First Contact

I feel I have been so long away from my once cherished blog. I was held back, denied the access to think straight or care about the lottie by the deepest, darkest, depths of depression and consistent anxiety; I'm still fighting it, who am I trying to kid. It will be with me all my days and learning to cope and continue to fight is my only way forward. So forward we go.....

** Yesterday The head gardener took a day off work and we had a great wee time together; I love those sort of days, they feel stolen and thus more fun. We decided that our National Trust membership, which had lapsed, need renewing and we did it so easily online and then, went off to Rowallane Gardens.

Sadly the weather turned on us and flipped into heavy rain, so no garden explorations :(  However, when you have a really talented potter on site (Mark) and a cafe, you can cope, believe us! Retail therapy...

Matt's (the resident potter) studio AND the items we have that he artfully created

*****

And now, the allotment! - my first visit since sometime last September.

So I did it, I bloomin' did it! Here, a photo to prove it to myself and the world; if you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen this posted in real time, as soon as I got there. I was so nervous/excited.

There was much to be done and still much more, haha. We are doing the Charles Dowding 'No dig' approach this year so there was very little hand forking even (it's my favourite hand tool, weep).  If you have an exceptional memory you'll remember I reviewed his book on the topic in 2014 and now we're converts.

I write this as I lay blanket swaddled on the sofa exhausted from hard work and anxiety. Andrew dropped me off and then back for a little more! and to tidy up but wow, we got a lot of clearing done in those 2+ hrs. Pictures speak louder than words as they say :)

We had the whole place to ourselves which was great for me but also criminal! It's been THE day we've all been waiting for - the perfect Lottie day with no rain or wind though it quickly got frickin' freezing once it turn 4.30!

Andrew has been working away on this plot every now and then (proud wife) and the well rotted horse manure that he is mulching with is glorious, sexy stuff :)

Two wheelbarrows and two trugs of clearing done (that's just me) and a traditional subway sandwich - it looks like we're back! Next time I'll take my 'proper camera' and not just rely on my phone *blush*

Happy plotting, love
Carrie

All about those Bs

In good old fashioned 'Sesame Street' style, this post is brought to you with by the letter B....

All I am about to tell you what happened on Saturday, a rare day in my life when I was able to cope and more than that, actually enjoy being at the plots!

This year, (as it is for everyone on our allotments) hasn't been going too well; we have been plagued by birds and the weather has been terrible. Thus it was that I found myself, on arrival, pulling out all our diseased and pigeon decimated broad beans. They were still in the flush of fruiting, some had flowers still to mature, but we had to say goodbye, even to the baby successional ones planted in a wee triangle further along the bed.

Beside them, the mangetout are starting to look in a bad state too, though there is plenty of flowers and pods on them. The birds have been nipping off the tops of each plant and every growing tip, they've been tugging at them hard too as quite a few plants were barely in the soil at all and had started to crisp up and crumble away from the bottom up. It really could get you down but I wasn't having any of that.

Pretty much all and I mean all (we had about 6 berries left) of our gorgeous blackcurrants were gone on Saturday. Only a day, one blasted night, after the bush had been full and gloriously bursting. Boy was I looking forward to a dark, juicy harvest only to have it snatched away from me by - you guessed it, the bloody birds. They ate every ripe one and took those on the verge of perfection and ripped them off and left them on the ground :( Such sad times.

I weeded wildly, fuelled by my annoyance for a while but soon calmed down. Andrew was off again to Gleno village for more wood - by goodness there was a netted fruit cage to be built this day! Damnation - thou shall not pilfer our blueberries! *shakes fist at sky*

the fruit cage has been working!

But, I mean look  - bird beaks have gotten to our Kale and the Pak Choi. Plus the Kohl Rabi  and PSB looks so sad. At this rate we would seriously need to consider netting our whole plot; one great big fruit cage!

So I turned my back and focused my attention on the beetroot, which amazingly Andrew had forgotten about. But then he has been doing everything else and was on Saturday building us a lovely gravelled parterre path on 14b. We really wanted a big tonne bag of the stuff but had to be happy with some smaller bags as the deliveries were over for the day at the depot. However he did a fabulous job.

Plus the Blackberries or as I like to call them Bramble berries are fruiting like crazy over there, it really does the heart good to see that one bush so big and healthy this year when so much else is a little disappointing.

Anyway, back to the beetroot, both yellow and red varieties had been sown direct and forgotten about so I thinned them all out, put the really tiny ones straight into the compost and the rest into our harvest bags. Oh did we have a feast! Now the rest will have more room to grow and become big and beautiful.

Lastly, I missed my own Blog Birthday. It was on Monday and it passed me by in a whirlwind. So happy belated 7th blogiversary to me - yay! I must remember to eat cake at some time :)

More photos to come from that day and some from Sunday too when Andrew made a quick visit :)
Love and Hugs
Carrie

harvest time on the allotment

This is a mostly very enjoyable post with much to be pleased about and a fabulous dinner for Andrew and me at the end of it. It's all about the harvest bag he brought home from the plots on Saturday.

Let's get one point cleared up and put behind us right at the outset. The carrots had carrot fly (I didn't know about this) and when lifted they had carrot fly larvae in them. Oh gross, how disgusting to watch them try to flee their host and to think, it was happening in my kitchen, on my draining board! I have a graphic photo I am going to share in the interests of science, be warned...

Can you see that in the carrot behind there are 2 more larvae coming out, the longer we watched the more emerged from all the carrot harvest and they were very quickly dumped in the bin - by Andrew, I couldn't touch them.

* We planted a variety called 'fly away' which are meant to provide carrot fly resistance and it did work for a few weeks but then this. We will be doing everything next year, all the tips and companion planting possible - I love me a carrot and so does Maggie.

****

On with the rest of the harvest. The yellow beetroot, ugly even after a good scrub, but super tasty..

I love the beetroot 'dye' that comes out and disperses into the water after scrubbing with our Mr Carrot brush.

The kale is still going, though not for much longer, which is really sad as I love it and it seems to be one of the best foods for you too, if you believe the hype around it. Superfoods, why must there always be something in fashion - good food grown organically and picked at the right time is always going to the best there is for you!

Not a thing wrong with the beautiful newer harvests of scallions, mangetout and green garlic, long may we eat these glorious fresh veg. For a summer snack, mangetout dipped in hummus is a tasty and much healthier nibble than crisps any day! Plus the garlic is drying in the shed so we'll have it for months :)

Our pak choi is coming to an end now, only one left and yes they all had little holes caused by flea beetle but that's harmless enough.

Then is was time for a stir fry with added chicken and rice (which we can't grow on our plots). YUM.

****

Goodness I started writing this post way back on Monday but I've been going through one of my sleepy periods where I sleep nearly all day and night. Getting back to normal now though (in time for more action on the plots this weekend!) and have so much still to share and blogs to read... Plus it's going to be my blogiversary on the 10th - I can't believe it 7 years!

Hugs and love
Carrie

My timing isn't so great

The stars aligned today, the medication kicked in, that fabled golden orb shone in the blue sky and I felt good.

I saw the bench, my cosy hideaway and couldn't help but giggle, it's perfect. Rustic, handmade by the man I love, with a gravelled area and with two healthy climbers to help shelter me. Maggie of course had to nosey but funnily wasn't so interested in it than the exceptionally tiny dog that just wandered on to the plot :)

I got to work and suddenly (because today I care about such things) I noticed half finished jobs and the real state of my flower beds, which I have simply been ignoring bar some weeding. Oh they were meant to be my project this year but so far I haven't had the best 2015 and boy does it show here. Half the lovely seeds I ordered haven't been planted and I never did get round to buying another permanent flowering bushy plant.

I start with the roses. Dead heading is pleasant and fragrant but then the black-spot is more noticeable and I realise why Andrew bought me a pair of secateurs a few months ago and encouraged me to garden.....most of both rose bushes need cut away, including lots of sweet buds too. The plants look great, well, healthy at least once I'm done; I'm scratched and bleeding (which is only fair after their neglect) and set an intention to look after them better.

Then on Monty's advice I cut back the two oriental poppies that I missed in their fabulous moment of flowering and cross my fingers that they may come back for a little flush again. It's so weird to think about it, I didn't really do anything this year, I simply couldn't care less and not one seed or bulb has been planted by my own fair hand. It has been all about the therapy of simply being outside in the air and getting my hands dirty weeding and creating pathways. I really miss the sunflowers this year :(

I finished the evil weeding between the two flower beds and we plan to get a ton more gravel delivered soon so we can have proper paths for once on 14b. It looks ok and though I'm tired (Andrew so lovingly telling me I look like I am about to collapse - thanks) I want to do more,  put my mark on the place but it's time to go. It's bloody rotten timing as I actually want to be here and get suck in, not something I can admit to that often. Plus the very first cosmos and dahlia are blooming, both are white and I think of new hope, new beginnings.

A quick harvest of some broccoli, great broad beans and 4 mangetout, a sit down on the new bench and then off we go. I realise *blush* this post is completely about me but I shall chronicle as much of Andrew's day as I can in the next post.

*******

And then when I came home I had a panic attack thinking of how utterly crap I have been and am. I was a mess whilst Andrew calmly cooked some dinner (with our wee harvest). But later, once I'd settled a bit I read my own 'Allotmentherapy' essay and rediscovered the reason I go there at all, seems I do talk sense sometimes :)

Love and hugs
Carrie

P.S. Our Instagram accounts are great for on the spot photos which are sometimes better than these I put up!

The prodigal daughter returns

I made my return to the Allotment yesterday, the famous phrase of 'be the change you wish to see in the world' on my mind and the beautiful music of Elbow in my ears. I was calm, I was ready, I was back; Carrie was back.

The paths had been cut, what a blessing, as I was able to walk to my plot without fear of falling or worse - falling onto something I couldn't see in the long grass. Andrew was with me, it being lunch time and I was so glad as the panic did set in but with him there I was okay. It calmed down quickly enough and soon I was alone. Alone for 2 hrs! It flew by.

****

The shame now lays entirely in our hands - the paths cut, it is easier to see just how the weeds have taken hold of our plots. Oh how I needed to get stuck in :) I would be there today too but for the rain and that thunder earlier and plus, I'm excited and want to write this down before I lose that sense of achievement.

I did a lot more work than I have photos for but this gives a general idea. No weed was left unpoked and prodded and I even broke a tang off the hand fork in one attempt - I got the blighter in the end! I've heard Baking Soda is a good anti-weed defence so I'm going throw a load of that around the patio bit and see if it works (I'll let you know). Goodness knows I don't use the stuff in the kitchen; I never bake unless it's Christmas *blush* and even then.....

So I did some beds too and under the bench but these photos are from when Andrew joined me after dinner - we are a power house team! Maggie naturally oversaw the works and later ended up right up close to the fire - see she wasn't working hard enough, I was warm alright!

This was a mess, more than you can see but what a sense of achievement and the red/blackness - that's weed suppressing membrane and some old carpet. The 'after' photo is shaky and dark but I was shaky, you'll see why in a moment and it was dark :)

Then I had the privilege of digging up the very last of the early spuds. It was going really well right up to the very last potato which exploded in my hand - boke! It was runny, like a fresh egg and smelt so disgusting that Maggie tried to get away from the area but her lead stopped her and I tried not to throw up everywhere (we had company at that point see). I did naturally take a photo of it - had to share the complete horror :)

It was dark when we left - Andrew had been working over on 14b (that is a scary weed infested place I am just too delicate to tackle at present) and also cut the grass with our crappy little push mower (blisters on his hands poor thing).

I'm tentative when I say this.....I'm looking forward to going back. Plus I have so much more to share with you about harvests and lots more photos :) Yep, I'm back :) woooo hoooooo!!!!!

A happy explosion of growth at the lotties

Though I wasn't at the lottie too long on Tuesday (it's still blasted well cold here!), I did run around like a huge friendly burglar with my camera, capturing hope filled photos; bundling them up in my swag bag and running off home to enjoy and share :)

So here my lovely partners in hope pilfering (a new classification of crime, haha), I share.....

So many Blueberry flowers

Cherry Blossom and some tiny fruits

Garlic

potatoes doing well but we still need fleece on hand for frosty nights

peas being planted

baby broad bean



first green gooseberries

the mint plant that never dies :)

first red gooseberries

so many redcurrant flowers

just a little of the Jersualuem Artichoke plants

Honeysuckle

tiny alpine flowers - such joy

succulent and babies

Baby Scallions

Baby lettuce






Hope you like it - I am finding these photos and a few new ones of Andrew's potting shed seedlings quite uplifting - especially as there were many that Andrew feared weren't going to do anything and now they're flourishing. I'll post more photos but as for tonight - I am being looked at by a lovely bottle of Red Wine - yum ;)

And tomorrow we are off to the Garden Ireland Show - hurrah - first time for us :)

Just like a fairytale (or something)

I went to the lottie on Tuesday on my own as well! Leaving the house with Maggie I was up there by 5 or a quarter too and got to work (with thanks to Elbow on my MP3 Player) in the sun. Andrew arrived at 5.30ish and had the biggest ever smile on his face - not sure if I have ever seen him quite so happy, hahaha.

We had a picnic and a dander around the plots together, praising this and despairing at that (so many abandoned plots!). Then it was back to work. We weeded like there was no tomorrow and Andrew managed to stake the Broad Beans and prepare the broccoli bed.

Me and Maggie chilling after our picnic

We came home at 7pm and the sun was still shining. But since then I have been asleep - seriously. I went to bed on Tuesday night and woke up for Breakfast, in the knowledge that it was Wednesday and therefore my Support Worker was due - but she was ill and couldn't make it. I sat down on the sofa, a little deflated, got a little chilly and wrapped up in my blankie. I woke up at 4.30pm hahaha and even napped after dinner. Wednesday done. Ummm I seem to have lost a day :)

This morning it was the postman that made me get up (at 11am!!!) and now I am sitting here typing and half asleep. So I guess Monday and Tuesday, though big leaps forward for me have somewhat taken it out of me too. I need a wee nap....

*************

Oooops - 5.15pm now... *blush* but I couldn't help it!!


Rhubarb!!!

all harvested now

I have to update you on what we're eating lots of ~
Purple Sprouting Broccoli ~ eating and freezing,
Garlic ~ stored from last year, it just never ends!
Rhubarb ~ eating it in compote form and giving loads away

Oh but the amount of blossom on every single fruit bush and tree, the spuds growing so fast and all the seeds that are germinating! It craziness, the whole place it turning wonderful shades of chartreuse, lime, dark green, yellow-green, pale green, blue-green, dead grass yellow (yes!!) and white and ooohhhhhh, it's fab! Too fab in fact - I'm going to have to show you photos over two days. Tomorrow will be cute baby plants - today? how the lottie is colouring up :D

plum blossom

Cherry blossom



my huge Echinacea coming through - bees love this

so many new raspberry canes

anyone want these - I hate them

my Primula survived it's move :)