A few months ago, well February to be precise my best friend Diane and I finally got our hands on an allotment! We had been on the waiting list for just over a year and are very lucky to have one considering the demand for them in London at the moment! We both love growing things, and we both love eating things so it seemed the perfect solution to grow things to eat!
I have for the past few years been growing a few veggies on my balcony, mainly salad, radish, tomatoes and potatoes essentially anything that doesn't mind being in a pot and is easy to look after. So I was over the moon when we got the plot, finally a chance to do some proper gardening! I haven't mentioned it before, as I was a little worried that it may be an epic failure, as you will see from the pics below it needed (and still needs) a lot of work...oh and a massive skip!
The last occupier was a real hoarder, she seems to have kept most of her household junk in her shed. We found big plastic boxes full of fitness magazines, video tapes, gardening and history books all of which had been totally ruined by the water that had been pouring in from the hole in the roof.
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| The ramshackle old shed made up of old doors! You can see the hole which the foxes got in through by the recycling box! |
Perhaps the worst thing we found was a dead fox and cub, we think they were sheltering in the shed over winter and either ate some rat poison that was stored in the shed or could not find enough food to survive the really cold winter we had. Either way, they gave us both a huge fright, as the shed has no window it is very dark in there so we didn't see them until we had almost touched them!
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This is the Green House, there is certainly a frame can't vouch for more than one pain of glass!
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So the Progress so far...
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February 2011 - Where to start?!?
All manner of junk seems to have been dumped on our plot!! |
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| March 2011 - Progress is under way! The first row of potatoes and shallots are in. Also some Gooseberry bushes and a Blackcurrant bush, that I have had in pots on my balcony for a few years, and some new Poundland Blackcurrant & Redcurrant bushes (under the bottles). |
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| April 2011- More digging done and some more of the junk has been removed. Another two rows of potatoes have been planted and the shallots are just starting to peek through. |
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| May/June 2011- More digging has been done but the ground is getting a bit tough to dig as it been very so dry. I never thought I would wish for it to rain! Planted Peas, Onions, Runner Beans, strawberry's, sweet peas, beetroot and broad beans. |
The aim for next year, when we have more of the land dug over and more of the rubbish removed, is to follow the Dig for Victory 'Grow for Winter as well as Summer' Leaflet (click photos for links to pdf files) for all year round crops. I am hoping as we are sharing the produce this will mean that although we won't be totally self-sufficient we will be at least optimising the land and getting the most veg possible!
All of this digging and planting lark has given me the inspiration to do a bit of knitting, so I've started on my very own land girl style jumper. I am using a free pattern for a women's V-neck Jumper found on the
V & A website, and knitting it up in bottle green wool (although I'm sure at 16 I vowed never to wear bottle green again after having it as my school uniform for 5 years!) it is just the thing to create perfect Land Girl look and with fingers crossed should be finished in time for chilly old autumn!
