An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

The allotment is beginning to take shape albeit very slowly, due to time constraints and the weather, but today the sun shone and I had time to spend there even though it was a bit wild and windy.The top third of the plot is now productive! The carrot bed in the centre was remade as the boards of the previous one was nearly rotten so leaving the bed more or less intact, new boards were put in place around the sides.There seemed to be an awful lot of earth so most of that was shovelled over on top of the potato drills this morning. I got 2 bags of sharp sand and a bag of compost from the home compost bin and dug it into the bed and removed what seemed like hundreds of stones from the bed.Carrots like light sandy soil which is loose and as stone free as possible, they are the divas of the vegetable world! I planted 2 rows of 'Carrot Purple Haze' which has a purple hue to the skin, and 2 rows of Early Nantes from Quickcrop. I had space to plant 1 row of beetro...

The plot is taking shape but the weather is not helping, which is everybody's complaint on this windswept isle.In view on the left side are onion beds, 1 red baron and 2 white then potato beds.Across the back fence are raspberry canes ,rhubarb and globe artichoke ,all moved from the previous plot at the Hydro Farm. White fleece, back left side is covering one of Billy's raised beds. I sowed carrots, Pak Choi and beetroot in the bed today and covered with enviromesh, even the carrot fly may be deterred with the cold weather, but covered the bed 'just in case' ! The second raised bed is empty awaiting top soil and manure to sow courgettes which are on the bedroom windowsill as I speak hoping the weather will improve before June to put them outdoors. There is a space left beside that bed to take the Sweetcorn which are struggling in the back garden at the moment. I had moved them outdoors at home to harden off but had to cover them today with fleece to protect th...

 Posts in position for the wire fencing because we have been told that rabbits are also a big problem up here!Billy dug a trench along the fence line to bury the end of the wire to stop said rabbits from tunneling underneath. Windbreaker was then added for extra protection for plants as it is a wide open field! It is hard to see in this pic but the first permanent bed is in place across the back fence. I slipped 4 raspberry canes, 3 stools of rhubarb and 1 Globe Artichoke from the plot in The Hydro Farm. The shed has to be put into place this weekend before digging out the other beds ASAP! Potatoes are still chitting in the shed. Onions are waiting to go in. Seedlings are backing up at home waiting to be hardened off  Seeds planted today were Sugar Snap.These handy little seed trays had grapes in them, nice and high with air and drainage holes already in place and a  lid to act as an incubator Two of them just fit nicely into another reusable...

Cauliflower & cabbage plants, these were bought and potted on into larger pots and will be repotted probably twice more before going out into their permanent plot.They have been netted against the birds which would love a taste of some nice green veg to vary their winter diet.  Our seed potatoes chitting in the shed, not a whole lot but we don't have a lot of space and it will be late by the time we get them in  The rhubarb which I broke off  the big plants we had on the Hydro, I have one in the garden here which is growing fine these got 'a touch of frost' the other night and are looking a bit sorry for themselves I set to on the seed box last night and discarded out of date seeds and opened packets.I had been tidying out one of the spare rooms and came across a gardening journal which I had started last year. I start one every year but then forget about it! I was amazed at the amount of seeds I had already sowed by this time of the year so we will have ...

Unbelievable sight out on the allotment today! This is just one (forefront) of our 5 rhubarb  plants bursting into new life.I should have covered them just in case of severe frost but it was a quick visit and I was caught for time, hopefully I won't  regret the decision! The whole reason of the visit was to pull the remains of the Brussels sprout plants to give to the hens to nibble for greens. It was a beautiful bright and sunny day , a complete contrast to yesterday when we had to drive with lights on ALL day!  I just had time for a quick look around and I was amazed at the new growth breaking through, above some daffodils                                                                                                  ...

  Firstly let me congratulate Matron for winning 4th prize for her Giant Pumpkin! First time entering a competition and winning a very decent prize indeed.Pop over and visit matron's blog to read all about it. . Secondly, in relation to my recent problems with word verification and removing same from my blog....every day I have to delete comments from Spammers.They seem to just read the legend Word verification free blog and think they can leave weird comments advertising some really weird websites?! Wasting your time Spammers, all comments remain unpublished until I approve them! That is plain English and easily understood not like some of the archaic pidgin English I have come across in these comments.            Anyway....some short time spent on the allotment as it has gotten cold and wet again and the evenings have really drawn in early, the herbaceous bed is going to be just that, I redug it yet ag...

I decided to take a drive out to the allotments today to see how they were faring in the cold weather.It was sunny and bright but very cold at around midday, not a lot of frost around but even the grass on the pathways was hard and crunched beneath my feet.Pic above is the view down the 'new ' plots of last year. Photo taken from the end of our plots, frost can be seen on the path where the sun has not gotten around to shining yet.Not a body to be seen and I did not hang around too long either! Our own plots with our poor scarecrow, I still have not gotten around to rejuvenating him...one of these days!A lot of work has been done for this coming season but more would have been done only for the very wet weather we had in October & November. I heard on the radio today we had the wettest November nearly in living memory and now we have had the coldest December for over 30 years, would this be an omen we are going to get the hottest summer this century? I think not, somehow Gl...

Just a couple of random pics around at home as I have not been venturing too far in the present icy road conditions.A view from an upstairs window, this was taken around mid day today when the frost had begun to fade a little.Our forecast for the remainder of this week and all of next week is a polar air flow down over the country,temps in some places are hitting MINUS 8 or 9% Celsius! My spider plant may be frost bitten! I did not think to bring it in or cover it as frost is not something we usually have to worry about.It is quite close to my back door and the heat and protection of the house. These are (hopefully will)be a clump of white Lillies, I am not sure of their horticultural name but here they are known as St Joseph's Lillies.They are taken to the church on a specific day during the year to be blessed. This clump was taken from the garden next door when my neighbour who was an old lady died recently.She had gotten them from a friend many years ago..they have probably been...