Tidying up and Autumn Digging

How quickly these week keep flying by, as the Autumn chill now starts to bite a little into those early mornings.. The weather though here in the UK has been very clement and this week although we have had a few hefty rain showers, the wind although has been blowing hard has been mild as it has come in from the South. 

This week has seen us in the allotments early mornings until lunch time as my hubby has dug over where the potatoes were.  He also mowed the paths either side and tidied up the edges with spade work to neaten  off the edges. More to show you in the next post as we work on tidying near the sheds. We are taking a short well-earned break away for a holiday shortly.. So we wanted to make sure the allotment is more or less tidy before we go.

Digging over the garden never gets any easier and even after all of the years we have been working it, it is back-breaking work bending to pick out the twitch as you go. 

Below Every Picture tells its own story as to what the allotment looks like at the moment.

This is the view from the top of our allotments. This was where the potatoes were. It has now been dug over. And will keep being hoed to keep the weeds down.
The first line of veggies seen are two rows of Winter Parsnips. You can see here the sweetcorn was still in place before taking out after harvesting all the cobs through out several weeks.

My Hubby has since dug this next space over which was where the sweetcorn was planted.
The second row down from the parsnips are beetroot..
The poppy patch to the right has baby carrots, I did weed it a little but was pulling too many carrots up with them. So this will not hurt until the carrots get larger.

Looking from midway down the allotment, I cut the tops off of the leeks to help them thicken out more. Beyond the leeks is curly Kale, Courgettes, Rainbow Chard, and Brussel sprouts. And of course you can see the Kidney Beans in front of the greenhouse. which is full of red and yellow tomatoes

In the two raised beds I planted Wall Flowers and Winter pansies. These will go
into my home garden later on.
Under the nets are Spring Cabbage and Lettuce growing. You can see how those strawberry plants have grown again since the last photo taken in an earlier post.

I Still have a wonderful showing of Dahlia’s and cut a large bunch of flowers on each visit. I also make sure I dead head them regular, this ensures more flowers. And the Bees are loving them.

This variety of Bright Pink Cactus variety have been a wonderful display. and I have had masses of flowers from them. The tip is keep on cutting and more will come.

Click the above circle photos to read captions

I hoed out the raspberries again and tied up new shoots on the loganberries. In the foreground you can see our Mint Patch which is in flower .

Spider need a home too so I was careful not to disturb her web. She is only about one inch a couple of centimetres long.. She looks bigger from the angle I took the photo.

Well that is all for September and I will see you again in October when I hope to show you work on our home garden.

Happy Gardening!

~Sue~

April~ The time I love in the garden

Welcome to April’s update and what is happening in the Dreamwalker’s Allotment garden.

Well to be honest this Spring all the hard work is down to my hubby who has been busy digging in more manure. As I have not felt up to the heavy stuff this Spring..  He moved the old strawberries out of the strawberry bed and made a new raised bed  to plant the new runners into, which are nearer our other fruiting bushes of Raspberries, Blueberries and Red and Black currents..

New Strawberry Bed

He also built four new raised beds which have since had some manure and soil added..

New Raised Beds at the side of Greenhouse in the Allotments

This was where we had the Dahlia’s Last year..

Above was where we had the Dahlia’s flowers last year. This year we have put some onion sets in.. I have also grown some onions from seeds this year so we will see which do better.. As last year they didn’t do too well, lots of them rotted in the ground..

Seedlings of Cabbage, Cauliflower doing well

Sweetcorn looking strong

Sweetpeas and Red cabbage Leeks coming through

Seedlings of Sweetcorn, Brassica’s, leeks, onions, tomatoes, and sqaush are all coming through and I have been planting by the phases of the moon.. I have to say those which I have been aligning with such as leaf crops etc came through within days.. So far I am very impressed with the Luna and Biodynamic Gardening method. 

Green house at home.

We now have put some of the Brassica’s into a cold-frame to harden off. My husband came home from the allotments this week to say another allotmenteer was giving up his plot due to ill-health and not being able to maintain it properly..

So Hubby purchased his shed from him and spent yesterday dismantling it.. It will need new tarpauline  for the roof when he gets around to putting it up.. I think we will ask my Son for a little help as I helped with the greenhouse, but a metal frame is not as heavy as a wooden one.. :-). And I know my limits..

 We will transfer the table and chairs into this new little shed from the otherone we have , which have got buried under other gardening accessories. This will be our refreshment station 🙂 complete with little camping stove for a welcome cuppa . Which was how the Summer house started out . But you know how Garden sheds go into overload, well ours is near bursting point. 🙂 So it will be good to have somewhere to sit out of the April showers .

This week My Husband put in 3 rows of early potatoes in and so far has put 2 rows of lates in up to now.. He is going to put another 3 rows of lates in later this week..

Well that is what had been happening in the allotments in March.. I am happier now we are getting some Sunshine between the showers..

Wishing you All Happy Gardening this Spring.

~Sue~

 

 

 

 

Sowing by the Moon

This week my seeds arrived 🙂 and as I checked through them I put them into the months I would be sowing them..  I also made out my plan of the allotment, all be it a rough guide it will no doubt change shape as we  start planting out in the Spring.. 

My little sketch is just a scribble sketch.. Not as fancy as some of you have gone to all the trouble with that I have seen around on blogs I follow here .  It is to give me a rough idea of where to plant.. as its important to rotate crops around from where they were last year. 

Today I started out by sowing indoors in a propagator our onion seeds.. Usually we buy onion sets, but for the last couple of years these have been disappointing and so we thought we would try from seed this year.

So out came my Christmas gift book on the Luna Cycles mentioned in a previous post, as I looked up the Moon Calendar sample month..  And I saw that while the Moon is in the Waning phase it is ideal to plant root crops.. Onions being classed amongst them..   This is because the energies pull down water to the roots.  Also during this phase it is good for pruning, as the sap is being drawn down..

I found the book very interesting reading and when you think about it, it makes good sense.. This book guides you into 4 main categories for growing and harvesting.  And comes coloured coded with the phases of the moon, so you can see how the four main categories of Root Day~ Flower Day~ Leaf Day~ Fruit & Seed Day all coincide with the various waxing~waning and Full and New Moon cycles.  The guide being if your crop is a root crop or a leaf or flower or fruit crop, each phase of the Moon can help promote the best growing conditions for that particular variety.. 

Well, I have made a start.. Now to catch up with my Ironing 🙂 

 Happy Gardening One and ALL

~Sue~  

 

Preparation for Spring

Well I thought it about time I wrote a post here.. Nothing much has been happening on the Allotments over the last few weeks, it has simple been far too wet to even dig.  Thankfully my Hubby got a lot of over winter digging done at the beginning of December, just as well, as the constant rain fall here in the UK has been unprecedented even for our Island where we never go far without our Umbrella’s .. I am ever thankful we live on a hill as my thoughts go out across the country to those places in Yorkshire and Cumbria and parts of Scotland that have been hit so hard with major flooding of thousands of Homes. 

The last day I went along to see how the allotment was progressing and to pick some Kale , Leeks and Beetroot and Red cabbage was when we had that wonderful Full Moon. So brilliant was it, that it could still be seen early in the morning in the sky over the allotment plots

Full Moon Over The Allotments

 My Husband had been busy and had put an extra piece of wood around the green house and connected extra water barrels. 

Greenhouse fence at side

Here you can see the barrels and the strawberry plant from the shoots taken from last years plants

Below you can see to where he has dug in the manure..  We will not manure the parts where some of our Crops are going as some root veggies do not like it.. 

Winter digging in the manure

Still a Large pile of manure which will last.

Here you can see a row of what is left of the Brussels Sprouts ..  A row of carrots beneath the weeds and a row of beetroot in front.. 

Here is where we planted the garlic and it’s coming on nicely. There is still a couple of Lettuce under the cloche

Leeks and Red and more spouts

I am in the process of learning about planting with the Moon Cycles.. I had expressed my interest to my daughter who thoughtfully included as one of her Christmas gifts to me a book that I am finding fascinating reading,, It is called  Luna and Biodynamic Gardening by Matt Jackson.  Which can be found on line HERE  and I am in the process of planning out my garden to try to adhere to the principles of sewing and harvesting by the Moon.. This is a first for me too.. So we shall see how this experiment goes and if I can keep to it? 

 

May I just wish all of you who kindly follow this Blog a Very Happy New Year for 2016 and Beyond.. And thank you most sincerely.  

May you all be blessed and continue with your own  

Happy Gardening!