The best laid plans...

Plan version 3

Tomatoes precariously close to potato bed.

...often go awry. As you may know I love growveg.com. So here's my plan at the moment. I really wanted to clear the whole plot but I just don't have enough time at the moment; the rest of the plot is keeping me so busy with the watering and weeding etc. The weather is hot and the ground is very dusty which is not such a nice combination for full on digging. I hope that I shall get it done as the weather gets cooler later in the year. It was a decision that was made for me by the factors above. It was a sad decision to make as I wanted to clear it all now, but I have accepted that I should be proud of what I have achieved already.

Yesterday I had a delicious few hours to catch up with things at the plot. I planted twelve Roma tomato plants. I have read so much about potatoes and tomatoes not being planted together but I have so many tomato plants and no more prepared beds. They are in separate beds but adjacent to each other. I'm worried if blight appears on the plots this year it could easily spread to both.

I have sunk a plant pot beside each plant to aid watering. I also planted marigolds around the outside and some basil seedlings from home which I have protected with some little plastic bottle cloches. I have given them all a bamboo support, Roma is a bush variety so should only need a little support but I am being cautious as the wind can whizz across the plots.

At the end of my potato bed I have planted some courgettes. I planned to plant two, but as I was planting my little under-gardener delivered two more stripped of their pots so I felt obliged to pop them in too. As they should be planted 3' apart I think this will have to be addressed very soon and right now four are squeezed into a 4'x4' square. I may squeeze in three like my plan and put one in a planter.

Beautify My Blog

Broad beans appearing

Tomatoes potted on

Goosegogs plumping

I have a new camera... I am so happy. Thank you my love.

Good photography makes a blog so much better. I feel very spoilt to have been given a camera outside of birthday and Christmas time. Oh but how it will revolutionise my life and blog. Carrots and Kids blog is so gorgeous to look at and of a quality I aspire to. The writing is professional. I haven't much hope of that. It is the blog that inspired me in the first place and which in a way, supports me. Sometimes I wonder whether I'm going to fail, whether the weeds will beat me. I wonder if life will pull me away from the allotment and I'll be one of those, who the seasoned others tut about. I don't want to fail. Carrots and Kids encourages me. And to all you others who comment on my blog, thank you, it's really lovely to have you out there. I never really knew how nice comments were until I got some.

My work has picked up and I really have to steal time to get down to the allotment and just water. The weather men have forecast elusive rain for weeks now. Dark stormy clouds appeared at sunset this evening and I thought my water butt may actually be employed, but no, no rain yet.

I've potted on my tomatoes at home today. I am, if the all survive, probably going to have too many tomatoes. I love tomatoes. Which is a good thing because the other half cannot abide by them, especially in their natural state. I have also got the little one to sow some more salad leaves as he weeded the previous batch out!