Alans Allotment

Thursday, 2 July 2026

Cutting Melting Weed Membrane and Filling Raised Beds

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Wednesday, 1 July 2026

Weed and Planting Membrane

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The 7 Seeds You MUST Start in July

It's mid summer. Surely it's too late to start sowing now, right? Wrong!

There is indeed lots that we can still sow now and in this week's episode, Ben demonstrates some luscious veggies that we can get growing right now. In fact, sowing now will extend the growing season so that we can be harvesting for longer, even right into autumn and beyond. So don't worry, you haven't missed the boat!

Phew.

Tuesday, 30 June 2026

District Nurse & Deliveries Today

Weed membrane laid out to be marked up for making covers for the new raised beds in the Back Garden Allotment (BGA). It started to rain more or less as I got to this stage.

The hand tools are now mounted on the back of the washing machine and tumble dryer shed door. I won the Wilkinson Sword collection of tools in a completion in 2016. My two latest gizmo's are also on the door.

The Strawberries are both looking more settled in this morning.

The pain in my legs and feet, gets a little unbearable, so it's in the riser recliner and watch YouTube videos with my feet up.

I have not had time to get someone to buy me a leg washing specific bowl, then I remembered what the nursed did before I bought one three years ago

I've experienced the second act of gross incompetence from the NHS District Nurse service today. The first was informing me it would take one to three days for my first visit and it ended up four days. By which time multiple sites of leakage had developed. Todays fiasco was to send a District nurse that "doesn't do compression bandaging".

I can just bandage you up???

"NO Babe it has to be compression bandages as I have had compression bandages since both legs swelled after my radiation therapy for cancer and I developed ulcers in both legs in late 2023"

Monday, 29 June 2026

Potting Up Strawberries

My Agapanthus plant is finally bursting into colour. it was given to me by an old neighbour that I had known since I was a kid. It has to be over 30 years old.

It started life in a smallish pot and got moved up every few years until it finally went in the ground under the apple tree. It thrives on neglect, It gets watered very occasionally and that's about it.

I have no idea where the brambles that are growing out of the paved area in front of the sheds have come from, I have cut back some extending growth but it needs pushing back hard and treated with the strongest weed killer I can find, not that any of the new weedkillers actually work, these days.

A check in on how my very late tomatoes are doing, and in the main they appear happy, will I actually get any tomatoes from them this year, who knows once can only try. The remained as seedings far too long but that was because I became ill and spent a week in hospital.

Strawberry (Fragaria) Elsanta from ...............Fill in details

A great mid-season Dutch variety that produces a lot of glossy, orange-red fruit with a delicious sweet flavour. Elsanta strawberries, a supermarket favourite, have a long storage life and are less prone to bruising than many other varieties. The juicy berries are available from mid-June to mid-July and are ideal for making your own jams or freezing to enjoy when they are out of season. Height: 20cm (8"). Spread: 30cm (12").

Strawberry (Fragaria) Elsanta Peat Free 9cm pots x 6

Growing Information

Plant strawberry plants in autumn or late spring in a sheltered, sunny position in well manured, free draining soil. Plant strawberry runners every 45cm (18") in rows spaced at 75cm (30") apart.

Spread out their roots and place them in the soil at a level where the crown of the plant is just poking above the surface.

Avoid planting them too deeply as this may cause them to rot. Alternatively try growing strawberry plants in hanging baskets or in specially designed strawberry planters for the patio.

Vermiculite bags which turned out to be a bag in the brown paper sack!

Now that's disappointing, I bought two sacks and when I opened the brown paper sack there is only one! I will be contacting Marshalls to find out why and hopefully get the other sack I have paid for.

So into the mix I'm creating for the hanging baskets, is Miracle-Grow Peat Free MPC and Irish Peat Based MPC

With a touch of Vermiculite and hydrated Coir

With some Water retaining crystals

That's the water retaining crystals on the top of the layered structure

Out Comes my 600mm long Power Planter and my trusty Ryobi Drill

I have eyeballed the volume and hope it will be enough, I needed some room in the container for what happens next.

Me mix it by hand, no way I have been doing it this way way, before the cancer and arthritis

My now blended mix placed in the bottom of the hanging basket provided by Oakland Gardens was watered so that the water retaining crystals could do their thing and swell and retain water.

The strawberries look to be two very different ages by the growth difference between the two packs of 3 plants

The strawberries don't look happy and settled quite yet, but give them a couple of days and I'm sure they will.

I was being chased by the sunlight which I'm not supposed to be in these days, It was at this point I watered what I had done and went in for lunch.

Having the pots from the first 3 plants potted up the the first hanging basket it made filling the second basket a whole lot easier and faster as I packed the mix around the hanging basket to be between chains

Somehow that hanging basket has a face!. Second batch of 3 plants unpacked, and they had been heavily watered by the supplier

Pop the pot out and the plants into a perfect fitting holes, add some compost mix around the join for good measure and my work here was done.

There strawberries look to be much happier in their Hanging Basket.

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