Whenever I take a picture of my veggie patch it never looks as good as I think it's going to. This time I took it from the other direction looking back towards the house, and it looked great (well I think so!).

Had an interesting time last night at my allotment-to-be's (hopefully!) BBQ. Met loads of the allotment holders (a very nice bunch) and got to show hubby around. He was impressed and we really enjoyed ourselves - I REALLY want one. I keep being shown/told about the good plots but at the moment I'd settle for any of them (I say that, but I'm very fussy so I hope I get a choice!). Can't wait though.

Up my garden I've got baby beans and now baby toms, hooray!! Something is still nibbling my raspberries and one or two have sunken grey 'berries' on the surface. However, strawbs are looking much less nibbled.

I've resown the salad bed and covered the seeds with a plastic cloche and some more sawn off bottles. Noticed this morning that there were slug/snail trail trails inside the cloche so I feel a nightly torchlight hunt coming on.

I re-potted the courgettes that were looking rather sorry for themselves as I had been relying on them for their 'boy' flowers as there seems to be only girl flowers at the moment on the two big courgette plants I'm growing in my half barrel. I hate to think of all those lovely unfertilised courgettes going to waste! I also re-potted a rogue seed that has germinated in my strawberry planter. It looks like a courgette - but not quite. It must've come from our home made compost, so I'm waiting to see what it is going to turn into. Very exciting!

We dug up the Anoe spuds on Friday and I must say I was rather disappointed after the success of the Karlena. They are my first earlies and the Karlena were my second earlies, but there were half as many underneath and were definately not as nice. We has to dig up two plants too. I've left the seed potatoes in the ground (just to see what'll happpen) and as there were still a few piffley little ones on them, to see if they'll grow again.

I also made a smoked salmon pasta with butter-fried carrots and courgette from the garden, the carrots were so sweet, lovely.

I WANT MY OWN ALLOTMENT!!!! (***stamping foot***!)

I've pinned down the little runners on my strawbs, raised the pot up on blocks, netted the lot temporarily and put copper tape around the pot to deter any new slugs/snails that fancy climbing up for a juicy feast.

I decided against putting the pumpkin straight out, I'm going to acclimatise them and my Sweet Million toms in the peppers plastic frame first.

I also noticed that the rozzers are turning red - hoorah!

Well, the lady from the council got back to me and said that basically I'd have to wait (I suppose it's good to know that they work fairly), and anyway she'd already promised the plot to someone else. I was a bit disappointed, but the good news is that it looks like I'm now 17th on the list. I'm just hoping it won't take too long to get to the top.

As for my garden everything is coming along nicely. My peas are fattening (I couldn't resist and popped open a pod, and the peas inside were tiny!! - but yummy :oD).

I had my first real bounty of food on Monday. We dug up our first spuds (second earlies) and they were absolutely GORGEOUS!! There were also loads of them - it was so exciting! I dug up our first carrots. The Autumn King were still small but looked good, long and tapered to a fine point. The Chantenay Red-cored were a little more unusual and had root going off in various directions, however all tasted yummy and I grew them!!!!! We even ate the Lady courgette and she was good - though slightly bigger than we'd planned - an unexpected visit to the hospital with my daughter due to severe chest infection, meant she had swelled up from a tennis ball to a grapefruit before we had chance to eat her! (the courgette not my daughter!). Think I'll try stuffed courgettes for tea tonight too!

My strawberries are also starting to ripen and are HUGE! I don't think we're going to see much of them though, my daughter's gobbling them up as soon as they ripen. There's also something that keeps having a nibble (I'm thinking snails), so I'm going to have to set up a better defence.

I also planted a new wave of salad a few weeks ago - oriental lettuce, rocket and spinach. They were all coming up nicely and I was just waiting to thin them when the slimers totally devoured the lot!! Grrrrr! I've protected the last few with cut off bottles, but I'll have to re-sow them. Today's task is to do just that and also plant out one of my pumpkin babies ready for October.

Allotment hunt update

Yesterday I contacted the council about the site I fancied, I was told there was a waiting list of 21 people (with me being no.21!), but that not to worry as many people put their name down for several allotments and not everyone wants one when they actually get to the top of the list. My hopes were high and especially as there are a group of people from the Probation Service in, clearing the site and bring back to life some rather unloved allotments. There are 50 plots on the site. About 10-15 are currently taken, 6 are being cleared by the PS now and 9 more (currently a field but used to be allotments) are also due for clearing. Also a few people are being asked to leave and a few are giving up this season. I am VERY hopeful and was told that now is a good time to be on the list.

SO, today after work I went down to the site to see if I could have a look around. It was BRILLIANT! I met some great allotment holders who said they are trying to become an association and get the place sorted, also that if I am keen (I am!) then they have the perfect plot for me with a fab wooden/brick greenhouse and a large shed. It was tended up until the autumn so there is a meadow of 3 ft grass, but underneath it is good. They were really keen for me to push for this plot as it has only just become available, so I have and I emailed the lady at the council again when I came home. Cheekily I think, but if you don't ask you don't get! The ladies also said that they would phone on my behalf and would I like to come to their summer BBQ? I think I made a good first impression (hope so anyway!) as I was given a packet of lettuce seeds. Gonna take Hubby for a nosy soon and will take my camera!

Anyway, up my garden my babies (courges) are coming along nicely and my eldest is nearly fat enough for the chop. Can't wait to taste it (though not actually sure if I even like courgette!), bound to be good though as I grew it!

My first peas are actually looking like skinny peas now too. All so exciting!

I repotted my sad spare tigerella toms last night and although they now are rather wiggly stemmed, they look much happier.

A busy couple of days, I'm surprised I can even fit work in!

This is my first blog about my adventures into the world of the Vegetable Patch. After a stint of allotment sitting over the summer for my friend Jonathan, watching the amount of peas my veg-aphobic kids managed to eat, as well as the whole laid back, feel good vibes you get from caring for a plot, I was truly bitten. I didn't want an allotment yet (didn't think I was that interested!) but I thought I'd like to give the end of my fairly small back garden a make-over and turn it into my own mini allotment. We started on the 3rd of Feb 2007 by pulling up the patio and with the hubby's muscle, we began to prepare our beds.

The end of the garden before make-over Feb 07
The raised beds & hubby getting down to a bit of diggin'

Well, after 4 months of preparation, sowing, nurturing and excitement as things actually start to grow I feel we've made a great start. We've been eating lettuce for ages (gotta love those cut and come again!) and are eagerly awaiting the growth of the three little baby pea pods I spotted a few days ago and numerous berries. Not to mention carrots, spuds, butternut squash, toms, peppers and soooo much more! I can't explain how excited I was when my first 'lady' courgette flower opened!

June 07

Yesterday, the hubby and I decided that it would be a good idea to try to find an allotment after all. You don't get many spuds in a 1 x 1.5m raised bed (plus 5 in a flower bed), and I think as a family of 4 that these will actually only last us about 6 weeks. We need more space! So the hunt is on. I'm very unfit, don't want to travel far (and so drive every time I go) and I hate going uphill on my bike so I've applied for a plot in some allotments nearby that I hope aren't in as dodgy an area as it looks (but only 3 mins on my bike). Watch this space!