Long time no blog - 14 June 2007

Sorry I haven't written for 4 months. Depression is my excuse. Anyway here's some photos from February, as promised.

Globe artichoke kindly given to me by my mate's hubbie.


The daffodil and tulip bulbs poking their heads out. Flowered beautifully, unfortunately have to wait until next year for photos!!


Dafs by water tanks!?


Japanese onions up left hand sise. two apple trees (one cooker, one eater) and blueberry in tyre!


Raspberry canes x6


Redcurrant and more raspberry canes


Planted seed potatoes in March. Also lots of seeds including French runner beans, leeks and radish grown in my bro's greenhouse, and onions sets. Strawberries have yeided two plunnets so far. Have bedded them in nicely with straw from Pets at Home (£3.99). Does anyone know where you can get straw for less money?

Have lost my camera's lead to attach to computer so just writting for a while - sorry! Moving house so everything boxed up in various locations!!

Happy New Year - 7 February 2007

So last week the weather warmed up a bit so I've been able to get digging once again.

Mum brought me six raspberry canes, a redcurrant bush and a blueberry bush which I've planted.

I planted two rose bushes, same as the ones I gave Margaret for her birthday. Didn't plant them in my garden bedause we are selling the house.

The Japanese onions and garlic are growing well as is the globe artichoke that Simon kindly gave me from his old allotment.

The daffodil bulbs and tupils are popping their leaves up - so lots to look forward to.

Also am preparing to build my composting bins from pallets and stakes.

Photo to follow soon!

Cuttings and yet more digging! - 1 November 2006

Thought I'd better take a photo of the cuttings that I did last week in the shed when it was pouring with rain. The soil is 50:50 sand to multi-purpose compost. I planted margarite, hebe, oesteosperum and budlia - so finger crossed they take and are warm enough in the shed.

Did an hours more digging.

Then I had a cuppa, as shown! - before continuing to dig. It is a lot easier at this time of year and there are a lot less weeds where the black sheeting has been down for 3 months.

And finally, Mum you'll be pleased to see the Japanese onions you planted have started growing. I've planted the rest in another row behind the first row.

Lorna & Russell visit - 29 October 2006

My sister-in-law, Lorna and her fiance Russell came up to visit and so we popped up the allotment after a late night on the town following on from their Razorlight concert and Charelle's birthday.

Apple trees! - 18 October 2006

Been busy digging and weeding a strip of ground ready for fruit. The triangular area marked out up to the corner of the shed is going to be all fruit - once I've dug it!!.


Planted two lovely medium sized (12ft tall when fully grown), two year old apple trees. A cooking apple which is sweet enough to eat called Holgate (i think), no need to add sugar and apparently it keeps it's shape well when cooked. The other is Elstar, it has red fruit with pale white flesh, very sweet and juicy - the sort of apple Snowwhite would have eaten! They have to be planted 12ft apart, mine are 10ft apart - oopphs!


Mum planted a row off Japanese onions alongside the apples and I've sown some green manure, Hungarian rye all over to suppress the weeds.

Edged the fruit bed with decking to hold the crumbly soil in place and create a path to the shed. Interesting...


Started digging the next stretch of ground ready for raspberry canes today!

Tulips, daffs & herbs - 4 October 2006

Here's all the baby strawberry plants ready for next year - at least 50. Amoungst them I've planted at least 30 tulip bulbs - I couldn't think of anywhere better that had actually been dug!

And here are the one year old Cambridge Favourite strawberries - dug up the courgettes to make room for them!

Planted rosemary, golden thyme, sage, thyme, purple sage and lace mantle (achemollis) cutting carefully avoiding the garlic cloves.

Here's the cutting from my gardening course - it is good for flower arranging apparantly so lets hope it takes. I was embarrassingly one week and one hour late for my first class - the shame and yet totally unsurprisingly typical! This week we learnt about growing and using herbs which was interesting and useful.

Finally, planted the daffodils in grass close to the water tank, unfortunately I broke my latest 2 month old fork trying to dig into the weed infested soil - lucky it's guaranteed for 10 years and I have the receipt - somewhere!!

Three Claires' - 3 October 2006

Yesterday Claire P came to see the allotment and I finally put up the windchimb that Clare F gave me. It sounds lush as the wind blows.


Today I planted the cloves of garlic and parent strawberries that Claire W gave me - I'm so lucky to have such fab Claires !!! I planted the garlic in the wildlife bed (since I've run out of dug ground now!) with 1inch of soil covering each clove and at least 4inches apart. I hope the soil isn't too wet for them.

A fellow allotmenteer kindly gave me a bag of about 30 Japanese autumn sewing onions so I need to make room for them asap. Also my Mum's mate Jill has given me a massive bag of tulips and daffadils - might plant the tulips amoungst the small strawberry plants and dafs in front of the water trough. That's providing I can work out which is which?! Another allotment holder, Dennis has offered to rotivate a small area of my plot for me which would be great so finger-crossed he'll be able to borrow his mate's machine.

So needless to say, there's still plenty to keep me busy. By the way the home improvements are looking good!

Home improvements takeover - 26 September 2006

Here's the photo's, as promised. Green pepper!

Transplanted strawberries

Courgette!

New flowerbed next to shed, knew those stones would be useful somewhere!
And again!
Managed to acquire these pavers from George's raised allotment where they were excess to his requirements. Just the right number for me luckily.

As the heading suggests I've been very busy decorating etc, etc - now we have a dining room and lounge. The wardrobes in our bedroom are also well on the way and will be completed as soon as a missing piece of timber reaches us. The house has been upsidedown for the last fortnight so it is really nice to be back to normal, even if rooms have moved about!