Allotment Garden Diary

New Greenhouse Finally Finished – New Raised Bed

A dry, calm day and some help gets the new greenhouse finally glazed. Brand new raised bed in the polytunnel.

Harvesting Potatoes, Planting Garlics & Onions

Harvesting the Sarpo Mira potatoes. Amending the soil in the bed. Planting out garlic and onions in the polytunnel.

Curcubit Glut, Autumn Sowing, New Greenhouse

Cucumbers, courgettes, squash and pumpkins. All cucurbits and boy do we have a lot of them. Autumn sowing beans, peas, garlic and onions.

Polytunnel, Sweetcorn, Climbing Beans, Biochar

Since the weather is insisting of being rotten, wind and rain, concentrating efforts in the polytunnel and a bit of general planning for next season.

Autumn is Here

We're past the Autumn Equinox now and so officially into the “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” as John Keats wrote 200 years ago.

New Greenhouse – Wind Stops Play

Putting up the new greenhouse. All was going to plan until Saturday.

Losing the Plot (as in My Marbles)

I put the greenhouse bits in a safe place and forgot which safe place and where is the safe place. Am I finally going potty?

Pumpkins & Squashes

Tomatoes, Experiments & Cucumbers Galore

Harvesting some exceptional tomatoes and cucumbers, results of a couple of experiments with alternative growing methods.

A Little Knowledge

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Worse than that is plain misinformation and sadly there's a lot of that doing the rounds.

Soilfixer 1,000 litre compost bin report

I'm trialling the Soilfixer 1,000 litre compost bin which is from the same person, Tony Callaghan, who invented the Hotbin

Great Weather – Greenhouse Sorting

Bending the recovery rules a bit by sorting out the greenhouse. The aubergine, De-leafing the tomatoes and fantastic chilli peppers.

Cataract Operation No. 2

I had my second cataract operation last Tuesday - fantastic result and even better than the first one I had done five years ago,

Harvesting & Freezing beans, Old tools, Cataract Operation

Harvesting and storing beans from the ploytunnel. My new 62 year old secateurs and another cataract operation tomorrow.

Rough Weather, Blight, Scab, Cool Compost

The weather is frightful, the spuds have blight and scab, the compost won't heat up and to cap it off the solar panel is bigger than expected. Chin up!

Can You Help Identify These Mystery Roots?

I had this email from Tom asking for help identifying these roots growing in his plot. Any help welcome!

Automated Polytunnel Ventilation & Watering

This system controls watering as well as ventilation / temperature in a polytunnel using a miniature computer and solar powered fans and pumps.

The Great Wooden Wall of Wales!

The windbreak fencing is now up so I can build the greenhouse without fear of it blowing down.. again. How to build it.

Metaldehyde slug pellets ban reversed

In a surprise move, the High Court in London found in favour of Chiltern Farm Chemicals and reversed the ban imposed on metaldehyde slug pellets

Composting, Slugs, Snails, Aphids & Ants

Compost not heating up as I want, an army of slugs and snails and to top it off a plague of ants. At least the squash is looking good.