Thursday November 22nd - the last working day up at the plot...

We started the day at the cafe for a cup of tea before heading to the allotment and facing the colder weather...

Our first job was to clear the old brassica bed of weeds, as you can see from these photo's below;

We found this huge long happy worm too....

We turned the grass onto itself to expose the roots and allow the green tops to compost below the soil

 And we cut the paths straight too...

Finally we used a dibber to make holes in which we planted the beans we brought from the garden centre

Below: we are pinning the strawberry runners to the soil to allow them to root in...

We then took a break to get warm in the community building... one of the team took the time to draw this Magpie Moth from a book from the community library...

And lastly we chose some seeds from the catalogue using the money we won from the competitions in the summer at the Rosendale Allotment...

November 1st, 8th, 15th - Mud! Planting onions, garlic, strawberries - fires & fixing the path!

So - The past few weeks we have been lucky enough to have reasonable weather and managed to get up to the allotment and do some planting, some woodwork, some path fixing, a fire with waste wood, turned the compost heap, and managed to get our boots very... very... muddy!

The main jobs were;

• Planting 'Elephant Garlic'
• Planting some of the strawberry runners from this year - a runner is a piece of strawberry plant that 'runs' from the plant and puts roots into the soil when it finds some... they were potted, and are now back planted in the strawberry patch!
• Burning off some old wood that had been on site since we took over the plot
• Making a barrier at the end of the path to prevent soil loss from when we cut back the bottom path to pass the survey
• Turning the compost heap - to allow the compost to 'breathe' - letting air in so it can compost down further
• Harvest : we harvested the last of the squashes and a couple of cucumbers and some salad for the 'Come Dine With Me' project

A late season cucumber

Onion (electric) in it's new hole

Last of the squashes...

Harvested squashes

Turning the compost

Lighting the bonfire

Cutting the path straight

Cutting the wood for the stakes

Knocking the barrier into place

Nailing the boards to the stakes

Planting out the potted strawberry runners in the extended strawberry bed

Last of the strawberry runners in before the winter

View from the plot, November 15th 2012

Hopefully more to report from the allotment if the weather stay fine next time...

October 2012 - the month in a single post...

A busy month in terms of harvesting and planting some veg for over wintering... the photographs below will tell the story, but here is a summary of how the month went;

• Harvesting! Beetroot, sweetcorn, carrots, salads (little gem, mixed salad), tomatoes, squashes, cucumbers
• Linking with the 'Come Dine With Me' project...
• Preparing the soil for over-wintering garlic and onions
• Preparing the soil for the extension of the strawberry plot
• Planting over-wintering garlic and onions...
• Animal spot; baby rat visit

The salad is still coming and provides a healthy starter or side dish for the 'Come Dine With Me' project at Rathbone

The squashes are doing well - this one was taken (and eaten!) at the 'Come Dine With Me' project!

Water on leaf...

Manuring the strawberry bed in preparation for planting an extension of the strawberry bed :)

Leeks set in and doing well...

Ready to prune the raspberries, cutting the branches down to encourage new growth for next year...

Chopped!

Sorting through the garlic bulbs for planting overwinter...

...a guide for spacing the bulbs when planting...

...planting the garlic bulbs along a line beside a board...

...the root section at the bottom of the hole, the tip of the bulb at the top.

End of the sweetcorn> starting to clear the site in preparation for planting some over wintering Onions...

Sweetcorn! We took some home and some to the 'Come Dine With Me' project...

The green manure Rye Grass starting to pop up...

Some of the harvest this year taken over (and eaten!) by the 'Come Dine With Me' project...

Visiting baby rat near the compost bins...

Cabbage popping up on a raised bed on the site

raking over the strawberry bed in preparation for planting after the manure has settled

Thursday 27th September 2012 - Last of the potatoes...

Yes - that's it for the spuds this year, all the potatoes are dug up and everyone took a bag home with them to be cooked, and the remainder was donated to the Rathbone 'Come Dine With Me' project...

Look! Spuds!

We also did some weeding (as usual) around the lettace and sweetcorn, which is almost ready to harvest now...

We picked some of the green tomatoes from the plants that were not looking healthy anymore and set them in the greenhouse shed with an apple to help turn them red...

We also found when we had arrived that our shelter from the rain was demolished by the recent weather and set about clearing the fallen gazebo...

We also made a handrail next to the step at the back of the allotment to make it safer for those who have mobility problems to get up to the shed and decking areas...

Sawing the handrail to size...

Finished handrail... 

And finally, before we left, we raked the old potato patch and sowed some 'green manure' (http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=373) to occupy the space for the winter - ours is a rye grass mix.

This manure will help to break up the soil and then be 'dug in' to the soil to help put back organic matter (compost) and nutrients like nitrogen - very important for plants to grow, so important for the soil to contain...

Old potato bed, now sowed with green manure for the winter...

And thats it for this week! See you next week.....