Re-roofing

The weather has been really bad here after a mild February and last week there were high winds and storms which battered our shed and whipped off most of the felt roofing so on our latest visit Peter had to re-felt the shed. I think we are going to get some bitumen paint to go on top just to seal it all in. I was also quite cross at the amount of debris that had blown onto our plot, plastic pop bottles that had been used as cloches and bits of old cardboard, lids off composters and waterbuts were littered everywhere, I really think people should do more to secure stuff on their own plot so that doesn't happen. In actual fact we hadn't done to badly in the bad weather as one shed had completely collapsed and with things getting busier on the plot now it's spring I wouldn't want to be re-building a shed.

The peas and beans now have lovely green shoots coming through which is great and my sweet peas are doing well. I can't wait unti the produce starts growing. I've also got some radish and some lettuce in now, not sure if I mentioned that earlier. My red onion sets have arrived from Thomson and Morgan and as we have a weeks holiday next week we are planning on spending some time at the plot. I'm hoping to build a sandpit for Mini to keep her out of trouble. Will also try and take some new pics to show our progress.

It's March

1st March already today, how time flies when you are having fun, and it's almost time to put in those long awaited potatoes. Last night it was so stormy, the windows were rattling and I could hear the swirling of the leaves, I haven't had a minute to go and check everything is ok today but I'm hoping it will be.

My tomatoes are coming up a treat on the draining board. My husband thinks that 20 plants is too many but we'll see, 10 are a bush type giving cherry toms and 10 are moneymaker a traditional type of tomato, we'll see how we go on, I love tomatoes in salads and we eat a lot of tomato based sauces with pasta, I also have a great recipe for tomato chutney so chances are there won't be many left even if we do keep the 20 plants and we have a large extended family who will welcome any that we can't eat.

That's one thing I am wondering about, because this is our first year it's hard to know just what sort of yield we will get, I suppose some things will be successful and others not, it's just a case of trial and error.

Am hoping to get to the plot tomorrow after church, it's my 2nd Mother's Day and I am hoping my husband has remembered to get at least a card. Then later in the day we have to go and visit our own Mum's, will have to find 10 minutes though just to check over the wind damage.

Seed shopping

I'm quite sad, it was the last day of my Christmas Holidays today and I'll be back at work tomorrow morning but this afternoon Mini and I went seed shopping, we managed to find the exact same seeds that I wanted to buy off the internet at our local garden centre for the same price, less in fact if you minus the postage charge. We bought broad beans, 'Aquadulce Claudia, ' beetroot, 'pablo,' and some lettuce. The most exciting thing is that the beans can go in straight away as they can be sown in Jan/Feb so hopefully we will have the beds finished by the weekend and I'll be able to plant them in the new legumes bed. We took a flying visit up to the plot today just to check for any wind damage because it was really stormy here last night but everything seems to be ok. The shed windows have stayed secure and the plastic greenhouse is pretty much in the same state, the access road up to our end of the site was in something of a state after all the rain but still just about passable, we'll have to keep an eye on it though it's only a very thin access road up to the top car park and I'm not sure what chance we'd have of getting towed out.

We also went to the library today and I got 4 different books on allotments which so far I've only browsed through, the one that looks really good for us at the moment is the half hour allotment which is published by the RHS, it's got loads of ideas in there and is really encouraging for new plot holders who also have other responsibilities and can't spend all day every day on site. It's interesting to see all the different ways of doing things and the different ideas people have, maybe this getting back to nature business will help me to be more creative, we'll have to see.

I've been reading through a site about allotments the last few evenings when Mini has gone to bed at http://allotment.org.uk it is a really useful site if you need some help or inspiration to get started and had loads of information that I found useful, it's also really nice to see pics of other sites and plots and when you see lovely stuff that people have grown it is quite inspiring.

I'm dreading being back at work tomorrow I have really enjoyed this holiday because it has been so relaxed and we didn't overdo it with loads of entertaining. I've spent quite a bit of time cooking which has been really nice because it's normally a stress to rustle up something for tea at the end of a busy day but I've really enjoyed being in the kitchen and taking time over making things, I can't wait to have some of our own produce to cook with as then it will be even more satisfying, highlights over the festive season have been, baking bread flavoured with sun dried, tomato and parmesan, tofu stir fry which I only did to use up leftover veggies and it tasted gorgeous, home made pizzas, making the dough and tomato sauce from scratch which we took to a party and they were gone in minutes, lemon, grape and vodka bomb, the best dessert I have ever tasted and my Christmas Dinner duck with cranberry and orange gravy (I didn't taste it by the way I am a vegetarian but my husband does not compliment my cooking very often so I knew it must have been good.)