Both myself and @luckylottielisa have been busy bees over the weekend.


Despite only getting our allotment plot in January, and also all the late frosts doing their best to kill anything we took the chance to plant out, we had our first major harvest from the plot this weekend.

We’d been able to pick a few peas and broad beans here and there, but this weekend, we lifted all the first and second early potatoes, and now have enough of them to feed an army! The picture above is me planting two varieties of pumpkins and some climbing courgettes in the place where they used to be.

The planned third installment of building ‘Chickenopolis’ was postponed as I had a monumental hangover, so instead I used the carcasses of some old drawers as raised beds, and planted the baby turnip seedlings.

The onions are also looking suspiciously ready, even though technically we shouldn’t be pulling them until August. They have swelled that much with the changeable weather, that we had to pull a few onions anyway to give the others more room to grow. We used them in a Shepherd’s Pie for dinner yesterday, and they weren’t bad at all!

The sweetcorn is really kicking into life now as well, so it looks as if we will have an OK crop from those as well.

What I can’t work out though is why some of the chillies in my greenhouse have decided that they want to flower, even though they are only about a foot tall!

This weekend’s plans were scuppered by the typical Bank Holiday weather, so the idea of moving all of the seedlings down to the allotment to be planted had to be put on hold for another week.

I desperately need more room in the greenhouse, but the temperature dropped like a stone everytime it rained or started to hail.

However, I would not have forgiven myself if they had been killed off by the frost that is forecast for tonight.

Spring has come late to this part of the country, as all week we have had April showers, when it’s now May. While I was down the lottie today, I had all four seasons in one hour.

It does not seem to be doing the lottie any harm though, as all the spuds are through, and everything else seems to be doing well. The downside is that the weeds have now sprung into action as well!

I’m always wanting to try something new, so I have just put in an order for some tomatillo and Papalo herb to use in salsas. Just need the space in the greenhouse now to start them off …

The lottie is taking shape, but there is still so much work to be done.

The encouraging thing is that stuff is starting to grow, so Spring has sprung by the look of things!


Beans and peas have gone in, and the onions and potatoes are having a growth spurt. No sign of the first earlies showing their faces yet, but the second earlies and maincrop are starting to show their faces.

This weekend will be spent clearing the other half of the allotment, as there are quite a lot of seedlings in the greenhouse that will need to be planted very soon. Time for another back-breaking weekend.

Never mind, it will all be worth it in the end …

Another milestone today, as the first crops were planted in our plot.

All our spuds went in – first earlies, second earlies, and maincrop. We also planted the onions – five rows of white onions, and five rows of Red Baron onions.

One of our neighbours was also kind enough to donate some pallets from where he worked, so we could build three compost bins at the top of the plot, in return for him being paid in beer.

This had two advantages. Firstly it meant we didn’t have to dig over that bit (loads of brambles and nasties,) and secondly we can now move the compost heap from where it is at the moment, so we can put a nice raised herb bed in its place.