It’s been another very light week on the allotments, although I’m still finding the odd jobs to do. This week the main accomplishment was cutting back the asparagus bed and covering it with a thick layer of home made compost. I’ve also done a little weeding in the garden and...
Last year I decided that planning my allotment on a spreadsheet wasn’t for me. I’m a visual person and I found messing around with a spreadsheet was a real chore, I wanted to enjoy my planning. I decided to use Airtable as the basis for a solution, I chose it...
This document captures answers to the most common questions that I get about our allotments, what we grow and how we grow. Where are you? England North west Lytham St Annes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lytham_St_Annes The allotments are here: https://goo.gl/maps/3XBLthZwqp8AddHh7 Are you really by the seaside? The house is ½ a mile from...
This is the third draft of my guide to growing an abundance of vegetables all year round, especially in the so called Hungry Gap. The “jobs for the month” sections have been expanded in this version and I have new photos! I’d love a bit of feedback on how useful it...
We’ve just past the ‘£11,000 harvested and processed’ milestone for the allotments this week and even though we intentionally switched a lot of production to lower value staple products, we’ve still exceeded our £40/m2 tally for last year. Next year I’m doing a lot more creative interplanting, so I think...
I’ve just checked my diary for the week and I’ve spent 7.5 hours on the allotments and garden, 4.5 hours of which was spent harvesting, so it’s been a light week. That’s partly because my youngest daughter got the keys to her new house on Monday, so Debbie and I...
Last week’s stay at home order ended early because we managed to get a COVID test mailed to us and we were cleared the day after, it was a very quick and efficient process. As a result we had a relaxing few days tidying up the garden and enjoyed a...
I love writing these monthly reviews and plans for the following month, so much seems to happen in such a short time and our diet changes as each month clicks by. The fruit changes the most. September saw us overwhelmed with tomatoes/peppers/cucumbers and plums and October saw the winter squash...
On Tuesday we received a stay at home warning from the NHS app, which indicated that we had been exposed to someone with COVID and needed to isolate for 7 days. Neither of us has any symptoms, but the law’s the law and we can’t have everyone second guessing it....
It’s been an extremely quiet week, the weather has been mixed with a lot of showers and I’ve been enjoying the gym and swimming pool for most of my exercise, although I’ve done plenty of beach walking too. I’ve also done plenty of circuits of the allotment site. I really...
My Mum and her partner came over to the west coast this week for a visit, they stayed in a hotel to comply with social distancing regulations. Fortunately they stayed at the hotel where I swim, so we got to swim together and catch-up in the poolside lounge. We also...
I’ve continued to push on with clearing and planting beds at the allotment and at home this week, but I’ve also managed plenty of beach walks and a good hike in the hills. The big non-allotment news though is that my swimming pool is now open again, so I’m back...
This week was forecast to be very wet but as usually happens here, very little rain actually arrived. That was annoying as I’d moved a lot of water around to capture that rain and now I have to move it back from long term storage. I can’t really complain though...
I love writing these monthly reviews and plans for the following month, so much seems to happen in such a short time and our diet changes as each month clicks by. The fruit changes the most. August saw us awash with berries, September with tomatoes/peppers/cucumbers and plums and October sees...