A little bit about me ...

As well as having the allotment I also volunteer in the Victorian Kitchen Garden at Speke Hall. This is a beautiful Tudor house owned by the National Trust.

For more information - click here - Speke Hall

I go every Wednesday with a lovely group of volunteers and we grow and look after the fruit and vegetables in the Kitchen Garden. These are harvested and go to the restaurant or to visitors who simply make a donation and help themselves from our barrow.

Here are some photos from last July - 2015 - to give you an idea -

         

Preparations continue ....

We have actually had a few dry days - not on the run I hasten to add - and that has meant that myself, husband Mal and lottie partner, Jim, have been able to get busy.

We have -

• Pruned the old apple tree
• Edged some of the grass paths
• Dug over about half of the beds
• Prepared the area where we are going to plant a damson tree
• Cleared out the greenhouse
• Cleared a bed of flowers that is going back to veg production
• Had a fire and burnt lots of old, rotten wood.
• Taken hardwood cuttings from the gooseberries

At last!

Finally we had a sunny, if cold, day yesterday and I could get down to the plot. Always a bit daunting at this time of year because the question is - where to start?

I cleaned out the greenhouse first because it was warmer in there! There was quite a lot of couch grass which I spent some time digging out.

Then I dug over the patch where we are going to plant a damson tree. The soil is still really waterlogged and we may have to add sand or grit before we plant.

Next I decided to start edging the grass path. I didn't do the whole lot though - note to self - must sharpen the edgers!

Then I dug over the first three beds. There is no real need to do this as they could just be prepared when I am ready to plant or sow into them. However I love the look of freshly dug beds - it looks so neat!

Next job was to start pruning the apple tree. There is one large bough that I want to remove but will need either a heavy duty saw or the chainsaw for that so just took out the three d's - dead, diseased and damaged for the time being.

Not a bad start to the lottie year!

New Recipe - Pumpkin Pie

For years I have been meaning to make a Pumpkin Pie but have never got round to it until yesterday. I searched the net for recipes and in the end chose this one - 

Pumpkin Pie