High Society!

It's been a bit quiet at the allotment this month. With the dry weather in August and September, the ground has been too hard to dig it over. Now the rain has softened the soil, I haven't had the time to go dig! It's a vicious circle at the moment.

However, there is an Allotment Society meeting on 25th October - a month later than last year! Contests are held - for the best newcomer's allotment. For the best kept allotment plot and for the biggest vegetable. High hopes! I won't be entering any of the above categories.

However, I do like to go along, if only to take photos of the Great Big Enormous Turnip!
Watch this space.

Happy gardening. Thank you for keeping up with my adventures and achievements.

In The Pink!

As you may know by now, the snails ate a lot of my seedlings during the spring and summer! In the early summer, I munched my way through several pink grapefruits and every morning, I have a glass of hot water and a slice of lemon before I start my day. So I decided to plant the seeds and see what happens.

I left them outside and to my horror...the snails ate the only 2 lemons and 1 grapefruit that germinated! Grrr... However, I managed to salvage just one of the Pink Grapefruit seedlings and so I brought it inside to the conservatory, where it has flourished.

The leaves are quite green and glossy and I have every intention of loving it and keeping it alive.
Thank you for your support and comforting words when snails strike a blow to my crops. I shall be ready for them next year!

Happy gardening.

Green with envy!

This year has been a new challenge for me at my allotment. It is the first year I have grown fruit and vegetables on a huge plot of it's size (and I haven't even managed to clear the whole site yet). However, I - and HELL BOY have had lots of successes with our crops but there have been some disappointing growth.

I started my watermelon seeds off at home, in pots, only for the dreaded snails to eat them all and so I had to resort to buying water melons this season. That's not all bad. I paid nearly £3.00 for 12 seeds last year and so, with hindsight, I have stopped anyone from swallowing the seeds and so I've kept them for next year. Watch out snails, I'm gonna have a more secure deterrant!


HELL BOY grew cauliflowers as one of his veggies. They were eaten by caterpillars and their growth wasn't as expected.

HELL BOY's pear tree managed to survive the damage of surrounding fires last autumn and has produced some rather large pears - albeit they were at the top of the tree!
Needless to say, the worms got there first...on this one anyway.


So, I decided to browse around the allotments of my neighbours to see how they are doing and this is what I saw!

A very tall sunflower.


A pumpkin that looks a little incipid for my liking but nonetheless growing well.

Ahhh...these look more like it. They look very clean and colourful. More like what I would want to use for my Halloween decorations. Then there were these gourds growing along the ground.


Hmmm...me thinks that the 'unidentified' growth on HELL BOY's plot was going to turn out something like this.

Remember this?!

It was growing through the fence from his neighbour's plot. I never did find out what it was, although there seemed to be courgettes/marrows growing in their area, so I am guessing it was a 'squash-ed' courgette.


So there is a little glimpse of what I might be growing next year. In the meantime, I have been slowly digging over old ground and pulling any old roots to prepare for next years crops.
There is still lots of digging to do, so no rest until a couple of months time. I'm thinking of making a scarecrow, so stayed tuned to see how it turns out.


Thank you for taking the time to stop by.
Toots for now,

The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

When my two grandchildren were visiting last month, I set them a challenge during the two weeks they were here with my camera, to each take photos. I would then give them a prize for the best photo and so they put their skills to use and this is one of the photos that Eden took! It's a caterpillar that has munched it's way through the cabbage on HELL BOY's allotment plot!

I did smile to myself as I'm thinking that these 10 and 8 year olds are fast becoming something of junior photographers! Is there a junior contest that I could enter their photos in? They are both deserving.

Pulling Power!

We've been busy at the allotment... pulling vegetables.

First the beetroots and runner beans....



... and then some carrots...

You'll never get a fresher carrot than these....straight out of the ground, washed and eaten! Eden likes raw carrot, so is the first to taste them. Ethan only likes cooked carrots, so he will eat his for dinner.

A very serious business this carrot pulling!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by. Call back for more adventures at the allotment where it's Eden and Ethan's turn to take the photos next time.

Happy gardening.

Simply Red!

There were few tomato plants left after the snails had eaten many but these variety are Berry. This is the first to ripen and the Cherry variety are on the turn too - berry nice!

I'm looking forward to harvesting my parsnips but I believe they won't be too big. Still, I don't want them to be tough, so baby ones will taste sweeter.

There's still a lot of clearing of weeds and brambles to be done at the allotment. It's an ongoing project.

How are your gardens growing?

Toots for now.

~G~

Black Beauties!

It's that time of the year again.....blackberry picking. It's a nostalgic thing for me. When I was a child, it was my favorite thing to do in the summer.

I've picked rather a lot already from my garden, on my allotment and from a neighbour's front garden - with permission, of course!

I'm going to be baking tomorrow... Blackberry and Apple slice and cupcakes for my little family. We are having a BBQ get together at my sister in law's at the weekend and I can't wait to see all of my grandchildren again.

Have a wonderful weekend yourselves peeps.