Now That's What I Call a Shed

(Storage Saga Part 3)

I had thought that I would build my own shed, but have discovered it's hard to get the materials cheaply enough. Pallets are about the cheapest way to get hold of timber but they're hard to cut up. I couldn't work out how to knock together even a small shed for less than the price of a new one. And buying a new one would have meant working out how to get it onto the site.

So, after advertising for donations again at work, I have duly accepted the offer of a large shed for the bargain price of £30, including delivery to site. The seller knew someone with a trailer who skillfully positioned it right next to the allotment. It is now piled flat in the corner of the plot waiting to be put back together. There are a couple of holes that will need patching up but otherwise it's in pretty good shape.

Spud delivery

My expensive scottish seed potatoes are here. (see Wise Mike's Tip No.1 August 2007). Ordered in November and not actually that expensive. Moog thinks: "They aren't food."

I have two varieties, Orla (First Earlies to get me going) and Sarpo Mira (Maincrop). Both are advertised as being resistant to blight, particularly the Sarpo. I got these because I lost all my patio-grown tomatoes to blight last summer. Also there are signs up all round the allotment site warning us allotmentalists to look out for blight as it has been a problem, so hopefully these two varieties will stand up to the job. The supplier sent me a note to apologise for how small the tubers were, this being due to high demand for blight resistant varieties. If they're that popular then Moog thinks I'm on the right track.

For now, they're quietly "chitting" in my spare bedroom. You're supposed to put them the right way up, how you're supposed to tell at this stage I don't know, so I will wait and see what happens. Moog thinks once they start to sprout, then we'll know which way up they're supposed to be.

Moog found a useful guide on how to grow potatoes on the Thompson and Morgan website, which is also where I placed my order.

Success! (for now at least)

Previous impatient trips to check on progress of the garlic bulbs have been met with bare soil, so I was somewhat dubious that anything would happen.

On one such visit over Christmas, I found pawprints, and a hole dug in the middle of my garlic patch. So I duly fixed up some posts and chicken wire, to keep out whatever it was that had visited ("got a rabbit problem, sir?" the shop assistant quizzed. "Cheaper to shoot the rabbits, sir," he said, when he saw the price of the wire I was buying). I do feel special, that out of the whole enormous allotment site of over 120 plots, this little creature chose to visit mine. I may well fence off my whole plot soon, as my experienced neighbour has done, rather than mess about fencing off each little bit. It may be more work at first but should be worth it in the long run. Still, fence up; no garlic.

But this week was different. I popped down to the site laden with bags of fresh horse manure, free from a local paddock. The sun was, unusually, out from behind the clouds, and as I walked down the slippery track I thought I caught a glimpse of a fresh green stalk through the wire- could it be true? I daren't look directly at it! I scurried past and dumped down the bag of shi- I mean, manure, with my back to the garlic bed. Then I snapped round quickly to catch it unawares, and - nothing. No- wait- a trick of the light! Hurrah! virtually every bulb has started to grow!



I can't help being excited, even though I haven't harvested a single thing yet.

Moog thinks: "We're going to stink, if we eat all that garlic."

The Moog's very blustery day

Storage Saga No.2

After a little plot maintenance, I had just put my tools away when I decided to go back to the storage box for one last item. I crouched down, the wind blew, and there I was, crouched in front of nothing but a pile of tools! The box, obviously tired of life on Plot 29 had bidden the cruel world goodbye and made a leap for it across the next allotment!

At that moment, the heavens opened, and the luckless Moog Keeper spent the next 20 minutes getting soaked in a howling gale, trying to manhandle sheets of plastic back into their rightful places as box walls and lid. Thankfully, power tools and big screws were close at hand to effect the necessary repairs.

Next project: A shed big enough to go inside when monsoon weather threatens. Hopefully strong enough not to blow away, Wizard of Oz style, with Moog as the bewildered Toto and the Moog Keeper inside!

Moog thinks, If you want to wear a blue gingham dress and red ruby slippers on the allotment, that's your lookout, just don't expect me to follow you around!

Erm, thanks Moog, that's not quite what I meant.

Friends of the Moog - Storage Saga No.1

Great friends of the Moog, Maria and Cameron, have kindly donated a big storage box to Plot 29. This is great news as now I don't have to drive every time I visit the allotment, laden with tools to ferry backwards and forwards. The big green box sits, rather smug looking for a box, next to the compost bins, and the smelly sacks have taken up residence. A big disc of concrete left over from a job at home (extracted, at some considerable physical effort, from the bottom of the tub I mixed it in) holds the whole thing down to the ground.

Moog thinks: Nice one, Maria and Cam. Now, do you have any Bonios?

Maria and Cameron are amongst the Moog's second family, ie, whenever they are around, he treachorously ignores the Moog Keeper and his wife in favour of the visitors. The grass is always greener, Moog...

Pot of Gold?

Shortly after taking this photo, at the beginning of December, I found out what is actually at the end of the rainbow:

Rain.

Vampires Beware

Moog thought I should report, with great pride, that we have now planted our first actual allotment crop!

I like cooking things like Chinese food with lots of garlic, so I have finally managed to make room for the bulbs I ordered a couple of months ago from The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight. I didn’t know where to start so I ordered a special set of everything; we’ll see what comes up. Thankfully the instructions say that it can be planted any time from autumn to spring, as it needs a period of cold weather to get it going. Moog thinks that’s why supermarket garlic sprouts when you keep it in the fridge too long… I’ve also dug in lots of manure as Moog thinks the garlic will like that.

Moog thought we should use the blog to record what we plant; otherwise we’ll forget what we put there by the time it (hopefully) grows. There’s a good chance we’ll also lose the instructions that came with the bulbs, and forget when to harvest the stuff too. So, this is what we planted at the beginning of December 2007:



Early Purple Wight. A purple hard-necked garlic from China. Ready to harvest around May/June. Harvest as soon as it’s ready, should keep for 2-3 months.
Chesnock Wight. Hard-necked garlic from around the Black Sea. A flowering head is supposed to appear in June, which should be cut off above leaf level to increase bulb size (seems a shame). Harvested in June after Early Wight, should keep until Christmas.
Iberian Wight. Soft-neck large white early garlic originating from the Mediterranean, grows nearly on the surface, ready in June.

Garlic likes it if you spread sulphate of potash around the plants in Feb/March; they need to be kept weed free and watered like anything else, but stop watering 3 weeks before harvesting. Assuming any of this grows at all, I may have to leave harvesting a week or two later than it says, as I’m later planting than I wanted, and, as Moog rightly points out, we don’t live on the Isle of Wight.