Allotment

Alas, not my own yet (last time I checked I was 100th on the waiting list!) but one that is run by Community Solutions North West as an addition to the food bank in Burnley. Basically I wanted to do some volunteering and decided that the food bank was the place I wanted to volunteer. CSNW run the food bank alongside lots of other good things for the community like befriending, street soccer and a fabulous thing called Repaint. When I heard that L (who runs the food bank side of it) was looking to set up allotments to provide fresh food for the food parcels, I was in like a shot!

We have some poly tunnels behind head office in Accrington which are pleasant to work in at the moment but that are going to be ridiculously hot in the summer! There is a lot growing in there already and we are using these to start off a lot of seeds ready to be transferred to the other allotment plots. Craig Heap (Olympic gymnast and Burnley resident) gave some land from his private allotments to the food bank so we also have some outdoor allotments to work on.

They were farmers fields so the soil underneath is going to be wonderful with all the manure on it but as you can see by the pile, there is a lot of grass to take off the top before we can start planting the potatoes out!

The view isn't too bad either and it's going to get much more pleasant as the weather warms up! I volunteer every Friday (possibly a bit more if I have time during the summer) and I've already asked L if the dog and girls can come and help during holidays and it's been approved!

Roll on summer :)

Adventures in gardening

If you are friends with me on Facebook or Instagram then you will have already seen these pictures so bear with me. If not then enjoy these :)

This is what our front garden looked like in approx 2012. This was before last years attempts at veggie gardening which are documented elsewhere on this blog. Last year worked well but I wanted to increase the space for growing vegetables while we wait for our allotment (currently hovering around 100 on that list!)

So the patio bit in the middle came up and lots of plants were removed - lots of soil space now to utilise!

Here is Harry inspecting the first raised bed to go up. It went round the raspberry canes which were kindly donated by my friend Ruth. Since this picture was taken I have also planted out some courgettes courtesy of my father in law.

And this is with two more raised beds and some gravel down.

The raised bed nearest the house now has tomatoes and lettuce courtesy of my father in law again and parsnips from the garden centre. I've also chucked some radish seeds in there to see what happens as last year we got one measly radish!

And this is what it looks like now :) I still have to add gravel around the tayberry bush on the top left once the soil there is levelled and the bit of soil to the right is going to be flowers/bushes to attract bees/butterflies. The raised bed in the middle with the trellis behind is going to be for butternut squash eventually (I've only just planted the seeds!) and then something in front but I have no idea what yet. The box with the trellis houses peas, there are sweet peas in a pot to the left of the front bed and potatoes, onions, turnips and strawberries in tubs dotted around in various places. I've also got beans and herbs in the back garden where there will be another raised bed at some stage this year (to use next year)

Gardening is ace - lets see how much we get this year :)