yep we did,

More potatoes!!!! The weeds we had left to dry are now piled on one half of the compost space.  But they do have some roots attached, although these are now crisp as a bone. Hopefully they are well and truly dead.
Oh the weeds and nettles are daunting, my arms sting soooo much! I felt like just going home, but after a hour and a half we had cleared a little more. Most of the big roots we put in bags again to take to the dump. But some went on the heap. We have to decide the best way to tackle it is to mow it all, then cover it with plastic, then clear it bit by bit. Tedious but must be done.

Will we get there today?

 

lets hope so! Or will it take a hundred years to get our leeks looking this good?

August bank holiday

Hudge's dad, his sister; the lovely Beth and her two little boys came for a visit this week end and we took them to see our weed patch, soon to become a beautiful, abundant vegetable plot... well next year perhaps. The nettles had returned with a vengeance and the bees are still living in the compost heap. The kids found even more potatoes and took them home for tea. they enjoyed the community and children's area, with its living, willow cabin; was this what Viola dreamt of, to camp in at Orsiono's gate? and secret overgrown passage ways. When they visit next year they can plant things. I'm looking forward to bringing them.

The work begins in ernest.

Well, having been away for a couple of weeks I was slightly apprehensive about what I would be confronted with up at the plot. There was no need to be fearful. The pulled nettles had dried, and the weeds hadn't grown too much.

We cleared away the potatoes, and as well as being rewarded by a clean patch,

we gathered pounds and pounds to eat over the coming months. We will have to give lots of them away or we will be gaining pounds and pounds.

 I checked out a new website, http://www.allotment.org.uk/ to find out how to store them and promptly added the site to my bookmarks list.








The compost bin was a bit nettley, so H sorted it out. As he bagged the roots to take to the dump, he disturbed an ant hill, a bees nest and found an old glove and two plastic bottles, but when he had finished it was beautifully 'friable'... as they say. I have been reading all those books I bought.

Although I want to be strong and turn all the earth, I just cant bring myself to move the hollyhocks, and they are in the way of a neat path. So at the moment I am planing  to make the path criss cross at that point, perhaps have an arch or two, and a central bed. We shall see. That's the beauty of growing veg, its flexible. I'm looking forward to next week end.

A week has gone by

and rain, rain, rain.
My old and trusted 'Readers Digest', illustrated gardening from  1975, has been thrust aside. I have been thumbing through my new gardening manuals.


hamlyn, '200 veg-growing basics.'  A handy little book.
The 'RHS Allotment hand book.' Clear and simple.
'Grow something to eat every day.' by Jo Whittingham. - Fabulous, well laid out. With sections for each month. Ready to eat, what to sow, what to plant, what to harvest, what to do, and so much more.
and finally
'Companion Planting,' by Brenda Little. Which was all I hoped it could be.

I have to admit, I browsed through the gardening section at Waterstones to see what I liked. Noted down a few, then bought them on line. But I did go home with the 200 veg basics.
There were none there on companion planting, my primary objective. After all the 'Readers Digest' covers vegetables.

I won't be able to go to the plot for the next couple of weeks as we are away on our summer holls. No doubt it will be sunny and dry. I will take my books with me and dream. Then when we get back...the work starts in earnest.

The sun was shining

So I dashed down to the plot with the car to take some of the weeds to the dump, of course I couldn't stop pulling them up once I started.

I expect the enthusiasm will wain, but better keep going while I'm still on the upward trend.

My arms sting!

Soooo many nettles. Already a week has passed. Weather, work, life has kept me from my new baby.
I guess I could have found time in between the downpours, but I wanted to share this experience with someone. Who better than my man and helpmate; Hudge. Time to test his husbandry skills. Get him to grow as well as cook. As luck would have it, he returned from work early last night and there was a break in the clouds, so off to the allotment we went.
The weeds and nettles awaited. In the intervening time they had grown to triffid proportions. We were not daunted. We stoically set to work.
We found; a rake; a hose; lots of netting; old plastic milk cartons; and rotted down plastic sacks. And that was only in the small portion that we cleared.
We were thanking the rain. The ground was so soft that the spiteful things pulled out easily, roots and all. The giant thistles followed them. The piles grew. Eric had said to leave them to frazzle in the sun then pop them on the compost heap. but I have my doubts... the compost heap seems to be a source of the nettles it's self. I am going to come back with the car and a tarp' and haul the lot off to the dump.
Knackered and hungry we decided to stop for the night.
Our slow amble back enabled Hudge to photograph all the scarecrows we saw. We had a short stop for a chat with another evening gardener. He was a source of information about broad beans; They are growing on the plot and we don't know how to cook them, they are not something we buy at Sainsburys. He kindly answered my questions, and now I know. You take them out of their pods and cook like peas. Pick them early, they are small and sweet, leave them to long, hard and bitter.
Home at last and our arms were red and stinging. We slathered on the antihistamine cream and waited for modern science to relieve our pain.
Hudge's Photos