16. It's not about you joggers...

It's about harvesting veg grown by my own fair hands (if slightly muddy).

I had my first harvesting day (mid July when I started writing this post!), and it was such a great feeling!

The car boot was full of onions and garlic, and it was a gorgeous day. As I left the allotment, I thought that this is what life is about. It might take away some hours from my free time, but in the peace and quiet of our allotment, protected by 8ft high hedges from the rush of city life, it certainly doesn't seem like a chore. And after a few months of turning up and doing a minimal weeding, I had a bumper crop. Admittedly, they won't be winning prizes, but I can confirm that they taste great!

And now to the weather...

Where has the sun gone?! I have possibly a hundred small green tomatoes in the greenhouse (I went a bit overboard), and they are not showing any sign of turning red. I have taken down the screening, that I had needed to protect my baby plants in the spring - back in the days when we had too much sun! Now the plants are as tall as me, and covered in flowers and fruits, the sun is nowhere to be seen. The weeds outside are loving the wet weather, however!

And of course, not forgetting the wildlife...

I am pleased to announce that we are doing our bit for the honey bees which are in decline. They absolutely love my tomato and tomatillo plants in the greenhouse (there are plenty of bee sized gaps between panes of glass even with the windows closed!). I have also bought a lavender plant, which will be a permanent fixture near the blackcurrant plant. My lavender plants at home are always covered in bees, so this should keep them coming back when the tomato flowers have finished.

Mr Fox has also had a fun time lately. Mark forgot to close the greenhouse door last week, and the fox got in and had a great time throwing gloves and empty fruit juice cartons around the allotment! I wish I saw him more often, so I could get a photo.

15. We have had a fatality...

Yeterday was a sad day in the greenhouse. There has been a fatality.

I quickly visited the allotment after work yesterday, and unfortunately, one of the tomatilo plants had given up the ghost. It had always been the runt of the litter, and it had been left without water for too long. The rest of the tomatiloes, and indeed the other plants, don't look the least bit remorseful. In fact, now it is a bit cooler in the greenhouse, they are looking full of life!

Hopefully, that should be the last of the casualties as I have a new hydration system on it's way to me as we speak. The one I had been using before, consisted of the water bladders that walkers use which have a tube attached. I manged to save some faulty ones that had been returned. I put a few holes in one corner, and hoped that the water would drip out slowly and water the plants. No such luck! They are still full two weeks later!

Outside of the greenhouse, the alootment has burst into life. The bedding plants that I was disappointed in, have suddenly doubled in size and grown flowers!

Both myself and Mark are having trouble with our over wintering onions. They should have been ready April - May, but the stalks are still refusing to fall over and signal picking time is here. Some have gone to seed, which I quickly cut off, but I think it may have been too late.

I must put a photo of my blueberry plant on here. As it is my star pupil at the moment! It is kind of cheating, as the plant is in my garden at home. I have had it in a pot for a couple of years now, and this is the first time it has flowered, it doesn't do things by halves though, it is covered in flowers. Well it was, the flowers have now died off and are turning into lovely little blueberries! In fact, I need to go do some research. To cover or not to cover? I don't want some cheeky blackbird eating the lot!

Finally, I would just like to congratulate myself in typing another entry only one week later than the previous one!

14. Lazy sunny days

I am ashamed to see that again, I haven't blogged for 2 months.

My little side project has also fallen by the wayside. A while ago, I decided to take a picture of the path leading from the main gate, each time I arrived at the allotment. It is quite a nice view of a worn out path with grass growing in the middle of the tyre tracks, and hedges and trees on either side. When I put them all together, it was meant to show the changing seasons. However, for the past month, when all the growing has been going on, I have forgotten to take my camera!

Anyway, more news on the wildlife front - Mr Fox is still visiting the allotment. I put some black weed supressor down over part of a bed. And low and behold, when I next visited, there were large muddy footprints on it!

The big news at the allotment is the re-hiring of a member of staff. I managed to trick Matt into coming to the allotment a couple of weeks ago. And he is hooked! He is now in charge of all the hard work - weeding, digging etc. And I do planting, watering and decision making. Woo hoo! Unfortunately, the weeds are still beating us, growing twice as fast as the vege's.

My brother managed to fix the water pump. He found a little hardwear shop, explained the problem and waited while the assistant went into the back room rumaging about, and of course had exactly what we needed. We now have almost icy cold, fresh water. It's great not having to pray for rain all the time. I think if we had to rely on the water butts, the tomatoes would have been long dead!

It's funny how, I now notice what the weather is doing more. I have never been much of a sun worshipper, but it seems to bring colours alive so I always welcomed it. This week though, I have had to go to the allotment everyday to water, and still a couple of the plants are wilting. I was only in the greenhouse for a few minutes on Sunday before I was losing my temper with the hydration system I was trying to set up!

On the vege side, things are looking surprisingly good. First Early, Second Early and Late potatoes are growing nicely, I haven't seen any flowers yet, but the grass is higher than the potato plants so it's not surprising! There are flowers on the mange tout plants and the peas. The onions are looking pretty good. However, they are overwintering onions and they should have been ready to harvest in April, but are still looking on the small side. The garlic is doing really well, people keep complimenting me on how well the leeks are growning, so that tells you how well the garlic is!

That is my update for now. I will try and add photos later...and update you again before August!

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!