Poppy day

This is a random poppy left over from the Greenfinger Club's mini wildflower patch, which suffered a little last year when it was dug over too soon by an over-enthusiastic volunteer. But, undeterred, a few flowers have come back this year, with this beautiful poppy being the best example to date.

It's been, amazingly, a little too hot to do much on the allotment lately, although before the mini-heatwave that probably is summer, Alan and I managed to nearly finish the chicken run. It's safe and secure, but needs an extra layer of chicken wire.


The courgettes and squashes in the polytunnel are almost taking over the place; they really appreciated the pile of dung! We tried one of the tricolour courgettes (pictured, yellow and round) on the BBQ yesterday and it was lovely.


The strawberries and raspberries are doing really well and I need help to eat them, and luckily someone seems to come along just in time in the guise of one of the other allotment holders looking for a tasty snack.

The strawberries are doing much better after a bit of sunshine and a good helping of bark mulch and are producing enough runners to extend the patch a bit next year. They're definitely the most popular item we've grown so far, proving that you really can have tasty, blemish-free strawberries and be chemical-free (naturally, a few chickens to hoover up the slugs/snails nearby helps, even if they do take an occasional nibble of a berry on the edge as part-payment).

Raindrops keep falling on my head

I'm sure I'm not alone in being fed up with the unseasonal amount of rainfall we've being having over the past few weeks. On the plus side, I have two overflowing water butts, but the poor waterlogged plants need a little less of the wet stuff and a lot more warming sun's rays instead.

Strawberries which were oozing with flavour a little while back are now decidedly watery (they actually taste much like many shop-bought ones as a result, but I expect better of these!) Raspberries are still reddening, but again, lack that vital punchiness.


The lettuces above are ones I'm trialling for Garden Organic and they're doing really well: I mulched them with grass cuttings ages back to keep the moisture in (which seems a little redundant now) but whatever the secret was to their success, they're merrily growing at quite a rate.

There's been plenty of weeding done by my two new volunteers, Maria and Victoria, which has been great as I've been able to come along and plant out the brassicas and leeks etc. without having to weed the beds first for a change. David's changed the compost over to the other bin, as we were full to overflowing, and it looks pretty well rotted already, so that will save us a bit of money.


The maypole is up, with the beans ready to climb (I think they're on hold waiting for the sun as they don't seem to have moved much since I put them in) and spinach seeds have been planted underneath. The turnips have also been transplanted, mostly to the high raised beds in the hope that the slugs won't spot them all the way up there.

Peter and I began on a living flower display for a friend's wedding, which has proved to be a lot more work than I anticipated (and taken up a lot more flowers). I completed the second display today (and my back is not thanking me for all that bending) so fingers crossed that the sun will come out and give it a boost so all the flowers come out in time for the big event at the end of the month.

Ethel's first egg

A very exciting day today on the allotment as Ethel laid her first egg - not her first ever, obviously, as even I, who fainted in any science lesson which dealt with reproduction, know that the egg comes before the chicken - but this was her first in my incapable hands.

I was very pleased that I'd worked out her constantly clucking, worrying and weird 'looking at walls' behaviour meant she was looking for a nest box. Alan was less impressed, pointing out that the fact I'd deduced that a hen might want to lay an egg as the first option wasn't really all that amazing.

She seemed more than happy with my makeshift 'Haribo' sweets cardboard box, filled with lovely soft hay, and rewarded me with a gorgeous turquoise coloured egg (see above). I was lucky enough to be at the shed right at the 'egg laying moment' (insert small fanfare) and, judging by the racket she made afterwards, she was equally chuffed with the whole affair.

I thought I'd take a few general shots of the beds to show how we're progressing, and a lot of the hard work on planting and weeding is literally bearing fruit now. Evidently the docks are well and truly into the paths and burning/salt had little effect. You can see above the difference in the hand weeded path to the left of the picture, but that took about 4 hours and was backbreaking. I think the chances of me wanting to do it again or finding anyone else mad enough are pretty slim.


I have a new volunteer, Maria, who is looking to do something practical after work, and she's already proved herself to be a brilliant digger/weeder on Wednesday evening so I hope she'll come back again soon.

We've got more leeks in and the potato and brassica beds have been weeded. At their last Greenfingers Club of the year the children sowed some sweetcorn, hung up their flower pouches (and made a few more which are now in the polytunnel), helped with weeding and also planted some more brussels sprout, which apparently most of them like to eat! We also had a bit of a taster session, with fresh picked rocket, peas and spinach going down a treat.

A few more adventurous (and dare I say it, slightly mad) children decided the various different mint plants might taste as good as they smelt. Needless to say, they decided it was much better to stick to sniffing them.


A hen having an afternoon siesta.