Monday night's work

This patch has been allocated as the emergency potato patch, I say emergency because its getting very late for potatoes, fortunately the label say they can be planted up as late as June but I don't want to wait that long.

This patch isn't ideal as it was last years potato patch and we all know that we should rotate our crops properly but the spot I had intended to plant them is going to be a lot harder to dig than I thought and I think time will overtake so they are being shoved in here with compost and lots of hope.

It has to be dug before I can plant and I was supprised just how hard it was to dig. Even though it looks weed free, the sun has baked the surface to a hard crust, I didn't fancy faffing around watering it so I just got on with it.



I got this far and I got fed up, there is only a small bit left so I will have to finish it off on Tuesday and then get the potatoes in.

I wandered off and looked for another job. Back in the beginning when I took this plot on I found a length of green netting which I put safe and tonight it came useful for creating support for the peas. I am not sure how good it will be - time will tell.

Gave everything a good soaking, if you look carefully the cottage garden flower bed is starting to yield seedlings, I am hoping that this will look great and pull in lots of beneficial bugs !!

A full length shot of the plot just to see how things are beginning to take shape.

Sunday's Work

If you look carefully you can see my attempt to provide support for the wall of sweet peas I am hoping to have. I need to add extra string because I can see that four lines of horizontal twine is not sufficient for the job.


I dug a trench and filled it with this lovely compost, part manure part liberated waste from the flower shop http://welshgirlsallotment.blogspot.com/search?q=industrial. After the compost went in I planted about thirty plants and need to bring the rest down from the house to plant the rest of the row up !

I also planted a row of carrots, beetroot and spring onions and planted out two rows of eating peas. They will need staking but I will have to have a rumage to find something too support them, they are only two inches high at the moment so they should be ok for a few days !!

... and this was dinner - fresh purple sprouting brocoli, picked cut and eaten raw with my lovely roast beef dinner cooked by my lovely mam - what more could a girl ask for !

Finally taking shape

All the hard work is starting to pay off, my Dad came with his rotivator on Friday and whizzed this part of the plot up for me ..

admire it from another angle !!

Just this bit left to wade through and this plot will almost be perfect to recieve all the palnts that I have been lovingly raising at home !

Dad moved the last of the dahlias for me so I am hoping that I can sort this section out fairly quickly and get the raspberries in.

I am starting to feel more upbeat about the plot in general, it has been a hard slog for weeks getting through the weeds and compacted ground but Fridays work has made me a lot happier. It looks like somewhere I want to put my plants and still believe they will grow !!

More weeding.

My dad has given me a load of autumn fruiting raspberries which wered surplus to his requirements. I have decided to put all my fruit bushes together, this means the dahlias I have been rescuing need to be moved some where else. This strip of land seemed a good place so that when you look to the far end of the plot you will see a great display of dahlias.



The only problem was the matted couch grass and impressive docks which have become established over the winter and spring. I made a start last night ...

and then went back down this morning to finish the job off. The sun was beating down but luckily there was quite a cool breeze - good job really because I would have given up if it wasn't for the breeze !

It was worth the effort becuse even if I say so myself, my trench looks quite good !!

All that remains now is to dig up the rest of the mutant dahlias and move them down the other end of the plot and plant up the raspberries - nice job for the morning !

Have you ever seen tubers this big ?? This is just from one plant !!

Bank Holiday sunshine

I have spent a marvelous weekend away with my family, we all enjoyed ourselves in Cei Neuadd, West Wales and we are looking forward to going back across at the end of the month.

Saturday was quite a mild day with a bit of sun - mild enough for my daughter to paddle in the sea with her wellies and a t-shirt. Nevermind that her wellies kept filling up with each wave that came in and the fact that her legs were pink with cold she had a whale of a time ! -the dog enjoyed himself as well !! He'd going really well for fourteen and reverted to a puppy when he got to the sea.

Back to reality, this piece of ground is taking for ever to clear, it feels like I am doing the same piece over and over again without actually getting anywhere. My seedlings have turned into plants back at home and I am eager to get them in the ground but I am not quite ready yet, nevermind a couple more feet of land and I should be there.

I thought it was about time that the dahlias should have made a show by now, but the grass is so thick you can't see a thing. I started to dig one out, the grass was so matted I wasn't sure what to do, not only was there the thick couch roots but a complete felted mat of hair fine roots. I eventually found the tubers, huge and in great condition but not looking ready to grow so I weeded the area as best as I could and replanted them.

I have decided that each time I go I will clear one more dahlia and after a few more visits that bottom end of the plot should be coming under control.

I'm getting ready for another visit this evening, its a bit hot for digging today, so I will wait until after dinner when the family are home from work and school and disappear for a few hours !

Potatoes, chitting, earthing up

I was getting desperate to get the potatoes in the ground - the poor things have been chitting since late January and its getting a bit late in the season for them to be still hanging around.

The weather forecast in Wales this last week has been way off the maek - yesterday was supposed to be torrential rain all day - but it turned out to be a lovely day, I cleaned out the fish pond and cut the grass in the back garden at home and dug out a flower bed in the front garden - so much for the rain.

With this in mind I was a bit concerned that for the entire week we have been promised rain - but true to form this afternoon and evening we beautiful - so off to the plot I went.

I had earmarked last years onion bed as this years potato patch, like everything else it needed weeding so ...


after I had weeded it and turned it over ...

I dug out a wonky trench and threw the spuds in .... straight lines are not my strong point ...

I filled that trench in and did the same again for another row and a different variety - I didn't label them so I don't know what they are - I will take more care next year I promise !!

It looks like they have already been earthed up but they haven't the tumps you can see are the piles of earth ready to use for earthing up !

All in all for an hour an a half's work I was mighty pleased. The couch is proving a difficult beast to master on the other plot and it was such a pleasure to able to dig this through so easily this evening.

Something is growing apart from grass !!!

The purple sprouting brocolli has finally decided to live up to its name and show a sprout !!

The raspberries are showing lots of buds I think it may be a good idea to keep fleece ready in case of frosts I don't want to loose them all.

The rhubarb is going great considering I haven't tried to force it - it has just sprouted up !!

Digging, Digging, Digging, Digging, Digging, Digging.

Lots of digging, lots of weeding lots of digging lots of weeding - that's about it.

Due to the fact I didn't take care of the plot properly last summer the couch grass has formed a mat and is proving a hell of job to shift, but shift it I will !!

I also found this little fella ( or lady ) hiding by the side of my compost bin.

Critters

Although I have no photos to prove it I have been busy down at the plot, digging and weeding same stuff different day. However Tuesday I had company in the form of a critter. I lifted the blue tarpaulin, odd bits of lino, underlay and moved them to the far plot to attempt to slow down the grass.

When I started to dig out the roots and weeds I noticed some strange droppings, it took me a while to work out that they had simply swollen in the wet. I wasn't particularly bothered at this point as I thought it was probably field mice. I then spotted a beautifully crafted nest, poked it gently with my boot ... and it squeaked !! I covered it back over with a piece of underlay and decided to have a coffee break. As I was enjoying the sun and my coffee what I took to be a rat shot out from underneath the underlay and off into the long grass.

I am not a feeble female prone to leaping on chairs when rodents appear but I will admit to thinking uch-a-fi , it would be naive to think that there are no rats near the plot - I am next to a pigeon loft and stables and not far from the river but its just the ratty thought . To be truthful I wasn't going to blog about it, for some reason I felt a bit ashamed - Yuk she's got rats type of attitude - stupid I know as it seem quite a common problem on plots.

It has put me off going down the plot for a few days but in true Daddy's girl style my Dad has come to the rescue, he popped down this morning and telephoned from the plot, I went down straight away, 'I think its a vole' he said 'I have found another empty nest and one of its holes I am convinced its a vole'. After more prodding about and whining from me about rats he said come here what do want to do about these - in his hand we two tiny helpless creatures - definately voles. We tucked them back up as quickly possible and hopefully they will be Ok.

When they start eating my plants I probably won't be so luvvy dovey about them but at least we can add to the tally of creatures spotted at the plot so far we have, slow worms, frogs and now voles.... and realistically I expect a rat has run across the plot at some point !!!!