What a beautiful day :)

Down the allotment

 Hi guys, it's been about a month since our last post and the allotment has come on a ton!
These are our 'French thermidrome' overwintered garlics and some of our 'jermor' and 'giant red' shallots. Looking forward to some fresh 'green' garlic for salads later this month :)

 Senshyu & red baron onions for harvesting in a month or so!











This red gooseberry bush was leftover from the old owner of our plot which was pretty overgrown when we took it over. After not doing a great deal last year we cleared the patch and took out the bush. As spring started to spring a month or two ago, the bush (which was just sat at the side of the plot with some drying out seedheads) was covered in green shoots, and now after planting it with our fruit bushes is now covered in fruit :)

 Super red onions!

This is a snap of the blackcurrant bushes that we planted from Bill. Now covered in tiny berries :)

 This is the raspberry bush that Kayleigh got for her birthday - anyone any tips on the summer fruiting varieties?

 This is a picture of the Damson 'pixi' tree that James grafted for us. Looking forward to making some jams and wine - maybe just a taste this season but looking forward to next year!

 Potato land - featuring all our varieties but our pink fir's which are in new lottie.

Feeling the hungry gap?
Microsalads are the most 'abundant' crop at OMMLAA at the moment! In the coldframe and the kitchen there are lots of seedlings waiting to get into new lottie - most looking forward to tomatoes, squash and peppers!

So, as May begins, what to do now?
Can't help but feel that we're either a little too far ahead of ourselves (massive tomato plants!) or maybe a little behind. What will you be doing this May?


Keep it green, K&C x

Autumn on the plot

Hi everyone!  We've been very busy on the plot recently, saying goodbye to all of our sunshine crops and starting afresh with a new rotation for autumn and winter.


Here's a pic of one of our new beds that have some new blackcurrant canes in (thanks Bill!) and lots of the lovely allium family at the back. We have Senshyu yellow Japanese onions, Jermor shallots, Electric red onions and French thermidrome garlic as our allium autumn varieties in for overwintering, bring on June!

Here's our plucky globe artichoke plant which has grown considerably since it arrived from Katy this summer. Here it is all tucked in to keep it safe from the frost (eek! not yet please!)

Yum, blackcurrant jelly this summer please!

Our new layout, we have planted some spring bulbs in the front for some early colour.

Little Electra leeks - getting stronger so fingers crossed for a few later in the season! K&C

Summer at the allotment!

Hi all! And welcome to our summer updates! It's been a very busy time of late, the tomatoes are ripening, the herbs are going wild and there's been a lot of progress on the allotment - not least by the weeds!

On the left is a picture of our first ever unearthed earlies! Potatoes for tea tonight :) Hopefully with more good weather, water and a lot of hoeing the potatoes will get bigger (looking at you maincrops!) and we'll have potatoes all summer and maybe even some to store. Not bad for a first go!

Onions are going from strength to strength. Not as big as Wally's massive efforts but they'll be sweet and delicious in some late summer salads!

A big thanks going out to Sarah who helped us to clear a lot of weeds and plant our courgettes ('black beauty' from our dig in seeds) out. They, along with our "Crown Prince" and "Uchiri Kiri" squash (thanks James!) are now flowering and we can't wait to tuck in soon!

Super salad!

Our plucky Old Marston chilli!

Thanks to Andy and Laura from the allotment for the eggs. Thanks to Mrs. Scruff and Roxy for laying them too!

The allotment and garden are both getting really exciting now as summer is here. Loads of cut flowers in the kitchen too (sweet peas!). Looking forward to getting more involved in the allotment with the warmer weather and looking towards our end of summer barbeque :)

Next up, kale for winter, planting out the pumpkins for thanksgiving and overwintering some evening primrose seeds this autumn (thanks to Restore!)


Enjoy the lovely weather,

K&C

Before and after

Hi everyone. Things are really coming along now so thought i'd post a before and after collection of pictures to show just how much things have progressed. A MASSIVE thanks has to go to Wally! We are both so grateful for all his help and can't believe how amazing the allotment is now looking. (You can enlarge each image by clicking on them).

Happy Easter!

Hi everyone, thanks to Uncle Alan for his carrot tips, we'll be needing more advice like that from now on as things are starting to go into the ground so keep it coming! Thanks also to Mam and Simon for all our new gardening equipment and our two awesome new fruit bushes. We have a white currant bush and a blackberry bush (see 3rd pic) - looking forward to making some jams! Pic 1 is of all the digging Chris and Wally (cool old boy from the allotments) have been doing and Pic 2 is our onion sets which I put in this afternoon. Loads of stuff going on at the moment, any tips on fruit bushes and trees pls! K&C x

Happy New Year!

Newbies

Hello everyone, I'm Kayleigh and my Christmas present from my boyfriend Chris was an allotment! I'm a keen cook but to be honest I've never gardened anything before so any suggestions/tips/advice etc. would be greatly appreciated! In return you will be rewarded with photos and news of our mishaps and successes, thank you x