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My sister likes her cup of coffee in the morning before starting work and picks me up a regular supply of used coffee grounds from a well known, tax evading company in the UK.
Used coffee grounds are beneficial for an allotment as they can be composted to enrich the soil with nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus , and potassium, or applied directly in thin layers to repel pests like slugs and snails. When adding them to the soil, it's best to mix them in to avoid creating a mat that blocks water absorption and to do it sparingly around young plants. Composting is the best method for long-term soil improvement and a more immediate nutrient release.
Benefits for your allotment
Soil enrichment: Coffee grounds contain nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other trace minerals that nourish plants. Composting them with "browns" like dried leaves improves the soil's structure over time.
How to use coffee grounds
Compost them: The safest and most effective method is to add used coffee grounds to your compost bin. They are considered "green" matter due to their nitrogen content, so be sure to balance them with plenty of "browns".
Reviewing the diary over the last Fourteen years for October
2012 - 19th October I took my first allotment on at Mill Green Plot 1, and got my key to the gate. I started this blog and recorded the state of the allotment before I touched it and then the progress made on the first day trying the clear the plot.
The purpose of the blog was to record my progress and perhaps get some feedback and comments on what I was doing right and wrong and to remind me how much I had actually achieved when I really didn't really feel like I was getting anywhere or moving as fast as I wished. This blog has grown into so much more than my original scope and reason for starting.
I purchased my first three Allotment books, of many that were to follow, and got my first packs of seeds with two of the books I bought.
2013 - By the end of September and the start of October this year I had eight beds in place and was still clearing weeds and putting in an infrastructure of paths and beds in place. I created a portable chicken wire hoop frame to stop the site foxes from digging up the beds as I was creating them.
I had manged to source a number of paving slabs off freecycle. The first formal plan of how the plot was going to ultimately going to be laid out was drawn, and as I worked nearby most dry lunch hours were spent on the plot doing little and often.
I harvested Cabbages and Cauliflowers, Tomatoes and Potatoes and I had real peppers growing in the blow-away greenhouse erected next to the shed and on the 9th of October the company I was working for informed me that my job was at risk and I was on the Redundancy list!.
The end of October was very wet and I recall being very frustrated that I would not be able to get on with building the infrastructure.
2014 - September this year had been the driest on record, and I started October by harvesting Marrows for the first time, other harvests included courgettes, Onions, Spring Onions, Carrots, cucumbers then on the 4th & 5th October and we had the first frosts. Continued to harvest runner beans, beetroots and peppers from the greenhouse. Picking up leaves from the pavements and at the end of the month picking Brussel Sprouts and I came up with a neew design for the slug traps.
2015 - Due to the developments around Mill Green I had taken on an additional plot on Spencer Road Allotment and was working on clearance and infrastructure as well as working on Mill Green Allotment during the start of the month because of the dry and mild weather. Tomato plants still growing in the greenhouse, Cabbage seeds in modules.
Keith dropped off loads of Strawberry runners, Cutting down Mustard green manure on plot 1A. Clearing 23B and marking the boundary and the first two beds weeded and installed.
Harvesting carrots and beetroots and planting cabbage.
2016 - Saving Tomato seeds, Infrastructure works progressing on Spencer Road plot 23B. cutting weed membrane for paths, beds and planting membrane sheets. All the tomatoes in flower buckets in the back garden removed, Green tomatoes in the Space Saver waiting to go red. harvesting King Edward spuds, first frost 8th October and lost some squash to it. Rest of the squash harvested and stored in the shed. Runner Beans cut off at the bottom so those left on the plant can die and dry out and be harvested for seeds.
Additional beds created at Spencer Road, Break-in's and damage by vandals every other night for a week. then rain stopped their and our play on site. Following a committee meeting we tried to get everyone's email address and set up a Spencer Road Facebook group so we can let people know when we see shed doors open or polytunnels burnt.
Over wintering onion sets in modules, Horse muck delivered and barrowed to the plot laid on beds and in Daleks to rot down more as too fresh.
2017 - I started doing my seed storage box audit and producing lists here on the blog. During the first week of October Redrow finally did the work to create the drop off and pick up area that I managed to negotiate with them. I had made the decision that I was going to keep on Spencer Road long enough to get everything I needed for plot 1 on Mill Green moved over including the Dalek, Shed and bed frames etc.
My son-In-law helped me remove items from Spencer Road and bring them to Mill Green.
Clearing beds on Mill Green Plot 1 and putting them to bed. Gross miss management of allotment plots 138 plots that could have been occupied and bringing in revenue.
I worked out how much weed membrane I was going to need to cover the plot and ordered it off ebay.
Pumpkins for carving were picked up from Spencer Road and the kerb stones I had transported over were laid on flat along the bottom of plot I defining the boundary. The 29th October was a full day of clearing and burning debris from Mill Green plot 1
The plan layout for my new kingdom was drafted out in CAD based on the vision I had in my head at the time of taking over the plot.
2018 - Not a lot on the allotment front actually happened in October 2018. Three weeks of rain and my brother-in-law Keith who was more like a brother to me was seriously ill and we didn't know it at the time but terminally ill, in hospital during this month so days spent visiting him rather than the allotment.
2019 - Woodchips for the paths dropped off, Daughters Wedding stopped allotment play followed by bad and wet weather meant that sorting out seeds and planning next year took place for a week and a half during the middle of the month.
Taking little man Finn down to the allotment to harvest Pumpkins for carving for Halloween Harvesting Mini White Cucumbers & Kiwano's
To Do List
Celery was the one vegetable that I have tried to grow in the past but have never had a great deal of success with until I got some Tango Celery Postiplugs from Suttons in 2022. There were 18 Postiplugs when I used them in 2022 but they all went in at the same time, I just harvested from the tallest to the shortest.
In 2023 I was planning to grow them from seeds but, the cancer and mobility issues meant that it didn't happen, so the plan at the moment is to grow them from seed in 2026
I will not try them in pots in the greenhouse as I have in the past but in the square foot gardening beds again on plot 1 as they have really been such a success in 2022.
New to Suttons for 2023 was the Tango F1 Hybrid Seeds in 2023 they were £3.49 for 40 seeds, and as of the date of this post they are still selling at £3.49
The web site says sow in March and April, but I think these need to be sown in mid- February and brought on before planting out after the danger of frost has passed. I'm planning on sowing 7 seeds in Mid-Feb, 7 seeds in Mid-March and another 6 in Mid-April so I can do some successive sowing and harvesting during 2026. The first 7 plants will go out under a cloche.
The harvest period is between August to the end of October or the first frost.
The average life expectancy for Celery Seed is 8 to 12 years, and 40 seeds should hopefully last me for 2027 and 2028, as I aim to use 20 seeds a year. This makes the cost of growing your own celery 8.7p per plant.
Price of Celery, Sainsbury 80p - £1, Waitrose Green Celery Essential 95p Organic £1.25 Sainsbury Organic £1.25 and Tesco organic £1.25 and that's why we allotment holders and gardeners have a bash at growing a vast range of vegetables each year.
It's a challenge, they taste better than shop bought, and they save us money, at least during the harvest period.
In My Seed Box For 2027 - Index
Apart from Mint, I have not really been into herbs, until 2022 when I grew Basil during the Joe Mills Grow With Me. I'm going to have a herb bed on the Back Garden Allotment in 2027 as I have a collection of herb seeds and may as well experiment with them and find out what I like.
