Happy Birthday!

Well it's been two years since we got the plot. I think it's fair to say it's not been easy to get to this stage. There were the minor inconveniences of large amount of produce being eaten by slug, squirrels, rabbits, mice, rats, pigeons, pheasants, etc. The plot suffered from major flooding last summer. Mrs D ended up in and out of hospital with knee problems, which ultimately ended her digging career before it began. The hedge remains a constant battle, not helped by 'absent' neighbours. And then I went and took on another plot!

But it's not all bad news. We've currently got potatoes, onions and garlic dotted around the kitchen and in the out house. Made jams - rhubarb and ginger, strawberry and raspberry (some of which were actually from our allotments). Introduced the kids to the delights of digging, eating raw peas, pulling up onions and seeing potatoes being dug up. They've even eaten raw French beans and (cooked) Brussels sprouts!



The site is now full again with a waiting list and we set up an association for the site last year. For my sins I was elected Chair for the first year and still remain on the committee now - but I get a lot less moaning now! We have an active Facebook Group to keep in touch and can regularly be found sampling the delights of a local tavern.

So what's happening now. Not much really. Tomatoes are coming to the end, potatoes are all dug up after the got blight, onions are now up and drying in the kitchen - well it's not like they're going to dry outside! Summer squash and courgettes are still going on, and we have at least one pumpkin growing well. The raspberries are struggling along, they don't seem to like the wet weather. The raspberry jam I made the other day was approximately 90% supplied by my Grandad and 10% from the allotment.

Planted some buckwheat, under one of the mini polytunnels to give them a chance to germinate before being eaten by the pigeons and/or pheasants. Hoping to get some Hungarian grazing rye in the same bed. Need to sort out the strawberries still. One of the varieties doesn't seem to be giving out any runners at all whilst the other variety is throwing them out all over the place. I'm going to put the new plants in the new allotment where there seems to be less wildlife around to eat the fruit. Hopefully the apples will soon be ready, after which there will be an 'identify the apple' entry to the blog. At the moment I have absolutely no idea what variety they are or even if they are 'eaters' or 'cookers'.