Pumpkin Hundred Weight

Hello readers it’s been a while, it’s been a busy few weeks first off I competed

my charity walk on the 12^th May a 13 mile walk from Malden to Chelmsford in Essex I was part of a team and in total we raised over £700 so well chuffed with that and we still have money coming in, so thank you if you donated it’s going to a great cause.

On the plot not much went on in early May as it was Rain rain and more rain and I was getting quite worried that I was getting quite far behind.

But the last week I have been off work and the weather has been kind so a few days spent on the plot and things are back to normal.

The first job was to weed as since I rotivated, the beds were covered in weeds again luckily they were all little ones so a hoe did the trick.

This week I got quite a lot planted out, my sweetcorn, celeriac, chard and dwarf Bollotti beans all went in one bed I also planted out my French beans but haven’t quite got round to doing the Runner beans yet but plan to do this next week.

This year as some of you may know I am attempting to grow a large pumpkin for my 2 children they have asked me to grow a big pumpkin that Cinderella can use to go to the ball! (Oh to be 4 again!).

I don’t normally go in for the growing food that you can’t eat but on this occasion I will make an exception, I am growing a variety called hundred weight. I have done a bit of research on this variety and got a bit worried at the size they can get! But hopefully it won’t be too big. I started by digging a large hole about 2ft wide and 2ft deep my soil in this part of the allotment where I plan to grow it isn’t that great so needs a lot of help to get it going, I filled the whole with 4 spadesful’s of ½ rotted horse manure them topped it off with some compost and some chicken manure pellets and planted it in the center of this. I also put some stones round the base to help keep the moisture in I them made a raised circle round the plant so that when I water, the water wont escape and go to the roots where it’s needed. I plant to feed the pumpkin once a week with the beer ullage I will save from work, as I have read that they like a bit of ale and Beer!!!

Also this week I needed to change my 2 front tyres on my car I planned to keep the tyres and recycle them as planters on my plot so when I asked the mechanic that I wanted to keep my tyres he went white in the face and went straight to his boss I think he thought I was some sort of inspector or something his boss came out and gave me the third degree as to why I wanted them! I don’t think he believed me. It was all rather funny.