I thinned out the Little Gems today and harvested a goodly amount of surplus lettuce. I've kept most for my lunches this week, gave three heads to Sam's mummy, and a seed tray full to an extremely foxy lady from King's Lynn who donated some items to our allotment earlier in the week. Thanks Susie, hope you enjoy our lettuce! Sam handed over the seed tray personally - he insisted on it - which was very good as he captivated the lovely Susie and we got to chat for a little longer than we would otherwise. OK, so our Little Gem thinnings aren't what you'd find in the supermarket, but they're tasty all the same. With added holes, snails, roots and soil!
At the allotment Sam also "planted" the first couple of gnomes, stirred the water, and added some "browns" to the compost bin. And....he put his wee in there too! This was extremely funny to Sam, but he peed in the watering can then added it to the compost dalek. It's good for the process, honest!
So. A fruitful day. Lots of hard work ahead. Maybe even starting tomorrow, if I'm not too spent.
I had felt quite despondent when I first arrived, not only as I don't seem to be making much headway, but also because I'd lost my key for the gate...luckily Sid The Allotment Boss was on his garden so I managed to buy a replacement for £5. Speaking to Sid is good, as he calls me "Young man"! Not many people do any more. Paul from the next door plot also cheered me up by saying that what I'd done looked good, the rest would come good in time, and don't try to do everything in one go. Just what I needed to hear, thanks mate!
I sold the allotment trip to him on the pretext that we needed to bring the wheelbarrow home for me to take the sunflowers to the garden on Sunday. When he heard about the slug traps he was completely up for it.
We had the obligatory race around the plot - which Sam noticed was smaller than the last time we did it, so there must be some progress being made - and then got stuck into the Defensive Anti-slug Measures Programme (D.A.M.P.). I showed Sam how to bury the yoghurt pot with about a centimetre sticking out of the ground, and he did a couple before handing burial duties back to me. When all ten were in place we cracked open the Tesco Value Bitter (97p for 4 cans, 2.1% abv) and Sam filled the pots with foaming pest-bane. Job's a good 'un....
As we were about to leave Sam took himself off for a tour of the plot, and stopped beside the raspberries. "Look Daddy, this one's as tall as me!" (see pic). On closer inspection Sam had found a rogue Runner Bean twining itself round one of our bushes, and which will be summarily dispatched to the compost heap on Sunday. The boy's got a keen eye for a weed, evidently....
There's a robin joining me on the garden these days, which is absolutely lovely! He's really friendly and comes closer than you'd expect a wild bird to - but won't pose for a photo. The two pics here are - really! - the best I've managed to take so far. Above he's silhouetted nicely, below you can maybe just make out a blob of his dazzling red chest as he's sitting on top of the pea protection. (Not that there are any pea plants to protect....).
I had a productive time on the garden today, and planted half a row of swede seeds. The other half will go in in a month's time. I also did a lot of weeding and hoeing, which is completely un-newsworthy. The picture of my Little Gem lettuces shows a ton of weeds which are now dispatched to the great allotment in the sky. When I was at the allotment you can see the next 2 metres of tiny lettuce seedlings poking their heads out, not sure if you can here.
Eventually occasional sprinklings of rain decided to change to a constant fall, so I called it a day. Feeling right now? Good, actually. I can't do it all this year, and I'm not even trying to. But if I get some edible produce I'll be delighted.
It was extremely horrible (but traditional) Bank Holiday weather today, but I am proud to report that I did make it to the allotment for an hour. Admittedly I didn't get a great deal done, but what I did do I won't have to do tomorrow!
....cheap, nasty beer, you will go on my second whistle......
I ended up by marking out the carrot and parsnip areas.... 
One neighbour has decided to approach bird prevention with carrier bags. From my point of view, too noisy. And ineffective, as birds were settling on there all the time. Particularly noisome is a black dustbin bag, which you can see on the left, just past my rake.
