An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

It rained heavily during the night and a strong wind has been blowing all day but the forecasted showers did not materialise and it stayed quite warm.Kevin came to the allotment with me and Kathryn arrived with the three girls to get down to some serious weeding.The weeds just seemed to multiply and grow overnight with the rain! I will get the frustrating bit out of the way first. I planted out the brassica bed a couple of weeks ago,used lime in the pots to combat club root and netted them against marauding pigeons and rabbits.A couple of days ago I noticed one of the cauliflowers had changed leaf shape to very ridged, thinking I had perhaps mixed up the plants and maybe it was a calabrese?!Yesterday it had died and when I pulled it out there was literally no root system. Today another one had gone and two of the calabrese which are next to them likewise.I checked the root remains and there discovered the larvae of the cabbage root fly!Tiny little white maggots for want of a better wor...

Yesterday was spent catching up on work at home,everything needed re potting ASAP.I spent all day up to late in the evening determined to get it finished.The tumbling pots were planted up with busy lizzie and lobelia, the big pot has cape daisy and lobelia with a bacoba, as one flowered all summer last year The flower bed is coming into bloom, I was surprised so much survived the winter, even the peony rose has a number of blooms,lupins,blue cornflower,hosta and a bank of white aubretia no space left for weeds! Sam has his hang dog look on for the camera!The sunshine in the background is the sun shining from the front of the house, by midday it has moved around to the back of the house and it is a sun trap.Everything needs watering each evening. Tomatoes were all potted on, some of these are going out to the greenhouse in the allotment,there are gardeners delight,moneymaker and 100's & 1000's.There are blossom on some of the plants and I have begun a tomato feed now, while ...

I uploaded these photos last night but the computer gremlins slowed it down so much I gave up so here goes with second attempt.The sun has finally arrived but the down side is watering has become very important as most plants are just starting off and seeds need moisture to germinate.I filled a wheelie bin with water one morning when I was on the allotments alone we can use this with the watering can at busy times.Most people are going out in the evenings to water and the flow slows down when a number people are using it at the same time. The salad bed is filling up with the spring onions, lettuce and swiss chard. There is iceberg and butterhead lettuce, it is still covered with fleece at night and will be for another week at least. The onion & carrot bed, I swear these weeds were only a couple of inches high on Thurs when I was last out! I had hoed the bed when the onions had put on some growth but then set carrot and parsnip seeds so we could not weed until they were up enough to...

Bloom 2010 is on from Thu 3rd June to Mon 7th June and my sister Kathleen and myself are heading off again on the Friday on a girls day out, we went last year and thoroughly enjoyed the day.We wandered around but this year Kathleen has the programme and is carefully plotting our course to get in as much as possible. Last year we wandered into tents in the middle of discussions or as a cookery demo was finishing,what we take in this year is being planned with military precision so we miss nothing! Bloom is a great day out just to wander and take in the atmosphere as everyone is catered for, children are free and there is lots laid on to amuse and capture their imaginations. There are celebrity chefs doing cookery demos and Darina Allen is on the day we will be there, there will be gardeners galore doing workshops and question and answer sessions. We basked in the sunshine and sipped champagne and strawberries, grazed our way around the artisan food tent which is a fixture at Bloom.It fe...

To make some room at home I took out more plants to the allotment yesterday.The yard long beans, peas and sweet pea are in this bed into which I dug in some bags of compost from the bin at home.I put a short windbreak around the bed before I went home as we are still experiencing biting north easterly winds, great for keeping the volcanic ash cloud away but not much good for anything else.I read that to make sweet peas grow straight for exhibition showing to take off the tiny tendrils that the plant grows for support.They cling on to anything and usually mine twist themselves around anything close by.I will leave the tendrils on after a couple of weeks when the plants are stronger and have grown a little.In the background a bed in progress, this is the bed we have rested for nearly a year topping it up with compost and grass clippings.I also set Phacaella last year.I dug over the bed and the soil is in great condition.It has now been edged with boards and with another layer of compost ...

I spent most of today on the plot and remembered to take my camera and more importantly remembered to take some photos!I had a small harvest to bring home but anything at this time of year is welcome.Rhubarb with which I made a rhubarb and pear crumble, its like a sweet and sour desert!The lettuce is from the greenhouse and is the winter cos which is a lovely crunchy lettuce with a tight heart and some spinach leaves to add to the salad. The salad bed, I have two lots of spring onions, the lisbon and purplette. There is an iceberg lettuce under the fleece,the name escapes me but the seeds were on a tape it is the first time I have tried this and will give an update on progress.Ruby swiss chard went in today as another plotter had too much and kindly passed on the excess to me.In the background is the garlic bed, I am still not sure if they are developing rust but I cut all of the yellowed leaves and tips off of them and they seem to be growing quite well. I soaked them today, I know ga...