fromwellytobelly's blog

Can't believe how quickly our allotment is coming together this year everything is so exciting. Our pond has really established over the last 10 months since we built it, in fact it's teeming with life. Of the original 5 goldfish we bought from the pet shop; which was an adventure in itself, you would think you were adopting children the rigmarole you have to go through just to buy goldfish.

As it has been 5 weeks since my operation and the rain still hasn't stopped, I'm still not allowed to lift or dig, how depressing is that! Well I'm off to Turkey today... I leave in an hour!

Right, lol, I know what everyone's thinking tomato soup, that's easy, well I'm 37 and the only soup I'd ever made was from a tin, to my shame I'd never even attempted it, then the other day when faced with another pile of tomatoes from my greenhouse knowing full well I had about a kilo at home, I thought what the hell, so I gathered all my tomatoes, some fresh herbs and I went home and just did i

Was anyone at southport? Guess what, I was lol and ask me how?

OK so the time has come to admit defeat and admit at least to myself that my melons are dead, I've now cut back the plants completely to find that one plant had three fruit, one had one fruit and the other had none, I've decided next year I'm going to dedicate one side of my greenhouse to melons instead of cramming in 3 melons, 3 cucumbers and 3 aubergines all down one side, the melon plant in the middle that had no fruit had 2 female flowers so feelin a little what the heck I decided to pollinate them and see what happens lol but I have a feeling the damage is already done and I'm not getting my hopes up. What a rollercoaster ride this growing your own really is! I totally feel for my plants so I think I'm going to have to harden my heart a little, For the past 2 weeks I've felt quite sad going to and coming away from my allotment, all the rain has completely drowned my beautiful sweetcorn that at the beginning of the season looked so healthy, and as high as my heart soared when I first found my melons, it plummets just as quickly when I see them now. The thing that I find weird is that my cucumbers have been that prolific that I got kinda bored of them after a few weeks lol they are the same family, I've looked after them all the same yet where as my cucumbers don't know how to stop, my melons are at a standstill,
I have lots of good news though my tomatoes that I thought would never ripen are at last turning red tonight I picked 6 large tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, 4 baby carrots and a whole bunch of spring onions, we're having a lovely fresh salad for tea lol,
My marrow is huge and I have 7 pumpkins that are massive and get bigger everytime I see them, halloween will be amazing if we can carve our own pumpkin, my cauliflower seedlings, the second sowing {my first ones all drowned} are ready to go into their new bed and now I've cleared all my peas and beans I have plenty of room for them, My flowers are all in flower the sweetpeas I planted in june have climbed all the way up the sunflowers and the fence behind, it really is a beautiful place especially with all the veg like courgettes, pumpkins, butternut squash, and they're yellow flowers against the red wigwams of my runner beans it really is an amazing show and all this in my first year, I can't wait till next year now I have a little experience.
Our allotment site which is bebington road, rock ferry had it's annual open day last saturday 9th august and although it rained for the whole day and I mean rained not just a shower heavy rain all day, we had a wonderful time, We had a cake stall, a plant stall, a veg stall, a rather damp barbecue which was still very nice under a gazebo, a brica brac stall, face painting, wonderful live music, a fire engine and of course a raffle, I did a tombola stall and had collected prizes for the table, numbered them all up and then sold the tickets, it was so much fun I really enjoyed it and raised about £63 for our allotment society, they want to buy a new container with disabled access toilets and are looking to raise about £7000, so every little helps and our target is getting ever so slightly closer.

Ya know what I'm sure something terrible is going on with my melons, they just look so pathetic and the leaves have all gone yellow, I'm gutted I was so proud of them, the fruits look fine and there are four nice ones between 3 plants in one growbag, I've been watering them everyday and I fed them yesterday, it's doing my head in, I was even blaming the fact that I have them right next to my aubergines {3 plants one growbag}, because the aubergine to me is a dinosaur of a plant even the flower has thorns, and I'm sure it gets bigger everytime it catches my skin and makes me bleed, I thought maybe it was poisoning my melon, It's weird really thinking about it because a couple of times in the greenhouse I've gone to shoo a fly off a leaf of the melon or aubergine and the fly has been dead, just sat there all dead now that's weird innit lol.
Anyway I've kinda lost my enthusiasm for cucumber I remember picking my first one being made up that I grew it but now the feeling's getting a little old in fact I find myself leaving them on the plant just to see how big they'll get lol I have 3 in the fridge 2 on the plant and have harvested about 8 others, that's just from 3 plants!!!! every home should have one cucumber plant it would keep a family in cucumber for the whole summer, It's weird really isn't it, I'm 37 years old and only just discovering gardening, Like millions of other people out there I didn't know that you can grow 3 tomatoes plants in a growbag against a wall in a little yard and you will have enough tomatoes for the summer and if you have a whole row of grow bags even in a little back yard you can grow enough tomatoes to make enough tomato soup to freeze to last you all through the winter, A black plastic rubbish bin that not a lot of people use anymore for rubbish since the advent of the wheeliebin anyways fill it full of soil and a couple of seed potatoes and you can have new potatoes when they're at there most expensive in the shops and everything tastes so much better when it's home grown.
I know I'm probably preaching to the converted as this is an allotment site, but I guess you've all been there, I've had my allotment since march so I'm a complete novice but the thing with gardening is trowel and error that's been my philosophy anyway lol, I've tried yes I've made mistakes but I've learnt so much more, I transplanted 104 cauliflowers and harvested 2 but there ya go lol in my defence we rushed to put them in the ground and as soon as the rains came the bed was completely waterlogged, everything we have I've grown from seed from my poorly sick melons, carnivourous aubergines right down to the pumpkins and butternut squash. I've even planted a flowerbed and loads of pots and baskets, in fact one of my sunflowers has been opening for the past 2 days lol I have sweet peas growing up them with poppies, cosmos, pansies, impatiens and stock filling the bed underneath, I can't believe how high poppies can grow I swear they are giving my sunflowers a run for their money lol and the sweet peas are amazing me with their beautiful delicate flowers, most of the seeds for the flowers I've grown have been free ones from the amateur gardener magazine, I've found that to be a wonderful magazine with free seeds in each weekly copy and usually they can be planted that week {great for a novice with no idea of planting seasons, but I'll know next year} Anyway next year I'm debating on having a real bed for cut flowers, I've even learnt the names of some and their latin terms how weird is that, there are two things that freak me out as a gardener though and they are slugs and weeds, Slugs now come on I'm pro-life and all that but what are these creatures, what is their purpose and how many do there need to be, I'm not being funny but if I had a pound for every slug that I see I'd be a millionaire and the scary thing about that statement is that I'm not joking, I've seen everything from the little tiny snot looking ones to the huge gigantic turds that kinda bury themselves against the wood of the raised beds so as you're weeding you feel them squelch between your fingers, okay maybe that just happens to me lol, I dread the day when I see one of those ghost slugs, OH! Please, don't get me started on the ghost slug thing, I'm sure things are evolving just to put me off lol. Anyway weeds, I have a one woman war going on between me and the mare's tail, the sad thing is the mare's tail wins hands down. I'm rambling aren't I, lol
that was fun lol