I started this weekend’s allotment List on Saturday, & went back this evening to finish off.
On Saturday, I started off by planting the last of the POTATOES (pink fir apple) which I bought in Wilko the other day – they haven’t chatted for more than a week, but they’ll just have to get on with it.
By the potato beds, the front of the plot is starting to look really good - the wallflowers which I bought at the King's Heath Gardeners' Show last September have just started to flower and are really bushy & sturdy.I also wanted to do some planting out & sowing, but first I had to attend to the pea wigwam where I’d planted out the PEAS (Robinson) last week – they have not grasped (literally!) the principal of climbing, as yet, & were doing some forlorn waving about mostly on the ground – no good at all – so I hunkered down to ground level & started to tie up the plants to the string to give them a start.
What a fiddly, backbreaking job. Half way through Rhubarb Brian came over to see what I was up to. “Tying the bloody peas to the bloody string”, I scowled. 
“Well it’s looking good” he grinned, & looking over my shoulder to the gap by the shed said, “I see you’ve moved your compost heap – what’s going there instead?”
I stood up, pushed the loose rail back towards the shed roof from where it hangs & I told him that I’d thought to put the competition pumpkin there, “although I must nail this back to the shed roof first before it falls off completely!”
He went on his way, & I finished my fiddly tying up job & called it a day.
Back to the Hill tonight with renewed vigour & I discover that I have a new Worst Job in the World which is spiralling the string round the wigwams ready for planting out the peas.
Rhubarb Brian stopped by again, to make sure that I was happy with the shed repair. Seeing me looking blank, he pointed at the now solidly attached roof rail on the shed. “Blimey, did you do that? I didn’t see it – thank you so much!” I beamed “That’s brilliant!” I must remember to drop a bottle of parsnip wine to him at the weekend as a thank you.
With the middle two wigwams strings attached, I planted out the PEAS (kent blue) & sweetpeas – they do look rather good, & hopefully plants will appreciate my extra efforts with the string hoops closer together & get climbing. Then I popped the BROAD BEANS in along the edge of the bed. As the light was fading I whacked in a couple of rows of PARSNIP (hollow crown), RADISH (rainbow mixed) & CARROT (early nantes 5), & came home with a sense of satisfaction that not only had I done all the jobs on the List, but that there is only one more bloody wigwam to string up…
Rhubarb Brian is a star. He appears from nowhere when I'm struggling with something and gives me a hand. I love his dry sense of humour too.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to get down to my plot tomorrow to do some string winding around the pea wigwams too!
I love the idea of potatoes that haven't chatted :o)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they'll be fine/ I read this week that commercial growers don't chit their spuds at all.
Peas are looking good. I haven't sown mine yet but have some wonderful Robinson peas from Bag End.
I planted out some peas and sweet peas yesterday and had the boring job to do. Except, I may have wasted my time because I'm not entirely convinced the spots where I've planted them will get enough direct sunshine. I guess that's the probem with growing stuff in a weirdly shaped back garden compared to an allotment. I WANT an allotment!!
ReplyDeleteHow lovely of Brian, you do have a nice group on your lottie. Everything is looking brilliant for so early in the year.
ReplyDeleteNot sure I am happy that You Did Everything On Your List! Humph, please move north and help me with mine.
(oh, and whilst you're about it, please give me enough hours in the day not to get so behind with your lottie and quilting blogs ....)
Brian makes me laugh too, Chris - so outragous too! When I was at the Hill yesterday, I saw that your broadies are ahead of mine - you'll be eating them as 'mangetout' within the week if you should wish, I think.
ReplyDeleteWell spotted, Nic - that gave me a real laugh! Monastic potatoes! (or perhaps it that they don't much chance to get much of a word in round here?!). And I suspect that your peas from Bag End are my grandchildren, as it were - I think that you'll love them. :)
Things want to grow, Croila, and don't forget that you get a much longer day length at your higher latitude than we do - I think that your peas & sweetpeas will be fine. (For me, they'd damn well have to be if I'd gone to the trouble of stringing up the wigwams!)
Thank you, Bilbo! April is a great month for neatness - all that prepped soil and optimistic veg seedlings! As long as I ensure that the List is headed 'Things to do Today', and not 'Things to do At Some Point In My Lifetime' it is not daunting! Don't worry about being behind, they're still here ready when you are. :)