Plot 36, clearing the scrap heap

Following on from my last Lottie post, I went along yesterday and started shifting all of the misc this 'n' that was stored, hoarded, stashed and dumped on the plot before I got it.

The perimeter fence is being replaced at some point over the next few weeks and everything close to the fence has to be moved away before then.

The cleared space looks massive now. Under this thick layer of leaf litter there is still quite a lot of plastic sheeting, old tired plastic netting and even some half rotted carpet, so quite a lot more to do still. On the upside the earth on this part of the plot looks full of good organic matter and not as weedy as I expected. It will make a lovely spot for the kids flower garden once the fencing work has been done.

I'm very glad that I had planned not to dig the whole plot this year as the tarp covered area has given me somewhere to put everything whilst the fence work is being done. There was quite a large amount of treasure in with the trash including three large wooden frames and some wooden hoops, chicken wire and netting, canes and poles and quite a lot of odd bits of timber that will be useful for edging beds.

I've decided to grow tomatoes in grow-bags this first year and then dig the grow-bag compost in at the end of the growing season so I edged the potato beds either side of the area earmarked for Toms with timber and used a bit of plastic sheet recovered from under the leaf litter, an old gate that came from the scrap heap and some wood chips for weed suppression.

Jolene x

Plot 36, some thoughts on crop rotation and layout

A while back did some research into companion planting and decided that I would like to have 4 beds in my first year. I've been reading up on crop rotation this week to help me figure out where to dig them. I am also planning a 5th bed of runner beans now too and am also thinking of growing my toms in grow-bags as according to some of the other allotment folks I have been chatting with, toms have done very badly here for the last 3 years.

• Potatoes, Marigolds (Rosemary nearby)
• Leeks, Carrots (Mint nearby)
• Broccoli, Kohlrabi, Marigolds (Chives nearby)
• Runner beans
• Tomatoes, Basil and Nastertiums

I've found details for 3, 4 and 5 year rotation plans but this one looks like it will suit me and the size of my plot pretty well, especially as I am not planning to dig a further bed for my toms (I think I can dig the grow bag compost in to my potato bed at the end of the growing season).

(HDRA recommended method)

1)potatoes and tomatoes - add organic matter, high nitrogen (manure)
2)roots - add nothing
3)brassica - add general fertiliser and lime 
4)legumes - add organic matter, low in nitrogen (compost)

In this rotation, the alliums go with one of the other groups, but chosen so they are grown in a different place and with a different group each year.
Here is a little sketch of how I think my plot can be laid out in year 1

Jolene x

ref:
http://www.moonbells.com/advice/Allotment_Manual/allotment_manual.html
 

Daffs, a form and colour study

We have a forum challenge on the colour yellow over on Craft Pimp forum at the moment. It's safe to say that yellow is not one of my very most favourite colours, save for Vetrofond Banana Cream which is utterly delicious! To get inspired I took my camera out with me on the playgroup run this morning and here are my daffodil snaps...

Plot 36 - first bit of planting.

Plot 36 is going to get a whole lot messier and disorganised before I get my head around how I really want the layout and beds to work. I got a letter through from the council saying the perimeter fence is going to be replaced in the next 4 to 6 weeks and that everything needs to be moved at least a meter away from the fence before then. I've been down there today and realised just how much accumulated junk had built up on the plot over the last 2 years before I took it on. Sorting through it all will be a big job, one that I have been turning a blind eye to in favour of digging my first bed. Being forced to look at the junk problem sooner rather than later comes with a silver lining as the large area currently wasted under a pile of misc stuffs will become the permanent space for Ruby's flower garden. I'll get started with that job in earnest tomorrow.

This morning I put my first plants in the ground which was really lovely. My Mum sent me some cuttings from the Blackcurrant plants from her garden. She packed them really well and posted them to me, when they arrived they looked really healthy and had a few roots on them already. I left them in water in a vase on my kitchen window sill and the roots grew in really well on all 5 cuttings.

Here are my baby Blackcurrant plants in their new home next to the Comfrey bed. I'm really not sure if there will be any fruit from them this summer. I also planted 10 Charlotte seed potatoes today, the ground was finally dry enough to pop them in with plenty of lovely compost to give them a good start. I have had these chitting in my kitchen for the past 4 weeks. Here is a useful little garden organic fact sheet on chitting potatos. All being well these Charlottes will be ready to harvest in July or early August.

Jolene x

30DDC #12 Recent accomplishment

My most recent accomplishments are making Rhubarb crumble with the kids from allotment harvest and helping the kids with planting their first sunflower seeds which have actually sprouted. The Pumpkin seeds we planted were a disaster, 10 weeks and no leaves yet.... Sometimes it's taking pleasure in the small things that makes your world go round.

Drawn with Pencil Madness
Have a lovely weekend Jolene xx

Rhubarb Crumble

We picked our first Rhubarb from the plot today and the kids and I made a crumble. It's the first time the nippers have taken food from the ground and brought it home for the table and also the first time they have tried Rhubarb.

We used

• 7 sticks of Rhubarb
• 4 tbsp of Water
• 4 tbsp of Castor Sugar
• 1 tsp of powdered Ginger
• 4oz butter
• 4oz brown sugar
• 7oz plain flour

First I washed the Rhubarb and help the kids chop it up into chunks about 2 inches long. They popped the chunks in to a baking tray and spooned over the castor sugar and water. We don't have a tablespoon so we measured out everything roughly with dessert spoons (2 table spoons = 3 dessert spoons) and popped the baking tray in the oven for about 15 mins on gasmark 4.

While the Rhubarb was softening up I measured out the crumble topping ingredients and let the kids get stuck in mixing them all together with their hands.

I took the rhubarb out of the oven and added ginger and mixed well and transferred it to a cool oven proof dish and helped the kids spoon on the topping and them popped it in to the oven for about 1/2 an hour.

What you really can't tell from the photo is how good it smells and  how bubbly and jammy the Rhubarb is oozing out from around the edge of the crumble. We ate this plain, I've yet to be able to convince my two to try custard and I hadn't any cream to hand but it was plenty juicy enough. I think that even though I reduced the amount of castor sugar down from the original recipe, it was a little too sweet still  but I really liked the ginger.

Have a lovely day, Jolene x

Recipe based on this one from the BBC website

30DDC #10 Favourite Candy and #11 Turning Point

Nomalicous KitKats and starting work for the London Underground doodled using Pencil Madness

Jolene x

Plot 36 - A few pics

The weather has cheered up some and my soaking boggy plot is beginning to dry out beautifully. I've finally had the chance to get down there and start digging over the strip of earth that I cleared of surface weeds over the last couple of weeks. Now that I have started digging I can see that there are plenty of very fat and juicy looking worms on the plot which is a great sign.  There are also a couple of contented and fairly tame seeming robins that hang about watching me turn the earth, no doubt looking out for their lunch! I'm sure they will be back again at some point and keep still long enough for a photo.

There is also an interesting meter wide bed of something running the full width of the plot.











I'm thinking that it may be Comfrey and I have my fingers crossed that it is. Comfrey is a great plant that can be grown specifically to use as food to nurture other plants and enrich the material that you are composting. I've been reading about Comfrey tea, which makes an especially good plant food. 

I'm hoping for nice weather at the weekend and that the car is finally back on the road too as I have a lovely offer of some rich compost via freecycle and would love to be able to finish digging and add the compost to my first potato bed.

Jolene xx

30DDC #8 Favourite Animated Character #9 Favourite TV Show

A double post today for 30DDC, for me favourite animated character just has to be Evil Edna from Willo the Wisp, first broadcast in 1981. Closely followed by Berk from The Trapdoor and Penelope Pitstop.

and my current favourite TV show is Trollied, I so hope that one day Julie gets her guy!

Doodled using Pencil Madness
Jolene x

30DDC #7 Favourite Word

One of my favourite words - others are exacerbate, tenacious and susurration :-D I made this sketch on Pencil Madness

 

More tomorrow
Jolene x

My work in print...

I had very much meant to blog about all of my lovely glassy moments over this past year as they happened but somehow when it comes to my work being in print I always feel a bit bashful. Here is a little catch up post of where I have had my work in print over the last year.

The first time I have ever had work in print was in the April 2012 issue of Beads & Beyond magazine when my Frozen Bonsai focal bead was shortlisted for a top ten place in the Jewellery Maker of the Year Competition (lampwork category). I took 2nd place and and was published again in the June 2012 issue when the results were announced. I won a fabulous prize, a CiM glass Shopping spree with Off-Mandrel. It was the first time I have ever entered a competition, colour me happy.

I also submitted pictures that summer to The Flow magazine and was completely thrilled to see one of my encased tree beads in the 8th Annual Gallery of Women in Glass. When I first began lampworking in the summer of 2007 I wondered if one day I might be good enough to be part of this brilliant Flow Gallery tradition some day.

In March 2013 I had my first ever magazine tutorial published by Beads & Beyond magazine, part of a special edition focusing on words in jewellery. I wrote a tutorial showing how to write in glass using a stringer and my word bracelet got a little feature on the cover too. Many thanks to Julie Fountain for recommending me as the right person for the job.

The next two places I have beads in print are the GBUK Journal (which I just adore) and Glasss 3. Both publication have just been released at the UK's biggest lampworking event, the Flame Off, which took place last weekend at Silverstone Racecourse.

GBUK is the UK's society for glass beadmakers and the journal is a wonderful perk of membership. Each year all GBUK members are invited to submit a picture for the journal. I love the fact that the journal is not a juried publication and that inclusion is open to all members. This is the third year I have been part of it and the journal has become a lovely record of my development as a bead maker. This years journal is the best yet with articles and tutorials included alongside the gallery for the first time.

Glasss 3 is the third in a series of innovative books published biennially by Miriam Steger. This publication is another that is open to all, a collection of work by lampworkers from all over the world. Although Glasss 3 is so new that it is not available for sale on the website just yet I was thrilled to see my page as part of the preview :-D Top row, last image, left hand page!

In a day or two my second ever magazine bead making tutorial will be out in the May 2013 edition of Beads & Beyond magazine. I am lucky enough to have received my contributors copy already and my Something Blue tutorial looks beautiful and is jolly easy to follow too so look out for it on the shelves.

Jolene xx

30DDC #6 Favourite Book Character

I have loved the Anne of Green Gables books by Lucy Maud Montgomery since I was a little girl.

Drawn with http://pencilmadness.com

Jolene x

30DDC #5 Best Friend

Day 5 in the 30 day drawing challenge :-D

Drawn with http://pencilmadness.com

Jolene x

30DDC #3 Favourite Food & #4 Favourite Place

This is a first double picture post to play catch up a little as I started in on this challenge a few days late.
Here are my sketches, favourite food and favourite place x

Drawn with http://pencilmadness.com

Jolene x

30DDC #2 favourite animal

Following on from yesterdays post, here is my 30DDC sketch for today

I made this pic on http://pencilmadness.com Jolene x

30 Day Drawing Challenge (30DDC #1)

So our Hazel, a fellow FH and CP forum buddy, has taken on a 30 day drawing challenge and though I have never been much of a sketcher, on a whim, I have decided that I quite fancy giving it a go too.

I have stolen this pic off of her lovely blog so you and I know what the challenges will be!!!









OK....so I am starting late and will have a bit of catching up to do but for tonight here is
Challenge #1Yourself

I made this pic on http://pencilmadness.com

Jolene x

Mini Mo' March '13 - Violet and Indigo Roses

For my March collections I have been experimenting with different effects using Thompson enamels. My first collection, Violet Roses, uses Effetre White, Aqua 034, Dark Sky Blue 228 and Dark Lemon Special 408 with Goldstone and Thompson Enamels.

This pretty green and violet set, made with CiM Slytherin and Reichenbach Mystic purple, uses the goldstone stringer and enamel violet rose murrini to beautiful effect.

This fun CiM Dirty Martini lentil and earring set features the aqua and violet enamel murrini.

The last bead I am showing for Violet Roses today used the enamelled stringer to create raised buds and petals in the most beautiful and subtle shade of pastel violet.

My second collection, Indigo roses uses Effetre White, Purple 072, Pale Blue 224 and Teal 026 and Blue Goldstone with Thompson Enamels. The shards in this collection are especially pretty and shimmery.

This lovely pressed Water World focal shows how Indigo Rose murrini looks under heavy encasement.

I've used lashings of aqua petal cane to decorate this country garden style multi-layered decorative button. The butterfly that you can see inside is a small copper butterfly cut out.

My last mini set on show today is this lovely lilac lentil and earring trio decorated with swathes of blue enamel and goldstone shards.


It is now possible to join the Mini Mo' Club via Etsy for 3, 6, 9 or 12 month long subscriptions. Please check out my shop link for more info.
Frit N Chips lampwork supplies.

Have a lovely week, Jolene x

52 little things - week 14

We are now up to week 14 in our Year Long Challenge over on Craft Pimp Forum and this week I've made a pretty purple Blooming Amoeba bead for the fabulous Beads of Courage program here in the UK. I hope she will bring a smile.

Have a great week, Jolene xx