We are loving our allotment but we still want a walkable one that I can attend with the kids after school and plant the stuff that needs lots of watering etc... so I prodded the council again - found that their email system has apparently changed which might be why I've only been getting bounces back lately. Anyway I pointed out that I had been trying to get an allotment since we moved in which is now well over 2 yrs ago (I should probably stop calling it the new house!). Apparently we are registered as having asked about it last year and they will pass on that we are still interested. :/
So I think we made a really good choice, going for the private one on a farm - at least I can grow something! And hopefully more than dandilions!
We have so far (and when I say we I mean poor Alaric as I have had course work or been ill) dug over one section of it and have planted the pumpkins out in a little cold frame or mini green house we have hobbled together out of bubble wrap and bamboo canes - it wont take strong wings but then neither will most of the polythene and metal frame ones you can buy.
The pumpkins are tad insane - half of one of the pumpkins started to go off and when I went to compost it I saw that the seeds where germinating so I bunged the whole thing in a pot and popped it on the top shelf of the propogator that is in the dinning room at the moment. I'm hoping one or two of the plants will live to maturaty.
The girls love the allotment and Mary calls it The Mud, Jeany has gotten over her fear of worms and actually held one! (I think Al took a photo of that on his phone so I need to extract it!).
Jean has requested the old tyre at the end of the plot and wants to grow flowers - we have compromised and she is growing edible flowers. I have lots more seedlings and a rota written out for which seeds need to go in next 🙂
Also there is an amazing view and the girls like having picnics there.
I took the girls to the climbing wall today - Mary to her weekly group and Jeany to the climb she does in holidays.
Jeany helped Mary find her teddy bears and then they both hide - Mary was smiling but then scowled just as I took the photo - I thought the result was halarious!
She did her normal hiding in the tunnel and playing a squeaky form of peek-a-boo except this time her sister could climb in there and chase her!
They both played hard and then we had lunch and Jeany went off to her more advanced class, we also did art and crafts which was colouring paper plates - I seem to have enough for a small party!
I knitted a teddy bears head over lunch and may have sourced somewhere else to perform a show I am working on at the moment 🙂
Both girls like climbing so much 🙂 They are in this instance Alaric and mines Mini-Mes 🙂
Also Mary was going without a nappy - she was doing well until right at the end when she weed on my dad! But she still managed her longest time out with out a nappy on today!
With the weather warnings for the weekend we decided not to go to the allotment but to pot up seeds at home and place them in the propogator I have in the dinning area. The girls it turns out are both scared of worms - a bit of an issue as I am using the soil from the wormery instead of compost. Still after a while Jean began acting brave to calm Mary down and they both seemed to get into it as long as I removed the larger, wigglier worms!
We potted up so many tomato seeds that if they all grow I will be looking for homes for some of the plants! There are a few funky varieties and yellow and red cherry varieties as well as normal tomatoes. Then aubigine, chilli, pumpkin and courgette. I was hoping to get the beans in but alas I a) ran out soil, b) rain out of childrens conceptration spans and c) rain out of room in the propogator. If spring is late and everything germinates I could have a slight problem but I will deal with that when I get there!
My current plan is to get some window sill propogators for the remaining seeds. I am running slightly behind schedule as I normally do the potting up outside and wasn't expected the weather to be so rough! I dare not have the little propigator outside for fear it would take off!
I also got round to soaking the shiitake mushroom block I have - it has fruited for industry once but should have another 3 fruitings in it! I got excited as it has instructions in welsh. So hopefully we will soon have our first crop! Jean also found some bean sprouts and alfalfa and instantly wizzed off to find some jars, so we have them soaking under the sink!
I'm going to re-arrange under the sink so that I can grow the mushrooms that need the dark and the bean sprouts in there.
So I am being a bad Mummy and being stressed - we have a broken home at the moment and budget wont stretch to a party outside the home so we decided to postpone Mary's birthday celebration - she is not old enough to know different.
But we did have a little picnic tea with her - Daddy made her special pizza she can eat and she opened the cards and presents that arrived in the post.
I also made cake pops in the afternoon with her.
She likes cake.
Today we went and signed for and paid for a plot of ground to grown things on - it is not an allotment as such but is on a farm - I would still like an allotment round the corner but have gotten hacked off with messages being ignored etc...
In the photo Jean is marking on corner and Al and Mary the other - I'm taking the photo from the apex.
Anyway - it is a large plot if an odd shape and comes with raspberry canes already in situ. They have of course died back now but there was shrivelled blackened fruit which I rubbed to get the smell and yep - raspberries.
Of course everything is water logged around here at the moment - Jean wasn't complaining though. She even got Daddy and Mary to join her 🙂
Alaric, Gardening, Jean, Mary, Sarah, The Family | sarah | 
Wed 19th Mar 2014 11:18 am | 
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