23 Feb 2014 - Seed Swap

The 3rd annual seed swap was today and this time, I'm determined not to lose my goodies!

Bumped into some old friends I hadn't seen for a few years, had a catch up with people from other allotments, and even from our allotment, which is odd, but I work shifts and sometimes have the whole place to myself!












I remember the first Seed Swap, it was very "Island-ish and Traa de loor", some signed in, everyone just threw their packets of seeds in a heap on the table and went to catch up with people they haven't seen for years/ages/days, grabbed a drink and finally got round to looking at the seeds!  These days, it's a bit more organised, althought last year I did notice that we may not have paid much attention to whether we'd put our seeds in the right boxes, because I remember someone checking the goodies and announcing that something wasn't a brassica and then sorting out all the boxes.....you'll notice that the unknowns either go into a "Random" box, or just put on the table to sort themselves out!  It's laid back and works well for us!

my friends ran away from the camera!

a runaway, still hiding!

Me & Jan, hadn't seen her for about 3 years!

This year I was organised ......... I even had a mental list of things wanted/needed, told my significant other to make sure I didn't come back with too much, a bag that I wasn't going to lose and raffle prizes brought along!

It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to work out that my plan went out the window!   To start with, there were no strawberries and I think I got the only bag of potatoes.  But there were some herbs and tomatoes, but then I got carried away with the exotics!

I'm not sure all these herbs were on the list....

Only the potatoes & tomatoes on my list!

I got carried away with "interesting"

and these were just plain bizarre!

splashed out on some new gloves too!

I'm fascinated with what a brussel sprout/kale plant looks like & then what it tastes like too!  Then there's the other thing which "tastes like Cumin or Salty Roast Beef" ..... fair enough, but what does it look like!!!

Well, as they say, curiousity kills the cat!

19 Feb 2014 - Checking out the storm damage!

You may or may not have heard about the recent storms we've had......  here's some pics of the wave damage!

5min walk from my home

5 min walk from my home

And this was from the second high tide, we had worse in January!  So you can imagine what I was thinking when I finally got the combination of time off + nice weather and was able to get to the allotment.  I decided that I would accept whatever happened and just fix one thing at a time.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that my fence (I put that up myself, made from my mate's old shed & a lot of sledgehammer work!) survived quite well.  One panel down (now held up with the help of net curtain wire!) and one panel on a bit of a lean (now supported by a tyre).

before

after

Apart from that, we did quite well, so I could get on with just weeding!  This is the Three Sisters bed, which I think I'll keep as that.  I've decided that as there are 3 different crops working together, crop rotation doesn't really make sense.

before

after, with compost

I also got a nice surprise of goodies growing and ready to take away.  The potatoes (you won't be surprised to hear) were all taken from a bed that didn't have potatoes planted in last year!  If you're interested in the apple tree, I got it at our local farmer's market, but here's the website.  I very proudly dug out a 3 litre bottle's worth of mares tail roots (hahaha, prehistoric monster.....take that!)

garlic & onions growing

Manx Codlin tree

As usual, wildlife just rushes up to greet me, or in one case, I got chased to the car by a herd of chickens & a cockerel shouting at me!

I've got a bit of work to do, but most of the beds are covered up, the wind has had a field-day with the bottles I hadn't managed to tie to the tree out the back and there's a bit of pruning of fruit trees to do.  I'd forgotten how happy I am at the allotment, so I'm looking forward to it!

Main plot, back section

Main plot, front section

Second plot, from the back

Second plot, from the front

And here's some rubbish - one's a pile of compost (doing quite well) and the other what survived from a 2012 Christmas present (obviously a gardeners glove, not allotmenteer!)

Happier than a pig in poo!

28 Apr 2013 - the other fence!

I've been really slack updating my blog this year, so I'll just admit that I'm doing this today, 24 July 2013 and going to backdate it so it appears when it was actually done.  There, admitted guilt, now forgiven!

This fence goes down the other side and I have to say that I didn't do this bit, my better half did.  I did the "from shed to fence" side, if you want to have a nosey.  We'll have a race and see who's lasts longer!  Nothing like a bit of competition at an allotment!

Our neighbours on that side had given up and torn down their fruit cage contraption, which ripped down most of our shared fence- the grass, weeds and nettles were getting really high, so he had to dig away at the fenceline, rip out what he could see of the old mesh that was lost in all the greenery, before the new fence could be put up.  Also, most of the fence posts had been ruined.  Nothing like a challenge, huh?!










 And here's some after pics:

16 Apr - 2013 - Pheasant shooting time!

I didn't get any photos - but here's a recipe for having palpatations and heart failure......

I lived to tell the tale though!

There I was, minding my own business, the only person at the allotments (which is in the middle of nowhere, turn left) and having a break, admiring the view with my headphones on (quite loud)......
when a pheasant flew low over my shoulder.....
squawking so loud I could hear it over the music.....
if there was a roof, I'd've hit it....
instead cursing everything I can think of, and concentrating on not having a heart attack!  

All of a sudden, a b.b.dog jumps over the 4ft fence (that I very nicely put up this year)..... 
and nearly landed on me!  

Continue with heart failure (and I may have screamed, not sure).....
while dog is looking round for his pheasant!
I turned round to see why this random dog (who's head is at my thigh height!) is here....

As if I haven't had enough of a shock......
there's a man with a gun....and I'm standing next to his gun dog.....
and now trying very hard not to look like a pheasant!
The dog patiently waits for me to calm down, then asks how he's to get out of here!
He must speak English well, because I told him that he jumped over my fence, he can jump back again!
Which he did....and nearly landed in the frog pond!

Here's a few pics of the view, my fence, a pheasant from last year
and the frog pond.  IF I had been holding my camera, I can guarantee the pics would be blurry, or the camera dropped!