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.
This area used to be deep under sea water. One day it will be so again. In the meantime debris from that time continues to surface at our garden. What makes this stuff come to the surface? It's a real wonder.
Still, the Bad Strip is almost done. Thank gods.
It was lovely and still on the plot, and I wasn't the first one there! Birds were singing their hearts out, various cockerels were hollering from various directions, and it was very nice to see our allotment with the sunlight shining on it from a different direction to that which we're used to. It was also warm enough to get down to just a shirt to work in.
Our first pest problem, slugs. Our developing Pea plants and the Sweet Peas have been nibbled severely by the disgusting gits. Where there should be nice round-ish leaves, there are leaves resembling Holly leaves, with dozens of tiny bite marks around the edges. I am Pissed Off! It's war. Plans are being drawn up as we speak (well, as you read). Soot's been suggested. Coffee grounds. Callum confirmed that Beer Traps are quite effective. How dare they! As you can see, the Sweet Peas (above) and Peas (below) are victims of greedy vandalism. Revenge shall be ours. Slugs, can you swim? If not, I suggest you learn, quickly.
In other news: Had a good afternoon. Job One was to plant another 2 metres of Little Gem lettuces, which was very satisfying. It felt like this was the first positive work I'd done in ages.
Things started off great with the trip to the garden centre with Old Bob. He'd won a competition on the radio and bagged himself a £100 voucher for Bamber's Garden Centre near Wisbech. As he’s our Horticultural Advisor General (self-appointed) he offered the voucher to me for £50, and I bit his hand off. Last Thursday I visited Bamber’s, pen and notepad in hand, and made a list of things to buy, and duly returned with Old Bob yesterday morning. I acquired:
Words of encouragement and wisdom from the Grumpy Old Men in The Woolpack later got me back in a more positive frame of mind. “It takes a few years to get sorted”, “Don’t try to do it all in one go” etc. And five pints helped as well.
After the weekend trip to Cromer I have two shells, washed and clean. Does anyone know if I can crush them up and add them to the compost?
Nothing heavy planned, I just wanted to water some plants and for Sam to have some good time, and develop another positive memory of allotment life. And it worked. We stayed longer than I'd expected, about 40 minutes altogether. Sam again loved bouncing round the plot in the wheelbarrow, which he will not be able to do when it's all sorted out. But for now half of our area is "wheelbarrow moto-cross", Yeeee-Ha! They say the sun shines on the righteous, so judging by the photo above, Sam is the messiah - or is he just a very naughty boy? He really does look (to me) like some kind of Allotment Child-Sun-God, in his Wheelbarrow-Shaped Chariot!
Sam's next self-imposed task was digging. I love that little lad. He decided to help make progress on the bad patch that's taking ages to complete. Hey, every little helps. Once I told him that it's easier to dig at the edge of the bit that's already been dug there was no stopping him, or his Cromer seafront spade - as you can see! He has superb technique. Last pic looks as if Sam's asking "Are the crocodiles gone yet Daddy?", but he was just having a brief rest....
On the way home, as we passed The Woolpack, Bwana Stewart and SS Roy were outside smoking, and Sam absolutely charmed 'em to pieces.
When I went to investigate with Sam the weed in the tidal drain that flows around our site was being pulled strongly westward. And as you can see, looked very much like a crocodile laying just below the water. And I thought Sam was just making it up!
Second pic is Sam throwing a stone at a croc, third pic is more crocs further down the stream, and the final pic is what I saw after taking pic 3 then turning round....Sam had been to collect the big, (very) heavy metal pole that holds our shed door shut, in order that he could "whack the crocodile Daddy". At what age does fear kick in, and you realise that attacking a huge, vicious aquatic reptile with a metal pole is not a good idea? Doesn't he look up for it! 
A few days ago Callum said there had been a fox on the allotment, and pointed out a distant, dead chicken as proof. Today I found this little fellow on Michael's patch. Whether he/she died becuase of the fox, or just from wandering away from Mum and dieing of starvation who knows? It's little feet were sticking almost straight up in the air. I did listen very carefully to see if it was still living, but there were no signs, and it was very cold, so no point Casevac-ing it to the vet.
Taking Old Ted's advice I obtained some Fish Blood & Bone from a generic DIY/Homeware outlet, and got to work in the raspberries. I weeded the entire two rows, which took a lot longer than I thought it would, but it now looks great and the plants won't have to share their food with the weeds. Crafty buggers the weeds, some had already grown back In Between individual raspberry canes. So, after the weed removal, I added a small patch of the food around the base of each plant, and "chivvied" it into the soil ("chivvied"is a word copyrighted by Old Ted).
I met the final neighbour too, who holds the plot adjoining the bottom of ours. Colin is a pleasant old boy, who bemoaned the smoking ban in pubs, and informed me he'd "only" been on his current allotment 9 or 10 years. No time at all that, Colin!
Good news was that potatoes are growing, hoorah! Sam will be very pleased next time he visits.
The garlic is still going great guns and shows no sign of stopping. I have no idea how big it grows above the ground, or what exactly is happening below the surface, but it looks OK so far (can you tell I'm a beginner?)....
The first lettuce seedlings have appeared (above)....
Ditto the onions.....
And the peas are doing well. Some doing better than others, judging by this photo....
I only got halfway across, before calling it a day, and I was knackered. But I know that the soil I'm digging is going to be a hundred times better for growing on than it was before I started. Tiring, hard work, but worth it - allegedly.
On the positive side, several pea seedlings (above) have appeared in the last 24 hours, and are now safely housed under wirey protection (below)!
There's always a But. I managed to arrive early enough to bag a box of Callum's chickens' eggs! Which I shared with Old Bob later at The Woolpack. All the eggs are different sizes and shapes, I can't wait to try one. And at £1 for 6 it's MUCH, much better value than Tesco
