Eljay's Allotment 2018 in pictures

Flowers and colour

Springtime colour. Tulips in waiting

Small harvest, big on taste

Carrots, look at that colour!! (carrots, not my hair!)

Dreamy 

Allotment grown sunflowers, beautiful

Pumpkins

Sprint time 2017

Bark chippings on the paths (finally, after talking about it for years!)

Summer 2017, Chilling on the plot. 

My Dad being strangled by the Devils snare!

Allotment selfie, Yet another hair colour

Plot development over the years

Summer time fun 2017

May 2017 plot development

Some updated pics. Are you ready? =)

Here are a few of my latest pics. =)

It's been a long time

I'm aware I've been away a long time. Life gets in the way and the things we love doing suffer.

During these uncertain times (It's hard not to be worried with all the changes with the EU, our prime minister resigning and a huge amount of hate spreading on social media)
I think it's important to focus on the things we love.

For me...it's my allotment. I'm using my blogger app on my phone to publish this which means it won't allow me to publish pics (you know, the important stuff- thanks Google! )

My allotment has changed over the last year =)
I have mostly dedicated raised beds. The poly tunnel cover has disintegrated leaving the awesome frame. I have built a pond which is home to frogs and frog spawn (happy days!) My summerhouse , albeit rickety, is still amazing!

Pics to follow very soon.

Bye for now

Am I too late to sow seeds and what can I plant in May?

Hi all,

Here is  a quick guide to help with a frequently asked question on the groups this week.

For an allotment keeper who does not live 5 mins from their plot, planting out early may is risky.

If the weather report threatens a morning frost (and let's be honest, unless there is a clear sky that has frost written all over it the reports are not fool proof) you would be daft to leave your seedlings unprotected. It is not an option for me to dash to the plot and try to rescue things.

I will have to wait until the end of May. My greenhouse is rammed and I'm itching to get them out. But to loose everything I've grown from seed for months and months would be DEVASTATING! so best to twiddle my green thumbs a bit longer =)

Eljay meets celebrity gardener Charlie Dimmock from Ground Force!

...we also had a 3 course lunch with the lovely Ms Dimmock and front row seats to an informative question and answer session! 

All at the Hollybush Garden Centre in Shareshill.

One of many books the BBC produced from the ultra
successful series ( pic taken from Pnterest)

For anyone wondering why I was so excited about this:

Ground Force was a British garden makeover television series originally broadcast by the BBC between 1997 and 2005. The series was hosted by Alan Titchmarsh, Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh and was produced by Endemol for the BBC.
(Thanks Wikipedia!)

It was a brilliant show, one of the first makeover type shows to be all about the garden. Charlie was seen as a bit of a sex symbol for a being a down to earth gal on the garden. A real role model for young gardeners like me. The transformations they did were astounding and the show featured hosts who genuinely got on and had real banter. 

I entered a competition to meet and have lunch with the lovely Charlie Dimmock and to my delight, I was one of three couples who won! As my hubby isn't into gardening I could think of no one else to take but my best pal and green fingered partner in crime, Kerry.

We were like little kids when we walked through the doors to meet her...not knowing what to expect. 

First thing we noticed was what a smiley, lovely person she was and as down to earth as she was on TV. She was dressed for gardening, no silly contoured makeup job ... just pure woman. I liked her instantly! She greeted us like friends. 

She sis the Q&A session first (of which we got front row seats!) and some of the questions and answers were brill. 

Charlie doing her thing! =)

A few stood out to me .

Slugs and Snails...

How do you defeat them?

According to Charlie...it's not the big fat slugs that are the worst enemy, as actually, they feed mostly on rotting matter. It's the tiny little ones who live just below the surface of the soil. She's not a fan of slug pellets as they are not good for other animals who eat them. The best way to get rid of them? Hoe hoe hoe! cultivation of the soil is the best way to keep them down. I found this fascinating. Puts a bit of a downer on the NO-DIG methods....but there you go!

Cats...

How do you deter them?

Charlie is an animal lover as am I. The subject of cats is actually banned on some of the facebook groups I'm in as it causes huge arguments! Charlie suggests a water pistol and a stake out. Cat doesn't get hurt, just startled and as they hate water it should help them to not see your garden as a comfortable place to do their business. It may take a few goes...so I suggest a comfortable hiding place with a flask of tea and a pack of Hobnobs.

Ponds...

What do I need?

Much to my delight, Charlie says with the right mix of items you don't need a pump and filter. This is brill for allotment people like me! 

You need a good mix of oxygen plants, a beach area or something for wildlife to climb in and out, ornamental grasses for wildlife to climb up onto and surface cover to stop algae. It has definitely got me thinking about my wildlife pond and how rubbish it really is! ha ha. So there will be some development here.

Deciding what to have for lunch.....steak?
 Don't mind if I do!

Next we went off to lunch...the other couples who had met were lovely, especially our adopted Nan and Granddad. They were in their eighties, the second couple were in their 60's and we were in our 30's so it was a nice mix of people. Charlie had a lovely chat with us over lunch. She told us funny tales of her animals including her bossy pet dog.

After lunch Charlie did a planting demonstration with Westlands Plant Magic, she is currently on TV adverts at the moment promoting this. We got some free samples of the product and it looks fantastic. 

After she planted up the lovely arrangment, she played a game. The first person who could guess one of two flower names her mother almost named her when she was born...would win the arrangement. 

After many guesses of all flower names charlie gave a clue. She said the flower was yellow! I was dying to should out Daffodil but I was beaten to it by a lucky lady. 

The answers were Dandelion or Daffodil. I quite like both!! 

We ad a lovely day and Charlie is a fabulous person. Was so pleased to meet her. Thank you also to Westlands and to Hollybush for a wonderful day. 

Charlie, me in the middle and Kerry

Allotment site- Changing from council to committee run!

Everyone else: Bet they are selling the land because of the cuts!

Me: Don't be daft they cant do that.....can they? ......
OMG they are evicting us! I'll chain myself to my useless plot tree...I'll squat in my shed...I'll turn up at No10 and beg 'him' to tell them to get lost...I'll get a letter from my GP...


Why the panic??

We had a scary letter in the post a few months ago telling us the future of our site was to be talked about at a meeting at a community centre. I must admit, I was nervous. But somewhere in my tiny brain was a few cells saying (it's brown field, it's narrow, there are laws protecting the land, it's the Green spaces staff who are in for it and they want us to go solo).

My tiny brain cells were right. The nice lady who showed me round my plot back on the first day was the one who was at risk and she was tasked with convincing  us that association was they way forward.

My back history with a committee run site was not great. Busy bodies, spying, stealing, accusations of stealing, point scoring, bullying, cliques, racists, ageism and sexism - were just some of the experiences I'd had to deal with on my first site. Naturally, my stomach sank. My current site was ten times more friendly, ten times more private, no one taking notes, and people seemed to like helping each other!

To cut a long meeting into a nice bite size blog post...We had to decide what roles would need to be filled, then ask for volunteers for each roll. I was happy to see a guy much younger than me take on a senior roll as vice chairman and I opted to be in charge of the notice board. I also managed to put forward the idea of a community plot and education hub. A nice only two women opted for rolls, non the less both seem strong willed...(one being ME!)

So a much better representation of people. Our next meeting is in April. The council lady sold the benefits to us as being in control of an actual budget of funding of a few hundred pounds (something we would loose completely if we resisted). She's a lovely person and restored my faith in allotment sites the day I decided to move. Even though I had to start again from scratch she made me feel so much better as she worked full time and was shocked to hear about previous attitudes.

So could be a great thing and if by being involved in the committee will help stamp out any potential bullying phobias I now have then I'm excited to be a part of it.

I'll keep you updated, more will become clear at the next meeting....but one thing is for sure...
The site is SAFE!!