Home Alone

With a broken wrist this landgirl had no option but to leave the country home and head to the city to be cared for by the other landgirl. This left the abundance of seedlings home alone. Along row of small plants could confront the helpful watering friends that came by this past week. All are well and watered.
Their transplantation awaits.

Another May Day

Four weeks have passed since the landgirlz wrote. Its not because we have not been hard at work on the plot but more about finding time to blog. May has seen hot weather, worries about the lack of water and the fight at this time of year re weeds. Seedlings have flourished in the warm weather.
We have planted out the much loved celery and sweet corn. Its almost been like seeing your teenagers leave the family home for the first time, hoping they will eat, sleep etc.

The success this year with the new addition of the raised bed and cover have proven to be worthwhile. An abundance of salad leaves (lettuce, rocket) chives, spinach and pumpkin seeds have left many passers by green with envy. Others crops have all left the start line and fingers crossed all growing.

The bad news of May is one landgirlz has broken her wrist (in several places)! That's not down to too much digging but a fall on the home garden steps. Out of action and in plaster for 6 weeks the heavy chores of water carrying, digging etc are now left to the other main landgirl. So June may be a punishing month on many counts.

So far this month we have eaten plenty of rhubarb, salad leaves and a little spinach. We are looking forward to the first crop of early potatoes, peas and broad beans in June.

Else where on the allotment the wildlife group have dug and built the pond, which is sited beautifully with Stroud views. The fence team have now plugged all holes and fingers crossed for no more deer. The fundraising team are preparing for the fete in mid June (to raise funds). And I am sure there are other teams for others jobs. The logo is complete and will be launched at the fete with postcards and badges to give visual awareness to the association.

All is well on the plot, goodbye May.

May day rocket!

The first of May saw a bumper cutting of rocket and muddy hands. Our first major day on the allotment for almost two weeks. The coldframe/raised bed was bursting with greenery and elsewhere were signs of spring weeds and a wilderness of dandelions. We spent a fair bit of our time on our knees weeding and deciding what was a weed or what was a seedling! No major mistakes as last year when we weeded all but five of the parsnips.

We also planted the second early potatoes (Nicola). Not holding out much hope for these as they got damp and mouldy in a plastic bag on the kitchen floor...

Elsewhere on the allotment: Fordism has taken hold on the upper slopes. There is an abundance of newies digging, sieving and planting. It's all very scary as it seems, almost in blink, a new regime has emerged. It almost feels like there's a race on; a competition to do better than your neighbour. Only a small strip separates these neat, well-sieved plots. I'm waiting for a shout ' get off my land!'. You may see a jealous tone in my writing but no, its just a yearning for the blackerry bush days of wilderness on the upper slopes.

Its raining...yippeee.