2012 Allotment Diary - Me: 56 hrs He: 47.5.hrs

I hate shopping - food shopping - clothes shopping - anything shopping.  Fortunately Mr Lottie doesn't mind it at all.  If I have to shop - I dash in, go straight to what I need, grab it, pay for it, and dash out - job done.  Whether it be food, clothes, household items - even the microwave and kettle we had to buy recently.  I think that's why I grow, cook, and freeze so much of my own veggies; have a friend who grows chickens for the freezer for me; bulk buy fish from the farm; and bulk buy meat from the village butcher.   Oh and freeze all my surplus eggs after gifting lots to family and friends.

So it'll come as no surprise then, that Mr Lottie went off to get the food shopping and dropped me off at the allotment whereupon I did two and a half hours hard labour - until he came back to fetch me - by which time I was nearly on my knees.   It's good exercise though - well OK you do ache - but it's just the muscles telling you that  you have used different ones than usual.

 So this is the bed that I have been saving for the Jack Be Little pumpkins.

I have been digging it over - several times - it's had wheelbarrow loads of very well rotted horse manure and composted plants etc - and in the few days that we did have rain, it's grown yet more weeds.

 So I dug it over again.  Each pumpkin has a heaped wheelbarrow full of well rotted manure, mounded up, into which the pumpkin is planted and well watered.   

It's got very very windy here, and even more so out in the field where the allotments are with no shelter at all where I am.  So I put these little protectors around them.  I bought them years ago from a lady on a forum that since closed down.  They are a simple design.  Thick plastic which has been 'welded' to form vertical tube like pockets. 

 When in situ over the plant - you stick in some canes to create some stability, then fill the pockets with water.  The least water you put it, makes the top close to create a mini greenhouse in colder weather to protect seedlings - but this time of year it's not cold - I just need wind protection - so I fill them to the brim which allows for watering by me or the heavens - you'll notice the difference in a week - I'll remember to show  you!

I weeded around the climbing beans which are finally taking off - but again the wind is causing havoc.  I added the matting so that I can pick and weed the beans easily.   

The pumpkins will cover the bed completely when they get going.

 I watered yesterday's plantings, and put the last of the pumpkins at the end of the bed in the corner opposite, next to the onion bed.   I also managed to squeeze in a row of parsnip seeds too.

 Back home, exhausted, there is nothing quite like the sight and aroma of lavender to rejuvenate and lift my spirits instantly.

 My poor Alstromeria plants have suffered this year.

The rain has made them twice as tall as they usually are - and the wind has flattened them more than a few times despite my staking them.   I am very tempted to cut some for a flower arrangement - then I might get a second showing later in the year.

Off to cook lunch - well not exactly cook it - I'm opting for a home grown salad, with some of our new potatoes, and some lovely thick ham slices from the butcher.