Strawberry & Seedlings!

It was such an exciting day today as I popped in to water the plants in the greenhouse, as I saw lots of germination going on!  It's all thanks to this nice warm weather we are having....

Butternut Squash

 Cucumbers

Cucino

Carrots (it's the little green thing to the left of the picture)

Marigolds

& a Strawberry!!



Sweetcorn Rows & Blocks & Puddles!

Ok, so I had a problem - rows or blocks.  Traditionally blocks are the only way to plant sweetcorn to aid pollination, however, Les, one of our old boys with the most perfect plot to die for, plants his sweetcorn in neat little rows. North to South, not East to West.  So I was in two minds - rows or blocks.

As I had 24 plants I decided to do both

And once I had my row planted I made them all little puddles to soak up the water as it's been so dry.

I made puddles for the Dwarf French beans

All 4 wigwams got the same TLC

I then planted the other 12 sweetcorn in a block just below the Dwarf French Bean Wigwams and Lettuces

And I made them a puddle too  - I knew my sandcastle building skills which I have kept alive (to my husbands embarassment at every sandy beach opportunity) would come in handy one day!!

I interplanted the block of sweetcorn with some butternut squash instead of pumpkins!

And finally, this is one of my broad beans - another week of sunshine and I think they will be ready!

It's a cover up!

Unfortunatley my tomatoes on 121 contracted the dreaded

BLIGHT

I was lucky to be able to send in a rescue team aka "me" to collect all

the green tomatoes not already effected

I then had to rip out all the stems and bag them up with the brown tomatoes, which I will later have to burn.

So, after that, I weeded the area as best I could and then covered it over - in the hope of smothering the blight and keeping the weeds down until next Spring.

Now for some more jolly news!

Here is one of my many cucumbers - I have so many, having stupidly planted 19 plants, that I don't quite know what to do with them all! However I will let them grow, keep on picking them, eating them, giving them away etc.

Ah, this is Daisy, who is guarding my sweetcorn that was planted by my little friend Joel

And this is one of my butternut squashes - again I have planted loads, but these will store well so I will have plently for the coming months.

Spring Bank Holiday Weekend

The allotment weekend for me started on Friday lunchtime, when I sneaked down to the plots with my very first Gnome who I called "Potty."

I bought Potty because of my disgust at hearing and reading that the Royal Horticultural Society have banned Gnomes from the Chelsea Flower Show.

Gomes are lovely little things and a feature in many a British Gardeners borders.

They brighten up a garden even on the dreariest and most gloomy of days, so I decided to protest and buy one of my own - he could be one of many more to come and is proudly guarding my shed and greenhouse. I have even started a gnome revolutionary front on Twitter - if you would like to join in my Twibe go to http://twibes.com/gnomes

Now to the hard work - Friday lunchtime was spent - yes - you've guessed it - weeding! The little buggers grow as fast as you can blink, and just as you thought you have hoe'd them all, more appear in thier place - it's not fair, as if a girl hasn't already got enought to do!!!

At least that was another job done - on top of watering the entire plot and the greenhouse, but I was ready, or better prepared for the weekend ahead now.

Saturday - I had Trading Hut duties to fulfill as Nigel asked me to cover because the volunteer already down for that morning was called away work wise, so I arrived at around 9am and popped into the sauna - oops, sorry I menat Greenhouse! Boy was it steaming in there. Although the auto vent was open I fully opened the louvre windows and left the door open wide to bring the temperature down. I also soaked the matting crossed my fingers that it did the trick.

I then did a mental inventory take of all the plants inside and decided what was going to brave the big wide open plot outside and what would stay put.

The Cherry Tomatoes that I have put into whale pots had grown so large, I hadn't realised that they tips were now touching the staging from below! So into the ground they went, alongside the Aubergines that were planted out last weekend.

I then got to work on earthing up my potatoes (again) as they have grown rather splendidly!

More weeding in bed 1 - the onion and garlic bed. I now have an onion hoe which is a godsend....

Looking good!

Now to Sunday and plot 121.

I bought copious amounts of manure, well 8 80 litre bags to be precise, so that's alot of poo, at great expense - I meant bargain price including delivery by the lovel Arthur, from the trading hut, and Nigel kindly filled the two raised beds built by my the same Nigel last weekend......

Bed one I filled with my 18 Strawberry plants purchased from a nearby nursery - well actually I bought 20 but there was only room for 18 so 2 went to plot 144 later on that same day. I was advised to cover the beds with black sheeting, which fortunately I had already and fitted the job perfectly, so that went on top of the manure and then a diagonal was cut at various carefully measured (luckily the black sheeting had large squares marked on it already!) out places and the strawberry plants went in. Some of them already had large green strawberries on them so I had to be careful.

Topped with a mulch mat & netting also, I can't fail!

Now to continue on 121. I raked, raked and raked some more. I created 2 beds just in front of each of the raised beds.

I then went back on forth from 121 to 144 for tools, spade & fork, then I realised I needed this that and the other, so about 5 trips, with a loo stop and a cup of coffee later, and I had everything I needed - including some plants!

So in went some butternut squashes, some All Green Bush courgettes and a couple of Marrows.

I then dug each plant a large hole. This hole was filled with poo, oh sorry, manure, and popped in a plant.

Eh Voila! Plot 121 is begining to look "officially" like a plot at last

After getting back all my bits and bobs to 144 and I quick trip home, I returned to the plot to put in my final Tomato Roma's which I have companion planted with some French Marigolds.



All this planting out has meant that the greenhouse is looking a little "empty" which is quite sad, but it also means that I can now pot on my cucumbers and one of my aubergines which is going to stay greenhouse bound.

OH!! I nearly forgot to mention - after going home for an hour to relax and refresh myself, I returned to the plot (144) to harvest my first salad. This consisted of Salad leaves, mizuna, rocket, some coriander leaves and some freshly picked radishes - with a home made dressing of olive oil, white wine vinegar with garlic & a leg of roast chicken, we had a feast!

Our first allotment dinner of the year.

It's already Monday now, and I have just heard the weather report - 27 degrees today with hot sunshine from around 9am to 4pm when the thunderstorms arrive.

I better get down to the plot and make sure the greenhouse is all watered well if it's going to be that hot later!!!!!

Last Weekend.....

I had a lovely Birthday - Two trips to the Lotty and a fish "n" chip lunch in the garden.

I was then treated to a night away at a lovely hotel Buxted Park in Uckfield

Sunday was a washout and as I don't do mud - I had to wait to get back down to the Lotty.

This happened on Monday. I was going to the postbox anyway, and although it had been raining pretty much all day, it was in fact worse that Sundays' washout, I popped to the Lotty as I needed some spring onions and a courgette - fortunately it wasn't THAT muddy.

To my surprise - this is what a wet weekend can do......

Yes, these are my 1st ever tomatoes - They are the Marmande variety. I am SO excited - just think, I will soon be able to stop buying tomatoes from the supermarket! How very exciting.

I also noticed lots of flowers on my chilli plants and peppers, so hopefully they won't be too far behing the Tomatoes.

Then this happened - Yes, this is my butternut squash - the one I grew from seed from the gourd that had been in the fridge for a week. I was searching through the leaves for a courgette to take home and I found this instead!

Last but not least - This is Susan's latest harvest - yes a straight carrot!

Well done Susan.

Experiments - Update 1

This is an extremely quick entry as I am working my socks off this week - it's been manic - anyways the exciting update is that one of the Butternut Squash seeds has germinated and so have all the sunflowers! I am still waiting for signs of life from the carrots, but another sowing that I didn't mention earlier, well I don't think I did, was coriander - that has started to show signs of life too!
Tomorrow is due to be a nice day weather wise, so I will go and put in the french beans that I have grown from seed - it will be interesting to see if the ones that I sowed direct last week have done anything? I will also put in my maincrop potatoes, but as too how many will depend on the room I have as I have to remember to leave room for the courgettes & pumpkins which are doing nicely in the utility / greenhouse room!
Oh! I forgot to mention - I have been very greedy and I have taken on another plot - all to myself - Plot 144. It's quite overgrown and has about 10 baby trees - very young ones on it, but I will just have to work around them.
Pictures will be taken either later today and / or tomorrow and this post will be updated with them later .
Please don't loose interest - I really HAVE been busy this week.
Ali x

p.s. As promised the pictures of Plot 144