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.