Five and a half hours working on the plot

It was so hot today wasn't it ? too hot in fact to work on the allotment, but I needed to get on and get cracking if all the jobs were to be done.  I had some help though as the hubby decided to give me a hand with preparing the bed for the Globe Artichokes. I had twelve to plant in total, six from Victoriana nursery and six I had grown from seed. Stephen's leaflet that accompanied the plants when they arrived recommended 3ft apart but that was pushing my allotted space a bit, so they were planted a little under the 3ft, but they seem to have ample room.

They are all in now and look good. I only wish I had a better look at the artichoke bed at RHS Wisley last year, that way I would know how big they are going to look. I know they get to 6ft but I'm not sure just how bushy they grow. Here's a photo of the finished bed. We had to scout around for some old concrete walling to bank the bed up.  My plot is on a slope so to even it out we put the walling blocks in and then evened the soil against them. It then drops down a little to the two rows of asparagus, so all the permanent plants are in one area now. I am very pleased with my box hedge that runs along my boundary. I got them from Free-cycle last year as someone was digging up their hedge along their front garden. I didn't think they would re-plant as they had been dug up and left for a week or so before we collected them, but they have taken well.

 This photo is looking down the artichoke bed and as you can see in the foreground I have planted lot's of cutting that I grew of Box taken from one I had in the garden at home. They will take ages to get to the size of the others, but they are growing and looking healthy.

 This is a photo of the fruit area. The raspberries are just growing up through lots of lovely manure. I cut them right back as they are autumn fruiting. The strawberries are in the little raised bed and there is a red gooseberry, a green gooseberry, about four different varieties of  rhubarb, a blackcurrant and the newly planted Tayberry. oh and two little twigs ! that are blackberries given to me by a friend which have taken and are just showing good healthy signs of growth. 
PS. that scruffy looking plot that looks like 'Steptoe's' yard is a neighbouring plot on the other side of a shared path !!! just in case you clicked to enlarge the photo and think it's mine !!! ha ha

I have some lovely tulips growing just outside the greenhouse which are beautiful shades of deep pink and a lovely green. The wallflowers didn't do so well this year on the plot, but the ones at home did ! I can't wait to get all my cosmos, dahlias, marigold, zinnia's and cornflowers in the flower beds. I love to have lot's of flowers on the plot to look cheery and for cutting and of course for the bees.

Whilst preparing the bed today I found dozens of Borage plants growing, all self seeded, so I saved a half dozen to dot around the place and had to compost the rest. I also found lot's of the lovely sunflower plant-lets from the multi-headed  sunflower from last year I think it was called Royal Velvet,or Velvet queen ?? something like that.   It had lots of small heads in bronze, red, gold and russet colours and it isn't to tall either.

Hi Ya

It's been a while now so I thought I had better do a post. It's not that I haven't wanted to ! I just haven't felt up to it as I have been fighting off a cold or virus of some sort for almost a week. I coughed so much that my ribs hurt which in turn made me dread coughing. I caught it off Austin and he caught it off the little ones. I only hope that we didn't leave it behind on the Isle of Wight where we stayed with friends for 4 days ( Austin had it then) Anyway enough self pity it's on it's way now and today I felt much better, but it's left me feeling physically and mentally drained.


Luckily a lovely neighbouring plot holder and good friend has been opening and closing the greenhouse each day for me and watering when it needed it.

I cut our first cabbage of the year today and it was delicious. I sowed and planted them last autumn. They haven't hearted up yet, but we just fancied a cabbage so I cut them anyway, left a small cut cross on the stalks which will encourage some more little spurts of growth (hopefully) and there are lots more cabbages left for later on.

No photo's of the plot but there is a lot happening there. The mangetout are in and growing well. How they ever survived the really bad frost last night I will never understand as lots of people lost their beans (planted out too early) and most of us got our potatoes caught by it.

I have garlic doing well that has been in since the autumn, also some leeks getting bigger and more sown, the aforementioned cabbages, two types of beetroot, radishes, spinach, carrots, two types of parsnips all of these crops are showing through now Oh and some swedes these I have to confess to buying from Homebase reduced to 99p for 10 plants that looked like they wouldn't make it, but I love a challenge. They are all 10 doing well so far.

Little feathery fronds of Asparagus are just beginning to show and I noticed today that the gooseberries bushes, well the red one anyway is covered in tiny gooseberries (green at this stage !!)

I did take a few pic's in the garden this morning though.

These are tiny teeny gladioli that I planted from the little pipettes I found growing around the gladioli bulbs that I dug up to overwinter. I also left some bulbs in the ground and have noticed that they are coming up at last, but having these little new plants is the bonus of lifting some.

I know we had a cold winter, but amazingly these Mimulus survived in this same pot all through it. That has never happened before, they are usually a very tender annual, they should be flowering soon, so that's another bonus in the garden. The Violas did very well too.

These short and pretty Tulips have been brilliant, they have flowered for so long and survived the windy days and kept their petals. I love they way they have become wide and open almost like little peonies.

And here is my favourite, I will definitely grow these again every year and on the plot so I can have some to cut for indoors

I'm excited the sun is shining, i'm off to the lottie.

It's a perfect day today, sun, warmth, everything that's favourable for working on the plot. SO I'm off to put in the broad beans, check on the asparagus and dig a few beds.
Watch this space for an update this evening. I have been busy on rainy days too, check out my craft blog, the link is in the right hand column of the blog.

Ooohh I am so excited, seeds are up on the windowsills, I am going to have more cutting flowers galore this year, and I just did a garden inspection and tulip bulbs I bought last year are up, 'Red Orach' seeds collected from last years plants and scattered about last week have germinated. That means the earth is lovely and warm.