small is beautiful

Here are a few photos from the allotment this year showing some of the little guys who helped spread happiness over the flowers and on to us.

our allotment review of 2013

We got our allotment around the middle of May 2013, this was the first year for growing on the allotments so we had to start from scratch on land that had been paddock for many years. When we first arrived the land had been ploughed, worked then divided into plots with woodchip paths laid out around each plot, the rest of it was now up to the new tenants. Awesome, let the fun begin. This is a collection of photos moving through the months up until December 2013.  

at the allotment early november 2013

Growing over the allotment forming a world of white magic are the first frosts, winter is up on us. It’s also time to finish enhancing the flow of the allotment by creating a small hugelkultur bed at the far end of the allotment. What is a hugelkultur bed? Paul Wheaton can explain this so much better than I can so check out his article here http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/ . I used wood from a plum tree and a large pile of organic material that I never got around to composting this year as the base of our hugelkultur bed then covered it with all the dugout soil from the new paths and our newly created sun sitting space. We’re very happy how it turned out despite the strange looks we kept getting from the alpacas when we were working away in the driving rain, even these seemed to be celebrating our success or something like that, I’m sure by watching the end of the video you may have your own opinions on the lovely alpacas. Left to do now is to bring more mulch to cover the new bed and start planning what we are going to be planting next season.  

october at the allotment

It’s October and it’s time to drop the crop. After a summer with an allotment full of bees of all shapes and sizes it’s now time to cut back what we have had growing as a cover crop which was mostly buckwheat and phacelia and to lay it down over our beds ready to give the soil some protection from the winter to come, also this will give all the soil microbes and worms lots of food for the winter. We also have a load of strawberry plants that have been growing at home in pots that are needing to be moved, they are well rooted so hopefully they will be happy in their new home.  As you will see after the drop things are looking very different...  

Having Vision.....

Simply speechless... 

top photo taken 8 June 2013
middle photo taken 16 June 2013
bottom photo taken 28 August 2013

bee paradise

Through the allotment.

On the plant front the buckwheat is flowering exceptionally well sweeping high over most of the other plants, of course it’s the sunflowers, the sentinels waiting each dawn for the sun to rise so they can follow its movement day after day noticing how the days length is shortening turning the august sunlight into spirals of seeds so once again it can awaken to follow the sun for another year. The phacelia with her sea of blue flowers is most popular at the moment enticing in more bumble bees in a day than most people see in a lifetime The bumble bees don’t come alone hoverflies manoeuvre for air space and when you put your head deep into the jungle of storks below you enter into another world.  In this warm moist air the hoverflies dart in and out with effortless precision, by observing them time comes to a standstill. With all the wind we have been having of late this underworld must provide a welcome place of shelter for all the insect life.

In the area that was planted with a few vegetables whilst we planned the main part of the garden we have now also sown alfalfa and clover, we will be moving the soil around once the vegetables have been harvested so this new crop will be dug in to enhance the soils nitrogen levels.

 All in all the allotment garden is full of so much wonder we stand in amazement at what you can help create by listening to nature.          

sown

alfalfa (organic)

clover (organic)  

lots of plants.....

It's august and time for another short walk Everything is looking green at the moment it’s late July the summer has been just that, a summer like we used to have when we were children, long warm days. With all the sun the borage is coming into its own at the moment, certainly very pleasing for the bees as are the calendula flowers. The buckwheat is taking on a life of its own, I’m sure it has great plans. Chard, phacelia, wild rocket, burnet, sunflowers, sweet peas, they are all sending down good roots. The radishes are very dominant at the moment, I’m sure they are only too aware of the plans of the buckwheat.

It’s nice to see so much life been attracted into the allotment garden, we hope they enjoy their stay. 

planted

rosemary

lovage

hyssop

nasturtium

January king winter cabbage (biodynamic)

curly kale westland winter (biodynamic)

Kale red Russian (biodynamic)                

a look what's growing

It’s July so time for a quick tour of the small garden at the front of the house.....

Seeds

The first plants have arrived into the new beds, we have sown, buckwheat, phacelia, fenugreek and radish. It’s now time for nature to take control and awaken the seeds.     

planted

sunflower’s (biodynamic)

salad burnet (biodynamic)

wild  rocket (biodynamic)

chard (five colours) (biodynamic)

borage (organic)

calendula (biodynamic)

sown

buckwheat (biodynamic)

phacelia (biodynamic)

fenugreek (organic)

santigo radish (organic)   

making beds

The fence is up, it’s now time to move some soil. The idea is to create beds and not to dig again giving the soil the chance to become a whole universe of life again, each time soil is ploughed or dug in any way the soil ecosystem is sent into chaos hence why we only want to do this part once.

 It’s a nice feeling seeing the garden take shape, seeing visions of how things may look in a few months’ visions that will hopefully be blown away by reality. A garden space full of insect life, colour and movement.                     

the allotment

We have taken a small area at the back of the allotment to plant a few vegetables. Very shortly we are going to do a major redesign of the rest of the allotment, then at the back end of the year we will redesign this area and incorporate it into the flow of the rest of the garden. But first we need a fence....        

Growing in nature with nature

This our first short video taken at Brompton allotments which is a new project put together by a few very dedicated people, we have been fortunate enough to rent a 14m x 8m plot located in the middle of the allotment space. As you can see from the video we have lots of work to do to transform our small space into a low maintenance productive garden.