A dry day at last!!!

I've been so rubbish at keeping this blog this year! :-( I've still been planting stuff.... It's been so horrible for weeks though. And then of course there was my wedding! But finally we have a dry day and we've been able to spend some time at the allotment :-)

The potatoes we planted a few weeks back are finally starting to peek through. I did wonder whether they would survive living in the swimming pool they were in when I visited them last week!

And just to show you the potato patch before it turns into a weed patch like the rest of my allotment....!

This is supposed to be my onion patch....

Look! There are definitely onions in there somewhere!

My other onion patch is even worse:

We planted the last of them today - this is what the rest of it should look like:

Weeding will have to wait for another day though.... Too much to do!

We covered the top section of the plot so hopefully we'll be able to use this section next year....

We put up the netting for the peas and planted our first lot out. I've got three lots of peas on the go at different stages of development so hopefully we'll have a decent supply of these later in the year....

I've planted a few varieties of carrots, spring onions and lettuce in my raised beds, leaving some room for more in a few weeks.....

And an overall view of the plot.... I really need another few dry days so I can get on top of those weeds. Otherwise I'm not going to have any room for my runner beans! Or sweetcorn... Or pumpkins and courgettes.... Or broccoli.... Oh dear! I'd better get a move on!

I'll show you some of the new additions to the garden at home in the next few days. I'm quite excited! :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

Erm... more beans and more potatoes.....

Hiya!

Before we get to the beans and potatoes, I've got a pumpkin update from a couple of weeks ago.... Slowly turning more orange :-) The kids are getting excited!

Paul tried to dig a bit more for me (left piccie) but it was really hard going.... I meanwhile dug up some more spuds as you can see on the right....

I planted the rest of my leeks and earthed up the ones I'd planted before.  You can see the difference in size....

I carefully sorted through all my potatoes.... Seconds go in the cardboard box, the perfect ones go in the M&S carrier bag (not just any potatoes....)

And my little tiddlers went into the bucket for roasting whole - nom, nom, nom!

And yet more runner beans.... getting fed up of preparing them now! This must be the last of them, surely?

My tomato plants are still going strong. Between the two of them they give us enough tomatoes to keep us going every week! I can't believe how much better they taste than the supermarket ones....

I've got to start thinking about what to do with my bare ground..... I've had all year round cauliflowers recommended and onion sets for over-wintering.  Any other suggestions? I must get to the garden centre.... :-)

Love 'n' hugs,

A well overdue update....

Hiya!

Sorry I've not been around much - busy, busy, busy! I just wanted to share some piccies with you of the stuff I've been bringing back from the allotment....  I'm afraid these piccies are now about a month old!

A mountain of runner beans, half way though their preparation for the freezer.....

I cut them up and froze them in family dinner sized portions......

My bean structure on the right, my dodgy (but effective!) broccoli cage at the back on the left, a patch of bare earth where I'd dug up some potatoes and the dying tops of my potato plants still to be dug up....

My biggest onion - I was sooo proud! I grew my onions from seed this time, but I'm thinking I'll try sets next.....

My pumpkins... the one in a little more sunlight starting to turn orange and the larger, greener one that gets hidden by the broccoli cage....

Some of the millions of potatoes my kids helped me to dig up..... These are King Edwards - yummy! Might try some other varieties though next year. Just to compare....

And even more runner beans I picked a few days later! I've given loads away and still have loads in the freezer :-) Definitely doing these again next year....

Right, I'm off - busy cooking Sunday dinner..... Roasted King Edwards and runner beans with our roast chicken today - what else!?! :-)

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,

Oooooh! I love fresh peas!!!

And finally I've got enough to make a meal out of! Yummy!

They were lovely with my broccoli.....

and spuds.....

and a nice piece of fish :-) I felt really proud of myself!

My beans are finally doing what they're supposed to - they don't always grow around the cane they were supposed to but at least they're growing in the right direction!

There are more yummy peas fattening up for my next dinner.....

And some salad stuff I forgot to label.... erm, a type of lettuce I think.....

and some radishes.... Maybe they should be the other way round??? Can't show you the rocket leaves though cos apparently the slugs like them the best :-( Put some slug blocker down now though to protect whatever's left.....

My pumpkin plants are doing quite nicely - not as big as the monster in my greenhouse but I'm quite pleased with their progress!

And look! Proper onion sized onions!!! I'm starting to feel like maybe I can do this allotment-y thingy afterall. Not bad for a novice!

Wishing you lots of sunny weather!

Love 'n' hugs,