The Penguin
Just to show it is not all work, I could not resist showing Lianna’s penguin made from vegetables. Four weeks earlier and I think it could have been a worthy contender in the Bathford Flower Show.
This was after a hard morning helping me to harvest and also clear the peas and sweetpeas to leave room to put the strawberry runners. Not sure how many will take but we’ll see.
Strawberry runners
Not quite sure where all the time on Saturday and Sunday went on this but I’m quite pleased with it. Two double glazed windows from Hendrik fitted perfectly into a frame made by cutting two 4′ x 3′ plywood sheets left over from the Dovers Park shed floor. A coat of white emulsion inside and preservative outside to finish.
I had a rethink on the size of the beds across the top of the plot and finally decided to go for four 4′ 6″ by 7′ (thats 1.35m by 2.1m) instead of the 5 beds planned and then had to finish the digging and levelling for the frame. I had to dig up a load of parsley and it seemed a shame to waste it. It seems very hardy and Shaun had expressed an interest in some so I heeled it into a bit of rough ground on his plot.
Backin the cold days around Christmas, idly chatting with Peter and Alison on the plot below ours, we talked strawberries. They have a large area which has spread and they offered me the overspill. A bit of digging in the hot sun yesterday saw me planting twenty nine strawberry plants at the base of the soft fruit row. A little easier tonight and I put in a row of poached egg plants to attract the wanted wildlife.
I had to share these with the world. I sowed these on Monday evening and three days later you can see almost all of the sweetcorn has germinated. I have moved the propagator up to the windowsill as I suspect the garage is just a little too dark.
You can also see that some of the pumpkins and cucumbers have germinated. I managed to get two pumpkins last year with the bigger weighing in at one and a half pounds. It made an excellent pumpkin pie that we ate a few weeks ago.
I have also just sown another six pumpkins as “give-aways” and to prove to Shirley that you can grow them here.
I couldn’t resist showing you this.
Cathy and her family put this together for our annual scarecrow competition. The small page crows were originally holding the cloak. Unfortunately the crow had gone last time I looked so I’m glad I caught it in time.
With family issues to the fore I managed to beat Monty Don to it and put my Swift potatoes in on 1st April and most of my onions in on the 3rd. I also dug some of the remaining leeks hopefully giving room to create the new beds. I didn’t bother with a photo of the onions since there’s not a lot to see!
Just a patch of scrub grass in late February 2007. Still awaiting a spraying and handover to us. Our house centre top – closest we could get!
I’ve been trying all sorts but no matter what I try I can’t get the pictures across to the editor.
It’s a shame since I had a great one of a pile of manure!
A bumper harvest in mid September 2007 after getting my allotment towards the end of May. My target for 2008 is to cover the whole plot with produce.
