Peas and digging holes!

Progress at the allotment is always very slow when Junior is there with me, but I had a plan!  I asked Junior to make sure that his broad beans and strawberry plants were very well watered, due to the last few days and of course the current day of hot weather. 

He had brought some pea seeds to plant, he got a packet of peas in a birthday card, so I told him that he had to water the ground well in preparation - this meant several trips to and from the water tank with not only his watering can, but some of my small ones too, as I was watering the plants and seedlings in the greenhouse too - the plan was going well.

When it got to "planting" I got a bamboo stick as a straight line marker and showed Junior what to do - the rest is history - he did his interpretation of what I had showed him and planted away.

This kept him busy for at least half an hour, which left me free to get on with my peas that had been started off in the greenhouse and were due to be planted out any day now!

Junior then decided that he wanted to dig a hole, so I let him get on with that too!  He wanted to dig for marbles but found a 5 pence piece instead!!

I was able to plant about 20 broad beans in my broad bean patch to fill in a few gaps.  Sorry I forgot to take photo's of both my achievements today, and I say achievements because that's exactly what they were - I had a plan and it worked today as I was able to get on with a few jobs that I had been needing to get on with.

Yesterday, whilst I had some free time, I sowed:

Sweetcorn
Baby corn (1st attempt so not sure what to expect)
Runner Beans (Lady Di a string less variety) &
Dwarf French Beans

So my greenhouse is looking very "full up" now.

I have 3 varieties of Tomatoes in the cold frame at home - Moneymaker, Roma & Cherry and various chilli's, sweet peppers, Cucino (baby cucumbers) and leeks, all at home on the utility room window sill.  It's very tempting to put them out but I must be wary of a late frost, which could still come as it did this time last year, so I may just pot on the Cucino, Chilli & Sweet peppers for now and leave the tomatoes where they are!

I did cheat the other day and bought some Cauliflower & Savoy cabbage plants from the garden centre - with Junior around this year, I am not ready to be totally self productive as it's all so new having him around - maybe next year when I am a little more organised.

So much to do!

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.

More Jobs done....

Hello blog readers! Nice to have you back again.

I started with plot 121 today as it needed weeding.  I hoed away to my hearts content between the onions and the garlic, chatting to Brian on the other half of 121 at the same time (he's already dug his half all over and is putting in peas!!) when I hear this voice calling me, so I looked up and there was the lovely Ron asking me if I would like a cup of tea! Bless his cotton socks!

After a lovely cup of tea, I had to get on, things to do, people to see, plants to pot on etc, you know how it is, so I toodled on up to 144 and made a start in the Green House.

I potted on the Dwarf French Beans as I was advised that as we could still get a frost not to put them outside just yet.

Watered the peas which are all looking healthy

Noticed that Arthurs Cos Lettuces are making an appearance

Potted on the Courgettes which have really grown so they are in nice big pots

The Chilli plants are now in their new homes &

The Green House Leeks are getting there!!

I then decided to plant out the Broad Beans that I put into Root Trainers on the 4th March, so they are 3 weeks old tomorrow.  Starting life in my utility room, progressing to my Greenhouse whilst its not been heated they have done well, as you can see from the good root growth in these photos.

I then completed the job by filling in all the gaps in the Broad Bean Bed - the BBB!

So it's all looking rather splendid!

I hope you don't miss me and my blog whilst I am incapacitated.  I will be going to the allotment, but only when my husband can drive me down there and only when he agrees to doing a few jobs for me, so please send good vibes his way e.g. "take her to the allotment & do the jobs she needs, take her to the allotment and do the jobs she needs, take her to....."  ok you get the drift!

Until my next blog, take care of you!

Sowing the seeds.....

....of delicious vegetables

Well here they are, ready for sowing in March - I did check - it's the 4th March today so that's good!

On the list:

• dwarf french beans
• tomatoes (3 different varieties)
• broad beans
• sweet peppers (2 different varieties) &
• chillies

So in went the Broad Beans

I did cover them up after I took the picture!

Ah the "super seeder."  I thought I had a good buy here at £4 it could save me time and patience.  According to the packet, I wouldn't be picking tiny little seeds from my palm and squinting to see if I had just the one seed ready to drop in the hole.  Ha! What a load of poppycock - you could only gain success if you had the right sized seed.  If it was too small e.g. tomatoes - then you got 2 or even 3 per hole.  If you had too large a seed e.g. sweet pepper, then they got stuck.

So £4 down the drain as far as I am concerned - could have bought a G & T with that money!!

Anyway, enough moaning....

My utility room is looking rather splendid

And I have remembered to label them all up properly this year, so no mistakes are made or guessing games to be played once the little plants start to pop out.

I am now going to watch Larkrise to Candleford - recorded from Sunday's transmission

& Crochet a few more granny squares.

I know I should go to the allotment to dig, but I was told by  one of the old boys that the ground is still very wet and heavy, and i don't have the strength.

Making the most of todays' SUNSHINE

I left for the lotty on the sunny day of Saturday 26th April at around 10am, thinking I would only be there for about 2 hours. 4 hours later and I was still finding things to do!

Well, can you imagine my surprise when I spotted my first potato plant showing through? This is one of about 5 of my first earlies! At least I could now identify the difference between my potato plants and the brambles that were starting to rear their ugly heads again - they came out "extra quick" I can tell you!!

I went on to weed around one of my raised beds. I think Susan plans to phone a local timber company to see if we can get some free wood chips - I must remember to ask her about that!

My next job was planting the Dwarf French Beans, but first I stopped to chat to Perry. Soon 15 minutes had passed and as soon as Perry had gone - with his spinach in Sainsburys' plastic bag (recycling - the possibilities are endless) I realised that I had forgotton my courgettes and pumpkin plants.

Well I was not surprised really - the strain of the wheel barrow that morning was huge - it was so heavy because I had a full bag of mulch & the reason I had this mulch with me was because I had read over breakfast, that courgettes and pumpkins like to be mulched in (and are very thirsty too) so I was immediately on the phone to hubby, who said he was going to pop down to see me later, asking him to bring my forgotten plants.

Back to the Dwarf French Beans - these were grown in pots at home. I had, about 1 week ago, also directly sown some of the same at the base of the sweet pea wigwam, but nothing was showing from them yet, so inside the wigwam, went the Dwarf French Beans.

Next to go in were the Main Crop Potatoes - I put in 2 varieties, one of which is Vivaldi, the other I cant remember right now!! I put these into holes, using my bulb planter contraption, which is the method I used for my Earlies & Late Earlies, and as this method had worked so far, what was the point of digging a trench? I soon realised that I had enough space in that row to plant my 3rd variety, Mayan Gold, so I will go back there today and put those in & get the name of the other variety at the same time.

Following the potato planting came the Chilli plants and Peppers which had both been in the cold frame for the last couple of nights, so a row each of these in Bed 2 in front of the Sweet Pea Wigwam.......

As you can see, this bed is looking quite full up now, but there is still room for more - it's just my plan (above) that is looking full!

So, under the watchfull eye of Dibble, the Chilli plants and peppers were watered well and then covered with an open ended plastic polytunnel, which I will check later today (Sunday). Olga from Plot 138, kindly gave me some onion sets, so I put in a row of these. My other onions grown from seed and my onion sets which are interplanted with my carrots (bed 1) are both doing well, so another lot won't hurt!

Next to go in were the Courgettes (Zucchini) and Pumpkins which hubby Ian kindly brought down to the lotty for me. My fellow allotmenteers couldn't believe their eyes when he turned up in his Porsche Turbo and lifted the bonnet - as this is the boot (storage area) and brought the plants out!!!! Ha ha ha. Anyway, these went into the bottom of the potato plot (bed 4) which I had put some horse manure compost on. I put in 2 x pumpkins and 4 x courgettes, mulched them in and then covered them with plastic bell cloches.

So, nearly 4 hours later, 2 mugs of freshly brewed tea, a long chat with Mavis, a visit & delivery from Ian and having negotiated the old delapidated shed which is currently just about standing on Paul's Plot, I was ready for home. Once there however, I got stuck into washing out pots and seed trays etc. as the weather was so nice, it was actually a joy to do this outside.

I then looked at my "left over" carrots that were still sitting in modules. I decided to pot these remaining 4 plants into a patio pot to see what happened. As I was lifting one of the plants out, the compost fell away, and I was amazed to see a tiny baby carrot in my hand! I had to call hubby Ian quickly, to take a picture......

So, into the pot it has gone, along with the other 3 plants and I will let you know what happens!

Today is Sunday, and the weather forecast is not great, cloud cover is prominent, but it does look as though it is trying to "cheer" up a bit. I will go to the lotty later to check on my newly planted veggies and to put in the final lot of maincrops.