A Patch from Scratch

A blog recording the progress of my lovely allotment.

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To all my followers who have kept up with my allotment journey from the beginning.... I have started an Instagram page dedicated to my allotment adventures. I tend to use Instagram more frequently and have decided to make that the main place where I share my progress. Hope you will carry on following me on Instagram.

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Just spent the past hour collecting fallen leaves and filled 10 bags with them. This will rot down over winter and through the spring into lovely leaf mould that I can put onto my raised beds before planting my veggies in 2019.

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I was down at the allotment for 9am this morning and it felt good to get an early start on all the clearing up. I got so much done below is a list for anyone who is interested.

- weeded four beds next to my greenhouse

- moved two small compost heaps into my new long bed

- layered and topped up my compost bins, adding shredded paper, grass cuttings and all the old cuttings and remnants of the plants I grew this year

- started some nettle fertiliser

- collected my first batch of leaves that will break down to leaf mould

- added the left over chicken pellets to one of my raised beds and dig it in

- added torn egg boxes and newspaper to my extra long bed and topped it up with well rotted manure all ready for next spring

- added a layer of newspaper to all other raised beds ready for a layer of manure (when I get the next batch)

All in all another productive day down at the allotment 😀

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Never has anyone ever looked this happy and excited to have planted garlic at their allotmnet

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New raised beds in and prepped ready for me to plant garlic tomorrow, the garlic should be ready next July (fingers crossed) 7 more beds to build and my plot will be all tidy again.

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Not a bad year down at the allotment. Had more time to spare to enjoy growing my own fruit and vegetables. It’s the first year that I have had a greenhouse full of delicious produce. The cherry tomatoes are to die for and I have had so many cucumbers that there was no one left to give them away to. The beetroot in the picture above are mini and the result of thinning the beetroot patch out. I grew three varieties of beans this year including broad beans, a green string bean and a purple string beans (i love to freeze them) The string beans cropped really well for dwarf bush varieties. We were surprised to see the purple variety of bean loose its colour in the blanching process before freezing them. The apples have been the winner this year, approx 40 apples in total. We have already made some apple sauce with some of them and are continuing to enjoy them in our packed lunches through the week.

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This years gooseberry harvest was massive. A total of 15lbs in weight all bagged up into 1lb bags and frozen so that we can make crumbles through the winter. The prep took three of us a couple of hours but it was worth it. I always write the date on the bags so that when we go to the freezer for fruit to make deserts we know exactly what day we harvested the fruit. 

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My plot June 2018. Moves jobs which means I’m now based back home and can finally concentrate on my allotment again. So much to do but I like the challenge. I’ve got broad beans, dwarf green and purple beans, potatoes, peas, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, chilli, strawberries, gooseberries, rhubarb, black currants, courgette, gherkin all on the go! Next year will be the year my allotment is once again nearly perfect!

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Mid summer down at my allotment 😀 love my sunflowers and there's so many produce to pick and prep I don't know where to start.

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This mornings harvest from my allotment. Those raspberries were delicious. I've grown so many broad beans this year, this is only the first pick of them.

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My allotment 8th July 2017.

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These babies are going out today. It's a brilliant day to get loads of work done at my plot. I wonder if Mark is going to bring me some dinner?

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May 2017

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Follow my blog to see my developments through the 2017 season.

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Today's visit to the allotment. I love this time of year, everything is growing nicely. Broad beans are well on the way as well as the peas I put in last week. The tomatoes, sunflowers and kale are looking really healthy. Still not certain if the aubergine seedling is actually an aubergine. My leeks are getting bigger and will need planting out soon. I also planted some moe cauliflower and spinach seed.

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Lovely afternoon spent on the plot. Planted out a row of peas and another row of broad beans. All the parsnips are out and I’ve sown a row of Autumn King carrots.

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Seedlings 2017. Hopefully that's it for the cold nights now. My little chaps survived the freezing temperatures. I'm very happy that my parsnips germinated and I now have the first lot in the ground. Out of all the aubergine seeds I sowed only one came up to say hi, so I'll have to take extra care. I've got the day off on Sunday and it's going to be a full allotment day.