Raring to go
I'm hoping this year all the basic hard work I put in last year at the allotment is going to pay off.
I've been up there a couple of times in the last week or so to really get stuck in, in preparation for what is surely going to be a bumper year. Positive thinking, positive thinking! I've got a good feeling about the weather too, dunno why, I can just feel it coming after two lousy summers. I know it's tempting fate and important not to be complacent, as Arsene Wenger always says, but surely my allotment is also going to be a little easier in 2009?
Last March I was running round like a headless chicken trying to put in the raised beds, dig the soil over, weed, put up my shed and build paths all at the same time - it was crazy looking back on it.
This year, however, I'm onto the proper gardening already. The soil has greatly improved due to the digging and weeding, and all the council compost I used to mulch with over the winter has made a huge difference. I already have my garlic and the autumn-planted Japanese onions are coming along nicely. Plus I've dug my bean pit ready for the big day in spring. I've pruned back the autumn-fruiting raspberries to the ground. Potatoes will go in soon.
I want to really cram it with plants this year and am looking to increase the produce we get back. Lately the weather's been rather cold at night so Connie and I have started some brassica, leeks, spring onions and loads of sunflower seedlings off at home to get them going. Wish I had a greenhouse, but who knows, forget the new wooden floor in the kitchen, maybe that's my next big thing?!
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~49~RS~)
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which method will you be using to allow your beans to climb,poles,netting or a trellis
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Joe,
A bit of a cheeky question as its not directly in response to your blog this week, but perhaps a timely one.
Some time ago I remember either you or one of the others on the show planted sweetcorn, courgettes and squash together. It seemed like a cracking idea for those of us with limited space.
Was it successful ?
will you be doing the same on the allotment this year ?
What sort of density should there be to the plants.
Chris
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I took delivery of your allotment book a couple of days ago (I think WHSmith is pioneering the use of time-travelling couriers, as it came 2 days before both the dispatch notification email AND publication!)
I took on my allotment in the same week as GW coverage of yours began, so I almost feel like we learned together. I bought many books to advise me as I began (I do love a good gardening book!), many of which have been abandoned due to being too "beginner's guide" - yours, I'm sure, won't be with them: yes, it's for - and by - the beginner allotmenteer, but it has enough detail & breadth of information to remain useful to the more experienced. The photography is also excellent - and what a great idea to have good clear pictures of common weeds & plant problems, they make identifying trouble so much easier. Best of all, your personality comes through so clearly in the writing, it's a pleasure to read - chatty, informal and not at all bossy (unlike some gardening writers!)
I look forward to seeing more of the 'lottie in the new series!
Mel
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How many hours a week are you going to commit to your alloment?
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Hi
If you read this Joe, I see that the episode coming up has you doing the digin thing.
I work in a school and have just arranged for the school to have an allotment on the allotment site at the back of the school. We are awaiting tools and a tool store and a greenhouse from the morrisons campaign. It just seems a shame that the digin and also the rhs campaign both exclude the one most important venue in the country for getting young people into growing veg 'schools', and the only reason they are excluding them is because to qualify for any seeds means you have to register as an individual person rather than as a school / establishment.
As per a reply I got from Blue Peter each and every single student would have to register individually. Now this to me seems ludicrus when trying to get younger people growing as schools dont have the time to allow this to happen, instead of learning they would be all filling in online forms.
Yours
A slightly dissolusioned school employee and allotment holder.
Chris Richmond
Heysham High School
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Hi Joe,
We saw you on the programme at Hampton Court recently, and you were sporting a great panama hat - and sporting it at a jaunty angle to boot!!
So, as the song goes 'where did you get that hat...?'
Can you tell me which stand at the show you got it from, and the style of hat that you chose?
If it's good enough for JW, it's good enough for me...
(Now, back to designing my new raised vegetable beds...!!)
Thanks! Hope to hear from you!
Tony B
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Dear Joe
I wonder, are you still replying to blogs at the moment?
As I am trying to find pictures of the lovely pergola you made down a curved path.
Unfortunately I live in France and are unable to receive the i-player
I have the list of items needed,but would appreciate pictures of the top of the pergola, how it is attached to the posts and how the wire is fixed and attached.
if possible, this would be great, thanks
lasseube-lou
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