Friday 19th April 2013 – My tits are back!!

Posted on April 19, 2013 by clairesallotment

Finally after months of waiting and thinking they’d decided to go somewhere else, my Coal Tits have come back and are nesting in my box again. I’m very excited. I’m trying to get some footage for you to see, but they seem to be very busy in the morning collecting bits for their nest, then in the afternoon (when I have the time to watch them) they decide to be out. I’ll catch them soon, hopefully tomorrow morning. I think there was another male interested in the box, because there was a Coal Tit dog fight going on. It was very exciting. Will keep you posted.

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Thursday 18th April 2013 – Hail hurts on bear arms, ouch!

Posted on April 18, 2013 by clairesallotment

My afternoon up the allotment was cut short by the weather. For the first hour and a bit it was lovely and sunny. They had forecast showers, but there seemed to be no sign of that, so I thought “How lucky”. Then the clouds turned a dark grey and I could see the rain in the distance. Trying to blow them the other way I carried on with my digging and planting 32 more onions. Then it rained, nothing to stop me as it was quite light, then it hailed and came down very heavy. Hail really hurts when it hits your arms, especially if all you’ve got on your top is a t-shirt. It was time to retreat to the car for a while. When I could return to digging we suddenly had 2 rumbles of thunder. Not something I mess about with, especially when the implement you’re holding is metal (the perfect conductor). So I finished off the line I was doing and packed away. Tomorrow looks dry and far less windy, so I may take a lunch down with me and stay most of the day. It may mean I’ll have to use the Portaloo on site. I’m not keen on them, they make me shudder, but if I’m really desperate…..

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Saw this letter in this weeks Radio Times.

Posted on April 18, 2013 by clairesallotment
What a shame.

What a shame.

Such a shame that Joe didn’t keep up his allotment, but you know where to come for regular updates, don’t you?

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Wednesday 17th April 2013 – Oh my, did I really plant that many onions today?

Posted on April 17, 2013 by clairesallotment

When you’re so involved in what you’re doing on your plot, you don’t add up how many of various plants you’ve sown, until the end. This afternoon in amongst the windy weather and lovely sunshine I turned over another bed and planted some onion. I can’t tell you the exact varieties I planted as I didn’t label them, but I ordered “Centurion”, “Sturton” and “Stuttgarter”. I took as many as I could fit in the car and thought I’d never get through them all, but it seems I did. So far, (and bearing in mind I still have about the same, if not more, to plant again) I have put it 99! I’ve also got shallots to go in. Well it looks like we’ll have enough onions to last us all year.

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Wednesday 17th April 2013 – Fennel, Asparagus and Celery.

Posted on April 17, 2013 by clairesallotment

Just popped in the greenhouse to sow yet more seeds. I’ve got a couple of packets left to sow this month which are: Fennel “Victoria”, when I opened the packet the aniseed smell was wonderful and Celery “Sigfrido”, which you can’t help saying the variety without sounding like Samwise Gamgee from Lord or the Rings. I then looked around to see what else I needed to do in there, but any seedlings that need potting up aren’t quite ready yet. So I came indoors and soaked the Asparagus “Martha Washington” seeds. They need to be soaked for 48 hours in cold water. Therefore I can’t plant them until Friday.

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Tuesday 16th April 2013 – New seeds.

Posted on April 16, 2013 by clairesallotment

More new seeds this year to add to my list. I always said 1 new thing a year, but it’s always been more. Therefore, if it’s new seeds, then that means new videos!! How exciting. Firstly I planted the Pineberry plants I got. The plants have been growing well in the greenhouse, and I’d always planned on putting them in the belfast sink I have on the patio. I then sowed some Popcorn Fiesta, some Cucamelon, some Cucumber “Cuccino”, and finally some Ambrosia Cantaloupe melon seeds from my friend Chuck Fenster. That’s all the new ones, but I’ve still got a few more seeds to sow, those will have to wait until tomorrow.

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Tuesday 16th April 2013 – Found the perfect Allotment song.

Posted on April 16, 2013 by clairesallotment

There I was digging away this morning, when on came the “Piggies” song came on my ipod. Not sure if you know it, but it starts with these lyrics:
Have you seen the little piggies
Crawling in the dirt
And for all the little piggies
Life is getting worse
Always having dirt to play around in.
I just thought that summed up me on the allotment perfectly. And it helped me dig a rather stubborn bed this morning.

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Monday 15th April 2013 – Starting the April planting.

Posted on April 15, 2013 by clairesallotment

Well I have 1 back to school today and the other tomorrow, so all is good and relatively quiet. I’m looking forward to tomorrow at 8.15am when I’ll be on my own. I’ll miss them really. Spent the afternoon in the greenhouse sowing all sorts of interesting seeds. So to start with (it’s like a chart count down, but without the annoying music in the back ground) we have Kohl Rabi “Green and Giant”, then we have a selection of Sweetcorn “Snobaby”, “Rising Sun” and “Strawberry Popcorn”. Next is more Coriander and finally (getting excited now) we have “Lady Bird Poppy”. Phew! I’m exhausted.

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Sunday 14th April 2013 – BBQ and tops off!!

Posted on April 15, 2013 by clairesallotment

Well what a lovley day. It may have been a little windy, but the sun shone and so out came the BBQ. Mark thought I was a bit mad at trying it, but not wanting to be detered by the weather I ploughed on and we had a lovely dinner. On the BBQ we had sausages, homemade burgers, chicken drumsticks, prawns and corn on the cob. To go with that I did potatoes wedges anad salad. We ate inside though, but soon the weather will be warm enough and so alfresco eating will be on the cards. We only manage 2 or 3 BBQ’s last year which considering the weather was pretty good. I’m determined to have more this year. As the weather has warmed up I decided to take the tops off the seed trays (propagator lids). The seedlings looked a bit apprehensive, but I assured them that they’d be ok. If the nights get cold I’ll recover them. After dinner and watching the rest of Die Hard 2 (George likes those sorts of films. We’ve stopped coughing when Bruce Willis swears. But George knows they’re not words to use and just giggles). I went out into the greenhouse and sowed the following: Pumpkin “Atlantic Giant” I’m determined to grow a large one this year. I’ll let you know how I get on. Salad Leaves “Niche Oriental Mixed”, Calabrese “Belstar” and finally Broccoli “Spring Sprouting Mixture”. Now it’s the middle of April I’ll start to sown all my April seeds, so for the next couple of days I’ll be busy.

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Sunday 14th April 2013 – Lots more cabbage!

Posted on April 14, 2013 by clairesallotment

I seem to have sown a huge amount of cabbage this year, not sure why but there you go. All my seeds are coming up nicely, even the tomatoes have started to show themselves, now that it’s a bit warmer. But this morning was the time to pot up more cabbage, the “All year Round Blend”. Some were very small so I had to get rid of them, but I potted up 20 little plants. I looked at all my other seedlings and some are nearly ready to pot up, but others have a little way to go. Looks like I’ll be busy the next couple of weeks with potting up all my babies.

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