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,

A new year, a new start....

Hiya....

You may remember in March last year I covered part of my plot in a sheet of black plastic to kill off all the weeds etc. This is what it looked like then:

Well it stayed like that the whole year long but we were finally determined to get it dug. So we wrapped up warm (the temperature on the dashboard said -1oC!) and we got stuck in.  I was hoping that the plastic and dead stuff had insulated the ground so it wasn't too frozen to dig and thankfully I was right! So far we've managed to dig this much:

Don't be too impressed though - look at that bit in relation to the rest of the plot...... The dug bit is top right - you might need to zoom in :-)

We've moved the plastic down a bit. I think there's only another couple of metres of dead stuff left for us to dig through now and the rest is covering a bunch of weeds that need dealing with in a previously dug part of the plot....

In the forefront of that piccie you can just about make out George's leeks. Here's a "better" piccie:

You can just about make them out in with all those weeds! I really must deal with them to give those poor leeks a chance....

This is my patch of onions - not doing too badly! I'm quite pleased with them. They have dealt with the Christmas neglect well....

 Just in case you're not convinced that we really were out digging in freezing conditions - here is some of the ice we had to shift off the plastic before we could peel it back!

And I'm hoping this photo serves as a "before" photo that I can compare to the lovely neat and tidy "after" one I'll be able to show you next week.... Or maybe the week after :-)

Happy digging!

Love 'n' hugs,

Nearly Halloween....

And my pumpkins are ready!!!!

Once I took down my dodgy broccoli cage and the sun could get to them they turned orange in a couple of days!  If I make anything yummy with them or the kids carve them I'll take some more piccies to show you.....

The bean structure has finally come down now... Look at all the weeds it hid! Still got to take down my pea wigwams....

My potato patch is starting to grow weeds again already! Eek! What to do? Any suggestions what to do with it over the winter????

I've throughly weeded and dug over my broccoli and pumpkin patch and added a load of compost.  Not sure whether this is any good as far as crop rotation goes but this is where I've planted my onion sets for over-wintering..... one set of normal brown onions - these ones are called Troy.... and one set of red onions - Electric. I've got no idea about the varieties at all but they are what they had in the garden centre so we'll see what happens!

Apparently they have a habit of popping back out of the soil so I'll check them every few days to make sure they're staying put!

I've also sown some all year round cauliflower seeds in trays at home.... apparently they like to keep warm at first but can go out in the allotment after they've grown a bit. I'll try to keep you updated on their progress!

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,

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,