This afternoon I managed to get in the greenhouse for a short while before I started dinner, and I managed to get my Okra “Clemson Spineless” seeds sown. Okra can be a rather fussy plant to grow, as it needs plenty of heat and not too much water. I managed for the first time last year to grow them successfully, but want to do better this year. So here goes.
What a fun morning I had on my allotment today. I spent nearly 3 hours playing and getting messy. What else would you expect from me? I’ve now finally got in the last of my Potatoes, which is brilliant. So that’s one job down, just loads more jobs to do, but I’ll gradually work my way through them one at a time. I think the next job is getting the Onions and Carrots in!! But that’ll have to wait until next week. As I was digging over a bed, I found some wonderfully weird shaped Carrots and some rogue Potatoes from last year. Once all that was done, I then planted out 5 new fruit bushes that I bought a while ago with my Christmas/Birthday money, they are: Red Currant, Black Currant, White Currant, Jostaberry and Schisandra Chinensis. Yes you heard me correctly. Take a look at my video for more information on those.
I love it when you look at the soil, and suddenly you see the first of your little seedlings growing. It’s such a magical experience, and you feel like a new mum looking down on your new born baby. Although when your Carrots start to grow, you don’t have to burp them, or change their nappies, and when they reach being a teenager they don’t eat you out of house and home. You eat them instead!! When I got on my plot this morning and did the usual stare at the soil before starting any work, I noticed the first of my Carrots seedlings growing. Nothing else is coming up yet, but there’s still plenty of time. Once I’d finished getting all maternal over them, I continued digging over the area where I’ve now planted some more of my Sarpo Mira potatoes. I’ve only got one tray left to sow and am planning on doing those tomorrow. Some of the soil is a bit clumpy so gets a bit tricky to weed, but I’m a grown up so I can cope with that. Just before I left, I noticed that some of my Rhubarb is growing really well. I don’t “Force” it, but just let it grow “Au natural”.
The Rhubarb is growing beautifully.
Yes I know I need to weed the bed, but I’ll get round to it…..eventually. I only made a little video today, I hope you like it.
The weather presenters keep telling us we’re going to have loads of rain, and it just doesn’t seem to happen. Maybe we live in our own little mini climate, who knows. It got up to 17 degrees today which is practically a heat wave for us!! So once I got to the allotment, (a little later that planned due to the fact that my car was blocked in by a lorry!) I got straight to work. Firstly I planted out the Broad Beans “Bunyards Exhibition” that I sowed in 3 inch pots a couple of months ago. They’ve grown really well in the greenhouse, and hopefully they’ll continue to grow well now they’re out in the big wide world. I then planted out 2 trays of my Sarpo Mira Potatoes. I still have another 2 trays to do, but will get them in by the end of the week. After a couple of hours it was time to come home. The sun is still shining, so I hope to get out the garden later this afternoon to get a few bits done.
This afternoon I hid in my greenhouse at home and sowed some more flower seeds. Flowers are an integral part of the garden, not only do they look pretty, but they also help with pollination of your fruits and vegetables and also, some flowers keep some of the nasty bugs away. This afternoon I sowed the following: Candytuft “Fairy Mixed”, Cosmos “Purity”, Cottage Garden Cut Flower Mix, and a wonderful array of Sunflowers “Colour Parade”, “Italian White”, “Pacino Gold”, “Red Sun”, “Russian Giant” and “Teddy Bear”. I’ll keep you posted on their progress. Lottie and Dottie enjoy growing Sunflowers. I wonder if mine will get taller than their one?
Will it rain, or won’t it rain? That was the question I kept asking myself this morning before I left for the allotment. The answer…both! This morning started off lovely and warm and sunny, but as the morning went on the clouds gathered and then the rain started to pitter patter down. Nothing too hard, but just a bit annoying. Still I got everything done, I wanted to get done on the allotment, so that was ok. First of all I planted out the Shallots, and then got the King Edward Potatoes in. I still have all the Sarpo Mira to do, but will hopefully get those in this week. I dug over another bed and cleared up the broken glass from the allotment panes that broke during Storm Katie. I need to go and get 8 x 600mm panes and then a funny shaped one. I’ll do that on a rainy day (it’s April, we’re sure to have plenty of those). As I was digging over one of my beds I came across a birds wing. Bizarrely I didn’t find any other part of the bird, so what happened to that I don’t know. I had a chat with a couple of other plot holders, and Trevor (what a lovely man he is) gave me enough Purple Sprouting Broccoli for our dinner tonight. Thank you Trevor. The net blew off my Broccoli and before I could sort it out the pigeons had stripped each plant, little buggers they are. I may get out in the greenhouse this afternoon, but if not I’ll do it tomorrow.
This afternoon I was in the greenhouse sowing more seeds. I’ve nearly finished with all the ones I want to sow in March, yes I know it’s April. Once all the March ones are done, then I can move onto the April seeds. So this afternoon I sowed the last of the Ambrosia Cantaloupe Melons that Chuck Fenster sent me from the States. They germinate beautifully, but unless our summer is unbelievably hot then the likelihood of me managing to get any decent sized fruit is very rare. I keep them in the greenhouse, but even that doesn’t help sometimes. If nothing happens this year, then I think I’ll have to give up on the melon front. I also sowed some more Sweet Peppers. These are a mixed variety, so I should get all sorts of different shapes, sizes and colours. Then finally I sowed the last of my Coriander “Leisure”. The greenhouse if getting very full now, so I’m going to have to start taking some of the seedlings in 3 inch pots down to the greenhouse on the allotment. It’s like letting go to a security blanket or letting you’re kids walk to school for the first time. You know they’ll be fine, but you worry.
It’s the end of the Easter holidays so I took the kids out on another little adventure. Today we drove to Scotney Castle, with can only be described as a bit of a fairly tale place. It’s actually a fair drive from where we live and takes about an hour. I have to use the M25 which is never fun, but today it was good, which was a massive surprise. Being a National Trust place, we just have to flash our cards and get in for free. There was a notice at the entrance saying the car park was FULL, but cars were still driving in, so we followed. It was indeed full, and if you weren’t a member you were turned away, and had to find somewhere on the road to park, but if you were a member, then they just about managed to find you a space. Once we were in, we went and had a look round the house, but before we went in, there was a rather large puddle outside, so we went for a paddle in our wellies. My wellies needed a bit of a clean, so it was a good thing to do. We did get a few strange looks from people, but we didn’t care. You’re never too old to walk through a puddle, as long as you have the right footwear on.
As long as you’ve got your wellies on then you can go in.
The house is beautiful, and we played the game that if it was our house which bedroom would we have. There were about 6 to choose from, so we had 2 guest rooms, and the smallest bedroom we decided would be a good music room for Mark’s guitars & keyboard and George’s drums. We were also very impressed with the fact that there were about 4 toilets in the house. At home we only have one, and when we have a family get together it’s a bit of a juggling act. They had some very interesting books on display. One that tickled me was called “The Englishwoman’s Bedroom”. When we’d finished looking round the house we went outside and found a spot to sit to have out lunch. The views are amazing and just so tranquil and peaceful.
And relax…….
After lunch we walked down into the quarry and could hear sheep bleating in the field next door. The sun was shining and it was really warm. Although when the sun did go behind a cloud then it got a little chilly. The daffodils were out in force, and I started to get all artsy fartsy with taking some photos.
The Magnolia flowers starting to open with the help of the sun.
Then we saw the Fairy Tale Castle. It really is like something out of a Disney Princess film. The front of it was beautiful but the rear was all crumbling and only the walls were left. It is surrounded by a moat and you have to cross a little bridge to get in. Again there were a couple of puddles and as I was about to approach them, I heard a dad with his 2 little boys say “Don’t go in the puddles”. I then walked straight through the puddles and the smallest of the 2 boys decided to follow me. “Not in the puddles,” he said. “Only if you’ve got wellies on,” I replied. I don’t know why some parents don’t dress their children appropriately. When my 2 were little they always wore their wellies when we went out for a wander. Mud, puddles and kids just go together.
Must have been magical to live it, but a bit draughty at the back.
There were also ducks and geese swimming in the moat, and they kept coming out to see if we had any food. They were very brave, and wandered really close. We left the wildlife and continued on our walk round the paths to see what we could find. We came across a European Lime Tillia tree that is estimated to be between 250-300 years old! It looked amazing for it’s age, with a huge trunk and very wrinkled branches. It’s amazing to think that it started its life when George I was on the throne and has out lived all the George’s, Queen Victoria, and was still going strong when Lizzie came to the throne in 1952. I wonder what it’s secret is?
Just think what it’s seen in 250-300 years.
Then it was time to leave, but not before we had another quick splash in the puddle outside the house again, to get any little bits of mud off our wellies. The drive home again was fine. Maybe this is all a dream, and I’m still stuck in a massive traffic jam on the M25 and have just gone to my happy place?
Now that Spring is here and Summer is just around the corner, it is time to start thinking about sowing the Lettuce, Cucumbers and more Mustard & Cress. The rain was still spit spotting on the greenhouse glass, but the sun was still trying to shine, so what better thing to do, then to sow more Summery seeds in the greenhouse.
The weather may be horrible outside, but inside the greenhouse life is always fun. This morning I sowed my Celeriac Seeds, the variety is Monarch. I’ve grown Celeriac before, last year I started too late, and they didn’t have enough time to grow, so as soon as you can get them sown between March and April then do. Here’s how to sow them.
Clairesallotment's Blog 