Time flies

I don't seem to be blogging much recently but life has been very full.

We have finished moving plots on the allotment and are trying to get fully caught up with the growing season. The garlic and shallots did pretty well given we moved them halfway through the spring and I now have bundles of garlic drying in the back of the house. The fruit bushes seem happier and the baby trees even have baby fruit though one of them has lost them all in the June drop. The established tree is a bit of a every other year cropper apparently but has a few here and there.

We put in some new flower planters at the front of the house instead of a wall or fence as it's a very small area but can you see something wrong with them?

The tomatoes and huge squash that seem to be growing on one of them were never planted. That's what comes from using the compost from the allotment !

volunteer squash, just what sort is it???

A closer look at the squash. I'm try to decide if I should dig it up and transplant it to the allotment or just leave it and find out what sort it is ! We have tomatoes and potatoes cropping up in various unwanted places on the allotment which surprises me as they are both tender here and we had the coldest December on record !

In more cooking related news I finally bottled up the apple 'beer' which turns out to be more like apple wine but very nice and I made 2 gallons of elderflower cordial.

 2 gallons of cordial in random mixed bottles.

Not sure how long this will last us but it was really easy to make so will definitely be doing it again next year probably in bigger quantities.

Allotment News

I have decided to start posting allotment updates here rather than on a dedicated blog. I have failed to keep up the allotment one over the last year and now we have decided to move plots so the name isn't even right. Plus most of what we grow will end up on a plate so it seems sensible.

Anyway to explain the move a bit more, I like our original plot but it's been very hard work getting the compacted heavy clay into working order and much of our time has been spent trying to get a fence/hedge in and chasing Treestump around the site as our plot isn't secure. Last year it took us so long to prep and dig beds as the spring was so wet that by the time we got the potatoes in we were behind on everything else and most of it barely grew. Also with no hedge to mask us as most plots have and being right on the carpark we have been very much in full public view. We have not got as far as we would have liked due to a big learning curve, my physicality problems over the last few years and it just being a lot of work with little time and we didn't like feeling we were letting the side down particularity as it is the allotment sits 100th anniversary this year !

So move forward to this year and a plot just over the carpark comes free. It has been gardened by someone we know who is a professional gardener and I know has a similar outlook on many things to us and has put a huge amount of effort into getting i up and running properly. It is a lot of work to move all our stuff including the shed and greenhouse but once done we will have a plot that is fully up and running, all the beds are sorted and have been dug and had organic matter added and so on so it's a matter of keeping them weeded and planted rather than trying to get them going in the first place. Plus it has compete hedges so no more running off small person and far less on public view even though we are still basically in the same area. It even has an established apple tree !

Course there as some problems, it can be quite wet certainly it is at this time of the year but that can be worked round and some areas are worse than others and it's a standard problem in may parts of the site so would probably be something we had to deal with whatever plot we had.

So I spent a while getting wet today getting measurements but now have a plan of the plot and can start working out where the shed, greenhouse, soon to be rebuilt polytunnel and various baby trees are going to be moved to. Then all being well we will see how much we can move one day this week as we are pencilling in a full day of such things as half term will be over.

I have a few things started off in the greenhouse and some more in the house so hopefully by the time we get moved we should be into the growing season proper and can get a whole bunch of things into the ground directly as well.

Dinosaurs ate my tomatoes !

Exhibit one - the tomatoes.

As you can see there are clearly teeth marks on a couple of them. So Treestump who was hovering suspiciously around them was asked. "Are those your teeth marks in the tomatoes?"

Answer " No not my teethmarks !  Dinosaurs !!! "
So there you have it must be true my two and a half year old says so Dinosaurs ate my tomatoes !!

In more likely news I am ridiculously pleased with my baby parsnips which we will have roasted for tea possibly drizzed with honey. Why? Because they are the thinnings from the allotment and I have a good bunch more nicely growing bigger for later in the year. Parsnips are often difficult to get to grown and I have failed on many things growing wise but potatoes and parsnips it seems I can do !

Baby 'Snips, still muddy from the ground.

Also I have a lovely present from a friend.

A purple knife ! What could be better? Cuts nicely too and the cover fits very tightly meaning it could be taken camping and be both safe and unlikely to get it's edge ruined.