Confucious he say.......................

.......man who edge his bed with bamboo grow huge tomatoes.

Have we done enough

After a sleepless night worrying about whether we had done enough to meet final, and ultimate approval for all our hard work, the day was here. After a wonderful lunch at La Tasca, we made our way, via every floor of the multi storey car park, and arrived to the sun shining.

I think it was the luxury of having both a ladies and a gents toilet and the high standard and good use of colour in the bird scarers that won it for us.

The judges deliberate,

And give approval. Phew!

We have lift off, or not

Our first crops have appeared. All the rain and sun that we have had over the weekend has produced a couple of broad beans peeping through the surface. It may not look exciting to you but it was a reason to celebrate on the allotment. There are also radish appearing but these are not true food, they are tracker radish to mark where the parsnips will be. Parsnips are notoriously slow to germinate so us professional gardeners sow radish with them as markers.

Another interesting fact about parsnip seeds is that they are very light and not to be sown in strong wind. Ted can vouch for this as he kept his in his pocket for three days. We braved it as we are youngsters and can bend lower to the ground to keep them in place and not have to chase them around the plot when they lift off in the wind.

People who live in greenhouses...

I realise that we have been out of touch for quite a while but it has been a busy week. After a lot of 'pane', the greenhouse is finished. We have become very friendly with the nice people at A.K. Glass and Glazing and what lovely people they are. We went along with a template made of pieces of pink and yellow card, stuck together with tape, bits cut out and bits added on and they made a wonderful job of interpreting our requirements. So here it is in all its glory. And what do you do in a greenhouse? why keep warm and read Garden News of course!

We have also had a week of killing nettles, they seem to have responded well but a few are fighting back.

We will not be beaten.

One lump or two

Here it is, beautiful stuff, and to quote Alan Titchmarsh 'it smells beautiful, it smells of growth'.

It fell a bit short of being on the tarpaulin so a lot of shovelling needed to get it over the fence. The tarpaulin will preserve its goodness and stop it leaching into the ground. Another cover over the top will cook it during the summer ready for autumn digging in. Some will be used straight away to grow lovely courgettes, marrows and pumpkins.

What a wonderful gift!

It is always nice to receive a gift but an even better surprise when you receive it graciously but forget about it for a week. Due to wedding fever, I forgot about the tarpaulin and the netting until today. It is fantastic.

It was a tough decision whether to go for the green side or the blue side, but blue it was as it reflected the sun so nicely.

Tomorrow, all will be revealed why it has been pegged down on No 53.

How long does it take to cook a turkey?

..... the same length of time that it takes to put up a greenhouse. As the sun was setting over Basingstoke, the frame was complete. A bargain at £21 if I say so myself.




Note to our readers: While we welcome comments from our readers, derogatory remarks about the allotmenteers themselves can result in reduced or withheld produce throughout the summer. You have been warned - mother.

Looking like an allotment

The base is down for the greenhouse ready for the frame to be built tomorrow. It needs to be perfectly level or the frame will twist and the glass will not go in. It took quite a few cups of tea to get it done, but I think that was an excuse to sit down. It did mean that the compost bin has had to be moved outside the fence and the potato bin with it. At the moment it looks move like the start of a swimming pool.


A lot of serious seed sowing going on today. Traditionally you should plant your seed potato's on Good Friday but as we missed that made a start today. The onion sets and shallots are doing well and starting to peep through under their bottles and plastic cups. There is sign of the early carrots under the fleece, but I have a feeling there may be more weeds than carrots. The third bed in the long plot has been sown today with three rows of beetroot and a row of Ted's everlasting onions. Bed four has two rows of rainbow chard. A lack of cloches to protect them from the birds meant that a bit of creativity was required. As we no longer have milk bottle tops, I had to make bows of foil from our sandwiches and bows made from a shredded Morrisons bag, tied to string across the bed. Perfect.

A word of wisdom from Jerry today regarding getting rid of nettles. Weed in May and they will appear next day, weed in June and they will appear soon, weed in July and they will fade away. All very well but they are looking so strong and healthy that my philosophy is water them with extra strong weedkiller in April.

By Royal appointment

As the front page of The Times today stated that the Queen is moving from Buckingham Palace to make Windsor Castle her main residence, so the greenhouse moved from Windsor to Basingstoke. Or at least Dorney, which is half way between Maidenhead and Windsor. Not sure how such a little car managed to transport it. This is trip three which is the frame.


The glass having been one and two yesterday and four being for the base. This is the base and what a bonus that was as you can see. It will be fantastic when it is in place and level, the greenhouse will stand on the top and be bolted down. There are 13 pieces in total, each weighing 30 pounds. That means 390 pounds of concrete.


By strange coincidence, after unloading we went for our usual sunset walk around the allotments to find Jerry had also aquired a greenhouse which he was putting up. As so much of his glass was broken he had found something that he was going to use to fill in the bottom half of the walls. We both took a step backwards as he produced various sized sheets of asbestos some of which he had cut himself. Well, I suppose if you have lived to 394 as Jerry seems to be, then it is not going to do you much harm.

Three new chickens

I bet that got you worried. No not us, Alicia called us over to meet her new chickens. She has a Rhode Island Red and two others, equally huge and with exotic South American names. They have a new shed and quite a large run that she has spent the day constructing. The two bantums are still in the old run but will be integrated gradually. As they are half the size of the new ones, that will be an interesting liaison. The bantums are my favourites though.

Moving up in the world

I love my greenhouse but it has become so overpacked that the decision was made that we needed to go bigger so time to search on ebay. We found just what we were looking for, or even bigger. We had to go to Maidenhead to collect it but we are now the proud owners of a 10'x8' greenhouse. A couple of broken panes of glass and a bit of moss here and there but just the job. So far we have made two journeys to collect the glass and some smaller bits of frame, but tomorrow should see all the frame packed into the car along with various breezeblocks for a base. I think it will be a fraught day when we try to put it back together but at least it will be big enough for all the seedlings and two deckchairs for a tea room.

Introducing No 53

We very quickly realised that, if we were going to be serious fruit growers as well as veg growers, we were going to need more space - or an orchard as Nick likes to call it. When Frank said he was giving up one of his plots, our faces beamed. After two sleepless nights we bit the bullet and agreed to take on No 53 as well as 51 and 52. Mad or what!

This is it.
Admittedly, there is the odd weed or two but it has great potential. There is a framework of paths and now that we cleared the rubbish, have raked the dead stuff and had a bonfire, I think you will agree it is looking managable. Frank was not the tidiest of gardeners, and obviously did not believe in weeding, among the general detritis was a good selection of flower pots, bits of wood, bags of rotted, slimy leaves, and one bed with fitted path to path carpet (upside down and of various colours and types - more of a patchwork really). We have left that there as a weed suppresant but not sure what might be living under it. A sign that the soil is good is the magnificent nettle bed which unfortunately must go. The strimmer needs to come into its own to reduce the weeds, there will then be some sort of membrane to supress the weeds and then a covering of bark chippings. Remember them, well big excitement yesterday when we arrived to find a new hugh heap had been deposited, can't wait to get stuck in. Looking at the old heap, it is rotting well at the bottom so a layer of that may be going on the bean bed, it well supress any weeds and will be ready to dig in when the beans are finished in the Autumn.

Getting back to No 53, we have until Autumn to prepare and plan ready for the soft fruit to be moved across and a decision as to what else we should grow. Requests in writing please.

Here is the view from the other end - now that I think of it, it is horrible no matter which angle you look at it, but a challenge.

I might be taking the seed sowing too far

It seems to be an exceptionally good year for primulas in the garden so, just to prove that I am not totally obsessed with the allotment, I have decided to grow some more from seed ready for flowering next spring. One problem is that they need a cold spell to germinate. This is created by either sowing in pots and putting in the cold frame in the Autumn for over wintering. Or, as I have chosen to do, sowing in Spring, in pots with plastic bags over the top to retain moisture, and putting somewhere cold. Unfortunately, this means the fridge where they will stay for three weeks. Thankfully, Nick is wide awake enough to not spread them on toast in the morning by mistake for Marmite

The potato hawk

In our fight against vermin we have enlisted the help of the potato hawk. Hanging from the bean poles he (we call him Bob in tribute to Bob Flowerdew) seems to be keeping vermin away, especially the pigeons.

As the Walrus said

The time has come... to clear out the jar cupboard. In anticipation of a bumper crop this year, no jar goes in the bin or the recycling. There was a landslide in the cupboard so I think a contingency plan needs to be put in place.




Talking of contingency planning, as I have run out of toilet rolls (the tubes inside them that is) having used the last of them to sow the runner bean seeds, I have had to resort to corporate theft in the form plastic drinks cups. Only partly theft really as they are all used and rather than going in the bin or recyling by HSBC to make pencils, they are being recycled by me. These will be used to bring on the leeks ready for planting out in June.

Ready to open to the great British public

We feel that we now have the plots at a standard that we are able to accept guests. Rebecca is looking for a new job and I think she would be excellent as gate keeper to the allotment. Matt has given his seal of approval so we are now officially open to visitors. Visits are by appointment only.

Jim and Pat's wedding day

I didn't think anything was more important than gardening, but today, seeing my brother's proud face as he stood at the alter waiting for his new bride made me realise that maybe there was.

The end of the tax year

At the end of another tax year what should you do. Plant Stuttgarter Giants of course.

An exceptionally large onion - at least that is what it said on the packet. Ready to harvest July/August. It only took 10 minutes to plant the little darlings but nearly an hour to make them each their own little greenhouse. Protection from the cold, the birds and the r**s. (We dont mention them by name but we do lose quite a lot of sleep worrying about them).

The Allotment DVD

A present to ourselves arrived in the post yesterday so a chance to see what is going on in Bristol. You can order your own copy at www.allotment.info and believe me it is a worthwhile and enjoyable five hours of watching.

The 2012 Olympics could come to Basingstoke

Taking the idea from Gordon's bean frame, and having finished all the digging (yippee) we started joining canes in preparation for the runner beans. In the meantime it could be very useful for practicing the polevault, or even a new sport of triple pole vault by the time we have finished.