28 May 2006

Did we have a lovely day the day we went to ......?


Hello Everyone Just thought I would let you guess where I was on Thursday instead of doing my lottie.
A couple of clues, the sea is rarely seen here and the place has a connection with Jill Dando.

All anwers please to be put in comments.

See you all soon

Mim Posted by Picasa

7 May 2006

Hubby "Scarecrow Number 3" working at last......





Hello Happy Diggers

Hope the good weather has given you the chance to catch up on all those little jobs. And the big ones. As you can see the Hubby, Simon has been done and done some work at last. About time we all cry. But I think he should become Scarecrow Number 3 as he looks scary enough to me.


He has some very little work up till now me and mom have done most of it again this year. But we shall see what transpires over the year. He has done another row of potatoes and dug me some ground ready to plant the brassicas in later on this month. Cabbages and Cauliflowers, Sprouts and the such will all be planted in the ground below.






















He decided to get his own back on me for taking his photo and so it looks like I don't like getting my hands dirty, but I really had just stopped for a sec to have a break from the weeding.

Anyway the Lettuces are all coming up nicely and we should have some of them in the middle of June I am hoping if not earlier.
Anyway people

Good bye from the Sunny climbs of Smethwick and hope to hear from some of you soon

Happy Digging



More Weeds than Plants...........


Hello we are here again.

The Lottie is in nearly full swing

The Raspberry canes are all increasing much better than expected. The largest ones are two I out in last year and the smaller ones are ones that I brought this year. The bean support in the back ground needs some work doing before we can put the beans up it this year.




I transplanted some of my patio apples this year and I hope they will do well. This is the better one in flower. The resulting apples are normally very nice and sweet. One of them looks like it has died but we will wait and see what happens to it.

The potatoes are starting to show at last. We still have another 3 ranks to put in but we will have to do them very soon.

As you can see the weeds are everywhere. It is a full time job just keeping on top of them and the planting sometimes has to take a back seat.

















This is my mom and as you can see we are already harvesting things. We will have rhubarb crumble later on this week and the radishes are only the first lot to be taken out. So far the thinnings have given us over 60 to eat. Friends will soon be round for more.

Anyway more hard work to follow will produce bigger and better than last year and so we will still get the benefit of a good feast after much hard work

More of the Chronicles of Badrill118 lottie in the future



Happy Digging

4 May 2006

Flowers and Onions


Hello happy lottieers.

I hope you are all well and happy digging and planting. Well the weather is not too bad today , just rain all day so no really work can be done by me, but we all need the water don't we.

Anyway my onions and garlic and shallots are doing well.

This was taken about 2 weeks ago but they are much bigger now and more of them are up. I planted both white (strukkgard I think but I will check on that) and Red (Red Baron) in the onions. The garlic, I am trying 2 different sorts, the first I will have to check on the name and the second is just a half of a fresh garlic I brought from the local shop. Just thought I would try both. The shallots have no name they were mixed sets from the local garden shop.

I have also tried to grow to flowers this year from seed or bulb. Normally I just buy the plants and then I have instant colour. I have started to grow anenomes from seed and they seem to have taken to the ground quite well.


I have also planted some freesias. I hope that these will make a lovely display over the summer and then I can pout them in the house as cut flowers.

Anyway the new scarecrow is keeping a watchful eye over the flower bed and the old one over the veg...........

In my next blog I will try to show you my very first allotment and the uphill struggle we had with that. An d how the work though very difficult was still fruitful. 3lb of spuds in and 30lb of spuds out. Not a bad return for a years hard slog and now much else to show for it.

Happy Digging All

1 May 2006

More Sunshine and a New Scarecrow


Hello Again

All the sunshine this week has made me go down to the lottie and try to sort out the weeds. I tried to go down this morning but the weather was so bad I had to come back very early. But anyway less of the weather for today and more about the lottie of this week

Firstly the daffs are now coming to an end so I am slowly replacing them with pansies and petunias. All mixed colours and varieties. Can't stand all one colour but I don't like clashes either so no red and pink together for me at the same time.

When my Mom and Dad came back from Portmadoc, they brought me a new scarecrow and so I put it in the flower bed of the Lottie. I hope you all like him. The older one is with the Turnips and Radishes.

Anyway the lottie is doing well considering we are about 6 weeks behind last year. This year I thought I would try to have plug plants alongside home grown ones to see which fair better in my soil. I am only doing this with the Cauliflowers, Cabbage and Brussels. Everything else is going to be home grown or self seeded from last year. In some respects I hope we are not as successful as last year. Why I hear you all cry?

Well last year every seed we planted came up and produced something. So there is the hubby finding room for 300 tomato plants, 25 courgette and marrow plants, 100 broad bean plants ,as well as 10 ranks of spuds, runner beans, peas, sweetcorn, turnips 300 lettuces 300 carrots and parsnips. Our plot is only 115 feet by 20 feet. Not much room for all that lot.

We had been working on a 75% germination rate and we had 100%. So this year we are planting less to start off with but the germination rate is not even 75% this year so that is one reason we are trying plug plants alongside our own attempts.


Anyway on the right is what the lottie looked like last week on the one good day with enough sunshine to do some work. I don't do raised beds yet but am considering them for next year. You can also see the old scarecrow in the foreground as well. They make a lovely pair. In my next post I will put some photos of one of the 1st bumble bees I have seen this year.

Happy digging