First it was frozen, then it snowed, then the bitter winds blew. This week we eventually had a few days of sunshine but I was at work! Now today they finally forecast some reasonable temperatures but it's going to rain....and rain......and rain.......in fact it's peeing down now - and I have the day off!!!! >:(
Rant over. :-\
Don't rant - we need it, frustrating though it may be!
Were desperate for rain in Sussex Amanda. The water authorities are seeking drought orders this week, it will mean no using any water on allotments while the measures are in force (possibly all summer).
I know, I know. Sorry for being selfish - we need water here too - but it is just sooooooo frustrating for a newbie who is full of dampened enthusiasm!
John, you've given me an idea, going to search through the threads here for tips on water collection on lotties e.g. from sheds and for those without! So sorry amanda, are you going to make seed tapes indoors then? :)
SS - good idea for the seed tapes - I've run out of windowsill space to plant anything else! I'm without a shed also at the moment and our allotments don't have any water facilities - my dad found me an old waterbutt in a ditch at the end of his allotment but I haven't got it yet. I suppose it will catch some without a roof to run off but I am hoping for shed for my birthday later in the year (I can't believe I'm saying that!! ).
One of the lay-dees here said she getting a trailer load of manure for Mother's Day :o :o :o
Am VERY jealous! ;D
Well the rain has stopped in Essex. Wanted to get to the plot, but instead am sowing seeds! ;D
Quite happy to have some rain for a few days with the warmer weather. Make a start filling the butts up to cope with the coming summer.
Any bets on floods rather than drought ::)
I'm at the other end of the scale. So much rain that the soil turns to slime if it is stood on. The couch grass is getting away again. >:( I need a few drier days but it is raining again.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for those without rain and hope you get some very soon. Honestly I would share mine out if I could.
Metcheck says it will have stopped by 3, Amanda. Still time!
please can I have a rant about the weather!!! I know that we need the rain, but why oh why does it always rain when we a long weekend off duty. I t rained yesterday, and all last night here in Somerset, this morning we put up the wires for the raspberries, and put in a row of peas under a cloche, then it rained again!!!Have just been out with the dogs, and guess what, I got wet again!!! Am now going to sit down with a large glass of wine ;) ;) ;)
I know what you mean; it was a lovely sunny morning here, when I was in town, and it would rain this afternoon when I got to the plot. Typical! I was feeling like a wet dishrag anyway, but that ensured that very little got done. I did manage to get a few flowers planted though.
:) I'm happy to say this morning was beautiful here and I managed a couple of hours at the plot. I would have liked to have stayed longer but a visit to my mother-in-law beckoned. In fact it clouded over just after I went and eventually it rained. It's raining now so mother nature managed to keep us all happy today! ;D
Well, this morning, while RB was in Brum, I was home cutting and edging my lawns - for the 2nd time this year 8)......then I washed out the greenhouse and moved 2 trays of assorted tomatoes and chillies which I'd potted on into it - 30 plants in all 8). And then it rained. And then I fell over in the mud. But I had a GREAT time ;D ;D ;D
It can be fun if you're feeling up to it! We'll see how it goes today; once again a nice sunny day beckons, but I'll be tied up all morning so it depends on the afternoon weather. I really want to finish planting my onions.
dry here this morning, but the lottie is like a bog. Barrie has been and bagged up 20 bags of free manure, then ran out of bags. I got bored and decided to colour my hair,its now a lovely shade of RED!!! dare I go out for lunch! why do I do these things ??? ???
Cookie - sounds great - you should certainly go and show it off at lunch!
Bright here first thing although clouding up a bit now. Managed to squeeze in half and hour at the plot in between taking daughter no. 1 to work and picking up daughter no. 2 from sleepover. Sowed a 1/2 row of radish (french breakfast), 1/2 row of Lettuce (little gem) and 1/2 row of lettuce leaves (niche oriental). Put a cloche over the lettuces - not so much because we are due frosts - in fact it is quite warm at the moment - but more because we are due very heavy rain later and I didn't want those teeny tiny seeds to wash away!! Oh that and it's my first cloche and I was desperate to use it somewhere! :)
You could even imagine it's spring here. ::)
This weekend: sunny mornings, pants weather in the afternoons. Can't get down to the lottie due to 6-day-work-week and current inability to bend or use back for what nature intended.
Today:
R
A
I
N
OH told me yesterday that the pile of "mess that offends him the most" was my colection of plastic milk/pop bottles in readiness for mini-cloches and that the kitchen floor/lounge floor (we have victorian 2" deep window sills) is covered with propagating trays. He'll eat his words with the harvest...
Hoping to get the sprouting flowers (where are my bl**dy veg!!!) out in the mini-plastic greenhouse tonight and have just read we're due another cold snap! WILL IT EVER END!!
Getting really narked now!! :)
don't mind rain today as I am at work and it is watering in all the stuff I got planted yesterday morning.
Manuel is always complaining about my pile of "useful" things I am going to recycle one day too.
I use the ledge above his desk in his office for all my propogators, is our only south facing ledge (all the other windows don't have one) but think he secretly likes them being there and he always waters them for me when he is meant to be working.
My worry right now it the wife vociferously objecting to seed trays sprouting on the windowsills. why can't I put them in the allotment shed? Isn't it warm enough in there? She'll appreciate the veg when it's ripe though, as I'm growing, or trying to grow, all the stuff she likes cooking with.
Quote from: supersprout on March 24, 2006, 09:16:08
One of the lay-dees here said she getting a trailer load of manure for Mother's Day :o :o :o
Am VERY jealous! ;D
Twas me....AND the daughter helped barrow it up to the lottie AND then spread it evenly for me........oh joy!
>:(
Annoyed????? Oh yeah.....one word......
RAIN
>:(
now windy here! Had to rescue my new cloche last night it was gusting so strong!
Quote from: Emagggie on March 27, 2006, 23:20:44
Quote from: supersprout on March 24, 2006, 09:16:08
One of the lay-dees here said she getting a trailer load of manure for Mother's Day :o :o :o
Am VERY jealous! ;D
Twas me....AND the daughter helped barrow it up to the lottie AND then spread it evenly for me........oh joy!
I'm filling up here emagggie, awwwww! ;) ::) :D
Quote from: supersprout on March 24, 2006, 09:16:08
One of the lay-dees here said she getting a trailer load of manure for Mother's Day :o :o :o
Am VERY jealous! ;D
My boyfriend tried to get me some for Valentine's Day. I'm not sure whether to worry or not!
(But the farm was closed so I got some a month later as a belated present instead.)
But yes, plenty of rain here lately.. Wish I could try out Gardening by the Moon, but Gardening by the Weather seems more a priority at the moment!
Melanie
Now I;m really, really annoyed!!!!! Not content with having three days off, and it rained everyday, I have now succombed to the lurgy that is doing the rounds locally.Spent yeserday in bed feeling very sorry for myself, couldn;t go in to work today(40 oldies with the bug ,doesn;t bear thinking about), so have done the job I hate the most!!! THE DUSTING. Will be glad when I can get the spuds planted though, as theyare chitting under our bed, then Ican do the other dreaded thing, THE HOOVERING.
Oh no! Get well soon!
..and you could always avoid dusting/hoovering by sowing a few seeds instead. :D
Melanie
Ewww cookie, good idea to stay away from the battlefield! If you're looking for easy indoor gardening projects whilst you're under the weather, what about making seed tapes? It works for me!
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,57/topic,5605.0
Hope you feel better soon :D :D :D
O.K. Supersprout, it was a cr-p present....... (literally), but I loved it,she loves me (she needs money), and I know you are insanely jealous.
I hadn't even given chocolate a thought untill a passing alotment digger asked if I wouldn't rather have had some. Oh I would, I would.
M x
OH and son no 2 have now got used to the red hair! have today gone even more mad, and have had hair cut short and spiky!!! One of my residents said that I looked like a pixie, I think she meant well. Still really annoyed about the weather, yet more rain in Somerset :( :(
Red AND spiky, wow Cookie, you devil !!
Sorts the problem of hair getting in a mess when out down the lotty in gale force winds. It beautiful in the Midlands today, Sunny but very windy, Strong gusts - I hope the geenhouse stands upto it ???
Didnt realise I could pass bugs down the phone. Hope you feel better soon. Good advice on sowing seeds. Planted loads myself these last two weeks at home. have now run out of windowsills! >:(
full of cold myself today and have come home from work early.....wind is still blowing here but sun is shining....at the moment. Start of the Easter break for me so hoping for 2 weeks of gardening weather..... :-\
Sunny but too blowy here to risk seeding directly in the ground - and risking my Poundland cloches presenting themselves in the garden of No 84 down the road :o
All plantlets in the greenhouse going great guns now tho - beautifully toasty in there this morning :D
Beautiful day in the Midlands as you say, and I was stuck in school dealing with a Year 10 who I was warned against by three members of staff. He was truly dreadful, but I got him sorted out in the end.
Sorry, this is OT, but Robert what do you teach? I teach German, French and Spanish in Edinburgh's most deprived area and I just love it!!! Albeit sometimes demanding! ;) ;)
Hi Robert, Its a real pain isnt it, :-[being stuck in when the weather is beautiful and all you can think of is how great it would be getting grubby and an aching back down the lotty :) I teach (sessional) health and social care to get my hours in for ITT (2nd part) Where abouts in Birmingham are you?
Maybe some digging would have taken the wind out of your year 10,s sails!
ain't it typical amanda, get a snuffle for your hols! hope the blustery weather blows the bugs away. Envy you two weeks of frolics on the plot, looks like your timing was spot on ;D ;D ;D
I'm an RE teacher, but I'm doing supply at the moment, which means I can get landed with anything. I live in central Birmingham (Ladywood), but I go all over.
Hey you are really close (geographically speaking :)) So where is your allotment?
That must be a bit of a tightrope Robert in multicultural Birmingham? ???
Doesn't worry me; we've got two continents and two religions in my immediate family, and three continents represented at church. My plot's on the Guinea Gardens behind the Botanical Gardens. Where's yours?
I'm in Edinburgh I think Ann Hunter is nearer you
Yes. Not too far from Ladywood, I used to work from the health centre opposite St Johns Primary ( ??? I think that was its name) Didnt realise there were allotments behind the botanical gardens :o
I know where you were, if that's St. John's in St. Vincent St. West. I go to the Methodist church on the corner there.
yes ;D ;D thats the one. Happy days
When I was 10 - I walked from Broad Street to the Botanical Gardens - on my own - offered a banana to a monkey - monkey didn't like banana so bit the end off my finger.
Had to walk all the way back home, holding the tip of my finger on.
I was 'told off'!!!
Nowadays they'd make a terrible fuss and you'd have to spend the rest of the day in the A&E. Things were a bit saner back then.
Ah back then your parents made a terrible fuss about how naughty you were: now the state does it.