Progress is joyful

Is there a happier sound than that of a wee, elderly dog barking in her sleep? I think not. And that is the sound I awoke to on Sunday morning, which led to a dozy smile upon my face. Maggie is the best thing we ever did - it's soon to be her adoption day celebration!

But the allotment is what your here for so I shall spill all the juiciest bits.

Sunday at the plots was a mixture of more soil prep and a mystery; our wheelbarrow had been pilfered! I was fine and dandy weeding the paths and pots with my trusty trug by my side, but Andrew was suddenly heard to call out "Where's the wheelbarrow? I need it." Well, my friends, this lead to a minor panic and a walk around our field, looking in ditches and checking to see if someone else (in a fit of wheelbarrow necessity) had borrowed it. Oh how we looked and tweeted to relieve the pain a little.

The day when on without our dear friend and we were sad. But wheelbarrow-gate was still haunting us. Deflated we left for some late lunch and lo! on the drive out Andrew's 20:20 vision spied our barrow and he jumped out of the car and rescued her. She had indeed been kidnapped/wheelbarrownapped but we had her back - joy! Just look at that loving glance...

Where the wheelbarrow wasn't (left) and when we finally retrieved her (right)

So back from our lunch now and Andrew spread thick mulch all over our raised beds *with the use of the wheelbarrow. And now 24a look fabulous and tidy to rock!! I'm doing my best with 14b and later it was mulched a bit too.

glorious - no?!

Monday came quickly and seeds were been sown in the house shed when a letter from the Council - a warning letter, telling us that our plot would be taken from us if we didn't start cultivating it. What?? There were attempts at phoning the department, tweets were twitted and an email sent all asking how on earth could this be happening! Oh, a dark cloud hovered over our home that day and so soon after the stresses of wheelbarrowgate  :(

In all honesty I was devastsated after the amount of effort I had recently been putting in, just getting to the plots in the first place. Stupid, stupid people.

Well thank goodness it was Pi day in America (you know how they write the date wrong - well it was 3/14/2016, like 3.14 = Pi) and we took the opportunity to drown our sorrows in pie, apple and cinnamon pie at a local, lovely cafe. It helped. We came home and worked in the back garden.

Uuumm - pie :)

Tuesday and back on the plots, there was pruning of the blackthorns and blackberry, plus tying in branches etc. I cleared the damnable old squash bed which had yielded not one squash for us last season but had plenty of grass, nettles and dandelions in it now (thanks neighbouring unused plots!) I tell you, it took hours to do that one bed! And I was exhausted.

A cleared bed, an exhausted me

Wednesday saw the Gault's out and about at Castle Ward and Downpatrick, away from everything and just enjoying ourselves. But to top the day off, we came home to an email of apology from the Council for sending the warning letter to the wrong people. Thank goodness for 'sorry' and recognition that we do in fact have a lovely set of plots.

On Thursday I wasn't feeling good but it was St Patrick's day and that means only one thing in our house - planting the spuds! We got two new big pots and re-used an old fertiliser pot, drilled holes in the bottoms and planted our Sharp's Express in them. We'll take them down to the lottie soon.

Andrew made a quick wee video of the planting - 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDDn0gDMGIh/?taken-by=gaulta

So there you are, all caught up; a good lot of plot work, seed planting, home gardening and time away - it's been lovely having my hubby off for the week :)

Hugs and best wishes to you and your gardens
Love
Carrie

Shrub rose pruning / All or nothing

So as it is with the world, after Saturday came Sunday and we returned to the plots. See once I get started on a topic I get rather excited and there is so much to be done on 14b; work were I can feel useful and productive, even it is mainly clearing away at the moment.

But to start the afternoon off I did some proper gardening, I learnt how to prune a shrub rose bush. Oh boy you can't possibly understand how great it felt to learn and then be left to do the pruning and mulching. Generally I'm too nervous to do things like that, terrified I'll mess it up, but I didn't and the bush looks happy and healthy again!! Eek!

Main points I remember:

* Make sure secateurs are sharp and cut at a slight diagonal
* Get rid of dead branches and tips
* Prune away all blackspot infected branches
* Prune to an outwards facing bud keeping the centre open (so air can circulate through bush)
* Remove branches that are crossing, as rubbing will lead to infections
* Cut back long spindly growth to encourage new growth from base.
* Lift up all dead leaves (they may harbour disease)

rose pruning

I don't believe I have ever deceived anyone into thinking I'm a 'real gardener', Andrew is the head gardener, I'm the helper\ photographer\ the one who is there for therapy. Dare I say it though...I felt so proud of myself; I'm growing.

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

We worked for 3 hrs straight and left exhausted! Andrew planted lots of blackthorn and whitethorn hedging plants and prepared for edible forest area. More about that later... Plus he lifted all the dahlia tubers and put them trays to dry out in the shed.

half of the dahlia tubers lifted

I wrestled with the clearing of the long raspberry bed (which shall become one of my flower beds. Aarggh the roots of those blasted devils are a nightmare to get out, if I hadn't been for the laboured panting I would have been cursing them so loudly!!

clearing the raspberry bed

However, I received a reprieve as the sun went down and the temperature dramatically dropped; we packed up, lifted a sleepy Maggie and left for home.

fave sights - especially Maggie eating a biscuit

 ***************

Sadly it has turned out I pushed myself too hard. I didn't know how bad until Monday when I couldn't think straight,walk or talk. I slept most of the day and yesterday was better but still poor. Today I think frustration is pushing me on but I certainly have limits. Luckily it's dark, snowing and cold and we got our new sofa delivered yesterday...it's embracing me...so comfy...it ought to be easy to drift off and sleep\ heal.

Hugs and love to you all
Carrie x

Three day weekend - thanks St Patrick (pt1)

Saturday 15th March -

We visited Mamma G and Maggie got a cuddle and kisses. Those are her daffs too and look at that sky = gardening weather!

Then we went and got a few bits and bobs, such as these new flowers for 14b (and much more than this photo shows) and a new kettle for the shed - hurrah!! Hot drinks are back :) Now we can warm ourselves up after facing the N. Irish winds - bbbrrr.

* I strongly believe in buying flowers and even some vegetable seeds in these discount shops. Not everything has to come from a great nursery or a named supplier. We regularly get things for next to nothing and they turn out to be just as good. If you aren't looking for a certain type - I say go cheap and you may be very surprised. For example our spuds last year came from a nursery and some from a pound shop, different types but both extremely abundant when harvest time came.

Look how happy Maggie is and how shiny our new wee kettle is :) The sky was blue but there's usually a nip in the air, hence the jumper and need for tea. Earl Gray for Andrew and Three Mint tea for me...you are always welcome by the way and sometimes we even do coffee, plus you'll always find a biscuit or two :)

Okay, ready to go. These are the weekend's 'Before' photos. The 24a one will not shock anyone but I have until now, resisted showing you the unbearable shame of 14b. Maybe I should explain? Blush! Last year we decided were going to give up this plot and just sort of forgot about it, thinking we shouldn't waste anymore time there. The plots around it are so terribly neglected that the weeds from them had invaded ours and simply - we were miserable. But, during the winter we had ideas flowing and not enough room in one half plot to accommodate them, so.... It's an ugly duckling ready to bloom :)

Andrew kept going on 24a, getting rid of the last of the chard and mooli which had gone over and mulching everywhere liberally with horse manure. There were a great deal of times that I could have sworn that he was just standing there, doing nought, but I am assured in my heart that he was planning, always planning ;) Haha. 

Though it is true.... Had there been anyone else down there they may have thought he was a slave driver, but there wasn't, not a one in our field and the others looked empty too, to be frank. Kind of makes you mad...

Yes! I tackled and sort of conquered/ made a dent in 14b; got rid of the dead raspberry canes and I honestly don't know how many massive thistles and dandelion plants, not to mention the grass that had conquered the beds. Is there much better than getting the whole root of a weed out in one swift movement? :)

I did enough work to get really excited about and even lament home time; though I was exhausted and sleeping standing up. It's been a long time since I felt that strongly about the place and how we (Nature and I) were nurturing one another. I felt such love for my plots, my wee pieces (literally) of Eden.

The Allotment Gardens as a whole are a damnable shame and to my eyes, a failure. Poor infrastructure, lack of commitment, still poor access and a real need for strong leadership and rule reinforcement! I could rant for days but I shan't, instead here are the 'After' photos for Day 1 - I believe Maggie was quite happy with our progress :)

Hugs and love
LOADS more to come :)
Your

Carrie x

But Baby it's cold outside

Is anyone else feeling the cold or is it just me? The Hubby certainly doesn't seem to really have taken it on board that it is in fact FREEZING!!! Apart from all the moaning he does in the evenings, he has blinkers on when it comes to the plots.

He had me down working away on Saturday digging over yet another finished up bed and adding manure and seaweed to it. (It's going to be a potato bed soon).  Have I mentioned before that I have an Adaza? It's fab, making working the soil much easier, I wrote about them way back here but when we where in France recently we bought one of our very own. I highly recommend it as it takes a good bit of the sore back element out of digging. Anyway once manured and mulched the bed was ridged up like the others; this seems to be really working well for us - on our clay soil the raised beds can get rather water logged but this winter, even with all the rain and snow, the water has been draining away much easier; if you haven't tried it, I recommend giving it a go.

Once that was over and I had drunk up a herbal tea to warm the cockles of my heart, we went over to 14b, to the scary part..... This half has had some work done to it but we really needed to break the back of it. The previous owner had rotivated this plot and then covered it all in very thick black plastic and left it. In turn we have ended up with some pretty decent soil and no weeds to speak of. Once the plastic was lifted the ground below is ready to go. Here we are putting a large 'permanent bed', which will be split in 2 and filled up with strawberries and squashes. These will stay in place for 3 yrs and then swap sides back and forth every 3rd yr from then on - permanently. This sort of bed and system may have a fancy name, if it does, I don't know it but you get the idea.

Of course by happenstance I got a phone call just as the harder work was about to begin (we had marked out the bed but hadn't started digging it) and Andrew suddenly really needed to speak to Bill, haha. We ended up not getting any more done there and packed up (but between you and me, I was so happy; we went and got a coffee and a biscuit instead, yippeee!). Sometimes Ecotherapy can be going to the plots, getting frozen and then rewarding yourself by leaving!

That night was my cousin's Hen Night so I needed to go out and wine, dine and party the evening away. Something I do not do and am still recovering from even though I didn't drink much alcohol at all and was on the tap water! It was a fabulous night but on Sunday I was in no state to go back to the plot and get 'stuck in', I'd only arrived back home at 3.30am. Andrew went though (crazy fool! it was so cold) and got some of the said bed dug. I slept and dreamt of dinner time - we were having lottie stew and all food is exciting at the mintue as I'm on a strict bridesmaid dress diet!! Haha.

More tomorrow ~  we were given Jerusalem Artichokes by a friend and I have to research and learn about them and then write it down here. Ate a couple last night in the stew - gorgeous.

Oh I do love to be beside the seaside

Whitehead beach - lovely

Today at the allotment was AWFUL!! But being the good wife I am, I went. Standing there in the shed shivering with Maggie shivering in my arms and the hail stones falling down I can tell you I cursed the very existence of plots in the first place. It was just silly, the ground was frozen and unworkable and the bloody gas canister for the coffee to brew on was barely working it was so cold. It took a while but then Andrew admitted defeat and I got to go home!! So much for the 1st day of the New Year on the plots.

However, a few days ago we all went to Whitehead and gathered seaweed. There has, as we all know, been bad weather which brings up a load of seaweed onto the shores. We drove our car down a boat ramp and filled up our big bags 3 times over.

I highly recommend seaweed as a mulch, I have said it before but I do kind of like to emphasise these things - it's free and good for the crops! Just make sure you aren't near a sewer outlet and remove any plastic that may be in amongst the harvest and you are good to go. Ours doesn't even smell; it's very well rotted and shredded to small bits by the storms - perfection. 

the asparagus bed all snug under the seaweed

Hugs, I'm off to have a coffee and a snooze under my blanket x