Friday 8 October 2010

My 200th post..and an epic day at the allotment!!

Well as I said in yesterdays post no matter what the weather brought today I was going to get some work done!! The day dawned misty and grey and although the mist lifted it stayed grey but the air was warm and it was dry so turned into a perfect day to get some serious work done on the allotment.

When I first got there dread hit me at the enormity of all the tasks that had to be done but I took it a little bit at a time and soon got into the swing of things.

I started off in the greenhouse by picking all the peppers and chillis and then emptying out the tubs followed by emptying out the melons. I got 2 melons in total of the three plants which wasn't a fantastic return but they were very tasty and I will give them another go next year. My bell peppers didn't do so great only producing 5 fruit off t
he 3 plants but 3 of those did go red this year so that was an extra achievement....I don't know why bell peppers don't like to grow for me?!?!?! My chilli peppers did great and produced lots for me and I have plenty to string and dry for over the winter..I even had a few that turned red!

new potatoes for christamsThe tubs from the chillis and peppers now have potatoes in them...hopefully in time for Christmas.

I then got stuck in planting my winter lettuce in the ground in the greenhouse...I actually bought these several weeks ago and felt very bad about neglecting them for so long! I just got all this finished when I had a visit from an allotment neighbour 'Dave' (not the fence guy Dave...this is another one) who brought me a present over. It was some seed heads from leeks and he told me about...erm I think he may have called them bullets...or pellets...well maybe some of you will know...anyway the bits that grow in them that are leek
s growing on and not the seeds and apparently if I take these off and put them in the soil in the greenhouse I will have leek plants ready for next spring...I was excited to hear about this and happy to learn something new so I will definitely be giving it a go...Dave said they always grow better than those from seed.

hothouse lettuce
My lettuces planted in the greenhouse

I haven't planted these yet but it is a job for tomorrow morning.

Then it was the great tidy up. The squash plants all came up as did the sweetcorn..I have two semi orange pumpkins and a few courgettes which I picked and were ok, I also got two more good corn cobs but that was all...After all these were up and sorted in the composter I then had a good look at the celeriac which was also gifted to me from Dave who gave me the leeks. These were a huge disappointment...although the tops looked great under the ground there was nothing so I decide to pull all these too and add them to the compost bin. That done I was able to survey my land a bit more..and also see all the weeds...so
much work still to be done.

pumpkinsMy slightly orange and slightly round pumpkins.

At this point I got a phone call which meant I would have more time on the plot than I first anticipated as I wasn't needed for work so I was very happy!!

I popped home for a cuppa and the toilet..(I'm sure you really wanted to know that...lol) and then headed back down and picked a huge bag of runner beans before tackling the weeding......I got quite a bit done before I went home and cooked up a curry for tea...Ok I cheated a little with the curry as the sauce came out of a jar but it tasted good and was very warming!!


After tea back to the plot to do a bit more weeding and then when I got to a certain point I thought it would be a good idea to rough dig the newly weeded land for winter...I borrowed Kate's fork as it was at the end of my plot and was handy.


I haven't mentioned Kate at all this year...She has done really well and for the first time since we got the allotment has manged to plant her whole plot out...she also had some beautiful cauliflowers which I was very envious of...she even stayed on top of the weeding a bit more this year. Kate is trying green manure this year and has chosen 'rye grass'. I wish her luck with this but I haven't used and as I am way to cautious about it and have heard as many bad reports on the stuff as good which has kind of put me off!!


So that was today's work...I came home in the dark..very tired but also very satisfied with my accomplishments...I think in total I spent about 6 hours on the allotment. I plan to go again tomorrow to finish the bit of weeding where the pea
s were and also to weed round my caulis and cabbages which I know are there somewhere and I am quite excited about as I can see a couple of lovely heads forming on them.

weedy brassica bedI know there are brassicas in there somewhere!!!!

I still haven't got my Desiree potatoes dug up and they may not get done tomorrow either but I know they will be Ok in the ground!!


I read somewhere once that you know you are a real gardener when you have to wash your hair to get your nails clean...well I washed my hair twice tonight and then conditioned it and still had to get the brush out to scrub my hands and nails clean so I guess I really am an epic gardener. :-)


So now I am off to lay on the sofa and watch movies or knit and relax before it all starts again tomorrow!!


Oh and on a totally random note...how do you spell 'Chilli'?? No matter what I seem to type the dictionary tells me I'm wrong but if I bring up variations then 'Chilli' isn't there!!

.

4 comments:

  1. Congrats Tany. You are true gardener alright.

    Had the same problem with chillies chilie chilly - er capsicums!

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  2. What a great day you had. And I've always spelled it chilli but I could be wrong...lol
    Cograts on 200 posts.

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  3. Wow, you got loads done. I need a day like that on my allotment, sadly it won't be today as it's raining, typical. I've always spelt chili with one l.

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  4. You have been busy and I klnow what you mean about cleaning nails by washing hair!.

    We can never grow celeriac either and don't have luck with bell peppers which is why we tried the pointy ones. These were much more successful - the pepperes are smaller but at least we got lots of peppers.

    (I think it's chilli - makes me shudder just to type the word!)

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keep it clean...keep it relevant...I look forward to reading your comments!!