chili time!

That'll teach me to work too hard down the
allotment! I got sick over the holidays and I think it was my body
telling me to ease off with the digging in the heat! The girlfriend
thinks I am soft but I was ill man! Anyway, her family have also been
over from Germany. We took them to Kew which was nice. I was particularly impressed by the display of chili plants in the Lilly house. I am now endeavouring to recreate a chili display in the loft bedroom! Here are my starting seeds.

I am now limiting the amount of time I spend digging up roots and old bits of carpet. A bit everyday seems more realistic than a whole bed every time I go down there. Also, how are my seedlings supposed to germinate when the ground is dry as a bone? Should I be watering everything from potatoes to parsips? Hmmm ...I kinda think a bit of water from the watering can makes zip loads of difference anyway.

hard work

Great news! The allotment boss came over yesterday and told me what a miraculous job I was doing. She then asked me if I wanted to take on the next door plot too. I said no. This plot is killing me as it is. My back is now grumbling and even the dog thinks I have gone mad. It is good to get a pat on the back though. Yesterday I turned a patch of earth that looked like this.....

into this......
Two patches of mud on a blog.....hmmm. I am only sharing this with you because I think the amount of work an allotment requires cannot be underestimated. The patch of mud is 6ft by 6ft and took most of the afternoon! I didn't realise digging would be this hard.

Cabbage watch

This might be a bit like over kill but I have gone to town with the cabbages! They found their way into the ground today. To give them a helping hand, I dug in a grow bag to improve the soil. My ground looks like a collection of brown clay like golf balls and one of the pros down the site suggested investing in extra soil. Next, I have surrounded them all with garlic organic slug barrier. It cost a bit so it had better work. After that, each cabbage was given its own little bit of carpet to sit on because I have read that this will stop flys laying eggs under them. Finally, I built a wire cage to fend off the rabbits.

The work took me all day and I realise that one can get a bit carried away.

side shoots

Okay, I really am new to all this. Here is a tomato question. What's a side shoot? What does it look like and what what will happen if I don't pinch them out? The first picture is, I think, where I missed the chance to do some pinching. The second picture is what I guess it should look like? What will happen next? Will I only get half tomatoes?