After 2 years of waiting we are finally getting an allotment on the old Bickershaw Colliery, just got an email from the council Monday saying work had started. So Tuesday we went to have a look, it was a grey old day which didn’t help, but still it has potential as they say.
Long time since the last update
Been a while, finally had time to do an update. School holidays are hard juggling 2 part time jobs, and childcare and parent visits and holidays. No time for hobbies.
After your return from holidays and not going up for a week after we returned due to a bad cough, I was disappointed to find all the potato plants had blight or some equally devastating ailment. I had to dog the whole lot up, and only got a few meals worth of small potatoes due to them going in late too. Sorry no photos available.
I have managed 5 trips down this week. Have attempted to weeds the last cultivated area
aall the grass is too much to deal with owing to the fact it only got dug once before things were put in else it would have been too late to do anything.
Most of the rest of the plot is now covered, some dug over first and some not. The only other little bit I haven’t covered is where I am trying to nurture the brambles for a small bramble patch in the are I am going to use for fruit
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At home we have been trying to do a bit more on our wildlife pond. After our 3 day visit from Mr Frog, we have been around all the garden centres and have got a couple of pond plants and some pond snails to help oxygenate and clean the pond. There are 3 types of critters in there now too, daphnia, midge large and something else we are not sure of.
I Am going to leave the allotment other than watering this week and concentrate on landscaping the garden pond.
I hope it won’t be as long before the next update. Will leave you with a photos of Mr Frog and the pond so far.
Finally got my allotment.
It is the middle one of the 3 shown here. 10m x 12.5. They offered me a full plot 10 x 25m but it was too big to get on top of, so went for the smaller 1/2 plot.
Noticed some brambles trying to grow back that had been cut down so will be using that area for fruit. Bottom right of photo.
Top right dips quite a bit so may well put a pond there, might wait till I get round to fencing it off first though, don’t want any little people falling in.
These are the view from my seating area!!!
Only down side, no water on site so will need to rig something up to collect water. That will have me thinking.
1st draft of plan… all advice welcome
I am quite worn out with it all, and not even started yet. Away at weekend so nothing will get done
Might be getting somewhere don’t know where
They have started digging, not sure if this is good or bad, good I hope.
In the meantime had to put Cauliflowers and Cabbages in the garden
Progress how ever slow
To say I am expecting keys in the next 2 weeks there still seems a lot for them to do.
This is the entrance the bit they are working on now.
No idea if water is going on, saw some bug blue pipe mid week but could just be for drainage. No ground work done yet apart from brambles cut down I think but no pegs in or idea of size of plots and if they will be ploughing it first.
It’s like a watched kettle!!
Hopefully when these grow up they will eat my slugs and snails.
In limbo still, I just want to know size etc so I can start to plan
Still in the backgarden
The fence is still not completely up around the allotment site, but should be finished sometime this week, if the present rate of work is anything to go by, and then we shall see what else is going to get done before we move in, clearing site, water, car park???
With no allotment looking remotely ready I have been doing more in the greenhouse and garden
Cauliflowers
Cabbages
Courgettes
The salad bed, just a row of carrots and a row of parsnips to pop through now
Tomatoes, pepper, chilli and beans
Lots of flowers
Herbs, sweet peas and bedding plants
Running out of room fast
Hope the weather continues.
Is it nearly May???
What has happened, the weather has gone mad! Very little progress at the allotment site, 3 sides out of 4 fence up now and little other developments, the greenhouse is fuller than ever, no more room left. This morning we have this
My poor salad seedlings in their raised bed. I think my fleece stuff needs to be raised off the bed with some hoops because Wednesday when I took it off two radish seedlings came with it as they were frozen to it, yesterday I didn’t remove it until later, and will have to leave today.
New addition to the garden this week, Sarah bug hotel which can been seen on the fence to the right of the greenhouse, hopefully we won’t end up with a wasps nest in it.
Hopefully it will warm up enough to do some repotting in the greenhouse this weekend.
The resident blackbirds have been a pain this week. All the bark I put down is all over the place. I have bought a grass rake so I don’t have to bend down all the time to put it back. Don’t think topping the bark up has been a good idea.
No gardening for me today.
The site in the summer
I found some photos of the area taken in the summer on the Internet last night, looks much better in the summer.
I hope it looks as good this summer, maybe able to do some bird watching from the allotment and might even buy a fishing rod.
Busy, busy, busy in the greenhouse
After the allotment was confirmed in writing the race was on to get seeds in the greenhouse. Towards the end of May is the key handover eta, so it will be much better trying to plant seedlings rather than just seeds. Really need to know the size of the plot to know how much to do, but I think I can safely say there is not much room left in the greenhouse for anymore.
gillallotment 