Busy Bees & Sunflowers

I planted some Dwarf Sunflowers to "pretty" up the plot a little

 Within 5 minutes of putting them in, I had a little visitor who was quite happy for the next 10 minutes or so.

I pulled out what was left of the 1st batch of Broad Beans and raked it all over - ready for a few more tomato plants, so I can free up a little more space in my greenhouse

I then planted some more cos lettuces around the Gherkin Wigwam so I now have a Cos Circle!

Sweet potato news - Well as you can see most of them are ok, apart from the one to the front right - it's lost all it's leaves, but still has a nice healthy stem!

Twirly to the rescue and other goings on.......

This is our lovely Site Rep - Carl. He was telling me that his cabbages were being attacked by the dastardly pigeons (that word "pigeons" always brings Manuel from Fawlty Tower to mind!!) and he asked to borrow my Twirly - well how could I say no? My Twirly went to the rescue and I hope it is doing a good job. Needless to say, Carl didn't get away scot free - I made him pose for a picture.

On Saturday, I met Susan at plot 142 and she had a brainwave - yes, she was sitting down at the time and despite being hot and perspiring (us ladies don't sweat you know!) she actually came up with a good one........
These are the tree stumps from the new wood chip pile that has recently appeared on our allotments to share and in this wood chip pile is an assortment of stumps which we fashioned into little stools (we plopped them down ha ha) just in front of Tatty. It's a great spot as it's in the shade, so when we need a well earned rest, we now have our own seating area with a lovely view - the other plots!

Now to Plot 144 - the moment you have all been waiting for.........

Just a quick reminder of where we left of last time (see picture)

Yes, this is 144 on Thursday / Friday after the Bramble Fairy Derek did his thing......

And this was my layout for my new pea bed - I got stuck in and made progress, however Derek saw what I was planning and had his own ideas - as you can see below....

Yes. The pea bed grew and grew and before I knew it, I had a HUGE amount of space to be getting on with. Derek showed me how to get the roots out, and not the stones as they are good for drainage (apart from if you want to grow carrots that it!) After a few hours of raking, scraping, piling up roots and clearing, this is what happened !

Yes, the peas went in, thanks to Nigel opening up the shop and supplying me with the necessary materials for the job, then next to them went some sunflowers (can you tell that I LOVE sunflowers???) and then in went an Aubergine plant, which I bought from the garden centre. I then had the brainwave of moving my pepper plants across from 142 as they would get more sun in 144, so I did that and lastly I put in a row of pinks which Derek kindly gave me which will help make it all look pretty. I then put a little corner fencing in, but I think I need to mallet the posts in a little more!!

Sunflowers & Toe Rags

I though I would start this post off with a cheery bright picture of my Sunflower - the one of two that survived. She is over 5ft tall. I am definately going to grow LOADS of these beauties next year as they don't take much ground space and look fabulous!

This is my plot number - which we have to have by Lotty Law - especially as our Open Day is just around the corner. So I dug out my old rusty milk urn, which my Uncle John painted years ago with little daisies that you can just make out, and painted 144 on it! When I took it to the Lotty, Nigel was impressed and Derek was equally admiring. However the advice was to fill it with stones, which Derek kindly did for me. I was then advised to move it away from the corner of my plot, which is by the gate, as some one would pinch it!!! So to my dismay, I moved it to the other end, for now, where my shed will eventually go.

I think I will have to get a temporary sign on the go for now, and just put 144 milk urn in place for the open day, and then put it back next to the shed (once it arrives) as a more permanent position. Like Doug said - we don't want the Toe Rags getting hold of it!

Doug told me that him and his Mrs. were admiring my Hilda Scarecrow, and wasn't it a shame that the Sutton in Bloom competition, didn't have a "Best Scarecrow" catagory!!

Derek then offered to spend an hour or two getting rid of my every growing mound of brambles - how could I say no? You guessed it - I couldn't!! I rushed home in search of a can of Ginger Beer and some biscuits to keep him refreshed & ran back down to the Lotty again after a quick cup of tea and a few words with Hubby who was busy perfecting his lawn.

I then set about helping Derek who was already busily swinging his mattock around!

I was in charge of metal, bricks, large stones and rubbish - and there was alot of this!

The metal had to be taken down to the shop area - the rubbish had to be sorted - some of this was rotting garden waste, so that went on the compost, in one bag there was a dead fox, and in another there was lots of crawling things to which I let out a really girlie scream and jumped backwards!

Despite all the girliness, I got on with things and Derek carried on swinging his mattock. I just over 1 hour, he manged top achieve so much - I was amazed.

We are going to give it another go tomorrow - Derek is like a godsend - he really is. Nothing seems to daunt him.

Now, one last mention. On visiting the lotty today, I was so excited to discover that some of my tomatoes had started to produce little green fruits (on the vine) - look at those little lovelies. Ah.

That is one thing I LOVE about the allotment - it's the excitement it delivers to you on every visit, it's the community spirit that seems to have gone from our normal every day lives, it's the fact that you can pick what you have grown and have it fresh on your plate within hours or even minutes and it's the satisfaction of watching that tiny speck of a seed grow and grow and give you so much pleasure......

Right - off to the lotty now for a few hours whilst the weather promises to be good to us all.

Toodle Pip.

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 !

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

Experiments - Update 1

This is an extremely quick entry as I am working my socks off this week - it's been manic - anyways the exciting update is that one of the Butternut Squash seeds has germinated and so have all the sunflowers! I am still waiting for signs of life from the carrots, but another sowing that I didn't mention earlier, well I don't think I did, was coriander - that has started to show signs of life too!
Tomorrow is due to be a nice day weather wise, so I will go and put in the french beans that I have grown from seed - it will be interesting to see if the ones that I sowed direct last week have done anything? I will also put in my maincrop potatoes, but as too how many will depend on the room I have as I have to remember to leave room for the courgettes & pumpkins which are doing nicely in the utility / greenhouse room!
Oh! I forgot to mention - I have been very greedy and I have taken on another plot - all to myself - Plot 144. It's quite overgrown and has about 10 baby trees - very young ones on it, but I will just have to work around them.
Pictures will be taken either later today and / or tomorrow and this post will be updated with them later .
Please don't loose interest - I really HAVE been busy this week.
Ali x

p.s. As promised the pictures of Plot 144

Experiments......Hahahahahahahahahaha(laugh like a nutty professor for the right sound effect)

Today was a wet squid type of day here in the deepest darkest depths (sorry, it's that all that Paddington Bear TV from childhood) of Peru, opps - I did mean Carshalton, of course I did!

Needless to say I did NOT visit the lotty today, although I have to confess that I did a little "drive past" in Smarty Pants (the name of the Smart Car - very original I know) to make sure Tatty was still there, and Cutbert, and Dibble and last but not least Grub + Twirly was going around and around and around.....

Well, after a quick visit to Wyevale Garden Centre in Purley Way, which is infact an old outdoor swimming pool with a massive concrete structured diving board arrangement from years ago, which I used to visit as a child to practice my 100 yards (Yes, I did get my certificate) & (yes the concrete diving board is still in place). Well, after spending another £30 I felt quite triumphant that I had finally freed myself from the clawing grasp of Woodcote. It was very nice to go to a different garden centre for a change.

Right - now for the experiments...........Ha hahahahahahahaha (remember to do the nutty professor laugh!)

Notice the gloves, ready for experimental action - do I watch too many movies? - yes, probably!!!hahahah (oh dear not that again - sorry)

Composing myself to continue.

Ok, let me explain...... I decided to pot on my tomato plants - these are the Marmande variety, which will hopefully end up as BEEFSTEAKS - yummy - which I love, or why would I grow them? Anyway, this led me to thinking that I should pot on my "normal" toms which were currently in module pots and onto 3 inch pots, so I did this too, and then decided to pop them (the normal ones) into the cold frame - Question is will they survive? - Experiment 1.

Experiment 2 was to plant 2 x butternut squash seeds from a squash that I cut open and used in a slow cooker chicken casserole recipe yesterday - I will let you know the outcome.

Experiment 3 was to buy and use these new "Suttons Sow & Grow Peat Pellets"

Sorry these pictures are the wrong way around - I can't work this blog system out sometimes!

Ok, so they say "just add water" well it's a lie - you have to soak them as you can see in picture 1 for at least 15-20 minutes, so one Gin & Tonic later and they are ready - gone soft all the way through. If you just water them as is suggests, you just have a small hard pellet for ages! The picture on the left shows you a fully soaked one.

In the first tray I planted sunflowers and in the second Carrots (Nantes 2 variety)

Well, I said it was an experiment so I will let you know if they germinate.

Here are the Sunflowers and the finished positions on the windowsill - p.s. the propogators are infact recycled "Taste the Difference" Beef packaging from Sainsburys!

Recycling - the possibilites are endless !!!

And finally, I was rewarded by some Blue Tits, which I saw just outside my utility room window, having a FEAST on the fat ball that I leave out for all the garden birds.

My apologies in advance for the blurred picture - I will try better next time.