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Well, ahem. It’s been a while hasn’t it? I’m rubbish. In my defence, I have been busy. Mainly wedding venue hunting. We spent a lovely week travelling round Dorset visiting relatives and looking at very nice and very expensive venues. If you want to have a look at pictures, there’s a set on my Flickr.
Anyway, we’ve found a venue. Athelhampton House near Puddletown. It’s a beautiful old house with amazing gardens and the Olivier film Sleuth was filmed here. Here’s a picture:
It’s lovely and this picture doesn’t do it justice at all, but you get the idea.
There’s a good chance that this blog will turn into a wedsite for the next few months, but I’ll try and include other things too. Such as the peppers I’m growing! Wooo!
It’s covered in aphids already. 
I promise I won’t leave the next blog post for so long next time….
…is back on our screens tonight after their summer break, hurrah! If there’s one thing that actually gets me motivated and doing, it’s that programme.
But that means I’ve managed to miss all the GW specials that were broadcast over the summer. Which is a shame as they’re worth a watch even if they do pale in comparison to the proper programme. I caught one, actually. I switched it on and mistakenly thought I was watching a Nigella show when in fact it was Rachael De Thame talking about so called super foods. Surprise, surprise, locally grown food and a varied diet is just as good for us as eating exotic foods imported from halfway around the world. Anyway, I have a question. Did any of you catch the specials? One in particular, actually. Joe Swift presented and it was about gardens in urban areas and brown field sites. If one of you caught it, could you tell me if they used a bit of footage from the House of Commons? I was the one who supplied the footage to them you see and I’d like to know if it was shown. In all my years of sending out clips of PMQs and public accounts committees to Dispatches and Tonight on Trevor McDonald and other news programmes and documentaries, I have never been so pleased and excited to be pressing play and record buttons at the same time before.
Also, and I’m fairly sure you all know about this before, but the GW website has a fantastic blog written by Berryfields’ head gardener. Needless to say, I’m insanely jealous of her. She’s too pretty, has the most amazing job and trained at the most amazing places. Bah.
You know, it’s really quite nice coming home after a (very) long and (very) busy and (very) stressful day at work and to have the warm Sun on your face and walking up to the front door and not only seeing lots of greenery, but food too. I can’t wait to have a munch on this courgette.
Do you ever have those moments where you pack something somewhere really well, usually along with the thought “that’ll keep it safe” and invariably tidy it away so well you forget where you’ve put it, with the growing fear you’ve actually lost the item forever?
This is what has happened with my sacatures (which is annoying as I wanted to prune my rose I rescued from the allotment tonight) and, more worryingly, my passport, which I could have sworn was in my knicker basket. It was definitely there in the old flat and now I can’t find it. I managed to make myself late for work today because when I suddenly get a thought through my head that goes along the lines of “I wonder if it’s in that box…” there’s some kind of OCD compulsion that means that I absolutely have to check that box. It’s a pain in the arse. I have just left the laptop for half an hour to check a couple of bags. It wasn’t there. What I did find were two years worth of mobile phone bills, four boxes of shoe polish stolen from my hotel room while on holiday in Tenerife four years ago, ten year old make up, a massive bag of candles, two copies of Super Monkey Ball for the DS and a bag of chocolate fudge that a friend bought over from New York in May last year.
I think it’s time for a clear out.
EDIT. After finding my entire Gardener’s World magazine collection, ten copies of Pagan Dawn from five years ago, even more old make up and all my birthday cards from the last three years, I finally found my passport, safely in the rucksack I still hadn’t unpacked from moving here, ensconced in piles of socks I thought I got rid of years ago. Now where shall I put it away?
I won’t talk much about Glastonbury, because I’ll only bore half of you and the pear cider and a couple of ’special’ cakes has made me forget half of the stuff I saw and did anyway. If you want to have a look at photos though, I have a set on my Flickr account. It really is worth visiting if you’ve never been before though, even if it is muddy. The Green Fields in particular. They’re lovely and calming, have excellent food on sale there, you’re able to have a cheap massage or some gong therapy or just sit back and watch the slightly odder side of society walk around. I bloody love it. The thing of most interest to this blog is that there is a permaculture garden tucked away just above the old railway track. It’s a wonderful oasis away from all the madness, plus it’s an actual working garden. 90% of the plants grown here are edible and they have a open fire where they cook and sell all the food they harvest. It’s tasty! This is a picture of their compost heap. I would have taken more pictures of the place, but I forgot.
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.
Carrot Fly, she who know’s more about plants than anyone else in the world, mentioned a plant who’s name I found highly amusing last night (and you would find it amusing too if you had done nothing but sit around the flat waiting for a delivery never to arrive and speaking to no-one and having the highlight of the day as cleaning your fridge). Rapistrum rugosnum, a brassica found mainly in wasteland and originated from the Black Sea and the Med and rather pretty. Common name Bastard Cabbage. Tee hee! Are there any crazily named plants you can think of readers?
The joy of Wilkos
‘Twas a day off work today and after a lovely long lie in, I popped down to Wood Green to look at one shop in particular to what’s turning into a yearly pilgrimage to the shop that has it all: Wilkinson’s. I go there throughout the year, but after the sale has died down in January, Wilko’s start bringing out their gardening stock. I swear their stock gets bigger and better every year too. I couldn’t actually buy anything as I’m skint until I get paid next week, but I just wondered around the aisles of glory and wondered what I spend all my wages on next week.
If you have a store nearby, I suggest you pop down soon. They have their usual buy one get one free on seeds and a huge amount of bulbs and flower tubers on sale. There’s also a decent amount of soft fruit. There are gooseberries selling at £2 each and there are raspberries, grapes, oranges, blackberries and figs. They’re all tiny, of course, but will soon grow into strong plants in a couple of years. Two and a bit years ago, I bought a bird of paradise plant from Wilkinsons and it’s doing amazingly well. I still don’t expect it to flower for another few years, but it’s the healthiest plant I have.
Their equpment stock has increased too. There’s the usual spades and forks, but they have a few other things too. Mini three tiered greenhouses and the thing I have my eye on - and aluminum cold frame for only £20. I doubt the quality will be amazing, but it’s perfect for keeping just outside the flat. There only seems to be only one in the shop, so please people, don’t go and buy it. It’s mine.
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…
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.
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.
