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...
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...
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...
I’m writing this diary in Caffe Nero on Sunday morning, warming up after a frosty visit to the allotments, yes you heard that right, frost in September, when our normal first frost date is 10th November! We definitely seem to be having later and earlier frosts now, even as the...
Yesterday I posted a list of the ‘best’ seeds to sow in October, importantly October might not be the best time to sow these seeds, my criteria in selecting them was only whether you stand a reasonable chance of getting a successful harvest, this late in the year. This article...
This article outlines what I consider to be the ‘best’ seeds to sow in October, importantly October might not be the best time to sow these seeds, my criteria in selecting them is whether you stand a reasonable chance of getting a successful harvest, this late in the year. I...
I’ve been away hiking this week. I walked the hills, the beach and the cliffs and it was wonderful. It meant of course that there was very little time on the allotments. I managed to plant a few dozen turnips in containers at home and on my first day back...
I’m away hiking next week so I’ve mainly focused my attention on sowing, clearing beds and planting. As a result I’ve spent 12 hours on the allotment and 2 hours sowing seeds, bringing me up to my average of 14 hours and it’s been wonderful. I’ve only managed a couple...
After last weeks big push to tidy the allotments this week has been very relaxing. I only spent 7 hours on the plot including 3 hours of harvesting. I’ve spent a couple of hours sowing seeds, pricking out and planting in the garden too, but it’s been a nice break. ...