Allotment Geekery

Almost a month away from the allotment and the weeds are beyond a joke, on Saturday we spent three hours there.  Whilst MozzyMr was in the polytunnel tending to his tomatoes (seriously this is a preview of what he's going to be like as an old man, he'll be talking to those plants soon) I dug up two heaped wheelbarrows full of weeds and I still have half a plot to go!  To top it off because of the cool, damp weather the veg isn't really doing much, we're getting one or two courgettes but they're no thicker than your index finger, the peas have perked up a bit, and of course we have an abundance of tomatoes to come but they're still green, it has been weeks I was hoping for at least one to be ready by now, meh.

The lavender is doing well and I've let three of our spring onions go to flower because I love how they look.  Following such a hectic June we're not planning on doing much at all this July so it'll be lots of time on the allotment and hopefully some trips to the studio as well...

Allotment Geekery

So, could the weather have been any better this weekend?  The only thing to do was get on the allotment and get busy.  Plus today is MozzyMr and my 10 year anniversary, from here on in we'll probably just celebrate our wedding anniversary but 10 years can't be overlooked!

The big project this weekend was the apple tree, it needed to be cut back to encourage more fruit but also to discourage the caterpillars that have been wreaking havoc across the allotment.  This was MozzyMr's job, not because he's the man about the house but simply because almost every plant I've cut back has withered and died.  He's so precise, contemplating the tree from all angles, cutting back only the branches that created a symmetrical and perfectly formed tree.

The branches will come in really useful, for growing the peas up.

The carrots are in, both normals and rainbow mix, I was following the very precise instructions from 'Keeping an Allotment' a book my mum gave me for Christmas.  This involved digging, sieving, sieving again, planting, watering, and then covering back up under the fleece.  If this doesn't produce the best carrots I've ever eaten I'm giving up.

The strawberry patch is coming along nicely, my new watering can is making the constant shuffling back and forth to the water trough easier to bear.

Everyone in the polytunnel has been massively productive, I think we've been a little late with getting our seeds planted especially in comparison to the plots on either side of ours.  The temperature in the polytunnel was 30 degrees, yum.

The plant I'm most excited about this year is the pea, I've planted a whole tray just in case so when we turned up and they'd started poking through I was perhaps disproportionately excited *hangs head in shame*.

These planting bags aren't ours but they are a good demonstration of how keen some of the gardeners in our polytunnel are, I'm intrigued to see what they've planted.

Again, these aren't ours but shows what we will be doing with our apple branches outside on the plot when the peas are ready, they look loads better than bamboo.

Aaaaand finally, purple sprouting broccoli, it's finally making an appearance and is abundant.  I don't know what to do with it all, any one got any receipe suggestions?  I've just been steaming it so far!



Well that's me, next weekend I'll be going to the Totnes Vintage fair where my mum will be selling, I'm really looking forward to it hopefully some photos to follow..

Weird and wonderful things are happening in the kitchen

I bought MozzyMr a gourmet mushroom kit for Christmas and before he'd even activated it (you should in theory soak the bag of coffee waste which contains the mushroom spores overnight) but these came poking through the corner of the box so we thought it was best to open it up and give them some room.  They're weird things, sort of velvety and ear lobe like *shudder*.

On the other side of the kitchen on the windowsill we have the tomatoes coming up, another week and they'll be ready to transplant to the polytunnel...

Further Allotment Geekery

So this Saturday we extended our allotment empire by one raised bed, a mere raised bed?  Yep, but this bad boy is in a polytunnel which means tomatoes, chillies, and peppers galore!

We're plot 16 on the right in between two experts: Rodney and Liz (they already have seedlings on the go, this may not sound much but I haven't even finished digging over the rest of the plot).

Mmmmm new top soil (yeah you heard me).

And finally garlic (ignore the weeds they've gone now), just waiting for a frost to split the cloves. 

Well that's quite a lot of excitement for one day...... ta ra for now.