Courgettes

Planted out my courgettes, pumpkins and sweetcorn.

Although you may feel like you are alone at the allotment there is always someone watching... Which is why I put them under nettting. Watch and salivate pigeon.

The birds

Last week Mary came to tell me that there was an unusual bird in the garden. It turned out to be a Jay. Yesterday the woodpecker visited us three times but I didn't' manage to get a picture of him because he kept being chased away by two magpies. I got a picture of the robin and its baby who have been visiting instead. Hopefully the woodpecker will come back again.

Kids Cress

The children have harvested their cress. They planted it in the shape of their initials 'M' for Mary and 'S' for Sam. They get a lot more out of the allotment when they can start picking and eating things. Sam had been picking at the sorrel and Mary made a salad out of the lettuce and chives. The broad bean tips didn't go into the salad because there were too many icky bugs feasting on them. Things are starting to look good but I'm not sure what to do with my asparagus now. The birds seem to have stripped most of it down. As you aren't meant to pick it for a couple of years I don't know if it will come back again next year now or if I should just start again.

Strange Pipe

I haven't done very well at growing brassicas but the flowers are looking nice.
We discovered a hosepipe round the back of the patch. It seemed very strange that it should be there if there was no purpose to it. After being envious at other peoples irrigation systems and close proximity to water we had accepted that ours was a little further to walk but we could live with it. We followed the pipe around the patch where it disapeared into the bushes. We walked round the perimeter of the hedge where the hosepipe seemed to appear and dissapear as we walked along. Where the hedge stops for the path and gate the pipe dissapeared under the ground and popped out from the other side and then dissapeared back into the hedge again.

It went all the way down here inside the hedge and then dissapeared under the grass to reappear at the water tap.

This is the journey back after the gate where it goes all the way down here and takes a right at the bottom past next doors plot and onto ours.

We stuck a connector on and turned on the tap to see what happened and were rather chuffed to see that we had water on tap! No more long trudges back in the heat of summer with heavy watering cans when the water butt has run out. Fantastic!

Brassica brassica why won't you grow?

I planted some broccoli, kale and cauliflower in the greenhouse. It grew and then it wilted and and died. I planted some inside and it died. I put some outside in pots and something ate it. I planted the seeds in the ground and it grew and then the slugs ate it. My lovely asparagus looks like it has been eaten as well. I will not be beaten, I have tried again but my seeds don't look happy. Last year I had too much of the stuff and this year I can't grow it. Not a happy woman!

What a Feast!

This may not look like much but it is the first crop of the year. Eaten tonight for dinner. Why do lettuces take so long to grow? I think because I have been told they grow quickly that it feels like forever before they are ready. Lots more waiting to grow. Four radishes between four people isn't exactly a feast but it is hopefully a taste of whats to come...

Springing to Life

Things are starting to spring into life. My climbers have started doing their thing but I am too impatient I want them all over the fence. Climb climb climb! This clematis is an evergreen variety so should add interest all year. It is supposed to fill the air with a beautiful fragrance but I can't smell anything. Oh well it looks nice. The honeysuckle I took from a cutting has now reached the top of the fence which isn't bad but it has taken 2 years to get there. Maybe I will get some flowers from it this year. Planted a wisteria called prolific although in a month it has only grown about an inch, not very prolific so far.

Have managed to run out of compost for my seeds so must have been planting a frenzy. I put my runner bean and peas plants out onto the allotment, probably a bit too early but they were getting big so I thought I'd chance it. I added some of our wormy manure to the holes before I put them in. Lets hope they like it. At least they have had plenty of rain this week. Something has been nibbling my broad bean plants, the evil creature has nibbled round the edges of all the leaves. The terrible beasts. Could this be someone sabotaging the plants perhaps? A certain person who hates broad beans? Or is it an actual bug? Who could have done such a thing? There is a bean hater in our midst and I have my eye on them... There are a few flowers on the plants but they look too small to pinch out the tops yet, might have to do it anyway.

Planted up some baby corn and transferred by tomatoes and chilli's to grow bags. Hope to improve on the huge crop of 3 chilli's that we got last year.

The pumpkin and cucumbers need re potting but I can't until I get some more compost. The poor trapped things are crying out to me. Must get to the shops...