Allotment and Garden Update

Today - we dug our first new potatoes out of the allotment - Kestrel Potatoes - they were delicious - cooked with fresh mint sprigs from the garden tub - very tasty - also I picked a bunch of sweet peas for the house what a heavenly fragrance - and gorgeous colours - the perfume stays firmly in your memory

Lettuces and radish are producing well - an essential for a quirky vegetarian like me - and today I was given a coleslaw recipe by Molyglover - which I shall try out for myself this week.

The allotment gardener will be thinning out the swedes and carrots this week - beware the carrot fly - heads in books tonight to find ways of deterring these little nuisances and send them on their way - Bernard Schofield in his book Miscellany of Garden Wisdom tells us to crumble moth balls up and hoe them into the ground around the carrots - does anyone use these any more I wonder - probably not

Those that would grow this useful root
Free from blight and maggots
Must freely use both lime and soot
And they will have fine carrots

William Gain 1956

Broad beans are podding up well as are the peas - I slight attack of blackfly on the broadbeans to be resolved with soapy water or a spray - help! - no we are organic

Courgettes are looking healthy with sunflowers close by and garlic - onions french and runner beas - sweet corn and leeks - all growing on

This week wallflower and sweet william seeds to be set and the allotment gardener will keep up that continual battle against the weeds

In the greenhouse - zygo cactus are still flowering and Pelargonium Apple Blossom Rosebud is out these are last years plants - and doing well

Also violas grown from own seed are doing well (see pic ) - I need to consult Viola book - do they need to be stopped? I don't know! can anyone help would be much appreciated.


The Canna lily mentioned in last gardening blog is now through and making good headway - and Jasminium Polyanthum has been replaced - half price from local gardening centre - well done to me - slap on the back....
- note to self do not over water this time !!

The Moss rose is now out in the garden - what a perfume and delicate colour (pic attached taken in the rain )- the heady perfume was outstanding do you know I can still smell that lingering fragrance now.

My Streptocarpus cuttings are doing well in the conservatory - my little project at the moment - more cuttings to be taken in spare moment this month

The Pleone bulb in the stone trough mentioned last gardening blog - no change there!!!

This is the end of another gardening blog - more to follow no doubt at a later date - blogging is very similar to gardening - you dip in and out of this and that and never finish what you intended to do - so something is always left for another day

Newquay - final walk

Today a short ride to Cwmtydu - a tiny small cove - which Dylan Thomas gives mention to in his Under Milkwood - the River Dewi flows into the sea here - Cwmtydu was a favourite haunt of Eli Jenkins a character in the play.

Has we climbed up out of the cove we spotted a head of a seal playing in the cove and then he was gone - today was glorious after the rain the night before - the sea and sky were blue and boats were out sailing also boats were coming round the bay with sightseerers doing it the easy way - but what they missed - nature at its best - the soft bright green grass - dotted with so many spring flowers - today we saw wild orchids - an amazing sight - not just one but lots and Spring Squill carpeted the cliff side with scabious - thrift and ragged robin - a return walk and another pub lunch and a final trip down into Newquay to see the sun go down.

Newquay - further walks

Today - a walk from Llangrannog was voted to be on the itinerary - first of a call to buy suitable waterproofs was the order of the day - I decided on a little Regatta number in a very tasty limegreen - and the other half a bit of a poser went for a bright blue one - and yes as it turned out it pelted down and the jackets were put to good use and a very nice pub lunch afterwards was much appreciated in Llangrannog on our return- once again the flowers were amazing and we met several people on the walk and so we were able to compare notes with them on flowers and birds seen and generally pass the time of day

Newquay - more walks

A short drive down to Aberporth - ended in a short walk - due to a heavy deluge when all of us had a good soaking - even so a lovely little town - with some incredible scenery - and a coastal path with flowers in abundance - additional plants seen today included - yellow iris and ladysmocks in the little streams meandering their way down to the sea -and large white daisies and bright blue scabious - we then decided to head back up towards Newquay and stopped off in the sunshine to walk in the country lanes and take a footpath through the meadows towards the coastal path. The hedgerows were a mass of colour and additional flowers seen included bright blue periwinkle - wild rose - honeysuckle and wild strawberries

Newquay - First day

We have just returned from a few days in Newquay Wales - to celebrate our 40 something wedding anniversary - we stayed on a farm just outside Newquay - Dylan Thomas lived here for a time in a bungalow called Majoda - where he started to write Under Milkwood - LLareggub being the town under Milkwood - based on Newquay and some of its inhabitants - spelt backwards !!- well need I say more.

We had a mix of weather - but in between the storms - we were able to walk the coastal path daily - the rain and mist enhanced the colours and perfumes of the wild flowers.

First walk was along the coastal path past Gull Rock and the observatory - this lookout has had many uses through out history and was last used in the 60's by the coastguards - now it is used by bird watchers and during the summer months to monitor the dolphin movement - whilst we were there a mass of gulls were storming the sea in what seemed like a frenzied attack - there must have been hundreds of them - they seemed to keep circling round and then diving to the centre of the group - we asked a fisherman later in the local pub if he could explain this activity and we were told that they would be attacking a shoal of fish

We walked along the edge of the cliffs and marvelled at the flowers - red campion - sea thrift - white campion - sweet pea - and elegant foxgloves and fennel - a mass of colour. the cliff path has been so well cared for and has been stepped out to make the most of every view available

Another gull activity - gulls in a stock watering tank - obviously fed up with the salty water out to sea!