Grow Your Own Magazine

How is it I asked myself that I have got soaked in the rain several times this week; yet the soil on my allotment is so dry that it is a struggle to dig up my new potoatoes when I want them?

I keep a little diary/note book journal of what I have planted and harvested from the allotment, and try to work out future planting plans. I also keep a tally of the weight of the potatoes I have harvested so far and try to work out how much the veggies that I bring home would have cost if I...

thyme

Today I have been cutting back brambles ready to dig them out and clear the next patch. Also sowed some sunflower seeds in a couple of bare patches of earth in the hope that they will hold back the emerging weeds, and if they do not then at least I can recognise the sunflower seedlings from the weeds when I weed that patch, in some places I sown them in rows so that I can use the hoe there and in other areas I just scattered the seeds. They will hopefully act as a makeshift green manure until I...

thyme

For some reason talking to the blackbird that visits my allotment does not seem too crazy, but now that I've started speaking to the potatoes, plums and peas I am a bit concerned. Because of the overgrown nature of the uncleared/un-nurtured part of my plot I cannot always see if people are walking past it on the path ( I cleared the middle section first and planted that area up). Not only must I appear crazy to take on this tangled jungle of brambles and weeds now they can hear me talking to...

thyme

Spent two hours on the allotment this morning just doing odd jobs that have been waiting to be done. As usual ended up not having much time to sow more seeds, so just quickly put in two short rows of spring onion seeds and hope they will be ok. where i planted them.

I am tempted to move the rhubarb, well three of the crowns that are not doing well. I need the area they are in and have almost cleared the area I want to move them to; I know I should wait for the Autumn but I am wondering...

thyme

Wish they had let me have my plot last Autumn then I might have cleared more of it before the grass, weeds, and brambles took off this Spring.

The part of the plot I've managed to clear is doing quite well with two lots of potatoes growing, shallotts, peas, beans, salad and a few carrots but the uncleared part is having a ' field day'. Each time I visit which is not as often as I'd like to or need to I make sure I start by hoeing with a hand hoe or dutch hoe the part that is planted...

thyme