Allotment Time

With the switch in the weather we've been going to the allotment every day, if only to give the plants a drink. We're getting into a bit of a routine and Kit has figured out how to go and fill his little watering can by himself (and I can see him from my plot) so he can water the weeds easily while I work on other bits. He's even figured out what to do if he accidentally waters his feet instead of the ground.

My mum had grown me some lavender and rosemary so I have some more pots around my shed. My pots are fairing a lot better than anything I'm putting in the ground. We're clearing some ground to get the beans planted out this week so hopefully they will florish amongst the weeds that Kit is tending to so dearly.



Our success stories so far are the mass of rhubarb, and lots of gooseberries growing, and lots and lots of strawberries.

May Day and allotment update

We didn't make it to any maypoles and no morris dancers were wandering around the Bromley area. I think we'll be keeping our real May Day celebrations for the weekend. We spent today enjoying the switch in the weather. That and painting. Kit wanted to do lots of painting. I think that is the influence of his new pre-school where he comes home with armfuls of artwork each day. Pretty soon our flat will be wallpapered with it. I think it's great, I love know he is doing something creative in the day and it is really nice that he is re-learning to sit down and concentrate on something for longer than 2 minutes, as he has a considerable problem with ants in pants at the moment.

I was a bit slacking last week. You might notice a week each month where I disappear offline. I have an essay a month for my OU course and I struggle to fit everything in when I'm stressing about writing the essay. It is done now though and I've nearly caught up on the housework too (and a few other bits I'll be sharing with you this week which could become post heavy as I catch up).

I loved the sun today but I've been quite thankful for the rain because it has meant I haven't needed to fit in trips to the allotment to water the plants. Today, I took advantage of the soft soil and after lots of painting, a trip to the park and popping to the local charity shops while we waited for Kit's inhaler prescription (managed to score some bargainous frames and a bundle of French kids books to help with my plans for Kit to learn French), we headed to the allotment to dig. Kit fell asleep in the buggy on the way there. He isn't well at the moment with a cold and a weird cough (hence the extra inhaler) so unusually for him he slept for over an hour in the afternoon. It meant that he was just asleep in the buggy while I dug and weeded which gave me a chance to get quite a bit done in an hour although it doesn't look it from the pictures as everything planted was in before today.

Above: Blueberries (although they are babies so you can't see it, we won't be eating anything from then until next year); strawberries (I grew these last year, I might move them into the patches in the strawberry patch when I manage to weed it properly); newly planted mint pot (I'm hoping for a miracle as I can't get mint to grow at all at home); chamomile (I had lots of tea from this last year, but it had been neglected in my garden and needs a bit of tlc); newly planted bee-friendly seed pot.

Below left: Sunflowers; sugar snap peas (these aren't looking too good, they were planted in high winds and I managed to snap most of the stalks, I have replacement seedlings growing although these ones are still clinging on to life); there are also some odd strawberry plants in here, I might move them at some point. Below right: Lots of rhubarb (also with random strawberry plants growing underneath them, I will be moving them if I can).

 Above: The strawberry patch (I started re-weeding this today but it needs a bit more work - I feel like I'm forever weeding the strawberry patch!); a lone cucumber plant (where the chicken wire and mini trellis are - friends are on their way); the canes where my tomato plants died (they didn't like the cold rain - I have a lot of tomato seedlings thankfully but won't replace them until the weather is definitely brighter)

Below: Carrots in toilet tubes (I think these might have been eaten by something - all the seedlings I'd moved to the allotment shed were eaten); sweetcorn (the little grass-looking sprouts, they seem to be surviving); rhubarb from a distance (gives you a better idea of just how much rhubarb I currently have).

Apologies for the appearance of my finger in some of the photos, I was in a hurry to leave as I managed to strip the skin off my thumb weeding and needed to deal with it. I didn't take a photo of my potatoes, they are just mounds of earth, not at all interesting to look at. Hoping they are growing underground but the seed potatoes never chitted and they've been in a while now without showing themselves so we'll see. Behind all of these partly dug sections there is a huge area we haven't managed to start digging yet, if the weather holds I'll be back here digging on Thursday.

Grow Your Own

We spent a bit of time at my parents last week. As my Silent Sunday post suggested, Kit did a spot of harvesting. In fact, he has done a lot of harvesting this week! The previous time we had stayed at Nanny and Grandads Kit tried his hand at first eating all the strawberries, and then when he had eaten all of them he turned his eye to the tomatoes. This time there were no strawberries left, but even with his mammoth appetite there was no way he could have even skimmed the surface of the tomatoes!

How not to grow cress!

I bought some cress seeds a while back because I wanted to do some cress-heads with Kit. Weeks later I still had the seeds, in the packet, on my shelf. I wanted to grow them! I'm not the most organised person in the world, and the key to growing cress-heads is having some cotton-wool (which I don't have in the house generally). So I thought I had a brainwave. I thought, stuff cotton-wool, I'll just use wool (and maybe if I try cotton yarn it will be better). So me and Kit planted some cress seeds in little bundles of wool!

I think thought they looked quite pretty. I'm not sure that the poor little cress seeds enjoyed their lifetime in the wool though. Not many grew.

I might not have put enough seeds in. Or it might have been because a certain small person kept knocking them off the window sill when jumping up to see the recycling trucks, but whatever the reason, we didn't have enough for egg and cress sandwiches! Maybe we'll try again, with more seeds and a safer location. I may revolutionise cresshead growing yet! 

Hayes (Kent) Horticultural Society

Today we went to the Hayes Horticultural Society show.

I'm still on a mission to engage with my local area, and I'm a sucker for fruit, veg and home-baked cakes! The society put on four shows a year so we might have to pop by for their next one in November. I loved that they had a junior section, including a competition for a vehicle made out of recycling. They also had a photography competition for photos of pillarboxes!

Tomatoes

Kit and I grew lots and lots of seedlings this year. We only have a shared garden at our flat, and we can't plant in the ground, and there isn't a water source down there (we live on the first floor). Consequently, the seedlings that we planted out in grow bags have not down very well.

Homemade Camomile Tea

GROW

HARVEST

ENJOY!

SLEEP!!

Zzz