Hi there, I'm still bonkers about gardening and growing things although it is proving to be a little more challenging this summer, the heat, the lack of rain and still trying to catch up and move on from last year's state of bonkers-ness.
So pooped by the end of late summer into autumn, unable to contemplate doing all the usual autumnal tidying-up, the allotment was not cleared as it should have been. Things were left undone, faded plants not removed and composted as we beat a hasty retreat from the garden allotment, as we hurried away and indoors.
Then winter set-in and wouldn't end or go away for weeks and months. We could not get back into the garden for ages. By now, it was already too late to get going properly and with clearance work still to be undertaken, our spirits lowered under the perceived accumulation of garden waste.
So no sunflowers, pumpkin or broad beans to enjoy and glory in, fresh from the garden, but just a few bags of remaining freezer store broad beans and runner beans to anticipate eating.
Our onions and few remaining potatoes have kept us going and now I'm delighting in my first courgettes and cucumbers while nursing my four tomato plants. I need to make a liquid comfrey feed soon but the leaves are also going into my composters with the massed weed collections. I have one very large comfrey along with six new plants from the National Herb Centre, Banbury. They are all doing quite well with copious watering, whenever possible, but I think it would be good to add manure to my site and perhaps a layer of straw to lock the moisture in.
My courgette and marrow would also appreciate an addition of manure so this coming week is going to be busy, quite apart from my life beyond the allotment wall.
I should also like to populate my space with a few more plants such as leek and sweetcorn which, thankfully, are still available to buy from our local nursery at Bodicote.
My flower site is full of colours with yellow evening primroses, white ox-eye daisies, lavender, pink cosmos and red-yellow gaillardia. My globe artichoke tower over the border and soon the buds will be fully open, presenting their purple spiky crowns to the blue sky above. I can't wait to see them!
Margaret
© Margaret Halstead 2018
So pooped by the end of late summer into autumn, unable to contemplate doing all the usual autumnal tidying-up, the allotment was not cleared as it should have been. Things were left undone, faded plants not removed and composted as we beat a hasty retreat from the garden allotment, as we hurried away and indoors.
Then winter set-in and wouldn't end or go away for weeks and months. We could not get back into the garden for ages. By now, it was already too late to get going properly and with clearance work still to be undertaken, our spirits lowered under the perceived accumulation of garden waste.
So no sunflowers, pumpkin or broad beans to enjoy and glory in, fresh from the garden, but just a few bags of remaining freezer store broad beans and runner beans to anticipate eating.
Our onions and few remaining potatoes have kept us going and now I'm delighting in my first courgettes and cucumbers while nursing my four tomato plants. I need to make a liquid comfrey feed soon but the leaves are also going into my composters with the massed weed collections. I have one very large comfrey along with six new plants from the National Herb Centre, Banbury. They are all doing quite well with copious watering, whenever possible, but I think it would be good to add manure to my site and perhaps a layer of straw to lock the moisture in.
My courgette and marrow would also appreciate an addition of manure so this coming week is going to be busy, quite apart from my life beyond the allotment wall.
I should also like to populate my space with a few more plants such as leek and sweetcorn which, thankfully, are still available to buy from our local nursery at Bodicote.
My flower site is full of colours with yellow evening primroses, white ox-eye daisies, lavender, pink cosmos and red-yellow gaillardia. My globe artichoke tower over the border and soon the buds will be fully open, presenting their purple spiky crowns to the blue sky above. I can't wait to see them!
Margaret
© Margaret Halstead 2018
