Not my intention......

To be so long before I posted again, but to be honest it's not like I've had much to write...this week however is a different matter. Half term has meant some time off for me and I have used it wisely (in between the horrific downpours we've had) and got some serious work done on the allotment.

Need a reminder of the neglected field that was once my allotment??

This is a very unkempt Legume bed.
Due to circumstances this year I didn't
even get it harvested, Oh and say 'Hi' to
Juliette in the background who by trying to
move out of the shot actually put herself in
the centre of it!! lol.

The strawberry bed is a complete mess and also needs
re-locating, I'm not sure if it is too late now this year.
Advice on the timing would be welcome.

Here is the first part I tackled, all the new
potatoes are out of the ground and they
were a truly bumper crop this year. In their
place i have the garlic and onions to be planted.

So as you can see I have made a bit of a start here...the potatoes came out the weeknd before last and then the ground was dug over and weeded in preparation for the roots on Sunday. However that's not all I have done this week....what I now have is beginning to really resemble my allotment again and is making me feel a lot better about the weather changing so quickly.

So you can see to the back here that I have weeded and
winter dug the roots bed where the veggies have
been harvested. I will be putting some broad beans
in here and pulling the beetroot soon too,

Here is the same piece of land as in the first
photo but from a different angle. As you can
see all the weeds have been pulled and it has
been dug over ready for winter. Hard work all
round but very satisfying!!

It's not quite all plain sailing yet however...there is still this...

The brassica bed still needs a tidy up
and I need to get the sweetcorn pulled up!

And then of course there are still the old potatoes to be dug and the strawberries I mentioned earlier to be sorted. Oh and the raspberry canes need cutting back, the pond area sorting out...and...and...and.
Okay I'm stopping there before I burst the bubble I am in about how much I have got done this week. I think I have tackled the hardest areas first though so hopefully (fingers crossed) everything from here on out will be childs play!!
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Garlic, onions, beans and weeding!!

So I have been to the allotment this weekend but have to admit if wasn't overly productive. I did get a fair  bit of land cleared around where the brassicas are planted and took the netting off them to give them more room for growth over the winter. I have to say I was very excited to see some lovely head forming on the calabrese....not sure if this is the right time of year for them to be doing it but I am sure we will enjoy them anyway!!

I have got my garlic ready for planting and I am also trying autumn onion sets this year so I will let you know how that goes. I have also bought my broad beans ready to plant. I know a lot of people don't plant them until spring but I find autumn planted ones never suffer as badly from blackfly!!

Currently in the dehydrator I have my garlic and some tomatoes. These will all be ground to powder to be used later in cooking. I did this last year and it was a huge success and it is so much easier to have one kilner jar of tomato powder than hundreds of jars of tomato sauces!!

No pics of the plot today unfortunately but I do have this to share with you.....

Trojan with his pigs ear.

I had shares in a quarter of a pig which came last week. I had asked for an ear too as Trojan loves them and here he is tucking into one of his favourite treats after it has spent 12 hours in the dehydrator. Picture is a little blurry as he was far to busy eating to pose.....there was nothing going to stop him tucking in!!
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Hunt The Trunk.

So I needed to have a bit of fun with some secateurs. I started with this.....

is is a tree???

And after about half and hours or so I had this.......

The tree is free!!

On closer inspection I see this......

bush growing around trunk.

So I think I need to get more of this cut away and maybe find a way to get it killed off so that the tree has more freedom but how to do it without damaging the tree itself is the big question...any ideas would be much appreciated.
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Barrowby Village Scarecrow Competition 2015

Okay so I told you about the scarecrow competition in my last poat and just thought I would quickly show you a couple of pics or our entry!!

Juliette and Annabel busy making the
body for the caterpillar

Elysia, (believe it or not Annabel's twin!)
cleaning up after painting more of
herself with glue than the balloons!!

 So there were just a couple I took whilst we were in the process of making the 'scarecrow' though I use the term very loosely as I don't think the end product would scare anybody!! The theme this year was books so we decided on 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' as we could incorporate some fruit from the allotment into it. We made the caterpillar out of paper mache balloons which were then painted and for the butterfly we sculpted a frame out of garden wire which we then covered with tissue papper and 'mod rock' for the body. There were some truly fantastic entries...unfortunately ours wasn't up there and in the league but we were quite proud of the finished item none the less.

Our completed 'Scarecrow' in position
and ready to be judged!!

A close up of the butterfly.

A close up if the caterpillar.

Like I say we were rather proud of what we made but next year strive to do better!!

Unfortunately I don't have photos of the other scarecrows but if you would like to see them then follow this link and you will find a link at the bottom of the page for all entries of this year. You never know you may find some inspiration for yourself in there!!
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