The Beauty of Nature

Here is a sequence of pictures of me planting the parsnips last weekend. It’s good to get them in and plant things at the plot

I thinned out my straberries last year, but it has done little to stop them moving ahead this year. In fact it has meant even more plants. I’ve not done anything special to them, other than thin them.

It does mean getting more strawberry mats or straw. The latter will be cheaper, so I am going to ask a friend to bring some over.

I’m hoping for a bumper crop this year. Not that there were few last year; but I’m thinking of making jam this year. We will see of course, the year is but young yet. 😉

I was going to take some video of the plot today, but unfortunately I forgot to take the memory card for the recorder. Oooops! So, you’ll just have to do with stills of my sprouts:

They are still small, but I have fully netted them this year as there seems to be a lot of birds round that are hungry.

I also put the cabbages in and gave them collars and slug pellets as there seems to be a lot of the little blighters around:

While I was there I also put in some parsnips, but I haven’t got time to post the pics now. I will show you tomorrow.

They say there will be a frost tonight. I hope not for the sake of all the people who put out their delicate seedlings today. I wanted to tell them it was too early, but, I’m not sure they would listen to little old me.

This is my recent acquisition – a blackcurrant bush.

I realise it is only one, but at the moment I don’t want a plot full of one variety of fruit, so I have it mixed with raspberry and others at the fruit end of the plot.

I think [wink) ]the rhubarb was ready for picking at the weekend, so I cut quite a few stalks and gave some away. The rest I cut up and microwaved with honey. Oh yes, it was yummy. I’m looking forward to it coming back again and again this year. I will try it with custard next time – having it with my breakfast all week this week.




I’ve been setting my hanging baskets tonight. Just put the lobellia in and left the rest as they were a bit pot bound. That way they can spread out before I put the rest of the baskets together.

Here is a bit of trivia for you about lobellia:

“It’s also known as Indian Tobacco, and Pukeweed.

Lobellia originates from Eastern USA, but is also cultivated in other parts of the world. It has pale green or yellowish leaves about 3-8cm long, and fruit consisting of a capsule containing numerous small, brown seeds. The herb is used medicinally, and is cultivated once the fruits are ripe.

Lobellia is a respiratory stimulant, and is highly regarded for its effect in treating asthma and bronchitis. It is also a tobacco deterrent and is used as a major ingredient in many anti-smoking mixtures as it has similar, but less potent, pharmacological properties to nicotine, which help to alleviate withdrawal symptoms.”

I have been able to harvest some comfry this weekend, though I have left the bits that are still flowering. It has gone in the composter to make up the space left after I nearly emptied last week.

I am putting the sweetcorn in this weekend as it has started off well under glass, but with the good weather I thought I would put it in now. Let’s hope it fares better than last year.

I went digging again at the weekend. The weather was nice for some of it, so I took the opportunity to put in the last of my spuds and put in and net the cabbage.

As you can see, the soil was dry on the surface, but quite moist underneath. It wasn’t hard to dig it, but it wasn’t easy either.

Now that the cabbage are fully netted I can relax a bit, except for the watering, which I will have to do most nights until they are well set.

I also took some time to check on the onions. They seem to be doing well and have come up strongly.

I decided to take some of my compost out this week. I have planting and re-potting to do.

As you can see it has come on nicely and is rich and going to give my seeds a good start. It is all peat free so that’s a bonus too.

It took a while to dig out as it was really compact in there. There were one or two big lumps, but nothing that wont continue to rot down, so I put it back in at the top and away we go again.

Here I am finishing off the planting and netting of my peas.

I put net round them as the pigeons round here are quite greedy when it comes to succulent greens.

Sometimes I wonder at TV and the way they make the rest of us feel like second class citizens. They should ask one of us to secretly film the reality of allotments.

Here I am composting again.

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You can see that the compost is really ready to be used.

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This is the vegetable waste from the house and plot. Just see how it has broken down into nice rich compost for this years seedlings.

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