Allotment Arrangements

The responsibility of the allotment has been weighing on us.  Thomas was seriously considering ditching it but we've come to an a compromise.  The space is too big for two plus three children plus full time working but in time we think in time we'll have more time and can do it justice. So, we now have a strimmer to keep the grassy parts beyond us short and will plant what we can plant, and slowly work our way across. The good news is that the parts that we cultivated last year appear very easy to dig over.

In the last couple of days we dug up the rest of the spuds and stuck in some leeks and onions.

Family at work

H planting onions

Trying to make lots of level beds on our sloping plot

Onions

Drying them was very difficult this year with all the wet weather.

The end of the mulberry

The end of the mulberry has been foretold by Thomas mum since the first time she saw it in 2000.  We've stuck to it doggedly in the hope that it would perk up.

Sadly buying a tree we'd not looked at was not a good idea. About 1/3 died over the winter so we bit the bullet and got rid of it today. It was surprisingly easy and only took an hour or so.

Ericsson Ear

Metal fatigue after ear wiggling by our youngest had lead to a brittle right ear. Today Erica took a tumble and lost her lug :-(

Herbaceous

Lovely purples. Pretty pleased with its progress, but no sign of the "red hot pokers" I was looking forward to this year after all the watering last.

Also I've placed the remaining corn in the allotment. We're down to 25 but I suspect a few won't make it.

Allotmenteering again

It has laid off raining long enough for A. and I to get some serious work done.  We planted three gooseberries in traffic light order (thought A did admin to some confusion later on).

Then we dug over and weeded a plot and put in squash (butternut, round and blue banana).  Under the fleece are broccoli and cabbage, but the plants look pretty weedy and I am not optimistic they will survive the cold and the transfer.  More reason to knock up a better cold frame (work in progress).


 Finally some good news. The Early potatoes are on their way up.

Savoy Cabbage

 I am trying to do this right.  I appear to have done damage to the brocolli by planting too many in the same pot.  This time I carefully planted three per cell and have since nipped off two of them.

They are intended for the allotment.