The chubblies@19G

Last weekend we had to visit our local fruit and veg shop to buy Potatoes, I have just looked in our store under the stairs and find we now have no Onions left either!

I suppose we have done well to have provided basic vegetables from the Lotti that have lasted through the winter until now but, it is going to come hard to have to start buying veg like that.

Frankly the potatoes we bought were nowhere near as good quality as the ones we have just finished off from our store, and they have been stored for 5 months in the little cupboard under the stairs!

Roll on the first earlies!!!

Check out our update to The Chubblies@19G under This is us.

Well I guess we all new it was coming! We were warned!

And it does look nice but it has put a stop to the digging, muck spreading and general preparation for the first early spuds.

Never mind, we will just have to sit back in the warmth with the seed packets, Lotti books and the planner and and nice cup of something warm and some home made Butter shortbread biscuits that have just come out of the oven.

No doubt it will soon be gone and we can get back to the hard work.

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Well January is certainly going out differently to how it came in. Extremely cold at the moment and whats all this white stuff on the ground.

Next year’s main stay of seeds purchased with the £25 voucher from Vegetable seeds have arrived, thanks Ben and crew.

Looking forward to making a start at sowing. Trying Peas, Fennel and Uchiki Kuri, (how on earth do you pronounce that) Squash this year for a change. Last years experiment of sweet corn was a bit of a failure so we are not going to bother with them this year. We are also cutting back on our choices of squash this year and are going to concentrate on just a couple of varieties, as well as pumpkin because roasted pumpkin, red pepper and tomatoes is a favorite soup of mine.

The seed potatoes ordered the other side of Christmas have arrived and are now set out in egg boxes on top of the freezer in the conservatory to chit. On reflection are we sure we have ordered enough Sandra, only fifty tubers, sure we had ninety tubers last year. Going to have to give some serious thought to a catch up strategy!!!!

Although I would guess that should yield about 50kg if all goes well, which I suppose ought to be enough for two of us to get through before they start going soft and off peak in storage. Maybe we’ll stick at what we have got……..what a dilemma.

Although we have a warm conservatory to sow our seeds in I think it might be worth investing in a heated propagator, particularly for the chilli seeds as I understand they need high temperatures to germinate, as advised by a fellow blogger in France.

We have updated our “This is us” section with a short paragraph summing up our achievements and disappointments of 2011 …….take a look.

Well there she is, my new toy and winter project. Bought off eBay for twenty five quid as a non runner (runs but soots up the plug). What could be hard about sorting it out, I’ve got many a car running nicely in the past and this has only got one cylinder, can’t be difficult….can it????

We have decided to keep grass areas and paths around the soft fruit half of the Lotti so when she’s well and working again she should come in really handy. She will also be handy for mowing the path around the Lotti as well as keeping down the long grass in the communal areas adjacent to our plot that the Council always seem to “forget” each year.

I think I have found all the necessary help and information on the world wide inter-web as well as many sites selling spares…….so wish me luck.

Oh heck – just realised we missed our window of opportunity in November and December to plant out our Raspberry canes, (got to get some first), so looks like January is going to be somewhat busy and stressy trying to catch up….hope we can!!!! We missed the window last year and really don’t want to have to wait another year.

Well in the spirit of getting ready we had a delivery of two tons of Manure delivered today, thank you Mucky Mick, it’s only fair that he gets a mention. Unfortunately because we have put a fence all around the Lotti with only a 1m wide gate we have had to have it delivered next to the gate and then barrow the whole lot into the Lottie, not exactly what we would have expected to be doing the day before Christmas eve, but hey ho the veg will appreciate it we’re sure.

Time has come to publish an apology, our Grand Daughter, Ellie constructed the very nice arrangement of Toms and Cu’s which we photographed and put on out post on 31.10.11 and we did say at the time that we would give her a mention for doing it. Unfortunately we forgot the credit.

So Ellie thank you so much for the very nice display of the last of our Toms and Cu’s and thank you for all you help on that day.

What a lovely surprise we had today when we arrived at the Lotti. We have been away for a short holiday so have not been to the Lotti for two full weeks and three weekends. I couldn’t believe my eyes when we pulled up in the car, I said nothing to Sandra apart from I don’t believe it, look whats happened.

To which, after a very brief look around, she replied in an excited voice……  “OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THEM”

The 240 odd onions that we put in back in the beginning of October have practically all come up. Not only have they come up but they appear to be thriving!

Note only that, but the 140 odd garlic that we put in at the same time are doing just as well. We really cant believe our good fortune. Obviously we must have hit it just at the right time with our sowings, must remember this next year.

Well what can I say, there I was thinking it was MY new toy only to find that someone else finds it as much fun to use as me. Mind you any form of fire does, ah girl?

Watch out for the garlic over there.

More digging done and more digging to do. Still although the ground is now becoming a little heavy it is still not too wet to work. I think if the weather holds up we will manage to get all the ground with no crops in it turned over before the onset of winter prevents us from doing anymore, and with a bit of luck we will be perfectly placed for the start of the season.

Time we think for a nice cup of something warm and a quite sit down and decide what seeds we are going to spend our voucher on for next year.

Well what a surprise we had when we arrived at the Lotti last week to find that a lot of the tomatoes that were green on the blighted plants had now ripened. A very pleasant late crop, especially with the last of the cucumbers.

Some of our squash harvest now being left to ripen in the last of the sun, not quite sure what they all are though, as our Daughter in Law who gave us the seedlings thinks that the lady who gave her the seeds may have got them mixed up. We recognise the pumpkin and the turks turbans, but the others????

On Sunday evening we had onion squash, (not in the picture), well we think that was what it was, roasted with garlic and red onions, it was fabulous, slightly strange texture but very tasty.

After a very quick flying visit on Saturday to reconnoitre what needed to be done, Sunday was spent removing the runner bean support and dead tomato and cucumber plants, and a very impressive effort by Sandra making a start with the first of the winter digging. After playing with his flame thrower for a while Peter knuckled down and completely emptied No.1 compost bin, spreading its contents over the asparagus bed and the newly dug over strip that Sandra had prepared. A very worthwhile and rewarding days work.

Another strip of approximately the same size and compost bin No.2 similarly emptied should see something like a third to a half of the vegetable half of the lotti prepared to over winter and be ready for a fresh start next spring, can’t wait.

All that remains then is to finalise our plans for the soft fruit half of the lotti and make a start with planting out the gooseberries, raspberries and blackberries, and anything else we can think of/scrounge.