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!!



Onions & Strawberries

Today I took advantage of the weather and put 4 rows of Onion sets in.....

 This is how I space them - using my "hand telephone" well actually it's how I space out most things on the plot!

I then just had time to re plant some strawberries, that I lifted from the other plot last year, as I knew that I was going to using the raised bed that they were in, to give to Junior.  They did well in the greenhouse over the winter months considering I forgot that they were there and I barely watered them!!

A busy mid May....

I went to the plot every day this week doing little jobs here and there including the weeding!  I find that doing an hour here and two hours there is easier for my foot to cope with than doing a six hour stint at a time!       Here are my Aubergines (2nd attempt as the snails got the first lot!

And these are my newly planted seed of Marigolds & leeks

I managed to buy a grow bag for £2 and put some sweet peppers in it

And my strawberry plants on 122 are looking good

These are the onions on 122

And the Garlic next door to the onions on 122

Also on plot 122 are my main crops, again showing sprouts of life after being earthed up to protect them from the frosts last week

And finally the last sowing of Broad Beans which I planted out in the week.  In the middle are some Broccoli Raab which I got free (seed packet) with a magazine. Never tried them before so I will let you know what they are like!

Over the weekend

 In no particular order, these are my pictures of this weekend and Allotment Ali's Allotment.  The Tomatoes are doing will in the GH with the Pak Choi newly sown just to the front.

Arthurs' lettuces are doing REALLY well as are the leeks behind

The Sweetcorn is strong and are now on the floor to free up room on the bench.

I transplanted the courgettes that were in the GH to Raised Bed #3 as they were A) ready and B) taking up a lot of valuable bench space

The 1st sowing of peas, where were again taking up space in the GH were also put outside - just next door to the parsnips which are a "no show" as yet.

Kohl Rabi - these were left in the Trading Hut on Sunday, so I pricked out a few - two pots like this one here - and popped them in the GH.  I have never grown them before so will be interesting as I have never eaten the before either.

Transporting water from the tap to the GH was overcome by using my bike trailer

 I have just returned from a little watering the greenhouse session and I also bought and replaced a dead strawberry plant - only lost one, and REALLY looking forward to this years crop!

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!!!!!

Going Potty (or potting on....)

Going Potty was my project of the morning, so up at 6.30, got hubby tea and toast - him out the door to work and me having my breakfast in front of the computer checking emails and twitting!

7.30 - I left for the lotty with the intention of potting on my Cherry Toms x 4 and Strawberry plants x 1o - so off I went on my trusty bike - pedalling away to beat the rain there and back.

So to start with, I potted the Cherry Toms into whale pots as my Tomato Roma's are doing so very well in the whale pots - why not use them again!

In the excellent (haha) photo below, you can see the difference in pot size.

And here is one of the 4 Cherry Tomatoes that I prepared earlier (in true Blue Peter style!)

See not only was I a girl guide, but a Blue Peter fan too - there was no stopping me in those days, and come to think of it - not much has changed!!

Next, the Strawberries.

You see, the reasoning behind this is that (a) I bought my plants a little early from the Garden Centre and (b) the rain has stopped play with the raised beds on 121, so potting on is my solution - it may not be the answer, but the fibre pots will hopefully assist in no root disturbance later on, when they go out into the big wide world, oops sorry I meant the big raised bed on Plot 121 (probably the same thing to a Strawberry plant really!!)

So, I prepared the pots (10 of them) into a tray so they can be easily moved around if needed...



I then added a used tea bag to the bottom of each pot to assist with moisture (a tip from Gardeners World TV programme) I knew there was a reason why I watched that!

I then added a little compost

And potted on the plants.....

Not a great photo as it was taken by my phone - but you can see I have green strawberries already! Wow!

That's my one that is - can't wait!!

The aim is to grow them (obviously) with lots of love and TLC and then eat them all before I get home - lucky I have some sugar in my shed (girl guiding comes in handy - be prepared and all that dib dib dib)

Just made it home for 9am in time to start work

(just in case the boss is reading this)

:o)