Huzzah! 1st BBQ of the year (and some jobs)

Sunday was allotment day for me over the weekend. Saturday was spring cleaning day at home. I am prepping for visitors so I've been busy with jobs whilst I have time. What lovely weather we had this weekend. Sun, and just the right amount of heat. Bliss!

Here's a snap of my chitting 'Rooster' potatoes. Not too many but I'm looking forward to eating these. I had planned to plant them out but I didn't get time in the end. A job for another day.

I checked the seed progress about the allotment and spotted this teeny tiny pea making an appearance. Currently it is the only one but I am hoping others will follow its lead. This shoot is about 1cm high!

The four pics below show the flowers I planted in some of the mini-beds I now have. I wanted something pretty I could cut and take home to my flat. I am particularly looking forward to the Ixia.

This photo shows the mini-beds. The 3 on the right are where I planted the flowers. Nearest to us is two rows of Ixia, the middle one is Gladiolus in the centre (maked with 4 little sticks), with the mixed annuals and Californian poppies around the edge. The furthest bed is the Dahlias. There are currently 12 mini-beds dug. There will be 15 soon. I was thinking this would be a nice size to work with, about 1m x 1.5m. Makes everything a little less daunting! I need to plan what will go in each bed but I reckon some more flowers could be in order, even mixed in with veg.

We had a fire. With MASSIVE flames!

Then, as the weather was good, I had my first lottie bbq of 2010. My friend Claire was chef. We made use of my big bbq as a stand for a mini one. Less bending down. Already it is asparagus season so I picked some (bottom right of the photo, on the shelf) and steamed it with a little water in foil parcels on the bbq. SO tasty. I love asparagus, me :) You can't get any fresher than that.

We celebrated with a bottle of bubbly, just because we could. I love this pic of Nick watching the cork fly into the stratosphere!

So, this is the tasty meal - veggie kebabs, fresh bbq-steamed asparagus, salad, bbq prawns and bbq-steamed salmon with lime and coriander. Yum! Trying to be healthy you see.

After dinner we released some pigeons... (!)
'Bob' the plastic pigeon, and his new friend 'Boo' went into the ground.

And Nick's bike got attacked by an alien! It is actually a left-over parsnip he found. I am sure it tasted revolting. :) He must've looked odd with this wedged on his bike as he cycled home.

So, they are all the snaps I took but I also popped in a 2nd trellis for sugarsnap peas next to the normal peas and cleared more dead raspberry canes away. I also planted the honeyberry, goji berry and blueberry I got from Suttons, but the pots were full of slugs and the plants look sad, so I am not holding my breath they will make it. Claire weeded the asparagus and Nick did lots of digging.

I hope you had a great weekend and the weather was kind to you too.

One girl went to mow...

So, all this heat and rain has made everything grow crazy-fast and the worst culprit is the grass and the weeds! I was fed up of 'wading' through knee-high grass when watering my allotment, so I borrowed a lawnmower from my friend Claire. I spent the early part of this evening at hers, being shown how to use it and of course, mowing her lawn for her!

My friend's lawn, half done - the mower overheated so here it is, taking a breather :)

Claire had a go at mowing too - a team effort. Look at that idyllic view she has from her garden. *Jealous!*

I went off to take photos of her lovely cherry tree...

Then we wrestled to get the mower in my car (annoyingly scratching my painted plastic bumper - argh!). Got to the allotment and mowed the grass there. No rest for the wicked! Here is the 'before' photo...

...and the 'after'. Much improved, though it might not look it on these photos!

Hmm, not the best footwear to cut a lawn then an allotment in! sorry about the feet photo!!

I've taken lots of 'what's growing' photos as I've been meaning to do it for ages. I have put them on flickr but will blog about them asap here. Just one before I sign off, for Jo at The Good Life...

Asparagus and spring onions cleared

This is part of what I was up to yesterday. I wanted to weed around the crops I have growing to take away competition for nutrients and to see what I've got. This is the asparagus and spring onion bed after I weeded it. You can see top right what it looked like before - very weedy! I hand-weeded as the asparagus is coming through now and I didn't want to damage it.

I have helpers coming today - my friend Claire who came with me the first night I saw the allotment and Paul who will be watering for me whilst I am on hols. I am hoping it will be fun and we get a couple of the large beds ready for planting.

I was going to measure the plot so I can plan what goes where yesterday but my tape measure has gone walkies, so I will do that today as Paul has one I can borrow. I don't want to put things in without planning so I need to measure asap.

I met another neighbour last night, from the opposite side of my plot - Bert. He seemed nice and I think he was worried I was digging up the asparagus! I expect having an allotment is like living in a village - everybody knows what you're up to. :) Bert was telling me Rob, who had my allotment before, "kept it like a palace". Hmm, no pressure there then!

The shed of wonderment

As promised, here's a post about my shed. It is pretty special :) My friend Claire has decided it is very 'Joanne Harris'. It does look quite romantic in a very quirky way. I guess the unique decor also has a hint of the texas chainsaw massacre about it too! It was such a thrill to find out my allotment included a shed, and a good-sized one at that. What made me chuckle is that it has a proper front door, including a letterbox and porch!! I do need to get a number for it as although I have 2 plots, only one has a number. I wonder if I sent myself a postcard it would make it to the letterbox...?! The horseshoe on the door is a warming little touch of good luck. Hope it works for me.

The first day of 'owning' the allotment I didn't have the key to the shed so I had to admire it from the outside. What struck me most was the window. It is pretty big. Once it has been cleaned up I can admire my hard work from it. It's going to be useful too as I don't have a greenhouse. I should imagine the shed stays pretty warm as it has a clear-plastic corrugated roof which lets in lots of light. I'm sure it will function pretty well as a greenhouse substitute.

Having a shed has the added bonus of water collection via a gutter. There are 4 water butts next to the shed, all linked together so water flows to the next one as each fills up. The water in these has been standing for a long time though and I think they could benefit from a clean out, but they're useful to have. No tapped butts though, however it should be easy enough to fill the watering can.

Once I got the key for the shed from 'Betty' on day 2 it was a real moment of excitement. Who knew what mysteries and surprises awaited me as I turned the key for the first time. Yes, I really did take this before I went into the shed. I thought it would make for a good photo.

Once in, this is the sight I first saw. I was like a child on Christmas Day! ...is that a plastic pigeon?! - yep, it sure is. He's now called 'Bob'. There's a better photo of him to follow, along with the retro clock I am not going to reset. Allsorts of things had been left - tools, seeds, sacks, pots, propagators, markers, etc, even a shelf full of books!

I've made a list of the titles in the column on the right of the blog. Looking through them, they seem really useful so that'll be something for me to peruse when it is too dark to work on the allotment. Being such a novice I find a real comfort in books. Let's hope they are clear and simple. I like some of the titles such as "Vegetable Plotter", which sounds like some sort of sinister activity!

Allsorts of things have been left in the shed, of varying usefulness! Here are some of them...

plastic pots, markers and metal jugs

potato sacks, canes, a dusty director's chair and a pedal bin full of old seed packets! - i threw the bike pump out!!

'bob' the plastic pigeon and the retro stopped clock

looks like the past owners had the right idea with the wine glass! lovely slate markers too

a box of string sacks, the other containing lots of seeds - see list in the column to the right of the blog

Lots more shed-related photos to follow. Will post this now and post again about the shed later. Don't want to overdo it!