Playing Catch Up ~ 1

It's been a while dear friends, can you tell my heart just isn't in it these days?

The allotment is a foreign place to me now even though it is but a moments drive away. Andrew is soldiering on but even he is feeling downhearted about the place, for example last night he had things to do but instead spent an hour mowing paths that the council neglect to do; what a waste of his time.

We've had some serious talks about giving up; about only keeping 24a and stopping 14b; of whether we would care if it all burned down one day.... and the answers, well, we would care. We don't need to put so much mental and psychical effort in but we are keeping it and are going to start reigning back the time and efforts spent therein.

24a - looking good if you ask me ( I can't show you the disappointing bits, too upsetting)

So much time, energy (psychical and mental), money and love has been poured into those little slices of 'Eden' and so little has been received in turn. Plus now the plots are truly in their worst states in the A field at least, many friends have left, there is absolutely no community atmosphere and the barren ground, diseases and weeds are really taking their toll.

Recent produce (plus potatoes) and the garlic lifted

'Be the change you wish to see in the world', has long been a motto of mine, but let me tell you, there is only so much an already mentally ill girl can take and I am saturated.

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

So - this blog shall continue to log our allotment efforts and gains but now I shall be talking about Ecotherapy as a whole in my life and not limiting it to Allotmentherapy alone. I/We have 'refound' camping and hiking and life is looking like one of adventure and exploration as only last week showed in glorious (almost blinding) technicolor.

We camped out in a tent for the first time in years last week and I journalled, talked to strangers and took photographs (ones to prove I was camping, hahaa, AND fine art ones), a part of me coming back to life! It was scary, it was noisy but Andrew and Maggie were there and all was well.

Then we also hiked for 8 miles on Friday with amazing friends. Up in the Mourne Mountains, I still can't believe I did it but we have photos to prove it! With my double vision, it was more of challenge than one would imagine, plus I fainted about a quarter of the way in, but my stubbornness pushed me forward and, what?, I walked from the Trassey Trail to Bloody Bridge (Walk 16 in the book The Mournes Walks).

Lunch time :)

I've been asleep ever since and only today am I starting to feel human again but I think I may have caught the bug. This ecotherapy is passive and yes you give A LOT but boy do you receive A LOT in return.

Anyway, my love to you all as always,
We shall still 'Grow Our Own' but now we shall also be just generally 'Growing'
Your
Carrie

Thunder stops play

Last Sunday we were back in action, reasonably early (for us) at 11am. The weather was a lot different, there was cold air and then sunshine back and forth until later the heavens exploded and thunder rumbled, rain poured and I thought for a moment if our shed would work as an ark - boy, the rain was heavy! In the end running out to get tools and running to the car and back etc I was soaked through - that sort of soaked were you just start to walk at normal speed; you simply can't get any more saturated, lol.

My big project was to sort of the back of our shed and get things off to the dump. It was rather daunting to begin with but then I really got into it and loved it all. I love creating a clean and clear area out of a complete mess - it feels like I am clearing my messy mind at the same time - it's calming.

So here it is (shame all on show here)...

We came to the same point about our old broken bench; there was no way we could save it, the wood was rotten so much in a lot of areas (and secretly, now Andrew has his fancy saw, he wants to make a new one altogether!) So he went all caveman on it and smashed it to bits. Fun!

Is it just me or are the slugs bigger this year, goodness there were so many under the old timber we had laying at the side of the plot. But when I meet our frog again I thought to myself, no way am I getting rid of this, I shall merely stack it up neater - obviously it's a great habitat for wildlife.

The finished cleaned up area - that big white bag has our fire wood in it and I even managed to get the wee hand rotary mover over all the grass. What a great workout for my bingo wings :)

Andrew was dealing with the old broad bean patch, they were all ready to be lifted and the peas too behind them in this picture, growing up a little net support.  I do love my broad beans so it's great that Andrew had done a succession planting and we'll have a new batch soon :)

There is something so utterly satisfying about those broad bean roots and those little nodules shown below; Chemistry and Biology in action! These nodules actively improve the soil by depositing nitrogen into the ground which is a great plant food and benefits the next crop you plant in that space ~ hurrah! Plus the stems are great fodder for the compost bin = free natural fertiliser and soil conditioner, and you know I love freebies :)

going

root nodules

ha ah, gone! and a nice big harvest in the shopping bag

Then little rain showers started to happen. They weren't particularly long lasting but they were heavy and put a stop to works for a while. 

 We hung on but then the real thunderous downpours came. The shed became our place of sanctuary; the noise of that rain on the roof was deafening and Maggie just was not happy at getting wet at all, she clawed at my leg until I picked her up and then I took the keys and ran to the car with her tucked under my arm - lucky she's so wee :)

But from all that work and the harvests of the day before we were able to come home, cold and wet from the (what felt like buckets of rain thrown on us) lottie and have this stir fry rustled up in no time - bliss. Chard, carrots, dwarf beans, turnip, all only a maximum of 24hrs old :)

Succulent Seedlings

As I mentioned in my last post we have some great looking seedlings all ready to go into the ground this weekend - finally!
Apart from the Sweet Peas which came from a lovely friend, everything shown here (or sown here, hehe) has come from vegetableseeds.net and I must say I am very  impressed with the germination rate of everything.

 * Pea 'Kelvendon Wonder'
A really popular pea variety that we have grown for the last years - oh it tastes so good and each plant gives loads of pods, each pod gives about 6 juicy peas each! It's main crop, dwarf  variety and we tend to plant some in succession through out the summer so we are never lacking :)
Maggie also likes to cheekily eat this straight off the plant - they hang at just the right height for her, gggrrrr, hahaha.

 * Broad Bean 'Aquadulce Claudia'
Okay so we really adore this bean variety and it is a must on our allotment;  haven't grown it?! you must. It is the easiest thing to grow ever, so hardy that you can sow the seeds in winter if you want (if your plot isn't swimming like ours does) so tasty you'll fall in love, so healthy and packed with goodness you will feel good just holding the packet :) You get lots of beans from these and we even get gluts so it's great that I can tell you from experience...these freeze really well :)

 * Rainbow Chard (sometimes called Swiss Chard)

Funny how colour can sometime affect how you feel about a vegetable - normal chard, blugh, it's okay. Rainbow Chard is fantabulous to look at with the sunlight streaming through it, I would have it in my garden as pretty plant :) It wilts fast but grab it take it home and cook it and all the goodness of a spinach is there on your plate but in yellows, pinks, purples - it makes me happy just thinking about it. 

 * Beetroot - 2 types 'Boltardy' and Yellow Cylindrical

Until I had real beetroot and not the vile stuff pickled and brought out at Christmas, I thought it was disgusting, evil stuff.  Now, I adore it. Roasted in the oven or on the barbecue you will find the Gault's eating beetroot all summer long. Hint - HP sauce is amazing on it!!! We always grow Boltardy and again in succession as these babies reach adulthood in 3 months so you can have loads and write Beetroot into a search engine and you will see why you want loads for yourself and your family - it's so incredibly good for you! (P.S. the clue is in the name - they don't bolt easily)

I can't remember if we grew Yellow ones last year or the year before but there isn't much difference in taste, even the striped white and purple ones taste the same; it simply makes that big plate of salad out on the patio look even better. 

 * Leek 'Musselburgh'

This had been our fail safe, go to choice for leeks since we started growing our own. They are really hardy and overwinter well even in our soil, they aren't too strong tasting and it gives you such joy to harvest something from the plot in the darkness of those winter days and they don't need lifted all at once either so not glut worries. Think soul warming soups, hearty and filling risotto - yummy. As someone intolerant to onions these have saved the day in our kitchen and we always have a load every year :)

And lastly the Sweet Pea 'Cupani'

These are my favourite sweet pea ever and I wish I could remember to plant in successions for even more throughout the summer but I never do. They are a fabulous red/pink and purple and are stunning. Butterflies like them and I generally have an arch way of them and an obelisk.

I realise that excited as I am you are probably really rather bored now; like looking at a million photos of someones new baby. Yes very cute, they look so healthy, you're happy for me, what adorable green leaves..... I shall leave it for now, but there are more seedlings and photos to be taken, so until next time....

Namasté

Oh it's beautiful!!

Yesterday Andrew had the day off - yipppee. We had to visit my psychiatrist - boo hisss but after that (which to be fair was very helpful this time) we were somewhat free. Andrew is on a stag do (oh. dear. god! I hear you cry, but don't worry they are all good guys) and so we needed to get him last minute things to take and food for me for the weekend.

It's all really stressful already and he's only gone from dinner time yesterday; I'm not used to being on my own and fighting the depression and anxiety and bad thoughts by myself and Mamma G is on holiday too. My best friend is busy all day but she's coming here this evening and will be with me tomorrow.

Anyway, enough about that, I have a timetable written out for myself to keep me busy and calm (hahahahahaha, calm!!!?) and this is blog writing time - yay!  So in preparation I went to the lottie yesterday and took lots of photos. It was lovely, no one else was there and the bird song - oh, it was delightful - are birds ever sad? I like to think all their songs are about love and peace and happiness - wow I'm a total hippie :)

At the very top of 14b these are delicious Jerusalem Artichokes all growing and getting fat and juicy ready for me to eat later in the year, yumm - good start to the visit. Then inside the plot we are at the nursery section where I must say (whilst touching the wooden coffee table with my foot) everything looks fabulous! The carpet is a sophisticated touch don't you think? And look at the strip behind the cold frames - these are our chives in flower and I may blow your mind away with the following news...... Andrew has been using the petals scattered in amongst the carrot seedlings. Carrot fly hate the smell of onion (so do I) so we're hoping this will help - I'll keep you updated ;) Cool huh?

 

So then there are gooseberries that have survived the sawfly attack - I have hope we'll still get a nice wee amount, there's 5 plants so there is a good chance, right?? Stay hopeful. I'll not put up a photo though, it looks a little on the pathetic side.

 This is my special flower bed and I am so happy with how it's been going - daffs, tulips and now perisan buttercups, roses  and guems :) Plus loads of other in bud - eek!

The whole point of this bed was of course to bring in the happy friendly bugs like the bees and the ladybirds but also to make little old me happy, having beautiful fresh flowers in the house. Thing is I haven't been cutting them - hahahaha. They look so pretty. I really need to toughen up :)

Lastly for today (I'll show you a24a tomorrow - tease aren't I?) Is an overview of the lettuces, carrots, beets, parsnips and glorious beans and peas. Nothing quite as exciting as the tippee going up is there?

Hugs and best wishes for a lovely weekend xxxxx
Thanks for all the comments on the last post - you're the nicest followers ever - mwaugh!

The estate agent

We're waiting for the estate agent to arrive to give the house a good looking over and tell us if it's sellable! To tell the truth I'm a little nervous, who knows how much we will get for it?, what sort of mortage will the bank give us? oh it's a mine field out there. One good thing is that we got rid of all the wine bottles that were sitting about from the different birthday parties and our holidays and Andrew used them very creatively in the lottie. We always miss the recycling day - we aren't addicted to wine really......wine.....ummmmmmmmmmm

Oh, sorry. Here is Andrew's art piece, beautiful, recycled and functional. We just have the other side of the path to do now, darn it, I guess that means more wine then. All for art's sake.

Please also notice our new path between the 'grave' and the raspberry bed. Very proud of that.

Have you noticed that it's hard to keep a clean and tidy house when you're an Allotmenteer? We seem to have bags and dirty work shoes and magazines and seeds etc everywhere. At least this 'agent' isn't coming to look at the house in early spring. We also have a full on nursery going in every window sill and a potting up bench in the dining room. Or would that add value to the house in these eco times?

So, the prospect of a new house and garden looms on the horizon. I'm trying to be very cool and collected about it but what if the market stays in this rut and we're here FOREVER. On the other hand - yippee!! a whole new house to paint and decorate and a new garden to start and make wonderful with all the new knowledge we have. I have some ideas, god only knows, Andrew probably has hundreds of possible gardens in his head.

Well, while we wait, let's pretend there is some muzak in the background as I tell you about some of the fab work I've been doing at the Lotties.

When we got home I told you it was a terrible sight, I didn't show you a photo then but I will now. This is the before...

Now I have ripped out all the sweet peas, runner beans, climbing french beans and dwarf french beans and loads of dead leaves from the brassicas. Andrew cut the grass and made his bottle wall. Having that first bed empty is a little sad as it yells "autumn!" at me, but at the same time we did buy loads of daffodils and tulip bulbs at the weekend so hope and bright colours are just around that dark wintery corner.

Here she is.......

Finally back to work

We did have that picnic yesterday at the lotties. I was lovely, not too cold and very very quiet, almost as if everyone in Carrickfergus had read the blog and decided to give me some space down there. Thanks guys, haha.

We had a giggle with Maggie and then were able to finally do some work on our plots. For the last few weeks every time we've gone down there Andrew has had to go off and have a chat with someone or a committee meeting about the Fun Day and very little has been achieved. I don't really like being out and about on my own still so when I can't see Andrew well, I'd rather hide in the shed. I am getting better though, sporadically.

So last night weeding galore was done and boy was there a lot of it, half a compost bin full! I also dead headed my flowers and got rid of some poor annuals that had flowered their socks off for me and were now knackered. Then I started what I assumed would be a nice quick job ~ harvesting all the beans. It took forever. A whole, full harvest basket of runner beans, green beans and french beans, boy are we going to have to have another massive blanching and freezing session again this weekend. It is great, don't get me wrong but why do they all have to ripen at the same time?

I also thinned out the stems and old leaves, opening up the wigwams to let in more air and light. I felt rather gardener-y.

We left as the weather started to turn a bit and were shocked to see that we'd been there over 3 hrs, it had flown in and no big panics from me ~ HOORAH! Only 1 downfall and that is the fact that the burst water pipe just above our shed STILL hasn't been fixed, the whole path is a swamp and it stinks too because the manure heap is there and manure-y juices are being washed past us - boke. No birthday party at the Lottie for me then :( It's my big 30 next week (tell anyone and I will track you down and hit you across the face with a wet lettuce leaf, I swear ~ I shall be 29 for a few more years to come thank you very much!!) and I wanted to have cake and tea at the lottie, ah well....

A24a

A14b

Here are a few overview photos, haven't taken them in a while. Everything is going really well, bar the brassicas (damn them) and we're starting to see lots more squashes coming which is such a relief, Andrew was getting pretty peeved with them.

Oh and I made my 1st ever bird box, wee little old me is getting into the wood work :) Hugs for a good weekend, may the weather be a little better x Plus I've just noticed whilst uploading photos that I have lots to talk about and loads of very pretty flower photos too, when is Garden Bloggers Bloom day again? This is my fav

a calendula growing up through the purple kale, wow! I could just go on and on writing but you'd get really bored and grow to hate me and I don't want that!

So, yeah, we did actually do some work last week!

What with feeling poorly and all I haven't really been keeping up to date with the actual Allotmenteering that's been going on, rather I've been moaning and what not instead ~ not good.
So, here's a catch up. I'm going to start with what I think is the most exciting thing, my Sunflower hedge!!! I planted it up on Saturday and boy am I looking forward to seeing it all grown up. Andrew has done the unthinkable and taken my flower seeds out of my Lottie bag, so I can't tell you the variety of these ones, but they're smaller than usual and multi-stemmed in a gorgeous red colour. I really hope they grow well.

I fact I love this idea so much that I'm going to plant loads of Sunflowers on the new half plot 14b this weekend, just putting the seeds straight into the ground. These ones will be the extra tall ones that tower at 180cm (I'm 158cm on a good day) and have one BIG flower each. I'll do another hedge type arrangement and maybe throw some in randomly elsewhere - we can't get the whole plot cultivated this summer! So I'm going mad with flowers, hehehe.

As for 14b I started to dig over the flower bed and level out the start of the path. Boy was it hard work but I wanted to do it right. Double digging and riddling away and then I did the silly heel dance over the path area to try and get it smoother. At some stage we'll put big paving stones down and I think plant low growing alpines around them. It's all just at the planning stage at the moment.

I finally got that Elecampane in the ground, it's so healthy Rosie!! (But the purple poppies...they didn't make it.) And during the week I put an old obelisk in beside it to grow more 'Cupani' Sweet Peas up. The weather is supposed to be stinky tomorrow so armed with ideas from James' book I'm off to the nursery to see what else I can get. I'd like the bed (which will be quite big) to be all purples, reds and pinks. I never buy myself flowers for the house so I'd like to have my own cut flowers to brighten my living room. There will of course be lots of yellows and oranges on the plot too from companion plants. It's nice thinking about all this.

Lastly I planted my 'cheeky' self -seeded Nasturtiums out in by the trees in the fruit arch. 4 of them, hehehe, Andrew can't get away from them. He's going to read this but heck - I have 2 more and I'm letting them live as well!!!

So that was some of my work. Andrew did work hard too but are you really interested in him??? Oh, you are, okay.....

My dearest one planted out our Runner Beans 'Enorma' and our French Beans 'Cobra'. Each plant at the base of a wigwam support. I LOVE the French Bean one made out of recently cut down tree branches, very rustic and in my opinion more Allotment-y if that makes sense. I like ram shackle, which reminds me, Andrew also planted out our Borlotto Beans by the rusting gates and climbing rose. Fingers crossed it should look very pretty and hopefully be very productive. These are the Beans we got free from the Council when we renewed our tenancy *.

He also started our wind break fence but I'll leave that for another time when he's finished and I can tell the whole story.

To finish, I just want to mention our new neighbours. As usual I can't remember names very well, but I think there is a Katie and possibly a Don in the family? They also have the cutest puppy - Arnold, a baby Mini Schnauzer like Maggie, oh how I wanted to take him home!

Can you tell I've had caffeine this evening???? I don't usually drink it as I get a little hyper, hence this LONG bloggette, hehehe.

The Big Easter Weekend Project

Saturday saw Andrew and I up early! We had to get to the timber merchant before he closed at 12.30 and believe me, everyone in Carrickfergus seemed to have caught the DIY bug. I think I heard once that A&E departments hate Easter because of the all the people suddenly picking up their hammers and saws etc and them running to them bleeding all over the place. Safety first, my friends!!

So we bought timber and went to the Lottie (after a fortifying scone and coffee) to get to work. We'd been planning this project for a while now and the weather was unexpectedly good, there was no time to waste. Well, actually there was...we visited Mamma G on the way, but it was in relation to 'The Project'; 2 old wrought iron gates.

*********

Holes were dug to receive 8ft vertical posts and then tightly secured into the ground, 2 ft deep - they are going nowhere. Andrew did all that huffing and puffing, I played the vitally important role of overseer and encourager. I also held the spirit level when required. My main job though was using the wire brush to rub off god knows how many decades of flaky paint from the 2 gates! Boy that warms you up alright.

Andrew then was moving on with more timber. When we were making the Fruit Arch a while back, one of the posts broke at the bottom whilst being driven into the ground (there are some BIG rocks a spade's depth or so down) so we had this big piece of wood laying around and then - yes! it was perfect to act as a lintel between our 2 uprights. It this point I went off to talk to Ivan, Andrew likes to work alone.

Back again and my super duper Hubby had cut to length 3 bits of wood to run from just above the shed door over to the lintel - thus making a pergola. Just to see how it would look we put up the gates on the uprights, one on top of the other - we're using them instead of trellis - recycling ahoy!

*********

Sunday and we were back at lunch time, with sandwiches. Andrew put up all those extra fixings to make sure that a hurricane wouldn't move the darn structure! (We don't get them here in Carrick but better safe than sorry). I started to paint the wood. I had a very dickey tummy and was throwing up into a flower pot so Andrew kindly took over and finished the work. I just sat there feeling sorry for myself and tickling Maggie.

So there you are, our Easter project done. The gate trellis will have a beautiful climbing rose growing up it (Queen Elizabeth ~ shown below) and some wonderful climbing beans, the ones we got free from the council and which are already germinating. It should look lovely.