18th August 2018 - Back from holidays and catch up

I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged, I have been very remiss in the last few weeks partly because I haven't been doing much on 85a (it's pretty much looking after itself now) and I've not managed to do much on 86a either!  

Before I went on holiday I bought these watering globes from the poundshop.  They were packs of 2 and are supposed to keep your pots watered for up to 2 weeks.  I had a couple of plants that have been struggling in the hot weather so I was worried about being away for a week without things being watered.  The only downside of them is that they have to be filled from the bottom so you have to take them out to fill them.  I was running them under the hosepipe and then I realised that I could much more easily just dunk them into the waterbutt to fill them - doh!  

They do seem to have helped and my hanging baskets really have benefited from having them.  I'm going to go back and see if they have any more and I'll happily buy another 10 packs (so 20 more globes)!  Next year I'll ensure that all of my pots have a space for the globes to be included when I'm planting them.

I also cut off most of the leaves from my tomato plants before I left to help my tomatoes to ripen.  At this time of year it's good to create as much airflow through the plants as well which helps to guard against blight.  My neighbour was turning on the water in the polytunnel on a regular basis so these plants were still watered while I was away.  

The polytunnel also has a pumpkin plant that I had left over and I just popped into the bed at the far end.  It grew across the path, under the staging, up the side and over the top of the staging again!  I cut off the foliage after the fruits so that the plant could concentrate on the fruit instead of lots of additional leaves and it has 2 good sized pumpkins under the staging.  

The grape has really done well this year as well, I suspect partly because of how lovely the weather has been.  I am impressed that it's really only its second year and I already have fruits and a really healthy plant, I think I need to prune it again so I need to work out the best time and way to do that.

The sunflowers have flowered and are looking amazing but the plants are too heavy and have been blown over in the winds.  I'm going to have to remove them all because they're falling over and damaging the carrot fly netting.

I've been busy harvesting my crops and I've already had quite a lot of lovely tomatoes.  I harvested the potatoes from the bags and they were really good sizes and very tasty.  I've also had loads of autumn fruiting raspberries and blackberries.  Today I harvested a sweet red pepper and some carrots as well so I'm looking forward to having them for my tea tonight.  


Over the summer I've had some lovely flowers blooming both in the beds and in the pots.  I planted a cordyline in the centre of the pot and surrounded it with giant petunia.  I didn't realise they'd get quite this giant but they have looked amazing all summer; they did struggle in the heat and they've gone a bit leggy now.  I did consider chopping them back but I've not been brave enough to do it; they are still flowering and I'm worried that if I cut them back I'll lose all the blooms and they won't recover.

In 86a I have finished painting the shed and I've put it up on a bed of the carpark matting that I used for the shared path which I have then filled with gravel.  I still need to sort out the roof of the shed but I have got some roofing felt now so it's just a case of getting a dry day to get it done.

I also had 8 thirteen foot scaffolding boards delivered to make beds with.  They will make 3 beds, which will be a good start for now.  I need to measure my plot properly and then make a proper plan.  I've put the shed against the fence closest to 85a but in the middle of the plot because that's where the ground was flattest and I also wanted to create some shade so having the shed against that fence means that it will cast shade in the afternoon and that will give me somewhere to hide from the sun when it's warm; something that I don't have anywhere in 85a!

I am going to try and get back in the habit of blogging every week but until next time...

Happy gardening x

8th July 2018 - It's coming home...

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

1st July 2018 - Preparing for a hosepipe ban

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

24th June 2018 - Weeding

So far this year I've been pretty lazy about weeding the paths and particularly around the boundaries of my plot.  I don't know why especially but I've just always found something better to do.  

As you can see in the before picture there was some pretty long grass which had gone to seed as well as various other weeds having a riotous time in that area.  I remember being told never to let a weed see two Sundays but unfortunately these weeds have seen many many many Sundays!

I decided to set-to this weekend and get the paths and boundaries sorted - as you can see from this picture it really does make a big difference to how the plot looks; unfortunately however the other boundary is a bit more problematic.  My neighbour next door has an interesting way of working and one of the things that he does is have fences and boundaries that are like Fort Knox.  The fence between us is a mish-mash of chicken wire, tubing and other wire stuff.  It is at least 4 layers thick which means that the weeds just grow in-between an it's almost impossible to get them cleared.  A couple of weeks ago he informed me that it was my fault that it was such a mess because I don't dig the roots out and he proceeded to come and pull my membrane up while showing me how to dig the roots out along the fence line.  Of course, all that did was allow the weeds to grow where the membrane now can't be pulled back all the way to the fence line.

He is going to be moaning at me however because I am planning to remove the whole fence and replace it with a single layer of chicken wire fencing.  In the process I will then pull out all of the weeds and attempt to pull my membrane right under the fence before I replace it; which should stop the problem of getting any weeds grown up into the fence at all (as I say, he's not going to like that!)

I am also slightly giddy to tell you that my kiwi has flowered for the first time ever.  I've had it for about 4 years and it was a good size when I bought it so I'm guessing it was a couple of years old when I got it.  I was almost ready to give up on it but this year it is flowering and I've tried to give it a bit of a helping hand by using a cotton bud to pollinate them.

I have been told (after I bought this) that kiwi actually need to have another plant in order for fruit to grow.  I have therefore now bought 2 small kiwi, which I'm planning to grow in my new plot.  In the meantime I'm going to put them into a big pot with something for them to grow up.

I have also bought a wisteria, which is currently in a pot.  Unfortunately I put it into the pot and put it alongside my other potted plants near the polytunnel and then we had a really bad windstorm and the poor thing got battered.  It's looking a bit sad but I've given it a good soak and feed and I'm hoping it will come back.  

Yesterday I had a hedgehog on the plot, I was a bit worried about it because it was in the middle of the day and they shouldn't be out at that time.  I put him in my hedgehog house and put a dish of water outside.  I also found a couple of fat, juicy slugs that I put into the house with the hedgehog.  I left him there last night and when I got back this morning he'd gone so hopefully he just needed a rest and a drink and we'll see him back again on the wildlife camera in the future.  Funnily enough, having said that, it's not unusual for me to see the wildlife camera be activated during the night but I can't normally see what's set it off - I think now that it might be the hedgehog.

Everything is pretty much out of the polytunnel now, except for the tomatoes.  There are a few things still in there that I'm not sure I'll manage to get out.  Most of them are things that can be kept and continue to grow on over the summer because they will go into the new plot when it's ready.  I've got a couple of shrubs that I'm planning to use to fill the gap in the hedge and some carnations that are very happy in their individual pots.  I did have a problem with the tumbling toms because I wasn't able to get up and water in the week so when I did manage to get there on Friday they were really sad looking.  I've asked my neighbour to switch the water on for a short time before she leaves in an afternoon so that they get a good soak more regularly.  They are setting fruit so I really don't want to end up with them all splitting because of inconsistent watering.  

I'm really pleased with what I've achieved so far this year and while I'm leaving 86a covered to try and kill off as much of the perennial weeds as possible I'm really looking forwards to having things growing in the other plot so I can maximise my crops.  

Until next time then - Happy Gardening x  

17th June 2018 - Flowers and more flowers

Well it's been a couple of weeks since I last put my thoughts to paper (or screen) and so I have a few things to catch you up on, but they mostly seem to be about the flowers in my plot...

I have a Shirley Temple peony and I think that last time I mentioned that it had loads of buds; they started to open, looking and smelling amazing.  I love the fluffyness of them, prior to buying this one I'd only ever seen red peony's before but the pure white flower of this really pops in the bed.  I have some spiral supports that help to keep the flowers from flopping over.  The idea is that you put a stake in the middle of the plant and then twist the spiral around the stems.  Unfortunately I didn't put a long enough stake in this year and whilst I had supported the stems the plant put on a growth spurt a few days before we had a wind and rain storm.  When I went back to my plot all of the flowers had flopped over and a lot of them had simply been blown to bits all over the bed!  I rescued as many as I could and I've brought them home to enjoy them for a few more days.  The smell when you walk into the room is lovely.  I also quite like that the vase only has the peony's in it without any foliage or other flowers; it does make a bit of a statement.

Next to Shirley Temple is Lady Emma Hamilton, again  beautifully scented and a gorgeous flower.  Last year it got black spot and was very unhappy after I moved it from under the arch so it didn't flower.  This year I bought some Sulpher Rose, which is designed to stop black spot and it's obviously worked because not only do I have a flower already there are also lots of buds ready to bloom.  I think you can see that the spray hasn't really helped with the powdery mildew which appears to have started to bloom on the leaves, which is a bit frustrating.

As you know I have had various problems with pigeons and squirrels on my plot.  I like to feed the birds but of course that attracts the squirrels and pigeons and other bigger birds.  In fact when I've looked at the footage from my wildlife camera it's often filled with big birds all around my feeders.  I did have 1 squirrel proof feeder but when everything was stolen from my plot they took that too so I've been a bit reticent to buy another.  After shoo-ing away pigeons regularly I decided to bite the bullet and buy a couple anyway but I've actually run a chain through them and fastened them to the arch; it doesn't look brilliant but the little birds seem to like landing on it and (weirdly) hanging upside down from it.  It also means that gives me a little piece of mind that they aren't going to be stolen - although it's mad that people will actually steal bird feeders for goodness sake!

Some of you may remember from last year that I had an old bathroom sink that I had planted up.  This year I decided to use succulents, which I've not been particularly successful with before, to try and not kill them I used 1 part compost to 2 parts gravel and then mulched with gravel.  They're currently looking very happy so fingers crossed they stay that way!

I think it looks really pretty and although I don't know what they're all called but the pink flowers are absolutely gorgeous; I've never had one happy enough to flower before so I'm hoping this is a good sign.  I would quite like to make a stand for it and put it into 86a somewhere, maybe on the side of the shed so that it looks like a proper sink but filled with plants :-)

Just behind the sink growing on the fence is a honeysuckle which honestly is a bit leggy and has never flowered, I was considering removing it but this year it has flowered and surprisingly to me the flowers are yellow (I thought they were pink!)  Strangely it doesn't seem to have a strong scent so I'm still considering removing it but it's quite pretty, although I'm going to look at pruning it to get a better spread of flowers and leaves on the plant.  

I still haven't done any more work on 86a because I want to really let the membrane kill off as many of the perennial weeds on the plot as I can.  I have a long list, in my bullet journal, of jobs to do.  I am considering putting beds into the plot, even though I'm not planning to fill them yet, so that it's very clear what my plans are when we do the next inspection.  I have a shed in bits that I haven't been able to put up because I'm struggling to get flags for a base.  I do however have some matting that is usually used on car-parks that I could use, although Mr L doesn't think it will work I can't see why it won't so that's what I'm going to do!

Finally and just for interest, I had a dahlia in a pot next to my polytunnel that I had completely forgotten about over the winter and so it thought I'd probably killed it off.  As you know dahlia should be dug up and left to dry out naturally before packing into dry sand and storing in a cool, frost-free place.  This winter was pretty cold and we had a lot of snow, right into spring but somehow the tubers have not only survived but have started to grow again.  They will obviously be behind others that have been protected and grown properly but this is a really beautiful flower so I'm really glad it survived and I'll have to make sure that I look after it at the end of the season; if for no other reason than I'm pretty sure the tubers will need splitting this year.

It's that's time of year where everything is planted, I've been really rubbish at weeding along the fence-line and paths this year so that needs to be on my list of jobs to do in the next week or so because I simply have no excuse for not doing it!  Instead I've been busy doing fun thinks like making pyramids for my clematis to climb up; I used 3 bamboo sticks and tied a piece of garden twine at the bottom and wrapped it around them until I got to the top and then did a wrap to make it look nice.  I forgot to take a picture but I also used a terracotta reservoir in each of the pots that are really lovely; it's funny that they're so lovely because most of it is underground.  They are from  Wilko's and only £3.25 each, I use things like this a lot, especially in hanging baskets.  These ones are a bit big for hanging baskets but brilliant for bigger pots.

https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-hanging-basket-reservoir/p/0447645

I have 3 new clematis that are now all planted and will hopefully have a fabulous pyramid for them to climb.  I hope you're all doing interesting projects now that everything is planted out.

Until next time, happy gardening x

3rd June 2018 - Plant Swap

This weekend was the 2nd annual plant swap for our allotment society.  Everyone brings along any excess seedlings they have and swaps them for something they don't have.  It's a really good way of reducing waste and getting everyone together for a chin wag and to share experience, a cup of tea and a slice of cake!

I had loads of tomatoes and some Jack O Lantern pumpkins that I was able to give away and I took a Black Russian tomato and some nigella.  When I got back up to my plot I realised that I'd forgotten to take some savoy cabbage so I gave those to my neighbours.  

I was therefore able to clear out quite a lot of things from the polytunnel which meant I could sort out the bed and decide what to do.  I'd already planted some of the tomatoes into pots and I've been trying to water them through the terracotta pots but they don't seem to be particularly happy with that.  The leaves have slightly yellowed so I have decided to sink the pots into the bed in the polytunnel.  That way the canes aren't touching the poly but the tomatoes aren't in the bed, which had tomatoes in it a couple of years ago and so shouldn't be planted in there again this year.  I also sunk the pots with the aubergines and the cucumber into the bed as well. I'm hoping that by doing it this way I'll be utilising the bed but also that I'll be able to keep the plants healthy.  

The tumbling tomatoes are doing well in their hanging basket.  I used my compost mix that I mentioned in a previous blog but as a reminder...

- 3 parts multi purpose compost

 - 1 part horti grit (or vermiculite)

 - 1 scoop Richard Jackson's Root Booster

 - 3 scoops Richard Jackson's Easy Feed

 - 1 scoop water retaining granules

The easy feed is a plant food that keeps going for the whole season so the idea is that I won't need to feed them again all season.  They certainly seem to be thriving, I have loads of flowers, which will hopefully turn into fruit.  People often ask about nipping out the side shoots of tomatoes, you only do that with cordon tomatoes for bush and tumbling tomatoes you don't need to nip out any shoots.  That's the reason that this looks so bushy and full.

All of the bedding plants and fuscia's that I had in the polytunnel I've been hardening off and I got them all planted into the hanging baskets today.  I have done a mix this year rather than just having baskets full of fuscia.  I had lots of nemesia, which is one of my favourite bedding plants, some verbena,  bacopa and lobelia.  I also had some red and white pansies.  I used fuscia in 2 of them as the hanging elements.  In the first basket I used the red and white pansies to make a St. George Cross.  I had 5 red to make the cross and then put 3 white in each of the spaces in between.  For the other with the fuscia I used a mix of lobelia, bacopa and verbena.  The middle basket has nemesia and bacopa as the hanging element and 2 fuscia in the top, filled in with verbena.  Apart from the George's Cross there is no colour matching or theme, most of the bedding plants are mixed colours so you never know what you're going to get until they flower.  

Another job that I had needed to do this weekend was get my carrots and parsnips planted.  I bought some seed tapes which have membrane on the bottom to keep the weeds down while the seeds germinate.  As last year I have used the screen to keep the carrot fly away.  It seemed to work last year so fingers crossed I'll have the same success this year.  

I'm not sure this bed is as good as the one I used last year for the carrots.  I should probably have sieved it a bit because as I was making a mini trench for the screen I had to remove a few stones, which I'm hoping aren't in the rest of the bed.  


You'll be able to see there are pink planters in each corner of the bed.  They have a petunia vanilla raspberry and verbena mickey magenta pink and a bidens bee super star in them.  They are called the 'carnival collection' from QVC and they came with the pink planters as well.  Once they grow they should look like the picture to the right; it's just 3 plants but they are supposed to grow and fill the pot so fingers crossed.

I'll finish with the flowers that are blooming at the moment in the flower bed closest to my shed.  I have 3 giant alliums that are fully blooming and had loads of bees on them today, which was really great because I don't feel like I've seen many bees so far this year.  The ladybird poppies are also out and looking lovely.  I planted a few of these and this is the only one that's flowering.  I have always liked them so I'm really glad to have at least one of them flowering.  I'll be hoping they self seed in the bed and I'll probably save some seeds to put in the new plot as well.

The final flower I'm sharing today is my Shirley Temple Peony.  I picked up some more peony's in the plant swap but this one is the first I had.  This is its 3rd year, in the first year I think I had a couple of flowers; last year I had a few more but this year it is teeming with buds.  I have a support that twists around to hold the flower stems up.  Peony flowers have a tendency to flop over because the flowers are too heavy, especially if there's been a rain storm.  I can't wait for them to bloom and share them with you all.

I hope you all have a great week - until next time then...
Happy Gardening x

28th May 2018 - Planting Out

This week has been Chelsea Flower Show and for those of you who know me you'll know that for me that means planting out.  This week is a reminder for me that the frost risk has finally passed for Yorkshire and I'm safe to put out all of my seedlings.  This year I've been so tempted to put things out earlier because of the weather but I've resisted because even though the weather has been good you just never know.  What I have been doing though is keeping the less tender plants closer to the doors and kept both of the doors open.

I have done a mixed brassica bed with cauliflower, swede and savoy cabbage (6 of each).  I use enviromesh over this bed to keep them safe from the cabbage whites but it's important to remember that even with the protection you have to still regularly check them because somehow the little critters manage to get in sometimes.  I've actually seen butterflies laying eggs on netting and then when the caterpillars hatch they crawl through the holes so if you have netting that's bigger than enviromesh look out for little yellow eggs on your netting and make sure you squash it before it hatches.  

I also planted more peas and some more pumpkins out as well.  I have tried to do some succession planting of the peas and I might still put more in to continue that.  I'm not doing any beans this year because nobody except me likes them and I honestly can't grow enough peas for my husband!  I have also used some of the space in between the peas to put some of my dwarf sunspot sunflowers.  Littlest L planted lots of sunflowers when she came to visit the other day and they've all germinated so I actually have loads of sunflowers to find space for! 

I also planted out my potatoes this weekend.  I know that lots of people put them out sooner and again, I probably could have got away with it this year, but if the foliage comes through and then you have a late frost you can easily lose them.  For me, because I can't be up at the plot every day and for the last two weeks I've been working away it's just not worth the risk.  This year my potatoes are in one of the smaller beds (10' long instead of 13') and I decided to only do 1 row in the middle of the bed instead of the 2 rows that I normally do.  I had 6 seed potatoes left over and so I've put 3 each in bags that are filled with just manure so that will be interesting to see how they get on.

I didn't get around to planting the carrots and parsnips but I'll probably do that either during the week or next weekend.  I've bought some seed tapes for both so it will be interesting to try them out and hopefully make it a bit easier for weeding in between rows than I had last year.  They seed tapes also have some weed suppressant membrane as part of them so again it will be interesting to see how they work.

That was all on Sunday because Littlest L was playing in a tournament on Saturday with York City and so I didn't get a lot of time up there on Saturday.  

Today was all about 86a and getting the rest of it covered.  It does still look a mess because there's bits of wood and membrane and a shed waiting to be constructed laid on it but at least it looks like someone is doing something with it now instead of the overgrown mess it's been for a few years.  The area under the hedge was overgrown with nettles and I can't tell you how many times I managed to get stung getting them out and into the compost bin. The worst bit about nettle stings is definitely when you get into the shower later in the day!!  

As you can see in the top picture there were lots of pretty difficult weeds including teasels which I'm hoping the membrane will kill off although the membrane I bought isn't as good quality as I used to get (not on purpose) so I'm a bit bothered that they might push through.  I'll have to keep an eye on them and maybe put a thicker membrane on top if it becomes a problem.

My next job on this plot will be to measure and start to plan.  I think I'm going to put the shed against the fence closest to 85a but put it in the middle; my thought process is that it might create some shade, which I don't have any of in 85a so that I have somewhere to sit out of the sun occasionally.  I've also acquired, from my allotment neighbour, some big old tree roots that I've put against the opposite fence with the intention of creating a stumpery - watch this space for more information on that.

My final note for this week is that a few weeks ago I thought that the vine in my polytunnel had died over the winter.  The stem was completely brown and the leaves had all curled up.  I was considering pulling it up but my neighbour told me to wait and now it not only has leafed up but I actually have my first mini bunches of grapes on it.  I know that I'll need to thin them out and then when the bunches develop I'll need to get my little snips out and reduce the size of the bunch because apparently by doing that you get bigger grapes.  

Next week is the plant swap at our site so I have lots of seedlings to pot on ready to give to other growers on site.  It's always a popular event and if you don't have somethings similar I would suggest that you talk to everyone around you to see if they'd like to do the same.  It's such a good way to share the extra seedlings that most people inevitably end up with.

I hope you all have a lovely week and that the sun continues to shine.
Until next time - happy gardening x