It did seem that it was a very short weekend, even leaving aside that an hour of my sleep was stolen on Sunday morning!
Saturday was spent potting on the huge amount of seedlings that had sprouted, so the greenhouse is now full. I also got a refill for the greenhouse heater, just in case the predicted snow/sleet that is forecast for later in the week arrives.
Those very nice people at Dartmoor Chilli Farm are currently running a competition to name their new Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce.
As those in the know will be aware, the Naga Jolokia is a chilli pepper generally recognised as the hottest in the world.
If you win the competition, you win a 2010 Chilli Club membership and the pride of knowing you provided that all important name for their hottest ever sauce.
Yesterday was a very grey day, so I spent the majority of the day inside the greenhouse potting on the many and varied seedlings that had come up in the propagators. I still find it difficult to be ruthless and have to constantly remind myself that there is not room for everything that has germinated, and that I can only pot on the strong seedlings!
Another milestone today, as the first crops were planted in our plot.
Another sunny and productive day down the allotment today, but more of that tomorrow.
Our site will be getting two hives shortly, courtesy of the Nottingham Beekeepers Association, and four of us, including me, will be given training on beekeeping.
However, I also spotted this ‘bee house’ last week and it was delivered yesterday.
What started off as a small blog to document how my allotment grows, and which crops worked and which didn’t, has now taken me in a very exciting direction.
I have been contacted by Ant at bigbarn.co.uk to do a blog giving helpful tips about growing your own food, and also to support their ‘Crop For The Shop’ campaign.
When I poked my head out of the window on Saturday, it looked like the weatherman was right, and that Spring had finally sprung.
With all the bad weather recently, the good lady wife and myself decided we’d try to crack on with building the structure of the allotment, so that we could get some stuff in the ground sooner rather than later.
It took two nine hour days down the allotment, but in one weekend we went from this…
Well, by the looks of the weather today, Spring may have finally woken from her slumber, and is hopefully here to stay.
We took advantage of the gorgeous, warm weather today to really crack on, and although we were down there from 9am-6pm, the time just flew by, and the transformation is astounding.
We will be back down there tomorrow, and I will post a longer blog tomorrow, together with some ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots.
Looking out of the window, the sun is shining, and dare I say it, it feels like it is trying to change from Winter to Spring.
I thought it might be a good idea that since the weather is changing for the better to give people some links to a couple of sites that give basic advice on how to get started on your allotment, and what to do when you are there.
Here’s hoping the sunny weather is here to stay, so we can all get out in our gardens!
Achiltibuie Garden – Hydroponic Growing Kits
Dartmoor Chilli Farm
Greenhouse Sensation
