meet Miss Pumpkin

We are coming to the end of our first season as allotment holders. It has been a huge experiment and a massive learning curve. Most people that know me know that I can kill a plant just by buying it at a garden centre, so when we told our friends and family they looked at us aghast. But it seems I have found something I can't kill - vegetables. We have had a fairly modest range in our first year - but everything has grown and given us produce - in abundance. 

 
This beauty is something we are all very proud of, we thought we'd have a go and see if we could grow ourselves a pumpkin for Halloween. Didn't we do well??!! She weighs (yes I weighed her, I have turned into a nerd) 2 stone / 13kilos.
How do I know she's a she? Well for Halloween Missy Big tells me she has to have long eyelashes and earrings. Of course.


We took two half plots back in March - which weren't next to each other as I missed out on a whole plot by one day, imagine my fury - especially as the person who took the whole plot only came once and decided it was harder work that they anticipated. Hhhmmmmm.
So when this person gave it up a couple of weeks ago I got straight on the phone to the council and snapped up the half that is next to my veggie plot. 
I can't tell you how excited this made me. So now we have all this space....

....ready for next year. 


And I will be saying goodbye to this plot, 

 
that way mostly clay, full of mare's tail and killed most of the fruit bushes we planted. I was going to rescue the remaining fruit bushes - but I don't want to risk bringing the mare's tail, or any disease that may be in the soil that has killed everything off. So I think I will kiss it all goodbye, and start afresh next spring.


Which is a very exciting thought, I can give the girls a space each, plan a cutting garden, more variation of veg, oh la la! Oh and we are now allowed a shed! Hooray! Oh yes - and they installed a composting toilet - could life get any better?

If you are inclined to stitch, there is a stitched postcard swap going on, you have until Friday to sign up - you know you want to...