Wanna see my onions?

Here they are. Starting to grow well. The "stems" are about an inch thick, some less, some more. A few of them are even starting to swell and look like onions. Crazy stuff!

The peas. They're growing at various rates, a few have flowers now which you can just about make out from the photo...

Runner beans are doing pretty much the same thing. Some seem to be able to grab hold of teh cane and climb without problems, some need a little more coaxing. I also planted some sprouts (or they could be cauliflowers) in between three of the uprights. I have no idea why, just inspiration took hold - that or sheer madness!

The courgettes that I planted out, are starting to show real signs of growth - finally! I think I can even spy a few flowers in there. Fancy that! They're the bush variety so shouldn't trail accross the ground too much - but then again...

"Once upon a time my lad, all this was strawberries...."

Well, the green bit at the back was. Unfortunately the weeds have taken hold. Bindweed is rife and I think I'll have to save what I can in terms of strawberry plants and lift them for next year. The get rid of the weeds.....

Planted a few brussuls sprouts too. Having heard horrow stories about pigeon attacks, I fenced them in with chicken wire, and hung a load of blank CD's from bamboos. Hopefully it'll keep them off until they're big enough to fend for themselves.

Overall though, I think things are starting to actually take shape, and it's starting to look like a proper allotment. Waddya reckon?

Long time no see

With the recent rubbish weather I haven't really been able to do much on the allotment apart from the occasional weeding between showers. My mini-greenhouses are starting to fill up, and I have my first ever courgette flower!

Look!:There are a few other things starting to grow, and I am getting eager to plant them out now.

Here are a few other seedlings that have shown their "faces" of late:

Dwarf beans.

Mixed lettuce.

Sugarsnap Peas.

After my last abysmal attempt at carrots, it's encouraging to see these:

Here are my various tomatoes (cherry, plum and beef), and a few chilli plants (middle three pots).

Hoping to get onto the plot one night this week, and I'll hopefully take some piccies of how things are going.

Photographic proof

Here are some photos i took last night. They don't really do the fence justice, but hopefully you can see it at least?

My new gate, isn't it sweet?

How's this for a corner!?

I'm pleased to report that there was no damage done to any plants last night, my runner beans are still intact, as are the peas, and the onions seem to be doing a lot better (maybe they're starting to taste a bit more like onions now, and the culprits aren't so keen..

Well, the weekend was spent on the allotment, finishing off the anti-rabbit fencing. Saturday morning the brother-in-law and I arrived on the plot at 7:30 in the hope of beating the mid-day heat. By 9 o'clock the temperature had already reached 19c (66f in old money)!! We dug out a trench along one side and part way along the back by about 10am (at which time I lost the aid of aforementioned brother-in-law to a prior engagement). A foot deep and about the same wide, this would take the mesh later.

My Dad turned up at about 12 and we continued around the rest of the plot, digging the trench until about 5:30 and getting everything ready for the mesh.

Sunday morning my Dad and I arrived on the plot and started attaching the mesh to the fence posts. The weather was a little more forgiving today. The bottom foot or so of the mesh was buried in the trench and then compacted down with a sledgehammer.

One tip: If you're using a 50m roll of chicken wire, make sure you have a pole or something to go through the centre of the roll to make it easier to move along as you go.

Anyhoo, we put the mesh in place, filled in the trench and then put "bull wire" along the top to keep the mesh from sagging, pulling it tight as we went to make sure everything looked neat and tidy.

The finale, was attaching the gate. But, before we could do that we had to install a "rabbit not welcome" mat. This was simply lifting the turf under the gate, laying a "mat" of chicken wire underneath and then replacing the turf on top.

Gate was then installed, fence posts were touched up with a final bit of paint and we went home.

I'll take some photos of the fence tonight - I was too busy during the weekend to even notice that I had been burnt to a crisp, let alone taking snaps as I went.

Needless to say, I am really happy with the fence - fellow plot holders commented "that looks like it's going to be there for some time" and "that is a text-book fence", which made me really proud.

If any rabbits get in now, then they deserve a bite to eat at least.

Now for the pigeons....

I'm a dad!!

Went down to the allotment last night to plant some runner beans, have a bit of a tidy up and generally potter.

After planting the beans, doing a bit of hoe-ing and de-weeding (filled a wheel barrow full of bindweed root from a 6x4ft bed) I thought I'd have a "furtle" under the Maris Peer potatoes. Look what I found!!

Now obviously, they weren't in the basket, but this is the result of two plants. There were some really small spuds too, but I discarded them. Looks like we're having spuds for dinner tonight!

Rabbit-proofing

This weekend my father and I set about rabbit-proofing my plot. Saturday morning we picked up some large pallets (3mx1.5m) from my place of work. Each pallet was sat on 4 bearer beams which were 1.5m long and 3-4inches thick. We loaded up the pallets onto a van, took them to my Dads and started dismantling them. Once dismantled we made some points on the posts with a chop-saw. They were then treated in nice harmonious green and left to dry.

Saturday afternoon, and yesterday we put the posts in place driving them in a good 500mm to leave a metre above ground. I now have no feeling in either of my hands, and if I see another sledgehammer I'll cry. I have a 50m x 1.5m roll of chicken wire being delivered today (hopefully), and then another (30m x 1.5m) being delivered later in the week. We'll then attach it probably at the weekend, digging down and then bending out the chicken wire 90 degrees to leave approx 1 metre above ground. We'll use supports at 45 degree angles to the posts at the corners (to hold them upright), and then use some "bull wire" to support the chicker wire around the top. Hopefully, this will stop the whole thing sagging over time.

Each time I dropped the sledgehammer onto the top of the posts yesterday I said "hear that bunnies? That's the sound of the end of free meals, you little bleeders!" - ok, maybe I said that in my head, but the sentiment was there. We also dug up a load of bramble that had grown at the back of the plot - it would have compromised the fence otherwise. I can hardly wait to be fenced in. I must say, I am proud and grateful to my Dad for helping me out, he's the best!

I'll post some photos up as soon as I've taken some.

Photos added of the posts as they now stand. The photo with the two people is of my brother-in-law and his girlfriend - to give a sense of scale for my potatoes in the foreground, he is 6ft 4. Well, I was impressed!

This is the fence along the back of the plot...

The area between the two "fences" was completely covered in bramble, making it an ideal run for the rabbits. Not any more!

This is one looking back toward the potatoes.

More donations to the Hay Wayne charitable fund

A friend of mine gave me some cucumbers and runner beans today, hopefully the cucumbers will do a little better than the last attempt. I am hoping to get a lot of the plot fenced in tomorrow with the help of my Pops. Bearer beams from work, all free and plentiful - what more could I ask. I'll take some progress shots as we go along - watch this space. I'll be rabbit-free in no time with a bit of luck!