Shed roof!

Ok so I'm due for a big update on the allotment, but just wanted to post a picture of our new skylight in the shed, it is so cool! Thanks to Baz and Andy who put it up last week. The shed is slowly coming together now, having remade all the sides, floor and roof, all we really need to do on the outside is attach some guttering for collecting rain water and really get going on the inside, which is going to be really cool hopefully!

See ya -x-

Bonfire night!!

Howdy.

Sorry it's been ages since I updated you, blog. Well here I am now. On Saturday we had our annual bonfire/watching-the-nearby-fireworks-night. We had two friends, Mim and Liz, over, and we had an awesome night which involved nearly getting killed by flying pieces of flint, eating way above the recommended daily amount of hot dogs, getting a little merry and playing uke and singing.

Yeah so we learnt that it's not a good idea to make a border for your fire pit out of large pebbles. An hour after the fire was lit, we started to notice something flying about. Then we realised the flying things were shards of stone. Oops. So we cleared the area of guests and Baz relocated the fire!! Seriously though, it was kinda scary, and it hadn't occured to us that this might happen. 

Fire number two under way, we got onto enjoying the Fry's hotdogs. There was talk of 'double dogs' later in the night. I didn't participate in this crazy activity. Unsurprisingly, Baz did.

Although it was forecast to rain from 5 till 10pm, we didn't have a drop of rain, which was brilliant.

We made it until about 2am I think, then headed home, tired, full and smelling of smoke. Was so glad when my head hit the pillow . 

Zzzzzzzzz...... See ya -x-

Our first 2013 potatoes! (June)

Here's a pic of our first potatoes, back in June, which Baz made into a yummy dish....mmm...yum.

-x-

May and June

Here's the pics from May and June and stuff we did.

May:

Cute little robin perched on the compost.

Hardening off the seedlings...

Our first lot of radish!

Mmmm yummy radish!

June:

Here's me transplanting the runner beans (above) and broad beans (below).

Above: Baz surveying the brassicas.

Above and below: inside the polytunnel.

Above: decided to put some carrots in a pot to try to get around the problem of carrot fly which only fly up to a certain height. But actually the ones I transplanted to a bed outside were totally fine.

Above, Baz's potted potatoes and below, our new fire pit!

Above, Baz and Tommy.

I'll leave you with a photo of the beautiful fox who is resident at our neighbour, Andy's, plot.....

-x-

March and April

Wow, I have been really slack with updating the blog. Sorry about that.

So how do I sum up the last six months?

MARCH:

This is what our home-made compost looked like:

I  made the mistake of using it for sowing loads of seeds into, which wasn't a good idea because loads of weeds came up. Need to remember to use it on the plants once they've germinated and established themselves!

Here's what we sowed/planted in March:

APRIL

Below is the compost we buy from the Co-op. And we use this to start loads of seeds off in the poly-tunnel and at home.

Above is the door Baz made for the poly-tunnel. The original one had zips on either side of the door, but they both broke, hence the need for a door. 

The daffs are out!!

Ok so we learnt in April that mice or some other creature dig up certain seeds and eat them!! Take two was starting them off at home! These were destined to be squash and courgette plants.

At the end of April things started to take shape in the poly-tunnel!

Above: our 'infinity herb garden'.

So that's March and April..... I'll post separate posts for May to August. Thanks for reading/looking!

-x-

Seedy Sunday and James Wong

This Sunday me and Baz went along to Seedy Sunday in Brighton. This year it was held at the Corn Exchange, in the North Laine. We went two years ago, when it was at Hove Town Hall. It was £3 each to get in (£5 for adults, £3 for concessions). We both had a little moan about having to pay to get in, but I guess hiring this venue doesn't come cheap. There were loads of stalls ranging from the ever-present RSPB stall, to a stall selling mushroom logs, to a stall about the Bevendean community pub. 

Due to a slightly late start to the day, we missed the beginning of Seedy Sunday and therefore also missed the first couple of talks. We did, however, make it to the last two. These were, 'Saving seeds from corporate control' by Patrick Mulvaney and one by James Wong, the TV presenter and botanist. The first of these was ok but a bit dry in its content. It was a lot of statistics and information, for example on how the large multi-nationals are monopolising the world's production of certain crops. When a choir started up in the hall next to the room we were in, I did start to wish I was watching them instead. 

The second talk we attended was brilliant!! Here is James Wong in action:-

When I had previously seen him on TV, I found him a bit annoying, but I found his talk to be really interesting and I made lots of notes on different things he suggested we could be growing in the UK instead of the 20 or so things which all the books give advice on.

..to be continued...

2013!!

Haven't updated this blog in what seems like forever!

Here are some pics of our last visit from last weekend...

Above is the back part of the plot, my Mum gave us these rolls of fencing some time ago and Baz thought we could use them at the back to make some raised beds. We will probably have permanent plants and crops in here, like the rosemary, and we have planted some flower bulbs, which will hopefully start coming up in the spring. There is also some ornamental grass, which we've moved from elsewhere on the plot. I think there is some bamboo too which has come through from Andy's plot next door.

This is our 'infinity herb garden'.

-x-