Duck Dinner Dash

2012-01-29T22:21:00.000Z

OH finally dismantled what remained of the greenhouse today ... the plot looks much bigger, but so empty without it :( :(

Wonder if anyone can make use of it or whether I should just take it to the tip. At least it doesn't take up much space :(

The hedge bonfire pile is ridiculous - there are now 4 enormous piles ... taking up almost a quarter of the plot !! Hope it's dry enough to burn next weekend.

another call for all Sheffield alloment holders - rent increase !!!

2012-01-16T19:24:00.001Z

eek - here is copy of an email from Rob Hawkins, President of the Sheffield Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Federation about allotment rents doubling in Sheffield from April 2013 onwards:

Dear Allotmenteer

Last Thursday (Jan 12), the Allotment Advisory Group passed a motion recommending that the rent Allotment tenants should pay for council allotments will double in April 2013. The income the allotment office will receive from allotment rents will more than double.

This report will be presented to the City Council Cabinet for approval in February.

The 4 federation voting members abstained from voting as we were only sent the report the day before and didn't have time to consider or discuss its implications. The five councillors (Green, Labour and Lib Dem) voted en bloc in favour of acceptance of this report.

Our first concern is that allotment gardeners across the city will give up their plots due to this level of increase, some of these paying the full amount, some discounted.

If you or some gardeners on your site will be unable to continue due to this level of increase, please could you let me know. We have agreed to reply to the Allotment Advisory Group Chairman before the end of January.

Any further concerns will be discussed at a later date (in February).

Rob Hawkins
President, Sheffield Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Federation

I have uploaded the report to this site (well hopefully I have as I really have little clue what I just did LOL): www.wix.com/mc55mcd/duckdinnerdash

Here's another shiney new year filled with hope, joy and new beginnings ...

2012-01-15T19:51:00.005Z

... or then again !

... just before Christmas the greenhouse panels next to the door blew out and smashed leaving it very vulnerable. I didn't get chance to do anything about and sadly we've had gale after gale after gale ... here is the result :(

pretty catostrophic huh :(

The frame has lifted, twisted and collapsed. The base was cemented breeze blocks and the frame was screwed to said breeze blocks, but the wind was so strong it's actually torn the frame from the breeze blocks and even lifted some of the blocks.

OH helped me remove the glass - we've filled a wheelie bin and a couple of plastic tubs. Out of all that glass we managed to rescue only three pieces ... it would have been four, but I smashed it trying to remove it from the clips ! grrrr ... or is that Doh !!

OH thinks that the frame might be salvageable, but it's twisted pretty badly, so I think I might be giving the scrap man a call. It looks OK in this shot, but it's pretty bad in reality ... and of course I don't have any glass !

With the greenhouse gone, I had chance to access the hedge behind it. Lopping at the branches yet again for what seems like the 99th-million time, I got really cross and decided sod it ... let's just say that I have have 'thinned' my side of the hedge a little. Well a lot. Actually rather drastically - very drastically in fact ! haha ... take that hedge !!

I now have an enormous bonfire pile once again :)

I've been trying to get some manure delivered over the Christmas holidays, but our regular contact has run out ! So that is on hold temporarily, but I must get some this season - the soil is really poor.

As usual I have a growing list of jobs to attend to; next weekend, I'm planning to thin and perhaps move the raspberries to a different bed. I'm also going to dig up the tree behind the greenhouse that has so far produced three apples ! I've been given some beautiful blackcurrants, so need to plant those once the soil has thawed out. Then it'll be cracking on with all the usual maintenance jobs.

OH and I were almost casualties of the weather too ! On Christmas morning we thought we'd go for a lovely stroll to one of the local beauty spots, Stanage Edge. Oh yes ... lovely stroll LOL.

We fought against the wind to get to the top of the edge and then once there we fought to remain on terra firma !

Not surprisingly we only saw a few hardy fools and one dog .. we soon beat a retreat to the warmth and quiet of the house :)

So happy new year to everyone, hope you all enjoyed the holidays ! Looking forward to catching up with what everyone is doing - here's to another year ... off we go again !

Halloween

2011-10-31T20:42:00.008Z

Some friends threw down the gauntlet for scariest outfits for a Halloween party ... be warned, they are a bit gruesome ... but no one was hurt, it's all makeup and paint :)

This is my practice makeup practice run. Unfortunately for the poor delivery man, I forgot I had zombie makeup on and a zombie baby eating it's way out of my fake tummy went I went to answer the door - I've never seen anyone throw a parcel and run so fast LOL. At least I hadn't added the fake blood at this stage ;)

Here we all are at the beginning of the night:

Me and OH in our final makeup. I'm a zombie and he has 'unzipped' his face:

You can't actually tell from these photos, but we shaved a wide stripe in his hair all the way around the back and painted a fake cut and stitches - as if he'd had a Lobotomy ... it was a little too effective and I'm sure that some people actually thought he'd had surgery :)

This is my final outfit with fake blood added. I drew lots of gasps and double looks when people saw zombie baby ! You wouldn't believe how many people asked if I was actually pregnant (and before anyone gives me any cheek that's half of a pillow stuffed up my top ...)

Food Glorious Food !

2011-10-26T18:36:00.004+01:00

I have lots of cookery books - although I seem to spend more time looking through them than actually making anything. I've been busy looking up recipes for the last of the allotment goodies and came across my 'Cranks Bible' recipe book. I was disappointed when I got it all those years ago as it doesn't have many photos, but spurred on by a tray of beetroot I decided to make beetroot risotto. OH and I are currently in heaven. It was amazing. So good we made it for friends at the weekend. They joined us in heaven - we've pretty much got that market corned ;)

It was so good we scoffed it without drawing breath and didn't manage to get any photos ... sorry :) :)

Spurred on by that success, tonight I made Chickpea Salad with Coriander, Sunblushed Tomatoes and Haloumi (a very firm Cypriot salty cheese). It was even better than the risotto.

So good I thought I should share it with you, as if (unlike me) you have had a successful season at the allotment there are quite a few ingredients that you can grow yourself.

Here's what you do - you will not be disappointed, I promise you:

Into a serving bowl put:

2 cans of rinsed & drained chickpeas, 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, 2 tablespoons each of chopped parsley, coriander & extra virgin olive oil, 1 crushed garlic clove (from the allotment - yippee), half a very finely sliced red onion - season & mix.

Now the recipe also calls for 100g of Rocket leaves ... but we didn't have any of that in our fridge, so I chopped up spinach - about 4 handfuls. Mix that with the other stuff. It also calls for a dash of tamari (but we don't know what that is) and a dash of Tabasco (but OH doesn't like that LOL).

Add sunblush tomatoes to your taste (recipe calls for 24 pieces) and then set aside to infuse.

Just before you are ready to serve, cut a 250g block of Haloumi into strips - brush with olive oil and cook for 1 mins each side on a hot griddle (to get lovely lines) - cheese should be golden & crisp on outside, hot & molten on inside - don't cook too long as it will go rubbery / tough.

Place on top of your salad and serve immediately.

We drizzled ours with Balsamic vinegar and ate it with a lovely baguette. Boy it was good :) :)

The photo doesn't do it justice, but in fairness OH was half way through eating when I suddenly demanded a photo ... hope you enjoy

Workshop Update

2011-10-18T22:33:00.004+01:00

Well the workshop that I attended was pretty good and very well run. Participants were surprisingly well behaved and listened to what was presented.

Highlights from the presentations !

- There are 76 council owned allotment sites in Sheffield and one private site !
- Over 3,000 tenants and 2,200 people on the waiting list. Wow.
- Issued 59 notices to quit (which doesn't seem terribly high to me) and 593 letters about cultivation etc in 2011 to date.
- The budget has been cut by 10% for next year - no actual figures revealed.
- Sheffield is the only major city not to have any self managed council sites.

Following the presentations we were asked to consider two questions: what did we think about the current Council Subsidy (75%) and Rent Levels and what were our thoughts on being Self Managed.

We had to put our responses onto post-it notes and stick them to pieces of flip chart paper. All the input is being collected and analysed and will be fed back to plot holders.

The only negative was being harassed at the end of the meeting by one of my former idiot committee colleagues ... he managed to stop short of following me into the ladies loo, settling for waiting for me and my friend outside the door. Unbelievable. Perhaps he views me as an easy target, being female. You'd think he'd have got the message by now that I resigned from the committee to escape the lunacy that is their world.

Anyway I digress, if you have an opportunity to attend, I encourage you to do so. They've had 600 responses to the questionnaire so far (current tenants & waiting list - so 5,200 people)

Sheffield Council - Allotment Workshops

2011-10-17T18:43:00.003+01:00

Bit late I know, just getting back into the habit of blogging ... you wait for months and then get spammed with three posts in three days :)

In case you haven't seen the letter, here are the brief details:

Sheffield Council will be running 4 workshops to address key themes for the future of the Allotment service:

1 Provide an update on the workshops that were run in 2009
2 Consult and inform customers on the allotment rent review process (remember this is the proposal to rise rents quite dramatically over the next 4-5 years)
3 Identify and discuss issues facing us in the future.

Aim is to understand both current and prospective tenant's views.

Tuesday 18 October (Norfolk Heritage Park)
Wednesday 19 October (Hillsbrough)
25th October (Meersbrook) - almost full
25th October (Mosbrough)

I think all timings are 6.30pm, but as that vital piece of information (along with half of the dates) was missing from the letter (DOH !) you might want to call the office and double check.

I believe if you are interested in attending you need to call the office on: 0114 2734528 or email: pwc.allotments@sheffield.gov.uk

Enough procrastinating !

2011-10-16T20:38:00.004+01:00

So here is what I did today: dug over the onion bed, garlic bed, bean & pea bed:

Weeded the strawberry bed:

and the squash bed and the greenhouse bed:

So I've had a good appraisal today of what needs to be done, but actually, as I've dug over 50% in a day, in theory it shouldn't take long to lick into shape. I have a list (as always):

- cut down all raspberries, dig them ALL up .... dig up the bloody bindweed, replant raspberries.
- order manure and actually get it delivered .... no procrastinating now Michelle !
- take up the path between the onion & garlic bed to make a bigger bed
- relocate the greenhouse benches to the concrete and accept that my g/h is never going to get put up
- get some new pallets for the compost area that is now very dilapidated

I decided to get tough ! I've ripped up the flowering crab apple that doesn't actually produced any crab apples ... just flowers. The 'big' 'apple' tree (not that it's produced more than 3 apples in 5 years) is next on my hit list. As I nearly snapped my spade trying to dig up the crab apple (you'd think I'd learn after my last encounter) I shall be sawing it down :)

Nick arrived after a while and told me that he'd had a letter from the allotment office telling him to tidy up his plot or give it up ! Apparently the main issue was the 'grass' that was growing ... turned out to his rye ... he'd dug in most of it, leaving a little so he could collect seeds. Hmmm, not much to be said to that !

This is my Spring sown artichoke - it is still very small - I'm not sure it'll make it through the winter, so I'm debating whether to pot it up and put it in the greenhouse until March.

I seem to have a random rocket plant growing:

The jerusalem artichokes are in full flower

as they are about my only crop left on the plot, I thought I'd dig some up ... watch out, expecting the weather to change next week - maybe a little windy haha

Here is my entry for comedy vegetables - not the greatest photo, but it looks a bit like a donkey or a dog maybe :) :)

Here is my lovely hemp plant ! it'll be going on to the compost heap once I get around to digging over the brick bed.

Interesting that some things never change ! No matter what time of year, they are regular as clockwork !

Here is my compost heap, newly fed:

The last of the summer flowers:

I'm pleased to see that my pond is still nice and full - earlier in the summer I was worried it had a leak, now I now know that it was just a lack of water ! I'm determined this year to thin out those iris:

Look at the state of our car park - I'm going to complain to the Alloment Officers - it's ridiculous - there are now only two spaces to park. There are about 5 hoovers sticking out of this pile ... not quite sure how they're going to compost !

well its sure been a while ....

2011-10-15T20:02:00.008+01:00

... since my last visit !

I'd like to say I've been busy in the background, beavering away at my lottie, but sadly I can't claim anything of the sort. Ah well - always next season 'eh :)

So here are my excuses: first we had the rain, then we had the drought, then my OH was away for what seemed like months, in between I moved to a new job at work, then we decided to sell our house which meant finishing all those pesky jobs that we never got around to finishing (or indeed starting in some cases), then OH was rushed into emergency A&E and spent a week in hospital (kidney stone - he is fine now) and then I went on a business trip. Hmmmm is that enough :)

I have managed to harvest some things:
- had fabulous garlic late spring
- OK onions
- fabulous potatoes (still digging them - what a surprise I hear you say cheekily)
- apples (they don't look like the brambleys that the label promised, but will still make a nice apple tart)
- purple beans - managed to save some seed for next year. They are sooooo fabulous chopped up with butter
- peas - enough for a couple of batches of soup
- a few strawberries & raspberries - got some jam made
- a few squashes - pretty small overall, but then I haven't watered at all and have barely visited.
- jerusalem artichokes
- kohl rabi
- tomatoes
- herbs
- beetroot

What wasn't so good:
- my fabulous carrots for carrot fly AGAIN
- peppers
- cucumbers
- sweetcorn
- borlotti beans
- courgettes (gasp)
- florence fennel
- globe artichoke
- blueberries

My house looks fab tho !
Am very pleased - we've had 8 viewings and 5 offers so far ... not quite at the price that we want yet, but not far off now, so fingers crossed :)
We do live here, seriously ! hahah ... you don't even want to know what we did with all our 'stuff'

Kitchen - the rabbit pictures on the left were my birthday present last year from a fabulous English artist living in Paris. I love my kitchen - the black art deco doors are going to be very hard to find again :(

Here is our city garden - the paving is Chinese slate - it is blue and rusty coloured - looks amazing after the rain. That's a Eucalyptus tree on the left (it needs chopping in half - it's only a couple of years old gulp) and golden bamboo against the back wall on the right. The silver tubs have French lavender, lambs ears (no idea of it's proper name, but its those silky / silver leaves that look like rabbits ears - so velvety you can't stop stroking them) and a clematis called Henri - a nod to OH's dad who died a few years ago.

Here's my bathroom - is this getting weird LOL

my living room

spare room / library

and my bedroom !

Hmm, so what other excuses did I list ... oh yes - OH !

So I'm at work and my colleague interrupts a meeting to tell me there is a problem at home - oh I say, is it the cats ! no she says, I think it's your OH. Oh right LOL. So I call him and he is gasping and groaning and it's very difficult to make out anything of sense at all, but it seems he has passed out three times (chipped a tooth !), been throwing up and immobilised by dreadful pain through his kidneys. So I call an ambulance BUT I'm 30 miles away from home (1.5hour drive !!) so I call his friend who has a set of keys. Said friend runs to the house to try and beat the ambulance, but when he gets there, OH has left his key in the door, so friend can't open the door !!! oh no. S'OK he says ... I'll break in ! Managed to persuade him not to and he figured out a plan B.

In the meantime I jump into my car and drive very fast to the adult A&E department ... can you believe I got there BEFORE the ambulance ... which went past me as I was walking up the hospital driveway !!!

I find OH on a trolly, curled up in a foetus position, shaking so violently that I thought he was going to fall off. After a few tests and a scan of some sort the verdict of kidney stones is delivered (to his relief). He is dosed up with morphine, dyctytrecky-something or other, another drug that I've forgotten and a paracetamol (doctor why are you giving him a paracetamol - 'it tops the other drugs off nicely' ....er, okaaaayy !)

Finally, nearly a week week later he has 'passed' the 4mm stone (ouch) and fought off the infection and is sent home :)

Apparently kidney stones are the male equivalent of giving birth ... OH managed not to slap the grinning female nurse who delivered this gem to him haha. So my sympathy to any of you who have experienced the pain.

I've also managed to fit in a business trip to Chicago. I'm not really a fan of the US, but I LOVED Chicago and would move there tomorrow ! What an amazing place - I had a ball - even though it was a work trip :)

This is the John Hancock building:

The view looking down on Chicago at night from the 95th floor bar of the John Hancock building !!! so high, my boss was shaking and we had to leave after just a few minutes :)

Trump Towers !

The city reflected in Trump Towers:

This is Chicago's Millennium sculpture - the Bean ... it captures the city perfectly:

Sunset through the skyscrapers:

So having run out of excuses, I had my first visit this afternoon for what feels like an entire season. It's not as bad as I feared - even the weeds haven't really done much. I shall go for a proper visit tomorrow and start the big clear up. Watch this space haha !

2011-07-10T21:35:00.007+01:00

Well the greenhouse is pretty poor - I've barely had time to visit it to water and so it's had to fend for itself ... the strawberries were amazing - the few that I ate during fleeting visits anyway and the marigolds are rather lovely, but my aubergine is pathetic and I don't think my peppers are going to come to much.

My tomatoes are rather disappointing. Now that my OH is back from his 3 week holiday, I might have a bit more time to visit. Remember that naughty kitten mixing up all my labels ... this is supposed to be a Gardeners Delight haha ... but is obviously a Tigerella.

One greenhouse success is my mint - it's now in flower - isn't it pretty ! Typical tho .. just as the peas are ready, the mint finishes !! Sigh.

Let's not even discuss my weeds !! Where do they come from ??

Here is my pride and joy ... if only I knew what it was haha. I think it may be a Sweet Dumpling' or a 'small sugar' ... it does have a label ... if only I'd looked at it.

My Vivaldi potatoes have died down, so I've started to dig them up - fancy, in the right season haha. We've had some tonight in Jamie's 30 minute curry - along with the last of last years Winter Festival, this years garlic and some freshly podded peas. Yum !!

My beetroot germination as been very patchy, not sure why. I will try to sow some more during my next visit. My yellow ones are still very small - I think these ones were Choggia (the stripy ones) ... really must start checking labels LOL. They are sat on a bag of peas that I harvested. Still lots on the plants. The flippin' pigeons have been landing on the netting over the top of the peas and nibbling them !! Nothing is safe ... grrr

Baby carrots are progressing well ... it's really not as big as it looks in the photo. Wonder if I'll get carrot fly again this year. I've not got any fleece covering them, as that's prevented precious water reaching them in previous seasons. Guess I'll just take my chances. Maybe eating them young is the plan ...

We've had quite a lot of sunshine, so I'm not altogether surprised that my courgettes are so small ... I really really really must manure this autumn, the ground is exhausted (bit like me)

Well the spinach has well and truely gone to seed ... it's rather pretty, but I didn't actually get a crop off it .

The dry weather has also seen the florence fennel go to flower before the bulb's have formed. It has the most amazing aniseed smell and beautiful soft fern fronds ... I might cut some for the house

hey hey ! Khol Rabi :)
Doing pretty well ... they've got a pityful net over the top of them, honestly it's minute - even Nick next door laughed when he saw it - but so far so good. Wonder what you do with Kohl Rabi ... it's a wonderful colour.

Peas ! Hurrah. Bag full picked. More to come :)

It hasn't photographed very well, but my vertical squash arrangement is working very well ... well so far anyway

Baby squash - the tromboney one ... forgot its name LOL. Something about Marina di choglia ??? hahah ... MUST start to look at my labels.

My sweetcorn is still very small, but it has all developed tassels ... it could probably do with some more water.

This is what happens when you don't net !!!! grrrrr. My beautiful cauliflowers - had 5 varieties **sob**

Any ideas anyone ? this appeared in just a few days ... it's growing really vigorously ... so it's bound to be a weed or a tree. It's certainly not something I've planted. I'm curious to see what it develops into - occasionally I get the odd thing from one of the neighbouring lotties - black kale etc ... or a helpful squirrel will bury the odd acorn.

The pond was less than half full this afternoon. It had got so low that I took the decision to top it up with the hosepipe. My reasoning was better some water than no water. Hope all the wildlife is OK - my poor waterlilly had finally flowered and now it's under 1.5' of water. I'll find out next time I go up whether I have a leak, or whether it really is just evaporation. Jenny emailed to say she has newts !! I'm so jealous. Mind, you can't have newts and frogs - just one or the other. One eats the other, I can't remember which - maybe the newts are the meanies ? But still - newts !! so exciting. Will pop in to see them next time we are both up there - will try and get a photo. Just lots of baby frogs in my pond.

Another casualty of my absence - the fantastic raspberries have all but finished. This small tub is what I managed to salvage. I'm going to see if there is enough for jam. So cross - they looked amazing a couple of weeks ago, just didn't have time to stop and harvest :(

I don't think my blueberries are going to do very well this year - they haven't had enough water :)

Herbs are always beautiful in flower

This is in my wildflower garden, in front of the pond - no idea what it's called, but it's very pretty.

A cornflower has arrived in the wildgarden - it is stunningly pretty

Argh ... I've got teasels popping up everywhere !!

As usual, poppies are also appearing all over the plot - I have deep red and Nick next door has purple. They are very pretty

I've got nasturtiums - yeay !!

If you are from Sheffield, don't forget to read the post I put on this morning - next one down.

2011-07-10T08:33:00.002+01:00

Hello, not much to report - too busy to do more than water the lottie at the moment - during my fleeting visits I've noticed that the strawberries have been and gone (doh), raspberries are about to fall off the bushes (double doh), courgettes have arrived, baby squash is grapefruit size, beetroots have swelled, carrots are growing strongly, peas are more than ready for picking and Javelin potatoes are ready for lifting ! Got lots going on at home, but will hopefully fit in a proper visit and blog update soon.

This is just a quick call out to all Sheffield Allotment holders.

Pat has emailed to advise that at the last Allotment Advisory (council meeting) the members were informed that there will be a consultation with tenants about rent rises 2013 - 2016 (remember that email doubling rents that some of us objected to a few months ago - relevant post here)

This consultation will probably be end of September / October. It is expected that a number of meetings will be held where various proposals will be presented and ideas and options discussed. There should also be the opportunity for submitting ideas / views by letter and email.

This will be discussed at the next meeting of the Allotment Federation - Monday 18th July, at Rivelin Valley Allotments (meet Rivelin Valley Cafe at 7.00 pm). All welcome to attend.

After the rain ...

2011-06-12T20:40:00.011+01:00

... comes the drought ! Areas of East Anglia are in drought, with parts of the Midlands, South West and South East in a "near-drought" state. With that in mind I took the opportunity yesterday to fill up my water butts ... no mean feat as half the brass taps were recently nicked from the site ! Just as I finished the heavens opened ... ah the irony :)

It's been my first chance to have a proper look at my veggies since the gales. Everything looks much better than I thought it would. My sweetcorn is a bit yellow, but otherwise it is growing well. Am beginning to have doubts about how closely I've planted it - oh well, too late now !

The borlottos are starting to grow again thank goodness ... just look at those weed seedlings that are sprouting :(

Where do weeds come from ... how come it's only ever my plot that's covered in weeds. I have spent most of the morning weeding my carrots ... it was touch and go for a while, but we made it :) Three varieties (I think - oh for labels haha).

I've started to dig up my garlic - I'm really pleased with them, the bulbs are huge ! Having dug them up - in the rain (what was I thinking), I need to dry them out ... only I knocked down my brick greenhouse. Doh. The first lot are in the glass greenhouse. I'd bring them home but they don't half pong !

My potatoes have just started to flower (note, no weeds :) )

This is Maris Piper. One of my roosters has also flowered - the rooster stems are purple !

My pea plan failed again darn it. Will need to hack my way in - there is a carpet path in the middle somewhere ! Wonder what everyone else does.

Here is my celariac ... now I thought that this was going to be a bulb vegetable, but now I'm confused as it smells just like celery. Must go and do some googling.

My last free bed has been given over to cauliflowers - 4 different varieties. I was drenched by the time I left the plot so I hope I don't regret not netting them !!! Do pigeons fly in the rain ? Let's say not :)

Bloomin' spinach has bolted and gone to flower, think the dry spell has been too much for it. Looks like it'll be headed for the compost heap shortly.

I took home some strawberries, florence fennel, mint (for pea & mint soup) and a lettuce donated by Linda next door.

Flipping ox eye daisies are EVERYWHERE !!! Have ripped up a huge armful and donated it to the compost heap, along with the comfrey plant that has collapsed with the wind & rain.

The plot is also full of foxgloves as usual - they are stunning as usual - dark pink, pale pink and white

did someone mention killer cucumbers

2011-05-30T19:52:00.004+01:00

who would have thought - organic too !! Will be watching with interest to see how they got infected. Pretty frightening - absolute kidney failure: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13587182

I've been away for a couple of days and worried about my beans and squashes in the recent gales I asked OH to pop up and check them.

Me - 'how are my beans'
OH - 'ummm, what do they look like' ...
me -'see the canes sticking out of the ground ... they are planted at the bottom of each cane'
.. OH - 'oh' ..
me - 'well?'
.. OH - 'ummm, they look greeny' ...
me - 'right ... what about the squashes'
OH - 'what do they look like'
dear god
me - 'they are next to the sticky things - planted in the ground'
OH 'oh'
me - 'well !!!'
OH 'ummmm, they look greeney too - everything looks green. I think it is all growing'.
me - 'are they windburnt'
OH - 'what does that look like'
right. Sigh. Nevermind.

A quick reccie tonight has put my mind at rest - I'll definitely lose some of the beans, but all in all they are doing pretty well, especially the purple ones. Will just have to wait and see what my borlotto's do. Squashes all look surprisingly healthy still and my courgettes which I'd potted up, but hadn't planted also look pretty good. The weeds have gone barmey they are loving all this rain.

Got a nice surprise in the greenhouse - 850g of strawberries ... I'm halfway to jam :) They are now in the fridge covered in sugar. Wonder what I did with all my jars !

2011-05-22T19:56:00.004+01:00

'cor it's just been rush, rush, rush down at the lottie. The recent temperatures have been too much for the potbound plants in the greenhouse and they have suffered scorching. So this weekend it was my intention to plant out all of my beans - purple runners and borlotto, squashes, pumpkins and sweetcorn.

Sweetcorn - check ! ... now safely planted - the ones at the front have been in plastic cups and have grown much bigger than the ones in root trainers - so note to self for next season ... plastic cups are the future. Following my commercial sweetcorn snooping, I've planted them much closer this season - will be interesting to see if it makes any difference whatsoever.

After yet another trip to B&Q to get yet more canes (where do they go every year !!) I finally manged to finish planting out my beans - these are purple (such attention to labelling I hear you cry). I planted them out today, in the gale force wind !!! The beans I planted out yesterday have been battered completely and lost most of their leaves ... hope they pull through. Sigh

The recent sunshine and rain have seen my potatoes recovering well from their frost bite - just hope with the mix of weather we've had lately that the dreaded blight doesn't appear. Hopefully it's still a bit early in the season.

No where on earth are my leeks going to go !! I've just about run out of space - still got 99 million leeks, 6 courgettes, couple more squashes, 5 globe artichokes and about another 15 potatoes to find a home for

Here's my last hope LOL. I've also got my brick bed - maybe the leeks will go there and the small space in front of the greenhouse ... maybe my courgettes will squeeze in there. That means artichokes will be going here. Hmm !!

Drastic times call for drastic measures - so I've decided to try vertical integration again for my squashes in an effort to plant them all. Do I think it will work ? no, not at all - but it's always good to have an optimistic outlook on life right ?

Having failed miserably on the manure front I had a brainwave this morning .... why not plant my squashes in compost from my compost heap ! Brilliant idea. After filling a barrow full I noticed a bee - that quickly turned into a few ... seems I have bees nesting in my compost heap !!! blummin' typical - guess that's the end of the heap until winter. Unfortunately I also have bees nesting in my kitchen roof at home - any ideas how to get rid of them without just filling in the hole and killing them ?

Anyway, the little compost I got looks great, well I thought it did:

The greenhouse is now fully planted up with cucumbers, melon, tomatoes & sacrificial flowers - I've been enjoying strawberries for the last week or so - yum ! It's pretty hot in their during the day, but the temperatures are still dropping at night, so the door will remain shut for now:

My apple tree is dripping ... but sadly I have forgotten to buy it a tree stake, so it is currently doubled over and suffering greatly with the wind ! Note to self - must try harder ...

Loonies R us !!

2011-05-17T19:36:00.005+01:00

So the day of the Moonwalk finally arrived ... and with it went the last of the Spring sun - of course !

We arrived in London on Saturday afternoon to a fanfare of drizzle and rain. Great. Checked the Met forecast ... rain easing into wind ! Super. LOL. Just about perfect weather for getting your kit off and trotting round London half naked.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales is the Charity's Patron and sent us a special message - disappointingly he didn't have a decorated bra on: clickity-click

Then at 11.40pm it was time for us to set off. Into the dark we went, resplendent in our decorated bras and plastic ponchos !

15,000 men & women in decorated bras is quite a sight - we went for traditional pink, but there were some amazing creations

Here's the route:

I don't actually remember most of it - between the dark and sleep deprivation ! It was impossible to go any faster than a stroll for the first 8-10 miles due to the sheer amount of walkers.

We got held up a few times - 5-15 mins to cross various roads, 25 mins to queue for the loo !! But Tower Bridge was quite spectacular - especially when we nearly got blown off it. Once the route split and the half marathoner's turned off, we were able to speed up to our target 4 miles an hour.

My friend started to weep with tiredness at around the 17 mile mark which was worrying, she looked in so much pain, but we kept going.

Dawn broke and at around 5am we passed a lone Chelsea Pensioner who'd come out to pay tribute to us all. The sun continued to rise and welcomed us back past Buckingham Palace and then into Hyde Park with warming rays. We had a lovely reception as we approached the last mile with everyone's friends and family cheering us on ... until finally at 7.30am we crossed the finish line

... but cross the finish line we did and here is the evidence !!

It was pretty gruelling and as we passed the finish line we swore we wouldn't do it again, but after some stretching, a good nights sleep and a curry it's amazing how you find yourself thinking 'well it wasn't that bad after all ....'

Feel absolutely fine now (well apart from my 'broken' heel which is complaining very loudly, but it'll get over it some time soon) and what has made it all worthwhile is the incredible sponsorship that I've managed to raise with everyone's help - my latest fundraising efforts stand at an incredible £1,182.50, with the promise of a few more pounds in the post ! My friend is also around the thousand mark - a pretty good show all in all.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me - you are all amazing :)

Is it a bird , is it a plane ...

2011-05-10T20:39:00.005+01:00

One of my practice walks took me down the A629, a road I travel up and down a lot in the car.

Every year I drive past the same fields, most have various animals and crop rotations going on, but three fields adjacent to the road are always planted up with strips of polythene glistening in the sunshine !

Think the farmer must have run out of polythene this year as usually the fields are completely covered. I've been dying to take a closer look ... a couple of weeks after the polythene is planted, sweetcorn appears ! I'm fascinated with how the sweetcorn grows - how does it get water, what's the purpose of the polythene, why does it stay in place all season !

Well puzzle no more readers, for I know the answers !!!

The polythene makes a TENT - the edges are ploughed into the soil and the sweetcorn happily germinates beneath it. I'm amazed at how close the seeds are sown - they are only an inch apart and each row is about a foot apart. Now here is the magic bit ! the polythene is PERFORATED !!! how cool is that. The corn grows through the perforations !!

I so should have got a close up LOL - maybe then you'd be as excited as I am.

Anyway I will be planting my sweetcorn very closely this season based on what I've seen.

Fundraising update - I've now raised over £1,000 !! It is quite incredible - thank you so much to everyone who has supported me xx

Victory ?

2011-05-08T10:22:00.003+01:00

David Cameron pledges that allotments would be protected.

Full article in The Independent

what's with the crazzee weather !!

2011-05-06T20:25:00.006+01:00

So on Easter Saturday apparently Sheffield had a deluge of rain in a very short space of time that was followed by 3" hail stones (indeed, the son of one of my friends apparently collected them up and popped them into the freezer to "save them for later" ... as you do LOL), the hail was follows by flash floods and then the floods were followed by blazing sunshine

Since then we've had the odd cloud darken the sky, but basically it's been unbroken sunshine for two weeks. The days are hot, the nights cold and the soil is like dust - dust I tell you !

There was a mid-week splatter which just about wet the car windscreen, but little more - not even worth mentioning.

So off I go to water the greenhouse tonight to discover that we have had frost this week ! Enough to burn the potatoes, cucumbers & squashes :(

as if that wasn't enough, I foolishly uncovered the khol rabi at the weekend and in effect left out a buffet for the flying rats !! grrrr

At least my beans are germinating nicely - moved the majority up to the lottie tonight - the black tray are borlotto and the red tray are saved beans from last season ... only I can't remember whether they are purple beans, canelloni or borlotto !!

It's getting pretty busy in the greenhouse, but any thoughts I had of planting the more tender items outside have definitely been put on hold. The frost has got quite a few plants - we'll just have to wait and see if they manage to grow through it

Latest news from my fundraising efforts - I have raised almost £1,000 !!! unbelieveable - thank you to everyone who has supported me xx

Mai est arrivé

2011-05-01T18:44:00.002+01:00

Another long day at the lottie ... wonder when this hot spell is going to break - heard on the grapevine we are due for rain mid-week ... I have my fingers crossed !

You can see the pea cage that we built yesterday. It's not quite how I wanted it, but hopefully it will do the job. Guess I'll know pretty soon if it needs revamping. I got the wood from B&Q - reduced to 25p & 50p - bargain !! I'm thinking of building a walk-in cage ... steady, I said thinking ... thinking!

Today I've staked both comfrey plants - can't believe how much they've grown. Thank goodness I'd already put the poles in place, it seems to have helped so far. One of the plants looks like it is about to burst into flower. Really must try and make some comfrey feed from the leaves.

I was also planning to tie in the brambly apple tree ... only the stake has disintegrated ! Doh. So plan b is yet another trip to B&Q to find some more wood - hey maybe I'll look at that fruit cage wood too.

I've completed my master grand plan mmmmwwwwhhhhoooaaarrr !!! The beds have now been dug over and relaid. I've planted spinach, fennel, celeriac, 3 varieties of carrots, parsnips and 4 (yes 4 haha) broad beans. Got a little bit of space left at the back but it gets a bit shady (hedge and the 20 foot bloomin budleia tree) so not sure that I'll put anything in it. Don't worry that you can see creeping buttercup in far bed - it's been left purposely as I have plans for it :)

The strawberries in the greenhouse are fruiting already eek - they have caught me off guard - must start watering them !

I thought this was a red campion, but having googled it I'm not so sure now ...

Fundraising update - now at £660 !!! Two weeks to go :)

Enjoy the May Day holiday those of you in the UK - I'll be at work as we get May Day at Christmas. Best not to ask, it's very complicated.

I'm sure it's summer really

2011-04-30T21:22:00.006+01:00

The lottie is looking very pretty, but it is desperately dry. The pond is missing about a foot of water and I've almost emptied one of my waterbutts already watering the greenhouse.

Germinating my sweetcorn at home was a good idea - all 45 have now germinated, they are looking great ... have to keep reminding myself it is still only April - they'll stay in the greenhouse until at least mid-May. I'm really short on plant pots as I used a lot for the plant sale last year, so I've had to resort to recycling plastic cups !

I've also got around 100 beans germinating in plastic cups in the attic at home ... only I forgot to put drainage holes into them doh !

Here's my melon - it is looking very healthy and started to grow, so I've potted on into a bigger pot.

Needing to make some space, I decided to plant some stuff into the greenhouse borders - the season really feels to have got going early this year. Here is my pepper:

... and a couple of cucumbers - surprisingly I've only lost one to date - well if you don't count the 8 that didn't germinate !

Nick suggested that I'll have better results with my aubergine if I give it plenty of ventilation, so I've placed it in front of the vents ... will be interesting to see if it makes a difference:

Some of my squashes - the third sowing has proved successful thank goodness - some of them are really starting to romp away:

Oh dear, a very sad looking globe artichoke .... c'mon buddy, I'm rooting for you, you can do it !! In the meantime, thank goodness for Waitrose - we had some chargrilled artichokes with garlic, chilli & oil for tea yesterday - truly delicious !

The mint is making the greenhouse smell mintilicious :)
I am beginning to regret not containing it in a pot tho ...

My peas ... whooohooo !! Hurrah. They've not been eaten by the meeces or the pigeons. I've made them a super pigeon proof cage today - hopefully it won't be a human proof cage, like it was last season !

This is my spinach - the variety is Bordeaux. I'm hoping it's not going to bolt, but with the hot spell we're currently experiencing it's probably unavoidable. Looks like it's going to have red stems. We eat tonnes of spinach, so hope it is successful .. it's not looking like the spinach we buy in the supermarket tho:

My beetroot seedlings are just coming through - red and yellow. Must remember to keep watering them:

My garlic is looking pretty amazing, if not a bit leek like ... can't wait until it's ready to harvest:

My potatoes have all started pushing through the soil ... I may earth them up tomorrow, but they've put on so much growth they'll probably suffer if we get any frosts:

Most of my herbs made it through the winter - this is lemon balm and green sage:

I love that there are always flowers in bloom at different times around the lottie - it not only brightens the place up, but brings in the wildlife too:

Bluebells in the UK are in full bloom - the road verges and woodlands are glowing with their dazzling colour:

How amazing is this - my sponsorship total for my 26 mile walk in aid of Breast Cancer is now at £570 - I'm completely overwhelmed with everyones generosity of spirit ! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

nope, not even a tenuous link to allotmenting or gardening !

2011-04-27T20:32:00.003+01:00

But I'm sure you'll forgive the diversion ... I'm taking part in The MoonWalk London 2011, which takes place during May and raises money for Breast Cancer research and support.

For those of you who are not familiar with The Moonwalk, it is a 26 mile walk - it starts at midnight and thousands of women and a few brave men will walk through the night ... in our bras !! (yes, even the men). I believe we will follow the London Marathon course ... in a much more sedate fashion of course.

I'm walking with a couple of friends and we've yet to decorate said bras ... am waiting for some inspiration. As the walk takes place during the night and May is not well known for heatwaves, I may be recommending fashioning something out of fake fur LOL !!

I've raised over £300 so far and I believe my employer is going to give me an additional £150 !! Wow wow wow. I'm hoping to reach £500 and am well on target.

I've set up an online donation site with JustGiving .. feel free to sponsor me if you feel so inclined .. I've added the link at the bottom.

OH and I went to the Mumbles for the long Easter weekend and I managed to get a couple of 10 mile practice walks in along the coast - what an amazingly beautiful part of the world ... I'd recommend it if you get the chance to visit ... I could have walked forever with this sort of scenery :)

One of the many secluded bays - accessible by dingy / kayak only !

The daisies were loving the heat-wave that is almost an annual event now in the UK during April. Lovely to see so many butterflies and beautiful countryside flowers enjoying the sunshine:

http://www.justgiving.com/Michelle-Duck
Many thanks !

Not even Easter yet ...

2011-04-17T20:26:00.004+01:00

Finally out of jobs to do, I've had to turn my attention to the final big dig. I'm in unchartered territory ! The soil is dreadfully compacted and the area where we've had a couple of big fires is totally barren - I think I'll have to give it some serious feed. Yet again I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself :)

This is the view from the other end of the bed, with the compost heap behind me. I reckon I've got a full weekend of digging left to do.

Yesterday I finished digging over the top bed - I still need to put paths in, but at least the hard work is done:

I've also weeded the brick bed and under the jungle of weeks I discovered some of last years onions !

In the greenhouse things are going quite well - only one cucumber casualty so far ... no sign of my crystal lemon yet.

A day trip to Whitby on Friday with OH's nieces resulted in 12 Ailsa Craig tomato plants ... nearly double the size of mine ... and best of all, I definitely know what variety they are :)

I germinated my sweetcorn at home and they are nearly all through - hope I haven't made the wrong decision moving them to the lottie. Hope the meeces leave them alone:

I uncovered the compost heap this morning to discover that a little mouse has been munching his way around a pumpkin. Said little mouse / vole was darting about looking very surprised to see me. Still I'd rather he munch his way around my compost heap than munch his way through my greenhouse, right ?

I've potted up some mint and need to find a spot outside for it. I love mint tea and minty buttery potatoes ... slurp ... wonder when those potatoes will appear. Nick's were planted the same weekend and have been poking above the soil for a week - we've concluded that mine were planted much deeper.

Spare seedlings ... just in case ! Celariac, fennel & kohl rabi. They are all doing quite well in the ground so far, but you never know when a flying rat or dratted slug might appear.

Outside, things are blossoming - this is the 'rogue' tree behind the greenhouse. Last year it produced two apples - yes, two ! Nick pointed out that it had canker on two of it's larger branches, so after lopping them off, I'm left with just two blossoms ! Hmm ...

At least my bramley apple is covered in blossom - I hope that the tree does better than last year, which was a little dismal. I love Apple blossom, it is so pretty. The crab apple is also in full flower - alas I now think it is a 'flowering crab apple' vs a 'crab apple' tree ... it would explain why I've not yet had any fruit ! I may move it next season to the pond area - at least I'll be able to admire it.

My blueberries are budding up nicely - think at the end of the season I'll need to think about pruning them.

My dwarf aquilegia is looking fabulous:

My lupin gets better each year - Nick asked me what colour it is, but I have no idea ! Guess we'll find out soon enough - I've promised to save him some seed:

Boy I've been busy this weekend ...

2011-04-10T20:10:00.006+01:00

... I've been very, very busy in the greenhouse potting up and sowing more seeds.

Here are my numerous and plentiful broadbeans - all three of them LOL. Still, at least they look pretty strong and healthy ... and how many broadbeans does a girl need.

I potted on my cucumbers yesterday - they gave me a heart stopping moment this morning when I opened the greenhouse door to find them drooping, but once some air was circulated they picked up. Wonder how many will die under my loving care haha. I have 16 so far, with another 8 to germinate.

These could be Burpless ... or Marketmore ... or Lemon Crystal !

Here is the aubergine I bought last weekend. It doesn't actually have a variety on the label. I potted it on yesterday and it looks OK so far. Fingers crossed - I've not really had much luck with aubergines. Maybe this is my year !!

and this is the Alaro Melon - it is looking a little poorly, I hope it pulls through.

I've resown 99million squashes - decided they are safer at home than the lottie. They've been joined by my sweetcorn. I've also resown some courgettes.

The greenhouse strawberries are in flower and some have even started to form fruits:

The greenhouse has been phenomenally hot this weekend - when I left tonight I had to water the floor to try and cool the temperature before I closed the door. I've left the vents open - I hope I don't regret it.

Outside I've been even busier. Am feeling very much like the Cheshire Cat - well I would if I had some crumble & cream to go with my rhubarb.

The new strawberry bed has been my main focus this weekend. I've taken out all the existing strawberry plants, which has meant I've been able to get rid of some couch grass and a tiny bit of bindweed. I potted up around 100 runners last year and about half have made it through the winter. Thinking I didn't have many left I bought some new plants last weekend - white Fragoo. The bed is pretty big, but amazingly I had too many for the space - I saved them for a bit in case Linda appeared, but the sun frazzled them eventually and they've gone to the compost heap. I got to use my new strawberry mats - they'll probably have blow away by my next visit.

It's looking marvellous, even if I do say so myself !

I've direct sown my peas - trying Greenshaft this season. I think they have been soaked in parrafin (hence the pink appearance). I'm hoping that this means the mice won't smell the germinating peas. I may get some tunnels though just in case. I've decided not to net them this season, as although it kept them safe last season, I couldn't actually get to them to harvest them. Nick suggested I get pea sticks instead - OH's nieces are coming to visit next week, so I will give them the task of finding some.

I've also planted out my kohl rabi, celeriac & fennel (yes I know it's early, but its been hardened off in Scarborough and believe me, it's freezing oop 'north). I've got some spares in case they get munched. I've netted the kohl rabi in case any flying rats decide to investigate.

I've sown 3 varieties of beetroot for OH - Choggia, Golden & Boltardy (even with three varieties I still have lots of packets left).

Here is part two of my grand plan ... I've taken out the first path and dug over 1.5 of the beds on the right hand side of the plot. Still got quite a bit to do, but as it was the last job of the day I was pretty darn tired and the lure of a cuppa was enough to down tools. The soil is frighteningly dry - big clouds of dust went up with every turn of the spade. You can see the late afternoon shadow - I'll have to ask Linda very nicely if she will consider chopping down the enormous white buddlia that's on her plot.

I've put some spinach into the bed, but it may be too small to survive - need to pot some up next time.

Here's the view back down the plot. Must add 'weeding the onions' to the jobs list.

The King Cup is looking truly magnificent;

and the flowers around the plot are adding some lovely bursts of colour:

If at first you don't succeed ... cheat !!

2011-04-03T21:47:00.010+01:00

Hmmm ... I think it best never to mention this episode again !!! Needless to say, that's the end of the wretched plastic walk-in greenhouse.

These are definitely cucumbers ... can you tell the difference in variety between the left and the right ? No ??? me neither ! Blasted kitten. The third variety hasn't appeared yet. That will just add to the fun !

Dratted little mouse has been back for a second helping of squashes and courgettes - I'll have to buy even more seeds, grrr !

This is what remains of my broadbeans after Mr Mouse has been for 2nd's and 3rd's - good job I don't like them I guess.

See that helpful label ... hmmm sunbleached. Helpful. No idea what these are. With a bit of luck they are squashes ... but I'm really not convinced. It's going really well so far LOL.

My tomatoes have appeared, but who knows that varieties they are ! Sigh.

We had a trot out to my favourite nursery at Hummanby, nr Scarborough. I got some very healthy looking Kohl Rabi, Celeriac, a rosemary busy, a melon, a pepper and an aubergine ! I think I might have missed something ? It's not cheating - it's plan b :)

Looks like I have leeks !! woohoo. Flippin' amazin' all things considered. Need to split them I think and put them into pots - maybe 30 in each - and grow them on for a while.

My frogspawn is always late - sadly not late enough to give me chance to split the yellow flag iris ... oh well, always next year !!

My flowers are adding some much needed colour to the plot - my little peoney thingy is so pretty:

Cowslips:

King Cup:

I tendered my resignation from the allotment committee this weekend, following the latest fiasco, which has resulted in the grant money that we worked so hard to get, needing to be returned to the funding body. I cannot cope with the inefficiency and total incompetency of some of the members, who seem to live on a different planet to those of us who are passionate about making the allotment site better. 6 of us resigned in total. I'm lead to believe the other half of the committee were totally oblivious. It's like a weight has been lifted - I'll have so much more free time to devote to my lottie now. Onward and upward !

Dig, dig, dig !!!

2011-03-20T17:23:00.003Z

Lovely weekend for pottering around the lottie. Almost caught the sun on Saturday.

I feel like I've dug half of England, but blatently didn't as there is tonnes more digging to still be done on the plot - its very nearly killed me !

I've dug up 4 wheelbarrows full of bindweed - there was a surprising amount in the old strawberry beds. I wonder sometimes if by digging over my beds whether I'm just making it easier for it to shoot across the plot. I've also taken out my three dead artichokes - they were riddled with bindweed too. When I get around to planting out the replacements, I'll have to give some thought as to where they will go.

A few years ago I bought one of those mini-greenhouses and promptly forgot all about it. In an attempt to keep my seeds safe I suggested to OH that we put it into the attic. OH wouldn't even entertain the thought tho ... and sure enough my seeds came a cropper that very night .. anyone want a very bad kitten ? She has walked through my tomatoes & peppers and mixed them all up and also mixed up all of the cucumber labels grrrrrrrrrrrr. No idea what I'll get now - if anything.

Anyway, I get distracted where was I - oh yes the MINI-greenhouse. So plan b is to erect it inside the glass greenhouse. Off I trot on Saturday and unwrap the box ... it quickly becomes aparent it isn't a mini-greenhouse it's a bloody walk-in one (no wonder OH was not very happy LOL). I've never been much good with measurements :)

So plan c !! Erect it and put it outside - after several attempts to put dratted thing together, Linda from next door takes pity on me and comes to direct .. hurrah ! shortly after we have it up and the cover on. It is quite fragile - the joints are made from plastic and the first incident happened just as we'd finished when Linda stumbled and almost fell through the liner, bending a strut and snapping a joint. It was a very funny moment and should be easily fixed with some black tape.

It surived the night, but didn't look right where it was so I decided to move it in front of the glass greenhouse. Of course that involved more digging (of course !!) Another 99 hours later and the second incident happened. The wind caught it and blew it over snapping most of the other joints and even ripping the cover a little. Darn it. Need a lot of flipping tape now. It is now secured with 4 guy ropes and several bricks. Hope it is still there when I go up next !! Can't really complain, it only cost £20 !

Before:

After:

My potatoes have been chitting on the back seat of my car - the only safe place with that dratted kitten about. As I need my back seats back, I decided to plant them today. Of course I had to finish digging the beds first (of course !!) The new double bed that I've made in front of the greenhouse was big enough to take 35 seed potatoes: 15 Maris Piper, 15 Vivaldi & 5 Roosters.

Having failed yet again in my efforts to get any manure delivered I had a quick google and discovered it was possible to use chicken manure ... hurrah. Now everything I've read says to leave your soil for one week before planting after treating with chicken pellets, but I'm very very busy at the moment, so it all had to happen today - I was careful to ensure the seed potatoes didn't come into contact with the pellets.

I know some of you will be thinking that it's perhaps a bit early for some of them, but I'll only have time for fleeting visits over the next couple of weeks. My main concern is whether planting them opposite the greenhouse is a good idea as I've had blight in previous seasons. Oh well, only time will tell. I meant to put some comfrey leaves in with them, but forgot ... doh !

Here's the view from the other end - it's on my hit list for digging ... yippee !

Last job of the day was to sow some more seeds:

- Ghost pumpkin
- Sunshine squash
- Marina di Chioggia squash
- Winter festival squash

First crop of the year - crumble or rhubarb sponges ?

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, but am very very tired now. Next job is to dig over the right hand slim beds which are for the strawberries. I'll save that for another day !

aarr'gghhh ... there b' treasure thar

2011-03-15T21:27:00.004Z

Finally gotten arse in gear :)

Been to get my Humax potting compost this evening and sown:
- Roma Tomatoes
- Green Zebra Tomatoes
- Gardener's Delight Tomatoes
- Tigerella Tomatoes
- Celariac (Monarch)
- Lemon Crystal Cucumber
- Marketmore Cucumber
- Burpless Cucumber
- Musselburgh Leeks
- Marigolds - La Bamba
- Peppers - long red mechani something or other

I've been tidying my several carrier bag fulls of seeds - I've finally thrown out those runner beans that I really don't like and those onion seeds that I'm obviously never going to grow. I've discovered that I have 9 packets of beetroot (oops !), 5 packets of cauliflowers (at least I managed two varieties), hundreds and hundreds of herbie things and several thousand packets of tomatoes. I'm down to one carrier bag now. Much better :)

Got some Rooster potatoes from Wilkos - they can join the Maris Piper & Vivaldi's that I currently appear to be chitting on the back seat of my car ! On a promise for some PFA's too ... hopefully - really must get ass in gear !!

Good news from the greenhouse ... ta'dar !!! Here is my spinach. What to do with it now ? It's a bit cold for it to go outside ??

Other exciting news ... got my first dibber !!! dib dib dib :) You have no idea how exciting it is !! also got some big collar thingies to go under my strawberries.

Hoping to build a mini-greenhouse later to put into the attic to start my seeds off. Foolishly I forgot to bring home the plastic covers for my trays and the flippin' kitten has already walked through the leeks and the marigolds. Blommin' thing will be going to the shelter if it's not careful !!!

2011-03-13T22:23:00.002Z

No allotmenting this weekend. I've been on a 'mini-break' with some girlfriends up in Gunnerside.

Every field had a dry stone barn - apparently the local farmers receive grants to maintain them - they are very impressive.

We managed a walk to the Tea Rooms at Muker, where disappointingly they'd had a rush on the highly recommended Welsh Rarebit, so we had to settle for homemade tomato soup and a slice of cake, which made me dream of Summer.

This is St Mary's Church in Muker:

This chap, Horace Bagster Wilson, was once the Vicar at the church - great name

We managed a gentle stroll back to the King's Head pub in Gunnerside and discovered they were selling guest ales: Guzzler (York Brewery) and Park Rash (Yorkshire Dales Brewery), so we sampled both - well it would be rude not to wouldn't it. Sausage & mash for tea followed by apple crumble, but next time I'll be having the cheesecake with hot chocolate sauce !!!!

On the way home, we stopped off at The Fat Sheep craft shop in Reeth and I got a lovely print - the original picture was felted and the print has the appearance of texture. It is by a local artist, called Hazel Bryce. OH is going to frame it for me this week hopefully :)

Then it was onto Richmond where we stopped for lunch at The Station - a toasted cheese scone, with Lacey's cheese & some pickle. Yum !!

We could have done with a bit more sunshine, but on the whole it's been a pretty idyllic weekend.

Back to reality now ! must must must get my seeds sown this week.

Hurrah ! the weather man was listening

2011-03-06T17:33:00.003Z

Finally a lovely day ... and where have I spent the best part of it ... sat in yet another committee meeting ! Did we make any decisions or reach any conclusions ... don't be daft. Joy !!!!!!!! I had a walk around the site after the meeting with a friend to see the improvements that the allotment office have been making and have to say that when we are being charged £100 a plot I suspect they will not be able to get anyone foolish enough to take them on. They have chopped down lots of trees on plots - but left the stumps & roots !! I feel sorry for the office, things have been allowed to get so bad, that I'm not sure how they will turn it around. There is a lot to be said for being self-managed I think ...

I continued with my grand plan, taking up another two sets of paths and relaying them across the beds. Stupidly I tried to dig out the now dead artichokes with my lovely fork and have snapped that damn thing in two. So cross with myself. At least the beds are looking good. Took me a long time to dig out the bindweed - it is especially concentrated around the artichokes, so I'll have to have a think and come up with a plan to remove them. The newly created strawberry bed will need a through digging over, but I'm quite excited now - I can feel my enthusiasm returning. Got the two beds in front of the greenhouse to dig over still. Look at all that bare earth - lovely !!

Look at my new water butt to the right of the photo below, I'm very pleased with it - not bad for a fiver. Ideally I want to put it behind the greenhouse - possibly linking them - so I have 4 to feed the greenhouse in height of the season.

Here is the view from the other end - a few more nice days and I should be able to get most of my digging done.

The lesser spotted OH arrived mid-afternoon to help with fixing the broken pane of glass in the greenhouse. I realised once he'd arrived that the spare piece of glass that I have is actually the wrong size !!! doh ! so plan b) (I have a lot of those lately) was to cut down a piece of perspex. Thankfully I have a collection of several old and rusty saws just laid about - as you do. Somehow it became a two person job but the newly cut perspex is now in place and my greenhouse will hopefully start to heat up - just need to get rid of those pesky meeces now.

I shall be monitoring the weather forecast closely to find a nice day to get some manure delivered - hopefully in the next couple of weeks as weekends are a little busy at the moment. All things considered it is starting to take shape :)

why does it always rain on me ...

2011-03-05T22:14:00.003Z

Another bleak, cold and miserable day in Sheffield ... is it too much to expect a bit of sunshine ??

The grand plan - phase 1 !!

- Get rid of the strawberries from the greenhouse bed - check !
- Remove the hinged boxes.
- Add manure to all of the beds (somewhat lacking)
- Convert into a squash bed

The blueberries are budding up again:

Remember our friend with the potato mountain - I've dug up some Jerusalem Artichokes to give to them ... might not mention the windy aspects he heh. Hopefully they can squeeze them in somewhere.

This is the rhubarb that I left uncovered:

and this is the rhubarb that I've been forcing for the last week - what a difference .... so I've decided to force it all .... what with us liking rhubarb an' all hahah. Looks pretty. Wonder if it'll be sweeter ?

As the frogs don't seem to be back yet, I took the opportunity to thin the pondweed in the pond - it's been 'draining' for a week, so I'll probably add it to the compost heap tomorrow. Sadly I discovered a dead frog in the pond - can only assume it drowned under the ice :(

The yellow flag iris really need splitting - now would be the ideal time, as I don't have any frogspawn yet. Soooooo many jobs, soooooo little time !

I'm rather surprised to see a water lilly about to burst into life ... maybe it's decided to flower early to beat the tadpoles

The only thing growing in the greenhouse currently is a mint plant, so I've potted up some of the new shoots. I've resown the artichokes and broadbeans that the meeces have scoffed. Also sown some cat grass and spinach. I need to get organised and have a serious sowing day - gotta get the broken pane of glass replaced in the greenhouse (got a piece, just need OH to come and do it for me) and as I have a resident mouse, I need to think about raising the trays off the ground. Really wish I had the other greenhouse up :(

Here is grand plan phase 2. I've decided to change my bed layout. I spent a couple of hours today taking up the paths and digging over the beds - frightening how much bindweed there is. I've now got a big square bed at the back of the plot and a long narrow bed at the front. The narrow bed at the front will be my new strawberry bed - seems to make sense as the few strawberry plants that are already in residence gave me more strawberries that the dedicated ones. I might have to take a day off work to get my manure delivered / shovelled, then I can get last year's strawberry runners planted up. Hmm, still deciding whether to plant them through landscape fabric. I definitely need a strawberry cage this year ! Another job LOL.

Thoroughly saturated with the horrid drizzel, I left the lottie mid-afternoon and headed for my favourite pet shop only to discover that this year they are not stocking Pink Fir Apple, International Kidney or Roosters ... what is the world coming too ! Looks like I'll have to have a trip to New Leaf (Garden Centre) instead.

and finally, a little kitten heaven ... Fergie is gradually growing in confidence and purred the night away when she found herself part of a Loki / Kinder sandwich earlier in the week on our bed :)

Calling all Sheffield allotment holders ..

2011-02-24T22:19:00.009Z

Please see the attached received today from the Allotment Federation ... if you have comments that you would like to submit for consideration, please contact: heeleyallotments@yahoo.co.uk and I will forward to Pat (secretary of the Sheffield Allotment Federation).

At the Allotment Advisory meeting on Tuesday, 1st March, Allotment Rents and other Changes are on the Agenda. We have only just received details of proposed plans and I am forwarding the file. Would appreciate feedback from members, if possible before Sunday evening, so that your representatives can formulate a response that reflects your views.

SHEFFIELD CITY COUNCIL
ALLOTMENT ADVISORY GROUP
1 MARCH 2011

A REPORT ON RENTS – TIMESCALES/INCREASED RENTS

Summary
This report introduces a change in the process for the collection of allotment rent and other charges. There is also a proposal for increases to allotment rents and other charges from 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2016.

Allotment provision is a statutory duty of local authorities and guided by numerous pieces of legislation. Within the legislation is a requirement to offer 12 months’ prior notice of changes to the allotment tenancy agreement. The amount of rent and date of payment are required by law to be detailed in the tenancy agreement. The proposed changes must therefore be agreed and subsequently communicated to all current allotment tenants by 31 March 2011 in order for them to take effect, as anticipated, from 1 April 2012.

Recommendation
It is recommended that the following changes to the process for collecting allotment rent and other charges, and an increase in such charges from 1 April 2012, be approved by the Allotment Advisory Group for a formal decision to be taken by the Portfolio Holder for Communities:

Change to a process of payment in advance for all allotment-related charges;

Increases to allotment rents and other charges as highlighted below:
A 7.5% increase to allotment rent and other charges for the year 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013
Further increases for following three years, as detailed within the report, to meet income targets by 2015/16.

THE COLLECTION OF ALLOTMENT RENT AND OTHER CHARGES
In accordance with the Allotment Act 1950, allotment rent and other charges (water, sheds, pigeon coops, etc.) are currently invoiced 9 months in arrears and 3 months in advance. Invoices are posted to tenants in December and the payment due date is 15 January of any year. There is an approximate collection rate of 85% of the total amount invoiced. Some, but not all, of this can be attributed to unknown concessions claimed after invoices are issued. Lost income due to non-payment is impossible to recover and impacts negatively on the allotment budget through the write-off of bad debt.

Issues with the current process
There is currently less incentive to pay the invoice as the tenant has already received use of the plot for the preceding growing season. Should a tenant choose not to pay, the amounts owed are so small that the Council does not seek to recover them. The only recourse is termination of tenancy but there is no financial penalty and the rental income is thus lost. In the current financial climate this situation cannot remain and it is imperative that the Allotment Office maximises potential income through improved collection rates for allotment rent.

As invoices are only raised once each financial year, a tenancy established any time after the invoice data is sent for processing (usually early December) is a charge-free period until the beginning of the next financial year. In an extreme situation, a tenancy could be established in early December one year and no rent received for this plot for at least two years:

Tenancy established 2 December 2009: charge free period until 31 March 2010.
Invoice raised in December 2010 for period 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011.
Invoice falls due 15 January 2011.
Rent payment not received – reminder sent.
Rent not received by 24 Feb 2011/ after 40 days of due date
28 day notice to quit issued – ends 24 March 2011.
25 March 2011 - tenancy quit and plot reoffered.

In the example above, no income will be received for the period 2 December 2009 until a new invoice is raised for the new tenant in January 2012. The cycle of non-payment could continue if the second tenant chooses not to pay...

Other issues to consider include the fact that many tenants, particularly those new to allotments in Sheffield, simply do not understand the process of payment in arrears. Anecdotally, the office also understands that payment in arrears can be viewed as a disincentive to cultivate a plot and that advance payment would make some tenants more likely to maintain their allotments to the standards expected.

Changing the process
In keeping with the practice of the overwhelming majority of other local authorities, the Allotment Office is seeking to change the rent collection process to one of payment in advance. From 1 April 2012 allotment rent and other charges will be invoiced in advance and will cover the cost of allotment use for the in-year period. For example, the invoice due date of 1 April 2012 will cover the period 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013 inclusive.

In order for this change to take place on 1 April 2012, agreement must be reached in advance so that the changes can be communicated to allotment tenants with 12 months’ notice, in accordance with allotment law. It will also be necessary to amend the tenancy agreement accordingly with a similar notice period. The Allotment Office will consult on these proposals with the Allotment Advisory Group on 1 March 2011, before seeking formal approval from the Portfolio Holder for Communities later that month. Information will then be communicated to all allotment tenants before end March 2011.

Allotment Act 1950
It must be noted that the change in policy currently conflicts with Section 10(2) of the Allotment Act 1950. Payment in advance is, however, common practice amongst nearly all other allotment authorities. Those that do not yet have payment in advance in place are proposing to do so – Nottingham City Council is an example. Advice has been sought from the Council’s solicitor as to whether we can make this change. Guidance received indicates that this is the case1.

The Allotment Office has also sought guidance from the Legal Advisor at the National Society for Allotments and Leisure Gardens2. They agree that the law still stands but that payment in advance is common and accepted practice. To date it has not been challenged legally but they suggest that the law is long out of date and should be reviewed. Guidance3 produced and published by the Allotment Regeneration Initiative, on behalf of central Government, also states that ‘allotment rent is usually paid in advance’. A precedent has been set by the vast majority of allotment authorities and adherence to allotment legislation in this situation appears to be the exception rather than the rule.

Reasons for Change/ Anticipated Benefits
It is anticipated that payment in advance will be an incentive to tenants to make full use of their plots. It will also be beneficial from a debt-management perspective and enable the Allotment Office to address the issue of non-payment of rent resulting from the current system. Payment in advance will enable us to terminate tenancies promptly for non-payment, create a new tenancy and still receive some income for the use of that plot in the same year.

In the current economic climate the Council is looking at ways in which revenue can be maximised, to include lost income through non-payment. If the process remains unchanged and the service continues to lose significant potential income each year through non-payment, the only way to mitigate this will be to raise rents by more than the figures proposed later within this report. The new system would also be easier to understand for tenants, causing less confusion and thus generating fewer invoice-related queries for the Allotment Office.

PROPOSED RENT INCREASES FROM 1ST APRIL 2012
The provision of allotments is a statutory duty as defined by allotment law. There are approximately 3115 individual allotment plots in Sheffield with more than 2300 people on the waiting list. Demand for allotments is high across the city with a wait of up to 10 years expected for some sites.

Historically, allotment rent and other charges have been set at low levels to enable all to participate and to avoid any discrimination on the grounds of ability to pay. A full size plot, including unlimited water provision, currently costs less than £1 a week (£45.90). Allotment legislation does not determine the levels at which rents should be set but does state that rents should be ‘at a level that a tenant should be reasonably expected to pay’.

Total income from rents and other charges in 2010/11 will be in the region of £75,000. Income will only increase by a nominal amount in 2011/12 as rent increases in line with inflation have previously been communicated to allotment tenants. For example, the cost of a full size plot with water will rise from £45.90 to £48.90. This cannot be changed as 12 months’ prior notice is required by law.

Current and next year’s allotment charges are set out below

1 April 2010 – 31 March 2011
.............Plot Size (A)....Rent (B) Water.....(A+B) Total
Up to 200m²....£11.80 ..........£10.20........... £22.00
201-300m² .....£16.60...........£16.50 ...........£33.10
>301m²...........£21.50...........£24.40............£45.90

1 April 2011 – 31 March 2012
.............Plot Size (A)....Rent (B) Water.....(A+B) Total
Up to 200m²....£12.10...........£11.50...........£23.60
201-300m² .....£17.00...........£18.20 ...........£35.30
>301m²...........£22.00 ...........£26.90...........£48.90

Against this backdrop Sheffield City Council must address a shortfall of £80 million in funding and most services will be subject to budget cuts and/ or under pressure to increase income. Parks and Countryside is proposing section-wide funding reductions of 15% in year 2011/12 and 7.5% in each of years 2012/13 and 2013/14 to meet the Council-wide objective of a 30% reduction in spending for non-ring fenced services within 3 years.

Proposed Increase
To maintain the current levels of staffing and service provision, the Allotment Office is seeking to increase significantly the income generated from rents and other charges. This compliments the process of changing to collection of rent and other charges in advance, without which the proposed increase would be greater than highlighted below. The allotment function is one of the services to generate income for the Parks and Countryside section and increasing rents would be a way to mitigate the impact of Council-wide reductions in funding. This would enable the Allotment Office to at least maintain current levels of service at a time when funding for many other services will be reduced or withdrawn.

Proposed Increases for period 1 April 2012 – 31 March 2013
The Council’s Cabinet has agreed that increases to fees and charges for services in Parks and Countryside from 1 April 2012 should be increased by 7.5%. All fees and charges within the Parks and Countryside section are thus increasing by this amount. As a result of this 7.5% increase, the allotment rent and other charges will be as follows:

1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013
............Plot Size (A).. Rent (B) Water....(A+B) Total
Up to 200m² ..£13.00........£12.40 ............£25.40
201-300m² ....£18.30........£19.60.............£37.90
>301m²..........£23.70........£28.90.............£52.60

The Allotment Office has been set a target of doubling current (2010/11) total income, including allowances for inflation, by the year 2014/15 and to increase the total income by an additional £25,000 for the year 2015/16.

Targets for total income generated will be £150,000 by 2014/15 and £175,000 by 2015/16. If these figures are not achieved there will be an adverse impact on the authority’s ability to maintain provision at current levels. It is proposed that these increases are communicated to tenants at the same time as those for 2012/13 to give as much advance notice as possible.

Proposed rental and other charges to deliver the income targets above for the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2016 are as follows:

1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014
..............Plot Size (A)...Rent (B) Water...(A+B) Total
Up to 200m²...£23.00..........£17.50..........£40.50
201-300m².....£30.00..........£23.50..........£54.50
>301m²..........£38.00..........£30.50..........£68.50
Assuming all variables remain constant, these rent charges would be predicted to bring in an additional £35.5k (accounting for inflation)

1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015
.............Plot Size (A) Rent..(B) Water (A+B).....Total
Up to 200m².....£38.75............£18.50.............£57.25
201-300m².......£49.00............£24.50.............£73.50
>301m²..........£57.50............£31.50.............£89.00
Assuming all variables remain constant, these rent charges would be predicted to bring in a further additional £41k (accounting for inflation)

1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016
..............Plot Size (A) Rent...(B) Water......(A+B) Total
Up to 200m².....£47.50.............£19.50..........£67.00
201-300m².......£61.50.............£26.00..........£87.50
>301m².............£72.00.............£33.50..........£105.50
Assuming all variables remain constant, these rent charges would be predicted to bring in a further additional £25k (accounting for inflation)

The increase for the smallest size plot is proportionally greater in 2013/14 than for larger plots as they require the same levels of officer time and administrative support. Charges have been adjusted to reflect this. Following this readjustment of charges in 2013/14, the percentage increases for all plot sizes are the same in subsequent years. The total amount invoiced will include plot rental, water charges and any other services provided.

Water Charges
Most, but not all, allotment sites receive a mains water supply. In 2009/10 the Allotment Office spent just over £24,000 on water bills with Yorkshire Water with an income from the water charge element of invoices of £36,000. A further £9,000 of charges was incurred through water repairs on allotments. Providing water on allotments also involves additional officer and ranger time to assess repairs and turn the supply on and off each year.

Current water charges, with an annual uplift, appear to cover the combined cost of supply and infrastructure repairs and thus have received only a modest increase to achieve the income targets set. It is imperative that the authority recoups such costs but is not seen to generate profit from water provision on allotment sites. A substantial proportion of the proposed new income targets therefore consists of significant increases to rental element of allotment charges.

Increases in context and additional support
Although significant in terms of total cost, the proposed increases in allotment charges still mean that a large sized plot, including water, will cost only £1.50 a week in 2013/14 and will rise to just above £2 a week by 2015/16. Smaller plots cost significantly less. In an article ‘Allotment Gardens: Food and Health’ by the National Society for Allotments and Leisure Gardens, the estimated minimum value of produce from a well cultivated full-size plot was £1564! The cost of receiving the many benefits of having an allotment, including the produce generated, would still offer good value to tenants.

To mitigate to impact of rent increases on people of low income, a 50% total discount (rent + water + other charges) will still be offered to allotment tenants of pensionable age, or in receipt of other benefits4. Currently such benefits are only available for one plot. From 1 April 2012 this will change to be available for every plot rented – some allotment tenants rent up to four plots. The Allotment Office is also investigating ways in which payment may be spread over instalments or by direct debit to help tenants manage the increase in charges.

Managing change
One of the biggest issues to overcome will be the crossover period of two rent collection processes. This may confuse tenants and also place them under an additional financial burden in early 2012. Staggering the changes so that the major increases in rents do not take place until a year after payment in advance is introduced seeks to minimise this. It is hoped that the long notice period for increased charges, and the introduction of concessions for all plots for the most vulnerable tenants, will further address the potential issues.

Timescales
By end March 2011 we must communicate the above changes to allotment tenants.

In December 2011 tenants will receive their usual bill: nine months in arrears and three months in advance for the period 1 April 2011 – 31 March 2012, due on 15 January 2012, the increases for which have already been agreed and communicated.

In March 2012 we will then issue a second bill for advance payment covering the period 1 April 2012 – 31 March 2013, due on 1 April. This invoice will include the increases of 7.5% detailed above and as agreed by Cabinet.

Invoices from 1 April 2013 will be for a considerably higher amount but advance notice of these increased charges will have been given and the change from payment in arrears to advance will have been undertaken in the preceding year. Careful management of processes and clear communication with all allotment tenants will minimise any confusion.

Appendix 1

Copy of correspondence with Julian Ward, Principal Solicitor, Sheffield City Council, January 2011.

Just to confirm our discussion, I think it is a perfectly tenable view that the reference to rent in advance in the subsection is a reference to rent being asked for in advance of the rental period commencing, rather than a reference to the rental period itself; thus if the rental period commences on 1 April, a demand for rent for the period commencing 1 April, even if made on 1 April, is not a demand in advance whereas a demand on 31 March is a demand in advance.
Copy of communication from Liz Bunting, Legal Advisor to National Society for Allotments and Leisure Gardeners, January 2011.
Further to our telephone conversation yesterday, as explained it is customary now for the provision to be made in the agreement for rent to be paid in advance, to help with the collection problems that we have discussed. Many Associations and Councils appear to be by passing Section 10(2) of the 1950 Allotments Act which states ‘If the yearly rent exceeds £1:25, it is not permissible to provide for more than one quarter’s rent to be payable in advance. This is really long out of date and really should be reviewed.
As you have already stated, you are correct in giving 12 months notice and another point to consider may be a phased introduction, so half in advance and the half after 6 months in the first year, then full amount in advance the following year.
Just to confirm the details given the book I recommended is The Law of Allotments by Paul Clayden, publishers Shaw & Sons.
Kind Regards

Liz Bunting
Legal Advisor

[1] See appendix 1 for copy of correspondence.
[2] See appendix 1 for copy of correspondence.
[3] ‘Allotments – a plotholder’s guide’, Section 4 page 9, ARI for DCLG, 2007.
[4] 50% discount for: age 60+, unemployment, disability living allowance, family credit, incapacity benefit, industrial injury disablement, housing or council tax benefit, student.

February ... still flippin freezing

2011-02-20T16:52:00.007Z

How about this then for a water butt - actually there are 69 of them in total. Thankfully not all at my plot - they are part of one of the grants that our super fundraiser secured for our site. Our original plan was to give them to new tenants, but they are taking up so much space we are selling them for £5 each - they're flying out of the shop grounds. Rumour has it that the Allotment Office are hoping to remove water from the site eventually - not a bad thing in my opinion, as it makes up over half of our £45 rent (which reminds me, I MUST find my invoice and pay it!!) I think I shall get a couple for my plot.

We've also commenced manure drops on the site - again, this is part of one of our grants - it is like gold dust - within hours of being dropped there is absolutely no evidence of it LOL. Hope I manage to get some eventually !

I've sown my first seeds of the year today - 56 Broad Beans (Aquadulce) and about 40 globe artichokes - purple & green. The broad beans are for the society plant sale - although who even knows if there will even be a society after our AGM (April for interested parties), still, gotta be organised right, just in case. My globe artichokes don't appear to have survived the winter, so I'll keep 2 of each and give a couple of friends some too, then the rest will go to the plant sale (if it's on !)

So many people have got seeds on the go - wonder if any can beat our friends though who have just got their first allotment. They are bursting with enthusiasm and excitement - they've sown 100 cauliflowers (20 purple & 80 white), 70 (I think) cape gooseberries !! OMG ... and best for last - they are waiting for £60.00 worth of seed potatoes to arrive LOL. They have a standard sized allotment and have another 99-thousand varieties of seeds and various fruit canes to plant. I'll be going to get my £6.00 of seed potatoes next week from our local pet shop :) I guess we're all that excited when we first start. Can't wait to see the seed potato mountain tho - still makes me laugh out loud when I think about it :)

My garlic is looking great - it has come through the winter weather extremely well the bigger plants (the first couple and some at the back) are bulbs that I missed in March, so it will be interesting to see just how big they are when they are finally harvested.

Here are my red onions. Not looking quite as good as the garlic, but considering the weather I'm pretty pleased :)

I didn't know if my rhubarb would survive the winter, but all three crowns are springing into life. I may put a bucket over one of them to force it. In the meantime I'm enjoying their alien qualities and gorgeous colouring:

This is one of my comfrey plants - looks like I really need to get my ass into gear if things are starting to green up so quickly.

it's not all my fault though - we are really having variable weather - look here is the remains of the latest snowfall from Saturday. Yes that's right - SNOW !! again. We've also had really strong winds and my greenhouse roof has suffered a broken pane - it seems like the wind tried to blow the door off too. I'll have to persuade OH to come and do some spring repairs.

Thankfully my strawberries appear to be making it through the winter - despite me rather than because of me as I have left them in various trays with NO drainage ! Consequently they've been in about 3" of standing water for months on end. Oh dear. LOL.

The greenhouse area is slowing taking shape - I've now piled most of the bricks into the void at the back of the shot below - just didn't know what to do with them. I'm thinking of leaving the two bits of wall that you can see in the shot and then I'll have to extend the concrete base to accommodate the new greenhouse - hey maybe I'll use some bricks :)

I think I've just got the bottom row of bricks left to remove now. I scraped up the rubbish and broken glass and took it into the new skip (more fundraising !!) that is in the car park.

At least I could move the bricks today - last visit they were all frozen together !

The 99-thousand daffodils that I planted in October / November are pushing through the ground already - are they early ? Some already have flower buds on:

We are munching our way through my last butternut squash this week - it is vibrantly orange, sweet and delicious. I'm very pleased with how the squashes & pumpkins have stored this winter. Still got loads to chomp our way through. Half of it went into a rogan josh curry last night - heavenly !

I'm off to google Green Zebra tomatoes now - apparently they are like Tigrellas, but they stay green - one of my lottie friends got me some seeds from a seed swap event.

Back to school !!

2011-02-11T21:20:00.005Z

Like a lot of companies, my employer places great value on helping the communities in which it operates, so yesterday off I went with a couple of colleagues to help with a garden that our department is creating in one of the local schools.

The project has been ongoing for some months now with various activities taking place, from building walls, resiting extremely heavy metal railings, shifting tonnes of rubble to fill and level the site, making loads of wooden planters (70 I seem to recall!!) and shifting tonnes of top soil until finally it looks like this:

During a couple of earlier visits to the garden, I helped to make some of the wooden boxes that you can see in the shot above. They are different heights so that different age groups and disabled / wheelchair bound children can all join in the fun.

Our job yesterday was to turf as much as possible in 3 hours. Unfortunately for us it had rained non-stop for about 4 days, so the rolls were sodden and very heavy / awkward to handle.

Here is the before shot:

and this is after - we managed to turf the bottom end and one side of the garden (not bad for 3 hours):

This is the side view - it rained again last night so hopefully the turf will start to knit - it had lovely roots.

We're nearly at the end of the project - there is a bit more turfing to do, the planters need filling with topsoil, there is some block paving to go onto the hardcore area down the middle of of the garden and then I think some rendering on the retaining wall that some of my colleagues built.

It is already looking great - can't wait to revisit it in the height of the season, but maybe the most exciting thing I've learned during the project is that you can hire petrol driven wheelbarrows - who'd have thought ! Apparently they take about 4 times the load of a normal wheelbarrow ...

... now that might be useful if I ever get that manure delivered ...

has Spring sprung ?

2011-02-08T18:13:00.001Z

what a glorious day - I hope it's a sign that Spring is on it's way .... what a treat, driving to work AND home in daylight !!

Stormy Weather ...

2011-02-06T21:13:00.005Z

So my big plans for the weekend didn't quite pan out as hoped.

After my foray to the lottie last week I've been toying with hiring a rotivator all week. I know I know, I can hear you all shouting in horror, don't do it. But my main constraint when it comes to the lottie is time - I'm a weekend gardener by necessity. I work full-time and have a daily commute of 2.5 hours, so time is a really precious commodity to me.

I have several things I want to do this season, the main things being:
- clear the last remaining bit of the plot
- change the layout of all of my beds
- manure the whole plot
- erect the new greenhouse.

So my plan was to hire a rotivator for the weekend and rotivate the right hand side of the plot (as you look from the door). There is a little bit of bindweed on this side, coming in from the hedge, but otherwise it's creeping buttercups and dandelions. OH was going to help me take up all of my paths. Then when I'd rotivated the other side and taken out all of the old strawberries I'd planned to put the paths back in, but instead of having beds leading off the main path as they are now, I want to have long beds running alongside the main path (make any sense ?? LOL).

Then next weekend I thought I'd have some manure dropped.

Well that was all fine and dandy until the voice of doom spoke and informed me that the weather forecast was for stormy weather this weekend.

Oh how right that voice was ... but not so much about the weather, even with the battering of heavy rain and gales on Friday and Saturday. No, the worst definitely came today. Not weatherwise, but in the form of a committee meeting !

I've been a member of the committee for a couple of years now, but am getting seriously disenchanted it. Like most committees it consists of a mixture of people - some in this century, some still in the last century, some who who seem to end up taking on all the work and one or two who like us to listen to the sound of their voices.

Today we should have been reviewing the shop business plan - actually we should have reviewed it last month ... but instead, we've now had to set up a third, special, meeting and give up an evening to hear it - it'll probably be a pile of cr*p - the signs are there. We've had small cracks forming for a few months, but now war lines are being drawn and it's all very disillusioning.

How about this for a laugh - our Chairman doesn't even have a plot ! or our Treasurer/Secretary come to that. You'd think that would be a pre-requisit for being on an allotment committee ...

I have spent six hours today on committee business and it looks like next week I'll be giving up more of my precious time to help to help empty our dilapidated society hut that is at the point of collapse - it'll be the same faces I'm sure that turn up. I have much better ways to spend my precious time ... tempting.

There may be trouble ahead !

Chopity Chop !

2011-01-30T17:18:00.002Z

Busy weekend at the lottie ... it would have been even busier if the ground wasn't still frozen (will it ever thaw I ask myself !)

The pond appears to have been frozen for 3 months solid, so in a bid to let what little sunshine we have at this time of year into the plot I decide to have another chop at the overgrown hedge.

I asked for battery hedge trimmers for Christmas and Santa sent me some money to go and buy some ... but I haven't made it to B&Q yet to see what they've got ! So annoyingly, I've yet again spent hours and hours with my loppers chopping the flipping thing down. My new loppers are great though, they sliced through sizeable stems and even a couple of small trees ... now if only I could find my secateurs LOL.

When you are up close and busy chopping you really feel like you're doing a great job and everything is level .. then you stand back to admire your hard work and end up laughing your socks off at the crooked donkey-leg mess in front of you. Never mind, it is chopped and the sunshine is indeed hitting that side of the plot.

I spent a few hours shifting frozen bricks yesterday - and knocking a bit more of the old greenhouse down. It's getting there slowly ... slowly being the operative word. Still lots to do.

I wish I could clone myself, how wonderful would that be !

That lesser spotted furtive creature, the OH, was finally persuaded to come and do something with my bonfire today - he was kept busy for 3.5 hours gathering stuff to burn.

The lottie is definitely looking better .. which is lucky as my next door neighbour is expecting the new allotment officer to visit her tomorrow. She has been making tremendous progress and rather depressingly has received one of the letters saying 'get cultivating or else'. Needless to say she was furious and called them up to put them in the picture as to what a state it was in when she took it over. Hopefully they are coming to help remove a tonne of rusty metal, sacks and sacks of broken glass, a toilet (don't ask) and tonnes of other crap ... she's decided to keep the two baths and also the 35 tyres - apparently she has potatoe plans for them ... bonkers in my opinion, but still, whatever turns you on.

My seed order has arrived - I'm too exhausted to open it and see what I ordered. Plus I'm sure it will never warm up enough to ever contemplate germinating them. Someone on one of the forums that I look at has already started off tomatoes (tomatoes in January !), beetroot and some other bits and bobs.

On the plus side my squashes are still keeping well and we are gradually eating our way through them - my new latest obsession is Jamie's 30 minute meals, so they'll hopefully be disappearing soon. Sadly I've run out of garlic and am having to get it from the shop ... and onions too ... oh the shame. Call myself an allotmenter !

Where's that clone button

under starters orders !

2011-01-09T19:39:00.002Z

finally been up to inspect winter progress.

Well the good news is .. erm, will have to get back to you on that.

We've had more snow in Sheffield - in fact there are still big piles hanging around in supermarket car parks etc from Christmas time. Fortunately it only lasted a day this time, but the pond and water butts have several layers of ice and it's still bitterly cold. The ground is saturated and it's pretty miserable really.

I wonder if it will ever dry out enough for my bonfire to burn...

Sadly no bored burglars have broken in and dug over the lottie ... I do look to have had a few bored foxes playing in the onion bed. They've probably been laughing over the state of them. They are still alive though ... and green. Not so much healthy. But still ... they are there. They are ... therefore they will :)

... which is more than can be said for my broadbeans - as suspected the meeces have have been enjoying some gormet breakfasts. It's difficult to be cross with them, as we had snow on the ground for about a month ... ho hum. Back to the shop LOL. They arnt' ... therefore they won't !

The garlic looks a little better - I should have fab cloved garlic this year. They love the cold temperatures.

The snow & winds have flattened the cabbage cage. I've put the netting into the greenhouse to dry out. I think this season I'll just have a fence type arrangement rather than a 'roof' too - it should make it easier to access and weed. Of course that means easy access for the butterflies too ... oh well, at least they are pretty.

Under the top layer of ice in the pond is water and then more ice - it feels solid. Hope my froggies are tucked up somewhere safe.

Now what about that good news - oh yes, the seed order has arrived ... hurrah ! that definitely means that Spring is just around the corner :)

oooo we've gone international !

2010-12-30T19:20:00.004Z

here is a short video that Sheffield Council did of the recent You Choose event ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImN3quXHhcA

You get a quick glimpse of our display and that's our Jo at the end suggesting that cakes & tea would be a good improvement to the process ! Jo is our magical fundraiser - she's secured us around £7,000 so far I think - amazing ! Izzy has a starring role too - sorry Izzy, I've forgotten your blogger name ...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2010-12-20T18:47:00.002Z

I'm sure you are all enjoying this seasonal weather as much as I am ! Minus 4 today at midday here in Sheffield ... super. Well at least the garlic will be enjoying it. Goodness knows whether I have any broadbeans left - they were just germinating when the snow arrived - the mice had only found one, but I'm sure they've rectified that !

So no lottie news to report - as much as I'm missing it, I'm also enjoying the central heating ! We'll see what the new year brings - hopefully some sunshine.

In the meantime, here are three extremely grumpy Santas for you to enjoy.

They are obsessed with the Christmas presents, ribbons, bag etc and are also doing their best to de-nude the tree of it's decorations and needles - in fact, this pretty much represents my house at the moment - enjoy ! http://www.simonscat.com/santaclaws.html

Happy Christmas to you and your families - hope you have all been good for Santa
Happy Holidays to those of you who don't celebrate Christmas xx

Unrealistic expectations ?

2010-11-14T17:15:00.002Z

There are lots of new people wandering around as the allotment office are trying to address the issue of unworked plots across the city and recently issued around 15o part and non-cultivation letters for our site.

Most of the potential newbies are horrified at the plots they are being offered, which got me thinking about expectations.

The first plot I was offered had gone native ... you couldn't tell where the wood began and it was situated at the remotest part of the site so I turned it down (indeed, 4 years on I'm pretty certain it's still not tenanted). The next one was only head height in weeds - so much more manageable haha and it's been bloody hard work to bring it round.

The council recently spent around £50,000 on clearing plots across the city (around 3,500 plots in total in Sheffield). I think there were around 7 plots cleared on our site, maybe a handful more. Unfortunately the plots that were chosen for clearance really were the worst of the worst - not such a bad thing you say ? Well the soil is thin or non-existent on the worst which have been used as landfill and the others are waterlogged as the sun doesn't manage to reach the soil because they are dwarfed by enormous mature trees. The new allotment officer even expressed disappointment at the plots that were chosen (by the previous officer we presume).

The family I met today had been on the list for 2 years - the plot they'd been offered sounded reasonable (it has some security issues, but the allotment office might be able to help with that) - but part of me wonders what will happen if they take it on. She was a new mum and so time is going to be pretty tight right and as the only person working the plot I wonder whether they are not biting off more than they can manage ? hmmm.

Then again when you've been waiting so long for a plot maybe you have higher expectations - afterall it wouldn't be remiss to think that a 2 year wait meant that the site had full occupancy & beautifully cultivated plots would it ... Maybe I'm the one with unrealistic expectations - but I'm only too aware of how much back breaking work allotments are ... and how quickly they go native if even left for a couple of weeks !

Some of our plots are monsters - but it's a self perpetuating issue. Newbies take on the plot, it's too much for them and they give up after a month or two ... but they've paid their rent, so keep the plot for another 10 months ... by which time the plot is in an even worse state - and so the cycle repeats.

So maybe the council should clear the plots for new tenants ? Sure, sounds great ... but when old Ken gave up his plot a couple of seasons ago, it was weed free, hedges trimmed to around 2foot, lots of beds ready to plant in - perfect for the new tenants who took it on as soon as he left. Sadly it is now completely overgrown again following a season of sunbathing, reading and a little light gardening - another casualty of the fashion for allotments ?

I don't know what the answer is really, but at least the new officers seem to mean business so all we can do is be as supportive as possible.

Speaking of which, the Allotment office have organised a team building day for their department in December. It's going to take the form of a 'ranger' day which basically means that the whole department turn up on our allotment site for the day with the aim of doing some plot clearance work and tackling some other jobs. We're going to try and rally the troops to swell their numbers and make some good progress - not a small task on a site as large as ours (400 plots).

Of course cake will be required for the volunteers - tonight I've made Delia's Spiced Apple Muffin Cake with Pecan struesel topping with a bag of donated apples - if you've got lots of apples left, give it a go - it is lovely with whipped double cream, warm from the oven ... oh yes. Yum !

Happy Halloween !

2010-10-31T20:09:00.004Z

I've found a use for one of my Queensland Blue's ! It smelt amazing when I was carving it - looking forward to tasting it. This week we've had pumpkin (squash actually), pine nut & feta cannelloni, butternut squash risotto, squash lasagne and I think tomorrow I'm going to make pumpkin cake out of my carrot cake recipe :-p

I barely see Nick next door and yet he has somehow managed to get his winter beds ready. He planted his garlic and onions last week.

Here's my lottie looking grey and dismal. I've started digging over my beds in preparation for manuring them next month (hahah). I cleared my greenhouse this afternoon and pulled up my tomato plants - the final handful are now ripening on the windowsill. The greenhouse has loads of bindweed roots :(

I sowed my broadbeans this afternoon. When I've sown them previously I've sown them direct in the bed, but I've lost packets and packets to the meeces, so I decided to sow them into pots and put them in the greenhouse. This may turn out to be a bad idea as the greenhouse's winter resident moved in a few weeks ago and helped himself to the buckwheat that I've lovingly grown through the summer and been patiently drying the seeds for storage. Ho hum, will have to wait and see what happens.

Made a bit more progress on my demolition - crikey it's taking me ages ... can't see me getting the new greenhouse up before Christmas :(

Here are my red onions - looking good ! I have high hopes :)

Street Force supplied lots of community groups across Sheffield with free spring bulbs to brighten the city up. Our Allotment Association were given 1,000 daffodils and 2,000 crocuses .... seemed like a good idea at the time. Half of them are now loitering in my greenouse - planted about 100 of each today outside the plots on my row and barely dented the bags LOL.

Must get them in soon as they are already waking up.

My flag iris have really outgrown their pot, so I'll be splitting them over the winter:

Found this delicate little thing next to my leeks - no idea what it is, but it's very pretty.

Did you meet our newest arrival yet ? Here's Feargal ... we are currently fostering her. She's not had the best start to life and is pretty terrified of humans (her mum & two siblings drowned after they were all thrown into the canal) so we agreed to foster her for a while and try and socialise her.

She is making huge progress and adores Loki x

surely I'm too young for senile dementia ?

2010-10-10T19:52:00.003+01:00

spent bloody ages looking for my secateurs today - got loads of stuff to chop down ... anyone seen them ?

What a beautiful day it has been today - didn't start off so promising, but the afternoon was glorious - the Jerusalem Artichokes are in full flower:

Hmm my strawberries seem confused !

The little Alpine ones are adding some much needed colour:

Finally got hold of some garlic - forgotten what the variety is already LOL ! Ambled up and down the lottie trying to decide which bed to put them into when I realised that last years garlic bed has geared itself up already. I took a closer look and was a little suprised to see that there are 14 very healthy looking plants - I'm sure I dug them all up in late Spring / early Summer ! Decided to take a chance and use the same bed - ended up using all three cloves.

Am feeling very pleased with myself - that's my garlic in and my onions have been planted for a couple of weeks - they are already 1-2 inches high :) Just need to get some broad beans, sweet potatoes and sweet peas and then I think I'm set for the winter - well apart from my manure and new greenhouse !

Finally ! this is my Romaesco cauliflower. Blimey it's taken a long time to appear ... hope it's good - my cauliflowers were growing really well this year - until the two-week rain deluge that we had in the summer.

Looks like I might be getting some broccoli soon - not quite sure what I did to it, but it looks like I only have one plant - still that's not such as bad thing as OH doesn't like it:

Now, this is a leek head that went to flower ... and then little leak-lets appeared ... so I've potted some of them up - will they grow ?? I can't think why they won't. Free leeks :) :)

Last of the Borlotties ... I'm going to grow stacks more of these next year - why not, we really like them. Got some podded ones in the freezer and made some more into spicy bean burgers - yum yum yum !

Remembering my potato disaster last year (ie, when I didn't dig them up until Spring this year!) I've been slowly digging my way across the beds - but as the stems disappeared long ago on mine, I'm puzzled as to how Nick's (next door) are so green & vibrant and still in flower ??

Here's my compost heap ... always feeds well this time of year :)

The last of the summer flowers are just clinging on:

and surprisingly the Phacelia is still going strong - not many bees around tho:

I harvested a few beetroots and some strange looking thing - noticed a few of them growing in and amongst the beetroots - guess it's a turnip or something. Tastes like a sugar beet tho. Oh well, it's gotta be edible right.

Anyway next to the beetroots I spy my three parsnips - yep, three whole parsnips from a whole packet of seed. I decide to pull the biggest one - it's flipping enormous. It kinda made up for not having many - could have fed the whole street with it :)

The photo with Loki doesn't really do it justice - the widest part of the the parsnip was as wide as my head !! It was flipping heavy

So what to do with a giant parsnip ... hmmm, cake !

Here is my parsnip & maple syrup cake - it is delicious and unbelieveably moist - I can thoroughly recommend it. Best of all girls it almost counts as your 5 a day - parsnip, apple & orange !!

The rest of the monster parsnip became parsnip soup - I'll discover what that tastes like tomorrow - anyone seen those secateurs ??

Woo hoo ! We won, we won !!

2010-10-09T15:02:00.002+01:00

gosh off we went this morning to our local You Choose community funding event. We rallied the troops:

Expectations were low as these events have come in for a lot of criticism in the past. The council were offering £10,000 in total for our area - sounds a lot right ? They had £30,000 worth of applications. Knowing all the hoops that have to be jumped and thinking we wouldn't win, we decided that it would be good for us to attend the event anyway to raise our profile within the community.

There were 18 entrants - we decided that the bowling club were our competition, they appeared to have mobilised most of their members - and didn't do a bad job at trying to sign us up as new members !

Our table definitely had the most impact - we were so proud !

Oooo you can never miss an opportunity to gather more email addresses for our monthly newsletter mailing list ... managed to add another 14 names :)

The results were finally announced and we were absolutely astonished and shocked to hear that we came second ! We got the whole amount that we'd requested - fantastic. We are so grateful to everyone who supported us and voted for us. The groups who won were: Bishops' House, Heeley & District Allotments (us !!), Heeley Voice or Advice, Heeley City Farm, the bowling club (they get their bad weather shelter) and the wildlife group

The Council wanted an interview with the winning groups, so after a bit of arm twisting we managed to persuade Jo to represent us.

and here's the evidence ! Cheque in the post LOL

The End is Nigh ...

2010-10-03T15:25:00.002+01:00

Was listening to the radio on Friday and the guest speaker was a professional pumpkin grower. He was asked when pumpkins should be harvested and he said they were in the process of completing their harvest, so yesterday I decided to harvest my Queensland Blues. I knew I had 4, but discovered a fifth when I was pulling up the vine. They are very heavy - looking forward to trying them :)

Noticed the Crown Princes in Waitrose today are not as big as mine, or as beautiful looking :) :)

Pulled up my butternut squash vine. It had about 20 babies on it - oh why oh why did it leave it so late to get going :( My baby squash that I've been nuturing managed to get to hand size - it's a similar size to the supermarket.

The courgettes are still producing, so I've left them in the ground for now - their leaves are looking past their best so I guess it won't be long before they also go the compost heap - which is exploding it's so big.

It must be hard work being a bean ... standing around all day doing nothing. Obviously my borlotties had had enough and had decided to have a little recline on the ground. It was impossible to get them upright again, so annoyingly I've had to harvest them all. Quite a lot are still green / immature. Sigh. I shall be trawling the net now for recipes - I think spicy beanburgers will be featuring on our menu next week ... yum !

I finally got around to using some more of the tomatoes - I've made a batch of tomato sauce and some soup. Still got 3-4 kilos to process ... am thinking tomato, mozarella & basil tart for tea :)

One of my other jobs that I was hoping to do was to start digging over some of the beds, but we've had a torrential downpour for most of the day, so there goes that plan LOL. I don't feel as dedicated as I once was - maybe I'm suffering allotment lethargy ! My lovely yellow wellies are getting plenty of use though.

My Allotment Association are applying for some funding via the You Choose programme - so if anyone from my site reads this blog, please please please support us by turning up to vote next Saturday (details on the poster on the gates). We're planning a display with pumpkins, newsletters, photos, scarecrows and lots of other 'allotmenty' bits.

Frost Fright already

2010-09-19T20:08:00.004+01:00

Blimey we've not even left September behind and there are frost warnings out. I didn't have time to do anything about it during the week, so just had to keep my fingers crossed. The lottie looks fine, so I think it was just a warning rather than an actuality. Nevertheless I decided not to risk my lovely squashes and have been busy harvesting this afternoon.

I brought home two butternuts and left another one that is almost mature on the vine and two Crown Prince - they are not as big as I thought they were going to be, but they are really heavy I'm looking forward to trying them. The Winter Festival gave me 8 lovely creamy yellow-green fruits and I took the remaining two tiny turks turbans which will be saved for Halloween pumpkin 'fodder'. I brought home 14 squashes in total.

One of the butternuts is the size of a small dog - it'll take us weeks to eat it LOL. The plant is busy producing lots of babies, but it's way too late, I wonder why it takes them so long to get going. I'm going to start them even earlier next year and see if it makes a difference .... I may put them under plastic cloches during the season to see if heat helps.

I decided to leave my Queensland Blue's on the vine ... hope I don't regret it ! It'll be a couple of weeks before I can get back up there - will have to send OH if the weather takes a turn for the worse. They are also not as big as I expected - hope they taste good.

I'm extremely proud of myself today - I've managed to plant next seasons onions !! ta-dar !!!! how organised is that ... flipping amazing. Sadly no garlic yet - I'm still in disbelief that our allotment shop sold out in a week. Bizarrely though I've noticed 10 garlic plants growing in this season's garlic bed ... which is very puzzling. I'm going to leave them and see what happens.

I finally harvested the blueberries ... I thought I was picking them late, but I've been reading on the internet that they are harvested at the end of September - no wonder I've always thought they were a little on the tart side ! They've been made into blueberry pie with lemon pastry ... it's so good I'm on my second piece :) ... excuse the website - it's for the Daily Fail - just try not to read any 'stories' and you'll be OK:

With the left over pastry I made some jammy-tarts with some of this season's strawberry jam ... yum !!!

Now that the season is slowing I'm finally getting reasonable sized courgettes thank goodness. I've left two plants in in situ and put two onto the compost heap - I love this time of year when everything gets cleared away !! LOL, I know I'm strange :)

The tomatoes are almost finished - interestingly they've nearly all ripened. Usually at this time of year I'm struggling with loads of green ones. I've got around 8 kilos sat on the kitchen worktop ! eek. They are quickly overtaking the courgettes haha.

Yup, it's been a pretty good season I think. Did I say second or third piece of pie ...

Last of those summer days ...

2010-09-13T18:10:00.003+01:00

We held our first mini-scarecrow festival on Sunday at the allotments for our plot holders.

Here's my scarecrow and scare-cat at the gates to welcome the 'hoards of visitors' ... I wish ! Sadly it was a very quiet day - can't even blame it on the weather as we were very lucky to get some sunshine. There was another event on locally, but we're told that was quiet too. Never mind, we enjoyed it :)

Here's the best bit - the cakes ! I think we managed to pursuade most of our visitors to buy a slice :)

Yum. See that enormous chocolate cake in the foreground ... gone ! not a crumb left :(

I did manage to get a piece before it all disappeared and yes, it was as good as it looked.

Megan's Fairy Cakes - the pink glitter was a hit:

Guess the weight of the marrow ! the kids could barely lift it :) I hasten to add it's not one of my monsters ... they are all on the compost heap haha.

We had 11 scarecrows in total. This is Jenny and her daughter arriving with 'Susan' and 'Doomsday'

We are borrowing Susan for our next grant application:

The pyjama gang:

Here is the second place scarecrow - it was a sweet little thing. Our theme was 'recycling':

Here is the winning entry - I wish my blog had 'smell-o-vision' so you could appreciate how lovely the smell of the rosemary and lavender was.

I'm not sure whether I'll keep my scarecrow at the lottie or not. He was too frightening in the house - everytime I opened the door and saw the 'legs' my eyes went down to the boots and then the hairs on the back of my neck started to rise and I could feel the shriek developing in my throat before remembering it's a scarecrow not a burglar !!

2010-09-05T19:14:00.003+01:00

yum ... gave the lottie committee a little treat today - am practising for our Scarecrow Festival next weekend !

Lemon Layer Cake :)

The nights are drawing in ...

2010-09-04T23:06:00.002+01:00

Hmm, well it's finally stopped raining and we are even enjoying a little sunshine - although welcome, it's probably too little, too late !

This is what happened to my best Turks Turban. I took home two more this afternoon which have survived the weather - they are not as big though. There are another couple of tiny ones on the vine - which looks like it is half dead.

This is a Winter Festival. There are 7 smallish fruits on the plant. Not sure how big they normally grow.

I have two huge butternut squashes and a teeney-tiny one. Very disappointing, but then again some of my fellow allotmenters have not even got one. They just need some sunshine now to ripen .. I may even start removing leaves from the vine (a top tip I read somewhere).

This looks like my Queensland blue. I say looks like because it is not where I thought I planted it ! Got two squashes so far - little bit bigger than footballs. Bit more sunshine please

so if the one above is a Queensland Blue, it means this one is a Crown Prince. It is doing quite well - there are four reasonably sized fruits ... fingers crossed !

Not quite sure what happened to my lovely leeks, I've only ended up with a handful growing. Noticed signs of rust today too !

Harvested another kilo of tomatoes today. Made them into a lovely batch of tomato soup - it's very tasty. Only got another 3kg in the frige ! Looks like tomato tart may be on the menu next week :)

Most of my potatoes are very small, which is to be expected considering how late it was before I planted them. My Pink Fir Apple however are huge - this one is the size of my hand ! There are not many tubers per plant, but the tubers are way bigger than what I normally harvest. Interestingly these were left over from my last harvest.

My blueberries are screaming 'autumn is here'. The colours of the plant and the berries are amazing.

A colleague at work has a plum tree. Seems they don't use their plums, so a carrier bag full came my way. I took him a jar of the jam to say thanks and it has gone home to be admired by the family ! Am looking forward to tasting it - plum jam is my favourite. I've not made as much jam this year - got strawberry, raspberry and now plum. Of course the blackberries are now in full swing ! Must resist must resist must res ... resistance is futile !! watch this space.

I'm also full of apple crumble, courtesy of the same colleague. I can't believe they don't use the fruit. There were also some cherries, bursting with fruit, but good grief were they sharp.

Had another go at the greenhouse walls today. God it's going to take me ages to get rid of it. I've knocked down the front wall pieces and the 'bed' in the middle. I've even started to stack those bricks that I can reuse ... although I have to confess that it didn't occur to me in time that I still have to knock down the wall behind my neatly stacked pile.

I've been on skip duty today at the lottie - got rid of my greenhouse roof :) Am wondering whether it's OK to put some of the half bricks & rubble in ...

The wildgarden is full of lovely seedheads

I've not seen as much wildlife on the lottie this year - is it a) because I haven't been there much, b) because it was so cold at the beginning of the season, c) because it has been so rainy and horrid for the last month+ or d) because I'm not looking hard enough ! Answers on a postcard ... don't forget to ask a friend. Got lots and lots of froggie friends around the lottie - there are still tiny babies in the pond.

what a smashing day !

2010-08-22T18:31:00.002+01:00

finally it was D-day for the brick greenhouse ! My allotment site was recently awarded two grants for the provision of skips so with this in mind it seemed the perfect time for Demolition mayhem.

We spent yesterday emptying it - no mean feat !

and then today the demolition began in ernst. It didn't take much persuasion for the roof to come down.

the local inhabitants were a little reluctant to leave ...

the brickwork although not in the best condition is still pretty solid.

We took a car load of rubbish to the tip and have another lovely pile waiting for the next skip on site (isn't it funny the things you get excited about).

You wouldn't believe the size of the bonfire we'll be having at some stage though !

Still lots to do. No idea yet what we'll do with all those bricks - or where we'll put them ! God they are heavy.

It finally stopped raining in Sheffield ... hurrah ! I took the opportunity to have a good look round the plot.

My carrots and beetroots are loving the rain - they are big and beautiful ! My beans are also loving the rain. Courgettes are good, however, I think my squashes would like a little more sun, but they are OK for now - well apart from my lovely turks turban looks to have rotted in all the rain and the slugs have moved in - grrr. My cauliflowers have been ruined by the rain - so far my cabbages and broccoli look OK.

In the greenouse, my tomatoes are lovely - the plants I would say are my best ever, although they are not as tall as they are usually. Lots of tomatoes though - yum. I think my early watering strategy and then the magic chicken poo has worked wonders. My melon died tho - I wonder why ... and I only have one pathetic sized pepper - although in fairness it did go in very late. My lovely chillies that I bought from the plant sale have been eaten along with my marigolds. Still - got nice tomatoes :)

The birds look to have beaten me to the blueberries - there were about half left ... just enough for Blueberry icecream !

The blackberries are lovely - time for the ever gorgeous blackberry and almond meringue cake.

another butterfly

yes, this is stupid cat no. 3 stuck up a tree. Stupid cat no. 2 got stuck on the kitchen roof last night. Stupid cat no. 1 looks pretty bright in comparison

I'd like to order some sunshine for this week please :)

2010-08-01T19:32:00.002+01:00

Finally a couple of dry days !

Been busy doing lots of jobs - the onion bed had disappeared beneath rogue potatoes and bindweed and in protest a few onion flowers were waving in the breeze.

To say they went in so late, they've done pretty well and I've got some sizeable onions - better than previous seasons. Of course they are in the manure bed - but it's getting difficult to say that as it's now at the end of its 4th season ! Onions are now drying in the brick greenhouse.

I also took up the garlic, which has been suffering with the wet weather. The bulbs are tiny - similar size to the ones you get in the supermarket. Better than nothing though and considering how late they went in, I'm very grateful. Will definitely be planting in October this time - accidents allowing !

This is my monster carrot - it's as big as my head !!! You wouldn't believe how it smells ... really carroty. It's amazing - sadly for me it doesn't reflect any skill on my part as it is SELF-SOWN lol:

My beautiful peas have been neglected for the last 2-3 weeks, what with weather and then home commitments, so I was pretty downhearted to see that they have passed over their best. They were my best ever peas and definitely beneftted from the netting - however that was also their downfall, as it was so difficult to harvest anything. Need to find a happy medium next season. The old pods are now in the greenhouse drying - I'm wondering whether I can save the seed for next year. Some of the peas have already started sprouted in the pod.

The wildlife on my plot is thriving and I think must be mainly due to my lovely wildflower area next to the pond.

Despite digging up loads of teasels back in Spring there are still plenty around the plot. This photo was taken yesterday and today it has a band of purple flowers around it's middle. The flower heads feel lovely and silky when stroked - not for long though !

I have lots of butterflies on the plot, but they are very difficult to photograph, I have more luck with moths ... shall have to get my identification book out later...

mmmm puple beans !!!! yum, my favourite. Gold Rush have also just come in season and there appears to be some blue lake. In the greenhouse my one and only cannelloni plant is going great guns - hopefully it'll be even better now I've staked it ... it got tired of reclining on the floor :)

I'm amazed at how many ladybirds I have - I went to see how the artichokes are doing - sadly they still have lots of blackfly, but on just two artichoke heads I counted 27 ladybird lavae scuttling about !!

The most common one today was the English 7-spot - they were everywhere !

Not seen any yellow ones for a while though

The strawberries have obviously heard me muttering that it's their last season and are furiously throwing out runners - I have over 100 potted up at the moment. If they make it through the winter I should be in for a good season next year. I need to make some sort of cage to protect them from the birds next season. I also have big plans to have manure delivered this year, so the current strawberries in residence will be going to the great compost heap. I did wonder to myself as I weeded them this afternoon, why not just dig them up ...

The rain has been perfect for my courgettes (15 currently sat on the worktop, another 5 on the plants and 4 in our tummies last night LOL) and squashes. This is a turks turban - I've propped it onto a brick to protect it from the wet soil.

I've got three butternut squashes developing on one of the vines - fingers crossed I get a few more. Wonder if I'll ever beat my record first season.

This is the mystery bush - the tag is burried somewhere underneath the foliage - looks promising. Maybe it's a Winter Festival. Got loads of fruit on it;

This is how it starts out - two tone !

The comfrey is revving up for a second round. Must remember to stake it this time ...

Here are my borlotti beans, with the Crown Prince & Queensland Blue pumpkins in front and then the comprey in the foreground. The pumpkin leaves are huge (knee height) and there are lots of flowers and tiny tiny fruit ... maybe we need a bit of sunshine. Hint.

The allotment society are holding some skips days soon, so I must have a tidy up and find all those annoying pieces of plastic that keep apearing. I'm thinking of having some holidays in September to start dismantling the brick greenhouse - ooo now just think, if I could get that timed just right !

Rumour has it that the allotment officer is carrying out some re-inspections this week. It's ruffling a few feathers, but some of the plots are in a shocking state. Will be interesting to see how many eviction notices are served.

Maybe I should rename my blog to 'Duck ... the ladybird'. Wonder if it's only me that finds that funnee. Now, what was I supposed to remember ?

Rain Rain go away ... don't bother coming back another day

2010-07-30T19:11:00.003+01:00

The lottie is miserable, bedraggled and waterlogged. Ironically allotment holders in Sheffield received a letter this week from our new allotment officer reminding us to use water in a responsible manner. It's raining again as I type this post. Ohhhhh the irony.

My god-daughter & her sister came to stay with us recently - and a quick trip to the water the greenhouse was the perfect opportunity to try out my lovely yellow wellies - their maiden voyage was very satisfactory :)

With not much happening at the lottie, despite it being the height of summer, we headed out to Tropical World in Roundhey Park, Leeds for the day. The walled garden is stunning and we discovered where the bees have all been hiding !

OH took these lovely photos of the Koi Carp:

couldn't resist this one ... snakes on a bench !

Dragons Abound

2010-07-17T23:07:00.002+01:00

Sheffield has been suffering from a deluge of rain this last week - it's great for my veggies, but it's finished off the strawberries

I couldn't resist a quick lookie at the carrots - last week they were teenie ... today - look !

The lottie is at a lovely stage right now - just producing enough so that we get chance to eat it ... well, apart from the peas - there are still hundreds to pick.

Ladybird Alert !

2010-07-11T19:36:00.006+01:00

so there I was weeding the artichokes and thinking to myself, 'cor I've not seen many ladybirds this year' when I spotted one quickly followed by another ....

I managed to count:
2 spot red x 7
18 or 20 spot orange x 3
4 spot black x 3
baby ladybirds x 4
and a monster black one with red 'eyes' x 1

This is the monster one - it is 2-3 times the size of a normal ladybird ... I need to google it and see if it's an invader

it's painted eyes are quite dramatic:

it was scuttling up and down the bit of plant it was on, but didn't look to be eating many aphids - the artichokes are covered in the them at the moment ... must make myself some garlic spray.

I'm always on the look out for Harlequin ladybirds - this one also looks slightly different to the usual ones - it's head was a different shape ... more googling to do !

This one looked like it had been sun bleached - it's spots fade away ...

here's a ladybird lavae - gosh they are freaky

even the flies are beautiful on my lottie :)

I spent about three hours weeding everything today, still loads more to do. Ho-hum.

Hmm, this is either a Blue Lake (slightly skeptical) or a Gold Rush (looks more likely):

Yippee purple beans ... my favourite !

I have no idea what this is ! I thought it was a squash, but it's growing very 'bushy' ... oh well, lots of flowers, so I guess I'll know in a month or so. I wonder what happens to my labels ...

Buckwheat in the greenhouse - it's as tall as me. So pretty and delicate:

Lookie - my cucumber is still alive - hurrah ! No fruit yet, but lots of flowers. I'm almost hopeful for cucumber this season :)

Well my tomatoes are not the tallest plants I've ever had, but they are looking nice and healthy and I have quite a lot of fruits set already. This is my one and only Vanessa:

These are my yellow toms (I think !):

Here's my Roma - my favourite :)

Here are my borlotties;

Here's my Crown Prince & Queensland Blue - they look really healthy and are romping away now ... must remember to give them some more chicken poo water ... yum !

Newspaper Apples:

My peppers are very small, but I can see flowers coming ... they need to get a move on, or they may miss the season. My melon is also very small, but finally has a flower appearing.

Not sure what this little guy is - I need to get my moth book out - he was very attractive:

Edit: google & my RSPB garden wildlife book think he may be a Skipper Butterfly ... any advance ?

mmmm and finally ! Oh I love my icecream maker.

We finished off the strawberry icecream yesterday just in time to make way for the raspberries ! and what better way to enjoy them, than raspberry & chocolate brownie cakes, with raspberry icecream and raspberry & strawberry coulis ... oh my. Yes, it's very good ... very very very good :P

We've also had plenty of courgettes for Nigella's courgette and chickpea pie, Artichokes, baby carrots (bit small yet), beetroots, tonnes of peas (soup in the fridge), garlic and baby potatoes ... yum. Makes it all worthwhile :)

Blue skies and lots of sunshine

2010-07-03T22:15:00.002+01:00

My peas are ready for picking - got loads of them, not sure what I'll do with them yet. Maybe some of Simon Hopkinson's pea jelly !

This is the first of my Turks Turbans - so far so good ...

haha, I have no idea what this fella is, but he is pretty healthy ... maybe he's a winter festival.

he heh .... courgettes need no introduction ! OH is looking forward to Nigella's courgette & chick pea pie next week :)

Hopefully these are borlotti beans ... my labelling, which started out fantastically, ended up in it's usual chaos when the sun bleached the ink from the labels ! Anyway whatever they are, they are looking great.

I picked 1.25kg of strawberries this afternoon, they are currently in the fridge covered in 1kg of jam sugar .... guess what I'm making tomorrow ! Yum

OH's face lit up when he saw the raspberries that I brought home. They were almost engulfed in bindweed. I've ripped out as much as I could. Bloody stuff.

The sweetcorn is developing tassels already - I might give then some chicken poo water tomorrow .. mmmm yum ! Must remember peg for my nose haha.

Despite my careful weeding I still have loads of baby teasels popping up - this one has made a break for it. I'm sure I'll regret it later as it is so close to the path, but it is too pretty to dig up.

Ladybirds are a few and far between this year ...

... which may account for this situation ! Looks like I need to make some garlic spray to keep the bugs away.

I've had some other visitors today who were more welcome - they weren't bothered by me at all - infact that's my leg that they are resting on. The pond is very busy at the moment with damsel flies and loads and loads of teeny tiny frogs hopping around.

This one kept landing on my camera hand !

I tried to do some digging today, but the ground is rock hard, so I think I'll give up on that idea :)

Cool as a cucumber ...

2010-06-27T17:42:00.003+01:00

what's a girl to do when it's too hot to go the lottie - well I found a few things to keep me busy ...

... like unpacking my new icecream machine :)

This is my very first attempt and oh my it is delicious. It is strawberry flavour - having seen the ingredients, I now realise you could put on weight just looking at the photo !

Then lookie what I found in TK-Max .. hunter boots ! they had some full length ones, some mid-calf and these rather fetching yellow short boots with handy pull tabs. I got some odd looks trying them on, while everyone else was grabbing sandals ...

can't wait for winter !!

27degrees in Sheffield ... ssssshhhhhh

2010-06-22T19:10:00.002+01:00

I've not had much spare time for the lottie recently, thank goodness it is getting on with it on it's own.

My pea cage has been very successful - well mostly. I've had no critter / pigeon damage and now have lovely pea pods developing. The downside is that the peas have decided to grow into the netting and I'm not sure if I can get down the path inbetween them anymore ! Oh well, can't have everything - they do look good though, I'm very proud :) They are about 4.5 foot high now.

The potatoes are just coming into flower. Well I say THE potatoes, but of course I still have some in the shed ** waiting to be planted ** ahem.

My sweetcorn is coming along nicely. I've been paying particular attention to the corn that I pass on my daily commute and may try planting mine through black landscape fabric next year to see if that makes any difference. It's interesting that commercial corn is grown under plastic - I wonder how it gets enough moisture ?

The strawberries are small, but starting to ripen. I think I'll try and make an effort to space them over the winter - of course I have an enormous wish list for the winter, but a girl can dream ! The strawberries that are in the main bed are really not very good. I think the bed definitely needs manuring. The apple trees all have small apples on - no sign of disease ... yet. My rhubarb flowered this year - all three plants, so pickings have been a bit slim - presumably it'll be better next season. This is not such as bad thing as OH HATES rhubarb ! My raspberries are looking very promising - although they are slowly being engulfed by bindweed. Here's the blueberries - looks like I should be in for a good crop. They are going to be moved next season, as OH thinks they are blocking the greenhouse too much.

Here are my beans. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, so they are a little taller now. Still got some waiting to be planted ...

This is either my Crown Prince or my Queensland Blue. It's much bigger now (took photo about 2 weeks ago). The courgettes have all got flower buds on and some of the squash look as though they are thinking about flowering. Still got an Uchi Kuri to go in the ground !

I was very relieved to see this lovely sight shyly peeking out - I lost one plant over the winter and had weeded so 'hard' that I thought maybe the remaining two were not going to do anything this season. I'm going to sow some new ones in the autumn - lots of people were asking for them at the plant sale, so will kill two birds with one stone.

The pond & wildlife garden are looking stunning, although I will have to thin out the flag iris this winter - they are taking over the pond. The excess plants will go to next years plant sale. I've torn out hundreds of Ox Eye Daisies and the remaining plants are at that lovely stage - the minute they drop though, I'll be chopping them down and composting them !

Life is never ending on the lottie - goodness knows what these are - I'm too soft to destroy them. You have to admit though, they do look very pretty.

The comprey is absolutely stunning. It is covered with bees and smells lovely. The plant is huge though. The one next to the pond is OK, but the one behind the greenhouse got waterlogged and then blown over by the wind - I've had to string it up, but it will need moving to a better position I think next year. If you haven't got any comprey, I'd encourage you to get some. I've yet to make comprey fertiliser ... perhaps it'll out smell the chicken manure. Wonder which is worst ?

I think my favourite visitors to the lottie have got to be shield bugs, damsel flies and ladybirds.

lookie - the man the man !!!

2010-06-09T23:24:00.001+01:00

Lookie - Medwyn Williams - ten times Gold medal winner at the Chelsea Flower Show, current Chairman of the National Vegetable Society, President of the Welsh Branch of the same Society and a member of the Fruit and Vegetable Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society .... and he is talking to me !!! me me me. Not that I was excited. At all. I coulda just walked on by. Really. Had to budge that Carol Klein out of the way first - that's her in the green to the left and my mum grinning inanely behind us :)

Apparently his son has got him back into the show - he was last there in 2005 I think and now they are doing it together. We had a chat about how cold and slow the season has been - Medwyn was really worried about his stand and wasn't sure everything would be ready in time !!! I told Medwyn that I'd seen a programme a few years ago following him and his amazing vegetables and that he'd inspired me with my allotment. He seemed quite pleased :)

He took the President's Award this year ! What an exciting moment for a young whipper-snapper like me ;)

Chelsea Chelsea !

2010-06-03T22:07:00.005+01:00

so it finally happened to me - the big 4-0 !!! me and my folks went for a birthday trip to Chelsea Flower Show - how cool is that. Hold on tight folks, there are tonnes of photos - I tried to be selective but there were too many amazing things !

This is the Tyne Tunnel !

Ah what a lovely rose ... David Austin's stand:

This is Medwyn Williams stand - I got to meet him !!! It was very exciting - I think my folks have a photo, I'll see if I can get a copy :)

There was lots of sculpture:

These water fountain trees created quite a buzz - not my thing personally, but quite amazing

I think we'd need to mortgage our house to afford this garden seat, but it was so beautiful AND comfortable ... when I win the lottery ...

Show gardens:

Kazahana (A light snow flurry from a cloudless sky)

This is one of the gardens, it was positively enchanting until some guy opened the magic door and shattered all of our illusions by revealing the chipboard structure inside !

This is a hanging basket - our jaws were definitely open :)

This is the M&G Garden:

Places of Change:

yep, it's made out of pop bottles ! You'd have to drink a lot of pop tho !

The Victorian Aviary Garden

The Trailfinder's Austraian Garden was also jaw dropping:

Kebony - Naturally Norway:

The Tourism Malaysia Garden:

The Daily Telegraph Garden:

Courtyard gardens:
A Centenary Garden for Captain RF Scott

The Pine & Connifer Enthusiasts Garden:

Welcome to Yorkshire's Rhubarb Crumble & Custard

Global Stone Bee Friendly Plants

Urban Gardens:
A Joy Forever

The Waterless Water Garden

The Go Modern Garden:

Bradstone Biodiversity Garden - apparently someone won this in a competition !

The John Joseph Mechi Garden:

My butt smells ...

2010-05-19T22:14:00.002+01:00

actually it stinks ! I bought some chicken manure at the weekend and was advised to put it in a bag and hang it in a water butt and then use it as a liquid feed for all my seedlings & plants. It's only been in the water 3 days and boy oh boy what a whiff ! I'll probably end up with every fox in the area coming to look for imaginary chickens

I've finally got some space in my greenhouse. I've planted a cucumber (Marketmore which aparently is supposed to be an outdoor one - eek !) and 6 x Roma, 2 x Golden sunrise, 1 x Gardener's Delight, 1 x Vanessa.

My sweetcorn has been out for a few nights now and seems to be doing OK. I've got two varieties - Tasty Gold and Extra Early Sweet, so I've planted them either side of the greenhouse to try and avoid cross polinating. I've planted them in a tighter grid than last season to try and help with polination. I've also thought a bit about protecting them from the wind. Fingers crossed.

I've planted 4 x courgettes:

7 x squashes - I think ! There are some more at home, in the attic - not sure where they will go. Got 2 x Queensland Blue, 1 x Crown Prince, 2 x Turks Turbans, 1 x Avalon & 1 x Winter Festival.

This is a QB:

I've planted 42 beans:

My peas are nice and safe in a pigeon proof cage:

My baby beetroots are coming along nicely:

This is the first year I've grown Swiss Chard, I'm very pleased with it so far - hope the bloody flying rats leave it alone.

Even the roots are an amazing colour !

My potatoes have appeared this week - fortunately they missed the frost.

The recent frosts don't seem to have done too much damage to the apple trees - this is my crab apple:

remember that mysterious tree - it must have heard me saying this was it's last seaon. It finally blossomed - it's obviously an apple tree. So that's 5 apple trees I have in one form or another.

My Alpine Strawberry has survived:

Pond skater

A very UNWELCOME visitor - OH fed it to the tadpoles:

It was enormous:

The Great Plant Sale !

2010-05-15T21:02:00.004+01:00

With a bit of trepidation I pulled back the curtains this morning to be greeted by brilliant sunshine ! After the week we have had - snow in Sheffield on Tuesday and a week of frost - it was such a relief as today was the plant sale !

What a day it has been. Even before we'd finished setting up we had a stream of keen customers.

so many people turned out to support us, it has been fantastic. We've had lottie people, lots of residents from the area and even a few blog visitors :)

We had a great variety of things - fruit bushes, flowers, green manures, vegetable plants, even jars of jam - I think the only thing that didn't sell was any of the lettuces. Never mind, they will be potted on ready for our stall at the Heeley Festival in June. We sold out of leeks, courgettes, squashes, cucumbers, sweetcorn and rhubarb.

We have made a phenomenal amount of money, far more than I ever thought we would make. We got lots of lovely comments from our visitors and I think it will now become an annual event - only we'll start planning for the next one in November instead of March !

Most people also sampled our homemade cakes - needless to say, we sold out of those !

The weather has been challenging to say the least this week and I've had a few casualties - namely the amazing tomatoes that my folks gave me (they were 2ft high), a couple of squashes and those oh so difficult Okra ! All were in my glass greenhouse. Surprisingly my outdoor plants have not been affected at all

It's great to have some breathing space in my greenhouse and tomorrow I shall be dedicating some attention to my lottie ... what a novelty that will be :)

My greenhouse strawberries have been very tolerant of the overcrowding:

Another anenome has appeared - it's an amazing blue colour and looks lovely alongside the forget-me-nots and bluebells.

and life is gradually returning to the lottie - a lovely peacock butterfly was dancing around, but he flew away everytime I got near

Somethings are always frostproof - I know they are a pain, but aren't they beautiful:

Another busy day...

2010-05-01T19:20:00.002+01:00

I've done lots of potting on ... the sunshine is finally making a difference - well to some things at least. My tomatoes are still tiny - I've taken them home and put them up in the attic, which is the hottest room in the house ... I hope the kitties leave them alone !

This is a courgette ... I've got 15 long ones for the plant sale and 13 rounds ones so far ... hopefully a few more will appear over the next couple of weeks.

My Swiss Chard has really fattened up nicely ... I'm thinking of popping it out into one of the beds - well I was until I heard we might have frost early next week ! OH has given me some bubble wrap and some packing material that's similar to fleece, so I could make a tunnel and put them under it. Or I could go to B&Q tomorrow and buy a polythene tunnel. Or I could leave them in the greenhouse and dither for another week. Sounds like a plan then !

This is MY sweetcorn, destined for MY beds !!! I've got around 50 for the plant sale, not all as big as this. It looks great - I'm thinking these might go out soon .. under tunnels though to protect them.

My beans are slow to appear again - it took three sowings last year for some of them. These are borlotti - they are for my beds. I'm sure I've sown some for the sale - I think I farmed them out somewhere. Wonder whether they've germinated yet ??!

I think this is a Queensland Blue ... it's fattening up nicely. I potted on all the squashes & courgettes for my plot today. I'm out of space, compost and time to do the ones for the plant sale ... I've got 54 squashes for the sale so far. I've got 7 for my beds I think - maybe 8 ... I'm starting to worry slightly about where they are all going to go ! I've spent 4 hours or so digging over the jungle ... the prepared bit is about double the size it was. It's been relatively easy to dig as the we've had lots of rain - time is an issue for me now. Wish I could clone myself, I'm meeting myself coming backwards at the moment !

Oh I'm so pleased with my peas - gave them a good water today, they look really healthy. I must must must start to think about supports for them. They are Greenshaft (I think) and grow to around 5ft apparently. I helped Jenny net her peas this afternoon ... hmm, seem to recall the pigeons ate the peas that survived the mice last year. Sounds like I need a plan :(

There was a sparrow in the pigeon cage this afternoon ... does that count ?

This is a teasel - it's destined for the plant sale. They are looking nice and healthy.

Forget-me-nots are in full bloom, they are beautiful. I've potted up some for the plant sale :)

The lottie has been teaming with beas, spiders, butterflies and frogs today

The pond's surface is rippling with life ... I can't believe how big the tadpoles are already

This is an anemone ... I think ! It is rather lovely - all on its own though.

The apple trees are blossoming - it looks delicious. This is the brambly apple from Lidyl

The Gala apple looks promising so far. Look at the sky, it's been a cracking day today - amazing fluffy white clouds decorating the beautiful blue sky.

The raspberries are beginning to bud up and the blueberries have started to blossom

The herbs look as though they are going to perform well again - I think this is marjoram, but in honesty I've forgotten ! Hmm, maybe it's oregano. Maybe I should google it ... haha maybe ... or then again, maybe not.

Ken gave me some lovely lettuce seedlings, so I've potted up some for me and some for the sale. My folks gave me some flower seedlings and some amazing tomato plants - they are huge - about 1ft tall already :)

I also spotted some baby rhubarb plants on one of my many trips backwards and forwards to the weed pile, so I've potted them up for the sale too. I've managed to keep my cucumbers alive and I've potted them on ... this is usually the point that they keel over :( When I left tonight I had 17 ... will be back at the lottie tomorrow to prick out another 99million seedlings ...

did someone mention a plant sale ?

2010-04-30T21:58:00.003+01:00

if you are in the area on Saturday 15 May, pop along to our plant sale ... I'll be the one in the corner with a paper bag over my head having a nervous breakdown ;)

2010-04-29T23:58:00.000+01:00

awww ... lookie, me & Phoebe :)

2010-04-28T20:35:00.002+01:00

Guess who's been to give the pigeon cage the seal of approval !

Kinder managed not to fall in the pond, although he did dip a toe in, to test the temperature

He had a good chomp of my grass ... I may let him come again - he could be the official weed chomper :)

Loki came to keep an eye on Kinder ...

They are both asleep now after their exciting adventure !

I'm sure I used to have a life ..

2010-04-25T17:20:00.002+01:00

Here are the plant sale seedlings in the shop greenhouse ... it's getting pretty crowded ... I wish we had a bit more sunshine, everything is so small:

Things are not germinating in the shop greenhouse, so I'm having to try and germinate everything in my glass greenhouse. If the plant sale is a success and if I manage knock down the brick greenhouse and if I manage to get my new greenhouse up and running then next year I might have a better chance ... that's a whole lot of IFs !!

It looks as though I am going to be engulfed by bindweed this season, it is popping up everywhere. I'm digging it up by the wheelbarrow full. Unfortunately it is coming from the hedges so it's really difficult to eradicate.

People keep telling me to use chemicals, but I really want to be organic, not least of all for my froggies, so I'll keep digging - weedkiller doesn't touch bindweed anyway in my opinion.

My peas looked like they were suffering with the heat so that and a combination of needing greenhouse space meant it was time for them to go out into the big wide world ... well under plastic cloches for at least. They are Greenshaft, so I must make some supports for them soon - and remember to give them some sort of protection from pigeons, I seem to recall they feasted last year, after the meeces had had their fill.

Despite the fun the foxes have had, digging up the seed beds, my carrot & beetroot seedlings are appearing ! Yeay. Need to make sure I keep them well watered now - OH soaked the plot yesterday, but it's been so dry that within half an hour the beds appeared totally dry again.

They are not quite in the straight lines that they once were and there are a few gaps that I'll need to fill in ..

My crab apple & brambly apple trees are budding up. The crab apple is a gorgeous colour:

Remember those newspaper fruit trees ! Here is the Gala apple ... looks promising so far:

Here is my fabulous new pigeon cage ... I need to get some pegs for the netting on a couple of sides and then it will be finished. It's a combination of bamboo canes, netting, zip ties & bulldog clips. My red cabbages, cauliflowers & broccoli are now in situ - I was going to give them a seaweed feed but the heavens opened, oh boy, did they open - so I beat a hasty retreat and headed for home ...

It was incredibly dark by the time I left and there were rivers running through the lottie !

There may be trouble ahead ....

2010-04-18T21:03:00.003+01:00

Look at my greenhouse ... it is bursting at the seams and then some. The shop greenhouse is also bursting at the seams and I've farmed out another 7 blue trays filled with beans to another greenhouse temporarily. Yes indeed, those blue trays are stacked .... we're still on plan A - germination ! I have no idea what plan B is once germination takes place. OMG ... breathe, breathe !

My cabbages, cauliflowers & broccoli have been braving the sun today ... I was toying with the idea of starting to harden them off, but having watched the TV tonight and seen all the frost that has been forecast next week I'm so pleased I didn't:

... and here is my secret weapon. Du-dur-durrr ! It's a pigeon cage :) Well actually it's a cage for my lovely brassicas and hopefully the flying rats won't be enjoying a buffet a la duck this year.

Here are the fabled Okra plants ... all destined for the plant sale, hopefully my fellow allotmenters will be up for a challenge !

These squashes are also destined for the plant sale. I spent Saturday potting them on amongst lots of other stuff:

This Queensland Blue is destined for my plot ... not sure yet where everything is going to go:

My Swiss Chard is looking lovely ... wonder if I'll like it ?

Wow, my first tray of sweetcorn has appeared ... not a meece in sight !

Here are my lovely peas ... again not a meece in sight. Hmmm, this season is going too well so far ...

After spending all day yesterday potting on and sowing and then another two hours this morning sowing in the Shop greenhouse, I'd run out of excuses and it was time to make a start on the jungle. It has taken around 4.5 hours to dig this tiny bit of earth - and that's the reasonably easy bit, ie, I've already cleared it twice, or was that three times, I've lost count. Let this be a lesson to all you newbies ... think, think THINK carefully about where to toss the weeds when you first clear your plot !

My rhubarb plants are finally looking like rhubarb and not some weird alien species:

The frogspawn has hatched and the pond is once again filled with wriggling little tadpoles:

King cup is looking lovely:

This is naught Kinder ... he is on top of the kitchen cupboards, worrying a poor fly up in the sky light. Eventually he did what all cats do and forgot where he was and jumped ... he had a very ungraceful landing !

2010-04-11T17:04:00.002+01:00

OMG, the plant sale is taking over my life ... spent three hours this morning pricking out seedlings & sowing new things. Three hours !!! and that was with help. Seems to be generating a bit of interest, so that's good - lots of people popping into the greenhouse to see what we're growing ... we've even started selling the red cabbage, cauliflowers & broccoli :) One chappie asked me whether we are selling our leeks by the 100 ... er, that'll be a no ! LOL. Why would any sane person want 100 leeks ;P

Once I'd had enough fun pricking out 300 cauliflowers it was time to visit my lottie. Sole aim of today was to plant my potatoes. Am very ashamed to say that my manure has come from B&Q ... again ! But needs must ...

So each potato got 2 spades of manure and some newspaper ... I've still not managed to get hold of any grass clippings ! I've planted 5 x Wilja, 10 x Charlotte & 10 x Cara. Got some Pink Fir Apple at home that still need to make it as far as the lottie.

Once the potatoes were safely tucked up I had a quick look in the greenhouse. Can you believe those peas I sowed earlier in the week - was it Wednesday maybe - have already germinated ! Look at these ... and not a mouse in sight :)

I also pricked out some more tomatoes - they are terribly small, they'd better get a move on. Also potted on some Crown Prince Squashes - the roots / plants look splendid.

Brings my week's holiday to a nice close ... back to being a weekend gardener for me now.

sigh ... the Easter hols are almost over :(

2010-04-08T23:39:00.005+01:00

I've managed to dig over three of my remaining beds - just one more to go. I'm not in a rush to clear it though, as I think I will need to sacrifice it for the new greenhouse.

In the greenhouse I've sown my peas, borlotti beans, courgettes, sweetcorn and melons. Oh, I've also sown some more cat grass, ironically the mice ate the last lot ! My Queensland Blue squashes have germinated along with a couple of Acorn & Winter Festival. Two tiny African Marigolds have appeared ... another week and I'll be overrun. The Okra has appeared ... wonder if I'll manage to get it to flower again:

The greenhouse is now bursting at the seams and just to add to the fun, I noticed that several of the greenhouse strawberries are in flower :)

I've sown some beetroot, parsnips and 4 varieties of carrots outside - although the flippin' foxes have been having a party overnight - I suspect I'll have to resow some of the lines ... if I can find them again !

The garlic is pushing through the soil and the red onions are beginning to show signs of life too:

There is loads of frogspawn in the pond - most of it has little wriggling tadpoles, it won't be long before the pond is full of them

I don't seem to have as many froggies this year:

Jobs still to do:

- make pigeon proof cage (have got some wood & mesh)
- get manure and plant potatoes !
- knock down brick greenhouse
- erect & glaze new greenhouse (should only take a couple of hours ;) )
- dig over the dormant jungle

I've also been busy on the homefront. We had our horrid backyard landscaped late last year - here are the plants we bought in October - we did wonder whether we'd fit them all into the car - we had a bit of a Dr Who & the Tardis moment ... OH is pulling the trolley - can you see him !

I ordered a tonne of topsoil last year, but we needed about another 3/4 of a tonne to fill the railway sleeper planters. I've planted some golden bamboo, an enormous green varigated phormium, a small black phormium (you would not believe how much it cost), a standard bay, some grasses (that the cats appear to have eaten) and a lovely ecalyptus tree and bought the japonica back from the lottie. As some of them are thugs, I will need to keep my eye on them. Here is our (almost finished) city garden:

The slate is Chinese, it looks gorgeous after it's rained - our landscapers have recommended that we seal it in the summer with some special wet look varnish.

It looks lovely, but I'm pretty tired now, it's been a long week !

I also became an Auntie this week ! Here is my lovely new niece, she is a little poorly, but hopefully she will soon be well enough to go home. She is just two days old in the picture with her daddy (my brother - maybe I won't tell him he is achieving world fame on my blog haha). She is beautiful ... not that I'm biased :)

Easter Progress

2010-04-06T15:14:00.003+01:00

Well that's the left side of the lottie completely dug over now :) The foxes are having a great time dancing and digging up the freshly turned soil.

I've now got 10 clear / working beds and the strawberry beds are a bit tidier too. I've got red onions in the top (brick bed) and garlic in the third bed - I only planted it on a whim last week ... I went to use some and it was growing, so I thought I'd chance it. Not expecting great things but hopefully I'll be rewarded with something in the summer.

Fortunately the recent snow didn't make it to the lottie and despite how cold it's been, things are really starting to get going again. My comfrey is looking very healthy ... I'll have to make some soup soon :)

This is my blackcurrant ... I don't think I can use the term bush yet, it's still a bit of a twig ! Not had any fruit off it ... yet

The indoor strawberries are looking very healthy and I'm sure I can see the beginning of flowers arriving

The outdoor ones are waking up too:

Something strange is happening to my rhubarb ... I have one green plant:

... and one purple plant !!! The third one is a mixture of both. Not enough to crop yet - it's very slow.

In the greenhouse my seedlings are growing nicely - apologies for the lack of focusing ... I had to borrow OH's camera and it's a bit beyond me :)

These are my Roma Tomatoes:

Here are my musselbrough leeks - first time I've grown my own from seed - they're so easy, not sure why I've not tried them before !

These are my Swiss Chard - one set are yellow and the other are red ... already they're very striking (well in the flesh they are)

These little fella's are my cauliflowers

and here are my red cabbage. A job for this week should be to make a pigeon proof cage ... must try and remember !

This may be the last time I see my lupin if last season is anything to go by. Hope it flowers this year.

I'm growing these on for a friend at work, lavender always looks lovely in terracotta pots

These giant sunflowers (well they might be eventually haha) are for the plant sale.

The daffodils are in full flower and the Forget-me-nots have just started to flower

OH took a photo of this wasp a few weeks ago, which appeared to have died in a terracotta plant pot, but when I looked today it had moved ! I thought maybe my eyes were deceiving me, so I blew on it - eek ... it's little tentacle thingies started twitching, then it woke up and started buzzing around - he's huge !!! Fortunately I remembered to open the door so he could fly out ... hope he finds something to eat.

Here's what's still to do. Shouldn't take me too long to dig over the four beds at the top of the lottie

... but oh my, I'm really not very enthusiastic about getting on with this end ! It'll be the third time I've dug over the area next to the pond.

I can't decide whether I have the energy to shift a tonne of manure so haven't arranged any yet .. but maybe I should just have it delivered then I'll have to find the energy ... I need to plant my potatoes PDQ, hmmm, I can hear some of you saying - wasn't she just digging some up last week. Ahem.

2010-03-28T19:31:00.002+01:00

The sun is still shining ... but not for long from the look of the forecast :(

Today I took up the strawberries, eradicated the bindweed (in my dreams) put the strawberries back, chopped a bit of the hedge and did some more digging / raking. I now have 9 beds dug, 5 more to go ... at this rate I'll have no excuse not to start on the jungle ... maybe the snow might be welcome after all haha.

All in all I'm quite pleased with myself and the lottie is looking quite good at the moment - what a shame I've not got my camera working yet, so you'll have to take my word for it :)

no snow here thank you

2010-03-27T18:02:00.002Z

another glorious day in Sheffield ...what's all this talk of snow ... really hoping it's a rumour !

So today I was delighted to see that the poppies are germinating, I can see the different colours of the swiss chard seedlings, my leeks have appeared and I've got baby tomatoes (definitely tomatoes LOL).

Spend an hour of so pricking out seedlings for my lottie this morning - kept 12 swiss chard (do I even like it ??), 12 cauliflowers, 6 cabbages & 6 broccoli (OH hates them LOL) and about 10 tomatoes. Tomorrow I'll prick out a tonne more for the plant sale.

I dug over 3 beds this afternoon. The first bed gave me a surprise .. I'd totally forgotten about the Jerusalem artichokes ! what a great surprise. I've packaged up some to sell at the shop - 5 tuber packs - is £1 too much I wonder. Some we'll have for tea ... will have to be wedges I think (or soup if I can muster some energy) as we've had a disaster and broken our beloved chip fryer !

The boys turned up this afternoon - finally. thought they'd forgotten the way. They took care of my bonfire and did a bit of chopping. It looks so much better - at this rate, I'm in danger of having to dig over the jungle ! They uncovered the bluebells, which I've finally managed to relocate to the flower bed - hopefully I didn't kill them. I've dug up another 99million ox eye daisies. There are still thousands left

Got 4 froggies in the pond, who've been croaking away in appreciate to Jonathan Ross. Strangely though the frogspawn has sunk ... wonder what that means. The pond is lovely and clear. I can see the cowslips are coming back to life and the wild flowers look to be waking up.

No photos because we can't find the stupid camera charger and I've managed to flatten my battery !

haha that'll teach me !

2010-03-21T17:31:00.007Z

My beautiful tomatoes that have self sown in the greenhouse are not all they seem ! The second leaves have arrived and they very frilly and not at all tomatoey. Looks like the plants are Phacelia !! Darn-it. I should have known :) Oh well, they are potted up and ready for the plant sale.

The greenhouse is a fabulous temperature and the red cabbages, cauliflowers, purple sprouting broccoli & swiss chard have all geminated. I spent an hour this morning pricking some out - we were chatting about perhaps selling them via the shop as they will probably need to be planted before the May plant sale. The purple & red poppies, the giant sunflowers & the lavetera have just germinated. Not much happening with the others yet.

The weather was so lovely today I was seduced into planting my squashes ... hope its not too soon. The greenhouse is already quite full, goodness knows where everything is going to go.

Looks like I cleared the pond just in time - the first frogspawn has appeared ! Two froggies in the pond today doing a little bit of croaking.

I've planted my red onions - they are safely tucked up in the brick bed. I've managed to dig over another two beds, so that's 4 in total now. One of those had the Cara potatoes in. As expected they haven't fared very well at all. Most of them have critter damage. I've brought home around half that are either OK, or just have a little bit of damage. Doesn't look like it would have been a very big crop even if I'd dug them up last year. Note to self - don't buy as many this season !

I've weeded the rhubarb - it's taking a surprising long time to get going ... I may put a bucket over it and force it.

OH cleared the area in front of the brick greenhouse and put some staging up for me - this will be really helpful later in the season. I'm hoping that he and his mate are going to knock down the brick greenhouse and build the 15ft glass greenhouse that I was given. Hopefully it will be in place for next spring :)

Found a gorgeous little mousey nest when clearing up the rubbish - it's been crafted out of an old artichoke

The weeds are waking up :(

Looks like we'll be having a bonfire next week - where does it all come from !

2010-03-13T19:04:00.003Z

What a beautiful day - spent all day at the lottie. I'm pretty sure I've got sunburnt cheeks it's been so warm.

I've managed to dig over my first bed and have finally dug up the remainder of the Pink Fir Apple & Charlottes, so I now have two lovely clean beds ready for the planting season. Disappointingly both beds had a lot of bindweed in them. Feeling very pleased with myself though for making a start :)

No sign of any frogspawn yet in the pond, so I fished out some of the pondweed. The privet was really overhanging the pond so I've started cutting it back, to let a little light in.

By mid-afternoon I had a visitor ... with a bit of luck I'll have frogspawn soon:

I'm very disappointed to report that none of the seeds have germinated, other than the Cat Grass ... at least my kitties will be pleased. However, growing in the greenhouse soil I was delighted to spy lots and lots of tiny tomato seedlings ! Sadly I have no way of knowing which variety they are, but I've potted up about 10 regardless :)

I've started to dig up the Ox Eye Daisies, there are loads of young plants tho, it's obviously going to be a long job.

Right, where are those potato recipes ...