A busy time at the allotment

I've worked at the allotment for two days this week, and enjoyed every minute of it. The sun was shining, and I met with a good friend up there who also has a plot and we sat in the sunshine outside her shed (Oh the good life !!) and chatted and had a drink break, TRULY Allotment Heaven !!!

The Broad beans are doing well, but still covered for the moment as they were raised in the mini greenhouse and not planted direct. I had hardened them off for a couple of weeks, but a severe frost could still knock them back. I dug up a row of parsnips 'Hollow Crown'  the seeds were from Victoriana Nursery and they are so nice that I got the same again for this years planting.

I still have this row of parsnips to dig up a bit later on. I will probably have to blanch and freeze them as I will need that bed soon.

The Tayberry is doing well and looks like the fruit is starting to come which is exciting as this is the first year, although it was a good healthy potted specimen and a good size to boot. again from Victoriana Nursery.

There are so many ladybirds about on the allotment, so hopefully they and their young will keep the aphids down, it's wonderful to see so many.

My plot is beginning to look more alive and lovely and green again.  I have Calabraise, cabbages growing, and  purple Sprouting broccoli I actually got my first harvest from it last evening (at last) it's in for such a long time. I lost three plants out of the six I planted, but the remaining three don't look too bad. I am hoping to harvest for a couple of weeks to make up for the long wait.

I did manage to sow some carrots as well. I sowed two rows each of Early Nantes 2 and Nantes 5, not sure what the difference is ! we shall see ! Oh and the potatoes went in at last too,  all earlies.  I don't grow main crop any more as we don't eat that many potatoes, so its  just for the fun of digging some up for salads really.
SO lot's done and heaps more to do. I have a mixture of traditional veg beds and also raised beds on my plot and I must say the raised beds are so easy to dig over as the soil is lovely in them. But all beds are full of lovely fat worms this year more so than any other year. It must be the good manure I put on in the autumn.

Have a lovely weekend and don't forget to leave your comment on the post for the giveaway David Austin Roses book if you would like a chance to win it.

Teasing myself with photo's of what's to come !

We went up to the allotment today to check on the Tayberry which came from Stephen at Victoriana Nursery and I was excited to see that many buds have opened and little curly leaves are unfurling. It looks very healthy

There was gorgeous rhubarb up and lots more peeping out. I have to admit to being over the top with the rhubarb planting and have about 6 plants of different varieties, but my daughter is going to have a couple of plants on her plot as I really don't have the room for them as they get bigger.

The garlic is doing well, still a bit spindly but it was only planted in the autumn so has a while to fatten up yet. I have two varieties in one being 'Cristo' and the other is a french one that I can't remember off hand.

The purple sprouting broccoli is only just beginning to sprout, I do hope I get a good harvest as I love it.

And we still have some parsnips to harvest. I dug up a lot last week which is now in the garage awaiting to be made into curried parsnip soup Mmmmmm. I will need that bed soon so the rest will need to come up in the next week or so.

Here are the photo's  I have been teasing myself with ! I can't imagine the plot looking like this again, but I know it will with a bit of hard graft.  Oh I just can't wait, it look so full and lush.

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 !

A hard day at the lottie and photo's to prove it !

My lottie assistant and I worked hard today for about 5 hours. I dug the beds and added the horse poo and Austin knocked together some very simple small raised beds with some timber we had over from last year. The potato bed is now ready, I added some organic potato fertilizer and intend to get the spuds in by next week. I put a poly tunnel over the parsnip bed to warm the soil ready to plant them next week. Tomorrow I am going to dig the trench for my runner and french beans, which I will sow in April. I love to see the beds all freshly dug and raked over.

All the seedlings are coming on so well, I can't wait to get them into the ground as it's a pain having to look after so many.

The Freshly dug beds

Dahlia seedlings (I counted about 70) plus other plants as well

Purple sprouting broccoli ready to pick and eat at last!

Rain and Grey Skies

The sky is grey today and what's worse is that it's raining as well. I briefly went to the lottie yesterday, just to see if the snow had weighed down my netting on the purple sprouting broccoli, I thought it might have been crushed. But, it was fine, yeah!! still not ready yet though.

I have however lost most of the Broad bean plants that I put in the ground, I may have a couple that might survive. SO lucky I planted 20 more and here is a photo of them below, they are looking good.

I have potted on some of my tomato plants, I have as I suspected, grown far too many, but that happened last year and it felt nice sharing them around the allotment.

I went to a potato weekend at my local Wyevale garden centre and bought just 5 of "Nicola" just being sentimental really as that's my daughters name, Ive no idea what the potatoes are like (anyone else grown them ????) and I bought "Swift" and "Desiree" both recommended by a

plot-holder called Bill who has a fantastic yield with his, so I know I can't go wrong if Bill grows them. All the potatoes are now Chitting (see photo)

Whilst at the Garden centre, I couldn't resist buying a nice sort of "Folk Art" garden sign for hanging in my Lilac tree near my Summerhouse.

So another day with nothing to do at the lottie, so Austin & I are off to the cinema to see "Slumdog Millionaire" it did very well at the Bafta awards yesterday.

An allotment post at last !

I finally made it to the allotment today, it's been almost a week, and I only managed to stay for about 20 minutes. It is so cold and my hands were frozen, I hate not being able to do anything up there.

My allotment neighbour was there cutting back his fruit bushes, he mainly grows fruit of all kinds and has now got asparagus growing which he had earthed up today. He doesn't grow any other vegetables at all.

Apart from him and myself the only other life up there were the allotment Chickens, I went over to take a photo of them and they thought I had food and were making a rare old fuss and noise. I was sorry to disappoint them, but they sadly don't belong to me (I wish) so they would have to wait until their owner came to feed them.

I checked on the sweet-peas and the garlic in the greenhouse, some of the sweet-peas looked a little droopy, but I am sure they will buck up. The garlic is doing well and the ground planted bulbs have grown a lot since last week. Since I cut the heads off the brussel plants the sprouts are growing much bigger, perhaps I should have done that before. The purple sprouting broccoli isn't quite ready to be picked yet maybe at the end of February? I think I read somewhere that taking the tops off helps the side of the stems to sprout quicker, I must look into that ! does anyone out there know anything about this ?

A deserted allotment- this is taken from the main

gate entrance, my plot is way down the end of

the field and then right, so a bit of a walk !

Still Harvesting

Purple sprouting broccoli (above)

Brussel Sprouts (above) wallflowers (below)

Today was the first visit to the lottie in a week. The sweet-peas are growing strong in the greenhouse. The garlic looks very sturdy and I should be able to get it planted out soon. I planted the garlic in individual sections, so it will be easy to plant out with little or no disturbance. The ones that I planted straight into the ground are also doing very well.

I cut the tops off the brussel sprouts, they are like little cabbages and are very tasty, some will be going in a soup with the leeks I dug up. The remaining brussels will get bigger now the tops are off the plants, and I will probably have harvested them all by mid February, I can then dig that bed ready for my beans.

As you can see in the photo my purple sprouting broccoli is just beginning to show some purple sprouts, I can't wait to harvest that as it's a favourite veg and so expensive to buy.

The photo at the bottom shows my wallflowers which have grown so big, they are going to look and smell wonderful. I think it's because they are protected from the weather in their bed by the greenhouse, as I lost some that were planted in pots.

As you can see in the bottom photo I still have lots of leeks to harvest, I need to get some more sown soon.