13. Summer time, when the weather is high

Yes, I had to do a search to find the correct lyrics. But just count yourself lucky that I went to the Mungo Jerry link and not New Kids on the Block!

I finally managed to get to the allotment today after two weeks. I definitely picked the right day though. The first thing I did when I arrived was check the thermometer in the greenhouse. It was a balmy 45 degrees!

A month ago (really must update this more often) I was exstatic that spring was finally here, and today it was like a summer's day. And I wasn't the only one that thought so. The birds were singing their hearts out, there were butterflies a plenty, and the bumble bees were buzzing around wherever I went.

Now, I know that most people that read this blog (all two or three of you) are more intersted in the animal antics than the veg growing, so...

The bees are back! Last year when we had managed to clear the allotment of most of the 4 foot tall weeds, we noticed that there was a bumble bee nest under the pear tree. I was particularly pleased about this as they are supposed to be in decline. So we tried not to disturb the ground too much nearby as they leave their nest in winter, and I was hoping they would return. And return they have. Unfortunately, they haven't returned to their old nest. Instead, they have taken up residence in our pile of cuttings that are waiting for us to make a bonfire. Obviously, the pile looked like a permanent addition to the allotment. Even the wildlife are passing comment on our laziness now!

My other wildlife news is the butterflies. They were in and out of the allotment all day today. Unfortunately, we don't have any flowers, so they never stayed long. However, in my little nursery (more later) in the greenhouse, I have already got some tequila sunrise plants growing. They are only about 1cm tall at the moment, so I hope the butterflies are patient. Apparently, butterflies live for 2 to 14 days, so they are going to have to tell their ancestors about the allotment!

Mark was not as concerned that there was nowhere for the butterflies to settle as he thought they would lay eggs on our veg and the resulting caterpillars would eat everything!

Back to the vegies... In the greenhouse, the home made propagator has become a little nursery. All of the seeds mentioned in my last post, have now germinated. And two weeks ago, I planted more. Upon inspection today, they have germinated too. The only ones left are chilli seeds and romano pepper. Both of these were not bought, but saved from chillis and a pepper that we had at home. These are also showing signs of life, but are a little slower than the others.

I couldn't believe the speed that these peas and mangetout grew. I hope the rest of the progress goes as well. It was so hot in the greenhouse, that everything was starting to wilt a bit.

Work was a little on the slow side, mainly due to the gorgeous sunshine and comfy garden chairs!

12. Spring is Sprung!

Finally, I found a little bit of spring, lurking behind the wheelie bin.

Last year, I bought an ornamental bucket full of mini daffodils. I put them in the front yard to add a bit of colour. When they stopped flowering, I put them in the back yard, which is a bit more sheltered - and forgot about them. This week, I found them lurking behind the wheelie bin. Despite the yard getting no sun, they had grown buds and were about to flower. They are now reinstated in their original place, desperately trying to draw visitor's eyes away from the weeds on the path!

Armed with the fact that things were finally beginning to grow, I set off for the allotment. Unfortunately, time was short so I only managed to prepare the ground for the fruit I had bought and do a little watering in the greenhouse.

As the weather has been so rainy and even snowy since my last post, I have taken the opportunity to wander around the garden centres. I have bought two summer raspberry plants and one autumn raspberry plant, one blackcurrant plant, and a lemon plant.

I didn't plan on the lemon plant, however, it was only £4 from a well known hardware chain. I did have a lemon plant a few years ago. It never fruited, but lived quite happily on the south facing balcony of a top floor flat. I figured that now I had a greenhouse, a lemon plant would thrive. Two weeks later, it's not going entirely to plan! Half of the leaves have curled up and gone slightly yellow. It appears, it doesn't take long to get hot in the greenhouse! I may install one of those drip feeders that you attach to a bottle of water. If it is struggling now though, what will it be like in mid summer?!

Apart from the fruit plants which are still sat in their pots, I have planted some seeds. I tried this about six weeks ago at home, but nothing germinated. So, I have tried again. This time, the seeds are in the greenhouse, where they should get more sun than on a windowsill. I also put a sheet of plastic over them, in the form of a home made propagator. A week after planting, there are still no shoots, but I am still hopeful.

Outside the greenhouse, things are looking better. The leeks that have been left in over winter, are looking nice and healthy, and like they may put in another growth spurt before I pick them. The overwintering onions also look to be doing well, and the garlic has grown quite a bit as well.

Back in the greenhouse, there is another visitor. All the large holes have been blocked up, so the fox hasn't been playing with the gardening gloves for a while. However, when I went to check on the lemon plant, there was a hole in the soil, next to the roots. It appears we still have some holes to fill, maybe a mouse or rat sized one! No wonder the lemon plant is looking so sad!

11. Are we nearly there yet?

The mornings and evenings are getting lighter, but it is still really cold and there is no sun.

My visits to the allotment have been few and far between at the moment, mainly because of the weather. I went a week ago with good intentions of putting another row of wine bottles in (I am getting over-run with the things, thanks to donations from various people). However, the ground was frozen so no digging could be done. I spent an hour tidying the greenhouse and moving the onion seedlings to the other end of the greenhouse away from the couple of broken panes. This was in preparation for the manure, as I read that if you put a small pile of fresh manure in the corner of the greenhouse, it will radiate heat. I was hoping this would keep the frost out so I could start growing things.

About three weeks ago I made some seed pots from newspaper and put them in my old juice carton seed trays. I planted tomatilloes, carrots, aubergine and a couple of types of flowers. I have been watering them regularly, but not too much and not one of the trays has the even the tinyest of shoots pushing through! They currently reside on a small table next to the window in the dining room. This window gets the most amount of light in the house, but still nothing.

However, in the bathroom window (which is downstairs and doesn't get good light), some bulbs that I bought on offer in B&Q, and never got round to planting, have sprung into life on their own accord - I just left them there over winter thinking they would sprout in March/April time. I may move a tray of seeds into the bathroom and see if they prefer it there. It is a bit warmer and very damp in there.

I am a bit behind with my potatoes as well, which is a bit annoying. I decided to order some from a magazine instead of going to the garden centre, as there was an offer for less potatoes but more varieties. However, I am still waiting for delivery and I know my parents and brother already have some happily chitting!

So, if you see Spring on your travels, send it my way, I have been waiting for ages!

10. Oh my God has it been that long?!

So, finally, I have got round to updating my blog. I knew it had been a while, but 2 months! That is slack!

I have also finally got round to putting my allotment photos onto the computer from the camera, so I have had a look at them to see just what I have been doing for the last two months!

By the looks of it, there has been digging, weeding, and not much else! The digging is finally complete! I just need to mark out the beds properly. The first row of wine bottles has been completed:

A little on the wobbly side, but I have about 7 more rows to do. By the end of that lot, they will be perfect...and I will be an alcoholic!

As you can also see, the leeks are coming on well. Unfortunately, though with the freezing temperatures and little sunshine, growing has come to a stand still, so I fear these may have to stay in til Spring.

As well as work at the allotment, I did a little work at home. Planning! I love planning almost as much as the work itself - but not quite as much as the shopping for seeds etc!

I have planned what will go into each bed in the spring on a little diagram of the plot, and I also have an A4 sheet for each month of the year, with what should be planted that month. To do this planning, I went through all my seeds that I had been collecting in the last few months, as well as some that I had left over from when I was only planting in the garden.

I noticed that I have become something of a seed hoarder! I have about 5 types of tomato seeds, 3 or 4 pepper seeds, 3 chilli seeds as well as four plants that didn't go too well last year, that I am going to try and grow again this year. The only things I actually need to buy next season are seed potatoes and shallot bulbs!

I will try and take a picture of the plan for my next posting (which should be a bit earlier than February!).

Now this is a bit soppy for me, but I had to add this picture of the greenhouse, as it is amazing how much crisper the sun makes the colours seem. And as the sun is in short supply at the moment, I thought this might brighten up a cold December day!

9. Alone again

Unfortunately the volunteers have gone. Only went and got themselves an allotment didn't they? They are only round the corner though, so I am sure there will be seed swopping etc going on in the future. In fact, Dickon has already been round to borrow a few bricks for a fire pit.



The foxes haven't deserted us yet though. Despite us shutting the door to the greenhouse now, they manage to squeeze through a broken window at ground level. This time they took a fancy to Mark's plastic seed container, taking it half way up the allotment before giving up with trying to open it! A couple of my onions have been upturned as well, but I did plant 100 so a couple of losses is hardly worth worrying about.

The birds seem to have forgiven us as well. They are now racing through the seed we put out. I think the main reason they didn't eat any for a few weeks was more to do with the fact that there were loads of juicy berries in the hedges. Now it is getting more wintery, the berries are disappearing, so they are having to live on our boring cheapo bird seed!

Quite a lot of planting has been going on since my last post. I put some white onions in for overwintering and I had some carrots that I had grown from seed at home. I put some in the greenhouse in a planter and the rest in the ground. It was quite a cold day when I planted them, so I made a kind of fleece tent over them in case a frost gets them. Mark had also bought onions and as we had a hundred each, we swapped half red for half white. I also decided to experiment with some red onion seeds for overwintering. So far two have sprouted. I am keeping them in the greenhouse for now.

I also bought some garlic. I have some at home that I have been replanting every year, that came from supermarket bought garlic. But I thought I would try some different varieties this year, especially as it is so good at keeping bugs off other plants. I can plant my old garlic in among the other plants. I didn't quite calculate how much I would end up with though. I bought 6 globes and each had about 12 bulbs. As each bulb will give me a complete globe, I am glad that it stores well. I think I will be adding garlic to every meal and accompanying everything with garlic bread!

8. Wino's

Whilst browsing various gardening forums, I came across a brilliant idea for boardering the beds - used wine bottles. You just turn them upside down and half bury them in a nice straight line on the edges of the beds. We had a few at home as it had been a while since the recycling had been taken to the collection site, and I asked everyone I know to donate any that they use.

I collected loads and took them up the allotment on Saturday. Jo was also with me, delivering some broken up wood that we could use to fuel the next fire. Jo dug a narrow trench and I put the bottles in and packed the soil around them. I used all the bottles and only managed to fill half a row! Later that evening we met up again, and with the help of Matt and Dickon added another three bottles to the collection!

Finally some more good news. Head of procurement, Matt has come good and managed to get us a wheelbarrow from the builders at work, that would have otherwise ended up in a skip. The tire's a bit flat, but that should be fixable. I think the worst part of it, was not going round begging, but walking home with a wheelbarrow whilst wearing a smart shirt and suit trousers! A few comments were made!

7. Water Water Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink

It's been a while since my last post. I keep meaning to update it at home where I can add photo's but never seem to get round to it.

Plenty of work has been done. We replaced the top half of the water pump and it worked...for a week of so. The bolts that hold it in place at the base have very little thread left, and quickly worked loose. Currently, the water pump is lying in the greenhouse, feeling sorry for itself until someone comes up with an idea to fix it!

Luckily on the same day as fitting the water pump, we also put some guttering on the side of the outhouse and set up a water butt. So for now, nothing is going to die of thirst. Obviously, the rain is also helping with that situation!

Finally after three years or so of doing various voluntary work, I had my own volunteers. Our friends Jo and Dickon helped out a couple of saturdays ago. They were hooked before they even stepped into our allotment, having a bit of a nose around first and picking out a vacant allotment that they would like to work on. I thought we would never get them to leave, and we would have squatters at the site!

Once they got in our allotment though, there was no stopping them. Dickon managed to dig in an afternoon, the same amount that I had done in about two months! Jo busied herself weeding and made sure Matt had enough cuttings to keep the fire going.

Yes, we had our second fire, it seemed a good idea as there was five of us at the allotment all afternoon. The pile of cuttings did go down, but there is still enough for about 10 more fires! The fire was also a good way to get Matt to the allotment. I have struggled to get him interested in the allotment for a couple of weeks, (mainly due to my nagging everyone about digging!) but mention of a fire and he is straight there! It's a man thing, I believe.

The digging began on Mark's section of the allotment, but progress was hampered a little due to the smoke from the fire blowing into his eyes. For the time being the fire pit is on Mark's side of the allotment!