Sowing the seeds of 2011

I finally got to the allotment this morning to sow some seeds, seeds that I have been meaning to plant since last week, but always got sidetracked once down there e.g. tidying up, Juniors raised bed etc. However saying that, I did get sidetracked again this morning for a little while, whilst I wood chipped the path.

This path was getting very slippery due to all the extra people using it, now that more plots are being tended, so action had to be taken, well by me and for the length of my plot anyway.  I did ask my neighbour Brian from 143, not the "super Brian" from yesterday, if he would be happy if I did this.  He said he wasnh't bothered, so I got on with it, but as I was about to shovel a barrow full of wood chip, the allotment angel appearred, as if from nowhere and helped!

Aren't I a very lucky girl to have "super Brian's" help one day and Angel Derek's the next!

This is the end result - very smart I think and once it's trodden in a little it will be so much better - at least there is a little "grip" under our free now - well for a short distance anyway.

Next job was the sowing.  I sowed Beetroot......

A very very long row of Perpetual Spinach......

....and finally some parnsips!  To give you an idea - the spinach is the full width of the plot to the left of this picture and the parsnips (3 rows) are about half the width of the plot where you see the 3 white markers below.  I still have some parsnips from last year in the ground.  I must remember to pull them up and eat them very soon.

Still to sow - Mizuna, Pak Choi, Cucino & Cos Lettuce.  To pot on - Sweetpeas and to hopefully see germinate soo - sweet peppers and chilli's!!

Tomorrow is another day!

More from 144....

I wasn't planning a long visit to the allotment today, especially after all the hours I put in during the week, but on arrival, the greenhouse needed watering, the tomato canes needed securing and the polytunnel aka The Sweet Potato Suite needed some minor repairs.

On arrival, I watered the greenhouse and fed the tomatoes inside and out with Tomorite.  I can never remember which day I last fed the on, but I know it wasn't yesterday or Friday, so I added the correct dosage and watered away!

One of my first jobs was to secures some of the tomato canes together, so with a few bamboo canes and some cable ties, I got this in hand.

I then made repairs to the polytunnel with some duck tape, my teeth, a pair of scissors and some more cable ties!

I then harvested some french beans, baby cucumbers & beetroots, along with some strawberries that only made it as far as my mouth, so sorry for not sharing!

To my surprise and huge delight, I discovered that one of the cherry tomatoes had a slighly "red" tinge to it! How exciting.  I hope that this means that a lot more follow and I have a big basket of cherry tomatoes to take home very soon. Mmmmm.

In - Out - In - Out - shake it all about!

It was one of those days here yesterday (weatherwise).  The sun was shining brightly in the sky, so after watering all the plants in the greenhouse, I took some of them outside, including the dwarf french beans & peas.  After about 30 minutes and the war on weeds = me winning, it had cloulded over and felt as few spits in the air, so the plants all went in the Greenhouse again!

Then the sun came out as quickly as it had disappeared - no more clouds and no spits of rain, so I decided that enough was enough.  Come rain or shine, those peas need to be outside - NOW!  As you can see they were getting very pot bound, and it hasn't really been warm to put them out until now, apart from the odd day sunbathing.

I had to carefully untangled all the roots as delicately as I could and I managed to get most of them loose and complete, into the hole in the ground in one piece.  Tatty is going to be looking after the 2nd row of peas - the 1st row I put out about a month ago, by the greenhouse & parsnips. 

 Next - I keep on finding these little sprouts from the ground.  Yes you've guessed it, they are last years potatoes!  Now I have dug, dug, rotavated & raked this piece of plot many a time this year, and still these sprouts, sprout! I can't believe I have missed so many spuds!! there must be at least 7 of these & I am going to try and leave them be and see what happens.

Next job was to plant out the radishes, so I put them in between the parsnips, as the parsnips will take ages, and the radishes will be a fast growing crop.(can you see the first lot of peas to the left??)

Ah, my spinach - yes it's doing well!

As are my beetroot, but there were a few patches, so

I did a quick repair job, and sowed more seed in the gaps!

Little bits here and there.....

A view looking down 144 from the mid way fruit trees

 The Plum Tree with pond in the  background

 The Apple Tree blossom

 The raked area just in front of the fruit trees (with stone piles)!

The Spinach and Beetroot sunbathing

The Earlies enjoying a soaking in the hot weather

 A baby Parsnip

Another baby Parsnip

The Radishes are germinating

Potting on the Savoy Cabbages

From here, to there!

A quick trip to the allotment today....

And I mean a quick trip because it started to RAIN after a few lovely hours of sunshine!

I couldn't believe it.

I cycled down there with my bike basket full of tools, and couldn't get in the gate I normally use as the lock is faulty, so I cycled to the main gate, saying a quick hello along the way to 144.

My other plot (half share) 121 is by the main gate and  Brian, my new plot partner, was working away like a busy bee.  Now, just to remind you, Nigel actually "lets" plot 121 but last year when he took it on, he offered me half as he didn't need it all, so I said yes as I needed a little more space (greedy me).  Well a few weeks ago, this chap came into the Trading Hut asking if there were plots going, but he hadn't registered with the council so we advised him to do that.  The next week he came in again and after making his purchases, he said that he hadn't heard anything, so I told him to phone the council to see where he was on the waiting list.  The following week he came in again, bought some more stuff and told me that he was number 47 on the list.  I felt so sorry for him.  He really seemed keen to get a plot or even share one with someone that was finding a whole plot difficult, so I told him I would put a post out on the SRAGS blog and that he could also put a notice on our Trading Hut board, which he did but still no luck!

I went home thinking about his dilema, and I thought about letting him use one of my raised beds that is currently empty.  Then when the other one became free he could use that one.  I emailed my 121 plotholder partner Nigel, who said that Brian could use his half of 121 as he could wait for another year to use that, and he had only planned to use it for potatoes this year, and not a fruit orchard as originally planned - how kind was that!!  So I phoned Brian with the good news, and by the following week he was digging away, so a happy ending.  When he eventually gets his own plot he will be able to move to that one.

Anyway back to my efforts.

I cycled up to 144 and took off the plastic cloches covering the small area I prepared the other day.  The soil was nice and warm so perfect for my parsnip seeds!

Here they are all tucked up!

Then is started to rain - that little fine stuff - not impressed, but I had to crack on with my Beetroot.

So the Beetroot is in the plastic cloche which I mended with duck tape earlier as I had previously split in in half to fit on the raised beds neatly.

All 4 rows - 2 of Parsnips and 2 of Beetroot, were all neatly labeled up as were the Potatoes that Derek planted for me yesterday.

And finally, I dug up the remaining leeks from last years planting

You can get an idea of their HUGE size from the onion hoe in the back of the photo!

I took these home and used half of them to make a big pot of Parsnip Soup.

The other half - about 700g - are in the fridge for now, yet to await their fate!

I only have tomorrow and Thursday morning left to get a few more jobs done e.g. plant out the broad beans from the Greenhouse into a raised bed, which I did want to do today, but the rain stopped play.  I also wanted to get my Dwarf French Beans out of the utility room and down to the Greenhouse which is now unheated, as it's mild here, and all in there including the lettuces are all germinating! I am sure I will find a million and one other things to do once I am there.

Autumnal Harvest

Another great crop from 144 & 121 plots!

Picked the last of the sweetcorn for eating that night and for the freezer......

I was overwhelmed with the aroma of the carrots whilst pulling them from the earth......

And the beetroot never fails to amaze me with it's vibrant colour and taste.....

Unfortunately all this autumnal harvesting was marred by the fact that my neighbour and ex fellow plot holder was over on my previous plot 142!

Although I had had a very successful morning digging 122 before breakfast I returned after coming home for nourishment to dig over some of 144 to find "Mrs Chicken Wire" as she is now referred to, and her shadow (Mr Chicken Wire) tending to plot 142.  Why is it that everytime I turn up her voice goes up by about 15 decibles and she laughs, no I stand  corrected, "CACKLES" at simple words like compost, seeds and Bamboo Canes.

Yes she grates me.

She annoys me to hell and back

and

it's not enjoyable being on my lovely plot 144 whilst she and sidekick are there.

I do try to avoid being on 144 at the same time she is on 142, but sometimes its not always possible, timewise to go down to 121 as jobs there have been completed.

So I have to turn my back and work away, trying not to listen for the high pitched cackled that may eminate at any second, disturbing the peace and tranquility that you would expect of ones allotment.

Still, the nice thing is, is that I am there on 144 more often than she is on 142, so I do get my little place of solitude and tranquility more often than not.

Back to the harvest.

The carrots looked very orange, smelt very carroty and tasted divine.

The Beetroot were a vibrant purple and roasted - melted in your mouth

&

The sweetcorn was way better than the Jolly Green Giants!!

He he!!

To top the morning off, another allotmenteer, Val, on a close by plot gave me a gift of a packet of Mizuna (very rare as I have not been able to source them for months) seeds and a lovely "Gardeners Handcream" for looking after her polytunnel for a few days.  Ok, so I did sing to them, but I didn't expect that - what a lovely surprise. 

Thanks Val!!

Onions & Sunbathing.....

Saturday the 8th August started with a good old fork.

Yes I spent the morning forking up my onions and lying them in the sun.

After reading the weather forecast this was a good day - Full of lovely Sunshine, so there was
no time to loose with our recent weather of rain, rain and more rain!

So out they came, roots and all for a good old sunbathe for the day

These are the Red Barons sunbathing!

I left them there all day to bask in the heat of the suns' rays & then realised that to get them home, I would have to get my bike trailer out as there was so many of them!

See, it's nearly full, and was hard to pedal back because of the weight!!

I also spent Saturday morning and Sunday morning weeding - both plots needed it badly - 144 & 121 which seems to be overcome with a bramble problem on my half anyway. But despite the brambles, the butternut squash, courgettes and marrows are all doing very well, along with the cucumbers, of which I picked 6 on Sunday morning and gave them to the shop to hand out to anyone who fancied one.

I have 19 cucumber plants all together, and didn't realise that they would all produce so many edible, lovely, delicious cucumbers!! I might have to put a cucumber stall in action soon!



Finally, this is this mornings' bicycle basket harvest of piccolino cucumbers, Roma Tomatoes and some beetroot - that will make a nice lunch later!

Sunflower goes down.......

I took this picture of the Sunflowers last weekend - they have got soooooo big they are nearly as tall as I am! I was very pleased to note that the flower head seems to be forming too, but unfortunately there is a sad end to this tale.

When I went to the lotty last night (1st July) the smaller one of the two - the one to the right of the photo - was on the floor! I don't know how this had happened as it was securely fastened to an 8ft cane! I have put it in my watering can full of water to see if it revives. I will know later when I pop back there tonight to get some bits for dinner.

Now these two lovely purple things are my first Beetroot harvest. I only pulled up 2 as I didn't know what to expect really - I have only eaten beetroot that has come from a jar before now. Well I have to say that I just peeled and sliced and enjoyed them (well one of them) in it's natural state and it was sweet and delicious. So now, if I ever feel peckish down on the Lotty again I will just pick one, wash it, peel it with my pen knife and devour one!

Here they are again, laying on some freshly picked salad leaves (cut and come again variety) and along side a couple of spring onions. I have never been known to cry when cutting spring onions, but these little tikes did exactly that to me! I was blubbering and sniffing away within seconds of putting the knife in. They are strong and full of flavour. Lucky that I have another 2 lots growing - sown a few weeks apart - so I will have a pretty good supply.

Now, one person I have to mention is George - Yes the laughing Jamaican George. He was offering some Pak Choy the other day, but as i didn't have any space I innocently said "Oh George, I will just have to wait till yours grow and then we can have a swap!" to which his cheeky reply was "yes, OK, but I may not want any vegetables!!!!"

What could he be implying here?

HE LOOKS LIKE ONE OF THOSE "WANTED" POSTERS!!

Another mention is my friend Susan. We do bump into each other down at the Lotty quite a lot - sometimes during the week and sometimes at weekends. It's all a matter of timing you see. We have a good laugh and a chat. The other day Susan told me that she offered to water Mavis's plot as Mavis was away for the weekend and it was a scorcher. After getting all the beans done (that's just the one plot) she went on a bit further down. The pressure from the tap is not brilliant, so she did quite well with the trickle that was coming out of the end. However on her way back to the tap, I said to Susan - "Oh, are you only going to do those bits then?" Little did she realise that Mavis works 4 plots!!! hahaha 1 hour later and Susan had finished - bless. She deserved the manicure that she had booked after that!

We have decided that she is going to write a book - Susan's Guide to Gardening. It will show you how to plant things and not tag them, so when the little rows start to appear, you haven't a clue as to what they are. She will also add a section on dropping seeds willy nilly e.g. "I don't know how that courgette plant got there!" and also "What the hell is that?" would be another favourite. She makes me die with laughter as her happy go lucky approach to allotment garden is so funny. She grows better weeds than I do too - lucky thing - as they are easier to pull out. Susan has had loads of harvesting success with this novel approach - peas (some of the first on the whole plot to be harvested I have to add) Broad Beans, courgettes, carrots (which are lovely and straight not like my curly ones) and there was another one but I can't remember - haha - I doubt if she will either! She has Rhubarb growing and has just planted some mange tout !

Lovely Sunday at Lotty with Tatty

Yes, I returned to the lotty on Sunday morning - quite early in fact, to avoid the heat of the day. I arrived at around 8.30 and got weeding. There were not a lot of people around so it was easy to get on and get those dastardly weeds out. It was tricky and delicate work in the beetroot & radish bed (Bed 1). I also thinned out my beetroot. I hope they grow extra quickly as I love to eat beetroot, and have never ever eaten home grown! Mine normally comes from Waitrose or Sainsburys.

As I was about to leave at around 1030, guess who turned up?

Yes- you guessed - it was the laughing Jamaicans - Perry & George

Perry & George

George & Me with Perry & George's log !!

I went home and returned at around 3 in the afternoon to finish of my half weeded bed and then again at 7.30pm when it had cooled right down to water the little darlings. I am pleased to say that my net frame design works well as I can lift all the hanging down nets over to the top of the frame for easy watering!

And finally........

This is a picture of Derek hard at work - he has got a great tan!

My Plot plans........

As you can see, Onion sets and carrots went in on the evening of Wednesday 9th, as per my blog below, and beetroot seeds were planted last night - Thursday 10th.

I am hoping to get the Parsnips and radishes in later this evening which is why there is only the one image of them - this will be altered to the rows they are in once they have been planted.

Below are the plans for Beds 2 & 3 and for the remainder of Bed 4

Again, once seedlings or seeds have been put in, the charts will be updated as to where they are.