Fast forward not magic

so!! my last post had been written a few weeks ago but not posted till now so what you are seeing in this post isn't magic but just follows on from the last post.

How exciting it was to have our first proper pickings from the allotment. Dan had been up to do some weeding and came back with these little or not so little beauties. we were very pleased that we had fleeced them and that they hadn't been eaten by slugs or birds. They tasted very very nice indeed.

Our second pickings came from our broad bean plants. We had a lot of trouble with blackfly but we sprayed them with a soap solution which helped and ended up with some very nice tasting beans.

Our chard seeds did very well and we have an abundance of chard plants. This is really nice when cooked quickly with a sunday roast or in a stir fry. The boys really love it as well which is a bonus.
Another thing that seems to have done well is our peas. You cant beat the taste of a pea fresh from the pod and i have to admit that i was the first to try one. I just couldn't wait till i got home. Took me back to when i was a little girl picking them in the garden with my dad.

We have been very lucky so far with our pickings. We have had some lovely fruit and vegetables and its so nice to think we have grown them. The boys especially Jack think that it is great that we can just walk up the road to collect our ingredients for tea. Harry is always asking to go to the allotment.

Our early potatoes seem to be ready but i wasn't sure so i had a sneaky peak. This is what i found.

We are going to go up with the boys and dig them up so i covered them back over for now. Our main crop are growing well and hopefully we will get some good potatoes from them.

While i was weeding and watering one night our friend who gave us a lovely book before came along with another one. Its so lovely to read and the pictures are amazing. Who knows? maybe one day this could be us. Till then, we will just keep weeding as there is always weeding to be done.

Been a while

A lot has happened up on plot 5 since I last wrote the blog. It has been over a month and everything is changing. Our plot actually looks like an allotment believe it or not. Compared to what it looked like this time last year. A lot of hard work has gone into it and we are really happy with our efforts. We are being rewarded with some lovely looking fruit and vegetable plants.

2014

2015

Visiting the allotment is now done in shifts. This is really because Jack and Harry haven't learnt about not treading  on the new seedlings and that not all plants are like herbs and can be pulled up straight away. Having said that they are enjoying growing things in our mini greenhouse at home. They were really excited to see the beans emerging that that planted. They both help water them and enjoy checking on them every day. The bean seeds were given to us by one of our allotment neighbours and they originally came from his grandfathers beans.

Dan has been visiting the allotment in the evenings on his way home from work and I will visit when the boys go to bed. It is really lovely and quiet up on plot five and the other night I was kept company by the swallows. They did a lovely dance for me. Our early potatoes have been doing well and we have been earthing them up. Hopefully we will have a good crop. Dan put in our main crop last week so we are all done planting and just have to keep our fingers and toes crossed.

The beans that we started at home in our mini greenhouse have all gone in now. Dan made some supports and the beans seem to like their new home.

We planted broccoli seeds and we were rewarded with some lovely plants which have now been planted up on the plot. We have also planted parsnip plants which my dad kindly brought from warwickshire for us.

In keeping with the recycling theme up on the allotment we brought a push along lawn mower from our local recycling centre for a £1. A bit of oil and a sharpen and it was as good as new. It does a lovely job.

The strawberries have been emerging over the past few weeks. This was the first signs of them.

We put some fleece over them to protect them from the birds. So glad we did. Here is our first strawberry

I was a little sad to see that something had been eating our beans and peas think it may be pigeons. May have to cover them over but we will see how they go.

The garlic and onions seem to be doing well as do the strawberries. We already have some signs of fruit so think the next job will be to put some straw around them and cover them with netting so the birds won't eat them.

Spent a good two hours weeding the beds on Friday and even plated some more peas. Really pleased with what we have done so far and every time we visit we love to see the new things growing.

No time for resting. Keep weeding.