has Spring sprung ?

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 ...

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 !

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 !

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 !

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

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 ?

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 !