THE ALLOTMENTS- June 2013

Allotments Forward View

Poached Egg Plant

Backward View

Picnic Table

Strawberries

Rhubarb

Lettuce in Cold Frame

Tomatos

Dana on Allotment

Things are growing nicely so far on our two allotments. The weather has picked up and currently much drier and warmer, which can only be good after the cool spells we've had of late. Just planted the Pumpkins and Tomatos ouside. Also the young Celery & Celeriac plants.  Currently got the weeding to keep on top of, which appear to grow much quicker than anything else. We have quite a few water tubs on our plots, but you soon get down the water in dry spells. They have to be topped up by a hose, which is connected to a tap quite a distance from our plots. So a long hose required!.

It appears the danger of frosts has now gone for this year , so now the potatos are through we need not worry so much.

Front Garden Rockery

Rockery

Angellica

Hosta

Apricot & Cherry

Almost June now and the rockery is looking very colourful indeed. We added a few new plants on there earlier this year which have made a difference. Its probably the best time of year for our rockery too.

The Aubrietias are at their best and the phlox too. Still others to come into bloom as well.

The Hosta plants are looking very lush and no sign of slug damage as yet. We put gravel around them to help deter the slugs. We have a plant called Angellica which is a type of Herb and that has grown very large this year. The flowers have an unusual scent too.

Also at this time of year the hedges usually need a trim, so i'll be trimming mine very soon. Its very important to wear some protective clothing and  goggles to protect your eyes. Especially if you use a mechenical hedge strimmer. Mine uses petrol which i prefer to electric ones with cables.

The lawns here I can usually get trimmed using our pet rabbits!

Busy Holiday Weekend - Part 2 - VEGFEST- BRISTOL UK

Dana with herbs

Herb Stall

Vegfest Crowds

Veggie Food Van

Marquee for veggie's

Bristol Docks

Veggie Food Stalls

Saturday May 25th  it was the annual "VEGFEST" event in Bristol, next to the dock area.

This was the third time we had visited there, which is quite a long drive from Staffordshire, made worse being a bank holiday.....and the traffic jams on the M5 on the way. Pity it is not held on another weekend....but there you go. Anyway we had a few hours at the event which seemed better than ever. It is a Vegan event to be honest, which suits us fine being Vegans too. So everything on sale is animal friendly & cruelty free as it were. Dana bought a few books from the "Viva!" stall, which is a big animal compassionate society.  There were also cosmetic stalls (free from animal testing), plenty of Vegan food stalls, music on stage thoughout the day & evening and also talks and vegan cooking exhibitions. A very interesting event and it is also held in Brighton in March. This year also another in London in October too at Olympia. It shows there is an alternative lifestyle to one of meat and dairy, which is not at all a healthy one if people only knew the facts behind it, especially the dairy farming industry.

We prefer a lifestyle that does not mean you need to end a life to provide a meal. Some people say you cannot get enough protein and calcium from a plant based diet.....which is totally wrong!  You can get all you need from a plant based diet and actually animal proteins are harmful to bones which can lead to arthritis. So having heard so many facts from nutritionists that a Vegan lifestyle is a very healthy one and  one that lessens chances of getting certain cancers, it is the way to go in our opinion. Just looking around the "VEGFEST" event on Staturday, showed us how much more variety there is in the food recipes, as opposed to traditional meals you see each day and far healthier too. We returned home with a selection of Herbs from a Herb stall and lots of literature too. Plus we had a lovely sunny day as well!

Busy Holiday Weekend -Part 1

Ready to plant out

Greenhouse

Pumpkin plants

Bluebells

Our Wine Production

It was the whitsun bank holiday here in the UK and that means a very busy weekend outdoors on the garden too. Its my traditional weekend to plant out my summer bedding, which I almost completed.

First I did the front garden with a mixture of Cosmea, African Marigolds, Mixed Asters, Rudbeckias, Petunias, Gazanias, Geraniums and Dahlias. Together with a few perennials too. I am trying to cut down on the amount of annuals and create less work in future years by planting more perennial plants. But a few annuals always look good inbetween I think. I was also busy on the allotment too, putting out the rest of my Tomato plants which will hopefull withstand the british weather! Varieties like "Moneymaker" and "Harbinger" should be Ok hopefully. Though unless we get a fair amount of sunshine, they will struggle again. I also planted about 30 pumpkin plants of different types. We like the unusual shapes and sizes that are available, so we really hope they do well this year. I allowed plenty of space between the plants as they spread out so much.

Also planted out was the Sweet Corn and Climbing Beans.

At home Dana was busy making the Rhubarb wine (photo above) which is now all in demi-johns in the bath! We tasted some and it is delicious already. Later on she will be making more Beetroot wine once it is big enough to harvest from the allotment. Last years batch has now all gone and again it was a great taste.

Still to plant out soon on the allotment are the Celery and Celariac plants. But they are not quite large enough to go out yet.

TALE OF SHEFFU THE PIGEON- Continued part 2

Sheffu finds a friend

Free as a bird

Time to fly

Dana with Sheffu

Bye Bye Sheffu

Sunday 19th May we finally released Sheffu the Pigeon after around a month with us.

He had turned into an adult Pigeon and it was time to let him go.

We were amazed how well he flew, considering he'd been in a cage and not much room to practice flying. So to see him fly to the roof of the flats opposite us was quite suprising.

We are happy that he seems to have chosen to stay around our garden and visits everyday to feed from the roof of the Hen Coop, where we put corn to feed all the local pigeons that come here. We get a lot of wood pigeons and Sheffu seems to scare them off to eat from his old pink bowl where we put his corn. So quite a happy ending I think from getting him off Sheffield Station platform, to seeing him mature to a grown Pigeon to take off and return to see us on a daily basis. Hopefully he'll remain safe and visit here for a long long time to come.

TOMATO PLANTING TIME INDOORS

Now is the time to plant up the young Tomato plants into larger pots and then put them in a sunny warm position, preferably in a greenhouse or on a sunny balcony, or whatever place you have. I'm fortunate enough to have a greenhouse, though it's still not big enough for many plants.

I also plant a lot outside at the beginning of June on my allotment, hoping we get enough warm sunny weather to ripen any fruits. With Tomatos you start feeding them as soon as the first flower truss appears, then remove any side shoots that form inbetween the main leaf joints. This encourages the main stem to grow upright which you train up a sturdy cane or wire. Tie it in as it grows, or the stem may snap off with the weight of the Tomatos as they form. I grow a few varieties of Tomato , such as "Alicante", "Moneymaker", "Harbinger"(also suitable outside, as is Moneymaker) Plum Tomatos and the small variety "Gardeners Delight". Always make sure Tomatos do not dry out and feed well with Tomato fertilizer.

The Tale Of The Pigeon Called "Sheffu"

Me In Greenhouse

Sheffu

Dana feeding Sheffu

Dana & Friend

Me with one of our ducks

Maverick the drake

Within our garden we have a few rescued animals, including the ducks, rabbits, hens , the guinea pig and cat.

Recently we went on a train journey to Manchester which included changing trains at Sheffield.

Whilst waiting on Sheffield station, we noticed a small baby Pigeon on the platform in a corner. Dana decided that we ought to return home with it!!!  I was a bit hesitant to be honest, imagining what could happen in a train carriage if a pigeon got loose and started flying around!.Also we had a few fellow passengers looking strangely at us as Dana picked up the pigeon to take on the train. However, we did take it back to our house (waiting till the return journey...it was still there!) , well hidden on the train home and no disasters!.  Since then Dana has fed it daily and its been learning to fly. Soon it'll be strong enough to be let loose.....should it want to go!

It does appear to have make itself at home now and sits on Dana's shoulder a lot (photo above).

We named the Pigeon "Sheffu" after Sheffield Station....also "Sheffu" means "Chief" in Romania i am told by my wife who is from Romania .

Above are photos of a couple of our ducks and myself in the greenhouse.                                    

SPRING IS HERE!

Greenhouse Filling up.

Tulips

Mini-Greenhouses

Victoria Plum Blossom

Duck Enclosure

Well at last spring finally arrived after what seemed like a year since the sun appeared!

In fact the past couple of weeks I think we had more Sunshine than we had since last March 2012.

So i've been very active outside catching up with the garden jobs and of course the greenhouse and allotments too. Most of the allotment is completed now, with just a couple of areas left unplanted, which will be kept for the Pumpkins and Tomato's to be planted later in May or early June. I guess we could still get a few frosts till then anyway. The greenhouse (pictured above) is full of trays and pots of mostly vegetables and fruit plants. There are some bedding plants but not as many as previous years. Firstly with the cold weather they were so slow to germinate and a few did'nt! Also we are cutting back a bit on flower displays and opting for more fruit & Veg instead.  The pets enjoy a ready supply of greens to eat, so we grow a lot of those, including spinach and swiss chard, which they get through a lot. So far the main fruit blossom has been from the Plum trees, but hopefully more will follow soon. It has been a colourful Spring though so far with a good display from the tulips and daffodils. But I will be protecting the trees at night if there are any bad frosts forecast. We usually put some light-weight fleece material draped over the branches. Hopefully it will save the blossom from being ruined.                                                                                                    

New Season-2013

Well it's Springtime now and another Gardening season awaits my attention.

The weather so far this year has been very cold and that has caused a few problems, not only outside but in my Greenhouse too. The germination of seeds has been so slow and in some cases did not emerge at all. Such as Tomatos which were sown in late January. Very few came through and so i've tried re-sowing those. It could be a very late season for them or they might be a right off this year.

Bedding plant seeds again are very slow and way behind previous years. So it looks like a late planting out time this summer.

On my allotments i'm just starting planting out and sowing .

The Onions(Sturon) are in and so are the early Potatos(Charlottes) and Peas (Onward).

Now that i have two full-size allotments, i'm finding I will need to borrow someones rotovator machine to help plough the rest of the soil. Digging two by hand is not good for the back or knees!!

Time will tell if taking on two is one step too far!.....but hopefully i will manage them both.

The battle with the weeds is the main worry so you need to keep on top of them.

       Back at home the animals are enjoying the recent appearances of "the Sunshine".

We still have all the ducks and hens & rabbits, though we lost two Guinea pigs in mid-April with flu like colds. Not suprising with all the cold weather they endured this year . We'd had them a year from that animal sanctury, so we had no idea how old they were. So only one Guinea pig now.

He lives with two of the rabbits (Cherry & Apricot).

The greenhouse is now very full and lots more to sow as yet as spring goes on.

This year i'll be trying "watermelons" for the first time as an experiment,though not certain if our climate will suit those even in a greenhouse. I find even peppers impossible to grow in there.

In my next entry i'll include more photographs of how things are taking shape!....Happy Gardening!

Ducks & Hens on a Snowy January Day

              

                                                                                                                                                                    These photos of our Ducks & Hens were taken after the first  good snowfall of 2013.

Ducks appear to be quite resilient and don't mind the cold weather or freezing cold water to drink!

Hopefully the cold snap will not last too long, as I'm hoping to get started in the Greenhouse very soon.

Lots to prepare and sow for the coming year ahead for the two allotments and front garden also.          

I think this year will be a very busy one on the Fruit & Veg front!                                                         

SUMMER GARDEN PRODUCE

The Hen Eggs

Raspberries

Strawberries

Broad Beans

Potatos and Veg

Now busy reaping a few rewards from the garden & allotment. Last weekend I dug up the rest of the Potatos from the allotment, where we had 6 rows. I washed them and bagged them up to dry. They finished rather earlier this year, but look good though with hardly any slug damage at all. I'm still picking Broad Beans and these will be in the freezer as I pick and pod them all. The runner beans are only jut starting now , but should last into early October I reckon. In the greenhouse the Cucumbers are maturing and the Tomatos still green, but need more sunshine than they have had so far. Not a great year for Tomatos though. But at least most things seem to be doing very well so not a bad year as yet for produce.