And Some Bad News

It had to happen sooner or later I suppose...

The first negative occurrence came today. Last Monday the "next" patch to be tackled was covered in green dandelion plants, due to face the hoe this weekend. By the time I arrived on Sunday they'd gone to seed. Blast! A back-breaking emergency pulling-up session got them off the plot and onto the burning heap, but not before they'd shed 75% of their seed spores, which floated off like some kind of demonic horticultural parachute shock troops. All over the patch I'd removed them from, and probably some neighbouring gardens as well.

OK, it's not a major disaster. But it IS a negative, and our first, and a bit dis-heartening. As the picture shows, the white patches of ground are actually covered with a carpet of seeds. There are still lots of weeds on that particular bit, but they'll dig in when I get that far.

First The Good News!

Good and bad from the allotment on Sunday....

First the good bits - things are growing!

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....

Young Callum wandered onto the plot for a chat, and gave me a trayful of Sweet Pea plants, what an absolute star that young man is. Tomorrow's a big day for him too, as he's taking delivery of 100 - yes, one hundred - new chickens, which are costing him £1 apiece. If that means he's going to produce more eggs like the ones from last week, that's fantastic news!

And as a bonus, when I got to The Woolpack, Old Bob informed me that he'd won a competition on local radio station KLFM, and won £100 worth of vouchers for a garden centre. What's so interesting about that? He hasn't got a garden and is willing to sell them to me for £50. Bobby dazzler! In effect that means half price stuff for me and £50 for Old Bob - everyone's a winner!

I hope tomorrow gives good weather, as I intend to finish preeping The Bad Strip I've been on and do some more planting.

(Threat Of) Rain Stops Play....

After work today I got back on the allotment, trying to make more progress with the carrot/parsnip/leek strip....

And I did get more done, but it's frustratingly hard work. The compacted end is getting more solid the further along I get, and I've now had to resort to cutting strips into the ground with the spade, parallel to the direction I'm digging in, and shaving off 5 centimetre slices of rock solid soil before bashing it into pieces.

Anyway. I headed off the plot when the clouds seemed to be announcing The End Of The World Was Nigh. Big scary black clouds carry lots of rain, and I had no intention of partaking of my post-dig pint in The Woolpack and leaving a puddle where I stood...

Hard Work

Today was just hard work.

The idea was to dig the bit between the potatoes and the raspberries, then plant carrots and parsnips - I didn't get anywhere near that.

The thing is, I am too much of a perfectionist, so as I dig I remove weeds. And there a a shedload of weeds. The section I am digging is the bit next to the raspberries, and it's obvious that there has been nothing here, except humans picking raspberries, for a long time. The piece is 3 metres wide. The first metre is incredibly compacted, so much so that I have to stand on the spade to get it into the ground. The last metre is completely riddled with Couchweed. The middle bit is a delight!

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)!

So, a slightly negative time on the allotment, BUT!

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

You Take It Easy Sam!

At last Sam returned to the allotment to have a look round....

He really wanted to have a look to see if the potatoes were growing yet - I knew they wouldn't be after just a week but we went to check anyway. The weather was really nice for a change so we had a nice twenty minutes down there.

Sam really enjoyed playing in the wheelbarrow, being pushed around in it and being tipped out. He also discovered that if you lean right back it tips over and rests on the handles (below), hours of fun....he also loved running up and down the communal heap, and found the swan's nest fascinating. I even persuaded him to put his hand inside the compost bin to see how hot it was in there.

So, the potatoes weren't up. The onions? No sign. Lettuce? Nope. Peas? There may be the very first tips poking through the topsoil, I'm going to have a much closer look when I'm up there later today. But the garlic? YES! They look big, Daddy!

The allotments were full of people taking advantage of the favourable meteorology, and so Sam was introduced to Maurice, Sid & Margaret, Callum and Callum's Grandad, Next Door David, Next Door Paul, and Sylvia, her dog Lucy, and Mr Sylvia. We even got a guided tour of Sylvia's patch and we've struck a bet with Mister Sylvia over who can grow the tallest sunflower.....the stakes are high.....five whole pennies....Sam naturally charmed them all.

Half the point of having our allotment is to keep Sam enthusiastic about nature and growing things, and if he's happy with a half hour here and there at the moment, that'll do for me....

Sunflowers Ahoy!

19 of the 36 peat pots now have a tiny sunflower plant peeping out of the potting compost....

And that's amazing, because yesterday morning there were none at all. I took them for another visit to the bath (how pampered are they!?) to allow the pots to soak up some water, stuck them back on a sunny windowsill, and just a day later over half of them have made an appearance. Some of the seedlings still have the shell of the seed held proudly aloft.

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Even if no more come up, a row of 19 sunflowers will look rather splendid on the allotment.

And there's a sub-plot to the sunflower growing - we're going to hold a competition at The Woolpack. Sunflowers will be "sold" to customers, at £1 apiece, probably, with money raised going towards the KatieChilds appeal. As the cultivator/referee I won't own one myself, but I will treat all the plants equally, same amount of watering, etc. A "Measure In" will take place on a nominated day in August, and the tallest sunflower will win its owner "something". Owners will be free to visit their flower, escorted of course to prevent skullduggery.

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If YOU, dear reader, would like to take part in Norfolk's Most Important Sunflower Contest, please do email me at trix68@hotmail.co.uk and you'll be in (anonymously if you so desire).

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We won't raise a fortune. But it all adds up eh? The winner's prize will be announced.....sometime....

Puzzle Time

Can you guess what we've named our water butts?

There are three altogether, but the two biggest ones have been named......