The cabbage plants came from Marshall's....so I planted them this afternoon.
I put in 8 "Spring Hero", 8 "Peter", 8 Calabrese, and 8 Kale "Hungry Gap". I netted them against the pigeons. I also slug pelleted them as I'm sure they are a bit tender...!

I didn't have any cabbage collars at the plot. I think I should be safe at this time of year if I don't bother with them.....does anyone think I should put them on....if so I will!!!

There were 16 of each plant sent, but the others were for my new neighbour plotholder who only needed a few too. I have brussels sprouts plants here at home, and purple sprouting, so I think we'll have enough brassicas this winter.

We are off to E Germany next week for one week....so posts will be scarce here. I might get to the plot once more before we go to check on the little plants and have a pick round, and the neighbour has said she'll keep an eye out for me too.
Behave yourselves while I'm away....!

I am so sick of these red xs!!!!
Here are photos 1 and 2 from yeasterday. Perhaps if I do only two at a time....!

Here are photos 3 and 4

(For the pictures see my other post today....)
Photo 1
I spent an hour or so at the plot today digging in one of the beds of green manure, ready for my cabbage plants. It was planted with phacelia.....easy to dig in. Tomorrow I'll go and tread the bed down so it is firm for the brassicas.

The next two pictures show what the plot next to mine looks like. One of the other plotholders calls this one the Carpet Queen. I think she has been a bit busy elsewhere this summer.

The next three pictures...in the interests of fairness...show the messy bits of my plot! These are my project for this autumn. I will spread the manure which is under the tarpaulin, strim the weeds, have a bonfire of the piles of rubbish I have been collecting all summer (no bonfires allowed 1st April to September 30th), dig the soil and move a lot of the bank in front of the fence back on to the beds. The next door plotholder (south of me) said the previous people had moved all the top soil up onto the bank when they took up the weeds when they took it on. I thought some bits were lower than the paths.....! There should be enough to raise it a couple of inches.

This afternoon I tidied some of the back garden veg beds. I took down the trellis holding up the borlotti beans and took up the bines (leaving the roots in to do their bit.) I pulled off all the remaining beans. There were loads of really dry ones which I want as next years seed. There were some where the pods have swelled, but the beans are not dry...these we'll eat as shelled beans....delicious. And we had the green ones for dinner this evening. After that I weeded and dug the bed and will sow some green manure tomorrow. The bed is wanted for shallots and garlic which I'll be putting in in a few weeks time, so the phacelia will improve the fertility and also ensure the soil is not left empty.

I still have a mountain to do in the back garden. but we are off to E Germany for a week very early Monday and I have to leave the house presentable for the dog sitters, so I'm a bit busy!!!

Here are photos 5 and 6

Yesterday's pictures re-posted.......I see those red x s again....!

Posting about my plot is getting very repetitious.....but it is time I updated here so here we go. I went through the allotments with the dogs and stopped awhile to dig up some spuds....lovely Desiree....beautiful. I also picked off the raspberries, and all the courgettes.
The dogs were a bit fed up because I was about 20 minutes and they wanted exercise. There was so much to carry that I only managed after the plot to take them as far as the seafront and then phoned DH to come and get us.
This is how the plot looks at the moment. The words "could"...."do".....and "better" come to mind. There is lots to do and it will get done probably next week. Tomorrow I am looking after a friends Spanish speaking guests (I've got a phrasebook!!! LOL) and Friday I am helping someone move house.....so two days out. Next week looks better at the moment....
Actually, walking through the rest of the plots I realised mine is not the worst by a long way, but it is also nowhere near the best.

This morning I spent a while in the back garden cutting down the sweet peas which were all but finished, also the sweetcorn, except for the ones the beans had found. The tomatoes that I put outside aren't likely to do anything more so I stripped the green ones off and pulled up the plants. Likewise the peas. There is lots of weeding to be done now those plants are out. I hope to green manure the bare bits until I plant the garlic and shallots later.

Not much gardening done today...I have been busy....!

36 years ago today we were married. So this is our Anniversary. How young we looked....actually I was just 22 and he was 26. I still have the dress. I did get into it just to see if I could a couple of years ago after a diet. It wouldn't go on now as I am a bit heavier.
DH still has the tie......nothing else.

I made the dress myself for £5. We paid for most of the wedding ourselves as our parents couldn't afford it. We put most of our money into our house deposit. As Baby Boomers we had to buy as there was nothing available to rent. I am so glad we did as we are proud owners outright of our home now...!

DH bought me a new food processor for my present (prompted by me!). I have spent the day re-organising the kitchen worktops to accommodate it. I think I will now get rid of a lot of things like blenders and grinders and juicers and Kenwood Chefs, as this new machine does it all...! It even has an add and weigh function, and can be used simply as electronic scales too...so it will live on the worktop rather than in a cupboard. That will make it more certain to get used...!

We had a quiet day otherwise. We are building up to being guests at a big wedding on Saturday and conserving our energy for that. DH is best man and we'll be putting up two couples overnight....so I'll be busy.

For our 30th Anniversary we decided to celebrate by going to the US for a holiday. We were in New England on Sept 11th 2001 and once all the dreadful events started unfolding it made the day one we would never forget. We thought for a while we'd never get home. We were pretty scared.

BTW the cake was pink. That was a mistake, but there was nothing we could do about it at that late stage. I'd given the baker a picture of the cake I wanted copied, and the photo had a slightly pink cast to it....so that is what he did!!!!! My Mum couldn't believe that I just accepted it and didn't throw a fit...! It doesn't show much in the photos.

Last Sunday morning I went to Wisley again on my way to Kent. This is the state of play in the Grow Your Own Veg 3 x 3 plot.

The third picture shows the diagram they suggested they were following earlier in the year. You will see that there is no mention of sweetcorn on there, but there is some in the beds.

It really does demonstrate that the 3 x 3 system does provide a variety of veg and herbs throughout the summer and autumn. Very worthwhile for someone with only a little space to garden.

This was picture number 1....
Will this appear?

I wonder if they'll stick if I do them one at a time?

This was picture number 2

Here are the pictures again!

I walked the dogs through the allotments this afternoon as I needed to pick the raspberries and water my cabbage plants. I'll be away til Monday and won't get to the plot until Tuesday so they'll have to cope. They're in the shade so should last.

Picture 1 shows a view down the plot. Since the tidy up it looks a lot better.

Down the right end, near where Freddie is standing, is the broccoli plant bad. To the left of that are the squash and courgette beds. Coming towards us you can see the potato haulms still in the ground marking where the maincrop potatoes are. (I'm not digging these up until I want them for the table. Apparently that works well here on the island as we have such mild winters.) The next bed is full of green manure, waiting for the cabbage plants. Then in the very lh corner you can see a few leaves of the pumpkin.
Picture 2 shows the rest of the plot. The pumpkin bed also has the beetroot in....the pumpkin has trailed all through them.

Then the last bed has carrots in the foreground, with ant powder ...against the woodlice. Hungry little blighters! Behind the carrots is a different green manure.

Along the back of the plot are the sunflowers. they are a bit dry and look it! They are up on the bank so any moisture drains away quite quickly.

You can see the globe artichoke plants and the comfrey. The G as were from seed this year, and the comfrey is a very welcome volunteer. I have shorn it a few times to add to the compost heap.

The raspberries have been cropping heavily...which isn't bad for first year canes. I don't know if this is one crop you shouldn't eat from the plant in its first year, but we have! The rhubarb root which I gleaned from the surplus seat this spring has also been very prolific, in its first year! The one I got from E-bay is a tiny miserable thing. I actually got two but one totally disappeared. A gooseberry plant which I also started off this spring is growing well. It has a nice open shape so hopefully mildew won't be a problem.

And finally.....a picture of the view from our back bedroom window. We have to crane our necks to see it, but we do definitely have "Solent glimpses" (as it said in the spec when we viewed!)

I promised pictures of my back kitchen garden....so here goes.

Things are cropping heavily....mostly. The outdoor tomatoes were rubbish this year....they all got blight. The Burpee cucumbers didn't like the wet weather and haven't really recovered. The sweetcorn have been magnificent. We've had lots and still there are some growing.

Runner beans have been superb....lots and lots and very tasty. The Borlotti beans are still cropping. I have left some pods to get old and dried for seeds for next year.


We have plenty of leeks coming along, fennel too. And the celeriac is beginning to swell. I have some salsify too which I will have to harvest a sample of to see how ready it is. Then I'll have to look up how to cook and serve them as I have no idea.

In the first photo you can see the asparagus bed by the tunnel, and the strawberry bed in front of that.

The sweetcorn, courgette and bean bed has been a success. I trained the beans up poles instead of the corn and thus had the benefit of the symbiosis of growing them all together without the irritation of the beans strangling the sweetcorn cobs!

The bed at the right of the second picture, with the green cloches....is where I put the last Sq ft bed with salads in. They have not done well. I need to cloche them as the cats dig things up otherwise, but I think these types of cloches cut light out so the seeds have germinated patchily. The lettuce mixtures have sprouted but that's all.

The long bed against the wall is my winter project this year. The bindweed has rather got a hold here (it comes through from next door) and I need to get tough with it.

I'm feeling much better today. So much so that I have been to the plot for a harvest and a much needed tidy up, and this afternoon have been weeding the overgrown asparagus bed.I haven't taken any pictures as yet, but will do so when I walk the dogs later on.I "turned the corner" when a friend suggested that I should see my osteopath about my vertigo. I wasn't happy with the doctor's diagnosis, and the drugs were getting nowhere, so I had a natter with the osteo who said he was sure he could help. He did some things which if I had got BPPV as the doctor diagnosed would have made me sick all over the place....but it didn't. He did various other tests and decided that it was spondylosis in my neck, along with a reduced blood flow in the main arteries running up the side of the neck (which was causing the dizziness). 3/4 of an hour of cranial manipulation, and some intensive massage in the upper chest and back and neck region and I left the surgery feeling as though a big dark cloud had gone away. I even found myself whistling and singing later that afternoon.That was on Monday afternoon. I took it fairly easy yesterday, catching up with much needed housework, but nothing could stop me going to my plot today! Got my fix!!!

Just in case the picture doesn't show on my last post here is a reduced pixel version!!!

Photo a day.....1st September.

I have not been well. Vertigo problems. I have not felt like taking photos or gardening. I have however been able to sit and finish my Quilt. This is for a friend who got married in January 2006, so it is long overdue.
I collected the fabrics for her over many years, ready for when she got married, then she upped and married a bit quick so I wasn't able to finish the most ambitious one I have done yet in time for her wedding.
I'll be taking it to her next week. It is a surprise (she knows it's coming but not what it looks like) so please all those of you who know her don't let her see this. I know she won't find it on her own as she doesn't surf!
I enjoyed every minute of the time it has taken, and it goes to her with all my love and best wishes for a long and happy marriage.

I hope my balance problems will soon let me get back to my gardening. All I can manage at the moment is a bit of harvesting of crops. And I can't drive either.....what a pain!