Sad day at 18b

No pics today folks. Remember the fruit netting I erected a while ago? The one I spent hours on, making sure it was bird-proof?

Well it wasn't.......I went to the plot today and discovered a dead bird caught in the netting on the inside. I think it was a thrush. It had obviously found a hole, flew in and then couldn't get back out again. The poor wee thing had got caught in the netting, his foot was knotted up in it, and had either run out of energy or choked himself in the netting.

I feel quite guilty about this. It was definately bird-proof when I first erected it but I must have been careless after picking strawberries the other day and not sorted it properly again.

This bird, just doing what nature intended by picking berries, was cruelly killed in it's prime.

I overcame my fear of all things dead and unpicked him from the netting and gave him a proper burial.

Hopefully that'll be the only dead animal I come across at the plot - I can't take another guilt trip.


Speak later, Christine

Whoa!!!

I cannot believe how quickly weeds grow! I knew they grow at a rate of knots but this is ridiculous.

I have 4 beds, with 'grass' in-between. However this is not lawn but a mix of dandelion, clover, nettle and this stupid grass stuff (don't ask what me what it is). This is the worst stuff ever because it keeps growing heads of seed. I cut it down - with shears, because I don't yet own a strimmer nor mower - and yet the next time I'm up there it's back.

To make things worse, my 79 year old neighbour from 2 plots down was speaking last week about giving his plot up at the end of the year. And this is down to the amount of weeds that's growing in his plot!!!!!! My uncut weeds must be the culprit for this. I feel so bad. This guy is up at his plot all day, every day - it's his life. What would happen if he gave up the plot? I'm actually trying not to think about it.

On the upside I've just lifted my lobby carpet and that is heading for my plot in the next couple of days. If I cut the weeds back to the ground and then cover them....well, fingers crossed.

However, enough of this negativity. We got our first strawberries of the year at the weekend. I say 'we' because I had company - my youngest son Scott. I think that's possibly because I mentioned strawberries! But as well as picking (and pinching) some strawbs he also helped weed the pumpkin patch. So my pics this time are our harvest, Scott and the newly weeded pumpkin patch.

Sorry for the moans........

Speak later, Christine

Monumental day

Two days ago, when I was up at the allotment I looked around and realised that the spinach and the mixed spicy salad leaves were eventually ready for picking and eating. All these weeks weeding, watering and looking after these plants and I'd actually forgotten that I'd sown the seeds in the hope that one day in the future I could pick them and eat them!

So picked them, took them home and washed them and prepared a salad with them and other bits and pieces that I had to buy from Tesco. I waited with baited breath when my hubby put his loaded fork to his mouth and..............................they were delicious!! So juicy and tasty. And I felt so satisfied that I'd help grow the wee seeds a few weeks back. That meal has certainly reminded me why I wanted an allotment in the first place - not to clear the mess and make a compost bin and tidy out the shed (although they've had to be done). No, it was to grow food for my family and friends that I knew hadn't been tainted with chemicals and wasn't shipped/flown from the other side of the world.

I'm so motivated now that I'm constantly thinking of what to grow next year, and how to serve/eat this year's crop.

This is one happy allotmenteer :D

Speak later, Christine

Told you I'd been working here.....

So skip a couple of months and we're here!

What I've got so far

shallots - they're doing fine on the surface but I don't know about underneath

carrots - hmmmm, not too sure about these. Following advice from a fellow plotter, Tooty, I haven't gone near these, either to thin or weed. So they look atrocious BUT I have confidence in them and we shall see when they are uprooted.

beetroot - I'm really not confident about these at all. There's a few seedlings but nothing to what I sowed earlier.

cabbage and broccoli - looking good - slow, steady progress

spinach and lettuce - happy with these, especially the spinach. Looking good

maincrop tatties, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries - dead chuffed with all of these.

And speaking of fruit, today I finally got round to constructing a bird-proof zone for them. I've never done anything like this before but I think it looks quite good, even if I do say so myself haha. Fingers crossed it stays upright because the wind can be quite strong at times. There's not a lot of shelter. We're sandwiched between the wide open space of a golf course on one side and the harbour entrance on the other.

My mum and dad were at a plant sale this morning and kindly bought me small brussel sprout plants. Now where to put them?......

Speak later, Christine

Welcome....

Well this is it folks - welcome to my allotment blog. I've been swithering for a wee while about whether to do this or not. I've been looking/reading a few others and I must say they're very impressive. It's really useful to pick up tips from others and actually seeing pics and also progress. So I've decided to give it a go.

On the downside though one my flaws is starting something, going at it with great gusto and then not keeping it up. I will try my best not to do that.

I'll also have to try extra hard to type more than 140 characters at a time because I'm so used to tweeting on Twitter now!

Anyway enough of this - welcome to 18b Greyhope Road!

After waiting approximately 3 years on the local authority waiting list I finally got the phone call. An offer of one of 2 plots - so me and hubby went to have a look. Here's a pic of 18b (never got a pic of the other but, believe me when I say, it was a small field absolutely full of weeds - knee high ones too. 18b was also a field of weeds but also had a shed and a decrepit greenhouse. At least there was something there. So I signed up, paid my money and set to work.

My next post will be along soon. As it's now been a couple of months since I started work at the plot I'm not going to post all the pics but just the most recent ones. Otherwise it would go on forever and I'd always be behind!

Speak later, Christine