the 14b Plan :)

The wait is over! I can feel the tension, the excitement bursting forth as, yes, the plan for 14b has been drawn up and you dear reader are about to see it in all its colourful glory!

Ta dah!

Of course the blasted weather here in Northern Ireland is keeping us out of action and we are a pair of annoyed and frustrated allotmenteers. Luckily we haven't turned to the demon drink but darn it its miserable and so cold a wee dram would be divine.

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

However, movement has happened in the form of shopping for plants:
1 We have just gotten better quality (but equally cheap) Sharp's Express seed potatoes.

2 We bought and planted two of the three main fruit trees for the awesome sounding edible forest garden; a Conference pear and a Regina cherry. I am holding out for a Damson as the third, fingers crossed

3 New green gooseberry bushes and redcurrants are looking lovely and healthy there just outside on the patio for now
                                                                   *************

Andrew was brave\foolish? enough to make a visit to the plots on Sunday. He got those two trees in to ground he had prepared the weekend before last, but apart from that all he could do was mulch, cover beds and come home almost completely frozen.

As for me personally, well I'm still very poorly after my breakdown but I a stubborn girl and will keep fighting (even if that means, paradoxically, forcing myself to do nothing). At least, and in a way thank goodness, the weather is bad as I couldn't go to the Lottie anyway! Instead I am reading a lot, watching movies and listening to Maggie snore.

Until next time my lovelies
Hugs
Carrie

Saving our sanity

Arrrghhh! 14b is really messing with our heads and it's all just a bit much. We finally broke last week and had to make a decision...we are covering half of it in plastic or some such material and focusing only on the cut flowers, raspberries and gooseberries this year. So well play 14b, well played.

The darn gon' freaking weeds are just too much to handle and I swear that plot is the major breeding ground for, oh let's say, half the known slugs in the world! We are miserable every time we look at it and I just seem to waste hours every weekend in there battling with some really stubborn mutant dandelions the size of my head and grass, grass growing everywhere. It's cleared one day and they're back the next. On top of this the soil is terrible no matter how much we improve it with compost, manure, grit etc.

****** Its a freaking money pit! ******

So more love and attention is going to given to 24a and I think in the end we won't renew our ownership of the other half plot when spring comes around again in 2015. That's just how we feel right now. 14b I think we shall have to part next year, you take up too emotional and physical energy from us.

To be honest we are having differences in our lookout on the allotment means to us. This year particularly,
* Andrew is NOT enjoying the plot, he believes himself to be so far behind with everything, complains about the soil, the weather the way the seedlings aren't growing right, the fact that we have every pest there is and the pigeons, do not get him started on the pigeons! Then again he is the gardener and does the majority of the work.

* Me, I'm proud of it. I am proud that we are in this for the long game and aren't thinking along the same paths as so many young people today - we don't need to have it now, it's not like some video game, we aren't doing this to gain fame and fortune. I have wanted to be there more often this year than the last 3 years put together, I've even been by myself! I can work for an hour or so alone as Andrew drives off to collect supplies and guess what - I haven't completely freaked out. It's pretty much been the only consistent thing that gets me out of the house.

Yes I see all the problems and I do lament the loss of seedlings and 10, 10! marigold plants over night. I don't like slugs, aphids or cheeky birds eating my food. It's hard work for me to get myself there, I often don't enjoy it and feel often like giving up bar the fact we have spent so much money on it and of, lordy,..so much time.

But it feels meaningful to be growing our food. I don't know that I would have anything to do with my life if I didn't have those days of taking photos and working the day away, putting what energy I have into this blog... It helps save my sanity.

It's Friday, we ought to be happy, sorry..

I did this last Saturday on 14b all  by hand as we don't have any petrol strimmers or lawnmowers....

saved the blackberry and rhubarb from so much grass

Beautiful produce - chives, gooseberries, blackcurrants plus new dahlias and roses in place

Much love and best wishes to your plots and gardens friends!
Carrie xx

Booze, Bloody Battles, Beans, a BBQ and Bugs

I'm not coping very well with reality at the moment (though a nice Merlot is helping). Today has been one big sleep, with some awake breaks for water and phone calls. Yes, as Andrew says I am better than I was when we came back from Italy but I am taking a lot of medication and pushing myself so hard everyday that I'm exhausted and as a side effect am too tried to think. When I have a minute alone it has to be filled with something and apart from reading incessantly that is generally sleep.

But now Andrew is home and we're just in front of the TV (after checking on the Lottie but the weather, oh god, do not mention the weather - horrendous!), he's watching some historic-drama thing and I can't be bothered so I have turned to my blog, which I feel has been neglected rather and am going to tell you about our (quite impressive) progress from last week/weekend.

First though ~ RHS Chelsea!!!! Other Bloggers will be covering it wonderfully so I'll leave to them, however a quick note - It's so Fabulous! I am in awe of all those 'proper' gardeners and that guy from Top Gear (with the flowing locks) and his Plasticine garden piece. I'd love to visit one day, though the crowds are daunting looking, I'd need a wee behind the scenes tour before opening time. Maybe in the delightful company of Joe Swift or Mr Titchmarsh, now that would be nice. Darn it, all those amazing RHS shows are in England and Wales, what about us poor Northern Irish folk?!

Goodness this TV show is bloody and gruesome, going to have Andy to turn it down a little!

The sky is uninterrupted blue and the wind seems to gone, it's lovely; Mother Nature can be a b*tch sometimes. Why now, why have good weather now when the Lottie day is over? We've been suffering from poor weather for weeks now and our plants look rather sorry for themselves. The French Beans in particular are sulking, I don't blame them, I certainly wouldn't enjoy having my feet buried in cold wet soil and being blown about all over the show. I hope they cope, can plants have nervous breakdowns?!

So to the work we've been up to, there are a couple of stories that will make wee bloggettes in the next few days, but here's some bits and bobs...

A Barbecue!!!

We had a lovely evening on the 12th May (Okay so Mother Nature isn't that nasty); a super wee BBQ on the plot. Sausages and baps and a mixed bean salad. YUM! Other's around us were jealous, which (admit it yourself) made it all the more enjoyable, hehe. We did offer some around but luckily everyone had had dinner already, shame. Oh and we had a beer with it; living the dream alright!

I suppose it was only fair after my cheek, that we found the redcurrant was infested with greenfly. Horrible, gross little beings. Andrew got in there with his fingers and squished them, I prefer the soapy water spray technique myself. But on the up side another insect turned up that was lovely, some sort of fab Beetle. I like to think it's a goody, anyway Andrew deemed it fit to live. Plus, not our fault, but the shed has 3 dead cabbage white butterflies inside it by the window. If it's any consolation to you animal lovers out there I was eaten by lots of midges so in a way nature got her own back. I'm still itchy all over my scalp and now that I've thought about it, I'm scratching away, damn it.

I think I'll leave it there for tonight, I could go on and write a book the way my mind has become engaged in this but I don't think you'd be interested, I've probably lost you already, ha.

I shall leave you with this lovely pic of a rhubarb leaf, I think the colour is amazing, too good to cut and eat! Plus ~ tomorrow WILL be better x

Fruit

We have a lot of fruit bushes and trees on our wee plot - Gooseberries (two kinds), Raspberries (two kinds) Redcurrants, White currants, Blackberries, an Apple tree and a Cherry tree. I wish I could give names for them all but apart from the blackberry bush and the trees we bought everything cheap and cheerfully at Poundstretcher or whatever they call themselves these days.

Gooseberries
We have a green variety, which I know has to be cooked before eating if you don't want a sore tummy. There was one on it but a blasted bird got it, though why I would want to cook 1 berry and cut it up so Andrew and I could taste it is beyond me!
We also have a purple variety, very pretty and can be eaten straight from the bush. We got 3, Andrew knocked 2 off, so we ended up watching one single purple berry slowly mature. When it looked super purple we picked it, cut it in half and ate it. We like to share. It was lovely. Let's hope for a few more next year!

Raspberries
There's a Summer one and an Autumn one. We got the summer one at the start of May and fair play to it, it didn't do anything for us this year. In fact I thought it was going to die, but now it's perked up and there's hope for next year.
The Autumn one has berries starting. I haven't counted but I think there are about 4, maybe 5. We have a home made bird scarer over the plant, so fingers crossed.

Redcurrants and Whitecurrants
To be perfectly honest I had forgotten we had these until I started to write this wee blogette. They mustn't be doing much but equally I haven't heard Andrew moan about them dying or looking bedraggled, so infer from that that they're okay, wherever they are (note to self: pay more attention to fruit bushes).

Blackberry
Ah, the power of a sales display; makes you want something you already have, in abundance. For instance, our blackberry - the field we are in is surrounded by blackberries, or as I prefer to call them - Brambleberries. There were kids picking them, bags of them, with their mum a couple of days ago and I would have the odd one on the dander over to the loo. But we have one in our plot too. The more the merrier? I like to think that ours taste better, 'Oregon Thornless' ,and the 4 berries which we got off it (2 each) were particularly delicious. Waste of money? No!!

Apple Tree
This is rather cool. You need 2 apple trees to produce fruit, right? Well we have 2 trees on the one tree, if that makes sense. The bottom is 'Elstar' and grafted on top is 'James Grieves', both yellowy-red varieties. There are apples on it and they are plumping up well. I just hope they are nicer than the one Andrew ate last week. It was a James I think and it was horrible! Fair play to him though, as a matter of principle he ate the thing, I had a lick and felt that was enough.

Cherry Tree
It seems we are breaking new ground with our Cherry tree 'Stella'. We are attempting to fan train it! This caused excitement at the nursery (Sunnybank) as such a thing is ODD in the gardening world, fanning a cherry wasn't in any of the books or indeed in the brains of the people who work there. Espaliers and cordons galore - but fanning, well! We shall see how she does, she hasn't kicked the bucket yet.....

Okay, so I've learnt that that was all wrong. The excitement and concern came from the fact that the tree was established and it was a funny time of the year to be pruning, especially when that meant taking half the bloomin' tree off the top. Fanning a cherry is as common as muck - my world has deflated.

We hope to add to this nice array with a plum and and pear or so, in time.