EJ
Essex
Posts: 2863
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:22 pm Post subject: Morning on the allotment |
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It stayed dry today, yay, so I shot to the plot. It has been so wet I didn't know what to expect, and even if I would be able to do anything depending on how waterlogged the soil was. However, in places it was incredibly sticky, but I was able to make a start on the spring clean. Plenty of annual weeds, little tufts of grass and horrid creeping buttercup, but they all lift easily at this time of year, and if you get them out now, especially the buttercup, that should be it for the summer.
Rather ashamed to show you the first photo, before weeding. This is the top quarter of plot number one.
And here is it again once I have spent the morning working on it. I have strawberries, white alpine strawberries, globe artichokes, cardoons, daffs, gladioli and dahlias in this section. There is also a row of spinach which will grow like mad come spring, and they will probably go to seed, but the long flowering stems will be covered in young, tender leaves, great for salad and stir fries.
I do have a bunch of young strawb plants at home to take to the plot to bulk up the rows.
Here is the spinach.
Cardoon - not grown for the vegetable, but just because it is spectacular. The bees adore it and I love to have some unusual things on the plot rather than the standard rows of things.
And here are the globe artichokes. I am the only one that likes them so I have halved the row. I cage them in because their leaves can have a 5 foot spread which reduces the amount of allotment growing space. My fencing them in, I still get the lovely flower buds to eat and have plenty of room either side for growing other things.
More bulbs making a break for it.
And once in a blue moon, I turn something up in the soil. Never anything like gold bars, in the past I have dug up a huge old key, and little Noddy china tea cup, an old three penny piece, and today, this spoon!
I guess somebody used to use this for planting their young plants, put it down, and forgot all about it. Goodness knows how I will clean it....or even if I will clean it....
Hope you enjoyed my tour of the allotment on this rather damp, grey, January day.
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http://allotmentnews.blogspot.com/
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toni
 Administrator
Plants Moderator
Regular Plants Contributor
North Texas, Zone 8a
Posts: 11709
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:32 pm Post subject: |
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Wow, thanks for the pictures of your allotment. Everything looks really good for the weather you have been having.
I like that spoon, I would hang it up on a fence post as a decorative piece.
Somewhere in my garden out back are my really good hand pruners...I put them down somewhere last spring and haven't seen hide nor hair of them since. I even borrowed my grandson's metal detector with no luck.
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To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with Spring ----
George Santayana
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eileen
Forum Moderator
Scotland
Posts: 18528
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:33 pm Post subject: |
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What an improvement the second picture is on the first EJ!! Testament to all your hard work that's for sure. It's good to get outdoors and play in the dirt isn't it? I was out on Saturday weeding and trimming everything back - terrific feeling. 
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Netty
Regular Plants Contributor
Southern Ontario zone 5a
Posts: 10313
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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Looking good EJ!
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Droopy
Regular Plants Contributor
Western Norway
Posts: 9331
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:48 pm Post subject: |
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EJ, you're a lucky girl. We've got frost in the ground, so weeding is out of the question still. Your plot looks delightful to me!
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The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
-Bertrand Russell
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Sjoerd
West - Friesland
Posts: 7024
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| Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:14 am Post subject: |
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Well, you know I enjoyed your lottie tour. Everything is looking pretty darn good, I have to say.
Finding old artifacts whilse tilling the soil is just another bonus of gardening, isn't it?
Your glorious fotos make me wonder when my lottie is going to start doing things.
Thanks for the great pics. They are inspirational.
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Sjoerd http://www.volkstuindersvereniginghoornenomstreken.nl/Page11.html
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gardengater
NC
Posts: 1544
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| Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 6:46 pm Post subject: |
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Looking good, EJ. I envy the little treasures you find in yours. What's really exciting is those little green shoots poking up.
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