What it's all about - sort of

I have given up trying to keep the allotment page on our web site up to date. . You have to be at home where the PC with the software and access to your web host is. Then it takes time to fire up the HTML editor. You need a photo edito to at least set the size of the pictures. And there's the problem of getting everything to look right on the page. Just adding a few lines and a picture can take 45 minutes. I think that's why the good intentions never lasted past the first week !

So for 2009 a new initiative - put the Allotment news in a blog. Now I can add stuff from anywhere I can get onto the web. The blog software automatically sizes the pictures. And it looks great, with the rounded corners and complementary colours - woo hoo!

Well - the proof of the pudding etc..etc... Wish me luck as I go public and predict that now I'll be able to keep this Allotment blog up to date.

January and all's well

There's a break in the January rain, so just time to strim the grass on the paths and check that everything is in order. There's a few mangy parsnips under the blue hoops (right) and a bit of pigeon-chewed chard in the foreground.

The weeds are still on holiday and the black sheets are helping to keep them suppressed. The carrot box (left) is empty. Upper left I have just given the vine a good prune. Elsewhere we have a few small sprouts and the remains of some broccolli and cabbage which the birds have eaten off after the wind lifted the netting.

But it's not all doom and gloom. There was a couple of bottles of Sol Mexican beer in the shed left over from 2008, so I celebrated the start of a new Allotty year by pulling the cap off one and drinking it.

The main job now is done at home - ordering the seeds and plants for 2009. See what I can find which the slugs won't eat and the birds won't nibble. There must be something !