Election Special

Another two days of glorious weather. When it’s like this Britain is the best country in the world. Then it rains.

Election Special

Crewe & Nantwich are centre stage at the moment with the by-election caused by the death of Gwyneth Dunwoody. Seems very strange seeing Crewe town centre on TV and hearing “Crewe & Nantwich” every five minutes on the radio.

The big worry for Labour is that they’re going to lose this stronghold seat and I must say they deserve to on their show so far. We only found out who their candidate was via the national press but the labour party did manage to really annoy us by telephoning twice to survey us for our voting intentions in a most arrogant manner. I even slammed the phone down, something I usually reserve for persistent double glazing companies.

Our labour candidate is Tamsin Dunwoody, the daughter of Gwyneth. Well the son of George Bush has done a wonderful job for America and Kim Jong-il, the ‘dear leader’ son of the ‘great leader’ Kim Il-sung has done a great job for North Korea – there’s some good reasons to vote for a dynasty.

Then the Tories sent in David Cameron, old Etonian man of the people to support their candidate Edward Timpson. He’s nearly as much of a mystery as Tamsin Dunwoody to us but we know he has children from his publicity photo’s and cares about us from the blurb.

The Liberal Democrats managed to send a letter telling us about their candidate, Elizabeth Shenton, so we know something about the person we’re asked to vote for although not so much about policies. Still, Shenton is my wife’s maiden name so she might be a distant relative, which is in her favour.

None of them mention allotments but all is not lost, I find from the BBC website we have The Flying Brick standing from The Official Monster Raving Loony Party, so there is still hope for a surprise result.

Fame at Last!

Our local paper ran an article about yours truly. I mentioned the photo shoot on the plot. Well out of all the photographs they went with the most unflattering one of me. Val says it’s not the photographer’s fault I look fat, it’s mine for being fat. I enquired about putting one or two on the site but they want £75.00 each. Bit rich for my pocket.

Talking of fame, just been interviewed by the Daily Mail, (no photo’s) who are doing an article on allotments for Saturday’s issue (I think).

Borlotti Beans

Down to the serious stuff now. I got my bean rack built on plot 29 and planted out 30 borlotti beans. I had 16 plants over so passed those on to another plotholder – who returned the pots.

This year I’m doing more climbing beans than usual so went for a conventional rack rather than the teepee style. I haven’t decided what to do for the runner beans yet, they may get teepees anyway as they’re more stable and could wind break the rack. Whatever I do, I’m going to need some more 8′ bamboo canes so a visit to the supplier is called for,

French Climbing Beans

I’d got old opened packets of Blue Lake and Cobra climbing beans and chitted them to see if they were still viable. 2 cobra beans have sprouted out of the pack so I’ll have to sow from a fresh pack with them. The Blue Lake have done better so they’re getting potted up.

Lettuce

The lettuce I started in the greenhouse but had nearly killed due to not watering correctly had recovered well. Planted some out on the raised bed by the broad beans on plot five and moved the rest on from modules to pots in the greenhouse. Having them at various stages will give a consistent supply.

Garlic

I planted two types of garlic in one of the raised beds back in November for this year. Some Solent Wight an English variety and Music, a Canadian hard necked variety I got from a chap in Scotland.

The Solent Wight is, judging from the tops, the best garlic I’ve grown but the Music looks a bit feeble with some yellowing on the leaves. They’re both in the same bed, planted the same day and treated the same. Live and learn! I’ll stick to varieties bred for the UK in future.

Coldframe Base

Back at home I got a sheet of plywood to make a new base for the coldframe, cut it to size and gave it three coats of Cuprinol. Hope this one lasts a bit longer than the last. I’ll fix some runners under the base with scrap 2×1 to keep it off the ground.

Since I had the Cuprinol out, the pergola thingy got a coat. It was an end of season bargain from a garden centre and was supposed to be treated wood but it looks in need of some care. It takes blinking ages going over fiddly bits of trellis with a brush.

More Photographs

The latest photos from the plot are online now – Allotment Photographs for May

Posted in Allotment Garden Diary
2 comments on “Election Special
  1. nickyveglover says:

    Hi John was gonna order your book but was in my local WH Smith in belfast today and found it it so result. Well done to your publisher for distribution reading it at the moment great

  2. John says:

    Thanks Nicky – glad you’re enjoying it. I have a feeling they’re going to be re-printing sooner than expected. I’m not complaining!

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