MY WEEKS :15 & 16 UPDATE
( W/E 22/04/07)

Hello all, it's good to be back and in slightly better health than I have been over the last couple of weeks. As you probably can tell from my recent bouts of ill health I am finding the enormous workload of trying to restore the Kitchen Garden as well as starting to produce a full crop production for the proposed restaurant too much at the moment and it has taken it's toll on my health. With this in mind I asked for a few days off during the last week to recharge my batteries so to speak, I had a bit of rest and also managed to go up to my allotments for a bit of mental relaxation which was most definitely needed. As you can see from this photograph the drive leading up to my allotment site is adorned with these beautiful Ornamental Cherry trees which look absolutely stunning this year.

My allotments look a bit bare at the moment but at least I now have a blank and weed free canvas to work with. My aim now is to catch up with the sowings and plantings that I have already done at the Kitchen Garden, in fact I managed to sow 3 double rows of Broad Beans, plant 35 crowns of Asparagus, dug up all the remaining Brassicas which had started to run to seed and remove all the dead canes from my Raspberry bed as well as sit, relax and chat to my fellow plot holders who were pleased to see me back on my plots.

At the allotments I have planted my Gladioli which always give me a lovely display of cut flowers in the Summer. I planted them 6" deep on a thin layer of grit to prevent them rotting off if we have any rain that is and planted them about 12" apart in the rows.






The 3 Apple trees that I planted last Spring have all started to blossom which I am pleased about as they were all £6 each from Wilkinsons, as long as we do not get any frosts in the next week or so then we should have our fruits this Autumn. Last year I also planted some Gooseberry cuttings and started to train them as cordons, they are flowering well and you can see the first of the fruits starting to form, the reason for growing them as cordons is to make it easier to pick them as the variety that I have is a traditional thorned one.






The Garlic that I planted last October/November is growing well and the stalks are starting to thicken up which is a good signal that the bulbs below ground are getting to a good size as well, it is important at this stage to not let them go without water for too long as they can start to run to seed. I have also planted a row of my Sweet Pea plants to grow up a 2m net as it is too late for me to grow them as cordons like I have in previous seasons, they should still provide a good supply of beautifully scented blooms.





The last main thing that I have done at my allotments is to plant about 35 Asparagus crowns, I firstly dug a trench about 10" deep and mixed some well rotted compost into the bottom of the trench and then added a bit of Growmore which is a good general purpose fertiliser, then every 2ft I mounded the soil up slightly on which I placed the crowns with their roots running down into the bottom of the trench then I back filled them so that about 3" of soil was above them, as the spears grow I will gradually cover them with soil until the ground is back to it's normal level. It is recommended that you do not harvest them until next year at the earliest to ensure that the plants put all their energy into producing a good strong root system, then you should be able to harvest them for anything up to 20 years.




THE KITCHEN GARDEN

As mentioned earlier on I have had a few days off from the Kitchen Garden over the last week, Glenn my colleague has continued with the planting of the Tomatoes into the greenhouse borders, the planting up of the Herb garden, also the extra Lavender plants that were needed to complete the central path borders and watering and weeding so a big thank you to him for letting me have a break.
The situation at the Kitchen Garden is such that the owners are unable to provide us with any extra staff at the moment who are desperately needed to continue with getting the operation into full production in time, as you can imagine there is only so much that the two of us can do. Unfortunately I have been surpassing my limits of what I can physically and mentally do due to my Anxiety, Depression and Diabetes and this is taking it's toll on my health, we will have to see what we can sort out. I have included a slide show below of the Kitchen Gardens and some of the grounds to give you all a flavour of what it looks like at the moment.





Well that is it for this time, thankyou for your get well wishes I do appreciate them and I will be back next week as usual, thanks Steve.