Goodbye Daddy's Little Helper

Just over a month ago I blogged about one of our cats, Fred, enjoying himself on the allotment as he hadn't been too well recently.

Yesterday we came back from a week's holiday to find that our neighbour, who had been looking after the cats whilst we were away, was rather upset.

It turned out that Fred had been taken very ill on Friday and was a very poorly cat indeed.  His tongue was protruding and was obviously causing him discomfort, and he was struggling to drink.

We rushed him straight up to the vets, and received the news that all pet owners dread.

He had a tumour on the base of his tongue that was inoperable, the only options we had were to try and make him comfortable for a few more days or to have him put to sleep straight away.

We both gave him a big hug and kiss, and told the vet to go ahead.

He slipped quietly away as we both stroked him and told him how much we loved him.

Fred was only with us for eight years - before that he had several homes but I like to think that we gave him as good and as loving a home as he could have had in that time.

We have had many cats over the past twenty five years, but none have been as affectionate as Fred.

He used to sit at the end of the path waiting for us to come home from work every night, and loved nothing more than to sit on someones knee and purr loudly.

He had just won a battle against a skin infection on his nose, and we were hoping that he would have been with us for a good many years to come but I guess some things are just not meant to be.

Goodbye Fred.  Your supervising on the allotment will have to be done from a much higher place from now on.

Daddy's Little Helper

Had a quick visit to the plot on Sunday and took one of our cats down with me.

Fred hasn't been too well recently and has lost a lot of weight, so we hoped that by taking him somewhere new it would encourage him to roam, give him a bit of interest and perk up his appetite.

It was also a bit of a test to make sure that he wouldn't run off and get lost as the allotment itself is a few miles from home.

Thankfully he was brilliant - I followed him closely for the first 20 mins or so, but when it became obvious that he was happy to stay fairly close to his water bowl I let him wander by himself.

He is a people cat, so was overjoyed when a couple of other plotters arrived and gave him a bit of attention (probably because I was too busy digging to make a fuss of him)

Fred has a thing about watching work being done - at home, if there is a hole being dug in the road, or a hedge being trimmed you can always find him down the hole with the workmen, or sharing the hedge-trimmers' lunch, so it was no real surprise when I looked up from by work every now and then to see that he was busy supervising Tony who was building a base for his shed.

After an exhausting bit of watching Fred decided it was nap time, and proceded to alternate between sun and shade for the rest of the morning.

His morning out seems to have done him some good as he was packing the food away like there was no tomorrow as soon as we got back home.

I have a feeling that he will become a regular on the plot in future.

Bloody Cats!!

I was a bit annoyed when I went out this morning to check on yesterday's plantings.

I was looking for any slug damage, and thankfully there wasn't any, but one of our cats had decided that the newly dug and planted raised bed was a good place for a toilet, and had gone between the rows of leeks :(

Nothing was dug up, but I had gone to the trouble of carefully planting the leeks in deep holes and not back filling with soil, but simply filling the hole with water, as recommended by all my gardening books.  Now about half of the plants have been buried  and knocked sideways by soil thrown about by the cat's scratching.

By carefully removing the excess soil (and poo) I have managed to get most of the plants stood up straight again, but a lot do not have their specially prepared growing tunnel any more - I wonder if that will stop them fattening up?  I will have to ask on The Grapevine.

There is really only one plant I an a bit woried about, but it was the runt of the planting and if it dies off I still have a couple of spares that I wasn't able to plant due to running out of space.

Tonight it is time to finish off planting the young plants I got from the garden centre yesterday.



Curly Kale to the left, Romanesco Broccoli to the right

I have got half a dozen of Curly Kale and Romanesco Broccoli in the front raised bed.  I always called the Romanesco a cauliflower before, but good old Google seems to be split 50:50 between broccoli and cauli.  Still, it said broccoli on the label from the garden centre, so that's what they are.

I also managed to get a couple of rows of peas in tight against the back trellis.  The plan is for them to be trained up the trellis and away from the slow developing brassicas.  Then again, that was the plan with the sweet peas I put in a couple of weeks ago, but they don't seem to want to do much so far. (they are starting to climb the canes to the left of the picture above)

There are also a couple of peppers and an aubergine for a growbag in the back garden, and a Horseradish - never grown one before, so that should be interesting.


Horseradish Plant

I will also have to rig something up over the raised bed to stop our boys using it as a litter tray again tonight - wish me luck!

Just got back in from planting - looks like I was celebrating no slug/snail damage too soon - they have taken great chunks out of my aubergine and one of the peppers.  I shall have to keep them on my tool store roof for a day or so to see if they recover before planting them out in the grow bag.

I also had a look at my tomato experiment - to be honest it isn't looking good right now.  It has only been a day since I planted it up, but it has already tried to double back on itslelf to try and head for the sun.

I will let it grow a bit larger - maybe the weight of any fruit will straighten it out a bit.  (assuming I actually get some fruit, that is)