Path work on the plots

Last week we were busy doing paths/storage /sitting areas on our two allotments. We were fortunate that some paths were already in place when we took both plots on and also there was a variety of stuff left by previous tenants, paving stones, bricks, rubble, wood, all useful materials. The paths which were already in place determined the layout of the plots. The other paths and seating areas have been roughly laid out by us but no  surface material in place. This meant that weeds were constantly appearing and the areas became muddy and slippy in wet weather.

We decided that now we have got the growing areas up and running we could spend some time sorting out these other areas. We ordered 5 tons of crushed stone from a local tippers. It cost £30 which we thought was very reasonable.  The areas we were planning to cover were the path up to the polytunnel and a seating area on plot 10b and a seating area on plot 8. (all hard working gardeners need somewhere to sit and rest with a brew!). We used some of the wood and bricks to define the edges of paths then covered the ground with membrane or old compost bags before putting the gravel on top

We were really pleased at how far 5 tons of stones went. After covering these areas, we still had loads of gravel left. Richard  came up with a plan to gravel the water butt area on plot8 as it gets very muddy and slippy in wet weather, so that got done too.

That was phase 1 of our  path making plans.  There is still more to be done, but both plots are looking better already.  As well as making the place look much tidier and easier to walk on, the gravel should help to suppress the weeds. I'm looking forward now to the next stage in the developments. In the meantime I'm enjoying taking well earned lunches and cups of tea on our gravelled sitting areas.

A summer of flowers

I've always liked to grow flowers in the garden which are good for cutting, but quite often don't have enough blooms to cut without spoiling the display. My garden also has a lot of shade so some flowers don't do well. So now we have the allotments I decided this year that I would try having a cut flower bed.

We decided to use  two beds, one on each plot which weren't going to be used for growing vegetables this year. I ordered seeds from Higgledy Garden, then I rummaged through my seed box and found a few packets of seeds which had been given free with gardening magazines. Also, tempted by the pictures on seed packets in the garden centre I bought more.

On Plot 8 the prepared bed is  triangular in shape and has a bit of shade from a big sycamore tree late in the day. Here I sowed calendula, ammi majus, escholzia, poppies, cornflower, lavatera and nigella. The bed on plot 10b  is in full sun. Here I grew, echium, larkspur, bupleurum and sweet peas. All of these were annuals and could be sown directly into the ground. I started off some half hardy annuals in the growhouse, some of these were a bit temperamental and had poor germination. I didn't have the time to give them any special attention, plants have to be tough to grow up here in the north. But the ones which did grow were zinnia, cosmos, aster, rudbekia and candytuft. Everything had to be easy to grow because I have two allotments of vegetables to look after too. I also bought some dahlia plants from a plant fair, no labels so I had no idea of colour, height, type. Surprise dahlias!

My enthusiasm for flowers took over and eventually we had more flowers to plant than we knew what to do with. So some got planted amongst the vegetables. The flowers grew and grew and the triangular bed became a tangle of colour. I forgot to support the flowers early on so I stuck in some twiggy sticks which helped a bit. We hadn't expected the sweet peas to do well as they looked a bit weak and weary when we first planted them, but they really took off in the sunny bed. We had put in a cane and netting support for them but they outgrew that and toppled over.  We rescued them by shoving in more canes and hoisting them up. Some of  the flowers planted amongst the vegetables took over a bit causing some shade. The dahlias were amazing, they were planted in a separate bed and I remembered to stake them! The zinnias were stars, standing upright, needing no support and such variety of colour. 

 I made some mistakes--getting carried away and sowing too much, not staking, but generally I was pleased with the results.  Next year though, I will probably not grow as many, I spent a lot of time on the flower growing when I needed to have been doing other things on the allotments.


So here we are in September, the flowers are still in bloom and  I have had a constant supply of cut flowers for the house all through the summer.

Back from the holidays

Whenever I return from holiday, although I always look forward to getting back to the garden and allotment, I'm usually a bit worried as to what sort of state they are going to be in. We've recently returned from two weeks away and I was quite pleased that everything looked quite good on our return. 

Before we went away I had a good weed and cut back in the garden and all that hard work seems to have paid off.  I was expecting to see plants flopping all over the place and lots of dead heading needing to be done.  Instead everything was looking quite perky, some of the plants I had cut back had bounced back to produce more flowers and the borders were full of late summer colour from the rudbekias, heleniums, sedums and phlox.

Down at the allotments the vegetables were growing well. The tomatoes are now ripening daily, the courgettes are growing faster than we can pick them and the french beans are growing fast too.  There are cabbages, cauliflowers, swede, kale, leeks and raspberries all ready for picking. And lots of flowers too.  Everything seems to be ready all at once.

The sweet peas which we had not expected to do well have been flowering for weeks now and had grown so big that they had toppled over.  We hoisted them up,  fixed some more canes in place and tied them all up with thick string. I'm hoping they will sort themselves out, at the moment they look a bit trussed up, but they are still producing flowers so it seems a shame to pull them up yet.

The rest of the allotment just needed a good weed and we started with plot 10b doing all the raised beds and the paths during the week. This weekend Helen and I started weeding plot 8.  We didn't finish but it's all looking much better.

August crops

The heavy rain over the last couple of weeks was very welcome after such a long dry spell.  The allotment is looking good, very green and full of produce.  After the hard work of making sure we got  seeds and plants in the ground at the right time, it's great to be now picking produce every time we visit the plots. In fact this has become a job in itself which we have to allow time for. Weeding is another big job, if we hoe round the beds every time we go it helps to keep them under control. A couple of weeks without weeding allows them to take over again.

Last week we pulled the onions and they are now drying out in the sheds on both plots. we noticed that the onions grown in the raised beds on plot 10b were much bigger than those grown on plot8. This is probably because there is some shade on plot 8 whereas the onion bed on plot 10b was in almost full sun.

We have been picking peas and broad beans for a few weeks now and there are still more to come.  The dwarf and climbing french beans are flowering, but no beans yet.  The salad bowl lettuce finally went to seed and grew to an enormous height, so that has gone on the compost heap. That's what comes of planting too many.  There is still some freckles lettuce and red salad bowl, and plenty of spring onions both red and white.

The cabbage frames which Richard built seemed to have defeated the cabbage white butterflies, but some of the cabbages have been attacked by slugs. They are still edible, just need a good wash first. There's nothing worse than slicing through a slug. Oh, well perhaps eating one would be worse--ugh!

I'm quite pleased with the celeriac, which has started to swell.  The swedes are also swelling and we will soon be able to pick the first ones. Carrots have been a bit of a failure, but then they always are for us. We've sown them in deep tubs this year to try and deter the root fly, but there is only one tub which looks anything like having carrots growing in it.

It's good to see that we will have a continuous supply of veg coming through now which will keep us going into the winter. Once the peas and beans come to an end, we will still have brassicas, leeks, swede, celeriac, beetroot and  fennel.

Along the canal at Skipton

Last weekend our daughter and family who live in Bedfordshire came to visit for a few days. They were looking forward to some good family days out. It was unfortunate that the weather decided to change just at that point from warm sunny days to cooler, cloudy conditions, so as we thought about where we would like to go we had to think about somewhere to go if it rained. After much discussion and changes of destination, we finally decided on Skipton. There's something for everyone in Skipton--shops, market, castle, walks and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.  We decided to have a canal boat ride in the morning whilst the weather was fine and then if it rained later we could visit the castle or look at the shops.

As we queued up for the 30 minute canal boat trip, our son-in-law had a better idea and disappeared for a while returning with a booking for a 2hour boat hire. Both he and my daughter have driven a canal boat before so we hoped they knew what to do, although he did get some instructions from the boat hire man.

We just had enough time to whizz round the shops to buy food and drink for a picnic to take on board with us.  We had a lovely 2 hours sailing slowly along this lovely, picturesque canal, relaxing, eating, watching the other boats, looking out for wildlife.

Later back on dry land we walked along the canal towpath towards the castle. The path then took us along the bank of the river and through Skipton Castle woods. We've been to Skipton many times but never done this walk before. It's an easy walk and very scenic. We didn't complete the walk as we had to get back home, but it was very enjoyable and a place we will return to soon, I'm sure.

Heysham Head

We've been looking after the grandchildren this week, the first week of the school holidays.  It's probably the best week to have to look after them, before they get really bored and argumentative and you're wishing they were back at school. We've had a few outings and activities planned, both indoor and outdoor and none of these have involved any great expense.

We decided to make the most of the warm weather on Monday as the forecast for the rest of the week was not looking as good. We headed off to the coast to Heysham Head, which is just south of Morecambe.  Richard and I like to visit here from time to time and thought the children would enjoy it too.

The quiet little street of Heysham village is lined with old stone cottages and pots of bright, colourful flowers. There are one or two cafes and a pub, but that is all. The street leads down to the beach, but the tide was in when we arrived, so we walked up towards the headland and the church of St. Peter. This beautiful old church is set in a stunning location overlooking Morecambe Bay.

The oldest parts of the church date from the 8th century and there are some very interesting features.The church was really quiet, but I found a man eating his lunch in the choir stalls. I think he was as surprised as I was. He was apparently 'on duty' so he proceeded to tell us about the church. He pointed out a Viking gravestone and the children sat on the floor whilst he explained the story behind the symbols. I was worried they might be bored but they were quite entranced by his story telling.

Back outside we walked up to the top of  the headland to the ruined St. Patrick's Chapel. Here the views across Morecambe Bay are wonderful. The area around here was once a burial site. An interesting feature  is the eight stone coffins. This area was excavated during the 1970s and skeletons were found. The skeletons were dated around the 10th century and the bones have now been buried in the churchyard.

I have heard this place described by one of our diocesan bishops as a 'thin place'. This means there is not much to separate the heavenly from the earthly. It's an expression used to describe 'spiritual' places. Richard and I have always felt there was something  about this place which was very special. It's a place where you feel very peaceful, very close to God.

We found a place to have our picnic, then we followed a path which led down to a little sandy beach.  We had to do a bit of scrambling over rocks to get down there but it was worth it.  The children loved playing on the beach and paddling in the sea. Beautiful as it is, Morecambe Bay is a dangerous place with strong tides and quicksands so we didn't allow them to go far.

We made sand castles as always and of course had an ice cream before we went back home. The general opinion from the grandchildren was that they had really enjoyed the whole day, but the best thing was the beach.

Salad harvest

 

One of the things I thought I would learn from last year's allotment growing was not to plant too many lettuces. But once again we have overdone it. We always plant more than we will need because we expect to lose some to slugs and  that didn't happen. But we are enjoying our lettuce harvests.

We have a few different varieties of lettuce growing. The first one we started off was 'salad bowl', which can be picked as leaves, but because we have so many we have been pulling them as whole lettuces. Back at home I keep them in a bowl of water which keeps them going for a few days and I can just take leaves off as I need them. This lettuce has kept going for weeks in the ground and is still going strong, getting bigger and bigger, although it is now showing signs of going to seed. We are also growing 'red salad bowl' which is the same type of leaf but red. It looks quite attractive on the plate with the two mixed. Also in the salad bed is  'little gem' lettuce and a variety called 'freckles' which has a spotted leaf and in the last week I have sown some' Webb's Wonderful'.

To make sure we have a continuous supply of salad stuff throughout the summer I sow about every two weeks. As well as lettuce we grow radish, spring onions and beetroot.  The radish are very quick to grow and need picking regularly as they soon go to seed and then they become very tough, so it's best not to sow too many at a time.

Salad vegetables are such a quick growing crop they can be grown in between other veg which might take longer to grow.  If we run out of space in the beds we use containers. Salad veg is really easy to grow in containers and is good for anyone who has a very small space or doesn’t have a garden. This week I sowed some rocket and watercress in big tubs.

We like having different varieties to choose from and even if we grow too many and they end up on the compost heap, they are not wasted because they go back into the soil eventually.