allotment update, one month on

well! we have one bed going now with radishes planted from seed and quite a few red beet plants given to us. the spinach never sprouted (or its so tiny still that it blends with the tiny weeds) and three of the dill plants transplanted.

we've been working on building the double compost bin from old pallets and with a month away i still feel like there's so much to do. we also built a wooden box for shovels and the hose and whatvere else while we were on holiday. it is quite large, if you stand it on its end i can stand up inside of it. we have oiled it and still need to attach the lid with hinges. the plus is that it has a back and doubles as a bench!

i'd like to organize a bit more, laying out beds and making paths. getting more tarps to cover the weeded areas.

this fall's to do list contains:
get the compost bins lined and going, get the lid on the bench/box, transplant some of the raspberry bushes to the back of the plot (it borders a ditch), trim the cherry tree with hopes of fruit next year, and do serious amounts of weeding beds.

the first bed and lots of red beets

yesterday i planted 49 red beet plants given to us by a kind allotment neighbor!

the bed had a bag each of peat and cow fertilizr dug into it. krister planted some radishes sent to us by a german friend. i added a few plants of dill i grew from saved seed (a first!) and planted a tiny bit of spinach. it's a nice beginning!

plot #59

we've had our allotment about a week! we've dug one bed and planted a little spinach, dill and some radishes yesterday. the dill seeds came from my own plants grown from seed. we're in the process of making a two-compartment compost bin from wooden pallet. we've also laid down some wooden planks for a small chill out space.

we have inherited very sweet and tasty raspberry bushes with fruit for this year and a few bushes without fruit for next year, rhubarb, what we think is a cherry tree but has no fruit, and what may be a plum tree without plums. needless to say it's dig, weed, raspberry. dig, weed, eat a raspberry while we're out working and there's a lot to be done!

one of our allotment friends has given us a garden fork and we've bought a little set of four hand tools. we've been borrowing the wheelbarrow and hose and things from krister's parents. we dug up one bed and it is now relatively weed free. then our friend went over it with a machine that turns up the ground, mixing in 50 liters of peat and 50 liters of bagged cow manure. this is the bed we planted.

he also went over two more large areas with the machine, about 1/3 of the plot. this is and isn't so good. it means there's much less digging. only the deepest of the weeds must still be dug out. the bad side is we have to pick out small pieces of the weeds. have only identified one weed (in english) as dock.

we'll probably spend all winter making drawing up plans and redoing them. i think it has a lot of potential and will come to be one of my favourite places. will post pictures soon!

blossom end rot...

thats the culprit. and i've lost two small tomatoes to it.
comes from irregular watering and in this heat, its understandable. apparently even the seasoned gardeners are finding it. i have read that the tomatoes can still be eaten, well the good half anyway.

that aside we've eaten two of our tomatoes so far. both from the plant in the biggest pot. very tasty. nothing like what you buy in a store.


also a couple of the peppers have taken off. here's a photo from a few days ago. they've tripled in size.