Allotment Lady Lives Again!

What a cheek!

2011-11-04T20:14:00.001+01:00

I was just finishing posting on my blog when my husband shouted 'Oi' - something had landed with a thunk on top of the roof where he was sitting and giving him the beady eye!

Can you see who is tapping on the window?

It's none other than........

Zola Buddy Bantam - her namesake was a runner who always ran barefoot.

She obviously thought that it was time her and the others got fed.

The clocks have gone back - so the bantams queue up outside the door at 3.45pm now - which in their body clock is their usual feeding time of 4.45pm

Gozzie - who is a black Rosecomb bantam has the habit of sitting on the windowsill and tapping on the window to tell us that they want feeding. She also does it when we are eating too!

This is a new trick for Zola! I'll have to clip her wings again.

I called her down when I went out...

And she flew right across the lawn, almost to where their run is - in an attempt to get to the food first!

Cheeky thing.

Well it's still dry so ...................................

2011-10-29T12:39:00.000+01:00

This area needed sorting out - it's the right time of year to sow grass seed.

So, with Mr Lottie's help we moved the table and chairs

and lifted up the very heavy slabs and moved them down the other end of the garden

The weeds had to come out

There were quite a few

We are sowing grass seed right up to the raised beds - which I am filling with all the spent compost from the pots which were in the lean-to

We moved the bench and table too which was in the way

The last of my 'winter' lettuces - I had the small one today for my lunch - with a roasted Salmon Shantie, half a white cabbage finely sliced and mixed with seeds and dried fruit and a spoonful of mayonnaise and vinegar and some pepper (delish) and the last of my home grown tomatoes havested yesterday when the lean to got cleared out.

Hmm - what shall I do next - maybe a visit to the allotment for a bit of weeding and a winter tidy up

It's freezing cold, it's sunny - so what can I do?

2011-10-28T17:39:00.000+01:00

There is only one thing for it - I just had to go out into the garden

And do a much needed tidy up of the lean-to

All spring and summer it turns into potting shed, then a 'greenhouse', and sometimes used for broody chickens - hence the 'sin bin' cage!

Out went all the tomato plants, Japanese cucumber plants, and peppers

It's October - so that means it's pumpkin time

So I cleaned, swept, tidied, and stored the pumpkins in the sunshine.

Well that took all morning and some - it's nice to get it done

Messing about in the garden

2011-10-21T21:20:00.000+01:00

I have been doing quite a lot of work in the garden - pruning, cutting back, transplanting - the list is endless

I have been shaping some laurel and a box tree into lollipops, and doing lots of weeding

My lollipop Bay tree - it was huge before but looks much neater now - I pruned those sticky out bits off at the back. I think I might take up hairdressing as a new hobby!

We lost yet more conifers to the disease so two more came out - we couldn't afford to get the rest cut down. The sunshine was very bright today, but we have stained the fence which is now dark brown but doesn't look it in the photos - and ditto the raised beds - I stained those dark brown to match. I have put some rotting turf clods in them - they make great soil, and will cover that with well rotted compost, and next spring/summer these will be planted up with veggies - probably climbing beans, its a perfect place for them - well sheltered and sunny.

Here are some more I stained - I have run out of wood stain now! Just as well as I get a bit carried away!

This afternoon the lawn had dried out after the heavy overnight dew, so grabbed the opportunity to mow the lawns. I was shattered as I had been working out there for a number of hours, but really wanted to get at least one for cut in before the weather changes - and pick up the leaves in the process!

On the right is Kath's garden, with the brilliant yellow chrysanthemums still flowering their hearts out. The flower bed wraps itself around my garden room and I can see her garden from the conservatory too. I am going to widen it another foot or so now that the building work has finished and the lawn has recovered.

I have been very brutal with the cutting back of the Woodland garden on the right - but it'll be worth it next year. More of my 'lollipop' trees against the fence - they'll look good in a year or two. They were big bushy shrubs before. Inbetween them I have transplanted some gooseberry bushes from up the allotment, and some perennial plants from the front flower beds.

It's nice to see the lawn without the layer of leaves - but it'll only be a matter of days before it'scovered again. Where I put the chickens on the lawn for a week or so whilst we were away a couple of times, the grass has grown really lush and you can actually see where they have fertilised it!

I have done a lot of weeding and transplanting and created a nice neat path

....to make access to the 'business' corner of the garden easier.

It we can afford it, the birch tree is getting the chop - it's taller than a house and we are a bit worried it might fall into our neighbour's garden if we get any bad storms in the winter.

This woodland garden does look rather bare - I confess I was over zealous with the saw and shears - but I am transplanting lots of perennials so it should be full of summer flowers next year - until the shrubs grow rampant again.

The last of the winter lettuces

They look almost too good to eat - like lovely florettes - but eat them I shall

Earlier in the week I cleaned out the chickens - and the next morning it looked like this.

Can you see all the feathers - they are all moulting

The lawn was covered in them too - hence my mowing it today

For lunch I cooked brown rice with fresh salmon fillets in a tomato pesto sauce.

The chooks always get the bits of rice left in the saucepan and literally fly in from wherever they are in the garden when Mr Lottie bangs it like a gong - then there is a real kerfuffle to see who can eat the most in the fastest time.

2011-10-17T17:59:00.001+01:00

Last week we officially gave up the bottom end of our allotment - about 50ft.

We weeded the beds (the one in the foreground included)

We have dug up half a dozen gooseberry bushes - but left the biggest and best one, and have left a bed of fruit bushes for the new holders.

I got a phone message to tell me that there was no rush and they didn't have a waiting list - and that it would be advertised in the church magazine.

Well we did rush, and it's finished - job done.

Now there is just a tidy up our top end to do, manure to spread, and then 'put it to bed' for the winter

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 82 hrs He: 73 hrs

2011-10-16T17:54:00.000+01:00

These photos are a bit late being posted - I took them on the 7th October when we went up the allotment and I havested most - if not all of the last of the produce.

After cutting up all the above I ended up with a few large bowls

Ready for a cook up

I added six tins of chopped tomatoes (my own grown ones were too delicious eating them fresh to use up on this mammoth cooking session. I used one stocking full of onions - about 8 and four jars of roasted red peppers - and garlic and anything that came to hand

Oh and all the potatoes that had been speared when dug up - all mixed varieties

And I created 14lbs - yes 14 pounds of scrumptious Ratatouille. All now frozen in meal sized bags ready for winter. I use them for veggies with meals, I turn then into soups, add them to stews, eat them with fish, chicken, red meat, pasta, rice - and each mix is always different. Yummy.

Here are a few photos of how 'Kath's Garden' is looking. I created it around two sides of my garden room a few months ago, so it's in it's infancy but has been very pretty up to now.

The weather has turned cold and we have had a light frost, bu the chrysanthemun bushes are just glowing.

I have three of these

The other perrennials are clumping up nicely, and I'll be widening the beds and planting bulbs and crocus for the spring

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 78 hrs He: 69 hrs

2011-09-28T16:33:00.000+01:00

My intention today was to just mow the lawn in our gardens - to pick up some of the Autumn leaves, but Mr L wanted to go up the allotment and help me finish off the 'move'.

Three and a half hours we were up there - and not another soul was up there for even part of the time!

Still we got done everything we wanted to in order to give up the 'lump' of the allotment that I want to.


We mowed all the paths of the sections we wanted to give up.

And it's looking neat and tidy - we even moved all the stuff ready to compost!


Wish it looked like this when I took it over years ago. But instead it was covered with perrennial weeds as tall as me. 40 carpets in different stages of rotting, lots of discared metal, rubbish, chunks or wood, old kitchen units - you name it - we found it in amongst all the weeds!

This post is just for my records so that if no-one takes it over quickly - as least I can prove that it was left in pristine condition.

I rescued some Patti Pan squash and some courgettes.

Roasted red peppers not grown by me!

I added onions, garlic, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, marrow, pumpkin, cabbage, and more....

Roasted three trays of it all in the oven, stirred it half way through, added a few spices, and roasted it some more. We had some with our lunch - and I've bagged the rest for freezing - we have around 30lbs of different combinations of my ratatuille - it's such a treat in the winter, and we hardly have to buy any vegetables until Spring.

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 74.5 hrs He: 65.5 hrs

2011-09-24T17:45:00.001+01:00

We have been spending time harvesting this past week or so, and have cooked lots of Ratatouille and frozen another ten pounds of mixes. These photos I took yesterday.

I reluctantly had to prune this boisenberry/blackberry bush down. It cost a fortune years ago when I bought it as a little cutting, and it has thrived and grown and produced the best yield ever this year. I had a mind to dig it up and bring it home and plant it in our garden - but it's got such a big root on it that decided it's not worth the effort - so when the new plotholders take over this bit of my allotment they will be getting a bed full of different fruit bushes, a row of Comfrey plants (or should I dig them up and sell the roots on ebay?) I started off with just one root I bought online and gradually increased my stock.

It makes a nice border on the left and is pretty when it gets flowers. If I get the time I will clip it all down and compost the leaves.

I just need to mow the paths one last time, dig up some gooseberry bushes, before giving this part up.

I will be sad to let this go, but it takes me very many hours to keep it in tip top condition, and now that my produce is being stolen, it seems a total waste of precious time from sowing seeds, growing the plants, planting, weeding, mulching, mowing, only to end up without a full crop.

But I will have 150ft x 33ft left. The person did steal all my courgettes from this end of the plot, but perhaps they won't next year. And it will take me half the time that it does now to keep this under control - and I'll grow a fraction of the crops - but more at home.

Whilst up there yesterday - at the top end of our allotment field was a black chicken running around. I didn't have the time or energy to go and investigate to see if there were any more. I daresay that someone had released it into the fields beyond our plots - they just don't realise how cruel it is.

Chickens can't survive in the wild - apart from the obvious predators, they are more likely to die of thirst!

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 69 hrs He: 63 hrs

2011-09-17T15:39:00.001+01:00

We went up the allotment last weekend and picked lots of runner beans, dug up some more potatoes, which were huge - the ones that David gave us which were free from his son. We also picked pumpkins, courgettes, Boisenberries, etc.

Today we went up there for an hour or so, before the heavens opened. I was shocked to find that someone had stolen two of my four large cabbages, all my ready to eat courgettes, and I am sure a couple of pumpkins as well. I noticed that a gate I had secured with a big chunk of metal had been breached and the cabbages which were hidden in a bed in the fruit cage and netted, had the net taken off and the bare holes where the cabbages had been ripped out. Nasty, nasty, person.

I am giving up a big chunk of my middle plot, and leaving myself with just a third of a plot - if I get produce stolen or any damage next year then I will give up the plot altogether.

Patrick picked some more Boisenberries, and I picked almost a full bag of lovely runner beans - from just the few plants I had. I also picked three large orange pumpkins which grew on the compost bins, a couple of small ones, some lovely pattie pan courgettes - obviously the thief didn't like these, just the normal green ones, some little yellow squash - which he missed, and a couple of large courgettes which had turned into marrows.

I was so flipping cross, I felt like giving up all the plot. To think that over the years I have given away so many of my crops to other plot holders, and neighbours and even strangers who wander up there now and again. This year when I haven't been able to grow much because of the hot sunshine, someone goes and steals stuff.

It has to be someone who has a plot up there - as the cabbages were hidden and not visible unless you know they were there.

Still - I have just paid my rent for this year - £6 - which is a bargain, notified Mrs M of the theft and my giving up part of the plot - leaving me with just a third.

Off to bag up a big couldron of cooked plums and apples we got on holiday

2011-08-31T22:30:00.000+01:00

I have been getting emails and messages from lovely folks because I have made my allotment/chicken/gardening blog available by invitation only.

This was not done to exclude anyone - it's just that I am taking a break from blogging. There's lots going on, and I really don't want the extra pressure of regular blogging.

If I leave the blog up, not updated, unloved, then after time spam messages start appearing, and it gets taken over - so I thought 'suspending' it for a while was the best route to take.

Thank you all for your very many visits, emails and comments - so very much appreciated.

I'll leave this message up for a week, with the 'anybody can view' setting in place - then will revert back to the previous setting, until I have something worthwhile to type about.

TTFN

Peckinghan Palace summer clean

2011-08-28T23:45:00.001+01:00

First thing this morning before Mr L was up, I bagged up all the cooked mixes from yesterday. I ache after all the work I did up the allotment yesterday and all the food preparations, so intended to sit about and have an easy Sunday. But it's hard for me to sit still!

So I decided to give Peckingham Palace a real good clean. I clean it out every two weeks, and give it a scrub as and when it needs it, but hadn't pressure washed it so far this year - so that's what I did.

Firstly I got Mr L to help me wheel it onto the lawn and off it's paved area.

Then I dismantled it bit by bit.

Shovelled up all the hemcore bedding ready for me to pressure wash the slabs later.

Which I did - they needed to dry off so don't look good in the above photo

I pressure washed everything, making sure to concentrate on any holes in the mouldings to get rid of any spiders, or creepy crawlies that might be lurking there. Thank goodness it is made of plastic, including the roosting bars - it makes cleaning so much easier. I left everything out in the sun to dry.

Whilst I pressure washed all the framework, the roosting bars, the plastic tarp - the lot, then put it all back together again.

The chickens came and inspected my handiwork and gave it their approval, and happily went to bed this evening without any trouble.

I'll be leaving it in this position for a week, then moving it across still on the grass for another week, then returning it back onto the patio the following week. The reason being that for some of the time in the second week they will need to be 'confined to barracks', and being used to freeranging all day, I always feel so guilty that they don't have any lawn to play on. They get fresh cabbages cut from my garden each day, and have plenty of room to run about in - but you can't beat a nice lawn to scratch about in can you.

I know that I am a silly soppy, and you'll be thinking, 'they're only chickens for goodness sake' but at least I know that they'll be happy whilst they are confined to their pen.

They all got a dusting of Diatom - as did Peckingham Palace as usual - and the girls got a drop of liquid louse preventative too - just in case - it's been a really hot summer!

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 66 hrs He: 60 hrs

2011-08-27T17:07:00.002+01:00

Well we managed to go up the allotment before the heavens opened and the day progressed with thunder and hailstones almost all of the day until around 4pm

I was determined just to make a quick visit to pick any runner beans that were ready........but.....

As usual I got distracted and we ended up weeding around the runner beans and squashes

These are the Patty and Pan are really prolific, so I must remember to plant them again next year

Mainly pumpkins here and yellow and green round courgettes

The climbing beans, which I thought were a failure this year due to the drought - have picked up and despite losing quite a lot, I got almost a bag full today of runners, flat italian, and french beans

These are some of the Patty Pan, the bigger ones were as big as my hand, but were still soft and tender

Out of sequence - but had to record my cabbages up the lottie - really large and I am pleased with them

I bought one strip of the seedling from Attleborough market - a bargain!

Courgettes ready to be prepared for the roast mix I made

My first chillies went into the mix too -very very hot!

My blackberry and boisenberry cross - second picking

These are the veggie mixed ready for the oven.

I used, all the squash and courgettes, 2 jars of Lidl roasted peppers, one whole bulb garlic smashed, three onions, all the chillies, potatoes (odds & ends of new spuds - little ones and damaged ones, the 'free' unplanted ones) 4 tins Lidl tomatoes with basil (fabulous), tube of tomato pesto - cooked for half an hour. No room for climbing beans this time.

Chickens queuing up to be let out at breakfast

Fresh little cabbage from garden, a bit holey!

It tasted really really delicous. we had loads with roasted chicken wing on a breast with chicken seasoning.

(Looks a lot more tomatoe=y in real life. Froze 12 x 1lb bags for the freezer

Chicken Fix

2011-08-26T12:58:00.001+01:00

Here is a quick chicken 'fix' for those who have contacted me suffering from withdrawal symptoms

I haven't been on the internet much - but have been out and about here there and everywhere - nothing of interest unless you like DIY stores!

It's raining really hard today, but that doesn't stop the girls from having fun

At the back from L-R you can see Mary, Daisy, Poppy and Maudie.

Daisy and Maudie have been moulting lately so do not look their fluffiest best.

Below them on the right is Bluebell on her own.

Then there is dolly with her back to us, Freckles with a side on portrait posing, and Zola Buddy Bantam

At the front as always is Gozzie Rosecomb, and Willow - who does a perfect impression of Charlie Chaplain when she walks and runs.

Henrietta on the right, the old English Game bird she's gorgeous

Dolly's decided to face the camera for a change!

Snowy the silver Sebright is in Peckingham Palace laying and egg!

Harvest Time

2011-08-19T10:11:00.002+01:00

At last the tomatoes are ripening - and jolly tasty they are too!

We bagged up 90lbs of potatoes. I grade them into sizes, small, medium, large, and 'jacket' potato size. The 'rejects' tiny one, ones accidentally stabbed when digging up go into the fridge drawers to be used first. Nothing gets wasted

Four bags of mixed beans (these are bit dusty) got topped and tailed sliced and washed.

The pumpkins were getting far too big, so I picked some to ripen at home.

Marrows and courgettes - will be turned into roasted veggie mixes

I have now blanched and frozen 8 lbs of mixed beans - some of which are above, packed 8oz to a bag.

And finally this week, I picked 2lbs of luscious blackberries now washed and frozen.

We'll have lots of fabulous food for the winter months.

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 64.5 hrs He: 59.5hrs

2011-08-18T23:07:00.001+01:00

We spent four and a half hours up the allotment this week, and areas we had weeded just two weeks ago, looked as though they hadn't been done at all

I decided to get serious, so not only dug up all the weeds,

I dug up everything, onions, potatoes, even a stray comfrey plant.

I harvested courgettes, marrows, pumpkins, Italian beans, runner beans, French beans, borlotti beans

Everything has gone crazy - in a good way (well apart from the weeds)

The mulching with grass cuttings I did between the rows of these potatoes worked well, and we made a start on digging up the 2nd early spuds.

I have some fine looking huge cabbages waiting to be harvested.

O.K. I know this 'after' photo looks ugly, but trust me, I have tried all sorts of organic methods with mustard, and other mulching plants - and they have all been unsuccessful in keeping the weeds at bay after harvesting. We get docks and thistles, and bindweed as well and the annual weeds, and it is just too much work for me to keep up with. So part of my 250ft x 33ft plot just has to be covered when the crops are in.

Enjoying the fruits of our labour............

2011-08-17T20:13:00.000+01:00

We have been working up the allotment and have also had lots of visitors, so no time at the present to write about our efforts.

But I am making time for this quick post to whet your appetites

A very quick and easy tasty meal with veggie produce from our allotment.

Salmon fillets from a local fish farm diced up into chunks.

Fresh runner beans, and tomatoes.

Drizzle over rapeseed oil or olive oil and toss gently to coat.

Heat oven to 22c fan oven or 425f or Gas 7

Cooking time approx 15 minutes

All the flavours mix and it sure tastes yummy

In fact it was so yummy scrumptious that I made a similar concoction yesterday to slow cook whilst we were up the allotment.

Using runner beans, tomatoes, onions, freshly dug, and washed potatoes with skins on cut into cubes, and chicken cut into cubes/diced.

Chicken seasoning, a little bit of black pepper, and oils as before.

This time I lined the tin with non stick paper, and made a sealed parcel of all the goodies.

I cooked in for 2 hours on 170f in my little oven that's also the grill.

It was really tasty, the potatoes had soaked up the all juices and we soft and juicy with a roasted texture.

No photos sadly as we were ravenous and shattered after the 3 hours hard labour - more of that tomorrow hopefully

Busy, busy, busy

2011-08-15T08:21:00.002+01:00

++++++Firstly 'Patsy of Arkansas' thanks for your lovely comments, please can you write your blog address in the comment box so that I can return the compliment and visit your blog. I don't know why blogger won't recognise you and that you have to log in as anonymous - very strange. +++++++++

I know that I have neglected my blogs - but truly I have been so busy with workmen here and getting things straight.'

The garden room is now finished, and I have tidied up around the outside of it - creating 'Kath's' garden, of perennial plants which will fill out and create a lovely English Country garden show of flowers.

The wooden edging is a temporary measure until the plants fill out. I sawed up lengths from the old gazebo we took down a while ago.

This front bed has Munstead lavender bushes, Saxifrage inbetween, and either end sunshine yellow chrysanthemums which will be a picture in September until the frosts

The lavender has just started flowering - I know the bushes look small at the moment, but they'll really take off next year. The saxifrage will flower in the spring, and I intend to put grape hyacinth bulbs in too.

It won't be until September that I can seed the bare patches, then by next spring I'll have a lawn and it will look great.

Kath's garden looks a bit sparse at the moment with the newly planted perennials but come next year this too will be a deep bed and you won't see the wall. There's a sea shell I popped in as Kath lives near the coast.

I took these photos early this morning, this bed has been planted up a week or so and the plants have taken root and are beginning to put on more leaf and have flower buds.

The heleniums will form big bushy plants and have wonderful yellow and copper flowers. They are such lovely 'happy' plants and remind me of the colours of bumble bees - which are attracted to them.

I have the big Lobellia plants - this one is just about to flower, penstemones in all soft hues, lupins in reds, and pinks, and yellows, - this bed will look stunning next summer.

A few more views from early this morning. The crocosmia and ice plant popped up to show me that they survived being flattened by paving slabs, bricks, and shovels full of soil - plants really are a miracle aren't they.

The photos are just a record for me to look back on next year and see the difference with a lawn!

And this was what all the 'fuss' has been about.

Being able to sit in my garden room early in the morning

Soon after the sun comes up - or at any time of the day

being able to just look out and relax and enjoy the views, the chickens, out of the sunshine

Talking of sunshine - here's a little gift the birds left me - she's grown into a lovely little lady. In the wrong place of course, but I didn't want to move her - and she has a huge sunny face, but is of small stature - which is perfect.

Crash, Bang, Wallop

2011-08-08T22:57:00.003+01:00

There was a huge crash - something hit our window - we jumped out of our skins, it was so loud. We expected to hear the sounds of glass shattering.

A pigeon crashed into the window. If you look closely you can see the wings.

Then below that on the left is the head, eye and beak.

The body and the central chest bone, the legs and tail feathers.

We expected to see at best, a stunned pigeon, at worst a fatally injured bird as it really did fly full pelt into our new window.

But what we did see, was the bird flying off to the end of the garden unscathed!

Lucky bird huh?

We've had torrential rain and it hasn't washed off the mark, so I'll have to do that tomorrow.

I didn't expect to be able to get a photo of it without it being blurred into the garden flowers behind.

We are getting blinds fitted on Wednesday, so it should not happen again.

The secret is out - I've been sussed!

2011-08-06T12:52:00.002+01:00

It rained and thundered and lightening-ed the day after I arrived

And as you can see we were in and out of the run taking shelter.

Mr Lottie was very kind and chopped up some apple and pear cores and threw them out the door.

Those humans are very strange as they don't eat the core and the pips! They must be mad!

Opps sorry I digress.

Mr and Mrs Lottie were looking out of the window watching us racing around to see who could eat the most bits.

Mr Lottie stood there counting everyone when I ran past Daisy. 'Oh look at the state of Mary', he said. 'She's filthy. I bet she's been rolling around in the ash by the compost bins. I've never seen her so black'

'Hmm' said Lottie, who rushed out of the room trying not to laugh.

We finished eating the cores and decided to head off under the hedges out of the rain.

Daisy came looking for me - I heard her calling but stayed well hidden until they all came and found me.

It's lovely being in a flock instead of on my own. We have lots of fun and games and chase around after flies, and I get to eat as many worms and seeds, and veggies as I want, and I can get up and go to bed any time I like too!

The man that sold me to my first human mum Jilly, was told that I was a Maran (probably why I cost a lot of money), but as you can see I am a Pekin Bantam.

Marans don't have lovely fluffy petticoats, or a big fluffy ball of a tail, and of course they don't have lovely fluffy boots like I have.

But I do have the same colouring as a Maran, so at some time one of my ancesters must have been a Maran. The Maran breed are well known for laying deep brown eggs. Lottie hasn't found any dark brown eggs yet, just the usual ones.

Daisy says that Pekins are the most beautiful of all the bantams, as we come in all different colours and patterns - but we do tend to go a bit broody. She says that so many chickens live here in Peckingham Palace, that Mr and Mrs Lottie don't mind if we don't lay lots of eggs - they just love us for who we are.

Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you - Mary was laying an egg when Mr Lottie did his counting - but he knows about me now - as Mary came out of the nest box later, shouting out that she had laid an egg.

Mr Lottie just rolled his eyes and smiled - so I guess all's right with the world

Time for flower arranging again.

2011-08-04T19:18:00.000+01:00

Phew it was hot - stifling - one of the hottest days of the year so far - but undaunted we all got together for whole day of flower arranging, and having a big lunch with all the goodies we brought with us.

We started on the big time consuming arrangement

It's arranged on a long tray with three blocks of Oasis

I was quite pleased with the result. The lovely gladioli were being sold for £2.50 a bunch outside the house next to the hall where we working - what a bargain

This little arrangment is a pew end - but I had nowhere to hang it. The flowers and foliage were from the garden, so a nice natural arrrangement

Shhh - it's a secret

2011-08-03T19:50:00.002+01:00

Lottie went to flower arranging to day - all day - and had a lovely time, and she'll take photos and post about it tomorrow.

I couldn't wait though to say 'Hello, my name is Maudie' and Auntie Lottie has adopted me.

Mr Lottie doesn't now yet - and Auntie has been very naughty as she said she wouldn't adopt me.

But at flower arranging today, she got talking to my grandma, who told her that I was an orphan, all on my own, and that I wasn't able to get a new friend.

So Auntie Lottie said, 'If you can get here in a box by the end of flower arranging, she would take me home'

So here I am. When it gets dark, Auntie Lottie is going to put me in with my new friends - or if not tonight then tomorrow.

She is hoping that Mr Lottie doesn't notice an extra chicken and she might get told off! But it's too late now, and Mr Lottie loves Auntie Lottie, and I'll just win him over like all the others have. After all, one day she smuggled in four girls and he didn't notice for a couple of days!

I have been having a lovely time in Auntie's fruit and veggie patch. I pecked some lovely cabbage leaves, but she doesn't mind as she has more and shares them with the other chickens anyway. I found some blackcurrants - some were a bit dry - but there were some nice juicy blueberries that Auntie didn't notice - or if she did, they won't be there next time she looks!

I might even lay him a egg if I am feeling happy.

I have worked myself to a standstill

2011-07-30T21:11:00.002+01:00

OK, I know, I am far to old to be doing the heavy work that I could do in my younger years!

I worked so hard yesterday, lots of heavy lifting of concrete slabs and laying them behind my garden studio to make a path and access so that I can paint it in the Autumn.

Then all the work up the allotment - I intended to have a rest today honestly!

But after the disappointment of not having the floor laid yesterday, I decided to do something to take my mind off it and created the start of 'Kath's Garden' around the sun room.

I dug out a trench and made a 'proper' flower bed with yellow chrysanthemums either end - they'll look lovely late summer, and there are lavender interspersed with saxifrage - sun lovers.

Unfortunately alongside the walls was a dumping ground for all the rubble, so I had quite a task digging it all out (it was hidden under soil). I replaced it with new soil mixed with well rotted farmyard manure and along that side I planted penstemons, lupins, Selenium, and a tall Lobelia. In fact all these will be lovely tall plants in shades of reds, blues, purple, and sunshine yellow, which should flower late summer and look a treat.

The soil where the fish pond was will sink over winter, so as a temporary measure I put down paving slabs just so that I could move my table and sunshade up this corner for a different view of the garden.

In September I'll be raking over the soil again, stamping it down, raking yet again and sowing grass seed.

But for now this will be my view from the shade of the umbrella.

I hope to be having my breakfast here on warm days, and lots of lunches and teas

It's a perfect corner to sit, and watch, and chill out - and maybe even sketch!

These photos were taken at 9pm tonight - just before dusk.

I ache for England but it is so worth it - I would be aching anyway to a lesser degree.

Mr Lottie has ordered me to rest all day tomorrow.

BUT

If I don't feel too bad, I intend to pressure wash the chairs that go with the table, and to give the big table and little coffee table a coat of stain - all before it is time to cook a Sunday Roast lunch

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 60 hrs He: 55hrs

2011-07-29T17:10:00.001+01:00

I have had such a busy week working in the gardens. Hedge trimming, lawn mowing, weeding. It doesn't sound much, but my hedges are hard work and had gone a bit wild very quickly lately with all rain we had. I also had to prune my willow arch - for the second time in as many months - it too had grow - three feet of luscious willow branches on the top - it looked like a very big hair do!

The garden room came to an abrupt halt again this week, and although we were promised the floor would be laid today - it has been delayed until Monday - which I hope they stick too as the furniture is now arriving on Tuesday morning and we have nowhere to put it in our tiny bungalow!

On the plus side, Richard spent half a day yesterday and a few hours today getting rid of all the builders rubble and rubbish, and he spread out the excess soil from the footings, which I was really thrilled about.

The lawn is recovering where it had all the bricks and blocks on - and looked dead. But a bit of tlc and plenty of watering has renewed it.

Seeing this area, it is hard to picture that there used to be a big pond here. The space is bigger than it looks in this photo. I think I will seed it and 'live with it' next year before doing any hard landscaping with it. My first instinct before it was all cleared and levelled, was to have a paved patio on which to put my table and chair - it would be nice to eat breakfast outside. But the soil will sink over winter because of the pond 'hole' apparently so it's best left for now.

We moved a lot of slabs and laid them behind my studio this morning, then decided to go up the allotment - I must be mad!

I can't believe how tall the grass has grown in one week

And those dreadful weeds have grown from nothing

To this is just a week too. I had so much to do!

Whilst Mr Lottie did what he does best, I set to with the lawnmower to cut the grass down.

The row of 2nd earliers need digging up!

I cut down and pulled up all the weeds and mulched between the rows

With grass cuttings to prevent any more growing - or slowing them down!

This is how long my plot is - I don't often pause to look at the length of it!

It's nice to get the lawns and paths back under control, it makes a huge difference

Well YOU know I weeded all around these last week - but here they grow again

And here they grow again too. I picked 10 mixed courgettes, and made a lovely lunch with some of them.

The pumpkin is going rampant on my compost heap

It's looking good

Three and a half hours later we made our weary way home. I laid four paving slabs - but gave up because I could hardly stand let alone do any more.

A lovely hot shower soon rejuvenates one - but here I sit exhausted but happy at our achievements today.

Lunch was stir fry of fresh picked courgettes, onion, cauliflower, shredded cabbage, new potatoes, tomatoes, seasonings, and cubed fresh tuna - yummy.

My first harvest of..........................

2011-07-25T20:51:00.000+01:00

It was in April when I started off this and now I have my first harvest of this

Worm wee! It's not the slightest bit smelly

and I can dilute it many many times

It really is a brilliant plant food.

And look - there's more on the way!

Night Night All

2011-07-24T22:10:00.001+01:00

Night night Poppy - what are you doing in the nest box?

Where are the others?

Too hot indoors girls?

Night night Daisy and Gozzie - you get pole position because you are the oldest?

Goodnight Mary, Henrietta, Snowy, Bluebell, Zola, Freckles and Willow.

Good night Dolly - I can see you in the nest box on the left hand side at the back

See you in the morning

xxx

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 59 hrs He: 55hrs ....cont

2011-07-22T16:02:00.000+01:00

No builders, no electrician, no body here today so we were free to go up the allotment.

What a shock - two weeks ago these beds were weed free!

This dreaful weed started appearing on our allotments down one end a few years ago. and since then it has spread rapidly each year at this time of the year and no-one knows that it is called

So our primary mission today was to weed out as much of it was we could.

And to pick some cauliflowers and one of the cabbages

This is how the perfect and weed free potato bed looks today.

We dug out every single weed two weeks ago. Interestingly there are no thistles or any of the other thugs we dug out - just this weird unnamed weed. We didn't have enough time or energy to tackle this bed today

So two hours later the difference is quite dramatic

I was rewarded with a nice first crop of courgettes and squash

With more to come in the future in this lovely weeded bed where the early potatoes were.

And this squash is on the compost heap

And it has grown dramatically in just a couple of weeks of rain

I wish I had taken a 'before' photo of the rhubarb bed - you couldn't see the rhubarb for weeds

We had a nice harvest to bring home - a small trug of new potatoes, two cauliflowers, and the first of our cabbages.

Today in my garden......

2011-07-21T20:40:00.000+01:00

Things are progressing slowly. I cheered up the building site with some lavender plants - netted to keep the pigeons, and chooks off until they take root.

The unusal weather this year has created havoc in the garden. The deep snow killed off some plants, the hot summer weather in spring meant that my spring and summer plants and shrubs were all in flower at the same time!

But I still have some pockets of colour. I have some perfumed Stargazer lilies dotted here and there and due to flower soon

It's my 'shades of red' season in the garden

Some of my hardy fuschias have survived

This bush is positively dripping with them

The 'green row' but will full of colour soon with Cosmos - there's one Japanese basil plant in the pot second from the right - near enough to my door to grab some for lunch

Don't these just make you smile?

These are in Maxine's garden bed - with lilies and other plants due to flower later

I took the garden photos this evening when it was drizzling with rain. The bantam babes had had their evening meal and were in a nice quiet tranquil mood, just chilling out and quietly 'cooing' to each other, winding down at the end of the day!

Chicken heaven

2011-07-20T21:02:00.000+01:00

I ran out of chicken food over the weekend so paid a visit to a friend of mine who buys in bulk and lets me get a sack from him. He lives locally so no trips to the nearest town which stocks it.

I just adore visiting him, a he has so many chickens - these are baby Seabrights

And here are some more - they are so cute. My two came from this breeder

Look at the size of the baby turkeys compared to the Seabrights the same age.

My friend hatches these out in incubators - a very clever man

Some people think turkeys are ugly, but I do not - they make a sweet little noise

Yet more Seabrights

He has chickens, here, there, and everywhere, and all sorts of breeds.

I just love seeing them freeranging around his huge garden - these are too young yet.

I am not going to post any more about the garden room until it is finished.

I write about the saga with the builder - but decided against posting it - I wouldn't want to be reminded of all the hassle when I look back on it in a years' time.

It is still a work in progress, but hopefully it will be finished by the end of next week - fingers and toes crossed!

Garden Room Day 10

2011-07-13T22:34:00.000+01:00

They started taking out the patio door today and we heard a bit of a squeal!

We had told the builder that we had cavity wall insulation - but the information hadn't been passed on to the lads!


We could all just stand there helplessly watching it cascade out onto the floor without being able to stop it. On the plus side, we are a bungalow so once it had all drained out from the gable wall it gradually stopped. Have you ever had an experience with the mini foam balls? You can't sweep them up, any breath of air and they fly all around the room, and they are really full of static! Mr Lottie and the 'workers' all set to trying to clear them up. We couldn't use our little vacuum cleaner as it's one with a bag inside and it would have filled up packets of replacement bags which we didn't have! The men were telling us some funny stories about mishaps with this form of insulation - one of the funniest was when a patio door was being installed on a windy day, and as you can't stem the flow of balls, they flew all over the garden - and neighbouring gardens. On the positive side we at least had the garden room, and the door closed so were able to contain them. Sadly the day finished on a downside. All was going smoothly, the glass in all the windows and the French doors to the extension were fitted smoothly, and look a treat. But (oh why does there always seem to be a big 'but' in things we have done) - they installed the French doors in place of the patio door, and the doors were supposed to open out and flat against the walls either side; the frame being fitted on the outside of the wall, to avoid the doors 'smacking' against the wall either side if it were fitted inset as patio doors are. Yes you've guessed it, they fit inside, and even if they move the door frame to the very outside edge, the doors are so big that they will hit the outside walls and not lay flat. So we will lose a metre of space on both sides - which is a lot in a small room, and one door will obstruct a heater and there is no other place it will go! The 'boss' is back from his other house in France and is due to pay us a visit tomorrow - watch this space - it's bound to all end in tears! He, of course was the one who did all the measuring and ordering. Hey ho!

Garden Room Day 10

2011-07-12T18:45:00.003+01:00

At last - progress is romping away now.

My goodness the thickness of the roof panes was a shock

How those men managed to carry them and lift them up onto the roof amazed me, and they got 'whacked' in with a very sophisticated tool - a long lump of wood!

Bluebell couldn't wait for them to go home - then she flew through the door for a look around. Yes a very clever bantam, as she knew the glass hadn't been put into the windows or french doors yet.

She stood looking out of the door at the others with a rather superior look on her face!

Thank goodness for the workers a duller day today.


Tomorrow - doors and windows to be glazed, patio door coming out, french doors going in. Electrician coming to do the wiring, and a builder coming to put up the plasterboard. Thursday the plan is that the plasterer will do all the walls, the builder will lay the pipes and extend the soakaway, and build a step, and Friday, fingers, toes, and everything else crossed, the floor screed will be laid. Today I spent my time mowing the front lawns and a long time pruning Sylvia's rose arch over the front path. I did want to clean the chooks run out - but Mr Lottie made me sit down and rest.

Garden Room Day 9.

2011-07-11T22:42:00.008+01:00

A funny thing happened last week - Mr Lottie was at a bowls match and a man came up to him and said, 'Heard that you wife is not happy with Tony and the lack of progress on your extension'.

They all had a good laugh at my expense - and my conversation with said builder.

Living in a village, with other small villages around - it's funny how 'word' gets around isn't it, and we hadn't told a soul! So that is probably what prompted the brickie being sent last week to finish off the brick work - and the surprise visit today.

A room with a view

Ok - so it's only the framework.


But it does resemble a room now rather than a building site (Note the garden wall has fallen down) over the weekend - must get the brickie to repair it when he next visits.

Fingers crossed, this time tomorrow the roof should be leaded and glazed. See the difference in colour of the brickwork. That is because the base concrete is still drying out and the bricks look darker


With a bit of luck the windows should be glazed too tomorrow! The guys reckon that by Wednesday evening their part of the job will be finished, including the removal of the patio door and installation of new french doors!

It's amazing what two men can achieve in one day - with cups of tea every hour, and cakes and biscuits in the shady studio. They even had an hour's lunch break too!

The cakes are home made boozy mincemeat swirls, morello cherry madeira squares, and gooseberry and almond strudel.

I spent the whole morning making dozens of sandwiches and rolls for a bowls match tonight, that Mr Lottie wasn't even playing in! And the bowlers had a stack of the above cakes too.

I'll find out tomorrow if they all passed the taste test when we get our plates back.

Arghhh builders! Garden room days 6, 7, 8

2011-07-08T11:40:00.001+01:00

Well the builders disappeared off the face of the earth after day 5. No phones, no reply to messages zero. When I did managed to track him down (not the lovely hardworking workers, the person that is owner of the company). I was told that the bricklayer would be coming towards the end of the following week. Fibber. A phone call last Friday - and I caught the builder at home - no apology, nothing! It should have been finished in three weeks according to him when we decided to go ahead. that was an even bigger fib! I hate it when people take advantage of me cos I am nice and friendly and polite. But the worm can turn - and will - it's the red hair!

I moved a couple of armchairs out of our conservatory just to see where the new settee will go. It'll look nothing like these

The lovely bricklayer turned up Monday and got 'stuck in'

He used up the bricks and breeze blocks and had to get some more. This was newly laid turf last year, I do so hope it recovers

End of the day Tuesday - insulation to go in and the breeze block inner walls need to be completed


Thursday late morning all ready for the framework for the roof and windows to go on. The builder is at his home in France again for two weeks - been over there every other week - how the rich do live. Keeping fingers crossed they come early next week - but haven't been told.

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 56.5 hrs He: 52.5hrs ....cont

2011-07-07T21:54:00.000+01:00

So I mowed

The heavens opened and I mowed in the pouring rain, soaked to the skin literally

Half an hour later you'd never know it rained

Not a pretty site, but emergency actions - I picked 4 large carrier bags full of broad beans, and Mr L helped me pull up all the plants. Because of all the rain forecast we did a quick weed of the plot area but it needs digging over where the broad beans were - so to avoid a jungle growing, we have covered it, and weighted down the plastic with the nearest heavy 'stuff'. In our defence another heavy downfall was just starting and we had been working for over three hours and I was shattered

Some red potatoes not ready yet, and onions - not a good crop due to the drought conditions


More lawns and paths now mowed, we just have to keep it under control and the weeds grow so fast.

The covered bed in the foreground is the only way I can keep in control of the huge plot - its were the potatoes will go next year.

Grass now mowed and weeds pulled and it filled up a compost bin!


I added a few more courgette plants, and headed wearily home.

I have been busy in the garden too - more of that another time.

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 56.5 hrs He: 52.5hrs

2011-07-07T21:34:00.000+01:00

It's been so hot this past week - really really jungle weather that I have been wilting indoors and going stir crazy.

Today we got an early start up the allotment - and what a difference a week makes !

We have had some thundery showers some nights and the grass has grown and these experimental spuds have too

The pumpking on the compost bin is finally taking off

The courgettes have taken. Despite a heavy shower when we first got there, the ground dried out really quickly

My primary project was to just pick the broad beans today - and Mr Lottie to have a bonfire

A Comfrey plant has sprung up amongst the broad beans - so too more weeds

Oh now - look at the weeds and long grass - this needs doing too.

It's not going to be the quick visit that I planned.

Pumpkin and courgettes have taken - but oh my the weeds


I'll just have to do the most urgent tasks first.

So it was mowing the lawns

And all the paths


Of which there are a lot on my 250ft plot!


Mr Lottie played bonfires and I spent two hours mowing - passing my brassica patch en route! Brussel sprouts on the right, broccoli in the middle, cauliflowers on the left. Blogger is playing up so I will try a new post and see if that works..................to be continued.

It's hammering it down - so bring on the girls to cheer us up!

2011-06-25T19:25:00.000+01:00

I think the weather is telling me that I need a day of rest - well a rest from all the hard work up the allotment anyway.


I realised that it has been a while since you have seen my adorable bantam babes	.

Here they were early yesterday morning pushing and shoving to be the first one through the door

Henrietta my Old English Game Bird is too dignified to join in the scrum


Snowy my Silver Seabright thinks that it is all a bit unladylike to do so too.

Looks like there are some insects to be had in the early morning dew on the lawn

So it is heads down, tails up, and get hunting - Freckles is getting big!

The three in the foreground from L-R are Bluebell, Modern Game Bird, Dolly Daydream, Ginger Silkie, Poppy, Golden Seabright

Mary, my Lemon Millefleur Sablepoot has just jumped up on the raised bed.

She loves playing hide and seek

And is often hard to find.


Here's little Willow. When she runs she looks just like Charlie Chaplin - minus the stick! How she manages to keep herself so white is a mystery. Her feathered feet get muddy of course - then by the morning they are snow white again!

Off to find where they are laying their eggs.

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 53.5 hrs He: 49.5hrs

2011-06-24T21:39:00.001+01:00

Another three hours up the allotment mainly spent weeding - and Mr Lottie had yet another bonfire.

I have mowed all the lawns

The fruit bushes which were hard pruned are flourishing

The big potato bed has been weeded

Not a thistle in sight - but my hands did get lots of pricks even though I was wearing gloves

The brassicas are flourishing. I am quite pleased with these as most of my neighbours have been pecked to almost extinction by the pigeons.

A few potato plants that I am trialing. A neighbouring plot holder has a son who's a farmer and these are a new variety - so watch this space

This pumpkin on the compost heap has tripled in size in a week. It's amazing what a drop of rain can do isn't it.

I am so proud of this bed which I weeded today.

It was back breaking work weeding where we had dug up some early potatoes, then I dug up a barrow load of well rotted manure to plant the squashes.

I weeded the rest of the early potatoes too. I had to resort to an organic weed killer to kill the bindweed - this was infested with it and the roots ran everywhere - looks like it has succumbed.

Mr Lottie did a great job tackling the other side of this plot

Some of the broad beans are just about ready to pick, swelled by the recent rain

I weeded this front bed and planted more squash and courgettes.

At last I feel that I am in control of the allotment, rather than it being in control of me - and the weeds out of control at times!

Garden Room - Day 5 - Just working in the rain - getting soaking wet!

2011-06-23T21:35:00.003+01:00

We have had storms on and off all night, so we gave up all hope of the builders coming to do more work. I was just debating whether to let the chickens out before going up the allotment to take some photos, as the sun had just come out - when Eureka - the truck turned up! All plans cancelled for the day.

They covered the concrete with tons of ballast - well stones with lots of sand in it.

Then the heavens opened and we had an almighty storm - but James soldiered on

with a machine that thumps the stuff and packs it tight. It was hard going doing it in a storm, as it kept puddling on the surface - not good.

It became impossible - and when I went out with a cup of tea - they had gone!

A little stream was pouring off the sand down the drain!

But they returned - and the rain was relentless - but they came bearing gifts.

And James had to go over the ballast again, and again.

The thick sheets of insulation went on top of the sand. When we had our conservatory built years ago it was just a piece of plastic that was used between the layers!

The thick liner was placed on top - and the storm returned!

They worked on regardless, mixing and laying the floor - until it was looking more like a pond - so again they stopped work. The rain was so horrendous that I just stuck my arm out of the door and snapped!

Another pause in the storm, they finished laying the concrete - and yes you've guessed it......

It resumed and the concrete looks like a muddy swimming pool!

They'll be back the end of next week to continue - by which time I hope this has dried out!

You'll notice that I am not complaining about the rain - the garden and allotment needs it - and the lawn is actually green again - well those bits that aren't covered in cement dust as sand.

I had a productive day in the front garden inbetween downpours - pruning the rose arch and shrubs.

(This is a bit boring - so skip any posts that start with 'Garden Room' it's just a visual record for me - so that when it is all done, I can look back and see what a triumph over the weather it was)

But if you want to build your own - this'll be a step by step guide!

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 50.5 hrs He: 46.5hrs

2011-06-22T16:42:00.002+01:00

No more building work happening in the last couple of days - boo hoo - I am so impatient!

We had some showery weather which halted the work - nice for the garden though.

I have been busy up the allotment and in the garden and little plastic greenhouses, I don't' sit still for long!
.
Sadly I didn't take my camera a couple of times up the plot, but never mind - I will try to remember to take it the next time we go.

We have been having bonfires, weeding, and having a fruit picking marathon which is now finished.

We picked a total of eleven pounds of gooseberries, and five pounds of blackcurrants - we won't miss out on fruit crumbles through the winter that's for sure. No redcurrants this year - I had to give the bushes a very hard prune - but they are very healthy with the promise of lots next year.

Hmm - blogger refuses to add my photos - ah well another day tomorrow.

Today we spent two and a half hours braving the heavy showers, to be rewarded by sunshine - really refreshing - but we got soaked.

We achieved a lot though - weeded the potato bed of thistles, which took rather a long time to dig out - but the soil is wonderfully rich and soft now due to all the showers - so it was very satisfying to get all the roots out.

Mr Lottie - had a great bonfire - I had lots of boxes in my craft room to dispose of, and we had a big incinerator type basket up there full of weeds - all gone now! Lots of luscious ash to keep for the beds there.

Oh bother - I wanted to show you my very first crop of strawberries which I have been growing in my garden. They are really big fruits and I am so proud of them - silly isn't it getting a lot of pleasure from something as simple as home grown fruit.

I have never had any success before when growing them up the allotment - there were always creatures great and small - and slugs - despite my taking all the necessary precautions!

I have had four pounds - eaten two pounds and turned the rest into strawberry jam. It's truly yummy and tastes so different from the shop jam.

I made my jam using 2lbs of fruit, chopped cos they were big, 2lbs of granulated sugar, and 4 tablespoons of lemon juice (one big lemon) - it was so easy to do!

I just cooked the fruit until it simmered, added the sugar, and cooked until that had dissolved, then added the lemon juice and boiled it until setting point.

Fiddlesticks - it still won't load the photos.

I have been having fresh strawberry smoothies - made with natural set yoghurt, with a bit of skimmed milk as it was so thick, and a handful of strawberries and two tablespoonsful of oat bran all whizzed up in a blender. Makes a great breakfast and I have lost weight too!

Well I am giving up on this post as blogger is going a bit daft - will be back in a day or so!

Guess what I am having for tea? A slice of bread and home made strawberry jam, and cooked raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries and strawberries with thick yoghurt and a swirl of honey on top! Scrummy

At last - it's working again

Yummy strawberries

Strawberry jam. With the sunshine behind it you can see that all the strawberries are in a big clump - I forgot to stir the contents of the jar before lidding it.

It doesn't alter the taste though - it's still delish!

Garden Room - Day 4

2011-06-20T20:38:00.001+01:00

Work continues after the rain stopped play for a couple of days.

The two bricks on the front wall show where the double doors will be

The side wall is built up to the window ledge height.

And this will be the view from where I will be sitting.

I'll be able to see right down the garden - all day!

It's a deluge - and I'm to blame!

2011-06-17T23:01:00.000+01:00

We have had months of drought and as soon as we decided to have some work done

The rain arrived - and hasn't stopped!

The bricklayer couldn't even finish the damp course

It's just soaked - and since these photos were taken this morning it hasn't stop raining, and the concrete base is turning into a pond!

Still - the garden and allotment needed the rain desperately.

Fingers crossed we get a dry Monday morning so that the damp course can be finished.

If you haven't guessed already - it's going to be a Garden Room - but not with an indoor paddling pool - which it has at the moment!

Allotment Diary Me: 44 hrs He: 40hrs

2011-06-15T20:55:00.001+01:00

We escaped to the allotment today - we had run out of potatoes so needed to dig them up and do lots of maintenance things - like having a bonfire to get rid of six months worth of non compostable weeds and prunings etc

Pat had great fun, and its very rewarding when such huge piles are reduced to this

We were working for four hours solid, so I just didn't have the time to take before and after photos

so you are just getting the 'after' ones - which are just for my year on year diary.

After not having any rain for so long, the lovely lawns are reduced to almost dust - but they still needed mowing as weeds had managed to pop up despite the drought.

I set up some raised beds and planted a couple of butternut squash and a Jack be Little pumpkin which produces lots of 3 inch fruits, and some bush squash - yummy

A few rows left of early new potatoes - growing in dust. Thank goodness I lined the trenches with 6 ins of well rotted manure or we would not have had any sort of crop at all!

We weeded the beds in this first area - and shock horror - I had to resort to using R.Up to spray the docks and creepers - hope it has been on long enough as we are now due rain overnight!

The broad beans, whilst small, look incredibly healthy

I hope to harvest them soon. They are much tastier before the pods get too big.

It really wasn't worth mowing these sad paths, with the occassional weed - it would be just like mowing dust. The potatoes are doing quite well - a few gaps despite all the manure in the trenches, but I am sure that the rain will soon work it's magic when it arrives

I need to harvest the rest of the gooseberries, and have black and redcurrants too - it'll be a race against time with the rain due - I was too exhausted to return tonight to do them.

Four hours hard labout is enough for me these days - particularly as I have been so very busy in the garden.

I have been potting up plants - they all seem to need doing at the same time despite my staggering the seed sowing.

I have a lean-to full of squash, pumpkin, cougettes, cucumbers, Cosmos, tomatoes, peppers, aubergine x1, chilli peppers x2, a Japanese cucumber which is totally different to ours, and things yet to sprout.

I have been digging up floral plants in the garden and potting them up ready for transplanting in a couple of months time. I have strawberry plants in the ex banties now fruit cage with cuttings too of various currants - which I have to care for. There are cabbages, and caulis, and brussel sprouts tucked in here there an everywhere - oh and fledgeling fruit trees too. And of course the lawns to mow the flower beds to weed - so I am kept pretty busy thank heavens.

I good do with a bit of help hunting down the bantam eggs in the garden - they have gone 'native' again. They spend as long as they like freeranging so in this lovely weather are not inclined to move from whatever shady spot they have found, to go back to the nest boxes to lay eggs. We have a lot of hedges and bushes and this year it is proving nigh on impossible to find many!

A bit of a change part 2 - Day 2

2011-06-15T18:03:00.000+01:00

Hmm the gnome is looking bemused!

There's a moat - and a bridge across it!

Hmm pillars?

I have recycled the recycled railway sleepers - again

It'll stop my little cutie banties from scatching any soil onto the grass.

The flower bed is looking a bit jaded - we still are hoping for rain. I'll give it a nice mulch of well rotted manure, and get some summer perennials to add some colour

I have got to nail these sleepers together yet, but it looks much better than before. I need to fence off the peas properly to keep the rabbits out and pesky pigeons.

To be continued.

A bit of a change part 2

2011-06-14T20:43:00.002+01:00

Towards the end of May I decided to have a 'bit of a change' in the garden - and after being away for a week - we returned home and Monday got a surprise. Men and machines turned up unannounced just as I was going out the door - so I have been confined to barracks for the past couple of days.

Here are the tools

After mugs of tea and digestive biscuits - the raised bed is dismantled

The slabs come up

The digger digs

Twelve years ago when we had work done - it was nice and quiet. Men with spades and shovels and muscles - now it's a man with a noisy digger - at least I can turn my hearing aids off and not hear a thing!

The 'boss' said that we wouldn't have enough soil from the trenches to fill the pond!

Bricks are appearing!

The 'boss' was wrong - the soil has not only filled the pond, but covered all that corner of the garden and more besides!

End of day one - looking like an archeological dig!

Allotment Diary Me:40hrs He:36hrs

2011-05-29T20:08:00.000+01:00

Over the last couple of weeks I have spent 8 hours up the allotment

The early potatoes are growing, despite there being no rain

The broad beans are really behind due to the drought

So too the climbing Italian yellow beans

I weeded the potato bed which was full of thistles

I also earthed them up yet more

It's looking quite nice even if I do say so myself

Today the broad beans are in flower although still stunted

Blackcurrents - they need a big dose of rain to plump them up.

The same applies to the gooseberries - not as good a crop as last year

Have you seen these before?

I haven't had to use these for years

But with the dire weather conditions I got them out.

They are a ring of plastic - not thick - which has sections fused which creates tubes

You fill the tubes with water and place over a plant - in this case pumpkins. Because it is so windy here, I have taken precautions and put stakes inside them to stop them blowing away.

The idea is that the water warms up in any sunshine which creates a microclimate - a little greenhouse effect.

It is open at the top so that it's easy to water the plant - and lets the rain in. It protects fragile plants from rabbits and muntjac and other critters.

When the plant gets established you just lift off the ring! They are easy to store - about the size of a carrier bag.

This view almost breaks my heart. It is the view over my bottom fence and the part of my allotment I gave up to a very keen couple who were desperate for an allotment.

It was my favourite and best laid out of my plot. The very bottom (which you can't see) I sowed an organic meadow - and I used to have three hybrid chickens living there - and they had free range of the whole quarter of an acre (which is the size of the whole plot).

The plot you can see, I split up in to six beds that ran horizontally and sowed organic 'bowling green' flat wide paths in between each bed.

The top bed had mixed perennial flowers in and was a lovely sight.

The next bed has asparagus - and I used the rest for different vegetables.

The next had the most magnificent rhubarb plant - which you can see has the tall yellow spears of flowers as it has gone to seed.

The other long beds were used for crop rotation veggies, and the nearest one to the fence had fruit bushes, more asparagus, and a well rotted manure compost area.

It's now full of tall weeds, thistles, stinging nettles, dock weeds gone to seed and many more.

It's such a shame to see - but I shouldn't get upset about it as I gave it up!

We have a new old door on our pig hut shed. The other one was in bad shape and was falling to bits. Our nice neighbouring plot holder offered to fit this one for us - we did a bit of bartering - and I have it three coats of wood stain today - it was very windy so there are drips on the floor! They'll wash off. I'll give it a few more coats over the summer - lets hope it lasts until I decide to give up my plot.

A bit of a change!

2011-05-21T17:09:00.000+01:00

When I get an idea into my head, I can be a bit of a nightmare.

Last Wednesday I decided that I wanted to change this end of the garden.

Which will involve getting rid of the big pond, so this morning we started.

It was jolly hard work and I didn't have time to take photos of all the fishing out of pond plants which I did - besides which I was wet and filthy!

We had to take a sledge hammer to get all the slabs up around it - not an easy task.

I cut a slit either side of the pond liner and we managed to roll it over and pull it out

It was lined with carpet which we had to remove, and some underlay too.

It took most of today for the pond to drain after I had taken out the bulk of the plants.

When we had it cleaned last year, we were told that there were no fish in it whatsoever - hence my decision to turn it into a patio.

My dear husband took some candid camera shots of my fishing!

The frogs and other creatures had walked out as the pond gradually sunk through the layers, but I wanted to make sure that nothing was left in there.

Yes it is worth all the effort - thank you - I did find three fish!

My unlady-like attempts to get up the slippery side and out!

I'll get a neighbour across the road to adopt the fish - he has two ponds.

I filled up two compost bins with pond plants and sludge, it'll rot down so quickly - and I still have a pile at the side - can you see?

After lunch we cleared up all the mess - with just a couple of carpet pieces drying out.

We are suffering a serious drought in out region, the poor lawn is in a bad shape and the bald patch is the soakway which is always green as it's usually full of collected rain water underneath!

Yesterday I dug up all the plants from this raised bed and moved them.

Another area I have plans for - for middle/late June - this bed will be moved!

Watch this space!

Today in my garden

2011-05-13T22:31:00.000+01:00

I thought I would share a few colours and textures in my garden today

Because of the drought and crazy sunshine we have spring and summer plants flowering at the same time

My little sage plant is growing at a great rate!

I just love these textured leaves. They are usally deep red - but are a bit bleached by the sunshine

Oops the petals fell off this Aquilegia

A young clematis

Allium stars

My very first pear crop - fingers crossed they all grow

I am quite excited about my strawberries.

I grew all these from last years runners.

Despite the soil dusty and dry these Victorian climbing peas have taken

That's all for today

New day, new life - and a nice rest

2011-05-08T12:03:00.001+01:00

It's a new day - Sunday - so I am having a day of rest. It is truly hot and sunny outside without a breath of air. I had a most wonderful time this morning visiting a friend of mine, who very kindly lets me buy a sack of food off him for my chickens.

He is top quality breeder of fowl, and generously let me buy two Seabright bantams off him a couple of years ago - Snowy and Poppy.

I was really privileged to get to see the following.

Above first of all - one of his many incubators with golden Seabrights just hatching out. Can you make out the eggs pipping and the newly hatched chicks in the bottom and right hand side of the photo?

Yet another of his incubators - each egg named, dated, and recorded.

Can you see the turkey egg in the top left hand corner?

This is a broody hen with her clutch of Silver Seabright chicks - their markings are developing already. She is a brilliant 'mother' - they have a big bright shed all to themselves

It is such a treat to visit my friends garden. In the winter there were turkeys, chickens of all breeds and sizes, here, there, and everywhere. Lots freeranging - just perfect

Of course it is not safe to let a mother hen out with her tiny chicks - there are foxes about. Those 'confined to barracks' have the most wonderful accommodation - lots of space, and lots of natural light.

This fine Ixworth male is a very energetic beau - so his young ladies are wearing saddles to protect them - keeping them in tip top condition too. I would love Ixworth in my garden, but they are big birds and would make big dustbaths in my lawns in no time!

This young lady caught my eye, she's sat on a pile of eggs, one was poking out, so my friend popped it back under her. She was happily dozing in the sunshine, a picture of contentment.

Another clutch of older Ixsworth popped out from the undergrowth - they are having a lovely time rummaging around.

On my 'tour' a beautiful black Pekin bantam 'appeared' from behind some pots - she was absolutely stunning - and so tame and friendly - someone gave it to my friend - she couldn't have asked for a better adoptive owner - it's chicken heaven where they live.

More Ixsworth with a bantam surrogate mother

And yet more

Just a few snatched photos!

Oh if only I were years younger and had the chance to have a small holding which was always my dream.

Never mind - I have my big allotment and my lovely bantam flock - and can enjoy friends chickens and lifestyles without all the hard work.

And best of all - I have had the pleasure today of seeing new life.

Off to put my feet up - before cooking Sunday lunch

Guess what is on the menu

Roast chicken

Not one of mine though of course - but one another friend 'grew' for me - and had a lovely freerange life all last summer.

Allotment Diary Me:35.25hrs He:30.25hrs

2011-05-07T13:57:00.001+01:00

What happened to the rain then? I was so excited at the prospect of overnight rain that I was up really early and raring to go.

We had a bit of cloud, and when I went outside to load the car up a 8.30am there were a few drizzley drips - and that was it.

It didn't dampen my enthusiam, just cut short my time up the allotment.

My mission was to cover my fruit bushes. Years ago this fruit cage was covered in netting but over time it had been dessimated by the terrible winter weather.

Not knowing how long I'll be able to keep up working on the allotment I have compromised.

With a bit of improvisation with bamboo canes stuck into the ground, and pieces of plastic pipe, slid on top and raised or lowered to the optimum height, I have hopes that I have created a bird proof method of protecting my soft fruit crops without too much expense. (i.e. the protection not working out in excess of the cost of purchasing the fruit.) Having said that, I never seen red currants in the shops and very rarely any blackcurrants, nor gooseberries, and this fruit keeps us in vitamin C right through until next harvest - plus the jams, jellies, etc.

I had enough netting to protect my row of lovely red gooseberries, but not enough for the remainder of the fruit bushes.

This originally was the cuttings bed, but everything flourished, so redcurrants, blackcurrents, jostaberries, and gooseberries, are covered with a selection of net curtains and black netting renmants.

Three hours since we finished, my hands and arms are still stinging from the result of renegade nettles attacking me through my sleeves and gardening gloves as I wrenched them from their niches and hurled them onto the incinerator ready to be burnt.

Even the cool shower and mango butter body creams didn't soothe them - but I am off to have a choc ice on a stick - you can bet that will be a distraction.

Hoping for rain overnight or all day tomorrow - I'll be having a day or (relative) rest

Allotment Diary Me:33hrs He:28hrs

2011-05-06T20:14:00.001+01:00

Still no rain sadly, the soil is like dust, but there were still jobs I had to do.

I picked a barrow full of rhubarb, and once prepared I had 7lb which is now in the freezer.

I made a nice mixed fruit crumble - I'll add the recipe over the weekend,

Yesterday I spent four hours up the plot on my own.

There must have been a frost as some of the tips of the potatoes were blackened. Not much harm done, I just cut off the damaged leaves and heaped up the potatoes even higher - weeded them at the same time too. The weeds will soon shrivel and dry.

I had previously dug out deep trenches and we filled them with lots of well rotted manure, and I added a layer of cut comfrey leaves. These had all dried and were rotting, so I planted some Italian climbing green beans

They are wiggley shaped ones - I grew them at home last year for the first time and they were delicious. Once planted I watered the beans well then added yet more comfrey to keep the damp in, and when rotted they will act as a top dressing feed.

How the broad beans continue to grow without a drop of water absolutely amazes me. But they do!

Ditto the onions - and the weeds too!

In order to keep the beans protected from the wind, and to give them a bit of respite from the unrelenting sunshine, I 'cobbled together' some pieces of netting to make a screen. Not very pretty, but it'll do the job until they grow up and are thriving.

It was a bit of a let down (understatement) when I saw that the thistles had started appearing in the big potato bed, despite my weeding them out a couple of weeks ago.

It's just not fair that weeds grow in dry, barren, dusty soil! My next job methinks

The winds had blown off the protection from this big bed, so I had to put it all back and secure it again. At least it keeps it weed free.

All of the above took me four hours yesterday - now on to today's efforts.

I took these photos of the gooseberry bushes as Mr Lottie didn't believe that the berries were ripe so early.

The downside is that they are small and hard, so I really do want the rain to plump them up to perfection, and I ought to add the netting to keep the birds off too!

I so wish that I had taken before and after photos of this part of the fruit area.

It was full of weeds again - thistles and annuals.

I cleared them all with my Azada - it was hard work but the tool does get right under the roots.

I have planted cauliflowers, cabbages, and brussel sprouts. The frame I have made from pieces of water pipe which I cut to size. Mr L helped me bang in some metal rods and then I slotted the pipe on top - makes a nice sturdy frame.

The plants were really well watered before I attached a lace up 'bodice'. Well it ended up looking like one to me. Took me absolutely ages to do! Hopefully it will keep the birds off, and the rabbits out, and keep the moisture in.

The transplanted rhubarb cuttings could do with a drink, but as we are forecast some rain - if we are lucky - on Saturday night or Sunday, I decided not to water them and save my precious supply of rainwater.

Once the brassicas get tall, I will be able to incresae the height by pulling the pipes up the metal rods - and just sliding the the netting up one side and adding either another piece or chicken wire fencing. Can't let those pesky pigeons or rabbits at my winter brassicas!

Mr L was kept busy cutting a nice straight edge on the front bed.

And fetching and carrying tools for me too.

Phew - we sure were tired when we got home - so it was a quick home made spaghetti bolognese for lunch.

Allotment Diary Me:26hrs He:25.5hrs

2011-04-28T21:23:00.001+01:00

It was a cold, dull windy day, so cold that I had to dress up in my winter 'gear' - perfect for me up the allotment. We hadn't been well enough to go up there for a couple of weeks and it was a bit of a shock when I saw the weeds!

Not a drop of rain for weeks and weeks, but the weeds still manage to grow!

And my lovely neat weedfree beds now need weeding again.

The lawns need cutting too - how do they grow so fast in a drought?

Mr Lottie mowed the lawns for me. Look at the comfrey - it's like a hedge and almost in flower. But I have plans for this so it's not a problem.

Now that the grass has been cut it is looking neat again. The covered bed in the foreground will remain that way until I am ready to fill it up with squashes and pumpkins - I can't keep weeding it if it is sunny so this is the best option to keep the plot under control

So, here is the result of my work - the front bed which we fenced in this year, has now been weeded by me yet again it is so dry that it is just like dust! Some potatoes from last year were growing - looking fabulous and healthy, but I dug them up - this is going to be my bean bed.

The trenches are dug for the climhing beans, and filled with well rotted manure. I use a lot as we don't have running water - it's just a big field - so I can't water everything from my tanks, the plot is too big.

The early potatoes I planted which looked suspiciously like rows of buried bodies, are now 6'6" rows of lovely lush potato tops, grown through the heaped up soil. I weeded in between and heaped them up even more so - they are looking good - again - without a drop of rain since they were planted - the manure sure works a treat. Hard work, but it's worth it.

The broad beans and onions have managed to grow too - again I did lots of weeding, still got a bit more to do between the onions, but the pathways are cleared

This is where I have sown the parsnip seeds today - we are due rain. I weeded all this area yet again, sowed the seeds and sowed spinach seeds each side so that I know where the parsnips should appear.

Our soil is so very stoney. No matter how many times I remove the surface stones more flint just comes to the surface. I am going to grow my carrots in my garden at home again this year.

Here is what I have done with some of the comfrey crop. It is on the bean trenches. I'll plant the beans in the well rotted manure and the comfrey will gradually rot down and feed the plants. I have every confidence of getting a good crop.

So that's it for today - lots of hard work - but we will reap the results later.

I also took home a pile of rhubarb, so I'll be busy cutting that up and freezing it tomorrow!

Too sunny for me to linger in my garden

2011-04-25T16:18:00.001+01:00

A quick post with the remainder of yesterday's photos

My hostas survived the winter - I didn't think they would.

They like it here in the shade by the back gate

Although I have a huge allotment, the sun is preventing me from going up there, so I am squeezing in as many veggies as I can in my flower beds.

Broccoli, small round cabbages, and caulis

The rhubarb has lived here for a few years now, next to the water butt which is handy

Now that Mr Lottie is feeling a lot better he fancies rhubarb and yoghurt for pudding

So some of these stems will be picked as soon as I have finished typing this

The woodland flower bed - I think this is my favourite part of the garden in the summer because I can get some shade!

It looks particularly fetching this time of the year with the new growth, nice and fresh and green

The banties love it too and are always rummaging around for insects etc and then running helter skelter up the garden with a juicy worm - being chased by the mob - it never fails to make us laugh!

I thought that my ferns had died over the winter, they are usually in leaf by now.

Aren't they gorgeous? They almost look prehistoric to me when they start to unfurl.

Isn't nature wonderful - so much texture and colour contrast

This unfurling hosta clump has tiny jewels of dew in the centre of each curled leaf, but I didn't quite manage to catch it on camera as well as I would have liked

This wise old gnome has a few stories to tell I bet.

I was given it by a very elderly neighbour 30 years ago, and he had been given it by an elderly neighbour many many years before that. I don't have a clue how old it is, and my ex-husband at the time wanted me to throw it away - he considered it rubbish.

I am rather sentimental. and like to think of the people that once owned him - to me he is a priceless treasure.

I have never painted him, I don't want him to looked painted and new - as he is so old, and I think that his aged look suits him.

I have a large pot in the garden near the studio, and it has some Lily of the valley, lemon balm, and mint in it - all of which are self sown. I really should sort it all out, but I rather like the combination, and just can't help bending to smell the lilies whilst they are in flower, rub my hands in a stem of lemon balm, or chew a mint leaf when passing the pot - which is often

I try to fill every gap in my garden - this is a 'waste' area alongside my studio. It only get the sunshine late in the afternoon, but it seems that it is just enough to keep the gooseberry cuttings - which are now bushes - happy, and the small rhubarb plant's productive too.

My husband complains that I never sit still - and that's usually correct.

As I am still not back to full strength, I sat in the shade to read the Sunday magazines - something I haven't done for many many years. These are candid camera shots

- as you can tell!

Then got carried away reading my book. As the sun moved around I had to cover up - such a shame, but necessary!

This is how I have to dress when I go outside.

Either looking like Lady Haversham

or if I am working up the allotment

Worzle Gummidge

(Don't have nightmares!)

Today in my garden

2011-04-24T22:16:00.000+01:00

Still recovering from the virus so decided to take it easy today - so took some photos around my this morning garden.

Some of the flock come to see waht I am doing

Zola's a bit scruffy - she's been laying like the clappers and I think she is going broody

Here come the stragglers

It's nice to see the pond plants coming into bloom and the iries and other plants coming through the gravel around it. It's a nature pond now, and we have lots of newts, frogs, frog spawn and insects

An early clematis I treated myself too for Mothers Day. I am surprised it has flowered so soon

My little old tortoise, bought from a table top sale outside an old cottage by the church - on my walk

The hanging basket has been non stop flowering for ages, and at last the Alliums are beginning to open.

Delphiniums are shooting up too - wish we had some rain though - we really need it

Poppy and Daisy

Bluebells - survived the harsh winter and dry spring

Oops these need dead heading

Heading off to the woodland garden to search for worms

I bought myself a walk in greenhouse a few weeks ago, and finally managed to erect it yesterday

I am thrilled to bits with it - it is strong and roomy - and will be full over the summer

This area was one of those which seemed to 'collect' things - like sacks of sand, pots - we all have an area like that don't we. Well not any more, I pruned the roses and clematis at the back of the trellis. Mr Lottie cleared the ivy and we both shifted all the sand and 'rubbish'

It was worth all the effort.

Lloyd - it's 140cm x140cm x 200cm high

The tape was not needed, but I used it as I had done so in another little greenhouse, and it has lasted for a number of years now left out in the winter!

Dwarf french beans

Victorian climbing peas

The raised bed has been sown with seeds - hence the netting to keep the birds off.

Allotment Diary Me:22.5hrs He:22.5hrs as at 10th April

2011-04-23T07:06:00.001+01:00

Last time I posted about my allotment on the 15th of March which you can see here we were working on getting a plot ready for the potatoes this year. It's part of my crop rotation project which I adhere to religiously to help protect against desease.

Since then we have spent 7 hours up the plot - before we were struck down with the Noro virus on 11th April. Mr Lottie brought it back from a bowls night - and I played Florence Nightingale before having to call the doctor out as he was so ill - and we didn't know anything about the virus! A few days later I was struck down with it - and almost 2 weeks later we are still rather weak and just getting back on our 'sea legs' so this post is rather late - and things have changed apace up the allotment since these photos.

I raked over, then rotorvated this plot several times before digging out the trenches for my 2nd early and late potatoes

My 'under gardener' split up and moved some rhubarb plants to the fruit cage.

He asked my advice on how to do it and then completely ignored what I said - sigh - but I am sure they will grow anyway. I am just grateful for his help

I hard pruned all the bushes in the autumn and it has really paid off.

Looks like we will be getting a bumper crop this year, fingers crossed!

The black currents are doing especially well - in a draught too.

The redcurrants and gooseberry bushes are enjoying the sunshine as well

The under-gardener is banging in stakes for me, marking the different varieties of potatoes I planted

There hasn't been a drop of rain since I planted them

Mr L pulling over the soil of the last potatoes, by this time I could hardly stand up I was that tired.

What is standing up nicely to the dry weather are the comfrey plants - not only standing up but positively thriving! I'll be giving them a trim soon.

How the broad beans have managed to germinate and start to grow is one of natures wonders. Without a drop of rain, and pushed into parched dry dusty soil, they still managed to germinate and put on a show of leaves.

Even the onions are making a valient effort.

I am looking forward to going up my plot again soon - even if only to have a look at how it's doing.

Happy Easter

My lovely new pets.................

2011-04-09T22:55:00.001+01:00

I have got some new pets.

No not this one - although he is a cutie and has just fed his leftover lunch to the chooks.

Of course being an old woman, I do need a hand now and again, and one little boy was just delighted to help me build a house.

Then add a block of coir which was soaked for a few hours before you put it in and fluff it all up.

Then you add some dendrobeana - wormery worms

O.K. - a few more then.

That should be enough!

Sprinkle on some worm food cereal to make them feel at home

They love to be kept in the dark and damp, so empty your paper shredder

Soak the paper so that it is nice and damp and spread it out.

Spread it out to cover the coir and food - the worms will eat it all up and make super compost.

There is even a tap so that you can bottle up your worm tea - it's a great liquid fertiliser

And there you have it - it's child's play.

So much so that I bought one for my grandson to take home to put in his garden too!

Well it's the least I could do after he showed me how to make mine.

If you don't have a little helper, you can watch the video and see all the details here

And the best bit is - they are made in Britain and give the best service ever!

Where or where has she gone?

2011-04-08T23:17:00.003+01:00

Zola did a disappearing act again. It's not possible to keep your 'eye' on all eleven bantams all at once and they disappear in all directions around the garden,

First thing in the morning they all charge out - and last thing at night they all congregate ready for their evening meal - and we see them during the day too of course.

Zola stopped turning up in the evening for her night time meal - but would appear in the morning before we got up. The egg count went down - so it meant that she had 'gone native' again and was hiding someone laying her eggs and sitting on them.

I hunted in all the usual places but couldn't find her. Under the hedges, and pots, in sneaky hideaway places like behind the compost bins - without any luck.

Then yesterday, after spying on her having her breakfast - she sneakily looked around to see if anyone was looking, then jumped up on the wall and disappeared!

I kept meaning to clear out this corner - and now was the time to do it!

I pulled away all the compost sacks and weeding bags

Then I got down to the stacked garden tools (we are awaiting help to put up a shed). Nothing could possibly get into this corner - there's a tray and an empty cage.

Or could it?

She was hard to see with the naked eye - but by enlarging the photo I could just make her out underneathe the cage!

How she managed to get through all those bags and sacks and squeeze herself under there I do not know!

Once I had carefully removed gardening shears, spades, forks, brooms, bags, sacks, and finally the cage she was exposed - and not best pleased I can tell you. She pecked me like a demon - but as she is so little her pecks did not hurt in the slightest!

She was sitting on 9 eggs!

I did the float test - they all sank, so were all fresh - the result of going awol for ten days!

We had them for lunch with potato wedges - yes we are still eating the spuds I grew last year - and they were delicious!

I had a really good sort out under there and found another egg behind the big metal chest - it had been there for so long that is was as light as a feather! So it was composted.

Zola has decided not to bother going broody now that I have found her hiding place, bless her, and she is much happier for it too!

Oh, talking about composting, I must make the time to tell you about my new pets

Allotment Diary Me:15hrs He:15hrs

2011-03-21T18:02:00.003+01:00

Today was a cold dull day - just perfect for working up the allotment

I went over this area that I have previously rotorvated, using my little Mantis Tiller

Then dug out trenches with my (Azada which you can see below)

Each trench was filled with a well rotted mix of pig and horse manure, and I planted my first early potatoes - Rocket, which were covered with yet more manure before being earthed up.

Only one bag of these this year, as I am having to cut down on the workload, not got the power or energy of a youngster any more! Still there are 35 potatoes which will produce and very healthy plot and certainly feed us during the summer

Oh dear looking at the rows this way, they do look a bit sinister don't they!

No sign of any broad beans on the left yet.

Still, again using my little Mantis to turn the soil into a nice tilth, I created some pathways between the blocks of broad bean rows.

Then I planted two blocks of onions - Stuttgart and Sturon

I might get some red onion sets too - lots of space to fill

Mr Lottie worked hard on sorting out where the winter bonfires have been

I just need to rake this all over, rotorvate it and get it ready for the rest of the potatoes

I think the only thing that gets him up the allotment is the thought of having a bonfire!

Confined to barracks!

2011-03-20T21:55:00.001+01:00

Mr Lottie was playing golf a couple of mornings last week, so I took the opportunity to do a spot of garden maintenance

The woodland borders needed weeding, and plants needed thinning

And there was a lot of cutting back of dead foliage and collection of leaves to be done.

As usual the chooks were great company, getting under my feet - and almost under the fork.

There is a least one chook in every photo, but they camouflage so easily it's hard to spot them.

As fast as I was digging over the beds etc, and sweeping up the debris off the grass, the lovely little tinkers were going crazy at the abundance of disturbed insects etc and in their manic scratching of the damp soil they were throwing it back onto the lawn

So as a temporary measure, I put down the thick 'lumps' of wood - ex dismantled pergola to keep the soil where it should be.

Bluebell and Daisy are doing their innocent 'not me' act!

They are such wonderful company 'talking' away to each other and to me when I talk to them!

Mind you, it does delay me, as I just have to stop to look.

I am working my way around the garden - next job the salad bed needs seeing too.

The chickens are confined to barracks now - only three more days to go - it's just whilst they are on their worming medicated meals - a precautionary measure when you keep chickens - to ensure that they stay happy and healthy and haven't picked up any parasites from wild birds. They are so used to freeranging from morning until dusk, they do complain bitterly if they happen to see us! They have a big roomy run, so are not deprived - but try telling them that!

Allotment Diary Me:11.5hrs He:11.5hrs

2011-03-19T23:18:00.000+01:00

Well it looks like it's going to be another weekend like last - bright and sunny today and rain forecast for tomorrow.

For those new to my blog, these posts are just really for my own reference so that I can keep a record on how many hours I work up the allotment each year, where I plant the different crops, and just to see it evolving really.

So we made the most of today........

I spent all my time up the allotment putting wire through the top of chicken wire fencing to make it tight across the top and adding a few more posts.

I rotovated this bed, and raked off the stones and any grass or weeds I pulled up.

A back breaking task.

Mr Lottie helped me lay the rubber paths - it makes it easier to manage the plot and deters the rabbits from digging under.

I'll be making a gate for this too and getting rid of the temporary metal one.

It also gives me an easy and moveable path in the other bed too - and less weeding!

In the fruit cage it was lovely to see that the leaves are opening on the bushes

The sure sign of a healthy gooseberry bush is the lichen growing on the stems.

No sign of the broad beans yet. The next job I want to do up here is to take down the fence that separates this plot from the new one I have fenced off, and remove the makeshift 'gate'

We laid a rubber path all the way along this side of the plot right down past the fruit cage to our gate into our huge allotment area.

My lucky neighbour on the left get's his son, who works on a farm to come and plough up his plot every year. In one fell swoop, all the weeds, and rubbish disappear - magic!

Mr Lottie filled up two trugs and half filled 6 sacks of well rotted horse manure for me to bring home -it's brilliant for potting up, and saves me a fortune.

I get by with a little help from my friends

2011-03-18T09:32:00.000+01:00

It's nice to have some help in the garden with the weeding isn't it

Yes Dolly - I said it's nice to have some help in the garden - stop watchine what I am doing and get on with it!

That's it girls, get all those sprouting seedlings, after all they are the bits of corn you missed in your run!

Thanks for keeping an eye on them Snowy

They'll have it finished in no time!

Next we'll tackle a bit more of the garden

Didn't we have a luverly time the day we went to Cromer!

2011-03-15T00:30:00.002+01:00

Well the sun was out on Sunday and as we had worked so hard up the allotment on Friday and Saturday, we decided to treat our old bones to a rest and spend time at Cromer.

An hour after leaving home, it decided to rain!

Still, it didn't stop us walking along the sea front, getting windswept and soaking wet; it certainly blew the cobwebs away!

I love to see the waves crashing on the shore and all the different colour shades of a wild sea.

A lot of the properties are being renovated along the higher promenade, and are looking really nice - what wonderful views they have!

Rather windswept and damp - I was asking my husband to get a photo of a boat out at sea!

As you can see, he took a rather unflattering photo of me! It was a waste of time blow-drying my hair before we set out wasn't it - it didn't take long for it to be flat and plastered to my head!

We were walking off a rather large lunch of fabulous fish and chips at our favourite fish restaurant, and the high promenade offered protection from the worst of the rain belatedly

Allotment hours total - Me:8 He:8

2011-03-12T18:50:00.001+01:00

Yesterday and today we have spent a total of 7 hours up the allotment. Burning up the 'winter' waste that wouldn't compost - this area is designated for my potato patch this year.

We dug up and took down the fencing too - that's earmarked for somewhere else.

The fencing has gone - just a few bits of 'stubborn' wood to burn then I'll rake over the ashes, rotorvate it all and add manure in readiness for my potatoes

I rotorvated the remainer of this bed and dug out the weeds along the edges.

Early potatoes are going in on the right hand side, and onions on part of the left hand side beside what will be the broad beans in the foreground - yet to sprout.

I made a start on digging this over, then decided to crack on and build a fence..

Mr Lottie dug out the trenches, and I attached the wire to the fence posts and we both hammered them in - a bit wonky in places at the moment - but not bad

I have to dig the rest of this over, add some paths, and tidy up a bit and build a proper gate.

I have to go to all these lengths to keep out the rabbits and deer!