Good news about the raspberries

Today was the first time for ages that I've been to the allotment. I'm always saying that, aren't I? No wonder I always feel there's so many things I need to get on with when I'm up there! No time for chillin'!

I took a tray of broad beans and some lettuce seedlings with me and popped those in. The ground was surprisingly dry. If we don't get rain over the next few days I shall have to start watering. Plenty of water in the pond though. Sometimes in the summer we have to add bucketloads to make sure our frogs and newts have got enough to keep cool. The pic shows the pond with marsh marigolds and new rosy leaves emerging from the water lily.

Today's triumph is that the sticks I planted in the autumn have turned into raspberries. Hurray! I weeded all round them and plan to give them some yummy manure compost round their roots next time I go. The main source of food for my plants is manure compost, home made compost and Growmore but I've used a liquid seaweed feed in the past that's very good too. I also grow comfrey which I either add to the compost or make into a different liquid feed by steeping it in a bucket of water for a month or so.

The sun was hot, factor 15 hot, but I didn't have any with me so I probably added to my general leatheryness today. I must remember to put a tube of sun cream in the bag. That'll definitely make it rain! Not that I'm supersticious, you understand!

The leeks are at their peak now so I pulled a few more to take home. I also picked spinach, purple sprouting broccoli and lots of rhubarb. I'm going down to Somerset tomorrow to see my parents and I always try to take some of our own produce with me. I look a bit bonkers on the train sitting clutching a basket of vegetables but what the heck....

Happy gardening

Flu break

This week I've been mostly having a lurgy. I'm still ill and I'm fed up with it now. There have been plenty of bright intervals when I could have gone to the allotment with a tray of broad bean plants to plant out but I haven't been able to face the walk up the hill.

I've started some seeds off though, in between coughing fits. I've put in some aubergines, peppers, two different types of tomatoes, sweetcorn and courgettes in trays inside, and leeks outside on the back steps.

We also rented a movie, Grow your own, which I can thoroughly recommend. Set on a community allotment, it tells a story of the healing power found in nurturing a patch of soil as experienced by some emotionally scarred asylum seekers. I understand it was based on a real life project and it had a good mix of odd characters who, incidentally, weren't played by any actors that I recognised. The asylum seekers and the British allotment holders all had to deal with each other's presence, the petty bureaucracies of the allotment rules and the intrusion of a mobile phone mast and it was dealt with in a way that felt rewarding without being sentimental. I can well believe that having a patch of land to "grow your own" could be the best therapy of all for long term healing and recovery of a sense of purpose.

Now for some short term healing. Another lemsip maybe?

Happy gardening

Thoughts of spring

I've been busy. Really busy. The last few weeks have flown by and I've had no time to visit the allotment or appreciate the gorgeous daffs that I'd planted last year next to the hut.

J and I nipped up today for a quick look around and I was pleased to see that the bulbs had produced such a lovely show, and that I hadn't missed it all. The little tete a tete daffodils under the old apple tree aren't ready yet so it looks as though I'll see them come up too.

Today I "planted" a huge plastic cloche. I've got some lettuce seedlings in a tray at home and when they get a bit bigger they're going under the cloche. Also waiting to go into the ground are the broad beans that I've been protecting from marauding squirrels. They're in pots on a shelf behind some nasty spiky wire netting and so far, touch wood, they've been ok. It's mostly too wet to plant anything yet anyway.

Hopefully, this weekend I'll be able to start off lots of seeds in trays. I usually put them on newspaper all over the dining room floor for a month or so but until I'm able to get rid of a very large stained glass window that's already taking up all the spare floor space, I'm a bit stuck for somewhere to put them. I don't really want to deliver this window to its new owner yet because it's one of five and I want to make sure they all look right together but I can see a time coming when I'll hit a problem! They'd make lovely colourful cloches though! There's an idea....

Happy gardening

Starlings

This is what we saw. There must have been millions of them swooping around. You could hear the wingbeats as they flew over our heads and as it became dark, they flocked closer to where we were watching and seemed to fall out of the sky into the reeds. The field was black with them and the sound was incredible. It was like static when you walk under an electricity pylon - excited chatterings rather than birdsong.

It was a really fantastic evening and there was the most beautiful sunset too. As we walked along the track back to the car the dying sun was reflected in the icy rhynes. Stunning.

Digging for victory

This weekend we've been digging. The earth was just the right consistency at last so we both had a go and between us we dug over the top patch, well, the half that isn't covered with black compost bags.

All the neighbours were there too. In fact, in the photo of J you can see Moira next door, clearing weeds from around her new pond. I'm looking forward to her pond being finished, I'll get the benefit of gazing at it when I'm idling in the sunshine in the doorway of my hut.

This weekend was really good actually, I spend most of Saturday helping allocate fruit trees to their new owners as part of Transition Bristol's Virtual Orchard scheme. Incredibly busy! We all made cakes as well and made as much of a celebratory event out of it as possible, bearing in mind it didn't really get much above freezing in the yard we'd hired. I bought a plum and an apple tree for our tiny back garden so yesterday J and I went to buy huge pots to put them in. They look great. The idea is that they'll be portable if and when we move house. The time is ever closer now that Roo's only got one more year of school. It's a scary thought because we've lived in our house for so long and we love it dearly, but it's always been in the wrong place. Our surroundings are so intensely urban. What I'd really love to do is to pick the house up and plonk it down again on the edge of town instead of right in the middle. Incidentally, I've a cousin in Australia who did just that. Her house was loaded onto a lorry and moved about a mile up the road! Amazing.

This evening J and I are planning to go down to the Somerset Levels to see the starlings roosting and hopefully doing those swooping and dancing patterns in the sky. It looks like being a lovely day for it so J is taking a day off so we can take a little trip. I'll try to get some photos if we end up in the right place.

Happy gardening (and birdwatching)

Mainly fish and chips

It's been blissful weather this weekend. J and I managed to do all sorts of useful things at the allotment today, like emptying bags of bark mulch around the fruit bushes, cutting cabbage and leeks, tidying up and sitting around in the sunshine. I hugged my fruit trees too, to make up for not wassailing them earlier in the month. One of the mini daffodil bulbs has started to come up under the old apple tree and lots have emerged next to the hut. I can hardly wait.

It felt like spring is just around the corner yesterday too. I was too busy for gardening but I had a lovely walk up through the park to the library and then we had a bit of a panic over our fancy dress costumes for a party. We looked really good for the first half hour until the newspaper fell apart but it allowed us to make a good first impression! Guess what we had for dinner before the party?! Yup, fish and chips.

Happy gardening

Winter vegetables

J and I spent a soggy half hour at the allotment yesterday, pulling some leeks and generally having a look around. The rain and sleet had been coming down in bucketfuls the day before. We had a flooded garden and rain coming into the house through the back wall. It was seriously wet, drenching rain so it was great to see that the allotment hadn't suffered at all. The pond was nice and full anyway!

I didn't see any wildlife up there but it won't be long before the frogs are barging each other out of the way to spawn in the pond. They usually produce a seething mass of it around the time of J's birthday towards the end of February. Birthday spawn.

I dug up the last of the parsnips as well. I'm obviously not the only one digging them up, there were bits of parsnip scattered around on the grassy path but I think I've had a good crop despite this. I'd be interested to find out what eats them actually; the main predators on our allotments are pigeons, badgers, foxes and unspecified rodents. I don't fancy spending a night shivering in the hut waiting to find out!

As I write this, the rain is back with us again and I'm planning to spend today hibernating in the warm with a good book, and later on I'm going to cook a nice big chicken dinner (yes - organic free range from our local butcher) and I'll be roasting those parsnips to go with it.
Happy gardening (and hibernating)