carrots

We picked our first carrot today and rushed to pick up Lou from school and show him. "Wow that looks amazing" he said and as soon as we got in I had to peel it at full speed and get some humous to dip it in. Louis' response? "well, it doesn't really taste like a carrot Mummy I think I prefer the ones from the shop".!!!!! Well you can't say I don't try..... Sammy gobbled it up and we will have the courgette for tea! Yum.

hot hot hot

It was so hot up at the allotment on Sunday the boys could barely be up there but we hadn't been all week so we went anyway. We found courgettes and more potatoes. Lou enjoyed counting them in the shade of the tree. We've had lots of rain lately so everything has gone whoosh! The pumpkin seedlings are coming on and the carrots look great. Our sweetcorn is coming up and having a go. Squarecrow Jack has fallen again and in a bit of a state but we are keeping him up just about.

We watered and sat in the shade and watered some more. Hot work. We are going to try and come when it is less scorching. Sammy and I will do a water run when the older boys at school/work. All in all everything looks great, especially my failed herb patch which is just a bordered off triangle of weeds but what pretty weeds and wildflowers - reds, orange, yellow and blues. I love it!

rain and weeds and more potatoes!

A trip up today and everything is looking really lush and green. We have had torrential rain over the weekend and then bright sun and then huge amounts of rain again. The courgettes look very happy and have produced some flowers and mini striped veg. The beans are looking a little stunted still. We ate all out potatoes so decided to pick some more from the ground. The leaves on these ones looked slightly lighter green and possibly bit diseased but we went for it anyway. To our surprise the veg seemed fine and we found 30 potatoes, enough for our week ahead. When we disturbed the ground we also found loads of fun for the boys, worms, millipedes, beetles and woodlice. Sammy  and Lou looked at their bug books whilst Neil weeded the brocolli and cauliflower. Squarecrow Jack had taken a tumble and had shrunk in the rain as his straw was drenched. He now resembles a mini cricketing man maybe Ronnie Corbett, with a strange oval shaped head. Not sure he's going to win any prizes this year!

When 4 became 51

Today Louis and I drove up the allotment (Lou is so tired he didn't even really want to see friends or go to the park - now that's what I called tired) and Sammy walked up with Daddy pushing his little wheelbarrow all the way up the hill.
Potato day up the allotment and the boys had a fantastic time pulling the tyres apart and picking through the soil to see potatoes! Lou rummaged through and said it was like a lucky dip. More potatoes came and more and more and we filled the Sammy's little wheelbarrow up.

The event ended with the boys covering themselves in soil and Sammy taking his boots off and eventually with the boys inside the tyres! Much fun was had, then the rain came..............

bigger and bigger and bigger

It has been half term this week so my minimum requirement for the allotment was watering as two monkeys aren't that keen on much else. Watering we did as it has been hot and dry this week with clear blue skies. I even popped up one evening and met a neighbouring plot owner who has 10 rods of beautifully laid out veg. He was very nice and we talked about how great it was just to get away and listen to the birds! Sammy and I popped up today whilst Lou and Daddy did shopping. As Sammy says "oh man those carrots are getting bigger and bigger and bigger!"

It is all coming up and looking great, including the lovely wild flowers. The pumpkins are coming up we think and the sweetcorn corn on the cob seedlings are appearing. Green beans are starting to flower and my herb patch, as was intended, is full of weeds (but secretly I quite like it as it encourages the bees and is giving lovely little red flowers at the mo).

Sammy sat and played with his dumper and kept saying "but you haven't played with me Mummy" a lot and I watered. That was that and we stopped to see some trains before scooting back home.