23/01/11

I went and had a quick check of the allotments yesterday and found that all my broad beans had been overcome by the cold weather and every single one had died. Well I will have to replant them as soon as the weather improves maybe next year when the plots have grown there will be a bit more shelter from the weather.
Nothing much else was happening the garlic and onions seem ok a couple of the shallots have given up but the rest seem fine. all my brassicas are not liking the weather much, I will get them planted sooner next year to get more growth on them.

09/01/2011

After speaking to Ros some time ago about the possibility of having some hives on the farm she has said that she would love to have some here. I happened to mention this to my boss Norman, as he has developed his own Top Bar Hive and he said I can have on e of the new hives and he will also supply or arrange bees for it as well. I have also started on a beginners bee keeping course because I will have to look after them :). Again I mentioned this to Ros and we have agreed that the hive or Hives now will go in the corner of the allotment gardens. 

This picture shows the corner where the Apiary will be placed, I will fence this off and plant some hedging plants around the area.

This picture shows you where this in the field and the direction north.

 Taken from the corner looking around the area.

This shows the fence dividing the allotments from the organic farm and barn.

 This is the orchard its very you only planted in april 2010

 Showing the allotments

And a quick video of the area

02/01/11

Spent a couple of hours up on the allotment today just tiding up I did some weeding on two of the onion beds and I netted the brassicas to stop those pheasants eating all of my greens.

No one else about the ground is very sticky and not worth digging or hoeing, pity its still early in the year lots more bad weather to come yet.

Dec 29th 2010

Went to the allotment today as all the snow had gone I thought I would see what was left after I have fed every pheasant in Gloucestershire. They have eaten most of the cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and broccoli :(

Not much left of the broad bean plants look like they have nearly all rotted.

Second bed is the same maybe some might be all right luckily I have ordered more

The other dead plants are mustard which I planted for green manure so that was grown to die like that

Garlic is ok so far

Strawberry plants are not too bad I have lost a couple by the looks of it 

Raspberry and gooseberry plants look ok 

 Here is what is left of my brassicas

There is some kale left 

They devastated the broccoli and other cabbage plants and the purple sprouting 

Dug some of the carrots up and the last of the mini turnips and they are fine I will have them for dinner :)

Heres looking forward to the better weather

Cold and snowy

Well not much happening on the allotment at the moment, I have checked today and to be honest most things look like they haven't survived, the cabbages and kale have been eaten to stumps by the pheasants and the broad beans are all black. But the raspberry's and gooseberry bushes look good and also the salad stuff I have planted under cover looks to be surviving. Today I have ordered new broad bean seed from  Real Seeds  as I will have to replant in the spring :( 

This is all useful experience as next year I will have covers for the cabbage and other things that need to over winter so this will offer protection from birds and such like. Anyway no pictures from today I will put some up next week of the failed attempts.

09/10/2010

Here are some pictures from today.

Just to show how much everything has grown, the grass at the from is Italian rye grass this is a green manure, in the background you can see the mustard I planted a few weeks ago

 I put up these plastic hopes today and attached some cd's to them to act as scarer's

 Here are my broad beans they have grown quick, maybe too quick

 I have also hoped all the brassicas as pigeons had ripped apart one of my plants

 Something not quite right with these spuds but there are potatoes under there not many but they do look nice, they are kestral ones.

 Done a bit of weeding and cleaning up today.

 Here is a shot looking back a cross my two plots, the thistle patch on the right is some one elses

 

My strawberries are doing well.

Thats it for this weekend, i have weeded one whole bed by hand removing every weed and the roots and I have started on another one. My one major disappointment is the turnips I planted two rows using the whole packet of seed 200 -300 seeds and only around a dozen have come through I was hoping that these would come through well as I planned to use the greens.

I shall go back on monday and weed everything I can, I am hoping if I continue to do this the need for weeding will be reduced in the future.
The next major plantings will be my raspberry canes I have 30 of these coming and my gooseberry bushes I have 10 red and 10 yellow coming but I am hoping to sell on five or six of each to other people. I would like a couple more rhubarb plants as well I will have to keep my eye out for some.