Potting in the Rain - Dodging the Rain

Plot 144

Today was a rain dodging day, so I started with pottering around here and there and everywhere.....

So in no particulare order - these are my parsnips which are now thinned to 15cm or 6 inches. It seemed such a shame throwing baby miniture parsnips away, but that's the rules - they have to be thinned.

Under the cloches are the outside (for obvious reasons) Aubergines - the others will stay in the Greenhouse to see which does best!

After another dash to the Greenhouse for cover, I put some more planks down and decided to put out a couple of courgette plants. However I forget now which ones they are but think they are "Green Bush" but I could be wrong. As you can see they are by the Sweetcorn which was getting more of a battering in the wind!

Just behind the Twirly are 3 tomato plants that Sicilian Sam gave me yesterday, so I added two of my own today. The ones I grew are "Roma" and I have 4 in the green house and now 2 outside - it will be interesting to compare the results.

I bought some lettuce slug resistant barriers today and put my iceburg lettuce plants under their protection - Arthur (who incidently gave me the lettuces) swear by them. At £9 for six they are not cheap but should last a lifetime.
p.s. I did water them well after I took the picture! (just in case you were wondering)

I put in the next lot of peas and then the first lot of Mange Tout. So the peas are in the background and the mange tout in the foreground of the picture. I immediately re used the trays where the seedlings were growing and planted some more in the Greenhouse so that will be the 3rd lot of peas on the go and the 2nd of mange tout.

So all in all and 3 trips there and back, quite alot achieved really considering the rain kept threatening all the time. At one stage the sun was hot and warm and very soothing, then 2 minutes later, the black clouds came, it went cold and I dashed for the warmth of the Greenhouse. One thing I did notice today though was how warm the soil was when I was planting things out - it was lovely to stick your hand into the earth and feel the natural warmth that was there.

Plot 121 - nothing to report - sorry - rain has stopped play & there is no shelter down that end of the site for me e.g. no shed to hide in or no-ones greenhouse to run for

Rain, Rain Go AWAY Come again in another 6 months!

I don't believe it! (Say it like Victor Meldrew w0uld - go on - you know you want too!)

There I am, all prepared - wax jacket on - check, boots on - check, gardening jeans with yesterdays mud on - check, fully equiped bag on arm - check, barbour base ball cap (kindly bought for me by my Armchair Gardener aka mother in law for my birthday) on head - check, kissed husband good bye and off out the door when the heavens opened! I carried on walking - allotment bound and got there - still raining. I stood in the rain & ate a gluten free chocolate chip cookie to cheer myself up - still raining. I thought "sod it!" and got on with putting in my final batch of Main Crop potatoes - Mayan Gold (the 2nd lot I put in yesterday by the way, are called Swift - the 1st lot are Vivaldi's) OK so I only had 5 tubers to plant, but I got there in the end.

I also watered my courgettes/zucchini's & pumpkins as they are under bell cloches and would not be benefitting from the downpour, that was still going on!

I noticed that the shop door was open, so I abandoned the plot (probably quite literally at this stage as I was soaking wet) and went for shelter. Nigel was just packing up, but stayed the extra 5 minutes - well long enough to let me stop dripping! Thank you Nigel. He told me that the shop took a good amount over the weekend and that we had 5 new members for the Garden / Allotment Society too - maybe one of those leaflets that I posted through someones door yesterday worked??

Now - this could be the shed I was telling you about. I did say it was a bit wonky didn't I? Well, I, along with Hubby Ian and the current sheds' owner Paul, all think that it will be ok with a bit of TLC, some bits of wood and about 10,000 nails! I think it will look GRAND - all old and full of character on Plot 142.

What do you think?