Category Archive

Coming home from work last night I had a bit of a shock. On the train journey where the train comes out from underground to the surface between Highbury & Islington and Dreyton Park I was met with a glorious orange glow. At first I thought it was a big plastic sign. Then I realised this was the sky and thought London was burning. Then I finally realised that I was looking at the sunset. For the first time in months I was travelling home in daylight. It was a fantastic feeling to see actual evidence of spring and realising that it’s not going to be long before the clocks go forward. The daffodils have come out in the pot just outside the flat too, which is nice (although I can’t help thinking it’s still a little bit early for them isn’t it?). I’ll take photos soon. Meanwhile here’s a photo from my friend Martin who managed
to take a lovely shot of last night’s sunset.

Gosh, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything of any worth here. So what have I done since I last wrote? Well there was NYE, which was spent sitting on the harbour watching the amazing fireworks (at midnight they came from all over, from the bridge, all along the harbour and all the skyscrapers) and the next day there was a trip to the Blue Mountains which were beautiful. I didn’t spend too long there unfortunately, but they’re beautiful and the mountains really are blue. Not a bright blue, just faint enough to make all your photos look slightly over exposed. I went on the steepest railway in the world (the steepest part is 51°) which felt like falling over and a walk in one of the valleys, which was lush and lovely (all at Scenic World. You’d think they’d come up with a better name than that wouldn’t you?). The area is huge though and you need a couple of days at least to explore.

Those were my last two days on the east side of Australia and it’s a shame to say goodbye, there’s so much I haven’t seen or done yet. But on to pastures new and to West Australia. It’s lovely! Perth is very clean and sunny and very hot. On my first day here and I was sitting outside in the shade next to the hostel, it felt like I was in the Tube in the middle of rush hour in August it was so muggy. The next day it reached 42°C. The first day I ended up inside the Western Australian Museum, just because it had very good air conditioning. It’s displays were very good and and it has a lovely shady cafe and it’s worth a visit, but the air con was really first rate.

Other things I have done in Perth:

• Looked at lots of shiny gold in the Perth Mint. Apparently my worth in weight in gold is over $2,000,000.
• Walked around Kings Park which is the largest park in a city in the world. It’s an amazing park with loads of bushland. I saw a nightjar (or a frog mouth, I’m not sure what it was as it was a bit far away and my bird watching skills are rubbish)
• Travelled round on the excellent CAT service that’s a free bus system that moves around the centre of Perth.
• Visited Freemantle and had a few beers in Little Creatures that brews it’s very nice beers right there in the pub.
• 
• Went to the WACA and watched the Perth Warriors beat Victoria in an excellent game of 20twenty cricket.
• 
• Saw Matt and Paula get married, obvisiouly. It was a lovely wedding, Paula looked beautiful and the ceremony was in the most beautiful botanical gardens which was about a hour outside of Perth.
• Watched the sun set from Cottesloe beach. It was very windy and the waves were terrific and not only did we get the view of a lovely sunset, but the sight of hundreds of parrots coming into roost.
• Looked at lots of fish in the aquarium. it was alright, slightly overprices, but the seals were cute.
• Had a ride in a speedboat along the Swan River and got completly soaked.
• Visited Rottnest Island and saw a few cute quokkas and swam in crystal clear waters on a deserted beach.
• 

I think this might be my last post in Oz! That makes me sad. It’s been an awesome trip (although it’s not over yet and I’m sure I’ll keep you updated whith what else I get up to). I’ve just uploaded lots of photos to Flickr too, so go and have a look.

Poo! I’ve only got a few minutes left on here. Just to say a very happy new year to you all. I’ve been having a ball and there’s a few photos on Flickr. I’ll write about it all soon. The wedding yesterday was lovely and it’s great to see friends again.

Here’s a photo from the lovely Blue Mountians. The Three sisters are in the backround.

Bye!

Just a quick message to wish you all a merry Christmas. Hope you all have a great time. Here’s my gift to you: a nice picture of the 12 Apostles.

Inspired by Burro’s frankly hilarious email he got in work, here’s one I got the other day in my work inbox. You may have heard about it it made the news. If you heard the sound of thunder coming from the direction of London last Tuesday, it was actually the sound of 2000 House of Commons employees banging their heads against their desks.

Before the recess the Speaker approved the Administration Committee’s recommendation that Members should have priority access to services throughout the Commons part of the Parliamentary Estate.

With effect from today, staff and other users should be prepared to give way to Members when queuing for retail and catering services, the post office, travel office or when using other facilities such as lifts, photocopiers, telephone cubicles, etc.

When using parliamentary facilities, please bear in mind whether there is, or is likely to be, a heavy demand from Members and, if so, try to amend your own plans or schedule.

So I cleared out my shed this evening.

I’ve still not filled in the form and sent it back like I should, so technicially the allotment is still mine, but I’ve said my goodbyes and I won’t be returning to the plot. 

It’s a good thing, if absolutly heartbreaking. I never had time for it and if I’m brutely honest, I never will. A plot that size needs a lot of care and attention that I could never give it . Not on my own. And the plot is in such a bad state now I don’t think I could ever get it into a workable space unless I worked on it solidly for a good few weeks, and I just don’t have the time, the money or the transport to move waste and get the whole place sorted and even then, I don’t think I could keep it up. This way someone more deserving and who’s been on the waiting list for a while gets to have a go on it. Here’s to them.

It was hard leaving it. Who thought you could cry over a small piece of land? But as I stood in my shed for the last time, I suddenly remembered all the little things I did in there, like hammer in nails at random points to hang tools up, or messing around with shelves to tidy the place up, making a little thing to enable me to close the door from the inside so I could shelter from the rain and having copious amounts of tea in there while I plan what to do with the plot, and it just brings home what I’m going to be missing once I give this all up. It’s lovely nipping up there after work on a hot day watering the plants and just having a sit down listening to nothing but the birds and the sounds that plants make and really having an oasis away from everything that life throws at you.

I may have given up the lottie (or The Hoffmiester, as I once called it when I first got it) but I’ve not given up growing vegetables and food and stuff. When I first got the plot I lived in a lovely flat, but there was no outside space, apart from a couple of window sills that held a couple of boxes on them. For the past ten or so months, as you know, I’ve been living with the lovely Dave. I’m still in a flat but as we’re above shops we have a fair amount of space around the front door. I have a mini greenhouse there and a coal hole to store my tools. It’s not a massive space but has plenty of potential and I already have growbags with runner beans, peas, Chinese artichokes and lettuces growing away nicely in them and hanging baskets with tomatos just next to the door.

It looks nice and it’s so much easier to look after the plant. When I want to water (when it’s not bloody pissing it down) I don’t have to walk for twenty minutes and then spend over an hour watering everything, I just step out the door. Which is nice.

So this blog will probably change a little. I’m going to keep it up beause I enjoy it and I like recieving your comments. It’ll still be gardening based and full of the gubbins you’ve learnt to expect from here, but it’ll have a new layout (I love this one, but it’s too allotmenty) and I’ll change the about pages and other such things once I get a spare minute at work, and in the mean time watch put for exciting new articals such as Hampton Court Show review! Exclusive Gardener’s World news (sort of)!

I got a letter today.

 ”I notice that you have not cultivated your plot 52b for some time this year and wonder whether you have given up your tenancy. If so, would you please sign the enclosed form which the Council requires before I can re-let it”

Jesus, I’m such a dope.

More once I’ve slept on it.

So I went to the allotment for the first time in weeks last Friday. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It’s quite interesting leaving weeds to their own devises. It’s always quite interesting to see exactly how tall weeds get (about my hight I’ve discovered). Plus if you leave some veg to go to seed, it’s really quite pretty. PSB seed pods are fasanating and leek flowers really quite beautiful and as my next plot neighbour Joe said “at least there’s somewhere for the wildlife to go”.

It is pretty bad though and I am quite ashamed about it all. It does mean I’m back to square one again too. I’ve been advised to get a manual lawn mower to chop down the weeds and to keep mowing the weeds afterwards. That way the plants use up all their energy trying to grow and they eventually die (plus you’re left with a rather nice lawn afterwards, so I may not have any vegetables but at least I’ll have somewhere nice to sit down on).

But it’s not all bad news on the vegetable front. The front of the flat is looking rather lovely at the moment. I have a couple of hanging baskets with a few tomato plants growing away and lots of growbags containing the runner beans and peas I bought from Crocus a few weeks back. And there’s pots of lettuces and courgettes too. I’ll take a few pictures when I next remember. 

Obvisiouly none of this matters because in 30 hours I’m off to my spritual home. This is a gentle warning really as there will be a few posts about it when I come back. I lost my journal in the Great Flood of 05 and it’s such a shame as you can’t remember everything. I have however, just found a very old blog of mine with entries from Glastonbury 04. If you fancy reading it, posts are here, here, here and here. The links might not work though and it’s slightly depressing to see that my writing was much funnier and quite a bit better than what it is now. Ho hum.

Anyway, see you next week you lot.  Enjoy the solstice. I’ll try and not get too muddy.

Because I’m rubbish and have grown virtually nothing this year, I’ve decided to buy some vegetable plug plants courtesy of mail order and the internet. It’s almost too easy to get carried away. £3.49 for 22 plants isn’t cheap but it’s not bad either and I could have bought a whole load more, but luckily a rare thing happened to me. I controlled my spending addiction. I purchased some mange tout, purple podded peas and some borlotti beans (because my harvest of borlotti beans was so successful last year. Two pods and precisely four beans. Yay my growing skills!). I could have bought some salad leaves too, but I flat out refuse to spend that amount of money on them when they’re so easy to grow from seed. Plus I won’t actually eat them and just have them bolt like I did the last time I grew salad.

I got my plants from Crocus, a company I’ve not bought from before but have heard many good things about them. And they really are good. My order arrived four days after buying them, well packed and in really good condition. In fact they were almost too well packed. They arrived in a massive box, about a metre cubed in size, with the two (small) trays inserted into another smaller box inside. Now it’s good that this ensures that the plants arrive safely, but it is a little over the top. What made it worse is that I had the box delivered to my work, which made the journey home on the tube in rush hour very interesting!

All in all, it was worth doing and will no doubt be doing again. Except that I’ll get stuff deliverd to my home next time.

Mail order plants. Gardening for lazy people.

I grew a carrot!

Just a quick post to get everything down before I forget and not post anything for another five weeks. 

Ive been busy! Having been given the choice of either allotmenteering or the gym, I chose gardening. I did a bit more digging (well, just loosening of the soil ready fr some proper weeding) planted the broad beans that have been sitting in paper pots outside the flat for ever, sowed some wild flower seeds (butterfly mix) and weeded around the garlic.

Do you remember that greenhouse Carrot Fly and I put up?  Well a few weeks ago, the wind decided to blow it down, break my seedlings and rip a massive gash in the top. It was quite upsetting. So yesterday I planted some more peas, broad beans and gave the celeriac another shot although I fear it may be too late for them now.

This morning I did my first bit of guerrilla gardening, but I’ll write more if things decide to grow.

Have you ever looked at something you love, studied it’s features carefully, looked deep into it’s eyes and held it’s hand and said ‘I can’t do this on my own’?

I was like that with the allotment on Saturday. The place has always been weedy and I’ve never been able to keep on top of it. Usually looking down on the plot it doesn’t really matter as I’m happy to be there and there’s always something to celebrate or be pleased with. But I couldn’t do that over the weekend. All I saw were weeds and the sheer size of the project. It made me want to cry. What made matters worse was old Joe in the next door plot had just finished clearing both his plots and they now looked perfect.

Oh, don’t worry, I’m not feeling entirely sorry for myself. I’m annoyed too. This is mainly my own doing - procrastination is a terrible thing - but even if I did spend all my spare time down the plot, to do this on my own would always be an uphill struggle (again I realise that gardening is never easy work, but it could be easier). I have to admit to the fellow bloggers who have their own allotment partners, I’m rather jealous of you. The few times I’ve had help on the lottie have been brilliant, with double the work being done, good conversation and a good dose of moral support. (this is, of course, not a bad word about Dave with all of this, nor is it a non too subtle hint for him to come out more. He made it quite clear from the start that as someone who doesn’t like vegetables, growing or eating them, he wouldn’t help out, which is fair enough really.)

So on Saturday night I was thinking and wishing that I had one of these allotment partners. Someone who would gladly pop down to the allotment and water the plants, dig and prepare beds without (a huge amount of) complaint and, most importantly, share the love of the food being produced. It was then I realised I was being completely stupid and ignorant and really quite ungrateful. I already had an allotment partner.

But i’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve yet to tell you what i did down the plot.

Ironically (I think, I never could get the hang of irony), the time I’ve been most pessimistic about the plot is the the time when it’s been most successful. I think I may have known this at the time as rather than despairing and quickly running away (something I’ve done a couple of times) I concentrated on the good bits. I hoed and weeded in-between the red onions and garlic and noticed how healthy they were looking and I tidied the new fruit and herb patch and considered putting some straw around the strwberries that are showing some lovely new growth but decided against it with all the crazily strong wind around. I also started to dig  some of the weeds too. The weeds  weren’t actually dug up, they were just loosened and the ground is now less compacted to make weeding in the future a less arduous task.

I also saw with gladness that about half the purple sprouting is now ready to harvest and there are still Brussels that can be eaten, so by the time I left the allotment, I was in rather a good mood. What made it even better was while walking back home along the canal, I heard a woodpecker and saw a kingfisher. A flipping kingfisher! In London! I would have never thought in a million years I would ever see one in town. A couple of summers ago, I visited a hide in the middle of the countryside (Wakehurst Place to be exact) situated in the perfect habitat and perfect conditions to spot these fine birds and we sat there for over an hour and saw absolutely nothing.

So anyway, back to my allotment partner. It’s Carrot fly of course! I was crazy for not realising this before. She may be unable to come down to the plot as much as she (and I) would like but she has enthusiasm and enjoys being down there. She even enjoys digging and has said she’ll visit has much as she can. Sunday, it being mother’s day, I was out with Dave and family and CF poppped down to the allotment in need of exercise. She came back after having planted two gooseberry bushes I’d been meaning to get in the ground for weeks and a rhubarb crown and she dug over and removed the weeds form the patch I started the previous day. Cheers Ju! You’re a good girl you are, a good girl!

Also. Pictures of that crazy 50s, alien hunting type game are here. I’m the one in red, Dave’s the one with the red beret.

Also, also. I have just discovered that the man who runs the snooker behind the flat is the brother of one of Chas n Dave.Which is pretty cool.

So despite having the ever enthusiastic Carrot Fly hanging around last weekend I didn’t actually go down do the allotment (for various reasons, one being I went to this. If Any of you are around town next month, come along! It’s fun) instead we built the mini greenhouse that’s been sitting in the bedroom for the past six months.

This is Carrot Fly putting together the bottom shelves.

A most unflattering pic of me finishing off the structure:

Potting:

Pots:

The finished greenhouse! It looks lovely sitting outside the flat. Let’s hope some little bugger doesn’t nick this one like the last.

This weekend won’t be much more productive for it is someone’s birthday. Happy birthday lover!

I have joined the gym in an effort to lose my size 16 bottom and my big flabby tummy. Normally, I’m allergic to any kind of physicl activity (apart from working in the allotment, obv.) so this should be interesting.

Wish me luck.

Not that you can see it very well, because my photography skills are rubbish, but I tried out a spot of painting for the first time yesterday. It’s acrylic on a mini canvas I’ve been hoarding for ages and it’s only a copy off a photo, but I rather like it. My sisters are the artistic ones you see, god, you should have seen the painting of a tiger Aphid did for her boyfriend for Christmas. It’s amazing, I’ll have to take a picture of it for you next time i see her.

I was going to write a brilliant post tonight about all the ace things I’d been up to over the weekend, but I’ve been sitting at this darned computer for over two hours now and I still can’t put the right words together. It was going to be about how and extra hand in the allotment can make a day there so much more productive but instead I’ve gotten distracted by work and the Oscar nominations. Hey ho.

Things were busy on Sunday though. Carrot Fly came and helped and we did an awful lot. A few plants that I keep buying in garden centres got planted including a lovely pryacantha (only five pounds in the sale!) that’s been put up the arch. Incidentally, the arch suffered a bit from the high winds, we discovered it leaning at a 45 degree angle. There didn’t seem to be too much damage on the site from the winds at all. My next door neaighbour’s entire huge black plastic sheet found it’s way onto my plot and on the other side some panes of glass from Joe’s greenhouse got shattered, but I was expecting a more devastated site over the weekend. Oh, and half my compost bin blew away too, although I managed to find it sitting five plots away.

It’s amazing how much can be done with an extra hand. Work gets done faster and sharing a cup of flask coffee and a jam sandwich is one of life’s pleasures. It also made me realise how much work I have to do on my own and it’s incredibly daunting, but for as long as my sister is living with us, she’s going to be on the plot lots, so spring time is going to be a breeze this year. I may actually get rid of most of my weeds rather than having about 50% of the plot permanently covered in couch grass. With Carrot Fly on board we tackled the bottom left hand corner of the plot. My herbs and strawberries were there but were starting to get swamped my weeds. We dug the whole area out, weeded and moved everything so that I at least have a corner of the lottie organised. Click on the photo below for notes:

I’m sure other things were done on that day, but I can’t for the life of me remember what we did. (Ju, if you’re reading this and you can think of anything else worth mentioning leave a comment, *thank you*. ) Be prepared for other hastily written posts over the course of the week…

Went and visited the millions of garden centres at Crews Hill last Sunday. Didn’t really buy much as Dave was on Cash Watch, but I did invest in a pair of lovely fleecy Wellington boot stockings because despite this being a crappy mild winter that only seems to be winter in name, cold still penetrates my wellies and stabs my feet as if I were in the Antartic or something.

 Also: I visited my first farm shop. It was on a real farm! Within the M25! It’s produce didn’t seem locally produced though, unless you really can grow oranges and pineapples here, and the meat, although RSPCA Freedom Food, came from other counties. But I shall be visiting again for two reasons. One; their stables are awesome. When I visited there were two Shetland ponies, a donkey and two ostriches. Ostriches! Two; they have the most fabulous range of eggs I have ever seen and they came from the farm too I think. There were duck eggs and about ten different breeds of chicken eggs too. We’ve bought a dozen duck eggs and some hen eggs and I shall be trying them out tonight. Mmmm… poached eggs on toast…..

So I’ve been rubbish, and rather being good and do useful things like doing some gardening, digging and getting round to planting my broad beans and actually writing a proper post on here, I went out and drank lots (this was the season to be introduced to the snowball - it wasn’t a nice experience) and partied and saw friends and family, which is the reason of Christmas isn’t it? I was also going to write a nice blog about Yule, but Hedgewizard has done the same thing and much better than I ever could.

I hope you all had a lovely festive season and you all got brilliant gardening related presents. I was given a ton of seeds, a couple of garden ornaments, a giant propagator and a bonsai tree (any tips on looking after that are gratefully received). I also got a great little DV recorder, so expect some crappy little films appearing shortly, and was given this by the best boyfriend in the world ever. I may never leave the house again.

The allotment got it’s first visit of the year yesterday and it’s doing ok. Some of the brussel sprouts are ready for picking, much to Dave’s brother’s excitement (and mine - I finally learned to love the sprout this Christmas) and the PSB is looking healthy, although a couple of them could do with staking and the onions and garlic I planted recently are doing well. I stole my neighbour’s bin to hold some of my garden waste, don’t worry, she won’t notice, she’s not been there for over six months, and yes, I shall be putting it back once I’ve finished using it.

I know fennel should be cut back once it’s finished for fear of having millions of fennel sproutings all over the place, but I find it it a beautiful structure, especially at this time of year, so it’s staying up until spring time.

Have a fab 2007. See you again soon.

I’m a bit late on this one. Quite a while back, Pumpkin Soup and Ms Perrone had a couple of posts about suitable music for the allotment. I’ve been meaning to contribute to this and show my own crazy music tastes to the world, but what with owning the worst brain in the world I’ve only just managed to remember to do it.

Read the rest of this entry »

So it turns out that I’ve buggered up my shoulder. Too much of a bad posture and too much playing of Half Life 2 on the laptop and arsing around on the PSP. It means I’m off work sick today, enjoying the ‘delights’ of daytime TV and sitting around in Dave’s pajamas.

So while I’m waiting for the rain to stop so I can go up to the chemists and buy more Deep Heat patches, I thought I’d give you the recipes of the Christmas food mentioned in the last post.

First up, marrow chutney.

I have yet to try any yet, but it looks rather nice. You need:

3 lb marrow

1lb red onions

1lb ripe tomatoes with skins and seeds removed

1pt white wine vinegar

4oz dates

2tsp allspice

a nice big bit of fresh ginger

2tsp salt

2tsp freshly ground black pepper

1andahalf lb brown sugar

Peel the marrow and cut into small chunks. Peel and chop the onions. Slice the tomatoes.

Put all these ingredients into a pan with half the vinegar. Chop the dates and add to the pan. Simmer gently until soft and pulpy. Add spices, pepper and salt and simmer for a further 15 minutes. Stir in sugar and remaining vinegar. Continue cooking until thick (no liquid should ooze into the path made by a wooden spoon as it is drawn across the pan). Pour into warm jars when finished.

Next we have the mincemeat. It’s a good recipe, there’s no cooking involved, just bung everything in a bowl, mix, cover with a tea towel and leave overnight and the next day add the alcohol.

50g melted butter

100g dried apricots, roughly chopped

100g raisins

100g sultanas

175g currants

100g candied peel

50g whole blanched almonds chopped

140g light muscovado sugar

1tbsp orange marmalade

1tsp mixed spice

1tsp ground cinnamon

finely grated zest and juice of one lemon

4 generous tbsp brandy

4 generous tbsp sherry

I’ve yet to use any of this in cooking as I’m letting it mature, but it smells delicious and I think it could be rather tasty indeed. It keeps for two months.

By the last couple of posts it looks like that all I’ve been doing recently is watch TV.  As true as that is (I’m watching The Avengers as I write this. God bless Steed), I have been up to quite a bit of other stuff too. Quick round up as I’m sure there will be more to write about at the end of the weekend.

• I have a decent chunk of the allotment now nicely dug and vaguely weed free. Garlic and onion sets have been planted, which is nice - it’s good to have new stuff growing.
• My sister, Carrot Fly has moved in. She’s got her first proper job in London (she’s a consultant ecologist) and seems to be settling in well. It’s fun to have her here although she seems to have a habit of disappearing on the weekends so she’s yet to help on the plot. But that’s about to change as she’s here these next two days. If the forecasted gales and torrential rain don’t stop us first.
• I’ve been a victim of crime again. Some pooey-bum stole the crappy little lean-to greenhouse I had outside the flat. I’ve bought a bigger, better one to replace it and this time it will be bolted to the wall.
• We have been to the cinema a lot. I can highly recommend The Prestige and The Host. I have also completely fallen in love with Daniel Craig. *sigh*
• I’ve started to cook food in preparation for Christmas. I’m halfway through making mincemeat for pies - sherry and brandy will be added to the mixture tomorrow and i’ve just finished off a batch of marrow chutney. They both seem to be quite decent, so I’ll post the recipes on here soon.

Oooh, that’s a big weapon you have there Mr. Craig.

…Shhh! Shhh!

I’ve been a bad girl. I’ve not been down the allotment for ages (which probably means that the bits of the plot I’ve dug up are now covered in weeds again) mainly due to laziness and the fact I was a Voodoo woman last weekend. Which was nice. But as the House prorogues this week in preparation of the state opening, I have this Friday and Monday off, which is very nice indeed, so hopefully, weather permitting, I shall be  down the allotment working.

Here is what I have planned to do:

• Dig up the rest of the potatoes (here’s hoping they’re still in good condition)
• Plant the garlic and onion sets
• Do a bit of digging
• Plant a couple of border flowers I acquired over the weekend
• Dig some more
• Get some broad beans sown
• Do more digging
• Take down the runner bean poles and peas
• Dig

You know what? It’s rather nice coming home and discovering four seeds catalogues have arrived in the post for you as well as the hessian sacks you ordered from eBay (only three pounds!). I shall enjoy reading the catalogues with my dinner in a minute.

I’ve finally managed to workout how to connect my crazy new phone to the computer. By lovely, lovely bluetooth. So here are a couple of things from last weekend up the lottie.

These are the Brussels sprouts I’m growing for Dave’s brother (I can’t stand the things - in my eyes, they’re the devil’s nads). It’s quite lovely to see these developing, they’re quite an odd vegetable really, and I had had worries they wern’t going to do anything but they brought a smile to my face to see these nubbins over the weekend.

This is my PSB which is coming along very nicely indeed…

…as is this the chard that’s covering a good third of the plot. Oh well, at least it can be eaten.

I actually managed to do some work on the plot this weekend! It was quite a shock to see how overgrown it had become, I’m fairly sure it’s worse now than how it was when I first got it. Some digging has taken place and harvesting has continued which is the best thing to raise downhearted spirits.

Kohl Rabi, one of my Some Sort of Cabbage, a small pumpkin were taken as were all two pods of borlotti beans that managed to grow and some chard that managed to seed itself all over the plot.

Alas, some bad news. My big pumpkin that was growing nicely and would have needed a car to take it home has been stolen. Stolen! It just shows you can’t trust anyone these days does it? Grrr.

Proper post tonight maybe, once I have discovered how to download photos from my new phone.

Dammit, it’s the last day of my hols to do something useful and it’s just too wet to do anything on the allotment. Not that I mind working in the rain, I love it, but digging is a nightmare in my clay soil. Curses.

— — — — —

We bought Ian some new fish food the other day. It’s main ingredient is fish. Eww.

(not sure if there’s any point in showing you this picture as you really can’t see the ingredients, or Ian very well. Hey ho)

The allotment and this blog reaches it’s first birthday this week. Strange to think that I’ve had it for this long actually, normally I’m rubbish with new projects. I’ve started so many blogs in the past only for them to fizzle out after a few months and creative projects usually have the same amount of stamina.

But it’s been different with this. Admittedly, I could’ve been much more productive on the allotment, but it’s not all gone to seed. It seems that this blog and my allotment go hand in hand. One of the reasons, if I’m really honest, of gardening is so I can write about it, I enjoywriting about it and the more I write the more I encourage myself to garden. It’s the circle of life or something. And having you, dear reader, by my side only encourages me more, so thank you.

Popped down to the lottie this evening to say hello and check up things since the hols. Ye gods it’s overgrown! But the veg there seems to be doing well. The purple sprouting broccoli is going very well, as are the sprouts. I still have some tomatoes to harvest but the beans seem to be on their way out.

There was a proper chill in the air tonight. It wasn’t just a bit cold, it actually felt really autumnal which is no bad thing I suppose, just a slight shock after spending the whole day in the sun thinking it was still summer.

Quick bit of family news: Carrot Fly has just got a brand new job. Yay! It’s her first big job since finishing her post grad this summer and it’s here in the Big Smoke too. Well done Ju, you’re awesome. You do realise that once you move to London you will be helping me on the allotment don’t you?

You know, it’s only after two weeks of breathing lovely fresh clean air you realise just how much London air sucks. It really is dirty, even out here in the suburbs, and it smells. Oh, I wish I was back in Wales! It really is fabulous up there. Dave and I have known about this amazing cottage in the middle of nowhere for a while now and we took my family up there last week. They loved it. They’re also the type of people who like doing lots of things on hols so we managed to discover lots places that would have otherwise would have been un-visited. If you find yourself in Snowdonia I insist on you visiting Portmeirion and the Ffestiniog Railway, they’re both quite awesome.

This is where I stayed. Nice, isn’t it?

And here’s me and Dave with our nicest faces:

Pretty aren’t we?

Normally after a holiday I find that things are pretty depressing. I’m a country bumpkin at heart and coming back to the Smoke can be quite hard sometimes, and I’m definitely not looking forward going back to work in my crappy grey office with no windows. But, things are slightly different this time round. I don’t start work until next week and Dave and I went back to Oxford today to see off our friend Jen who starts her post grad at Christ Church college this week (we’re very proud). This is also the first proper holiday I’ve had since owning the allotment. I’ve come back refreshed and raring to go. Reading that Monty Don book has certainly helped, it’s such an inspiration. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, give this book a jolly good read.

On the journey back home, we popped into a garden centre. Not by choice though, it just so happened there’s a Dobbies at the services near Shrewsbury and needing a wee and a coffee we popped in. Quite frankly a terrible garden centre catered towards OAP coach parties full of dodgy looking gifts and more cafe than plant space. It meant we missed probably the much better Percy Thrower’s Garden Centre (although looking at the website, it sounds the same as all the other gardening centres in the world) but I did manage to buy a mini greenhouse which is now a rather essential piece of gardening equipment now I’m in a flat that has very little light and very little space to place promising wee seedlings. I put it up today and it looks awesome.

So now I’ve come back all refreshed and have six more days of holiday, here’s a small list for my benefit of things to do allotment wise this week:

• Order seed catalogues now. Nothing quite excites like flipping through these small booklets and imagining the thousands of gardening possibilities they hold, nor does nothing quite depress quite so much when you realise you can’t afford them all. But it’s nice to look. Besides, I like receiving lots of post.
• Get some winter growing veg sown and put in my awesome new greenhouse. I have lots of cabbage seeds to plant and quite a few other seeds bought this time last year that never got used.
• Get down to the allotment and say hello to the lovely thing. This won’t be done till Tuesday though as Carrot Fly has an interview tomorrow in the capital and I’m taking her to lunch after she’s finished.
• Do some digging and weeding. We’ve had plenty of rain these past couple of days so the ground’s perfect for trying to get rid of those awful bindweed roots and other such nasty things.
• Possibly plan some proper beds and sow grass pathways. I know they are high maintenance, but they look nice and it gives me an excuse to buy a push mower which for some reason I’ve always wanted to own one.
• Fork through the compost heap. God, that thing’s a pile of crap, there’s bindweed growing through it and everything. The bin itself doesn’t stand properly and the top half constantly falls over in high winds. One of these days I’ll get a proper sturdy bin and use the old one for various other things like the lid for a bird bath and the two main bits for large containers, in the meantime it will have to try and remain in one piece and store all my old rotting kitchen waste.
• Buy some gaffer tape and try and fix the compost bin.
• Pray my pumpkins havn’t perished. I have a horrible feeling….

And last but definitely not least,

• Have a bonfire. Fire! Fire! We’re allowed to have them once it’s October and any weed pickings I have are not to be trusted on the compost heap so onto flames they go. Mulled cider will be consumed and it will all be treated as a late Equinox celebration. Hooray!

By the way, what do you think of the new look? I’m not sure. I quite like it, it’s modern and fresh but it’s also a bit… brown. Let me know what you think.

I’ve not been up the allotment since last Saturday, but the plan is to pop over after work today to try out this fat-hen I have growing in there use this lovely sounding recipe from Wild Burro that he left in my comments page.

You see this picture? This is my pants drawer. It’s quite empty I know (laundry day is looming) but you see that white rectangle? That’s something I made on Saturday. I had to prune my lavender that day and spying some muslin I had stolen from my old chef employers in a half unpacked box, I decided what better way to recycle some old garden prunings than by putting the lovely smelly things in a pouch and using it to gently fragrance your underwear? (Not your underwear you understand, mine) It’s very easy to do, just get a rectangle of fabric, fold it in half, sew two sides together, fill the bag with smelly things and sew up the gap. Thing is, I’ve not done anything like this since school, which is at least ten years ago, so that simplest of project took me over two long hours to do, which is rubbish. But the stitching is lovely and neat and my nether regions smell like my Nan’s old house now. 

It’s nice getting up on a Saturday morning. Usually I’m a late riser on the weekends but what with living in my awesome new flat and everything, I’d thought I’d actually make the most of the day and do something. Naturally, I’m knackered now and it’s only five in the afternoon.  But what a lovely morning! Actually went down to the allotment and did some work. A bit of weeding around the leeks, re-stabilising the runner bean pole and I painfully discovered nettles growing around the herbs by weeding with bare hands. I also managed to harvest some veg too. Some runner beans (the first of the season) and four courgettes, three of them huge. The biggest was over sixteen inches long! Now, being the only vegetable eater in this household, there is no way that this is all going to be eaten fresh, so I’m considering making some into jam or relish. But my question is this: are these marrow jam recipes I keep reading actually any good? Are they tasty? Or am I going to make ten jars of the stuff and just keep it in the back of the food cupboard for a couple of years until I throw it out? Parents, if I made any, would you have some?

I will be making other things too, don’t you worry about that. Courgette quiche will be made as will lots of ratatouille, which freezes ever so well.

A few weeks ago I was back down south with the folks to celebrate Aphid and Carrot Fly’s birthday. Photos, if you’re so inclined to see me dressed up as Robin Hood, are on my Flickr account. The picture of our Mum and Dad are on a couple of posts below. While down there Sloe season was well on it’s way and having a liking for a nice cool sloe gin and tonic after work, Carrot Fly and I walked down to the footpath that leads to the sea and picked lots and lots of those little purple berries.

Now all I have to do is buy some gin and I’m away.

Things really have been quiet up here these past few weeks on the allotment. It’s the Big Move at the end of this week so I have been furiously shoving things in boxes and bags for what seems like forever and calling Dave pretty much every night to get him to pick up my stuff and take it back to his. Where does all this stuff come from? I’m sure that in my current flat, everything in there fitted perfectly but you can hardly get into Dave’s living room without tripping over boxes of my CDs and books.

Ma and Pa came and visited over the last weekend where we discovered a lovely Italian restaurant just down the road from New Flat and I took them to see the allotment. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there really is a lovely walk down to the allotment from Dave’s flat. He lives (and soon we live, ooh!) along the New River Path, which is a aqueduct that starts from Hertford and runs all the way down into Islington. This week on our small section of the path we witnessed a family of coots, a cormorant and a crazy Canada goose that had the white head and neck of a duck. It was weird and I wished I had a camera on me as he really was a freak of nature (in a nice way though). If I see him again I’ll snap him for you.

I was rather dreading showing the parents around the lottie. It felt like I was showing them round my messy bedroom knowing full well I had plenty of time to have tidied it up. But they liked it. They didn’t quite realise how big it was and were pleased that I had quite a bit growing and were most impressed with the huge marrows I have yet to harvest (and won’t be harvested for a while yet - kitchen utensils are in a box somewhere so it’s takeaway food for me for the rest of the week. Shame.)

We also discovered the first borlotti bean pod growing (very pretty) and the runner beans have started flowering too, which is nice. I’m still slightly worried that it’s going to be a little late for them (they’re still only about four foot tall) but I should get a meal from them at least.

Last but not least Dad said he’d come over and visit again in autumn and spend a couple of hours digging and weeding for me. Hooray! A friend to help! I don’t think that Dad quite realised what he said until he said it, but the offer’s there now and I shall hold it to him. But don’t worry Pa, there will be a pint or three in it for you.

My sisters have been up to the Big Smoke this weekend to visit their big sis and Dave and see a few sights. The village fete at the Victoria and Albert museum; Footloose The Musical (which really isn’t very good unless you like the film in which case it’s quite funny); watching some people cause fire, explosions and spray water onto onlookers outside the National Theatre; walking into a very drunk, very old gentleman who said to me “you’re very beautiful, may I make love to you someday?”; joining a rave on the banks of the Thames and standing in Piccadilly Circus saying things like “oooh, it’s like Piccadilly Circus round here” before catching the last tube home, were just some of the things we did in London that wern’t gardening related, but we did visit the gardening centre at Ally Pally and got a few plants for the allotment and worked on the plot for a bit. Which brings me to the point of this post.

To stay in vague keeping with this blog, Bec and Ju have requested that that be called Aphid and Carrot Fly respectively. I wanted to call Ju Clubrot, but she wouldn’t let me forsome reason.

Both my sisters are awesome with plants and it was great to have them on the plot. They even did my watering.

Carrot Fly looks like a giant compared to Aphid.

Aphid prepared a herb bed and planted purple basil, horseradish and blue hyssop. Carrot Fly is a botanist by trade and so did a botanical survey of my plot. That can be seen here. There were over 20 non edible species. All of them common too, which scuppers my planned excuse of ‘but I can’t dig, I have rare plants growing’.

We also managed to plant some kohlrabi and spring onions, watch spiders, crickets and a caterpillar make its cocoon underneath some of my weed suppressant. Courgettes, peas, potatoes and a red onion were harvested and a decision for the three sisters to meet again and spend a day in the allotment was made.

Anyway, I’m away from the allotment for a week now. The fate of my plants are in Dave’s hands who said he’s do a bit of watering if it doesn’t rain.

How is the plot doing my lover?

What are those millions of tiny white things that fly up when I water my brassicas?

I’ve been to the allotment two nights in a row. And they’re both school nights! And I’ve done some proper work on them! Sort of. Something’s up. It must be the heat.

I even attemped some weeding around the leeks.

The main reason was to pick up some supplies for dinner. Supplies! For dinner! A whole meal! For two! Dinner last night consisted of roast haddock with fennel served with desiree potatoes and sauteed red onions, mushrooms, some of the enormous marrow and peas. Everything apart from the mushrooms and fish (obv., although farming fish in a allotment could be interesting.. Hang on. Remember goldfish.) has come from the allotment. (although I have to admit the onions were from my friends’ allotment two plots down) How awesome is that? I don’t think I have made a meal so satisfying before, and that includes cooking for the Queen. (I say cook, it was more make canapes)

I’ve never dug up potatoes before last night. I was suddenly a little girl again pretending to be some explorer who finds some rare red jewels in the ground. I never realised that something I assumed would be almost an allotment chore would bring so much pleasure.

What’s not awesome… 

.. is discovering hundreds of aphids on your sweet peas.

What is awesome…

…then discovering a ladybird on an underside of leaf chomping on said aphids. You go girl! 

Ok, I admit it. I’m rubbish. I’m rubbish at keeping this blog up to date and I’m also rubbish at keeping my allotment up to date too. I’ve not completely ignored the plot, just overlooked it. It’s been a busy time up here. There’s been filling in job applications, preparing for the Big Move In (with Dave! Next month! Eek!), being genuinely busy at work and mourning the death of another goldfish, Duke. Methinks Dave and I shouldn’t be allowed to keep pets. If one day I ever have my dream of having a little cottage in the country with cats, chickens and possibly a couple of pigs, feel very, very concerned for the animals.

The plot has received a couple of waters once in a while, but weeding desperately needs doing (you can hardly see the leeks for all the grass…) and digging needs to be done. I’m ignoring the digging chore with the excuses that the ground is far too hard what with it being a clay soil and it’s too hot to do any kind of proper manual work. I’m still trying to think of excuses to not do the weeding.

There has been some harvesting though, which is very nice. The broad beans have now all been eaten up and were lovely. I can’t wait to plant more this autumn. For Sunday lunch yesterday we enjoyed out first peas and an enormous marrow which I think will feed me and my flatmate for the next few months. All the garlic has been pulled up and is now drying on the kitchen window ledge. We had some cooking with the roast potatoes yesterday too. Potatoes are ready, I just have to dig them up.

What’s nice is that despite my lack of care my brassicas are doing really well. The PSB is shooting up as are the Some Sort of Cabbage. Sprouts and swede are doing well too. Runner beans are struggling and the round courgettes could be doing much better but I think I only have myself to blame.

Oh, I’ve just thought of an excuse for not doing the weeding. I’m on holiday for almost two months starting next Wednesday and I shall do it then. Will that do? 

Look! Roses! See what I did with the title there? Here’s the climbing roses I planted a few months back. They really don’t seem to be climbing though, actually, they’re just sitting there. Hmm. Please note the almost ready to harvest garlic, and don’t note all the weeds. Thank you.

The plot’s not doing to badly. The bindweed wants to take over and it seems that no amount of covering on the ground will stop it. I even discovered it growing in my compost bin!

Sunday’s definitely seem to be the most sociable of days up in the plot. Old Greg was there again, trying to give everyone a hand and tell them how to garden, I mean give them advise. There was also my next door neighbour, Joe and the guy who’s name I always forget so I’ll call him Ian. Ian bought me some chocolates. He deals with delivering them or summat and had loads of trays left so he gave them out to everyone in sight at the plot, which was nice. They tasted good too.

At home, standing on one of the kitchen tops are standing two melon plants. I think I’ve slightly underestimated how big they were going to get. They keep on growing and growing and growing. They’ll be reaching the ceiling soon. Still no sign of flowers which is slightly annoying. Actually, thinking about it, if they get any taller, I’m not going to be able to reach the flowers to pollinate them. Arse. Photo below. Please note the pepper, chilli’s and mixed leaves on the window sill and don’t note the washing up that needs to be done. Thank you.

Anyway, time for the most amazingly amazing news ever!

I’ve just harvested my first bits of vegetables from the plot. Broad beans and a courgette that’s doing it’s best to look like a marrow. I’m going to cook them tonight. I can’t wait. It’s the best feeling isn’t it? I’m rather starting to enjoy this gardening lark.

It’s been an awesome weekend. What with spending Friday walking to lots of garden centers, buying lots of plants (including 4 strawberry plants for £2!), getting sunburnt, watching duck chicks in the local river, crying at the sight of a chick who’s lost his mum, watching the Germany game then spending the night in a pub listening to great music, then on Saturday watching the England match while sipping champange and Pimms, then onto sitting in a lovely pub garden in Camden for a few hours then playing bat and ball in Regents Park in the dark then realising we’d been locked in, it’s been quite possibly the best weekend of the year so far. That was a very long sentance.

Sunday was spent visiting Wimpole Hall, a big house and farm near Royston in Cambridgeshire. It also has a walled vegetable garden that features regularly in Kitchen Garden magazine’s Jobs To Do This Month section, or whatever it’s called. It’s a rather fine and grand place and well worth a visit if you’re in the area. The farm’s excellent and the perfect place for children to ask that slighty embarassing question ‘what are those pigs doing?’ and to point at a huge bull’s huge balls just as my young companions did. The veg garden is still fairly young in terms of it’s redevelopment, but it’s coming along very nicely. Trained fruit trees all the walls, lots of rhubard, lots of beetroot and loads of herbs and quite a few other plants too. Here’s a couple of not very good photos:

While watering the allotment last night (spending the day running around with 6 and 3 year olds has a tendancy to tire you out so the plants bought on Friday will have to wait a few days before they’re planted in) I noticed a huge hole in the compost heap that’s a few plots away from mine. The heap’s huge, I’d say it’s at least two thirds the size of my plot, which is five poles.

What do you think it is? I’m guessing the likely cause is foxes, being in the city and all, but it would be awesome if it were badgers, although I feel I’d have to be a bit careful and very quiet when I’m putting my garden waste onto it. The hole is at least 30cm wide and goes down into the heap pretty deep too. Thinking about it, it’s probably a bit too small for badgers, but the thought of setting up some kind of night vision night cam to catch some kind of wildlife is rather tempting.

Very quick post today. Work has gotten stupidly busy these past few days but hopefully soon I'll have the time to write a full account of things growing in the allotment.

In the meantime though I give you this picture:

I have mushrooms growing in my bedroom. They're edible too, and not damp room fungi as Ma thought. Tonight for dinner I shall be having a mushroom and asparagus omelette. Nice!

Talking of Ma, I'd like to point out a very useful website she passed on to me. It's all about weeds and has pictures of hundreds of the little invasive buggers. Plenty of extra info too. It's not the most organic friendly, but still worth keeping as a bookmark.

A few weeks ago you may recall, my shed got broken into. Dave's very lovely dad Pete kindly offered to fix the window for me. While up the allotment, Pete stumbled a little and very slightly banged his elbow onto something. A week later he's now in hospital suffering form a highly infected lower arm. I didn't realise my allotment was so dangerous! Sorry Pete, hope you get well soon.

Did any of you catch Chelsea on TV last night? I didn't watch it all, but I did catch a lovely piece featuring a nine year old who has his own allotment. He started getting into gardening when he was just two years old as he liked diggers and would watch Garden Force as they used one. He grows a wide range of veg, but cos and potatoes are his favourite as they're easy to grow. He was such an awesome kid. If I ever have children, that's how I want them to turn out. Anyway, as he was an organic gardener he had "a constant battle with slugs", so he would put a trail of porrige oats around his plants, the slugs would eat the oats, and the oats absorb the slugs moisture and they die. What a great tip! I just had to share that with you all. What do you mean you knew that already?

Do you remember I had a whole load of rhubarb given to me? Well Ma sent a recipe that was exactly the same as Allotment Lady's. Very simple, very nice. Rhubarb and sugar were put in a bowl on Saturday night (just before Eurovision. Well done Finland! You rock!) Everything else was done quite nicely on the Sunday. All went swimmingly, until I got slightly distracted towards the end of the cooking, came back to the kitchen only to find the rhubarb and sugar had burnt. Really, really burnt. It's nasty and ruined and if I get a hold of some more 'barb I shall be making more, I do after all have a huge pile of clean empty jars just waiting for filling. At least it wasn't my crop, eh? That would have been depressing.

I think that window boxes may not be the best places to grow a radish. Sorry about the quality of the picture, it's from my mobile (one day I shall have a decent camera to play with). Still, it looks edible enough though, doesn't it? And the salad leaves are looking good too. Mmm, home grown salad in a few days time. I can't wait.

Later on this afternoon, I shall be going to a work organised presentation given by moustache man himself, Dick Strawbridge. It could be quite interesting, but remembering his TV series and my somewhat cynical review of it, I'm not holding my breath for the most fascinating and informative talk. I shall do a quick write up once I get if work's not too busy. At the moment, I'm amusing myself with possible titles for the next post. Talking Dick? Seeing Dick? Any other school-boy humour and sniggering greatly appreciated.

May is not the time to neglet my allotment I know, but it being my birthday and all last week I did. It was a good week though. Drinking champers on the terrace of the House of Commons, visiting tapas restaurants, playing bar billiards, and becoming the Hoffmiester for a Myths and Legends fancy dress party. Dave was a very good King Arthur so I thought I put him up here.

I finially arrived back at the plot to find two things faintly distressing. Firstly, bindweed had come up from nowhere and had practicially choked my garlic, climbed up the tipee where my sweetpea should have grown, covered my broad beans and tried to climb up my arch. Bah. I’ve picked it all out, but it’ll be back I’m sure.

What was even worse though was that I discovered that my shed had been broken into. One of my side windows had been smashed (no mean feat when it was that glass with wire running through it) and there’s glass everywhere now. What really makes me livid about this is that it’s just an act of vandalisim. Nothing was taken, nothing apart from my little radio a hammer and my Thermos (!) and it does seem that it was done for fun. It wasn’t just mine that was hit. Every shed in the site either had a lock broken or windows smashed. Bastards. I should set bindweed onto them. That’ll learn ‘em. A very quick message to Dave’s dad, who has said he’ll reapair my window for me. Many, many thanks, I owe you a beer or three.

On the plus side, there are a number of things that are growing and doing well. It looks like I’ll be having a courgette soon as long as the slugs don’t get it first mind you. Two of my runner beans have been completly stripped of their leaves by snails, the other four are looking healthy and are growing well. Borlotti beans have also been stripped of leaves but new leaves are forming so I’ll get some more traps out tonight and hopefully prevent any more damage. Potatoes, dispite having a whole load of weeds suddenly appearing (I’d love to know what they are if anybody has any ideas, they’re quite nice leaves, picture on the bottom of this post) are showing signs of life, which is nice as I had a nasty feeling they were dug in far too deep and not planted in very well at all. Some Sort of Cabbage is doing well but the purple sprouting not so, but that’s because I’ve yet to cover it in netting. Another job to do tonight.

Can I just go back to my courgette? I have some food growing! How exciting! I know I’ve got other things growing, like the garlic, but this is the first thing I can see that I’ll be actually picking in a couple of weeks time. It’s awesome. Now what shall I do with it once it’s harvested? I’m thinking stir fry, or possibly roasted.

The man whose plots are either side of mine gave me a whole load of rhubarb last night. What shall I do with it? Rhubarb and ginger jam? I’m not that keen on crumble and fool it has to be said, although the man did say these are really sweet stems.  I think I may have a quick look on the interweb, of course your suggestions are always welcome.

It's my birthday today, I've turned 27 which I know isn't that old, but it's all rather scary as I career towards 30. It only seems like yesterday when I was 26. Those were the days…

I've been rather unproductive on this blog which is a shame as life on the allotment has become a lot more productive.  

Thank you for your good advise Allotment Lady and Gnome. I have to admit to buying weedkiller and give what bits of the plot I'm not currently using the once over and I'm now feeling more and more guilty about it. It's one that degrades once it hits the soil but it shall never be touched again. Areas are covered, but not enough it has to be said so I'll pop down to Wilkos to get a few bags of pegs this weekend. Actually not this weekend as I have my party. Anybody want to come?

I cheated slightly with my planting. I've bought plants just because I wanted to see something other than weeds growing on the plot, so I'm now the proud owner of some shiny new purple sprouting broccoli, some kind of cabbage, a courgette plant, runner beans, borlotti beans and a strawberry plant. They're all planted out ready to be eaten by pigeons and slugs. Talking of slugs, I've been putting lots of traps out for them and I noticed in one of them the day after filling it up with beer that it had already caught about 15 of of the slimy blighters. Awesome.

It's been a typical weekend here in Mildew towers. Friday, got up late, watched taped House and Greys Anatomy, watched the snooker, fell asleep, woke up at six realising the whole day had gone to waste. D'oh. Saturday was much nicer and far more productive. Is it me or does the day go so much better when you actually get up in the morning? Up at eight and pots of chillies and peppers and a window box of lettuce were all done before lunchtime.

Sunday was a slighty different matter. Dave had offered to help dig but the rain had managed to scupper our plans for that. What we did manage to do though was finially move all the crap from the shed and take it to the dump. Hooray! Thankfully the giant pile of rotten carpet has also been taken to the dump, which is great for me, but I have managed to annoy the two slowworms that were using it as a home and Dave, who's car is now covered withmud and home to all sorts of creepy crawlies (I don't want to be in the car with him when he discovers the huge spider I saw) and has no hope of it ever being clean again.

It's amazing how quickly plants are growing at this time. Not the seeds I've planted you understand, the sugar snaps have yet to show and the broad beans look like they're being eaten, but the weeds are shooting up, it's getting quite overwhelming. There's only so much digging I can do in a weekend before my crappy back gives in so I need to come up with a plan to prevent the weed growth and fast. Somedays I look out on the plot and feel so overwhelmed by the amount of weeds, I just want to cover the ground with weedkiller before I start growing things there, although every time I investigate doing this, I feel guilty. But is it really bad to do that just the once? I'm quite tempted to get one of those flame thrower thingies as they look fun and this kirpi weeder looks very useful indeed but having never used these before I'd like to know how effective these are. Any good ideas readers?

Maybe it's because I've been working on the plot during the week that I've seen more people there. Old boys mainly. Finally met my next door neighbour (not Shiraz the shed sharer, have yet to see her). I think he could be called Joe, I think that's what out plot manager called him but I also think I might have made that up. Actually, let's just call this man Ian. Ian said hello, went on for about ten minutes about the previous owner of my allotment, apparently he was a teacher and would do a bit of work, do nowt for weeks, come back and just sit around. Ian complained that the plot had been left to waste for years. I think there was a threatening tone in his voice, but I can't be too sure. He also thought the garlic I was growing were leeks and he stole a load of water from the public tanks to one of his own, which is a bit naughty really. Ian also gave me three of his leeks, not out of kindness mind but because "they'll go to seed otherwise". Still, he seems a nice enough chap. 

I also met Gregory, a old Greek man who thought I was a nurse (no idea where he got that one from) who has a very sweet little Jack Russel dog following him at all times. He practically has a house at the end of his plot, one one of the most organised allotments in the entire Enfield borough. Lots of raised beds and he has notebooks on everything he has planted and where they were put. He gave me some plants that he had lifted from one of his beds and by looking at his notepad, he knew exactly what colours they were going to turn in. As I have some proper gardeners reading this here blog, can anyone identify these plants? The picture's not that clear (sorry, camera phone) but I have two clumps full of tubers, which are about 3-4 inches long. One clump will have yellow flowers and the other will have pink/red. Ma thinks they might be dahlias. Do you have any ideas?

Methinks, readers, that I've been a bit rubbish in keeping this here blog up. It's not my fault really, well it is, but I've been away from work for the past two weeks, it's been bliss but the blog usually gets updated during work, when I'm going through one of the many quiet moments. I don't have a computer at home you see and Dave has Oblivion on his so I get distracted and don't keep the things up when I should. (it has to be said, Oblivion is the bast game and if you have a spare few hundred hours get it now!)

But don't think I'm working on Good Friday! That would be silly. I'm back down south, amidst in my family's bosom and while my sisters and Ma work out what shrubs to get to cover the garden from prying eyes, I thought I'd get my arse in gear and write some words.

Because of having a few days off I've actually been doing quite a bit of work down the allotment. Weeding in beds that have crops have been done an the top half looks a lot better for it too. Sugar snaps and radish are in the ground and will hopefully grow even though we've been having a few frosts. The pink fir apple potatoes are in at the bottom of the plot. I'm hoping I've not planted them too deeply, I have a sneaky suspicion I have. Ma's going to find out in a sec.

On the potato front, my desiree potatoes are chitting away like mad and I'll have to pop them in the ground soon, but that's a job for next weekend.

The garlic's doing really well, I can't wait to roast some of that in June. I had one of the old boys telling me that the garlic grown round here down't turn out like it does in the supermarket as it doesn't grow into cloves, but surely that's why you plant it in winter, so it divides?

Red onions and shallots are finially appearing which is great news as I thought they had snuffed it, they're such slow growers!

Unfortunately, I still have a mass of weeds and mess in the middle of the plot. It's a pain and weeding on my own is no fun. I've come to the conclusion that I'll dig up when I'm going to prepare a bed in that area. There's no time now to spend a whole day digging when there's so many plants to plant.

Much more to write including new neighbours and strange unidentifiable plants, but the girls want to visit the garden centre up the road, so I'll save that for later today or tomorrow, or the next day, or next week….

So, farewell then, my mini poly-tunnel. You were held down by bricks, but that wasn't enough to stop you from flying away into the depths of Palmers Green.

Arse, and I had plans for that, as well.

I shouldn't really be writing this post. I'm just procrastinating. I have my appraisal to write and send to my boss, and I've got to get down the lottie at some point today and do some work, as I avoided going there over the entire weekend (I've got the week off, hooray for Easter recess!). I bought a winter jasmine and a climbing rose to go up the arch so I shall be planting that for def today. I only hope that the soil will be ok to dig, last weekend it was so thick, it was impossible to weed. Bah.

Now, I'll just make a cup of coffee, have a quick wee and then I'll get down to writing my report. Or maybe I shall have a quick go on Oblivion first…

It seems I am doing as well as Wizer when it comes to seed sowing at home. 99% of the seeds planted last week have germinated and are getting far too leggy for their own good. I’m guessing it’s because the room they’re all currently living in is too warm for them, despite the fact every time I want to watch TV in there I have to wrap up as if I were about to embark on an Antarctic expedition it’s so bloody cold. Maybe I’m just soft. I’m still planting seeds regardless, mind. Flowers this weekend. Sweet pea, marigolds and nasturtiums, which should look lovely dotted around the plot if they decide to grow. I’m particularly looking forward to having the nasturtiums in salads and making this.

Was told by a friend and allotment neighbour that the sheeting on the allotment had blown over, surprise, surprise. Has anyone got any good ideas about keeping the damned plastic down? Bricks aren’t quite doing it and I’m concerned that pegs will rip it. (oh, and many thanks to Jo, Becky and Carrie for sorting it out)  

As promised, here is a list of seeds sown so far. Wooo! 

Two weeks ago: 

Carrot - Chantenay Red Cored 

Leek – Musselburgh 

Sugar Snap peas

18^th March: 

Fennel 

Spinach 

Mizuna 

Iceburg 

Land Cress 

Corn Salad 

Radish – French Breakfast Pepper 

Pepper 

Cabbage – Tundra 

And the Devil’s Nads themselves,
Brussels Sprouts. I’m only growing them for Christmas dinner. 

The carrots and radish have already started growing, which is nice. Oh, and happy spring! 

Well that’s been one of the most fulfilling weekends in a long time. So many seeds have been sown in my newspaper pots. Two tabloids have been made up but what with my crazy bra