Tuesday 11 May 2010

Day 2

What a difference a day makes. This afternoon we headed up to the allotment under the threat of rain to plant our spuds, onions, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes and shallots. There were already a couple of people working on their plots and the Kurdish/Turkish/Iwillfindoutwheresheisfrom lady had almost finished her planting resulting in a beautifully ordered plot.

Not my plot

In less than 24 hours the addition of bean canes and plants has made the place look more like an Urban allotment and less like a prison yard.

Day 2

We settled down to our work with offers of borrowing tools and kit from our fellow Allotmentiers. I'm really impressed with how friendly everyone is. It's lovely and there's a good mix of ages, races and sexes working on the site. A couple of people brought their kids along so I showed a six year old our seed potatoes which have grown roots after I put them in tubs a few weeks ago and lent a five year old and her dad our spare trowel so they could do a bit of digging even though they'd just come to look at their new plot. Love it.

Straight onions

It did rain a little while we were planting though we could use a good shower overnight. At first I thought our strip would be too small but even after putting in the spuds (1st, 2nd and main crop), red onions, white onions,shallots and garlic we'd only used about a third of the strip. Mind you I have fantasies of growing things like gooseberries, and squash which take up a lot of room.

Spuds are in!

I've been browsing seed supplier websites this evening and have found all sorts of things such as melon plants which will fruit in our climate and red pak choi. I must not get carried away though I am in search of Cavolo de Nero seeds. I'll let you know how I get on...

3 comments:

  1. http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/kale-cavolo-de-nero-seeds-pid2362.html

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  2. Franchi have Cavalo Nero... and I'm an idiot. They were at the Real Food Fest yesterday and I meant to buy some but forgot.

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  3. http://www.seedsofitaly.com/product/159

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