29th April 2020
Tuesday
After the morning watering, I go and meet Hannah at the café as our SOS calls for more compost were answered by Carol, who’s home compost is ripe for shoveling out. Her garden is a little sanctuary and its hard not to compare the abundance with our empty plot! Carol also lends me her antique plant encyclopedia, so perhaps if I can swallow all the information in that, we’ll be laughing.
Back at the plot, I prep the other raised bed in the poly (using above compost) ready for some more tomatlings.
Wednesday
Now that most of the plot has been tilled, the amount of space is beginning to freak me out so I spend the morning sowing pea beans (making a comeback, find out more about this heritage bean here) , black and borlotti beans. Now, I also decided to sow some carrots in the poly. The carrots are giving me brain-ache as everything I’ve read says grow them in sandy, fine soil … which is precisely what we don’t have so, I was thinking if I started them off then they might be strong enough to power on down. Turns out though, transplanting them often damages the taproot and that means game-over. To take my mind of this conundrum, I re-organise the seedlings because I’m pretty sure some of them aren’t getting enough light. Hannah drops another bounty from Carol in the way of seeds collected from her garden (something that excites me probably too much) as well as a tray of radish seedlings and some more tomatlings (yet to show).
Friday
Arriving at the allotment, I chat with Delia (who turns out to be a walking encyclopedia of gardening) and she donates two small artichoke plants. Now, I am not a fan of prepping artichokes in the kitchen, but I am a fan of their foliage in cut flower bouquets so I put them on the left-hand side of the poly, where I’ll sow wildflowers and the cornflowers that Flick bought down. I pick her brains about carrots and she says that as long as the soil is well tilled, as fine as it can be, they should be ok so I plant out what I have in pots, not expecting much and then direct sow the rest of the seeds I have (not many) but will stagger sow more through the months.
Spend the rest of the morning sowing dill, foxgloves, peonies, marigolds from Carol as well as Romanesco cauliflower and some really old peas that I found. I’d managed to scavenge a gutter pipe from my mum’s garden so I hang it from the poly-tunnel cross bars and fill with compost, soak the peas and give them a motivating chat before covering lightly with more compost. I’m into the pea chandelier and would love a few more, I’d like to try with pomodoro tomatoes and let them grow down. I intend to dig a channel for the peas (if they grow) in the plot and then slide the contents of the pipe into it but I’m wondering if I can let them trail grow. Maybe they’d get too heavy, pulling themselves out … a kamakapea situation ensues … I plant out the radish seedlings into the tomato bed as well as more tomatlings and string into the fresh bed.
Saturday
Standing on my dad’s balcony, having our morning coffee chat someone downstairs gets a huge delivery and the driver leaves the pallet on the street. It’s ideal to turn into a third bed for the tunnel so I drag it into the garage and using my dads crowbar, break off the extra wooden frame thing connected to it. Thinking about the poly though, at the moment we need another potting bench so that everyone can get maximum sun and that also means I don’t need to break the whole pallet down today. My dad agrees to help me design the bench later so I head to the plot to plant out the cabbages.
A chat with Delia guides me to firm up the ground for them as they don’t like being uncertain, so after walking over the area and using the dibber and trowel, I make deepish holes, add compost and water followed by the cabbage. Most time is spent sorting through the nets and trying to cover them all, I sew up some of the netting with twine and prop it up with bits of stick and cane. The result is a bit derelict looking but it’ll have to do for now. Sow red Russian kale that arrived this morning and Hannah pops in from the lovely Carols, who has donated some lollo rosso, which alleviate my lettuce drought fears somewhat.
Get home and have the following conversation with dad
Me: so shall we go and measure the wood and that?
Dad: I was thinking, we’ll get it all in the car and then we can build it in situ tomorrow morning
Me: * glance over
Dad: * plays solitaire on iPad intently
Sunday
With dad in his element building the bench, I trim one of the path edges before they take over completely. The cabbages look happy and the onions have also started to sprout. It’s a beautiful morning and in a few short hours, he’s done a cracking job with the bench. We maneuver the bench into position and get everyone set up in their new spot.
an apt conversation for us
A massive thank you dad, you did an amazing job
Monday
Planted the lollo’s in with the tomatoes, radish and salad leaves. I hope they’ve got enough room … started to plant out the sprouts, who also like firm ground and lots of space. I’ve put them around the broad bean and carrot beds as I hope their height will prevent carrot fly. I think they’re spaced enough, in between them I’ll plant marigolds and garlic to deter related pests (more info on the humble marigold and garlic), if I can remember to bring the garlic down with me!
The potatoes have started to sprout so I bank one row up with mud and one I cover with hay, just as an experiment really. I plan to plant the borlotti alongside them once they’re ready to come outside.
Music from this week
Everyday, as much as possible, when the sun was shining … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBfhuq6sOZQ
And another perker for when it’s a bit much https://youtu.be/sy7JwllhUR8
The Baker's Cafe Community Allotment 