Sunflowers & Tatty Time

I've been negligent again. Caught a bug off my nephew and have suffered accordingly for the last week or so. Prior to that there was muchas busyness at work, and a million other time sapping duties to keep me away from the blog.

A lot has happened over the last month - primarily the garden at Rue Albert has blossomed somewhat with all the corncockles having come out, and the all too brief inflorescence of poppies in a brilliant range of colours and appearance. We're talking crimson with black blotches, crimson with white blotches, some sherbet pink, others white and marbled. The variety was exceptional. Winks for that Parsley!

Then there are of course, the wonderful sunflowers. I was worried about the tallest one as something had a real go at the stem early on and it was 1/4 nibbled. Needless to say it pulled through and stands proud. The others have come out a bit, but there are still three more to flower. The biggest one is peering over into our neighbour Sam's garden. Damn heliotropism!

The bees are loving the sunflowers. This is always a good thing to see. They will go ballistic for our ivy bush when it buds up in a month or so. The smell though...I can't describe it here!

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Allotment wise, I confess I haven't been down anywhere near as much as I would like. Excuses of rain aside, there is a lot to be done still. Cakealot and I went down last week to reap our harvest of potatoes. 'I'll fax you the diagram I made with all the varieties of potato we planted,' promised Cakealot anachronistically. Where's my fax Sir Cakealot! I want to know whether I'm mashing spuds that should be roasted or roasting spuds that should be mashed! Either way we had a good go at it and there was a bumper yield of mega tatties, and no, I didn't steal all the undamaged ones. Added to that were some tasty onions. I am in agreement with Michael Wale - allotment grown veg gives you a whole new perception of what veg should really taste like. And it's satisfying to bring back a bag load of it, all earth ridden and fresh. Mmmmm!

Pace.

June Drop / Cultivation Stations / Bumper Crop

Dear readers, I am so far behind it's not even funny. The past few weeks have been crammed with esoteric activities and small miracles. The June Drop for one. At first I thought Parsley was making fun of my gardening knowledge - (still small but I will

stand tall), the sad little apples that didn't make the cut are festering amongst the corncockles...

Then! The Cultivation Stations from Potty Innovations! Don't believe me? Head here:

http://www.pottyinnovations.co.uk/

These wicked little beauties were an ideal addition to the SOLARDOME. Parsley and I spent a few hours creating octagons (Doc Ocs in our parlance) and pentagons, working out what would fit best in the dome. Winks was as tired as us when we'd finished.

Awh Winks!

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Day after day of blazing sun, and the odd smattering of rain ; with clouds shaped like whales, swimming overhead in slow motion. I have seen the redoubled growth of my sunflowers (now chest high), roses, my favourite nasturtiums, innumerable poppies etc. On the allotment the sunflowers have gone crazy. One has a stem the thickness of deep sea cable, twisted as an elder's staff, leaves like shields. I am jealous.

Most of my time has been put into the allotment. If there is a hell (actually there is - Sainsbury's

on the high street), there must also be a heaven, and I'm sure our allotment is one of its pillars. The walk into town or down the high street is noise ridden, grimy and dissolute. On the other hand, a walk to the allotment late afternoon is almost comically pastoral. Imagine my rolling gait, £4 bright green fork from Wilkos in hand, Take That jeans and my Stan Smith Adidas. Ever one to mix and match, I will never be out of fashion because I've never been in it.

Watering was my main duty. Courgettes, squash, carrots, beans, coriander...One day I went down at around 5 and didn't finish til after 8. The aforementioned fork couldn't break the rock hard, blood warm soil. I was panicking a bit as I had to plant courgettes before they expired. In fact later that night I couldn't sleep worrying that I hadn't planted them properly, that they would overlap or be subsumed by Mr Hoochy Coochy. I neglect to mention that we have progressively worked towards the bottom of the plot. There are still big reams of mouldy carpet to be got rid of. Moving those mounds of fabric in the pelting heat with Sir Cakealot made us both dizzy. I lay down for a bit, Cakealot roared with laughter but promptly stopped - thinking I had fainted. Thanks mate, I'm going with the first reaction.

It's all looking good and a lot of our plot is under control. An achievement we should be proud of. Plus we have started to harvest. First garlic was dug up, along with some tatties and plucked courgettes - one resembling a grenade. It's a great great feeling to see the fruits of your labour, one that I barely could've conceived a year or so ago.

Lastly, check out our glacial level cool customised badges.

G Unit for lyf.

Babe!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KnLcY5Ix68

Enough said.

Apples!

First apples are growing at Rue Albert! Watch this space...

Pagan Shit Thing / Weedin' & a Seedin'

June has been a frenetic month. Principally I have been weeding as one possessed both in our garden and on the allotment, when the rain allows. The rewards? Seeing a poppy the colour of russet and the softness of taffeta, the steady growth of the hostas, the hollyhocks (now the slugs have left them alone) and the sunflowers. Although I had moved three of them and learned very quickly that I shouldn't have. They almost instantly shriveled. To say I was gutted was an understatement, but luckily they have rallied and lost only a leaf or two. The poppies are coming along as are the corncockles. My favourite nasturtiums have made a small but spritely return too.

Thrown into the mix are aquilegia which I have sown in the seed bed, foxglove FOXY MIXED (according to the seed packet) which I have sown near the southernmost apple tree, and in a bodged propagator (tin and cling film catastrophe) some lavender (Hidcote Strain for those in the know). This will eventually be transplanted under the conifer.

Paid a brief visit to the dome at Parsley and Cakealot's and it's looking damn fine, as you can see for yourself. The acoustics in there are amazing - as is the warmth. Though this isn't so great when the cats get in and leave odorous presents. HAHA! There are still a few panes remaining to be put in and then the dome will be fully complete. An amazing achievement for G Unit.

Another recent addition to the allotment was the eponymous Pagan Shit Thing - basically a frame for our runner beans. It gained the glorious title for being an uber bodge job - but totally economical as Parsley and Cakealot used sticks from our plot to support the frame. A touch of ferocious digging (mostly on the part of Cakealot as I was cream crackered from weeding beforehand), sealed the deal. We planted the beans on both sides of the precarious lean - to and marvelled at a bodge well done.

Inclement weather and a seven day shift kept me away from the allotment. When I went to weed last Friday I was greeted by a meadow. Luckily Cakealot had pointed out where I should weed and what not to pull out in haste - namely beet root, red and white onions. Moma mia! Did I get my hands stung by nettles! They're still tingling from a good session Cakealot and I had a few hours back. The plot looks a lot tidier now, we're about two thirds through weeding. The potatoes are almost ready to come out as some have flowered, we're one of two or three plot holders to have this honour!

More weeding tomorrow if the weather holds up. Watch this space!

Albert’s Spring Garden

What an amazing few weeks, though not without their worries. Let me expand.

So much is happening in the garden at the moment I can barely keep up. We have bluebells, whitebells, poppies, ferns, sunflowers, hosta, corncockles, hollyhocks, geraniums, forget me nots, daisies, lady’s mantle and roses. Some of course are still emerging, some are in full bloom.

My netted seed bed has worked a charm, but the slugs have succeeded where evil face – aka Tad Wilder’s much less charming feline cousin, has failed. They have been eating the sunflowers and some of the corncockles, and they’ve demolished two or three of the hollyhocks. This has lead me to the unfortunate (depending on how you see it) use of slug pellets. One day after putting them down I was astonished to see how many slugs had been emerging for their diurnal feast. It wasn’t pretty.

What is pretty is the salvaged hosta, which I planted last year under the elder tree. It died back very quickly after I’d bought it so I’d given it up for dead. However after some serious weeding I discovered it, a little slug eaten, but the broad dark green leaves were otherwise fine. It has been relocated along with the mystery fern just under the conifer. Safe as houses. For now.

The gernaniums, which suffered a trampling from Friendly Fred, the chocolate coloured Labrador, have bloomed. Last year the daisy had one flower. This year there

are over thirty!

In the seed bed, the sunflowers are growing steadily. Another mystery plant/weed which I mistakenly took for a sunflower, is growing slowly. I will post a picture soon and see if anyone knows what it is.

Poppies too are sprouting up in abundance, and the corncockles, which, idiot that I am, I planted in rows, are doing just fine.

The viburnum cutting is growing nicely, the wild strawberry plants have flowered (I hope we get some this year) and sycamore junior has emerged again. In short, this garden is amazing and it is progressing towards plenary awesomeness.

Peace.

Hoochie Coochie Man / Reg / Project Solardome Part One Million

Sat here in this tropical heat, it is hard to imagine a better time to be writing my blog. Everything is properly coming into life, just to my right is a wonderfully hairy poppy, next to it a mysterious type of fern and a rediscovered hosta. More on this in a separate blog. What I want to tell you about, avid followers, is the curse of the hoochie coochie man.

I am of course talking about cooch grass. There is so much of the stuff it reminds me of the blackberry bushes from last year – the abundance, the unfettered abundance of the stuff is maddening. It’s hard work pulling it out too. Sir Cakealot and I were jousting the ground with forks for all we were worth, and then pulling it out in handfuls. Trouble is it kept snapping, which meant more hoochy coochy for the future. To that end the bagged stump chippings came into play. We poured out approximately half of the chippings over the forked and (partially) cleared areas. We then raked it in. Sir Cakealot went ballistic as the photo testifies! We then recovered the area with carpet, to leave for next year, where hopefully the cooch will all have broken down.

In the process I met a sweet old man called Reg. He was partially deaf so we were both talking very loudly. I loved the way he said ‘You’ve got to watch out for them weed seeeeeeeds,’ he grinned as he said it, flashing a majestic gold crown. ‘Do they call you Teddy?’ he asked me after I told him my name. No Reg, not enough people call me Teddy, Howard, yes, Oregano, yes, but not Teddy. Maybe that’s for my later years.

Weeds are running rife amidst the potatoes, the onions, basically all over. It will be the work of many patient years to fully regain control of the land. It always seems insurmountable. But we always overcome. G unit!

Also in the mix is Project Solardome, now in stage one million according to Parsley. Over four days her and a friend constructed the extremely intricate nexus of beams for the glass. It becomes ever clearer that our team is divided thus: Parsley is the mastermind, Cakealot is the nurturer and I’m the work mule.

The dome looks absolutely amazing, and it’s not even finished yet. I am so excited for the final result.

Sunshine. Suits me fine!