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Wednesday, 30th April
Well, yesterday was a bit of a wash-out until the evening. But what a turn-out at our pub night! I counted 16, including several newcomers and some who had brought their Dutch bulbfield photos along. I'll put some more up as soon as I get round to it; the first lot has already gone up. (see Photo call page)
.
Weather wasn't much better this morning but I was determined
to get on with something so I sowed my runner beans in pots. I hope they
do better than the parsnips I sowed in pots: 6 of them germinated but
when I came to transplant them today they had reached the bottom of the
pot and turned already even though they were only just over an inch tall
so I don't know if they'll take. I also did some flower seeds. It wasn't
fit to go to my quagmire allotment even when it stopped raining
this afternoon but I did get out and went for a healthy fresh air walk
with our Wednesday walking group. Good for you and it's free!
Monday, 28th April
Had the weekend off because we had visitors, well, that's
my excuse anyway. We had a couple of nice walks, one by Ferring Rife and
one through the bluebell woods by the Dover. Very pretty. Back to the
digging today. I'm miles behind, just dug my bean trench today when I
should have done it months ago but it's not as if I've got any beans to
go in it yet - I haven't even sown them. No rush, they'll soon catch up
if I can get them to germinate. A show grower gave me some runner seed
which I shall sow in pots or trays this week so I'm looking forward to
some good beans although they probably won't be soon enough either for
the Lancing Anniversary Show or our Diamond Jubilee Show. Still, I grow
them to eat, not to show so, so long as there's plenty of them and they
taste good, I'll be satisfied.
Our friends who came to stay gave me a clematis so the other bit of digging
I did today was to plant it. This is my sixth clematis and so far they've
all died so let's hope I have better luck this time. I gave them some
rhubarb off my allotment and they went home without it so this morning
I packed it, went to the post office and dispatched it. Hope it survives
the journey and it should be a bit of a surprise at the other end.
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Wednesday, 23rd April
Happy Saint George's Day! This picture was taken deep underground
recently on a visit to some man-made caves in Valkenburg, the town where
we stayed while visiting the Dutch bulbfields. I promise the tulip pictures
will appear eventually on the Photo call page; in fact someone brought
some round today. I could do with Saint George on my allotment at the
moment slaying rats although I've only seen a dead one so far. Perhaps
he got there before me! I haven't been able to get to the allotment myself
recently as I've been so busy - what must it be like for people who work
for a living? I was going to go this morning to make a second sowing of
parsnips as those I sowed in pots are rather taking their time but the
rain put paid to that. Ah, well, the best intentions of mice rats
and men and all that.
Saturday, 19th April
Not
much of a day today, was it? I had to resort to indoor jobs such as painting
the bathroom ceiling - desperate times. I did manage to prick out a few
things too like petunias so the day wasn't a total loss. Yesterday was
marginally better as I did get to the allotment at least. There were some
strange tunnel holes in my maturing manure heap. "I hope that's not
rats," I opined but when I went round to my fruit plot my worst fears
were confirmed. There, lying very dead amongst the raspberries, a specimen
of rattus rattus. What to do? I decided to do nothing for the time
being and get on with what I'd come down for, namely planting a couple
of blackcurrant bushes. A bit late, I know but they were going half price
in Woolworths who're pretty cheap any way so I figured I didn't have much
to lose - unless the rats eat them. I also planted 10 Lily of the Valley
in my own garden, also half price from Woolworths.
Otherwise I've been working behind the scenes on the website. We don't
have a SWAPS page but I've put up a swap plea on the Ramblings page if
you're interested and appearing shortly will be a brand new page with
tips for novice gardeners. Talking of gardening tips, have you got your
tickets for the John Trim talk on growing vegetables? Click
here to find out what I'm talking about.
Thursday, 17th April
Back to the allotment this morning - enough of this skiving
abroad. It looked lovely out there so it was a bit of a shock to realise
just quite how draughty it was. Still, I soldiered on and put in a few
rows of onions which I had been growing on in trays until my soil warmed
up a bit. I picked a couple of savoy cabbages while I was at it but they're
past it now, several having gone to seed but the rhubarb's going strong
so I picked a few sticks of that and it was rhubarb crumble for pudding
tonight.
I'd forgotten the schools were still on holiday because of the delayed
Easter break and it was nice to see some young children down there - under
parental control, that is - learning allotments aren't just places where
you can run around smashing glass but seeing the magic of your food growing
in the ground not in a supermarket back room somewhere. May it kindle
an interest because they are the allotmenteers of the future and we need
to nurture them. To that end I wouldn't be surprised if we launched a
child-orientated competition in the not too distant future to keep them
keen. Watch out for news.
Tuesday, 15th April
Yes, we're back on air. Have been since the 10th really when Mr Orange sent me some new kit but I left Worthing at 4.30am on the 11th and I've only just got back. We've been to see the Dutch bulb fields at Keukenhof and it was really good apart from the journey home. I won't bore you with all the details here but items will appear on the News page and Ramblings page in due course and some of the crew will be sending in their pictures of the holiday, I expect. Haven't done much gardening since I got back apart from mowing the lawn and looking in on the greenhouse but I did find a couple of lily beetles "at it" on one of my lilies so I give them a good squidge. Unfortunately I squidged a bit too hard and right through the lily stem, decapitating it and doing more damage than the beetles could have done.
Sunday, 6th April
Went to a party last night, not the usual type of activity for me and Mrs Ned, I grant you but it was a former colleague's 50th which she celebrated big-time out in the sticks between Bognor and Chichester. Very nice it was too, welcome drinks, hog roast sit-down dinner, dancing till whenever and a bar. I decided not to drive home after the festivities so we stayed overnight in a nearby B&B. So there we were this morning enjoying our full English by the window looking out on to the Downs when we espied a snowflake. It was quickly followed by another. Before you could say, "Jack Frost" there was a veritable snow storm and it was a race to get back to Worthing before snow made it impossible and I had to fork out for another night. Driving at less than 30 mph is fine in built-up areas but it does become a bit boring when the whole journey is like that but, fair do's to the vehicles at the head of the queue, it was difficult to go any faster and see where you were going. A long time since I've seen snow like this in Worthing so I include a few shots of our garden in Christmas mode. By lunchtime the snow had stopped but I'm sure the kids enjoyed it.
Friday, 4th April
APOLOGIES
Sorry, experiencing real internet connectivity problems at the moment so postings could become very sporadic. Orange are looking into it; they even sent an engineer round but he couldn't sort it. The result is I often can't get online from this computer but if you wish to contact us I'll make arrangements for e-mails to be diverted to another computer until we get this sorted. See you sometime soon, I hope.
Ned
Wednesday, 2nd April
I didn't bother posting anything yesterday as, given the
date, anything I said would have been regarded with the utmost scepticism
- 
probably
quite rightly so - but I was about. In fact I went to a committee meeting
last night which was quite interesting as the police were there - 3 of
them! No, nothing to do with any of my misdemeanours, it was to do with
the vandalism we'd been having on the West Tarring site. It really was
quite heartening to hear how seriously they were taking this - specially
dedicated team, patrols of the allotments, working with the council to
get changes to the perimeter making it more difficult to break in................
Apart from what they were doing and how they could help us one important
fact did emerge: if you are victim of a crime or see anything untoward,
report it. Resources allocated to a particular problem do depend on the
number of reported incidents so it is in our interest to report crimes
even given any misgiving we might have about the likelihood of any follow-up.
Also evidence collected helps build up profiles of offenders, crimes,
etc. and these affect both detection and sentencing. So if you see coppers
about at West Tarring don't be concerned; they're not after you only the
varmints. Two of our members have already reported being challenged there
by police in the evening so it is working
.
Another matter
to come up was the fact that this is the diamond jubilee of our association.
Yes, it was founded in 1948. We would love to hear any stories you have
about those early days or any amusing/interesting anecdotes you might
want to share about the allotments over the years - enormous pumpkins,
finds on the allotments, strange happenings, ANYTHING of interest. Just
send it here!