September

So, here we are. I have no idea how many weeks it has been now because the initial thrill has worn off and now it's just about wanting to do too much, weeds growing like mad and rain.

That's not totally true. The bit about wanting to do too much is. I understand why people section their plots into raised beds or small areas now. It's easier to go to the allotment to deal with one thing than it is to try to do the whole thing.

It has rained a lot so I went to the allotment a few days ago having not been down for roughly two weeks. The weeds were having a field day! I weeded the areas that have plants in them. On Saturday I went back and weeded, then dug over, the back half of the plot. Today I went back and sowed the mustard seed in the back half.

Also picked our first chillies today. Too hot for me! They won't be lasting much longer. The tomatoes look like they've been a bit of a disaster but it was worth a try. The cabbages are doing OK. The broccoli are not. The leeks are doing OK. The rhubarb is trying to get established: time will tell if it will or not. I really hope it does because I want to cook my own rhubarb crumble!

I had grand plans to get all the dying weeds at the back into the compost bin and put spring bulbs next to it. That hasn't happened yet. Will move the strawberries from our balcony to the allotment in a few weeks. Have another 12 strawberry plants coming in October which will join them. But where to put them? Already trying to decide what will go where in Spring even though it's many months away.

Not sure there will be much to update over winter. My aim will be to weed every couple of weeks so it's not overgrown and messy in Spring.

Week 4

It's now week four and we have the following growing:

• six tomato plants (with actual tomatoes on them!)
• two chillies
• five broccoli plants
• five purple sprouting broccoli plants
• three Glaskin's Perpetual Rhubarb plants (hmmm, looking forward to rhubarb crumble!)
• lots of leeks - kindly donated by a fellow allotmenteer who had too many for his plot (thank you!)

And still to plant out:

• five savoy cabbages
• five primo cabbages (I think!)
• three Glaskin's Perpetual Rhubarb plants (hmmm, looking forward to rhubarb crumble!)
• green mustard seeds for green manure (for back half of plot once compost bin is sorted)

We also have a HUGE compost bin that I collected from the council depot on Friday. A little research on the internet resulted in me finding out that our council sells compost bins for £10 which saved a small fortune that it would have cost from a gardening type shop. Had fun getting it to plot though! As we don't have a car, I took it as far as I could on a bendy bus and then walked the rest of the way. Consider my arms very bruised from the effort!

I attempted to put the compost bin in place and fill it today but it seems the weeds we pulled on on days one, two and three were significantly more than I thought. After a half hearted effort, I gave up. Must try harder next time!

Seeds for next year have also arrived thanks to the fabulous Dobies seed sale!

Week 2

So what do you plant in late July/early August when you've not gardened for 12 years and everything you remember relates to seasons on the opposite side of the world (ie everything I remember is back to front!)...

Tomato plants (alicante and moneymaker) and chillies. Nameless chillies. The ones my husand was growing on the balcony don't appear to be doing anything this year. So off to the market we went to get plants. And on to ebay to order plug plants that would do something - especially since we were about to head away for a week.

Week 1

Week one was all about weeding!

On the first day, (well, actually it was the evening after work) we did a tiny little bit - and I got eaten alive by mozzies! It was not fun.

On the second day, we progressed further and thought that maybe, just maybe, we might be able to finish it off the following night. I'd also been to Boots and was covered head to toe in mozzie spray because I did not want to get eaten again.

On the third day, we finished clearing the plot!

And on the fourth day, we rested!

The Call

When I was growing up in New Zealand I wanted to be a horticulturist. I can remember visiting my Nana and spending what seemed like hours out in her backyard in her vegetable garden picking whatever was ready to eat for dinner that night. My favourite meal was mashed vegetables (with lots of butter!) which she let me have every night when I stayed with her.

Years went by. At high school, horticulture suddenly became about chemistry and physics; two subjects I knew nothing about and was destined to fail. I needed to rethink my career as I was never going to get into university to study horticulture let alone actually get a degree in it. So I became something else, but I always had a garden; flower and vegetable.

Jump forward a few more years and I left New Zealand for the UK. I didn't have a garden in the UK. After about six years I put my number down on the waiting list for an allotment. I didn't hold out much hope; the secretary told me people rarely let their allotments go and there was a long waiting list.

Years passed, twice I got a letter asking if I still wanted to be on the list since it wasn't moving, twice I replied saying I did.

Late one July afternoon some six years later, I finally got a call to say an allotment had become available and I was next up on the list. Did I want it? Can you believe I actually asked if I could call back the next day as I was so shocked I didn't know what to say? A few hours later I called back to say I definitely wanted it and two days later my husband and I went along to the allotment to hand over a cheque, collect keys and see what was now our plot. It was overgrown and was going to need a lot of work before we could plant anything. I took a photo and then we headed straight to B&Q to buy gardening gloves!