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,

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,

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,

I bet you're all wondering where I've been.....

Well admittedly, not all of my time has been spent on the allotment! I've spent some of it in allotment association meetings getting roped into becoming association secretary (see our new allotment blog here!), some of it visiting other peoples allotments to see how it should be done! And I also spent a little bit of it getting engaged!!!! So I've been a bit of a busy bee heading off here, there and everywhere looking at venues and stuff in preparation for the big day :-) How exciting!!!

Anyway, I'd been promising to take a friend of mine and her little girl, Lily May to the allotment to have a go at some weeding, some planting and a bit of digging up spuds! I think you can probably tell how much fun Lily May had by the state of her top :-)

We planted some more onions which are coming along nicely......

And dug up plenty more potatoes! I think I've got enough to keep us going all summer :-)  The King Edwards have got some beautiful flowers on them at the mo....

 I've got little bits of broccoli appearing! My disasterous looking cage-type-thing seems to have done the trick and kept out all those naughty butterflies :-) And then I got my first few peas too! Unforunately, they didn't make it home. We ate the lot on the car journey - yummy!

Back at home my tomatoes are doing really well! How long do I need to wait for any sign of red???? I'm so impatient!

And my pumpkin is turning into a monster!  I've ended up chopping off the tip (not sure if that's wise but I had to do something!) because it's getting huge and all the tendril type things have started strangling my leeks!  I've noticed I've got a few baby pumpkins on the way so I'm hoping now I've removed the growing tip, it'll just concentrate on making those nice 'n' big ready for halloween :-)

 Right, I'd better go. It's silly o'clock in the morning and I can hear the littl'uns starting to wake up! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love 'n' hugs,

Plenty of potatoes.....

Hiya!

Back again :-) This time with piccies of my allotment to share.

My broccoli has really picked up since I planted it out.....

My pumpkin plants are doing well (although not quite as well as my greenhouse monster - see my last post!) but something has been nibbling at the leaves.... I've put down some "stay-away-slug" stuff to see if that will help.....

My runner beans are looking a bit healthier since the temperatures have risen a bit but they're still a good way behind all my neighbours.....

And look! My first ever peas!!!! So excited :-) My Nan would be so proud if she could see them (she lives in Wales and has no internet....) Mind you, she'd probably pinch them. My Nan loves fresh peas :-)

And then my potatoes!!!! These are Rocket potatoes. Yum, yum, yum! Beautiful with a roast Gammon joint and then there was still enough for our fish dinner the next night. Lovely :-) The kids loved digging them up!

These came from only two of about 12 potato plants I've got growing so we shouldn't need to be buying any potatoes for a while - fab!!!! I love my allotment!

Our allotment site is quite basic - running water and land but nothing else. No loos, no shop and no car park. And there's no association to get any of those things changed either, so the fella a couple of plots down from me organised a meeting to try to set up an association.... And somehow I've ended up being secretary! I've never been able to say no! So now I've got letters and minutes etc to write aswell all my usual stuff that I don't have time to do! And I kind of said I'd set up a blog or a website for us too.... If anyone has any tips for me, I'd be very happy to hear from you!

Love 'n' hugs,