So after the wettest summer for over a century and the second wettest since records began, I'm afraid I eventually gave up for this year and haven't blogged since July... shame on me! But I am now into 'preparing' for the next growing season, and so my enthusiasm is slowly being restored.
Although still raining for the majority of time I'm clearing away weeds and crops which are in the ground. Turning over the soil when possible and generally getting ready for next year. I've ordered my garlic and overwintering onions and hope to get these into the ground by the end of the month.
On a happier note, we have a new addition to the family, 'Buddy' our little Bulldog. We collected him from Wales at the end of July and he's been settling into the family very nicely.
Buddy aged 10 weeks
Looking after his toys!
Curled up with big brother Diesel
I've taken another video, just for record of how bad the plot got with all the bad weather, like I said, I'm now busy clearing it all away and will keep you all up to date as to progress made.. take a look at the video below..
Four days of nearly 'rain free' weather, nearly because it did rain over night on Saturday night, but I can't remember four days of nice warm weather free from the downpours that have plagued us so far this year since we had that lovely week where temperatures reached the early 20's, that was the last week of March. And that was the last real sun we had, except the odd day here and there and I'm afraid this prolonged batch of fine weather (erm 4 days!) may have come too late.
A lot of the guys at the allotment have given up trying to get anything this year and just taking what they can. I feel the same to be honest. I dug up my shallots and garlic on Saturday, a lot of the shallots were rotten and the garlic hadn't grown at all, the bulbs had split but they hadn't grown, I've put what shallots I could save to dry and I throw the whole lot of the garlic away.
I've not managed to get any of the ground sorted where my courgettes, pumpkins and squashes were going to be planted due to the wet weather, so I think I will just plant them where I can fit them around the plot. Some can go in the bed which has just been vacated by the garlic and shallots, some can go in the bed where I was going to plant out the outdoor tomatoes, and I can put a few in the bed where the peas were going to go as these haven't germinated either, even after a second batch being sown.
So for the last few days I've given the plot a good tidying over, got quite a few weeds pulled, cleared the jungle around the raspberries, cut back the very over grown hedge/overhanging tree near my two fruit trees, I can actually get in to clear this area now, I am going to make this a soft fruit patch and plant another of the apple trees that I have in a giant tub back at home, this will give me three trees along this bit and will have raspberries, rhubarb, gooseberries, possibly some strawberries, I will have to see how things go and what space I have when I get things sorted.
I leave you with a couple of photo's, sleeping after a hard day at the allotment.....
Still flooded with rain, so not much to update you on, but here is a little video my son found for me on YouTube, I cracked up when I watched it, it's great....
I'm going to try and expand my blog, and introduce some info pages, this at the moment is an experiment as I'm not quite sure what I'm doing, so please bare with me. My normal adventures can be viewed on the link at the top of my blog called 'The Lottie Antics'.
Doesn't it look cute, this is my first tomato growing and it's in the bottle house, can't wait to taste it.
We put the bees in the hive on Saturday morning, nice and early before they came too active, I had a quick look at the four hives on Sunday, just from the side, I didn't venture into them and they were all doing nicely, lots of bees flying in and out, looking good.
However this morning when I had a quick look, the swarm I collected on Thursday I'm a little concerned about, the bees were going in and out but none had any pollen in their baskets on their legs... as long as they were taking pollen into the hive things were going ok, or so that's what I was taught. Anyone got any idea's or can reassure me.
I was just chatting to one of the other allotment holders near the bee hives on Thursday evening and we were just chatting away looking round at the Hawthorne, saying how wild the grass was growing and how tall it was and commenting on the brambles, just general chit chat saying how much nectar the bees have in their immediate vicinity, when I spotted this! A quick phone call to Pete who looks after the other hives, his original hive died over winter but has collected two swarms in the last month and 30 minutes later we were chopping down the branch and putting the swarm in a nucleus until I could build my spare hive.
We had planned on putting them in the hive yesterday but with the torrential rain we held off until this morning, they are now safely tucked up in their new home and hopefully they will like it. So in the space of a month we have gone from 1 hive to 4, double what we originally had....
I can't remember a whole day without any rain (well certainly not on a weekend) for months, so I took advantage and went to the allotment. So much to plant, lots of catching up to do. I packed the car with tomato plants, leeks, runner beans and french beans, plastic bottles, canes, drill & accessories, poor Diesel, there was very little room left for him, we arrive for just after 1pm.
First job, fill the gaps around the back door on the bottle house with bottles (obviously), done....after that I wanted to fill in the triangle above the front door to the bottle house, done.... next on the agenda, plant out the tomatoes inside the bottle house, done.... next on the list, plant out the leeks... bit of a stumbling block here, had my dibber ready but the soil was rock hard so I decided to dig over the bed to loosen up the soil, but every time I lifted a clump of soil all you could hear was a squelch, the top was crusty dry but underneath very sticky and wet, I didn't know if this was a good idea to plant out the leeks, so I've turned over the whole bed and left it to dry out, try this one again next weekend. So my next job was to plant the runner beans and the french beans, done... moving along, hoe the strawberry bed and put mulch mats underneath the plants to keep the fruit off the soil, another one ticked off the list... time was getting on now, I hoed around the Jerusalem artichokes in the bed at the front of the chickens... back to the bottle house, I made a start on one of the back panels, filling it, got about half done when I ran out of bottles... more washing and cutting over the coming week should see this just about completed. I was beginning to waiver, I had wanted to lift the garlic and shallots, but I've left this for another day. We left at 10pm completely shattered, but with still so much to do.
So I took the plunge and emptied the tub of potatoes that I'd been growing in the greenhouse, not a brilliant amount but at least there were a few decent sized spuds, which I have since had some for my tea. The variety was Rocket and I managed to get a grand sum of 778g of potatoes. I'd forgotten to change the setting to lbs, but this is about 1.7lb of spuds. I even took a picture....
I might have a go at digging up one of the plants at the plot tomorrow, they have flowers on them and it was 11 weeks ago that I planted them.
I've also made a little more progress on the bottle house, there is still the back panels to fill, I'll most likely have one finished off tomorrow, I might even put in some of my tomatoes tomorrow whilst I'm at the allotment as they are getting pretty big now and really need to be in their final positions, so here is what it is looking like at the moment.
My apple tree has got a white fungal almost foam type substance on it, its sticky to the touch. I've googled it and I think it's something called wooly aphid, can anyone confirm....
If it is wooly aphid would I have to move it away from the other trees I have in buckets?
So after my tales of woe yesterday and feeling rather sorry for myself, for which I apologise, lets face it you don't pop over to hear me moan; you visit because ya wanna know what's going on. Well let me show you, June video update, hope you enjoy
Well folks, I'm beginning to believe that this year is a non starter. I look at some blogs and they're miles and miles ahead of me, their plants flourishing whilst mine are very slow to make any growth, well except the broad beans, they're doing pretty good. Yet other blogs look like they're having the same slow start to me, I wonder if they are thinking along the same lines, make do and start again next year?
Today we are at the summer solstice, yet funnily enough we haven't had any summer to speak of, tonight the skies were dark when at the same time on other nights they have been bright and the night quite light and we are in reality now heading towards darker nights and towards autumn and winter. Gosh somebody shoot me, I'm so pessimistic, I'm really beginning to get annoyed with the whole weather situation. I took a fortnight leave over Easter and it rained, I took another week for the Jubilee celebrations/half term and it rained.... it's generally dry Monday through Wednesday and then it rains for the rest of the week, well this is quite exasperating when you work all week and only get the weekend to make any progress on the plot. How are others feeling?
Ok, cheer up, look at the positives... Broad Beans - Yeah, Potatoes - Yeah, Strawberries - Yeah and even a couple of Gooseberries - Yeah, and a big YEAH to the bottle house!!!
I've done a video for you, this months tour, when I've managed to upload it onto YouTube i'll post it for you so you can see it... Here's a picture of how the bottle house is looking.
Welcome to Carrie and erickett124, it's nice that you have found me and I hope you find my journey interesting enough to stick around.
SO today I have done some more work on the bottle house... I have the roof complete now and am starting to fill in the sides. Here is how it's looking.
Today I was on the allotment for 9am, I wanted to get the grass on the surrounding area cut down with the strimmer, the council haven't been into our section at all this year and it was getting ridiculous, every time you went to the water tap you got soaked (after it had rained), you couldn't walk around the area without getting the bottom of your trouser legs wet, and this isn't good when you have to go every morning before work to feed the chickens, as I do. Getting to the bee hives was a joke, the grass was nearing 3-4 ft tall. Anyhow, I decided enough was enough and strimmed it down, it took an absolute age, and was back breaking. The stimmer is a petrol one that is used by the likes of the council, and professional gardeners, it was bought (second hand) using some of the grant money we attained last year. It cut through the grass like a knife through hot butter. I only managed to get one side of the area done (the side my plot is on LOL) and will finish off the other side another day as I wanted to get things done on my plot also.
So in between the strimming, I sowed some more carrots, not many of my first batch have come through, I did do them some time ago before the soil had warmed up and then we had all that rain for April and most of May so in reality most of the seeds were either waterlogged or washed away. I've made myself a 'carrot' template, I took the idea from 'Annie's Granny' of Annie's Kitchen Garden, hope she doesn't mind. Granny makes seed mats, but to be honest with you I don't have the time or patience to make these so I made my own version.........
My Carrot Template
Close Up of Sowing Holes
Carrots from 1st Batch Coming Through
The template measures just under 4ft by 3ft (if I remember rightly) and each of the holes have been drilled so they are 3" apart. It gives you 165 sowing stations. All I need do is place it on top of the soil and sprinkle some seeds into each hole, lift up the template and then scatter over some compost and water. It saves (hopefully) the need to thin them out so much. I also sowed some more broad beans and another 3 rows of peas, from my 1st lot of peas only 2 germinated, that's 2 peas from about 160, what did I do wrong??????
All in all a tiring day, I left just after 4 totally shattered, I've now got my feet up catching up on some blogs, watching Spain v Italy on the Euro's. About to have some tea, and a nice hot bath. It's back to work tomorrow, how nice! NOT...
I love looking back over people's blogs, specially new ones that I've found, reading what they've been up to and looking at how they've done, or haven't done. Anyhow, I found this blog and I was reading it, but I had to double check the date, were we in 2012? No it was actually in 2008 but the weather was very typical of how it has been this season, e.g. April - cold start, warming up towards the end of the month. May - Lovely warm start with highs of 22.5 degrees Celsius, but wait....it ended with days of rain and temperatures dropping to around 13 degrees... is this all sounding familiar? June - again typically colder than average temperatures and the result for that year was a cold summer, with temperatures only reaching late teens, not a very good year for growing by all accounts. So, is this what we have to look forward to; a cold summer? Oh and by the way, they had an Olympics that year too... so I'm blaming it on the Olympics, roll on another 4 years, LOL.
Back to the present day then, I have put on another four roof panels on the bottle house, it is starting to come together. I'm going to have to sort out some kind of support for the middle supports of the roof. With the weight of the panels on the back side it is pulling on the middle supports and tilting to one side. When I have put up the two panels on the front facing side, I have had to put these in the middle positions with a hope to counteract the weight on the supports, once I have the final two in position I will assess it more, but I think to be on the safe side I'll have to sort something out, else I may come down one day and the roof will be in next doors allotment, I don't think they'll be too pleased about that. Here is a quick picture of how it is coming on.
Six Roof Panels Attached
I've put up my bean supports, and direct planted some French Beans and some Runner Beans. I have done this down one side of each set of supports, I have also sowed (have I spelt that right?) some Runner Beans in pots in the greenhouse, I will plant out these along the other side of the structure. Hopefully this will give me differing cropping times, we'll see. Additionally, I sowed some Borlotti (French) Beans in the greenhouse, these are to go on the other side of the direct planted ones, these will be left on the plant for picking at the end of the season and drying for stews etc in the winter. When I pull up my Garlic and Shallots towards the end of the month, I will plant another crop of French Beans, dwarf varieties in the bed which they vacate. I may even try some in the little polytunnel I have (this isn't ready yet, area still to be dug over and cover put on).
Bean Frames
I've direct sowed some more parsnips. My first batch which I pre-chitted at home and planted into peat pots were quite successful and these have been planted out and looking quite nice. Thinking it was going well I tried to do the same again, but only about two seeds germinated, so I tried again, this time none of the seeds germinated. I've given it one more chance using some free seeds which I got with a magazine only a couple of weeks ago, so the seeds would be viable you'd think. I've put two/three seeds per station and will thin (hopefully) to one per station if and when they germinate. I'm not sure with parsnip seeds, they say you have to use fresh each year, but I got the seeds last year but hadn't opened them, they had a sow by date of 2013 so I thought they'd be OK, but apparently not. I had hoped to plant out my brassica plants, but the rain came and boy did it come. I'd dodged the rain all day yesterday and again this morning, but when I returned after some lunch the rain gods were not playing...
So today I spent my diamond jubilee EXTRA HOLIDAY (thanks Lizzie) working on another two sections of the bottle house roof. The sections measure 4ft x 4ft (don't know if I've mentioned that in another post), and are composed of 2" x 2" wood, treated, there are 11 rows of bottles each row is composed of 5 bottles (1 whole and 4 with the bottoms cut off), so each roof section needs 55 bottles in total. There are 8 roof sections and therefore the roof needs a total of 440 bottles (wow!). Each bottle needs it's label taken off and washed out, it takes some time just to prep them believe me.
Sad that I am, I timed myself making one of the roof sections, it took me just over an hour to put it together (this doesn't include the bottle prep). I take 4 lengths of wood, and cut out a small section at each end so that I can fit them together to create a frame. Each corner has two pilot holes drilled and two 45mm screws inserted to hold them together. Now for the fun part, each of the 'whole' bottles has a small pilot hole drilled in the bottom, and then they are drilled with a 10mm bit, this creates a hole just large enough for a standard 6ft garden cane to be inserted. The fun bit is trying to keep hold of the bottle to create the hole without it spinning round on the drill (this takes some practice LOL).
I insert a cane (for the roof I am using some that a friend's Dad grew, slightly thinner than standard canes) into the 'whole' bottle and fix this to the bottom of the frame. I then put on 4 'bottom-less' bottles and fix the top of the cane to the top of the frame. Simple. Repeat another 10 times and then you have your roof section.
4ft length with section removed
Lengths all screwed together to create frame
1st cane attached, this is in the middle of the frame
Back at the allotment this afternoon, i'm concentrating on trying to get the bottle-house sorted ready for the tomatoes, chilli's/peppers, aubergines and cucumbers to be planted in it. I've now completed all the beds (four) with a pebble path going down the middle. I have also started to build the roof, I've put up two panels so far. These are taking just a little bit longer than I thought would, but i'll carry on regardless. I am determined to have it completed by the end of the month.
Four Raised Beds
Two Roof Panels Fitted
So Far......
How daft did I feel..... I'd built the roof panels (each measured 4ft x 4ft), fixed on the bottles, and went to put them in the boot of the car to take to the allotment. Opened the boot, lifted the panel and doh! they were too big, how did I manage that! So I had to take the side bars off so that they had a bit of flexibility so I could maneuver them into the boot... had a quick look around, was there anyone watching.... I hope not!
Nothing much more to update you on since my last post, though I have sowed quite a few different pumpkin, squash and courgette plants. Thursday evening is usually my night at the allotment and then at the weekend when I get the opportunity. As well as doing more squash etc. I've also potted on some of the tomato plants, they are getting so BIG, they must grow inches every day, this lovely weather is doing them the world of good.
I posted a video a few issues ago, giving you a tour around the plot and I am hoping to do this on a monthly basis, but you know how these things pan out, good intentions and all that, but please do keep coming back to have a look. Hopefully the video works, I think there was a problem with it initially but I have uploaded it onto YouTube and it seems to be working better now. Anyway, would appreciate it if you could let me know just a yes or no would suffice and then I'll be able to keep at it until it's working properly if things aren't going to plan.
I've just been looking at a video of how plants were in the greenhouse just a couple of weeks ago, wow things are moving along really nicely. I've been hardening off a few brassica plants, so I might get them planted out at the weekend.
If you did watch the last video, I had to leave you dangling on a piece of string at the end as I had every intention of showing you the bees, but when I got there it was too cold for them and there were very few flying around the hive. I did however take a quick video of them the other morning...
Welcome Rooko, thanks for popping by and sticking around.
Well what can we say 'Glorious'.... that's what it's been over the past week, temperatures in the 20's, great stuff. The tomatoes, aubergine, pepper and chilli plants are all growing very nicely, I'm sure they have doubled, nearly tripled in size due to the warm temperatures, just what they needed as they were looking really sorry for themselves.
On Thursday evening and again on Sunday I finished off clearing and digging over the bottle grow-house. I have made a start on creating the planting beds in there. I will have 4 beds 7ft x 2ft to plant out the toms etc.., I have built 2 so far, hopefully the other two will be completed this Thursday evening. These beds are made from scaffold boards so will be nice and deep. I'll try to rotate as best as I can, will probably have to dig out and replace soil in a few years time. There will be a pebble path running down the middle so I can wet it down on a morning, something that is advised in greenhouses, so I suppose it's something I should be trying to do in the grow-house.
I've got some annual leave booked in for next week, so hopefully I'll be able to make a start on the curcubiteae area. But I'm not putting any money on that, it always rains when I'm on leave.....
Couple of picture of the inside of the bottle grow-house. Two beds complete.
So another day's leave spent on the plot yesterday, got quite a bit done and it is starting to look just about there, probably another good few weekends to go and we might be at a place where I have 6 crop family areas (Solanaceae, Cucurbiteae, Brassica, Legumes, Alliums and Roots) and its manageability will be near possible....will the day ever come?
Hang on, snap me out of that dream.....So back to yesterday I cleared all the weeds from the salad bed, it's looking a lot nicer, don't you just get a great burst of satisfaction when an area become clear of weeds. The only downside was something has munched on one of my iceberg lettuces that I planted out at the weekend, so now I'm one down. I suspect a pesky pigeon so I covered the remaining ones with a metal grate, it was just the right size. I also cleared the weeds from half the bottle grow-house, gosh don't weeds grow extremely quickly, I'd bet money that they weren't there a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow evening, all being well, I'll clear the other half of the grow-house.
Weeded a few other beds, these ones had been cleared over the winter and it was just a case of putting a hoe through it to clear the new growth. When all the plot is cleared and I'm on top of things (I can see the light at the end of the tunnel) then weeding shouldn't be such a momentous task. I also sowed some broad beans and beetroot direct into the soil.
When I arrive at the plot, (yesterday it was about 8.45am), the first job (other than putting on my boots if I'm staying) is always to feed and water the girls. I opened the caged area and got their food tray, filled that up, got the water tub and went and filled that up. Then the next thing I do is collect the eggs so that during the course of the day they aren't broken when the girls go and do their stuff... when I saw what was there, well it made my eyes water. That poor girl, boy it must have hurt!
the egg was nearly the size of my hand!
left egg (dinosaur egg), right egg (normal Hazel egg)
You can see the shear size of it, it measures approx 3.5 inches and weight and weighs 118g, that is compared to a normal Hazel egg which I've measured at just over 2 inches and 68g.
Wow, we've gone from constant rain during April and May to well I wouldn't say constant sunshine because there has been very little of that, but at least it's been mostly dry for the past week and I've taken advantage of the break in the rain and been doing a lot of catching up at the allotment. And the weather man says we're in for a bit of a heat wave, now lets not get excited, late teens to early twenty's is not a heat wave in normal terms, but when the temperature has struggled to get into double figures 18-22 degrees is a HEAT WAVE in my books.
SO getting back to taking advantage, a couple of sneaky half days leave and a couple of good weekends and hey presto we have the 'Solanaceae' area complete, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes and strawberries all planted. Its a weight of my mind. I hate catch up.
Solanaceae Area (5 beds)
Jerusalem Artichokes (permanent bed)
Strawberry Bed
I've also planted out some parsnips and some lettuce, weeded the bed where I am going to plant some more broad beans and cleared the area in front of the chickens laying a path and planting some more artichokes.
Parsnips
Jerusalem Artichokes (chicken run!)
Lettuce (salad bed)
All being well, I've got another day leave for tomorrow (subject to weather conditions; told the boss if it's raining I'll be in work).
Planned jobs; finish weeding salad bed and plant out more lettuce, sow peas and broad beans. Start on the 'Cucurbiteae' area, hopefully it'll all be dug over and beds made before the courgette, squash and cucumber plants need to go out. Lets hope for lots of dry weekends and I'll conjure up another magic trick.....
So it was great weather over this last weekend, got a good bit done, still some more to do but since we last talked about what i've done for this cropping year here is an update.
Over-wintering Garlic & Shallots - doing nicely
Early Broad Beans Planted, starting to make some good growth
Red Onions & Brown Onions Planted, just beginning to show themselves
1st Earlies Planted, nothing showing yet...
Early & Late Maincrops Planted (thank goodness), along with some Salad Spuds, just planted, wait and see for these
Pots in tubs at home, shoots coming through... another few weeks before we can have these
Carrots, starting to come through
Radishes, coming through...
At home in the greenhouse we've got leeks, cabbage (summer, autumn & winter), calabrese, purple sprouting, beans, turnips, swede, sweetcorn, peppers, chillies, tomatoes, aubergine, cucs, butternut squash, courgette, sprouts, lettuce, beetroot and parsnips (lettuce & parsnips are roughing it outdoors now, ready to be moved into the plot at the weekend.
Well, here is my first video, giving you a quick walk around the plot, i'm afraid at the end I was going to take you over to meet the bees, but they were not flying around so we'll have to complete that another day. Hope you like it
Just to let you know a bit more about what I was up to whist I was unable to blog during 2011. Well you might remember that when I'd last posted you back then, we had just been given the grant for the bees. We got funding for hives, bees and suits. Myself and another plot holder Pete both took charge of a hive each, with spare parts to expand with another hive this year. 2011 went rather well, and the bees flourished. We didn't take any honey off them, deciding to leave it for them to over winter on. It looked like they had come through the winter ok, my hive was very active during the week in March that was unseasonably warm, Pete's didn't seem to be as active. We had a visit from the BeeBase Inspector in April and he confirmed that Pete's had Nosema and wasn't likely to survive. Nosema Apis reduces the lifespan of infected bees, increases winter mortality and reduces spring build up. My hive on the other hand was going really well, "a lovely colony" he said. Well what I need now is a nice warm day when I can open the hive up and do a spring check. I will then decide if I am going to expand and create a second colony, not sure if I'm brave enough for this...
A couple of pictures here for you of the bee set up.
Welcome to Mark N and West9, thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy the journey...
Hallelujah, we've actually had a break in the weather, well the rain, it's still rather chilly. Since the beginning of April, I can't remember going any longer than a day without rain, rain or even more rain. To be quite frank, if it didn't rain again until ooh maybe November I wouldn't be bothered, even though that means watering the garden with 6,7 or 8 litre watering cans, I'd quite happily suffer in silence. The rain and continuous cold spell has put the season back quite a few weeks, for me anyhow. But this bank holiday weekend we had 3 days of mostly dry conditions.
So I struck while the iron was hot so to speak with that dry weather... I spent most of Saturday at the allotment digging over the area where the potatoes are going to go (eventually), all of Sunday afternoon and evening and then went back again at 8am on Bank Holiday Monday to spend another 6 solid hours finishing off the job. Who in their right mind goes digging on an allotment at 8am on a Bank Holiday Monday! One mad plotter that's who... I was dead on my feet by the end of it, the soil was quite waterlogged and very heavy, which made digging rather hard work. But I did it, it's all cleared and raised beds are starting to appear.
Here are a few pictures of how the 'Solanace' patch has improved....
How it all started with the weeds (July 11)
The weeds chopped down...
You can see here (April 12) that I've took down part of the fence and started to dig over the potato (solanace) area, a couple of beds are in but still a bit to dig over...
Here (May 12) the whole of the potato (solanace) area has now been cleared, dug over and another bed created.
So hopefully the weather will hold off this weekend so that I can finish building the remaining beds and get the potatoes in.... please Mr Weatherman, play nicely...
I've been working hard on the plot, well Plot 1 that is, it's just about completed now, all the raised beds have been installed, the hen house is built, the frame of the bottle house built, still a couple of things to do, e.g. create the raspberry beds, the flower beds and plant a few more fruit trees (currently in tubs) but these are things that I can get on with later during the year.
Plot 2 is now starting to be worked on, practically half is dug over and I've started to create some raised beds. The other half is covered in black plastic so that I can get around to digging this over when I have more time.
Time, well that is the most precious thing isn't it... when you work full time you find yourself really analysing what you do with your time and where you can get more time from. Here in Middlesbrough I could really do with more time... Or even better for time to stand still, though this would have to be on a sunny day! I took some annual leave over the Easter holidays to try and get Plot 2 sorted, but 10 of the 14 days were lost to rain and therefore i'm not anywhere near where I should be. I have earmarked Plot 2 for the Potatoes and Squash families in my crop rotation. Here we are at the wrong end of April and I only have my 1st earlies in... It has rained just about everyday since I went back to work and therefore not a lot has been able to be done. I am now racing against time to get the rest of the Potatoes in. I have however planted out a bed of Broad Beans, a bed of Red Onions and a bed of Brown Onions. I've sown a few radishes direct and also started to sow some carrots. I have Shallots and Garlic in which have been in since October time, these have come through the winter and seem to be doing ok.
Away from the Plots, I've had a holiday in Ibiza; revisiting my youth I think, and a couple of weekends away in Edinburgh and Nottingham... Boooziee weekends with friends, these were really nice and relaxing.
But on a sad note, in August we lost Samson to Kidney Failure, it was devastating, and we lost him rather quickly after the diagnosis. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing I'll never know, we didn't really get time to say goodbye but then we didn't really have to watch him deteriorate. In January we adopted Diesel, another Dogue de Bordeaux, he's 16 months and very cheeky....
I have been absent for some time, though I have been plodding away at the allotment I have been unable to share my progress with you all due to lack of internet service for the past year. But I am back on line and will continue to share my journey with you all, hope you stick around for updates which I will be posting over the next day or two.
Hi I'm Katy,I'm a single mother in her mid (erm late) 30's who has had the wonderful world of grow your own introduced to her. How it all started - well in the summer of 2009 I managed to get myself an allotment (rather overgrown) and spent most of that year trying to educate myself about the world of fruit and vegetables through trial and error, blogs and magazines and tried to get my lottie into a nice 'working' plot so that I can somehow be more self sufficient. Samson was my Dog, sadly he took the trip across Rainbow Bridge in August 2011. There is no Delilah but I thought it sounded better than Katy, well it sounded a little different, when I decided to name my blog after Samson LOL. So here we are, present day, errors have been made and learnt from, and through blogging and videoing I'm hoping to learn from all of this and share my experiences with all my fellow plotters out there. Hope you enjoy the journey.
Down at my allotment there are vegetables and flowers,
I planted every one of them and stay there hours and hours,
I have a little shed where I can make a cup of tea,
Down at my allotment is the only place for me.
Carrots, Cauliflowers, Onions and Beans,
Courgettes, Brussels sprouts, Squash and Wintergreens,
Tulips, Daffodils, Marigolds and Phlox
Sunflowers, Violets, Daisy’s, Hollyhocks.
