Author Archives: Lynn Davis

A summer’s day

Posted on by in Garden updates

We have been working on tidying up the garden over the last couple of weeks and as it was a sunny day (at last) I took some garden photos including some shots of the dahlias grown from the saved seeds.

Montage of dahlias

The dahlias did not come true to the plants from which they were collected, but are a lovely mix of colours, so we will definitely repeat this exercise next year.  However, we’ll get the seeds going somewhat earlier so that we can get a feel for the likely colour before planting things out.

Given the tomato disaster at the allotment it is nice to have a back up at home and a variety that we haven’t grown before (Tamatina) is looking very good.  They have grown on nicely, look fairly productive and have quite a good flavour so this may be a variety that we use again.

Tamatinas in a bed

Tamatinas in a tub

The overview of the garden is also looking quite good – as long as you’re not close enough to see the weeds.

Back garden late August 2011

A Prize-Winning Allotment

Posted on by in In the allotment

We had a letter from Cookham Parish Council telling us that we had won the best newcomer class in the 2011 allotment awards.  There may not have been much competition (perhaps only half a dozen other newcomers) but we were dead chuffed and wandered down at the end of the day for a bit of watering, harvesting and tidying.

Peas and giveaways

Posted on by in In the allotment

Ron and Shirley arrived today, so after we had fed them tea and courgette cake, we took them down to see the allotment and while there we had a major harvesting session.  This included another heap of gherkins, all of which are going to Essex for pickling more courgettes/marrows and the first of our follow-on crop of peas.  The new peas are again lovely and we’re already talking about trying to get some serious successional planting of peas going for next year.

It Really Looks Like an Allotment

Posted on by in In the allotment

We didn’t water the “lotty” yesterday and even though last night’s downpour meant that the outside crops did not need watering, the plants inside the cloche did, so I dropped Lynn off at work and headed down there first thing this morning.  I did the watering and then had a tidying and harvesting session.

I cut the haulms of the Vales Sovereigns potatoes and then couldn’t resist digging the first plant to see what we’d got.  The answer was 6lb of lovely looking white skinned, pink-eyed potatoes.  Also in the basket for bringing home were multiple courge(tte)s, sweet corn, a beetroot and the first of the winter squashes.

I finished up with a quick strim of the paths to leave everything looking very smart.  Just as I finished this, I met Margaret from Cookham Parish Council who was up taking some shots of the site, which is generally looking very good at this time of year.  She asked for a look at our plot and was very impressed with what we’ve done and asked if I’d mind posing in front of the plot (see below) as a newcomer to the allotment world.  A later e-mail invited me to have the shot submitted to the National Association of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Magazine along with a few words.

Margaret's shot

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Still trying on the lawn

Posted on by in Garden updates

This afternoon I got out into the garden and shifted some weeding as well as getting the lawns mown and soaked.  The soaking may have been superfluous as there was a huge downpour this evening that will have helped the crops in both the garden and the allotment no end.

The re-seeding on the back lawn is starting to germinate – indicating that the relatively old seed is still viable, so I’ll use up the rest of it on the remaining bare patches in the front lawn.