29. I'm melting......!!

I have a bit of a love hate relationship with the sun. I love the way it makes everything brighter, and more colourful, and they way it opens flowers and makes all my lovely veggies grow. However, I can burn by being out in the sun for half an hour early in the morning! The sun gets so intense in the greenhouse, despite windows open and some missing, that I need to protect tomatoes from it. And on Saturday, it was too hot to work.

Yeah, poor excuse I know, but the only work I needed to do was digging, or putting up fleece in the greenhouse to shelter the tomatoes. Our little thermometer in the greenhouse was pushing the 50 mark, so I put the fleece up as quickly as possible, chucked a bit of water in the barrell to water the tomatoes, then I went back to my garden chair outside!

I had a whole patch to dig, but only managed a square big enough to plant two courgette plants. The smaller plants which I grew from seed are still small enough to live in pots til I am there next time, hopefully in cooler circumstances!

Again no photo's, I did take my camera, but stupidly, left battery at home!

On an allotment related theme, I got some more bargains from the City Farm. Two small pots with a bean plant in each, it will be a surprise to see which beans they are as it didn't see, but at 20p a pot you can't go wrong! I also bought a greek basil plant - to add to my citrus basil and regular basil on the kitchen windowsill, and a marrow plant.

Back at the allotment, I have just remembered that my main crop potatoes are poking some shoots through the ground. They have been in about a week and a half and I was surprised to see the shoots as they had been chitting for months and hardly grew at all.

28. And then there was one...

The only problem with turning up at the allotment for the odd hour here and there, is that there is no time to rally the troups together.

I went and did an hour on Tuesday after work, which meant Matt was out training for his cycle race, and Beth was ... probably asleep to be honest!

Now, I don't mind my own company, but the bugs start hunting me down when I am alone. The other week I was dragging carpet about on my own to find the beginnings of a wasps nest in one carpet, and when that didn't frighten me off this MASSIVE black spider thought it would put in an appearance! The carpet stayed where it was after that. So on Tuesday when I found a dead spider in the fleece that I use to protect the tomatoes from direct sunlight, I decided it was time to go, before something bigger, and more alive came for me! Suddenly, I missed my Beth. Not that she eats spiders when I tell her to, but she makes me laugh when she jumps and sniffs at it like she wants to play.

Before the bugs realised I was at the allotment however, I did get some work done.

I was surprised to find that most of the irrigation system that I have attached to a water butt in the greenhouse, were still working fine, despite me not cleaning them out at all over winter. Although, I did give the tomatoes a good watering as well before I left! After this photo was taken, I also put up some fleece on the left of the plants. The direct sunlight gets so fierce through the glass (even though it is filthy) nearly killed some tomato plants last year, so I try to give them a bit of shade now.

Outside, one of the courgette plants has it's first courgette growing. Doesn't look that great in that photo, as the flower is bigger! But if you look closely, you will see that the courgette is yellow!

I have realised that my 'thing' in gardening, is growing unusual types of plant. Last year I grew tomatilloes, this year it is yellow courgettes and tomotoes and stripey tomatoes. I struggled to find any yellow courgette seeds that weren't F1, and as I wanted to keep some seeds for next year I didn't want F1. However, they had some plants for sale at the City Farm, so I bought a couple. I also have some smaller plants that I grew from seed that are green courgettes.

Last year I also bought a thai basil plant from the City Farm. It smelt and tasted lovely, so I went to the shops to try and get some seeds. However, all I could find were Citrus Basil seeds. So, being a seed hoarder, I bought those. The first plant is just getting big enough to use the leaves, and it smells great. I didn't taste them as I put them in a meal, and there aren't many leaves that are useable yet. I also got some free seeds on a magazine last year that were for Dark Opal Basil, which has dark purple leaves. I have tried to grow some seeds on a couple of occasions, but they just don't come up as well as the normal basil and died off easily, so not all experiments pay off!

27. Little and often

I snuck into the allotment on Friday lunch time for half an hour, and it felt great! I got some watering done, and finished weeding round the shallots (which hadn't seen daylight for a few months). I wanted to give them some fertilizer, but the sun was blazing down, so I thought I had better leave them.

I could have stayed there all afternoon, but unfortunately had things to do.

There are no photo's of my achievements as I was so disorganised, I didn't even have a pair of trainers with me, let alone a camera. Although I do have this one...

These are my tomato and courgette plants, and hiding somewhere there is the lone chilli plant that grew this year. They managed to survive the stifling heat in the greenhouse when all my seedlings died, and were moved outside as a kind of congratulation. Perhaps if I looked after things before they had to pass some kind of courageous fight for survival, I might have a few more plants!

Full of my new found enthusiasm, I am going to the allotment tonight as I have an hour to spare before I need to set off for training. It has been throwing it down all morning, but what I really need to do is set up the water butt in the greenhouse for the return of the tomato plants, so there's no excuse!

26. A Truce

Feeling a bit better about the allotment this week.

The seedling A and E has worked well. There were a few casualties, namely peas and tomatoes, but the squash family seem to be doing well, I have courgettes, grey sqaush and butternut squash seedlings.

I weeded around my early potatoes and they seem to be doing well. I also planted my main crop which are pink fir apple, but I don't hold out too much hope as they shoots are pretty small even though they were chitting for months.

My shallots haven't done well at all. They were an overwintering variety, so I expected them to be ready now, but I pulled one up by accident when weeding and they are barely the size of spring onions. This may be because I haven't been able to see for a while for all the weeds surrounding them!

What is growing really well at the allotment is the green manure that I planted before the winter. Yes, I know it should have been dug in weeks ago, but I am getting so many compliments because it looks like beans growing, that for now at least it is staying! Look how pretty it is too...

It has been mentioned (by one person), that I never cycle to the allotment anymore, so should really change my name from cycling gardener. Well, I am pleased to announce, that following Matt signing up for a 300 charity bike ride, we both cycled to the allotment on Monday.

So the name lives on, although I will be back to the car on Friday as I want to take Beth and her legs are too short for cycling!

And while I am talking to my regular readers, if you lazy lot only read from the email you receive, you should have a look at the blog itself because I have given it an update to look cooler and even more green than before!

25. Bad Timing

I'm not seeing eye to eye with the allotment at the moment. Despite, not having blogged for months, I have been going to the allotment once a week. The weather had been preventing me from going more.

Since October, most of my spare time has been spent filling in endless application forms for some part time work. If I had known it would be so "fruitless" I might not have bothered, and worked at the allotment instead.

As my hours have increased at work for a few weeks, the sun has been blazing down on the greenhouse. I had a nice little home made propogator going in the greenhouse which meant that seedlings would grow but not dry out quickly. Now I have a number of dead and half dead seedlings, that I have brought back home. The spare bedroom has been changed from seedling nursery to seedling A and E! I think a few may survive.

On the rest of the allotment, the weeds are growing like mad, I can barely see the onions, potatoes etc.

I'd had delusions of grandure with my tomatoes this year. I was planning to grow some unusual ones, for a change and bought some Mr Stripey and Yellow Sunrise (I think) seeds. However, the supermarkets are now getting in English tomatoes and all I have are about 4 plants of 2 inches tall. I got impatient and bought a plant from Stonebridge City Farm as it had flowers on!

All in all not a good start to the year, but hopefully things will improve. In fact thinking about it, I am sure that I had hardly any plants in this time last year, and decided to make a conscious effort to do more and plant more seeds.

Sorry no photos this time, I forgot the camera.

24. Spring is sprung!

Finally, I made it to the allotment. A couple of weeks later than planned, but there you go.

It has been so long, that I had to fight my way through the hedge and find some oil as the padlock had rusted locked!

My over wintering shallots seemed to have suffered due to the snow we had, but I was pleased to see that there were some buds on the black current plants. I never got round to planting any garlic, so put a dozen of this years bulbs in the ground. They were already sprouting, so hopefully they should do ok, despite the lateness of planting.

The soil was so wet though, that I was doing more harm than good by planting, so I didn't stay long. Once home, I checked on the new nursery and when I took the lid of the new propagator, I saw there are two little seedlings growing! Not sure what they are actually as I forgot which order I planted the seeds in. But they are different plants and they are either tomatoes (stripey or yellow), chillies or romano peppers. As well as the electric propagator, I have a non-electric one that has a variety of salad leaves, spinach and rocket growing, well there are a few seedlings anyway!

My seed potatoes aren't doing so well, the 'eyes' aren't growing so well on the first earlies, and the pink fir apple potatoes which are lates, have virtually no 'eyes' at all. I have had them about a month now. It's a shame I can't put them in the propagator!

Oh and I almost forgot, I have entered a tallest sunflower competition. There was a seed swap day at Stonebridge City Farm so I took all my spare seed packets that I had duplicates of and swapped them. I got peas, mangetout, dwarf green beans and echinops (yeah I hadn't heard of them before either!)

A quick internet search found this:
"The Echinops which are also known as Globe Thistle are hardy herbaceous perennial plants with thistle like leaves and globular heads of pale blue globe shaped flowers. They belong to the daisy family - Compositae and grow wild in Southern Europe.
Being of robust habit and tall growth, echinops can grow to 10 feet in height.
Echinops or Globe Thistles are suitable for the back of the herbaceous border and will attract many bees and butterflies into the garden."

I made a vague attempt last summer to add a little colour to the allotment. But I didn't plan it very well. I also bought some seeds last summer with a plan to grow some flowers that I could cut and put in the house in a vase. So I am going to make more effort to do that again this year.

23. I don't care what the weatherman says...

I am ashamed to say that I haven't been to the allotment since before Christmas.

However, the days are getting longer, and I am feeling more energetic, and hopeful that summer will put an end to this cold. So...no more waiting for the weather to improve. As I sit here, it is snowing outside.

On Saturday, in an 'up yours' to the British springtime, I am going to the allotment, and bringing it into the house. I was given a propagator last season, and, following a quick search for a user guide on the internet, there will soon be tomatoes, aubergines, chillies, leeks... growing in the spare bedroom.

My indoor nursery used to be the dining room, but the dog took that over when she moved in, and has already broken one plant pot, trying to see who was walking past!

I have already made a start. There are first early and main crop potatoes chitting in the new nursery. This year I am trying Colleen first earlies, mainly because I can't remember what I bought last year! But also, Colleen was good for disease resistance and a good crop. For the main crop I have picked Pink Fir Apple, as back in the days when I had a veggie box delivered, I had some Pink Fir Apple potatoes and they were really tasty...and they look unusual too! Although if anyone has grown them before let me know as they seem to be slow to chit. I think it might be because they are main crop.

22. New Beginnings

I have been a little short of motivation recently at the allotment. I think it is the weather. I could be doing lots of tidying and preparing for spring, but instead, I am doing the bare minimum and then going home.

I went a few weeks ago before the snow and ice had arrived, and was pleasantly surprised to find some raspberries still growing nicely, and there were a few chillies on the two plants that I had left in the greenhouse. Beth was glad it was cold, as she has been wanting to show off her new allotment jumper...

During the previous cold spell, I had been nice and warm working away, and poor Beth was sat looking very sad and cold indeed. She is very good at digging, so I did think of putting her to work, however, she is a bit unpredictable as to where she digs, so I have decided a jumper would be a better investment.

So, these are my two recent mini harvests, the a fore mentioned raspberries, and the new potatoes that were used in our Christmas lunch.

I was a little disappointed with the potatoes, as I got about one potato per plant. I never have much luck with growing them in containers though. I seem to get a much higher crop when putting them in the ground.

My most recent visit to the allotment although brief, was well worth it. There was snow everywhere, making the whole place look beautiful. The sun was also out as well, which always make the colours richer and brighter.


I didn't make it to the allotment today, but have been catching up with the blogs that I read regularly. I have changed jobs recently, which means I am no longer stuck behind a desk all day. A great improvement, but it means that I haven't looked at the blogs for a couple of months. I have also added them both to my blog list should anyone else want to read a blog that is actually updated regularly!

Grow our own in particular has inspired me today, as I realised just how much planting can be done even at this time of year. And there was so much colour in the photo's, my allotment is mainly greens and browns at the moment. The only thing I have in the ground is shallots which will be ready in the spring.

So, I am off to trawl through the seed packets to find out when I need to start planting seedlings in the greenhouse, and find the bulbs that I had last year.