Garlic

I had a lovely hour to myself at our allotment yesterday.  The strawberry and the gooseberry plants arrived in the post and had to be planted out.  I went with the children, who had a lovely time playing for half an hour, and then Husband came and picked them up and took them home for tea.  O was delighted that I let him pick some kale which Husband cooked for him too.  I planted out the plants and generally just had a lovely time.  There are lots of worms in the new beds already so that is a good sign.  I ordered some borage and hyssop seeds which arrived yesterday as well,  so I am going to have a good plant at naptime.

I have just had a look on the internet at planting our garlic.  I planted out some overwintering garlic and onions in the bed I have in the shared garden, but some CRETIN keeps letting his (illegal, against the no pet rules) dog scratch and stomp all over them, and so I fear they are ruined.  Since I have spent the national  debt of some minor countries on the allotment recently, I am going to buy a few more bulbs of garlic from Aldi and hope for the best.  I know some of them are sprayed to not sprout, but that never seems to stop the ones that have started growing in the back of the fridge, so I shall take the risk.  Depending on how the weather goes that could be a good "the-car-is-at-the-garage-what-ever-shall-we-do" job and outing for this afternoon.

Fruit

The strawberries have arrived!!! The strawberries have arrived!!!!!  All 24 of them.  8 honeoye (early), 8 cambridge favourite (main) and 8 Albion (pepetual, 2 crop).  We also have had 3 yellow gooseberry (Una Crispa Hinnonmakii).  Very exciting.  I am going to take the children down the allotment this afternoon, and hopefully Husband with grab them leaving me with an hour or so of daylight to plant them out.  

We also have plenty of germination in the house.  Marrigolds and nasturtiums are all doing well.  I am attempting to get to grips with companion planting.  I do not pretend to be an organic gardener, but E is still young enough that she puts everything in her mouth, so I am reluctant to have too many chemicals about if I can help it. We also have basil, broad beans, moneymaker tomatoes and gardeners delight tomatoes.  I hope Husband gets into the storage shed tonight to rescue my potatoes which really should be chitting by now!!!  

And, on top of all of that, the sun is shining and for once we are not scheduled to the hilt with socialising activities (who knew that home educating could be so busy) that we are going to go out and enjoy this afternoon without much rhyme or reason for doing so!!!.  Happy happy. xxx

Allotment diary

I am feeling inspired to start a blog to mark our new allotmenting adventure.  We got our first allotment, which was a nightmare plot, at Bebington Rd Allotments about 16 months ago.  It was too late in the season to do anything, but we started in earnest about a year ago.  Much effort ensued, with very little reward.  The plot had never been worked before and was a churned up field that had been used as a dumping ground and was thatched with knee deep weeds and grass.  It was impossible to even walk down it and my two children struggled.  The allotment secretary took pity on us last June and gave us another over grown allotment, but one that was flat and had fences.  It was amazing.  So easy to work.  We dug some beds and got a few plug plants in over the end of summer, but the latest spell of wet weather has worked its madness, and the thick heavy clay has turned it into a quagmire.  Most of the remaining vegetables had rotten roots and are now filling the compost bin.  Husband and I have spent a considerable amount of time building raised beds and even longer filling them with 8 tonnes of soil.  I am now so excited.  It is really the start of us having a good year on the allotment, the first year really, and I have so many plans.

Our allotment last June

Our allotment 2 days ago

Excitingly enough we also have plant growth in the very few things that are planted in the house.  We have some broad beans, nasturtiums, marigolds, tagates and basil all sprouting well.  Not tomatoes or mint just yet but I live in hope.  I am  hoping to get the plastic feeble greenhouse up soon so I can go a bit mad planting but I want to make sure that we have had the worst of the storms first.  Strawberry plants are currently in the sorting office because I missed the postman this morning, and the gooseberries should be on route.  Did I mention that I am literally bouncing in place in excitement.  I never knew spring was so exciting.  

And just a lovely picture to put a smile on everyone else's faces (as it did mine)