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,

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,

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,

The latest from Mel's Greenhouse....

Hiya!

I've had these piccies for a while now - didn't realise I hadn't put them on my blog yet!!!

These were the best of my strawberries:

Plus some bonus plants that my friend gave me - thankyou, Claire!

My leek seedlings before my two year old turned the tray upside down :-( I did manage to save most of them though. They're all sat in their own little pots now until they're big enough to go to the allotment.

My tomato plant has nearly reached the top of my greenhouse :-)

And the pumpkin plant is HUGE compared with the ones at the allotment....

Now, I'll sort out the latest piccies of the allotment for you.....

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,