Day 55 - Making teepeas and counting crows.

We may have mentioned before that you go to the allotment with one job in mind and end up doing something else, as I keep saying to our lass though, I don't have plans just thoughts. Todays thoughts was to sort the compost as it was quite moist. Our lass had a great idea of adding the dried up lavender we had from home to the compost, it was a win win, the bed in front of the house is now clear and we have some dry material for the compost. So this was the plan of action for the day.

But this morning whilst sorting the bin full off lavender cuttings to put in the back of the car, I noticed the branches from some trees we had cut down and thought they would be useful. The thoughts then just kept on rolling, whilst the peas had been safe from the mice in their compostable pots, they were not growing well as the pots were not deep enough for the roots. Peas also don't like being moved, much the same as I have done with the tomatoes the other day making sure of as few a moves as possible I am trying to do the same with the peas and have direct sown the peas into the bed. We will see in the coming days if the mice have loved our idea as well. Whilst sowing the peas there was a great gathering of crows assembling in the large oak tree at the back of the allotment, our lass gave commentary "Oh look he is planting the peas we will come for them" It really did give the impression of word was going out amongst the wildlife.

Our lass as always was busy and you will see from the photograph below that the final bed is being prepared, the ground is quite clayey and water logged. So our lass had been busy mixing compost and grit to enrich the soil for more produce to be sown. Now we have to find what will go there, as we do have a plan, but as with all plans they are changeable.

Been a while since I have taken a photograph from the front of the allotment. Just weeks away from take off into Spring.

Our lasses freshly prepared bed, the planks have been really useful for dividing and walkways

Before

Not its best angle, but hopefully will do its job, tin cans to scare the birds or will give the mice a toy to play with.

Compost looking the right colour just needs to be a little less moist.

Day 54 - For our babies

 I am aware that the Simply Red song is "For your babies" but this is our allotment and these are our babies. It was something our lass said as we were leaving last night from the allotment "night, night babies". Which got me to thinking, 1) How much I love our lass and how much she cares about everything 2) What we are growing does receive emotional investment into them. Much like babies.

"I don't believe in many things but in you, I do." is another line from the song, and although maybe I give our lass good reason to find this difficult to believe I do believe in her and her ways. This is even when I might seem as though I am off marathon running in my head.

Yesterday was a pottering day, our lass was potting out more of the lettuces, giving them their own space

Our Top Tip, (top tip number #1 is always take lots of photographs.) But another top tip is it may well say on the seed packet that you can sow direct into the ground then thin them out. But in all honesty are you ever going to do that? You then have the struggle of sifting weeds from seeds, unless you have a really keen eye or knowledge of every weed vs seed leaf shape it is all a great faff. Last year our lass didn't have a green house, we didn't have a lot of room, so directly sowed into a drill. The lettuces came through, but so did the weeds, they were lots of lettuces close together. So they then bunched up and started to rot, it is all a lot simpler, if you can sow them into a tray, then prick out. You can put them into pots as our lass has done, or wait until they are bigger and plant them individually. But, I would suggest keep away from just sowing in to drills.

Our lass has also been busy sowing flowers seeds around the allotment, now with these it is okay to sow freely as we do just want them to flower where they are going to land. The main focus will be, will they grow and what will it all look like. I am forever the optimist and I am sure it will all look grand.

My two little jobs were planting the tomato plants in between the onions in their final growing space. I know folks keep potting on and on, but to me, like ourselves if you are comfy and laying down roots, surely you don't want uplifting and being unsettled every few weeks. So one move from small plug to bigger tub for those that germinated and now a move to the final growing place. The green house has warmed up so I think it might just be about time, I do have some in reserve in case this all goes wrong. Job number two was knocking together a stool, we will see how long it lasts with my weight upon it.

These are very lucky lettuces as they have a pot all to themselves.

A stool, it is as safe as it looks.

First of the tomatoes planted, and it may look like a seen from the Wild West where they are being hung for their crimes, but the string is there to support them in the future.

View of the other two tomatoes from a seated position.

Could be argued one of our favourite parts of the allotment. break time.

Day 53 - Warmer, warmer, nearly there.

Patience is a virtue they say and having just tried to google how many virtues and what were the other virtues it seems there is as many answers about virtue/virtues as there is when you want to know how to plant something down the allotment. But our patience may soon be rewarded if todays sunshine is anything to go by, in between the occasional cloud we were bathed in warming rays of sun.

Our lass is busy with the seedlings, lots more to be sown but the first lettuces have been potted on as you will see below. It is a blessing to have the room to prick on unlike last year when our lass just did one long row in the ground. I am sure we will run out of room soon enough but it will be good fun filling the spaces with all the flowers and vegetables. We also have more seed trays washed and ready to be used.

Today was a watering day in my green house and after a bit of pottering made a table for our lass, lessons learnt from the bench, the legs didn't fall off this time when lifted and although not rock steady it did take our lass sitting on it. It was considered unwise for me to stress test the table.

The lettuces final home, I would say they were socially distanced enough to grow well.

Just one side of our lasses busy seedling production line

T'other side starting to fill up as well

A table to go with our bench

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.

Squirrel caught on the wildlife camera down the allotment

 It can be a pain trying to transfer photographs from one medium to another, so where as I would normally put the photograph directly onto the blog it was easier to embed the tweet, also the photographs expand larger from the tweet than they do on here.

Anyway, enough of my waffle, here is the squirrel, we had a few days earlier seen it leaping from branch to branch, rattling the whole undergrowth as it bounded along. But now we have it captured on film.

From our wildlife camera from down #OurAllotment

Squirrel pic.twitter.com/IVtRWvPgVa

— Our Allotment (@OurAllotment) March 9, 2021

Day 51 - If weeds can grow, so can potatoes.

Today the weather has been less than favourable. Windy, rainy, turbulent conditions, then a sudden calm. It was during this calm today that we planted our first early potatoes. They were Maris Bard and Swift, now I say we planted them, it was my choice as our lass has been saying to hold on, but the chitting room was not as cold as I thought it would be and my worry now is that they were starting to wither. I separated the chitted from the non chitted as we got two bags of each variety and I was going to see how they compared (chitted to the right non chitted to the left of each divided bed), but the potatoes stored in the dark cooler garage grew white spaghetti type tubers, so I thought the ground was the best place for them. As stated in the header, "If weeds can grow, so can potatoes" and the weeds seem to be starting to push their way back out of the soil again, so why not the potatoes. The first earlies should be ready in 60 days, then we will see if it worked out alright.

We did happen to have a few spare of each variety of potatoes, so I put the spare into buckets and will grow them in the green house, this again as with many things was not planned, it was barely a thought. But it might be a serendipitous action as it may well be the only first early potatoes we may get if the others fail due to my haste.

The Wooden markers (headstones) for the potatoes have been put at the fence side to save us falling or tripping on them, not the best photograph as this was a rare moment of sunshine so was taken quickly

Not quite chicken in a basket but potatoes in a bucket, this could be the whole of the first earlies harvest if it all goes horribly wrong, always best to have a back up, and nets which the potatoes came in tied to the handle so I can identify the survivors.

Day 50 - Half way there

 Day 50, and I am sure I have clarified this before, but days are the days we have worked and pottered not simply days of having the allotment.

Another thing I have written as advice is that you need to take lots of photographs, it helps for when you are in the middle of it all, simply awaiting for your work to be fruitful so that you can actually see where you have come from compared to where you currently are. One great example of this is our lasses greenhouse, today a hive of activity for new seedlings but as you will see from the photographs below it has had a big change from where it was originally when we took it over.

We have a wheelbarrow with a new wheel which is always useful.

The potato beds for the first earlies, has been done early. I must concede that yet again our lass is, as always right and the rest of the potato bed is simply not ready (too wet), although I am as ever impatiently wanting it to be.

Our lass forever the busy little bear, has been busy with some log roll which we had, to make an edging which means flowers can be planted along side the vegetables and it also keeps the soil in.

And finally, our neighbour offered us a fennel plant, can't say it is something we would have chosen ourselves, but I like the sound of the aniseed and it reportedly has great flowers which I thought our lass would enjoy, we will keep you posted.

Our lasses green house which we took over

The hive of activity it is today

We had no choice with the colour but it is a very cheery one.

two beds are ready for the first earlies, but will the weather allow this tomorrow is another question.

Our lass reused some log roll, with wooden pole supports, makes a defined edge for some flowers.

fennel from our neighbour, I like aniseed our lass likes flowers could be good.

Day 49 - Everything is fit to burst

It seems we are now only a short time away from spring bursting out all over. We have everything just about ready, seedlings are coming along, potatoes chitting, seed packets lined up to be sown, we just need the warmer weather. At the end of today we had the glimpse of what I described to our lass as a late evening sun, it felt like eight in the evening in the summer but it was actually three thirty in the afternoon. With the clocks moving forward and the longer days coming ever closer this will remedy all our angst of lets get on with it. But you do feel as though you are awaiting the starting pistol, which won't have made a noise but instead burst open a daffodil flower or pear/apple tree blossom.

Today our lass had not only been busy mixing in compost and grit to help the soil to drain in some of the beds, our lass also removed the leaves from a bed and put them into our bench planter, forked and hoed the beds, but also came up with a great idea for the onion sets I had left over. "Why not plant them with the tomatoes?" Our lass said, A quick google search found that tomatoes and onions work well as companions with the onions odour hopefully repelling pest that like tomatoes. We will report back through the year, but it could be an interesting experiment.

Our bench planter, just needing some compost in the planting side. But looks as though it will be a good spot for the end of day sunshine.

Strawberry bed hoed and weeded

One of several beds attended to by our lass, with compost and grit to help improve drainage

Carrot bed now topped up and ready for seed.

The tomato plant will go in the middle of the four onions.

Onions the grandkids planted, now has a net over to stop the birds being confused with the shoots.

One wheel short of a wheel barrow, advice for anyone, if you choose a wheel barrow get one with a solid tyre, ours has got a puncture so having to seek a replacement wheel.

Tomatoes and aubergines coming along nicely.

Day 48 - Nanna and Grang-grads little helpers.

 Today was a grand day or as the grandkids might say grang, which makes me grang grad. It has been nearly six months since we have last seen the grand kids and although we could have wished for warmer weather we were greeted with warm hearts.

Onion sets were sowed, cauliflower / beetroot seeds put out in to trays, and the planks put to full use as a circuit for the kids to walk around. It is amazing how you can gain a childs interest in allotmenteering when you give them a small hand shovel and a home made watering can.

We have already received messages back having been asked by the grandkids if anything has grown yet, I concur with such impatience.

Very willing helpers to fill the barrow

Happy preparing the seed trays

Day 47 - We gotta have faith, faith, faith.

One thing our lass has been able to slowly but surely instil in me is a modicum of faith in myself. Yesterday a bench, today some planters from old tongue and groove. Before I would never have had the self belief but with the help of our lass, who knows what I could build next.

This faith, is also faith in that everything is going to grow. Our lass is currently disheartened by the performance of germinating seeds, currently around three have germinated in a whole tray, the argument seems to be, "Why not just go and buy the plants?" Which to be honest the same could be said about the fruit and vegetables we are growing. This could never be classed as a money saving exercise, but as a certain credit card would suggest "Some things are priceless".

Our lass potted on some lavender cuttings and in the Carol Klein style of gardening covered them in grit.

Three new planters for the front of the allotment, if anyone decides to nick them they are in for a surprise, as they have no bottoms....

Todays new work bench, the top of the compost bin.

Camera on a stick, see how the angle change affects the photographs

Onion bed being prepared

all the tubs ready and filled in the green house, just the buckets for the peppers.

Bench made safe by securing it to the flower bed

Day 46 - A chill wind is the benchmark

 Today down the allotment we barely got past four degrees but it felt so much colder, now having been up their in the snow, it seemed strange that today should affect us so much. Maybe it was the contrast of the warm sun of Sunday that hit us for six today.

We are also struggling with wanting to crack on and get planting yet this just seems another delay. I feel very much like a young child looking at all the presents under the Christmas tree with a week still to go and feeling as though it is an eternity away.

Our lass, I think judging my mood better than I judge my own let me do a folly of putting the scaffolding planks out on the potato bed, my autistic side wants order and it is a perfect way of dividing the six varieties we will have whilst hopefully ensuring I only walk on one particular part of the bed when hoeing. I had hoped the soil would be nearly ready, but it is at least one full dig over away.

So whilst our lass set away some more seeds, I got onto building a bench/table, having just come from one disappointment I seemed to rattle into another which climaxed with the leg falling off. Team work though meant we got this sorted and as you will see in the final photograph we have an end product sturdy enough to take my mighty frame. Then we will see in the future if that created any cracks.

Perspective doesn't help but they are equally spaced, but this is the general idea.

The chairs make a great work bench

We have all the parts cut roughly to size

Our finished bench, with a big thank you to our lass.

Day 45 - Women work 6 times harder than men

I am feeling much like your mobile phone does once you have owned it for a few years, remember when you first charged your phone it would last all day and a bit into the next, possibly two days if not used much. But then you get to the point that you can have your mobile fully charged first thing and it be nearly out of juice just after lunch. This is me just lately, our lass says that I am one of the non duracell bunnies. 

Why do I mention this, well, today I finally got around to doing the job I had been thinking about for a while, which was sorting the compost, moving it from one bin to another whilst adding some from the manure pile to make sure that is rotting down well, as well, once that was done I would make a few trips to add to the manure pile. I only did half a job and that was helped at the end by our lass. The compost though is finally, finely mulched, as the large roots and stalks had still been rotting down so today with loppers available broke them down smaller.

In this time though, our lass had dug over the potato bed, dug over the bed by the front fence, replaced an edging plank (I did bring the plank down though ;o), removed pansies from the front, put some slate down out front and sorted some seeds in her green house.

Before going to the allotment I did sort some seedlings out at home, but as our lass pointed out, I could have waited till in the week, as all I really managed to do was get in the way and the stuff is still set out on the dining room table. I do have a use, it is still to be quantified.

Aubergine and tomato seedlings potted on

The scene of my one job

Potato bed, fence bed dug by our lass and new plank

Last bit of slate sorted

Am sat in the shed looking out, our lass was off doing more jobs.