I recapped our allotment in this post a couple weeks back and used the following illustration to show the layout of our first plot.

To show all the changes that we’ve made this year so far and our plans for all the plants, I created a new illustration for 2018. You can see it below.

So the first big changes up from last year, are the greenhouse and a second plot! Richard is so incredibly proud of the greenhouse. It took a while to build, but mostly because we were doing it in winter and there’s only so much time you want to spend freezing your butt off outside painting pallets. The frame was built out of pallets that Richard got from his work, and for so long it looked like we were building a pen for animals. Then he added some curved plastic pipe for the roof supports, and a shelf made of pallet scraps for starting seeds at the back, and everything got covered in plastic! The thing that took the longest was painting it all with the same stain as the shed (Tudor Black Oak) as pallets have so many nooks and crannies.

We’ve used it to start all our seeds this year, and made use of both the shelf as well as the bare ground to keep large bins full of seed trays. It was great to not have our windowsills full of little trays, like last year. Now that everything has been planted out, it’ll mostly be used to grow all our tomatoes, chilli peppers, and cucamelons.

Outside of the greenhouse, I opted to plant some lupins and salvia because I wanted to fill the space a bit and make it look prettier. On the other side, I moved some forget-me-nots that kept showing up on our plot to make it look nicer. Our allotment neighbour has them, and they keep seeding little plants all over our plot. Since I like free flowers I decided to simply move them, rather than get rid of them.

Besides the greenhouse, we have our shipping boxes-turned-raised beds from last year. We’ve moved them to a slightly different spot because of the greenhouse, but they’re in the same part of the plot. Instead of lettuce greens (which we always forgot to pick) we’re growing all of our herbs in two of the boxes while keeping the third for carrots and radishes like before. Hopefully, the nasturtiums, which are planted around the two herb boxes, will really fill out and spill into the middle… so pretty!

Over by the greenhouse is our shed! I gave it a couple of fresh coats of stain, as it was looking a bit worn after the winter. And of course, we gave it a much larger patio! If you follow along on Instagram, you will have seen the progress on stories. It’s soooo nice to have enough room now to sit with a few friends for a BBQ, which would have been too cramped before. And I can’t stop loving the herringbone brick! We scoured Gumtree to find free bricks in our area and then cleaned the old mortar off them to add to the existing patio._

I also frosted the window to make it look less cluttered (and prevent prying eyes – people’s sheds have been broken into before), and added a window box! Richard’s convinced it’s a bad idea, but it was in my allotment dream to have a pretty window box on the black shed. So far I’ve managed to keep it alive, despite not watering it every day. I specifically chose plants that do well without tons of water.

To further pretty up the space, we have our lavender around the shed (which is so much bigger this year – yay!) and a passion flower climbing up one side. I’m hoping that after this year the lavender will be big enough to sort of make a hedge all the way around the shed, but the back plants were smaller to start, and get less light. Without direct sunlight, they throw out really scraggly long flowers, but I’m hoping that after I prune them back a bit, they won’t flop over so much.

Beside the patio, we have Richard’s beloved sweet peas, in a newly built trellis. Last year we used bamboo, but the weight of the sweet peas caused it to sag too much. So we got some old scrap wood, stained it black (of course), and put green string between them. Hopefully, they’ll get even taller than last year with their added support. I had to redo the string part a couple of times because I first used wire (they didn’t like it), and then it was too far apart for them to grow properly. Hopefully next year we can get it sorted early enough to get super tall sweet peas. We basically want to make a privacy screen out of flowers to create a little private patio area.

The only other things on this side of the plot are our bean trellises. We’ve had some issue with the one corner, where plants seem to suddenly wither and die – we’re not sure if it’s ants creating nests in the roots, or some kind of fungus. Either way, we’ll try the beans somewhere else next year.

The finishing touch for this half of the plot would be to somehow get some solar string lights above the patio, but we’ll see. We don’t spend too much time at the allotment once the sun goes down, so it might be a bit of a waste… but so pretty!

Between the shed side of this plot and the other side, we have a plum tree and an apple tree. Pruned back a fair bit from last year, but still more to go. Hopefully next year they’ll be all nice and open. I also added some solar “light bulbs” amongst the trees which come on around dusk and make it look so pretty! They were only £1 from the pound shop, but work really well.

On to the other half of this plot! I told you these allotment posts would be long! 

The other half of our plot is broken into three sections. On the far side, we have our strawberry patch, rhubarb patch, and a few raspberries and blackberries. Everything there was the same last year, with the exception of the raspberries. They’re all transplants from little raspberries that decided to sprout in the grass between our trees. (Turns out raspberries are pretty much invasive on our plot – they keep popping up all over the place, so we just move them where we want.) Last year we had squash plants there, which we’ve moved to our second plot, as there wasn’t enough room. Our strawberries and rhubarb are much more established this year! We got a crazy amount of strawberries in June, and are hoping for another good crop later in the summer.

On the other side of this half of the plot, we have another bank of raspberry canes. These were moved from the other side of the plot to make way for the greenhouse, and they are much happier here! Hopefully, they’ll root in really well and produce lots next year. We also added a couple yellow and black (!) raspberry plants in amongst the old ones. Beside these is our new composter that Richard built from three pallets (and stained black – of course). Honestly, Richard is so in love with his composter, and I like that we can use it to store and sort bamboo and other wood posts.

In the middle of these sections, we have all our rows of plantings. We changed the way we oriented them from last year because the slope of the hill kept resulting in the lowest plants getting all the water. From the bottom, we have two rows of potatoes, two rows of beets (three kinds), parsnips, onions, and sugar snap peas! Right beside the peas, we have our second plum tree, which we surrounded with dahlia and teddy bear sunflowers. It’ll be like a little burst of pretty flowers in the middle of so many practical things. Well, that is if they start blooming anytime soon

Unfortunately, our first crop of beets and Swiss chard didn’t germinate, and the second got attacked by slugs. We’ve replanted them, and new shoots are emerging, but for now, this section looks all sad and bare. The parsnips did okay though, which was the complete opposite of last year. The snap peas have again been absolutely decimated by birds and slugs. We keep replanting them, but they just get gobbled up before they can get more than an inch or two tall. We maaaay need to buy larger plants soon.

The last thing on this plot, at the far end, are our last three trees – two apples and a cherry. The apples are doing okay – one got a bad aphid infestation and dropped a lot of apples, while the other is great. The cherry, however, keeps dropping all its fruit before it starts to ripen. There’s a pest problem there but I haven’t managed to figure it out yet.

And that’s it! Or, at least, that’s our old plot. I didn’t document the new one this past month simply because it was so overgrown in weeds (argh!) that it was hard to see the plants. As it was left for over a year to completely overgrown with grass and weeds, it’s been hard to tame. We’re almost there now, so I’ll try and document it for July. Already it’s proven quite the courgette/zucchini patch and the squash plants are right behind! Looks like we’re in for a bumper crop this year!

So what about you guys? Do you have a big vegetable garden this year?

Well, it’s mostly before. To be exact, by the point I started taking pictures, we had already ripped out almost all of the weed-strewn landscape fabric barrier, old overgrown lavender, blackberry brambles, and 2-3 rows of raspberry bushes. So it doesn’t do justice to what our little plot was like when we took it over, but it’s sort of the clean slate we created.

Last weekend, Richard and I both had Saturday off, so we spent the morning on the allotment. First up, we went to our local garden center, Ruxley Manor, for some seeds, hand tools, and rhubarb plants. We had hoped to get our shed delivered this weekend, but it won’t come until mid-April. Instead, we decided to try and get the rest of the clearing and pruning done in preparation. As a lot of the plants are going around the shed, we decided to only buy the rhubarb that day. The little rhubarb patch is in the other half of the plot, so we don’t have to worry about moving anything.

apparently, this is two plum trees planted together – one purple, and the other green!

Our allotment plot was in rough shape when we got it. None of the trees had ever been properly pruned, nothing was cut back or well-trained, and most of the soil was covered with landscape fabric to prevent weeds (which just grew through it). It meant a few days of back-breaking work for Richard (I kept having to work weekends) and lots of pruning and tidying up for me. However, it already has three apple trees, 2.5 plum trees (one tree is apparently two growing together, different kinds), and enough raspberry plants to salvage a row.

our solitary row of raspberry canes – also, how immaculate is our neighbor’s plot?

But this last weekend, I decided to start documenting our progress! I’m not sure if this is interesting to anyone but me, but I want to be able to see how far we’ve come when it’s done. Side note – Richard has to go away for work for 6 weeks in May, and I asked him if he wanted me to send him weekly allotment update photos. He thinks he wants to be surprised by how much it has all grown when he gets back… which I used to love seeing after summer holidays when I was a kid.

this is our current plan for the allotment – although it changes every time we are down there (in fact, it has already changed from what is shown here!)

So first up, we have the front half of the allotment. We keep calling it the ‘raspberry section’, as it used to contain mostly rows of overgrown raspberries, but we need to come up with better names. Perhaps one half is Canada, and the other is Northern Ireland? That way I can say things like, “Let’s put the beans in the Northwest of Canada!”.

Here we are stalling the most due to the shed, as it’ll go in the bottom corner of the plot. Richard spent a day ripping up all the landscape fabric (rolled into piles) and random bricks. Now we just need to properly turn the soil and we can begin planting! Hopefully, we’ll plant beans, peas, carrots, cucamelons, chillis, tomatoes, herbs, and some flowers here. We’re going to try and plant some pretty/fragrant things around the shed as we’re building a mini patio out of reclaimed brick. A nice little place to sit and have a cup of tea while we’re at the allotment.

We’ve already changed our plans from what my plan shows above, as we’re now thinking about moving the carrots and lettuce greens to this section and putting them in raised beds. We may even include the cucamelons in with this plan, and create an archway between the two beds!

In between the two growing sections, we have two trees. One is our weird mixed plum tree-and-a-half, and the other is an apple tree. There were three rose bushes placed around these, but they were getting in the way in terms of picking and pruning, so they had to go. We are giving them to a friend of Richard’s, so at least they will be planted somewhere. Just not somewhere that involves me constantly getting pricked by thorns when trying to get at the fruit in the trees.

As I do like flowers, I am replacing the thorny roses with a bank of edible flowers. My goal is to cover the ground between the trees with flowers, that can then be added to salads. You can see my little tray of violas ready for planting, and there were already tons of primrose around. We’ll also plant marigolds, cornflower, and violets. I just need to get them sprouting first. Maybe in a year or two, we’ll have lots of pretty, yet edible, flowers?

The second half of the allotment is larger than the first. It’s where most of our rows of vegetables will go, along with a few randoms. As there was already a rhubarb plant here, we decided to keep it where it was and create a patch. We’re introducing a couple varieties that we bought, so we’ll hopefully get rhubarb at different times of the year.

There was also a thornless blackberry variety, to the right of where Richard is majestically posing. Again, we’re keeping it as is but will try to train it better. We’re creating a little brick border and will mulch on top of the existing landscape fabric, as it was too difficult to remove in this area, and will help with weeds. You won’t even notice it once we’re through with it.

And seeing as how there is a bit of room in this little section, we’re going to add a tayberry plant! I have never tried one before, but it seemed like a good fit besides the Blackberry, as they both need similar support and training. Oh, and there is another smaller plum tree in this section, but it doesn’t divide the space up like the other trees, as it’s on the edge of our plot.

apparently, this is a purple plum… which makes me a bit sad as yellow plums are my absolute favorite!

the little rhubarb plant we inherited

At the far end of our little plot are three trees – one cherry, and two apples flanking it. I’ve already pruned them back, so now we just have to devise a plan for protecting our cherries from birds! We’ve heard from our neighbors not to expect any cherries, as the birds get them all. Not this year birds! Although to be fair, I’m not sure what to do yet to prevent that.

As with the previous tree section, we’re going to plant a bunch of flowers under the trees. In this case, however, Richard wants to plant tons of spring bulbs! Not going to do much for us this year, but come next spring, there will be a huge boom in daffodils, crocus, and snowdrops under these trees!

And that’s that! It’s kind of a boring post, not going to lie, but I wanted to let you all see the blank slate we started with. That way, when I start posting amazing photos once it’s all established, you will be even more impressed! Now if you need me, you will find me sitting on the grass, trying to mentally encourage my plants to grow…

Modern rosewood media cabinet from Swoon Editions | Hello Victoria

We finally got some new furniture for our flat! Isn’t she beautiful?

Before moving to England, I googled some alternatives to IKEA for finding affordable furniture. As much as I love IKEA, it tends to have a “look” to it, don’t you think? Maybe that’s just me (because I know their products so well), but I didn’t want an entire place that said “IKEA”.

fern, and wood planter from Flower & Glory // cement planter from the Red Mud Hut

I’ll definitely shop there (and already have for the flat), but I want to have furniture from all types of places and styles so that our flat feels like a true representation of our eclectic tastes.
One of the shops that came up in my search was Swoon Editions. It’s an online store with a cool concept – ditch the storefront, middlemen, and everything else that jacks up the price of furniture, and just connect directly with the people who make it. All of their items are online only, which poses a bit of a problem – you might end up waiting months to receive a product you have never even seen in person!

Made.com (which I also researched) has a similar concept but actually has a few showrooms in and around London, so you can see stuff in person.

Zabel media cabinet from Swoon Editions

Richard and I both fell in love with this media cabinet, called Zabel. Despite being a bit more money (double) than we had hoped to spend, we couldn’t find anything else we liked quite as much. It felt unique, and modern, while still being “warm” – I tend to find lots of modern furniture lacks warmth due to all the chrome/glass etc. The only problem was that we had to wait about 3 months (!!) to have it delivered. Some items on their website can be delivered right away, but others have to actually be made and shipped from their manufacturing country (in our case India).

As much as a nicer sofa, or bed with storage would be nice, the media cabinet turned out to be our first priority. It doesn’t take much to convince me to buy something new and nice, but Richard’s a bit tougher to crack when we aren’t exactly flush. However, he absolutely hated our former media setup and was determined to find something to replace it. (Woohoo!)

fiddle leaf basket from Homesense

Oh, and did you notice our beautiful plant in the corner? I was beyond excited when I came across this plant in our local Lidl. They had a small section of plants on sale for £9.99 and I couldn’t believe it when I found this fiddle leaf fig (the only one) amongst the rest. I cut the top off to encourage branching (and replanted the cut to make a new plant). So basically I get two fiddle leaves for the lowly price of £9.99!! And if you’re looking for your own fiddle leaf here in the UK, well you’re in luck! The Columbia Road flower market always seems to have them, and not for much more than I got mine!

But back to the media cabinet. We’re planning on mounting the tv on the wall, once we finalize exactly where we want it to go. I am looking forward to accumulating a few decorative items to dress up the top once the TV is out of the way.

my humble rendering of our planned bookshelf and wall-mounted TV

Beside the cabinet, we’re planning on building a bookshelf just like this one, from CB2. I’m thinking of making the shelves wood, and either staining them black or a mid-toned wood. I’m torn, as I love the warmth of wood, but think black will allow the items on the shelves to be the focus. Thoughts?

In other living room furniture news… we still have the same sofa, and coffee table (which Richard loathes), but they are now grounded by this awesome rug! I’ve always wanted a cool antique rug and searched for a while before coming across this beauty on eBay. It was right in my price range, and the perfect size to have all the front legs of our furniture on it.

Eventually, we’ll have a side table or two and will pull the rug out from the wall a bit. I’m thinking of doing a modern box frame coffee table with a couple poufs tucked underneath it. Maybe DIY something like this coffee table from West Elm? I was first inspired to do this after seeing the living room at Orlando Soria’s condo – he even has the sort of pouf I have in mind!

doesn’t his place look amazing?

Richard is dying for something to put his feet up on, but I don’t think a sectional will fit in here. So poufs it is! (Or is it poufs?) Maybe light grey ones like these? I’ll DIY them if I can make friends with someone who owns a sewing machine… I really love those French seams.

Oh, and you can’t really see in the photos, but our living room window is currently home to a lot of plant happenings.

Richard is trying to grow more Nepali chili plants, from cuttings of his two larger plants, and I am still trying to propagate succulents! I Instagrammed about these ages ago, and they are finally starting to do something. Just when I was thinking about getting rid of them…

On the other side of the room, we have our mini dining space. In the corner by the window is our freezer (not shown) which we plan on eventually building a cabinet to hide. But beside it, we have our new, wee, farmhouse table! I found this one on eBay, and then we went to pick it up. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t fit through our front door (too sharp a turn just inside the door) so we had a friend help us get it through our second-floor window!!

I still want to replace the knob on the tiny drawer with a smaller wood one, stained to match. I even have the knob and just need to find some stain. Procrastinating – 1, Amy – 0…

Our chairs are old church seats but are missing the bible holders on the back. You can see where they used to live, and I kind of wish the people who had these before us didn’t remove them. I want to stain them or possibly use some Danish oil on them to darken the color a bit. Make them slightly richer in color than the table? I’m still not sure.

don’t you just love those legs?

The room is still so far away from being anywhere near done – curtains, lights, artwork, side tables, sofa, freezer cabinet, accessories, bookshelf, etc. are all still to come. However, I am very pleased with the things we have bought so far.

Hopefully, it’ll all come together before the year is up?