Allotment Lady

It’s July already - I can’t believe how fast six months has flown by - and these past few really quickly.   Life has been getting in the way of blogging - I just can’t juggle all the ‘balls’ and keep them up in the air.

Lots of photos but not time to post them - here is just a quick snapshot.

Gozzie has a new trick to get our attention when we ignore her screechings.  Balancing on the actual window.  Don’t ask me how she manages it - but she does - and can turn around on it too!

It’s a war of perseverance - and I always win.  She’s a chicken for goodness sake - if I rush out and give her any food - which she doesn’t need as they have been fed - she will do it every time she wants a snack!

A few photos I took on my walk back from my studio up the path for tea.

Despite the heatwave, drought, hailstones, flooding and heatwave and drought again — the summer flowers are strutting their stuff

They were actually glowing in the late afternoon sunshine - but my photos don’t ‘glow’

My garden is heady with the perfume of roses, honeysuckle and summer jasmine - if only I could bottle it!

Self sown - and they were glowing like candles!

You never forget your first bike do you.

And a must - a crash helmet.

I hade my first bike when I was almost 15 years old.  I got a Saturday job in Woolworths store, and bought my bike from the lady who lived opposite us.

I paid her in weekly instalments - which seemed to go on forever.  But that bike gave me freedom - to cycle anywhere I pleased, and anywhere I needed to get too.

I wonder when you got your first bikes.

Well I have been so busy that I haven’t even had time to catch up posting on my blogs - so here goes.

We spent a few hours tidying up yet more on the allotment - in readiness for planting up my pumpkin patch

Which will be here

In this bed at the front - near the compost bin, and the water tanks.

I have started working on the fruit cage too - attaching chicken wire fencing all around the bottom wooden frame to keep out Brer Rabbit.  We are over run with them up the allotments this year!

The battered courgettes and sunflowers, I think, will make it.

Talking of rabbits

They have managed to come off the field into my garden!  First there was one for a week or so - which I tolerated

Then he brought his big brother - who had the cheek to jump up on my raised beds and start to eat my flowers - well I was not prepared to tolerate that!

So I spent yesterday morning searching for the gap that they must be squeezing through and found it behind my Gazebo in the corner.   It took me most of the morning whilst Patrick was at golf to squeeze myself along side the fence and gazebo, to attach a thick post to fill one hole, and a piece of wood to fill the gap in my neighbours fence beside us, which they might be getting in through as well.  I had to wedge the wood in there, add a bit of wire mesh, and then stack up brick and heavy rocks to hold it in place.  Fingers crossed it works.

I have also been busy in my ‘lean to’ - want to see what I have been up too?

I potted up three sunflower plants and they are so much better than those up the allotment.  One is destined for my granddaughter - for a little competition and another bit of her birthday present.

One of the strawberries I potted up is bearing fruit - and this being Wimbledon week - it is perfect timing.  This large strawberry  ‘has MY name on it’ as I do all the hard work LOL

The tomato plants are now growing apace having been potted on a few times.  I am not growing any up the allotment this year - there is too much of a risk of tomato blight.

Some odd climbing bean plants that had somehow germinated amongst some lettuces, I rescued and put them in a pot - which I will stand outside once they have settled in.

In the cold frame outside, the pumpkins are recovering after being smashed by the hailstones.   A bit of tlc indoors makes all the difference.

I have potted on some brassicas too.

Calabrese,  Russian Kale, Autumn Cauliflowers, and Hispi cabbages.  I need them to settle down for a week or two before I transplant them - then it’ll be the never ending battle against the cabbage white butterflys and then subsequent caterpillars.

Finally

The runner beans are sprouting at last - the first batch failed.  When these get a bit bigger and stronger I will plant them out - and put another seed alongside them to stagger the crops.

I have also been busy processing some of the fruit I picked.

Jam making - more of that another day!

Thanks for looking

I spent a total of seven and a half hours up the allotment Friday and today.  Pat joined me today.

Yesterday I was a bit crestfallen when I saw the damage that the hailstorm and flash flood had done.  Then I gave myself a good talking too - it is only vegetation after all - and it is not as though our lives depend on the harvest - as is often the case in other countries.

So I will not be posting photos of the ’smashed’ pea plants, Flattened lettuces etc and shredded courgettes - there is still time to plant more, and I am sure those beaten up will have healthy roots and will recover.

So instead I will concentrate on the positives.

The currant and berry bed is positively full of big ‘thug’ weeds which  was the first job I tackIed yesterday.

The weeds of course did not get damaged and I am sure they have grown 6 inches in a week!

It was too hard to dig it all over yesterday  - but it looks heaps better.

It took me about an hour to do.

As I took the photos today - Pat got in on the ’scene’ putting shredded paper into our compost bins.

After weeding, I picked some fruit, jostaberries, redcurrants, and blackcurrants

The crop on the gooseberry bushes is not bad - but these did get moved and chopped about in October, when I gave up the bottom third of my plot.

They were not damaged much, but.  They are mostly small, due to the drought conditions - but I did find a few large ones - so picked a nice pot full - which I will show you when I process them.

I also need to weed the rest of the gooseberry bed.

Today I tackled the above.

It looks like a moonscape - made out of hardened sand or concrete.

You would never think that it looked like this last week would you?

It took me a couple of hours today to dig it over again.

If  I didn’t do it today, it would really be like concrete - it sets solid and I would have had to take a pick axe to it.

After I started digging it all over with a fork again, and smashing the clods, we had some light showers so it is looking so much better now.

This side I had previously sowed three rows of leeks seeds - so had to break it up again.

I also sowed three rows of beetroot -  not tried these before.

Then I sowed four rows of  carrots

I am giving these a go this year, and hoping that the shorter roots will be better in my stony soil.
and another three rows of parsnips as the first I sowed a few weeks ago still haven’t germinated and I doubt they will now.  The ones I sowed here are my own saved seeds from last year - so fingers crossed.
Rain stopped play - but after four hours we were quite glad it did.

We burned piles of the perennial weeds

and tidied up yet more areas - so it’s really taking shape!

I wish we could get rid of all the remaining rubbish that we inherited with the plot - buried under weeds as tall as me.  It’s too heavy to transport - but at least we are making good use of it as a weed suppressant.

Whilst I was working up the allotment, my little bantams were sunbathing

They gradually drifted away when they saw that I did not come bearing gifts!

There goes little Gozzie

All except lazy Daisy of course - she wasn’t giving up her place for anyone or anything.

I was sitting here typing my blog when Pat called me - something about the weather - then we had a power cut and everything went dark - and it was only just after 5pm in the evening.

We have emergency lighting which comes on in the hallway and the kitchen, so I went to join Patrick to see what all the excitement was about

I have my back to the window here in my little office - so hadn’t seen or heard the hail stone storm.

When I go to look, the hailstones were about two inches deep on the lawn, and there was a torrential deluge coming through the roof on two sides of our conservatory.

Pat had bought himself his belated birthday present and had brought it in to show me a couple of hours before.  A new golf club bag and new shoes - oops - they were soaked.

It is all well and good marvelling the wonders of natures’ power looking through the windows - but a bit different when it starts to flood your home.  We had to keep the door closed between the kitchen and the conservatory to stop the water flooding into the main sections of the bungalow.

This was just the start of it - and you can’t really see the torrents coming down inside.

I got onto the insurance company right away, so that they could actually hear the sound on of the thunder and lightening and hailstones.

Again, this was just the start of it - I stayed away from the windows after taking these few photos.

I knew it was going to be a bad ‘one’ as we started to hear fire engines and police sirens.  The country lanes around out village have steep embankments either sides of them where the fields are  and the water drains into ditches alongside the road - which fill up and have nowhere to go - so flooded.

Our bungalow is at the bottom of the lane and the road slopes down - and so did the rain and hailstones - you can see the little ‘river’ which meandered from the road, over the pavement, found a gap in the garden border and meandered through the hailstones towards us.

This is where is started to creep under the door in the porch.

My wooden carving of a duck looking over his shoulder seemed somewhat appropriate - perhaps tempted fate - so it will be moved.

We kept the internal door closed to stop the water invading from the front into the main building.

The water swirled around and went out through the arch when things calmed down.

Early the next morning there were still signs of the previous day’s chaos

It all seems surreal now.

We have ahd a week of sunshine - and loss adjusters, assessors, and various other ‘agencies’.  Someone every day - take notes, photos, and measurements.

Next week will come the clean up and any repairs.  Fortunately we have good strong furniture in the conservatory which we use as our dining room and its so lovely out there we ‘live’ in it most days.

Everything can be cleaned and restored to it’s former glory.  The electrics will be checked and repaired etc in there and in the flooded garage - that’s a muddy mess - but now dry.  I think the only casualties might be the radio and my breadmaker - I really don’t fancy using it again after it was filled with muddy water from the roof.

A surveyor came today to look at the roof - and they will send someone to clean and check it all - so it a week or so’s time this will all be a distant memory.

I am grateful for the sunshine - it’s dried everywhere out - which in turn has got rid of the nasty smells.  The garden is a bit battered - but plants are very resilient and will soon pick up.

Our village was featured on the news two days in a row!  Luckily only a few homes had minor damage, no major accidents on the very flooded lanes - what a blessing that was.

At nine this morning I was once again up my allotment - raring to go.  I wanted to make the most of today as I don’t think I will have any free days the rest of the week.

I did get rather side-tracked though.

I wanted to do a lot more work in the fenced off area, that I was working on yesterday, but when I opened the shed door, I saw that it needed sorting out - big time.  So I did that.  I don’t like it when all my tools are not hanging up - and ‘junk’ is in front of them so that I can not easily get to them.  Pat has been helping me lately and he’s been putting things away - which means just dumping them on the floor in there and shutting the door!

I dragged out lots of bags and sacks, loaded my car with pots, trays, milk bottles formerly used for protecting crops from rabbits, but now not needed as I have fenced off areas within my fenced off area - so that should deter them.

Once I sorted that, the elder bush next to the shed had grown really bushy despite it being cut to the ground in Autumn.  It was beginning to obstruct the door -  so I cut that down again - leaving a big pile of cuttings to move - later on.

The next task I tackled was to fork over the right hand side of the area I worked on these past couple of days.

This is going to be my seed bed, then eventually my leek and carrot bed for overwinter.

I got as far as sowing three rows of Leek seeds - then got distracted again.

Stringing up the first of my newly erected climbing bean frame had been hard work - but I decided to do the other half and get it over and done with, despite the fact that it takes over an hour to do.

It is fiddly backbreaking work - but at least it is finished now - and ready for when the runner bean plants have grown.

I even did the long dangley bits that you plant under the beans to anchor them in.

I also added a support across the middle - to give it extra strength.

Oh - and I planted up a couple of packets of spring onion seeds in front of the climbing Cherokee Trail of Tears beans - you can just see them in the picture.

I thought I would move a couple of raised beds in preparation for my pumpkin plants.  I had to go past the fruit cage to get them - so I got distracted again by the weeds.

I couldn’t dig them all up - the ground was too hard

So I chopped them all down - Pat can move them for me.  I got stung several times through my sleeves etc from the stinging nettles, pricked by the thistles, and scratched from weeding around the bushes on my hands and knees.

But it was worth it when I had finished.

One of the blackcurrant bushes, the birds have been at them - and Pat wanted me to net them.

The redcurrant bushes, are fruiting at the same time as the blackcurrant bushes which is unusual.

We haven’t had a chance to re-cover the fruit cage - there is more to do than just putting the net over - we have more supports to put up and a bit of repairing to do.

Pat’s not bothered about the redcurrants, the blackcurrants are his favourites - so I decided to cover them as best I could.  But first I had disentangle and cut the net from wood, which I have used for the last few years to cover veggies etc.  That must have taken about half an hour.

But i did salvage enough netting to protect a few bushes.

It was then that I noticed the long bits of grass around the fruit cage - so I was on my hands and knees with shears cutting it all down.  Then as I went through the gate to the other area which is the main plot.  I just had to cut down along that side of the fruit cage - on my hands and knees again, and cut the Comfrey too - to make a ’stew’ fertilizer.

And then - I went all along the fences - I must be mad.   The raised beds were a bit heavy, but I managed to get them on the wheel barrow and moved.

As I started packing up, Patrick arrived - he was not amused.  It was 2pm!  I had been up there five hours again!

I had been feeling the best I had for over two years.  I felt really strong, and happy, and I just didn’t want to stop!

Patrick helped me pack up - and off we went home for lunch.

He was concerned for me - bless him - and I do over do things - but it was really enjoyable!

The downside was that I didn’t get to take any more photos of all my finished work - which was a shame.

And-this afternoon we were hit by flash floods and hailstone storms - and rain poured through the conservatory roof - flooding the floor and chairs out there!    The hailstones are still outside on the lawns at 10.45pm

More of that tomorrow if I get time - but as I am out for the day, then I probably won’t get time  - got to get it all sorted out!

Luckily it did not come inside the main living areas - too wet to clear up tonight though.

What can you do at 5am for 2.5 hours?

Clean the house?  Bake a couple of loaves of bread?  Prepare Sunday lunch?  Walk for half a mile?  Or sleep until at least a more reasonable hour on a Sunday morning!

All of the above are good - but not for me today.   I had been awake since before 4am and despite ‘black out’ curtains bright sunshine was creeping through the corner.  Patrick was hot and restless - and I was wide awake.

So I got up.

The sun was streaming in the conservatory windows - so much so that I thought the beside clock had stopped!   We were going up the allotment again today for a couple of hours to do some more ‘jobs’ - but when I saw the weather - I realised that I wouldn’t because I couldn’t - it looked like a record breaker of a day sun and temperature wise - so a day inside beckoned.

Unless?

5am - I was up the allotment.  Covered from head to toe - sunblock on - hat, gloves, sunglasses - even the cockerel up there wasn’t awake - nor the pigs - all was silent.

There was not the slightest breeze either - you would have thought it was mid day.  There hadn’t been a car on the lanes, not a soul about, bliss.

For the next two and a half hours I laboured - as happy as a lark.

I dismantled the front of the huge manure bin - and moved 25 full wheel barrow loads of well rotted and wet (we used the top layer yesterday, hence this being so wet and heavy) of well rotted horse and pig manure!

Which I heaped along the left edge of the fence above (before photo).

From my car I unloaded sunflowers - 13 (I am not superstitious - or maybe I should have counted them first and took up an extra one!)

These went in first - along the fence, so that I can tie them in if it gets windy - they are for attracting the insects to pollinate my climbing beans when they grow.

I dug up and moved all the courgettes that were looking a bit sorry for themselves in the raised beds from my other plot.  They were planted in manure too - but this is much deeper and not mixed in with the soil and will keep wet - and they will soon look a lot greener I am sure.

From home,  I also took some Butternut Squash that were ready to go out .

It doesn’t look much - but it was non stop work.  I also weeded the garlic bed, and pulled a few thistles as I walked past the potato patch.

Then I sowed two raised beds with yellow dwarf french bean seeds - which I absolutely love, and which will be fine being sown out doors - especially as we are due a couple of days of heavy rain!
I weeded the mini sweetcorn raised bed - and sowed seeds in between the plants - more dwarf beans - better those than weeds.

Then I just had to fill up  the four watering cans - three times - and poured the 12 cans full around all the plants above.

- Oh and I also found a few more Cherokee Trail of Tears climbing beans - which I planted - and stuck my finger (with glove on) into the well rotted manure where they are all planted , which is covered with soil on top.  All the water I gave them yesterday was worth the effort as the manure was still soaking wet underneath - just as well as it’s a scorcher today.

‘All’ I had to do next was to put the metal front back on the manure bin - a big job single handed - put everything back in the shed and my car - and make sure that the gates were secured and rabbit protected.

When I returned home the chooks were chirpy so they were delighted to be let out and have breakfast, I watered all the plants in the lean-to and my salad beds as they are in the shade first thing.

I crept in, was just going in the en-suite  to shower - when a sleepy voice said, ‘Where have you been?’

I had left Pat a note by the tea pot - but he hadn’t been up - he just thought I had popped in here to read my emails or something.

He was astounded when I told him, when we were eating breakfast at 8am where I had been and what I had been up too.   If I hadn’t left my car on the drive (which he kindly unloaded and put in the garage for me)  I doubt he would have believed me.

It was great sitting eating breakfast, dressed in a cool pretty cotton frock, feeling pretty pleased with myself that I had achieved so much - when everyone else was asleep on a Sunday morning.

Sunday lunch is slowly cooking in the oven - and I have the rest of the day to relax - and I  can stay out of the sun without feeling ‘trapped’ and wanting to be doing so many things up the allotment.

I hope you all have a good Sunday - whatever you do.

I am sitting in the lounge, with my feet up, a curtain drawn over the side of the patio door that is shattered, feeling totally worn out.

I have actually worked myself to a standstill, and do not even have the energy to do some craft work!

Another three and a half hours up the allotment today - all really non stop hard work - but not a lot to show for it!

Patrick mowed the lawns for me, and had a bonfire.

He didn’t do the path right down to the end - we don’t use it now that I have given up the bottom third of my plot.  In fact I don’t use it at all past my gate - David and Michael do - and David mows that bit.

Our huge manure compost bin - and the rhubarb bed.  It took Pat just over an hour to do the mowing, whereas before it would take at least three hours to mow all the paths then another hour or so to mow the meadow I had at the bottom - depending on the height of the grass.

The comfrey is on the right and I will take my shears and cut it down now that it has a good growth on it.  It’s a brilliant fertiliser

The early potatoes are now flowering and I am looking forward to the first earlies - makes my mouth water just thinking of the buttery flavour.

I need to weed inbetween the rows - but other things are taking priority.

The onion and shallots bed look better for my weeding the other day, but I was gutted to see that the pigeons had been at my peas and almost shredded them.  I picked a handful of mange tout that had escaped their attention.  I haven’t been able to go up there several times a week as I used to - the downside is that things like that don’t get spotted before to much damage has been done.   They obviously had got used to the cd’s - so I have added yet more netting to protect them lower down.  I feel rather cross about it - but hey ho - I can buy frozen peas.  I think I will pot up some more seeds and go for a later crop.

I know its a bit boring seeing photos of mowed paths, but I use these posts as a reminder of all sorts of things

I really want to re-locate these little courgette plants - they are really suffering in all this heat.

The mini sweetcorn don’t seem to mind

There are pods forming on the broad beans

And the couple of days of rain has really started to swell the gooseberries - so I shall be picking those in the next week or so - weather permitting.

Just packing up to go home.

Oh - and what did I spend three hours doing?

Well Pat helped me hammer in three 8ft metal posts, and three 5ft wooden posts

I had earlier today dug out a deep trench and filled it with well rotted manure - a bit late doing this, this year - where the shorter posts are.

The area the posts span is 18-20ft by 16ft.  What took me the most time, was cutting up straw bale twine, and tying it from one side to the other, allowing a 4ft over hang at the lower posts, for the climbing beans to grow up.

I then watered the trench, buried each piece of string under each bean plant I planted, and covered the roots with more of the compost.  Finally covering them over with the soil I had dug out, then turning over all the soil I had been treading on.

And I still have to plant up the other half of the bean frame when my runner bean seeds grow into plants!

I am sure all the hard work will be worth it - and I have no intention of growing my beans anywhere else from now on.

Typically the cloudy morning turned into a scorching hot one - and now that I am all showered and dressed in a pretty summer frock and indoors - it has turned cloudy!

We did have the Red Arrows do a ‘fly past’ over us this morning - in two formations, which was very exciting - and typically my camera was in the car.

They really were beautiful - bright red with white markings against a beautiful clear blue sky.  I don’t need a photo to remember it!

P.S.

I saw on the news in the evening that they were headed for Buckingham Palace - for a fly past for the Queen.

I saw them first though!  LOL

After almost a week of storms and heavy rain, today I was able to get out into the garden.

Well not during the day - it was not only boiling hot and sunny - but we also had appointments all day.

This evening, when the sun had moved around, I decided to mow the lawns and do a bit of edge trimming.

Here are a few photos of a walkabout in the back garden as the sun was going down.

I am amazed that the delphiniums are still standing after the storms.  They are surrounded with day lilies - so when the delphinium flowers fade, the day lilies will be in full bloom.

The phormuim has shot up into the air and starting to bloom already.

The day lilies in another part of the garden are just about to come into bloom

In the late afternoon and evening, the garden is heavy with perfume.  Everywhere you walk - its gorgeous - and just what I intended.

The honeysuckle is fantastic

It scrambles up over the pergola and is where the hanging bird house is situated - and we have had two broods of bluetits this year - the last having recently flown the nest.

This is Cardinal Richelieu - it has the most amazing perfume - and it too has stood up against the battering of the storms as well.  I need to pick off the fading blooms though

I mowed these lawns too

This is an old English rose - which was here when we moved in.  I have been nurturing it for years - and it is now repaying me - another perfumed rose - really wonderful.  OK so it does get a bit of black spot - but that’s a small price to pay for the perfume.

This is a flower that appeared of it’s own accord.  It has been flowering for weeks and has been a gorgeous yellow colour - and guess what it is - a parsnip.  There must have been some seeds in the compost I brought back from the lottie

Yet more perfumed roses - a climber this time on one side of my studio

We are now totally self sufficient in fresh salads and stir fry greens - this is just one bed of them - and it’s brilliant on a day like to day, when we had to rush in, have lunch, then rush out again - to have a ready meal fresh from the garden in a matter of minutes

The foxgloves in the woodland border have been stunning

- and more blooms to come by the look of it!

Clematis - growing over the chicken enclosure - this is just a tiny bit of it - the flowers are the size of large dinner plates - and the bees and insects love it!

I have never had such huge clematis flowers as I have had this year - amazing, and it is scrambling up …………

Another gorgeous perfumed rose which must be about 15 feet or more tall!

This is on the other side of my studio - so when I have the doors or windows open its wonderful.

I mowed this lawn too, and trimmed all the edges.

Did I say that I had a smashing time?  I did!

In more ways than one.  Patrick was indoors watching the television when all of a sudden this happened.  He wondered where all the water had come from!

But whilst mowing the lawn,  I didn’t hear the stone flick up and smash the patio door - I just kept merrily mowing away.  I guess the chickens had scratched up some stones onto the lawn - and I didn’t spot them in the grass.

I know who that would have been - Lucy.

At last, this past week, she is no longer broody - and don’t I know it - she is scratching up here there and everywhere!

Ah well - accidents do happen - and that’s why we pay our house insurance - for once we will have to make a claim.