The sowing has started

Just a very brief update on the allotment scenario:

It's still too damn wet to do anything there properly so I've gone through my seed stash and decided what to grow this year, what I'm abivalent about and what not to bother with.  The 'not bothering with' list is the shortest  -

• swede (just won't grow in the soil properly), 
• tomatoes (blight every time so not bothering again), 
• sweetpeas (too many greenfly), 
• broad beans (ditto), 
• Swiss chard (grows well but pretty underwhelming flavour - pretty colours though, but no), 
• sweet peppers (until I get a proper glass greenhouse, these just don't work for me).

Ambivalent -

• Dwarf Yellow Beans (prolific but got dry and leathery very quickly), 
• Mange Tout/Sugar Snap Peas (I grew both intermingled but only liked the flavour of one - seemed a lot of effort for not too much reward), 
• Red Cabbage (rubbish yield this past season, not much better season before), 
• Garlic (grows well but we just don't use that much in cooking), 
• Onions (don't grow very large and cheap as chips in the shops - I know that's not the point but sometimes it's best to be realistic), 
• Broccoli (big plants for not many spears, plus mine flowered extremely quickly).  

Chances are I'll probably still grow all these anyway, as I have the space and the seeds so might as well....

Checking the packets to see what can be sown now, I've taken the risk and sown half a dozen little pots each with Leeks (Musselburgh), Spring Onions (White Lisbon), and three kinds of lettuce - red Lollo Rossa, green Salad Bowl and green Little Gem.  You're not supposed to sow any of these until March but I thought I'd experiment with them a bit early and pop them into one of the plastic-houses at the end of the garden.  No pictures I'm afraid as they're just too dull.  Some dark brown earth in paler brown pots stuck on a gently rusing shelf in a dilapidated plastic-house whose cover has gone brittle in the UV light over winter and split, now held together with brown plastic parcel tape. Not very Cath Kidston, I know, but at least it works!!!

And so another year begins....

It's probably time to start paying attention to the allotment again.  The sun was out yesterday but I was selling my jewellery at a craft fair in Alresford, Hampshire, so couldn't get there.  But this morning wasn't too bad - the sun was going in and out and it wasn't icy cold, so I thought I'd ease myself into the 2010 season with a little light digging and seeing what's what.

First thing I noticed was that the plot next door to mine has been taken over.  Another older chap on the site, Henry, had been sort of semi-using it (he also has two full plots opposite) and was basically using the lower half of this particular plot as somewhere to park his car, and the top part as a sort of overflow potato site.

From the top edge of the potato beds to the boundary with the house behind was a massive tangle of brambles from which we picked pounds and pounds of blackberries over the last couple of years - Henry's wife made blackberry crumbles and pies and I made jars of blackberry and apple jam and, perhaps more practically, bottles of blackberry vodka.  These brambles have now been totally cleared away and new beds dug in their place.  While I can appreciate that the new tenant will want to have as much growing space as possible and what they've done is very sensible, it is a bit of a sadness to me as I will now have to go farther afield to find my blackberries - although I suppose I could always grow some large, thornless variety on my own plot *ponders*...

The 'new' plot next door. From where the white square is at the top of the picture to the hedge behind and right across the width used to be all brambles.

The new people weren't there but it looked freshly dug so I'm assuming they came in yesterday when the weather was nice.

My plot looks as if it's come through this past extreme winter remarkably well - the fruit trees are still standing, as is the shed, and the black weed suppressing fabric is still more or less in place.  I'd gone there today with the intention of just having a bit of a look round and perhaps picking some brussels sprouts if there were any to be had.  There were.  And what's more surprising, I harvested quite a lot of other stuff:

Leeks - there are about 10 more still in the ground, thinner than these guys.  I didn't grow very many last season as they weren't too successful the season before, but these don't look too bad, do they?

Ridiculous monster parsnip.  I take a size 6/39 (European) size shoe [I change into wellies on site, in case you were thinking I was wandering around barefoot - I'm not that much of an Earth Mother!].  Remains to be seen if this is at all edible.

There were about 4 Desiree potato plants that I hadn't managed to get round to digging up before the snows arrived, so they had to take their chances.  I dug them up today and was astonished to find some spuds that weren't rotten from the ice.  There was, though, about an equal amount that were and they got lobbed into the black dalek compost bin.  But, hey, usable spuds!

The Savoy Cabbages that I planted seem to be a bit like a Curate's Egg - good in parts.  This is the largest of the dozen or so I have and this is after I've removed the rubbish outer leaves.  You'll see the frost has blackened the tips of the leaves but I'm hoping that the heart will be okay once I get in there.  I love eating steamed and buttered Savoy Cabbage with bacon and onion herby suet roll - yum!

I was completely astonished to find some small but hopefully usable carrots.  They'll have to be steamed or roasted whole because they're too small to do anything else with.

I also got a coupla handfuls of pretty small brussel sprouts (the whole reason I went to the site in the first place today!) and picked some curly kale but forgot to take pictures of those.

I now have all these veggies sitting in my kitchen waiting for me to wash them and decide their fate.  I am amazed that there was so much to be harvested - my flabber has rarely been quite so gasted....

Before I left the site this afternoon I thought perhaps I ought to do a bit of digging and make it look like I've been working the plot a bit - the obvious work that's been done on almost all the other plots on site has rather put mine to shame, so perhaps it's time to start this season in earnest.

The wee spot of digging over I did around what's left of the brassicas.  I don't feel quite so bad about the state of the plot now!

My next task, I think, apart from the never-ended digging and weeding, is deciding on the layout and plan for this coming season, and starting to get my head round what I can and can't start sowing. 

And so (sow)  it begins.

Belated Happy New Year!

I know, I know - how slack am I?  Well, there was a perfectly reasonably excuse and one I suspect will have affected all the allotmenteers and gardeners out there - the weather!  It seemed like there was snow and ice for almost the whole of December and it's only now, 17 January, following a rise in temperature and a night of torrential rain, that the snow has finally (more or less) disappeared.  And as the weatherpeople are apparently predicting yet another drop in temperature and potentially more snow towards the end of this week, I thought I'd better get down to the plopment to see what has survived the snow.

I was most concerned about the new fruit trees that I planted towards the end of last year - they're only babies and I was a bit worried that the weight of the snow might have brought them down, as it did to my Forsythia at home, but no, they were absolutely fine and, what's more, showing actual signs of growth.  These are the little buds that are forming on the cherry tree:

So fingers crossed that I'll actually get some fruit this year.

The view from one end of the plopment (where the fruit trees are) looking down is this rather unedifying spectacle:

 

But then, allotments are never at their prettiest during the winter.  The black fabric is covering areas that I'll hope to plant up next season.  The large green weedy square in the centre of the picture is where all my soft fruit is currently - there are about 50 strawberry plants hidden away in there as well as a couple of rows of raspberry canes.  Oh well, I'm not about to start weeding it all now, it can wait until springtime.

The view from beside the shed looking down sort of towards the fruit trees is equally unaesthetically pleasing:

But - look - lovely blue sky and sunshine!  It was also pretty warm, a balmy 6 or 7 degrees!

At this time of year about the only thing that the allotment produces is cabbages and brussels sprouts.  My Husband picked most of the sprouts for Christmas lunch (and very lovely they were too) but I have a few Savoy Cabbages which are looking quite splendid.  This one, in particular, is a good healthy size (I've placed a cane top next to it for scale):

Everyone else's plots seems to be just fine - there's no obvious signs of any damage except that a large polytunnel on a plot diagonally opposite mine has gone (or is in the process of going).  I don't know whether the weight of snow has pulled it down or whether the guy who works it has given up (he was suffering from ill health so wouldn't be surprised if he decided to take it easy) and the site is now being cleared.  Time will tell.

So, to finish, here's some arty shots of dead plants and bubbles frozen in ice in the water troughs:

 

Last, but by no means least, my holographic wellies:

Happy Belated Christmas!

Just a quick posting to wish everyone a belated Happy Christmas - I managed to pick up a tummy bug on (probably) 22 December which is still rumbling (literally!) around now. Frankly it pretty much ruined Christmas Day for me and meant that I didn't manage to get down to the allotment to pick the veg. Luckily, The Husband volunteered and came back with a carrier bag full of brussel sprouts. I managed a couple of them on the day itself (along with a single potato, one slice of turkey, a spoonful of mashed swede & carrot and a couple of slices of parsnip!) and they were, as last year, fantastic. The variety is F1 Brigitte and the buttons are medium sized and firm. You only need to steam them for 4-5 minutes and they come out sweet and nutty. So that's my tip to you all for 2010 - grow F1 Brigitte sprouts and you'll be happily trouser-trumpeting all Boxing Day!!

Right, that's it from me until the New Year when it'll be time to start planning where to grow stuff.

I now have an orchard!

I know I've been dreadfully slack with the allotment blog lately but, well, October was full of lousy weather so I barely went and then I was out of the country for almost all of November. The weather turned particularly shiteous while I was away - I was reading about all the storms with gale force winds and torrential rain that were battering the country while I was enjoying extremely pleasant and balmy sunshine (albeit from Eastern Europe, which was a surprise), so I asked The Husband to pop down and just check that the shed was still in one piece. He took a short video to post to me so I could see for myself and, yes, everything was there but the black fabric that I put down to suppress weeds over the forthcoming winter had been blown around. He kindly straightened it back for me.

A few months ago I ordered some fruit trees from Blackmoor Nurseries who are fairly close to me, and these arrived a couple of days ago, with strict written instructions that they had to be planted WITHIN 48 HOURS OF DELIVERY!!!!!!! or, I dunno, hellfire and damnation would rain down upon my head or summink. But the rain wouldn't let me, so they had to stay outside in their cardboard box until I got the chance.


Anyway, I woke up this morning and - be still my beating heart - it wasn't actually raining! There was blue sky! There was sunshine!

I inveigled The Husband into carrying the trees while I took the stakes (which, although heavy, made me feel rather pleasingly like Buffy the Vampire Slayer), with the proviso that he wouldn't be expected to actually stay and help at all.

Needless to say, the wind and/or the foxes had been having a rare old time with the black fabric again and it was all over the place but, luckily, still actually on my plot:

As I'd not set foot on the plopment for the best part of two months, I thought I'd best have a look round to see what's what. The brassica patch is the only thing that's still going strong at this time of year and here the Savoy Cabbages are a bit inconsistent in size with none of them very large, but I may get some usage. The red cabbages have been a disaster this year with not one any larger than a golf ball. The curly Kale is fairly happy in that they all currently look like Sideshow Bob (except they're obviously green, not red):


But, as last year, my brussels sprouts are looking utterly fabulous:

This the Brigitte F1 variety that I've now grown two years running. The buttons are hard, sweet and very tasty.

This year I've grown a variety of carrot called Resistafly and it's been very successful, barely any tunnels at all. I knew there were a few rows left in the ground that I'd planted as late as I could in the season so I knew that, if any had grown, they would be quite small but could be nice to roast whole, so I dug them up, and they were all perfect, not a mark on them although, as suspected, they were quite wee:


And it was time to discover just how mutant the parsnips had got this year. Answer - pretty damn mutant:


I've not yet peeled this but I suspect it will be too woody to be any use. Can't remember what variety this is, possibly Gladiator, but next year I'll have a go at Tender and True which is supposed to be one of the least woody varieties.

So after straightening out the fabric yet again, it was time to get on with the job in hand which was planting out the four new fruit trees. The sun had now gone in and the wind was picking up, so it was getting pretty chilly but I knew that if I didn't do it now, I didn't know when I'd be able to do it as the weather forecast is pretty dire for the next week or so.

I chose their locations at the end of the plot, just beyond the soft fruit section. This is the view from there looking down towards the shed. You'll note the plot now has that proper Winter fallow (i.e., weedy beyond belief) look about it:


I've already got a Maynard Cherry and an apricot in here so, to that, I've now added one each of Egremont Russet eating apple, Bountiful cooking apple, Victoria plum and Concorde Pear. The apples are on M27 rooting stock which means they shouldn't grow to more than 2 metres high, the plum is on Pixy rooting stock (which is also a small growing kind) and the pear is on Quince A rooting stock which was the smallest I could find but will still probably get to around 3 metres or so - I may have to keep that one especially pruned. I didn't have any Growmore left but I stuck in a good handful of Epsom Salts (for leaf growth) into the holes before planting them, so fingers crossed. I have to remove all the blossoms in mid-May next year to prevent fruiting so the trees can get a really good start and grow extra strong for 2011. It seems a long time to wait but the trees weren't especially cheap so I think it's best to do it properly.

This is what they looked like at the end:

I just hope they like it there!

Harvest Roundup

This year I have been weighing and recording every time I picked anything off the allotment with a view to doing a roundup together with a price list showing how much the same quantity would have cost me from a supermarket.

I've decided to post the results now because, although I still have some Desiree spuds, carrots, beetroot and all the brassicas still in the ground, I can't be arsed to keep writing it all down (plus I keep forgetting to do it), so it seems that now is as good a time as any.

I can't seem to work out how to add a table or spreadsheet to this - at least, not easily, I think I have to get involved with coding which is a huge pain, so I'll just have to do a list. There are some things I've grown but haven't bothered weighing, or I've not finished harvesting them yet, so they won't appear - things like most of the brassicas and the Desiree Maincrop potatoes. Other things, like Pattypan Squash and Crystal Lemon Cucumbers you can't buy in the shops so I couldn't get a comparable retail price for them. Also some things are sold on a price-per-item basis (i.e., organic cucumbers at £1 each) which doesn't work for me as I've just weighed them in bulk rather than as individual items. So I've mainly gone for the bog-standard veggies that you can get from a shop here.

I've taken today's prices from Sainsbury's Organic range where possible (as I grow as organically as I can) or, if there isn't an organic option, their 'Taste the Difference' range. And, remember, this is the total amount picked over several months:

Maris Peer Potatoes - 4.141kg x £0.86/kg = £3.56

Climbing French Beans - 11.56kg x £5.96/kg = £68.91 (!)

Courgettes - 6.66kg x £1.84/kg = £12.26

Strawberries - 2.77kg x £9.97/kg= £27.69

Blueberries - 114g x £9.95/kg= £1.13

Mange Tout - 646g x £7.50/kg = £4.84

Carrots - 1.016kg (so far) x £1.28/kg = £1.30 [still harvesting]

Kale - 329g (so far) x £4.95/kg = £1.62 [still harvesting]

Onions - 4.32kg (at least) x £1/kg = £4.32

Broccoli - 169g x £3.50/kg = £0.59

This all totals £132.48, a not insignificant sum. And this list doesn't include sweetcorn, dwarf yellow beans, pattypan squash, cucumbers, gherkins, garlic, savoy cabbage, red cabbage, brussel sprouts or Desiree potatoes, so I think I can confidently say that, if they were all included, I'd probably be looking at something nearer £200!

Some of the figures are laughably low - in the case of the blueberries, the plants had only been in the ground for a few months so this was their first season. I'm expecting them to do better next year. But broccoli was disappointing - I'm not sure I'll bother again next year. Last year I grew purple sprouting which was okay but nothing to write home about and not especially prolific, so this year I grew Calabrese, which is what is labelled as broccoli in the shops. Mine matured early, bolted and flowered all before I could get to it. But just compare it with the Cobra Climbing French Beans!

This has definitely been a worthwhile experiment and for those of you reading this who grow your own, I would recommend you have a go yourself next year and see how much it would have cost you to buy in the shops what you can grow yourself.

Pictures, as promised, again

So before the sad pictures of the allotment, I thought I'd show you the fruits of my labours:

Onions in a net, hopefully they'll last several months. I still have about another 100 drying in the shed at the allotment but they are really quite weeny, not much bigger than pickled onion size but, hey, they're better than nothing.



These are the jars of sweet pickled beetroot, sweet pickled dill pickles and jam.

Blackberry Vodka

I am, though, really looking forward to sampling some of these but, unfortunately, not for at least another year. Blackberry vodka is pathetically easy to make but you have to remember to shake the bottles once a week to ensure something-or-other (that the sugar's dissolved properly or summink...) and after three months you have to filter out the blackberries. Apparently they develop a woody taste if you leave them in whereas raspberries can be left in. Whatever. The worst part is that you then have to leave it for a further year to mature! What torture!

So, then, now let's head off to the allotment - I'll warn you, it's not a pretty sight. Everything's now gone over and is looking very shabby indeed.

Cucumber/Gherkin Wigwam

This is one of my three cucumber/gherkin wigwams. I am now totally cucumber/gherkinned out, we've eaten as much as we want and I've preserved all that I'm going to so these are just going to go into the compost bin. I've had absolutely no problem growing them outside so will continue to do so.

Crystal Lemon Cucumber

This year I tried growing Crystal Lemon cucumbers. They were difficult to germinate and I only managed to get about 3 plants after planting many more seeds. So far the three plants have only produced one round yellow cucumber (see above). It's now in my fridge waiting to be consumed. Whether I grow any next year will depend on what it tastes like, but I'll keep you posted on that.

Butternut Squash

These are my two sole Butternut Squashes. I bought two plants at Chiddingfold Festival earlier this year (because I couldn't germinate any of the seeds I bought) and they've grown reasonably well, put out quite a lot of flowers but only two of them developed any further. No matter, it was an experiment - two squashes is enough for us this time round.

Patty Pan Squash

The White Scalloped Summer Squash (a.k.a. Patty Pan Squash) have been really quite successful. We've had about half a dozen from the three plants that I grew from seed. They can grow as large as a dinner plate if you leave them, but this one is about 5 inches/13 cms across so we'll eat it quite soon, stuffed with fried bacon, onions and parmesan, served with baked beans - yummy! There are two more little ones still developing:

There are plenty more flowers still there so I think I'll leave the plants there to keep producing for as long as they want.

The courgettes have, of course, been prolific and we've had plenty of them of various sizes during the summer. There are a couple that I'm leaving to grow into marrows as I'm going to have a go at making Marrow Rum as it sounds quite interesting. Might be disgusting though, but let's experiment, shall we?!?

A very large courgette/small marrow

The Sweetcorn is now looking very sad indeed and I really should do a proper harvest. I didn't grow quite as many plants this year as last as last year I was getting 2 good-sized cobs per plant and we didn't eat them all. Of course, typically enough, this year I grew less but I'm only getting 1 decent cob per plant! Oh well, that's the mystery of Mother Nature....

Sad looking Sweetcorn plants

I'm still digging up Desiree maincrop potatoes. The ones I dug earlier were quite small and pretty badly hit by scab which looks nasty but doesn't affect the eating quality once you've peeled them. The ones I'm harvesting now aren't so badly scabbed and are really big, so I'm quite thrilled. I've still got half a row left in the ground, storing there until I'm ready to use them.

Desiree spuds - these came from just one plant

There are still carrots, beetroot, chard and parsnips in the ground, so there's plenty of stuff still about.

This year I also planted a nectar bar of flowers for the bees in front of the shed. There are lavender, sedum, foxgloves, geranium, asters and cosmos.



But down the side of the shed there grew a self-seeded Thistle plant which I decided to leave for the benefit of the bees: