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!

Read all about it! My 1st Radishes

How exciting - not only did I get my 1st radishes yesterday but also my new book arrived.

It's really "down to earth" and non of this flowery stuff, so its an easy read.

It's called Vegetable Growing Month by Month Take a look at the link - you can easily order it online and it arrive pretty much the next day. I ordered one for Susan next door (my fellow lotty person).

It's by this chap called John Harrison who has been growing veg for 30 years! It's only got a few pictures, so the rest is great information and covers all your niggly little questions from Pests to gardening jargon! Well don John. My book looks like I have had it 30 years already although I have only had it the one night!

My radishes have finally made it and looked ready to be picked. I knew this because it was in "the book"

Don't they look yummy! Boy are the HOT!

The poly tunnel gets it - I had to cut this one in half so that each half sat nicely across my newly planted tomatoes - I planted Marmande & Cerise, so one extreme to the other size wise. All the plants were raised from seed.

A picture especially for my lovely Mother in Law - aka - the armchair gardener. These are the "Vivaldi" potato plants so far.

Now that the radishes have gone, I have put some cos lettuces down each side of the parsnips and I have put some more radish seed in the middle of the parsnips to see if they will come up again. fingers crossed.

And finally (for plot 142......)

George one of the laughing Jamaicans gave me some runner bean's to plant out on 144! He said that all I need to do is pot them on at home, bring them on, and by the time they are big enough I would have cleared a suitable space on 144 to put them in - that is after building a wigwam using 8ft canes ( he made it sound so easy ) so I will have to go and see Nigel in the shop for some canes and probably a heap load of advice.

This is Nigel - another Lotty Hero / Mr. Chainsaw / shop entrepreneur

Plot 144 - UPDATE

Progress on 144 - You have seen the top picture before on a previous post. With a little more digging, swearing, numerous cups of tea & stopping for breaks, this is the progress so far.....

Can you just make out the string to the right of the picture? I realised that I had to mark out my plot end as I was straying onto Paul's plot (which I must say is as overgrown as 144 so he has his work cut out too!) I don't mind straying you understand, but when I have 125 sq.ft. to tackle, and I have only done about 2.5 sq.ft. so far, I would rather not stray at this stage.

Now talking of Paul, he kindly mentioned to me that he will be putting his shed on the end of his plot that ends on to mine, and as it was decided that the shed of character was going to meet it's maker on the bonfire that Kermit nearly jumped into (sorry if you are losing the plot at this stage read my early post - Kermit is rescued and Rain Rain go away) I am going to have to get a new shed (probably the more sensible option really) and he said that whilst he is putting down his base (he is getting an 8' x 4') he will put a base down for me at the same time! How thoughtful is that!!! So we are going to have back to back sheds (mine might not be an 8' x 4') which is why I am clearing my plot where I am. There is a method to my madness you know!

SCARECROW NEWS

Unnamed lady scarecrow is in the making, but I cannot reveal anything about her apart from the fact that she is going to look fab.

I have had a few name suggestions so far, but keep them coming in via the comments please. All will be seriously considered.

p.s. our local council is organising a Sutton in Bloom competition - and the catagories are

• best front garden
• best allotment garden
• best community garden
• best business frontage
• best wildlife garden
• best school garden

What about best SCARECROW - poor Tatty Boggie Gump

Anyways if you would like to enter - click HERE for an online applcation form & Good Luck

Today is Thursday 22nd May, the sun is shining and I will be off down the lotty for the afternoon - all afternoon in fact!

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!

Bank Holiday Monday 5th - What Lovely Weather!

The sun has got his hat on - hip, hip, hip, hooray

I was singing that song all day today.

After a quick drive into the office this morning, I decided that an hour down the lotty would do me good. With the week I have got ahead of me, I deserved an hour in my favourite place. I spent the time chatting (ha, ha - you should have guessed that by now)

I started off with Olga, who was working hard once again. I told her about my sunflower dilema - oh! I haven't told you yet - I forgot to close up my cold frame last night because of the humidity, and when I went to inspect things this morning, some toerag slug or snail had eaten one of my sunflower babies in half and the other totally, leaving only a stump! so kind Olga brought me over 2 brand new home raised sunflower babies, which I put into the corners of bed 3.

I then went to see Nigel at the shop, but he wasn't there - however he had left a kindly note on the board to say that if anyone wanted anything, to go and see him at plot 47, so off I went as I needed some horse poo - ooops - sorry manure. After a little chat, I arranged to meet him at 1245 to collect 4 bags full. As I started to walk back towards 142 and whilst texting Hubby Ian with the news and to mak arrangements for him to come and collect me and horses manure in my car ( he wans't going to get that lot in the Porsche, so better to use the dump run vehicle) I then bumped into the lovely Perry & George, my Jamaician boys with the green shed just down the way. They are both so lovely and happy all the time. If I am ever going to feel down, I won't go to the docs, I will go and find one of them, or both and have a good laugh. You can hear them laughing all the way back to my plot sometimes!

Just after leaving them, Paul, the man with the greenhouse and the wonky shed that is going to be donated to me and Susan, came by. He commented on my Tattie and how his little girl always came by to say "hello" to him. He then gave me advice on my potatoes, which I was very grateful for, as I have had mixed opinions, so his sealed my mind in a particular direction.

Paul mentioned to me that I had a "web" thing going on, to which I blushed slightly, and as I did not have a pen and paper I told him to get the address off my by from Nigel as they had eachothers emails - another possible fan then!! I mentioned to Paul that I would be taking pictures of my seedlings for identification purposes, as none of the books seemed to have these, so here they are.......

Radish

Beetroot

Parsnips & Radishes

Rocket

It was then 1245 and I had to go and meet Hubby Ian and my car at the far gate. He backed the car in, and loaded her up with the 4 bags. With permission from Nigel, we left the car by the shop as I had to go and get my bag and stuff. On the way I introduced Ian to Olga (the sunflower lady from Russia) and her husband Julian, who incidently is putting together a shed out of pallets, and after that Ian went on to be introduced to Perry & George, who up until that point, I am sure, were not convinced I had a husband. We all stood there chatting with Carl for a long time. Incidently - this is Carl, who had started to chop down the trees on my new plot 144.....

How very kind of him to make a start. I was worried at one stage though as before letting him loose with his saw on my new plot, he was taking some "shading" branches from the tree next door. This in itself didn't concern me - the fact that he was climbing on unbalanced and unstable looking pallets of wood did! Can I also add, that I am intent on getting this pigstye of a plot cleaned up and I have booked in Derek the Bramble Fairy, Bonfire fairy and digging fairy (Sorry Derek but that was not my nickname for you but I believe Julians!!) for as soon as he has a moment free - probably around September then - I am in no rush!

And finally. I fininshed off my afternoon by aeriating and putting the 4 bags of manure down underneath the holly bushes which are situated at the front of the house. It took Ian and I around 2 hours to do altogether, but a job well done. I then went onto pottering around the garden, especially the decking, which incidently is up for sale on EbaY at the moment, all 330 sq.ft. of it, and watering the pots. I then made a lovely cup of Lady Grey and dozed in a garden chair before returning to the Lotty to water all my hard work so far.

And finally - this is a picture of the wheelbarrow graveyard which I came across today.

and finaly, finally.......

This week is forecast to be "lovely" so hopefully a few more trips down to my lotty in the next few days......

Toodle Pip for now

More goings on today!

This is the updated plan for Bed 1, which has now been fully planted out - no more room at this one!

I spent around 1 hour at the lotty this evening. I got my parsnips planted and interplanted them with some radishes from seed. The big mistake that I made was that I forgot my little book and I didn't know the spacings for the parsnip plants, so I had a look around and saw that one of the older gentlemen was at his plot. Off I trotted full of cheer to ask him if he knew spacings for my parsnips. Well, the look of shock on his face when I told him what I was planting out and that I had grown the plants on from seed at home! He told me that as a general rule all root veg are planted directly into the soil - oh well - I am sure I must have read it somewhere (sowing indoors etc. hardening off and all that ) I will just have to wait and see what happens!!

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.