A Lottie update

I thought after my rant on twitter at tea time that it was about time for another Lottie update on here. That way when I'm fed up and feel like I am achieving nothing down the allotment I can look and see that actually, I am.

I totally forgot how therapeutic it can be to get stuck in down there, without a child shouting my name, no-one wanting anything and a hour or two to get my head straight. Will be doing a lot more visits on a night once the hubby is in and fed I think...

It's my father in laws memorial day tomorrow, 3 years since he died and I was pleased I went down and had somewhere to think and remember all the nice times without getting upset or feeling like I'm going to get anyone else upset. I could tell it was on my mind lately and like I say it's very therapeutic down there, I feel so much better.

I thought that I'd take as many pics of what I have in down there at the minute so I can actually see whats what, I think I've surprised myself by how much there actually is.

I took a lot of it down with me today though and put it out (in the rain) while I could.

My dad took me down a few weeks back and showed me how to hoe properly, I was using it as though I was turning the whole plot over and I was shattered and fed up every time I started. I have been doing it the way my dad showed me each time I've had 10 minutes to pop down and apart from the paths it's made a huge difference. So that was a nice surprise when I got down as I was expecting a jungle.

Anyway here are my pics from today, of me and my Lottie...

The Lottie as I left it, one day we might get a dry day so I can weed kill the paths!!

My potatoes are looking fab. They are Desiree (red skins)

Rhubarb has obviously enjoyed all the rain.

Raspberries wont be long now...

Or the strawberries for that matter.

Apples coming...

Still a little hard and sour, will wait a while longer for the gooseberries.

Blackcurrants are on the turn.

I planted out a courgette plant. We put 4 in last year and were over run with them so only sown one this year.

Butternut squash also went out today. x2

oh and the kid's pumpkins.

I put out some popcorn and sweetcorn.

Made a wigwam for the runner beans, also manured deep under where they are planted.

Peas sown in the greenhouse as the mice got the sown direct lot, so they've been put out tonight.

My first ever broad beans. This is the first year I've even grown/sown them.

Brassicas. the weeds have been hoed but look awful. I have Brussels sprouts, cauliflowers, cabbage, red cabbage, curly kale, broccoli and swedes.

Leeks have taken well.

Sage looks pretty.

Jessie's sweet peas are starting to climb.

Xmas dinner is in...

Had a day in the garden yesterday, weeding, moving things around and putting out littlest monsters flowers that she'd put in the greenhouse, pansies, marigolds and some swan river daisies. Can't wait until they brighten the place right up. Garden looks a million times better already...

Anyway, the whole time I felt guilty knowing there were jobs needing doing at the allotment, my brassicas were in dire need of going out and were sat waiting in the blow away greenhouse down there...I should have caught the weather while I could, but, like most women, looking at a job daily through the window and not being able to do anything about it for the rain was driving me around the bend, so garden it was.

Imagine my suprise this morning to find that for the 2nd day running the sun seemed to be shining and the weather was on my side. Within an hour, coffee had been drunk, teeth cleaned, face washed, littlest monster ready and waiting to go and off we went...

'We' got all of the brassicas out, 2 rows of brussels sprouts, 2 rows of hispi cabbage, a row of purple cabbage, a row of cauliflower, another of calabrese, some curly kale and turnips.

I told Jessie as we worked that we were putting in the ground now what would no doubt be on our plate for our christmas dinner, she was amazed. *big grins*

 It's starting to get passed the mad planting stage for the minute, the next one will no doubt start once the frosts have disappeared for good and the runners, sweetcorn/popcorn, pumpkins etc can go out. From now 'til then it's gonna be a battle against the weeds :-/ As I was hoeing today Jessie asks, 'Mam, can I help with that job?' 'No, sorry Jessie, its hard work this is,' She says 'Do you like that job Mam?' 'Nope, it's my least favourite allotment job Jessie, but probably the most important. Granda likes this job, it's his favourite.' She watched me a while and then says, 'Well Mam, why dont we just give that job to Granda from now on, it will make him happy and you wont have to do it anymore.' haha, I think she could be onto something ;-)

Jessie says 'When I'm older I'm not going to have an allotment.' 'Oh! why not?' I reply. 'I dont like the job of netting the plants,' she says. 'It's ok, you can share mine with me and that way you can take food home to your children too but I'll do the netting jobs.' She gave me the biggest grin and then replied, 'As long as my children don't pinch all of the pea pods, they're all mine!' haha.

We were amazed by how much the rhubarb has grown again with the rain we've had, some of them are the length of Jessie's legs! We had to take a few stalks home.... Crumble anyone?!

 

Digging and frozen harvests.,,,

Went down the lottie this afternoon to make a start on clearing what will be this season's brassica bed... and to make sure the snow last week hadn't upset too many plants. (It hadn't thankfully.)

I've been putting this one off... it is a huuuggggggeeeee bed and not in the best shape. The back and sides are full of thistle nettle, bindweed and couch grass weeds... not the best things to have in there.

I only managed 1/5th of it today before the rain stopped play but got a full wheelbarrow of roots and weeds out in that patch..

One of my lottie neighbours stopped as he was passing to tell me to 'Bend with my knees, not with my back' or I'd be in agony later. Unfortunately my knees are already in worse shape than my back so it's the lesser of two evils. I can't wait until it's all dug over....but hey, nothing a hot bath wont cure.

The other side of the lottie is actually looking in quite good shape, the nearest bed is this years potato bed, all ready and waiting, I'd read that there was going to be some more wintery weather this weekend maybe so thought it might be best to wait before putting them in just yet. The middle bed has my over winter onions in and I just collected the last of the leeks out of there today. The end bed had my broad beans in and the rest of it is dug ready for the legumes.


My rhubarb has had a massive growth spurt in the last week or so and it was like hide and seek with the mini scarecrows today :D

Had quite a good harvest today, some rhubarb, loads of psb and the last of the leeks, I've taken them home, blanched and frozen them to last over the 'hungry gap' Every little helps...




In other news, my mushrooms that I put in 4 weeks ago in the house have started to produce, I will get 3-4 decent harvests out of the kit before it will become useless. The difference in homegrown is huge, they are very firm, smell delicious and the stalk is really strong.



Anyway, thats been my day, thought it was time for an update....

Time for a lottie update..

Thought it was probably time for an over-winter lottie update...

There's not that much happening down there at the minute to be fair, (it's looking a bit bare) but thought I'd do some 'spring' cleaning and preparing...

Most beds are prepared, the biggest is going to be brassicas this season so need liming, once the brussels are all eaten that bed needs manuring and then all beds turned and weeded fully in March. I can't wait!!


With the winds being the way they have been I was a little concerned that everything would be where it should be... I was pleasantly suprised to find that there was no damage, even Charlotte our resident scarecrow was standing tall still :)

View of the allotment this morning.

Mr and Mrs lottie are still happy and reasonably intact...




















The first signs of my psb showing there heads...


















Over-wintering onions are coming along strong...

Made new 'friends' down on the allotment...

My Favourite garden centre opened this week, with the winter vegetables all ready for me and my trolley, however I needed somewhere to put them once I got them...

I had a section of the lottie where my dad had put some lettuce and cabbage, but there was loads of room there and it seemed perfect so I started to get it cleared (between coffee's on the neighbouring plot and much idle gossip about the 3 new tenants on the plots this month). The lettuce and cabbage that had gone over I decided to put into bags for Les to take to the tip for the council's recycling as my compost heap is overflowing at the minute. It was during one of my chats that Kevin, one of my neighbours noticed the bags, he told me I'd make friends for life if I tipped them over the fence that runs along both his and my allotment.....

so I did....look who came running.....




And I do mean RUNNING! From the first thud, the heads shot up and they ran at my fence, I half jumped and hoped and prayed that they'd stop in time..

I've got to say, I'm over the moon with my new recyclers, they seem to be quite happy too :)



Although one of them seems to be a little over friendly, My phone got a lovely lick as I took pictures... you can imagine the noise they made too as I walked away.



Apparently I should look forward to a visit each time I'm down from now on, waiting for an old cabbage or cauliflower. Well it could be worse I suppose. And I have a lovely clear plot ready for my winter vegetables. :)