I had a plan!

And that plan was to find Junior a job or two to do, so that I could get stuck into thining out the parsnips, and even transplanting a few..... 

The row went a little wonky but nothing that can't be gently coaxed into place next time

I also got the row of spinach ship shape

And whilst I was doing all of this, I got Junior to water his plot and my triangle of peas + I had the brainwave of getting him to collect some woodchip from further down the site, trolly it (in the bike trolly) back to plot 144 and distribute it over the exisiting wood chip - I didn't really need any more put down, but it kept him busy and he enjoyed it so much that he asked if we can do it all over again tomorrow!!

Here he is in action!

Spinach has made it!!

Yes, here it is......

...and just in case you didn't see it in the first picture!

Needless to say I am thrilled

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!

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!

Down at the allotment today....

It was a lovely morning, hubby was going to play golf, the dogs were with their favourite person (the mother in law) and I had a free day, so I decided that at day at the allotment was in order!

Am I mad?  Shouldn't I be going shopping?? Nah!

So I started by raking over what I had previously dug over....

I then prepared some rows for spinach, which I protected with a fleecy poly tunnel, as the nights are still a tad cold

and then I prepared some nursery beds which I dressed with a 75ltr pack of Multi Purpose & protected with 2 x plastic poly tunnels, so that the soil warms up ready for the seedlings.

Talking of seedlings, I have some good ones in the GH!

Peas

Broad Beans sprouting at the back & Cos lettuce (just sown)

I also sowed some sweetcorn in those tub things, as this worked well last year.