Today we went up altogether - a rare treat - with the intention of clearing and making a fire. We took hot choc in a flask for the boys and tea for grown ups and cake we had left over from one we made yesterday when visiting baby Amy Jones, Helen and Ken's new addition!
Neil and Lou went off to get some old wood to make paths with. They did really well except most of it was pallets that had been painted. Now I am no purist in the garden but recently I have been reading about paint and other substances leeching into your veg through the soil so we decided not to use most of it. One little natural pallet makes a great pathway and we used another to start our fire as most of the dead material was quite wet to burn.
The boys loved getting the fire going and chucking stuff on but they don't have much of an attention span and to be fair there isn't much they can be getting on with at the moment at the plot. I wanted to dig and clear so Neil took the boys off for lunch and they had a game of footer planned with mates Tom and Bill for afters. I stayed and dug and weeded and burnt old stuff. Beautiful day and I only intended a couple of hours up there but stayed for 4 or so. Absolute bliss just pottering around.
The plot looks a million times better for a good sort out and Mr Robin came to see us to let us know he was quite happy with all the digging too now all the worms are up top. We harvested 4 green pumpkins which are now ripening on the windowsill and some raspberries for a crumble. That's about all that is growing up there at the mo. Apart from a few Jerusalem Artichokes (which Neil and Graeme had last week dug and roasted for our roast dinner - yum!! Neil and Graeme had also cleared and planted Crocus and Fritillary bulbs in tyres for Spring which will look wonderful, thank you!).
It is glorious up there and all good practice for me. I have managed to get a couple of hours a week at a church allotment in town so I now have two plots to think about when coming into Spring..........
Sunday, 21 October 2012
Thursday, 4 October 2012
Latin and free time
Well Sammy is now full time at Wyndham Park and that means I am now part-time Mum and part-time Student and part-time me again, wow! What a change but Sammy has been extremely good about it all really and only punching and shouting at me a bit. Louis is doing very well too and taking it all very seriously. I am very proud of them.
My second week at Lackham College and we learnt about 'Double Digging' the soil so I popped up to the plot on Wednesday and had a quick go at some light digging in preparation for heavy digging when we have some compost (and Neil may be around). We had Raspberries which are delicious and a few Courgettes still hanging on the ends of very long stems from the root.
Our Pumpkins are still small and green so I don't hold out much hope for them. I have seen others around the plot which are big and orange already.
My friend Debbie popped by to sample some of the Raspberries and we had a chat then it was time to collect the monkeys.
I had a bit of time to look at the different trees all around as I am supposed to be learning the Latin for a variety of Deciduous Trees at the moment. I managed to see a Quercus Robur and an Aesculus Hippo (at least I remember the Conker tree as that anyway!). Much to learn and much to do at the plot but I am happily still enjoying it so long may it continue.
With the back up of my course it is almost like starting all over again with the plot so we'll see how we go next year if I prepare things properly this time.
My second week at Lackham College and we learnt about 'Double Digging' the soil so I popped up to the plot on Wednesday and had a quick go at some light digging in preparation for heavy digging when we have some compost (and Neil may be around). We had Raspberries which are delicious and a few Courgettes still hanging on the ends of very long stems from the root.
Our Pumpkins are still small and green so I don't hold out much hope for them. I have seen others around the plot which are big and orange already.
My friend Debbie popped by to sample some of the Raspberries and we had a chat then it was time to collect the monkeys.
I had a bit of time to look at the different trees all around as I am supposed to be learning the Latin for a variety of Deciduous Trees at the moment. I managed to see a Quercus Robur and an Aesculus Hippo (at least I remember the Conker tree as that anyway!). Much to learn and much to do at the plot but I am happily still enjoying it so long may it continue.
With the back up of my course it is almost like starting all over again with the plot so we'll see how we go next year if I prepare things properly this time.
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