The Alloteers get Adopted, part II

Here is part II of the broadcast

The Alloteers get Adopted by Radio Leicester

Here is the video footage of last week's interview on Radio Leicester with the broadcast itself dropped in on top. Due to its length, I have split the video into two parts

Allotment in the snow

Sunday morning 6th April and it snowed. Took these shots.

Our mousetraps claimed their first victim, but for those of a sensitive nature, it has been decided not to publish the evidence. 2 of the 3 traps were sprung during the first night, but no victim, perhaps we left a big rat with a sore foot?

A frame has been constructed in the tunnel to secure the tomato plants, and this leaves a little room either side. I have planted some early runner beans just to see what happens.

Also planted another horseradish root close to the one Mike planted, but 3 feet away, according to the instructions!

Planning on digging up the eaten white sprouting broccoli and planting cauliflower seedlings bought from the market

First shots of the radio show

We went on air at around 11.10am today Wednesday 2nd April. Julie was great fun, has a genuine interest in allotments and made us feel at ease. Mike has got the whole transmission recorded using his camcorder and no doubt will make a copy available for all to see, unfortunately this will not have the studio parts of the conversations, so we are trying to get a recording of the transmission

Tidying up for the Radio Show

Jan & I went down to the allotment today to do some weeding and we managed to weed the polytunnel, which is now looking presentable and ready for some planting.
The white sprouting broccoli plants are looking very eaten by pigeons and I despatched the first slug of the year today from amongst them, we may need to dig them up for the next crop.

Radio Leicester in the form of Julie Mayer (wife of morning presenter Tony Wadsworth or Waddo as he is known) is meeting Mike & I with the Radio Leicester Radio Car at Beacon Road at 10.30 on Wednesday 2nd April and it is planned that we are on air at around 11.05am. The first broadcast will be a scene setting occasion and we may be providing a fortnightly update on progress during the growing season.

If any others of the alloteers are available, come on down!!

A new Polytunnel....... and offspring

Last Saturday morning saw the 4 musketeers... sorry, alloteers... cover the polytunnel with a fresh skin of polythene. The task turned out to be a fine example of teamwork. Caroline and Irene supported us amply with coffee, sausage sandwiches and beer, mopping the sweat off our manly brows. The first picture attached shows the end result. We also have an hour's worth of video footage. However I shall save the alloteers' embarrassment by not uploading it to Youtube: this would only demonstrate to our many readers just how slow the whole process was.

I've been down since then, to plant out some pea shoots and cover them with a cloche (second pic). Both it and the shoots are delicate, and may not survive the harsh wind and chill. If the allotment plot were an NHS hospital, then we would have to enclose the cloche with an incubator - or at least another, larger, cloche.

So there you have it. Plot 41 now possesses a fine strapping polytunnel and its weedy- looking offspring.

Mike

Photos of Pummelled Tunnel

Red and Blackcurrants planted

Aside from the polytunnel trauma, we managed to get some currant bushes planted. Two black and one red. Varietals are 'Red Lake' for the redcurrant and 'Wellington XXX' and 'Boskoop Giant' for the black. Spacing is probably a little tighter than advised at around 4', but should be OK, all a bit of an experiment.

Pruned the existing redcurrant bush, taking out all the oldest wood and downward facing branches - looks better (he says) and will hopefully encourage new growth this year. The other two bushes, guessing they must be blackcurrant, are already budding, so I thought it best to leave as is. Looking forward to summer fruit pudding already!

Polytunnel torn in high winds

Arrived today to find the polytunnel split all the way down one side. Looks like it's split along the line of fold or join in the original sheet. Anyway, a major rent and one that will need a substantial repair or even replacement. Food for thought. Suggest you go and have a view and we'll consider options.

To try and prevent the wind from ripping the whole thing right off, we've punctured some small holes and tied the sheeting to the metal frame with a view to holding it down. Not sure how successful it will be, but it was billowing when we arrived and it's clearly been tearing either end when a strong gust catches it.

You'd have had photo's, but the damned batteries on the digital camera decided to fail at the most inopportune of moments.

Quick update on a few things

Popped down today to try and do something about wood pigeons on the purple sprouting. It's just starting to look pretty decent - be a shame to lose it now. Have maccled together the existing netting to be tighter, so the weight of the birds doesn't allow them to sit on top and simply peck through to the leaves. Also stuck some bags on sticks to hopefully be some sort of distraction. We'll see whether it works. May be worth doing a proper job at some point.

For all the rain, the ground is pretty good (albeit wet). Worst end is at the shed end and shed side. Not unexpected, really.

In the polytunnel, the garlic is now coming along nicely, with many shoots now putting in an appearance. Salad is still doing fine. Took some Saturday and it was great with beefburgers. Leeks also look pretty sound - worth leaving them a while longer, at least until we need the space. By the way, the patch Geoff put on has blown free. Whilst not ideal, it may allow more airflow in the tunnel and reduce surface moss developing there. No doubt a function of the damp atmosphere in there.

Other than that, all looks good. Roll on Spring...

First Leeks

Couldn't resist seeing what they looked like, so we dug two up. Small, but beautifully formed is how I'd describe them!! Smell was fabulous - just like spring onions, somewhat obviously. Got a photo just before Irene consigned them to the soup pan - can't wait to see what that tastes like.

Help yourselves....

New Year Update !!!

Happy New Year to all.

After the long dark days of December when nowt was to be done, I thought now was as good a time as any to add a quick visual update to how things stand as we start 2008.

Attached photos hopefully do the trick.

Highlight is...we now have garlic pushing up in the polytunnel - a few shoots here and there, but they're definitely on the up. Cabbages, leeks, chard, onions, broccoli and even the salad leaves all look remarkably healthy as well....we ought to eat some of it soon.

Anyway, here's to 2008 and the lighter evenings to come....

The culprit is unmasked!

I have conferred with Ron next door and he has no doubt that the culprit (see the last post but one) is a Badger! Apparently this is common practice for them. Mystery solved!

All the beds dug

All 10 beds have now been dug over and we are nearly ready for the winter break. The jobs that still need doing are as follows:

1. Adding manure to all the beds


2. Edging all the beds to prevent the couch grass encroaching


3. Weeding the beds where we have crops planted and in the tunnel


4. Harvesting the salad leaves. There is far more than we need, suggest we give away to neighbours as it will run to seed soon

"Log in a Blog" or "Turd in the Hole"

A couple of days ago, I noticed that some animal had been digging a hole, about 5 inches wide and 3-4 inches deep. I thought nothing of it except to wonder what animal had dug the hole, fox, badger, rat or vole. Anyhow, today (3 days after the it was dug) the hole had an object in it. Now, whatever it was, it must have had an excellent aim, as it managed to get the stool into the hole precisely, and I don't mean the type of stool you sit on! Does anyone have any knowledge of what animal it might have been and if it normally conducts itself in this fashion?

Manure, Onion Set & New bed

For those that have not seen it, it's big, warm, steaming and has some flies attached. Yes, It's the manure heap, delivered from Holywell Farm. Richard & Jonathan bravely managed to transfer some to two beds this side of the tunnel.

I have planted about 70 onion winter sets in the bed where the manure is and staked them out with 3 mini posts to show where they are. Will need to decide if we need netting when they start coming through, if not before!

Finally, a new bed has been completed on the other side of the tunnel, leaving us with 3 beds still to complete

Compost bins and runner bean frames

I have managed to piece together a pair of compost bins from the boards acquired by Jonathan & Irene and painted them an organic green. Here is a picture!

The next thing is a frame for growing runner beans constructed from some old garden posts from Chez Tetard no longer needed. With help from the 2 neighbouring plots, I managed to borrow step ladders and a big hammer from Ron Gamble. Both of these are in the shed, so if you see Ron, please give them back!

The last things is a picture of the inside of the polytunnel, which is now blessed with a lot of salad leaves. It is deceptive how much produce we have grown, so please help yourself to more.

Polytunnel - second bed now cleared

At last, the strawberry side of the polytunnel is cleared and ready for anything we wish to plant. There was a degree of guilt in that we had to evict a family of frogs (of all ages) in the process - and to make us feel even worse, every time we placed them outside, they kept coming back!

Positively, a surprisingly large population of snails and slugs also got their eviction orders and were treated to a free 'river cruise' for their troubles.

I've moved the paving slab at the backdoor of the polytunnel - again, it was hiding a number of well fed slugs. My view is that the more we minimise the 'hiding places', the less of a problem they'll be. Seems to have worked well with the purple sprouting as some of the more munched plants are recovering strongly.

Irene has managed to secure some wooden panels from work. These are now up against the side of the shed. Once we've levelled that heap at the back, we can get the compost bin built. They should be good in that unlike a lot of pallets, there are no gaps in the slats, so we can 'hot compost', which takes a considerably shorter time than 'cold composting' - allegedly.

Have finally started to see some aubergines developing at last. Gave them a feed, so hopefully they'll continue to develop.

All in all - looking good ! Don't forget to take the mixed salad leaves - there's plenty now....

More plantings

Geoff and I bought some more produce from the man on the market. We planted the seedlings out. You'll see outside that we've planted some purple seedlings, 15 in all. These are kale, which should be ready early next year. Alongside are a couple of rows of chard and a few lettuce seedlings.

We've bought some finer mesh in the hope that this will be more successful in detering pests than the mesh inherited from the Trevors.

In the polytunnel, we've planted out the remaining chard. It apparently can be cut early, like salad leaves. We also bought and planted some more lettuce seedlings, some of which (but I can't remember which) are cut-and-come-again. Finally there is a row of mizuna, easily identifed by its spiky leaf.

Geoff has some onion sets. We were advised to sow these at the end of the month.

Update and Cabbage whites

The trench is now being filled in after spreading 2 bags of the bagged manure from the shed. Jonathan has been working hard in the polytunnel clearing the strawberries that have become inextricably linked to the twitch roots, but creates some space. Plan to but some Bok Choi, onion winter sets and other seedlings from market on Thursday for planting.
Jonathan & I watched as a cabbage white butterfly found its way through the netting and settled on our broccoli. Obviously the mesh of the netting is too wide! We will probably soon have caterpillars competing with the slugs for our greens (provide the slugs can evade the newly distributed slug pellets!)