Plot 35

And this weekend, it's Jerusalem artichokes

2010-07-17T20:32:00.002+01:00

3 hours over at the plot today after trimming the garlic I harvested a couple of weeks ago. The most successful type based on the number and size of the bulbs that emerged seemed to be the Germidour. Don't know about the taste yet. Overall, there were maybe a few more larger bulbs that I have managed in previous years but still too many small ones for my liking.

While at the plot I planted out 4 courgette (One Ball), 3 pumpkin, 20 sugarsnap pea and 20 sweetcorn plants. Better late than never. The cucurbits have gone into the ground vacated by the first early spuds.

I saw some nice fellow plotters over at the site today and I managed to give away 8 artichokes. Result! I was thinking about the dozen sitting in the fridge at home waiting to be deal with. Well, while writing this, they are trimmed and being boiled. I am trying a different trimming method than last year. Last year, I pulled off most of the petals, cut up the heart and removed the choke before cooking. This year, I am trying the, hopefully less wasteful, method of trimming the spiky petal ends with scissors and boiling the hearts whole. I'll cool them and remove the petals and chokes later (having a nibble of the petals while I go). I am a bit sceptical but I'll report back. There are lots of different instructions around. After cutting the 20 chokes so far, there are probably at least another dozen to harvest.

Back to the kitchen...

I have mostly been eating Elephant Garlic

2010-07-11T08:40:00.002+01:00

Not like me to get writing a blog post this early on a Sunday morning but I am in that kind of mood. I am a bit hungover but can't sleep in cos I am too excited about the plot today. I have purchased a cordless grass strimmer and cannot wait to take it over and to chop down the tall grass and nettles so I can actually see the beds. And possibly where the rabbits are getting through the fence at the bottom. I have been trying to keep on top of the couch grass immediately surrounding the beds with shears but I just can't.

A couple of weeks ago I sowed loads of seeds and pretty much all of them are up and about. These include (from memory): basil, yardlong beans, sugarsnap peas, courgettes, pumpkin, sweetcorn, squash, chervil (from saved seed), hyssop, borage, Swiss chard, pak choi and cucumber. I am late with all of these but perhaps if I get them planted out this week there may be a chance of a good harvest. I thinned out the seedlings a few days ago.

Thursday was all about Elephant Garlic. I worked at home and didn't know what to have for a quick lunch. In the end, I roasted up the garlic I harvested last weekend and mixed half of it with soft cheese and plenty of seasoning. I spread this on crackers and had it with soup. It was brilliant. I had the other half with spagetti and tomatoes in the evening. That was good too. I will definitely grow that again. Out of the 5 bulbs I planted, 4 came good. I guess the other one rotted off. A couple of them had some very small bulbs around the outside of the main cloves. I set them aside in case they were useful. A brief spot of Internet research suggests that these can be planted up. Apparently, in the first year these will form a single bulb, like a single large clove, and in the second year that bulb will divide up into cloves. I wonder if that is how the farms propagate them. I guess it might be because they are sold as large single cloves. Not sure when to plant them up though: now or in the Autumn.

Right. Enough typing. Time to get strimming.

Garlic, anyone?

2010-07-03T22:11:00.002+01:00

Quick note to mention that I harvested the garlic this evening. I have tied the stems up in different sets according to variety so I may do a taste test at some point. At the very least, I'll compare them for size and quantity for future reference.

I also did some weeding, a drop in the ocean, and watered the parsnip bed. It might have been my imagination but I thought I saw a single seedling in one of the stations.

An awful thing happened on Plot 35 earlier in the week. I went over there earlier in the week just to do a quick check and I saw that a snake had got caught up in some of netting and died in the heat. I feel awful about it. I untangled it and then buried it. I mentioned it to one of my fellow plotters and he said that at least it showed that there are those nice snakes around and that our plots provide a habitat of some kind. Not sure what can be done to prevent the same thing happening again though - netting is necessary to keep the rabbits and pigeons of the brassicas.

I did also manage to harvest a single cauliflower (no improvement on last year), 4 globe artichokes, a handful of blackcurrants and some second early spuds.

And I am currently considering the purchase of a cordless strimmer. Ummm...

Where to start?

2010-06-20T19:50:00.005+01:00

Gosh, it has been a while since my last post, hasn't it? Sorry about that. I hope everyone is well. Lots have happened in my life since then: my fiance returned from his posting "down South" in mid-April and then he became my husband at the start of June. Wedding planning got in the way of anything else but it was well worth it as it turned out. We've just returned from our honeymoon (2 lovely weeks in Scotland). I was thinking of the plot while away and we even managed a visit to Inverewe Gardens on the West coast.

Not sure where to start really though it is worth noting how behind I am with everything. Not a surprise. Currently on the plot/jungle, there are globe artichokes producing, Jerusalen artichokes getting taller by the day, broad beans that are short but thinking about podding, fruit ripening (red and blackcurrants, damsons and gooseberries), garlic and onions growing merrily, potatoes flowering, and a couple of tomato plants. The sage has flowered in a stunning blue/purple.

I spent some time in the garden Sunday to reign back the jungle that had grown in our absence. I cannot believe how much it had grown. The fennel plant by the patio door was way over our heads and was starting to put our house in the shade. The best thing was finding some sweet peas that had flowered. They are red though, not the orange I was expecting. They smell amazing.

In the afternoon, I spent 3 hours at the plot. I moved the compost bin up to the top of the plot where it'll get more attention and filled in with material taken from the garden this morning (mainly fennel), paper shreddings and comfrey (which was putting the 2 tomato plants in the shade). After some hoeing and raking, I then planted out 12 tomato plants (6 Legend and 6 Ferline) and sowed some parsnips. Then I planted out some poached egg plants in a row next to the broad beans in an effort to give the invading black fly something else to think about. I finished off by hosing everything down including the black fly on both the broad beans and globe artichokes. After losing the battle of wits with the midges recently, I am in no mood to leave these wee beasties alone.

Photos to come soon when I can find the right lead...

Twisted firestarter

2010-04-05T19:29:00.003+01:00

Well I finally got round to a bonfire last Sunday. I finally caught up with Bramble Man (first time this year!) and we inspected both our plots. I casually mentioned my plans to have a bonfire one day and he said there was no time like the present. He carefully built up the foundations on the bottom of Plot 35, me watching as his apprentice (I clearly remember being taught to make a bed and lay a table in the Brownies but have no recollection of learning anything to do with setting fire to things). Then we both forked loads of bramble cuttings and other plant debris onto the medium-size bonfire over the course of an hour and the way was soon cleared. Now I have little excuse not to start digging up the bramble roots.

I've not done much gardening at all this Bank Holiday weekend. Have been focusing on indoor stuff. I am pleased to report that the germination of the seeds sown last weekend has been very good. All but two of the crops (sunflowers and nasturtiums I think) have sprouted and when sprouting has taken place, it has moreorless been 100%. I used Sainsburys peat-free compost for the first time. It seems good. I'll wait to see if thrips start to appear though (a problem I have had with peat-free in the past).

Back on track

2010-03-27T20:01:00.003Z

The last couple of weeks have been light on the gardening front with lovely visitors coming to stay and a cold knocking me a little bit. I'm now back onto it though. I have managed to get the spuds in (8 rows of 10 or so) where Beds 5 and 7 have been combined. Today, I planted out some sweet peas in the garden, potted up chillies, tomatoes and rhubarb (the aubergine and peppers which finally made an appearance need another week methinks) and sowed some kale, cauliflower, perpetual spinach, oregano, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, nasturtiums, poached egg plants and sunflowers. The flower seeds area bit out-of-date so they may not come to anything. Still, you've got to be in it to win it.

Over to Plot 35 tomorrow...

Photo meme

2010-03-07T20:32:00.003Z

I was asked by fellow plotter mangocheeks, of Allotment2Kitchen, to pick a photo meme. This was a while ago and I have been struggling to find one ever since. Sorry about that. Nice idea though. Ideally, I'd have found one of me as a kid with my paternal Grandfather which whom I spent many a happy hour in his greenhouse taking in the scent of the tomatoes and making mud pies. He grew amazing leeks which were cooked in lashings of butter. The scents of tomato plants and freshly cut leeks are probably my two favourites and I think I always knew even from very young that I'd have an allotment, just like my Grandad did, when I grew up. Unfortunately, I don't think I have any photos of all that. I found the following photo which I like:

This is me a few years ago pottering around in our back garden. Our two cats were always "helping" me whenever I was pottering. I just like the fact that this photo captures them looking a bit like trouble. Sadly, the one on the left is no longer with us. The one on the right still likes to "help" though. I think this just captures how chaotic my gardening normally is.

Back to work

2010-03-07T16:41:00.003Z

Sorry for the lack of photos in recent blogs - I really need to get a new camera.

I spent a couple of hours over at the plot yesterday and cut down the rest of the brambles. Result! Now I can start digging the roots up and plotting a nice bonfire to get rid of all heaps of debris from previous seasons.

Today, the sun was shining so I spent longer over at the plot. Still chilly mind. I dug over Bed 4 and part of Bed 6, removing the grass path between them. I dug up the Jerusalem artichokes and gave some of the best looking tubers to my neighbour to grow. My back certainly feels like it has had some exercise. I removed a barrow-load of stones from the beds as I went along.

My main task next week is to plant out some spuds. I've got visitors coming the weekend after so it is next weekend or the last weekend in March. Either way is fine but I'd like to get them in asap. I plan to dig over Beds 5 and 7, removing the grass between them as well, to make 1 larger bed for the potatoes. It has been 3 years I think since I last grew spuds in that spot so this should be fine, although blight is still to be expected.

And I've got some sweet peas to plant out. It is due to dip below 0C tonight so I'll wait a few more days before setting those out to catch the sun. However, today has been so nice and sunny that someone went up in a hot air balloon.

Drier than expected

2010-02-28T20:11:00.003Z

Today was not half as wet as it was forecast though it was grey for most of the day. Yesterday had sunny intervals and was quite mild at 7-8C. I nipped over to the plot yesterday to cut down some of the brambles at the bottom of the plot. It was amazing how much I managed to cut down in 2 hours. Another session should do it and then I can start digging some roots out.

While I was over there I met my new next door neighbours - 2 couples who seem to be sharing their plot. They seem very nice and I look forward to talking more to them over there.

I came home with a bag of leeks and turned them into soup along with some potatoes from last year.

At home, the sweet peas need planting out but there is no sign of the broad beans. 1 of each of the chilli varities has germinated and the onion seedlings are getting longer (poor germination rate of the white onions). No sign of the sweet peppers or aubergine. 1 rhubarb seedling beginning to sprout. I am putting the poor germination rates down to the light and me sowing too early.

If next weekend is dry then I can cut down the rest of the brambles and dig over one of the beds. Quite frankly, I need the exercise.

Happy Valentines Day

2010-02-14T19:04:00.003Z

It was much milder today than it has been of late. About 7 degrees Centigrade. Oooo. The sun came out too.

Yesterday, I tidied up some of the pots on the patio at home. They had got into a right mess. Now I have more room for new plants.

Today, I started slowly by sowing some seeds: rhubarb, aubergine, peppers and chillies. I have put the chillies into the airing cupboard to keep them warm. I also sowed some salad leaves and Paris Market carrots in pots on the patio. I covered these with a pane of glass lent by a neighbour. It's good to get an early start.

After that, I headed over to the plot. The soil was almost perfect for digging. I dug over and weeded the bed where the parsnips were - about 4x2m. I found some small parsnips as I went along. It seems that the ones I chiseled out before Christmas were the largest there were. I also dug up some Jerusalem artichokes from the neighbouring patch of soil.

Sunny but cold

2010-01-30T16:09:00.004Z

It was deceptively chilly today as the sun was shining and there wasn't much cloud in the sky. It must have been noticably sunny because our cat spent a while catching some rays.

I started the weekend's gardening by resowing some onions. I sowed some a few weeks ago and most germinated but perhaps the light levels weren't quite enough for them to really get going. Then I sowed half a packet of Aquadulce Claudia broad beans into seed trays and put them in the mini greenhouse on the patio. I'll sow the rest of the packet in a few weeks so the beans don't all arrive at once.

Bit of a nice surprise in the post this week - some Santero onion sets. I think they must have been a free offer as part of a seed order I placed back in October. Nice. It'll be interesting to see how these compare to any seed-sown ones that get planted out.

Finally headed over to the plot and it was a lot wetter on the ground than I expected so digging wasn't really an option. I found some cauliflower plants growing well under some tunnel cloches. A few of them had bent stems, probably because their growth had been restricted by the low cloches. I decided to remove the cloches, replant the caulis a bit deeper and cover them with netting.

In the piccie above, they've got that sad-sack look that just-moved plants have. Fingers crossed that they'll perk up. I decided not to water them in as the soil was wet and I didn't want it to freeze around them.

I had 5 elephant garlic cloves at home which I had potted up with the rest of the garlic just before Christmas. 4 of them had developed roots so I planted them all out next to the other cloves planted out 2 weeks ago.

Before leaving the plot (my fingers were getting frozen with all the cold mud on my gloves), I put the sodden brassica plants from Bed 7 (from which I removed the netting to use for the caulis) onto the compost heap. They were joined by some of the rotten leaves around the base of the globe artichokes.

Worth the wait

2010-01-17T17:04:00.003Z

Today was a lovely day for gardening on Plot 35. At last! The sun was shining and it got up to 10C at one point. Barmy!

A couple of days after Christmas, I covered over Bed 1 with some clear plastic to keep it snow free with the idea of planting the garlic some time in the New Year. Since then I have been waiting for the opportunity and today was the day. It was lovely to do a spot of digging after so long and the revealed soil was damp but nice and crumbly. After digging and raking, in went the 9x9 cloves of garlic that had been in the lean-to in seed modules since a few days before Christmas. Some of the cloves had started to sprout while almost all of them had developed roots.

So in order of transplanting, there are:

Albigensian Wight
Wight Cristo
Early Purple Wight
Iberian Wight

Lautrec Wight
Messidrome
Germidour
Picardy Wight
Chesnok Red

The Picardy cloves had rooted the least and are tiny cloves. It'll be interesting to see if they catch up, and indeed if any of them survive the move. I also have 5 cloves of Elephant Garlic in pots at home so I'll plant them out another time.

On the way home, I nipped over the garden centre to check out the spuds on offer. I have always ordered these from catalogues but this is relatively expensive and you never quite know when to expect their delivery. The garden centre had a great range so I bought loads and I'll put them in the lean-to to chit now that there is space. I purchased the following:

1st early - Swift
2nd early - Wilja
Main crop - Cara
Late main crop - Pink Fir Apple

Just before I left the plot today, one of my fellow plotters came to say hello. We got onto the subject of potatoes and he mentioned that he had been recommended Wilja by a farmer as they are not so readily attacked by slugs. I have grown Cara before and they worked well. I was a bit disappointed by last year's harvest so fingers crossed for a good one this year.

I hope everyone else has had a good day gardening.

Awaiting another frost

2009-12-27T19:28:00.005Z

Got back from Christmas in Cornwall which was lovely. Wet though. I took down some veg from Plot 35 for Christmas dinner (see below - note the lovely Christmassy thumb nail of my future mum-in-law).

The homemade plum gin also made an appearance as part of the meal - in the cranberry sauce. I was loosely following a Nigella recipe but replaced cherry brandy with plum gin and it worked very well.

I'm itching to get onto the plot to start tidying things up. See below for the how the plot looked a couple of weekends ago, before the frost really hit hard. So much to do.

Tomorrow will be my main opportunity this week as it will be dry (perhaps not on the ground though) and it is due to snow quite heavily on Tuesday.

Oooo, and I think I might be buying a wormery in the New Year.

Silly me...

2009-12-22T13:47:00.002Z

The ground was so hard at the plot today that it was touch and go whether or not I'd be able to get any parsnips out for Christmas dinner let alone plant out any garlic. My fork bent with the strain. I think I chiselled just enough roots out for the 6 of us. I was surprised at how hard the ground was - silly me. I'll plant out the cloves in trays at home later.

The trick of leaving the cut stems of the Jerusalem artichokes over the ground to keep the frost off came into its own. It was easy to get some of those out to supplement the parsnips. Plus, a sweet little robin used the stems to perch and look to see if I was revealing any worms in the soil. I also took a cabbage to supplement the meagre number of sprouts produced in Bed 7 this year.

Just one other fellow plotter over there today but it was lovely to see him.

Leaving it a bit late?

2009-12-21T17:39:00.002Z

Today, I came across the packages of seed garlic I received a while ago. I figure those should go in the plot asap. That's one of tomorrow's jobs sorted (there is also harvesting to do - parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, chard, cabbage). There are 10 varieties in all - I fancied trying a few just to see. Fingers crossed that the ground isn't too hard.

Today, I tidied up the shed and lean-to at home a little bit and sowed some onion seeds. It is a bit early but I wanted to celebrate Midwinters Day somehow. Plus, I found some Christmas crackers in the shed so that was a bonus. I also got round to repotting the lemon and lime plants, bringing the lime into the house and putting the lemon in the lean-to to overwinter.

Too damp to dig...

2009-12-13T16:01:00.002Z

...today. No-one else was at the site. The morning was nice and sunny but it greyed over in the early afternoon. I nipped over to Plot 35 (it had been ages) in my wellies to check things out. I was all ready for some digging but it was simply too wet for digging, soil sticking to the boots and all that. Nevermind. So I harvested some stuff instead.

I dug up a few kilos of Jerusalem artichokes which I'll take into work this week for colleagues to take home (reserving some to try mangocheek's stoved Jerusalem artichokes recipe). I also took a small handful of parsnips (first of the year), a cabbage, three small horseradish roots, a few baby leeks (to use like spring onions) and a couple of handfuls of Brussels.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the weeds hadn't taken over too much at the plot. I am looking forward to having some time over Christmas to tend to the allotment and garden.

mangocheeks was so right...

2009-11-22T14:28:00.002Z

...with her prediction that the weather would not be suitable for gardening this weekend. It is still windy and wet here. I was hoping to get over to the plot this afternoon just to drop some peelings off but the rain has started again. I'll keep a look out but in the meantime I'll stick with GQT on Radio 4.

I did go through all my seeds yesterday so work out what I might need to buy for next year and to separate out some seeds to give away to colleagues. In particular, I am going to give away most of my packets of tomato seed because of the blight problem on our site. Nearly all of these tomato seeds came free with magazines - I don't have a particular tomato seed-buying habit (honestly). I have bought Ferline and Legend to try out next year. I have loads of seed in terms of types of veg rather than quantity but many of them could really do with using up next year. I am also going to give away any duplicates (again due to freebies - gratefully received) and some others that I don't fancy growing again (e.g. the Lady Godiva squash). It turns out that the only seeds I really need to buy are celery, celeriac, potato and pumpkin/squash. And I found a £5 garden centre voucher left over from my birthday some months ago so that was nice.

I think I will dig up the paths on Plot 35 over the remainder of Autumn and the start of Winter so if I can't get out this afternoon, I'll focus on drawing up a new planting plan. If I do manage to get over to the plot, I'll pick up some Jerusalam artichokes and a cabbage to go with a patridge I bought from the Farmers Market earlier.

Plum gin gets the thumbs up

2009-11-15T17:54:00.003Z

It was very windy and quite wet yesterday so not a good day for gardening. So, I spent the day doing stuff around the house including making mincemeat for the festive season and bottling up my plum gin which had been in the making for the required 3 months. My word, the plum gin is good! Nipped round to my neighbour's to try it with her. It was a hit. It tastes deceptively non-alcoholic which can only mean trouble.

It was drier and less windy today so I nipped over to the plot for an hour in the afternoon. I had lots of kitchen scraps and lawn mowings to take over. While there, I quickly dug over Bed 5 where the green manure was growing. The soil felt easy-going and I was impressed by the lack of weeds there. The green manure is a hit too then.

Fingers crossed for a clear weather window for next weekend...

Tubers revealed

2009-11-08T21:38:00.003Z

I hadn't been over to the plot for a couple of weeks as I was laid up with a nasty cold. It was lovely to get some fresh air at the 'lotment today though. The ground was wet this morning with some drizzle but it cleared up a bit in the afternoon.

I was planning on cutting down the Jerusalem artichoke stems and was considering harvesting a few tubers. As it was, when I arrived, one of the bigger stems had been blown over revealing some its tubers. Bingo! I cut down the stems and lay them over the ground to keep off hard frost.

I checked Bed 7 to see how the sprouts were doing. I picked a handful (literally) as some were already looking blown. I also pulled up a cabbage and cut off a few small florets from the remaining calabrese plant going to seed. After washing the artichokes and a spot of raking over what was Bed 1, I left with my harvest.

The artichokes are now in a large batch of Jerusalem artichoke and carrot soup (some for me and some for my lovely neighbour who brought me soup when I needed it last week) and the calabrese florets are in my tummy.

What I did with that extra hour

2009-10-25T14:44:00.002Z

It was quite sunny this morning but as I was going to leave for the plotment it starting to shower. It soon cleared and I headed over with the intention only to add some veg peelings to the compost heap (a bit too wet for digging). I stayed for a little while longer though to do a spot of handweeding round the leeks. I harvested the remaining beetroot, some of which I'll give to some friends. I also spotted a couple of parsley seedings nearby that were starting to put on some growth - remnants of one of the 2 parsley plants I transplanted earlier in the year. I dug them up to plant in the border at home. Hopefully, they'll continue to put on growth and it'll be possible to harvest some over Christmas.

There are a few sprouts appearing on the Brussels in Bed 7 which is very exciting. Only on a couple of plants but that's ok. Some look to have blown a bit but I might start harvesting a few next weekend to freeze if they are good enough. The aim is have enough for Christmas dinner. Fingers crossed.

Surprise in the garden

2009-10-10T15:27:00.008+01:00

I didn't make it to the plot last weekend so there is lots of catching up to do. Last Saturday, I focused on the garden and tidied up one of the borders - planted out some herbs from pots and moving some perennials around. I also took some cuttings of said perennials as insurance.

Before leaving for the plot yesterday, I popped outside to water some pots. I went over to look at the leaves on the two vines that I planted out a few months ago. On Gardeners World on Friday night, there was a tip on there about removing leaves from a vine to allow more light to get to any grapes and encourage ripening. One of the vines has yet to fruit but previously I had spotted a couple of bunches of small green fruit. I was expecting to see them there but was pleasantly surprised to find they have turned a gorgeous shade of purple. I suppose I should try a couple before the birds do.

I finally headed over to the plot at lunchtime and there wasn't another soul to be seen. It was a lot warmer than I was expecting - a perfect day for gardening. So much to do - where to start? I decided to tidy up the raspberry canes at the entrance to the plot. They were a right mess and I'd been meaning to sort them out for months. I dug most of them up and lined them up along the path at the top.

After a bit more digging I called it a day. I returned today mainly to collect some chard for a curry this evening. It was slightly cooler today and a bit wetter. Rain stayed off for most of the day but the grass around the plot was sopping wet. As well as the chard, I also took a Greyhound cabbage and some beetroot. There were loads of slugs in one of the cabbages. I evicted them and throw them into Bed 9. The buckwheat has flowered and is provided food and entertainment for lots of little flying critters. I'll give it another week before digging it in.

The crops that are there are generally flourishing. The leeks look like they are growing at least. The Jerusalem artichokes are reaching for the moon by the looks of things. I think they are taller than they were last year.

Things do look messy but I can sort that out over the next couple of months. I am seriously considering digging up all the paths between the beds because it is so difficult to get them tidy. I think that might allow me to make the plot look a lot tidier next year.

As well as the short spells of gardening, I have also ordered some garlic and blight-resistant tomato seeds. I look forward to getting the garlic in this month or next. I'll strive to get a more impressive harvest of the garlic next year and will try out some hardneck types with their edible scapes.

Autumn is definitely here

2009-09-27T18:56:00.005+01:00

I don't think I'd been to the plot for 2 weeks until today. I was away last weekend. It hasn't rained for a while so everything looked bone dry.

I didn't know what to expect as things can change quite a lot in 2 weeks. Things looked ok. The cabbages are nearly ready to harvest so I'll probably take one next weekend. The green manure has grown to about 8 inches high already. The Jerusalem artichokes have grown to almost twice my height (I am about 5 foot 8 btw). Many of the leeks look like they are finally taking off. The squash has started to develop an interesting orange/green stripey look. The forecast suggests that there might be a frost later in the week so I wanted to harvest the squash if possible.

The first job was to plant a redcurrant bush into Bed 3. I dug it out of the garden yesterday as part of a tidy up and I figure that the soil in Bed 3 is too rough right now for veg. Might as well have something more solid occupying it.

Then I picked some blackberries and veg and added the courgette plants to the compost heap. I gave everything a good watering before coming home.

I am very pleased with my Autumn bounty.

Bean a while

2009-09-06T18:56:00.005+01:00

A bit of a gap between blog posts here.

Last weekend, I dug over most of Bed 3 and added some grass clippings in a token effort to improve that bit of soil. It is very hard and dry so needs lots of TLC. Though clearly it is fertile because I am still picking lots of runner beans. Sssshhhh, don't tell anyone but I am quite glad that I was given some runner bean plants. Maybe I am converted and will grow them next year. I picked a couple of small yellow courgettes and the last of the peas before ripping out the pea plants. In their place, I planted out cauliflowers and purple sprouting. Before coming home, I did a spot more bramble and nettle chopping. At home, in an effort to use up some more plums, I made some plum sauce which I shared with some friends.

During the week, I harvested some cherry tomatoes from the pot on the patio. Not bad. I am very pleased to have some tomatoes this year. I ate them raw as I figured that cooking them would be a shame.

Just popped over for an hour today as I was away for the weekend. I harvested some chard, more runner beans, a couple of cobs of sweetcorn and a marrow. I also did a brief bit of weeding. I am currently cooking up some duck to have with the plum sauce made last weekend. To be served with some sweetcorn, peas and chard.

The buckwheat sown in Bed 5 is up which is great because last time I sowed green manure, it either didn't appear or it got munched by something.

And a few of the globe artichoke plants have been very busy producing suckers which can be removed to make new plants.

One of my more trusted books states that suckers should be removed in early Spring so I am a bit puzzled about what to do. Perhaps I'll take the suckers of one of the plants next week and see how they work out.

I need to spend some decent amounts of time over at the plot in the next few months to clear the bottom of the plot to make room for fruit bushes and strawberry plants that are taking up too much room at home.

Hope this isn't speaking too soon...

2009-08-25T20:54:00.002+01:00

...but there seems to be signs of ripening amongst the cherry tomatoes in the pot on the patio. Cripes!

Two hours to kill

2009-08-23T21:34:00.005+01:00

Just a couple of hours at the plot today but they were good. It was warm today but mainly grey. I was expecting more sun but I think that we were ahead of a rainy front to the West. Hey ho - it suits my English Rose complexion.

I sowed some Buckwheat seed on Bed 5 and covered over with some fleece.

Then I cleared some more brambles at the bottom of the plot. Starting to make some headway in time for some Autumn digging.

The brassicas in Bed 7 are looking ok I think (see below).

The calabrese plant has come on leaps and bounds but I don't know whether it will go much further before going wild.

Next weekend, if not before, I will pull out the pea plants and replace them with purple sprouting and cauliflowers.

More marrows...

2009-08-16T19:26:00.002+01:00

...from the Marrow Fairy. Managed to give one away to a neighbour.

Yesterday was a day for the Beer Festival which was very pleasant. Even tried some gooseberry wine. Also popped in on the local Flower and Veg Show where there were the largest cabbages I have even seen. Lots of prizes for fellow plotters on our site. Next year...(I said that before)

Went over to the plot today. It was sunny and warm with just a bit of cloud about. I started by digging over Bed 5, removing the tiny onions I as went. Must do better with them next year.

Then I cleared some brambles, nettles and bindweed from near the compost bins at the bottom of the plot. The brambles will need digging out properly sometime but a lot of the nettles came out by the roots when pulled. Still lots to do but it'll be a bit at a time.

Clearing bugs

2009-08-11T21:42:00.002+01:00

It was quite hot today though I was indoors all day. Nipped over to the plot for an hour this evening to check on the brassicas (again!) and it was lovely to get some fresh air. I also took some Bug Clear over in an effort to get rid of some whitefly. Bumped in a couple of other plotters over there which was nice. The lady who swapped lettuce for plums with me at the weekend said that she liked my idea of using the plums for gin so has also made up a batch. Am I driving people to drink now?

More Cabbage White eggs on the cabbages and sprouts. I had 6 leftover brassica seedlings so I put them in the gaps. Might be a bit late now but you never know. The cabbages look to be starting to heart up now so perhaps I'll be harvesting those in a few weeks. I need to find some room at the weekend to plant out the cauliflower and purple sprouting seedlings that are in the lean-to. Busy busy busy :-)

More marrows

2009-08-09T21:32:00.006+01:00

As expected, today was warm. It was loads warmer on the allotment, which is a suntrap, than at home. I went over to the plot in the afternoon.

One of the regulars was there, 2 plots down from mine. We had a nice chat though much of it focused on blight. His tomatoes had got gotten unfortunately so he ripped them out. He had planted his potatoes next to them so he cut the haulms off them too to be on the safe side. He even asked for my advice. Cripes.

I started by sowing some carrots, spring onions, lettuce and beetroot in Bed 4. I covered the seeds over with a tunnel cloche to keep them safe from carrot fly and whatever else fancies its chances.

Then after some more nattering, I cleared a bit more of the patch behind Bed 8 (see below):

I am not very good at taking photos but I quite like the one below with a shield bug on one of the runner beans.

Before leaving, my fellow plotter gave me 5 marrows (he really doesn't like courgettes once they get past a certain stage). I gave 2 of them to a neighbour when I got back. While cooking one up for my tea, I took 2lbs of plums, pricked them and added gin and sugar. Fingers crossed for plum gin for Christmas.

Green tomato chutney

2009-08-08T21:43:00.003+01:00

It was quite hot today. I was up fairly early anyway so I was at the plot at 1000 (early for me!). After a comment on Gardeners World last night, I thought I'd plant out the 7 chilli plants I had in the lean-to. They were still in the 3 inch pots they were started off in so they were bursting to get out. A couple of them were fruiting though.

When I arrived at the site, I bumped into one of the regulars. I asked him whether he had sprayed his tomato plants yet as I knew he did last year (it didn't stop the blight it turns out). He showed me his tomato plants - Fantasio I think he said - which are believed to be blight resistant. Sure enough - lovely big fruit with no real sign of blight though one fruit I spotted had a brown bottom. Could be blossom end rot or something. He removed it then and there. I asked what the taste was supposed to be like as I assumed that a compromise would have to be made between taste and blight-resistance. He said that he would let me try one when they are ready. In return, I gave him 2 of my chilli plants.

I was thinking of planting the chillies in Bed 7 in the space vacated by the tomatoes but I could do with putting some more brassicas there. Bed 4 offered more promise. I ended up digging over the whole bed around the globe artichokes and mint. Then I planted out the 5 remaining chilli plants and watered them in.

Another plotter came past and commented that the pods on my remaining broad beans plants were ready to be picked for seed. I thought they had gone black because of a disease so I was going to rip them out and discard them. Apparently, they blacken when they dry. Lots of seed for next year or for swapping then.

It was getting a tad warm so I nipped home for a spot of lunch. While there, I set about making green tomato chutney (thanks to my friend Ben and his Nanny Foo Doo for the recipe). As luck would have it, there were just enough tomatoes for the recipe. See below for the result...

...though I haven't taken a photo of the ruined pan.

While waiting for the chutney to cook down, I watered some plants and sowed some chervil (from saved seed from the plant on the windowsill that had gone to seed), rocket, lettuce, dill and coriander.

I popped back over to the plot this evening to start clearing the area behind Bed 8. Lots cleared ready for digging tomorrow. Lots of comfrey for the compost heap and loads of bindweed and brambles. Beats the gym any day. Plus, I spotted some ripe yellow plums growing on a young tree underneath the willow - don't think I'd seen that before. That's breakfast sorted.

Plums for lettuce

2009-08-07T20:48:00.005+01:00

I nipped over to the plot after work. It has been a fine sunny day with some cloud. Perhaps the most Summery day for a month.

Given the tomato blight that was discovered earlier in the week, I wanted to get the main crop potatoes out. They've had their 20 weeks in the ground. I also want to get to the back of Bed 8 as there seem to be some other potatoes growing there, amongst weeds and brambles, which I didn't plant out this year (see below).

I am guessing they are volunteers from previously dumped bits of potato or foliage. Not sure.

After a bit of digging and a lot of fighting with bramble, the spuds filled a small hessian sack. There only seemed to be about 2 tubers per plant but many of them were very large and will make fantastic baked potatoes. Quality not quantity I suppose. I have bagged up the foliage ready to burn or throw away.

I was being watched while working...

The first cat I've seen on the site I think.

Before leaving, I set about picking some plums from the tree at the top end of the plot. Every now and again, there is a bang when a fruit falls down onto the water butt next to the shed so it is a good sign that they are ripening. That and the already fallen plums on the ground that have been squished by passers-by.

While I was picking plums, one of my fellow allotmenteers called over to ask if I wanted some lettuces. I have been admiring their lettuces every time I've worked over to Plot 35. They always so lush and healthy (see below).

Apparently, they were growing them for a party (a lettuce party?!?) and went a bit overboard so had plenty to spare. I gave some plums in return for 3 heads of lettuce.

I have lots to do this weekend including more digging and cooking up the green tomatoes and plums. I will also make up some plum brandy for the Winter.

Not again

2009-08-05T21:37:00.003+01:00

OMG! Blighted tomatoes again!

I was half expecting it though given the wet, mild weather in the past month. I have ripped out all the plants and have picked off any of the unripe fruit. I need to see if I could possibly make green chutney out of the unblemished fruit. That way, it wouldn't be a total loss. I'll ask for some advice from some fellow plotters on a forum. Has anyone reading this blog made chutney from similar tomatoes?

I brought home quite a harvest though including the first pick of runner beans, my first cucumber (Miniature White - that yellow thing in the foreground), some peas, some globe artichokes and lots of plums.

This evening, I made an improvised spicy lamb stew with the first chilli of the year harvested from the windowsill and the remaining artichoke hearts that I marinated some days ago. I think I'll marinate artichokes again but not in such a lemony oil as it limits what you can do with the them. I don't think that lemon and cheese go together (does anyone?) so I couldn't use them as a pizza topping or on cheese on toast. They were lovely in that stew though.

Now, what to do with those plums? Plum gin maybe?

One cleaner, tidier shed

2009-08-02T20:54:00.004+01:00

After a lazy morning, I made it over to the plot. No rain today though it was cloudy and a bit grey at times. It was quite warm too.

On the way to Plot 35 across the site, the Cabbage White flutterbyes were everywhere. On the plot I noticed that there were a couple of them inside the netting on Bed 7. I allowed them out but checked over the brassicas. Sure enough, there were some eggs on a couple of the plants (see below) as well as a couple of small caterpillars.

I removed all signs of Cabbage White activity though I think I might have to check the brassicas again. I thought that the 1.2mm gauge (is that the right word?) of the netting would be small enough to keep them out - the two that were trapped in certainly had some trouble getting out.

I didn't get to do too much gardening though. My main job today was to clean out the shed. Last weekend, there was an awful pong coming out of it when I opened it up. I thought that something had crawled in there and died! I wanted to get in there and sort it out. So that is mainly what I did today. I think some rats (or something bigger though I don't think anything bigger could actually get in) have just had a hell of a party in there. Nice. Anyway, the shed is much tidier and has had some disinfectant applied liberally to all surfaces. I am quite proud of my achievement particularly given the number of large spiders I, being seriously phobic about spiders, had to dodge. It has certainly taught me a big lesson about keeping the shed tidier. Learnt me good.

A visit from the Marrow Fairy

2009-07-30T21:54:00.004+01:00

I was feeling bad about the brassicas in Bed 7 pushing up against the tunnel cloche so I finally nipped over for an hour this evening to remove the cloches and to cover the plants with netting (see below). It has been wet all week (yesterday was particularly bad) so it was the first good opportunity.

I picked a handful of peas and harvested a single bright yellow One Ball courgette. Some of the sweetcorn plants do look like they are starting to grow nicely upwards and the squash plant climbing up the surrounding wire has got a healthy-looking fruit on it.

Dammit though - I have just read up on the Lady Godiva squash and it seems that the flesh is not worth eating. I got them because the seeds are shell-less and very nutritious and tasty but I didn't realise that the flesh would not be worth eating (according to reports on t'Internet). That'll learn me. "Grown for their seeds" actually means "don't bother with the flesh".

However, I won't starve because the Marrow Fairy has paid a visit. The nice fairy left me a marrow and 2 courgettes on my water butt.

Marinated globe artichokes

2009-07-26T15:45:00.004+01:00

This afternoon, while listening to Radio 4, I have had a go at making marinated globe artichokes. It was based on a BBC Good Food recipe for Chargrilled artichokes with lemon but I didn't bother with the chargrilling. I prefer artichokes with a fresher rather than a BBQed taste.

I don't think I have the prepation technique right yet because I seem only to be left with the base of the heart of each artichoke. I'll wait a day or so before trying them to give the flavours chance to develop but the finished product will only keep for a week. I'll pop the carrier bag full of peelings over to the plot another time...

Globe artichokes, anyone?

2009-07-25T21:43:00.012+01:00

Today was warm with a few clouds. The odd small grey one threatening but no rain. Tomorrow will be a different story with rain coming in after 1100ish.

This morning, I weeded around the sweetcorn in Bed 9. One of the nearby squash plants is using the wire surrounding the sweetcorn to climb on:

The sweetcorn are looking good and stocky but I hope they get taller soon. Courgette production is starting to speed up now - see the 'One Ball' below:

I then moved onto the peas in Bed 6. I removed the orange netting stuff and weeded around them. I picked my first little lot of pods. I really should have removed the netting before the plants got attached to it. Some of them found it hard to let go and had to be wound around the canes again.

I nipped home for lunch with a sizeable harvest (the swede was given to me by a lovely fellow plotter):

After lunch, I nipped back to plant up a couple of small sweet potato plants that one of my colleagues gave me. Lots of other colleagues asked what they were when they were sitting on my desk yesterday. They are small and perhaps a bit late going out but fingers crossed they settle in and grow. See below for a piccie of one of them:

I also took some other photos of the tomatoes that are growing nicely, the runner beans that are starting to grow and a chard plant that is facing some healthy competition from a Florence Fennel plant.

So what did I fancy for tea with all this grub? I made my first risotto. It contained onion. broad beans, peas and courgette from the plot. It looked like a risotto and it tasted ok too. It was incredibly filling.

So, tomorrow, when it is too wet and windy to venture onto the plot, I can spend some time cooking up the artichokes. I don't want to speak too soon but the globe artichokes are definitely in the running for the biggest success of 2009 on Plot 35. Still time for more though...

Broken through 1000 visits

2009-07-19T21:00:00.002+01:00

Hurrah! Over 1000 visits now.

I didn't make it to the plot today. I had some very lovely friends over for lunch (which included salad potatoes, broad beans and marrow from the allotment) and when I was about to leave the house afterwards to visit the allotment, the heavens opened. It brightened up later in the evening so I did partake of some potting up and seed sowing in the garden.

I potted up the chard and brassicas that had been sitting in trays and sowed some parsley and sorrel. A bit late for sorrel according to the packet but I'd really like to try some. I then stripped back the Garden Pearl tomatoes, just like I did yesterday with the plants on the plot in Bed 7. I staked them up with bamboo canes too. I will give them a feed shortly. While my hands were dirty, I pulled up the lemongrass clump that has been growing not that successfully in a pot on the patio. Some very thin foliage and very little happening underneath the soil. I stripped back some dead bits and divided the clump into 4 pieces. I potted each piece up and have put these in the lean-to. I'll see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I hope to visit the plot after work tomorrow to do a bit of hoeing. Might have a courgette to harvest from Bed 9 too.

Out with potatoes, in with leeks

2009-07-18T21:30:00.002+01:00

I spent about 4-5 hours on the plot today. It was mainly sunny and warm though it got cloudier with a bit of spitting after 1600ish though I'd left by then. It was a great day. I had started digging up the early and salad spuds when a research student came over with a questionnaire to find out what we were growing in Worcestershire. I took her around the plot to list what I am growing. I asked her what she had uncovered so far and she mentioned that after only 7 or 8 interviews, she had found a chap growing some sort of veg she'd not heard of as well as another person growing a veg from saved seed since the 1940s. The researcher plans to do some data gathering in a much bigger city soon where she hopes to see people growing all sorts of exotic veg. I said to her that globe artichokes is as exotic as we get on our site. It was 10 mins earlier that one of my fellow plotters pointed at them and asked what they were.

After digging the spuds up in Bed 8, I focused on the tomatoes in Bed 7. A couple of the plants have some fruit now. Earlier in the week, I had come across a forum discussing the removal of leaves and trusses below the first flowers. Apparently, it drastically improves the likelihood of ripening. So, taking the advice to heart, I stripped loads of the tomato plants. Some flower buds came away but hopefully the ones left behind with actually ripen.

Back in Bed 8, I planted out the leek seedlings. Fingers crossed that they grow ok. I covered them with some netting to stop the birds taking them before they are settled in.

Talking of pests - there is talk of a young badger on the rampage. He/she took somebody's root veg being grown for show. Apparently, it is making its way over from the far side of the site.

I remembered to pop over to a neighbour's plot to see if there were any courgettes to harvest. I should have gone over a few days ago. There was one large marrow, 3 very large courgettes (or small marrows depending on your outlook) and a couple of nicely sized courgettes. I have kept the marrow but gave the rest to a couple of other allotmenteers. I was wondering what to cook for some friends who are coming round tomorrow and now I know. Stuffed marrow anyone?

2009-07-12T21:39:00.009+01:00

I spent a good few hours at the plot today. It started off cloudy and a bit grey this morning but it got sunny at around 1130ish. It turned into a warm day. As the soil was a bit damp, hand-weeding was easy-peasy.

I got loads done. I weeded Beds 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7, along with bits of Bed 6 and 9. See piccies below:

Bed 1

Bed 2

Bed 3

Bed 5

Bed 7

I'd planted chard and brassicas in there after thinking that the fennel didn't germinate but 3 fennel plants have come through.

The globa artichoke plants are still producing like mad...

Below is a piccie of one of the cucumber plants that has started fruiting.

I harvested a handful of beetroot and lots of Anya potatoes, plus my first courgette of the year.

For tea, I thought I'd make something summery with some globe artichokes, broad beans and the courgette. And some pesto I knocked up earlier in the day between gardening sessions. I ended up with the following pasta dish...

Good neighbours

2009-07-10T21:09:00.003+01:00

I feel like I've hardly been on the plot this past month. I am looking forward to at least 1 decent session on it this weekend. It might rain tomorrow so Sunday looks like the best bet. For my birthday earlier in the week, a friend gave me a fridge magnet which said "God made rainy days so that gardeners can get the housework done". So true. The weather does tend to dictate the state of our house.

I made a trip over to the plot this evening. Among the mess, a couple of exciting things to note. The 2 cucumber plants in Bed 6 look like they are beginning to fruit (my first cucumbers!) and there looks to be at least 1 courgette that might be ready to pick in a few days. Well, I think it is exciting ;-) I focused on cutting the couch grass on some of the paths to clear the way for weeding and hoeing the beds later in the weekend.

A couple of fellow allotmenteers were about this evening. A chap with a plot 3 or 4 away from mine came over to say that he is going to be on hols for 2 weeks and that I'd be welcome to harvest any of the courgettes that grow during that time. That should tide me over nicely which I am waiting for mine to kick off. I will keep an eye on anything on his plot that needs watering.

Before the light started to fade and some darker clouds came in, I decided to leave. I quickly watered (and fed) the cucumbers and tomatoes. I need to read into stopping the upwards growth of the tomatoes to encourage ripening.

Must take some photos this weekend...

Tomato jungle

2009-07-07T22:36:00.002+01:00

Nipped over to the plot this evening. I've been meaning to get over to it for a few days but the rain has stopped me. I went over while the sky wasn't too grey on Sunday but after arriving and harvesting a handful of broad beans the heavens opened and soaked me. I was clearly not meant to do any gardening this week.

Anyway, the rain stopped for this evening. My focus was on the tomato patch in Bed 7. The plants have suddenly taken off and have toppled over and got tangled up with bindweed. I went through them, weeding, tying in the main stems and pinching out sideshoots. Hopefully they will continue to grow and flower before fruiting nicely without blight rearing its ugly head. I did manage to break one plant but the other 15 seemed to come out of it unscathed.

A couple of courgettes are starting to grow but there are a fair few slugs about so I sprinkled over some pellets.

I finished up harvesting some spuds and 1 globe artichoke. I look forward to tidying things up at the weekend.

Berry good

2009-06-28T21:32:00.002+01:00

I've been away at a lovely wedding this weekend so have not had chance to attend to the plot. Fingers crossed that there will be lots more to harvest next time I go. I did do some allotment-related things today though. I cooked and ate my first 3 globe artichokes. They were small but very nice. I boiled them in lemony water for 20 mins and then put them in the oven with some olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning to finish cooking alongside some lamb spare ribs. The prep is a bit of a faff I suppose but I'd say that it is worth it. I'll see how I feel later in the season though when I will hopefully have prepared quite a few.

At home, I potted up some purple sprouting seedlings and sowed some cauliflowers. I resowed some Florence Fennel as the previous lot had got a tad leggy. I sowed some dill, borage and catnip in a wine box on the patio and some lettuce in one of the troughs.

Just now, I harvested 5 or so strawberries and raspberries and a couple of handfuls of redcurrants. I am just storing currants in the freezer until there is a decent quantity. I'm thinking either sorbet or a currant-flavoured liquer. Any suggestions welcome...

Long time no blog

2009-06-25T22:58:00.007+01:00

Things have really hotted up on Plot 35. I was on holiday for a week leaving a fellow allotmenteer to water it (I will return the favour when he is away later in the Summer). I did expect to be able to harvest some spuds on my return but it turned out that there was much more on offer when I visited last Sunday.

The cauliflower that was the size of a cricket ball the day before the holiday, was full-sized a week afterwards.

There were 3 globe artichokes of a reasonable size to cut. The outer petals seemed to be starting to open so I thought it would be a good time to harvest them.

Some broad bean pods looked large enough to pick.

Though they won't be ready for 6 months, the Jerusalem artichokes are making their presence known.

In the end, I harvested the following little pile of lovely grub.

In celebration of Midsummers Day here and Midwinters Day in Antartica (see Andy's blog), I invited a couple of nice friends round for a roast chicken dinner served with the spuds, broad beans and cauliflower cheese. The beetroot and artichokes will be enjoyed another day.

2009-06-07T22:37:00.002+01:00

I had a few hours to garden today after a lovely friend's hen do. It had rained quite a lot in the last few days so the ground was a bit sticky but there wasn't too much stuck to my shoes.

On the plot, I planted out some Brussel sprouts, calabrese, cabbage and Swiss chard in Bed 7. Before placing each plant in its new home, I sprinkled in some lime and dried blood and bone meal (yuk). Hopefully this will get them off to a good start. Some slug pellets to protect them before covering them with cloches. Fingers crossed that the rabbits don't get a look in.

In Bed 2, I sowed some kohl rabi (Blusta), swede (Invitation) and beetroot (Boltardy). After that, I did a spot of weeding which was easy-peasy with damp soil. A bit of space in Bed 6 was cleared, near the path, for the two cucumber plants.

I replaced the fleece around the climbing beans in Bed 3 with that bright orange stuff to give them a bit more light. One of the bean plants is in flower (gorgeous bright red) though it is not very tall yet. Next door, the broad bean plants are starting to produce beans.

Back home, I had just enough compost to sow the following seeds:

- parsnips (Tender and True)
- broccoli (F1 Claret)
- Florence Fennel (Sirio)
- lettuce (All The Year Round)
- Winter savoury

I resowed some rocket seed in one of the troughs on the patio.

Evicted with force

2009-06-04T22:27:00.002+01:00

It has been dry and sunny over the last few days so I thought that my plot might need a watering so I nipped over quickly after work. Things seem to be going ok though the tomatoes could do with a feed. The peas plants are looking good. I think I spotted a couple of small broad bean pods starting to grow. The only thing that was amiss was the 3 globe artichokes engulfed by black fly. This is where the hose came into its own as the little bugs were washed off. So there.

After a couple of days away, I came back yesterday to find that 6 tomato plants I put in the mini-greenhouse had been fried by the heat. Dammit! That'll learn me.

Chokes away

2009-05-31T17:09:00.007+01:00

This weekend has been very warm - about 24 degrees. I didn't manage to get to the plot yesterday but had 2 hours there today.

I planted out 16 tomato plants (8 Tigerella and 8 Costoluto Genovese) in Bed 7. I didn't think I'd left any space for tomatoes on my planting plan but luckily, as Bed 7 hasn't had potatoes in it for a while and isn't scheduled to for a year or two, it provides the ideal place. I planted the tomatoes in the half of the bed nearest the path as I emptied some compost onto that half only a few weeks ago. This should provide some decent food for the hungry plants. I spaced them out in a 4x4 grid with bamboo canes for support (see below).

Fingers crossed that they ripen one day and are not attacked by the dreaded blight.

I also planted the last 15 or so pea plants as they were starting to flow over their seed tray. I planted these around the wigwams I erected last weekend to double up around some of the canes.

The biggest globe artichoke plant has got even bigger since I last saw it (see piccies below). It has even grown a couple of satellite chokes around the main one.

Though a couple of other plants are starting to grow chokes, they seem to be pointier and more open (see below).

They don't look right. I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

After giving everything a good watering, I have come home to make strawberry jam and oven-dried tomatoes.

Next in the queue

2009-05-28T21:46:00.004+01:00

I got back after a couple of days away and on my return I found the pea seedlings in the lean-to about 4 times taller than they were before. It was time to plant them out. There were also 5 cucurbit plants waiting their turn. I spent 2 pleasant but busy hours over at the plot this evening.

First of all, I raked and weeded most of Bed 6. The soil is pretty good in that bed so the weeding was low effort. I then put in 3 bamboo wigwams and planted out the pea seedlings. I spent a little bit of time wondering what to use to protect them from the birds and rabbits. Suddenly it dawned on me that there was some bright orange plastic stuff what was left in the shed when I took the plot on. It is not pretty but it seemed to be just right with a bit of pegging down and tying up (see below).

I then planted the 5 cucurbits in Bed 9. Before coming home, I got the hose out and gave everything a good watering, including some beans on my neighbour's plot which another allotmenteer pointed out as looking a bit dry. It is lovely that he spotted that and was looking out for them. We have agreed to water each other's plots when we are each on our hols later in the year.

Beating the badger

2009-05-25T19:00:00.008+01:00

A fantastic bank holiday weekend weatherwise. Saturday was quite warm and sunny. Sunday was really quite hot (22 degrees which I think it is hot). Today was humid but not quite so warm as Sunday. A bit of spitting too. It was forecast to start raining quite heavily from 1500 onwards but that hasn't materialised yet. A fellow allotmenteer reckoned that, with the humidity, if it started raining we might get some thunderstorms.

On Saturday, I took the piccie below to show the jungle that is Plot 35.

I started by consolidating my compost bins. I had two full ones, though some of the contents could do with a bit more time to rot down, and a wire-bound pile of Autumn leaves. I refilled one of the compost bins with the merged contents and placed it at the bottom of the plot, out of the way. I sat the other one next to it and restarted it with layers of freshly mown grass from home and the leaves. I have since added some kitchen waste and some comfrey (from the huge clump near the shed).

I planted the sweetcorn and Lady Godiva seedlings in Bed 9. I am intent on keeping my sweetcorn safe from The Badger so I put some wire netting around them. I put 3 Lady Godiva squash plants next to the sweetcorn (see piccie below).

Bramble Man came to say hello and we had a look at the globe artichokes. I was very pleased to see that 3 of the plants have little chokes growing in the centre (see piccie below).

Fingers crossed that these continue to develop into a nice big chokes to eat.

On Sunday, I didn't have too much time to spend on the plot but did get an hour in the early afternoon to trim some grass from the paths. I nipped round in the early evening with J and G. I'd bought some new hose attachments earlier in the day but after a little bit of fiddling with the old attachment, G got it working properly again. J helped me with the watering.

Today, I headed over to the plot at about 1330 for about 3 hours. First job was to continue the grass trimming on the paths. Then onto weeding and hoeing. I weeded carefully through the parsnip bed. Most of the stations had little seedlings in them. For those that didn't, I tried transplanting some spare ones from the more crowded stations. I don't think parsnips are known for loving transplantation but they seemed to do ok last year (see piccie below for freshly weeded parsnip bed).

I carried on weeding and hoeing round Beds 1, 2 and 4 before taking a photo of the plot.

I think it looks much better, though there is still room for significant improvement...

Have wellies...will travel...

2009-05-19T20:33:00.003+01:00

Nipped over to the plot in my wellies for an hour this evening. Showers all day gave way to reasonable sunshine at about 1700 so after a couple of hours watching the clouds with some suspicion, I headed over.

I hand-weeded round the garlic and onions in Bed 5 before moving onto the beetroot. Lots of what I think is chickweed around, crowding the beetroot. I sprinkled some organic pellets near the marigolds and beetroot. Finally, I took a moment to enjoy the site of bees nipping in and out of the comfrey and broad bean flowers.

The nettle tea that has been brewing down the end of the plot now pongs to high heaven which, I guess, is the idea. I'll bottle some of that up at the weekend.

I went home with some radishes which I really need to use up and there are plenty more where that came from. Any ideas for using them up would be gratefully received...pickled radish anyone?

Off-plot weeding

2009-05-17T19:34:00.002+01:00

This weekend was one for cooking and lunching with lovely friends as well as wardrobe weeding (decluttering to fill up some charity bags), which was just as well given the weather. Yesterday alternated between sunshine and heavy rain with occasional hail. It rained pretty much all day today so I didn't go over to the plot until 1700.

I raked around the broad beans and staked one of the plants up as it was bent right over. There are now three nice marigolds flowering among them.

I did some hand-weeding around the 5-6 of Spring Onions in Bed 2 that have managed to come up (not sure whether the others that were sown went). Some of the parsnip seedlings have formed true leaves so things are looking good there.

After about an hour, the wind picked up and the sky went grey so I came home. I put the sweetcorn seedlings in the coldframe to harden off before planting next weekend. There are signs of germination upstairs on the windowsill where the cucurbits are. No signs of anything happening with the mushrooms but it is probably a bit too soon.

Next weekend, I must restart the compost heap with grass cuttings, brown leaves, comfrey cuttings and soaked nettles. And plant out the sweetcorn and some of the cucurbits.

Revisit

2009-05-15T20:41:00.003+01:00

It has felt like a hectic week but I did get an hour at the plot on Tuesday evening which felt very self-indulgent. I nipped over to sow some seeds as the last quarter of the moon this coming week suggests that sowing and planting will not a good idea. In the raised beds, I sowed:

- carrot (Paris Market)
- lettuce (All The Year Round, Salad Bowl Red and Green Mixed)
- spinach (Matador)
- celtuce
- sorrel
- chicory

Even after watering and raking, the soil in the beds was not of great tilth. Hard, dry clay. Thinking about it since, I wish I had added some compost or soil improver before sowing seeds. Nevermind. Crops grew happily in there last season so it might all work out ok.

I was aware that last year's and, come to think of it, the previous year's florence fennel didn't fully mature. I think I sowed them too late (not until July or August) and they didn't have the time to mature before temperatures started to drop in the Autumn. So, while at the plot, I sowed some of them (Sirio) in the now roomy Bed 7. Fingers crossed for a fennel harvest this year.

This weekend looks like it will be wet so might not get to spend much quality time on the plot. Not that I am complaining too much though - it buys me some time to get a new attachment for my hose.

Bed 9...clear...ish

2009-05-10T20:01:00.010+01:00

A brilliant day today. Definitely BBQ weather. Quite a lot of cloud but much less windy than yesterday.

Before leaving for the plot, J and G popped in for a bit, so I focused on sowing some replacement cucurbits (see yesterday) over coffee with them. I will try not to water the pots too much (to prevent rotting). We all then headed over to the plot. J and G wanted to see it and they left after 20 mins or so with a few comfrey and horseradish roots and a handful of radishes. I then set to work on Bed 9 - digging out the couch grass along the side to match up with Beds 3, 5 and 7. After a good couple of hours, I'd pretty much cleared the grass but felt like I was overheating so I headed home for a break.

After a brief break at home, I went back into the garden to sow some salad and some mushrooms. I bought some wine boxes a few weeks ago and I wanted to put a couple of them to use today. I sowed some cut and come again Oriental leaves in one of the smaller boxes and some mushrooms in one of the larger ones. Before sowing, I did drill a few drainage holes in the bottom of the boxes.

The mushrooms came in the form of grain spawn. I bought a packet a while ago and it is now out of date. I have since bought a new packet but as the old batch might still be viable (I have no idea how long grain spawn remains viable), I started with that. I can always start again with fresh spawn in a couple of weeks if there is now sign of progress with the old stuff. When I opened the old packet the grain looked to have a white bloom which I thought meant that it was off. However, when I opened the newer packet to compare, it looked pretty similar. Neither smelt off, not that I'd know what off mushroom spawn should smell like.

I started by lining the box with an old compost bag, just to protect the wood a bit and to keep the moisture in. Then, following the instructions on the packet, I filled the box with well-rotted manure, sprinkled over a sachet of grain spawn (see piccie below) and covered it with 5-8cm of manure.

I then covered the manure with damp newspaper (using the two sections I care least about - see piccie below) and put it behind the shed where there is some shade.

Watch this space for updates.

While in the garden, I also sowed some peas (not a lot of success on the plot - perhaps the mice have been sneaky), coriander, basil and catnip.

I then meant to head over to the plot for an hour's light hoeing but ended up staying for 3. I hoed and raked over Bed 9, and trimmed the grass on the path to its side. Bramble Man popped over and we then did a spot of hand-weeding by the main crop potatoes. He commented that his climbing beans were a least twice the size of mine and that he had protected his with fleece. A couple of my new bean plants did appear to have been nibbled by something so I took his advice and put up some fleece around them. I then watered some of the beds (I need a new thing for my hose because I can't fix it onto the tap properly). Finally, I earthed up the main crop potatoes before cutting some chives, sprinkling some chicken manure pellets over Beds 7 and 9, and heading home. A bit of mild backache is worth it for such progress. See piccies below for Bed 9 and the flowering chives.

I still need to neaten up and edge Beds 7 and 9 but that can wait until next weekend. Now that they have been cleared though, the plot looks so much bigger.

Bed 7...clear...

2009-05-09T16:02:00.007+01:00

Finally made it to the plot to be greeted by a small spot of orange Flower Power in the broad bean patch...

Before getting to the plot, I didn't know what to tackle but as soon as I arrived, Bed 7 called to me. Check out the state of it in the piccie below, bearing in mind that the green compost bin should be almost in the middle of the bed if the bed is to extend the side of the plot.

After lots of digging and pulling as well as a bit of trimming and hoeing, this is how it looked.

I uncovered two metal tubes/bins which were full of rubbish (e.g. shreds of plastic bag). although the larger one did contain some composted material which I spread of the uncovered end of the bed. I am quite pleased with the result. The piccie below shows the full length of Bed 7.

The compost bin will be moved in a week or so. I can't actually remember what Bed 7 is supposed to planted up with so I will look back at my previous blog posts to find out.

The patch of rampant comfrey near the shed is flowering like mad and entertaining the bees.

When I got back home, while my hands were dirty, it seemed a good time to check out the pumpkin seed that has failed to germinate on a windowsill upstairs. I poked around to find a seed in one of the pots. I found it and it seemed intact. However, I gave it a squeeze and this putrid smelling white stuff came out. I guess that means it is rotten. It was horrible - not what I expected I'll start some fresh seed off in clean pots.

Aubergines under attack!

2009-05-09T11:19:00.002+01:00

Still not made it to the plot...

Last night, in the middle of watching Gardeners World (rock and roll), I had a sudden panic. I'd forgotten to water the chilli and aubergine seedlings on the windowsill in one of the rooms upstairs this week. I ran upstairs (I don't know why - the plants weren't going anywhere) and found them a little on the dry side but not too bad. Obviously, I then watered them.

This morning, I went to check on the seedlings to make sure the watering had perked them up. They looked better but a closer peak at them revealed some horrible little greenfly on one of the aubergine seedlings. Yuk! The 1 Early Jalapeno seedling I have also had 1 or 2 of the fly on the undersides of its leaves.

So, I have just taken them out to the patio and sprayed all the aubergines and chillies all over with a solution of Bug Clear (a plant oil-based spray) and have left them to dry for a bit in a cool room. On the 2 seedlings most affected, there seem to be no live bugs now though I expect to have to respray again soon. Hopefully I have nipped it in the bud as it were and the plants can go on to grow stronger. I have also stuck up one of those bug stickers in the room upstairs to catch them in the future (they have done brilliantly in the other rooms).

Now to the plot...

Mixed results

2009-05-09T09:36:00.004+01:00

Looks like it'll be an ok weekend weatherwise with some cloud and some sunshine. Lots of things to do. I am just waiting for my camera to charge up before heading over to the plot.

A brief update on previous sowings that are one of the windowsills upstairs. I can report the following, very mixed, rates of germination for the sweetcorn and cucurbits:

- 15/18 sweetcorn (F1 hybrid 'Northern Xtra Sweet')
- 1/4 courgette: ('Striato D'Italia')
- 3/4 courgette: (F1 'One Ball')
- 1/4 courgette: ('Calabacin Di Nizza')
- 4/4 squash: ('Lady Godiva')
- 1/4 squash: ('Tromboncino D'Alberga')
- 0/4 pumpkin ('Llena de Napoles')
- 2/3 cucumber: ('Miniature White')
- 2/3 cucumber: ('Marketer')

A 3x5 grid of sweetcorn sounds good but I may have to consider resowing some more of the courgette. There are enough of them for my use on the plot but not really enough to have spare for friends. I will have a closer look at the pumpkins to see if the seeds are still there. Perhaps there are just a bit slower than I was expecting. I cannot believe the room was too cool for them.

I forgot to say last weekend that the 2 rows of parsnips in Bed 2 do seem to have germinated after 3 weeks. I will check them again later today and consider thinning them to 1 or 2 in each station. Also considering sowing another row.

Fingers crossed the marigolds are still there and have not been eaten by anything...

A cool weekend

2009-05-04T17:14:00.006+01:00

Two trips over to the plot on Monday. I was about to leave early when there was a shower but it didn't last too long. It was cloudy for the rest of the day with another couple of brief showers. It got a bit chilly when standing around but was fine when I was busy working.

I started by hoeing around the broad beans and globe artichokes and a couple of the other beds. Bramble Man then came over for a chat which was nice. I planted out the 16 or so marigolds I had been growing in the lean-to and sprinkled some organic slug pellets around them. Most of them are amongst the broad beans with the aim of keeping the blackfly away (though pinching out the tops of the plants worked last year too).

The raised beds for the salad leaves were full of things going to seed. I emptied them out and forked over the hard ground. Beneath the layer of compost I put down last Summer, it was solid clay. I give the beds a good watering before popping home for some lunch (which included lettuce, potatoes and radishes harvested from the plot).

The second session started with hoeing and earthing up three rows of the potatoes. I then I was then going to cut some more grass around the beds but decided it was too wet. The rain came in so I finished up with a spot of hand weeding.

I didn't get round to sowing the mushrooms but I might get to that during the week.

The jungle that is Plot 35

2009-05-03T21:22:00.009+01:00

Yesterday morning, I noticed that the strawberries on the patio were looking like they needed a bit of a weeding. Closer inspection showed some weeds belonging to the potato family (see piccie below) as well as a fair amount of grass.

I'll need to look back at last year's blog posts but I suspect that the compost used for the strawberries was recycled from the potato tubs I used to grow salad potatoes. In any case, I removed the grass and potatoes from the strawberry pots.

I noticed that the pots of leek seedlings I thinned out a few weeks ago looked quite crowded again (see below).

It seems that the remaining seedlings have started to thrive and put on lots of new growth.

I had 2 hours on the plot yesterday. It got pretty warm there - definitely t-shirt weather. The plot is looking very overgrown grown (see below) and there is a lot to do.

I started with a spot of grass trimming around Bed 5. Then I did a spot of trimming at the bottom of the allotment focusing on the nettles, which I collected up to make some fertiliser. I have put them aside soaking in water in a big tub, which was uncovered earlier in the year by Bramble Man. I'll leave them for a couple of weeks before removing them and saving the liquid.

I tried to clear a patch at the bottom of the plot so that I can have a bonfire tomorrow with the help of Bramble Man. I have trouble keeping a fire going so I need some tuition.

While I was on my knees cutting nettles, a fellow allotmenteer came over to ask if I had room for some bean plants. Very kind. I took them gratefully and planted them in Bed 3 in the corner not housing broad beans or peas (see below).

They look like nice strong plants and I am assured that the rabbits are not going to be interested in them given their size. Apparently, rabbits seem only to be interested in newly emerged seeds.

Before leaving, I was very happy and surprised to see the blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes starting to fruit. There was a bee busily making its way around the clumps of blackcurrant blooms.

I hurriedly put some net up over the two bushes in an effort to ensure that I actually get to eat some of the fruit.

And the Jerusalem artichokes plants are emerging through the soil.

Clearly I left some tubers in the ground because some of the tops are not in the (relatively) evenly spaced line I set them out in.

Quick visit

2009-04-28T20:58:00.002+01:00

Popped over to the plot very quickly this evening just to drop off some grass cuttings and veg peelings. It had clearly rained during the day here but it was sunny by the time I got home after work. More peas have come up and the potatoes are starting to reach for the clouds. No sign of parsnips yet though. Everything looks so healthy and raring to go though this includes the grass and weeds which desparately need cutting.

Female logic applies here

2009-04-27T20:59:00.004+01:00

The past weekend was much drier than I thought it would be given the forecasts. There was some rain on Saturday morning but it had stopped by the time I emerged. No rain on Sunday I don't think.

On Saturday, I really had to sort out the small triangle of earth in front of the house. To ease me into that though, I headed over to the local garden centre as I wanted to top up my supply of bamboo canes (for pea wigwams). However, I also came back with some half price flowering bulbs. That means that I actually saved some money ;-)

I weeded our triangle of earth, removing lots of grass and pinching out the old, dead stems of the lavender. I rediscovered the lemon balm that I put in there last Autumn as it is started to regrow. The sage is started to take over. It is turned into quite a fragrant little corner. The tulips are flowering nicely too though the ones that were pure, bright orange in previous years are now flecked with yellow. Not a problem but I might try to source some pure orange ones for pots next year. In among all that, I planted some orange and yellow begonias (some of the half price tubers) to flower in late Summer.

I did pop over to the plot where I bumped into Bramble Man. We had a nice chat while I checked over my plot. Then we went over to his to admire his salad leaves which looked perfect. I rushed back home after watering the parsnip bed (fingers crossed for some sign of growth this coming weekend).

On Sunday, I meant to sort out the back garden but I didn't get round to that. I headed over to a huge car boot sale where I found some brand spanking new wine boxes. I snapped up 4 of them to plant mushrooms (more on that another time) and things like salad leaves. A few months ago, I had asked a nice wine merchant if she had any boxes to give away but it turns out that they are quite valuable so not something that is typically disgarded.

Back home with a cup of tea and the sun shining in the garden, I got on with some much needed sowing. I sowed the following:

- sweetcorn (F1 hybrid 'Northern Xtra Sweet')
- courgette ('Striato D'Italia', F1 'One Ball', 'Calabacin Di Nizza')
- squash ('Lady Godiva', 'Tromboncino D'Alberga')
- pumpkin ('Llena de Napoles')
- cucumber ('Miniature White', 'Marketer')

The pumpkin had pretty pink seeds.

I also repotted the tomato and sweet pepper seedlings choosing the ones with the thickest looking stems. There are now lots of pots around on windowsills.

The rain came in today and there is lots more to come tomorrow. I have no problem sitting in an office watching the rain come down and thinking of the allotment getting a good soaking.

Shapes in the soil

2009-04-22T19:47:00.006+01:00

Popped over to the plot to water the parsnip seeds and to check things out. I have been overseas for a couple of days and heard it was dry and sunny back here so thought things might be a little dry. They certainly were. I could really do with untaggling the hose at some point soon. I just used the watering can. Several times. I did make some shapes in the soil though while watering the parsnips and peas:

There were signs of some pea shoots poking through the soil as well as more of the spuds. Most of the earlies and salads are showing now but only 1 of the maincrops. I think it is forecast to rain this weekend. Hopefully, I'll get some time on the plot. It is probably time to sow some squash and courgettes.

Who needs the gym...

2009-04-18T16:34:00.006+01:00

...when there is hoeing to be done. Particularly on soil that is quite nice and damp after the week's rain. This morning started off a bit chilly and cloudy but it has since become warmer with a bit more sunshine.

Before heading over to the plot, I thinned out the third pot of leeks sitting on the patio (I did the other 2 earlier in the week). I need to remember next year that leek seeds are quite reliable and there is no need to sow them so thickly. It is a right pickle trying to thin out seedlings that are so close together and so long and thin. See before and after piccies.

I hope that these now have the space to grow to the thickness of pencils.

I headed over to the plot for an hour. I started off by hoeing over Beds 7 (there is still about a third of this bed that is heavily populated by grass and needs to be dug over) and 9. It is amazing what an improvement hoeing makes on the appearance of soil. It looks so much finer.

A quick inspection of Bed 8 showed 2 or 3 potato plant tops poking through the soil. After 5 weeks in the ground they are showing signs of life. Just think, last year it was still a month before I got any spuds in the ground.

I then moved 3 broad bean plants from one row to another to fill some gaps. Out of the 4 rows of 13 I sowed, 2 of the rows did fine with only 5 gaps I think while the other 2 didn't quite reach a 50% success rate. Not sure why. See piccie below for how the broad beans currently stand.

I hoed a bit between the rows and unfortunately struck one of the healthier looking plants. I need to learn to be a bit more careful - I am new to this hoeing business.

Although the soil was quite damp, I did water the parsnip bed before leaving the plot. It is going to be quite a sunny, dry week I believe. I should pop over later in the week to water them again if necessary.

Pretty tulips

2009-04-13T21:56:00.003+01:00

Not a huge amount to report from my plot today. There was even less cloud in the sky today (sorry, Soilman, over in the East) and it was a bit warmer - up to 17 degrees I think. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon digging up the last of the baby leeks and sowing some parsnips in their place. 2-4 seeds were sown in each station which had been made by first dibbing a 4 inch hole (I couldn't dib any deeper as the ground was quite hard) and then filling it with compost. After sowing the seed and covering it with 1cm or so of more compost, all stations were watered liberally. I thought that this week was a good week for sowing parsnips as we are expecting rain on Wednesday and Thursday and that should help to keep them damp if I can't get to them midweek.

No piccies from Plot 35 today but check out the pretty tulips on another plot...

V. inspiring. Must get some flowers into Bed 1 asap.

Knowing my onions

2009-04-12T19:05:00.004+01:00

Another warm day with sunshine and few clouds. The morning was a bit cloudy but it soon cleared up nicely. After a lazy morning, I headed over to the plot at about 1430ish armed with the onion and mint seedlings which were removed from the cold frame yesterday.

First job was to transplant the onion seedlings. I had lots of the white and red ones that I sowed earlier in the year and 8 of Hi Keeper which I sowed back in September. The Hi Keeper ones looked big and strong - actually looking like mini onions - whereas the others looked quite weedy. Note to self - sowing in the Autumn and overwintering seems to be a good thing to do. I planted out 40-50 of each of the red and white onions. After a quick feed and water, I covered them over with a tunnel cloche to stop the birdies nipping at them and flying off with them.

The second job was to finish off the weeding and hoeing around the globe artichokes. The third job was to put the mint plants somewhere. They went between the globe artichokes and the path down the middle of the plot. Things look a lot nicer in Beds 4 and 5 now, if a little haphazard (very much my style of gardening).

Red sky at night

2009-04-11T18:56:00.009+01:00

As it was wet yesterday, I spent much of the day painting the kitchen, leaving the rest of the week for gardening. Today was lovely, sunny and warm. The next two days are set to be pretty much the same. Perfect for getting some more stuff in the ground.

In the garden, I started by sowing some salad crops in troughs for picking and coming again over late Spring and Summer. These were garden cress (Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled), corn salad (Verte de Cambrai) and rocket.

Then I sowed some brassicas for planting out later in the season. These were broccoli (Sprouting Calabrese), Brussels sprouts (Bedford) and cabbage (Greyhound). These have gone into the mini-greenhouse. Alongside them, I also sowed Swiss chard. For germination on one of the windowsills, I sowed some celery (Tango F1 Hybrid) and coriander. I haven't tried growing celery before so this could be a challenge.

While out in the garden, I repotted the lime plant which was starting to get a bit pot bound. It was helped by the fact that I dropped the plant a few weeks back and cracked the plastic pot it came in. I also gave it a good feed as it was started to look a little yellow between the veins on the leaves.

The lemon plant is looking good though...(I need to improve my photography - it looks like I shot this at night when I didn't)

I wonder if the fruits are going to continue to grow and become edible.

A peek into the cold frame in the garden reminded me that I have lots in there to plant out (see below) in the way of onions and mint.

There is also a sea kale which looks well.

Now I can refill the cold frame with more stuff (yippee!).

A brief spell over on the plot was dedicated to the sowing of peas. Two types: main crops (Early Onward) and sugar snaps (Delikett). Instead of fighting with bamboo canes to construct straight frames for rows of peas like I did last year and the year before that, this year's peas will grow up wigwams of canes. Even I should be able to manage a wigwam or two.

I hear that mice like to eat germinating peas (although apparently they lose interest once they have germinated) so I started by pegging down down wire mesh on Beds 3 and 6. I then sowed 3 circles of sugar snap and 4 circles of main crop between the squares of the mesh (see the photo below for an example) where each circle was made up of 8 stations and where each station was sown with 2 or 3 seeds. I will thin the stations down to 1 seedling and the leftovers can be used as pea shoots in a salad. I have meaning to try pea shoots but have not got round to it.

Oooo, red sky at night, shepherd's delight, eh?

Divide and conquer

2009-04-05T18:00:00.005+01:00

A couple of relatively short sessions on the plot today (still a tad jetlagged). Today was lovely and sunny with some cloud. I was on the plot by 0845 - very early for me. I just did a spot of digging on Bed 5 next to the onions and garlic. No more parsnips left in the ground which is good. Next weekend, the onion seedings can go in there.

In the afternoon, I planted the 3 parsley plants that have been overwintering in the coldframe at home. They weren't looking too healthy so I wouldn't be surprised if they keel over. I also dug up and divided the clump of chives that was sitting in Bed 5 but not before harvesting some for tea. I gave 1 clump to a fellow allotmenteer before replanting the other 5 back in Bed 5. Before leaving for the day, I checked the raised beds. The Mispoona and the Spicy Mix were beginning to go to bolt so I picked these and put the rest of the plants on the compost heap.

Back at home, I sowed some tomatoes and herbs. Specifically:

Tomatoes

Principe Borghese - egg-sized, plum, determinate
Costoluto Genovese - beefsteak, indeterminate
Garden Pearl - cherry, bred for container growing
Tigerella - stripey, good for outdoors, indeterminate

Herbs

Basil (Dark Opal)
Chervil

I also potted up the chillies from the windowsill (4 seedlings of each variety) and the aubergines (6 of these). I'll pot up some of the sweet peppers later in the week.

Need more sleep...

Back home for BST

2009-04-04T19:01:00.003+01:00

I am back after a week away on business in San Francisco (I am a lucky FlowerPowerGirl, I know). I am cream crackered after the flight back and am aiming to stay awake for another couple of hours to settle back into GMT+1.

My future in-laws have done a great job looking after our cat and my seedlings for the week. They all look strong and are ready for potting on tomorrow (the seedlings, not the cat, although she looks healthy too). Everything in the garden looks like it has been busy. Tulips blooming, mint spreading and vines sprouting. I cannot wait to get over to the plot tomorrow. I am worried that things will be dried out as I don't think it has rained here as much as I thought it would (judging by forecasts I'd seen). Oh well. I look forward to a nice day of gardening tomorrow.

And finally today

2009-03-22T21:57:00.001Z

This blog has been going for a year. Now I can really start comparing this year's progress with last year's...

Have leeks. Will travel.

2009-03-22T20:40:00.008Z

Whereas yesterday was warm and sunny, today had sunny intervals and was a little chillier. It is set to rain tomorrow and to get a little colder. The rain is very welcome as the taps on the site are not yet switched on and there is no more water in my water butt. A drought is not particularly useful when seeds are going into the ground.

Two short digging sessions over at the plot today. During the first one, I dug over Bed 6 and half of Bed 7 (it was quite hard going). During the second one, I dug over pretty much all of Bed 9. See piccie below.

On Bed 9, there was a lot of the weed pictured below. I was worried this might be ground elder but, judging by photos of that on the Interweb, it isn't.

In Bed 6, I found a few red Spring onions which I sowed months ago and as I didn't see much sign of them a couple of months after sowing, I didn't think they had grown. What a nice surprise to find a dozen of them dotted around.

I emptied out the smaller of my two compost heaps onto the larger one which I will leave to cook. I have restarted the smaller one with yesterday's lawn mowings, some veg peelings and some tired salad leaves that were growing over Winter in troughs in the garden. There were a couple of ladybirds on the small compost bin. I saw a fair few of them today.

Before leaving the plot, I removed the wire mesh from the broad bean patch as some of them are emerging now. On Wednesday, I counted 4 seedlings coming through (out of the 52 sowed). Today, there were 21. I also harvested some leeks.

Seed swapping bonanza

2009-03-22T09:02:00.006Z

Earlier in the week, I received some free organic vegetable seeds from Christine, my fiance's auntie. Very kind of her especially as I have just run dry of beetroot and spring onions which were included. Yesterday morning, I received some more seeds from a friend of ours called Ben. Very kind of him too. Ben is a keen gardener and always seems to have some particularly exotic and interesting seeds to hand.

He has sent me the following:

Squash: Tromba d'Albenga (which can be picked when 20cm as courgette but apparently can reach up to 1.5m if left to be a squash)
Courgette: Striato d'Italia
Pumpkin: Llena de Naples
Tomato: Chore di Bue
Green pepper: Friggitello F1 Hybrid
Cucumber: Marketer

Ben says that the squash and pumpkin seeds come from Spain so they might need a lot of sun. Given that all of us on the allotment site seem convinced that we are going to get a particularly fine Summer, this may not be a problem. In the meantime, I will send Ben some different seeds back.

And this weekend, I am joined by my future outlaws and as they now have a veg patch, I have given them some of my seeds and some of the ones that Christine sent over.

Tomorrow was warm and sunny but I focused on the garden. I mowed the lawn for the first time this year and weeded and fed most of the pots of herbs on the patio. Things look a little tidier now. However, I was helped/hindered by our cat who sat on the cold frame again. As the lids were only carefully placed on top given previous cat activities, they soon collapsed beneath her (see piccie below of her leaving the scene with as mch dignity as possible).

And I saw my first ladybird of the year...

Today is forecast to be another lovely sunny day so I plan to get over to the plot to dig over 1 or 2 beds.

Spuds I like

2009-03-14T11:50:00.012Z

This weekend was about getting as many things in the ground as possible. According to the Synodic way of doing things with the moon (considering the phases of the moon: waxing, waning, full and new), now is apparently a good time to sow/plant root crops as there was a full moon on Wednesday and we are now in a waning moon situation. Come Tuesday though, we will be into the last quarter and it is recommended that nothing is sown/planted then. This covers next weekend. According to the Sidereal way, the Moon is in Libra so it is not a good time for roots. Hmmmm. The Synodic way is probably the only one I am going to pay any attention to as it is simple and, as I have the Moon phases in my Filofax, it is most accessible for me. After all, it is just a way of helping choose what to do on the plot at any given time.

Below is a piccie of the root crops I wanted to get started this weekend.

Yesterday was not a bad day - a bit cloudy at times with bright spells. Once digging over on the plot, it was quite warm but when I stopped, I felt the chilly breeze. I dug over the remainder of Bed 8. I wanted to sow some root crops in Bed 1, according to my plan (made back in August), but that bed needs some prep. I used a section of Bed 2 instead - the spot that had been dug over by the Bramble Man. It was a tad rough but a bit of raking and watering helped. I sowed the following:

- carrot (came free with a magazine along with some lettuce and have lost the original packet so I am not sure of its exact variety);
- spring onions (Ishikuro);
- beetroot (Bolthardy);
- radish (Rainbow Mixed).

I covered the carrot over with a mesh tunnel to stop the nasty carrot fly.

Today was a lovely sunny day reaching the heady heights of 15-16 degrees. It was t-shirt weather and warm enough to put washing on the line. I started by sowing some celeric (Monarch) and leeks (Musselburgh and Lyon 2 - Prizetaker). The celeriac puzzles me. Is it a root or leaf crop? According to the rules of crop rotation, it is a root. However, according to Moon Calendar, it is a leafy crop. For today's purposes, it was a root crop.

See piccie below to see the leeks. Like last year, I sowed these in some deep pots that came with some fruit canes, to give them room to grow downwards.

There seem to be some mushrooms growing in one of the pots on the patio. I am guessing they aren't edible but I'd be interested to know what they are.

So, I collected up my chitted spuds and headed over to the plot. I needed to finish off Bed 8 by cutting around the edge and then arranged the 48 (16 of each of the three varieties) seed spuds over the bed (see piccie below).

I used a trowel to put these in. I reckon this got them in deeper than the bulb planter did last year. Talk around the site suggests that using a trowel is the most popular method (as opposed to digging trenches). I'll earth them up once they appear.

I then hurriedly dug over part of Bed 5 in order to put some garlic and shallots (seed in). Some of the garlic had shrivelled away to nothing but there were some usable cloves. Fingers crossed that these prove viable.

Respite from the showers

2009-03-08T16:46:00.008Z

Things did clear a little at 1500ish so, after GQT, I gathered up the logs and branches and headed over to the plot. Now, as I am back on the sofa writing this, the rain has come back. It was glove weather today - much chillier than the past couple of weeks.

The piccie below shows the extent of the digging a couple of days ago.

Bed 8 is in the foreground and is only half-dug over. The next piccie shows where I had hurriedly covered the broad beans (yet to show) in Bed 3 with fleece on Wednesday night given the forecast of a hard frost.

I piled up the logs near the fence right at the bottom of the plot. You can see them in the piccie below not far from the apple tree which is generally agreed to be on my plot (I had assumed it was my neighbour's). The bramble man (as I will now call him) has done some pruning so it should crop nicely this year.

A peek into the raised beds showed lots of nice salad leaves to harvest (see piccies below for the Mispoona, Spicy Mix and Little Gem).

I cut some of the Mispoona and Spicy Mix but have left the Little Gem to get bigger. It is great to be able to pick this stuff at the start of March.

Before leaving the plot, I removed the fleece from the broad beans to allow the rain to get to them.

Next week, my priorities should be sowing (especially parsnips, leeks and salad, perhaps tomatoes) and digging (finishing Bed 8 and tidying up 2 or 3 other beds). There might be time for some hoeing, and harvesting of leeks and parsnips but those are lower down on the to-do list. Depending on the weather, I plan to plant my spuds in 2 weeks time though it may be possible/tempting to do that next weekend - a few other allotmenteers have already put theirs in.

Waiting to get out

2009-03-08T13:38:00.004Z

Earlier in the week, forecasts suggested that today might be ok for gardening. The chance of some light showers perhaps. It is now hailing (though it started and finished by the time I wrote that phrase). The wind is quite strong and it has been raining on and off for the last couple of hours. I am hoping this will past by 1500ish. I need to take some logs over to the plot. Most of these are from my neighbour who had some well-established hedges removed. I have a few from the remains of 2 Christmas trees. I plan to pile these up at the bottom of the plot to provide a small habitat for friendly bugs. There is also the rest of last year's Christmas tree which I have chopped up into 3 inch pieces to rot down.

Since my previous post, I did visit the plot for a bit of a dig. I only managed half of Bed 8. The bramble chap called me over for a spot of lunch which was lovely.

Another brief hail while I type...

This morning's inspection of the seed trays upstairs show some more germination (the aubergines poked through a couple of days ago). The sweet peppers and a couple of the chillies (Iranian Round and Westlandse) have showed themselves. I forgot about the marigolds which were in a different room. They look nice and strong, not leggy at all, and must have germinated a fews days ago.

The photo below shows the aubergines (bottom left), sweet peppers (bottom right) and marigolds (top).

The next photo shows the 4 pots of chillies all covered by a single clear bin bag. The two pots that showed germination this morning were the two at the bottom end of the bag (furthest from the opening which is folded under the tray to keep the heat in) so may have been a little warmer. I am guessing that this is why they have come through first. Just a guess. I have since swapped the pots around in an attempt to even things up.

Now the evenings are getting a tad lighter, there are a couple of smallish jobs I need to attend to soon. First, fixing the cold frame in the garden after our cat has finally broken the polycarbonate lids out of their frames. That must have given her a bit of a shock when it happened. Second, making a mushroom box out of a pallet I have been given. I have meant to grow mushrooms for a while.

Now the rain has stopped but I will wait things out while listening to Gardeners' Questions Time.

Back to digging

2009-03-05T19:03:00.003Z

I spent my day off work mainly on the allotment. It was a sunny but nippy day. 5 hours digging meant that I was cosy and warm most of the time but could feel the cold when I stopped for a spot of lunch with a fellow allotmenteer who was putting up a polytunnel on his plot. There were a few people around making the most of the sunshine.

The very same chap made a start on digging over part of my plot (not entirely with my ok but that's another story) to reclaim areas next to Beds 1 and 2 which had been subsumed by the path between my plot and the neighbour's. Today, I dug over the rest of that side right down beside Beds 4, 6 and 8. My back now aches a bit but that is cool. It really feels like I have done some exercise today.

While digging, I uncovered a fair bit of horseradish root which I relocated to Bed 5 next to the globe artichokes (after offering some to my lunchmate).

Back tomorrow to clear some more ground - probably Bed 8 ready for potatoes in a couple of weeks time.

How many Jerusalem artichokes does a girl need?

2009-02-22T21:48:00.003Z

Look at all the new space I have on the plot now the brambles have been cleared...

The gentleman responsible was raking over his plot today so I went over to say thank you. He asked me what I am going to plant there. I hadn't really thought about it. Perhaps this gives me proper space for flowers. Ooooo.

I went over to the plot today to harvest some veg for dinner and my fellow allotmenteer helped out. The last 2 Jerusalem artichoke plants proved to be astonishlingly prolific, resulting in an overly stuffed carrier bag to lug home. Some of the tubers were as big as jacket potatoes. I gave 8 tubers to my helper to plant on his plot.

I also harvested 6-7 baby leeks and some parsnips (see below for the haul)

It was roast pork belly tonight with boiled Pink Fir Apple potatoes, roasted parsnips, sauted baby leeks and apple sauce derived from allotment produce, and other stuff bought in. It seemed to go down well.

Broad beans for every week of the year?

2009-02-21T16:58:00.005Z

Today was a fine day - sunny and warm on the allotment. I actually thought of buying an ice lolly.

Sure enough, the bottom half of the plot has been totally cleared in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera over but I'll take some piccies tomorrow if I can. Also, the garlic in Bed 5 (I think) which I planted a couple of months ago and which I assumed had rotted away, had sprouted and was clearly visible. Next to it, a small patch of chives (which I should probably divide up at some point) which looked quite dead when I last inspected it, looks like it has started to grow nicely.

My first job was to spread over some rotted down hedge clippings from my neighbour onto one of the beds. I chose Bed 9 was it seemed quite poor when I last dug it over. Then I "clawed" over Bed 1 and sowed 2 double rows of broad beans (Masterpiece Green Longpod since you ask). I am to chop off the tops of the plants once 4 clusters of bloom are showing. Apparently they are suitable for freezing - I thought they all were. There are 13 seeds in each row (not bad luck hopefully) so I have one plant for every week of the year. I have covered them over with wire sheets which have been pinned down to keep the mice out. I spoke to a couple of fellow allotmenters today and both said that they sowed broad beans back in December and have not seen them since. I don't think they covered them over though so the mice may have found them under the snow. I hope that they see some signs of them soon.

I came back home and got on with some more sowing. I sowed the four types of chilli that I had last year (listed in the post dated May 24th 2008), some sweet peppers (California Wonder), some aubergine (Black Beauty) and French marigold (Orange Winner). All of those are now on the windowsills vacated by the onions and sweet peas.

Now for a quick spot of housework before settling down with a nice glass of Viognier and a gardening mag...

Springing around the corner?

2009-02-20T20:30:00.003Z

I worked at home today and could hear lawnmowing around the neighbourhood. Spring must be round the corner. Plus, the crocus are getting showy in the garden (see piccie below).

Apparently, biodynamically (if that is actually a word), it is a good time to sow flowering plants tomorrow like broad beans. I think I'll go for it tomorrow. I am thinking that you could count chillies and peppers in that category (they fruit, right?) so I might sow some tomorrow once I've put the onion seedlings in the cold frame in the garden.

So it'll be a day of sowing tomorrow. After the housework of course. I wonder how my 'lotment buddies have got on with my brambles...

More snow

2009-02-08T16:56:00.002Z

I've been away this weekend but returned to sleet in Worcester. Half an hour later, it turned to snow with huge clumps of flakes falling (see below for a piccie of the garden).

I was planning on sowing some celeriac today (judging by the Gardeners Calendar, it is good time for it) on my return but it is now getting dark. In the dim light that remains, the clouds look heavy with snow. Tomorrow looks ok for planting celeriac so I'll do it then.

With a little help from my friends

2009-02-04T21:22:00.005Z

I took a day off work today. I needed to catch up on a few things including a spot of gardening. The sky was quite clear though it was pretty chilly - about 3-4 degrees. We are due for snow tomorrow so it was just as well I had the chance to pop over today.

As I arrived, I met the allotmenteer who has transformed the plot right next to the gate I usually enter the site through. A year ago, it was covered in brambles reaching over head-height. Since then, he has constructed the foundations for a fruit cage to cover pretty much the whole plot. We had a nice chat and he offered to cut down my brambles. He said that he had the tools to do it and it would be a quick job for him. What a star!

I got to my plot and set to work planting six Jerusalem artichoke tubers in Bed 6 (see below). The garden claw tool I bought today (it was on offer in the local hardware store) made very light work of preparing the soil (I am not even on commission).

Just as I was about to plant the tubers, another allotmenteer popped by. He also offered to cut down my brambles and had brought along a tool to do the job. My brambles have obviously been a hot topic of discussion on the site in recent days. I feel guilty but this chap did say that he had some spare time and relished the challenge. He made a start then and there while I pottered around (adding lavender cuttings to the compost bin and weeding around the salad leaves in the cold frames). See the before and after pics below (demonstrating just one hour's work).

We had a bit of a chat too. I kinda hope that some rabbit holes are found behind the brambles as that would explain how the critters were able to get onto the site last year. I will repay these kind gentlemen with booze and chocolate. Maybe cake.

Meanwhile, at home, there are signs of a fourth sweet pea emerging...

Snow? What snow?

2009-02-03T19:55:00.008Z

Well, I missed all the snow. I was in the Scottish Highlands where the weather was lovely.

Just a brief update on the January sowings. The onions are all now growing but out of the two types, the Rossa Di Toscana (red ones) germinated much faster than the Tonda Muscona (white ones). See the piccie below for the situation on Jan 30th (the pot in the middle contains the slower Tonda Muscona while the seedlings either side are Rossa Di Toscana.

It wasn't just down to the light conditions or temperature. The Tonda Muscona which were downstairs at facing East germinated at the same time as the Tonda Muscona upstairs facing West. All the Rossa Di Toscana were upstairs facing West. Our cat did try to encourage them though.

On my return today, the Tonda Muscona have made an appearance.

Out of the 8 sweet peas I sowed, only 3 have come through (see below). I'll sow some more soon.

I'll be able to go over to the plot tomorrow. I should plant up some Jerusalem artichoke tubers. Goodness knows where on the plot. I might even start on the brambles...

A bad year for leeks?

2009-01-25T10:37:00.002Z

It seems from comments made on Soilman's blog (see links on the right) that several people planted out leeks at a sensible time and still had poor results. It isn't just me then. Baby leeks all round. What wonders the WWW brings to a typically low-tech hobbie, eh?

This is similar to the plum situation - a poor (=non) harvest in 2008. Plums can go in 2-year cycles apparently. I've not seen that mentioned in any book (I probably need to read more).

Does this bode well for 2009? There is talk of a good Summer this year with decent dry and warm weather at the right time. I don't know where these predictions stem from but a blight- and flood-free 2009 would be lovely.

Winter bounty

2009-01-24T20:41:00.006Z

Today was forecast to be the only one suitable for gardening this weekend - it is supposed to be very wet and windy tomorrow. Today was chilly but sunny. I popped over for an hour or so to check on things. I did want to harvest some Jerusalem artichokes and parsnips.

When I arrived, there was ice on the glass over the raised beds (see below).

When he popped over to say hello and to say that stocks of potato had arrived at the Allotment Shop, I asked the gentleman in charge of the site about my leeks. They haven't really grown much and I suspected that they probably couldn't be expected to grow much now. He confirmed my suspicions so I will just be happy enough to harvest them as baby leeks. All but one of the leeks below (pictured along with a stray potato that was nestled in with them in the ground) were the runts of the batch sown last year so I planted these in groups of 3 or 4 with the purpose of using them as baby leeks if they did develop. Some of the other, sturdier ones have grown up a bit more (but still on the baby side compared to the usual) and have been left in the ground for future harvesting.

I then set about digging up some Jerusalem artichokes. I want to make some soup and give some tubers to some friends. I ended up harvesting two plants - just two plants left now in the ground. I would guess that I retrieved 2 kilos of them. I also dug up a few parsnips and cut some perpetual spinach which is starting to take off again under net cloches.

One job I have been thinking about recently, and was reminded of today by one of my next door plotters who commented on it, is bramble clearing. As the piccie below shows, bramble is rampant at the bottom of my plot. It was there way before I arrived on Plot 35. I do mean to clear it this Winter/Spring. I plan to use some holiday days to see to it.

The light began to disappear so I headed home to wash and store my harvest (see piccie below). Now, that's not a bad lot to bring back in the middle of Winter, is it?

Exploding cat!

2009-01-18T13:16:00.002Z

Both days this weekend have started off lovely and sunny. Yesterday went all windy and wet though. Not sure what the rest of today will bring but it is still sunny now.

Yesterday afternoon I sowed some onion seeds (with some "assistance" from a neighbour's cat - I suppose firming down the compost in trays with one's paws is a useful thing to do, making sure the seed really is in contact with the compost). The seeds are now sitting on windowsills.

I had some lovely friends staying over and we popped over to the plot for a brief inspection. Sadly, the clay cat that was guarding the plot and featured on the top of the blog page seems to have exploded with the frost. We found it in bits. A sad find for me. I might try to fix it next weekend if I can. Some heavy tarpaulin from next door's plot had been blown over to my plot which shows just how windy it was yesterday.

Far too wet for digging so I'll have to keep waiting and focusing on indoor gardening activities.

Bag lady

2009-01-11T16:16:00.008Z

The weather for the rest of the day was much better than forecast a day or two ago. It was supposed to be very wet. Instead, it was cloudy, a bit windy and very mild compared to last weekend. A barmy 8.5 degrees this afternoon. Good weather for being outside. Digging was out of the question though as the ground was very wet and compacted.

My fantastic neighbour, Wendy, came round to say that she had lots of hedge cuttings bagged up for me (see below).

Most of the bags contained trimmings cut up small but 3 contained larger, woodier trimmings. I'll cut the contents of those 3 up smaller later. As for the others, I spent a brief time watering the contents of the bags, tying them up and pricking them with a garden fork, before putting them behind the shed. Behind the shed already was a couple of bags of autumn leaves I collected and bagged up last year. They have only half broken down so I took them round to the plot and have put them in a quickly assembled wire bin next to the Jerusalem artichokes (see below).

Wendy has already given me a few bags of trimmings that have been in bags for a few months so they might be ready to add to one of the beds in the Spring. While at the plot, I also put some veg peelings on the compost along with some slimy leaves I cut off the globe artichokes. Presumably they had been killed off by the recent frost. See below for some before and after photos of the globe artichoke bed.

Below is a piccie of Bed 3 which I cleared a couple of weeks ago. Compared to the photos from before New Year, it looks much better.

Before I left the plot, I spotted the labels for the sea kale but saw no sign of the actual plant nearby. I had a root around to see if there was any root there. The little bit of root I found, I took home.

In the lean-to, before the sun disappeared altogether, I potted up the sea kale root. I am hoping it will show some regrowth soon. Research suggests that sea kale roots should be planted in March and kept in sand until then. I know that if I was to put it in sand tucked away somewhere, I will forget about it.

In the bags of larger hedge trimmings from Wendy, there were some rosemary clippings. Some of these had some new growth so I have taken some small cuttings and potted those up to. Fingers crossed one or two of them take.

Finally, I did sow 8 sweet pea seeds and have put them on a windowsill upstairs. My first sowings of 2009.

To live by the moon or not...

2009-01-11T10:55:00.002Z

I was planning to do my first sowings of 2009 today. Sweet peas and onions. However, it is full moon right now and the Gardeners Calendar suggests that this is a bad time to sow onions. Next Saturday would be better. Flowering plants are ok apparently, so ok for the sweet peas. There are also suggestions that gardening on a full moon is generally a bad idea was things are more likely to go wrong. I don't know much about biodynamics but an article in Gardener's World by Toby Buckland was interesting and his, admittedly small, experiment suggested that it might be beneficial for things like peas and carrots. I had considered experimenting with it sometime but hadn't made my mind up really. To me, it would reduce the need for me to choose what to sow when.

I think the onions can wait until next weekend particularly given the cold snap we are having. I think I will get the sweet peas going so there might be some sign of new growth next weekend.

Brrrrrr!

2009-01-06T19:41:00.004Z

Warmer than Antarctica (those of you who were listening to Radio 4 just before 1800 will know what I am talking about)?

It was about -5.5 when I left for work at 0700 this morning. The snow from the early hours of yesterday morning remained. Even colder than the weekend. I quickly checked the seed potatoes in the lean-to an hour ago expecting them to be frozen solid. They seemed fine. Even the parsley plants I placed next to them from the mini-greenhouse had thawed out. Not bad. It was sunny today which probably helped.

I did a spot of seed swapping with a colleague at work today. We got some strange looks in the tea room. I have come away with some white borage (very pretty purple/pink seeds), pak choi and gerbera. Nice one.

Welcome to 2009!

2009-01-04T19:37:00.005Z

A cold start to the year - it is freezing outside. Literally. It was -1 Celsius at 1400 today. Average temperatures this time of year are more like 6 degrees apparently. The light, sandy soil in our back garden is frozen solid, as is a couple of the pots in the coldframe next to the house. It is that cold. No chance of any Winter digging on the heavy, clay plot this weekend, unfortunately. No sowing yet either. That's for next weekend. There are onions, shallots and leeks to sow. And sweet peas.

I did start off the potato chitting today (see below). Hopefully these won't freeze in the lean-to and I have put them the right way up. I'll check on their progress in a couple of weeks.

In the last day or two, my friend and neighbour chopped down 7 conifer hedges in her front garden and she was planning on shredding the branches and taking them down to the tip. Of course, I have asked her if I could take the shreddings instead for mulching on the plot (after letting them compost down a bit first in black bags). I helped out this morning trying to start the shredding. I wasn't much use as my toes froze after just an hour. My main contribution was reading the instructions for her shredder to work out why it kept stopping. A lot of the hedge clippings could be chopped with secateurs but it'll take a long while to get through it. A few sessions in the warm in front of the TV with a nice glass of wine should do it if my neighbour doesn't master the shredder. It could make all the difference to the heavy clay soil on some of the beds.

Looking back to Christmas 2008, the real hits from the plot were the parsnips (mammoth as some of them were) and horseradish. I used the horseradish to make some smoked mackeral pate and it went down very well over New Year.

Digging over Bed 3

2008-12-28T21:00:00.004Z

I headed over to the plot for a dig today. There are several beds that need tidying up but Bed 3 was selected as today's focus. See its poor state below.

Just as I put the fork into the ground, a new allotmenteer entered the site. As he passed by Plot 35, we engaged hellos and introductions. He has just taken on Plot 21 and was on his way to have a bonfire. We had a nice chat and he commented on both types of artichoke on my plot. He likes the Jerusalems but is not so keen on the Globes. I think it was just us two on the site at the time. It was a chilly but sunny day.

I got back to Bed 3 and found that the soil had just about dried out enough for digging. A marked improvement on the last couple of weeks. Some of the small cabbages in the bed have been nibbled by something so I decided to leave them there for a while.

A couple of hours later, Bed 3 was dug over and looked much improved. I tried to take piccies to record my effort but the battery on my camera ran out (I'd only just charged it so time for a new battery methinks).

Merry Christmas

2008-12-27T13:37:00.002Z

Belated Merry Christmas to one and all. I haven't posted for a while due to flu, kitchen installation (keeping me busy with wall preparation and painting - not ideal when poorly) and having lovely people round for Christmas. I aim to get back to the plot today or tomorrow for some fresh air and digging. The mound of veg peelings will be taken over to the compost heap too.

It was a shame that the Brussels didn't work out on the allotment this year (bloody rabbits!) but it has made me determined to get them sorted this coming year. I'll sow them nice and early and will cover them as much as possible once planted out. I may sow a few small batches rather than a single large one so that any losses can be replaced easily.

The parsnips, on the other hand, were a complete success. The ones I dug up a couple of weeks ago for Christmas lunch were huge. On Christmas Eve, I heard on the grapevine that one of my neighbours was in need of parsnips but couldn't get any. I nipped over to the plot very briefly before darkness fell to get some for her. They were absolutely enormous and seem to be appreciated. Any chance for me to show them off. Apparently, their enormity caused a fair amount of giggling in my neighbour's house. In return, my neighbour brought me over a portion of yummy parsnip soup. I will definitely grow parsnips again. The trick is to keep the seeds moist in the ground before they germinate (pre-chitting didn't seem to work out). And they are very low maintenance once they have germinated.

It will soon be time to start sowing again. I need to write sowing dates in one of my new calendars so that I can keep up with it all.

Need some more photos on here...

Her indoors

2008-12-14T20:37:00.002Z

...that's me that is.

No allotmenting yesterday because it mostly rained. Today, it was a drier but I stayed indoors with the lurgie.

Nothing regarding the plot to report this weekend unfortunately. It might be a good time to report on the spuds I have ordered for next season. I ordered the following from the Organic Gardening Catalogue:

- Amorosa (1.5kg, First Early, Organic, New variety with long, oval tubers and moderate resistance to tuber blight, scab and lead roll virus).

- Remarka (3kg, Early Maincrop, Organic, Large tubers, which can be left in the ground for longer for really big spuds, with good all-round disease resistance).

- Anya (2kg, Early Maincrop, Long, waxy tubers with high resistance to scab and moderate resistance to blight and slugs).

Once I receive the spuds, I'll be giving some to the future in-laws for their new veg patch and some to a colleague at work (who may, fingers crossed, be getting a full-sized allotment soon).

To the same order, I added a pack of Lady Godiva squash seeds. These have shell-less seeds which can be eaten raw or roasted. I like the sound of that. On top of that, I ordered a sprouting jar and starter pack. So there will be something healthy to eat over Christmas (other than the nice Jerusalem artichokes and parnsips from the plot).

Assuming I'll be fighting fit again next weekend, I may get to do some gardening between bouts of cooking in our new kitchen which is being fitted later in the week. Can't wait.

Now, I'm off to Bedfordshire (that's bed for those who haven't seen Bridget Jones).

Who's been nibbling my parsnips?

2008-12-07T16:46:00.008Z

That's what I'd like to know.

I have left the nibbled parsnip in place in the hope that no others get touched. I might have to dig up the parsnips next week for Christmas to ensure that I have enough for the special day.

Today was cold and the frost on the ground didn't budge at all. The picture below shows the frost still lingering on the grass after 1500.

The walk over to the allotment was quite treacherous as the pavements were all frosty and slippy. Don't get me wrong - I am very happy to see it. Hopefully, it will kill off lots of pests and diseases. Apparently, the temperatures are slightly lower than usual at this time of year.

I think I was the only one on the allotment today. I popped over to check on things and to dig up some Jerusalem artichokes. Under the glass of the raised beds, there are some seedlings emerging from the sowings I made 3 or so weeks ago. There is clearly some warmth under there. No sign of the garlic I planted a couple of weeks ago. There may be a chance that the frost has put a stop to them. If I don't see any sign of them in a couple of weeks, I will assume they didn't make it.

The piccie below shows the results of 1 of the 5 Jerusalem artichokes I planted back in Feb.

I took them home before scrubbing and peeling them. I sauted some onion (red - from the allotment a few months back) and some celery (shop-bought) in some butter for 10 mins before adding 500g of the artichokes cubed. After a minute, I added some chicken stock (homemade) and simmered it all for 20 mins. I whizzed it up in a liquidiser and added some milk and seasoning. It was a lovely white colour and tasted fantastic, though I do say so myself. I ate some of it with a friend and neighbour. She loved it and has taken the leftovers home for her lunch tomorrow. She is not a big fan of veg and had never heard of Jerusalem artichokes. She knows all about them now. I still have some tubers left from today's harvest so I might try them chipped or roasted later in the week. I will hold a few back from each plant for planting in the New Year and for giving away to fellow gardeners.

Just to show that there was some nice sun today - below is a piccie of our cat sunning herself in a nice spot on the coldframe in the garden which catches the sun in the afternoon. She is not the lightest of cats so I hope she doesn't make a habit of sitting there, for the sake of the frame.

November planting

2008-11-23T15:43:00.006Z

I had an hour on the plot yesterday. The weather has turned a little arctic, mainly in the East of England where I was last night. There was some snow and everything. It was brighter here in the West.

I removed the peas and canes from Bed 7 (a silly idea of mine to sow peas so late) to tidy it up and watered the raised beds which are now covered with glass. I then forked over enough ground to plant some garlic (2 rows - about 20 cloves - of Fokhagyma) in Bed 5 next to the parsnips, where the carrots have been recently removed, and the 10 plants of perpetual spinach (that were still waiting in pots on the patio at home) in Bed 4 nestled up to the globe artichokes. I covered the perpetual spinach with a mesh tunnel cloche.

While planting, I was being assisted by a robin (see piccies below).

Today, while it was still light, I planned to pot up some of the horseradish roots from last weekend's harvest. I hope they didn't dry out too much - I kinda forgot about them in the week. I did get around to it but it was raining by this time. Now, I am going to retreat to the kitchen, as it gets dark outside, to process the remaining roots for the Winter storage in jars.

Hot, hot, hot

2008-11-16T20:35:00.006Z

No, not the weather. It was quite wet today but the rain kept off after noon, providing an opportunity for a bit of a potter. The soil was too wet for digging though. Earlier in the day, it struck me that November is a good time to dig up horseradish roots so I thought I'd have a go at that. There seems to be two main clumps of it - one next to the shed and one next to Bed 8 (somewhere down there anyway). The one near the shed could get a little awkward if it gets much larger so I started with that (see the piccie below).

As shown, there was a little sapling in amongst the roots. I assume it is a plum tree. I decided to dig that out and replant it. For now, it is in a pot (see below) - I'll decide what to do with it another weekend.

Below is a photo of the plot taken from where the sapling is and looking up towards the road.

Before leaving the plot, I picked some apples and some salad and spinach leaves for the week ahead - adding to the heaps of big fat roots of horseradish.

When I got home, I stewed the apples ready for the freezer to make a pie or crumble some other time. The salad has been washed and stored. Now, for the horseradish... I have washed, peeled and whizzed up one of the roots. According to information on the WWW, I added some white wine vinegar to it (enough to make a paste). This should store ok for a few weeks.

Now the smug bit. I roasted some beef and some potatoes, parsnips and carrots from the allotment. I then mixed some creme fraiche with a bit of the horseradish (about 1 part horseradish to 2 parts creme fraiche, I think) and served that with the beef and veg. The WWW is right - you really don't taste the vinegar very much. Yum in my tum.

At the root of it...with extra photos for Andy

2008-11-09T14:46:00.008Z

No time for gardening yesterday but got chance for a brief visit today. It rained a lot overnight and it was forecast to rain from 1500 onwards today. As it turned out, there were showers from 1300 onwards.

I was planning to do a little bit of digging in Bed 9 to lift some of the main crop potatoes that I'd left there. I was expecting the ground to be a little too wet but actually it wasn't too bad. Hopefully, it hasn't led to too much damage to the soil structure. Lifting the grass that has been trying to take over was quite easy. I lifted a few carrier bags of muddy spuds. They were mainly on the small side as all the others have been this year. That will teach me for planting them so shallow. I really don't think I have lifted them all so will need to dug over that bed again when it is drier.

I was about to leave when I thought I'd check out the carrots underneath the mesh cloche next to the parsnips (Bed 5 I think). I hadn't looked at them for ages and as I haven't had much luck with carrots, I wasn't expecting anything. A good opportunity to clear them out and use the cloche elsewhere. Lo and behold, there were actually some carrots there (see below).

None of the carrots were huge but there are plenty of useful looking ones. My first decent crop of carrots! I think it was down to the cloche which kept the carrot fly off.

But the excitement (for me) doesn't end there. While I was pulling out the carrots, I spied a couple of parsnip tops amongst their leaves which are now starting to collapse (see piccie below).

Although I was planning to save them for Christmas, I just couldn't resist digging them up for a closer look. Some interesting shapes (see piccie below) but they look very edible. My foot is there to give an idea of size. They are not small. Not bad considering the number of stones in the ground. Mmmmm, roast parsnips...

Before leaving the plot, I took two cabbages to complete the week's harvest. Bring on the cooking!

Rooting around

2008-11-02T18:15:00.003Z

I was away for most of the weekend so only managed an hour on the plot before it got dark today.

I dug up the last (hopefully - bound to have left some volunteers somewhere) second early potatoes next to the leeks. The leeks look to have perked up significantly after last week - not many signs of rust on quick inspection.

The foliage of the Jerusalem artichokes appeared to have some frost damage in places (not a surprise) so it seemed appropriate to cut it down. I read somewhere that the cut foliage can be laid down over the ground to protect the artichokes from frost. Before doing that, I stuck some bamboo canes into the ground to mark where the plants are so that I can dig in the right place in a few weeks time when the stems may have disappeared completely. I put the canes in a few inches back from the stems so that the cut foliage could be laid directly over the plants (see piccie below).

Finally, I placed window panes over the raised beds to warm them up.

Next week I should have a few hours to spend on the plot. I really need to sort out Beds 8 and 9, by digging up the last main crop spuds and disposing of the courgette and sweetcorn plants which have finished now. I may have a bonfire on Bed 9 once that is cleared. Very seasonal...

Well, the Earth certainly moved today

2008-10-26T20:07:00.003Z

I didn't get chance to visit the plot today but I did get round to a brief bit of pottering. I tried propagating an apple mint plant. Both the mint plants I bought this year have been acting strangely - one minute they are big, green, bushy and healthy looking and the next they are bare and brown. It might be that they are getting drier than they look at times. When I dug up the apple mint, it had plenty of strong rhizomes to cut up for propagation so I took 5 bits to pot up. The Moroccan mint didn't seem to have any long rhizomes so I've left that one for now.

Warning: this next bit has nothing to do with gardening but is just something I wanted to record to make up for this weekend's lack of gardening...

After this pottering, at about 1800ish, I was sitting on the sofa when I felt a weird thud through the house. My future mother-in-law (Jean) who sat down on the sofa about 1 second after the thud, didn't feel it and thought I was mad when I cried out "what the hell was that?" I was a bit freaked out because it sounded like someone had jumped off something upstairs and landed with quite a thump but there was no-one upstairs. It sounded much heavier than a cat - very creepy. Jean and I both heard the plastic surround on the TV set crack slightly though at the same time. Now I find out that a minor earthquake has been recorded in Herefordshire at 1806, affecting parts of Worcestershire too. Well, that certainly explains the weird thud. If Jean had sat down just 1 second earlier, I'd just have thought she was heavier than she looked and not thought anything of it. I was away last time there was a noticeable earthquake in this area which apparently shoke the everything in our flat. There's a lot going on under that there soil.

May I take this opportunity, though, to say that Jean doesn't look at all heavy ;-) (she does occasionally read this blog).

2008-10-24T17:45:00.005+01:00

I spent a few hours on the plot this afternoon (day off work). I intended to dig up the courgettes like I keep meaning to but I was struck by how poorly the soil was looking around the leeks. The piccie below shows how poorly drained it was.

The soil on the left has a green tinge to it, probably because I haven't hoed around the leeks since they have been in. I weeded around them and fluffed up the soil and I hope they perk up and put on some good growth in the next 2-3 months.

After working around the leeks, I did a spot of weeding in Bed 1 (around the raspberries, cauliflowers and perpeptual spinach). I also pruned the gooseberries a little and replanted the rhubarb. I am not sure that the rhubarb crown looks very healthy but I'll just have to wait and see.

Before signing off, here's a piccie of the flowers at the top of the Jerusalem artichokes.

Maybe I'll get round to the courgettes later this weekend...

2008-10-12T18:57:00.002+01:00

This weekend, I only had chance to pop over for a couple of hours late in the afternoon today. Weatherwise, it has been fantastic - blue skies with light cloud. It was quite warm today. The soil looks quite dry in places so I should water it all when I next go round if it doesn't rain in the week. I only watered the leeks today after scattering some fertiliser around them.

I also did a bit of digging today. I had been growing some potatoes and other things in a bed of my next door neighbour's plot. After removing the potatoes a few weeks ago, I had neglected it and it had got covered in weeds. I felt a bit guilty and my neighbour will hopefully be back any day now so it was something I had to get on with before tending to my own plot.

Talking of my plot, there is a lot to do. The courgettes look well past it now so I need to remove these at the weekend. I could probably clear that whole bed as the sweetcorn and squashes seem to be past it too. I also need to dig up the remaining potatoes.

In the meantime, I'll be poring over the seed catalogues.

Early retrospective of 2008

2008-10-05T19:50:00.002+01:00

Just thought it was worth recording this year's lessons learnt, if a bit early.

I still have lots to learn and to do better. However, I did manage to grow a few things this year than I didn't manage last year including parsnips and artichokes (globe and Jerusalem). Blight was the major downer of the year taking all my tomatoes (even the ones at home on the patio). Though it didn't really hurt the potatoes, it got me worried.

Some things I should have done:

- sowed more broad beans;
- sowed more parsnips;
- planted Brussel sprouts a lot earlier;
- used wigwams not rows for the peas.

Specific issues

Potatoes

This year, I used a bulb planter to put the seed potatoes in. This meant that the job was relatively quick and easy which was important given that I was getting them in so late (mid May I think). The disadvantage was that many of the potatoes were on the green side. Not a big deal unless you eat one or two with the skin on without realising. It is a really horrible, sickening bitter taste. Next year, I really have to get them in the ground earlier, to get them to good maturity by the time blight comes around. I should also dig trenches for them. And grow slightly less of them.

Onions and garlic

I have planted out onion sets and garlic cloves in the Autumn twice now. The results, particularly in the case of the onions, have been a little disappointing. Onions have be small and few. In heavy clay soil, which gets quite hard over Winter, it probably restricts growth until later in Spring. It is nice to have something in the ground over Winter but I will try waiting until Spring before planting onions out.

The garlic has tasted fantastic but the bulbs have generally been a little on the small side. I may try preparing the ground more thoroughly and continue to put these in in late Autumn.

Sweetcorn

One weekend, I heard from others that "The Badger" was on the rampage. I thought to myself (God knows why), "next weekend, I put some chicken wire up around that sweetcorn to protect it". Of course, between that moment and the next weekend, The Badger paid a visit. Next year, I should plant the sweetcorn in a tighter area and should put protection up as early as possible.

Everyone blames The Badger. I find it funny to think of a single badger terrorising the whole site. I am sure there must be a whole gang of them.

Pests

The netting tunnel cloches I bought seemed to help hugely in keeping brassicas safe from cabbage white and rabbit(touch wood). I have been pinning these down with tent pegs too which I think help to make it harder for anything to burrow under them. And the bright blue organic slug pellets you can buy also seem to be effective so I should continue with them.

Awaiting the rain

2008-10-04T15:07:00.005+01:00

I was hoping to spend a decent amount of time on the plot this week but when I mentioned this to a colleague at work, he broke the news to me that the weather forecast was not looking good. Rain forecast all weekend. This morning's news suggested that it would start to rain heavily here from 1300 onwards. Apart from a few spots earlier this morning, there is nothing but overcast skies and strong winds.

Given the weather predictions, I nipped over before 1200 to get one job done - dismantling the strawberry bed. See the before and after piccies below. I took the plants home to put in pots and the old leafs that I cut off were put aside for the compost heap.

On the topic of compost, I emptied one of the compost heaps onto the ground vacated by the strawberries. That patch is quite dry and hard now so I'll dig the compost in once the rain has done its thing.

Before leaving, I picked a few courgettes and pulled up a cabbage. Unfortunately, while inspecting the single butternut squash that seems to be growing, it came away in my hands. It was only about 3 inches long. It hadn't seemed to put on any growth for a while actually which is probably explained by the fact that it was only loosely connected to the plant. I picked a small cob of sweetcorn too but none of the plants look very healthy.

So, I took the strawberry plants home, out of the reach of the pesky strawberry thief. I have at least 23 plants (some are clustered and separation seemed impossible without harming them). I only planted those that clearly had new growth in the middle. I hope they like the peat-free compost. I had added some organic fertiliser to a couple of the pots last weekend. I'll add some to the other two pots another time. I threw 4 small ones plants (for the compost heap) - these didn't have new growth in the middle.

Bit of a catch up now. Early last week I cooked some achochas up (see piccie below).

They squeaked as I gathered them together in my hand. Inside, they were emptier than the ones I tried a few weeks ago. The seeds were easier to shake out and were very black. In the previous lot, I had to scoop flesh out with a spoon and then pick out the seeds. I have saved lots of seeds - plenty for seed swapping sometime. Achochas are ok but I don't think I'd bother buying their seeds again.

Just a little potter

2008-09-28T21:37:00.002+01:00

I went over to the plot yesterday after a 2 week break from it. It was lovely and sunny after mid-morning once the fogginess had gone. There were only three of us over there on the lower end of the site. I was surprised.

I was greeted by some more courgettes so I picked them. I removed some big weeds from the two sisters patch while I was there. There are a few cobs of sweetcorn growing but I will wait for a bit longer before harvesting them because they are a bit small.

There is some salad almost ready for picking in one of the raised beds. The Little Gem lettuces need to be thinned next week though. I think that the weather is due to get a little colder in the next few weeks so I should cover the beds with glass asap.

I look forward to more time over there next weekend. I plan to dig up the strawberry plants and bring them home to a couple of large pots. That should keep them safe from the thieves next year...

Robin' the worms

2008-09-15T20:18:00.004+01:00

I did focus on the garden yesterday so didn't go to the plot. There was lots of tidying up to do including the tomatoes which are getting very bushy but not very ripe. I have removed a couple of the most mature vines to ripen in the kitchen. A couple of the plants which were obviously planted out too late for fruiting (I was pushing it after all) were removed to make some space for the others giving it a go.

While the tidying and hoeing was going on, the cat slept. She often 'helps' but was clearly not in the mood. However, I did have another little helper (see piccie below).

Before packing the tools away, I did sow some seeds in recently vacated pots on the patio. I sowed onions (Hi Keeper F1 Hybrid), Mispoona (the last lot have been munched I think), Herby Salad Leaf Mixed and Spicy Mixed Salad Leaves. There were only about 10 onion seeds but I have plenty of others to sow in January.