Easter Gardening On the Plot

Hello to those whom are still following here on my garden blog… Its been a long, long while since my last post in November…. I usually fill in my winter blog with stories of my travels, but as for all of us this past year, that has not been available to many. And to be very honest with you, my heart as not been in the world of blog…. As much as in my creative world of crafts… So I have been spending more and more time Off line, during my absent months, and more time within my creative world.. Both with my knitting, my art, and crafts.. My crafts and artwork I will share with you next time.

And look!…. you turn around and EASTER is now here…. Time as we know it is certainly going faster and at times you blink and a week has past…

So how are you all… Have you been keeping busy, and I hope all of your own gardens are thriving..

We have been lucky in that we have obtained another greenhouse by an allotmenteer who was finding his plot too hard to maintain due to ill health in his old age.. At 82, he did remarkably well and has had the plot next to ours for over 30 years… The last year he never came to his plot and that is the first year he has missed in all of his allotment days… We shall miss him and wished him well with his health issues..

Before the glass was put inside..

So hubby was busy in moving the greenhouse and setting up next to ours… Its funny how when you send out a signal to the Universe how its heard… Last year we both said we could do with a bigger greenhouse because of all the things we were finding to put in ours and not enough room…. Then this year we get one… Thank you Universe..

The greenhouse now with glass in and the cold frames and raised beds now moved in line.

We started early with setting onion and shallots sets in January, these are now in the ground but here they were before being put in the ground in the cold frame with the green mesh on top.

We also started our peas this way… And they too are now in the ground… We have two rows now set.

Peas two rows of three each… You can also see Apple trees starting to sprout shoots The

While hubby was busy doing that, I was trimming back the late raspberry bushes dead wood, and clearing out weed from places, along with hoeing over where hubby to putt in the potatoes. We have two and a half row of early potatoes which are Aran Pilot and six and half rows of main crop, which is Picasso..

More of things we are growing are in this gallery.

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So Spring is Here….. And I am so pleased to be digging back in Mother Natures earth again…. This gallery is a little different than in the Classic edit.. I thought it would show you the headers of the plants here.. They are from left to right cauliflower broccoli and Cosmos flowers, Leeks, Lettuce.. Peas, and onions and shallots now in the ground, and Asters flowers. These will go in my front home garden this year.

Hope you all of you have a very happy, Easter… and Happy Gardening..

July Update~ Where Did June Go?

A Mornings Harvest

Peas, Broad Beans, Strawberries, Raspberries, Broccoli, Yellow Courgettes which are hiding, and Sweetpeas.

Hello My gardening Friends, Well this is a new experience here, as I battle with the New Editor and get to learn its control system…  I ended up with more blocks than I knew what to do with and could find no way of deleting them other than keep pressing the undo arrow… And this is supposed to be progress… 

Already just spent over half an hour writing these simple words and adding One picture…  I finally found the Classic Edit to which I now have in the above screen, if I don’t press anything I shouldn’t as it disappeared on me when I tried to create more room for me to see what I am writing without the side panel of Blocks… 

So  to save myself any more stress, I am going to upload if I can my photos using the Classic tab and hope the slide show and Gallery will still be there. So this post is going to be a bit of an experiment of Old and New Editor.. As I try out this and that button.. Its the only way to learn as I click and GO! 🤣😀😂

Peas, Already we have had three bucket loads and froze a lot.

Broad Beans

Click onto the smaller pictures to bring into the Gallery to view and see what is growing.

Brassica Family, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Onions and Potatoes in background. Lupins down the boarders

Sweetcorn

Brussels Sprouts and Leeks

Apple Tree

Sweetpeas

Remember the Sweetpeas I planted in the video I shared. Well here they are to the top of the trellis. And already I have had around six large bunches of blooms from them.. Which Not only have I enjoyed their beautiful colour and fragrance, but so have my family and neighbours.

The Blueberries are also maturing If you look closely through the net. As the birds soon devour them.

The Dahlias are now starting to flower, growing along side the marigolds

This is just one of our Fuchsia’s which my Husband and grown from a cutting over the last couple of years to train into a standard. We keep over winter in the greenhouse.

How does your Garden Grow!

by Sue Dreamwalker May 16, 2024

Bluebells and Beetroots.

by Sue Dreamwalker May 6, 2024

Returning to Mother Nature.

by Sue Dreamwalker April 16, 2024

Well this has certainly been an educational experience… It’s taken patience and perseverance as I learn to navigate my way around.. And what would have taken me perhaps half an hour to complete my post has taken me over two hours of trial and error.. But I got there in the end..

And that is what counts, at the moment we are all of us experiencing set backs, problems, and anxieties of one form or another as our world before our eyes changes, in ways we never thought possible . What we have all got to learn is not to give in, or give up… Those of us who grow our gardens, know only too well we have good years and bad, as our rotation of crops sometimes give us bumper crops and other times they fail.

We have had most of our Parsnips fail to germinate for what ever reason. We set twice and still they didn’t germinate… only the odd one here and there… So we hoed and planted more beetroot instead. and another row of Chard.

I Will leave you with this thought.

What we sow now we will reap later, Make sure you also plant the seeds of love in other peoples hearts. For in doing so, we will all harvest a more harmonious and peaceful world for our Children’s Children to inherit.

Love and Happy Gardening.. Sue

Exercise on Lock-down~ Creative Time.

Another Month has gone, and either ‘Time’ is flying for you right now, or it is dragging out… So what are you all doing in your Lock-down time? Have you taken up your artist brushes, or you ladies, sewing or knitting. Or maybe you found some DIY jobs you needed to do if you had the materials in before the lock-down… If you are lucky enough to have a garden have you been busy in it enjoying getting out in it as Spring starts to bloom. 

 Have you been creative??  Have you been bored? Why not give something new a try… 

I felt like creating something different, and found myself painting in aboriginal art form. This is just part of that watercolour painting

Or are you perhaps seeing this time as a time to reflect and put into perspective all our blessings..  Maybe you are volunteering your time helping others, or maybe you need help.  If you do need help, then do not be afraid to reach out to your neighbours, never be too proud to ask.. There are many who are willing to help right now..  I am witnessing some wonderful neighbours within my own community and a band of volunteers are organising through our neighbourhood watch scheme, and its heart warming to see..  What ever you are doing, where ever you are, I hope each and everyone of your are well, and stay well. 

Have you been able to walk the dog, keeping your social distancing? or have you found time to dig your plot and garden and prepare your gardens ready for the growing season?

We keep on Walking.

We count ourselves very fortunate in that our allotment plot is only a five minute walk away, and when we go early in the morning we hardly see anyone or meet anyone. When we do, we respect each others distance and get on with the job in hand of planting our crops..  ( If you right click the photo’s  you can open up to view larger ) 

We have been busy busy, as those of you know this is sowing time.  So In went the potatoes.. Hubby did this in gradual steps, digging two rows each morning, digging out the deep trench mucking/ putting manure it and placing potatoes in.. Covering up… Hard work, and when you are Three score year and ten plus it doesn’t get any easier.. 

Hubby has now put in Nine rows of potatoes. Two early variety is called Foremost, and seven main crop are Picasso.

While Hubby was busy digging in the potatoes, I got stuck in one morning and planted the onions and shallots..  The quality of the photo below is not good.. It was pretty cold that morning, as off came my gardening gloves to click the photo. 

Onions and Shallots setting, I planted Two rows of each and one row of red onions. Which are Turbo, and the shallots are Golden Orbit.

The next morning while the potato rows were growing, two by two 🙂  I set too and planted a row of peas.. Growing in the cold frame. 

First lot of Peas sprouting, It was the second lot which the mice ate..
These are Hurst Green-shaft.

My row of Pea planting.. I would be lost without the kneeler. My knees did take the toll. Hubby later came to the rescue with his rolled up jacket as a cushion on the kneeler.

 These I set in rows of three..  And boy did I know about it with my knees and back.

Once the row was set, Hubby helped me put metal steaks in and we put wire netting either side of them. This is for support when they grow

Peas now in neat rows with wire netting each side to help them grow up and support .

Remember the  sweater I was knitting and making up as I went along with left over yarns.. Well hubby took a photo of me wearing it as the peas we netted and I was raking the footprints we had made… 

Me raking up my messy footprints after the pea row is planted and covered with nets until they get a little bigger to flower… Otherwise pigeons and sparrows love young pea-shoots.

Another morning I put the nets in place along the trellis which was where for years we have grown loganberries.. But as these have not been there best for several years, so we decided to dig them out in the autumn.. And I had a plan to plant sweet peas along the row… Hence my dismay in my last post when the mice got in and nibble their way through them… But my new plants are now growing and in the cold frame. This is where they are going.

I mucked under the trellis work in the beginning of January, and now I put netting up for the sweet-peas flowers to climb up when big enough to plant out.

 The greenhouse on is still full of seedlings, brassica’s and leeks, lettuce etc. 

Seedlings and dahlia tubas. There really isn’t a lot of room.. But some now are out in the cold frame.

My Flower bed in the allotments.. Space for Dahlia’s at the side of the sheds.

Well my friends, that’s all for now Stay safe and well and See you next time.

Sowing Seeds.

This is the time when we get busy again with our plots and gardens, as we prepare the ground to plant our seeds and soon we will be planting our  early potatoes at the end of March..

Now I could have shown you rows and rows of seed trays we had set.. We set our pea seeds and I set my Sweetpeas in February. My hubbies peas were just starting to sprout, when we had a little visitor sneak into our allotment plot greenhouse and who merrily nibbled their way through every tray… 

So we have had to both resow again… And I alone set 100 sweetpeas, as I bought lots of different varieties this year… So we had to repurchase and start over… And its amazing how mice will nibble through the harder husk of the peas and take the tender centre and leave the husk on the surface of the compost…. Any how Hubby has found where he/she or them were getting in and so far so good.. But I am not risking my second sowing of sweetpeas being eaten again so they are now on my home window sill.. 

While the weather has been up and down, I have been merrily knitting.. And while it may look at the moment a mixture… I know what I am doing as I make it up as I go along… lol.. 

I know this looks a bit strange at the moment… But it my own made up abstract design.. lol

I just want to leave you with a little bit of Spring that is now starting to bloom, through the wet soggy days.. 

Take care of each other…

And Sow LOVE not Fear my friends… 

Rock Garden

Crocus

hyacinths

Primrose

 

 

Gardening and Leisure Time.

I know, I know, its been more than another eight weeks since I last did an update here on my Gardening blog. And I am sure there are those of you who have unsubscribed and I wouldn’t blame you.

But Life away from the internet is what I am embracing more and more of this year, to be honest long spells on the computer drain me more than working on the plot. 

So what have we been up to. Well at the beginning of July we took a holiday and had a wonderful time exploring the Pembrokeshire Coastline  in Wales, and surrounding area, All of that to follow.

But upon our return we had to get stuck back into our home garden and of course while you are away the weeds on the plot don’t suddenly stop growing. So we trimmed back some of our home garden shrubs and trimmed our conifers and made some mulch out of it with the use of a shredder, to spread between the raspberry bushes to save on weeding.

While away we had a kind neighbour who watered our outdoor pots, and the tomatoes in the green house were well watered because of our thoughtful daughter who had bought her Dad for his birthday in June, a Solar Watering system which my hubby rigged up before we went away in the allotment greenhouse and it worked a treat..

A good thing too as the weather here the whole of July has been wonderful, Sunny days and showers, perfect growing weather, weeds and all. With the last few weeks of record high temperatures which reached 38C.. A new all time record here in the U.K.

We are back now to more seasonal temperatures and have had three days of rain, so the English weather is more or less back to normal.

After we got the garden settled. We decided to re-decorate our living room, and dinning room. This done, we then set to and redecorated the Hall, Stairs and Landing.  We finished just two days before the Heat record struck and believe me, all we did that day was rest and drink plenty of liquids. We are just not geared up for such hot weather here in England, not even the fans we put on gave much relief. Our homes don’t have air-conditioning.

So first the plot in photos, since taking these, we have picked all the peas and in total have frozen, nine pounds in weight of peas

 You should be able to click to enlarge these photo’s

Peas, lettuce, beetroot, parsnip

Shelled peas sorted, bagged and ready to freeze

 

 

 

 

 

Another view, the poppies really attracted lots of bees which was our intention

Hubby on the plot, you see how lovely the poppies were we set on purpose down the side of the allotment. The Bees loved them.

Strawberries, Onions, Potatoes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apples

Dahlias and sweetpeas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Behind the sheds and compost bins we left this area wild this year for the insects and butterflies. There is a large patch of nettles butterflies like to lay eggs on. This was where the pumpkins grew last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Poppies, these were huge pompom poppies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok and now for some of the holiday photos.. Carrying on the garden theme we we visited a wonderful Castle and Garden in Wales, called Picton Castle

Picton Castle

The gardens were set in 40 acres of land from the formal walled gardens with herbaceous boarders, its herb collection, to the wonderful woodland paths that surround it which of course I just had to explore those magnificent trees.

Inside the castle was no disappointment either it was stunningly beautiful.

 

 

But for me the gardens was where the’Wealth’ lay, with the fabulous shrubs and flowers.

 

So below is a collage of the garden and for those of us gardeners who now have electric lawn mowers, give a thought to those back in the early 1900’s who had to push and pull heavy lawn mowing machinery.

Me I did more than a little tree hugging

We also went to the smallest City in Wales, in fact St David’s is the smallest City in the UK. but boasts a wonderful Cathedral. So the next collage of photos are some views from  St Davids and some surrounding coast line.

Pembrookshire Coast Wales

St David’s

St David’s the smallest City in the UK The top of the Cathedral

St David’s Cathedral

I hope you are all enjoying your Summer in your own gardens and exploring more of your own countryside. 

Much love and 

HAPPY GARDENING!

March Update~ Came in like a Lion.

Well I think we have certainly had everything thrown at us this month. Gales, heavy rain, with flooding in some parts of the UK, while others had snow on higher ground.  The Wind battered our lean too shed, which we were going to pull down last year, which we never got around to so the Wind saved us the job.. It was a second-hand shed when we got it, which if its true age be known, must have been over 40 yrs old, we had it for 15 yrs.. So it owed us nothing.

Here it is before, you can see why we called it our lean-too. We built our other second-hand shed using fence posts as a foundation base.

Hubby cleared the area and burnt the wood, spreading the potash on the garden. Nothing is ever wasted . And he put the compost and manure barrels on the foundations.  This is the rough area behind the sheds, and will get levelled out and dug over when some of the waste vegetation has rotted down.. This was where the Pumpkins were grown last year. 

This last week the weather has been better so we have worked hard on the plot. Hubby has now planted 3 rows of early potatoes, and 6 rows of Late potatoes.. 

Click to enlarge

 

Potato Planting

Hubby busy planting rows of potatoes while I hoe up the ground near and beyond the leeks.

The Peas are growing well, and will be put into a cold frame to harden off a bit.. Though you can sow straight into the ground, but we have found we have had more success planting them this way, as birds and mice do not eat them, so there are less misses in the row.. We will set more pea seeds later to stagger the harvest. 

Peas growing well

Cabbage, cauliflower, spouts, broccoli, seeds have been set along with Leeks.

Leeks and young strawberry plants before they were planted in their beds

We also made a new Strawberry bed, replenishing our plants with some bought off the local market..  We will add straw around them a little later. 

New varieties of strawberry plants..

It is wonderful to have some fine weather again and Spring to be in the air, the birds are now gathering worms and insects to feed their young and the home garden although it got quite battered by the high winds and rains for a solid week.  Now is beginning to show more colour. So the remaining gallery are flowers in bloom. 

So Until Next time..

Happy Gardening and Planting. 

Another Month has flown.

Dear followers,

Another month has already flown, and its been one of the driest here in England for a long while. We had a water hose-pipe ban in place, as some reservoirs began to dry up,  We had a weekend of none stop much welcome rain this weekend  accompanied by some strong  wind gusts. The rain gave hubby a much deserved rest from carrying watering cans of water two and fro to water our crops in the allotment. He had to go tie up the sweetcorn and my Dahlias have taken a bit of a battering.  But I forgot to take my camera with me to take photos. 

One good thing about the dry spell, the weeds have not been growing as prolific as usual. So that has saved my back a little. 🙂 

While hubby has been doing two hours of watering early every morning I have been picking berries and peas, then the task of cleaning and freezing them. We had a bit of a disaster as one of our freezers we had still some of last years sweetcorn stored and many pounds of berries I had frozen this year, broke down. We didn’t notice right away as the freezer is in the garage. With all the heat of this summer, it wasn’t long before everything was mush..  All had to be thrown out. 

But you win some and you lose some, just one of those things, good thing I kept the nets over the red currents as I was going to leave the rest for the birds, but I forgot to take the nets down, and there were soon plenty more redcurrants that ripened. These photos show what was gathered on two different early morning picking. 

One mornings worth of picking berries and peas

I have been giving my self some lengthy breaks from WP both here and on my main blog. I have been painting my fences around my home garden, and we also last week painted both sheds in the allotment, We went early to beat the heat.  As by 10 am on some days it was too hot for me at least to be working in it. 

 

I also did some different painting, our old bird feeder must have been 15 yrs old, it finally looked worse for wear.. So my hubby made me a new one. I painted it and added some decoration on it then varnished it. So it should I hope last another 15 yr as hubby build the last one. 

Painted some butterflies on it and flowers And yes my window is off kilter 🙂 

Bird Feeder Hubby made I painted. You can also see I painted a couple of fairy doors that were added to the post.. Just to let you know we have fairies at the bottom of our Garden! 🙂

Now over the winter when we are digging and hoeing we often come across bits of old Clay  Smoking Pipes, click the link to see some history about them.  Well we often find the odd broken and stem and recently I found several bowls.. Along with pieces of broken crockery. Also found a tooth, Not sure if its animal or human, hubby seems to think it could be a foxes, Anyway the tooth is on the right. 

Clay Pipes and pieces of crockery, the tooth is on the right found in the allotment plot.

It is interesting to think who tilled the land before we did, and ponder upon their lives. 

I will leave you with some pictures of our some shady spots in our home garden and some more pictures of our hedgehogs, we have several now from babies to adults that come visit and now sleep in our hedgehog box..  So hope that some decide to use it to hibernate over winter in it.  ( Ignore the dates on some of them as the web camera needs to be reset, I forget when we recharge the batteries ) 

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Hope you are all enjoying your Summer. Much love to you all. 

Happy Gardening

Sue

 

 

 

 

Sowing has begun Plus News on a Monsanto Report

This week we started to plant some of our seeds directly into the allotment.  I set too and planted two rows of Parsnips I like to plant them about 3 inches apart.. ( Sorry I still work in inches rather than Cms..)  Which is approximately 8 cms apart. 

Here are two drill lines and the seeds are parsnips

These will not be touched until they get large enough to see them clearly as I will weed in between them.. We covered with a cloche to keep the ground a bit warmer.  And watered them in once they were covered with more earth. 

 

 

I also set two rows of Beetroot  a row of Peas,  I say one row of peas but these I set in rows of 3  close together  ..  I didn’t take a photo of them..  but  using the above picture as a template. I would have planted an extra row in the middle with the peas.. Information on how to plant Peas can be found Here  should you need it.  when they start coming through I will find sticks for them to climb up. 

Here you see a cloche over the peas I set, and behind you can just make out the 3 mounds of earth where the early potatoes are now in.

My hubby dug three trenches and filled them with manure which we had plenty left over which are stored in the bins now behind the sheds and put in our early potatoes. These are Arran Pilot  and are a popular choice for early crop new potatoes .. 

Lettuce

Last Autumn, I set some Lettuce seeds, and these are just coming along nicely, I also set some pick and mix lettuce, these you can see have gone to seed with the yellow flower heads.. But these few should make lovely little lettuce heads. 

 

 

Most of you know we do not use any chemicals, herbicides etc on  our produce, preferring to let nature take her course. I do mix up a garlic spray, and this has proved effective with black fly.. So my next piece of information shared I hope you will follow the link for. 

Why? well, it’s what is going into our food.. And what is a worry is that some of the pesticides which have been banned through the EU may well be given licence to be used on crops within the growing of our food again in the future..

So this important report on Monsanto and what levels of chemicals are within our foods we especially give our children, is alarming!..

This was shared on Health Nut News ,  and is entitled ~Monsanto Is Scrambling To Bury This Breaking Story – Don’t Let This Go Unshared!  I hope you go and look at the list of foods and share it with everyone you know in the orange Link above .

 A quotation below from this site says :~

Monsanto Is Scrambling To Bury This Breaking Story – Don’t Let This Go Unshared! | Health Nut News

Share this shocking new report with everyone you know….

A FDA-registered food safety laboratory tested iconic American food for residues of the weed killer glyphosate (aka Monsanto’s Roundup) and found ALARMING amounts.

Just to give you an idea of how outrageous these amounts are, independent research shows that probable harm to human health begins at really low levels of exposure – at only 0.1 ppb of glyphosate. Many foods were found to have over 1,000 times this amount! Well above what regulators throughout the world consider “safe”.

The list includes Cornflakes, Cheerios, Special K, Ritz crackers, and loads loads more..  The research is significant, and this chemical is known by the W.H.O. World Health Organisation to produce Cancer  cells. Its alarming given the amount now of Cancers occurring in young children .. So Please do yourselves a favour and go check out the list.. Especially if you live in the USA.  

Now you see why I dislike using Chemicals on foods ..

Happy Sowing My friends

And Sorry I have been absent here for a while.. 

 

 

A Busy time in the Sun

I have been busy this last week in both garden at home and on the plot.. Plus its School Summer holidays and I have been playing with my Granddaughter more and just enjoying Life. 

Here are a few of the things gathered in the garden and that are getting ready for picking. 

Click the photo’s to enlarge or hold your cursor over them to reveal the headings.

The Dahlia’s are out in abundance right now and I have three vase’s full at the moment .. More to go to my daughters this evening and the neighbours have loved receiving little bunches too I have an updated photo of the lovely blooms to show next time.. 

The first flush of raspberries on the early flowering have now all been picked and frozen, I cut out all the old stems that had finished fruiting in the middle of last week. And await the next lot of fruits which are forming into flowers right now to gather later in the autumn.

The strawberries have done well also this year from our moving the bed and planting the runners.. And we have had our fair share of strawberry flans and added them into trifles as well as enjoying them with ice-cream

Bell Peppers are growing well .

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Here are just two of the huge cauliflowers that were ready.. They were beautiful.

The Kidney Beans are now much more mature than you see here.. And I got my first pickings off of them this week..

The outdoor tomatoes near the green house were the surplus ones that wouldn’t fit into the green house. They too have doubled in size and are in full flower.

PEAS 

The next photo’s are of our second small row of Peas which we left under the Cloche and sort of forgot about.

This was a row of small peas which had been under a cloche . There were more weeds than peas as you can see in my next photo

I decided to weed them out

Weeding out the Peas

 

Now I added a wire fence and I ran some string in and out of some sticks to secure and help them grow upwards..
We had a huge bucket full of Peas I podded and froze from our other row this week too

The Universe is always listening to me, even in my garden.. Last year a couple of plots down from us were some wonderful large poppy heads I so wanted some of those poppies but never saw the owner of the plot to ask him if I could have some seeds..

The Universe sorted it though for look what sprung up at the side of the greenhouse

Wishing you all a Wonderful Weekend and Happy Gardening until next time 

 

 Poppy Magic