His kindness to us as new plotholders, giving advice, seedlings & surplus crops freely - most recently a huge batch of 'gone over' parsnips for me to make wine with - was always appreciated. The wine is upstairs clearing in the demijohn - I've not got the chance to let him have a bottle now, but I will have to settle for having a drink on his behalf in due course.
The weekend has been very hot, & increasingly humid - in fact I got caught by the first raindrops of a storm as I was coming away, just in time!I started by planting out the 10 various tomato plants - I was going to grow these on in buckets at home, in an attempt to dodge the inevitable blight that comes arollin' down the Hill every August, but for one reason or another I've decided to give this lot a go at the Hill anyway, and see how we get on. Optimism triumphing over experience!
Then I set to with the trowel, planting out the second sowing of RUNNER BEANS (self saved) & FRENCH BEANS (barlotti jody, hunter & cherokee trail of tears) to replace all of the direct sown seeds which have been decimated by the local slug population.
The red flowers on the peas are a delight - & whilst encouraging the peas up the netting, I also noticed that the sweet peas have just started to flower. I cut just three there & then - the scent is so generous, it fills the room even with those few blooms. I love them.Richard three plots down wandered up for a chat & casually mentioned that he had just dug his first new potatoes, & (not being jealous at all) I immediately went & spent ten minutes furiously poking around under the first earlies trying to (a) not disturb the plants & (b) find any potatoes which were larger than marbles.
I was rewarded with half a score of potatoes just about big enough for the pot which I had with a handful of baby broad beans for dinner - and very very tasty they were too!
Very sorry to hear about Barry, all loss is hard and when it is unexpected it hurts all the more - perhaps because there is no chance to prepare yourself.
ReplyDeleteSad that Barry died so suddenly - except for him. A sudden death is better than a slow lingering.
ReplyDeleteI've just planted out peas from Alec, whose allotment I took over, and am about to cut the first sweet peas from seed I saved from the plot.
that's sad news. I always find it touching to read the affectionate tags you name people with. I remember your post about Barry's parsnip donation well because they're the only vegetable on this great earth that G won't eat!
ReplyDeleteThere are some real veterans on our plot and I fear the day they're no longer able to get to the plot. Makes you realise how important community is.
I'm glad that the broad beans that I grow & save each year originally came from Barry - nice to remember folks, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI guess that we'll be the veterans one day, Nic!