Wednesday 14 August 2013

FreeCycle, Allotment and Potato's

 At last the allotment is taking shape and showing results, do you remember how bad it was when we took it over? If not then take a look here.

The back half is still covered in tarpaulin to stop the weeds growing as not been able to devote as much time to it as we would like, with Himself going in and out of hospital and my own Bad Days thrown into the mix.
But we have made a good start and stuff is growing, others at the allotments say we have achieved a lot in a short space of time, so I guess we have.

We'd not been down for about a week or so as there had been plenty of rain and no need to water, as you can see below those pesky weeds are back again, they just keep on growing so by the time I've done the weeding I'm to tired too do anything else.
But this weekend we had a definite plan, dig up the potato's (bottom right of picture) and get the shed base laid before Himself goes back to hospital again at the end of the month.


We had a nice little harvest of potato's and some garlic from the middle bed which when dried out I'll press and freeze so we'll have fresh garlic all Winter.


The apple tree is heavily laden, so research is needed as to all the things I can do with them, watch this space as I try out some new recipes.



Lets be honest there's only so much apple crumble and apple sauce one can eat, so will see if they can be bottled or dried and will have them also for the whole winter, fingers crossed.

As usual Badger Boo was on hand to supervise and lend a paw with the digging, but as it was so warm he decided he would be of most use supervising from the prone position, whilst checking his eyelids for pin holes.


So whilst Himself was leveling out the potato bed and laying the slabs with a little help from me to move them as they were HUGE, I was digging, weeding and edging the onion and garlic bed and generally tidying up. 
When it looked all neat and tidy again, Badger Boo woke up long enough to cast his supervisory eye over it and make sure everything was in ship shape order.


Well done to Himself for getting the shed base done, he worked really hard, it was made more complicated by the fact we aren't allowed to lay a permanent base so all leveling was done using earth, but he did a fantastic job, just got to wait for the new shed to arrive now. 
We've also been given the shed on the far left of the picture which needs moving onto our plot at some point soon, they've been very good about not making us get it off straight away with Himself being so unwell, although I think we've left it long enough as it's space they could be using and can't, it's pretty rickety and there has been a lot of trouble with shed break ins there, hence why we've opted to buy a shed.


So not sure what we will be doing with it, but I'm sure we can find a use for the wood or maybe FreeCycle it. That's where we got the slabs from, they're massive heavy duty concrete ones, they would have cost a fortune to buy. 
A massive thank you to Jill of Christmas Pie Crafts for sending me a FreeCycle link about some yarn on offer a few weeks ago.
FreeCycle is AMAZING!!!!
I've de-cluttered my whole house on it plus got some really useful bits, you'd be amazed what people what to get rid of.

We did get a couple of strange looking potato's though so for a giggle here's a Gallery of them with my opinion of what they look like, although feel free to add your own captions.
Enjoy

1} Teddy Potato
2} Seal Potato
4} Submarine Potato 
3} Bum Potato
5} If you know me well, you'll know what this one looks like!!!

It looked great when we hobbled off home.
It took us about three days to recover from all the effort put in, but very satisfying and worth every ache and pain.
The Potato's tasted great too.



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7 comments:

  1. Your plot is coming along nicely. Hope you both have better health next year - imagine what you could achieve then.

    I dry apple rings. I'll send you the method. They don't last the winter though, maybe a month before they look a bit manky. I also stew them with nuts and raisins and keep for yogurt/ice cream topping. But the best thing to do is to get an apple storer (or make one from pallets). Apples can be stored in layers like that for quite a while. We kept ours in the greenhouse - lasted until Christmas.

    Love your bum potato ;-)

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    Replies
    1. That sounds great thank you Lesley, never had apples on our other plot so it's a whole new experience for me.

      Once the shed is there we won't have to keep carrying the tools down and I will be able to do more in my own time, at the moment I can only really do heavy stuff when Himself is there to help.

      Next job is to get the raised beds put into position that you can just see behind the new shed base. I still have another three at home to take down there too.

      xxxx

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  2. Wow Dawn the place is looking fantastic, you have done loads since I last saw your pictures. I'm so jealous of your fantastic garlic, I must grow some next year. I usually end up with mountains of apples and like you say there is only so much apple sauce and crumble you can handle. I make a really tasty spiced apple chutney, that I jar and keep for myself and also give away at Christmas, it takes a couple of months to mature and it keeps for a few weeks once it's opened.

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  3. *giggles at bum potato* :)

    Looks super and what a good bounty of goodies already. Freecycle is just epic isn't it? Good to see Badger Boo enjoying it too!

    Thanks for linking up x

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  4. Your gallery of potatoes in hilarious! Seal potato is my favourite :D

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  5. love that plot, your very lucky. so great to see all your hard work coming to and i have to say those potatoes are the funniest thing :)

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  6. The gallery of potatoes are worth it all! I love their names.

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