Allotment Diary - Week 3

MONDAY 6TH JULY 2009
Well what with the massive downpour and subsequent showers, I've no need to head to the allotment today. Just as well, as I'm out of town until near 9pm! I did manage to exchange emails with Peter during the day to make plans for the next stages of planting. Peter has ordered some seed via the internet and I've pointed him towards a good supplier for late spuds, which will give us a crop to pick for Christmas Day!

TUESDAY 7TH JULY 2009
Again, showers all day, so no need to head to the allotment. As we plant more crops, I'll probably have to pop in daily to check things over, but things are quite relaxed at this early stage.

WEDNESDAY 8TH JULY 2009
I popped into B&Q to buy some more horticultural fleece today, which will be needed on Thursday when we get to planting (subject to weather). I also took a look in the B&Q timber department for some wood that would be suitable for constructing the raised-beds. Timber decking is ideal, as it's been pre-treated for outside use, but it's £4.46 for a 2.4M length of board. I want 2M lengths, but noticed that some of the boards were split or damaged, so haggled the price down to £1.50 per 2.4M, including them cutting off the damaged bits to make it 2M. I can use the off-cuts to make the stakes that will hold the boards in the ground. Essentially, it will cost £9 to build each 2M x 4M raised-bed.

THURSDAY 9TH JULY 2009
Before heading to the allotment this evening I popped into Peter's to pick up some seedlings. A tray of Broad Beans, Cabbage and Cauliflower are ready to go into the ground. Some of the seeds that Peter ordered has arrived too and we've got plenty of seed that can go straight into the ground over the weekend, including lettuce, carrots, onions and beetroot. There are also a range of seeds that will give us a spring crop, including carrots, cabbage and onions - but these won't go in until September. The potatoes have yet to arrive.

The weather held out today, so it was a lovely evening at the allotment. There were two other allotmenteers pottering around and the peace and quiet is blissful. My first task was to measure out a 2M x 4M bed over the existing plants with a tape measure. Perfect! A raised-bed will fit over the existing plants perfectly in length and allows room for another row. The other seedlings I'm putting in tonight will fit into another raised-bed.

My next task was to turn over some more of the soil ready for planting. It's still hot work, even at nearly 8pm when the heat has gone out of the sun. After preparing the soil, I then levelled it by raking over it and then layed out some string across the plot to ensure I'm planting in straight lines. My wife Michelle and daughter Sinead turned up to have a look at how things are progressing. Michelle was amazed at how quickly the plants have grown and we chatted for a while about plans for the allotment over the coming weeks and months. When Michelle decided to head home, Sinead decided to stay with me for a while longer.

Now for planting! After another 40 minutes or so, the Broad Beans and Cabbage had gone in nicely next to the previous crop of the same plants from the other week; so we will get a staged harvest. It was now getting on for 9pm and I didn't think there was enough daylight left to plant the Cauliflower, water all the plants and cover them before nightfall, so I settled for watering and covering the plants, which Sinead helped me with. We left the tray of Cauliflower covered for planting over the weekend. A good evening's work!

FRIDAY 10TH JULY 2009
We had a family wedding to go to this evening, so I didn't go to the allotment at all. Everything had a good watering last night, so I'm sure it will all hold out.

SATURDAY 11TH JULY 2009
Amongst my other weekend chores, my plans for Saturday included going to B&Q to find some 'damaged' planks of decking. I managed to find 12, including 2 discoloured ones which they also let me have at £1.50 each. The trade department was closed, so there was nobody to cut the boards down to 2M lengths for me, but I've got an electric saw at home, so it's no big deal.

As it turns out, not getting them cut to size turned out to be a God-send. Having laid out the proposed bed size of 2M x 4M in my driveway, it was clearly too wide. The idea of raised-beds is that you can reach everything without having to step foot onto the bed, so 2M across is too wide. After much thought and deliberation I plump for 1.2M, which means I can simply cut a board in half for the widths - easy! As for the length of the beds, I decided to make them 3.8M instead of 4M. This allows me to cut each 2.4M board down to 1.9M leaving me a 500mm off-cut, which will allow me to maximise the number of stakes I can make from each off-cut. Two of the 1.9M boards will make up each long edge of the raised-beds.

After making all the cuts I need, I've only the stakes to cut to size and screw onto the boards. I've got to get ready to go out and, as it looks like there's rain on the way, I there's no need to go and water the plants, which suits me because measuring and cutting everything to size took longer than I anticipated.

SUNDAY 12TH JULY 2009
During the afternoon, I spent another hour or so making the stakes out of the remaining 500mm off-cuts, by sawing them in half to 250mm and then sawing them length ways in approx 1" widths. I then took each of the boads and screwed the stakes onto the sides with 40mm wood screws, leaving about 100mm of the stake overlapping the board, so it can be stuck into the ground to hold the boards in place. 24 stakes and 48 screws later, the finished boards for my raised-beds were ready. I loaded them into the car along with some gardening tools and headed to the allotment, stopping off at Peter's along the way to drop off some trays and let him know I was heading to the plot.

After unloading the boards from the car, I had to measure up again to find out how well the new sized beds were going to work with my previous planting. It worked. After getting the first raised-bed in place, Peter arrived with his carer and we discussed how we can lay out additional raised-beds as we need them. I've deliberately left a 1M gap along the right-hand side of the plot, so that Peter can get down the side of the allotment in his wheelchair once it's grassed over. It's threatening rain, so Peter heads back home and I position the second raised bed, leaving a gap of approx 600mm between the two. While this is quite a lot of room to leave between beds, it is a practical amount in terms of the space needed to kneel down for planting and weeding. As there will no longer be any need to actually tread on the beds now, plants can be placed slightly closer together; so it's swings and roundabouts in terms of how much 'useable' soil is available.

I managed to plant three rows of Cauliflower from the seedlings left over from Thursday night. I then moved the row of Cabbage I'd planted on Thursday into the second raised-bed. Now all the seedlings we have in the ground are in one of the two raised-beds. I give the plants a thorough watering and cover them with the horticultural fleece. It's been a good weekend of work and the allotment is looking very smart now a couple of raised-beds are in place. There's not been time to get any of the seed in over this weekend, as I'd planned, so I'll have to make it a priority early next week.