Daddy's Birthday Weekend !

We have had another lot of lovely weather and we have spent quite bit of time down at the allotment, working around Daddy's birthday, BBQ's, Grandad & Nanna visiting, splashing in the paddling pool and generally having fun in the garden at home.

We have put a net around the redcurrant bush as the redcurrants are just starting to turn pink, so we want to keep the birds away ! The early potatoes are just starting to form flowers which is nice to see. Daddy & Henry did a huge pile of weeding and general tidying of the plot, and Mummy sowed some more seeds :

1 tray of Clapton F1 Cauliflower
1 tray of Kestrel F1 Beetroot
2 Pumpkin plants (Spellbound) - for Henry's Halloween Pumpkin !
2 Squash plants (Sweet Dumpling).

After sowing all that we did a massive water of everything as everything looked in desperate need ! Then we put some slug pellets down to try and stop the slugs ans snails munching on our veg !

Bank Holiday weekend - 23-25th May 2009

Well, for once we had lovely weather this Bank Holiday weekend. On Friday mummy was able to sort the greenhouse out and has planted all the tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucumbers and lettuce in the greenhouse. She also harvested the leeks (made a lovely leek & potato soup) and a few radish.

Then today (Monday) Henry and I went down and did alot of weeding, planted the sweetcorn where the leeks used to be. We added some more peas in their rows as only a few of them have come through - pesky mice !!!

Tuesday 19th May 2009 - And still it rains !

The weather doesn't look to be improving at all, but Henry and I popped down after school today to water in the greenhouse as Mummy is on a course for the next 2 days and not going to get a chance to water anything - not that anything outside needs watering I might add !

We planted 4 tomato plants in the greenhouse from the trays, 4 Lollo Rossa lettuce in front of them, and we planted 10 climbing French bean plants outside where we had put the cane structure ready for them.

On the way home we noticed the leeks are looking like they have a flower developing so we'll have to gather the leek harvest this weekend and make a leek & potato soup. We bumped into Dave as well on the way back to the car and he had a look at Henry's radish and said it was fantastic - there are quite a few ready for picking - about the size of a 10p !

Sunday 17th May - Rain, Rain & More Rain !

We took advantage of the short break in the rain today and went down for about an hour after lunch. Mummy weeded 2/3 of the bed at the back next to the rhubarb and planted out 12 broccoli plants which had been growing nicely in the greenhouse in one of Great Nanna's seed trays. She also transplanted 3 more Lollo Rossa lettuce outside into Henry's plot to replace the small ones which have obviously been munched away by greedy slugs & snails !

Daddy weeded inbetween the shed and greenhouse and behind the greenhouse and then put black matting down and covered it with bark chippings so it's looking really good and neat now.
Henry helped out doing a little bit of everything :-) I think sometime soon it will be time to plant the other things which are still in trays in the greenhouse - I'm looking forward to having more plants actually in the ground in the greenhouse rather than in seed trays !

Monday 11th May 2009

Went down after school for a quick water of the greenhouse and we also decided it was time to plant the courgettes into their new home outside ! We put one in Henry's patch, 2 at the end of the 'Roots' bed and one at the end of the potato bed too.

Sunday 10th May 2009

Henry and I popped down after lunch today before Kane's birthday party. We put up the support ready for the climbing French beans, and we also put up a circular support in Henry's patch as he wants some too ! We watered everything in the greenhouse, transplanted some Lollo Rossa lettuce to Henry's patch from the greenhouse and also transplanted some Tom Thumb lettuce out of their tray into the greenhouse in front of the chilli plants.

Saturday 9th May 2009

We all went down to the allotment first thing this morning to water the greenhouse and spray the broad beans as they have the start of black fly on them. It was a successful visit and Daddy was please to see the purple and yellow chillies growing !

The courgette plants are not too far of needing to be planted out I think - they are giant !!! The peppers have come through now as well, so we are doing well !

Thursday 7th May 2009

Henry and I popped down after school today just to do a quick water of the greenhouse before Henry had his second swimming lesson at Waterworld. We were so excited to discover the chillies have started to grow now - I don't know why, seeing as they have done nothing for quite a while, but it is nice and satisfying to see now !

Friday 1st May 2009

I went down this afternoon, whilst avoiding the showers, just to water the plants in the greenhouse. Everything looked fine and was coming on nicely in there. Still no chillies on the plants despite the flowers so will have to read up about pollination for them.

I also planted 4 Brussels Sprout plants in the bed with the Spring cabbage in at the moment at the front of the allotment. Then I dug up one Spring cabbage plant to have with our tea tonight !