Sunny Saturday

Today has been a lovely day - sunshine all day.  Mr Milly came to the lottie with me today, due to the terrible weather he hasn't been to the plot for a while and I think he was quite pleased!  I have had a bit of doubting Thomas moment in the last couple of days - and felt that I had lost my way a little,  so Mr Millly's company, reassurance and a bit of guidance was really needed!

We did make the most of the sunshine and spent most of the day at the plot - tonight we both have beetroot red faces, it must have been hotter than we realised!

We made a start with the grass and with my new grass strimmer/brush cutter I cut all the borders and edges of the overgrown grass - immediately that made the plots looks much tidier.   Then we set about the brassica cage.  I had decided earlier in the week that I didn't like the one I had put up - too tall, too untidy, too unstable,  just too not right for me!  Yesterday I had deconstructed it giving us a clear run at it today.   Last year I had picked up some hosepipe from Freecycle,  at the time I didn't really know what what I was going to do with it, but convinced both of us that we would eventually find a use for it.   Today the use was found,  and we have made 3 brassica cages, 2 short ones for cabbages, kale, and lettuces and one taller one for sprouts and broccolli.   We used bamboo canes connected with short pieces of hosepipe,  debris netting to cover them and all neatly pegged down.   I was on a roll then and used the off cut pieces of cane and more hosepipe over the strawberry bed ready for their protection netting to be placed.

New brassica cages

Strawberry bed ready for netting

The next job was the potatoes - again they had appeared above the soil, Mr Milly made a start and was able to cover one line of the tatties,  and of course he covered them differently to me.   A bit of tuition and a lot of supervision followed and the rest of the tatties were covered in the same way.   I think one more earthing up only will be possible as the earthings are now quite tall and we are running out of soil.   Hopefully we won't be seeing any more frost now and one more earthing up should be Ok to protect the potatoes and give us a good crop.

Across the middle of the plots - all the potatoes nicely earthed up.

Talking about crops - we had a little harvest today;-

Spinach from the front of the plot,  a few rhubarb sticks,  four lovely leeks and a couple of spring greens.  The trug was quite full and considering it is not quite the middle of May a pretty good harvest we thought!

Tidy plots.  The Bunting seems to have multiplied!

A few more jobs are planned for tomorrow,  the weather forecast is good so hopefully all the planned jobs can be completed and we are nearly ready for mass planting!!

A funny old week

I think it must be holiday blues - but everything is a bit of an effort this week!

Blogger hasn;t worked properly for the last couple of days, so no update from me.   It appears to be working now - fingers crossed!

I sowed some more grass seed at the weekend - I've decided that Grass paths are the way to go.  The first lot of seed we sowed has come up lovely,  it could do with a little cut now though, but I have yet to find a lawnmower.  I'm looking for a simple dimple little push mower - none have come up on Freecyle in the last month or so, and none showing on Ebay near enough to home to make it worthwhile bidding on one.   I think I will leave it another week or so,  visit the  car boot sale on Saturday morning, and if none has still appear I might have to bite the bullet and buy one!!   Anyway - back to the grass seed,  this new lot has not yet germinated and no little grass seedlings have yet appeared.   The pack did say 4 day germination and today is day 6 and not a single sprout in sight!  It is a different seed to the one I used before, I'm going to give it until the weekend and if there is still nothing I'll go back to the original seed and try again.

Another little harvest has come home from the Lottie;-

The tomatoes are from the garden

Lots more french and runner beans growing but not quite ready for picking.  We we are going to freeze these ones until we have enough for a meal or two!   Its exciting seeing things beginning to grow and working out whether they are ready for picking.   My Girl would be picking as soon as they appear - she has to be restrained!!  LOL.  It is fun though!

We wandered around the lottie plots today - I like to do this now and again - gives a bit of motivation and lots of ideas.   Today we found this one,  with the most delightful pumpkin patch - something to add to the list I'm thinking!

An ingenious use for pallets - grow the pumpkins and squash through them, 
keeps them off the grown and stops them rotting - Brillinat!

This picture - just because its pretty!

Green Fingers

Look what we picked today;-

Our very first Allotment harvest!!  Woohoo!!!  A little round courgette!  My Girl had the honour of making the very first harvest - we were quite excited!  I think they are supposed to be picked when they are about tennis ball size - this one is a little bigger,  there is also a yellow courgette nearly ready and lots more little round and yellow courgettes starting to grow!  How exciting is that - we might have green fingers after all!

The garden veggies are doing OK too,  we have had a little harvest of the cherry tomatoes, lots of lovely bright red ones and some Sungold ones too they are really sweet - delicious!

I had pegged some strawberry runners a little while ago and today was the day for them to leave their mother plants and new little strawberry plants are ready for the Lottie - just have to get their bed ready for them,   that will be a couple of weeks away yet as we have a couple of busy weekends coming up.

And the latest injury for our house -  it's Mr Milly this time!   He had a good time at the go carting yesterday with My Boy and his friends,  but Mr Milly is in a lot of pain today it looks like he has cracked a rib!  He has been sitting very uncomfortably all day, unable to do anything at all and a sneezing fit this evening was very very painful (I must admit me and My Girl did have a little giggle - he did look funny and we couldn't decide whether he was trying hard not to sneeze again or not to cry!!  LOL)  Lots of TLC for a day or two required!

Our little harvest did make him smile though - or maybe it was the happy dance me and My Girl were doing as we presented it to him!!  LOL :)