2012 Allotment Diary - Me: 41 hrs He: 36.5hrs 2012 Eggs: 303

Monday (yesterday) was so hot hot hot.  Lipreading in the morning, then in the afternoon I mowed the back lawns - twice.  The battery doesn't last for me to do it all in one go, so I had to finish it off today after spending three hours up the allotment.

 You wouldn't think that it would take that long would you - but we had to weed the beds again.

You wouldn't believe the amount of weeds had grown again, even after we had painstakingly dug them out before we put the wood chips down.  I did pick another big bunch of rhubarb though.   Shane phoned on Monday to say that he had mowed my paths for me - but they don't look any different to us, - except in one place some wood chips had been scattered - there aren't nice lines like there was.

The chickens are laying half a dozen eggs a day on average, sometimes more.  I am still leaving some out for Karen the post lady - although she didn't see my sign today as we didn't get any post.

I was absolutely shattered when I came back from the lottie - so we just had salmon shanties for lunch - Pat with chips and me with salad.

I am still getting up around 7am and doing a village walk and  getting the papers.  My muscles ache but it's worth it.

Here are some photos of the garden today.

This  bed is looking really lovely, but because of the bright sunshine you can't see the depth of the colours.

 This lupin has really gone 'mad' with all the rain we had and is loaded with lovely pink flowers - not quite out yet

 The lawns are looking green and lush and the trees and shrubs are getting lovely leaves.

 The strawberry plants are overflowing their beds

 I am so looking forward to getting the fruit - there are so many flowers on them.

I have three beds full and am hoping that they don't all ripen when we are away

 This afternoon I finished off the mowing - even though I was shattered, but it's worth it as I am really pleased how it looks

 The back of the raised beds look nice too!

 

There are nice flowers in the gravel

 I dug over some of the flower beds too in the woodland area.

 Dug over and weeded these raised beds at then end of the fruit cage

 The woodland bed is really coming into it's 'own' now

 And the shrubs are bursting into life - so too all the flowers

 I gave it a big overhall and pruned lots of shrubs in it at the end of last year, and of course we added the railway sleepers which came from the bed where the garden room is now.

 The remainder of the sleepers I used for the bed you can see in the background

 I ache for England - but I sure am happy with the way the garden is progressing

 My mixed leaf salad bed is at last beginning to mature

 And there are lots of seedlings appearing too.

Even the beds at the corners are looking nice and neat now that the chickens are unable to get to the gravel

That's it for today - off to geat my tea - cooked mixed fruit salad.