Allotment Wars

I never realised til now just how many wars were actually going on in the allotment or garden, it really is a jungle out there! This year I have been blessed with many ladybirds, more to do with the fact I have an abundance of greenfly than anything else. So the ladybirds battle the greenfly for me, then the ants come along. The ants like the sugary secretions the greenfly make so they will fight the ladybirds, one tree I have is a real battleground! Who knew?

I am presently having a battle myself with the pesky slippery little suckers, the slugs.  They are pretty much munching their way through some of my plants and have practically decimated my cucumbers. I like to be as organic as possible with my gardening, I figure there are a lot of beasties living in the same environment and certainly the friendly ones I do not wish to harm, so for those hungry gastropods I thought I would create a few slug pubs so they can wash those plants down after a long day. The yeast in the lager attracts them into what ever container you choose (I use buried jam jars), then they swill the night away singing sea shanties until they finally meet their drunken demise. It's the nicest way I can think of and it certainly won't effect any passing hedgehogs...

So that leads me to another war, one that I'm having in my head. I'm trying to attract the wildlife into my plot as many of them are friends and will actually take care of the critters you don't want. Rhys built a hedgehog home, we have a very tiny wildlife pond (we recently had a newt visitor much to our delight - we called him Alan), a pile of rocks, insect house, bird feeders etc. I'm trying to be organic too, so what do you do when your neighbours use weedkiller, slug pellets etc? Don't get me wrong, there is nothing in the rule book that they have to be organic, that's their prerogative, but should I be encouraging wildlife to an area when next door could be deadly? I am in a real quandary and if anyone has an answer for me I would be so grateful.

Apart from the battles and fights everything else seems to be going well, toms, potatoes, mange tout, beans, courgettes, sweetcorn, rhubarb, pumpkins, raspberries, garlic, beetroot, gooseberries and blackberries seem to be holding their own. It's mainly weeding, watering and planting at the moment and that is probably one of my favourite times.

I hope you are all having as much enjoyment out of your plots as I am,

Much love and happy digging

Tracey x

May is the month

Well this month it feels like everything is taking off, a little bit of sunshine and the sap is rising in everything (including the weeds!). Bertha (the poly tunnel in case you had forgot her name) is doing her job nicely at nurturing seeds that are now seedlings, along with keeping my tomato plants and mange tout in grow bags nice and toasty. 

May the fourth has more recently been thought of as Star Wars day (may the force - I know you know but somebody who has just got out of bed might be reading this), but I will now also remember it for some advice I was given by Tom our eighty something resident long term allotmenteer. My runner beans are doing so well in Bertha that I may need to put them out a little early, although I would be unlucky to get a late frost there is still the chance. Tom has advised me next year to sow them direct into the ground on 4th May every year - they take 3 weeks to come up by which time we are nearly at the beginning of June they have missed any chance of frost. I will have to pop mine out this weekend, keep an eye on the weather forecast and hope for the best, I might even pop a seed in next to each plant to try and prolong my crop. My runner bean glut was quite prolific last year and my Mum and neighbours are banking on me keeping them stocked this year so I can't fail. We have put the canes up in anticipation, a long frame for the runners and a couple of wigwam style structures for the french beans, beetroot will be planted in the middle of the frames so no space is wasted. 

The potatoes are doing well, we have earthed them up once and they are coming through again. The rhubarb is growing nicely, the strawberries have started to flower and the raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants look well on their way. There will be leeks and courgettes to be sown out soon and cucumbers for another spare grow bag in Bertha. 

I love the fact I can finally see some progress, the sun has been shining, but the weeds are fairly prolific and probably take up more time than anything else. Never the less standing back and looking at what you have achieved is good for the soul. 

Hope you are all having a lovely time in your plots and gardens,

Much love and happy digging 

Trace xx 

A pretty wet start...

Well it hasn't been the best start to allotment season, we are at the beginning of May and during April we had all seasons in one day. Sunshine to thunder, hail to snow, wind, so much rain, warm dry spells but not enough to get young plants out, plus the frosts keep coming...

Luckily for my birthday my boyfriend, Rhys, bought me a poly-tunnel - I have called her Bertha and I am hoping she will become the heart of my plot. Bertha has enabled me to start growing even though the weather is still unpredictable, I'm hoping she will also mean I have red tomatoes this year (they are only ever green with our lack of sun - fine for my Green Tomato Chutney but a few red would be nice), hopefully cucumbers will do well with the extra heat and I may be able to grow more than one solitary pepper!

Presently there are sweetcorn, runner beans, french beans and courgette seeds starting to pop up and tomatoes, peppers, chillis, aubergine, sprouts, radishes, leeks and mange tout growing nicely. With the rest of the plot we are thinning out the strawberries and raspberries and generally tidying as much as we can.

Some of the cabbages were planted out today and covered with a miniature poly-tunnel to help protect them from frost. Last year all my brassicas got clubroot so I have moved their position and I am hoping we may be luckier this year.


So far the potatoes are not even showing! However the rhubarb is making up for it and last years crown is going from strength to strength!

All in all I am still enjoying the plot, but I would be enjoying it even more if the sun would make more of an appearance, everything needs some heat and will no doubt grow like billio once things warm up.

I hope you are all having a good time :)

Happy digging and much love

Tracey xx

Better late than never...

So this Winter was mild but very wet and Spring so far has been the same! 

I'm not totally behind, but with pain and am impending operation I cannot do as much as I would like at the allotment presently. To be fair the rain just keeps coming and that is making it hard to make a good start. 

Digging over has started the last couple of weeks, half of the plot we have covered with tarpaulin whilst we sort the other half out (makes me feel less anxious and able to work on it a bit at a time). 

A general tidy up was needed, lots of weeding and digging in of manure. Back at the end of Feb I cut all the raspberry canes to around 6 inches, I have trimmed the herbs back and we have started to dig the strawberry plants out (they would happily take over the whole plot left to their own devices!). 

I have sown two different types of potato at the beginning of the month, Aaron Pilot and Pink Fir, I just hope the rain since has not impaired their growth at all, we may have rotted before we have even got going! 

I have planted some garlic given to me by my green fingered friend, Lee (thank you Lee), into the Belfast sink, there is some spinach from last year that is just about holding on in there and I have started sowing sweetcorn in trays and tomato seeds and courgettes in pots back at the house. I was also gifted a beautiful cherry tree from my lovely friend Kat (thanks Kat), hopefully it will be very happy on our plot. 

The rhubarb crowns I planted last year seem to be doing very well. I have given them plenty of manure and they seem to be thriving, hopefully we may be able to eat some this year (we had to resist last year as you are meant to give them a year to settle in), I'm hoping Rhubarb and Ginger jam may be in the Christmas Hampers this year.

Fingers crossed for the sunshine this year, I love the rain, it cleans everything and helps stuff grow - but we could certainly do with a balance! 

How is everyone getting on so far? 

Lots of love and happy digging 

Trace xx

Everything changes...

It is amazing to see how the seasons have such an effect on such a small plot of land. Wonderful to watch nature do it's job, even if it means the weeds, mud and grass are a pain in the arse. I have to be honest the last couple of weeks I have neglected the plot. It has been miserable weather and I have been in a lot of pain and am awaiting surgery so it has been put slightly on the back burner.

Going up today I realised I still wasn't too far behind everyone else. It's all about tidying, composting, preserving and fertilizing. I have put cardboard down on certain parts to stop the weeds popping through too. Some bits are still growing; radishes, beetroot, baby carrots and spinach, but the peas had died a very sad death and with all this wind we decided to put the canes away till next year.

It all looks very green but there is still much work to be done. The raspberry bushes will need chopping down to about six inches high, the gooseberry bush needs the old wood cutting out of the middle and well the blackcurrants need something (I will need to look that one up). I need to dig up the strawberry plants and all the runners they have given me this year, weed in between and get them replanted.

Although I love Christmas and I have many home grown and home made chutneys and jams to give as presents, I will be thrilled to see Spring so the planning can begin.

For now, it is still standing and growing.

Much love and happy digging

Tracey xx

Autumnal clear up

I thought I had better write a catch up post with an update on what has been happening on the plot over the last month. Well it feels like I haven't been doing much (I have been in a lot of pain and that has restricted me), however looking back there are bits and pieces to talk about.

The Autumn clear up is on the way, things are looking a little unkempt and I really need to get it ready for winter. Some things will be left in, like the odd parsnips and leek, onion sets have been put in to over winter, the spinach is still going strong and I am going to pop some garlic in too. 

Beets and sweetcorn

The courgettes are over and they served us really well, I think we need a break from them as we had to eat them with everything and although they have also made some chutney for Christmas I was running out of ideas. The squash on the other hand did rubbish, lovely big healthy plants but hardly any fruit and I believe that is down to the lack of sunshine this year (so Monty was telling me on Gardner's World). The sweetcorn hasn't been great but my chickens, Dolores and Ginger Rogers seem to enjoy them. The french and runner beans are over and in their place I have put some peas to over winter with a protective fleece around them, no idea how they will do but I will no doubt learn another lesson for next year. The raspberries are still coming at the moment and I have made the most wonderful raspberry jam (even if I do say so myself), incredibly easy to make and very tasty. I have quite a few punnets left in the freezer so I will be making a second batch for Christmas presents. 

We dug most of the parsnips up and they have been cleaned, chopped, blanched and are in the freezer to for cosy roast dinners that winter seems to bring with it. The freezer is also brimming with damsons waiting to be jammed. 

Hedgehog house

The whole plot itself needs a ruddy good tidy up. The compost bin is brimming with leaves and foliage.  I think we are going to cover most of the land with cardboard and then top it with manure, hopefully the weather will do the hard work for us and by spring it should be well fed earth that we can just turn over. The weeds and grass are popping up all over the show so we need a good clear up session, as well as digging the strawberry plants up and moving them elsewhere. The wildlife section needs reigning in a little and we have just placed a hedgehog house made by Rhys himself, so hopefully someone will have a nice little home before it gets too cold. 

I hope you are all really well and still enjoying your plots, let me know what you have learnt this year :) 

Much love and happy digging 

Tracey xxx

The most wonderful place to dream...

My plot is doing well, we are still in abundance of courgettes, runner beans, beetroot and autumn raspberries which are just coming into their own. Rhys has made a lovely little path for me and is just finishing a hedgehog house to encourage the little guys and hopefully give someone a safe place for hibernating.

I have learnt that it is not only the vegetables and fruit that grow down the allotment, but also the ideas in my head. I have never been a fiction writer, but there was a cute little story that wouldn't leave me alone whilst I was tending to my weeds. I have written an introduction which is up on Kindle Amazon right now. This weekend you can download it for free, if you fancy giving it a read it will only take you about twenty minutes, please let me know what you think (in the most kindest way possible) and let me know if I should carry on with a Part 2. Don't take it too seriously and you may find the odd typo - like you would in any diary.

Arma-garden: The Diary of my Allotment During the Zombie Apocalypse (Part 1)

I am just about to make green tomato chutney with all the toms that never turned due to the lack of sun (the chutney is yummy so I really don't mind). I have pickled my beets and also made a tomato and courgette chutney.

Happy digging and much love

Tracey xx