April at the allotment

Ok, so I'm going to apologise straight away because there are going to be waaaaay too many photos in this post - but seeing as it covers the whole of April I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

There are going to be photos of strange children...............

(Fred "colouring in" a brick with a piece of mortar using the shovel/scoop as a visor!)

and exciting pondlife

(we have newts!!!)

And then there will be lots of photos of soil and bits of green stuff with strange people in the background

I really want to keep this blog going as a record of what I plant each year and when but I don't seem to be able to get it typed up in time. I'll just have to try harder! This post is going to be all out of order but will give an idea of what happened in April.



I finally managed to get all my potatoes in to these long beds at the front of the allotment. The International Kidney's went towards the beginning of the month and are beginning to peek through. Then last weekend we got the Pink Fir Apples in along with a couple of rows of Desiree. I've had to fit all the potatoes round some of the crops that are still in, like the rainbow chard and purple sprouting broccoli - but that's fine by me as it will give me space for a bit of variety later.

The garlic, shallots and red onions are also in and starting to grow - they are at the very back of the allotment this year. I'm finding the whole "crop rotation" business a bit tricky to keep up with but I'm basically trying to make sure I don't plant anything in the same place two years running.


A couple of weekends ago, the children and I were up at the allotment and I couldn't decide what I should do so I rang Alison who advised tidying up the strawberry bed.

So I did.

But then I decided that I absolutely HAD to clear the path next to the strawberry bed where the carpeting was sprouting HUGE triffids.

I did a very good job of it too.

And then I collapsed!

(well, the carpet was nice and clean by this point)

The only problem with collapsing when you have small children is that they decided to sit on you.

But I was able to take this "very artistic" photo of my plant pots whilst "reclining"!

Then last weekend we managed to spend both Saturday and Sunday at the allotment and got absolutely loads done and were totally exhausted at the end - although I think that might be why I succumbed so badly to the lurgy that has had me floored all week :o(

As well as planting the main crop potatoes (see above), we also got the children to build a temporary cold frame with my stash of bricks

so that we could transfer the plants from the greenhouse at home to make room for the next batch of sowing.

We then planted out the peas

the "heritage" crimson flowered broad beans which will hopefully look stunning and taste good too

and the sweet peas - which look very fetching with their manky hand made cloches!

I also managed to create another strawberry bed next to my main one - in the foundations of the old greenhouse - and transplanted lots of strawberry runners from my allotment and from Alison's too. I now have 4 separate strawberry beds so will hopefully get even bigger crops than last year!

So we've had a busy but successful time at the Lotamunt

and I finally feel like we might actually be getting somewhere..........