Recycling in the Allotment

Allotment owners are known for re-using and recycling otherwise throwaway items in the plot.

As well as the items below we have an old bath for rainwater, and old kettle for watering and some large plastic tubs for rainwater/comfrey feed.

These are some of the things that we have either recycled from our own redundant items or salvaged from other people's:

Swing frame for beans

This old swing frame was given to us by a friend and we use it to provide an ideal structure for beans to climb up. In the middle we have added some canes to give extra support and climbing opportunities!

Compost bin

This compost bin was made from old fence panels from the garden. The fence kept blowing down so we replaced it with a hedge and used 4 panels to made a large compost bin.

                            This kneeling mat was made from an old cool bag, the advertising is unintentional!

Kneeling mat

              

New season fruit and veg

Will do some photos soon, but the fine weather, coupled with a little bit of overnight rain is really bringing on the allotment.

The first new season veg were broad beans and lettuce
Next up some strawberries (must be Wimbledon then!)
and blackcurrants
and some very nice calabrese
and, just when we're down to the last 3 onions in store, the first onions and garlic - so all year round onions!

Was a bit worried about the mildew on one of the apples (I think the Falstaff) and a bit of black spot fungus, but with the application of Diphane945 it seems to be clearing up.

I try to do as much as possible organic, but as Diphane945 is the only think that will cure black spot fungus I have to use it. 

Wine tasting and bottling

Today was wine day! After three months of sitting in the bedroom very very slowly bubbling, it was time to see whether the parsnip wine was actually wine at all rather than a demijohn full of what seemed to be pretty clear liquid and a small layer of gloop at the bottom.

So, the first thing was to try it

It actually tastes of wine! Quite a bit of a kick to it as well! (I was warned about this by a local farmer I met recently!)

The next stage is to syphon (or rack in wine parlance) the wine off the sediment into another demijohn. Now, syphoning isn't something I have tried very often, so this was going to be a challenge. 

With the demijohn containing the wine on the table, and an empty (but sterilised) demijohn on the floor, and a length of tubing (which had a little tap control on the end) between - again sterilised, here goes...

The first couple of attempts resulted in the wine not quite going over the top of the loop of tube, but then all was flowing nicely - the trick was to get the wine into the length of the tube, quickly stop the tap, wipe the end (as it had been in my mouth) and then drop into the neck of the demijohn. 

As the level in the first demijohn goes down, it is useful to tip up very gently to get the remaining wine out. It is better if you can have help with this whole process, otherwise you would end up trying to be in two places at once. The idea is to make sure none of the gloop ends up in the wine, if it does another racking would be required. 

Having successfully got the, now quite clear, wine into the second demijohn, it was time to bottle the wine. 

I had saved a number of bottles of different sizes (as I just want to have a glass or two rather than having to open a full bottle each time), so again the process of racking was repeated, this time into bottles.

Now the tricky bit is not getting the liquid flowing into the bottle, it is stopping the flow in time as the liquid approaches the neck of bottle, or in my case, overflows and ends up on one's trousers!

However, 9 bottles later, including two normal sized ones, and all the wine is then corked up (I use plastic topped screw corks, again sterilised) and laid to rest for another 3-6 months to improve the quality. However, it is drinkable now and I may just have a bottle or two before then!

Planting Cauliflowers

It is time to plant out the cauliflowers in the allotment.

First, I cleared the area of weeds, making sure I got out the long tap roots of docks.


Then I dug holes about 3-4 inches deep with a trowel, spacing these about 10 inches or so apart. (I plant in patches rather than rows for brassicas)

The cauliflower plants were all popped in the holes, leaving the plug of compost on them as to not disturb the roots, and then the holes filled with liquid feed made from comfrey leaves to add a bit of fertilizer.





I then back-filled the holes with soil - as it was evening when I planted these, I ensured that dry soil was on the surface, as wet soil overnight would just attract slugs.





 I then pressed down on the soil around the plants
to firmly support the plants.


I will water the plants again in the morning as the forecast is warm and dry for the next few days.

Signs of Spring!

At last! Spring is here, or at least its having a jolly good go.... The damson and pear trees are in blossom, and the apples and blueberries soon will be.
Sand Martins are flying up and down the river, and there's a few house martins and swallows as well.

The last of the winter crops still in the allotment are some leeks, the last of the parsnips we have let go to seed for next year. This patch is going to be brassicas this year and there's already some overwintered cabbage and lettuce in. 

The second patch, which was peas and beans last year, is now onions and garlic, and there will be carrots to sow soon. There's japanese (overwintered) onions and overwintered garlic and there's more onion sets coming on.

The third patch is the fruit bushes and I really need to pull some of the rhubarb.

Next down is peas and beans, with some overwintered broad beans setting flowers already and plenty of peas in. On the edge of this patch is hopefully an asparagus bed but there's no signs of life yet.

Last patch is potatoes this year, 4 rows in so far, at weekly intervals.

Birds in the Allotment

One of my hobbies is birdwatching, and over the time we have had the allotment, the variety of birds either in or flying over the allotment has been considerable.

In the allotments

Linnet                            Blue Tit
Goldfinch                       Great Tit
Chaffinch                       Coal Tit
Greenfinch                     Long Tailed Tit
Bullfinch                        Dunnock
House Sparrow             Robin
Carrion Crow                Rook
Jackdaw                       Collared Dove
Woodpigeon                 Sparrowhawk
Common Gull                Black-Headed Gull
Mistle Thrush                Song Thrush
Redwing                       Blackbird
Starling                         Tree Sparrow
Magpie                         Wren
Chiffchaff                      Pied Wagtail
Yellowhammer

Over the allotments

Peregrine Falcon           Red Kite
Heron                           Cuckoo (about 4 years ago)
Canada Goose              Greylag Goose
Cormorant                     Lapwing
Oystercatcher                Curlew
Buzzard                         Mallard
Mute Swan                    Swallow
Swift                              House Martin
Sand Martin                   Skylark
Meadow Pipit

(also possible Whooper Swan and Pink Footed Geese)

In the wider area I have recorded about 70 species including Woodcock, various warblers and winter visitors such as Waxwing

Winter again!

18th of March and woke up to a good covering of snow! Not unprecedented though but right now we should be expecting Spring! It is the duration of the cold weather that's really quite unusual though, cold easterly winds and nothing expected to change much for the next two weeks. This time last year we had 25 deg C about now, but that was indeed the only summer we got!

So, we've had three cold winters out of the past 4 years, which is actually rather normal, although winters 09/10 and 10/11 did have some really quite severe cold snaps with snow for a fortnight and -13 to -16 deg C at one point at night.

But going from 25 deg C last March to a summer with nothing but rain

http://cashandcarrots.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/allotment-report-or-weeds-r-us-with-bit.html

and then having the cold winter last into Spring, really is making problems for farmers and growers. I don't think we did too bad last year with the potatoes, they lasted until Christmas whereas I know that agricultural yields not just for potatoes were well down on normal. I even heard of sheep getting foot-rot from standing in flooded fields for too long.

Now, the cold means that many farmers, already losing money from having to buy in animal fodder, the various animal diseases going round, now find they can't plant seeds for this year.
We would normally have got parsnip seeds in by now and started germinating seeds etc. but it's too cold.