I'm late! I'm late!

I booked an appointment in at work yesterday. "See you next week then - that's the 6th April".
6th April next week? How did that happen?

We haven't made many visits to the allotment this year in fact when we visited two weeks ago it looked like this,

Oh dear!

We cleared a bit

but didn't make much of an impression.

So as I had a day off today I thought I 'd better get the season under way.  

I dug and planted and composted and emptied compost (it was lovely stuff!) and dug some more. I had done some gardening so I had things to plant, chitted parsnips, beetroot plants, broad beans, garlic, onions, shallots and chitted potatoes. Oh and a yellow raspberry another blackcurrent and a thornless blackberry.

I also sowed seeds of radish and spinach. After that little lot it looked like this,

Still plenty of work to be done but at least I have made a start. The old boys enjoyed it enormously they kept coming over and admiring my soil - now they could see it.
I pulled some  rhubarb and dug some Jerusalem artichokes - hurrah for first harvests!
Then it was home for a cup of tea and a quick bath before getting the kids from school. A most satisfactory day.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Not much action at the plot lately.
Well to be honest no visits to the plot for quite some time but in my defence this happened.

I managed to salvage my Christmas potatoes - but we've eaten them - oops!

Now we are spending our time visiting polar bears

and that man in the red suit - oh well there's always next year.

We will be digging the bean trench on Boxing Day (providing I can get the spade in the ground).
In the meantime hope you and yours have a Happy Christmas. Here's to good gardening in 2011.

A century

This is my 100th post - and boy has it been a long time coming!
We have been very busy this year with family and work commitments but have fitted in quite a lot of travelling too so the blog has had to take a back seat.
The allotment is winding up for the winter now - I wasn't in the right place at the right time to plant much to over winter just a few parsnips, brassicas but no sprouts (disaster - we love our sprouts) and that's it. the boys picked grandma a boquet when we were clearing up at the weekend . But who would give it to her?

as you can see they have their own way of sorting these things out!

Tonight we have been making preparations for the weekend. The pumpkins may be small but they look quite good I think.

We have two parties a disco and a school non uniform day to prepare ourselves for - Hallow'een was never this important when I were a lass. So off to polish up my face painting skills YS wants to go as a "zombie ear basher with a scythe" ,whatever one of those may be.

Bean at the plot

School holidays, holidays, w*rk and family have all combined to make the visits to the plot less frequent than ever this month. Tonight, after returning from the annual bank holiday camping trip we all mucked in to try to get some winter crops in the ground and see what there was to harvest.
The harvest was beans, beans and beans (oh and courgettes) and then some more beans. So now I am of to chop blanch and freeze, leave carrier bags for the neighbour, Mum and Aunty and work out how much of the remainder I can realistically get through and how much needs to be gifted.

We did manage to plant leeks and winter caulis and a few sprouting broc plants but I need to do some land clearance before we can finish the rest of the winter planting. I am trying enviromesh this year in an attempt to foil the butterflies/pigeons/ everything else that made last years brassicas a near write off - the cost made my eyes water but I'm hoping it will last for several years (it had better!).

Soon YS will be off to school and I may be able to sneak an extra lottie session in each week which should make next season a lot more comfortable/ productive/ planned but the best laid plans... We shall see and in the meantime we shall eat beans.

Visit to Tyntesfield

On the way to the French ferry a couple of weeks ago we stopped off at Tyntesfield Estate near Bristol.
We had a game of football (obligatory OS's choice), climbed the scaffold tower to the roof (YS), visited the tea room (OH) and finally visited the kitchen garden (Me!).

They were selling homegrown fruit and veg but we weren't impressed with the prices!

The cutting garden was spectacular - this in no way does it justice.

They have more staff than I do.

Up the tower

Cute box in the shop

Where are the photos of the veg?

This was as close as I got - there is a fan pruned cherry in the background...

I think I was so busy admiring the straight rows and lack of weeds I must have forgotten to take one. My, but their onions were big - you'll just have to take my word for it!

We had a lovely time there is a lot of walking involved in the visit, the gardens are a long way from the car park etc but well worth it.  The guide even took the trouble to show the boys where the 10yo gardeners boy would have slept in a cupboard above the benches in the potting shed when it was his turn to keep the boiler going during the night. OS pronounced this "cool". If you are looking for a stop of the M5 this summer it's well worth a look.

I've got a red one!

Tomato that is. The reason that this deserves it's own special post?
Last year I got not one. The dreaded blight swept through whilst they were all still green.
I watched Alys Fowler's programme and she said that this year she wasn't even going to try, and I felt the same, but then...
Isn't gardening always like that? A series of disappointments and small victories.
Today was a victory.  I hope Alys changed her mind too.

Courgettes

Today we had courgettes for lunch.
Today we had courgettes for tea.
Today we had courgettes for pudding too.

I guess the courgette season is here?

Lunch : Pasta with ribbons of courgette fried in olive oil with a cream sauce, chilli flakes and black pepper. Served with a green salad, smoked salmon and a wedge of lemon.
Pudding: Chocolate courgette cake, raspberries, cream.
Tea BBQ sausages, courgette marinated in olive oil and a little lemon, salad, potatoes. And ketchup.
Pudding BBQ chocolate bananas, toasted marshmallows.

Yum!
Today I am liking courgettes.

(camera is broken again - but I guess by this point in the season you all know what a courgette looks like...)