Pictures

Some pics of my cucumbers that are doing far better than I ever thought they would. Already had one, and even if do say so myself, they are pretty tasty.
Another pic shw my mystery tomatoes. I found tomato seedlings in my daughter's snail tank (African Land Snail) and planted them up. They have set some fairly impressive trusses of fruit. Hope they taste as good as they are looking when they are ripe.

Finally, some pics of my wonderful girls. They are still under house arrest until I have electrified the run, but when I am on the plot I allow them to come out and range which they enjoy. I enjoyed it too, until I found one of them having a dust bath in my brussels sprouts bed, but they are forgiven because of how much they have been through lately.

Cheers
Kirsty

Not entirely allotment related

But brilliant all the same.
My faithful hound will soon have company on the lottie. She has become the proud and exhausted mother of 5 fat and healthy puppies one of whom we are keeping. He has been named Max and photos of him and his Mum on the allotment will be posted when they are taken. He's not quite four weeks old yet so he can't come out to play till he's bigger.
His brother and sisters are being homed locally by people we know, which means we will keep in touch with all of them and see them grow up.

Veg stuff

Well, I have lost a load of tomatoes to blight, but some that are in pots and grow bags seem to be doing okay.
Loads of runner and french beans coming along nicely, I'm picking every other day. Leeks doing well and I have pumpkins and squash starting to form.
Checked out the sweetcorn, can see the flowers starting to come at the tops of the plants, hopeful I may have some cobs to harvest this year.
Got my PSB in and netted it, that is flourishing and the other day took home a lovely sweet summer cabbage home for tea. Have also got my January King and Savoy cabbages out. Going to sow my spring cabbages soon.
Weather has been perfect for brambles and nettles, its a full time job trying to keep on top of them, but getting there. On the plus side, am able to pick fat juicy blackberries from along the fences on my plot. Greengages on the tree are ripe, off to get some of them soon. Hope I've got enough jars for the jam I'm planning.
Got an apple tree on the plot that I'm also keeping an eye on, be having those for apple jelly soon as they're ready. Got a little while to go yet though.
Salads and spring onions have been cropping well. Got a reasonable haul of shallots, which have been pickled. Overwintere onions did well also.
Not too chuffed with the garlic, bulbs not very big, some did not split at all, flavour good though. Going to see if I fare better with overwintering garlic.

Thanks for listening
Kirsty

Not- so-fantastic Mr Fox

Its been a busy time since my last post on this here blog. We got the burned out sheds pulled down, obtained some enormous pallets and built our girls an extension to the run. It took about a fortnight to get it done.
Really high walls, figured it would keep our girls safe. Not so. An orange menace managed to get over and help him/herself to a tasty meal of four of my chooks. I had two survivors who did not get touched at all because they had managed to get themselves into a part of the run foxy could not reach and another two who were in deep shock and I did not expect them to survive.

I took my poorly two home and tucked them up in warm boxes in the downstairs loo. For a day or two I had to syringe water down their throats to keep them hydrated (when they survived first 48 hrs I got hopeful)
Meanwhile down at the run, Steve and I roofed the run with chicken wire, closed and wired up all gaps and really thought we had cracked it. Fox came back and took another one. A clean kill, no body and no mess.
My poorlies stayed at home with me for a week being hand fed marmite sandwiches and generally cossetted. When they could stand and walk and eat mash ok, I took them back to the run and put them in the house.
Went back down at dusk looked in the run, no chooks, looked in the house, no chooks. Went home in a bit of a state told Steve what had happened. Convinced it was theft. He went down there armed with a big stick, took another look in the house and found my two girls, they had snuggled right up in the corner and I just missed them in the dark.
Did some more wiring up of the run, even the tiniest of gaps were not left undone.
No sign of foxy for a week or so. On 25th Jul, decided to treat myself to a new hen, went up the road and bought a beautiful Lavender Araucana. Let her settle in for a week or so, then got some new bantams. Two days later. Sunday just gone, fox came back and took all four of the new girls.
Thats it now. I'm going to sort out some electric fencing and get myself a gun. My two girls have now started laying and they are under house arrest in the new house until I have completely proofed the run. The house is a 7 x7 shed, so they have plenty of room and it's ventilated so they don't get hot. No new hens for a while, not till I'm sure I can keep them safe.
Will post pics when I can upload them

A lot has happened lately...

Have not been on for quite a while now as I have been fairly busy, but the last week has been memorable to say the least. On the good side, I acquired two new hens via the freecycle off a lovely couple who live close by. Just as they start getting settled in, my allotment is hit by a bit of a tragedy (in my eyes anyway).

Went down to feed my girls on Sunday afternoon to find that their nesting shed, the one next to it and two other completely destroyed by fire. My bantam has been killed but the others survived with singed feathers and they have been in shock for a couple of days. Hens are starting to recover from the shock and I have spent the last couple of days with Steve starting to clear up and building a new house for the girls.

Called the police when I was able to speak straight and they said fire brigade thought it started around 7pm Saturday night. Unable to say whether it was deliberate or kids having a nose around and an accident as a result of dropped fag ends etc. I did ask if it could have been a lightening strike what with the storms we had but was told this was very unlikely. Have uploaded some pics of the damage. Pic number 4 is where the girls used to nest.

Thanks for listening

Kirsty

New pics

Have had some harvests at last. Finally beginning to feel that I'm getting somewhere with the plot. The chooks are doing well, got fruits showing on the toms, and have had some lovely sweet baby new potatoes cos I just couldn't wait any longer to try them. Were lovely with a green salad picked fresh from the plot. Just working now to get plants in the ground and get the rest of it tidied up and keep it tidy.

Its a jungle out there!

On the plot that is...
Well, last time I posted we were in the middle of a wonderful heatwave and I was unable to do much cos the ground was like rock. Then it rained..and rained and rained - you get the picture.

As a result of all the wet stuff I now have brambles and nettles springing up all over the place which I now need to cut down and tidy up. On the plus side my almost empty waterbutts are now nice and full.

Been getting work done and plants out as the ground is much easier to dig. I'm not very organised, but given the state of the plot 6 months ago I don't feel I'm doing that badly. Have harvested loads of lettuce, spring onions are coming on, tomatoes are doing well also, got first fruit forming on the Sun Baby toms. Have dug up a couple of spuds to see what was there, still tiny, so leaving them a bit longer.

Chooks are doing great. Laying like mad, got a broody Rhodie, so put some fertile eggs under her. If successful, they should hatch in about 4-5 days as she has been sitting on them for almost 3 weeks.

Will post pics another day, getting square eyes.

Kirsty