Tunnel Vision

I'm not happy! Our polytunnel was supposed to have been constructed last Monday but when the team came to build it, the base that had been prepared was too small, and because the weather has been so dreadful, the posts to hold the tunnel couldn't be supported by the land around the base. So the team went home and the garden workers have put on their thinking caps to try and find a fast solution. In the meantime the rain keeps falling, but we can count ourselves lucky compared to all those poor people who have been flooded our troubles are minor ones. We have a new volunteer working in our garden, a young lady from the village who comes on Tuesdays and Thursdays she seems to be enjoying the experience very much to the pint where she's 'advising' the gardener.

Those salad days

Hooray, we have started harvesting our salad crops and potatoes, the boys from the green stuff as opposed to the black stuff (appropriate as we were once a mining community) bagged the first crops and went door to door selling (very cheaply) to the residents. They were met with great enthusiasm and I hope it will encourage more visitors to the allotments to see what else is available.

We are busy preparing our programme of courses for September and have some new and exciting courses including a creative garden design course, taster courses in Spanish and complementary therapies and an enterprise learning by doing course, a business course that encourages young people to pilot business ideas, we have six enthusiastic young men from our community involved and I can't wait to see how much money they can make.

Just for Dean

Dean braved the wet and wild weather in Banwen on Tuesday to participate in the Tidy Wales event, and don't we all know about it! "I'm baaad", he cried when he came into work yesterday, and he was only delivering the sandwiches!

Tidy Wales

I've been slightly busy the past couple of weeks so apologies for not blogging. Lots of progress has been made in our allotments, the polytunnel has arrived, the benches are being delivered today and the vegetables are growing fast, (so much water). We'll soon be able to start supplying the residents with fresh produce.

Yesterday we held a Tidy Wales Week event, volunteers came out to clear the area in front of the allotment fencing and the stream bed and planted some flowers. Thanks to everyone concerned because it was a wet and wild day, that only places like Banwen can produce.

Last Friday we held a Jazz in the Garden evening, the Women in Jazz, Swansea band performed superbly as usual and a great night was had by all concerned. It was also the last night for our three US interns who had been working with DOVE for the past three weeks, we were sad to see them leave and wish them a great future. I'm sure we'll all keep in touch.

everything in the garden is rosy.

Julie and myself walked across to the allotment site on Thursday, it's the first time we've been there for a couple of weeks. What a surprise, it actually looks like a vegetable garden, the kidney beans sticks are in waiting for the plants, onions, potatoes and aparagus are growing well. I can't believe how the area has changed since we began the work, I finally believe the dream will be realised.

Busy doing nothing

It's Sunday, the sun is shining, so although I should be studying I'm going to potter around in my garden. I've promised a friend some lily of the valley for their garden, so that will be my first job, then I'm going to plant some lettuce and peppers that my dad has given me. My dad supplies us with tomato plants every year and it's my husband's responsibility to grow them and mow the lawn, I look after the flowers and shrubs and weed the beds. I don't know if I've got the better deal, the weeding seems to take a lot longer than the mowing! My dad tries to get us to grow runner beans, but I've told him I'll just come and pick his when they are ready. It's not easy maintaining a vegetable plot when you are working full time, so we stick to simple things that don't need much attention, but when we retire we'll expand, perhaps?

They seek him here, they seek him there...

We've just had a new telephone system installed and it's chaotic, I don't know how many have been lost in transition (not to be confused with lost in translation). So if anyone reading this has failed to get through, I apologise, but the lack of calls is quite restful.