Sunday 20 November 2011

A long awaited update.........

So it's been a while but I am finally giving you a little update...and it will be little as there really isn't much happening down the allotment now the colder weather has arrived!!



Firstly above and below we have mushrooms...now these didn't actually grow on the allotment but in the garden lawn and weren't picked for eating as I am quite apprehensive about mushrooms and as to weather or not they will do us any harm if eaten so the lawn was cleared of them but they are quite nice looking...could anyone identify them??

We went down the allotment to do a little bit of tidying...collect the last of the ripe tomatoes and to do a little rubbish burning...that's right we are once again allowed to burn, but only in an incinerator bin and only rubbish off the plot which I am perfectly happy with...it means I know longer have to ferry any rubbish that can't be composted back home to the bin...and it keeps you warm on these cooler days too!!


Above..the incinerator...£10 from Wilkinsons!!

I also finally got the blackberry bushes moved to their new location behind the shed where they can go wild and hopefully keep a few of the weeds down back there to. Membrane has gone down round them and some gravel placed on top so this area is once again starting to look likes it belongs to me...I will take some pics. when I next visit the allotment!


And finally above and below the kids having some fun with the rubbish before we had to burn it....you can't beat the fresh country air to put smiles on their faces!!



Well that's about all there is to tell for now. I have missed a couple of weather updates but there wasn't much to share anyway. Still not much rain to speak of which is making working on the allotment still quite pleasant though a few days have been very overcast and miserable looking!

The trees have just about shed all their leaves now which i am quite happy about as although I hate the barren look of winter...I hate having to sweep the leaves continually. Temperatures have been quite mild though I did wake this morning to thick, freezing fog so maybe all that is about to change?!?!?!

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Sunday 6 November 2011

Allotments spuds!!!!!

So it took all week but I finally managed to get down to the allotment. As it was Guy Fawkes weekend I am sure you can imagine how dreary and miserable the weather was....foggy with misty rain in the air which meant I got very wet....but I had a plan to get the potatoes harvested this weekend and nothing was going to stop me.

weedy allotmentallotment cleared of weeds

First we had to clear all of the weeds ...I know the potatoes are in their somewhere!! Once that was done the digging could commence!

You have probably realized that I am not the one digging in the photo above...That's right...I enlisted a little bit of help! Due to the recent rain the ground on top was very muddy but you didn't have to go too deep before you met rock hard concrete which made digging very hard work!

allotment dug and potatoes removed

Once the potatoes were out and the ground dug then the allotment looked ready fro the winter.

King Edward potatoesDesiree Potatoes

Above left, King Edwards. Above right, Desiree.

There were more potatoes harvested than what you see above but nowhere near the amount we got last year. Maybe the weather had something to do with it. I have never watered my potatoes and didn't this year but we have had an incredibly dry spring, summer and even autumn and so maybe this is a factor for the amount of produce. On the other hand maybe we missed loads??? Or maybe they just didn't want to grow so much this year. Whatever the reason I'm not too worried. It is quite a good crop if not my best ever and very few of them contained bugs and so not many had to be thrown away.

Currently the potatoes are in the wheelbarrow in the greenhouse so that they can dry off before being put into sack in storage until they are going to be used!!

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