First Part In The Ground

 6th October 2022 - First Part In The Ground

The acquisition recently of a sledgehammer has proved to be an invaluable tool as we begin this next phase of groundworks. The 5 metres of pallet wood have been screwed into stakes that have been driven into the ground with the "sledgy" (as it is fondly known).

We’ve left some soil available to seed the grass, when the traffic stops erroneously struggling to stay on the road, and driving onto our plot.😇

The section of this first part of the 2nd plot has now been dug up as far as those bricks you can see, next to those buckets full of stones. The intention is to create a second terrace here, which I have spoken of before and when finished Desi can use to paint or draw on.

The pile of weeds accumulating on the bottom left of the picture are from this patch that Chris has just cleared but also from some other parts of this plot as we begin to use this autumn period to tidy things up from summer, and begin to take control of this 2nd plot.

In the last picture check out the pile of rocks on the right hand side of the picture, next to the wooden stake (this will be used for the fruit cage later on in 2023. Pretty much all of those bricks and the rubble, plus a couple of bags of just rubbish buried in the soil, will be used to fill up the bottom of the new terrace once it is built.

Building Work Starting Again

 4th October 2022 - Building Work Starting Again (on plot no.2)

Now the sorting of this top part of the 2nd plot is done (and it was a tough job), the soil has been manually sifted (with a fork) to remove all the debris which have been kept for later.

Now we begin the process of defining this area. It will serve two purposes. One part of it (the bit nearest the road) will be for flowers. The second part (which will come after that) will be used for vegetables, initially we are thinking probably onions, garlic, leeks etc. These don’t grow that high and will be easy to cover to prevent this fly that likes to destroy this type of crop… and onions, leeks etc always give off a nice scent - just right when sitting on the terrace we will be creating here.

First picture is designating where to start the actual flower bed, so we are marking it out with sticks. Notice some tyre marks as some folk begin to "complain" about what we are doing… by messing with us. Maybe the problem is that we are doing stuff too close to the road… although the road is wide enough and what we’re doing is actually on our plot. I guess change is never welcome unless they are doing it!

A view from the other side, you can see quite clearly that this is inline with the other plot. On the flat bit closest to the road, we were going to sow grass, but if it is going to be driven over, then we won’t until the rest of the project is nearing completion.

This part of the plot was a bit of a dumping ground for what looked like a plasterboard clearance job in a house, a multitude of fires and burnt wood, old bits and pieces of metal (such as an alternator), hanging plant brackets, and an old kitchen knife stuck in some cement. You can see that inverted in the soil just in front of the grey water bucket and notice board…

We have added a couple of small bottles to the sticks marking out the line for the start of the flower bed. We don’t want anyone poking their eyes out now!

The Second Year At The Haven Closes

 28th September 2022 - The Second Year At The Haven Closes

The last post for the 2nd year in charge of the “Haven”.

It is true, it is not the 2nd year for the new plot, for which it is only the close of the first 6 months!

As we clear the top of the 2nd plot and begin to create foundation plans of how we want this to look, we bring into use and rearrange the raised beds we harvested from a disused plot. These have now been connected into a line together, the weeds removed, and filled with soil from other parts of the plot. These planters will be ready at the end of winter to plant out some fruit trees we have intended for them. These will be small varieties of trees such as apple, pear, plum, and possibly fig. The top section (where all the remaining rubbish remains) is going to also be a cage for fruit and in there we will grow a blueberry bush and maybe some other fruits that need protection from the birds. All these will be kept well pruned in order to ensure they don’t grow out of hand but fruit well each year. These will run along with the raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, strawberries, and the grape which we intend to plant too. So hopefully around 10 different fruits, plus melons, in the summer as well… 

It’s a bit difficult to see, but the plot beyond ours is beginning to be tended! This should help to keep down the spread of weeds onto our plot too.

In the next picture is a view from the bottom of the plot showing more clearly the raised beds almost ready to roll for the fruit trees.  At the bottom of these raised beds we buried the stems from the sprouts and purple sprouting that we had been keeping under the black sheet (at the top of the picture by the pallets). These will provide some food for the worms to get going with, later on we'll be ordering some manure, and these beds will also receive some of this before winter sets in.

Final picture of the second year. The butternuts continue to enjoy the late season opportunity to fatten up ready for harvest towards the back end of October. The sweetcorn is almost done, but the runner beans continue to produce and will do so during most of October.

The raspberries and blackberries are growing and we have been forced to begin training them along the resurrected wire supports… come the new year we want to have 3 clear lines… one for the gooseberries, flanked each side by the blackberries and raspberries.

That’s it for year 2! 

Harvest, Construction, Beauty And Tidying Up!

 17-20th September 2022 - Harvest, Construction, Beauty And Tidying Up!

The bounty continues with a lovely collection of red tomatoes from the polytunnel and a couple of good-sized aubergines. Will be grilling the aubergines and adding to a nice tomato paste… maybe Desi will be making the popular Bulgarian lutenitsa (spread) with these… 

The new plot continues to develop. Pretty much all the soil in the top section has now been dug over and all the bricks, building materials and weeds have been extracted. The soil here lacks fibre and has quite a bit of sand. The sweet peas are just about over now as well. We have also cleared the tomatoes as they were displaying characteristics of the blight.

In the next picture is a different perspective of the new plot, top section. By the water standpipe, you can see the weeds and bits of wood dug out of this area. These are not good for the compost bins, so we are leaving them all here to dry out and perhaps burn at a later time.

Meanwhile, over on the old plot, the tomatoes have all been removed as the blight was beginning to ravage the plants, and the remaining tomatoes, most of which were green, were picked.  This section took about an hour to dig over, but the chilli peppers and courgettes have been left as they are still performing.

The Dahlia continues to bloom, as do the Echinaceas, Marigolds and Alyssum. They have all done us proud in these planters and added wondrous colour to the “Haven”, enjoyed not only by us but the bees and other wildlife too.

Another perspective of the top plot by the terrace. Things are looking a bit bare here without the tomatoes, but the flowers make up for it, and not all the vegetables / herbs have been removed yet…

Autumn Proceeds, The Rains Come But The Harvest Continues

 13th September 2022 - Autumn Proceeds, The Rains Come But The Harvest Continues

The rains have come (or at least some rain) and the soil is wet / damp. Now is the time to see whether the potato idea / concept has paid off. Have we been successful with the potatoes? There was definitely decent growth above ground but that doesn’t necessarily translate into plenty of potatoes under the ground. Anyhow… starting at the bottom, we’ve removed a couple of the planks, now let’s take a look.

Picture no. 2, the harvest - that’s pretty good for the small area that we have uncovered. If that continues for the rest of the 4m x 1m x 60cm then a very good crop is on the way. There are signs that some of them have been bored into by some beetle / worm / slug or other, but plenty left for us too!

The next picture shows how abundant we are in these harvest days. Plenty of tomatoes left on the vines, but we are now concerned over whether we have got this dreaded blight. We may need to strip the vines of the tomatoes, ripen off what we can and burn the vines as we did last year. The good news is that we have had plenty of tomatoes thus far, and there are many more to pick, as can be seen. We’d better get the jars ready though because it looks like green tomato relish is going to be back on the menu.

The melons have been "harvested" and the ground cleared. To be honest, if the melon isn’t almost good to go, it probably never will be now. Pretty dark by 7pm these days and just a week away from the Equinox (day / night the same length) so we then enter the days of decay into the winter rest period.

So the melon pallets are gone, the rubbish is cleared away, the white door (future lid for a new cold frame) moved to its destination and things taking shape all by themselves on the new plot.

We have decided that this marked out area will be the destination for the manure (the years we get it). The front section will be for flowers and the bit next to the door etc. for vegetables. We can leave some manure on this area anyway, and distribute the rest across plot 1 and 2.

In the next picture a different perspective of excavations. It Looks like we are building a mosaic path adjacent to the small wooden cold frame box.

And yet another perspective of developments. The amount of ground available to weeds and thereby mow/maintain, is reducing as we dig up large sections to continue down the road of our vision. We are also reviewing the fruit possibilities for next year. The raised bed squares (4 of them) will be located where we want the trees to be (small fruiting trees, not huge ones). The raspberries and blackberries around the gooseberries need to be trained up stakes. We can sort that whilst we are working on tidying up these paths, once we get into winter and everything has died back.

A bit further down, you can see that the foliage on the other batch of melons is now dying back. I think the weather has put an end for the melons… There are some which look ready, but we’ll see how they taste… we can wait a bit longer. The cabbages are doing well under the net. Will they have time to grow into heads? The jury is out, but no problem leaving them.

The foliage on the potato patch has been completely removed and dealt with. It was dying down anyway but with the signs of blight and the potential to infect the tomatoes, we took no chances. We’ve also thinned out the foliage on the swedes which were getting infected with the white mold that has become prevalent on the courgettes. Otherwise the “Haven” is looking like a green paradise!

The carrots are doing well behind the white netting, we also planted another batch beside them. It is notoriously difficult to get nice straight carrots. We feel that might be our outcome again this year as the soil here is not ideal, some stones, a little bit hard etc. Next year we will create better conditions and hopefully we’ll get a more beautiful result. Same for the parsnips.

Looking upwards on plot no. 1, so much colour and abundance, wonderful to see. Plenty to harvest still. The red cabbages under the white netting have become monstrous. Cauliflowers are also growing well, although I think we’ll need to get them in earlier next year. A neighbour grew some huge cauliflowers this year that were ready in June / July.

Another view of plot no. 1 from the other side… we’re loving the abundance of dill, coriander and chillies growing closest to the camera here. There are so many green tomatoes on the plants that, given time, would turn red, but there will come a time (soon) we think that we might have to strip the plants if blight takes hold once more.

Roadside, check out the Passiflora! Remember earlier in the season we were wondering whether it would do anything this year? Well, the answer is right here. It’s almost completed its takeover of the second trellis around the corner. We have other vines to harness here including Jasmine, that are yet to establish themselves, we might need to get quite ruthless on the pruning next spring time! Those orange blobs are actually Passiflora fruits, however they are empty… we’re investigating! It appears that in order for these fruit to become "good", there needs to be another Passiflora near by for cross pollination.

Looking onto the terrace: abundant Marigolds here, but the Alyssum is now dying back… as are the Mallows. But they have all had a good run this year, a delightful show which the bees have absolutely loved.

Meanwhile in the polytunnel, there is not much room for us! A large number of peppers now exist but we fear little chance of them actually turning red. A little late again, we must start even earlier… possibly Feb. 2023. Plenty of tomatoes still, and if the Marigolds get any bigger we definitely won’t fit in there!

The Harvest Keeps Coming, Construction Continues!!

 3rd September 2022 - The Harvest Keeps Coming, Construction Continues!!

It could be that beetroot, tomato, onion and sweetcorn salad is on the menu tonight! Add the basil, dill, parsley and a little bit of chilli  along with the radish and there is an amazing summer treat!

Runner beans are now producing well and this little lot are ready for a stir fry or use in relish provided there is enough of them… plenty still left on the vines!

Digging progresses on the new plot. At some point someone must have cleared some builders debris. If you look just in front of those melon pallets (the ones at at 45 degrees) we have unearthed a fair few bricks. The mounds in front of that upright wood and the bricks are old bits of metal, brackets, hinges, wire, car parts! There have been fires here before as there are half-burnt old bits of wood too. The digging process is sorting it all out though. Plenty of sand too, which might be helpful to break up heavy soil elsewhere on the plots.

The Jerusalem Artichokes are now in excess of 2.5m tall. Towering over the polytunnel, they are getting quite unstable so we will have to support them soon.

In the last picture - a different perspective of progress. Still not worked out what we are doing with this area, but as we prepare the soil etc. something will pop into our heads for sure. Some people have joined us in the Telegram group. New people are being assigned plots now, just as we were originally back in September 2020. We are now approaching the end of our second year. 28th September 2020 was the first time we came down to have a look at our plot (Plot 1 of course, no plot 2 on the horizon back then).

Marigolds and New Plot Mania!

 2nd September 2022 - Marigolds and New Plot Mania!

A new month as we swing into Autumn. Nothing changes for a while, only the gradual shift of shorter days seems to step up and the nights gradually begin to cool. Heavier and heavier dew appears on the cars and that faint smell of wetness which signals the end of summer.

The French Marigolds do not care about this slight change in the season and continue to surge ahead. So many blooms on these Marigolds provide endless cheering colour to our seating area. 

On the new plot the work has started to remove uneven hillocks and whilst doing this one next to the path, the blue water pipe is unveiled which has basically been placed on top of rubbish and grass has grown over it. This blue pipe needs to be buried and in doing so the builders' rubbish needs to be removed… the task suddenly grows into a job!

We rescued this little notice board from some discontinued allotment, and Desi has set up a Telegram group for the allotment which has been turned into a QR code for other allotment holders to scan and join us. Hopefully we can build a little community on here to support one another as time progresses.

The plans for this new plot are being made for us as we steadily develop each section as time permits. Once the melons have played their last hand we can remove those pallets and begin to really change things around here… ideas of fruit trees and a second (third) terrace for Desi to set up her easel are also beginning to get discussed.

This section, by the water pipe, will be used as a fruit cage, keeping the birds from sharing the soft sweet fruits.

Looking down the path which divides the two plots, the sweet peas are coming to an end, as are the lobelia (halfway down the path). The jury is still out about what to do with this area to the left. The white door (which will eventually be a secondary cold frame) may or may not be this way around, we are still undecided. We definitely want to use the area where the bucket of stones is right now, as a manure staging area, but how that manifests we don’t know either.