Christmas dinner went in today!

Planted:


Pumpkins (weeks too late so won't be ready for Halloween but may be able to make pumpkin pie by Thanks Giving [last Thursday in November])

Potatoes (Varieties:Kestrel; Beauty of Butte; Carlingford)

Gooseberry Bush (Variety: Blush)


Found seed potatoes advertised as 'Christmas cropping' so expecting to have have enough for Christmas dinner. Followed instructions in the book: 'The Vegetable Garden displayed' (what a lovely name). Dug a trench 9" deep, filled base with rotted manure, covered this with soil and placed the little babies on top, 12"inches apart; covered the lot with soil and left to cook for4months.

Allotment lingo: Volunteers

Volunteers are growing on our plot: these are spuds that sprout even though you haven't planted them. It's not a clandestine planter but left overs from a previous crop. Here's the hot debate: some say they should be removed and destroyed like clinical waste: to prevent potato blight infecting the site; others say they are a freebie and to leave them for this season. I am not sure but at least I know potatoes grow easily on the site.


Cropped:

3 courgettes
A million radish (daily radish consumption has escalated)
3 lettuce

We have grown more slugs than veg so far and are not in profit re: harvest as opposed to outlay.But it has been fun and some plots are truly bountiful and a credit to the holders who have only had their sites for 2-3 months and currently bound home all grins and their arms dragging on the ground by the weight of heavy bags of produce. Still enthusiasm is infectious!

Pictures next time.

Week four: The Shed has arrived!

Tension is mounting on the site - it is only four weeks until the village show and the original bunch of allotment holders vowed to put produce in the competition.

At last, a Crop!

Our radish(radishes?) are the best I have ever eaten; what a surprise. We have a bumper crop and have harvested at least twenty and even given some away. The variety is sparkler: a purplish red colour to about halfway down; very pretty.

One small courgette is hanging on for dear life on one of the seven courgette plants; will it survive: the insects, rabbits, and gales?

Planted:

Blueberry bush x 2 from Aldi (leaves have gone brownish, possibly due to wind)

Tabberry cane x1 from Aldi

Spring onions

Carrots (treated for carrot fly etc; bright blue coating). Given by neighbour and not sure these are truly organic

Alpine Strawberry x2 (variety=Alexandra)

And to make the plot look nice and encourage bees, a small hedge of:

Lavender x3 (variety=Munstead)

Lavender x5 (variety=Augutifolia Hidcote)

News

'It's my first ever Wendy House,' said an allotment holder as she skipped into her new shed. We were all the same; irascible at the sight of an 8ft by 6ft wooden box. Styles were compared, colours discussed, padlocks fitted. We opted for a Hipex, side door and window. Our teenage daughters (for a fee) painted it chestnut brown; they did a wonderful job and much praised by fellow holders. Looking forward to having my tea making facilities down at the plot soon.

We had been coveting a magical implement belonging to another holder: a hoe of sorts, with little toothed wheels, called a soil miller by Wolf, a German company. Great for weeding and leaves the soil deliciously crumbly. Thoroughly recommend it.

Lots of swallows swooping and darting over the site which I am told means rain; since the hose pipe ban we have had rain daily.

Allotment Society meeting: much concern re: non-regulation sheds and the possibility of it becoming a shanty town.

Steeping manure into liquid fertiliser as I type.

Week Three: Manure Madness

Much encouraged - stuff actually growing!

Planted
Outside:
Cabbage plants

Inside mini plastic green house:
Rhubarb seeds from Italy (rubarbaro)
Pumpkin seeds by daughter
Rosemary cuttings

Peas and dwarf bean spouting well. Strawberries have given up fruiting, now throwing out runners. Pumpkins sprouted - should be ready for christmas.

The poop hunt:
After much pestering of horsey types I secured a supply of manure. I arrived at the horse owners place expecting the manure to be bagged or at least in a pile - how naive. We spent the afternoon searching the fields for the nuggets of brown gold - a treasure hunt of a different kind. We had a good laugh and enjoyed the thrill of the hunt for; teenage daughter was very embarrassed and stayed in the car. Now have bags of it.

I had read up about organic fertilisers and so made a 'tea' by steeping some manure in a bucket of water. I watered the plants with the home brew fertiliser to good effect. I buried small plant pots beside each plant as advised by friend and now the courgettes have leaves.

News

It is rumoured that the rabbits are so clever that they are sitting on the nets to squash them down then nibbling at the plants that stick through.

P.S. The shed are coming!