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,

Some produce, a question and an update.....

Hiya!

Got to make this a quick post cos I'm taking the littl'un swimming this morning :-)

So here is my first produce of the year - the strawberry finally ripened! Of course then it had to be divided into quarters so that we all got a chance to taste it :-) Verdict: yummy!

And that one was followed a couple of days later by these two - also cut into quarters and compared because one is Elsanta and one is Pegasus. Verdict: both yummy but Elsanta definitely wins! :-)

So while I was in the greenhouse, I was inspecting my tomato plants and found this:

Any ideas, gardening pals??? It's happened to a few leaves but doesn't seem to be spreading so I'm hoping it's not any sort of disease.... It happened to co-incide with a hot day when I left the greenhouse door open for a bit to allow some air flow but don't know if that has anything to do with it???? Any advice would be gratefully received!

I have got some lovely tomatoes coming along though. What do you think? :-)

Back on the allotment we decided to give George's patch a bit of an overhaul. His carrots never materialised and I think a mixture of animal invasion and not enough rain (or watering....) put an end to the beetroot and spring onions. We've cleared all the weeds, sown some more carrots and covered them with netting and planted the onions and beetroot I'd been growing in the greenhouse:

A better piccie of the beetroot and onions:

My beans are doing ok but they still seem to be a way behind my neighbours. Perhaps a little weeding would help....

The first couple of pods are visible on my peas but the plants are still quite small. These need weeding too!

I read a tip on someone's blog (I'll try to find the link.... Let me know if it's yours!) about using upturned ends of pop bottles to allow the water to get straight to the roots of your pumpkins so I thought I'd give it a go:

I had a sneaky peek at how my potatoes were doing aswell. There's loads there but they're still a bit small so I tucked them back in again. I'm hoping to dig up a few for when my Dad comes for dinner at the weekend :-)

And just another reminder of where I've come from. The next plot over is now truly a jungle! Lots of sun and rain certainly works on those weeds!!!!

Right, gotta go.... Catch up again soon!

Love 'n' hugs,

I've got green stuff!

WARNING: A picture-happy post.... I got a bit excited :-)

Firstly, my allotment as it looked a few days ago with George's veggie patch at the front, my new woodchip path and some more potatoes and carrots planted just beyond it:

And this is the left-hand side where I'd planted all my potatoes a few weeks ago:

And this is most definitely a potato plant - woohoo! I've got green stuff :-) Not just one of them either - there's loads popping up :-)

Then I finally got round to taking some piccies of my greenhouse goodies. Well, I say greenhouse.... It's one of those PVC covered walk in thingies - you know the ones? These are my onion seedlings :-)

And this is my one and only pea seedling - only 1 out of 6 has made an appearance so far - what's all that about???

These are pumpkin seedlings! George loves these - they've grown HUGE! I'm not sure I'll plant them all out - might not have enough room :-)

My runner beans - I'm off to buy canes this afternoon to make some sort of structure to support them. I've seen other people's... I think I know what I'm doing :-)

And then strawberry plant 1....

And strawberry plant 2 - both with oodles of pretty flowers :-)

Tomato plant 1:

And tomato plant 2 - there are a few flowers but too small to photograph yet.... I've pinched out the side shoots. I think that's right. And I'm started with the tomato food now. Fingers crossed!!!!

So very excited! Love this gardening malarky :-)

Gotta go - my Sunday roast is nearly done and I'm starving - can't wait till I'm serving up my very own veggies with it :-)

Love 'n' hugs,