WeedyBeanz

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch Weekend - What did You See?

2012-01-28T04:17:00.000-08:00

Recently we have been visited regularly by a group of Redpolls. They are a type of finch, with pinky red patches on their heads and breasts like this one above. (Sorry it's so blurred, I was in a hurry to photograph it before it flew away). Some are more brightly coloured than others, I think it is the males that have more colour. If the first one to arrive had not been so brightly coloured, I would not have been able to identify them. The females are really quite non-descript. I had never heard of a Redpoll, let alone seen one, so I had to leaf through the bird book until I saw something that matched. They squabble with the Goldfinches who were already regular visitors, so I decided to get myself one of these extra large nyger seed dispensers, with multiple perches, so more could visit at any one time. They still squabble over it, even though there's more than enough room for all of them.

Over the course of my one hour, this is what I saw:

3 Blackbirds
2 Collared Doves
1 Greenfinch
1 Robin
1 Blue tit
2 Dunnocks
2 Crows
2 Starlings
2 Chaffinches
4 Goldfinches
1 Long-tailed tit
2 Woodpigeons
1 Coal tit
1 Great tit
3 Redpolls
1 Seagull

Did you take part? If so what did you see?

The Victorian Kitchen Garden

2012-01-22T08:42:00.000-08:00

In my quest for substitute gardening activities during winter, I often turn to gardening books and magazines, but what I really enjoy is to immerse myself completely in some full-on gardening fantasy, ideally through the medium of a screen. I had seen adverts for The Victorian Kitchen Garden DVD collection in magazines, and thought it seemed rather expensive, and it recently occurred to me that I might be able to rent it instead. So I popped over to Lovefilm.com, marked it 'high priority', and it landed on my doormat in a couple of days. I was intending to spin out the couple of hours worth of Disc One over a few days, but ended up watching it all in the same day, then watching it again the next day!

It is quite an old production, I'd guess around 30 years old, the presenters are obviously from the Percy Thrower School, jackets and ties at all times. They waffle on a bit here and there, but they know their onions.

This particular kitchen garden belongs to a country house in Berkshire. It is a huge walled garden, with great expanses of glasshouses and coldframes, espaliered fruit trees on every wall, and perfect gravel pathways with clematis-clothed arches dotted around. There are rows of outbuildings, not only potting sheds and tool sheds, but forcing sheds, and soil sheds, and a special building to house the huge boiler which heats the glasshouses. There is a fruit store which looks like a small thatched cottage, and even an ice-house. (Forgive me if I'm confusing this last bit with Chatsworth, which is also featured in the Introduction quite a lot).

The series takes you through the gardening year, month by month, describing the day to day lives of the Head Gardener and his staff: what they would be doing, and how they would be doing it, in the days prior to the invention of plastic pots, bags of ready made compost, nylon netting and horticultural fleece. They had some pretty resourceful methods of pest control! Of course, being right next door to the stable block, they were never short of manure, including the fresh stuff for creating hot beds, but imagine how much time and effort would have gone into shifting all that amount of muck. Just as well they had a staff of around 20 people.

Wealthy Victorians enjoyed showing off at their dinner parties, and liked to impress their guests with the range of exotic produce on offer. If they took a fancy to aubergines, or pineapples, the Head Gardener was expected to produce them himself, on the estate. Not only did they have to produce enough to feed His Lordship and his family and dinner guests all year round, but enough for all the servants as well. The large gardening staff and the elaborate, purpose built equipment would have been essential, as would access to his Lordship's presumably quite generous gardening budget.

This is a relaxing, old fashioned TV series, perfect winter viewing for anyone who is dying to get on with the new gardening season, but finds themselves confined to barracks due to the cold, wet or frosty weather. You will be inspired with all kinds of new ideas. Or, if you're looking for some motivation to get you going again after the winter break, this will certainly help. So far I have watched January through to May, and I can't wait for Disc Two, with the second half of the year, to pop through the door. If you don't want to buy or rent it, you can also watch it all on You Tube.

First Seeds of the Season

2012-01-16T07:18:00.000-08:00

It's too cold and frosty to work on the allotment at the moment, and I have been getting twitchy sitting waiting for the season to get underway. So I decided it wasn't too early to start sowing a few seeds. The only one of these I have done before is celeriac. Although the packet says sow Feb - March I normally start these off in January as they are pretty slow growers, and by the time they germinate it will probably be February. I guessed that as celery is very similar I could do the same with this. I know a lot of people sow their onions at Christmas, so I'm pretty sure I'm OK with these too.

They are all in the conservatory so they are well lit, and will all be covered in bubble wrap, and the celery and celeriac are sitting on my heated propagator. Once they have germinated I can move them onto the windowsill and make room in the propagator for the next batch of seeds, toms, peppers, chillies etc.

I have made a bit more progress with the digging during the mild weather last week, so the plot is nearly ready for spring. There is not much more I can do now until next month, when I will be buying and chitting seed potatoes, starting off the greenhouse seeds, pruning the autumn fruiting raspberries and, weather permitting, sowing broad beans.

Christmas Dinner Preparations

2011-12-22T11:53:00.000-08:00

I've been to the allotment today (first time in ages) to dig up the parsnips and sprouts for Christmas Day. I would have left it until nearer the time but the forecast is for wet and horrible tomorrow, and today was just beautiful. The sun was so warm I could have sat and sunbathed. However it was a little muddy for that, so I got on with the job in hand. The scale in the picture above is a little misleading, as both sprouts and parsnips look average-sized. In reality the sprouts are not much bigger than peas and the parsnips are monster bully-boys!

I have been busy at home as well, making crackers. They are one of those things which, once you have made them yourself, you never want to go back to shop-bought ones. A bit like growing veg I suppose. Not only can you make them look exactly how you want, you can also fill them with what you want. Party poppers, indoor fireworks (one of which turned out to be an outdoor firework, but that's another story), rocket balloons and chocolates, are just some of the things I have included over the years. I haven't yet done lottery tickets.....

We have also got plenty of lights and greenery festooned about the place of course, and the food shopping is done except for the birds which we will collect tomorrow. We are having a chicken, a duck and some pheasants for a change from turkey this year.

Well now it just remains for me to wish you all a very HAPPY Christmas (or in some cases, just a bearable one!) and a very PRODUCTIVE new year! xxxx

Liebster Award

2011-12-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

Thank you very much Jo at The Good Life for choosing me to receive this award. It's very gratifying to know 1) that people actually read your blog and 2) that they enjoy reading it! I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to carry out the instructions for passing the award on, as I'm not sure how to tell how many followers someone has..... if someone can enlighten me then I will try to identify 5 more blogs to pass it on to.

Another new plot progress update

2011-11-28T08:42:00.001-08:00

This is the area where we dug out that big old bramble a couple of weeks ago. We have put in some new supports for the grapevines and loganberry that we plan to put in.

And this is the remains of the bonfire we had last night, on which said bramble was ceremoniously burnt.

I have made quite a bit of progress with the digging, gradually removing all those chrysanths, which is a shame as they are still flowering away... the green bit at the back is the first bit I dug, which is now covered in weeds again!

And this is my 'shed' ... until such time as I can put up something a bit more substantial, with guttering for rainwater etc.

In a Tangle with a Bramble

2011-11-12T09:57:00.001-08:00

I've been thinking about clearing the greenhouse out for some time now. Normally I would have done it weeks ago, but there were still so many things apparently still growing. I picked the last of the peppers, almost ripe, but not quite. The tomatoes were still growing and producing flowers, although obviously they won't come to anything now. So yesterday I decided to clear everything except the chillies, because they are still busy ripening. I've made some wonderful, spicy chilli jam, which is going down well so I think another batch might be a good idea.

Even these outdoor grown tomatoes are still ripening!

Since my last post I have been on a trip to RHS Wisley. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain most of the day so it was a bit gloomy and soggy, but still very beautiful. The orchid above was one of many in their wonderful glasshouse, and the autumn colour (below) was amazing, even in the rain.

So back at the allotment, our task for this weekend is to get rid of this monster, to make room for some grapes, and my little cherry tree which is currently in a container and not doing terribly well.

By lunchtime today we had got to a point where you could actually get from one side of the plot to the other.

By close of play today it looked like this:

Tomorrow we will be digging out the rest of the roots and stumps and preparing the ground for planting. You will notice I say 'we' rather than 'I', and yes! there really were two of us today, my husband came to help for the first time in my whole allotment career! That's because he's the one that wants to plant grapes (for winemaking!) We'll see how long it lasts...

So with the lure of a big bonfire (in a couple of weeks, after it's dried out a bit) I might even be able to get one of my children up there for the first time!

I can't remember if I've mentioned, I have been elected Committee Secretary for the Allotment Association. This kind of happened by accident when I was put on the spot and was unable to say no when I was asked. I thought it would just be a case of taking minutes at committee meetings a few times a year, but it turns out it's quite a lot more than that.... liaising with local councilors, sending out the warning letters.... things I wasn't really prepared for. However, it does have its advantages, such as being first in the know when someone is selling off a very large roll of enviromesh at a bargain price! And after less than a year on this site, I already know a lot more people on the site than I ever did after three years on the old one. Many of them live very close by too so it is quite 'community', which is nice.

Annual Allotment Review

2011-10-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit later than usual this year with my review, that's because it's only just starting to feel like the end of summer. It's been so lovely and warm during October, and this year, for the first time ever, it looks as if I will be left with virtually no green tomatoes, just about every single one has ripened. Yesterday I took out the tomato plants at the allotment, and, guess what? put them in the COMPOST BIN!! Yes! - no blight! This must be the first year that has happened since about 2005 or 2006. I may have mentioned this before but apparently this is the driest year in the Midlands since 1976.

Of course this has had its down side as well, the lack of moisture has really affected some crops quite badly. We have had a few showers, and one or two downpours, but the rain that many other areas have had has just passed us by, the allotments are dustbowls at the moment, and have been all year.

Well, as usual, I'll start with the greenhouse crops:
Tomatoes - a really good year, as I've already said, both indoors and out. The sideshoot cuttings, grown outdoors, were a success too.
Chillies - I've grown a couple of new varieties this year, Numex Twilight, and Black Pearl (above) as well as the Heatwave I grew last year, and we have had masses. There are still plenty ripening in the greenhouse, and I'm not sure what I will do when the frosts hit - maybe put a heater in there? It would be a shame to lose them all.
Aubergines - well, success with aubergines for the first time, in as much as I've never managed to grow any fruit before, three produced all together, off two plants although the last one was the size of an egg.
Peppers - quite a few fruit, some very small and funny shaped, again, plenty still ripening in the greenhouse. Unfortunately all the red ones have had nasty little blackish patches on the insides, which I have had to cut out.
Cucumbers - not a great year for cucumbers, the first batch didn't do very well at all, but I started a second batch halfway through the summer, and these did slightly better. All were quite badly affected by mildew, which I have kept under control by spraying with milk solution.

On the allotment:
Fruit - not a great year for my fruit, mainly because I have had to start with all new, or moved, plants, which haven't got properly established yet.

Runner beans - my worst year ever, and it wasn't just mine, so I can only put that down to the weather.
Broad beans - not bad, next year I want to try and stagger them a bit more so they don't all come at once.
French beans - pretty successful this year, again, next year I want to do a lot more of them, preferably staggered throughout the year, this should be easier with the extra space I will have next year.
Peas - I did mange touts, which I thought would be easier in terms of avoiding the maggots, but instead I had to contend with pigeons, so had the usual problems with them getting tangled up in the netting (the peas, not the pigeons). They were nice but I didn't have enough space to make the yield worth the effort. The jury is still out on whether to bother next year.

Cabbages - so-so, we don't eat that many, but space again was a bit of an issue here, I had no spaces between my netting tunnels, so it was very difficult to get in amongst them and look after/harvest them. The last few summer ones are still sitting there, some have resprouted, mainly because I can't be bothered to take the netting off!
The same applies to the psb and brussels sprouts, which I finally got around to having a good look at yesterday. The psb is ok, although one plant had already stopped sprouting and started flowering, so I have pulled it up. Unfortunately the brussels sprouts are covered in aphids, and sooty mould. They really don't look too good at all. And the whole lot is swathed in clouds of the inevitable whitefly.

Carrots -a good year for carrots, there are still plenty left, although they are getting a bit woody now.
Parsnips - looking good, but I haven't dug any up yet.

Onions - didn't do too badly, but we have already almost run out, there wasn't enough space to grow very many.
Shallots - ditto, and they weren't very impressive either.
Leeks - are really struggling with the dryness, the first planting is doing ok, the second lot are desperate for a good downpour.
I didn't get any garlic this year, the new occupants of my old plot would have had it.

Potatoes - could have done with more rain. They were ok, but nothing special. They ran out several weeks ago now, as there was not enough space to grow enough for storing over winter.

Sweetcorn - pathetic, again I put this down to the weather.
Squashes - underwhelming. Again, must have been the weather.

I say 'it must have been the weather', but of course I could have done a lot more watering! However, it wasn't just the dryness, it was also quite cold, so I think I wasn't really aware of how little it had rained, otherwise it might have occurred to me to do a bit more watering. I don't normally reckon to water things once they're established, and normally we have enough rain so that it's not necessary. It really has been an extraordinary year for weather, and they say it's going to continue in this vein for several years, if not decades.

I estimate I will have an extra 30% or so of space for vegetables next year. Although I now have a full size plot, nearly half is already full of fruit, but it is a wide plot, and I have paced it out and it is very roomy! I have already planted four types of garlic - Thermidrome, Germidour, Music and a couple of cloves of Elephant garlic.

A Summery Autumn

2011-09-29T09:00:00.001-07:00

Isn't it great finally to get some warm weather, just when we thought winter was on the way? Only a week or so ago there was talk of frost and snow in October, but now it looks as if we are going to have a couple of weeks of mild and settled weather. Good news for the remaining tomatoes, peppers, squashes etc, an opportunity to ripen up properly before harvesting.

I was sitting outside the back door the other day, enjoying the last tiny patch of afternoon sun, when my attention was caught by a glistening spider's web festooning the backlit leaves of this blueberry bush.

And I love the colours of the new foliage on this lemon plant. Unfortunately it hasn't produced a single lemon, the biggest one got to was about an inch long, then it just shrivelled up. Mostly they don't develop at all. Please tell me if you can suggest what I might be doing wrong. I have tried hand pollinating, but to no avail.

New Plot Progress

2011-09-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

So I have finished the strawberry bed, and the patch in front of that is designated next year's onion bed. I'm going to put some garlic in, just as soon as I've been and got some. I'm not sure what is supposed to be happening with the chrysanthemums, I think the old chap wanted to keep some propagation material from each variety, but I've no idea how to go about that, so I daren't touch them for now. I will have to speak to the site chairman about it. So the onion bed is only half done. No matter, I don't need much space for garlic, and won't be putting anything else in until next spring.

Next job was to tackle this end bit, which was covered in nettles and other weeds. They were growing on a mound, held up by the piece of metal 'retaining fence', which suggested there might be a pile of manure or some such underneath, and indeed there was. Once that manure has been spread around a bit I can take that fence out. It's not much to look at is it? I have pulled out a number of rusty old iron poles, and piled them up ready for the 'any old iron' truck to come round. I couldn't quite finish the job today - too exhausted - but once the area is clear I will be able to move my comfrey and rhubarb into it.

Work begins on the new plot

2011-09-21T10:05:00.001-07:00

So now I am on plot number 3. I hope I stay put this time! This is the view from near the top end, showing how overgrown it has become since the current tenant, Baden Locke, (all round chrysanth expert and international chrysanthemum judge) became too frail to look after it. You can probably just make out the flowers he has grown this year.

I am keeping on the old plot until I have harvested and moved everything I still want, which will probably be early next spring if I am not to sacrifice all my psb like I had to last year.

This is the very top end, where I am planning to put comfrey and rhubarb.

From here right up to the fence you can just about see at the back, is fruit. There is a rickety shelter at the back, built out of wooden pallets and corrugated iron, and covered in brambles. There is also a compost bay made of corrugated sheet asbestos...... but as long as I leave it where it is it shouldn't present a problem.

This is the strawberry patch, soon after I started clearing it last week....

... and here it is after I'd finished clearing it, and before I started replanting all the plants in orderly rows! This is still a work in progress so hopefully next week I will be able to post pictures of the finished strawberry patch, and maybe a cleared area ready to put garlic in.

Ripening

2011-09-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

As instructed by Monty Don on Friday evening I have denuded all the tomato plants of their foliage, to encourage ripening. I also removed the tatty old sweet peas from around the outside and cleaned off all the shading paint. I'm hoping I won't be left with lots and lots of green tomatoes at the end of the season. I'm not that keen on green tomato chutney, to be honest.

These are the plants that were grown from sideshoot cuttings. I didn't think they were going to come to much, but in the end they have done really well. They don't look very pretty with all their leaves stripped off but you can see how much fruit they have produced. Being F1 hybrids, Sungold toms are not the best value for money, but with this technique you can make them go twice as far.

These are the first two peppers to start ripening, plenty more of these, although mostly quite small. No more aubergines to report, but lots of chillies ripening too.

I still haven't managed to get to the new plot, but I hope to make a start this week or next week, and will be carrying out the annual review shortly. It hasn't been the best year, with quite a few failures, but more on that next time....

Hill Close Gardens

2011-08-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

I've been on a little excursion today, to Hill Close Gardens in Warwick. I have been meaning to go for ages now, and am really glad I have finally got around to it. It is a restored Victorian 'allotment' site, where local business owners (who lived above their premises and didn't have gardens) could go and garden. Each plot is a small private space, all similar in shape and size but all different in the way they are laid out and designed. Below is one with a stumpery, and above, a view across the garden to the 'shed' - I say shed but they are actually solid, and very attractive brick structures.

They are not just vegetable patches either, although most of them had a pretty impressive veg patch. The ornamental borders were gorgeous and most of them had at least one very mature apple tree.

How about this for a garden shed (cold frame in front) - covered in brushwood, and through the french windows at the front you could see the internal walls had been decorated with hundreds of oyster shells.

Or, how about the interior of this octaganal 'summer house', with open fire, leaded light windows and carpet on the floor?

Well worth a visit, but check opening times first, they are quite restricted, and only open between April and October. There is an 'apple day' in October apparently.

Squash and French Beans

2011-08-21T08:48:00.001-07:00

Things at the allotment have slowed right down lately. The only thing that is really happening is that the french beans have gone beserk, and the pumpkin is starting to turn orange. That's it really. I may get one or two sweetcorn cobs, if I'm lucky, but they're not looking too promising. I wonder if it's a bit late to start watering them regularly?

The early carrots are all gone and the late ones aren't ready yet. The runners have started to produce a few beans but they're not doing very well. There's not much I can harvest, apart from french beans, french beans or french beans. I'm getting a bit tired of french beans.

Despite the recent rain showers, it is still very very dry, so there are very few weeds, and everything else just seems to have stopped growing (apart from the french beans).

I may have some time to spend up there this week, and I'm thinking about making a start on my new allotment. Apparently the old chap is pretty much incapacitated now, and has said that I can start on it any time. He is still having produce collected for him, so I can't make any major changes, but I could start clearing weeds.

Extraordinary Aubergines

2011-08-12T04:44:00.001-07:00

The big one weighs 1lb 4oz. Hopefully some of the many remaining flowers will now also produce fruit.

At the Allotment

2011-07-26T10:37:00.001-07:00

I picked the first of the french beans today, looks like there will be a bumper crop.

I'm getting a steady stream of courgettes now, but so far only from two of the plants. The one you can see at the back there has yet to produce anything but male flowers.

Here's the first pumpkin swelling nicely...

...and I think this is a Potimarron squash.

I planted out these leeks (foreground) a few days ago, the ones behind had a few weeks' head start.

And finally the first runner beans are beginning to show.

I had a good weed and tidy up this morning. I'm going to have to lift the red onions and shallots soon, I don't think they are going to grow much more, the foliage is all dying back now.

The outdoor tomatoes are not doing so great, the first trusses formed fruit, but the next few just shrivelled and dropped off. There are lots more coming though, so I've given them a feed and a comfrey mulch and will just have to keep a close eye on them.

I've got masses of aubergine flowers forming now, but I don't know how many fruits each plant can realistically support - I've never successfully grown them before, so I don't know whether to remove some of them. If anyone knows, do please let me know!

More on tomatoes

2011-07-16T04:21:00.001-07:00

I can't get over how long these tomato trusses are. I wonder if the actual tomatoes will be quite small as a result. They look like it at this stage, but the truss still has some developing to do yet.

On the down side, there are greenfly and whitefly all over my chillies, and the cucumbers are covered with mildew. I am trying to keep this under control by spraying regularly with a solution of bicarbonate of soda, but it doesn't seem to be working that well. At first I used a solution of milk and water, which seemed to work well, but left a pretty awful smell. I have been growing some new cucumber plants, but they have already been affected by the mildew as well.

Tomatoes on the turn

2011-07-03T05:35:00.001-07:00

Almost read to pick now! I have been buying a few tomatoes from the supermarket, but very reluctantly. None this week though, we should soon be eating our own.

I think this is a flower on the aubergine - there are two plants, with one flower each! Not the most productive plants, but it will be an achievement if they produce fruit, I've never had success with aubergines before.

There are lots of flower buds on my pepper plants, and this one is the first to start developing into a fruit.

Not sure what to do with my chillies, they are now touching the greenhouse ceiling, but there are lots of flower buds on the very tops so I don't want to cut them off...

Tomatoes and carrots

2011-06-28T08:32:00.001-07:00

I can't remember if I mentioned, some time ago, that I had experimented with rooting tomato sideshoots as cuttings. Anyway, these are the results of that experiment. I don't think they're ever going to amount to much - they are not nearly as vigorous as the parent plants, but they are growing, and they have got little flowers and fruit forming. They look as if they're going to be very small fruit though. Anyway it was interesting to try, if only to satisfy my curiosity.

And this is my first carrot harvest of the year. I'm pretty chuffed with these! I do like the ones that twirl around each other!

Weedybeanz lives up to its name...

2011-06-20T09:42:00.001-07:00

Until I took it in hand yesterday. Weedy beans became....

...neat and tidy beans!

Weedy onions......

Clean and spotless onions!

Most of the red onions had flopped over, which made it very difficult, particularly as it was too damp to hoe and I had to crouch down and pull them out by hand. It took hours.

Weedy squashes....

Spick and span squashes !

Here I did use the hoe, but most of the weeds ended up buried and will probably regrow, but at least they look nice in the picture.

My tomatoes are behaving very strangely. The leaves are unusually big and there are sideshoots growing between the leaves as well as between the leaf axils. And a couple of trusses have just carried on growing a stalk out of the end, which have grown sideshoots and flowers of their own. I've never seen the like.

The cabbages have been attacked by caterpilars... I don't know how they got to them, they have been covered in netting from the moment I planted them, but they have been munching away undetected for a while. I found cabbage white caterpilars first, and I thought I had removed them all, but I could see that something was still eating them, and it wasn't until today that I found a different sort of caterpilar, plain green ones. I don't know what they are, they are not quite as voracious as the cabbage white, but they are harder to spot and they get right down in between the leaves. I need to keep checking as I have probably missed a few. I don't think cabbages are going to be my best crop this year.

We had a little visitor in the garden recently, quite a young hedgehog, which seemed to have an injured foot. It kept stumbling over, poor thing.

Plot pictures

2011-05-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Trevor at Digging for Victory for asking for allotment pics, it made me realise I hadn't taken any pictures since just after I put the spuds in, at the end of March. Funny how during May things turn gradually from predominantly brown to predominantly green, as everything fills out and takes off. At the moment it's still mainly brown, but by the end of the month I expect to see the balance tipped.

Things are looking so much better since we had a really good few downpours over the weekend. I have a full water butt now as well!

The tomatoes are all flowering profusely now:

I think these Sungold flowers are particularly pretty with their green stripe.

I have had to hastily erect my runner bean frame today, as the beans I put in just over a week ago are already 6-8" tall and look like they need to be planted out. I will harden them off for a few days and then they'll have to take their chances. If they are going to grow that quickly there's always time to plant some more if a frost gets them.

Pond Life

2011-05-05T10:06:00.001-07:00

As promised, here are a few pictures of the completed pond. This frog moved in the day after we filled it up with water, and as we were putting the plants in we discovered that he/she had been joined by a companion. A friend donated some floating weed and some snails, but we did also go a bit crazy at the garden centre. We didn't spend enough time getting the levels right (too impatient!) so as a result there is quite a lot of liner showing round the edges, and we thought the more plants we get the quicker they will be disguised. There has also been a lot of evaporation in this hot dry weather.

The cat is quite keen on drinking the water, but whether this is because he just likes the novelty of it or because he is developing some dreadful feline disease, is not clear. I suspect the former, as he still doesn't drink the water in his bowl.

We did have a bit of a frost the night before last, but luckily my potatoes got away with it, being in a sheltered corner by a hedge. I put a little heater in the greenhouse so those plants are all doing fine as well.

I'm going to start hardening off my outdoor tomatoes this weekend, but I won't plant them outside until the end of May. As I started them off so early, and they are quite advanced, I thought I would try rooting some of the sideshoots as cuttings, so that I have some younger plants coming along later in the summer. I have never tried this before but so far so good.

Back at the plot, the broad beans are starting to flower, and the Red Duke of York earlies are also developing flower buds. Most of the parsnips have come up, and spinach, carrots and onions are all doing well. Very few peas came up though, so I have re-sown, this time with pre-chitted seed, to see if that makes any difference... but nothing yet. If that fails, I will have to try soaking them in parafin first, in case it's mice.

STILL no rain - not a drop now since the beginning of April. It keeps being forecast but never comes, but fingers crossed for this weekend.

An Easter Holiday Project

2011-04-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

We are making a wildlife pond at the far end of our garden, in front of the cabin. Unfortunately my husband broke his wrist last night, playing tennis, so that has impeded our progress a little, but fortunately he had done a lot of the preliminary excavations before it happened (as well as the hoovering, luckily!) This morning I finished the digging and shaping, and this is where we have got to by mid afternoon today. Now we just have to leave it for a few days to settle, and then we can set about trimming and concealing the edges of the liner.

There is a very deep bit in the middle (nearly a meter I should think), some 'shelving' around the edges, and a 'beach' at one end for creatures to climb in and out, and to sunbathe on. There were a number of large boulders around the garden, left over from a rockery that some previous owners built, as well as quite a few smaller stones, which we will arrange around the edges. I'll keep you posted and put up some more pictures when it's all finished.

Thank you for the encouraging comments after my last post, nobody has said anything discouraging so far, so I think/hope I am doing the right thing in taking on the new plot, and I am going to ask for a couple of months of overlap period, while I move all my stuff over and finish off any crops that are left.

Another new plot?

2011-04-15T09:41:00.001-07:00

So I've just finished clearing the last patch of my new allotment, and it's looking really tidy, and I've sown/planted a few crops. The crop rotation plan is all worked out, and I'm beginning to feel I'm in control of the situation. So imagine my reaction when just the other day, the site manager comes over and tells me that there's a great plot becoming vacant - a full one as opposed to my half one - in the autumn. As they have been so impressed with how well I've done with mine, they wanted me to have first refusal on it!

Well my first thought was: I'll have to transplant all that fruit again! It will take even longer before it's established and producing a decent yield. I didn't really think I wanted a bigger plot, as I've got enough to do with the one I've got. Until I was offered one that was. Now I'm beginning to like the idea....

This is the plot, above. The current tenant is a chrysanthemum fanatic, apparently most of his plot is devoted to them and he has even written books on the subject. That's what all those iron stakes are for, his chrysanth support structure. They will all be removed before the next tenant takes over, as will the oak and ash trees which have seeded themselves right in the middle of the plot. Unfortunately he is now on his last legs and is being forced to give it all up, poor old chap.

However his loss could be my gain, because what has really swung me is all these lovely FRUIT bushes! There are a few strawberries, lots of raspberries, gooseberries and currants (can't tell yet which colour) and blackberries. I reckon about one third of the plot is already full of fruit, and if I move mine over as well I will have an instant supply of the stuff, and even more when mine has matured.

And there will still be plenty of space for growing LOTS more veggies, and maybe even some flowers as well. Even my husband is starting to mutter things about helping, and growing grapes.... but we'll see.

The only thing that worries me is the amount of work there will be. But if one third is taken up with fruit, and that is all mulched and weed-proofed, it needn't be that much more than I have to do now. So I have more or less told him I will take it, although I haven't actually signed on the dotted line yet....

An early spring

2011-04-07T12:20:00.001-07:00

It seems to me to have been a long time since we had such warm weather so early in the year, but I'm not complaining. Now that it's April, it's unlikely we will get any more really cold snaps, but I probably shouldn't speak too soon.

Needless to say I have been taking advantage of the weather, and the fact that I am now on my Easter break, to 'get things done'. So, at the allotment potatoes are now all in, peas are in, carrots and spinach are also in. Broad beans are up and away.

I have begun clearing the final bed, the summer veg bed, but you can't quite see that bit in the picture below, as I'm standing on it.

At home the greenhouse crops have now all been moved out to the greenhouse, with sheets of fleece, bubble wrap and polystyrene sheeting all at the ready just in case. Although yesterday I had to hang an old sheet on the outside of the greenhouse - to provide shade as it got so hot in there!

I have sown some lettuce and spinach seeds in a big tub and next project is to get some herbs going.

Ooh sunshine!

Things are growing...

2011-03-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

The chillies are developing their first true leaves and the peppers are all doing well now too.

Flowers on the top shelf: candytuft, sunflowers and calendula, and bottom shelf has brussels sprouts, cabbages and leeks.

Tomatoes are getting quite big as are the cucumbers, not shown. I have also sown sweet peas, herbs, marigolds and nemesia.

Down at the plot, the broad beans are coming up and the onions are beginning to put up shoots.

It was very exciting to discover today that there are wrens nesting in the hedge behind my compost bins. I hope I won't disturb them too much. There is a road on the other side of the hedge which doesn't seem to bother them.

My only concern now is that it is so dry - we haven't had any rain for weeks and weeks. The water butt is almost empty already. I think the taps are switched on at the beginning of April, and the forecast is predicting rain for Tuesday and Wednesday. I will be on holiday for Easter by the middle of next week so I hope it doesn't rain for too long - short and sharp is what I need.

Spring Sunshine

2011-03-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been gloriously sunny and springlike, and I have been making the most of it down on the plot. I have planted strawberries through the weed fabric, which was quite a fiddly job and some of the plants look as if they have died, either because they have not been planted properly, or because the flaps of the holes have covered the plants and deprived them of light. However, at least those that survive shouldn't need too much weeding.

In the next bed along I have sown some broad beans, and next but one along from that has onions in it. Aside from that I have just been clearing weeds, ready for the next crops, namely potatoes, carrots, peas. There is quite a lot of couch grass, mixed in with ordinary grass, which makes me paranoid about accidentally putting couch grass in the compost bin, so to speed things up I have just been stripping off all the grass and chucking it all on the non-compostable compost pile.

Meanwhile, back at the house, the greenhouse crops are coming on nicely. They are all potted on now, except for the aubergines, which have only just come up, and red peppers, which I gave up on and sowed some more from a new packet. Lo and behold, no sooner had I done so than the original ones are now starting to show. Typical.

I had a lovely garden centre shopping spree yesterday, got my 5 shrubs for £20, 8 perennials for £10, several half price bargains, including the most beautiful hellebore, only just slightly past its best, and one or two other items. Tomorrow afternoon I will be planting those out.

Some progress at last

2011-03-06T08:24:00.001-08:00

At last - the weather has finally decided to co-operate, and we have managed to get the glass into the greenhouse, the frame went up three weeks ago and there just hasn't been an opportunity to get it finished until today. Well, Friday in fact, but I didn't get very far because I had trouble with the little s-clips with which you support one pane of glass on top of another. The glass just didn't seem to want to fit in the roof, so I had to ring up technical support. They said they would post me some larger, bendier clips, which duly arrived yesterday, but we were out all day, so today it was. It is all done except for three panes in the roof, which seem to be missing. We have been sent too many of the big panes and not enough of the smaller ones. Tomorrow I will take the bigger ones to the glass centre to get them cut down.

Now finally I can get on with sowing some more seeds. I have started my greenhouse crops in the conservatory, which is an ideal environment at this time of year, although I have to cover up the propogator with bubble wrap at night.

On the right are tomato seeds, six different varieties, which have germinated within a week. The rest are peppers and chillies, and aubergine, which look as if they are just about to come up as well.

I have spent very little time at the allotment over the last three weeks, but I managed a couple of hours on Friday. My free strawberry plants have finally arrived, plus free blueberry plant (very small), and I also have some which I picked up very cheaply from Aldi, and they are all now in pots, waiting for their patch to be ready at the allotment. That makes a total of 26 strawberry plants for the grand total of just under £9.50 (that includes the blueberry plant and postage). The previous tenant left a few plants behind as well so I've got quite a good stock to start off with. The transplanted rhubarb has established nicely, as has the comfrey which I was a bit worried about as I planted it when it was frozen. The new raspberry canes are beginning to show signs of life as well as the transplanted blackcurrant bushes. So fruit-wise I am doing fine, but not a single outdoor vegetable has been started yet. Tomorrow I aim to finish preparing the bean area and get my broad beans in.

I have tidied up a bit in my garden as well, and prepared a few areas for planting new plants. My local Blooms is doing some mega offers during March and I have a big wodge of gardening vouchers to spend. 8 herbaceous plants for £10 (9cm pots), 5 hardy shrubs (2ltr pots) for £20, fruit trees £9.99 each (reduced from £24.99) - not that I really need any more, but I might not be able to resist... coldframes, reduced from £69.99 to £29.99... and so the list goes on. I will definitely be getting down there before they sell out. Bargains galore.

Fruit Patch Established

2011-02-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

Today I have planted out 10 raspberry canes and the 3 blackcurrant bushes that came from my old plot. Using my new azada made short work of digging a trench, which I lined with compost, to put the raspberries into. You can see the 3 blackcurrants at the end, in front of the builder's bag. There is a further raspberry cane which was there already, and I have left it where it was as it isn't in the way too much. At the back, I have created a small bed for the comfrey, which I planted out last week, while it was still frozen, so am keeping my fingers firmly crossed for that. There was a plastic raised bed type thing in our garden when we moved in and this has been recycled to make the retaining barrier that you can see in the foreground. The whole area is going to be covered in a mulch of wood chippings. (These are inside the builder's bag - hopefully there will be enough).

The azada has proved to be really quite useful. I had to cut about 10 inches off the handle, as I found it too long and unwieldy to use effectively as it was. It took me a while to develop a good technique with it. I realised after a while that the best method was to work forwards, standing on ground that had been cleared, and chopping and pulling the earth towards me, so that it was easier to sort the weeds from the soil. It's particularly good for creating neat edges. I still need to get a bit more used to it though.

Next jobs are to put in garlic and broad beans (after clearing spaces for them), and creating a strawberry patch. I have sent off for 10 free strawberry plants and a free blueberry bush which are offered in the March issue of Kitchen Garden, but I will try to source a few more from elsewhere as well. I really would like to produce more fruit. I do hope my new raspberries won't suffer too much with raspberry beetle. They are autumn fruiting ones, which seem to be less affected. Oh, and plant the rhubarb. There's so much to do....

More on the New Plot

2011-01-31T08:09:00.001-08:00

Here are some more pictures of my new plot - in sunshine this time (still very cold though). I have spent the weekend moving all my useful bits and pieces over there from my old plot, and yesterday bade my final farewells. I met some people who would have been my new neighbours if I'd stayed - they seemed to be making great progress, they have already dug over nearly half the plot.

There was a pile of wood chippings on the new site, which we had been told was for general use, and one of the first things I did when I got up there was fill half my builders bag with them, ready for when I put my raspberries and blackcurrants in, I'm going to use them as a mulch around the fruit.

This area at the very end is the most overgrown part, with nettles, brambles and couch grass in abundance, so this is where I have started to clear first, partly so that I could get my compost bins set up, and also because this is where the fruit bushes will go. It's pretty tough going so far, but I think it will probably get easier as I move further up. I have also sent off for an azada, or Chillington type digging hoe as they're sometimes called. Apparently these are the answer to your prayers. One reviewer claimed that he was able to clear one square metre per minute. Well, I'll believe it when I see it, but I have heard such good things about them that I decided it was worth spending around £10 to find out for myself. The action is very different to how you would use a spade, thus preventing the sore back you would normally expect when digging. You can read about it here.

So this is what I managed to get done today, or most of it anyway, I started on it last week, but today I cleared the area where the compost bins are, and filled them both up, one with almost-done compost, the other with compost-in-progress. All of which I brought with me in numerous bags from the old plot! Well I don't know how much had been added by the previous occupants, and you can never have too much compost can you?

Then I cleared the bit to the right of the bins, where you might be able to see a few sticks poking up - this is where I have planted the comfrey I brought with me. I hope it will be alright - when I tipped the plants out of their pots the soil they were in was frozen solid. I managed to break them into separate pieces and just stuck them in and will just have to hope for the best. They're pretty tough.

And that's about it so far....

I also made 10 jars of marmalade today.

Seed Potatoes

2011-01-21T06:53:00.000-08:00

I have just been to buy my seed potatoes. I am a big fan of garden centres where you can buy your seed potatoes loose, that way you can have exactly the quantity you want, the right size and be sure not to get any damaged ones. I got these from Russells Garden Centre in Coventry, and if you are interested in finding a similar one local to you, have a look at this list. I got 10 each of 6 different varieties, which cost about £9.00, - pretty good value I think. The other major advantage is you can get them at exactly the time you want them, rather than being at the mercy of suppliers' sometimes rather erratic delivery procedures, and of course the hopeless postal service.

These are the varieties I chose for this season:
1st earlies - Pentland Javelin, Red Duke of York
2nd earlies - Anya, Charlotte
Mains - Desiree, Cara

I don't know yet whether I'm going to have room for all of these - my new plot is somewhat smaller than my old one, and I haven't quite 'moved in' yet so I haven't been able to go and measure it all out properly. I suppose I could put any leftovers into containers, or give them away.

This week I have begun packing up at my old plot ready for moving to the new one. We are not allowed sheds at the new site, so I will have to find some kind of plastic chest storage. As a consequence I won't be able to bring the water butts either, so they are all staying. Everything else is being moved. I have bagged up the contents of both compost bins and the big compost bag, and rolled up all my bits of netting inside one of the bins. I have dug and potted up three blackcurrant bushes, a couple of comfrey plants which I have split into several new plants, ditto a large rhubarb crown. Most of this I will be able to move by car, once I have been given the go ahead to 'move in' but I plan to borrow a friend with a trailer to help me with the heavier stuff like paving slabs and bags of compost.

In the garden, we had some goldfinches visit a couple of weeks ago, and to entice them back again I have hung up some nyger seed, which seems to have done the trick, they have been back today for a snack. I have had to replace the other seed feeder too, after this naughty squirrel mutilated the last one, pulling out the plug with the percher on so it could hang upside down while the seeds poured into its mouth.

New Allotment

2011-01-04T07:24:00.000-08:00

Exciting news!!! I have had a phone call from the Hillmorton Allotment Association to say that a plot has become available. Much sooner than expected! He said there was one definite one, and a couple of other possible ones, so I may even have a choice. I'm meeting him on Saturday morning to have a look, but in the meantime I couldn't resist hot-footing it straight down there as soon as I'd put the phone down. If I have understood him correctly, it is this one:

I hope so as it's right in a corner, like my current one. It is a bit smaller though, but not by too much. The gate on the left appears to lead into someone's back garden. To the left of the gate, out of the picture, is a water butt that comes off the shed in the garden, although the butt is in the allotment. On the bottom left is a strawberry patch, and to the right, a couple of currant bushes. Goodness knows what's in all those bags. I have studied it on Google Earth and established that it faces south lengthways, so apart from a bit of shade at one end first thing in the morning, it will have the sun most of the day.

He said this one would be available in about a month's time, when the present tenant has moved off it. The timing couldn't be more perfect, as the rent is due on my current allotment next month. So that solves my dilemma about whether to own up to having moved. All I have to do now is borrow a friend or relative with a trailer, to help me move all my stuff over there.

It will mean sacrificing my purple sprouting brocolli, and the garlic that I put in in November, but I will make sure I dig up and eat/freeze/give away all the leeks and parsnips that are still in the ground. Luckily I hadn't put any broad beans in yet.

I'm planning to order my greenhouse at the end of January, so double excitement! Looks like I'll be pretty busy in February, I hope the weather will be on my side.

Looking forward to the new season

2010-12-29T08:01:00.000-08:00

We finally had some snow, a couple of days before Christmas, and the boys made a snowman. Rather an evil looking character I thought...

Christmas day was beautiful, with the snow still fresh and bright sunshine and blue sky, so we went for a walk down to the canal, which was frozen solid.

I did manage to produce some Christmas vegetables after all, although I had to clear away the snow first, locate the position of the parsnips, chip away at the 3 or 4 inches of frozen soil on top, and then it was fairly easy to get the spade in and I managed to unearth 3 good sized parsnips. I also produced the tiny brussels (below left, on the right are the supplementary ones from Sainsburys!) I gave up on the idea of digging up the remaining carrots, or the leeks, as by this time I was both soaked and frozen, and I had already bought some carrots as an insurance policy. The Cara potatoes had stored well and we were able to use them for roasties. Quite a success story on the whole, given the circumstances.

I am now starting to think about next season, and I have just been through my seed stock to see what I need to buy. As it turns out, I don't need much, and I'm hoping to be able to get all or most of it from the local hardware shop. Apart from seed potatoes and onion sets, for which I will go back to the marvellous place I went last year: masses of choice and very cheap.

My big dilemma at the moment is whether or not to 'fess up to the allotment lady that I have moved. If I tell her I am on another waiting list she may not mind me keeping on the old one until the new one comes up. On the other hand, there may be a very strict policy about it, and I might end up with nothing. Tricky.

Getting Festive

2010-12-19T06:36:00.001-08:00

We got our Christmas tree yesterday. We've gone for quite a big one this year, it being our first Christmas since we moved, and having such a tiny little one last year on account of being away for most of Christmas. The tiny little one is now in a pot outside the front door, with solar powered fairy lights on it!

I have been strewing greenery here, there and everywhere and fairy lights here and there. (You'll have to use your imagination). Presents have been wrapped, a cake made and regularly and liberally 'fed' with brandy.

The plan is still to supply all the Christmas dinner veg from the allotment, but I can't say I'm much looking forward to harvesting it. We have had the least amount of snow in the whole country by the sounds of it, but it is still extremely cold and the ground will no doubt be frozen, so I should probably have a Plan B.

As I haven't posted for almost a month it seems unlikely I will do so again until after Christmas, so in the meanwhile I do hope all your festivities go merrily and that you will all have a very happy and productive 2011.

Boast Post

2010-11-22T08:52:00.001-08:00

I ceremoniously cut open my huge butternut squash at the weekend. It's difficult to guage the scale from the photo but the cafetiere in the background should give an idea. And when I tell you that half of it made a curry and a large pan of soup, while the other half went into the freezer, perhaps you may understand why I am shamelessly bragging about it. While we are on the subject, perhaps you could indulge me in blowing my own trumpet for a bit longer, as I share my pride in my very first ever parsnip...

I know many of you will have seen, and grown much bigger ones than this, but I'm sure you will agree that it is perfectly formed?

But don't worry because I have been brought back down to earth with these exceptionally pitiful celeriac specimens.

I have never yet managed to grow a celeriac bigger than a tennis ball, maybe now is the time to admit defeat. Perhaps I should stick to parsnips from now on instead. Only problem is, nobody in my family really likes parsnips... but then again they're not mad on celeriac either....

Garlic goes in

2010-11-15T05:17:00.000-08:00

Here are two bulbs of this year's home grown garlic, which, for the first time ever I have harvested enough to be able to spare some for replanting, which is a very satisfying feeling. They say that if you repeatedly replant your own garlic year on year it gradually adapts perfectly to your soil and microclimate. That would be great, except that I'm still waiting for my new plot in my new location. I found an hour on Saturday to go and plant this garlic, but I have decided not to do overwintering onions this year. Partly because they didn't do very well last year, and partly because I haven't got much space for them in their designated patch because it is still occupied by winter stuff, such as parsnips, celeriac and kale. Neither am I doing broad beans now, I'm going to wait until January/February, after last year's November-planted failures. It's not just that though, I am also very short of time at the moment. I have spent the last two Monday mornings with my son at Walsgrave hospital, after he broke his arm during half term. Monday is one of my non-work days, when I can 'get things done', so needless to say I have not been getting too much done recently, but now I have completed some more decorating, the allotment might just start to get a look-in, before the Christmas rush begins...

Jelly Beans

2010-10-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

Not really. Runner beans of course, but they do look so much like sweeties. I've saved these to plant next year. Having grown two types of runner next to each other this year these are probably the result of cross pollination, but I don't think it will matter - I clearly don't have a very discerning palate because as far as I'm concerned runner beans are runner beans.

I haven't been to the plot since before the frost, and now I've got another stint of decorating to do over half term, before I can give any more serious time to the allotment for a while. I left the last of the butternut squashes to see if they would get a bit riper before I picked them, they were all very small, and I covered them all up with leaves to protect them but I doubt if they will be usable now. I did have a couple of sessions last week, and I will probably go up to do a bit of harvesting soon.

The finished cabin

2010-10-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

As promised yesterday...here it is! Now I need to landscape around it!

It's been ages....

2010-10-16T14:55:00.001-07:00

We have been so busy lately, the wooden cabin above (to be my husband's office) is the latest in a string of projects. We built this ourselves, from a kit, and we are very proud of ourselves. It is now finished - except for the second coat of paint - I will post a picture of the finished article once that second coat is on. All this has left precious little time for the allotment, but today I managed to spend a whole afternoon on it. I have got so behind with it, the hedge was all overgrown and the weeds down that side were making it almost impassable, so today I have cut back the overhanging branches of the hedge, and cleared the worst of the weeds, nettles and dead borage and marigolds so that I can walk along it unimpeded.

Earlier this week I spent an afternoon weeding the leeks - behind them you can see how lush the green manure (clover and tares) has grown. I don't think I will cut it down, it is not showing any signs of flowering, so I'll probably leave it over the winter and cut it down in spring, and then dig in a few days later.

To the left of the leeks is my strawberry patch. It's a very sorry sight. It is totally overrun with weeds, most worryingly, some kind of perrenial weed which is steadily spreading its way down the plot. I haven't been able to identify this weed but it doesn't really matter what it is, what I need to know is how to get rid of it. It can't be dug out, because you can't pull or dig it up without leaving most of the root behind. Also I would have to dig up everything in the area in order to get it all, that includes not only the strawberry patch, but most of my fruit bushes as well. Secondly, even if I got it all out from my plot, it has also spread a long way down the plot next door, which nobody is cultivating at the moment. And if they were, they would have to dig up all their raspberries to get rid of it. I suspect the only way to get rid of it is to glyphosate the whole patch. And lastly, not knowing exactly how much longer I will have this plot for, (as I am waiting for a plot on a different site) it's hard to know how much time and effort it is worth putting into it. Hmm. It's a conundrum.

That particular problem aside, I have done lots of other tidying/clearing jobs today, resulting in one full dalek compost bin, and a bulging compost bag. There is still an enormous amount to do... there always is isn't there?

Annual Review

2010-09-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

I've just been reading last year's review to see how things compare this year. Well there haven't been any particularly noteworthy improvements, but not too many failures either. Overall performance: satisfactory.
Starting with what I would normally grow in the greenhouse, except I am without one at the moment, tomatoes and chillis.
Chillis have been a bit disappointing. They haven't had ideal conditions, and have been moved from pillar to post all summer. I should have grown them in bigger pots, and fed them more. Yields quite low. 'Atomic' varieties not atomic at all. Tomatoes all grown outside, Ferline F1 and Legend, both blight resistant, have done well, but one or two are just beginning to show signs of blight. I wish I had labelled them properly, because now I can't remember which are which. Half of them are very short, the rest grew up to the top of the canes. They were the better ones. If I knew which ones they were I would probably stick to them next year.

Brassicas:
Summer cabbages were fine until I went on holiday, when I came back they had all exploded. We only managed to eat about four of them. Winter ones doing well. Purple sprouting brocolli- had a huge setback when I was away, from a severe attack of aphids. Ditto Brussells sprouts, which I have never grown before. I have lavished them both with tlc and the ladybirds have really helped with the aphid problem. They have responded well but I think they are behind. I think I can just make out the beginnings of sprouts forming. Kale - never grown it before and I don't think I will bother again. We haven't really been eating it, and it's covered with whitefly now.

Salads:
Lettuces and spinach both did really well in spring and early summer, but I just don't seem to be able to grow them after midsummer. Next year I will try some in pots in the garden [by which time of course my garden will have been redesigned and redeveloped and will be looking beautiful. At the moment it's a building site]

Roots:
Carrots have done well, have kept them covered and carrot-fly free. The second sowing I did around June I didn't think had come up, but I can see some of them now. Still quite small though, hope they will grow before winter. Celeriac - haven't had any yet so don't know how big they've got. Somebody told me to remove all the outer leaves regularly, which I have been doing, so we'll see if that makes any difference to their size. Parsnips - another first for me. Again haven't sampled one yet but the signs are promising.

Potatoes:
Earlies were a bit disappointing, I put this down to the very dry late spring/early summer weather, just when they needed the water most. Maincrops have produced much better yields. These are Rooster potatoes - good for mashing and wedges. I always find the skins of baked potatoes very tough and hard, compared to shop-bought ones, I don't know if this is something to do with being freshly dug?

Squashes etc:
Courgettes have been disappointing. I did a new variety plus the same ones as last years. But only the new variety came up so I had four of them but they have not done very well. Maybe one courgette a week between them. Pathetic really. Won't bother with that variety next year. Top prize has to go to this butternut squash, which I estimate to be about 10" long. There is one other of good size, but the rest are very small and I don't know if they will come to anything. Out of about 6 plants it's not great.

Two fairly respectable pumpkins, and a selection of small Blue Ballets, Crown Princes and Potimarrons. No more than one per plant though.

As I have already mentioned the sweetcorn did not do well, which I put down to the toilet rolls. Lesson learnt.

Legumes:
Peas - the usual story, not much return for all that effort. Next year I will try dwarf ones under enviromesh, and if that doesn't come up with the goods it's goodbye to peas for good.
Runner beans - better than last year, plenty without being too many, and there are some in the freezer as well. French beans - did quite well, but we missed most of them due to being on holiday. My second sowing is only just starting to produce beans, so I hope there will still be enough good weather for them to produce a decent yield.

Aliums:
Garlic - best so far. I am going to replant a couple of the bulbs for next year's crop. Overwintering onions suffered from the very cold winter, and didn't do very well. They certainly didn't crop any earlier than the spring planted ones, and were smaller. I don't think I'll do them this autumn, just spring ones. Leeks are doing really well, but we haven't eaten any yet, although some look ready.

Fruit:
Strawberries - dismal. Either the plants are coming to the end of their lives, or it was down to the very dry period when they're normally ready, but I only got a couple of pickings out of them, certainly not enough for jam or anything like that. I haven't had the late summer crop I got last year either. Loganberries got attacked by raspberry beetles, and I had very few currants. On the plus side, we did get the unexpected bonus of plums in our new garden, a few blueberries and the bowl of cherries in June.

I wonder if anyone has ever had a year when everything has been a success? But isn't it great that there's always next year to try again?

Preserving

2010-09-06T08:36:00.001-07:00

The allotment has been very neglected lately. It was all I could manage just to get there and keep harvesting things. However I have managed to do a bit of preserving and storing. I have been rather confined to the house because the children are still on holiday and we also have builders in, but this is what I have managed to do:

The onions are hanging inside the legs of tights, strung up in the shed. When I want some I just cut below a knot and out they come. It as a bit less fiddly that making strings, besides, they hardly had any stalks left for tieing to the string.

The sum total of my loganberry, blackcurrant and blueberry crops was made into just three jars of jam! It hasn't been a very good year for my fruit. I went out blackberrying, but somebody had beaten me to it and all the good ones had gone. But there were masses of elderberries, so I have made elderberry jelly in quantity. It does contain a couple of handfuls of blackberries, some spice and cinnamon, and the juice of two lemons and pectin sugar, as it seems elderberries are pretty low in pectin. It has set well and is surprisingly tasty.

Finally I have blanched and frozen several bagfuls of runner beans.

This week I am back to work and it's forecast to rain all week, but maybe the weekend will be a good opportunity to catch up a bit at the allotment.

Coblets

2010-08-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

My sweetcorn has been a bit rubbish this year. The plants grown in plastic pots were fine and produced really good cobs, but they were in the minority. Most were grown in toilet rolls and were stunted from the start. The kernels have been very patchy and in some cases so sparse they weren't worth bothering with. But look what I found attached to the base of one cob:

A mini cob! You wouldn't get one like that in Sainsburys.

The allotment has been very neglected recently. The weather has been rubbish and I have been busy decorating. Nearly finished (one room) - just waiting for someone to come and build us some shelves next week, then we can do the finishing touches, AND finally finish unpacking our boxes. I am planning to go over this afternoon, if only to harvest a few things, but wouldn't you know it - it's just started raining again. I'll have a cup of tea first, then maybe I'll just have to get wet.

Back from holiday

2010-08-11T06:23:00.001-07:00

We had a bit of a 'holidays from hell' disaster, with the Evil Easyjet at the heart of the problem: set off at 3.30am, arrived at the airport in good time - well within the time we were told to, but because of the chaos and understaffing at Luton airport we had to queue for such a long time we missed our flight. They grudgingly replaced our tickets (ie admitted responsibility) but there weren't any flights until 3 days later. The worst thing was their extremely unhelpful and unsympathetic attitude. We wanted to strangle them actually - a classic case of 'computer says no'. Anyway, we got there in the end, but we missed three days of our holiday and we're still waiting for a response to our complaint.

Got back last Saturday, and found lots of these lovely ripe plums, ready to pick. They are very tasty just as they are, but we have also made a crumble. When I went up to the allotment to see how that was faring, the worst thing I found was the sprouts and psb completely overrun with whitefly and woolly aphids. Some plants look as if they might not pull through. The hearty bit in the middle looks as if it is a fuzzy grey flower. I considered spraying but when i went back with the spray there were so many ladybirds and hoverflies all over them I thought I might just leave them to it. There are so many they may have a good chance of getting the upper hand eventually. I haven't seen so many ladybirds since the famous 'ladybird summer' in 1976 (I think). I have been collecting them from the other end of the allotment and depositing them around the brassicas to help with the war on aphids.

This is the biggest of the very few butternut squashes that are just beginning to develop. I've only spotted about two but I'm optimistically thinking there must be more than that, that I haven't spotted yet. The ones up by the fruit were looking a bit pathetic so I have laid lots of compost around them to boost them a bit.

I have dug up all the onions and to begin with I left them where they were as the forecast was for dry weather all week. But then it rained. I have brought them back home now and spread them on my wire trolleys so they can go in the shed when it rains. I weeded the empty patch and sowed clover and tares for overwintering. Today I picked our first runner beans. They are a bit late because they got off to such a late start, but the first lot of french beans are beginning to slow down now so the timing is perfect. I have another row of french beans which will hopefully be ready for when we are sick of runner beans.

Back home in the garden I have mowed the lawn for the first time and we have cleared out the sheds. The previous owners have left lots of stuff behind, including a spare lawnmower, long handled pruners, and lots of other tools. One of the sheds has clearly got a mouse problem, so I won't be able to store much veg or seeds in there.

Next job is to strip the wallpaper in one of the downstairs rooms - wish me luck!

What's going on at the allotment

2010-07-19T01:26:00.001-07:00

I haven't got many flowers this year, they have had to fend for themselves while any watering has been reserved only for veg. But these marigolds have manged to thrive nonetheless.

The runner beans have enjoyed the recent rain and are now approaching the top of their canes, and are flowering. With any luck, the beans will start to be ready just as we return from our holiday. Not so the french beans, which are just starting to produce now. We had our first picking last night for supper.

Likewise the tomatoes, just beginning to ripen in time for someone else to reap the benefits of all my hard work. Harrumph. Oh well, hopefully they'll leave some for us.

And at least the leeks won't be ready for a while yet.

New house update

2010-07-13T01:53:00.000-07:00

While I wait for my new greenhouse, my chillies are living in luxury in the conservatory. They are doing pretty well but somewhere along the line I must have got the labels mixed up, because the ones I labelled 'Heatwave' look just like the 'Meek and Mild' poblano ones in the seed catalogue. The fruits are much bigger and fatter. The 'Heatwave' fruits are the same shape as the 'Ring of Fire'. I won't be able to tell which is which until they ripen, because the ring of fire are all red whereas the heatwave are all different colours. Hey ho, all will be revealed eventually. They have been suffering a bit from greenfly - but I have found a way to deal with that particular problem - hoover them up with the vacuum cleaner!

While exploring the garden, I have made an exciting discovery: we have a greengage tree! There is quite a lot of fruit on it too. We also have quite a few fruit on a Japanese quince 'Chaenomales' which is growing over from next door, but I'm not really sure what to do with these. I take it they are edible?

I have dug up all my garlic and autumn sown onions, and my shallots, and this bright utility area turns out to be the perfect place to leave them to dry. I am chuffed with the garlic, less so with the onions and shallots. The spring sown onions look a lot more promising....

It is drizzling today, and there is more rain forecast, which is all good of course, but it does mean I am not so inclined to go to the plot. I got quite a bit of weeding done on Saturday morning, and planted out my second lot of leeks, but there is still quite a bit of weeding to be done. And I still want to sow some more french beans.

I have a cunning plan for growing peas next year... I have done a bit of research and found a couple of dwarf varieties which I could grow under an enviromesh tunnel. They are small enough not to need much (if any) support and as peas are self-pollinating, I can protect them from both pea moths and pigeons right from the start. We'll see. My children don't seem to mind shelling peas, or broad beans, but I'm sure it would make the process quicker and more enjoyable if they didn't have to closely inspect each pod for creepy-crawlies.

I have spoken to the allotment man about my new allotment, and apparently, now that I am living in the area, I have moved up to around number 15 on the waiting list! I don't really know what that means in terms of waiting time - how long is a piece of string?

We're in

2010-07-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

We have now been in our new house for nearly five days. Now that we have unpacked most of our things it feels quite like home. There is still an awful lot to be done of course but it's fine for the time being.

Needless to say I have hardly been able to get to the plot for some time, I have just about been able to do some essential watering and a bit of harvesting, but there is a lot to be done there too. This is the first year I have had the plot where I have actually had to water regularly, the last three summers have been so wet, and I have found it difficult to find enough time to water sufficiently. I am having to prioritise - I am now ignoring all the things that are nearly finished, or well underway, like the broad beans and peas, and putting all my efforts into those that are yet to produce anything, like runner beans, french beans, squashes and sweetcorn. It isn't really feasible to water everything. Certainly not potatoes, I'd be there all day and all night. And it still wouldn't soak in much below the surface. I've had a very poor potato yield so far, only about 3 - 4 potatoes per plant, sometimes 5 if I'm lucky. Plenty of courgettes and broad beans, and some peas. I'm definitely not doing peas again. They have been decimated by pigeons and they are so time consuming to get out of the pods. I know they are delicious but I have so little time at the moment.

On our last night in our old house we had a chinese takeaway followed by all the cherries off the cherry tree! It was a whole bowlful, which was amazing compared to last year when we had a grand total of four, only one of which was actually eaten by a human being. This year I covered it in a sort of veil made of white voile, which made it look very bridal, and protected the fruit from the birds.

Sadly I have not been able to keep up with the sweet peas, which is a real shame because they really are beautiful. I managed one vaseful, which you can see above. I am going to try and pick some more, and hope that I am not too late to stop them all from going to seed. I finish work tomorrow so after that I am going to devote a few hours/days to weeding and other plot maintenance, so maybe I'll get a chance then.

The other thing I have not had a chance to harvest is the blackcurrants. They are mostly ripe now so I must get on with it before they shrivel up. There are lots of loganberries coming too. And the blueberries are beginning to ripen. Shame there isn't a pause button....

It's all happening....

2010-06-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

Half way through June and the season is well and truly underway now isn't it? Everything looks so lush and promising at the moment.

Not long before we will be eating broad beans by the looks of these pods, and courgettes as well.

I have finally got my runner beans going, one or two of the original direct-sown seeds came up, but most of these are pot grown ones that I have transplanted.

I was baffled to keep turning up and finding that someone or something had untied all the string from my carefully constructed bean and tomato frames, and all the canes were flapping about untethered. The only culprit that seemed likely was birds, and sure enough yesterday I arrived to catch one red-handed (or maybe red-beaked?) I didn't think birds were that daft, you would think that one peck would be enough to make it realise that string is not very palatable, but no, they keep on pecking until it's all gone. I have had to re-tie them all using wire this time.

I am so pleased with this spinach, although it has well and truly bolted, we are still finding the leaves delicious in salads, neither tough nor bitter. I have sown some more though, just in case it does start to deteriorate.

The spring planted onions are beginning to bulk up, and they are doing so much better than the autumn planted ones. Below are the leeks I put in on Saturday. These are the early ones, and I have another box of late ones to go in in a few weeks.

It's now less than three weeks until we move, and I have started clearing out my workshop, where I have been making curtains and blinds for several years now - so there is plenty of clutter. I will be keeping E-bay and Freecycle busy over the next few days. I will not be continuing with this business once we have moved; there's not much point replacing the workshop because once my youngest son is at secondary school in just over a year's time I will be thinking about going back into full time work. Will I still have time for an allotment then I wonder? .... anyway that's still some way off yet. Our boxes are being delivered this evening and then we will have no excuse not to start packing .. or at least to start clearing out cupboards etc.

After the Rain

2010-05-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

Finally, we have had a bit of rain. We did have some on Wednesday but by the time I went up to the plot yesterday you wouldn't have known it as it was already dry as dust again. This is how it was looking this afternoon when I went to inspect, but it only goes down about an inch and it's still dry and dusty underneath. We still need a lot more wet stuff. Above (bottom left) are the first two courgettes and two pumpkin plants I planted out yesterday. There are still two more courgettes and lots of squash to come. The sweetcorn is still looking a bit yellow. Onions and garlic look ok but no sign of the onions starting to swell yet. In the background you can see my loganberry bushes, which have plenty of flowers on them. Behind that you can just about make out that my new neighbour hasn't really got to grips with his plot yet. I still haven't set eyes on him, but there are signs of activity so he must be there some of the time.

Above are lettuce, kale and spinach (back) - we have had a few salads with lettuce thinnings and baby spinach leaves. In front the broad beans are looking very promising.

Below is my Heath Robinson brassica cage which will protect my brussels sprouts and purple sprouting brocolli. I wanted to make something a bit taller than the blue pipe tunnels, and also with something for the plants to lean against when they get very tall and top heavy. I hope it doesn't collapse.

We now have a combination padlock on the gate, so I really do feel that my little patch is quite secure now, otherwise I think I might not have gone to the trouble of making this cage, it would have been an open invitation to the vandals.

I think my runner beans have failed. I sowed the beans two weeks ago and still no sign of germination. I have started some more in pots, they will be slightly delayed but will probably catch up. The french beans are mostly up so something has definitely gone wrong with the runners. Either something's eaten them or I put them in too deep. I have dug away some of the soil on top so they might come through eventually.

I have taken out all last year's psb to make room for the tomatoes, which hopefully will get planted out over this weekend, along with the rest of the squashes.

Hardening Off

2010-05-20T11:29:00.001-07:00

I have been hardening my tender veg out all week, and I am planning to plant some of them out this weekend. That may seem rather rushed, but my logic is that it has been as warm outside the greenhouse this week as it was inside last week, so the plants won't have noticed much difference. Tonight is the first night out in the open though. The only slight problem is that the psb is still sprouting, and is where the tomatoes are going to go. Normally it would all have been over and pulled out by now. I think the tomatoes can wait another week or two, whereas the sweetcorn....

is getting a bit desperate. See how much healthier the plants grown in pots are, compared with the toilet roll grown ones. I think this has convinced me not to bother with toilet rolls again. I know it's all green and good recycling, but they are more use chucked straight into the compost. It gets worse when you plant them out as well, as the cardboard decomposes, the plants go even yellower. I will be adding lots of well rotted chicken poo to the soil before planting, which I have been saving for just this reason.

This is the Stevia (the sugar substitute herb) which is starting to do quite well. I'm going to try cooking some rhubarb with it at the weekend, see how it really compares to sugar.

And lastly, here are my two blueberry bushes, which I have just repotted into these terracotta pots today. The pots are lined with plastic and filled with ericaceous compost. There are quite a few flowers, but I wonder how many of them will turn into blueberries.

I have had to do a lot of watering at the allotment, we haven't had any rain here for several weeks. The rain everyone else has had has just passed us by. Consequently the soil up there has turned to dust, so fine that it repels water and I have had to go to all sorts of lengths to get the water to penetrate, eg making holes with a fork, scooping little trenches either side of the row, etc etc. It is all very time consuming, and to make matters worse, one of my water butts is now completely empty and the other isn't far off.

Last Saturday I sowed runner beans, french beans and another row of peas, all direct outside. As yet there is no sign of germination. I gave a friend a pot of french bean seeds for her birthday, which I had just sown so she could watch them germinate - that was on 5th May and apparently they have still not come up! This is not very encouraging is it? I have sown some more as I am determined to infect her with the veg-growing bug!

Security at last

2010-05-10T02:40:00.000-07:00

We have finally had these new security gates put in, and a little bit of fencing as well, but only a bit each side of each gate. The prickly hawthorn hedges are now well enough established to deter all but the most determined troublemakers. However, as yet the gates are not locked, and we haven't been told whether or when this will happen or if we will all get keys. Apparently some people don't want the gates to be locked, but it seems a rather expensive and pointless exercise to have new gates if they are not secure. We'll wait and see.

Here's my strawberry/fruit/squash patch prior to weeding....

and after. I removed quite a lot of the nasty, unidentified weed with the long stringy roots, but there is still quite a bit left and I will probably have to fork through it again before planting out my squashes here.

Here are my potatoes, (looking as if they're planted on a very steep slope, but it's just the camera angle) before I earthed them up again, as best I could, but some of them are getting too big to be earthed up any more. Which is worrying as we are forecast more frost tonight and tomorrow, and no apparent end in sight to this cold weather. I still haven't got any fleece. When oh when are we going to get some seasonal weather again? Everything (apart from the potatoes) seems to have just stopped growing.

My asparagus is really disappointing, we have had about seven spears so far, and there are only about four of the original ten crowns that are producing anything. The rest seem to have died.

The purple sprouting brocolli has almost run out of steam. The plants look extremely healthy - big, bushy and lush dark green in colour, but they haven't really produced many actual sprouts. They're all leaf and no sprout. If anyone has any explanation for this or tips on how I can encourage more sprouts, I'd be glad to know.

Help! It's May already

2010-05-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

I'm not exactly behind, but where did April go? In a couple of weeks I will have to start thinking about sowing my beans, so today I have been clearing the weedy patches where they are to be grown. As usual, I forgot to take the camera, but here are a few pictures of how my young plants are getting on...

chilli

sweetcorn

squash (not sure which ones these are)

tomatoes

leeks.

My butternut squashes are a bit behind, none of the four original sowings came up, so I decided to put the rest of the packet to chit, to see if any of them would. I've sown four more, but as yet there is only one starting to show.

Since my last post, I have planted out summer cabbages, celeriac and sunflowers, cleared the summer veg area and made a start on clearing the bit at the end where the nasty weed infestation is. The potatoes are up and away and I have already had to earth them up twice. The peas are looking brilliant and the lettuce, kale, spinach and parsnips are all trying hard. The carrots are struggling, as are the spring onions. Yesterday I spent about three hours weeding the onions and garlic - all looking good. Photos next time.

Yesterday we went to the woods to see how the bluebells are getting on. It was cold and windy, and cloudy, but the bluebells are just coming into full swing. If it's sunny next weekend I might try and go again, see if I can get some better photos.

A Productive Weekend

2010-04-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I weeded the perennials/ornamentals patch (above left), sowed some flower seeds, and erected this sweet pea teepee ready for planting out sweet peas this morning. We have had the first rhubarb (top left) of the year, in a crumble, with proper home-made custard, just to see what it's like. It's ok but not really worth all the faff. I prefer cream myself anyway.

This is the tidier end of the allotment. Top left is where the lettuce, kale, spinach and parsnips are. Lettuces and kale are just beginning to show. The weedy/grassy patch is where the runner beans are going to go, and to the right of that are the broad beans. Far right you can just about make out the pea frame. In the foreground, the potato ridges (no sign of growth yet).

So obviously I still have to clear the runner bean patch, and the patch where the summer/tender stuff is going to go, but worst of all, the bit at the other end, where the strawberries, loganberries and a couple of currant bushes are, is going to be a nightmare to weed, as it is infested with some mystery weed which spreads via wiry brown roots, and are impossible to pull out without breaking off and leaving some behind. They are all tangled up with the fruit bush roots as well. So I have to hand pull everything out, rather than just dig it all in as I usually would. This is where the majority of my squashes are going to go, because I have had to put my carrot tunnel in the summer veg patch, and I have sowed far too many squash seeds. I know, that doesn't make sense. Suffice it to say that I will probably not have room for everything I intend to grow this year. Daft really, considering how much space there is on an allotment. I have never had this problem before. I have no idea where the celeriac is going to go. Maybe it will fit in the cabbage patch somewhere.

Seed Sowing Session

2010-04-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

At last! the purple sprouting brocolli has started to sprout! Not quite enough for a meal yet, but it's a start.

Today I have sown peas, carrots, spring onions, spinach and two types of kale. It's taken me most of the day as not only did I have to prepare the areas first, I also had to erect a pea frame and an enviromesh tunnel for the carrots. The allotments were absolutely full of people today - the warm weather has brought them all out - clearly everybody feels that now is the right time to start sowing and planting. I had hoped to sow a few flower seeds as well - Candytuft, Calendula and Cornflower, but I ran out of time and energy.

Earlier in the week I sowed some Sunflowers, Borage and Marigolds, more leeks and some Brussels sprouts. They are all here at home in the greenhouse for now. I have also put some parsnip seeds to chit but as yet there is no sign of activity - I understand they take ages.

In another week or so I will be sowing the frost-tender veg: the squashes, courgettes and sweetcorn. I have decided to sow all the runner beans and french beans directly outside this year, in mid May. Last year the french beans I sowed direct did much better than the pot grown ones, and it saves so much time and effort. So long as nothing eats them before they get a chance to grow.

The chilli and Stevia seedlings have been moved out to the greenhouse now, must remember to cover them up before the sun goes down, it still gets very cold at night time.

Potatoes all now in the ground

2010-04-05T09:25:00.001-07:00

I probably shouldn't mention it but these are in fact last year's pictures - but there really isn't much difference except that the ground this year is somewhat wetter. Also the potatoes are in the next patch along from this one.

In fact - another difference is that I have done more maincrops this year, I'm not sure why. This means that although I have planted fewer altogether, they take up the same amount of space. If I can find somewhere to store them, and they store ok, it should work out quite well, because hopefully we will have lots to keep us going over the winter.

A bit of good news - finally the broad beans are up! In the picture above you can see last year's broad beans behind the potato patch - they were much more advanced after a milder winter. I think the purple sprouting brocolli may be nearly ready to eat as well, although I have been thinking that for several weeks now...

I used up about eight or nine sacks of home made compost in the potato trenches, and there are still several bags left. I am anxious to empty the bin that the rats have been in, so that I can move it back onto the mesh properly, keep the blighters out. It looks as if it will be ready quite soon, just need some warmer weather for a bit.

More sowings and plantings....

2010-03-23T09:03:00.001-07:00

I sowed these sweet peas back in February, they are starting to put on some serious growth now.

These are the greyound cabbages I sowed last week (or was it the week before?), and the leeks are starting to sprout now too, which were sown on the same day.

The Stevia (left) has grown a little bit - I have put the pots into a tub of water and I'm keeping them quite wet, which has given them a little boost. On the right are some Heatwave chillies, the first to germinate. And next to these, below, in the propogators are more chillies (in various stages of germination) and two lots of tomato - Ferline and Legend. Both are meant to be blight resistant, which is just as well as they are destined for the allotment.

Speaking of the allotment, still no sign of the broad beans. I'm getting a bit worried now. Perhaps they still need more of a chance. The garlic is doing great and the autumn planted onions not too bad. On Sunday I planted about 10 more rows of onion sets. I hope I haven't overdone it. The weeding is going to be a nightmare....

Other news: we have exchanged contracts on our new house, and have accepted an offer on this one!

Shallots are in!

2010-03-14T11:06:00.001-07:00

This is one corner of my alium bed, on the right is the garlic - doing quite well, further along are the overwintered onions, not quite so perky. I have scattered a few chicken manure pellets among them so with any luck they will start to green up and get going soon. A row of shallots has gone in next, to demarcate the spring planted onions from the autumn ones.

Here are the still rather small and puny leeks, in last year's alium bed, this year's potato bed. Below is the purple sprouting brocolli, which seems to have been about to sprout for several weeks, but still hasn't. I'm seriously wondering whether it's worth growing any psb this season. Because I may have a new allotment by this time next year, I don't really want to plant anything I may not be able to harvest. And it needs so much looking after for such a long time. Maybe I'll just do a couple of the early sort and it can share a row with the brussels sprouts. I've never done sprouts before but I have set myself a goal to grow all our own veg for Christmas dinner. I'm doing some parsnips as well, also a new departure for me.

These are the stevia seedlings, sown on the 8th February! I've never known anything grow as slowly as these are doing. They are about the size of a 5p.

Even the celeriac, sown only a week before, are romping ahead in comparison!

Somehow I don't think I will be using stevia to cook my rhubarb!

I have sown my chilli seeds, they are in the heated propogator, and also some leeks and some Greyhound cabbages, in the greenhouse. Everything else will have to wait until the week after next. I have a very busy week coming up - it's the last week of term at work, which means putting in extra hours to get the reports/end of term mailing out; our house is now on the market, with the first viewers coming tomorrow morning, which means constant cleaning and tidying from now on, plus I have just taken on two big curtain-making jobs. That and the start of seed sowing frenzy should keep me busy over the Easter holidays.

Anyway, I have just had a phone call from my mother to say thank you for her Mother's Day card, and to ask how my Mother's Day had gone, to which I was able to say: I received two beautiful home-made cards, with some very touching words inside, a bar of chocolate, and some lovely hugs from my two lovely boys. My husband is now cooking the supper while I amuse myself with blogging.

Greenhouse Springclean

2010-03-08T08:15:00.000-08:00

Well it may not look terribly tidy, but I have turned out the whole thing and swept away all the cobwebs, dead leaves, dusty old compost etc etc. The pots are all clean(ish) and ready to be filled with seeds, and I have put up the shelves ready to put the pots of seeds on!

I haven't cleaned the glass, but that can wait until I take it apart when we move. It looks as if we are almost definitely moving now. Everything is in place ready to exchange contracts, so fingers crossed. Until this morning all those pots were stacked up outside the back door, looking a real eyesore and not really what you want your prospective buyers to see, hence the clear out. I have been tarting up the house a bit as well, touching up paint here and there and generally tidying and cleaning. We are putting it on the market next week.

I have also emptied a finished bin of compost and bagged it up ready to take up to the allotment. Such a satisfying job, but I ran out of old bags and had to make do with all sorts of odd little containers.

Tomorrow I am going to sow some more broad bean seeds (at the plot), maybe also some shallots - I noticed someone else has obviously put some shallots in a while ago because they have already grown quite a lot. Perhaps they overwintered them. I will also dig up the remaining carrots, and with what is left after I've extracted all the bugs and cut out all the nasty bits, make some soup.

I'm going to have a massive seed sowing session during the first week of my Easter holiday (week commencing 22nd March). I reckon this is soon enough as it's still really quite cold, especially at night.

Carrots and Leeks

2010-02-27T06:56:00.001-08:00

I was determined to get some home grown veg this week so during a brief dry spell this afternoon I've just been to the plot and dug up these leeks and carrots. You almost wouldn't know the carrots were there, the foliage is so ropey it blends in with the surrounding weeds, but the carrots underneath are pretty good I think you'll agree? These leeks were the biggest four I could find, and as you can see, they are not even as big as the carrots. They have a month left to grow before I dig them all up to make room for the potatoes.

Talking of potatoes, the chits on the Anyas are getting quite carried away. This particular one only had the one sprout so far, but I have now removed it, in the hopes that some more will develop. The others all have more little ones coming so they should be alright if I remove the biggest ones. As I've said, there is still a month to go before planting.

We finally ate the oyster mushrooms. There were about four large-ish ones between six of us for breakfast last weekend. (It was hardly worth it!) They were mostly stalk, which was quite tough and chewy, and on the whole, a little disappointing. Still, a fun experiment to keep me going while nothing much else was going on. I have thrown the straw into the compost as it was starting to develop green mould and once I had cut the biggest mushrooms, all the others started to shrivel up, so I've called it a day.

The purple sprouting brocolli, the ones that are still alive, look as if they might start to sprout soon, but I think they will take a battering during the storm that is coming our way tomorrow....

I could see little pink buds of rhubarb coming up, as far as I can tell the blackcurrants that I planted a couple of weeks ago are still alive, and the overwintering onions and garlic are still soldiering on. My main concern is the unidentified weed that is growing amongst the strawberries and fruit bushes at one end of the plot. It spreads via its root system and I think I may have to try and control it with glyphosate, as it seems impossible to dig up a plant without breaking off the root and leaving half of it behind. Also it has now started to encroach on the next patch along, where I will shortly be putting the onions in.

In the greenhouse, the broad beans I put in a few weeks ago still haven't come up. I went to look this morning, thinking that the last few days of milder weather may have got them going, only to find that there was fuzzy mould growing round them, and I think they are rotting. I'll leave them a little bit longer, just in case one or two survive, but I think they may be gonners. No sign of the sweet peas either.

There was me thinking I would have the whole of February for ground preparation, and I think I have managed about 3 hours in total in the whole month. Oh well, planting will have to be somewhat delayed this year I think. The Easter holidays are coming up so fingers crossed for some dry weather soon.....

More mushroom news

2010-02-17T05:30:00.000-08:00

Are we all well and truly sick of hearing about mushrooms now? Well I am sorry because there's not a lot else going on. Unfortunately the first cluster of mushrooms which were doing so well, suddenly decided to shrivel up and die. It happened just after I misted them for the first time. I haven't misted them at all since, just left a pool of water in the dish, and now they are sprouting out all over. These ones are looking much more promising....

The celeriac seedlings are doing pretty well too.

The Stevia seeds mostly germinated, but many of them were affected with a bit of damping off, and I am only left with four or five seedlings, still very small. Luckily I kept a few seeds back so I can try again. I think the plants get quite big so I probably won't need that many. If they do well and flower I may be able to collect the seeds for next time.

I have managed to get to the plot briefly this week, and I even took the camera, but I got soaked by sleet and hail before I had a chance to take any pictures. Which was a shame because I planted three blackcurrant bushes, and de-thatched the strawberry patch. I had just started digging up couch grass from among the strawberries, which involved digging up a few strawberry plants in the process, when the heavens opened, and I couldn't leave because I hadn't replanted the strawberries.

One of my compost daleks has been infiltrated by rodents. I keep finding a rat-sized hole at the top of the compost, and a pile of freshly dug earth just behind. On investigation it seems I was not very careful with repositioning last time I emptied the bin, and it is now overhanging the mesh rat barrier by a couple of inches, this is obviously where they are getting in. I can't do anything about it for now, as the bin is full and far too heavy to move. I did try to slide another piece of mesh underneath but it hasn't worked. Still I think the compost will be ready before long so I can deal with it soon. Just need to weather to warm up.......

Still no sign of the broad beans I did in the greenhouse. I dug one up the other day to see what is going on. It had the beginnings of a bit of root coming out of the bottom, so I think it is happening, just very slowly. They don't seem to be rotting, so there is no reason not to be optimistic.

One thing I am not optimistic about is that the weather is going to change any time soon. I think we are in for a very late spring indeed. I was going to sow some seeds this week (chillis and tomatoes), but I'm being very restrained, because even if they germinate ok indoors, they will have to hang around in a very cold greenhouse for quite a while. It's not worth it.

Mushroom progress

2010-02-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

So the mushrooms have... well... mushroomed. They look like alien life-forms. I wonder when the top bit starts to expand? The gills are starting to develop, but it doesn't quite look like an oyster mushroom yet.

Today I remembered I have some Stevia seeds, which said you could sow them from January onwards, so I have put them in the propogator, as they need some heat. Here are some pictures of it. The leaves can be used as a calorie-free sugar substitute, and I am going to use it to cook fruit with, and then eat it with home-made yogurt - very healthy! (That's if it grows ok, it's all very experimental).

I managed to get to the allotment on Saturday and do some digging. I have dug in the green manure in the potato patch, and the bit where I'm going to put in my new blackcurrant bushes. So starting to feel like I have made some progress.

Fruiting Bodies

2010-02-05T06:57:00.000-08:00

For Christmas I was given an oyster mushroom growing kit. It was a bag of straw and some dried spores. First I had to sterilize the straw by pouring boiling water into the bag and leaving it for a couple of hours, then left it to drain for a couple more hours. I then scattered the spores into the bag and shook it up to distribute them around the straw. Then the bag had to be left in a warm place for four weeks. I don't have an airing cupboard, or any other consistently warm place in my house, so I put it on my heated propogator tray and wrapped it all up in bubble wrap and a towel. So four weeks have now passed, and then the bag has to be chilled for a couple of days (outside in the shed). After all this, when you take the straw out of the bag it is held together by the mycelial structure which has been forming. A couple of days later, and the tiny beginnings of mushrooms have appeared... I have never grown mushrooms before, so a new experience for me.

The rest of the seed potatoes had started chitting so they have been spread out on windowsills to continue in the light. I have had to start some more broad beans in pots in the greenhouse to replace all the ones which have been destroyed by frost. Hopefully they will be ready to plant out at the beginning of March, when I will also sow the rest of the packet direct into the ground. If the worst of the cold weather isn't over by then I will be really depressed.

And I have sowed some sweet peas!
No sign of the celeriac germinating yet.

First potatoes chitting

2010-01-30T07:16:00.000-08:00

My Anya seed potatoes were starting to sprout in their bag in the fridge, so I have got them out to start them chitting. I don't think it's too early. Anyway once they start there's no stopping them is there? The others are still ok so I've left them for now.

I'm trying not to think too much about all the plants, especially the edible ones, I'll be leaving behind when we move. We are due our first crop of asparagus this year, but it will also be our last. I'm hoping we will decide we're not as keen on asparagus as we thought we were. There are the two apple trees I put in this time last year, from which I've had just two apples so far. And there's the damson tree. At least my cherry tree is in a container so I can take it with me. So are the new blueberries, a bay and a rosemary bush. Also I will get to see the crocuses and daffodils that I planted under the damson tree last autumn. Best of all, there's my new garden, which is a blank canvas at the moment, a perfect new project!

Yesterday I sowed my celeriac seeds - the first seed sowing of the year! Just like last year, they are inside on the kitchen window sill, wrapped up in bubble wrap. I really must get down to the plot and start digging......

Seed Potatoes

2010-01-25T05:39:00.001-08:00

I have just been on a trip to Leicester to get my seed potatoes and onion sets. It may seem like a long way at 25 miles each way, but I have saved so much money it was worth it. They have around 90 varieties of seed potato, (although a few had run out) and you can buy them loose. They cost £1.25 a kilo up to 10 kilos, £1.00 a kilo for 10 kilos or above. This is what I will be planting this year:

6 x Foremost }
6 x Vanessa } First early

18 x Anya (saved from last year's crop) } Second early
5 x Maxine }

10 x Kestrel - Second early/early maincrop

10 x Cara }
10 x Rooster } Maincrop

I also bought about 30 red onion sets, 30 brown onion sets and 10 shallot sets. Oh, and two packets of kale seed!

Grand total - £8.03 - which I reckon is a BARGAIN!!

I can also report that I have put my name on the waiting list for an allotment on a site very close to 'our new house'! Apparently I may have to wait about a year, but this seems reasonable considering the length of some waiting lists, and the fact that I already have one - I just won't be able to walk there after we move. On the moving front, everything seems to be proceeding smoothly, but it's still early days.

News and Update

2010-01-18T08:12:00.000-08:00

I have been and worked at the plot today for the first time this year. I could only manage a couple of hours before my back was stiff and achy and it hurt to stand up again from bending. Had to come home for a hot bath and a Pilates session. I have got myself a DVD with a view to strengthening my back and 'core' muscles so that I am generally less feeble when it comes to digging etc.

Anyway, it has been very wet recently and I didn't think it was a great idea to work on the beds so I concentrated on weeding and tidying up the path on the hedge side. I disentangled all my canes from a pile of decomposing leaves and an overgrowth of goose grass, pulled all that out and emptied a sack of bark chips behind the compost bins before putting the canes back on top - hopefully that will help them to keep a bit longer - they were in danger of being swallowed up and going rotten.

The daffodils are coming up so I had to weed very carefully around them, and I was followed closely by a pair of robins and a blackbird on the lookout for bits and bugs to scavenge.

I also emptied one of the compost bins which is 'finished' - it's still a bit strawy because I have been adding lots of straw every time I put green sappy stuff or food waste in over the summer. Other than that it looks lovely. The contents has had to go into bags for now because none of the beds are ready for it. I now have about a dozen bags of compost waiting to be distributed when the time comes.

I inspected the various crops to see how they have survived the unusually cold freezy weather. The worst hit are the broad beans. Quite a few of them are completely dead, but there are still a few which don't look too bad. But I think I will have to re-sow in the gaps in the spring. The leeks look fine but obviously haven't been able to grow at all. The onions and garlic are looking quite perky still and the psb seems to have made a good recovery too. There are a few sprouts ready for picking actually. I dug up a few carrots which look fine, and also the remaining few celeriacs, which also look fine, although I don't know what they will be like inside - a bit brown maybe. They don't feel mushy though.

Now the latest news is that we have found another house to buy. Still early days but we have had the offer accepted so just keeping our fingers crossed. Hopefully it will be straightforward because for various reasons (which I won't go into) there is no chain, but we probably won't be moving until the end of June/early July. So I think you will understand why I have decided it is not worth growing greenhouse crops this year. Not only would they be in full growth by then - and there is no greenhouse there yet, but we are going away at the end of July for two weeks and I wouldn't feel happy asking brand new neighbours to water our greenhouse AND feed the cat, before we've had a chance to ingratiate ourselves with them. I will probably just grow a few chilli plants and ask a friend to have them to stay while we go on holiday.

Finally, I have baked my first butter-free cake - a cherry and almond one containing potato and ground almonds. I'm pleased to say that it was really very nice, and it wasn't just me who thought so. The family all agreed. I am looking forward to trying a butternut squash one. Not sure if I can bring myself to buy a courgette from a shop - perish the thought!

Cabin Fever and Sowing Plan

2010-01-11T05:46:00.001-08:00

It's still too cold/snowy/icy to go to the allotment and too cold/early to start sowing seeds. I don't know if it's a good idea to go to far flung/off the beaten track garden centres (which are the ones I want to go to to seek out loose seed potatoes) in case (a) they have not been delivered due to the weather and (b) the roads are hazardous. I was so bored this morning that I sat down and went through all my seeds and made a month by month sowing plan on an Excel spreadsheet. I thought I might post it on here but I don't know how.

Then I decided I would indeed venture out to an independent garden centre in a village a few miles away, to see what the seed potato situation was there. In fact the roads were fine. A bit slushy in places but not particularly dangerous. Their potatoes hadn't arrived yet although the lady said they were expecting them 'any minute' (by which she meant 'any day') but unfortunately they were not sold loose but in 3kg bags. I guess the seed potatoes will have to wait a bit longer. Oh well, there's no rush is there?

Anyway, while I was there, and I had a few Christmas vouchers, I bought 3 blackcurrant bushes and 2 blueberry bushes. These are now waiting in the greenhouse until the ground is plantable in.

Yesterday I received this late Christmas present. Most of these recipes contain no butter or equivalent, but instead are made with grated vegetable to make them nice and moist. The majority are made with courgette or butternut squash, and there are others which contain potato, sweet potato, carrot, turnip or beetroot. Because the vegetables contain natural sugars, most of the recipes contain slightly less sugar than normal recipes too. I'm afraid I can't tell you what any of the cakes are like as I haven't had a chance to make any yet, but I will let you know when I have. If they turn out to be as good as the pictures suggest it will be a nice way to use up all those courgettes and butternut squashes I will no doubt be inundated with later in the year.

First plot visit of 2010

2010-01-02T03:03:00.000-08:00

Like most of you I imagine, I haven't been able to do anything at the plot recently, even I had wanted to. However in the brief time when the temperature rose above freezing I did manage to dig up a few respectable looking carrots, three small celeriacs and a cabbage. The carrots and cabbage made a nice dish of coleslaw, while the celeriac was turned into soup.

I went for a walk up there yesterday for a dose of fresh air (I was feeling a bit fragile) and it was a very beautiful day, so I thought I would take some photos for an update. Not that much has changed since the last time I took some. Above is the phacelia, gone a bit droopy and brown since the frosts. As soon as the ground has thawed out I will be digging that in. Everything is in a state of suspended animation. The leeks haven't grown at all for weeks.

The broad beans are just about hanging on, this one is the biggest and most healthy looking.

This is a view along my neighbouring plots towards the back of the scout hut.

I often feel a bit down at this time of year, but having the allotment to focus on makes me feel much more positive about the coming weeks. I know it's a little while before I can really get going on it, but in the meantime I am planning a trip to a nursery which I have been told does 90 different types of seed potato, sold loose. It will soon be time to start them chitting. If I can't find what I want there I could try the Ryton Gardens Potato Day on January 31st. I decided not to get my seed potatoes by mail order this year, as they arrived so early last year and you are restricted to packs of 5, 10 or 20.

I got lots of gardening vouchers for Christmas and I plan to spend them on some new fruit bushes, blackcurrants and blueberries probably. It won't be long before I can start sowing a few seeds, celeriac and maybe some Marmande tomatoes.

Ice Pictures

2009-12-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

I have been out in the ice and snow to have a play with my new close up filters. Some of them I have also fiddled about with on Photoshop.

These first four were the ice on the greenhouse glass, the one below is a blob of snow on a hydrangea head.

I haven't dared go to the allotment for fear of what will have happened to the broad beans. The other day when I went the edges of their leaves were a bit blackened, but that was before the really cold weather started. I will have to go in the next couple of days as I have to empty the bokashi before we go away from Christmas.

I think the celeriac will have had it too. We've only eaten half of it. Probably the carrots too, and there were quite a lot left. You never know though, they might be ok.

Green shoots and Frost!

2009-11-30T07:07:00.000-08:00

As there is quite a hard frost forecast for tonight I thought it might be a good idea to dig up the last of the potatoes. They would probably be ok under the ground but if they got really cold they might get ruined. I've probably left some behind anyway, it seems to be impossible to get every last one. It's a beautiful day today though so I took the camera to photograph these new broad bean shoots - I hope they don't suffer from the frost.

And here are the garlic shoots, those ones at the back might even be onions, can't remember now.

I've had a bit of a disappointment with my bokashi. I ordered 4 bags of the bran (an e-bay bargain) in October, and emptied two of them into my plastic bucket (with lid). It seemed to me to be quite a wet batch, and sure enough, it has now gone mouldy. I have sent a message to complain but have not yet had an answer. I'm going to have to throw quite a lot of it away.
Huh.

On a lighter note: 1st of December tomorrow! This is our home-made advent calendar - it is a picture of our own front door (but with a bit of artistic licence to make it look posher than it really is!)

What I've been doing.....

2009-11-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

....while the weather has been too blemmin awful to do any work at the allotment. Well, actually I did venture down there yesterday, because we had run out of potatoes, and I was damned if I was going to spend good money on potatoes. I did buy some carrots in the supermarket the other day because I couldn't face the wind and the rain to go and dig some. And I wasn't very happy about it. So I braced myself and went and dug up a bucket of potatoes, a few carrots and a celeriac. While there I was pleasantly surprised to see that the broad beans are coming through - hooray!

I have also treated myself to a set of camera filters I found on e-bay, which you simply screw on the end of the lens and they allow you to take close ups. You can use one at a time or all four together. So I have done a few experiments but not many so far because it's always too dark and you get best results with no flash.

Recognise this lady?

Have also had another attempt at pumpkin bread, which was a bit more successful this time:

Planning some more spicy pumpkin chutney for Christmas presents, if I get the time, as I have also just taken on another job: making two sets of curtains and two roman blinds.

And on Friday I'm off to the Good Food Show!

Onions and Garlic emerging

2009-11-17T08:38:00.000-08:00

I managed an hour at the plot today - the first time I have actually done anything up there since... I can't remember. The onions and garlic are just beginning to poke their noses through, but still no sign of the broad beans.

One psb plant had collapsed in the wind, and had to be propped up again, and as usual the netting had come adrift and had to be repositioned. One plant had been stripped by pigeons. I think we got off quite lightly with the gales compared with most parts of the country, it really wasn't that bad here.

I pulled up a few of the old marigold plants, but there are still several left to be removed. Also dug up my Scabious and extricated all the couch grass from its roots, then replanted. Dug up the Achillea, removed lots of couch (but I couldn't get it all) and replanted by the fence. Pulled up miscellaneous spent annuals and some Dahlias - but I've left the tubers lying on the ground. I meant to bring them home and put them somewhere suitable for the winter. Generally tidied up the perennial patch.

Carrot Love

2009-11-12T08:49:00.001-08:00

Because I didn't thin my carrots, some of them have grown so closely together they have become amorously entwined, like these two. I'm pleased to see that they seem to be continuing to grow, because a few weeks ago they were all still very thin and spindly.

As well as the carrots, this afternoon I braved the cold wind and threatening sky to go and dig some supplies for the next few days. I dug up some supersized potatoes, which were surrounded by a lot of supersized worms, which is encouraging. Less encouraging is the number of bindweed roots I come across while digging, they go very deep, and don't bode well for next season. I also brought back some rather underwhelming celeriac and a few leeks. I'm 'between' leeks at the moment, the early ones are almost finished and the late ones are not quite big enough yet.

I haven't done much lately other than plant the onions etc, the weather hasn't been very conducive. Also I seem to have fallen slightly out of love with it all... but I think it's mainly down to the time of year - I expect I will get fired up again in the spring. Hope so anyway.

Autumn planting

2009-10-29T04:46:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I planted two bulbs of garlic (which was only about 1 1/2 rows), a packet of overwintering onions, and a packet of broad beans. I didn't get down there until about 3pm, and it was starting to get dark by the time I'd finished. I hope the garlic grows a bit bigger than it did this year.

This is where the broad beans are planted. I had to leave a gap at this end, for where next year's runner bean frame will go, and I only just had enough room before coming up against a row of potatoes that are still in there.

When I went to the garden centre to buy the sets and seeds, I took with me a long shopping list of all the seeds I need for next year, thinking I might try that instead of ordering them on line. Just because I like to pick up each packet and look at the picture and read the blurb. However, I should have realised, being nearly Christmas (yes I know it's still October, but it's not summer any more so therefore in retail terms it's nearly Christmas) everything gardening related has been replaced with Christmas trees and decorations. I thought being a garden centre they would have seeds in stock all year round. There were a couple of stands of them, but the choice was very restricted. So back to plan A: buy on line as usual. You can't browse the packets, but at least you get what you want.

Greenhouse Clear-out

2009-10-14T09:05:00.001-07:00

I can't tell you how useful this cheap and cheerful shower caddy has been - first for chitting potatoes, then ripening tomatoes, and now for drying/ripening seed pods. There are a few sweet peas on the bottom, some french beans in the middle and the very last of the tomatoes on top.

I have just been clearing away the last of the greenhouse crops. I've picked the last few peppers and tomatoes, and emptied the compost into bags to take up to the allotment. The pumpkins and squashes that were 'curing' in there have been put on a wire trolley in the shed. The only things I've left are the chillies which still have a few green ones on which I am hoping might still ripen.

Bleuuugh

2009-10-08T08:34:00.001-07:00

The whitefly are everywhere and making a right mess of things. Everyone else's brassicas seem to be badly affected as well. Bring on the cold weather...

Smashing!

2009-10-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

I've been entrusted with watering next door's greenhouse while they were away, and one day (soon after that very windy period) I went in and found glass all over the floor. A pane had cracked and part of it had fallen in. No idea how it happened, except that possibly a tree branch (well, a floppy coniferous frond really) may have been tapping against it in the wind. As it was my tree I feel perhaps I should take some responsibility, if that is what it was, though I can't be sure.

Anyway, a couple of days later, my son and his friend managed to score a direct hit on my own greenhouse with a football, breaking two of the roof panes. More smashed glass to clear up. So off I went to the glass shop, came back with three new panes and set to. Fixed mine ok, then discovered the neighbour's greenhouse is a slightly more awkward shape. A small piece of the top corner needs to be cut off to make it fit the frame. AND... whilst removing the remains of the broken pane, the really awkwardly-shaped triangular pane above also slid out and broke. Good job I had gloves on, or I could be missing a finger by now.

Well, the neighbours have come back this evening, but I haven't had a chance to see them and explain what's happened. It will have to wait until I'm back from work tomorrow afternoon.

I have been doing one or two pumpkinny things: a batch of sweet and spicy pumpkin chutney (ideal with curries!) and some spicy roasted pumpkin and pepper soup tonight, yum yum.

I'm hoping to get a couple of hours at the plot tomorrow afternoon, and will hopefully remember to take the camera - I want to show you how revoltingly black and sticky and whitefly-y my purple sprouting brocolli has become.

Strawberries' Final Fling

2009-09-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

My strawberries seem to think it's June again. If I wasn't sitting next to a calendar turned to September I might be thinking the same thing myself. It hasn't rained for weeks. I picked all these yesterday and there are a lot more coming as another warm and sunny weekend approaches. The grass is turning quite brown and things in the garden are starting to wilt. Why didn't we get this weather in the summer holidays?

We had a very dramatic sky at sunset last night.

Annual Allotment Performance Appraisal

2009-09-19T02:58:00.000-07:00

Autumn is a pivotal point in the allotment year, the end of the summer season, and the point at which the whole cycle starts all over again. This is when my crops get rotated to the next patch and I will start to plan next year's sowing and planting, starting with overwintering onions and garlic, and broad beans. So it seems like a good time for a review of the current year's successes and failures.

Beginning with the greenhouse crops:
Despite the pretty rubbish summer weather this has been one of the best years ever in the greenhouse. About half of the tomatoes succumbed to blight in the end, but not before producing some really good crops, and the remainder are still going strong now. The Sungold were very tasty and I have seen a variety in T& M which are described as a 'sister' variety, tasting very similar but with thinner skins that resist splitting.
The cucumbers, though slow to get going, have fruited much more steadily than in previous years, rather than all at once and all over by July. They are still producing now, at just the right rate.
I didn't expect much from the melons but I have been pleasantly surprised to have produced three edible, good sized fruits. Not much yield from the space they take up but satisfying nonetheless. Not yet sure whether to go for it again next year.
Chillies (Ring of Fire) - having learned from previous years not to overwater, these plants have produced the highest yield ever, but I'm a bit disappointed that they are not as hot as in previous years. Next year I'm going to try some different varieties, including some described as 'atomic'!
Peppers - also an amazingly high yield, and hardly any pest damage compared to the last two years.

Now down to the allotment:
Runner beans (Desiree, a white flowered variety) - disappointing really. Failed to grow to the top of their canes and stopped flowering and producing pods really quite early. The beans we did get were very nice though. Next year I think I will do a mixture of them and good old red flowered ones.
French beans (Aiguillon) - fantastic, will definitely do again next year, but will probably sow them all direct, as it is much easier and the direct sown plants were much bigger and healthier.
Broad beans - very good and hardly any blackfly. Next year I might do a spring sowing as well as an autumn one, but it depends a bit on whether I decided to bother with
Peas - delicious, but just so much faff. I have saved masses of seed, so I might find I just have to sow some next year, but I'm tempted to just do more broad beans instead. Bought frozen peas are pretty good really. To be decided.
Brassicas:
calabrese and summer caulis - all pretty rubbish and I definitely won't bother next year. Will concentrate on winter brassicas and a few summer cabbages. These weren't up to much either this year but I will try maybe a different variety next summer. Must remember to start psb much later.
Tomatoes - if they hadn't all got blight they would have been amazing. Will try some blight resistant varieties next year.
Sweetcorn - did too much and haven't been able to keep up. A lot of it has gone to waste. Delicious though, as usual.
Squashes - pretty good. Tried the first Blue Ballet squash roasted the other night and it was delicious. Even the children liked it. Next year will do fewer pumpkins and more of this type of thing. The butternuts have done well too. Despite having three courgette plants we don't seem to have been quite so inundated as in previous years, but a reasonably steady supply anyway.
Potatoes - Mimi and Anya definitely the nicest. Charlottes were fine, just a bit boring. My maincrops - Sarpo Mira are a huge disappointment. Tough skins and a very dry texture. Feeling a bit depressed at the thought of the amount we still have to get through. Definitely never again. They are supposed to be blight resistant, but frankly I'd rather take my chances with the ordinary sort. Possibly won't even bother with maincrops at all next year. Use the space for something else...
Carrots - better and more than last year. Something I need to keep working on.
Aliums:
Onions - all pretty good really and hardly any rot.
Garlic - not bad, but pretty small cloves and some not split properly. Must try harder.
Leeks - first planting looking really good, will start harvesting soon. Second planting still quite small and developing rust. Not sure what to do as not had this problem before.
Celeriac - haven't harvested any yet, but looking good...
Fruit:
Strawberries - it seems so long ago, but they did pretty well, and still producing the odd one now and again.
Currants - didn't get many. Plan to plant more bushes in the winter.
Loganberries - early days, not much to harvest this year.
Raspberries - a lot of raspberry beetle in early ones, later ones much better. Plan to buy fresh canes and put them in at the allotment rather than in the garden.
Apples - two new trees - two apples on one of them! Not sampled yet.

Not a bad year all in all. I haven't had to buy vegetables at all since June, and I still have plenty of potatoes, onions, leeks, celeriac, french beans, squashes, winter cabbages and carrots to keep us going for a good few weeks yet.

Eating the melon

2009-09-15T10:51:00.001-07:00

This is our last melon of three. The flavour of two and three was slightly better than number one, after leaving the plants unwatered for several weeks, however it was still slightly bland. I suppose water melon often is. Still - they were a pretty good size and lovely and juicy.

This afternoon I have spent about two hours chopping up apples, courgettes, green tomatoes and onions for a batch of 'glutney'. The apples are from my neighbour's tree, everything else was mine. The actual cooking will take place this evening. Hopefully I will also find time to do a batch of spicy pumpkin chutney. Not today though.

The peppers are beginning to ripen now, you can tell which ones are going to be red and which are orange.

I've bought myself a new bike! It was an amazing bargain - less than half price. I have put a lift-off basket on the front for bringing the veg home in.

Looks like the house move is off. We haven't been able to find anything suitable so have had to take the house off the market. Oh well, probably wasn't to be.

Overdue plot update

2009-09-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

Here is the bit where I recently cleared the path of weeds and put down bark chippings. Should be much more low maintenance now. On the left you can see the purple sprouting brocolli, which is covered in black mould from all the whitefly. Even the cabbage whites have been put off, as there are no visible caterpillars on them.

This is one of my very respectable-sized butternut squashes, there are four of them altogether, this is the biggest. For ages I didn't think they were going to produce any fruit at all, but once they appeared they grew very quickly.

The pumpkins and strange marrow/pumpkiny hybrid thingies. I bet they will taste disgusting. Sweetcorn in the background - we have corn coming out of our ears - I ate three cobs in one sitting this lunchtime.

I weeded the Autumn King carrot patch today, and also dug up the few remaining Early Nantes from the other patch and cleared that area. Weeded and tidied the celeriacs too.

Here is some really lush looking clover, ready for digging in - lots of nitrogen rich humus for next year's brassicas. And some bolted lettuces which need pulling out.

And finally, the ornamental area, above, and plot overview, below.

My French beans, Aiguillon, have been superb. My only complaint is that they are a bit fiddly to pick, and difficult to see, being the same colour as the foliage. But they have gone on and on producing masses of pods, they have done much better than the runner beans.

We have been busy stressing out over our house move as well - looks as if the house we wanted has some structural problems, so I think we will be walking away from that one - more's the pity. Going to see another one on Tuesday, meanwhile we are hoping our buyer doesn't get fed up and pull out.

Will my peppers ever ripen?

2009-08-31T12:32:00.000-07:00

Well the chillies are ripening at the rate of several per day. We have had one curry (it wasn't very hot..) but the rest have all just gone in the freezer for now.

But these peppers are staying resolutely green. A few are beginning to darken, but now I'm beginning to worry that with the end of the 'summer' almost here, they may never ripen. We'll have to eat them all green.

Attention being distracted from allotment...

2009-08-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

I have had a couple of sessions down at the allotment recently, but it's mainly been a question of harvesting, harvesting and more harvesting, and sometimes feeling guilty because of not harvesting, and just eating junk food instead. Sometimes feeling guilty for leaving a bag of runner beans in the fridge for too long and then composting them. Anyway it's raining at the moment so that's my excuse for today. However another major distraction is that we might be moving house! I say 'might be', because even though we have accepted an offer on ours, and had our offer accepted on another, as everyone who has moved house will know, 'there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip', and it's still early days. Two out of the three offerers have changed their minds, and we are currently waiting for the results of a survey on the new house. Still, fingers crossed, and if all goes according to plan, it is going to be quite an exciting project. It is a good sized plot - not big enough to replace the allotment - but has a perfect corner for siting my greenhouse, a herb garden and a few fruit trees. And it is still within cycling distance from the allotment.
Will keep you posted.

Onion Strings

2009-08-16T08:20:00.000-07:00

I've been stringing up some of my onions. I've done three or four strings altogether but this is the best so far, I was beginning to get the hang of it by then. Actually these are mostly shallots. I will be digging up my brown onions tomorrow.

I decided to dig up all the useless brassicas, but I still need to dig over the area and sow some green manure. The phacelia I sowed a few weeks ago is ready for digging in, and there is a bare patch where the new potatoes have come out. I have now finally finished digging up the Charlottes (sigh of relief) and once we have eaten all of them we can start on the Anyas. At this rate the maincrops will be left in the ground until well into the autumn.

The pumpkins and the enormous marrow type things are starting to turn orange, and I have two tiny butternut squashes starting to grow. The plants are looking a bit yellow though, they probably want feeding.

My to-do list is getting ever longer.

I still haven't dug up the allotment tomatoes, because they don't seem to be getting any worse. The blight hasn't affected the fruit, and there isn't much left on them now anyway. I have a small amount of blight starting to develop in the greenhouse now too, but it doesn't seem to be spreading and the tomatoes are nearly all finished on those particular plants so I will leave them, and keep a close eye on them.

Also in the greenhouse, I have picked my first red chilli, and there is another one on the turn. There is plenty of fruit on the peppers, and hopefully the sunny weather will encourage them to ripen now as well. Oh yes, and the two remaining melons are biding their time....

Ripening melons

2009-08-11T02:42:00.001-07:00

The three melons seem to have stopped growing now, and one only reached kiwi-fruit size. This one I discovered sitting in a wet patch and was beginning to rot on the end, so I have had to pick it. It felt ripe, although there was no aroma, but obviously we had to cut the rotten bit off and therefore had to stick a spoon in and taste it. It's juicy, but doesn't have much flavour. I will stop watering them now so hopefully the other two will be a bit sweeter when they ripen.

Sunshine at last

2009-08-08T09:54:00.001-07:00

At last I have been able to get down to the allotment, after what seems like weeks. I tried to go on Thursday but the minute I got down there and got out of the car it started to rain. I just managed to empty a bokashi bin before I had to make a dash for home.

Anyway, I have had a good session up there today, trimming the grass edges, weeding the carrot seedlings and erecting a fleece fence around them to keep the carrot flies off. Then I decided to dig up some of my maincrop potatoes to see what they look like.

They are the pink ones on the right, Sarpo Mira. They are supposed to be blight resistant. I dug them up because quite frankly, I'm a bit fed up with Charlottes. We seem to have eaten nothing else for weeks and I just fancied a jacket potato for my supper.

I also dug up nearly all the red onions, and the remaining shallots, and brought them home to dry.

At the moment they are outside on the patio, but at the first sign of rain I can move the whole thing into the shed. I also had a go at 'stringing' the shallots which have already been dried, but I won't show you as they are a bit rubbish. Maybe I'll have a bit more success with the onions.

The outdoor tomatoes at the allotment are showing signs of blight, despite being sprayed with dithane. I have already dug one plant up (the worst affected), but I have left the rest for now, though I know it's probably too late for them now. I have cut off most of the trusses with ripe/semi-ripe/on the turn tomatoes and brought them home to ripen here.

Then I picked some runner beans and some french beans and a couple of carrots, and a courgette.

As you can see the beans tend to dangle down on the inside of the frame, making it very easy to pick them. They don't have a great deal of foliage, but there seem to be plenty of beans.

Finally I sprayed the grass and weeds on the path in front of the hedge, so that I can put down bark chips, like I've done further up. The grass has spread to the actual plot, surrounding the tomatoes and lettuces, and it's very difficult to remove. I won't be able to do anything about it until those crops are harvested and out of the way.

Then I came home and sorted, washed, scrubbed and strung.

We have a birthday tomorrow, and we will then have an official teenager in the family!

Please sign the anti-Aminopyralid petition

2009-08-06T03:54:00.000-07:00

You have probably all heard about Aminopyralid - the herbicide which has been contaminating manure and badly affecting peoples' allotment and garden crops. You can read more about it here, and also sign a petition against its use.

I haven't been able to do much on the plot lately, like most of you I expect, as the weather has been so rubbish, but hopefully I will be able to bring you some allotment news later today.

Melon, Raspberry Beetle and the Trouble with Fruit

2009-07-26T03:45:00.000-07:00

The biggest melon is now grapefruit sized, with the other three ranging from kiwi-sized to apple-sized.

On the left (above) is the pumpkin-squash hybrid thing, you can't really tell from the picture but it is in fact about 1 ft long, and 8" in diameter. On the right is a Blue Ballet squash.

The runner beans being pollinated.

The leeks I put in a few days ago, just visible in the foreground. Behind them, some others that I planted a few weeks ago, doing well. Behind them, the shallots I am about to harvest (the smallest will be pickled), and the onions.

And finally, a plot overview, showing lots of empty spaces where I have cut down the peas and broad beans and sown clover and field beans as green manure, and a gap behind where potatoes have been dug up, but that bit is still empty. You can't see much else without enlarging the picture.

So, to my raspberry dilemma. As I mentioned previously, I was thinking of starting some new raspberries at the allotment this winter, but having read this discussion with some fellow raspberry growers, I've been rather put off the idea, and it's also put me off blackberries.

For me, the most useful fruit is the sort you can just pick and eat raw, unsweetened, and with nothing more than a small dollop of creme fraiche to make palatable, as opposed to the sort which needs cooking and turning into high calorie puddings. Strawberries only last a few weeks, and raspberries are the obvious thing to take over when the strawberries have finished. Other than tree fruit, for which I am limited by space and cost restrictions, what else is there?

Tomato Pulp

2009-07-23T09:44:00.001-07:00

I have christened my passata maker. I had enough ripe tomatoes to make these two containers of tomato pulp for the freezer. When I've got plenty I will make it into proper tomato sauce with garlic, olive oil etc. I had already picked the herbs, thinking I was going to make the sauce straight away (but didn't), so the herbs are already included.

Dish of the day today is pasta with fried courgettes and garlicky cucumber tsatsiki (?) tsasiki? - the greek stuff.

Greenhouse Report 2

2009-07-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

The first few peppers forming, they are either red or orange, I lost track of the labelling when I potted them up.

The melon is roughly the size of a small lemon, or maybe a satsuma. There are another three which are also swelling, still about grape/walnut sized.

Went to the allotment today to a) show a friend who hadn't seen it before and b) check for storm damage, but what I actually found was a bird trapped in one netting tunnel and a cabbage white in another - eek! Managed to free them both but have not as yet checked to see whether it left any eggs behind ( the butterfly, not the bird!)

Courgettes are really starting to take off now, picked 5 today. The pumpkin seeds which I had saved from last year are, as predicted, some interesting pumpkin/squash hybrid. One plant has an enormous marrow like thing growing on it, the other has some knobbly elongated pumpkin shaped things on it. It'll be interesting to see what they taste like.

Getting lots and lots of cucumbers and tomatoes now, I just hope the outdoor tomatoes don't succumb to blight, after all this rain. I wondered about spraying them with dithane or some other anti-fungal preparation as a precaution, but haven't done anything about it, still just wondering.

Monday's harvest

2009-07-15T01:08:00.001-07:00

In the yellow container are the last of the 1st early Mimi potatoes, and we are now onto the Charlottes, which seem to have done very well indeed. This basketful is from the first two plants. The dwarf french bean plants are still very small, but are already producing quite a lot of pods, and I have picked the first few runner beans as well. The peas have almost finished. The tomato skins are getting better, although they still don't taste particularly sweet or juicy. Perhaps I need to let them ripen a bit longer before picking them.

The melon (which in the picture below was the size of a gooseberry) is now the size of a ping pong ball! I will post pictures at regular intervals... next one at the weekend.

Melons

2009-07-11T07:49:00.001-07:00

I have counted about 6 female flowers, with tiny melons behind them, and two of them are beginning to swell. If they grow to full size I will have to come up with a way of supporting them until they ripen. I have heard of people using bras or tights to hold them up, but I hope my bras just won't be big enough!

Notes for Next Year

2009-07-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Have had a whole day at the plot today and about time too. Did lots of weeding, sowed some green manure in a few empty spaces, removed broad beans (leaving a few stumps with pods left to ripen for seed collection), re-sowed two rows of carrots which failed to germinate (although I'm a bit worried it might be the seeds that are at fault - they are Autumn King as opposed to the Early Nantes which are doing really well at the moment) and put a few more french bean seeds in the gaps where they hadn't come up.

I have run out of compost bin space. Next job, as a matter of urgency, is to empty the older bin to make some more space. One thing I could do with it is mulch the PSB.

Cauliflowers have suddenly appeared, although they are a bit yellow and pathetic looking. Several of the PSBs are sprouting and one has already started flowering. Gathered enough cauliflower and brocolli to make a very nice brassica cheese, topped with grilled red onion and served with new potatoes and cherry tomatoes - delicious.

Pauline was going around with a man with a clipboard, taking notes. She says, "this gentleman is judging the plots."
"What for?" I ask.
"Best kept allotment" says she.
"I thought you had to enter for that - fill out a form and such like"
"Well," she says, "if I see a plot that's looking pretty good, I enter it."
I was being 'entered'. Gosh. I wonder what constitutes 'pretty good' - it obviously doesn't necessarily mean neat and tidy and no weeds.
They stood there for quite a while looking at it, and I could hear her telling him all about the vandalism, and all the misfortunes that have befallen my shed. Perhaps I will win the 'most stoical in the face of extreme provocation' consolation prize.

Below is a list of 'things to do differently/better' next year, I have been meaning to jot down for a while now. A bit boring to read but hopefully will be useful for me to consult next spring.

Peas:
Vertical supports - two rows - use both sides. Sow one row a month starting in April. Sow direct?
French beans:
Sow direct - four rows, two in May, two mid June. Some spares in pots.
Sow runner beans direct?
Carrots:
Lots more early Nantes
Potatoes:
Maybe just 3 varieties, 1 early, 1 2nd early, 1 main. Stagger planting times - 2nd earlies later than 1st.
Brassicas:
P.S Brocolli - sow later - late spring, transplant early summer.
Don't bother with calabrese/cauliflower
Slug protection for cabbages

Greenhouse Report

2009-07-05T08:02:00.001-07:00

These posts are coming thick and fast, I know, but there is just so much happening at the moment. Below, right, are Sungold and Gardener's Delight toms, on the left cucumbers and down at the bottom peppers.

Below are Marmande (left) and Moneymaker, Red Cherry at the far end, and lots more peppers. You can't see them but there are lots of pepper flowers hiding under the leaves.

The chillies (below left) have plenty of flowers and some fruit. On the right, the melons are going a bit beserk. There are only one or two female flowers, with tiny fruitlets behind them, which I have tried to pollinate even though the blurb said they were self-pollinating. I don't want to leave anything to chance. I have nipped out the growing tips to try and stop them taking over the whole greenhouse. You can't see too clearly from this picture (unless you click to enlarge it), but the shoots are snaking all over the place.

This is interesting - the lettuces, which I sowed last September to overwinter, began to bolt several weeks ago, but I never got around to pulling them out, and they are now developing flowers. I have never seen lettuce flowers before, but I thought I may as well let them go all the way now and produce some seed which I could collect.

Progress photos

2009-07-02T10:17:00.001-07:00

The sweetcorn have really come on in the heat, some of them are starting to put up their flower stalks.

This is the first ever Romanesco sprout - it doesn't look like the ones you see in the shops, I thought they were supposed to be all green. This looks a bit like purple sprouting brocolli - talking of which, I have also picked two heads of that as well! I have also picked quite a bit of ordinary green calabrese. Despite all this, I have come to the conclusion that these type of brassicas don't really justify the amount of space they take up on my plot. The heads never get bigger than a couple of inches. Next year I think I will concentrate on cabbages (winter and summer) and purple sprouting brocolli.

These are the outdoor tomatoes, which are beginning to ripen. I have tasted a few of my greenhouse tomatoes, and they have so far all had rather disappointingly tough skins, so while I am hoping that the outdoor ones will be better, I have picked a few of the green greenhouse tomatoes and brought them into the kitchen to ripen in a box, in the hope that this will improve them. Otherwise they will just have to be made into soup and sauce.

Here are the first little runner beans developing! The french beans are forming as well. Not long now.

So currently I am harvesting new potatoes, peas, carrots, lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, shallots, spring onions, and very nearly courgettes. The strawberries have slowed right down and are only producing quite small fruit now. I have amassed quite a few in the freezer for jam-making this weekend. The broad beans have just about finished.

In the garden, I'm afraid I have to confess to having resorted to spraying the asparagus beetles with Bug Clear. But it has certainly done the trick. As I mentioned in my previous post I also have a problem with raspberry beetle, but when I inspected my neighbour's allotment raspberries they appeared to be affected by it as well, so now I am in two minds as to whether I should put new plants in up there. Is this a very common ailment of raspberries I wonder? And do loganberries get it as well?

Following on from last week's rant...

2009-06-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

I've got over my despairing mood of last week, now it's just too hot to do any despairing or anything else for that matter, including taking photos, hence no photos. We have also had a really torrential downpour last Friday, so that took the pressure off in the watering department.

Since then, we have eaten our first peas. How could I possibly have considered not growing peas again??? I thought long and hard about the scaling back idea, and decided that there really isn't much that I wouldn't want to grow, and green manure involves regular cutting down and digging in, so probably wouldn't be much less work anyway.

I will definitely put a lot more soft fruit in over the winter thought. My raspberries in the garden have all got raspberry beetle, and they're all covered in something sticky, and they are getting very overcrowded and there is no room to walk in between them . So I'm going to start again with some new plants at the allotment, and will also do some more currant bushes.

I have decided my potato situation is normal, the potatoes we have eaten are all fine, so all I have to do is stop comparing mine to my neighbours'.

The greenhouse tomatoes are starting to ripen. I tasted one today and although the flavour is good, the skins are so tough they are inedible. Very disappointing. I've brought a few green ones inside to ripen them in a box, see if they are any better. If not I hope the outdoor ones will be better, the greenhouse ones will just have to be put through the passata maker (should be able to get that out of its box soon...)

1st Anniversary

2009-06-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

I've just realised I started doing this blog exactly one year and two days ago. Happy Birthday Blog.

A few months ago I posted the picture above, and said I would post another one in a few months time. Well, here is the promised update:

The flowers are lovely and doing a good job of keeping that area weed free (ish)

The runner beans are flowering,

There is plenty of fruit on the tomatoes.
BUT...

The potatoes are looking sickly. I know they start to die back after a while, but this seems a little soon. The earlies have only just been in 12 weeks, and the second earlies shouldn't even be ready yet, so surely they shouldn't be turning yellow and falling over? The maincrops look fine, apart from two which look a bit shrivelled, no idea why.

I wouldn't dream of moaning about hot sunny weather, but all this watering I'm having to do... it's the first year this has happened, and now I realise what a massive downside it is. I spent about 3 hours up there this afternoon, my back is aching and it's not as if you can put your feet up when you get home. Oh no. Then there's the strawberries to wash and hull, potatoes to scrub, lettuces to wash and beans to pod. That's before you've even started cooking. There is just SO much to do at the moment, and not just on the allotment. I had planned to do some curtain making tonight, but I just can't face it. As I was waiting for the pictures to upload, I was simultaneously scrubbing potatoes, podding beans and half-watching the tennis. On my way home from the plot I was fantasising about walking through the door with the box of veg and saying, 'there you are dear, there's the veg, what are we having for supper?' while I take a shower and settle down with a beer to watch the tennis.

Well, you have probably guessed I am having an off day. So much so that I'm seriously considering scaling back the allotment next year. It shouldn't be so stressful that I start to resent it. Obviously I don't want to give it up, but I was thinking maybe I could fill quite a big area with green manure, and just grow less of everything, particularly those things which give minimum yield for maximum faff, eg peas. Maybe concentrate on easy, good value things like courgettes, tomatoes, sweetcorn and runner beans. Half the amount of potatoes, so no having to find space to store them, ditto onions. One whole section could be devoted to soft fruit, and with any luck there would be more time for things like jam-making.

I'll see how I feel in a couple of weeks.

Pearly pink potatoes

2009-06-19T09:56:00.001-07:00

We're having these for supper this evening - dug 'em up today - first ones of the summer!

Strawberries for Tea

2009-06-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day I was able to pick enough strawberries for all four of us. Delicious.

These are the Marmande tomatoes. There are plenty coming on all the other varieties, but these are the most advanced.

And those tiny cucumber plants, which spent several weeks refusing to grow, are now producing cucumbers:

These are the 'Yellow Baby' water melons, planted in grow-bags, with bottomless pots for extra space. I hope there is enough room for them all - the instructions said two melons to a bag, but it said the same on both the large (50 l) and the small (30 l) sizes, so I hope with the extra compost and plenty of feeds they should do ok.

This week at the allotment I have planted out my french beans and leeks, sowed more french beans direct into the ground, sowed another row of carrots, and weeded, A LOT. The carrots, onions and celeriacs are now weed-free, as are nearly all the brassicas, but I still need to do the rest of the brassicas and the peas and broad beans. Getting there...

So much to do, not enough hours...

2009-06-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening, arrived back from holiday. Approached allotment with some trepidation on Monday morning on the way to the supermarket - would my bean/pea/tomato support structures still be standing? Would my newly planted tomatoes and runner beans have survived the week without me? Fortunately all was well, just one empty beer bottle, nothing too alarming. Tomatoes and beans hadn't really grown, but it is like a desert up there, dry as dust. Picked a big carrier bag full of broad beans, which we ate for supper - lovely. There are loads more to come.

Yesterday evening I planted out 41 sweetcorn plants. It is far too many of course but last year there weren't really enough, so of course I have gone to the other extreme this year.

Here are the runner beans...

and some pumpkins, squashes and courgettes. There is still room at the end for three butternut squash plants, which will have to wait a bit longer, I ran out of time.

The brassicas have all shot up, but desperately need weeding...

same applies to the onions

But the potatoes (in the background) have got so big there isn't room for any weeds.
The green strawberries are lying in the dust and need to have some straw or something underneath them, and some netting on top. The edges need trimming again and I need to tackle the grass and weeds around the shed and compost bins.

There are still french beans to plant out, chillies, cucumbers and peppers to pot up and lawn to mow (again). In addition I am about to embark on a huge curtain making project - doing virtually a whole 6-bedroom house for somebody at work, which will keep me pretty busy over the summer, so I am trying to do as much as I can on the allotment before the first lot of material arrives.

And the asparagus beetles have taken advantage of my absence to start procreating. I was doing so well before we went away, removing them each day, but now there are eggs as well.

It's overwhelming sometimes isn't it?

And here's mine...

2009-05-19T08:33:00.001-07:00

It's based on the now famous(!) Munty design, which you can read all about on here. (See page 3 for a good example without beans, page 4 for one with beans growing - gorgeous!). You may not see any similarity at first, but the principle is the same: the open side of the structure faces south and the beans grow towards the light. As the beans grow they are supposed to dangle down from the underside of the slope, making them easier to see and pick. I will post another picture when the beans have climbed to the top, so you can see whether it works!

The Mean Green Bean Machine

2009-05-18T01:49:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my dad's home made bean support frame. As I understand it, it is securely anchored into the ground so it won't blow away, and at the end of the summer, you can fold it flat for storage - genius! Unfortunately it is not on my allotment, but in my parents' garden. Actually I wouldn't dare put something that posh on my allotment, that would be asking for trouble.

Here is a very rare picture of me, in fact probably one of only two pictures of me, on the allotment, looks like I'm weeding the peas. Everything has grown a lot since this was taken about two weeks ago. Notice how the peas and broad beans are leaning right over in the gale force winds...

I have put up my support canes for my tomatoes, and today's mission is to get some wood to make my own bean frame. If there's time and it isn't raining I might even try and construct it. I have decided to try and plant out the runner beans before we go on holiday too. They are already outgrowing their pots.