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Katrina’s Allotment Diary

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Hello from Nottingham, UK

Recent Posts

  • Minted Pea & Ham Soup
  • Volunteering at RHS Chatsworth Flower Show
  • April Allotment Tour Video
  • TOP 10 Seed Choices with Suttons
  • March Allotment Tour Video
  • End of Winter Update

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DAY 5. Green Manure 🌱 Are you growing it? Sowing a green manure (or cover crop) really helps to protect the soil and gives it a healthy boost over the harsh, winter months! . In 2017 I grew mustard seed (and a bit of rye, pictured) for the first time and now I’ll use it every year to help prevent erosion, improve soil structure and stop the weeds from growing. Mustard also produces a bio-fumigant in its roots that help fight the wireworms who make holes in my spuds! 😒🐛🥔 . I might try a few others this year. There are so many different benefits to using them! It’s really worth reading up on them first, especially when considering crop rotation. Some are better suited for heavy soil and others are beneficial to pollinators. Are you planning to use green manure this year? I would love to know what you’re going to grow! . . #NationalAllotmentWeek #greenmanure #feedyoursoil #soilhealth #gardening #growyourown #ediblegarden #allotment #gardenersofinstagram #allotmentblog #homegrown #nottingham #seeds #allotmentweek #dowhatyoulove #lovewhatyoudo #garden #gardentips
Day 4. Apples 🍏 🍎 I’ve just given my apple tree a good maintenance check! 👩🏻‍🔧The next four weeks is the last push for my dwarf Egremont Russet to develop the biggest crop it can before harvesting (usually done on my birthday) in mid-September. 🎈 . It’s good to check if your tree has any low hanging branches. If it is completely laden with fruit, you may wish to remove some to give room for bigger apples and a healthy airflow between them. You might also like to support it to prevent the branch from snapping under the weight of all those delicious apples! . Finally, give the base of the tree a good tidy. This goes for all other fruiting trees too! Fallen fruits can cause diseases and attract pests. If they’re not suitable for eating, you could hang them in trees or spike them onto fence posts for the birds to eat over winter, or chop them up and add them to your compost bin! ♻️ . . . #nationalallotmentweek #homegrown #appletree #eatseasonally #gardener #gardenersofinstagram #growyourownfood #ediblegarden #allotmentlife #egremontrusset #dowhatyoulove #eatfresh
Day 3 – Appreciate the details. It’s taken a long time for me to be able to relax on the allotment. I didn’t even have a chair to sit down on for the first year or more! 😳 I don’t know about you, but I find it so easy get caught into the trap of thinking ‘I must complete my to-do list’ and completely forget to appreciate the little things. Not only is it #NationalAllotmentWeek but today is #NationalRelaxationDay! One of the biggest lessons that having an allotment has taught me, is to slow down, take in the surroundings, relax and enjoy the details that too often get overlooked. 😌 What’s your favourite #allotmentdetail? Mine is the creamy petals of my Café Au Lait dahlia (yes, I’m obsessed, sorry!) which twist in the middle and some even curl in funny shapes towards the centre. . . . . . #growyourownflowers #dahlia #cafeaulaitdahlia #relax #flowers #petals #growyourown #allotment #instaflowers #dowhatyoulove #allotmentlife #flora #beauty #flowersmakemehappy #statementflowers #freshflowers #nottingham #macro #flowersandmacro #canon #instabloom #allotmentlife
Day 2. Saving seed. 🏷 One of the greatest things about having an allotment is growing something from seed. This season alone, I’ve spent hours upon hours nurturing little life-forms that emerged from a seemingly lifeless seed, when the conditions where *just* right. 🌱 Seeds fascinate me and it’s only in the last few years that I’ve begun to save them as much as I can and wherever I am allowed to collect them. At this time of the year when flowers turn to crispy seed heads, I’ll always be carrying some brown paper bags and envelopes with me! ✂️🤫 It’s not just the flower seeds that I save. All of my tomatoes have grown from seed that I saved last year, which means they’re actually more accustomed growing in my specific soil conditions! Oh and they’re free too! So snip off those flower heads, let some salads go to seed and make note of your favourite varieties to save this year. Who knows, maybe you’ll be sending them across the country in a seed swap for somebody else to enjoy! 💌 . . . . #nationalallotmentweek #seeds #savingseeds #allotment #growyourown #vegetablegarden #allotmentlife #myhappyplace #shed #pottingshed #dowhatyoulove #homegrowngarden #gardener #horticulture #epicgardening #gardentime #growfromseed #life #freeplants #gardenersofinstagram #shedlife
🎉It’s National Allotment Week and to celebrate, I’ll be offering my top tips on growing your own food and sharing some of the lessons that I have learnt, over the (almost) four years of owning my own little my patch of earth. 💚 DAY 1. RASPBERRIES! If you have summer fruiting raspberries, now is the time to prune them! At the moment it’s quite easy to identify the canes you need to remove. Since the fruits grow on the previous year’s growth, all of the old, brown wood (that has just fruited) can be removed, leaving the fresh green canes to fruit next year. Simply use a sharp pair of secateurs to cut the cane away at ground level. You can then allow these canes to dry in the sun and use as plant supports or to make a trellis for next year! As it happens, I’m actually considering growing more of the autumn fruiting variety instead. Do you have a favourite raspberry variety? . . . #growyourownfood #nationalallotmentweek #epicgardening #gardener #horticulturist #homegrown #myhappyplace #allotmentlife #allotmentlove #growyourownfood #gardentips #ediblegarden #dowhatyoulove
It looks like I’ll be enjoying puddings for breakfast this week! 😄🍨 . . . . #homegrown #fruit #harvest #allotmentlife #growyourownfood #eatfresh #organicgarden #vegetablegarden #allotment #ediblegarden #blackberries #victoriaplums #rhubarb #fruit
I may not have completed everything on my to-do list today, but I can finally sit in my shed! Yes, it got messy again 😅 My hair’s a mess and I’ve got bits of twig in it, but I’m feeling accomplished for having a really good tidy inside and out! ✨🤸🏻‍♀️ . 🎨 Artworks by @hollyhenrydesign, @aimeemacillustration & @gnowangerup_cottage. 🔨 Trug by @loldeantimber . . . #allotment #shedlife #gardening #allotmentlove #growyourownfood #homegrown #ediblegarden #vegegarden #gardenersofinstagram #homegrowngarden #allotmentlife #shed #allotmentgirl #gardener #dowhatyoulove #growwhatyoueat #feelgood #lovewhatyoudo
☀️When I stepped out of the polytunnel last night I was treated to the most amazing light.👌🏻 Everything was glowing in a warm, peachy colour it was so surreal! I love gardening in the evenings, when all the birds are about to settle down for the night. It’s not uncommon for me to me locking up my gate by torchlight 🔦😅 Have you got a favourite time of day to garden or potter about? 👩🏻‍🌾🌅 . . . . #nofilter #allotment #sunset #garden #myhappyplace #gardening #dusk #vegetablegarden #homegrown #growyourownfood #dowhatyoulove #ediblegarden #allotmentlife #gardenersofinstagram #kitchengarden #greenthumb
Can you spot the grub in my plum? 🐛That’s the plum moth larvae that I originally thought was sawfly. The brown speckles inside are essentially its excrement and these guys attack my Victoria plum tree every year. 😔 Sometimes the whole plum is brown inside and I only get to eat a handful that aren’t damaged! 💩I don’t think there’s a lot you can do about it organically, but fortunately the extent of the damage doesn’t seem to be as bad this year. So I’ll be salvaging what I can over the next few days from my struggling little plum tree. Do you have any plum recipe suggestions? Preferably not jam, I have enough of the rhubarb and strawberry jam to keep me going until next summer! 😄 . . . . #plum #homegrown #plummoth #ediblegarden #allotmentlife #growyourown #fruittree #plumtree #victoriaplum #harvest #kitchengarden #growhatyoueat #organicgardening #allotment #victoriangarden #gardener #eatfresh
When you’ve been away from the allotment for a few days, you never know what will greet you upon your return. The first of my Café Au Lait dahlia flowers welcomed me with her enormous ivory bloom, with layer upon layer of petticoat petals. It was only a very short break, but boy is it good to be back! 💗 . . . . #dahlia #flowers #garden #gardening #dahliaporn #cafeaulait #cafeaulaitdahlias #growyourownflowers #cutflower @sarahravenperchhill #mygardentoday #mymonthontheplot #growyourown #gardenersofinstagram #dowhatyoulove #petals #allotment #gardener #allotmentlife #dahliawars #growsomethingpretty #flower #raisedbed #rockery #allotment #gardener #greenthumb #dahliaflower
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Recent Posts

  • Minted Pea & Ham Soup
  • Volunteering at RHS Chatsworth Flower Show
  • April Allotment Tour Video
  • TOP 10 Seed Choices with Suttons
  • March Allotment Tour Video

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow Homegrown Garden on WordPress.com

Copyright

© Katrina Harrison aka Homegrown.Garden, 2014. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without written permission is strictly prohibited. Excepts and links may be used, provided that full an clear credit is given to Katrina Harrison, aka Homegrown.Garden with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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