Cold Snap

A couple of years ago, my hubby bought me a lovely watering can planter for Christmas. Each winter it has been moved into the greenhouse and has been perfectly fine, but not this year. I know that these type of planters aren't frost resistant but it's been covered with fleece and it's still cracked and broken. It just shows how cold it's been this year. I suppose I could always put another on my Christmas list for this year, but at the risk of sounding ungrateful, it wasn't a very practical design. The top had a band across it which made planting and watering difficult, the compost was always drying out. I do like to have quirky planters and ornaments around the garden though.

It's my weekend off this week, so I've decided that I shall start off my first batch of seeds. Some people can't resist the start of the new season and start their seeds off in January, but I've been trying to wait a bit so that the seedlings aren't hanging around on my windowsills for too long. This makes them go leggy due to the reduced light levels, and I find that later sowings usually catch up anyway. I have some shallots to plant and have heard of people starting them off in module trays before planting them out. I'm wondering if any of my readers have any experience of this and find it beneficial. Perhaps you could let me know.

There still hasn't been any work done on the allotment. It's still far too wet to get a spade in there, and at the moment it's snowing again. When will it ever end?

Heaving A Sigh Of Relief

They're here! My seed potatoes were delivered on Wednesday, and I received all my first choices. I placed my order this year with Thomson and Morgan, though I have heard of some people receiving substitutes from them in the past as they had run out of the ones on their order. I have set them out in egg boxes to chit and they have been placed in my conservatory which isn't heated, so they're in a light, cool place. This year I will be growing Sharpes Express for my first early, International Kidney for my second early, and Lady Balfour and Blue Danube for my maincrop.

My hubby is out shopping today looking for the drainage pipe which will be laid at the allotment to aid the drainage there. I didn't notice any drainage issues last year, but this is the first winter I have had the allotment and I can now see why it needs to be laid. It's a good job really that I wasn't growing crops there during the winter months otherwise I would have lost them all.

We had snow again on Wednesday evening but it had disappeared by Thursday evening. Thankfully there has been little rain so I'm hoping that the allotment will dry out so that we can get on with laying the pipe and some serious digging.

Under Starter's Orders

Look what my lovely hubby has been spending his evenings doing. There's over 100 toilet roll inners all ready to be planted up. When I first started recycling the inners I used to scrunch a bit of newspaper up to go in the bottom of the tube to stop the compost from falling out, but then I came across the idea of making a bottom from the tube itself. Four cuts are made in the bottom of the tube and these are folded and tucked into each other, like the bottom of a cardboard box. It stops the compost from falling out and the seedling can be planted out without removing it from the toilet roll inner, preventing any root disturbance. The toilet roll inner will just rot away once it is in the ground.

This week I have been given two awards, well actually it's one award but given to me by two people, Tanya from Allotments 4 You, and Kella at Kella's Musings on Growing Her Own, Wildlife and Her Brand of Parenting. Thank you both very much. It is the Happiness Award and has been given as my blog makes them happy.

There are some rules to the award. You must link to the blog who gives you the award, list 10 things which make you happy, and pass the award on to other blogs which make you happy.

So as this is a gardening blog I will list 10 things, in no particular order, about gardening which make me happy.

Being outside in the fresh air.

Seeing a weed free patch.

Having a hobby which the whole family can take part in.

Starting off the first seeds of the year.

Producing fresh food.

Growing things which I've never tried before.

Encouraging lots of wildlife (except slugs).

Sharing my harvest.

Having a colourful garden.

Seeing everything growing.

And now for the blogs which I would like to pass the award to.

Pam's English Cottage Garden

Greentapestry

Carrots and Kids

Green Patch

Allot of Veg

These are some of the blogs which make me smile.

Favourite Photo Meme

This meme has been passed on to me from Kella at Kella's Musings on Growing Her Own, Wildlife and Her Brand of Parenting. As this is a gardening blog I decided to go with a photo of myself taken with my dad at a place called Appletreewick, which is in Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales. As you can see, I was about four years old in the photo, taken in the early 1970's, hence the quality. This is the place where I first learnt about fauna and flora so I thought it would be apt.

As a family we often used to take day trips to the Yorkshire Dales, and this is something which I now continue with my own family. Appletreewick is little over an hour away by car from where I live, and is a lovely peaceful place to go for a picnic by the River Wharfe.

Although called the Yorkshire Dales National Park, part of it is situated in Cumbria. The scenery is fantastic and it's my favourite part of the world.

In true meme style, I must now pass this meme on to some other people so here goes:-

I Grew This Earlier

The Idiot Gardener

WeedyBeanz

Tales From A Cottage Garden

Manor Stables Veg Plot

Please note you are under no obligation to play along.

The Promise Of Things To Come

Just look at this bud on my blueberry bush, it certainly gives you hope in this cold weather. My first blueberry bush was bought a couple of years ago but I didn't get any fruit the first year I had it. I bought a second, more established one at the back end of 2008 and last year I had a great harvest from them both. My resident blackbird took a liking to them, but to be honest, there were so many berries that I didn't mind sharing. There's lots of buds on both bushes now so I hope to get a repeat of the great harvest I had last year.

My potato order still hasn't been delivered. I had an email from Thomson and Morgan advising that due to the bad weather, they have a backlog of orders waiting to go out. I'm hoping that they arrive in time for me to chit them before they have to go in the ground. I know that there is a debate whether chitting actually works, but I like to think that these old fashioned ways count for something.

It's a lovely sunny day here in Leeds today. I'm hoping that we have some dry weather for a while now so that the allotment can dry out and we can get the drainage pipe laid. My son was going to help his dad dig out the trench for the pipe but this won't be happening now, he's broken his arm! Think football, school, PE lesson.

The Last Harvest

I had my first trip of the year to the allotment today and what a sight awaited me. In my last post I mentioned that the drainage on the allotment is bad, but this being the first year that I have had the allotment at this time of year I wasn't prepared for just how bad. The previous tenant dug out a drainage channel along the middle of the allotment which we haven't yet got around to sorting out, and this was completely filled with water. Some parts of the soil were like bogs, and it has just made us more aware that we need to get the drainage pipe installed as soon as possible.

What I did manage to do was to dig up the last of the leeks, which never did manage to plump up, and also the last couple of parsnips which are very stumpy. The Brussel sprouts weren't very good so they have been composted and I haven't yet decided whether I will bother to grow them again this year as there's only me in our house who likes them anyway.

One thing I have decided to have a go at this year is swede. I have never grown swede before, and although it is the root which is eaten, it is in fact a brassica so could take the place of the Brussel sprouts in the brassica bed.

I have had a trip to Wilkinson's today and purchased a fleece cloche. My hubby bought me a three metre plastic cloche for Christmas, so I am all ready now to start warming up the beds ready for planting out. I just need some warmer and dryer weather to get the beds ready first though.

Would You Believe It?

Last week, this little flower was buried beneath a six inch blanket of snow, and had been this way for well over a week. It surprises me how anything manages to survive those type of conditions. Ok, it looks a little raggy around the edges, but so am I after the weather conditions we've experienced lately. When I planted up my baskets and tubs ready for winter, I blogged that I usually choose Pansies as they always seem to tolerate the weather conditions so well, and they're still going strong after all that the past few weeks have thrown at them.

I still haven't managed a trip to the allotment yet this year, and I'm working this weekend so I might just manage to get down there for a fleeting visit to check that all is well. I still have some leeks, parsnips and Brussel sprouts in the ground, but what condition they'll be in is anyone's guess.

Our allotment site gets quite boggy and before I took it on, all the allotments on the site had drainage pipes laid. That is all the allotments except mine. Apparently, the previous tenant had a disagreement about how it was done so decided not to bother. So that's a job which definitely needs doing before the growing season gets underway. A trench needs to be dug for the pipe to be laid, and this will drain the water into a sump which has already been installed. The sump then drains into a beck which runs along the bottom of the site. My allotment neighbour has offered to help, which is really very nice of him.

I haven't started any seed sowing yet, but as time goes on my fingers are becoming more and more itchy so watch this space.

Drum Roll Please....

....I can now announce the varieties of potatoes I will be growing this year, well, subject to Thomson and Morgan having them in stock and delivering them. I have been looking through the potato supplement which they sent and it's been quite a hard choice. The first early I have chosen is Sharpes Express which is 100 years old. I have chosen International Kidney as my second early. This is the potato which is grown on Jersey and marketed under the name of Jersey Royal, however, if the potato is not grown on Jersey it is called International Kidney. The maincrop I will be growing is Lady Balfour.

I also decided to order some potatoes to plant in containers again at the end of summer to get a crop for Christmas. Thomson and Morgan do a Christmas collection containing Carlingford, Vivaldi, Orla and Maris Peer. There are five tubers of each variety so it looks like my greenhouse will be full of containers next Christmas.

Because I had spent over £19.99, there was an offer to take 10 tubers of Blue Danube for 99p. This is an early maincrop which has previously been known as Adam Blue. The foliage has moderate resistance to blight, but the tubers apparently have excellent resistance. It looks a stunning potato with blue/purple skin.

Another offer available to me was some Santero onion sets, again for the bargain price of 99p. I can't resist a bargain so they're on the way too. According to Thomson and Morgan, this is the first onion set with a resistance to downy mildew. I have never grown onions before, apart from spring onions, so I am looking forward to having a go with these.

We had more snow in the early hours of Monday but none since, however, there is lots of ice around. Hubby took me to work and a taxi skidded into the back of the car. There was only slight damage, thank goodness, as the kids were also in the car on the way to school, so no injuries to report.

A Belated Happy New Year

I really didn't mean to leave it so long to update my blog. I have had flu right through Christmas and New Year, and only now am I starting to feel that I am on the mend. Not that I would have been able to do any gardening. The snow which we had before Christmas hung around right through the festive season, turning to ice, and then on Tuesday we had a very heavy snow fall again. The kids were sent home from school, but although it snowed again yesterday, they were expected in, much to their disappointment. The poor birds have had their house decorated with snow, and as you can see, there isn't a scrap for them to eat either. You'll be pleased to know that that has now been rectified and the bird table is adorned with all manner of goodies.

I thought I should update you on my Christmas potato experiment. I had saved a couple of Kestrel tubers, which I planted in spring, and kept them in the salad drawer in the fridge. In late summer I planted these in a container and as the colder weather appeared, they were moved into the greenhouse for protection. The aim was to eat my home grown new potatoes on Christmas day. Owing to me having flu it was up to my hubby to empty the container on Christmas Eve and find the treasure. There were quite a few potatoes but they weren't very big. There was only just enough for the four of us to have some with our Christmas dinner, but they did taste delicious. I will definitely grow them again this way, in fact I have already ordered some tubers which will be delivered around July, specifically for planting up ready for Christmas. This year I will plant them earlier to see if I can get them to grow a little bigger, and also plant more.

The sun is out here today but it's bitterly cold and the snow is turning to ice. It seems that most of the country is suffering with the weather. Let's hope that the weather improves for the rest of 2010 and we manage to get a good growing season this year. I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

Introducing Sammy

You were introduced to my son's rabbit, Monty, in May in my post Coming..... Ready Or Not. This is Monty's brother, Sammy, my daughter's rabbit. When we went to buy the rabbits in February of 2008 Sammy was the smallest there, my how he's grown. He's now much bigger than Monty. They're Rex rabbits, quite a large breed, and they tend to have a fold of skin underneath their neck. Monty doesn't have such a pronounced fold under his chin, but Sammy does earning him the nickname Big Fat Sammy Double Chin. During the summer they have their hutches on the grass so that we can just open the hutch doors to enable them to come and go into their run as they please, but in winter their hutches are brought down onto the patio as the grass tends to get so waterlogged. We still give them access to their runs in dry weather, but in wet weather they are spoilt and brought into the house for some cuddles instead. With all the rain we have had lately we decided that now was the time for their hutches to be moved so they are now installed nearer the kitchen door than usual. This also means that they get spoken to everytime someone goes in or out of the house.

There hasn't been any gardening done lately, the rain has just been too bad. It's also got alot colder which means that the plants which were moved into the greenhouse will soon be getting covered in their winter blanket of fleece.

The potatoes which I'm growing in a container in the greenhouse, hopefully for Christmas dinner, seem to be doing ok still. I hope I'm not disappointed on Christmas day.

Putting My Feet Up

It seems that winter is certainly on it's way. We've had nothing but rain and strong winds for the last week, which means that digging over the allotment has been put on hold. Instead, I'm getting my gardening fix by putting up my feet and reading my magazines. I currently subscribe to Gardener's World magazine and Grow Your Own magazine, and I also have a stack of gardening books at hand ready for the long winter evenings when I'm confined to the house because of bad weather.

One thing I am short of is a good cook book. I have the usual celebrity chef books, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson etc. but I really want something aimed specifically at allotmenteers which also gives advice about storing and preserving so wondered if anyone has any recommendations.

Now that things in the garden have come to a bit of a standstill I won't be updating the blog as often as usual. There's so much to blog about in the summer months when everything is happily growing away, but much less in winter and I don't want each post to read that I haven't done anything due to the weather, I'm sure it would only get monotonous. From now on I'll only blog when I have something constructive to blog about. I hope that's ok.

Moth Orchid

I'm rather pleased with myself as I have managed to get my Orchid to flower again. I bought myself a Phalaenopsis or Moth Orchid last year and it was in flower for a few months. At Christmas, my hubby's auntie and uncle bought me another Moth Orchid which again flowered until about May. I read up on the internet about getting them to bloom again and the general advice was to cut the flower spike down to just above a bud, which I did. I then waited for months but nothing happened. They looked rather comical actually, bare spikes with no sign that they would flower again. In the end I decided that I would cut the spikes right down to the leaves. Within a few weeks of doing this both the Orchids sent out a new spike, and both are now beginning to bloom. The next thing I'll be Googling is how to repot them. The one in the photo is the one which my hubby's auntie and uncle bought me, and it's roots are growing so far out of the pot that it will definitely need repotting.

I spent Thursday finally putting the garden to bed for the winter. All the more delicate plants in containers have been moved into the greenhouse. I don't heat my greenhouse at all, but as the weather becomes colder I will drape fleece over the pots, and I find that this keeps the frost off them.

I forgot to mention a couple of weeks ago that I did finally manage to get my winter hanging baskets planted up. I have got one at the back of the house with Pansies in it, and two at the front of the house containing Violas. On Thursday I planted the few left over plants into the border to add a little more colour over winter.

Last week I was kindly given the Best Blog Award from Tanya at Allotments4You. I am very proud to say that I have been given the award again this week from Kella at Kella's Musings on Growing Her Own, Wildlife and Her Brand of Parenting. Thank you very much Kella, I'm really honoured that you consider I deserve the award again. Of course, this now gives me the chance to nominate some more blogs for the award as it was very difficult last week to choose just 15, so first of all, here are the rules again:-

Post the award on your blog along with the name of the person who passed it on to you and link to their blog. Choose 15 blogs which you have recently discovered and you think are great and pass it on to them. Don't forget to leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

The 15 blogs I would like to pass this award on to are:-

My Secret Garden

Little Green Fingers

Kitchen Garden

Reads Allotment Retreat

City Diggity

Organic Allotment

Green Tapestry

Green Patch

Frugilegus

Renaissance Little Green Book

Soilman

WeedyBeanz

Ryan's Garden

Woodland's World 2

Reap What You Grow

I hope you will all accept this award as I think you have great blogs. I have also found it fun to follow the recipient's links to the blogs they have nominated as it's a great way to find new great blogs. Other people haven't nominated the full 15 blogs as I have, so I think anything up to 15 will be acceptable.

Another Failure

As you can see, my leeks haven't done too well. I can only assume that the failure's I've had this year have been down to the condition of the soil. I'm trying to rectify this ready for next year by adding lots of manure and compost to the beds. This year it has been a case of planting everything into the soil as it was and hoping for the best. Luckily not everything turned out as bad as my leeks.

We had some nice weather over the weekend which enabled us to spend some more time digging over the allotment. It's a long hard task so we're getting as much done as we can before the winter really sets in and whatever isn't done then will have to be done in spring. I wouldn't have got half as much done without my hubby and son's help. They worked like troopers. When I first took the allotment on my daughter was really keen to help, but sadly her enthusiasm has waned along the way. She's quite happy to do little jobs like planting seeds or picking strawberries, but isn't quite so keen on the more laborious tasks. My son on the other hand is always happy to help out, and really is a huge help when jobs need doing.

I also dug up some parsnips this week which we had for Sunday dinner. When I say we, I actually mean myself and my daughter, no one else will eat parsnips, but I have to grow plenty as my daughter would eat them by the plateful if I let her. They were delicious and definitely one of the successes.

A Little Bit Of Magic

This is Skimmia Japonica - Magic Marlot. It's an evergreen shrub and fairly new on the market. This is now in it's second phase. The first phase is white flower buds, in the second phase the flower buds change to a deep pink as you can see, and finally in the third phase the white flowers open and these are apparently scented. I only bought this plant in spring so I'm witnessing these phases for the first time. It hasn't put on alot of new growth this year but I don't know if this is because I have it planted in a container. I'm looking forward to seeing the flowers open and finding out what sort of scent it has.

After a bit of a dull start today has turned out rather nice. It poured with rain last night but today has been dry, sunny and really quite warm. I took advantage of this and spent the day doing jobs in the garden.

I've tidied up the flower border again. There were still a few flowers around when I last did this, but everything is now well and truly finished for the winter so I've cut alot of things back. Some foliage has been left behind for insects to take shelter in throughout the winter. I saw two ladybirds today, one native and one which I think may have been a Harlequin. Hopefully I can get the native species to hibernate in my garden so that they are still here when I need help with the nasties in spring. The small pond still needs sorting out but I didn't have any rubber gloves, so that job has been put on hold for another day. The plants in the pond have really thrived this year so they do need a little cutting back and their roots need trimming.

The spring bulbs which I bought for the garden have been planted today. I planted some Fritillaries around the small pond, and also some Narcissus - Minnow which produce up to five flowers on each stem and are a creamy yellow colour.

I am the proud recipient of this Best Blog Award. This was kindly bestowed upon me by Tanya at Allotments4You. Thank you very much, Tanya. I'm pleased that you enjoy my blog. That also goes to everyone else who regularly reads my blog and makes a comment, it's very much appreciated.

I now have to pass this award on to other blogs who I think deserves this award, but first of all the rules.

Post the award on your blog along with the name of the person who passed it on to you and link to their blog. Choose 15 blogs which you have recently discovered and you think are great and pass it on to them. Don't forget to leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

The 15 blogs I would like to pass this award on to are:-

A Life Less Simple

Slow Growing In Scotland

Midges, Moss and Mud

Melanie Fleur

Urban Veg Patch

Moj Vrt

Secret Cottage Garden

My Small Cornish Garden

Manor Stables Veg Plot

Allotment Heaven

The Green Grower

Tales From A Cottage Garden

Allot Of Veg

Run For The Hills

Scattered Gardener

I hope you will all accept the award as I think you have great blogs. Other people haven't nominated the full 15 blogs as I have, so I think anything up to 15 would be acceptable.

Hooligans At Halloween

I was going to show you a photo of my son's elongated pumpkin which he managed to carve into something resembling Shrek (complete with ears) but unfortunately I didn't take a photo on Halloween. I had left it in the conservatory and intended to take a photo today, but when I lifted it up it had started to decay, and collapsed. So instead, here is a photo of my daughter's tiny Hooligan pumpkins which she instisted be carved for Halloween. They're only about three to four inch in diameter so you can imagine it was a tricky job. I think they are rather cute.

All my good intentions of having the allotment dug over before winter are dropping by the wayside. Time is ticking on and I'm getting nowhere. Family life has taken over and there's always something more important to do. Digging over the allotment seems to be way down on my list of priorities. I've got the next few weekends off work so I'll have to make more of an effort to put in some hard work.