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Friday 30 December 2011

FLIP



Last week i bought a new camcorder-a flip. It has a built in battery plus editing software and its own hd drive to store film clips-so no sd cards to buy.Its simple to use but i must admit the edit software is a bit hard.You can e:mail your films to friends-post on u-tube send to twitter,even greeting cards by e:mail.

Thursday 29 December 2011

Boxing day visit

I went to the allotment on boxing day-it has been 5 weeks since my last visit ! the winter onions are well on but the garlic i planted 6 weeks ago have not shown any new shoots at all ?-perhaps its the wrong time of the year to plant, i dont realy know ?.

Monday 19 December 2011

Not a lot to say at the moment

Monday has come round again-5 weeks this Wednesday since i was on the plot so nothing to report plot wise. The weather has been cold-but not as cold as last year- last year we had snow and ice and some nights it was minus 12c. and even colder in some parts of the U/K.

Got an E: mail to day from Rebecca-plot 96, to say no damage to shed or fence with the high winds we have been having lately, thats good news

Friday 16 December 2011

Thursday 15 December 2011

Weather Video. plus Potatoes at Poundland

Not been down to the allotment for 4 weeks, been to cold and windy-anyway its all done and ready for the spring-which at the moment feels a long way off.
I am looking at the seed catalogue's at what to grow next season, and making plans in my head for next year as what to grow.  Its under a month now till the pound shop gets its spuds, onion sets and shallots in for sale-8 spuds to a £1 bag-works out just over 12 pence per spud-don't know about onions or shallots-but i wont find them cheaper any where else in Preston.

This  time last year we where starting with the ice and snow witch lasted well in to
the new year-overnight temperatures of minus 12c in some places and heavy snow all over the U/K
no planes, no transport of any kind -all grounded....even me !!






Monday 5 December 2011

Winter is here !!



MONDAY 5 Th December  " Snow Clouds rolling in " The temperature at 12:00pm was 0.05c.

Friday 2 December 2011

Xmas treat


Salvation Army playing in the entrance to the centre. [ Video ]


A trip into town today-it was to cold for the allotment,  i must be getting soft in my old age !!
First stop was Poundland to buy the bits and bobs for home, then Primark to buy a nice and chunky
cardegan to keep me nice and warm this winter- The Salvation army was playing in the entrance to the centre, i listened for a while-and at last it felt like Xmas was on the way, it was a nice afternoon out

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Soon to be in the shops.


Not been down to the allotment for a week as i have nothing to really do down there- as its all ready for spring time [ roll on ] and its only 3 weeks to the winter solstice-from then on its uphill to the lighter nights and warmer weather.


In just over a month [ January ] seed potatoes, onion sets and shallots will be on sale in the shops.
I shall be buying mine from Poundland, its cheap and conveniant, and i dont have to chase all over town to buy them.

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Winter onions update.




Been down to plot to have a look at onions-all doing well-BTW  the bench has been burnt on Helen and Rebeccas bonfire at week end

Got the Garlic today-3 nice bulbes-so will plant at week end .

Sunday 6 November 2011

Honda FG 110 Rotor Tilling Machine.

The Honda is a great little machine-some of its many uses are, tilling your allotment [a lot faster than digging ] preparing seed beds for sowing or planting out onions, shallots, peas , broad beans, leeks ect-but the biggest  thing is planting your potatoes-its hard  work digging a trench and back filling-it takes ages, just till a  strip then plant your potatoes with a trowel or bulb planter  add fertiliser [ Growmore ] , then till a row next to it and rake the tilled soil from the 2 nd row over the first row to form a mound over the potatoes, same again for row 2 etc and your potatoe bed is done.

Tuesday 1 November 2011







The River Ribble and the allotments.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Roll On

An other day of staying in as its windy, raining and cold - its 7c outside and the winter is starting early as it did last year , this is the reason i like to get the plot dug over early before the start ot the bad weather.
  The change fom summer to autumn came very fast this year, over night it seems-roll on the summer days sitting on the plot.

Sunday 9 October 2011

Saturday 15th October.

Its been a bad week weather wise-cold and wet so i have not been down to the allotment for a few days
wed was the last time i was down
The battery's on my scooter are not charging to the full capacity  and are getting worn out and need replacing- this i will do in the next week.I went to the plot on Thursday-first time for a week, did a bit of digging-getting there slowly but surely.

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Onion sets are now around 2 " high and the broad beans  planted to test the germination are now starting to grow the radical root- so the rest of seed will successfully grow next spring.

Saturday 17 September 2011

Still at it !!

Once again its raining, only showers but its rain and soon gets you wet! so no allotment to day, but as i look through the window  the sun is shining, maybe i should have gone to the plot ?

Thursday 15 September 2011

Planting

Got the onion sets in at weekend as planned [  2 rows ]  next will be the garlic, still got to get it from lidl.
Once that's in that's the lot till spring.

My friend john has been to the plot a few times to do some winter digging for me, just a bit each day, but it all counts in the end, and its nice to get some help.

If it stays dry for the next few days it will give me a chance to finish the digging, that will be 50% of the plot dug over.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Here at last!!

Here at last the winter onions from kings seeds, 50 sets in all, and will hae them planted by weekend weather permiting. Must go to the pound shop to buy a lengh of fleece to cover and keep warm over the winter months

Tuesday 6 September 2011

Rain stops play on 115

Rain has put a temporary stop to the allotment clearing and digging, so nothing to report on the blog

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Getting Started.

The allotment growing area is 30 feet x 35 feet with a path down the centre - so i have 2   15 x 35 feet growing areas and i have dug a 15 x 20 foot stripe, so the left hand strip is 2/3 dug over and i will treat the 1/3 left with weed killer, then dig it, then one halve of the allotment will then be ready for rot ovating next spring after the winter has done its work on the soil.
above are photos of my progress.

Thursday 25 August 2011

GETTING READY FOR 2012

Started to dig the allotment for next season-its a slow job-but i will plod on till i reach my goal but must try and get it done before the onset of winter weather.

Sunday 24 July 2011

Posted -at last the order is on its way to kings.

Finely the order is on its way to Kings, waiting now for return post and then i can get cracking getting them planted.

Thursday 21 July 2011

Poppys








The kings order was finely posted this lunch time, 1 st class post. kings are not cheap £2.75 for 50 sets plus £1.50 p&p- the next thing i have to buy is garlic from lidl. Then thats the over wintering crops in.






Wednesday 20 July 2011




I must post my order to kings seeds for winter onions, i have had it fore over a week and keep forgetting to post it.

Friday 15 July 2011

Penwortham Holme East.

This  blog is about allotment 115 Penwortham Holme East and what i did in the year
2011 to 2012.
Hello      I got the plot on the 20 th may 1979-that was 32 years ago at the age of 39. The plot was like a jungle and had not been grown on for a number of years,  it took me 6 months of hard work to get it ready for the following spring. I knew nothing about allotments i never had one before-but soon learned by asking people and walking around looking at different plots to see how it was all set out. Surprisingly i had a good crop the first year and from that the allotment bug took hold of me-i was hooked, so here i am 32 years later and still at it.