Summer Surfeit

Young Peas, Celeriac, and Turnips

Nesting Strawberries

Ladybird and Larvae

Perfect Cauliflower

Ollie Enjoying the Sun Amongst the Strawberries

Planting this week:

Spring onions

Mooli

Mixed lettuce seedlings

Asparagus plants

Hollyhocks

Over joyed to have so much veg to harvest - even though had a few failures.

Best results:

Potatoes - rocket earlies were wonderful and very versatile. Would grow again.

Broad beans - bunyards exhibition and dwarf sutton grew well. Made a topping for bruschetta by boiling them and removing the outer covering to use only the sweeter centre, combined with garlic and olive oil.

Garlic - french thermidome went in in the autumn and benefited from the extra cold winter.

Courgettes - gold rush had a good texture and did not grow too rapidly, so could go away for a few days without them turning to marrows. Strigato d'Italia looked handsome with their stripes and had best flavour.

Lettuce - red variety did well and had few insects.

Beetroot - Grew easily and now have 9 jars of pickled beetroot - more than a lifetime supply. Trying red velvet brownies with them this week.

Pak choi - first lot bolted due to the dry weather but second planting did better and managed to harvest some before that bolted also.

White chard - seemed to be at home here, tasted as earthy as people said it would.

Runner beans - these did as their name suggests and ran twisting up their canes. Had to be eaten before they got to 6" or too stringy.

Onions - Japanese sets planted last summer grew averagely and did get some onion rot - which I have read is due to spores that can live in the soil for up to 20 years. Will try onions on the other side of the plot this year to avoid infection.

Red Onions - electric variety planted last summer did well and fared better with the onion rot.

Peas and green beans grew well but due to recent wet weather the plants have mildew, though can still eat the peas and beans.

Cauliflower - all year round, tasted good but some became purple around the flower edges, due to the dry early summer I believe.

I think this is enough!

Vowed never to grow cabbage again as the caterpillars had a feast on them, turning the leaves into lace and also cannot bear the taste of cabbages.

Wildlife

Bats flutter overhead as the sun goes down.

Fewer rabbits than last year.

Grand opening of site tomorrow so much excitement in the village.

Magnificent May

The architectural Artichoke

A family of cabbage white caterpillars

Plot in May

Busy planting: courgettes ;radish ;onions ;spinach ;tomatoes ;lettuce ;carrots; peas ; runner beans ;broad beans ;climbing beans ;dwarf beans ;celery ;celeriac ;parsnips; carrots ; sweet corn ;cauliflower ;cabbage ; broccoli ; beetroot; flowers and a beautiful rambling Rose next to the shed.

The last of the spring onions came out yesterday, variety; Lisbon- wonderful smell and delicate flavour. One to grow again. The purple sprouting broccoli never actually stopped sprouting but the shoots became too woody to eat and the plants finally succumbed to a white powdery mildew which spread to from plant to plant due to planting too close.

This seasons radish are the old fashioned long variety - like Beatrice potter drew in her books- so far they are bigger than an average carrot, flavour a little too hot, but all eaten up since full of antioxidants and home grown.

Dutch iris bulbs coming up -reluctantly - there is more to planting bulbs than digging a hole in ground set like concrete from the dry weather.

Strawberries are snugly nestled in nests of straw and awaiting some rain to fill out.

Problems

The 3 - 4 weeks of wind and lack of rain is taking its toll on the young plants and fruit bushes, especially the sweet corn became an anaemic yellow and lay down in defeat. Consequently had to put a wind break around them and with that cosseting they have greened up a little.

The two free fruit tees from the council have not sprouted, however, the cheapo one from Aldi is flourishing.

There are now over 50 plot holders on the site and almost all have got stuck in, planting, rotavating (pros and cons to this one) erecting sheds, fences and laying paths.

Wild life

Swallows and bats swooping . Some bunnies hopping around and appearing inside fenced plots? Pigeons love baby cauliflowers - back to netting!

Drama on site: The Hitchcock film The Birds was reenacted when a plot holder was chased into his shed by an irate swallow - really.

Off to do a rain dance!

Spring Sprouting

This purple sprouting broccoli has survived all winter to produce prettily tipped plants. Delicate in flavour and super tender (freebie plants from an allotment neighbour, too)

First early potatoes (rocket) going in.

View in early March

The plot has wakened up since this picture. The transferred apple tree is going green as are the gooseberry bushes.

Planted outside:

Dutch Iris bulbs

Asparagus (connover's colossal)

Artichokes x2 (cardan culus)

Parsnips seeds (palace F1)

Carrot seeds (purple haze, autumn king)

Broad bean(bunyards exhibition)

Rhubarb (champagne + victoria)

Peas (hurst green shaft)

shallots

Onion seeds (blue coated from a commercial grower)

Seeds indoors

Nasturtium (tom thumb mixed)

Sweet corn (Sweet Bounty)

Courgette (astria, strigato d'Italia, gold rush)

Squash (spaghetti)

The spinach has come to life again (those plants that were not run over by the drainage machine) proving itself to be perpetual in variety.

Kale is plodding on.

The spring cabbages have perked up also. We have enjoyed them stuffed with pork mince, leeks and caraway seeds and baked in the oven; a definite Eastern European taste to this recipe.

Still practising digging and hoeing on the plot, just as Jethro Tull advised in the 18th century; so putting air into the soil to help the aerobic bacteria work their magic

And of course, adding manure ++.

Lifted the strawberry plants, and from last year's eight plants found I had 30+. Dug in some organic chicken manure pellets and re-planted them more uniformly and spread out. Mouth watering already at the thought of the early strawberries I hope to encourage on the plants under the fleece.

Rhubarb is thin and weedy - possibly because it was split and transferred last year. Will try not to pick any this year to get healthy plants next year - but doubt I shall resist.

Saw a bumble bee which has to be good for pollination. No rabbit related troubles so far but did have a visit from a butterfly so considering to netting -again.

Next phase of new allotments in full swing with over 50 plots marked out on the site - yet to be officially given out, but fences and muck spreading abounds. This field may well become the busiest place in the village!

Seedlings to cosset!

New Year

Wild World

Some sights from the allotments in December.

January passed muddily on the plot but we still have some crops growing: Carrots I am reliably informed will sprout new green tops now the weather has warmed up - they have survived -15 C so we will see; kale soldiers on and we may even eat some; sprouts and leeks - though something has snaffled their green tops.
The spring onions, red onions, reg onions and garlics are 2-3 inches tall.

Spring flowering bulbs are sprouting but not identifiable yet but expect some crocus and daffs .


At the last Allotment society meeting everyone was chatting about what they had sown. Here is my list sown indoors:




Cauliflowers - all year year round
Leeks - Autumn mammoth 2, snowstar
Lettuce - cos- viala, winter green
Broad beans - dwarf the sutton


Seed potatoes (rocket ) chitting nicely on window sill of unheated room.

Planted outdoors:
Fruit trees: Apple and plum
Bushes: Raspberry - red - tulmen x3 plus 10 of unknown variety.
Raspberry - golden- all gold
Gooseberry - hinomaki x 2
Blackberry -thomles evergreen x2

In two years we should be some fruit to pick - the long wait takes some getting used to, but the anticipation is as exciting as Christmas eve to a child!

Summer flowering bulbs: gladioli,acidanthera,liatris spicotta, oxalis deppei/ called an elegant garden value pack.



Constructed (husband, son and me - a little) a fence of chicken wire around plot to keep out the infamous rabbits. We even buried the chicken wire to prevent them burrowing underneath. So we have high hopes that our stronghold will keep the rabbits at bay. Another plus: should be able to grow peas and beans up the fence in the summer as I noticed another allotment holder did last year.

Mustn't forget to water the seedlings!

Grow Your Own, by the Allotment Rookie: Winter Wonderland Snow Flakes on the Apple Tree ...

Grow Your Own, by the Allotment Rookie: Winter Wonderland
Snow Flakes on the Apple Tree ...: "Winter Wonderland Snow Flakes on the Apple Tree The allotment glistens in the artic conditonds - a gardener's Narnia Imagine our Delig..."

Winter Wonderland

Snow Flakes on the Apple Tree

The allotment glistens in the artic conditonds - a gardener's Narnia

Imagine our Delight.
A Secret Santa had been to the allotments and delivered community manure!

Just before the snow fell we spread manure over the frosted land which had been roughly dug over into large sods. This should allow the frost (and snow) to break it down over winter improving the structure of the silty loam; and maybe help with drainage.

Heavy frost and snow, temperatures in double digits below freezing have taken their toll. What are left of the veg are deep frozen (carrots and leeks) but we should manage to have sprouts for Christmas dinner. Only hope some of our guests will eat them. The Christmas potatoes did not grow - just a few leaves came up, then they shrivelled (either blight or waterlogged). Kale, the hardy stuff, is still hanging in there.

Update on Drainage:

There has been much discussion and many predictions, but finally it arrived: a ten foot wide vehicle on caterpillar tracks. It trailed noisily up and down the site digging and laying drains. The soil has all been neatly put back on top - of course they haven't replanted the veggies.

Harvested (before the snow)
Carrots

Cauliflowers

Leeks

Waiting in the gargage to be planted after the snow:

Rasberry canes

Apple tree

Peach tree

Gooseberry bush

All are to be planted from November to end of March.

Wild Life this month:

One large buzzard

Two white Egrets (look like a small white heron)

Flock of field fairs

Red Shanks

Robins

Rabbits

Allotment society Christmas get together was a Jacobs Join, i.e. everyone brings some food to share. A good night with delicious food, a talented singer and sociable company. I have to report a noticed some allotment holders covertly passing a giant seeds catalogue between them. It's a competitive world even down the allotment!

Looking forward to planning what crops to grow in 2011 in the New Year and considering something exotic - artichokes perhaps.

The Calm Before the Storm

Canoodling Carrots!

What more bucolic scene could one behold?

This rural idyll was not to last though. 80mph winds from the Irish Sea raged across the allotment site last week and upturned 3 sheds (ours was one of them) and ripped the roofs off many others. It was like something out of the Wizard of Oz. Our shed had flown 15 feet and landed on its side across the main path - 2 more feet and it would have been in the ditch!

Some wonderful fellow allotmenteers helped us put it back in place. The number of people that told us it would happen, only we didn't quite believe it.You live and learn. Now have four 5ft posts drilled into the ground at each corner. Hubby is still recovering from the shock and his injured back from lifting it. All part of the adventure I suppose.

Harvesting:

Spinach - wonderful in stir frys, makes it taste authentically Chinese
Broccoli
Leeks - need a decent leek soup recipe
Kale
Sprouts doing well - looks like we may have to some!
Waiting for the one good cauli to get big enough before frosts or insects get it

Jobs done:
Chopped down pea and bean plants and dug in their roots as they apparently fix nitrogen in the soil and therefore stuff should grow well on their patch next year.
Finally gave in and put down some slug pellets - organic ones that don't affect birds (end of season bargain from Wilkinsons at 75% off)

First sighting.
After the storm it was very clear and Blackpool Tower was visible across the estuary for the first time.

Mystery on the Allotments
A kind allotment holder offered me some raspberry canes, which I accepted gratefully and waited for them to appear (she said she would leave them next to my shed). They never arrived: she had put them on the wrong plot and the other person had planted them, as you would.

Plans
Still hoping to plant some raspberry canes and currant bushes but cannot order any yet because the drainage system is nigh. Two trenches 3 yards wide are to go through the plot - will have to move some onions and just hope it doesn't look anymore like a World War I battle has been fought down there than it does now (presently mud ++).

How much leaf mould will one bin liner of leaves produce? I wonder for the first time in my life.