Hot weekend and lots to do!

This weekend was a good one we had a lovely Mayfair and a cheeky Chinese at mum and dads! Followed by hard graft at the allotment!ed worked very hard tilling the soil for my tree cabbage courtesy of the real seed company and some more beetroot, a pumpkin and aubergine plant ....I cheated with the latter two!
I had a good hoe at the weeds on the paths and ed has invested in some scaffolding planks to help with paths!
The only thing I can say has gone wrong
At the lotty today is that my back above the vest but below the shoulders has burnt because I forgot to ask ed to finish the sun cream application!have had worse things to complain about!

Nice weather.......for ducks!

Well a lot has been happening in our plot since I last updated,apart from the weeds growing like mad and the hose pipe ban(which frankly hasn't been an issue with all this rain) we have also managed to tidy up and install some sort of a system. So far the giant Sicilian radishes are a pleasure and surprise to anyone who try's them,they are a lot milder and have an addictive crunch,they are great with houmous dip( an accidental discovery by a friend when I bombarded her with the first crop) in stir fries or just on their own. The children arn't great fans but loved growing and picking them, what with their speedy growing and bright pink skin!
The red onions and spring onions are doing well, much better since the boys have remembered where the paths are!
I thought I had lost my beetroots to the last frost along with the dwarf beans but they seem to be coming back. Luckily I had a few reserves of the bean seedlings and yesterday I topped them up with some peas! I have sewn the carrots too!they are short chubby ones so hoping to get some earlier than normal breeds.
Ed spent all of sunday strimming away the nettles that had gone bizerk (sp?) and then covering the top of the plot and the path with wood chip.we got it delivered free by a local tree surgeon always looking for somewhere to dispose of chippings. It's a long tiresome job but the boys found the smoke coming out of it amusing along with the discovery that you can fall back on to the heap without any pain!
This will hopefully keep some of the nettles and grass under control!
So next weekend after the school Mayfair on saturday, hopefully Sunday he will be in the mood for a little rotavating, I need the next section prepared for the tree cabbage plants that are thriving in the green house along with some spare tomato plants. I have debated over this as other allotment keepers have informed me of the tomato blight that has occurred over the past couple of years but figure I have too many just for the garden so will give it a go!
The squash,and patti pans and spherical courgettes are all coming along nicely but with all the unexpected frost I will leave them till they are stronger before risking it.
So that's all for now,keep on weeding and performing sun dances! But as my son pointed out we should thank the rain really,there wouldn't be much with out it!that is enough for me to give myself a telling off every time I hear myself complain about the rain!

First sign of seedlings!

I can't believe it!i sewed (is that correct grammar or eve a word?) my radish seeds on Monday morning in my conservatory and they are already appearing!
I went to the allotment yesterday to tidy up the ground cover that had wriggled loose and start removing grass and weeds from my winter salad patches so hopefully if the rain stops today I will tilling and preparing the top patch of my plot for the radishes and onions!
Here we go.........

The start of a new exciting year!

Well I gave in and couldnt wait any longer! I have started sewing the seeds. I have sewn some onions and radishes!not a lot but satisfied my impatience for today. I only put it off this long as I got some useful stuff for the allotment for Christmas. A great allotment planner/ diary and a lovely seed index box. Writing up my action plan over the Christmas, new year break put my mind ready for action , the only bit that needs a bit of action now is the sun! Once the earth warms up a bit I'm going down there and tilling Like crazy! I needed the break from the physical shock my body went under preparing the ground last year, but now I want to do some serious growing!
The plan is once my onions and radishes start to get their 2nd leaves I will plant them out as I made the mistake last year of putting them in the ground straight away, this let the weeds grow up too and I spent far too long trying to distinguish which ones were weeds and which were the veg!this way I can keep all weeds at bay until the plants are a little established and then easily spotted when hoeing.
That's all for now just pray for some sun and spring to come. The birds are singing more but it's bloody chilly no good for onions......apparently!

Preparing for Hybernation

Well I think this year will be a little easier to tidy as we have already covered a lot of it.
I have given my sister some bags to put her horses poo in and watched the green manure come to life, so for the time being its bonfires and the occasional hoeing to keep the little weeds from popping up!
At the moment we are enjoying our first proper harvest so far of mizuna and mibuna. I would recommend growing these to anyone as once they get going you have months of fresh greens with everything. They don't have a strong flavour like rocket but have a distinctive fresh green flavour,the leaves are very pretty and can be used in salads or stir-fries. I have been enjoying them with a little butter to go with fish or potatoes. I find them a nice alternative to spinach. The best thing though is that they grow best in colder climates as they tend to bolt if they get to warm.
I have learnt a lot already though that as much as the packet says you can plant things straight into the ground I will definitely start everything in seed modules first. I have planted rainbow chard and lettuces and as neat as I have kept the rows they just got lost amongst all the weeds that seem to grow at the same speed if not faster and the seedlings that don't get munched by some very lucky slugs get lost. I spent a very long time trying to distinguish which was a lettuce and which was a weed and then carefully pulled the weeds out around them ,so next time I am going to grow them till they are stronger in the modules,in the mean time keep all the weed at bay in the seed beds do that when I transfer them the lettuces etc have had a good head start!
Ed doesn't know it yet but I am planning on lifting all the covers off one more time to rotavate some manure in quickly think cover it back up so it has time to get worked into the ground with the frost and worms in time for next spring. We are also going to have some bonfires to get rid of all the left over weeds we dug up in the summer and cover that space to become the boys play area next year.
I am afraid I have gotten a little ahead if myself and already ordered all my seeds for next year from the real seed company which you can find on www.realseeds.co.uk , they are a brilliant family company with an amazing collection of seeds that they have tried and tested themselves for success in production and taste. You will find a anything from big croppers to rare heirlooms! So I have 23 new things to look forward to next year and in fear of boring you to death here is just a few that I am excited about : purple ukraine tomato, patti pan, summer crook neck, and tondo do placena which is a spherical courgette apparently better than the traditional long shape as they have more surface area for the sun but taste and behave pretty much the same when cooked.
So, sad as it may be I am very excited about the autumn, for me the most romantic cosy time of the year where we can prepare for and anticipate the spring and all the beautiful fruits it will give us!

step 4 ...rotavating and covering!!!

Well all i can say is ouch and ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............
This has got to be the most exhausting thing i have ever undertaken!Even more than having a baby with colic, well i guess if i tried to fit the 10 months of screaming and crying into 2 months i reckon it probably wouldn't be here to say i have an allotment.
It has been a race against time, and we made it, now it is somewhat under control for now i can safely say 'commitment' is the word that most covers what having an allotment means.
i had a very hot week mid august digging up the last of the obvious bramble roots (buggers!!) and going back over areas that we had dug, taking out those  cheeky dock leaves that were threatening to come back with a vengeance. once that was done i had a little break as i had a tummy bug and couldn't lift a fork let alone dig with it,  so i made a birthday request; i think must be the most romantic thing i have ever asked for, a rotavator of my very own!

My wonderful husband obliged and got me a Honda FG110. Or as we like to call it the red wizard! When it arrived i couldn't contain my excitement, it was all shiny and conjured images of perfectly ploughed fields and scenes from a Thomas Hardy book or a kitchen garden from a Jane Austin novel, all these were suddenly possible, it was the wizard that would make a veggie patch to make the mouth of any growers mouth water.
we started early on the Saturday morning and i managed to get 3/4 of the way through, once we had worked out what it was that upset it, eg stones, old buried carpet, once the aid for killing weeds (clearly didn't work),we were away, steaming ahead through the rows of weeds that were once again taking over. i say steam ahead we actually discovered going backwards worked better, if we went forward it had a mind of its own and i was in danger of taking off through all the neighbouring plots!

I was very greedy with it and only allowed ed the odd couple of rows before i couldn't bare it any more i had to take over!Heres a picture of my beautiful helpers;

ed was so sweet though he took the bored boys off in the car and kept them amused until the village flower show at 2 o'clock. we had a lovely afternoon and a big success as Theo one first prize for his miniature dinosaur garden in a seed tray and his painting of his house (the fact that there was only the two of them entering the garden one and only himself entered the painting competition is irrelevant we were most pleased!).Despite its old fashioned layout, unbearable stuffy rules and clicky gang, it was an inspiring afternoon, seeing all the giant onions and perfectly formed tomatoes and carrots.

we went back the following day to finish off the rotavating, we left the boys with mum for the morning so we could tackle it uninterrupted. This bit was a killer as the ground was hard and hadn't been turned for god knows how long. Once it was done we covered over bits that i wanted to rest and kill off the weeds over the autumn and winter. I decided to cover a 2 m strip then sow green manure seeds for 2 m then allocate 2 m to sewing winter veg, the cover 2m, green manure 2m, sew veg for 2 m and so on. It was such a relief! The membrane sheeting that we used was easy to roll out just time consuming and we wanted to make sure it was weighted down properly as it gets quite windy there. We used any thing we could find really from old  bricks to trunks of an old tree i cut down earlier that month. we also used tent pegs which look very professional thanks to ed!

That evening ed took the boys to my in laws for tea and i went down to my perfect blank canvas. I had a wonderful afternoon in the setting sun and peaceful surroundings sewing my seeds and watering them in. I have sewn all things hardy to hopefully take us through the winter. Cos lettuce, can can lettuce, dwarf beans,mizuna, mibuna, rainbow chard, spinach and spring onions. although i not sure they will work?! This is what it was all about and the moment made it all worth while, i felt such a sense of calm and satisfaction that i just don't think anyone could deny its simple grounding and humbleness.    
i have rewarded myself with a new hoe and some more tunnel cloches as i not sure the lettuces will like the frost. I have also installed my snazzy bird scarers made of old free Cd's courtesy of my pa and an old octopus peg thing, and an old umbrella frame. they look shall we say a little !pottie! but they actually make really pretty rainbow reflections along the ground, all of which will hopefully scare away those pesky birds.
so for now i am eagerly awaiting the delivery of my new tool and then i will quite happily spend the rest of the long summer evenings down there then the early mornings once i have dropped Theo off at his new school in September nipping off the top of those dastardly weeds! Let the battle commence!

step 3, weed control!What am i growing?grass!!!aaaargh!

So now this is what they call commitment. luckily I'm still in the honeymoon period of the relationship and i would be down there all the time if my back and children would allow it, but unfortunately not at the moment as it is quite hot. No amount of bribing from ice-creams to watching favourite films all afternoon seems to be working as there is no shade down there. so every time we go back it is as if someone has secretly sewn quick grow grass seed all over my newly rotivated and partially turned soil!
A plan of action needs to be made! We have decided to get weed control or membrane sheeting and have it at 2m widths all the way up the allotment, hold them all down with blocks or whatever we can find, then rotate the plots for now maybe uncover 2 at a time depending on how much space i need. I am also going to try phacelia tanacetifolia, green manure, as recommended by Dee from Green Side Up Veg. I am also going to rotate this so we can be feeding a bit of ground at the same time as using some of the other parts. You can get this at most garden centers i believe. I got mine from Millbrook Garden center. Anyway that's the plan so this hopefully is the last time you will see my allotment looking like a scene from a war film!(without the soldiers(sadly!))