Lavender Open day at the Lotty

Before I mention anything about the Lavender, I have to mention this great book which my mother in law bought me for my birthday

ONE MAN AND HIS DIG - BY VALENTINE LOW

If you love allotments and like a good read and a laugh then go and buy this book.

You can also visit his blog and buy the book online

www.onemanandhisdig.blogspot.com

I read it at every spare moment I have - even if only for a few minutes!

Anyway, to continue.........

This weekend 12th & 13th July they held an open day for the lavender fields that are attached to the Lotty. It was a PYO affair with some great stalls selling lavender products e.g. beauty creams, pictures, cards with Carshalton Lavender on them, sleep pillows and more importantly a Tea & Coffee stall!

It looked really busy there all day, but some of us had to work, but that started after a cup of tea and some honeycombe to keep me going!

After lot of weeding (what's new) and some admiring, lots and lots of chatting and some here and there tweaking, I had a chat with Nigel about my peas that I had put in earlier in the week.

He advised (clever him as that means a sale for the shop) some pea wire netting thingy stuff that you support with canes that you interweave and therefore create an upright structure for the peas to grow up!

OK! OK! I know some of you are going to look at this picture and say "How many peas has she planted in such a small space?" and my answer to you would be this -

(a) My space is limited and (b) this is my very first attempt at growing peas so I have to have a learning curve - if it works it works, if it doesn't I will write it up in my book and not do it again next year.

There are a few things now that the old boy flat cappers have sucked their breath in at and rubbed their chins in utter horror, but for me - ok apart from my carrots - so far so good.

Like Susan said yesterday - she planted her potatoes too deeply and they haven't given her a brilliant yield, but next year she will plant them in a more shallow trench - she will learn from this year to the next.

When Susan is at the Lotty at the same time as me we chat for England. We still weed, and tend and sow, but chatting all the way. We decided, probably not for the first time, that Susan does mystery gardening. For instance - what she thought COULD have been cabbages, or maybe brussels (from the leaves) now turn out to be Kolhrabi ! However, one thing that she knew were cauliflowers are indeed cauliflowers and very handsome chappies they are too!

Luckily Susan's friend bought her a great present - visual assistance to help identify what she has planted - pictures will follow.