We had a morning at the allotment on Sunday, now I must admit we don't spend nearly as much time there as we would like to, but in a way I think this is a good thing, all too often when we tell people we have an allotment they say how they would like to grow their own but they do not have the time, I think you can spend as much or as little time there as you want to, we simply enjoy it when we are there & have tried to choose crops we know we can look after.
The Good.........
The allotment was looking really lovely, we have 4 large hawthorns at the back and they are in full blossom ( they are in need of a trim & tidy as I don't think they have ever been done, but by the time we got round to it the birds were starting to nest so it'll have to wait until autumn), the cow parsley beneath them was looking lovely too, we have decided to leave the very back of the plot as it is in complete shade from the trees & very rocky, so in parts of it we have piled stones & logs up to attract wildlife (when we first cleared the plot it was alive with frogs due to its rather damp nature so hopefully we have rehoused some of them!)
So all in all we were pleased with how things were looking and as a blustery wind whipped across the plot the white blossom was floating around and looking rather wonderful!
The Bad........
As we all know the weather has been great & things in the garden have come up earlier than usual, I think I am not alone in getting rather cocky and planting out young plants a little early, sadly the sweetcorn I planted last week which I had grown in the little greenhouse bit the dust early this week when there was quite a heavy ground frost up here (monday night) the spuds got a little frost damage but they will be fine, but sadly a few of the strawberries also got a little cocky & they too have been got!! There are plenty of flowers still on the strawberry plants which look fine though, so they are not off the menu just yet!
The Ugly.......
Well, on our allotment site there are a lot of growers who grow things to 'show', our neighbour is one, he grows prize leeks & onions, & they are amazing, sadly his plot along with one other was broken into last week, they stole some of his leeks & onions & threw a bag of compost into the leaves of the remaining leeks, those who show leeks will know that they have to be spotlessly clean & can not have any dirt in the leaves so this was a pretty nasty trick, on the other plot which they went on they did even more damage, they have gone in there & weed killed all of the onions, shallots & fruit bushes, such a nasty calculated trick, as we all know growing your own is a labour of love so they are of course really upset, it can only be jealousy as they are both great gardeners with vast knowledge. I feel angry for them!
