Allotment update (Lynne!)

The rest of the seeds I have to plant are supposed to go directly into the soil outside, so I went down to the allotment today to clear some of the weeds away.  When I was there, I found out why only one half of the row of hyacinths was flowering: the other half was actually tulips.  Which are now flowering!  Why are all our flowers so short though?!

When I was clearing the weeds, I discovered our beetroot seedlings, which are meant to be thinned out.  Actually, I think they should have been planted much more sparingly, but you live and learn.  I pulled out as many as possible with the roots intact and have replanted them in rows.

This is the beetroot, below - two rows under the string.

I might have killed some of the seedlings(!)  I used the same technique as with the leeks - making a hole, putting the seedling in the top, then watering generously.  Unfortunately, in almost half the cases, the seedling disappeared into the depths of the hole (curses!).  Hopefully, they will come up again.

And, something seems to have moved into the compost heap next door(!)

FAO Lynne

I've been having an incredibly relaxing, do-nothing day after all the hoo-ha of yesterday (big Hugglets teddy bear show).  I slept in, sat around for ages making lists, hoola-hooped a lot, went out for lunch, sorted and tidied all the stuff from the show, then - because it was that sort of day - I went down to the allotment to have a look.  This is the allotment I haven't been anywhere near since before Christmas.  I was slightly dreading what I might find, but actually it doesn't look bad.  So this is a post for Lynne, my allotment buddy, who is sunning herself in California right now!  I did try some weeding, Lynne, but my fingers practically froze off, in not-so-sunny England, so I gave up on that idea pretty quick!  Anywhere, here's what it looks like now.

The ground covers look really good.  I couldn't see anything growing beneath them; they seem to have worked out pretty well.

And we do have signs of life!  Not entirely sure what these are(!) but they certainly look interesting.

And here's them close up...

They also come in brown, for some reason.  They're not dead or anything - just a different colour.  I do vaguely remember buying something in different colours and alternating them.  Hyacinths perhaps?

Beetroot.  I was meant to go through these ages ago and remove some of the seedlings so the remaining ones had room to grow.  Unfortunately I didn't get round to it, but hopefully it's not too late.  I will try to do this as soon as possible.

Our daffodils are coming up!

Crocuses - or rather a crocus!  Note the very unhelpful label.

Not sure what these are - any suggestions would be much appreciated!  They might just be weeds of course.  Lynne, these were on the compost heap side of that row of flowers that was there when we arrived.  Right next to that row of flowers in fact.  I vaguely remember planting something there, but  I can't for the life of me think what.  They look a bit cabbagey, but I hate cabbage, so I'm sure I wouldn't have planted that!

I think these are irises - choking among the thistles.  My second job, after the beetroot, will be rescuing these.

Violas!  (And more blasted thistles.)

Oooh, and I forgot to photograph the leeks!  They're looking good too, but I'm thinking of taking the netting off, because they're getting too tall for it.  I'll see if I can find some other kind of rabbit-proofing.  I think you can get little plastic guards - like a tube-shaped thing which you bed down in the soil.  Worth a try.

We've also been talking poly-tunnels again.  I was thinking we could have one running along one side of the allotment - from that little bit behind the shed, right along to the well.  Then we can grow peppers!  Let me know your preferred location.  And let me know where you want your pear tree planted.

And that's it!  I will be working at home on Wednesday and Friday this week, so if the sun comes out at any point, I will leap into my wellies and rush down there to do some weeding!

Planting at the allotment

Much excitement here this morning - we put some bulbs and plants in our new allotment!  That bit at the back of the first picture has all been turned over and covered with mushroom compost and we are going to cover it in plastic in the hope that everything dies off and mulches down for the spring.  There are some daffodil bulbs along the far edge though - not to be covered.

The bit at the front of the first picture is the bonfire where we're just finishing burning up all the raspberry cane roots (of which we seem to have an enormous quantity!).  Then we are hoping to get rid of all the weeds and have two wooden compost bins.

In the other corner, we planted tons of stuff!  We have labelled everything carefully, but I might keep this picture (below) just in case.  I can see me digging up all the plants, thinking they're weeds!

New stuff

Wow, it's been a long time - over 3 months(!)  

Well this is at least part of the reason why: I now have an allotment!  It's quite exciting and I'm hoping I am going to surprise myself.  I've never really been interested in gardening; my mother is the gardener in our household - (she has a big garden and three allotments) - but for me it's always brought back memories of having to do gardening chores as a small child.  I have loads of good memories of running round in the garden but the thought of actually gardening gives me a headache.  Visiting wool shops has a similar effect.  

There are several allotments that are going spare in our village though, and they're getting rather overgrown, and starting to cause some concern, so I suppose it was a mixture of community spirit (not something I usually suffer with) and a sense of challenge that brought me to the point of signing on the dotted line.

My allotment has a teeny-tiny little shed in one corner (just the right size for a portaloo), a well in another corner, a couple of compost bins, dozens of manky old raspberry canes and a tonne of weeds!

My aunt and I have turned over the larger part of it, burnt armfuls of stuff on the bonfire, planted daffodils and had a big heap of horse poop delivered.  That last arrived rather unexpectedly so we were shovelling manure in the evening as it was getting dark, hurriedly trying to tidy it away into one of the compost bins.  I'm told it mulches down well.

The whole digging thing has been lots of fun - hell on the lower back of course - but removing weeds appeals to my pedantic nature.  And when I get peeved with something, I can just bury it and hey, the problem's gone until next year!  :-)  I am slightly worried that I'm only going to be good at the destructive, fighting-weeds side of it, and nothing good is going to grow, but we shall see.

I had a wonderful thought the other day - we could have pigs!  Little orange pigs like Paul O'Grady.  I'm sure I read somewhere that they're great at turning over the garden for you.  Not much help when you're trying to grow stuff of course, but we could have them on a separate allotment when we plant stuff.  It's probably completely impossible, but worth looking into all the same. 

As for the bears (who? what?), I have still been making but it's probably true to say I haven't done anything new for 3 months.  We had the big Hugglets fair in September, in Kensington Town Hall, and I made lots of things for that - puffins, hedgehogs, crows, and lots of little bears - but they were all things that have appeared here before.  I am fresh out of creativity at the moment.  I think its because I'm a one-track-mind kind of person.  When I get really involved in something, everything else suffers.  But no longer - I must get my head down and start designing again!

The picture below is from the Hugglets website - me, my mother and my aunt at the show in September.  Thankfully it was quite a small photo so we look quite charming.  Just think how our customers must have felt though (and we did of course greet all customers in this formation)!