Vinny's Allotment Plot

Tomorrow, weather and  time permitting, I have a cunning plan!

I like gardening and growing stuff but I don' eat a lot of vegetbles and the ones I do eat I eat in tiny quantities. I have been sorting through my seeds today and realisedI haven't sown anything this year!!
Luckily the majority of the seed packets allow for sowing up until end of May. I have lots of flower seeds thatc ould be sown now so I will sow a goodly amount of those. Pumpkins and squash should be ok now as well.
I have leeks ready to plant out and various members of the onion family already growing. Broadies are flowering as well.Spring cabbage is coming along nicely,
I don't mind eating a wee bit of swede which is comparatively low in carbs compared to spuds. For some reason I seem to struggle growing swedes though,so with this in mind I have three varieties to sow and assess.

I have been remiss this year with the sowing and have re-asessd my priotities! No greenhouse tomatoes this year as I don't eat them and keeping thnem watered is a bind.
I might not have the most productive allotment this year but with all the flower seeds I have to sow,it could be the bonniest!  (Thats if I get my finger out)

Weather today could put the Kybosh on my grand plans.....we'll see?

Decided to brave the elements as it was quite warm. When it rained I took my tee shirt off and put it into the greenhouse to stay dry.

I planted the rest of my onion sets which have two chances,we shall see? This took up two of the beds which I had prepared earlier so I weeded and prepared another one for my swede sowing. I divided bed into three and sowed swede Marian, swede Tweed and swede Helenor. Tweed was an F1 variety so there was only half the seed that was in the other packets.It will be interesting to see if the F1 variety out performs the other two,and if not, why not?

I did a bit of hand weeding the buttercups but got sick after a short while. The flower sowing will just have to wait for another day!

I got the dreaded email from the Council today who have just taken over our site. Askd to tidy up weed growth after inspection.Every plotholder must have got this generic email as my plot is one of the tidier ones!

Anyway, armed with a strimmer I headed to plot and spent an hour strimming. The idea was to strim growth down then (against my better jusgement) spray the paths with glyphosate. I got my sprayer out, added some water but couldnt get it to pressurise for some reason. Sod it I thought, I can't be arsd with this so have ordered a new sprayer for 15 squid off Amazon Prime for delivery tomorrow. If the council would rather see bare soil as greenery, so be it!

I thought Glyphosate was being banned?

I thought Glyphosate was being banned?

December 2025 by what I have read?

I still wouldn't use it - especially where food crops are nearby.

I still wouldn't use it - especially where food crops are nearby.

Just using it on paths and non-food areas. (Dont particularily like doing it but needs must as it's that or give up my allotment?)

 I haven't got the time or energy to devote to keep the plot weed free by use of the hoe and I have cardboard and even plywood over some non-food areas.

Back at the plot today. There is a grrassed area at the frnt of allotment where I usually park which had about 15 cars parked there where there is usually only myself or one other parked. The reason must be that nearly every plot holder has got  a  letter from the council (who have just rcently taken over the site) about various infrimgements to the tenancy agree ment. The consensus among plotholders seems to be that the Council want the land for house building so are imposing strict guidelines for plotholders with the answer to all questions "If you don't like the conditions,just leave"
One of the main contentions is that we are a site without water and all council plot rents are the same, even though al lothers have water! We have been told we have no chace of geting water on site! Another problem with the Council rental system is that all plots no matter there size cost the same ammount.

Cant be helped so I will just get on wih it and I have an IBC tank for water anyway.

Today I did a bit of hand weeding of onions and strawberrie and dug over a bed, raked it and sowed 9 packets of flower seeds.

A reasonably happy couple of hours at the plot in the P***ing rain. It was reasonably warm so I said sod it in the end and took my coat off and just got wet in my tee shirt and shorts.
I managed to get quite a bit done including preparing beds and sowing direct two lots of squash and pumpkins. Sowed four stations of courgettes as well.

Lots of hand weeding and digging plus raking as well.

I had hoped that more of the nine packets of flower seeds sown would have germinated by now but only a couple had started to show above ground.

Really must concentrate on getting some brasicas sown and transplanting some leeks. I may even try a late soing of beans as I have loads of varieties in my seed box.

No piccies today(I forgot to take any!)