The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Most things survived the holiday (even me and we stayed with my mother in law!) and some of my little plants are doing well. Blackfly are of course everywhere but the broad beans are still managing to produce. In my last minute panic planting, trying to get as much into the ground as possible before fleeing the country, i remembered the 3 sisters planting guide. This was, i believe, how the Native Americans used to plant their sweetcorn (tall and strong), beans (grow up the corn stalks) and squash (trail around the base of corn, shade the soil to reduce water loss). And in remembering this i planted as such. On my return, just as i was about to pull up the bindweed growing up my corn i re-remembered the beans. Lovely. Doing exactly what they’re meant to be.

I have a nice picture of this but can’t work out how to rotate it … maybe later.

For now, back to the title:

The Good

The ladybird and babies (larva??) chowing down on the blackfly – the babies are a little difficult to see i now realise but they’re there on the leaves and petals at the top.

The Bad

Said blackfly being feasted upon

The Ugly

Not really ugly (to some perhaps) but toad’s negligence in allowing slugs to prosper in my garden is certainly ugly! (As was my scream when i innocently reached my hand into the growbag for some extra compost only to find Mr Toad sitting there)

Cost of living

So the cost of living is going up? Not for those of us who grow our own and get seeds from vegetableseeds.net

(well, obviously vegetableseeds.net doesn’t help with the cost of toilet paper and toothpaste but it makes a difference to the food budget!)

So, the garden and the allotment are finally starting to bear fruit, not literally, yet, but I’m starting to see signs of growth. The Beetroot, carrots, spring onions and parsnips that i planted a month or so ago (for an early crop!) are finally starting to poke throught the soil. Impatient me? I was hoping to be eating them now not scouring the soil for seedlings.

The ‘greenhouse’ is a pleasure though and never fails to lighten my mood. Every day I go into water (with my ’special sprinkly bottle’ as my little girl and i call it – it has one of those excellent bottle top roses on it which makes it perfect for seedlings) and the little plants have grown more. Currently giving their all are sweetcorn, squash, courgettes, tomatoes, peas, beans (French and Broad) . I have also just set some nasturtiums (perhaps a little late but i’ve got them in the greenhouse to give them a head start?!) which i plan to set out with my beans and then brassicas.

a sorry weekend

so last weekend, actually, the weekend before last (but i’m still getting over it!) our allotment shed was broken into

Only a shovel was stolen (though it was a really nice one) but the door suffered significant damage which meant that the allocated allotment hours were spent repairing and reinforcing the door. Still, that job done it was time to move on.

Then, and i’m not sure which of these events is worse, my small, freestanding ‘green house’ (plastic house with shelves?) full of my little seedlings all hardening off fell over in the garden. I looked out of the window and there is lay, on its side, the pots on the floor the compost and seedlings spread around

…like i said- a sad weekend.

Our compost heap

Following previous laziness we have been very busy. Firstly, we rebuilt our compost heap (a little boring yes but quite satisfying for my husband i’m sure, as it involved some hammering and recrafting of pallets!)

…the new heap and as yet undug allotment…the new heap and as yet undug allotment.

The allotment rotavator is currently in our possession and is tomorrow’s job!

Tha garden is all dug now and ready to go but i start everything in pots to reduce snail damage. Just waiting (probably till the weekend) for the frost risk to pass/reduce (cue a sharp frost next week!).

In the garden at the moment we have a few potatoes, little rows or beetroot, parsnips, carrots and spring onions and some raspberry canes. We have canes from previous years and some new ones that we just bought – Polka – a heavy cropper supposedly

a gentle start…

inspired by the arrival of the free seeds (thanks for those Ben!) I spent a short time in our chilly garden on Sunday filling pots with compost to get some seeds started. I have a few troughs of mixed salad leaves which will remain on the window sill and some herbs and kale.

…well i did say it was a slow start!

the allotment jobs were also postponed due to a fine layer of snow this morning.

we’ll get there – eventually.

will try to look up some photos of our allotment to post here.

What’s happening!

Still not lots to report on the allotment front what with all the snow and new baby and our general laziness! Though I realise with our first summer’s growth that the seeds only need a little help to grow – you can gets lots out of little effort (should i be admitting this on a blog likely to be read by ‘proper’ gardeners?!)

However, my husband did pop down yesterday to pick some brussles. From our smaller than average brussels and the advice of a more seasoned (and almost certainly less lazy!) allotmenteer we learned that brussel plants need to be spaced 2-2.5 feet apart, manured early (November time) and the soil rolled (apparently they like compacted soil) around March time.

…if i have to no useful information of my own to add i can at least share that gleaned from others ;0)

Hello world!

We are just starting to plan our allotment for this year. We got our allotment last May when everyone else’s seemed well underway. We had quite a good harvest for what seemed like a bit of a late start (and 2 very lazy gardeners and a hungry 3 year old!)

Today I have been looking through some seed catalogues and of course the seed direct website. Also starting to think about crop rotation.

I’ve started by thinking about what was successful last year – carrots, beetroot, tomatoes, beans. Will definitely be growing all those again and looking for some other easy to grow, tasty crops