A day for collecting our bounty down the allotment

 Quite a few times when we have been going down to the allotment our first sightings of change is the remains of a leaf stork to flowers or a sudden appearance of weeds. So yesterdays findings were a pleasant surprise, the glimmering rubies nestled in the straw under cover of emerald leaves. We did expect on closer inspection to find the signs of perfection on the outer most view and the signs of slugs when you turned them over, but there was very little slug activity.

Our lass picked the strawberries and although from the photograph below you might think a punnet not bad, this out strips our returns from the whole of last season and hopefully is a good sign of things to come considering all the nurturing our lass has given the plants. Transporting all the runners from our old plot, weeding and now straw bedding with netting protection. Our rewards will be at least many fold the effort put in.

The only thing lacking was cream and as it was shops shut Sunday, I was a heathen and had them with custard, our lass will wait for some cream that we will buy today.

New potatoes that we had for tea from the bed above, our lass has now added chicken manure dug it over and transplanted the last of the cauliflower seedlings. Photographs to come. The new potatoes should just have been ready in 60 days, these were sown back on the 14th March and so have had nearly 90 days, also a lot of the soil was still very clayey it is going to take some time to get the soil as we want it. Free of detritus would be a start as we continual keep finding bits of glass and nails. One day the soil will be just right and that shouldn't be too far away.

Our break time view of the alliums in full flower attracting more than their fair share of hover flies.

More colour and hopefully by hanging them high they will be out of the way of the slugs.

As we say good night to the allotment we take a look back at the current growth we have, our next agenda is to get more flowers in for our lass.it is all far too green we need a bit of colour in our life.

Grand day down at the allotment.

 Well you wait a few weeks for a blog post and then you get two in one day. Bank holiday weekend and whilst you will see photographs of beaches being swollen with folks, we had our plot all to ourselves, we took a picnic and the hours flew by. The crowning glory to the day is that we finally saw a frog residing in the pond. It is all the little things which make life good.

A grand day to go to the allotment

The sunshine brought the alliums out to flower

Our lass put out the reserve sweetcorn, having bought some thinking the first lot might fail we now have two lots, but they have replaced a row of raspberry canes which were simply twigs.

All the seedlings in, now lets see if they will flower, I am sure our lasses creation will be a success

My one job, putting the shade netting on my greenhouse, now lets see if it stays on.

And finally, a frog in the wildlife pond.

Day 52 - Ha pea anniversary

 Today we celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary and where else would we be but down the allotment. Shame about the wind but at least we got some blue skies and sunshine. For a brief time the greenhouse hit the heady heights of twenty five degrees.

Not a lot is happening on the outside so we are concentrating on the inside. The five peas which have germinated have been transferred to a bucket and a plant pot my wife decorated for my present. Our lass did some tidying and I cleared the way to see if a couple of the tomato plants could make their way down to the green house.

When we got married nine years ago, I was sat outside our holiday cottage in shorts at 7am in the morning, today we needed thermals. So much for global warming.

I filled the pot with a pea, lets hope it is as ha pea as me for getting this gift.

The alliums are coming along nicely, and maybe just maybe we might get a daffodil burst into flower, we are also slowly working our way through the wood.

A magpie was trying to nibble the strawberries so our lass got creative with these tin cans.

Peas for the green house, hope the mice don't find them.

A balmy 25 degrees, can't wait for this to be the temperature in the outdoors.

A week nearer to spring time

It has been a slow week down the allotment, it has been cold with occasional snow showers. There is forever an urge to get things done, but the cold is holding things back and you just need the sun to shine down and release the energy. I am guessing in the future there won't be enough time for everything, but for now we wait. 

First signs of the alliums breaking through

Our lass bought us an early Valentines present

I put our lasses present straight into use, Aubergine, Leek and Tomato seeds hopefully will germinate.

Not quite the beast from the east, we will see what we get over the next few days.

The site of our next project, clear this corner and plant some dog wood roses.