The best allotment day so far (weather wise)

I had to cycle with trailer to the allotment today, as I had so much to take with me!  Not only plants that needed to be potted on but lots of kitchen scraps and some grass cuttings for the compost bins too.

 So there they all are - Tomatoes (cherry) Sweet Peppers, Cauliflowers, a couple of melon plants that I bought from the Garden Centre & beneath is the compost stuff.

I then decided to have a good seed sort out - how many seeds have I got????  They build up from what you buy, what you have been given, some that Maureen (the lovely Mo) sent me (flowers), some  you get from magazines and some that you don't quite remember how the devil they got there!

After the seed sort out, I had to pot on my cherry tomatoes and also my sweet peppers, which I did outside in the lovely, glorious sunshine, whilst listening to the radio. (Heart 106.2) My radio is a wind up one, and it's supposed to be solar powered too, so I put it to the test and it seemed to work without me cranking the handle!

I then decided that I needed to get the Rocket, Mizuna & Spring Onions underway, but as there is stil a threat of a morning frost, I protected all three with the good old cloches - these things do seem expensive to buy initially, but what a good investment as I have used them for 3 years on the go now - wow!!

And of course, I had to label them nicely.  I did intend to sow some Sunflower & Cauliflower seeds today, but I ran out of puff as I decided to take a walk around the site for a photo session with fellow allotmenteers who were out in the nice weather - see http://www.srags.blogspot.com/ for the photos taken.

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 !

More April showers & a Twirly!!

This is the WONDERFUL TWIRLY that my friend and fellow plot holder bought as a present for me! She is sooooo thoughtful as I have wanted one of these for my plot and she found me one!

It has pride of place at the top of Bed 2 - If anyone nicks it there will be BIG HUGE trouble. In fact I might even security mark it with that invisible inky stuff!!

Again, today, being another April day, we had on and off showers all day. I went to the lotty a total of 3 times with wheelbarrow there and back eachtime, and needless to say, getting a drenching each time too.

I managed to put in 3 rows of onions that I had grown from seed, and in between these 3 rows, which were quite generously spaced out withing the rows themselves, I inter-planted 5 varieries of French Marigolds - just for the "prettiness" of it all.

This plan will give you some idea of what it looks like......

Unfortunately I could not take a final picture of the sweet pea / onion / spring onion / marigold bed as it was :

• raining hard
• making me soggy
• cold
• disheartening
• dismal & making me angry!

UPDATE * UPDATE * UPDATE * UPDATE

Yet again the carrots and parsnips are alive, well & kicking. I took their cloches off today, whilst the sun was shining and I protected all around the carrots with 2 ft high meshy stuff. I used a stapler to arrange the mesh around the canes, but the intention is - which would have happened today if the sun was shining - to sew this mesh into place as that will be a good job done - another day then!

Tatty Bogie Gump News

TBG is now cemented into a bucket - this has only been possible with the kind assistance of Hubby Ian, who has devoted part of his weekend / time off, to doing this mammoth task for me.

TBG is currently outside, getting used to the elements. Me and Susan both hope he doesn't come down with some nasty bug or the flu for that matter!

We are going back to the lotty together on Tuesday night to dig a hole big enough for the bucket to be sunk into. Tatty Bogie Gump will be situated between the two potato beds at the bottom end of our plot!

And finally

This was my 4th to the lotty today as I managed to find a spell of sunshine, so that I could take a picture of what I had done/achieved today.

You can just about make out the spring onions to either side of the Sweet Peas, and the onions (from seed) being inter mingled with a variety of marigolds.

Good night - sleep tight

Lala Salama (in swaheli which I picked up from Masai Mari)