The allotment without me

This is a super huge catch up post and boy does it make me feel all the feels. I'm embarrassed and ashamed as Andrew has done everything himself, I'm proud of him, I'm sad that it doesn't interest me and actually being there causes panic, and I'm amazed that the plots around us are in such a wild state that it feels so pointless to even try - is this all a waste of time?!

plot just before ours - ggrrrr

So Andrew and I were coming home from a trip to Belfast on Sunday and he needed to go in to the plots to get some food for us. Ahh, sneaky - that got me there off guard for the first time in months. I could have stayed in the car but I walked down, just with my phone and had a wee look. Here, this is proof that I was in fact, literally there -

24a
OK so this is the first born plot, the original and the best. The one that once won 'Best Allotment Garden' and which this blog was all about for a long time. It still feels like the important one; there sits the shed, the benches, the compost bins, the soil there has my blood, sweat, tears and adrenaline in it from those first exciting months of allotmenteering.

what you can see here: (with thanks to Andrew typing these lists!)
* left side - courgettes, sweetcorn, broad beans, french beans, mangetout
* right side - kale, kohlrabi, purple sprouting broccoli, garlic, beetroot, parsnips, carrots, spring onions, turnips.

standing at the entrance to 24a

14b
Okay, so it's ours too; in fact is was gotten under my name. However, the blackberry, rhubarb, poppies and roses are the only things I ever feel a connection with. Andrew has worked so damn hard over there but the asparagus has failed (I saw one frond) and I have been too ill to use the rhubarb this year or look after any flowers.

Good new is the woodland area trees are looking good and there is a nice wee under planting of herbs. I forgot to take a photo but hey, these are all terrible phone photos anyway :)

back half of 14b

a tidy up and this would show some nice flowers and many to come

We have thought often about giving this half plot up but when you think of the money pit it has been and the hours of work to get it to this stage were food is growing it breaks your heart. Plus 3 sides of it are coming down with weeds up to my thigh height with mostly grasses, nettles, dandelions and other unwanted seeds constantly floating over - arrghhhh.

I only managed about 5 mins there this first time and then I had a panic attack and had to run to the safety of the car. Thank goodness I have been taking my hayfever medication though, it could have been deadly!

* So far this year we have been eating *

rhubarb

mangetout

broad beans

spring onions
lettuce

potatoes (grown in big pots)

courgettes

mini carrots

gooseberries

With much love and hopes for more blog posts (and much better photography) to come,
Your Carrie xx

Day 2- Ecotherapy and anxiety

Lo and behold my friend! I went back to the plots for round two on Sunday, which was another fabulously blue sky, super dry day. Two days in a row at the allotments after 6+ months of absence and boy did I put my nose to the grindstone, toil in the mud and ultimately... bedazzled!

Before and After of the two large asparagus beds - check out the wee box hedging plants; on day they will be a wee hedge

Both half plots are looking transformed and if only there had been a few more hours in the day, they would be looking perfect right now. We worked so hard I marred my back, knee, neck and hand, hahaha. But hey, we were out working with and surrounded by nature, plus Maggie was there :)

Zen Maggie at the Plots for the first time in 6 months :)

Andrew's incredible transformation of 24a has been captured in a flip book style of photos (he's very clever!) Bask in his glory by clicking the link to his Instagram :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCTDi2MsGIU/?taken-by=gaulta

*****

OK. A lot of what I say about my time at the plots is bravado. I do not find it in any way easy and take sedatives before I go and sometimes even when I am there as well. I am constantly checking my back, checking on where Andrew is and am always aware of who else my be on site and hence alert to every noise they may make. If a person walks in the direction of our plots I am the one suddenly needing to get something from the shed, whilst muttering under my breath for the ground to please swallow me up.

At home the panic sets in for a while, the exhaustion and anxiety spilling out and accordingly I end up be-swaddled in my blanket on the sofa.... It doesn't get easier the more I do it, I'm just a determined fighter and know there will be good times for the memory banks.

Really, I abhor talking about myself in so personal a manner but I want to make sure no one confuses the messages I'm sending out. Yes I am an advocate for ecotherapy BUT it is not a panacea, the illnesses don't go away.

The true joy comes when I look back on my disaster-free time there and that's why I revel in my before and after photos, those little notes I take and the hugs and kisses from my amazing hubby and my cute-as-a-button wonder-dog.

Anyway, I'm off to read a book...

Happy St. David's Day!

baby daffodils for St David's Day :)

Love
Carrie

Excellent progress on the plots

First off I want to tell you it was snowing when we went to the lottie on Saturday - we are so hardcore!! Okay so it was hardly anything but at least it shows our commitment and it could have got bad; we didn't know, we didn't care.

I managed to finish the wedding of the flower bed - hurrah. There was one utterly gross bit there in front of the very faded sign and the pointy bit... There was 5, yes count them, 5 hand trowels full of maggots. Boke! They were wiggly and fat and I couldn't find what they were eating but it was a moment of pure 'I am woman, hear me roar!' - I didn't even squeal (though I felt like it inside). Now I really need to sort out the grassy paths and make a new sign, then I'll be much happier

Raspberries moved

Andrew has wanted to do this for a while now as the summer raspberries were really awful to harvest over on 24a with the trees blocking access down one side. Plus they were throwing out new shoots into the paths over there and needed a lot more room. I am so impressed that he did all this by himself and the berries will be easier to pick and protect - I swear, netting is going up and "birds! listen up; they're mine this year!"

Strawberries Weeded

I took on the task of weeding the Strawberry bed. It doesn't look that awful but it was and the pure clay that is in there was a nightmare on the trowel; my new cotton gloves were caked in it, I really need plastic ones or something more manly, but my hands are tiny. We used to have asparagus in here, but we're thinking that we may put some new crowns into the vacated summer raspberry bed. When it was an asparagus bed loads of compost, sand and grit was worked into this soil and it was delightful - the blasted rain and subsequent flooding of the field every winter seems to have removed all that goodness and the soil is simply only good for making pots or bricks - arrghh. I ended up getting very peeved and chucked loads of clumps into the far hedgerow.

We didn't (either of us) see a single worm during all this digging - isn't that just awful? Not one. But the new growth particularly in the flower bed has brought us many a smile. The narcissus tete-a-tete's continue to bloom double headed and those spots of yellow are joy itself. And the red rose has gorgeous new shoots coming and looks so healthy - beware aphids, I already have my eyes on the lookout for any signs of you - keep out!

Lastly I must share this sad sight. One of our gnomes has died in a most gruesome manner, falling off a high post (he ought not to have been there in the first place, just saying, cough, cough) and like Humpty Dumpty, he was just beyond help. As a dedication to his memory he shall be used as crocks in the bottom of the next pot we plant up. Farewell little friend......

 Hugs and love

De-Shaming complete :)

Hello dear lovely reader :) Hope you are feeling fabulous and starting to notice the nights getting shorter - oh SPRING is on her way!!!

So this weekend I was at the lottie both Saturday and Sunday - I know - shock! I shouldn't have been there on the Sunday as I wasn't well enough but I pushed as I usually do and it present yours truly is just emerging from yet another quite bad nervous meltdown. I couldn't even talk these past days never mind type. Silly girl. I really can't seem to see the signs until it's too late.

Anyhow - Let me show off what we did on Saturday - I was feeling pretty good for a change :)

Andrew worked so hard on gossipping with a new member of the lottie, hahaha. But he did get a lot of work done too *blush* I'll have to get him to tell me again a little about his new friend, he sounded very nice but my brain is a mess and I can't remember much other than he cheerfully joined the search for my misplaced camera at the end of afternoon....I'll tell you that story in a while.

So here is the 'Corner of Shame' now - looking better I think you will agree. We now have the 2 cold frames over from 14b and have the area blocked off. We are going to use this area as a nursery and as the potting up area is just round the corner it all makes better sense of the space. I doubt it will stay carpeted, hahaha and no we aren't getting a couple of chairs and a coffee table! Once the grass underneath is dead we'll probably put down bark mulch or some such thing :)

I concentrated on de-weeding (yes it's a word!) the rest of the asparagus/strawberry bed and uncovered our path under the fruit arch. It's growing really well - I'll have to get Andrew to tie those branches in.

Then I tackled the 'coffin', haha, I still call it that, it looks like a coffin - sorry Andrew. Look Rhubarb :) I forgot to put that forcer on top after weeding the area but I'll do it next week. This whole area hadn't being looked at for a while - eek!

And so I took some before photos and went to take some after photos an hour later and NO camera!!! I searched on my own for half an hour, getting more and more frustrated and upset, then Andrew and his new friend helped for another half hour, no sign of it :( We were everywhere and looking through rubbish and on our hands and knees going through the long grass (the blasted camera was in a GREEN case *rolls eyes*). I was starting to get rather dark and Andrew's friend had to leave and I just felt so sad I started to cry (just a wee bit), Andrew gave me a big hug and said nice things. Thing is he was really hurting my boob hugging me......the camera was in my gillet, way up on top of my boob!!!! The pocket stretches all over inside, you could fit Maggie in there!

So I had been walking around with a rectangular right boob for an hour - it was really noticeable! What sweet gents they were - never once did they look at that area at me say 'is that not it in your top?' Unless Andrew's new friend thinks I have very odd boobs - hahahahaha.

Plot 24a gets a little less shameful :)

Last Saturday we attacked the plot for a few hours and miraculously just finished in time for the Heaven's to open, again; that happened last week - the gods are happy with us.

Andrew began de-shaming 'The Corner of Shame' and I started and very nearly completed clearing out the Asparagus and Strawberry bed. Now who would you like to hear about first?? Me! Oh, okay :)

****

It has come as a severe blow to us but the whole Asparagus bed was completely rotted away last Summer. The winter had been so wet and the cow manure that Andrew (in good faith poor love) had put over the top as a mulch, just made the ground soaking, plus everything was attacked by leatherjackers and thus the crowns were simply pulp.

We had invested a lot of time and money into this venture as it is one of our favourite foods and it's bloomin' dear in the shops. We studied the whole thing and got the right crowns for our conditions, made those conditions even better and thought, yum....tasty Asparagus for the next 20 years, fresh from our own plot. Well no. So to ease the pain for Andrew who, we all know, was the one who did all that research, not me..I set about clearing the bed in the late Autumn.

Well since then some pretty substantial weeds had settled in and I had missed one mushy crown too. So everything out! A tough job but I love turfing dead stuff and weeds :) I found 1 sad and lonesome baby worm. Just one.

The strawberries were ancient and not really producing terribly well for us and so need replacing. They were in a silly place too so this year we are getting new ones and putting them in where the Asparagus was and just having them and the raspberries in that big square bed. There shall be a huge fruit cage erected too, which will be one of many - I am not letting all my delicious berries go to the birds again this year *shakes fist at sky*

P.S - look at this - flowers (and berries) on the Raspberries; they are confuddled plants!

Over at the far diagonal corner I got Andrew to start into the most shameful area of our whole plots. My gorgeous Oriental Poppy had to be moved (it's my favourite thing on the plot) and it was found a new home in my big flower bed over on 14b. A poor we half rotted Rose was also moved (I don't really hold out much hope for this little guy) and a very pretty primrose :) The Red Dogwood just won't fit anywhere on the plot or even at home so at the minute it's just been cut back and hopefully I can do a little guerrilla gardening with it. The beautiful red stems to make for good pea sticks etc so I think it will be an asset in the hedgerow ;)The other grasses were just cut back and some self seeded babies potted up as spares for the back garden.

This is what Maggie did. And this is also the other left over carpet that we have had in our house for a year and it will be used to KILL, kill, kill the grass pathways :)

Going back tomorrow :)
I wonder will this guy be there again (sadly I doubt it as we have many birds of prey and, well, he sort of stands out). Thanks to the Hubby for the photo.......

I can't think of a title for this

I'm really confused, I have been for a good while now, words aren't coming easily, it takes ages to form a sentence and whilst I am doing that I am filled with frustration and anger at myself. I haven't been to the lottie, well yesterday I got as far as the car park and just had to sit there. I'm working from one sedative to the next and am desperately hoping that my psychiatrist will have some answers on Friday. I am freaking out right now - what I thought was a sudden burst of energy wasn't, it was a panic attack (I should know better), at least the en suite got a good cleaning..

So to be honest I don't know what is going on a the lottie. I haven't been reading blogs much. I know the asparagus is going to have to be lifted in the Autumn and we'll have to start again. I guess this should have been our own food we had for dinner a couple of nights ago - but at least it was British, in season and it was GOOD.

I know there was a heck of a lot of blossom everywhere and super tiny baby cherries, apples and pears etc are appearing. I have been told the cold frames are full to bursting. I watched with joy as these beautiful climbing beans germinated and got bigger everyday on the kitchen table and  these lovely Sweetcorn seedlings are the most lovely green  :) That grey blurry background is Maggie giving them a sniff before they left.

It's extremely windy and I did take a photo of the Queen of the Night Tulips but it doesn't do them justice, we need to get that wall painted and now Andrew has them all cut down anyway. We have loads of Rhubarb in the fridge (yay - Andrew is going to make more compote) and I had a couple of very sweet Ranunculus in the hall. Oh and the Nematodes are on their way it WAR my friends :)

I hope you are all well, I'll try to catch up with you soon. Hugs xx

Crappy Flu stills lingers on but...

I haven't been to my lottie in ages. Well I nearly get there today, I was in the car park whilst Andy took down some new seedlings to the coldframes. I'm still too ill to be out and about and couldn't go down with him as it had just started raining and I was shivery as it was. I loved seeing Mary, Dougie and a friend have a typical break from work though - a cup of tea sitting out in the rain refusing to believe it was happening!

So all I have been seeing of the lottie is what is put on my plate at dinner time. I haven't even been in the kitchen to take photos of the things brought home and I've eaten everything before I think of photographing the cooked version- ooops!

But what has made its way home? Well :-
* 2 wonderful asparagus spears (now mine did go in a flash off my plate, no hope of a photo there, hahaha)
* 7 more thick stems of rhubarb (which Andrew stewed down with some sugar and a dash of water to made the most wonderful compote - I eat some every morning, it's so good)
* lots more leeks (I wonder if they'll ever run out?)
* Sorrel (from the verges but we have our own now, ready to plant out, in fact Andrew my well be doing that right now)
* Loads of salad leaves, in particualr my 2 favourites, red salad bowl and mizuna.
* Loads of PSB (forgive all those things I said about you in the past PSB, you are amazing and diffinately worth waiting for!!!)

I also saw that Bobby's memorial bench and apple tree have been put in place and look great, but I hadn't my camera so I'll get that the next time I am able to go down.

Hugs, off to try and sleep again x

Trip to MALVERN ~ #3 Hampton Court Castle

Sunday saw a beautiful blue sky greet my streaming sneezy eyes. The cold had most diffinatley turned into a Flu on the Saturday and I was a mess today, sad now that the weather had finally decided to co-operate. Breakfast with Ella and the other guests was a subdued affair, I couldn't eat much of the lovely organic food due to my sore thoart and we all felt a little sad that it was home time for all of us.

Our flight wasn't until 8pm so the trip to Hampton Court Castle Gardens I had been hoping for was fulfilled and indeed turned out better than I wished. The difference a visit to a garden in the sunshine to one's spirits is amazing. Yes I was still coughing and sneezing, I should have been in bed somewhere taking meds but boy, my soul was singing.

You walk into the walled gardens through an arched gate and *bang* you are hit with the most fabulous kitchen garden complete with ingenious plant supports and ohh, more tulips! A kitchen garden about the size of 2 allotments and oh so stylish with a small wild meadow section too. Oh just look at the photos - you'll wish you had been there too.

lavender hedges around the herbs - so much more orginial and fragant than box

Then we were into more formal gardens and check out the wonderful pavillions surrounded by moving water, moats around the 2 pavilions, rills and a thicker shallow canal. These areas also had many trees and more permanent structures for things to grow up and around.

An amazing (haha) Maze with a tower in the centre which you can climb to the top of and watch other people struggle and giggle below you trying to get where you are (evil grin). But when you walk down those stairs again there is another set of steps going down...ohh....you end up underneath the maze and come out at a sunken garden complete with waterfall! Oh my goodness - is this Heaven???!!

Well to me it was and after walking up through the ferns on the step stones up the stream we walked out into a parkland area with a superb borrowed landscape of tree covered hills. AND a cafe serving mainly home (castle) cooked cakes. Yippeee.

We could have visited inside the Castle as well but #1 we hadn't the change and #2 we wanted to go all around the gardens again :) And there were more to be found, including the Dutch Garden - MORE tulips and a long pond with carp in it.

Check out the website. I took 94 photos and could merrily share them all but your computer would explode I fear. xx

Anyway, that's the end of the Malvern trip though we did visit some other towns etc but really I want to get back my lottie blogging. For instance, we had an asparagus spear each with our dinner last night - HOORAH!

Asparagus planting

The sun is mocking me again shining through my window; Mother Nature is putting on a delightful little show of huge fluffy clouds slowly waltzing across the baby blue sky. I want to hide again, in and around me is darkness, a smog, pollution.

I need to keep my mind off this dull, persistent pain in my soul. Therefore I blog.....I want to tell you of last night, at dinner time when Andrew and I had the rare pleasure, so far this year, of visiting the Lottie and planting stuff.

As I mentioned our Asparagus had arrived in the post. We chose 10 1 year old bare root crowns - Gijnlim F1 (Dutch). Supposedly they will last us around 20 yrs and are heavy yielding plants with gorgeous thick stems. We can't sample anything, I think, for 2 years but hopefully it will be worth it.

The books all make Asparagus growing sound every scary and complex to me. But Blackmoor give us a planting and maintenance instruction leaflet and really, it's not that hard. We had the bed prepared and waiting for months, the soil had a whole black bin full of our delicious 'home brew' compost, a bag of grit, heaps of cow manure and a lot of the North Sea's finest Seaweed in it. So damn it, they better like it in there.

We dug 2 trenches in our bed, both 4 inches deep and laid the crowns out like octopus. A little mound under the 'head' and the 'legs' all spread out nicely. Our bed was roughly 8ft x 4ft and we had 5 crowns in each row, spaced evenly (they say to leave about 40 cms between each crown and that worked out well). All the trench soil was then carefully put back on top and the whole bed lightly raked and watered.

That's how we did it. I know there are people who advocate a little pocket that the crown is placed in and you slowly fill up, but maybe there are different ways for different varieties.

So, with team work that was all done in 20 mins. It seemed a bit of an anti-climax after months of waiting to stand there proudly looking at a bed that seemed to have not changed at all. But then we heard the beautiful voices of some 'Lottie People' singing traditional Irish songs (quite, ummm, enthusiastically) on the wind, I'm pretty sure it was Ricky and his gang in Field B. That just made us laugh. I was feeling good, we we were surrounded by plants budding and greenery, it was reasonably empty down there and I had done that interview with Mind.

I won't go into the details of the 'big comedown' I had later and hence my hatred for the world at large today. But it happened and all I can say is sh1t - it had been pretty good up til then.

Christmas comes early

Today was excellent when it came to new plants. I received 2 packages!!

In the 1st, my friend Selkie had sent a bubble envelope (great fun in themselves - I love to pop!) full of glorious cuttings from her own garden way down in Co. Kerry. I have started to pot them all up, but time for a coffee break. The package included Poppies (Purple ones!!), Agapanthus, Hemp Agrimany (for the butterflies) and Elecampane. I am so happy, all look very healthy so fingers crossed. I need to look up the others and see photos but really, I can hardly wait to see the Purple Poppy in particular, I adore poppies but didn't even know purple existed. Isn't it great to have generous friends. Big love to Selkie x

NB. just noticed they are all sitting in the right order as I spoke about them - cool.

The 2nd package was the long awaited for Asparagus crowns. We are going to try and plant them tonight, when Andrew gets home from work. We've been getting tense waiting for them, especially after seeing Ronnie had planted some last week!

So good stuff. Photos shall follow - I'll update this bloggette later on when things are planted up.

Sunnybank and the cold

The 1st Saturday of a new month a very cold and frosty day - December, wick.

We decided to visit the Sunnybank Nursery on our way to the Lottie. We have many ideas my friends and wanted to check out what was about. I took some photos while Andrew dandered (he knew what we were looking for better than I did). It was kind of Christmas-tree-buying weekend, I'm allergic so we weren't tempted. The arguments that could be heard from families trying to pick the 'best one' were funny though.

On our way out we were stopped by one of the staff who had recognised Andrew and wanted to give a response to an e-mail he had recently written to them. How friendly are they???! It seems we'd be better off getting our asparagus mail order, especially with us wanting about 10 crowns, but they are trying to get in bare root, maiden fruit trees; we just need to wait a little longer until they get info back from their suppliers. It is lovely having a small, very local nursery right by the Allotments. Hoorah for Sunnybank.

When we got to the car park of the Lottie, it was wonderful to see a brand new shed, right up at that end of Field C. Check out the map - I think it was 22(b). And the little Apple trees that were planted by the Council (and volunteers) 2 weeks ago; they're old traditional varieties from Northern Ireland too. So that was a nice sight to welcome us. Though (here I go moaning again) the path did somewhat take the look off the place and Maggie had to be carried down, not that she minded I'm sure.

On our little plot we instantly got ourselves set up with the kettle on and a makeshift bean bag for Maggie to sit on. She got a chill last week from sitting on the ground - not this time! I got the bag of paper shreddings and her blanket and viola! a lovely lounging chair. She seemed to like it, though when I took this pic, she was a little unsure of her footing.

There was hardly a soul around, okay it was literally freezing but the sky was so blue and there is work to be done people.We heard later that day, that the first robbery had happened on the site. Very upsetting, especially when it seems the person was caught out and it was one of our own. I truly feel upset, this was so unexpected. I have hopes that our Committee will deal with this in a strict, no nonsense way - it cannot be tolerated.