24 July - Bees, beans and buses

The gardening group were invited to help make an edible, bee-friendly garden at The Norwood Bzz garage.  We met up early at the allotment and took care of the plants, before it got too hot.

Plenty of runner beans, nice to eat raw, steamed or in a stir fry

Sweetcorn

Manure - we got 2 wheelbarrow loads.

Lots and lots of watering.

We donated some of our runner beans to the allotment food bank

Tomatoes

Free lunch at West Norwood bus garage.

We planted rosemary, mint, rocket, tarragon, and the seedlings we brought with us

We took turns at digging a hole for a cherry tree

Then we planted the tree

Lambeth Horticultural Society gave us flower bulbs and tubers to plant.
They should come up next year.

The group took plenty of breaks in the shade and were provided with bottles of water while we worked.  Everyone enjoyed the session and we look forward to seeing the Bzz Garage in bloom, with plenty of bees in the future.

July 17th - harvesting and hanging baskets

Result!!

Digging up the first spuds of the year

The rain last week made everything grow really fast so we were able to dig up potatoes, red onions and shallots.

Picking runner beans

Just a few this week, plenty more to come

It was very hot so after watering all the plants, we spent the hottest part of the day in the cool shade of the parasol.  We ate our lunch and had plenty of cold drinks

Enjoying lunch

Ed brought his hanging basket and flowers to plant for his entry to the Lambeth Country Show this weekend. He showed the group how to plant it up and the finished basket won 2nd prize.  Well done Ed!!

Roses and geraniums going into the basket

Other uses for a hanging basket.

We left the basket in the shade and gave it plenty of water.

July 10th - visit to Morden Hall Park

So many beautiful flowers

Cosmos

 It was a rainy day so after drinks and snacks in the Community Building we all headed for Morden Hall Park to have a look round the garden centre.

Waiting for the bus by Brockwell Park

Trying out some new seating for the plot!

Poppies

Bee hives in the orchard at Morden Hall

Looking for some new fruit bushes for our plot

We got lots of ideas for plants we want to grow next year, some more raspberries, black, white and red currants, a plum tree and a grape vine.  These are all growing well on other plots at the allotment.  We had a late lunch sheltered outside the National Trust Cafe and made our way back home.

July 3rd - A shady place at last!

It was very hot so we made sure we wore suncream or were covered up.  Some of the tomato plants in the shed were looking very dried up so we took all the seedlings out into the shade and gave them lots of water.  They perked up and we planted them at the end of the session.

The soil was very dry so we watered everything at least twice

Butternut squash bud

Runnerbean flowers

There was plenty of work to be done, earthing up the potatoes.

Diluting seaweed fertilizer to feed the plants

        Our parasol is up!! Thanks to Rosendale Allotments Association and the Lottery 
        for the funding, and Sheila and Barbara's hard work work last week putting  it up.

Our group were able to relax in the shade on the hottest day of the year so far.

June 19th - Watering and woodwork and a new volunteer.

Our new volunteer, Sheila, enjoying her first day on the plot.

    We dug up lots of couch grass and bagged it to
rot down before composting, to stop it spreading

.

We cut the grass and did all the usual watering and weeding

It was another sunny day and the group wanted to get the
     parasol up so we could have some shade. We had to make a
            hole in the table.  Then we ran out of time so the parasol goes up next week!