A hard days work

Well I finally got to do some hard graft on the plot, and I am so glad I made the effort as it's now raining really hard I can hear it as I am typing this post. I am having a nice glass of red wine to chill out after all the work I did today. I got so carried away with the joys of spring that I didn't even have any lunch ( I forgot to take anything with me !) so I enjoyed the lamb casserole I made this evening.

I planted the broad beans and as you can see the roots were amazing in the 'root trainer' planters. If you haven't already tried growing in these I can recommend them, they are brilliant for anything that has deep roots, like the broad beans, sweet peas, runner, and french beans etc. I bought them a year or so ago and they wash up a treat and should last a long time, so well worth the initial cost.

I also planted the cabbages that were overwintered in the greenhouse, they look better than the ones planted out in the autumn. I have probably planted them too close together, but I can always pull some when they are small and leave the others to grow on.

I dug over a few beds after clearing away the brussel sprout plants that never really came to much this year. I only had a small picking of Purple Sprouting Broccoli and that was out of 5 big plants. They were ruined by the severe winter. I found about 8 parsnips still growing well, which was a nice surprise.

I also dug up the perpetual spinach. It looked like it was going to give off more leaves, but a neighbouring plot holder said she always digs hers up each year and grows fresh plants, and as she is a very good veg grower I decided to take her lead, so up they come and as I removed them white fly billowed out in their hundreds, so much for the cold winter.

I did a good 4 hours non stop and felt much better for it. It wasn't hard digging or anything, more gentle planting and tidying, so I didn't come home too tired.

Broad beans in the 'root trainers' that they were planted in from seed.

All planted up in the raised bed.

Fabulous Hellebore given to me last year from another plot holder


Garlic and leeks doing well



Cabbages, on the left planted last autumn, on the right over wintered in the greenhouse

And that's the end of my update, tired but happy and enjoying my glass of wine.

Reasons to be Cheerful !

There are lots of reasons to be cheerful, first of all, today was a glorious sunny day and secondly, spending time out in the open planting, and tending my allotment, (even though I now ache from the digging) was a wonderful way to spend a few hours on such a lovely day. And last of all, I harvested some purple sprouting broccoli, some baby spring cabbage leaves and lots of tasty leeks, so today I am very cheerful. Below is a selection of photo's taken today mainly and one or two at the weekend.

I would also like to say a thank you to everyone that takes the time to visit this blog and leaves a comment. I try to make time to visit back, even if it's not immediately, because I like to, not because I feel I have to ! as I always enjoy seeing what others are up to, and other times I just answer the comment on my blog. I wish I had more time to visit all the lovely blogs out there. It's amazing how many keen gardeners and veg growers there are and it's always great to pick up new tips.

The Dahlias as they were just starting out.(above)

This was taken today, my how they have grown.

This jolly chap was at the Easter egg hunt on Sunday, at the National Trust's "Hinton Ampner" house and gardens in Hampshire.

Snuggling with mummy, sheep on the "Hinton Ampner" estate, roaming freely among the visitors. so sweet !!!

Rosie has my old wellies, shame she can't help me dig !! she's a bit of a lazy girl really, sitting there day after day ! and she can't even scare pigeons !

Beautiful Pansies in a pot outside the lottie greenhouse, they survived the harsh winter and are blooming again, amazing !

The lottie greenhouse is getting rather full, I can hardly move in there !

And last of all, my tasty harvest from today. This makes all the hard work worthwhile !

Growing Leeks

This post is in response to comments from others who are thinking of trying to grow some leeks, so I hope it helps, and there is a link to read as well.

I have to say I have found leeks very easy to grow. They are very fiddley to prick out, imagine handling blades of grass & you have the picture. They also take a while to get to pencil thickness, which is when they are ready to plant out. I think the planting of them was the weirdest thing for me, you have to use a large dibber or a narrow trowel, make a hole and just drop the tiny leek into the hole, then fill the hole with water ( puddle in) and leave it. I just wanted to do what we usually do with anything we plant and that is to cover it around with soil, but you have to leave the soil to fill in gradually on it's own. This gives the leek room to swell. Also some people recommend earthing them up to give a longer white stem,(blanching) I didn't do this last year, but I am thinking about doing it this year to see what happens. I hope this doesn't put any of you off, as it's really worth all the effort, and once planted they are no bother at all. Here is a link for advice on growing: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/apr/05/13
and the best bit is yummy leek and potato soup.

Ok, So one little Ladybird doesn't mean it's Spring.

But ! I was so glad to see this little spotted creature on one of my pots today, it's the first I've seen this year. By the time I went to get the camera she was just disappearing over the edge.It was so mild today that I was gardening in a tee shirt, so lovely to be out doing something in the garden.

Yesterday I spent 2 hours on the allotment and dug over one of the leek beds ready to plant something else in it this year. The leeks were small but were very tasty in a soup for lunch today. I took all the dead and large leaves off the Purple sprouting broccoli, and weeded that bed and raised the netting so the pigeons couldn't eat it before I tasted it. It's taken a year but I love P.S.Broccoli, so I am sure it will be worth the wait.

I noticed in Tesco's that the baby brussel sprouts were on sale at £1.09p ( roughly the same amount as in my pic) and I have had many more bags this size and bigger, so that made me feel good, and the leeks are expensive to buy especially the baby size that I picked yesterday, so it really does save money to GYO.

This last photo is of a few pots on my kitchen windowsill, they look very pretty, so I thought I would share it.

Never trust "Mother Nature"

I went up to the Lottie today very briefly, mainly because I never got around to taking up the kitchen waste for the compost bins yesterday. I am so glad I went, because when I got up there I am sad to report that the winds had blown Rosie (my scarecrow) over. She was lying flat on her back in the mud. Oh I know it's only a scarecrow, but she has a real personality (honest! just look at her picture. back dated post ) anyway I took her clothes home and washed them and we ( my allotment assistant & I !!) will go up and sort her out as soon as the ground is less muddy. I think we will have to concrete her in.

The wind also blew the empty wheelbarrow onto one of my leek beds which flattened some leeks, AND blew the plastic tunnel off of the broad beans ( I think I have lost one or two) I came back home looking really put out, and needed a cup of tea ! Mother Nature really got one over on me today.

The case of the missing leeks

When I last visited my plot on Tuesday I noticed that some leeks were missing or maybe I was mistaken ? I didn't really know for sure. Anyway this evening my daughter Niki and her partner Paul came for dinner and in conversation she let slip that they had fancied making some leek and potato soup !!!! so had popped up to my plot ( they are working on their own plot, but it's early days) and STOLE some leeks, cheeky devils ! so if you two are reading this blog HANDS OF MY LEEKS !! I think I had better sow extra seeds for them this year.

I don't really mind though as they have some nice cauliflowers growing, so when I fancy some cauliflower cheese I may just ?????????? - love you Niki ! next time you want to do a "Peter Rabbit" can you pull up a few weeds as well please.

Hurrah ! at last some decent weather

The weather was so mild today it was like an early spring day. So we ( my allotment assistant-Austin came as well) took advantage of it and went up to the lottie for an hour or so.
As you can see by the photo I managed to dig over what was last years cabbage bed. The soil was fantastic, that frost really did the trick.

I also dug up about 7 leeks for tomorrows lunch of leek and potato soup. They were very muddy and needed lots of washing, not my favourite job as leeks are so hard to get clean.




I also dug the two raised beds and added some manure that I had delivered about three
months ago. I checked the broad beans (under the plastic tunnel) they seem to be OK but one or two looked a little fragile after the severe frosts we had last week. I will sow some more just in case they don't survive.

I am going to sow my onion seeds this week-end, I usually buy onion sets, but thought I would have a go at sowing from seed this year. It was so good to be doing something up there today and a couple of walkers going past stopped to chat which is always nice. Hopefully the weather will start to get better now and I can't wait for the lighter evenings.