I believe the weatherman’s words last night were something like this….”Tonight there may be a few light showers, but they will be very few and far between”. Hold on to that thought. Well at, I don’t know what time this morning (it was still dark) the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down. Great for the garden, and I didn’t mind as I was tucked up in bed. However, I was expecting sun again for the whole day, but at about 11am there I was in my shorts doing more of my raised beds, and the sky came over very dark and it really rained for a long time. It was quite pleasant to start with, but then it got heavy and cold. Luckily I’d taken my jumper down with me, so I had to put that on. I carried on for quite a while, and then decided that I would sit in the car and have my lunch and wait for the rain to stop. It did, so after I resumed with more hammering and nailing (got the longer nails now). Then it started raining again, so once I’d finished all the wood I had, I packed up and came home for a well earned cup of tea. I’ve now done 5 raised beds, and they’re looking good. Just make sure you don’t accidentally let go of the hammer in mid swing, as I did and it came bak and caught my shin bone…ouch!! I’ve now got a lovely little bump and I’m sure a bruise will appear. More war wounds from the allotment.
Well once I’d said “Goodbye” to my birdies, it was time to go to the allotment. I had to leave my plot just after 12.30pm as I had to open up Christchurch ringing tower as we had visitors, and I was playing with them, so that was fun. But in 2 and a half hours I got loads done. I made lots of films in the process, so that’s more for Mark to sort out. I planted out my Popcorn Fiesta, some sunflowers that I’m planting in between various plants, just to make the plot look pretty, Butternut Squash “Hawk F1”, some Spanish Squash, and my Chop Suey Greens. I took lunch with me again, so I had a rest on my plot and looked at the methods we were going to ring. This means nothing to most of you, but to those who bell ring, means loads. Just one of the strange hobbies I have.
Having not been to the allotment for just over a week, because of half term, the sight that greeted me was quite a shock. The grass had grown so much, and half of one plot was looking a bit of a mess. The weeds seemed to have tried to take over, but I’ll put them back in their place over the rest of this week. I took lots of plants that can go in now down, and gradually worked my way through them. Firstly let’s start with the Sweetcorn varieties: Snobaby, Rising Sun, Strawberry Popcorn and Britpop. As they’re all slightly different I couldn’t plant them too close together, otherwise they may pollinate with each other, and then I’ll get some form of mutant sweetcorn, that may grow legs and growl around my plot eating the other vegetables (now that’s just silly, but you never know). So if you have got more than one variety of sweetcorn, then plant the blocks no closer than 2 foot near each other. Then in between the Sweet Corn I’ve planted varieties of Squash/Pumpkin and Courgettes from Gagat, Spaghetti, Atlantic Giant (I’ve told the plants I want a really large one this year, whether they’ll listen is anyone’s guess), and Golden Dawn III. I was going to do a bit of filming, but the camera wasn’t behaving. I’ll have to get Mark to look at it. I took some lunch down with me, so sat in the sun eating away, and then got on with some more gardening. I harvested some rather large Radish, which I’m really pleased with, so I’ll have some with dinner tonight. I was brave and used the site loo…there’s just something about portaloos that make me shudder. But it’s just had a service, so I was slightly happier. I need to get everything ready to take tomorrow, I’ll pack it in the car tonight, so I don’t forget anything.
Clairesallotment's Blog 
