Clairesallotment's Blog

Well all the rain that we’ve had in the last 4 days has done wonders to the allotment. The soil is now so much easier to dig. That’s enough rain for a little while now, let me get all the beds manured, and then it can rain again. This morning wasn’t looking too promising, but as lunch time came the sun came out and so this afternoon I took the plunge and decided to go and get some manure. I’ve got different bags from last year, but they seem to take more in them. I managed to squeeze 13 bags in the boot of our car, and then took it straight up the allotment and spread it about. It covered just over 3 beds which I was quite impressed with. I’m not stingy when spreading and make sure there is a good thick layer on the soil. It’ll stay there until Spring and I won’t do anything with it til then. I’ve sorted the car out, and it doesn’t smell, but I do a bit. Must have a shower before we go out tonight, we’re looking at a secondary school for our son, so I need to give off a good impression, and not a manure smell.

As promised by the weather man the rain started about 9.30am and as the day has gone on it’s been getting harder and harder. I know it may annoy many people, but for us gardeners it’s fantastic news. Tonight is supposed to get really heavy, and tomorrow is supposed to be monsoon like, with strong winds also. Therefore I think going to the allotment on Monday will be out of the question, but I’m sure I can find something to do in the greenhouse.

First day of Autumn today, so watch out for those chilly mornings. I had a good couple of hours on site this morning. I managed to lay some more path, but it’s a bit tricky getting the pegs in the soil as it’s so hard, so the only option is to make a hole with the big fork, it seems to work. I strimmed a load more and took 4 wheel barrow loads to the green waste area. There were only a few other plot holders there, so I could sing along to my ipod without worrying that anyone would hear me. Hopefully next week I can go any get a load of manure, so I’d better clear the car out and lay the blue plastic sheet down in the back. Still waiting for rain, looks like either Sunday or Monday, but that could change.

My Freaky sunflower- it has 6 smaller flowers growing in the centre of 1 main flower.

Spent a good couple of hours this morning clearing another couple of beds and strimming a load more grass. It’s starting to look more like and allotment and less like a mess now. My sun flowers are still flowering, and they all look great., However, I do have one very freaky looking one.
In the centre I counted 6 more growing in the centre of the 1 flower, take a look at the photo and if anyone has had anything like this before I’d love to know.

I’ve inserted this without the help of Mark, so anything could have happened.

Had a good morning today. I managed a bit of weeding, but we’ve still not had any rain and the soil is still really hard. If you have loads of weeds, the quick fix at the moment is to just chop down as many as you can at ground level, then when it rains you can get out and dig them up. My runner beans have finally finished, I’ve not had any beans from them for about 2 weeks now, still I’ve got loads in the freezer. I harvested a load more white onions and a load of red ones. The red ones have done really well this year, I’m sure it’s because I started them off early in the greenhouse.. There were a few more baby sweetcorn, but those and the normal sweetcorn are now at the end, so they’ll be coming out soon. I’ve also harvested some lovely summer squash. They’re really odd shaped ones, but I think I’ll roast a couple for dinner tonight and see how they are.

I know this has nothing to do with the allotment, but I thought I’d let you know that at this moment in time my Christmas cake is in the oven. It’s got about 5 minutes left, and it’s smelling great. Tomorrow I’ll feed it with a couple of capfuls of brandy, then every 2 weeks I’ll feed it again. I’ll keep this up until the middle of November when I’ll feed it every week until I marzipan it. It get very alcoholic, but is lovely and moist. I have to put a warning on it as there is so much booze in it, you’ll be over the drink drive limit. I’ve always used the Mary Berry Christmas cake recipe which makes a fantastic fruit cake whatever size you decide to do. Bless you Mrs Berry for writing your Ultimate Cake Book, I’ve had my book since 1995 so it’s very, very, very well used.

We had a sudden down pour last night for about half and hour, so I was hoping that it would be easier to dig today, but it’s made no difference at all. What we really need is a whole night of rain, so it seeps in. Anyway I’m sure we’ll have some soon. I took my strimmer down this morning and managed to mow a load of grass and then lay some more of my wood chip path. It’s starting to look like I’m making a bit of headway, so that’s good. The mornigs are getting chilly so it’s a case of wearing my gardening jacket, but then after about half an hour it gets really hot and I have to strip off, fortunately I had a T-shirt on. Phew!!!