A VERY HAPPY CHELSEA SUPPORTER

I have just got to stray off the subject of gardening just for one second. I had a very nervous evening last night as I was watching my beloved Chelsea WIN the champions league for the first time in our clubs history. What an unbelievable night, Congratulations to all our boys who gave it their all again. 

What a finish to our topsy turvy season and it all hinged on the very last kick of the game, the winning penalty scored by the big man himself Drogba. If we lost out again there would have been no champions league for us next season – unthinkable – Sorry for all you Spurs fans because by winning we have knocked you out and put you into the European Cup. 

All Chelsea fans are celebrating today and looking forward to the victory parade this afternoon, where we show off our 2 cups for this season, The FA Cup and of course the Champions League Cup. Fingers crossed now Drogba signs a new contract with the Blues and Robbie stays as manager – that would be the icing on the cake.

Now back to the veg plot.

I was at the allotment yesterday and took one look at my greenhouse and made a big decision, I had to plant allot of my plants outside and pray we dont get a late frost, so I planted out my butternut squashes and courgettes, runner beans, Italian climbing beans, ballotti beans and my Kelsea onions, oca and Mishua and allot of my more hardy veg that I have had to grow in the greenhouse because the slugs kept eating the seedlings. 

It was a very busy day digging and planting and how my back hurt by the time I was picked up to go home, thankfully I didnt have to cook dinner we had a takeaway.

I am going to put some pictures of my plots on here, its quite untidy and weedy because all the rain we have had but I am slowly trying to clear it up. I am there every day because of my girls but with all the rain we have had alot of my time has been in the potting shed and greenhouse, as you can imagine with such a large area (3 plots) its been difficult to get on top of it and Rome wasnt built in a day – so to speak.

This is my friend, she made me another strawberry bed. This is raised up off the floor – to save my back – and it will be planted up with white strawberries, they are suppose to taste of pineapple, We shall see.

I am trying to clear the ground but its slow going.

I grow alot of elephant garlic and these are just some of them. They grow huge bulbs and are not really a garlic but a member of the leek family, although they look and smell like garlic they are very mild in flavour.

This is the end of one of my plots. This area is for all the brassicas. You can also see the peas starting to flower. I sowed these in February and covered them with holly to stop the mice from munching their way through them. Also in this bed are some unusual beans I am trying Ying Yang beans and pea beans.

Greenhouse and the end of my chicken run.

My son built me a new pond because my old one sprung a leak. Notice it is egg shaped to match my chickens eggs. It is nearly attached to my old pond which is now a bog garden. It works very well.

I am now hoping the weather holds off next week so I can get down to tidying up and planting out the many veg thats still in my greenhouse.

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STILL RAINING

Can anybody see an end to all this rain that we are getting because I cant. I got up early this morning and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining, it put a bounce in my step and it made me feel quite happy inside.

I got ready to go to my allotments and it started to drizzle and my heart sank, buy the time I got to the allotment it was getting heavier it was almost like I had stepped into another time zone, one which I was really getting fed up with. It was like having 2 days rolled into one and this was in a couple of hours. The carpark of the allotments were packed with cars and within half an hour it was empty and I was the only person over there.

My poor girls they hate being shut inside and let me know their disgust, they were making all sorts of growling noises they really are fed up, but probably not as fed up as me,  in between downpours i took a look around and the weeds are going mad especially the marestail which is growing almost infront of my eyes and I cant use this because its poisonous to my girls so they cant eat it. Their favourite weed is the sticky weed that clings to your cloths – I cant think what the name of it is off hand. I cant do any weeding because the ground is far to wet so I am just making mud pies, and I daren’t stand on the beds I would ruin the structure of them but with all this rain the nutrients have probably disappeared anyway so I will have to add more compost before I plant anything, but when that will be I dont know. How many other gardeners are as fed up as me, let me know what you are doing, are you sowing seeds inside for instance and if so whats on the go at the moment.

A WET APRIL

A WET APRIL.

A WET APRIL

What a wet April so far, my girls are hating this weather because I cant let them out in the run. Chickens dont have the same water resistant feathers that ducks have so I dont want them getting to wet Bless them. Its a good job I have a large home made coop and not a small one or they would be so bored. I was getting a bit worried about having to keep them indoors just incase they stopped laying, or worse still started fighting, but all seems calm and I am still getting eggs. 

I am finding myself on the plot and in the potting shed all the time so that in between showers they can come out and then when it rains again they go back in. This time in the potting shed it getting some jobs done that I wouldn’t normally have time to do, so I suppose that’s some consolation.

The greenhouse is chocker block with plants now just waiting to be put outside when the weather gets a little better, also plants waiting to be put in once the frosts have passed. 

The slugs are having a field day in this wet weather and they have eaten 9 of my brussel spout plants, these were quite large plants when I put them out because I had been potting them on until I thought they were out of danger from the slugs but I was wrong. I protected them from the pigeons with enviromesh but I forgot to protect incase of slugs, it just goes to show they dont just eat the smaller plants. I will be more careful when the rest of the brassicas go out. 

I noticed today that my Kestrel potatoes are just starting to break through the soil and its to muddy to do anything about that at the moment, I would have liked to cover them because I lost allot last year with the late frost we got. You usually dont lose them they are really just knocked back maybe killing off the shoot that has been frosted, but usually another shoot will come up and take over, but for some reason mine didnt come back up and I lost allot. I think it maybe because I rub off sprouting shoots just leaving one strong shoot, but this year I have left more than one on just incase that was the reason I lost so many last year.

I am adding some of my girls pictures on here so you can see them, I wouldn’t be without them now, they are so funny and very naughty sometimes.

 

They are all different colours and lay a wide variety of coloured eggs, and although they are fed all the same food as each other, pellets, greens etc they all have a varying coloured yolk, they can range from a lightish yellow to a orangy colour and it doesnt seem to matter what the shell colour is, they just vary.

I am preying the weather brightens up soon because I hate keeping them indoors, I dont like getting wet so I’m sure they wouldn’t like t be to wet.

My Time on the Plot

My Time on the Plot.

My Time on the Plot

My Time on the Plot.