After a bit of enforced break with working at the patch, we returned for some Sunday (oops no it was Monday- bank holiday disorientation!) sun. We all got down there today the children were less keen, Owen's friend from the patch next door turned up so that helped keep him entertained and I think his parents were pleased that he had a distraction too.
I put together the link-a-board bed today the company had been great sending me the missing board and it arrived really quickly. the bed looks great I just need to prepare it a bit more for the strawberries. I planted some cheap (98p) freesia bulbs along one of the outside edges for a little colour if they turn out to be any good.
The weeds are growing like crazy. John was fantastic today he has cleared the area for the spuds (I had hoped to have them in by good Friday -hey it can't be helped). The plan is that I should just be able to dig the trenches next weekend and get them in.
I sent John and the kids home for lunch, this works well as I get at least another hour of work in before they return to get me. If I'm really lucky they return with a sandwich! Whilst they were away I strimmed the grass but I find I can't do it for long as the petrol strimmer really shakes me to bits. I found my chives and cleared away the weeds that were choking them.
I am amazed that the salmon flowered peas are still alive although they do look very ropey, my poppet peas are ready to go to the patch next weekend too. I am hoping to improve my success with peas this year. To that end I sowed some asparagus peas in some guttering this evening, I like trying new things and want to avoid sending them on to the compost heap in the sky.
Also following Friday's gardeners world I have fished out some tin cans from the recycling box ready to plant up with sunflowers. The ones I have planted already in little pots are not looking too good -rather leggy in fact, Owen has a school sunflower for some competition that hasn't germinated yet. So overall its not looking good so far on the sunflower front. There is still time, still time I think.
What have I been doing? Can I really have been too busy to post? Or has so little of a horticultural nature happened that I couldn't post - ah now we reach the truth. I've not been to the patch and I feel so, so guilty. I miss the patch lots. I haven't got my onions in, or my broad bean seeds they just haunt and taunt me from the kitchen window.
The evenings are dark now so no chance of visiting the plot after the school run, a plan which I concocted in my head as a way of getting on with things when I returned to work after the freedom of maternity leave. I am concerned for my mental well being that I should contemplate such grand plans. That I consider the logistics of them feasible with the other things that I intend to get done in about an hour and a half of the day - still a girl can dream of super powers eh?
After the strain of all the half term excitement I hit a bit of a birthday lull, which did not encourage productivity. However I did treat myself to Alys Fowler's 'the thrifty gardener' as a little pressie. My sofa habit was not all bad as well as a little reading I also did a pen and ink drawing my first bit of art work in years.
I had stepped forward to join Mrs Be's Bakeathon (on her other blog) but my attempts were more of flash in the pan than a week's worth of yummy eating. I managed one lot of slighty burnt chocolate brownies they were disguised with a dusting of icing sugar. Is burnt chocolate better than no chocolate?
Today a letter from a friend arcoss the globe kicked my bottom into posting, I had written the rather short apple day post but not added a photo and had not bothered to publish it until today. I hadn't expected to recieve written complaints just because I had not posted in ages - you must be the reader that got me to over a 1000 hits checking for an update. I hope that fills the gap Carol ann - as you can see not a lot is going on and I feel a little bit of allotment guilt. Now I just need to get my special time juggling gloves on and all will be back to normal.
Last night I went to the patch to try and catch up as we had not been at all over the weekend. I got summoned back as the baby was kicking off, its not his fault he is miserable with a cold that started on Sunday. I was frankly very happy to return home. It was very depressing, when I walked across the patch I was walking on a slippery carpet of slugs. I've never seen so many, they are on everything. I thought that they didn't like alliums but they seem to be eating them as well.
My, well protected with pellets, celeriac are reduced to two plants. The lovely emerging pak choi have been chomped. I am going to abandon this year I think, it is rapidly running away from me, and I'm going to put my recently acquired knowledge into planning next year. There are so many things I would do differently I need to write them down.
I did visit in the stormy downpours on Friday and I weeded in the rain. There was only me and one other nutter who considered it worth tending to our plots at the site braced against the elements. The rain got very heavy (really tamping down) and once the thunder began to ring out I panicked and made a run for it. I desperately weeded around my cabbages which were becoming choked, as all my hopes of any produce are going to be placed into the brassicas. I have more cabbage to go out and my broccoli and sprouts I will just need to muster up some enthusiasm to put them out.
I did manage to peek at "grow your own" magazine in tescos while waiting for John to select a birthday card, they had an article on ways to beat slugs. I need to go to a 'horsey' shop to buy industrial quantities of bran. I think I might try this suggested method as it is relatively cheap and it doesn't just deter them, it kills the little gits!
There is little chance of me getting to the patch tomorrow as its school sports day and the weather is due to get wetter as the day goes on. My sons' social lives and the weather are making it very hard to get to grips with the plot.
Last weekend was great we managed to visit Celia Hart in the Cambridge open studios We went as a whole family to visit which is always a little bit anxiety provoking as you can't guarantee how the boys will behave. Our visit was great, Celia was very accommodating discussing her beautiful illustrations and working processes. She also introduced us to the under gardeners, Owen was quite taken with Sylvie. I also got to see the famous purple podded peas and the progress of the three sisters in her lovely walled gardens. I must try the three sisters next year either down at the patch or perhaps in the back garden.
I made a little purchase of some beautiful cards to remind me of my visit. I chose three with illustrations of heritage peas and beans these came with a free pack of seeds I chose the "salford black" runner bean. I can't wait to give these a go next year. I also got a card with a leaping hare they are such fantastic animals and Celia's linoprints capture there nature so well.
It was great to see how linocuts are made and I think I will be try to do a linocut print myself in the near future. I am interested in how to make one what will work or not and I'm now even more inspired from seeing the Celias work in person as well as on her blog.
I now understand what people mean when they say they are aching to do something. I haven't been to the patch for eight days now and I feel a physical aching to get on with things which is a strange sensation, if I don't go tomorrow I will burst I think.
Why haven't I been? Well its a combination of the weather, when I have had the opportunity it has been raining, and the lurgy. Oh yes my son has brought home the school lurgy although he has not succumbed to it himself. The baby and I have been unwell. I have only just started to eat and drink properly again today and it started on Saturday.
So its the last time I do a to do list and fill the weekend with essential plans, as it tempts the fates!
A small thought is that the ache I feel may not be due to some strong emotional passion for my plot and mother earth etc but the physical remnants of my disease.
The problem with a long weekend is that it can interfere with the allotment work especially when a massive get together is planned for family and friends. My allotment guilt is great at the moment. The one day I had a little time aside for work last week once the poor weather had passed, was immediately eradicated with a phone call from the school and the need to care for a injured son with a egg sized lump on the top of his head. After an intial feeling sorry for himself irritatingly he was playing football in the garden for most of the afternoon - luckily theres no lasting effects.
We had a great weekend away but I returned to some rather unhappy looking brussel sprout seedlings so winter nosh is not going to as good as it could be. It might be a little late to re sow more seeds.
On the plus side seeing my mum meant I got a consignment of young plants (see photo of them on the dining room table). She has been doing the allotment thing for years so is a source of information and potential produce. The best of the batch are some red cabbage - yum. She also included some delphilims. Now I may be foolish and a novice in the allotment thing but I am sure that you can't eat them. Still maybe our patch has the chance of being the prettiest my neighbour will think I'm nuts because he only grows things that can be eaten!
I have a feeling that this week coming up is going to be the key week and the weather is going to be good. I must remember to send my son to school in crash helmet.
Sometimes you know that you are on to a loser when the day starts in certain ways and especially on a Monday morning. A grizzly baby is not likely to want to visit the patch for a long stint of work. I thought I'd got his pattern sorted so that I could juggle my garden and photography activities and then he throws me wobbler and I now will have to rethink my strategies. This morning by the time he settled it was too close to the time that I need to pick up the older son from school to make any meaningful progress. Annoyingly I'd left the border fork in the storage box at the weekend so I couldn't even tinker with the front garden.
Not to be completly defeated I checked over my new purchases from the weekend, I bought some young chinese cabbage and pak choi plants only three of each but thought I would try them to see how they do at the patch. I am now the proud owner of a tent like cold frame which I am going to install at the patch for propogating the competition marrows and hardening off other some of my window sill seedlings. It appears that I'm planning to get much more serious than I thought I would for growing the marrows.
I love the plant labels that are featured on 'My Tiny Plot' a designer touch for the allotment, so much so that when I happened upon some wooden plant labels in Sainsburys on Saturday I had to have them. I thought I also could make some snazzy labels of my own, if only for the show marrows! So it's time to get painting.
Well today I planted some broad beans in pots at home, as the ones I planted a while ago at the allotment haven't appeared hopefully at least I will have some replacements or at best a sucession crop. I also re sowed celeriac after the accident. My new seeds for sowing today were sweetcorn and dwarf beans.
On top of this I took some photographs of the fluffy pink cherry blossom in the garden today which I will upload to the photostream soon. So, it has to be said that the day wasn't a complete loss and the weather looks ok for most of the week so I should get something done soon.
