A little Tidy Up

The Allotment was lovely and peaceful today - the sun was shining and the birds were singing their little hearts out!

So I spent 2 hours down there today, having a little tidy up here and there

And more importantly I got some digging and 

Weeding done

Well at least I have made a start.

I am not sure what to plant this year as

(A) I am moving house - sold ours but not found one yet so not panicking just yet and

(B) We have a hose pipe ban on from next week, so I don't want to be putting in too many thirsty plants.

I know, I know, we may get rain etc. but I don't want to risk it to be honest.  It's a lot of hard work if you don't get any.

I might just concentrate on some peas and courgettes??

Don't know yet, but it's only March so as I said before, no panic!

Last day of November....

Toad is still in residence

It was a lovely sunny morning so I went to weed and dig today

I managed to do this large patch

But not this one as I ripped my nail of my finger half way down and it's very painful.

A little bit of weeding....

Yes, I weeded my cauliflowers & cabbages - I built a triangular cage from what was left over of the Build A Ball equipment as the snow damaged a lot of it, but I am pleased with the end result!  Perfect for what's in there now and the addition of a few pak choi at a later stage.  I am not going to do Brussels or Broccoli this year you see, so I don't need a tall contraption.

 As you can see I got weeding in between the onion, all along the broad beans and down, back & in between on 2 rows of peas.  It all looks SO much smarter now and I am really pleased with my achievements today, considering I had Junior with me.

My greenhouse is "heaving".  I had a good POT clearout yesterday, which gave me some space & I also brought home some of the seedling trays that I have been taking down there from the utility room.  This allowed me space for my 18 tomato plants - 6 of each, Roma, MoneyMaker & cherry, all of which have now outgrown my coldframe in the back garden!

I will take pictures of the green house tomorrow as I have lots going on in there but didn't have the time to photograph today.

More Digging, weeding, tea drinking.....

....tidying up, chatting, raking and planning!

It is a beautifully sunny day today.  After this morning's frost, I put layers on before braving the allotment this morning, but they soon came off and got hung up on my shed door.  After a few minutes digging I was down to a long sleeved tea shirt!  It was lovely in the sun, just lovely!

I dug and weeded the old swede and beetroot bed and tidied up all the leaves that had accumulated there over the winter and I re dug and raked last years onion bed too.  Both these pictures show a little of the work done today, as I did continue to dig just to the other side of the leeks that you can see. 

It was hard to take pictures in the bright sunshine!  I also had a go at weeding the back area where the scarecrows are but it's full of brambles and needs some heavy duty work there.  Derek our Allotment Angel has kindly offered to come along with his mattock and give it a good "seeing too" for me this year which will be great as that will really tidy up the plot for good.

So another good 2 hours spent there this morning.  My only problem today was changing the gas cylinder on the camping stove.  You need massive hands and some brut force to extract the old cylinder and then put the new one back in place, but I got there in the end!! (I have small hands and the strength of a sparrow)

My First Day on the Allotment 2011

I made it to the allotment this morning, despite the raging wind!  I was surprised to see Mavis digging away, and further down Derek, so as that was my plan, I thought I best get on with it.

First I removed the old brassica stems, chopped them up with the spade and composted them.  Then I dug over & weeded that area....

...gosh that was hard work but very enjoyable.  You forget what a good hard dig is like don't you, especially as my last dig was around October 2010.  So after a good hour of digging over & weeding the old Brassica bed, I then moved on to something a little easier.....

Bed one - currently empty apart from a few welsh onions at the far end was weeded....

 Bed two - some strawberries to the front and some spring onions to the rear was weeded.....

And finally the Onions and Garlic were weeded using the good old Onion hoe.

So not a bad hour and a half spent there today in the wind!

Potato Day

I had arranged to meet Derek at 9.30am yesterday - how's that for good timing??

Derek and Laddie arrived shortly after

So I borrowed Ron's wheelbarrow and collected my potatoes, which I had moved to the Greenhouse from the bath yesterday

And of we went to plot 121 to begin the planting frenzy!

We had to dig / fork the ground a little first, so that the potato ridger would go in a lot easier

And in went the Cara's, Desiree & Roosters

I made sure they were all labeled up as I would easily forget what went in where! 5 rows later on plot 121 and a row of Cara's / Desiree on plot 144 for the overflow, and we all done.

I then went to work on 144 and spent the next hour and a half weeding and tidying up as it was needed after all the time of I have had!

And I made sure that all was well in the Greenhouse too.  3 hours and two cups of tea later and I was pooped, so home I went for lunch.

Sunday's Efforts on 144.....

It was too good, weather wise, to stay indoors after a two hour stint at the Trading Hut, where brisk business was made as the sunshine brings the allotmenteers to their plots!

So I decided to pop home for a quick cuppa, and a warm up - my toes were frozen - and then head straight back to do a few little jobs on 144 like.....

Tidying up the Greenhouse

Sowing some leeks and peas

Then I weeded and de cloched the 3rd raised bed - it has Leeks and even some Spring Onions remaining!

I weeded the middle bed and wanted to rake it over but I forgot my rake head in the shed

at home (it's one you attach to a long handle)

I then went on to weed raised bed #1 where the broad beans are growing

I staked all the broad beans too - I looked that bit up in my book that I keep in the

Greenhouse as I wasn't 100% sure they had to be staked, but then I remembered doing it last year, so best to double check as the cold air was mushing my brain a little!

Just in case you are thinking 

 "oh no, it can't be warm enough overnight in the greenhouse for seeds to germinate?"

Well I am lucky enough to have been given

a paraffin heater

Which has been tried and tested by good old Arthur, our delivery boy a the Trading Hut.

It's a double wicked one and is ready to go

so I will pop down there a bit later on to set it alight

and will go down there in the morning to turn it off & hopefully it will do the trick

as the frosts have not left our part of the world just yet.

So another hour, or maybe two, but lots done, and on my return home my lovely husband had

repaired my hail storm damaged cold frame that's in the garden....

.....with a piece of left over poly carbonate sheeting from the greenhouse

I was thrilled that he had done this and it looks ever so smart!

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!

Mad Idea - new project day.......

What a lovely day we had yesterday! Here in sunny Carshalton, temperatures got up to 28degrees! Of course, it had to be a Lotty day (a) because of the weather and (b) because I had just come across something in a one of my 7,000 gardening/Lotty books about protecting your brassicas, and as you know - brassicas need protecting from all sorts!

So, first it was a visit to Woodcote Nurseries. I was there on their door step at 8am - just as they were opening for the day. It's the best time of day to go as you are practically the only one in there and therefore have missed the Saturday zombies that go there for a "day out!"

Whilst there I came across this little fellow

It's a mini cucumber plant & you are supposed to harvest the cucumbers when they are about 4 inches long, so I bought one as I love cucumbers. As you can see, it was eventually put in with the pumpkins, courgettes / zucchini & butternut squash.

I also bought some netting and some cable ties, so my project could begin.

After walking the dogs and checking my emails, I loaded up the wheelbarrow with all that I needed for the day. Well, I say day - I lasted 4 hours which wasn't bad in that heat!

I arrived at the Lotty and got weeding first of all in Bed 4 (the potato & pumpkin bed). I then earthed up my first earlies. Mavis very kindly left a funny looking hoe for me in my compost bin. This was the one she had been using when she was demonstrating the earthing up to me on her potatoes - how kind was that! So the earthing up was done. I did sneak down to Mavis's potatoes plot a few times to double check I was doing it right, but according to Perry & George, who strolled by, I wasn't doing too bad a job.

Next was the weeding of bed 3. Bed 3 is where I have planted the broccoli & brussels. All the weeds are tiny little things, so it was off with the gloves and down to hard graft, especially as I had the rocket and lettuces to avoid too.

I then went for a little stroll as I needed a break and met up with a lady called Kirsty. She has a larger plot just down the way - this is where the little and large benches are from my previous photos. Anyway, Kirsty was lovely to talk to, and she had a big job on her hands re: weeds, so with the help of Derek (one of our allotment heroes), she was tackling the situation. She showed me her little greenhouse, which is just what I need and probably what I will put on my new plot. In there she is growing tomatoes, sunflowers and a shark fin melon!

I went back to my plot, wondering if Nigel was going to turn up to open up the shop. Ok, I know it's not official on a Saturday, but Nigel will open up if he is on site - the kind soul he is. Anyway, about 10 minutes later there he is, so I immediately told him I needed canes! Out came the 8ft's and 5ft's (oh and a few 3 ft's for the cucumber), and off I went - my brain full of plans.

A few 5ft's in each corner and at the middle of each bed, and some 8ft's cable tied to those, and I had my frame. The netting proved to be more difficult as it was me, myself and I, but I got there in then end as you can see -

George & Perry - our little rays of sunshine - seemed well impressed as they walked past on their way home and said that they would soon be taking advice from me! Ah - what a kind thing to say.

So nearly 4 hours later and I was all done in. The heat was getting very strong and I didn't bring a hat, so it was time to call it a day. I had to return later on, when it had cooled down, to water the plants, but I find that theraputic. So all in all a good day. I now have baby cucumbers growing and my B & B's are protected from the dreaded butterfly pesty.

I'll be off there again soon, and Hubby Ian said he will pop down this afternoon, so more blog to come later!

Half decent weather for a Bank Holiday.....

I woke up to a sunny morning - could I be seeing things? Was the sun really out???? YES - WOW - AMAZING - the question was, would it last?

It was Saturday morning so I ran down to the Lotty shop for some supplies, brassica collars, organic slug pellets and some seaweed extract plant feed, which I was told is a "must have."

I was told to put 1 cap to a gallon - but my watering can is in litres, so the next 15 minutes was spent by all in earshot, converting litres to gallons or gallons to litres. Once that was done I was all set.

I poodled down to my plot, where I was only planning on spending a few minutes as we had planned a trip to Ferring to go and see the ARMCHAIR GARDENER & Co.

I quickly applied the brassica collars to the brussels and broccoli - and very smart they looked too! I then watered the pumpkins and courgettes and replaced their cloches, checked on the peppers and chilli's under the polytunnel and headed home.

1 hour and 20 minutes later and we were in Ferring.

My lovely mother in law gave me another 2 scarecrows - Daisy & Mo which are perfect - just perfect.

Here she is with Biz & Letty the most adorable whippets in the world and much loved

I put them - Daisy & Mo, not Biz & Letty, in my potato plot as soon as I got back. That was, I should say, after the most lovely beef bourguignon lunch with wine and cheese & biscuits and strawberries and cream - yummy.

.

I spent 1 hour + down at the Lotty that evening - which was lovely in the last of the sunshine for that day. I did a lot of weeding in bed one and made a small start on weeding bed 2 which I plan to continue on Sunday 3rd. I had a lovely cuppa with Mavis and a good chat too - a well deserved break for us both.