Digging in the dirt

The best de-stresser as far as I’m concerned. Go dig in the dirt.

My allotment has been a bit crowded of late, due to a really successful winter crop, so it’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to get ‘the big fork’ out. (In truth, the size of my tiny allotment I could probably achieve the same with a nail file – but I like to swagger through the allotments with the big fork.)

A great way to spend a Sunday morning.

So, yesterday I removed the last of my tomato plants which left me with a nice bit of ground. What to do with it?

I was given a handful of cabbage and lettuce seedlings a few weeks ago that were struggling as they were crowded in. And I had a couple of pots of flowers that I bought from Oaklands Street Community Garden the other day. So I put them in together which should give me something for my dinner plate in a few weeks, a bunch of flowers to cheer up the place, and keep the bees happy at the same time. Win, Win as they say.

The first of the plants goes in. Narf from Serendipity Farm has given me of the name of these daisies. Osteospermum daisies.

And to keep to the theme of the day here is a pic of my favourite cushion.

Go dig in the dirt folks. You know you want to.

Happy Gardening.

The allotment is looking rather spectacular

If you never want to speak to me again I quite understand. Dear reader, it has been eleven months since I last blogged.

I haven’t been lazy, I’m still in love with my allotment and at the moment it is looking wonderful.

You may have noticed, I said ‘allotment’ singular. I gave up my second allotment during our last long hot summer, it was hard to keep up regular watering with no rain and regular 35 degrees celsius temperatures. So now I have one (tiny) eight square metres plot but it’s keeping me in vegetables and herbs. Take a look.

The netting in the background is to keep the fruit fly off my tomato plants. I bought a mozzie (mosquito) net from the local op-shop for $2 and used that. Worked a treat and I’ve been eating tomatoes for weeks now. And they taste like tomatoes should.

This season I scattered my veggies to confuse the pests. No straight rows and no ‘beds’ of the same veggies. Just a hotch potch and it seems to have worked. The ‘brides’ on the right of the picture are my netted tomato plants.

Just an overview of my tiny plot. The bricks are the beginning of my little pathway through the allotment, long since disappeared under the foliage.

This season I’ve also used flowers interspersed with the veggies to confuse the pests. That’s the theory anyway. It seems to work. With mixing the veggies up and adding the flowers I’ve had a really good harvest – and not too many ‘lace’ leaves.

It’s lovely to be back. Thank you to Sue over at the farm for giving me the push to revive my gardening blog.

I have a certain interest in another blog you may like to check out.   Happy gardening.