Unfortunately I wasn't very well this weekend so I only managed to get up to the plot for a couple of hours this afternoon. Of course yesterday it was the World Cup Quarter Finals and for anyone living under a rock England won 2-0 against Sweden, meeting Croatia in the Semi Finals.
I had an England flag that I bought for the allotment but haven't had a chance to put it up before now. I used an old wooden curtain rail and stapled the flag to it before I screwed the rail to the wooden arch. As you can see from the picture it was a bit cloudy today and it's apparently forecast rain tomorrow (fingers crossed).
Due to various things I hadn't been able to get to the plot in the week so the things in the pots and hanging baskets were looking very sad, including everything in the polytunnel, although everything in there have gone mad anyway, there is a pumpkin in there that has sprawled right across and under the staging and all of the tomatoes are looking massive, although a couple look a bit scorched on the ends of the leaves. I'll have to try and get up this week to give everything a good soak, especially if it doesn't rain.
The good news is that after all the messing about last week with the new water butt I managed to get the leak sorted so I've been able to get it filled and in place at the back of the polytunnel. If we do have a hosepipe ban I will at least have 3 full water butts to be able to water the things in the polytunnel. As I understand it, even if there is a hosepipe ban one of the things you are allowed to do is fill up ponds so long as it has fish or wildlife in it. I currently have masses of tadpoles and a few frogs that are keeping cool in there. I pretty sure there's also at least 1 newt and so I do need to keep the pond topped up. I filled it up today because it was very low so I'll keep an eye on it and see how long it takes for it to start to evaporate again. I also noticed that the pump of the fountain was also a bit lower than usual so I might need to replace the battery in that next weekend as well.
A couple of weeks ago I harvested all of the onions, some of them were still upright and probably weren't really ready to be harvested but some of them were splitting and I wanted to get the bed cleared for my summer onions. Even though I've left them to dry for a couple of weeks you can see from the top pic on the left that some of the stalks were still quite green when I cut them so I'll need to use those ones first to avoid them going bad.
On the plus side my garlic is looking really good, I've got 14 bulbs in various sizes but they've all got clearly defined cloves. I'm really pleased given that it's the first time I've ever tried to grow it. These are hard necks but next year when I have the 2nd plot I'll be able to do a whole bed of garlic so I'll probably do a mix of hard and soft neck to enable me to be able to have enough to use all season. I'll also have at least 1 bed of winter onions but as I harvest the garlic I'll plant more summer onions so hopefully end up with enough to last me for the year.
Of course that's assuming that I have the beds in place before autumn when I'll want to be planting them, which is my plan. I'm also planning to have a bed of asparagus, which will need to planted in April so I'll leave the membrane on that bed until I'm ready to plant them and then I'll pull it up, remove any roots that have made their way to the top before filling with a good depth of compost and manure. I've been busy reading what I need an funnily enough I watched the A-Z of gardens on catch up this morning and it happened to be A, and they did asparagus! It looks fairly easy to do but I'll be sure to take photos or a video when I do it.
As I don't have a lot to talk about in relation to gardening itself I will just take a minute to tell you all what I use for sun protection. It's really important to be protected from the sun, even when it's not bright sunshine because you can still get burnt but it's even more important when it's so bright and sunny.
I like to use ultrasun, which you put on in the morning and then it stays put all day. I use a minimum of factor 30 and normally use a sports spray, rather than one of the cream ones. The sports sprays are good because they don't come off if you're sweaty and they're a nice consistency. You just spray it on and give it a quick rub and you're set for the day. I also use the factor 30 face cream every day as my moisturiser. You can get it online quite easily for just over £20 and you can also get factor 50 for the kids. Littlest L uses it every day and can now put it on herself before school. She's very sporty so it's not unusual for her to be out all day at sports events with school and I'm completely comfortable that she's fully protected.
I hope that's useful for you but until next time...
Happy Gardening x
After a couple of weeks with no rain it was announced on Friday that Northern Ireland have introduced a hose pipe ban. I'm pretty sure that England will follow suit if it doesn't rain soon. We've already been asked to think about reducing water consumption and to take showers rather than baths etc.
It is true to say that the majority of plants planted outside don't actually need lots of additional water. In most cases watering with a hosepipe doesn't actually do a lot for the plants anyway. If you don't water for long enough it encourages the roots to come towards the surface where they're more likely to be fried in the heat and actually not watering encourages plants to reach down into the subsoil for moisture, which is where the majority of the nutrients are anyway.
My main concern about a hosepipe ban is my pots and the plants in the polytunnel. I have 2 water butts already but I had a spare wheelie bin and decided to make it into a water butt a while ago, I just hadn't got around to doing it. Looking at the weather though I decided that I needed to get myself sorted and make the stool for it to stand on and get the tap on.
I had some planks from when I cleared 86a that I used to repair the stool for my other waterbutt and then I used another one to create a new stool for the new water butt. For anyone who is wondering why I need a stool you can see in the main picture that the tap needs to be as low on the bin as possible which means it needs to be raised from the ground to enable you to get a watering can under it.
As you can see from the little picture I made a complete mess of getting the tap in. I put it in place and filled it but it immediately started leaking. I therefore had to empty it (not a problem when I have a lot of things to water) and take the tap out again. I climbed inside the bin with the tap in place and could see that I'd made the hole slightly too big and so I put a bead of silicone around the thread of the tap on the outside. I then put the tap into the hole and put a bead of silicone around the hole on the inside before tightening the screw. I'm hoping that will therefore fill all of the gaps and stop it from leaking but I'll leave it for at least 24 hours before I fill it again. If I get it over the tap and it doesn't start to leak I'll then fill it to the top and start using that, particularly in the polytunnel. I was given a kit to stick to the polytunnel for collecting water (essentially a mini gutter) which I'll also put in place to feed into the water butt if it does ever rain!!
In 86a I made a start in painting the shed, I decided that I did want it the same colour as the one in 85a. I thought it would be easier to paint it while it was laid on the floor and the weather was so nice that I was able to paint 2 sides of it, unfortunately I didn't have enough paint to do it all so I've just done the 2 sides and then I'll have to do the rest next week.
I also had to pull up some matting that I'd put down on the path which I'm going to use as the base for the shed and maybe even the greenhouse when I bring it up. Everyone keeps commenting that they don't think it will be good for under the shed but I can't see why not. It's strong enough for cars to drive over and will raise the shed from the ground to avoid it from rotting from underneath. Ideally of course I'd have slabs but I haven't been able to get any so this is a free option that I'm going to use. It will also enable me to map out where the greenhouse is going to go so that I can then work out where the beds will be.
While I was working on the water butt I found this little guy again, he was pushed up against the horrible fence (that I talked about last week) and all curled up because that's where I was working. I moved him back into the hedgehog house which I'd packed full of old leaves from the pile at the bottom of the hill. I made sure to point the house towards the gate this time because whilst I'm delighted that he's on my plot I wouldn't want him to struggle to get out if he wants to. I'm also going to look at putting some access points into the other fences to allow him to move freely around the plot in future.
I have also been enjoying watching the fledglings using my feeder. They are all still really small and you can see when the parent birds come as well the little ones cry at them to be fed! I've made sure to have lots of water available for them too. I have a good sized plant pot saucer that I've filled with water and put under arch, next to the kiwi, so that the hedgehog can use it as well as the birds. I've seen quite a few birds drinking and bathing in it already. The little bird bath is really nice but unfortunately it's very shallow and it only takes one bird to bathe in it and the thing is empty!
During the week I was up at the plot quite late into the evening, with the weather being so good a few people were up there and so we were having to take turns for the water. I ended up sitting with my neighbours for a chat and a drink and just before we left I went to have a look and see if the lights had come on. It was actually quite dark when I took the picture but my camera adjusts to make it look brighter but I do think it looks really pretty and I'm really pleased with it. I also found the numbers I bought ages ago but had lost so never put up. There were 2 screws missing but there was still enough to get them up and I think it looks really smart. I also put up signs to say that the plot is covered by CCTV which hopefully will keep people off my plot.
To finish this week I have some flower news, the lily in the pond has come into flower and looks really pretty. It's a white flower with a bright yellow centre and is sitting beautifully on the surface of the pond. The new flower bed is also in full bloom and looking amazingly like an English country garden. I have harvested all of the sweet peas that were flowering today and some of the cornflower to make a little (and very fragrant) bunch in my living room. The sweet peas are a mix of pinks and purples and the cornflower are pink and blue so they all look really lovely together.
I do hope we get some rain this week, in the nights rather than during the day, to give the plants a good soak but otherwise we'll just need to keep conserving water as much as we can.
Until next time then, Happy Gardening x
The good news is that after all the messing about last week with the new water butt I managed to get the leak sorted so I've been able to get it filled and in place at the back of the polytunnel. If we do have a hosepipe ban I will at least have 3 full water butts to be able to water the things in the polytunnel. As I understand it, even if there is a hosepipe ban one of the things you are allowed to do is fill up ponds so long as it has fish or wildlife in it. I currently have masses of tadpoles and a few frogs that are keeping cool in there. I pretty sure there's also at least 1 newt and so I do need to keep the pond topped up. I filled it up today because it was very low so I'll keep an eye on it and see how long it takes for it to start to evaporate again. I also noticed that the pump of the fountain was also a bit lower than usual so I might need to replace the battery in that next weekend as well. 
As I don't have a lot to talk about in relation to gardening itself I will just take a minute to tell you all what I use for sun protection. It's really important to be protected from the sun, even when it's not bright sunshine because you can still get burnt but it's even more important when it's so bright and sunny. 
