FYI

Clicking on any of the pictures will open them at full size in the browser window, which means you will have to use the 'back' button to return to the main pages, whereas clicking to the left or right of any picture will open them in a new window, if you fancy a closer look at any of the piccies we've posted! We've included a Google Earth satelite picture of our plots and this years planting plan at the bottom of the page, next to each other. If you choose the Earth view on the satelite image you can rotate the image until it is lined up with the planting plan, then use the arrows in the plan to scroll from Plot 2 to Plot 1.

Sunday, January 09, 2011

And so the growing year starts again!

Happy New Year, Merry Yule / xmas n all that jazz, and now we've got the festive season done with, the time comes again to start planting for the coming growing season!

Today Ive been planting the early chillies, peppers, aubergines and tomatoes, plus some onion seeds, into the propogatirs which are now sitting on the bedroom windowsills, cant wait for the seeds to germinate, feels like the new growing year has started today! Lol!

Chillies Planted
2 dorset naga,
3 hungarian black,
2 choc habanero,
2 scotch bonnet,
4 orzoco,
8 hot jalapeno,
8 tokyo hot,
8 decayenne,
8 cayenne
8 hot stuff
8 Naga Jolokia

Total of 67 chilli seeds planted, with another batch of other varieties to be planted in late Feb!

Peppers Planted
14 worldbeater peppers
8 Granny Smith peppers,
8 Tasty Bell peppers
8 Padron peppers
8 Sweet Ingrid peppers,
8 Corno Rosso peppers
8 Jumbo peppers

Total 62 pepper seeds planted so far, with another batch of other varieties to be planted in late Feb!

Aubergines planted
6 Chinese Ancestors
6 Black Beauty
6 Black Enorma
6 Moneymaker
6 Viserba

A total of 30 aubergine seeds planted, lets hope they do better than last years (only 3 survived)

Tomatoes Planted
8 Balconi Red (hanging basket)
8 Ildi
8 Red Tumbling Toms (hanging basket)
8 Gardeners Delight

32 tomato seeds planted, 16 of which are for hanging baskets both at home and on the plot (should look good hanging from the new grapevine arbour!)

Plus  I've also sown 3 trays of onions from seed, Bedforedshire Champion, Ailsa Craig and Hytech, Im determined to do much better with onions from seed this year, its one of those things I really want to get to grips with, rather than relying on the onions from set (which usually run out about now!)

So, the balance sheet for the coming year now starts again!

Costs
£59.50 for seeds (Wyevales sale),
£7 for onion sets (3 varieties, 200+ sets in total),
£12 for dual plum tree,
£10 for 3 x 70L bags of compost (for planting seeds in)
So a total spend for 2011 of £98.50 so far, with Seed spuds, rent and subs to pay for definite (approx £100), plus any other projects we wish to undertake on the plots, so hopefully this year will be a cheaper year on the allotments than the last few!

We are on holidays in about 10 days time, so hopefully we will be able o get to the plot and get the winter clearing up done ready for the crops to go in when the weather properly improves!

Hope your planting plans are sorted, your first sowings are in the propogators and your growing year is off to a good start!

7 comments:

RobD said...

So you like chillies then? LOL!

bog darking.......... said...

good to see you starting 2011 blog postings again - followed you last year via shaylas-journal, BUT never saved your link so lost touch as shaylas blog seems to have become lost in cyber outerspace.

anyways found your link again, eventually, so now in favs -

always enjoyed your postings so will pop in to see what 2011 brings

all the best and have a good hols

Mrs Dobby said...

But of course! Gotta have a few varieties, and you never know what germination will be like, so have to plant enough so that if germination is poor then we will still have enough! If we get goo germination then I will either find room, or pass them onto friends to grow!

Mrs Dobby said...

Hi Bog Darking, thanks for the comments, glad you have been enjoying the blog, hopefully 2011 will be another good year on the plot, starting now! Cant wait for hols, and hopefully time to get the plot ready for the coming year!

Anonymous said...

very interesting, thanks

Anonymous said...

Hi There, was very impressed to find your blog and to see that you also keep bees! I have an allotment in south manchester and am looking to keep bees on my plot this year. Wondered if I could ask some questions about keeping bees specifically on allotments? My email is andytod@hotmail.com would love to hear from you all.

best wishes

Andy

Mrs Dobby said...

Hi Andy, no problem whatsoever with answering any qestions about keeping bees on allotments, have you been in touch with the Stockport BBKA about doing their course? We usually attent their meetings, but I havent been to the last 2 due to work (hubby and fellow beekeeping friends from our plot were there tho!)