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Growing seeds in eggshells

22/2/2013

No gardening for a couple of days as we have had some very bad weather here, a heavy frost and a powerful wind that adds to the chill factor and brings the temperature down, it was -3 today.
I picked up this wonderful tip from the internet, growing tomato plants in eggshells, aparently they need watering very sparingly or there is a danger of overwatering them and killing the seedlings.
I like the idea of sprinkling egg shells around plants to deter slugs, I have heard of this before and I can imagine how the sharp edges of the eggshells would irritate the undersides of the slugs.
AN IDEA THAT I WILL BE DEFINATELY EXPERIMENTING WITH THIS YEAR~~

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Jack frost~~Every picture tells a story

20/2/2013

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Winter has returned with a vengeance and the ground is rock solid and impenetrable. Indoor jobs today. Love to all, xx

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Very frosty early start on the allotment 18th February

19/2/2013

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Another frosty start, woolly hat and thermal socks weather. The hoe was turning over the soil in lumps. I managed to get an hours work done.
The pesky pigeons have nibbled all the tops off my Purple Sprouting Broccolli as usual. This seems to happen most years and the sprouts usually seem to grow back and produce a good crop. The Onions and Garlic are looking nice and healthy and the Rhubarb is thriving. I think a lot of vegetables need a good silvery frost on their leaves to get them going.
I am really impressed with the way my perpetual spinach is lasting all the way through what has been a very cold snowy and damp winter.

This Starling was on the feeder very early this cold and misty morning.

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First good gardening day of this year Saturday 16th February 2013

17/2/2013

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ALLOTMENT
A chilly but pleasant start to the day and I managed to plant my first early potatoes, I have gone with Pentland Javelin again this year as I always seem to have good success with this variety. The soil is looking good and I think the added horse manure that I have incorporated will do wonders for the crop of all the various vegetables this year. I also had a session with my hoe.

GARDEN
I managed to make the first cut of our lawn at home today, we have had quite a lot of rain lately and it has been very good growing weather. The lawn grass was long and straggly and definitely needed trimming.

The next morning after I had cut the lawn. The frost had formed in the impressive lines left by the lawn mower on the grass.

The snowdrops are growing furiously and spring bulbs are sending up leaves and buds all over the place. It is wonderful to see the seasons rolling around

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Sad Secretarial Relinquishment.

13/2/2013

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Some of our committee members and our WRAHA, carnival stall.

We finally had to say farewell to our position as Secretary of the Weybourne Road Allotment Holders Associaton. We have both enjoyed our time serving with various committee members, but sadly due to other demands on our time we find it began to be a little bit too much to fit in.
One of the fondest memories I will always have is of earlier days when we first set the committee up. Several of our erstwhile committee members got involved with Sheringham carnival and we actually went on the carnival procession in fancy dress. Unrepeatable halcyon days that will live for a long time in our memories. A couple of the local traders in town had generously donated quite a lot of fruit, enough to fill a wheelbarrow, which we pushed along with the procession, handing out oranges and bananas to the local children. We were all dressed as scruffy as possible in our old garden clothes carrying an assortment of allotment garden tools. Dorothy our wonderful social secretary actually came dressed as a sunflower.
We also ran a stall on the Carnival weekend on Sheringham promenade where we were selling home produced allotment vegetables to raise funds for the association.

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Removal of our Garden Arch 9/2/2013

9/2/2013

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Saturday morning, a misty sort of very damp start to the day ruled out a visit to the allotment, so I thoroughly read the newspaper over breakfast. .
The weather brightened up considerably and we had noticed that our arch in the garden was looking quite drunkenly windswept and leaning over to one side..
We bought this arch about 7 years ago when we laid out the garden, it looked very nice when it first went up and over the years it has looked glorious covered in pink and purple Clematis and white Jasmine flowers. It was a very good buy and we have had good value over the years. Sadly it had come to the end of its useful safe life, and I reluctantly had to remove it. I managed to find new homes for our live Clematis plants and hopefully they should survive the trauma of the transplanting.
Both Margaret and I think the garden looks better and more open after this sad goodbye as the latest photograph at the end of this post shows.

So farewell to our lovely arch.

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A very brief visit to the allotment~ ~ 7th february 2013

9/2/2013

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The allotments looking out over the North sea

Sadly I have not had a chance to work on the allotment all this week due to a very nasty spell of inclement weather. We have experienced very high rough winds, rain and sleet and snow.
I did manage a very brief visit today, as Margaret needed some fresh leeks and spinach for her cooking. I did not wear gloves as I pulled and trimmed the leeks and my fingers were so frozen, I thought they were going to fall off. I have quite a lot of baby spinach leaves on my plants so I picked a nice bag, to take home.
There was not much wild bird life to be seen, just the usual rooks and wood pigeons flying round. It was a clear morning over the sea and I managed to get a couple of nice photographs of the view of sea from the allotments.

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Sunday morning Winds and a Woodpecker

3/2/2013

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Green Woodpecker
As I entered the allotment gate today, I was lucky enough to see one of these beautiful birds flying from tree to tree. I reached for the camera to get a photograph just a little bit too late as my impressive bird flew off to another tree before I could bring it into focus. Sadly he will have to live in my memory banks with the aid of this photograph that I managed to download from the web. (File: Carol Park).
The cold windy weather once again restricted my gardening output and I just managed to hoe one of my strawberry beds, before I headed for home.

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Saturday 2nd February~ Cold~WinDY~hail

3/2/2013

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The wind was icy and biting today, when I reached the allotment I had every intention of planting the garlic I purchased yesterday and hoeing a few of the beds.
Wow! With my fingers actually aching from the cold and with our wonderful bracing sea breezes biting my ears, I did manage to plant my garlic. I have filled this onion bed now and I can let Mother Nature take her course. I have to admit I was not brave enough to stand hoeing the vegetable beds in the inclement weather, so I packed up and headed for home.
The afternoon brought a mixture of rain and hailstones and I was unable to do any more outside jobs.

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Allotment early ~then back garden at home

2/2/2013

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I got started on the allotment as soon as it got light at about 7am. I just about managed to plant the garlic that I purchased yesterday before the rain came and sent me home.
While we were shopping later in the day, I noticed some organic garlic bulbs on sale for 50p for two. I bought a couple of packets and I am going to plant them on the allotment. The garlic is Spanish so it should adjust quite nicely to our Summer climate.
Later in the day I spent some time in the garden at home and I planted my two new blueberry bushes. I noticed there are quite a few early flowers about so I photographed a few.

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John~~Battling with the elements, pests and diseases in my struggle to keep the garden growing. A constant daily struggle that will be recorded here.

Gardening is such a delightful pastime. I spend time on my allotment almost every day of my life, and the sensation of pure satisfaction never ceases to amaze me. I get so much out of this pleasure, I think the benefits are so huge that the government should legislate and make it more available to everyone. I will list just some of the obvious reasons here. ~~
1) Fresh fruit and vegetables and other produce.
2) Fresh air and an intense feeling of getting close to Nature.
3) Healthy exercise without the necessity of machines that are found inside a gym.
4) The satisfaction obtained by growing plants and watching and caring for them through to maturity.
5) A regular occupation that you can make into a routine, somewhere to go to at a certain time every day.
6) The companionship of like-minded people, with whom you can get ideas and swap tips on your mutual interests.

There is peace of mind in a garden

Growing seeds in eggshells

Jack frost~~Every picture tells a story

Very frosty early start on the allotment 18th February

First good gardening day of this year Saturday 16th February 2013

Sad Secretarial Relinquishment.

Removal of our Garden Arch 9/2/2013

A very brief visit to the allotment~ ~ 7th february 2013

Sunday morning Winds and a Woodpecker

Saturday 2nd February~ Cold~WinDY~hail

Allotment early ~then back garden at home

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