Week 9

Everything is happening at once at mtp. I’ve put the carrot seeds in (in two rows, 12cms apart), the leek seeds have been sown, as have the perpetual spinach. Also one of our neighbours (a different one) gave me some young cabbage plants and the cucumber plants are happily hardening off in the cold frame […]

Plot meeting

So the plot meeting went off okay. Surprisingly quite a few people turned up despite the weather being pretty awful. We discussed a range of topics that are vital to allotment holders; mowing of pathways, the size and dimensions of the average toolbox, the pros and cons of public benches in the allotment (the concensus […]

Hardening Off

I’ve reached the hardening off stage and just realised I haven’t a clue what that is. Well, when I say I haven’t a clue I mean I have an idea that it’s something to do with putting the plants in colder or more harsh conditions for a while before they go in the ground but […]

Week 8

I can’t believe we’ve been working on mtp for eight whole weeks. The time has flown by, but of course we’ve got a lot done. The top beds are starting to take shape now and I spent the last 20 minutes yesterday flattening out the top area ready for our brand new bench when it […]

Yummy Red Strawbs

Our neighbour gave us some Strawberry plants a couple of weeks ago and I put them in the seed bed next to the (still empty) cold frame. I thought that would be a good place for them since it has wooden sides and so presents a small mountainous obstacle to any snail type creatures. We’ll […]

Week 7

The beds are starting to take shape now. We had thought that we would edge each bed with wood to make the plot look classic, traditional, environmentally-friendly. But then we went to Homebase and saw the price of wood and thought hmmm….these plastic edging-type products look interesting don’t they? So the end result is that […]

Welcome to Pottsville…

…population 22 and growing. As you can see I did my first ‘potting on’ this weekend. There were a few casualties, inevitably. My inexperience and heavy-handed transplanting skills meant the death of two cucumber plants and five tomatoes. Although I did manage to save one sweetcorn seedling from the decimated crop that died last week […]

Poor Little Mite…

I can’t possibly think about the allotment because my cat, Cider, has had an operation today. He went to the ‘vet’ dentist to have a tooth out. This was mainly brought on due to munching way too many mice, bunnies, and assorted small rodents. But look at the poor little mite. Pitiful isn’t it? Needless […]

Week 6

I can’t believe it’s already six weeks since we got the allotment. It has flown by. We’re busy digging the beds over and adding a little bit of lime here and a bit of manure there. We also bought a brand new fork (we bent the last one) and some edging to keep the beds […]

Say Hello To…!

…our new friend, the coldframe. It cost just £44 from our local garden centre (actually this was the cheapest price I could find for this type of frame – even online!). So now you’re thinking, “£44 for that! – I could have made one out of bits of wood scavenged from skips.” Well, that may […]