Loads going on!

Where to start?! It’s been an absolute age since I last blogged and so much has happened! Let me cast my mind back….

Okay, first none allotment stuff…
I’ve entered a 10k fun run in Blackpool with my friend in the hope that I might get a bit fitter! My friend wanted to start running, and I’ve done a bit in the past but never really keep it going for that long so having a running buddy should spur me on to carry on with it. Anyway, the 10k is in two weeks, on the 13th May. So fingers crossed for good weather! Hopefully the training for this will stand me in good stead for the Moonlight Walk I’m doing in June with my mum.

I’ve started with French lessons too, in an evening class at Preston college. I’ve just had my second lesson – hobbies and past times. J’aime faire le jardin!

Last weekend, there was a Farmer’s Market in Preston – the first one they’ve had. So I went along with my mum to have a look at what they had to offer. As it was the first one they had a couple of displays and things to look at as well as the food stalls. There were shire horses from Thwaites brewery, pulling an old fashioned drey – that was good to watch, they were enormous! There was also a cooking demonstration by some guy that had been on Masterchef, Lee Somebody, didn’t recognise him I’m afraid! My favourite stall was the one with owls on – it belonged to a guy who runs a sort of owl sanctuary and he brought some owls to show to the public and to try and raise a bit of money to fund the sanctuary. One of the owls was a European Eagle owl, and I held her on my arm! She was huge! If anyone watched the TV programme Animal Addicts the other night, the guy was on there - Barn Owl Bill his name is.

Okay, on with allotment stuff. So much has happened!

To give you an idea, here is an updated picture of my plot. As you can see, I have a shed! Well, it’s actually a summer house with a glass front (home for my melons and okra?) and it looks fab! And it didn’t cost me anything as I got it from my friend at work, who didn’t need it in the garden of her new house. Even better! So now I can stash all my tools and bits and pieces in there, rather than carting it around in my car all the time! Yey – I can have my boot back!

So, what’s growing? In my mini greenhouse at home I have about fifteen types of tomato, three types of chilli, two types of sweet pepper, four types of aubergine, three okra plantlets, five types of melon, two types of sweetcorn, some flowers, and on the windowsill I have ten courgette plantlets of different kinds. Plenty going on there then! I hope I will have made enough space to plant them out when summer comes!

At the allotment I have my salad bed which currently has carrot, beetroot, lettuce, baby kohl rabi, baby turnip, and spinach in. Another bed has parsnips, which have germinated and are looking great (small, but great!). My onions and shallots are going great guns and I’m sowing spring onions in between every couple of weeks. My potatoes have sprouted, both Home Guard and Kestrel. I only have one small bed of potatoes as I don’t really eat that many of them and didn’t want to devote that much space to them. But I had to grow at least a couple of plants because everyone had said how nice they taste when they are home grown! My broad beans are doing really well, they have just started to flower and are about 18 inches tall. My peas started to germinate but then they have been nibbled away (apart from one) so I will have to sow more. I’ll probably start them off at home so they have more of a chance of surviving! The rhubarb crown that I was given is looking a bit sad for itself, there will definitely be no harvest from that this year! Fortunately, just about everyone grown rhubarb so I don’t think I’ll go short! So far my Jerusalem Artichokes have not sprouted, but then Bill said his sprouted only the other day and I think I planted mine a bit later than he did, so I’ll give it another week before I start to wonder if they are coming at all! Other than that I have my strawberry plants which are growing well and have started to flower (as have the ones in my strawberry bed at home) and the red- and whitecurrant plants are starting to look more healthy now too.