Clairesallotment's Blog

My husband Mark is a very busy man. We’ve been married for 22 years, but if you actually work out how much time we tend to spend doing stuff together each day, it’s very little. But then we accept that each other has their own interests and hobbies.

Over the past year Mark has been working unbelievably hard on a novel, as part of a podcast The Bestseller experiment, that he has been writing with another Mark. It’s available today only for 99p, then the price goes up.

Go on, you know you want to read a really good, funny, intelligent book, so why not give it a go. Grab your copy here….

Now this experiment is over, will I have to spend more time with him?  I hope so…..

I’ve been on my knees all afternoon. No not scrubbing the floor or grovelling, but weeding the patio. It’s been on my “To do” list for the garden for a while, but wasn’t very high on the agenda. But now I’ve got as far as I can with the garden, so the patio finally had it’s turn.

So there I was with my little sharp tool (you can see it in the photo above), that is able to get between the paving stones and remove the weeds. I started at one end of the patio, clearing little areas, and then sweeping and clearing the debris into my trug. The trug is now nearly full, and I’ll be putting it in my garden waste bin once it’s been emptied by the council.

Once I had cleared it all, I then sprayed with weedkiller between all the joints to make sure that I killed any roots of the weeds that are left in the ground. I took most of them out, but there are always some that won’t come out.

When I get a dry couple of days, I’ll re-point the patio so that it looks even nearer, but that’ll have to wait as it’s due to rain tomorrow. The knees of my tracksuit bottoms are damp, so I know I’ve had a productive day.

My series of ebooks is growing (perfect choice of words). My latest ebook all about Tomatoes is now out, and available for just 99p! Click HERE to go straight to my Amazon page.

Don’t forget, I have other ebooks also available, and I’m starting to write the next one now.

Happy reading and gardening!

Now, I’ve come to a point in the garden, where I can’t really do anything else until the trees are down. Then once the trees are down and all gone (where I don’t really care), then it’ll be all systems go again with putting the greenhouses in position, and the new shed for the chickens up and in position. And then finally get the raised beds in. But today I was just doing a few bits and pieces, and some general tidying. I had a few plants in pots and hanging baskets that I wanted to sort out. Some I would throw away, and others I would repot. So this afternoon I got all those sorted. I’ve just got to move the plastic shed closer to the house, so it’s away from the trees and therefore not in the way of the trees. It’s full of gardening equipment, so is a bit heavy at the moment. So I’ll move it tomorrow. And I’ve also got to mow the grass. Then I’m done.

Hopefully Paul, the farmer, will finish harvesting his onions soon. First it was his hops (great for the local beer, which is oh so tasty), and now it’s his onions. I’m not sure if he has anything else to harvest. I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, and he said he’d not forgotten, but once he’d finished the harvest he would do the trees for me. I said that would be great, as soon as he can. So fingers crossed it won’t be long.

Now the pots that I sorted today are going to be placed around the patio, once I have decided where I’m going to put them, but for now, they’ll have to stay together. In the spaces I’ve planted various bulbs, so hopefully in the Spring I’ll have some lovely flowers come up.

20% off Fruit Trees, Soft Fruits & Grapes

Now is the perfect time for planting Tree Fruits, Soft Fruits and Grapes – the ground is still warm so anything planted now will establish before the onset of Winter – and so roar into growth next Spring! (But remember, it is Autumn and plants are starting to lose their leaves and go into dormancy. They may look a little ‘tatty’ now, but this is completely normal)

20% Off all Fruit Trees

20% Off all Soft Fruit

20% Off all Grape Vines

To claim this discount use the offer code SEP17 between now and  1st of October when shopping for Tree Fruits, Soft Fruits and Grapes.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @Victoriana_NG or Facebook for daily updates on what we’re sowing and growing (and the occasional bit of cooking and other ‘stuff’). And feel free to share this discount code with your fellow gardening friends and allotmenteers!