The lady’s watering can for the indoor seed trays has just arrived!

I rang up the local family and asked ever so nicely on Saturday evening if there was any chance of borrowing on long term loan the red watering can that was used last year when they grew tomatoes in their “conservatory” otherwise known as the entry hall at the back door.

“They” have decided that growing tomatoes at home is far too much effort as it interferes with going on holiday and having to remember to water and feed the plants at regular intervals. So I have decided to try to grow tomatoes outdoors against a sunny hedge down at the allotment.

However there are now tomato and pepper seeds in trays on the sunny kitchen window ledge to be cared for and properly treated. Until they germinate, are potted on and hardened off ready for moving down to the allotment the little red watering can will be well used.

Welcome to the working world little red watering can. You will be ideal for watering the mini sunflowers too!

It’s the return of winter with a vengeance.

Pity the poor neighbour who had a delivery of two large dumpy sacks of soil delivered to the pavement this morning at the start of a major shower. He had to barrow it all down the cut to his back garden – ah the pleasure of living in a terrace. As I went off down to the gardeners association hut he was shovelling fast and running with his wheelbarrow.

It’s really not a day for working outside for any reason. I’ve borrowed a large pot full of compost from the allotment and carefully split out the seven miniature sunflower seeds from the small container into the bigger one. This is now sitting on the kitchen window sill where it’s warm and sunny. The transplanting seems to have done no harm and they should now have room to grow up to the 12” as described on the packet with no further disruption. Perhaps if it is very sunny they may just go outside on odd nice days. If we ever have nice, sunny summer type days!

I’m going to have something to eat and then I shall go along to the garden centre on the bus – yes, yes I know that it’s well within walking distance but not in this weather it isn’t.  I would like some seed trays so that I can start off some tomatoes and peppers from seed on the window ledges too. The tomatoes will go out onto the allotment later but I’d like to see them healthy first and sort of hardened off in the yard.

I also have bought some sunflower seeds which I will actually use down at the allotment up against the hedges. These should amuse the birds if I get them going. At least doing some of the preparation indoors makes me feel as if I’m not wasting the whole gardening season. Suppose that the showers are watering the soil lightly without soaking the ground beyond use.

I looked at the chitted potatoes and decided that planting time had come.

It’s been a nice enough day though none of the forecast showers have appeared and the allotment would benefit from some rain. After consulting the planning document to see where the potatoes were allocated a space, it was off to the allotment with said chitted potatoes in bags in hand.  Yes I’m growing pink fir apples again for the sheer pleasure of having a nice salad potato and the fun of sharing out knobbly produce. Of course I shall also grow some King Edward potatoes so that we have something normal to eat.

All was quiet on site with no-one to talk to except for the duck down the bottom of the site so the job was easily done. Soil preparation was already completed with a nicely composted area all ready to use. I left the watering as showers were forecast and the soil was still damp below the surface. So far not a sign of a shower. So it may well be a visit to water and fill up the water butts with the hose tomorrow.

I've also seen the first shoots of the mini sunflower seeds that I was given for Christmas. I shall have to sort out some small pots and compost so that I can transplant these green shoots when they are a little larger in preparation for hardening off and taking down to a sunny spot on the allotment – another hedge loving plant I think so that I have easy means of support. These are only mini sunflowers and not the huge ones that you often see against house walls.

I must also clear a window ledge in the house so that I can start off some tomato plants. I would like to give them a good start before taking them down to the allotment. I have no idea which window ledge at the moment as I would like to start them off in a seed tray which will be wider than any of the ledges in the flat.  But that is a small problem that I can consider over the next couple of days as there is no hurry.

OK so I am retired but that does not mean that I don’t plan the week so that the housework gets done without it interfering with the allotment. Well mostly

However, just as I was thinking of going out of the door on Friday, the roofing contractors turned up to complete the grouting of the gable end and needed to plug their lead into a power supply to get the job done. As there had been quite enough youngsters climbing on the scaffolding that had been erected about three weeks previously, I gave in and let them run their lead through the window.  They thought that the job would take about an hour and a half but it took four before it was completed. Ho hum. That’s life and a day mostly wasted as it was only a short visit to the allotment.

Saturday morning at the moment is spent in the gardening association hut giving a hand. So that was most of the day gone by the time I had eaten. So after a short visit to check to see if anything was growing and to water the new raspberry canes, it was home again. I made chocolate cake and bread in the evening as a reward for doing not a lot!

Sunday and Monday were not just days of wind but days when the wind was an absolute hooligan. On Sunday even the dedicated sailors on the nearest reservoir declared it a no sailing day and they are hardened northern people used to sailing in northern weather.  So it was definitely a no gardening day although I did walk down to the allotment to make sure that no damage had been done.

On Monday it was an equally strong but lazy wind – the one that blows straight through you rather than blowing round you. Despite the sunshine, after an hour out litter picking it was obvious that planting on the allotment could well be left for another day. Add to that, there was a requirement for enough shopping to put it on the free van from the local supermarket, a request to talk to a national magazine on the Greener and Wiser forum that I was involved in from last year and the decision to take the mobile telephone off the network because it’s totally unnecessary now that I don’t work.

The local garden centre has been advertising various special offers and a visit to the health food shop was also required. By the time that I had come home from those small jobs today it had started to rain. By the time it stopped, darkness had fallen. So nothing much has been done for five days on the allotment.

When I signed for the allotment there were “some plant pots” in a cold frame structure in one corner of the plot. For the two seasons to date I have just put my hand into the cold frame, taken out a selection and used them.

Eventually today I found time and energy to go through the collection, throw out the broken ones and those which were so small that I would never have a use for them with no greenhouse or poly-tunnel and roughly sorted into size. I had scrounged two large green plastic containers which have been residing unused these many years in the front garden of the daughter. Having had them delivered this morning, they were given a thorough scrubbing and then taken away to their new home on the allotment. And excellent containers they make for the small pots that seem to scatter themselves everywhere.

But I had never realised that there were so many sizes and varieties of plant pots – here were years of small herbs, little pansies, slightly larger flowering plants, and larger shrubs in a number of colours from orange, royal blue and purple through to the more common terracotta and black.

Some of them had been nicely damp for the winter and home to hibernating slugs. It’s a great shame that there is no hot water down on site or I could have scrubbed up those that I wanted for use in the near future. I may end up bringing a couple of bags full home every visit and cleaning them indoors then returning them clean to the plot until I have worked through the pile. Slightly long winded way of doing things but it would solve the problem.

And at least I have now a selection put to one side ready to grow tomatoes and peppers against a sunny, sheltering hedge later in the season.

Yep it’s the time of the year to pull out the tubs from storage on the allotment, clean them up and fill them up all nicely placed in their summer residences.

And a patient job that is – I spent four hours on Sunday starting off the job and still have another seven or eight big tubs to fill up today.

The idea of filling early is to allow the compost to settle so that I can top them up before planting out. It’s still a bit chilly in the mornings so another week before planting out won’t hurt. If the forecast is good at the weekend then I can start reading the packets. But sometimes it’s more haste and less speed when you are planting out straight into the ground.

Today I shall plant the sunflower seed that I have been given in a pot for Christmas and put it on the window ledge to start sprouting. I shall harden it off in the yard before taking it down to the more sheltered allotment to grow next to the hedge.

I see that I have enough pots for trying some outdoor tomatoes which can also grow up against one of the hedges – am willing to try anything once to see what happens. But I may well have to go and scrounge a few larger ones for other things that I would like to try outside. Perhaps we would erect a small polytunnel if the finances ever allow. At the moment it all seems to be necessary but unplanned expenditure.

The son-in-law phoned up last night to check on details of the bread maker I gained off freecycle as he staying with friends who have one (different brand) and is going to read up to see what he can learn. Now there’s support if ever – he must like the thought of home made bread. This cookery thing might even catch on with the family.

It was actually no different to any other day – no better or worse despite its reputation. 

The morning started out cloudy, warm and still with no immediate rain forecast which was ideal for the first spray of the dandelions and buttercups on the allotment. Deed done. Whilst I was working another plot holder came passed saying I’m going to have a bonfire. Oh good. His fires are not usually done anywhere near where it was going to interfere with me.

So on I went with the spraying.

I stopped for a gossip with someone else who has thistles in his perennial flower bed which is a nasty problem to cure. I topped up the compost heap with the items bought down from the house and then I looked in the shed. The junk fairy had definitely not been keeping the place tidy – it must have been the fairies I could never make that mess!

I discovered an unopened tub of chicken pellets in one corner. On looking inside they were still in good condition so I went round the fruit beds, the herb beds and the fruit trees and gave them the first dose of fertiliser for the season. Note on calendar to do it every month throughout the season. Sometimes the back of the shed is a good place to look.

I used up an old canister of weed killer found in a dark corner and with some extra spray added. Whether it will do any good is a question that will only been known in a couple of weeks when I come to do the second spray – another job for the calendar. And another container out of the shed. Though it might be more use as a spray than the back pack which seems to be on its last legs. Something to investigate. Removal of an old watering can where the spout had broken and taping up failed also seemed a good idea.

Suddenly I realised that the bonfire had not started so went for a wander down to see what was going on. The time taken had been due the building of a bonfire that would have been well received on November 5th. The paper was already in place and chap had his specialist lighter in hand ready to start things off – matches are old technology it seems! Off he went and woomf went the fire – which of course started with thick white smoke due to the contents. Of course the first thing the smoke did was to blow over plot holder and watchers before going off downhill with the wind.

Yes I smelt lovely going into the supermarket to do the shopping. Everything went in the wash and out into the fresh air next morning of course. But I had finished working for the day with only a minor mishap, locked up after a good four hours of work and gossip and came home.

I’ve been totally broke before now and know that it’s easy to think that buying the ingredients for stir fry or vegetable stew using pulses rather than meat is expensive and that the packet or ready meal is quick, easy on the power and cheaper than the ingredients bought individually.

I’ve suddenly realised that I’m loosing the skills that I painfully learnt when brining up a family. We were quite often not that well off and bought the cheap and cheerful offers in bulk for cooking at home. Not that cakes and puddings were often on the menu but they were known to happen on rare occasions. I can still make a mean mince pie and a tasty Christmas pudding because the family like them and come round with their orders at Christmas. We ate well and the kids grew up healthy. All of them also cook for themselves and their families from scratch and actually like cooking.

But nowadays you can go down the supermarket or shop and buy a meal ready prepared, heat it up in oven or microwave and have done with all this cookery business. Or you can phone the local takeaway and get a pizza delivered if you are not inclined to cook, wash up and clean up.

As for cakes, scones, biscuits – well who needs to know how to cook those with all the shops down the street that are prepared to sell you a cake, bun or snack as you walk passed the door?

Unless you grow your own vegetables and fruit or are on some special diet where you can’t eat prepared food – well it’s hard to cook innit? Or is it just that cooking at home has gone out of fashion in the days of both parents working and there being no social norm of the family sitting down together for a home cooked meal?

I plead guilty to having got out of the habit of cooking until I took over an allotment. I took an allotment because I like gardening and for no other reason. Having the space it seems a good idea to grow some fruit and vegetables. The result has been that I have remembered the old kitchen skills as the local relations can’t eat all I produce and don’t like some of the crops that I grow (but I like everything I grow!).

The daughter offered to take me for a run round the garden centres to look for a raspberry cane to fill in a space in the fruit bed concerned yesterday.

The one between her house and mine didn’t have what we wanted so we went further afield. She had seen one on one of the hills that can be seen out of the back window of the flat. Admittedly it was a very windy site but it was also very unkempt. It really didn’t sell itself on the way in and the plants outside didn’t appeal either. We left deciding that this was a garden centre that we would be unlikely to visit again along with the one that gives discounts to the Gardeners Association of which I am a member.  We  had struck that one off last year.

Eventually we wandered into the local market town up the road as daughter was going shopping in the supermarket there. One garden centre (very small, very good) had sold out on Saturday. The last centre had good stock, had raspberry canes and made a sale.

However the card reader had broken – daughter wanted to know if she would have got the goods free if she wanted to pay by card and I wanted to know if there was a discount for cash (no and no). He asked if we wanted a bag for it when we had paid – I said no as daughter had bought her mother with her.  I think he was glad to see us go as we left laughing. 

We have made a note to ourselves that if we want plants we will probably visit Hexham if the very local one fails. Mind you the local one has it’s advantages in that it delivers loads of compost and other heavy items. This year there is going to be a change of plant supplier as the previous grower is now managing the centre. We will have to see what the standard is like once the season gets going. With the present week’s forecast of wet and windy there is no real haste to plant out anything on the allotment.

I have just sorted out the last of the winter cabbages that I bought up from the allotment. It’s funny how the slugs think that cabbages left over the winter are a home in which to survive the cold weather. I suppose though that the slugs which came home with me are not going to give trouble on the allotment later in the year.

I have memories of cutting open a brussel sprout grown by my granddad as a small child and finding a cooked slug in it. So obviously I’m not the only person who has ever had slugs in cabbages. On the farm, mother use to throw the last cabbages of the year to the hens in the hen coop for them to peck at and fight over – they were quite happy to eat both the slugs and the cabbage and the stems.

But it just seems to be one of those things – the winter cabbages are amongst the last things left on an allotment or in a vegetable garden so will become a hiding place for unwanted wildlife.

Somewhere along the line I must have missed out on learning how to solve the problem from the older members of the family who ran vegetable gardens. No doubt there is a simple cure (and not the one that says don’t grow cabbage) which I shall be told in the near future.  One of the cures could be to ensure that the cabbages grow straight and upright rather than suffering from the wind and leaning over.

Meantime I should go down to the allotment this afternoon for an inspection as the snow stayed overnight in places.  it certainly remained in the front yard for longer than it did on the sunny hills which can be seen out of the back window of the flat. There was another overnight frost so I am wondering whether I will have to replace the onion and shallot sets that I planted out when I believed the weather forecast two days ago!

The sun was shining and though it was cool, it was an acceptable spring afternoon. So I pulled out the bags of pickling shallot sets, the shallot sets and the onion (both red and white) sets and marched off down to the allotment. I even checked the weather forecast just in case I had heard it wrong in the morning!

I took a tour of the rubbish in the roadside hedge and the hedge down beside the path that runs down to the other allotments on the site. I collected a reasonable amount of rubbish which is now bagged and waiting for the next run to the household tip when one of the family has a car available. The pile is beginning to get seriously out of hand so perhaps it would be a good idea to plead for a spare hour.

It snowed gently whilst I was planting out and then threw sleet down seriously just as I finished planting out the sets. The trouble is that once you have started a job like this it isn’t possible to pick up the sets and put them back in the bag again for later.  The daughter coming home from work said that the weather was another Prudhoe special – very local indeed. Yesterday afternoon she said that it was very wet and windy at work but it was not so much so very locally here.  Mind you I planted out the onion sets in an outbreak of bad weather last year and there was a good harvest. So who knows. I will have some idea in a week’s time.