Leeks and beans.....

Hiya!

I've finally managed to get some of my leeks in the ground! I've put them in my onion patch and given them a good haircut like Matron told me I should - I do try to do as I'm told! I'm not sure how long they need to stay in the ground though.... More reading! I haven't planted them all out yet - mainly cos I couldn't fit them all in my car to take them down to the plot (not when I've got children, potties, bags, snacks and association paperwork to take aswell!) so I'll plant the rest as soon as I can....

My bean plants are looking fab! It's George's job to spot all the runner beans that need picking and he loves it. It makes him feel very important :-)

We got loads this visit:

Enough for a dinner and for three bags to be frozen. It took me nearly an hour to prepare all these!

And they're yummy! I love runner beans :-) My Grandad used to grow them when I was younger and I remember bringing loads of them home for dinner :-) A few of mine were a bit tough - I'd let them get too big so I'll have to be careful to pick them when they're a bit smaller in future.....

Have a lovely day!

Love 'n' hugs,

Some "After" Piccies.....

Hiya!

I've managed to take some photos of the plot after all the work Paul and I put into clearing it after it had become a jungle following a little bit of neglect!  This is our onion patch.... I'm quite pleased with the onions... I'm definitely going to do more of these next year, on a bigger scale. For the mean time though, this is where my leeks will live :-)

The patch where we've dug up our potatoes had started to become quite weedy but it's looking nice again now! I'm just not sure what to do with it until next year.... Maybe I'll just cover it to stop the weeds coming up!

And (shock, horror!) we've even managed to dig a little bit more of the plot..... Not much but I'm very grateful to Paul for doing some digging for me. It gives him a horrible achi-ness in his hand since he broke it last year....:-(

And then we strimmed the rest of the plot so it did look like it was owned rather than abandoned! Hopefully all this bit will be dug next year.....

Right! I'm off. The littl'uns are out of bed now and demanding their breakfasts :-) Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Love 'n' hugs,

Oh dear.....

Look what happened....

That'll teach me to take my eye of the ball! My allotment has become a jungle! Time to pull my socks up and put in some proper hard work again....

This patch shouldn't take too long to fix.....

On a positive note, I now have two pumpkins growing quite successfully..... This one is approaching bowling ball size.....

While this one is more of a grapefruit size.... They look very different considering the seeds came out of the same packet.....

And then there's this.... It's growing where I put my radishes but I though everything got wiped out by slugs??? Is this what a radish plant looks like? Or are they just weeds? More research needed I suppose!

These runner beans are HUGE! And there's loads more to come aswell. I can see I'm going to need to freeze some.... :-)

Definitely enough for today's dinner....

Some more broccoli and an onion cos I just had to see..... :-) I think I should have left it a bit longer though.....

And of course more spuds!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take any "after" photos so you could see what it was like when I'd done a bit of weeding..... Sorry! Maybe next time :-)

Take care!

Love 'n' hugs,

Tomatoes and other goodies....

Hiya!

I've been so caught up with all the Allotment Association business that I've hardly had time to actually spend on my allotment! These are some photos I've taken over the past couple of weeks to show you how things are getting on....

Firstly, my ripening tomatoes.... :-)

They only took another couple of days to become this......

I'm hard pushed to get any more though. My greenhouse isn't very toddler-proof and my two year old, Charlie, picks and eats them before I get a chance to photograph them - never mind eat one myself! I shouldn't complain though. At least it's better than sweets!

My leeks are coming along well.... Time to go in the ground when I've done a bit of weeding!

Down at the allotment, one pumpkin in particular seems to be doing very well :-) Of course this picture doesn't allow any sense of scale... It was about the size of a lemon in this picture.....

I'm pleased with my broccoli too....

Not quite enough peas and broccoli for a dinner this time though.... Just got to pop to Asda.....

Onions are getting nice 'n' big. When can I pull them up though? Must read up some more...

And the runner beans are doing nicely! Such pretty flowers and loads of buzzy insects :-)

George loves coming along and giving me a helping hand - he especially likes digging up spuds and picking peas :-)

Have a fab day!!!

Love 'n' hugs,