A collage of recent photo's....

This was a lovely sight first thing this morning, so I thought I would share it with you!

Pictures taken 26th June 2009

The Cos lettuces grown from seed - about to go out into the big wide world of plot 144 (where my 1st earlies were)

The flower and fruit from my baby cucumber plant

The flower from the same.

Tomato Roma (Greenhouse) fruits are forming!!

More Roma's

The lovely courgette flower

The Aubergine flower - plant in the Greenhouse - plants outside are about to flower too!

A photo of the inside of the Greenhouse - not as full as it used to be

Marrow on plot 121 - can't wait to get that stuffed and eaten!

Garlic at last!

I was panicking a little last night, as I read somewere that if you leave your garlic in too long, it will go bad and not be any good to you. It was words like "yellowing leaves" and "rust" that had me concerned. Did my garlic have that?????

Fortunately for me that was not the case and all my garlic has come through with flying colours, all 3 varities!

Taken from the 14th November 2008.......Two visits to the Lotty today - One before work - where I carefully transplanted over 80 onions -
Half White and Half Red
I then returned and lunchtime and had to search for the garlic.
I had planted 3 varieties, but because they hadn't quite surfaced yet, it was hard to find them.
Luckily, once I have found one, the other seemed to follow as I used my outstretched hand as a "how far apart" guide!!
I managed to find them all, and only damaged two cloves - I found it amazing that the roots were so long! One of them had roots of at least 3 inches!
After safely trans planting them all.....

Some of you will remember my eviction from plot 142 by my nasty neighbour! Ha - not defeated and I have loads of lovely garlic - must read up on how to plait them.

This is a picture of my hops which is climbing up the string well - it will soon be up to the fencing and providing some screening.

And these little cuties are my 2nd lot of Pak Choi that have replaced the delicious Spring Greens that Hubby & I have now devoured - mental note to self - grow lots of spring greens next year!

My First Sunflower

I just thought that it would be nice to share a photograph with all my blogger followers - my very first sunflower - I am very very pleased

My little helper - Joel!

Meet Joel,

He's my friends 6 year old boy who lives in the city (concrete jungle) and has never been to an allotment before.

I soon got him interested and captivated by getting him to sow some peas.....

He wasn't too keen on getting his hands all muddy, but I soon got him over that......

On plot 121, we planted 24 sweetcorn plants that I bought (shock horror) from Wyevales yesterday especially for the occassion.

His mum arrived with wellies, a hand fork & a hand trowel, so he had all his own gear to get going....

So after digging a few holes, and dropping in a few "blades of grass" as he called them!! I got him going back and forth to the tap with the watering can......

After all the watering was completed, we also planted a couple of cucumber plants just to the right of the photo, so they were watered in aswell.....

We then had to go back to 144 for a little break....

As Joel had aching muscles from carrying the watering can & digging (poor little lamb).....

However his spirits were soon lifted when I gave him his very very first freshly picked pea pod to eat -

his verdict

"Delicious!"

So I picked some more for him to take home for later

So Joel is one city boy that now wants to be a farmer / allotmenteer, wondering how he can grow peas indoors........

Saturday 20th June - My day at the plots

At last - after much waiting, my bike trailer finally arrived. Unfortunately is was minus the attachment part, so I couldn't link bike and trailer together, and on contacting the supplier I was told that they don't have the bit I needed!!

Frustration.

Fortunately a very nice man in Lewes near Brighton who has a shop called

Bikes and Trailers

had the bit I needed!! Fantastic - it was popped in the post and with me the next day - Superb

And just look at how smart it all looks - Bike & Trailer together

And with a 90litre trug you can get loads of stuff in it!

So off I went from 144 to 121, after checking all was ok on 144 and of course waterign the greenhouse - bike and trailer with me and my tools - my back was singing away as it was not having to suffer by humanly carting all that lot back and forth!

Two of the locals beat me to the plot and to the beautiful poppies that are growing wild in the pathways.

121 is finally taking shape and even has it's own sign now!

I spent all morning, hoeing, de weeding and watering. I think I have about 3/4's of my share cultivated now, which is alot more than I thought I would have done by this time, so I am very pleased with progress.

My share of the plot starts from the two raised beds and to the front of the picture below - as you can see to the back of the picture is Nigel's bit!!

I am looking after my friends little boy (aged 6) tomorrow, so we are going to plant some peas and also plant out two cucumber plants that have been in the greenhouse

So the raised bed to the left has Asaparagus,

To the Right is Strawberries &

immediately in front of the raised beds are a mixture of courgettes, marrows & butternut squash plants.

To the left of them is some mange tout & to the right of the mange tout are the tomato plants that I planted last weekend.

In front of the tomatoes and still to the right (you will have to go up a picture) are the onions that I grew from seed and under the black netting are my 2nd lot of Pak Choi.

I bought some Pak Choi seeds for my lovely Mother in Law who lives in Ferring as she has had trouble finding some - guess what - they sell them in the Trading Hut, so they will be in the post to you this weekend Mrs C!!!!

Photos from Today.....

My First Tomato (Cherry)

Newly planted onions and pak choi

Mini Cucumber in the greenhouse

More Photos.......

Plot 121

At last - A Strawberry!!

The Flower before the Strawberry





Summber Ball Courgette

My Twirly's on 144

........From last weekend

War on Weeds!

Asparagus!

Sunny my new Scarecrow

The Strawberry bed on 121

Plot 121 taking shape

My first marrow for 2009

My apologogies for putting most of the pictures that should be at the end, at the begining, but I am finding it more an more difficult to put the pictures into the right place without all the text going all over the place and then having to be righted! So this is better than nothing! A blog without pictures would be boring don't you think?

What a busy, busy week. After my little bout of illness, I managed to get to the lotty on Tuesday evening, to do a little weeding. Obviously the fresh air must have done me the world of good as this had a knock on effect and I was there again on Wednesday before work, then Wednesday after work, Thursday before & after & Friday before, during my lunch & after work too! I soon got those weeds under control and my two plots back to their former glories!

People often walk by to admire 144 and ask me how I manage to keep th plot looking so spotless - simple -

Potter about for a little bit each day, then things like weeding won't become a chore and it makes it all the more managable.

So now for Sautrday and Sunday....

Gosh - where do I start? Broad beans - all covered in blackfly - out they came and onto the compost heap went the stems and the blackfly. The bean pods came home with me and I spent alot of that evening podding (but well worth the effort).

Then it was the onions - they had all "gone over" so upt they came. I harvested all the whites and the reds so I had to call hubby and smart car to the rescue - home smarty! So the complete onion harvest was taken home and put into plastic crates in the garden to dry out.

So - that meant that I had the top of bed one (where the onions were) and the bottom of bed three (where the broad beans were) now free and available for planting (but that had to wait until Sunday)

In the meantime, I simply had to redecorate a little!

To replace the Broad Beans, and being the sunnier bed of the two, I planted some Chilli plants, Sweet Peppers, Spring onions & Leeks around the edges.

Voila!

Next was to replace Bed 1 - where the double lot of onions were - so in went the Bedforshire cucumbers - all 8 of them (will I have too many??? - still there are the bags under my eyes!!) and to finish off that bed I put in some more leeks

It was then filling a few empty spaces here, and a few there, like this summer ball courgette - I found a space for this little lovely plant at the bottom of the brassica cage!

Plot 144 was looking fine and dandy - weed free and full of lovely vegetables, so it was off to 121....

The couch grass had taken over and the two raised beds and army of courgettes, squashes & marrows needed a good watering - complete soaking in fact, as it has been so dry over the last few days, so that's what I did - dug out the couch grass (again) and watered.

Later on the Sunday, my neighbour from the plot across, Michael, gave me a very generous amount of tomato plants - so I just had to pop them in. Then there was the surplus mangetout in the greenhouse - they also went in on plot 121.

121 has also been adorned with a twirly & my latest scarecrow, which was kindly given to me by my lovely mother in law - Mrs C who lives by the sea!

To finish of this blog on a lovely note - we had new potatoes, salad leaves, rocket, mizuna, radishes & beetroot leaves, along with a nice juicy steak on Saturday and a lovely leg of chicken, roasted on Sunday - yummy!!!!

I am really pleased that all the hard work has paid off - a good looking plot, compliments and dinner!

I am in my element!!! (or should I say my allotment?)