and finally repotted my strawberry runners. If they survive, there will be 3 new strawberry plants from runners and 1 tiny strawberry from the rogue pot.

I also separated out the primroses into new compost. I now have 5 pots of primroses from the one rogue pot. Hopefully my rough treatment of them won't hurt them and they'll grow next year.

I repotted my loganberry that was looking very sad in its current pot. It was very root bound and I should have done it months ago. I'm hoping the discoloration isn't due to something more malevolent like vine weevil.

Bees are still visiting the garden. 

Weeding the allotment

After my second day volunteering at Turriefield I made it my mission over the weekend to clear as much as I could.

I visited the allotment several times to weed it before but then I'd mostly been pulling things up by hand. The plot's weeds had a growth spurt after some rain. Deaf nettles, and creeping buttercup infest it.

After 5 hours or so I cleared this patch. It didn't look too bad.

But in the larger context its like a spit in the ocean. 

After a second session things were looking better. But there is still so much to do.

Its my goal to try and get at least HALF of the ground cleared before winter really sets in. Its a slow process though. By far the worst culprit is creeping buttercup.



At the moment this is my most hated weed. Each plant put down an deep tap root. Then it shoots off runners like a strawberry. Each plant can have up to 10 runners or so. Every runner roots and creates a new plant, that creates more runners. Of course if you leave a single root in the ground, it will create a new plant.
Its a nightmare to dig it all up.

I've been given an allotment!

In July, I decided to put myself out there and post an advertisement on one of the Shetland gardening pages.
Currently Lerwick has no allotments. Its stupid really, as there are so many people, like me, living in minute flats with little or no garden to grow anything.

My post was about wanting to meet other people who like me, had no garden and were interested in trying to make the building of allotments happen.

The upshot of this was that I created a facebook group for Shetland gardeners who will, in the future, create a society for allotments when our numbers increase. But that is another post.

The plot. On a slight slope. This is before the lower fence went in.

However, through this exposure I got a message from a lady saying her husband had an allotment that he was willing to give to me and I should contact him. 

The ground had been ploughed earlier in the year so there weren't too many weeds

Stephen's neighbouring free range chickens come to visit often

I did and met Stephen 2 weeks later. He drove me up to the plot, situated in Tingwall. Perfect as it doesn't take more than 10 minutes to get there.
I was given permission to use a HUGE plot of ground for anything I wanted. Trees, vegetables, fruit, buildings, I can even keep animals as it is a registered croft.

I couldn't believe my luck. When I left I squeaked all the way home in the car, and chanting "YES! YES!". Its everything I'd hoped for. A blank slate to do whatever I want with.

Ready installed taps!

A HUGE expanse. So much potential.

The ground is roughly 30 x 25m. The ground slopes to the west. The soil is very good. Best of all there is enough space that I think it will be a long time before I will fill it.

Stephen's plot is next to mine, where he keeps 2 pigs and hens. The hens explore freely and come to peck at my plot often. I miss keeping hens myself, so now I won't need to have my own as I can befriend his.

I'm so lucky. I've fallen on my feet. Stephen is so generous to let me use it.
I think the moral is, if you don't stick your head up and ask, you don't get! Now I have infinite potential for next year and the following years!

2nd Volunteering Saturday at Turriefield

Since my first visit, I'd told my mam all about Turriefield. I recruited her to come and help for the day. I knew she would be inspired by what they were doing. She is much more into growing flowers and isn't keen on vegetables, where as I'm the opposite.

We arrived on another lovely day. Our job for the morning was to weed the chard and beetroot patch. The only annoyance was that the wind fell away entirely. Penny and Allan provided midge repellents which was a lifesaver.

Hard at work.

This is one of my favourite pictures I've ever taken of my mam.

Hundreds upon hundreds of peas and beans. 

One of my relatives said he wouldn't want to be a weed in my presence haha. 

The sun threatening to shine! 

We were fed another amazing lunch including toasted marshmallows to celebrate one of the volunteer's birthday. Ian and Penny are fab hosts. Their bannocks are some of the best I've ever had anywhere. My mouth just waters thinking about it.

I didn't take any photos of them, but my favourite part of the visit this time was seeing the progress of the Turriefield polytunnel pumpkins. They were HUGE. Pumpkins are something I would never have expected would have been able to grow up here, even inside. But its possible!

Now if only I had a polytunnel of my own so I could grow all these wonderful things. Some day!

Perpetual Spinach

I sowed some perpetual spinach in June. The name perpetual spinach almost put me off trying it. It sounds like a condition! "Oh, did you hear, Mr Davies was diagnosed with a bad case of perpetual spinach. Poor soul."

I can't remember exactly whether I left them outside or germinated them inside, but either way it didn't take long. Within 3-5 days the first seedlings were popping through.

I was so impressed with how well it grew. I let it grow to this point before I took any leaves. It looked so beautiful I could hardly bear to cut any off!

 I wasted a lot of seed as I sowed far too many. But I gave some plants away to one of my friends, so it wasn't a total waste. I'll know for next time to sow thinly. I'm learning all the time!

Looking worse for wear

As a result I didn't buy any salad from the shops for the rest of the summer, just from 9 plants. I don't think I'll ever buy salad from Tesco ever again. It was far more fun popping outside to grab a few handfuls whenever I needed some, rather than buying an oversized bag that I've rarely ever managed to finish. By the time salad leaves reach Shetland, they are always a few days older than they would be if you bought the same bag on the mainland. In no time they go soggy. Growing your own salad just makes sense. Plus its stupidly easy.

A plant in the ground for comparison.

Seeds!

I've since let the plants go to seed. They're looking pretty sad now, probably a combination of the plants coming to end of their lives and the fact that I haven't fed them for more than a month. There can't be any goodness left in the soil of the shallow tray they're living in.
I'm hoping I'll get some seeds before the wind blows them away. It would be much more satisfying to grow it next year from my own seed rather than buying them again.

Definitely one of the best successes I had this year.