It's all going swimmingly

There have been some truly beautiful days this week again and Andrew and I have had a few late lunches out on the patio. On one of those days Andrew planted up some of our mixed lettuce and a few wee baby chard 'bright lights' into the last patio pot; we still have so much other delicious food stuffs to pot up but where? how? we can't get more pots! I guess everything else such as the sweetcorn, leeks, squash were always going to have to go to the allotment proper.

We do have lots of lovely little flower pots for my flower seedlings and more radishes (we've been eating them like they're going out of fashion!). Oh I look forward to planting them up and seeing colour abound, big thanks to Flighty again for sending me the seeds. There will soon be marigolds, nasturtiums and some sunflowers alongside my happy little geum 'Queen of Orange'; I'll also have some for the allotment plot :)

So everything is going swimmingly here and we are going to the plot tomorrow to get on top of the explosion of weeds that has happened thereI shall take my camera and share the news from that side of the allotment story too.

Beautiful broad beans flowers abound

coriander and spring onions getting on great 

radishes, turnips, potatoes, spring onions and spinach!

Just noticed that some of the spinach 'amazon f1' has started to bolt as it is wont to do, never mind though, we have been eating it with nearly every meal, it's been so tasty. We have perpetual spinach now as well so all will be fine in the end.

spinach and beetroot with baby round carrots just starting their journey

Toby say's Hello ("bork") and wags his tail at you,
Hugs and love
Carrie

The fun begins!

Last weekend at the plot we worked hard, fitting a new water butt tap, lifting the last of the weeds and grass and mulching the heck out of everywhere; great work but a boring blog post, ahaha. However yesterday Andrew had a day off and we spent it making notes in our
new allotment planner book, going to the local nursery for netting and an oscillating hoe (the best thing EVER) and going to the plot to make further plans.

Andrew and the new oscillating hoe. Look at that soil, lovely

On the plot at the moment - 
the Purple sprouting broccoli is ready, the garlic is flourishing and the kale has bolted.

We have decided that the back of the plot is going to be home to our 2 fruit bushes, rhubarb and fruit trees. The rhubarb 'glaskins perpetual' crowns are just poking their sweet heads up through the thick mulch now and I for one am very excited. We are going to get 2 more crowns and simply fill that space up with rhubarb-y yuminess.

The damson tree is going to get a friend in the shape of a cherry 'stella' tree, we're just waiting on it arriving. The blueberries are just going to stay the way they are and the apple trees support arch is coming out now that they have established and are happy (the timber is rotting away anyway).

The seed buying started at the weekend and more last night and more this afternoon. Little but often, getting our favourite varieties for the best price and new fun types to try alongside. It's almost the most exciting time of the whole allotment year I think - this panning and anticipation.

The potatoes are chitting away in the shed - 'Pentland Javelin' first earlies.

There shall also be changes made around the shed and compost areas but I'll leave those as a surprise. Oh and we are taking a big interest in the hedgerow line behind our shed and are going to make it a better place for all the many birds and insects that live in there. All shall be revealed in time :)

Hugs
Carrie

Back on the plot

Two days at the plot, reclaiming it from the weeds and general neglect has given us a boost that was sorely needed - friends we are back in love with allotmenting (or as I keep calling it in my head 'aplotmenting'!?).

** The first day back was Sunday afternoon on the 6th of the month and Andrew planted the garlic! The Solent Wight is in and I have my fingers crossed it will do much better this season. We planted the last lot last April as plug plants and they simply didn't do, maybe because it's best to plant your garlic direct in the autumn and let it get a darn good freezing before it starts to put on the growth in spring.

looking good

Andrew got the two espalier apple trees pruned that day too whilst I continued my struggle with reclaiming the plot from the grasp of nature. Honestly I felt unwell and too weak to enjoy the activity and the sight of the place so overgrown and in need of tremendous renovation and filled me with dread. Usually I'm excited by tidying up and improving but that day it all felt so overwhelming.

pruning the apple trees

No photo, sadly (oh how I tried) but I saw a lovely frog on the plot and there was such bird song and more worms than usual. But my mental health was just too poor - I felt utterly ashamed to be myself even though no one could even see me. Time to go home. (I'm getting panicky even thinking about it)

** On Saturday 12th we were back and I was in fine fettle and ready to work hard! Oh we have exciting plans I so hope we can achieve :)  A new shed, lots of fruiting trees, and a curtain of wonderful native hedges to provide shelter and a sense of a secret garden for me.

exciting new plan!

The rain tried to put us off but we simply waited the worst of it out in the car and then got started. Both of us tackled the re-wilding of the plot and by the time it was getting cold and darker we had reclaimed some paths and most of the rotation beds - hoorah! We even had time for a freshly brewed tea there on the plot bench.

stopping for tea

The new wee slit paths are being put in so as to facilitate my shortness and inability to reach anywhere near the middle of our beds to harvest or tend to the plants. Incidentally, we brought home a harvest of potatoes, a last sweetcorn cob and some kale :)

harvesting potatoes

Love and hugs to you all - I hope you will tag along for our renovation journey
Carrie xx

September's plot visit

I come today to my blog with a confession - I only visited the allotment plot once this past month! *you all point and say "shame" at me* But at least I went, right? And it got me feeling bad and wanting to work harder over the winter to have a better growing year this time round :)

We are going to plant more trees on the plot and more flowers in the hedgerow for the fabulous bees. It's rather exciting. First we need to clear and cover the beds and gather seaweed and other organic soil improvers and plan, plan, plan! Oh and how I would love a new shed, but alas we can't have everything.

Anyway that visit saw us clear one bed and gather a pretty surprising harvest. Please enjoy the story through the magic of my photos.....

The plot from the far end looking back at Andrew 

and Toby

A BEFORE of bed 1 😟

AN AFTER of bed 1 😀

Toby doing a stop check on the apples we harvested

Most of the harvest before the heavy rain came 

Yep, we got thoroughly poured on just as we have finished the first bed clearance and gathered up what we could as a harvest from across the plot. I have some nicer photos of our wee harvest though....

The loveliest squashes, only a few apples but they were wonderful with our bounty of damsons in a couple of crumbles :) And we ate a good lot of the potatoes and scallions with the climbing beans for dinner!

I mean I know it's not great and you aren't sitting there gobsmacked, but I should remind you that in comparison to the work put in this was a lot of good tasty food.

We were away all weekend camping and walking and I look forward to sharing that soon. I hope you are all happy and have your bulbs picked, if not planted already - our garlic arrived today, hooray!

Love and hugs from (a sleepy)

Carrie

12th season on the plot!

It's a Saturday afternoon and here i find myself all alone. Andrew is off in the Mournes hiking and Toby has found a little rectangle of sun through the patio doors to lie in. I sit here with my thoughts which is OK because I haven't felt well enough to write in ages and now I can.

It's our 12th year on the plots! That's pretty amazing, right? One down side is that we need to replace all the fencing and all the timbers for the raised bed edging but on the good side, we don't mind the hard graft and are excited to see it all look new and with improvements. (Frown turned upside down).

The potatoes were finally planted last weekend into the 4 or 5 big pots we have for them. We're only doing Pentland Javelin this year because we like them and because we can never eat all we grow. (We didn't plant all of the above by the way). Sadly there isn't a place here where you can get unusual varieties or choose a few different loose ones and try experiments.

I spent a long time clearing the very neglected blueberry bed of grasses, thistles and dandelions. We have dug up the old bushes and are getting new ones to replace them as after 12 years they're a bit tired. We also really wanted to put a path down the side of the bed to help with harvesting; sadly the plants were where we wanted that path.

But, look..I found this little self seeded strawberry plant in there. I have it here at home now in a little pot out in the back garden :)

There are beautiful blossoms on the apples and plum trees, I love me a pretty blossom. In the same bed, the new rhubarb crowns are settling in nicely and maybe next year we can harvest a couple of stalks.

Elsewhere on the plot, the beetroot has started to bolt magnificently so I lifted a good few for consumption and the leeks continue to get fatter and stronger (we lifted a few of those too - yummy).

Apart from that we have broad beans and garlic here at the house looking good in their seed trays and hopefully soon to be planted. Plus new baby leeks, kale, peas and spring onions are hopefully germinating and will soon poke their leaves through.

*******

I have a feeling we are going to have a good season at the plot and the allotments in general have a happier air about them with abandoned plots being taken over by new excited people and more evidence of everyone getting suck in :)

Hugs and love
Carrie x