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A day-to-day guide to creating an allotment garden from a starting point of absolutely no knowledge and no experience.
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
I manage to make two brief trips to the allotment today. During the first visit I limit myself to picking 12 ripe plum tomatoes and pinching out a few sideshoots. My youngest son Nathan manages to pick three unripe tomatoes before I catch him. I also pick some lettuce and a couple of courgettes. Some animal has been feasting on my courgettes as I find one eaten to the core. I have picked so many courgettes now and, I would guess, 85% of them have all come from one plant.
I take my two sons for the second trip in the afternoon where I want to sow some lettuce and rocket. As soon as we get there the heavens open and we have to take refugee in the shed. It gives me a chance to reflect on what a good job I did when I re-felted the roof - not a drop of rain comes in.
However, once it clears, it is easy to turn the earth and prepare the seed drills for the seeds. I also cut out the tops of all the tomato plants, following some advice on the gardener's almanac website, which should encourage my fruit to ripen. My only other act is to prune the potato plants - cutting off the haulms that are clearly dead. The plot looks a lot nicer for it. Let's hope the spuds are still OK.
I take my two sons for the second trip in the afternoon where I want to sow some lettuce and rocket. As soon as we get there the heavens open and we have to take refugee in the shed. It gives me a chance to reflect on what a good job I did when I re-felted the roof - not a drop of rain comes in.
However, once it clears, it is easy to turn the earth and prepare the seed drills for the seeds. I also cut out the tops of all the tomato plants, following some advice on the gardener's almanac website, which should encourage my fruit to ripen. My only other act is to prune the potato plants - cutting off the haulms that are clearly dead. The plot looks a lot nicer for it. Let's hope the spuds are still OK.
