Allotments 4 All

Massive day today - 8 hours digging deep, removing all perennial and bad weeds and levelling. Then laying fabric and planted half the strawberries..   My back is aching now..

popped in to drop some goodies off. ;D

quickly watered in the greenhouse,and watered my rhubarb and strawberries as the grounds so dry

Planted out my Charlottes
Sowed 1/2 a row of peas
Mixed some home compost into the daleks
:D

Planted Kestrels and helped my new next door plot holders chip the adoining path.   ;D

transplanted 160 french marigolds, tied in 24 buckets of sweet peas and sat down and had a laugh with our mates over a cuppa, really enjoying this weather  ;D

Treated loads of wood for making raised beds with, put new water butt in situ, had a brew, met next door neighbour for first time and the lovely chap gave us a greenhouse!!!!! Excellent day :)

Hubbie still ill, But Harriet and I have shaken this bug off. So today i have cleaned the bottom of the house when Harriet was down for her nap popped out and did the shopping while Hubbie looked after her. And when i got back she was still asleep so i have filled up more trays with compost and left to warm in the sun. Hoping tomorrow i can get lots of things sown while Harriet is asleep. All her garden toys need to come out tomorrow as well and be cleaned fingers crossed she will be up for going out on tuesday for some play time :)

Discovered some nettled have appeared in one of my beds which i had tried to both dig up and treat with round up last year but its come back :( Any ideas :(

Dropped in after work with some horse manure,some fresh and some well rotted

Fresh can be mixed in the courgette bed,rotted mixed in the onion bed.

Going to bring as much manure as possible and get a good stash as i may not be able to aquire it in the near future  :(

Watered the greenhouse stuff,was going to chuck the spuds in but was tired from work so will wait untill tomorrow.

Happy with the way the allotment looks and the stage im at with this years growing,build my herb raised bed this week and il be a happy man  ;D

Put in a new path on second fruit bed and weeded, no rain bone dry but the weeds still grow  ::). Gave a plot neighbour a hand drilling and bolting his new gate in place.

Got a few bits and bobs sown in the GH in modules, and then after a break to do some electrical work adn plastering in my shed at home I nipped up the plot and managed to get a fair dent on the digging of plot 2 done.... sooo much easier this year compared to last... not much weed adn what there is has soft soil round its roots that shakes off easily....

Finished planting the strawberries. Prepared the potato patch with manure and potato fertilizer.. Dug and planted 3 rows. Watered all the plantings so far. Strawberries, onions, broad beans, garlic, compost heap and raspberries.

Planted about another 300 onion sets!

Judy and I had a busy day,trimming ,titivating,seeding and planting.

We have 2 very large Lavender Bushes that needed attention so Jude got busy with that whilst I got the
Rotovator out to do the last row of spuds.
Pink fur apples were submerged under equal amounts of well rotted manured earth and some of last years compost that seemed to do the trick last year as we had a bumper crop of Tatters.
That done I went into the Polly and watered our salads that are thriving in their own little plastic grow tunnels,boy was it hot initially,31 degrees ......phew  !!!!!!

Went back outside and sowed 50 Detroit 2,s then it was Herb time.

Decided that the Herb pots needed freshening up so emptied last years and put fresh compost in.
1st sown was some Capers,have not tried to grow this on the plot before so we shall see what happens.
Nest was Summer Savoury,another new Herb to hit out Plot and one im interested to see how it can be used in the kitchen.

Another 1st was Cumin, again weve not tried growing this so we shall see what happens with that too.
Oregano was the last Herb today....gotta luv this Herb.

I then planted 50 Keyna climbing beans that had been grown in our kitchen and the seeds were split nicely and ready to go in the dirt along the A frame.

I then sowed another 50 Radar red onions,to complement the 100 that went in last winter.

Last today was some Eskimo carrots that although get a good write up for winter usage we enjoy eating em mid year.

so Bizzy day !!!!!!

GazNjude

Sowed some peas amongst another hundred jobs, also installed my Hawk decoy over flying my shed, :)

More pricking out!



Had the radio in the greenhouse and listening to Radio Sussex had my request played whilst I was busy with my little dibber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXDf9UwHGF4  :)

Ninnys

As it was so nice we had to go out for a hike instead of gardening. But I still planted the last spuds, had a bit of a weed, shifted some manure round and watered a bit.
I also started pricking out the tomatoes which is a long job, I have got too many of them as usual.
I am going to pop down tonight to empty compost and take a few pics and maybe get the Alderman tall peas in, and maybe a row of spinach if I have time. Better leave work a bit early!!! It's a beautiful day, I am in short sleeves  ;D

Have nipped out and while Harriet is asleep got the following sown

- Marigolds - Crackerjack (thanks ninny)
- Poppys - Giant 'saved' (thanks Val)

1st lot of onions
- Shallots - Long Red Florence

And i know its early but i could not resist just one each of
- Squash - Sunshine F1
- Squash - Avalon F1
- Courgette - Early Courgette from Algeria
- Courgette - Jemmer

There all planted up and there bottoms are sitting in a shallow basin of water having a nice drink in the sun :)

Have prepared some more seed trays 2 more for onions and 4 more for various others veg and 2 for herbs.... Will have to wait for later as Harriets not allowed outside at the moment and if she seeds the seed box out she gets more excited than me !

Spent a couple of hours after work double digging bed No 5 on our new plot, wheeled 10 barrow loads of manure to the plot and had a well earned drink in the evening sun :)

Had a good clear up of one of my paths, clearing away cardboard,bricks, paving slabs, carpets, blankets etc
Potted on some Cucumbers
10 sweetcorn out of 20  have germinated
8)

I whacked some water out onto the bird table for the visiting flocks, up-ended my mum's biscuit barrel to share the crumbs (rather than have them all over the floor again), hung up another load of washing as the sun was up and enjoyed the scene before toddling home across the road for very early morning tea at 6:30.  :)