Moving to Surrey Hills

When we moved from London to the Surrey Hills last summer (2012), we left behind our established allotment. I was very sad to leave it and as we had put a lot of time and money into it. I couldn't take the shed with me, because we didn't know where we'd be living. As it happens we are still renting, so had no where to store anything.

So last Sunday I was offered a plot. Its a large plot split into 4, I was offered 1/4 with the intention of going up to a 1/2 but I decided to take on the half straight away. It doesn't have a shed, greenhouse or anything! Its simply a patch of weeds & grass for me to take on. I have been up to Poundland and bought a few bits to get me started and have ordered a storage box from Argos to put some tools in, until I can get another shed. Hoping that this will help me with my weight loss as I will be digging a lot!

May 2010 Update

I have been childminding now since beginning of Feb. I look after 2 children Thomas 15mths and Chloe 3yrs. I have given Thomas Mum notice because i am finding it difficult juggling with my nearly 8mth old son. Tobey has also been diagnosed as diary intolerant after developing eczema after giving him dairy for the first time. We are finding it tricky dealing with Rose's behaviour she seems to be reverting, wetting herself and saying she cant dress herself or feed herself. Driving us bonkers!

My MIL has been working my lottie this year, as have been so busy :S i do miss it. Was over there yesterday weeding and cutting down some brambles. Its looking so lovely now. The raspberry area has been dug over and weeded, the rubbish has been tidied. all teh beds have been dug over, the potatoes, leeks, parsnips, carrots, raddishes and curly kale have all been planted. The bean poles and beans have been put in too.

I am on a weight loss kick, have paid for 6 personal trainer sessions, plan on going 3 times a week for next few weeks. Hope i shift some weight. I weigh 12st 5lbs at the moment the week before i had Tobey i weighed 14st 7lbs, he weighed in at 7lbs 14oz so nearly 8lbs then i lost nearly 20lbs in 2 weeks after that and have stayed pretty much the same. My first goal i have is to get below 12st, then my next goal will be to get below 11st, then my next will be to get to my ww goal of 9st 11lb, then my own personal goal of 9st 7lb.

we'll see

Update!

Happy New Year 2010!

Tobey was born at 37+5 days on 28th September 2009. He weighed 7lb 14oz. He is now 17 weeks tomorrow and he weighs 17lb 4oz. He is a beautiful lovely child. Rose loves him and he loves her.

Happy New year 2010

• This year i plan on making my lottie really good
• losing all this horrid extra weight
• making some money
• go abroad with the children

I have been up the allotment last week and tidied the shed, this week i have been burning things and next week i shall be digging over hopefully!

Bugger it!

havent been able to get the allotment for a month to do any strimming or weeding. so the plot is an overgrown mess. So dissapointed with myself for letting it get bad. I have so much weeding to do and i lost all my brassicas just a bit miffed with myself.

I am now 29 weeks pregnant, baby was 3lb 12oz at 28weeks and 2 days. the hospital have agreed to let me have a waterbirth after VBAC but by the looks of it my baby will be too big and the risk too great. Just have to see how things go. I had a 3D scan done at 28 weeks

We are in the middle of decorating our bedroom - i say we but poor Jamie has had to do it all. I can do the painting part though....

will add pictures of everything later

2nd Earlies in and signs of life!!!!

Woo hoo, on Good Friday we got our 2nd Earlies in - Kestrel, the allotment was really busy too with everyone doing the same thing. Today I saw that i have pea shoots, carrot shoots and parsnips coming through I am so excited!!!

Will post new pics as soon as the weather cheers up a bit

Potatoes are in!

Well, we planted our Charlottes and our Red Duke of York this morning, we are planting Kestrels on Good Friday if its nice. And in a few weeks we will plant our mains.


Also got my 12 week scan tomorrow, i'm a bit nervous, i hope everything is ok in there!!

Putting things into perspective

This week has been a very long week of stress. Last Saturday we opened the post to find that our daughter hadn't been offered a primary school of our preference and was offered the a really awful school instead. Saturday also brought news that my FIL's 2nd tumour had come back with cancer cells, and that they will need to go and remove the shell that they had left in his last op. He is still recovering from his last op which was at the beginning of march! Monday brought me more misery when i telephoned School Admissions they told me there wasn't a lot i could do about it! We are appealing and we hope we get one of our preference schools. I was also told by Midwife that I needed to go back to the diabetic clinic the next day because of previous gestational diabetes. I am 11 Weeks. There is no way i have it yet. And they wont even do a GTT on me. Tuesday I was at diabetic clinic getting my blood machine and still arguing the toss. Wednesday was all rain and wind so couldn't plant my salad and 1st Earlie's out. Thursday i went to my WW class and i lost 1.5lbs whoop whoop. Thursday afternoon i got a parking ticket!!! Friday we were up Chelsea & Westminster hospital speaking to Rose's consultants about the inherited cholesterol. They were talking about gene testing, she had more bloods done. The doctor said he would help with the appeal letter.

And today? lots of bloody rain, wind and hail stones! So I cant do anything over the lottie which really helps me de-stress. To make matters worse lots of women on a forum i have joined have had their 12 week scans to find that their baby's have died, this is my greatest fear, i am dreading my scan on 6th April. I can only hope that we have been spared that anguish and that our little bean is safe and well.

Planting has begun!

I have just planted out, calabrese, cabbage, cauliflower and beetroot. Going to go back after lunch to sow some parsnip seeds. Very exciting stuff!! Will take pics later.


I also planted out peas, parsnips, carrots...

5 Year Rotation plan

5 Year Rotation Plan

New Plan for allotment

Potato Bed

I went to lottie yesterday with my hubby and I forked over the beds and then covered them in black fabric sheeting. I also planted the last of the garlic, and added lime to the brassica bed. I also created my 5 year rotation plan. Very pleased with all my hard work. My hubby dug over the area where the tatties are going and built a bed for it too.

2 views of my allotment beds, the lastest one is my potato bed.

A cheeky sign

Fertile? Yes!

Well now I have to stop the weightwatchering because i am 7 weeks pregnant!! Also means i cant do a lot in the allotment and i have now became a bit of a tyrant to my poor husband pointing at the beds and saying dig that area please! Tomorrow we are going over the plot to dig over the beds one more time, adding lime to the brasicca bed and then covering the lot up with black fabric sheeting. Hubby is going to fork over the spare bedding area for my spuds that i am planting in the 3rd week of march if weather holds out. I cant remember what i ordered to be delivered when from the Deflands nursery so want to be prepared for anything!!!!!! Will start other seedlings off towards end of march, last year i started them too early and they all went leggy and died :(

I have also put loads of sand in my roots bed and I have bought my potatoes from Woodcote Nursery. I bought 6 seed potatoes of:
Salad - Charlotte
1st Early: Red Duke of York
2nd Early: Kestrel
Mains: Rooster & Maris Piper

Tidy up

Have been to the lottie today, I chucked the compost bags on to the beds and forked them all over. I then raked over each bed and have left it like that. I am off to B&Q this afternoon to get the lime and sand for the beds. Its all coming together, I am feeling very positive about my plot today.

Plants ordered!

I have ordered plants for next year from Deflands..... have faffed about with what i was going to grow for ages!!

So I am growing from seed:
Tomatoes
parsnips
lettuces - assortments
spinach
chives
broccoli
sweetcorn
courgette
carrots
Brussels sprouts
peas
spring cabbage
butternut squash
aubergine
pumpkin
french beans - green

and i have ordered from defland:
calabrese
cabbage - duchy f1
beetroot
cauliflower
cucumber
sweet pepper
leeks
onions white and red
strawberry - 2 types
french beans - royalty - purple
runner beans
various herbs for the garden and the allotment
red cabbage
cabbage Stanton f1 bit similar to savoy
swede
curly kale
That cost me £58 including postage, but its ordered for the year now, so all i have to do is wait for it to arrive.

My potatoes I am taking a chance and getting them from the allotment shop :S

I really hope i can pull some of this off! I want next year to be a really fertile year for the land and for myself, been trying for bubba number 2 since July! :(

Good luck everyone for 2009!

Merry Meet Again

Well its a few days before Christmas and i am updating my blog. I have found my list of spuds that i wanted to grow next year and i still have to put my order for Jan, Feb, March to Defland nurseries too. Still not sure completely what i want to grow :S. Need to re-read my veg book! Looking forward to next year, lots of learning, lots of growing and lots of fun. I hope that i grow, mentally, and spiritually and I really hope we fall pregnant.

So to all Have a Merry Christmas and a Fabulous New Year, hope that 2009 brings you all that you wish for xx

Not very much progress! :-(

Its been raining, its been windy, its been ice cold and we have now been smoked out!!! I had the compost bags delivered to the site almost 3 weeks ago and Jamie has been trying to make the beds up, but its just not happening for one reason or another - usually the weather. Jamie was half way through making a bed yesterday when someone started a bonfire and smoked him out! Today i am poorly so haven't been over there. I need to get the beds made the compost bags on and the permeable plastic on. So when it comes to January next year I can just get on with it. Quite depressing really!!!

It rained all day yesterday so i didn't go up the allotment. I went up there today after going to B&Q to buy a sieve. I raked over the plot again and put all the weed roots into a black bag with holes, I will burn all of that as soon as i can. I deliberated with buying an incinerator again, still not sure if i can justify buying one. I do need some black plastic though for the big compost heaps i seem to have made!

I ordered my onions and garlic from Defland nurseries a week a go and chased them up today, they should be here by Wednesday, so i should have them planted by Thursday afternoon. I ordered the 10 bags of compost and they should be delivered by early next week. Jamie should of made the other 3 beds by then too. I just need to order the permeable black weed suppressant to cover the beds until spring, and the paths in between. I am thinking of laying cardboard or newspaper down on the paths in the meantime.

I also joined Abel & Cole again so i get used to the seasons again and i am going to try new veg like Salsify and Kale and globe artichoke so i know whether to grow them or not.

Took pics today but want the next pics I put up to be the finished beds!

Progress at last

Last weekend Jamie helped me finish taking off the turf and i started to dig it over using my shiny new auto-spade which was fab. We got loads done, Rose was getting pretty bored so i decided to take her home after lunch, and Jamie finished the turfing.

On the Sunday we went over there and finished digging it over, weeding as we went along, and then i finished the digging completely on the Monday. I have been waiting all week for my Dad to drop off the wood for my raised beds as the wood was too big to fit in our car. We got it Friday evening and started to put some beds together yesterday. We only completed one bed sadly and I still have to sieve the soil as there are loads of couch grass roots still in the beds, because hubby didn't realise you had to take them all out - he's not that into gardening and is really only there to be my muscle :)

We were going to finish the beds today but it is pouring with rain so have had to skip today :( I just want it all finished and in place.

I decided not rotovate my plot because of all the roots we kept finding. I am going to sieve lightly get all the weeds out then just cover in compost and cover over with weed suppressant until January/February. I feel that next year is going to be a very good gardening year.

What my plot looked like after last weekend

WW, Allotment & Progress

It has been a busy week. I went to WW in banstead and weighed in - Lost 2lb was really chuffed. I have now become a helper and in 4 weeks will stop paying for weigh in because i will then get it free. I also got asked to be a leader. Just need to get down to 10st 8lb before i can apply!

Rose has been going to honeybees in the afternoon for a few weeks now, she has settled into school in the morning and the 2 afternoons a week in the honeybees class seems to be going OK. The only snag is she is very tired when she comes out and is usually throwing a tantrum before we get out of the school gate. In fact as I type she has fallen asleep on the sofa - hard work being 3 years old!

I have designed the new allotment plot and all i need to do now is put the plan into action. I have started taking the top off the grass this morning took me 2 hours to get a small strip done, i was very disappointed in myself. Jamie is helping me tomorrow to get some done and hopefully i will be able to rotovate it Sunday morning. With that in mind I can possibly go and buy the wood i need on the Monday - if not i will buy it next weekend and just pile up the beds during the week. I have also got to buy some thick weed suppressant to stop any weeds growing whilst the beds are overwintering!

This is my plan:

This is what the allotment looked like before we started:

I shall take more tomorrow to show what progress we have made.

I am going to grow my garlic in tubs this year, next year we are buying plug plants instead of doing seeds because we canot go through all that waste again!

I have a shed

Whoop whoop, Dad came over today and put up my shed for me with my darling hubby. I haven't been over to the plot yet to appreciate it yet but I shall tomorrow. I haven't done anything with plot since last weekend, next weekend we will be away, and weekend we get back I'm not going to be in the mood. So i shall crack weekend after that! I'm going to the local environmental fair tomorrow, going to see if i can pick up some contacts. I'm starting a business with my friend from college, we're going to do pamper parties to start with, then move onto some premises. Who knows what the future may hold.

Update.....

Well weight wise I am still at 13st 1lb. So i lost my stone and wanted to lose some more but motivation is lost to me!

My Dad gave me some money to do up the house with. So me & Jamie have been busy stripping walls, buying paint etc.

I gave up my allotment at Duke street as it was too much. I was doing really well with it at the beginning of the year but then college got a grip on me and it went to pot. I took on a new plot on the Benhill site, which is better because it is literally across the road and I can hire tools to use on that site. The thing is the new site is the same size as the old site, just this site is square. My Dad bought me a 7 x 5 shed, and Shane built a shed base for it today. Just have to call Dad to put up the shed for me once the base has set properly. Will take some pictures as soon as i can.

I have a plan for the plot, like where i want beds to go etc. Not sure what i am going to put where yet :-S I think i am just going to write out a list of veg i would like to grow then work out which bed it should go in then work out which beds are which. I've got my water butt thats going by the shed as soon as the shed is up. Also going to take some of Rosie's toys over so she can play whilst we are over there. My mind is racing!!!!!