Seeds have arrived

Behold stuff to be planted this year...

A goodly selection of some of my favourite veggies. There will be others as well, but some of this little lot will be going into seed trays soon.

It's a little damp

The plot is still a bit too damp to do anything at the moment.

I have plans to get the Greenhouse installed before the end of February, along with the Shed. But at the moment the whole place is just a little to wet to do anything.

Woe betide anybody who brings a vehicle onto the allotments as they are liable to get bogged down. Looks like we're going to have to put road maintenance onto the schedule of repairs. Builders rubble dropped into all the potholes should do rather than going and buying real aggregates.

Mean while at home, I have started collecting together all the plastic trays from the various take-aways we've had over the years. A packrat never throws anything useful away. So now I have a whole load of seedling starters ready. Time to start the planting...

It's a little cold out

Seems like the UK has had a spot of snow. Here in London we haven't had it as bad as the rest of the country. But we've got enough for a light dusting. Down on the allotment there are (were) no human footprints until I came along. But plenty of fox prints where the rapscallions had danced the night away.

In the photo above you can see the entrance to one of their holes. I say holes, because it's not a den. There aren't enough footprints to be a regular habitation.

Looking sorry for itself

The winter hasn't been kind.

It's been a typical British Winter. ie. Rain, Rain, dampness and more Rain. All in all it has meant that I still haven't been able to get that huge pile on the allotment sorted out. So when I recently popped in to check everything out, I notice that there is now a light coat of green over the pile. This in the dreaded couch gross trying to re-assert itself again. Well it's not going to happen.

In part of the plot which has been cleared, the constant rain has turned it to a sodden mess. There is now a faint soft sheen of mud across the lower areas showing faint footprints on the foxes. Yes, they're back. After the digger came in and ripped up their old place they moved out. But now they have dug themselves into the soil mound. Well sorry you four footed foxy friends, but as I clear that down you're going to have to move again. Guess I need to get that shed up so you can move in down below.

But the Winter months allows me to asses what I will be growing over the next year. What I want to grow is heirloom varieties of veggies. Why? Well for starters why grow common varieties which you can buy at the supermarket? Possibly they could be grown tastier given the fact that a lot of veggies are picked whilst unripe and left to ripen in transit, but there is no way a small scale grower could compete with modern farming techniques. It's a losing battle. So it's better to go for better taste in terms of plants that you would never come across in the grocery aisle.

That's not to say that I won't be growing stuff that we wouldn't eat. That is just pointless. So have been trawling through a couple of seed sites to determine exactly what would be suitable. Two of the most useful are Real Seeds and Just Seed. I think I will end up ordering from both of them.

Marquee diassembly

The Allotments major asset, the Marquee, has been standing around all year. It has formed the basis for the central point of the social aspect of the society. But it is not really strong enough to withstand a harsh winter. Or even a typical winter... aka the rainy season.
So last Saturday it was time to drop it to the ground and pack it away for next year.