Mother Nature and I had a conversation the other day. Well, not so much a conversation, as me making a mental statement, and Mother Nature giving me a slap down to make sure I knew my place in the world. Thanks, Mother N.
It went somewhat like this...
Apart from my father-in-law having a dig in preference to going to Bluewater (crazy man!) the allotment hasn't had any attention at all now in 3 months. But with the weather getting better (we've actually seen the sun on quite a few days this last week. Shame it poured with rain every afternoon) I've really got to get my stuff together and get down there.Luckily there is also a fair amount of preparation that can also be done back here, and I'm almost on top of that.My veg-table sitting out in the backyard has now come into its own. It...
It's been a long hard winter, but it seems like there is now a light at the end of this long damp tunnel. We've now had several days where that large bright orb has appeared in the sky.I really felt like we were all groping our way around the surface of the earth with our eyes blinded from glare - hands out pumping the air - exclaiming "too bright! too bright! what is it?" as we emerged from our caves of darkness.Yes, I do hate winter in England THAT much. And as we've not had a good summer in -...
I don't know if my tomatoes are supposed to look like this. but they are very funky....
Not long ago I took possession of my very own veg-table, which is a raised vegetable bed on legs. It's the brainchild of one of my clients - Veg-Table ltd, and after doing the website for them they let me have one to play with. It was one of those designer/client relationships that just works perfectly, since l just love to get down and dirty with the onions.But since it was October when I got it, I was slightly at a loss as to what I could stuff it with over winter. The cat decided it made a great hidey...
Some of my seedlings were a little less than successful, and strangely - in those seed trays I had an abundance of small mushrooms. I wondered if the compost that I used wasn't suitable for the seedlings (some brassicas I think) or whether it just happened to have mushroom spores in it already....
Now that I've discovered I am ill, I need to milk this condition to the fullest until friday at least (which is probably the point at which the doctor points out that I just need to stop eating bolognaise for the rest of my life so quit whining.) So instead of working today, I indulged my inner child, and played in the dirt.Or put it in another flavour, I went down to the allotment and spent a contented two hours digging and planting. I've managed to dig over and plant the green manure for hungarian rye and winter tares in...
As I start to harvest the last of the summer produce, I am beginning to prepare those newly empty beds for green manure. I didn't do this last year, and when I started to dig in, I found the ground rock hard. So I am hoping that not only with the green manure add benefit to the soil, but that it will also help to keep it light and turnable.I also need to work out what green manure I can use in each section. One of the green manures are field beans - since they are beans, I have to...
When I first started working on an allotment - or more correctly, on my three beds on my friend Ali's allotment, I hardly planned to be self sufficient. It was more about the discovery and joy of achieving perhaps 1 successful harvest.Now that I have a full allotment to myself, and am in the second year of working it, I still didn't set self sufficiency as a goal. But this month it's what I've reached. This is the third week since I cancelled the Abel and Cole mixed fruit and veg box, and replaced it with a fruit only...
