Rain, Rain, Sandwiches!

Never let it be said that the weather can spoil a day on the plot...

We took the opportunity during a break in the rain to do some digging ready for the carrots. The kids were all togged up with wellies and spades. We bought some lunch on the way to the allotment.

Unloaded everything from the car and began work on digging the ground. After 5 minutes the heavens opened so we took shelter in the greenhouse and enjoyed a splendid picnic dodging the drips from the leaking roof!

Fruits of Our Labour

It's all gone a bit mad on the allotment in the last few weeks. Weeds have taken over everything. Thankfully our veggie growing neighbour has strimmed most the the tall grass but we still have plenty of nettles and weeds to battle with.

Despite the Mediterranean conditions on Sunday, we spent a few hours constructing a runner bean wigwam and planting several rows of carrots.

This evening I called by on my way home from work and dug up a small handful of new potatoes...

New Compost

Finally built compost #2.

This one is constructed from a packing crate I recovered from work. It's seriously over engineered and weighs a tonne so I enlisted the help of my wife's nephew to help me get it into place.

April Sunshine

Another sunny day and a chance not to be missed, so down the allotment for a few hours of VGF (veggie growing fullfillment)!

Garlic and onions are doing great.

Planted some more rows of spuds.Spread some compost on them.

And dug a bit round the greenhouse.

Sunshine, Spuds and Sorrow

Saturday morning and a very early start for all the family. Whilst everyone else got ready for drama class, I familiarised myself with the route to the NCT sale to drop off a bag of retired baby clothes. Once that was out of the way the morning was mine to spend at the allotment.
Got there to find the wind had whipped out a few panes of glass from the greenhouse. Amazingly, nothing broken. Just two panes lying neatly on the grass. I'm a bit slow in replacing some of the original missing glass so I've only got myself to blame. Got the spuds in though, well half of them anyway. I'll plant the rest in a few weeks to try and extend the harvesting.

It was a nice day. Lots of sun but still chilly. I'm hopeful the last of the frost has passed and my spuds will stand a good chance this early in the season. Did I mention what an idyllic setting my allotment is in? Just on the edge of the Peak District National Park, surrounded by hills with a restored steam railway running a few hundred meters from my plot. Bliss.

Not so the rugby score this weekend. The final match of the Six Nations, Wales v Ireland. Much at stake at the Millenium Stadium. Wales, last years victorius Grand Slam champions, the dragon ready to pound the Irish into submission. They Lost!

New Year, New Start

First visit of 2009 to the plot. The onions and garlic are doing quite well although the couch grass is springing up small shoots - need to keep an eye on those. The proposed potatoe bed also had a few small couch shoots but we turned the soil over and got rid of most of them today. I took the fleece off the onions a few weeks before Christmas and am now using this to warm the soil ready for planting the spuds which are chitting nicely.

The potatoe tubers which arrived early December have, up until now, been stored in a closed box in a disused room. Today we removed them from the box and placed them in trays on the window sill. All bar a few have small shoots so are ready to be left in the cool and light.

Looks like we've had some clever birds on the plot - this one had a new years feast on snails by cracking the shells open on a pile of stones I dug up.

Happy Christmas 2008

Well Christmas is in full swing in our household. I spent most of the weekend doing some last minute present shopping while the rest of the family finished off making decorations and Christmas crackers. Yes, homemade crackers - another great use for the empty toilet roll!

Sunday I was employed, glass of port in one hand and pastry cutter in the other, mastering Nigella Lawson's Frangipane mince pies recipe.

Tonight we begin wrapping the mountain of presents. Every year we have a rule not to overspend on presents, but every year we each have our own agenda and end up buying more than is healthy. Oh well, the kids love it and that's all that counts.

Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year.

P.S. We plan to begin potatoe chitting in the new year.