transition city allotment

prize winning

2011-11-09T11:19:00.000Z

here's kim collecting our silver award for encouraging wildlife to thrive on our allotment.

late august

2011-08-29T14:49:00.000+01:00

a tale of two cucumbers

2011-08-05T11:46:00.000+01:00

i don't think that i even like cucumbers but i wondered if i might change my mind if i could grow them myself.

these two began life as seedlings together, One stayed at home, against a wall and in a pot, whilst the other went to the allotment and barely got off the ground.

tim will be having tuna and cucumber sandwiches for lunch tomorrow thanks to the one that stayed at home, and if it's any good then i'll know what to do next year.

grown at the allotment, in the ground, against the greenhouse

grown at home in a smallish pot against a sunny wall

2011-07-31T15:49:00.000+01:00

quiz: how many frogs can you see here ?

four !

i think kim's carrot bed looks like a beautiful painting, she's very good at that.

and some drying garlic

we're eating now, a few:

tomatoes

dwarf french beans 

courgettes, yellow and green,

onions

 garlic

kale

raspberries

alpine strawberries

rainbow chard

frogs legs (joke)

2011-07-23T10:09:00.000+01:00

2011-07-10T20:36:00.000+01:00

sweet peas : garlic : green courgette : yellow courgette : peas

Teasels are flowering

zinnia

zinnia

zinnia

2011-06-29T15:58:00.000+01:00

i cycled up to plant out the last of the french beans this morning and noticed this leek, quite literally bursting into flower. beautiful

dodging tennis and finding a frog

2011-06-25T14:57:00.000+01:00

i snuck out, to escape wimbledon on the tv, one afternoon this week and spent some happy time picking fruit.

and finally got to meet the frog that has moved into our pond.

cammomile for everyone

2011-06-10T11:28:00.000+01:00

i made lots of cammomile tea this week. a big bunch had self seeded in the greenhouse - making it smell divine everytime we went in to water the tomatoes.
i packaged up the flowers to keep me in tea for a while. i estimate it'll be about 100 teapots worth just from this bunch, at a rate of 8 flowers / pot.
and then the transition chinchillas took care of the stalks. A most pleasing permaculture solution i think !

purple and yellow

2011-06-03T17:09:00.001+01:00

very baby yellow courgettes

purple pea flowers

2011-05-26T12:32:00.000+01:00

the light is different here in the afternoon.

lovely visitors

2011-05-18T12:07:00.000+01:00

lots of beautiful visitors this week - we're open for anyone anytime, just let me know if you'd like to come

2011-05-10T12:19:00.000+01:00

a cammomile and phacelia posy

broad beans

rampant cammomile

baby gooseberries

cherry tomato plants in the greenhouse

peas

phacelia as green manure


purple asparagus

barely any rain for weeks now but everything is growing remarkable well reagrdless, no doubt due to our constant efforts to improve the soil. looking for a place to plant out the goji plants this week, and lots more seed sowing.

first crops

2011-04-13T08:42:00.000+01:00

our very first asparagus spear is up, and very cute. not for eating though, this year or maybe even next.

but the rhubard is plentiful and jewel-like and delicious.

starting an asparagus bed

2011-03-14T16:34:00.000Z

long term project: starting an asparagus bed.

the crowns take, probably 2 years to settle in and then keep going for up to 20 years. 

they look like aliens

first you dig a trench into which we added some compost and some rock dust

then you make a ridge along the centre of the trench

then you spread the roots of the alien asparagus crown either side of the ridge, like this:

then you sit back and admire your new asparagus bed, carefully fill the trench back in

add labels

and wait ...

2011-02-28T15:11:00.000Z

'pond cigars'

the spring sunshine made us very happy on sunday morning, letting us back to play at the allotment after such a long time.

we admired the fragile memories of last year's life, and found plenty of evidence of vigorous new life. 

the goji berry plants have sheltered in the greenhouse over the winter but had lost all of their leaves and i was less than hopeful for their survival, but look !

dried artichoke head

crocus

goji - made it through the winter


another goji made it too

and although things may still feel a bit bleak, and look a bit sleepy, spring is there alright, and here we shall encounter all kinds of abundance very soon.

2011-02-14T14:59:00.000Z

jasmine for yasmin !

catkins

new garlic


cut back raspberry canes

snow!

2010-12-08T12:18:00.001Z

colin took a walk to investigate the snow at the allotment last week

2010-10-09T09:42:00.002+01:00

mystery squash : garlic : cornflowers : chammomile : tomatoes : peppers : bean seed pods

2010-09-16T10:37:00.003+01:00

autumn is here, and beautiful

i arrived under a rainbow this week

while the wet summer has been good for watering the outdoor crops, the peppers still need some sun to ripen

the beans are just about finishing now. i checked back and we started to harvest them on 20th july, so we've had 2 months of fresh beans every day ( and often twice a day )
and in three fun colours too
i would guess that we've easily picked 1.5 kg / week, maybe more
sainsbury's are selling fine green beans at £7.50 / kg

...that's the equivalent of £90 of beans !!! for free.

carrots and potatoes are good too, but my basket was looking dangerously full.
we have eaten very well this year

2010-08-01T16:01:00.002+01:00

here's what we collected this morning

also sweet peas and a tickle with the friendly cat

a ladybug on patrol
this is the flower of the black canterbury bean, very pretty

2010-07-25T14:07:00.002+01:00

potted up the gojis, they are doing well

the garlic is done

lots of courgettes, yellow ones, green ones, stripey ones and chubby ones

and we have a new friend who visits very regularly

some of our beans, purple flowers at the front are 'black canterbury' which unexpectedly are green beans. there's some courgettes there too, and chamomile and the first of some lovely cornflowers

today's treasure

2010-06-29T21:03:00.004+01:00

i got to the plot just after 7am this morning and it was very beautiful.
came home with:

this is what a goji berry plant looks like - i sowed some seeds ( from a dried berry bought in the wholefood shop) and they seemed to grow very easily and quickly. these plants are only about 2 months old. my research tells me that they are fully hardy if protected from frost for their first winter and bear fruit after two years. i'm looking forward to tasting a fresh goji berry in 2012.

2010-06-23T17:14:00.003+01:00

this is why the garden makes me so happy ! aside from all the edibles, a posy as pretty as this every day of the summer if i wish.
these are scabiosa, marketed as pincushion flowers in b+q last year, and the pink one in the middle is an aquilegia.
it'll be sweet pea season soon.

2010-06-17T19:58:00.007+01:00

i got the bike, she's called Britney ( she's a Pashley Britannia).
i have lots to show you, here's fanny's tomato plants
they got planted out into the greenhouse - we will take care of them for you fanny.

purple peas are flowering

as is the pomegranate tree

here's some polyculture in action: purple peas on the left, and then a big old mixture of peas, beans, courgette and squash and sweet peas too. the cds really do work to keep the pigeons and rabbits away.

happy sunny little poached egg plants

sweetcorn, variety ' sparrow' we have about 20 plants
and i've been merrily collecting chamomile and elderflower to dry for tea - i really, really recommend picking some elder flowers and making some fresh tea. this is what it looks like (on the right) and you'll recognise the delicious smell

and all this chamomile ! i picked 4 big bunches and strung them up in the greenhouse to dry.

2010-05-27T10:13:00.004+01:00

some beautiful weather lately and everything is looking great !
that's garlic right at the front
the yellow flowers are the purple sprouting broccoli, further back on the right are a patch of purple peas and a variety of beans and squash.

the greenhouse is waiting patiently for the sweet pepper seedlings that are gathering their strength on my garden table ( sown from seed collected from last year) and the pomegranate tree has decided to make flowers this year - he didn't do that last year... will he fruit ?
could it be canterbury's first ever pomegranate.

lots more seedlings on the way to fill the rest of the gaps. sweetcorn, more peas and beans and squash and some sweetpeas.

tim and i managed to get a whole barrow full of compost to spread where we planted some beans and squash. i think it's the first large scale use of our homemade compost and i have to say that it looked very good. sweet smelling and full of worms.

i planted one pea-bean and one sweet pea together and a couple of spaghetti squash amongst them. i understand that the legumes provide nitrogen for the squashes and the squashes provide good ground cover to suppress weeds and moisture loss. that's kim's purple peas next to them, they look very beautiful with their red-tinged leaves, and very healthy too.

woody and i took some wheels for a spin yesterday. it takes me half an hour to walk to the plot, all the way across town. i thought if i had something as lovely and useful as this then i would be able to get there more often ...

2010-04-14T19:47:00.003+01:00

the purple sprouting broccoli is doing really well for the second year running, seems to be the least bothersome of the brassica family.

a few beans are in - 'black canterbury' a dwarf french bean

tim's nectarine tree has sent forth some blossom, and it's pink !

and here's a lovely message from ashley, our amusing friend and neighbour.

congratulations to fifi and mayler on the arrival of yasmin - we've planted some winter jasmin for you all, and happy birthday kim - have a great day out at the weekend.

spring-o-rama

2010-03-25T17:01:00.001Z

it's all gone a bit sci-fi on the window ledge

2010-03-25T16:53:00.003Z

fanny took some great photos last weekend while we sowed potatoes and onion sets.
we don't know what Ashley was doing with the salad tongs on his plot

back, with a spring in our step

2010-03-10T12:57:00.004Z

some very good gardening was done on sunday,

the boys did a great job of digging in the phacelia
we sprinkled the moondust
and covered the earth, ready for planting.
rachel visited for the first time, we hope you come back again soon. and fifi wins some kind of prize for walking all the way there, 3 days before she is due to have her first baby.

i have some pea seedlings on the go, and we've had some interesting enquiries from students at both UKC school of architecture and UCCA, i'm doing all i can to make sure that they find out all that they need - i think that this is just what the project was all about.
have a happy wednesday
xx

2009-11-11T10:33:00.006Z

the transition city allotment was always going to be a bit of an experiment. would enough people want to help ? would we even be able to clear the plot of weeds ? would we keep motivated ? would we be able to grow anything ?
as we near the end of our second year of growing i'm realising that we've learned a thing or two this year, and recognised that everything we have done so far has been an experiment. i now feel pretty confident about what we'll grow next year and how we'll do it.

here's a few reflections:

1. if life gives you lemons...
if the allotment gives you floury potatoes... make mash.
potatoes this year, though reasonably plentiful, were unpopular on many fronts. most of them were purple, which some found unacceptable, and were exceedingly floury. crumbling after only a few minutes of boiling. i decided to go with it and make mash, adding rosemary and garlic also from the plot was especially good.

2. following last year's success with purple sprouting broccoli, though comprehensive fortification was essential, this year we decided that regular green broccoli is really not worth the bother, it was swamped with fly and seemed to go to flower before making anything usefully edible.
however, we do have a small row of 6 caulis further along the plot that were also covered in the same fly and are now thriving.
lesson learned, don't bother with brassicas other than caulis and maybe not plant them in big, pest attracting blocks.

3.chamomile is super easy to grow, self sows prolifically and when dried makes a far superior tea than any i have ever bought. will definitely do this again.

4. also regular Tea ( camellia sinesis ) may be raised from seed. who knew ! though a tricky germination process - i succeeded with 2 plants, one now remains and looks to be very healthy.

5. carrots can be grown successfully in tubes and in old wheelbarrows

6. a bundle of straw and lavender stalks will clear the pond of algae

7. phyacelia is a super, and beautiful green manure

8. mushrooms are hard to cultivate

9. sweetcorn needs to be at planted least 4 rows x 4 rows deep to ensure proper pollination. we had 2 small rows and ended up with strange gappy corn. though it did taste ok.

10. while we've seen some people move on to take up plots of their own or concentrate on their own gardens, recently i've had several enquiries from new people wanting to come and help. this is exactly how i hoped it would happen, long may it continue

11. and lastly, seed saving is fascinating, fun and very satisfying

2009-09-29T09:39:00.004+01:00

strawberries for october

this, believe it or not is our exquisitely flowered green manure crop ( phacelia ) i think that the idea is that it shouldn't flower, therefore returning it's energy to the soil so we cut a few stems for a vase. i know we can't eat them but i've watched bees feed on them and i hope that they will noticeably improve the soil for us next spring

this is where we sowed it, where the potatoes were this year. you can see the 3 stages of growth as we cleared the spuds.

and the wheelbarrow carrots are doing nicely

we're very proud to be covered in the new Transition book,
Local Food: how to make it happen in your community
rob hopkins and tamzin pinkerton have done a wonderful job, basically if you are a person who relies on food to live then i think that this book is for you.

2009-08-23T14:15:00.004+01:00

our latest team member, he needs a name.
a very large and handsome frog has moved into our pond and looks to be very happy there

lots of other good things to eat

tim and i experimented with some mushroom growing last week, it seems that a constant temperature is important, between 10 and 20 degrees, if we get lucky with that then i'm quite hopeful for a good crop

seed saving part 2

2009-08-14T08:52:00.004+01:00

saving sweet pea seeds.
i've collected pods from the garden and the allotment, when left to dry on their own they twist and pop open in a very pleasing way.

seed saving part 1

2009-08-14T08:48:00.003+01:00

a new obsession: saving seed
these are the tiny seeds of the pink aquilegia that i bought from the bohemia market this year.

home grown chamomile tea

2009-08-14T08:40:00.004+01:00

this is the chamomile that i harvested from the wheelbarrow, the flowers were picked in the morning and hung to dry for a week or so. they made a really lovely pot of tea. i think that this counts as an experiment that will be worth repeating.

i've also now noticed that the dainty yellow flowers are growing in many other places around the plot.

first carrot

2009-08-02T20:18:00.002+01:00

ashley and i decided to pull up our first transition carrot today

had a bit of a job getting it out of its tube ...

but it was long and straight

and delicious !

kohlrabi looking good too, i must find out what's good to do with them

last weekend we made a big fire

2009-08-02T20:05:00.003+01:00

i had two trips to the plot the week before last, this is what i'm aiming for now, friday and sunday mornings.
on friday i managed to sneak in and out between some very dramatic looking skies whthout getting wet.
on saturday night ashley had organised a bonfire party, there were plenty of cleared weeds and brambles to burn, and onions, garlic and potatoes to roast in the fire.

it was lovely to be there at a different time of day and to see the plot in the evening light.

we had a few drinks and laughs, and loved watching fifi so enjoy eating some freshly dug horseradish.

i hope that we'll do it again before the end of the summer

2009-07-15T14:32:00.003+01:00

the sweet peas finally took off, exploding in a riot of flowers

sweet peppers are forming in the greenhouse

some giant garlic was harvested

and there's plenty of beetroot, the roots are good raw and we've discovered that the leaves are delicious steamed, much like spinach.

ooooby.org

2009-06-25T15:27:00.009+01:00

we had a nice hello from Po, a new zealander, letting us know about 'oooby.org' and also his blog http://ooooby.blogspot.com/ it's all good interesting stuff, go and take a look.

the acronym is out of our own back yards.

so, i took stock of my own back yard this morning and photographed most of the edibles we are growing and enjoying at the moment.

the garden is small, perhaps 3m x 10m, there is a large, mature apple tree right in the middle, a decked area, a place for the dog to pee, a compost bin and a washing line. this is what i've managed to pack in !

in pots by the back door:
some chamomile from seed, with the intention of tea making, i now realise you'd need way more, but heck, it's pretty

also in a big tub, my trusty old blueberry bush,just beginning to ripen. this is the fourth year i've had homegrown blueberries

then there's a couple of brassicas, we tested these out at the allotment last year so i'm quite confident that i know what to do with these

and runner beans, two wigwams, 12 plants, starting to flower now. the easiest thing to grow ever.

some peas, bought as seedlings from the garden centre, first time i've tried to grow them, seems to be going well

and lovely sweet peas, grown from seed got at our seed swap. i will definitely be finding out how to save seed from these for next year

strawberries and raspberries, again first time crops for me, the birds seem to like the strawberries more than the raspberries but i don't mind them having a few.

more fruit, this is the crab apple tree, at the moment they are all going straight in the compost bin, does anyone know anything better to do with them ? they are exceedingly tart.

a couple of courgette plants are more than enough for any family and easy peasy to look after

then there's some herbs, mostly in tubs, this is the thyme flowering and there is also some mint, basil and rosemary, they all get used in dinner-making

moving indoors, strawberry and alpine strawberry seedlings

this is camellia sinesis which is the tea plant, it took 3 months to get to this point from a seed that looked like a malteaser and i'm very excited about it.

and this is a lovely dog rose that will provide us with hundreds of rosehips in the autumn and is just now home to a blackbird family who made their nest with straw from the strawberries :)

2009-06-14T16:12:00.004+01:00

voila, demonstrating the value of good homemade compost!

sweetpeas sown at the same time,
left: at the allotment - clayish, unloved for a while
right: my garden - rich in my first ever batch of homemade compost

and this i bought from a lovely flower stall at the bohemia market (where, incidentally we have an offer of a free stall if we can get our act together / anyone has any bright ideas, do let us know )yesterday, nice lady with lots of beautiful plants at very reasonable prices.

2009-06-08T09:21:00.003+01:00

this is a kale called 'ragged jack' i got the seeds at our seed swap and think it's really pretty.

here's kim, planting, watering, covering more brassicas

the chamomile i planted in a wheelbarrow is thriving

some rhubarb had to be cleared so that we could plant the brassica seedlings, i've just eaten it for breakfast, it was very good.

2009-05-26T11:12:00.006+01:00

it was almost too hot for gardening on sunday when we were at the allotment so i'm very pleased to see so much rain today. the soft fruit is bursting forth and will need netting soon
kim and i planted out some beetroot seedlings
the chamomile wheelbarrow is looking mighty fine
tomatoes are ready to be transferred to beds in the greenhouse
the pomegranate tree is a really beautiful colour, and that's the carrot tubes in the background
peppers are doing well
and i found this prettiness living amongst the currants

and an enormous thank you to Richard and Joke for the delivery of a magnificent pile of poo !

2009-04-27T11:40:00.004+01:00

it's been a two visit week to the allotment for me this week. once with isobel on friday afternoon and again yesterday with ashley. some big jobs got taken care of.

the purple sprouting broccoli was bursting into a lovely yellow flower and needed to be cleared to make way for onions and carrots

we've chosen to leave this one magnificent brussels sprout in place to admire it's beauty and with a view to collecting some seed.

the seeds sown in the greenhouse are beginning to appear, there's beetroot, celeriac, leek

ashley has prepared the ground for his carrot tubes that will be interplanted with onions

i stripped the remaining leaves from the broccoli stems and fed them to the compost heap. the stalks, which are remarkable woody, will be dried out and burned.

these are some sweet peas that i planted next to the rhubarb yesterday, the seeds were got at our weed swap.

and i've been sowing some marigold seeds as compainion plants - who knew the seeds looked so wonderful !

2009-04-07T10:48:00.002+01:00

a beautiful sunny day at the allotment this weekend, and plenty to do:
making sure that the new forest part of the plot is happy and well watered

harvesting and sharing out an enormous broccoli harvest

admiring the perky garlic

and watching the boys do the real work and sowing the spuds

2009-04-01T08:32:00.004+01:00

thanks to everyone who came to the forest garden day at the allotment on sunday - we counted 32 people at one point, and a big thanks too to jo who organised and ran the session.

photos of the finished ( or started ) forest garden coming soon.

this weekend

2009-03-26T09:33:00.003Z

(click to enlarge and read details)

2009-03-16T10:06:00.010Z

such a busy weekend in the garden and the allotment, it all began with these fellas, it's camellia sineses, aka Tea. leaves taken direct from the plant and steamed = green tea folks ! the seeds are enormous, like malteasers, and there were careful instructions to follow before planting. these have had their outer shells chipped, been soaked for 2 days and then been in the fridge for 2 weeks. i know it could be a while before i'm sipping a homegrown brew but i think the journey there could be really interesting. i found them on the good old interwebs from Chiltern Seeds if you fancy getting some of your own. there is a tea plantation in cornwall and i hear that they should be pretty hardy.

i'll start them off at home and some of them might graduate to the greenhouse at the allotment.

then i set about some spring cleaning in my garden, transforming this:

into this:

and these old sunflower stalks:

into bug hotels:

ashley is going to see if he can fix these old chairs so that we have something to sit on at the allotment

then i emptied my compost bin, bursting with pride, and found reminders of all the beetroot that we ate last summer, it was growing in there, little pink leaves in the dark.

on sunday we spent a few hours at the allotment, kim and ashley moved the rhubard to a more suitable location, it put up quite a fight.
tim and i got busy on our beautiful new potting table with some celeriac, onion, mulberry, leek and mallow seeds.

then we all went home with glowy cheeks and party bags

2009-03-13T10:34:00.004Z

hey , look!

we've made broccoli,
and its the shmancy pants purple one.

garlic is on it's way

and broad beans too, Kim's trick of burying a piece of holly with the seed, ( apparently to see off mice ) has worked !

we're holding a forest garden making day soon, sunday march 29th, 11-3 - everyone welcome, it should be really hands-on, do get in touch if you'd like to know more.

seed swap - coming soon

2009-01-20T09:32:00.002Z

(you can click to read the details)

new year news

2009-01-15T09:32:00.009Z

this is a photo of the purple sprouting broccoli in my garden, it was planted at the same time as the patch at the allotment so we'll be keeping an eye out for it to be ready soonish.

jo has very generously offered to help us transform an area of the plot into a forest / forage garden, using mainly perennial plants. i think this was something that we all liked the idea of but were a bit sketchy on the details. we're aiming to incorporate it with some manner of demonstration so that folks can recreate something similar at home, it'll probably be around the end of march.

Excitingly, 'A Transition Guide to Food' is in the making in the form of a book due out in the summer. we have participated in the questionnaire and supplied some photographs so if we're lucky we might get a mention.

Ashley has been promoted and is now in charge of planting / what goes where, and when. please have a chat with him if you want to donate or plant anything specific or unusual.

isobel is planning a seed swap afternoon at the good food cafe, jewry lane. she has contacted several seed suppliers to request a few packets to get us going and was very pleasantly surprised by the avalanche of seed packets that arrived on her doorstep over the following days. happily, this means that even if you don't have any seeds to swap you will certainly be able to leave with some and clear instructions as to how to grow them. more details soon.

i was lucky enough to get some really great books for christmas:
if you would like to read any of these i'm very happy to share.

lastly, if the weather is fine and the ground has warmed up a bit we shall endeavour to dig a pond this sunday morning, about 11ish get in touch if you'd like to help, or just show up.

collapse! ... and a breathtaking rebuild

2008-11-24T10:30:00.007Z

weekend before last, kim and i walking along the path to out plot and the conversation goes something like this:

kim: uh... where's our greenhouse ?

me: b*$$*£#s!

this weekend, in the FREEZING COLD and with a heavy sense that it could all be too late, we set about unfolding the 'parts that were formerly a greenhouse'

we lifted and re-errected it on next door's plot ... not looking too bad, only the roof part had become detached

here's mark, or as he shall now be known - 'supermark' carefully measuring and cutting timber for the base

spilling blood in the process

though it didn't stop him for a second

mark, ashley and colin were all astonishingly brilliant while kim and i mostly stood around holding bits of frame, passing spanners, offering words of encouragement and (me) complaining about the cold.

and then finally, as if by magic, it was all fixed and beautiful.

i'm so excited about all the things we will grow in there.

having walked the thing from bekesbourne it just would have been to sad to have let it fail. next stop fitting the glass.
thanks you guys, you rock.

oh and i mustn't forget to introduce our new neighbours, this is the very beautiful ella (who will sit for a biscuit)

and sadie, who is toothless but also beautiful

and their humans deborah and george, who have already offered us access to their free manure supplier. say hi if you see them.

2008-10-29T11:19:00.005Z

a sunny monday morning spent building fortresses for our treasure,

rabbits have been spotted nibbling at the rye and the pigeons will soon be hungry

tess has very kindly offered us some of her jerusalem artichokes, either to plant or eat, thank you tess.

and hello to isobel who who'll be joining us from this weekend, it's lovely to have you.

sprouts!

2008-09-29T08:57:00.003+01:00

sprouts #1
ta dah !
the rye we sowed last week as a green manure

it's lovely and red. we sowed the other half of the bed yesterday.

sprouts #2
colin made me be in this photo, but check out those brassicas, and hardly a nibbled leaf amongst them. we are totally convinced of the magical powers of the rosemary plant that we installed at the end of the patch.
we won't be spraying for nasties, oh no, not us.

and here's the two eastern european builders we got in to do the greenhouse base.
they did a very good job indeed, thanks jules and mark.
can we pay you in broccoli in march please ... ?

2008-09-22T14:13:00.003+01:00

it was a beautiful day on sunday and i had been looking forward to getting to the allotment all week. it was so lovely to see akram, begona, isabel and aysha again, and with such enthusiasm!

we all worked together to clear the first bed ready for a green manure crop of rye grass.
kim and i were thrilled to find that the beds we weeded last week had remained pretty much weed free, hurrah ! this feels like a real achievement .

here's ashley sowing the rye over the beautifully clear and raked soil.
he's also expressed an interest in sowing some oats (!) watch out ladies :)

the girls were drawn to the beauty of this allium, we've picked it and will see if it'll be our first bit of seed saving ... kim took it home to investigate

the brassicas are comtinuing to astound us, despite no ground preparation at all they appear amongst the most handsome of all the plots. the purple sprouting broc should be ready to harvest feb - may and the brussels sprouts - hopefully ready for christmas.

hope to see you next week !

2008-09-09T09:26:00.002+01:00

so kim and i made a tactical decision to meet for tea in the rain this sunday and go to the allotment on monday instead. it proved to be a good decision.

we got to see the poo that jules has kindly delivered, it looks mighty fine.

we lifted a LOT of comfrey ( comfrey is good for composts and making fertilizer ) and so perhaps fortunately we have tonnes of it.

we weeded around the brassicas, which are now looking magnificent, in preparation for sowing a green manure crop sometime in the next few weeks.

then we dug up the last of the treasure.

now we'd like to think about what to grow next year and we'd like there to be a good variety of interesting and unusual crops. and most importantly there must be something that even the fussiest eater ( that's you mr. may ) will want to greedily devour.

please take a minute to vote in the poll to the right here ............................................................. ta

Victor Veghead

2008-08-23T09:25:00.005+01:00

kim and i met at the allotment for the second, very pleasant, friday afternoon in a row yesterday. it was sunny, and calm and just what we both needed.

we enlarged the brassica enclosures,

fed the tomatoes

weeded a little

dug up potatoes and onions

stuffed ourselves on raspberries and blackberries

generally shot the breeze

we think one of the bext big things to tackle must be removing as much bindweed as we can from the softfruit, before it's too late !

and i'd like to get a pond in somewhere soon.

then it was home and roast tatties for tea.

back on track

2008-08-18T14:43:00.002+01:00

making good progress, this weekend we cleared the space for the greenhouse:

built compost bins

and felt good that we've done so much so soon

free food

2008-08-17T08:32:00.002+01:00

now harvesting at the allotment

the plan

2008-08-16T13:27:00.002+01:00

(click to enlarge)

we're getting sorted, we've made some decisions.

and we would still like to meet some more enthusiastic people.

if you don't have a garden but would like one, fancy an allotment but not a whole one ... would like to learn or would like to teach ... we try to meet there on sunday mornings but folks pop in during the week too.

the march of the greenhouse ( or, why did the greenhouse cross the road ?)

2008-07-21T17:30:00.007+01:00

the great March of the Greenhouse 2008.
donated by someone kind and marched all they way from bekesbourne by mark, ashley, geoff, jules, jo, nick and lisa.

great job everyone, and sorry i doubted the plan!

tim, tess, kim and i kept up with the necessary tasks on the plot and welcomed zoe on her first visit while we awaited.

we thought this meant that the fennel was ready.
it wasn't.
but we did have a handful of mangetout for dinner and picked more berries for jam.

jam

2008-07-15T14:39:00.004+01:00

tim collected these beauties at the allotment on sunday.

i jammed them yesterday

and ate them today

800g of blackcurrants, 400g of sugar and a squeeze of lemon.

boil the fruit for 10 min in a little water ( just enough to cover ) then add the sugar and boil for another half an hour and keep stirring.

the only fiddly bit is getting the jars really, really clean and making sure that you dry them in the oven, filling them when they are still hot.

alchemy indeed, kim saw my face when i ate one of these currants raw at the allotment ( it wasn't pretty ) the cooking transforms them to something quite different.

kim, i'm saving a jar for you, how were the gooseberries ?

Sunday 6th July

2008-07-07T10:59:00.010+01:00

By the time Hattie and I arrived, there was already plenty of activity: Kim, Colin, Ashley, Matt and Jo were all busy away at their various tasks for the day.

The top end of the allotment is really coming along now, with the brassicas looking particularly healthy under their new protective cages. Further down, however, the news wasn't so good... some of the donated fruit trees, which had really just been healed-in, were looking a little sorry for themselves, so Matt and Ashley decided to move the healthiest ones to more permanent positions nearer the shed. Hattie helped water them in and Matt is going to take the weaker trees up to the university where he can give them more daily tlc - they should be fine.

On this allotment there is now only one un-cultivated area between the raspberries and the fruit trees and I got stuck-in, digging it over and weeding. I asked Ashley what we should plant and we agreed that a fast growing crop of salad (principally lettuce and radish) would be most satisfying - donations of spare seeds would be very welcome.

Jo pointed out that the gooseberries and redcurrants were ready for picking but the recurrants haven't got a home to go to yet. A good crop is available to the person with the best idea for a recipe, or perhaps a jam-making demonstration...? Matt reminisced about his mother's gooseberry fool and is going to have a go at making it, so he and Hattie picked pounds and pounds, some of which came home with me, destined for one of Rachle's crumbles! I can't wait!

About then, the rain started and it was time for home. Hattie collected-up some tiny potatoes that emerged from my digging and we left, a little cold, a little wet, but immensely satisfied.

end of june round-up

2008-06-29T20:18:00.010+01:00

last weekend things started looking pretty good down on plot one.

tidy, ordered, weedfree rows

and the currants are looking juicy...

then we covered a bit of plot two with some heavy black plastic to save on some digging... clearly we're going to need a bit more - let me know if you can help

today: kim and colin built these beauties to protect some of the brassicas...they're taking no chances with the rabbits

colin demonstrates the hose that he successfully fixed up with the correct attachment

and those of you who say you're coming and havent ...

if we don't see you soon then we're sending ashley round to find out why ... and he's pretty fierce

later taters
xx

8 june 08

2008-06-08T20:10:00.014+01:00

great day at the allotment today, a veritable hive of activity...check it out:

ashley moved the alpine strawberries to a shady spot under the tree at the back of the plot, and i was very impressed to see this beautiful architecture that he has created.

tess and kim got busy with some lovely looking mangetout plants...

we discovered that the currants are definitely going to be redcurrants and the sight of the gooseberries made my mouth water.

also planted were some squash, leeks and purple sprouting broccolli. we're really rockin' now.

thanks for all your help when we know that you have so much else to do tess, and woody, we really couldn't manage without you :)

'vegetables', he said, 'were beautiful'

2008-05-28T08:44:00.003+01:00

Hay festival: Monty Don returns in revolutionary moodCharlotte Higgins, arts correspondent Monday May 26, 2008 guardian.co.uk Feeling rosy ... Monty Don and Sky News presenter Adam Boulton at the Hay Festival. Photograph: Gareth Llewellyn/PA Writer, broadcaster and national treasure Monty Don was in revolutionary mood as he made his first public appearance since a stroke led to his retiring as presenter of Gardeners' World.

"I intend to make a full recovery," he added. "I am pottering about at the moment, having a nice time." Friends, he added, have said he looks better than ever; and he quipped that his ill health was due to "not eating enough organic vegetables".
If he seemed the merest fraction less hale than his old self, Don was certainly on fighting form, as his new role as president of the Soil Association was announced at the Guardian Hay festival.
Sharing a platform with Patrick Holden, the Soil Association's chief, Don spoke of his ambitions to turn the organisation into a people's campaigning body that will transform attitudes to food and the environment.
"My attitude to politicians is that they are a pretty useless bunch on the whole," he said. "You have to become a rabble. One should scare them and pressure them, and subvert the system from the ground up."
He said the movement should mobilise Britain's 11 million gardeners, and involve everyone from large-scale farmers to those growing a single basil plant on a windowsill.
Holden said that, in light of environmental concerns and what he believes is a looming oil crisis, he was calling for "a national policy of self-sufficiency in staple foods". Large centralised distribution systems will become economically unviable, he argued, and food will have to be produced locally. Imports should be limited, though he said there was still argument for shipping in certain cases.
"Maybe third world countries will have to suffer as a result of our national food policy," said Don.
"You don't necessarily have to stop all trade, but maybe you have to modify it. We should be trying to make third world countries resilient so they don't have to trade food."
He recalled a recent visit to Cuba, describing the "resilience" of the country in the face of the dwindling fuel supplies that had followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. "Calorific consumption halved. People responded by doing what they could do. People had to be self-sufficient. They had to grow their own herbs for medicine. In Havana, there were 300,000 people working on the land, growing superb-quality vegetables." Self-sufficiency, he argued, was thus not only desirable but possible; and he praised the exceptional quality of Cuban compost.
Holden and Don advised the turning over of private gardens, public parks or open space surrounding offices to vegetable-growing. He called most parks "boring and ugly", saying "planting designed by committee is always at best bland and at worst vile." Vegetables, he said, were beautiful.

Addition to my last

2008-05-26T11:10:00.002+01:00

Kim also planted another row of onions (red onions) last Saturday! So now the line up is: Potatoes, onions, potatoes, red onions. Then cleared patch (ready for up and coming seedlings including broccoli, (Kathryn), and butternut squash and tomatoes (Kim) .
Then fruit trees waiting for planting out, the French beans & strawberries, and some semi cleared areas with raspberries. Finally rows of fruit which need netting.
(something like that anyway!) All this lovely rain saves the work of watering.

Colin & Kim.Saturday 24/5/08: 3pm 'til 6.45'ish pm:

2008-05-25T09:14:00.002+01:00

Time really flies out on the plot, and the weather was sunny with a strong breeze. Weeded fresh ground. Subdivided the first section ofcleared ground into 3 sections of 5 paces each (very professional!) Planted and labelled a 2nd row of potatoes, copying the method of a nearby plot and with the advice of an'old hand' on the site (didn't catch his name!) Watered the row of potatoes and onions previously planted, and also the strawberries and French beans. Hope it rains tonight, soil's looking dry.The tool shed is building up an impressive array of tools!
colin & kim

2008-05-06T08:49:00.003+01:00

the purple sprouting broccoli is moving on to bigger pots, on sunday kim and i weeded the first patch on the plot in anticipation of getting these guys in the ground sometime soon.

it's looking like sunday mornings suit most people best so aim for that if you want to be sociable or any other time if you'd prefer to potter alone.
jules has secured a supply of clay for his exciting construction project at the allotment ... more on this later ...

and that's the transition city wiener dog in the background there, leading the way in energy conservation.

2008-05-04T17:28:00.005+01:00

mary, nick, ashley, kim, kathryn and tim get busy in the sunshine

there is a bumper crop of redcurrants brewing...

rhubarb to pick ...

and strawberries to keep watered

2008-04-28T11:23:00.006+01:00

transition city canterbury have acquired two plots - no. 22 and 23 at the pilgrims way site ( just off st augustines road ) we managed to get them for free thanks to george's generosity and the considerable amount of digging needed before we could really get started. i think a fair exchange, it's great that we can start this thing right at the begining and make all our own decisions.

looking at the positives ( as we like to do ) we already have rhubarb,rasberries,strawberries and gooseberries and some herbs, we put some potatoes in the ground on the first weekend and have gratefully recieved some free fruit trees. oh, and the soil looks goood.

none of us have done this before - out intention is to learn about growing some of our own food, get fit, experience all the good things about working on something collectively. we'd like to prove that all of this can be really good fun. leave a comment or email transitioncity@mac.com if you'd like to come along too.

sprouts

2008-04-28T11:15:00.003+01:00

currently sprouting on the window ledge - if there's anything that you'd really like to grow at the allotment then please do get sprouting on your kitchen window ledges until we get the ground ready. i have fifty of these guys so we're probably covered for broccoli !