Have you ever seen as many weeds in one place.....

Well I suppose it is that time of year again when heavy back breaking gardening is needed. The allotment is one of those duties that is essential if we are to plant any veg this year. Have you ever seen as many weeds as this.......



I am quite ashamed it is this bad, and DS3 cannot believe it either!!! I managed to bribe 2 of my sons to lend a hand.


Armed with all the essential equipment, we made a start on the raised beds.

Two hours later, we had made some progress........ Our energy levels low and quite exhausted, we called it a day. It is back breaking work and my back was certainly sore. Best not to do too much in one go. Hopefully, I will be able to get the boys to come back and finish the digging at the weekend.

Thinking of the weekend the Alnwick Spring Show is on this Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th at Alnwick Gardens, entrance is free to the show but normal admission prices to the gardens. The Alnwick Embroiderers Guild is having a stand again this year and this is a piece I am putting forward.

It's a piece I did at a workshop last October with Val Stoddard. It is a contemporary version of a Carpet Page, from the Lindisfarne Gospels.

New Sewing Machine

I am now going to relax and rest my sore back by doing a bit of light sewing on my new machine , I got it a couple of weeks ago, and have not had much time to play with it.

It does lots of automatic stitiches which I need to explore.

Thinking of Summer.......

Our trip to the garden centre yesterday was very enjoyable, we went to a one a bit further away and it was so lovely visiting what I call a proper "Garden Centre" like they used to be years ago. These days I find they are more like department stores selling everything, but not much in the plant and seed line. This year I have decided to grow lots of tall flowers for cutting, to bring into the house. I spend so much money on cut flowers at the supermarkets and florists over the year. In order to achieve this I think I need a bit of help propagating all the seeds,so I treat myself to an electric propagator. This will hopefully speed up the process.

The seeds are all planted and I now just have to be patient and watch for the tiny little shoots to pop up. Exciting!!!! I shall keep you posted on their progress.

Team Work in the Primrose Patch.......

We all set off laden ed with..............

To tackle this........

As you can see a long overdue chore and a must now if we are to grow anything this year. I figured if we attack the job in numbers we could all dig it over in a matter of hours.

And this!!!!!!!


Horrible weeds............

And after 3 hours of back breaking digging we end up with this.................not bad. See more hands make light work.

A minor miracle........Thank You Family

It was very,very hard work but so, so satisfying. We have planted 2 types of early potatoes, and have a bed of strawberries .


I think we are all going to need Ralgex and a long hot soak in the bath tonight, just hope we can walk straight tomorrow.

A Day in the Garden......

The weather today had been lovely, just the sort of day when you want to be outdoors. DH and I decided to have a day tidying the garden. While DH got on with the heavy work, I tidied the borders and mowed the lawn.

The pond needed some serious attention. We trimmed back lots of overgrowth being very careful not to disturb the frogs and their spawn. It looks sooooo much better.

Next job was to clean and tidy the greenhouse and we potted up some herbs and flowers. We have decided to only grow a few flowers this year, but will of course be growing plenty of veg in the allotment. That should keep us busy.

Update on Chickens and Gardening.....

Everything in the garden is flourishing, I had a full day in the garden last Sunday, taking advantage of the lovely weather we had, I cut the lawns, weeded the borders and cleaned out our pond. It all looks so fresh. DH has potted up the hanging baskets, and re-potted the tomato plants, we are growing the same variety as last year, the patio tumbling tom. It is still to early to bring them out of the greenhouse, just a couple more weeks should do it.

The chickens are growing too, almost double their size, they are 2 weeks old today. Can you notice their markings, their wings are now forming and showing. They are learning how to forage for food and are showing signs of becoming more independent.

Fruits of Labour....

Remember a few weeks ago we sorted out seeds for growing flowers and vegetables this summer, well here they are. I wish I could take some of the credit for this but I am afraid this little lot is all down to DH. They are almost ready to go out into the garden but given our weather here up North it is best to wait until the end of May just in case we do get a night frost.