So, what’s in the tunnel?

It’s surprising how big it is in there, but fortunately I was prepared and grew a few (!) plants in advance. Because it’s next to the old tree and there are ‘issues’ with roots at the top end, I’ve decided to mainly grow things in pots for now. And because I’m not sure whereabouts in the tunnel I want to grow them, I’m supporting them with canes. I know, I know, it’s asking for trouble but I have got plastic bottles or pots on them.

So after potting a dozen French marigolds (from the local garden centre) to attract pollinators and deter nasty things like aphids, the following are currently in the tunnel:

Tomatoes
Gigante Liscio x 2
Costolutu Fiorentino x 11
Roma x 7
Garden Pearl x 4
Japanese Black Truffle x 4
Chocolate Cherry x 6

Some of these are bigger than others though and probably only half of them are in there final (cannabis!) plant pots – for anyone worried about the cannabis connection, see the previous post!

Chillies
Ring of Fire x 5
Hungarian Hot Wax x 5
Jalapeno x 4
Padron x 3
Cayenne x 3
Unknown/unlabelled x 7

I bought a couple of different ones from the school garden open day, only I can’t remember what they were and the others are a result of my poor labelling! Could have sworn I’d sown some Joe’s Long earlier in the year though…

Cucumber/Gherkins
Miniature White x 3
Bimbostar x 1
Paris Pickling x 1
Unknown x 1 (but it’s going to be one of the above!)

and I planted a couple of pots of basil. Now when I was there this morning the camera gave up on me, but fortunately I went back later in the evening accompanied by my assistant keen to see the new polytunnel:

But it’s difficult to capture everything with the lens I have in there, but despite having 70+ plants in there, it’s in no way crowded.

Other jobs today…
I’m fighting a battle with squirrels or mice to get the few strawberries that have been ready so far, but I managed to get a couple first thing this morning.

Watered the polytunnel.

Made a frame for the cucumbers/gherkins to grow up.

Planted on some tomatoes and chillies, and the marigolds.

Planted some peas (Telephone). Sadly my dwarf ones have been eaten after I proudly boasted earlier this year that mine always grew without netting them, and then the tall ones I planted either didn’t germinate or got eaten.

Planted some radish, lettuce and two types of salad leaves, undercropping the beans and peas.

Then picked up various squash plants to plant out up at plot no. 2, stopping off home for some lunch of home grown salad first.

Plot no. 2  grows weeds exceptionally well, and after the rain at the weekend I was in danger of losing the potatoes yet alone the onions!

This was taken a couple of nights ago, just as the light was fading hence the flash, but it’s difficult to see the spuds in there! Fortunately I’m pleased to say it’s much better now and you can see both the potatoes and onions. And the potatoes have been earthed up!

I then planted out some courgettes (All Green Bush), pumpkins (Crown Prince) and a squash (Gem Store). Then my time was up and it was time to get the kids from school, but I managed to find another four strawberries to take with me.

Around the plots
At this time of year there is a fair amount going on:

Alium bed, the giant ones going to seed, the others just coming out now

Broad beans, with potatoes behind, comfrey in flower and covered in bees and the entrance to the plot is somewhere behind there!

Blueberries, and if I don’t get some netting over them they’ll be going the same way as the red currants – i.e the birds are going to eat them.

Foxglove, suffering from a lack of water and only about two foot high.

Gooseberry bush – it does so well, I just wish I liked them!

Lettuce intercropped between the french beans to the left and (hopefully) peas to the right

Self-seeded phacelia

‘Cottage Garden’ up on plot no 2, with a cosmos in the foreground, with cornflowers behind and some carnations fighting for some space with them, dahlias (going out of shot to the left) and foxgloves and gladioli behind. This is how I always hope the garden at home will look, but it never does!

"Can we build a den?"

Popped out with my youngest this morning to buy some straw to put under the strawberries from the local allotment shop. It seemed silly not to then put it around the strawberries so we stopped off at the allotment too ;>)

Hoed round the strawberries, gave them some water and then put the straw round them together. Did a bit of weeding then ready to go home. “No I don’t want too.” Well that told me! I finished off the tidying up I started the other day and the plot is looking tidier than it ever has (although still not up to Craig’s standard!). Perhaps there is some benefit to being unemployed after all!

An hour or so later, finally showing signs of possibly going home when she comes up to me, puts her arms around me and asks “can we build a den?”. Who could say no to that sort of request? Not me.

Fortunately I still have plenty of sticks around from when I originally cut the privet down several years ago and plenty of string. The framework was in place, but by this time I was hungry so I persuade her to come home for lunch with the promise we could finish it after lunch, and maybe bring her Mum and brother to help. And the camera.

Mrs D doesn’t do digging, so bought her knitting whilst me and the kids finished off the den. There were some disagreements over style, flooring and who should be doing what but eventually this is what we ended up with:

I left the kids to argue about who could sit where and anything else they could think off, and dug in my caliente mustard. And at that price it had better work! I potted on some of my Costolutu Fiorentino (as grown my Monty on Gardener’s World! – mine aren’t that far advanced and will be grown in pots though) and a few cucumbers and gherkins (Paris Pickling, Miniature White and Bimbostar).

By which stage Mrs D declared she’d had enough of sitting in full sun so it was time to go home! Oh and can I make a pergola for some shade?! That’ll teach me for taking her down to the plot – LOL!

Now that’s all over…

I always find Christmas and New Year pass too quickly for my liking. There not usually a lot to look forward to in January either. OK there’s the seed orders and some planting, if I can find room in the house for them, but it seems ages before it starts getting light again and I can get out and do some real work. Granted there a fair bit of tidying up I could be doing but that’s not easy in the frosty weather and virtually impossible in the snow.

There was enough of a thaw the other day to allow me to get my blackcurrant (Titania) planted. Fortunately the spot I’d prepared was sheltered by the bath so wasn’t frozen. After planting I pruned it as per the instructions, and pushed these prunings into the ground in the hope some of them take as there’s room for at least one more blackcurrant bush in that space.

Working my way down the plot, I finally finished tidying the strawberry bed and planted out half a dozen runners, chopped down the Jerusalem Artichokes, the rose bush (the only problem I have with it is that it’s in the wrong place) and some brambles.

Better late than never!

Finally I arrived at the brassica bed to sort out the netting that had collapsed under the weight of snow.

Typical rustic style on the plot

Sadly this proved easier said than done. The ground was still frozen down at this end of the plot so it proved impossible to get the sticks back into the ground to hold the netting up. Note to self do a better job with the netting before the snow this year.

And now to the seed catalogues…

It’s an allotment blog, what were you expecting?

You just can’t beat picture of soil!

This is where my strawberries used to be and has now been properly dug over with some leaves, the remains of a bag of manure and the remains of a bag of rockdust added to the soil – as seen above! Now just have to decide what to put here…?

Confused Strawberries

Over at the freshly weeded (honestly!) new strawberry bed – OK I still need to sort the runners out – they’re happily flowering away??? So I moved a bit closer to get a photo and was a little surprised to see strawberries!

 

Can’t see them ripening up now though – LOL.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen…

The apple challenge continues – the challenge being to use as many apples as possible in as many different meals as possible. Apples crumble was a big hit – although it would have been better with toffee as well (according to my son’s friend) – but sausage and bean casserole (with sneaky bits of apple), not so good. But that was more to do with the sausages to be honest. Slabs of apples sauce are in the freezer – it doesn’t take much cooking for them to turn to sauce – but the biggest hit to date (with the kids) has been apple fruit leather.

After a quick cook on the hob, followed by a quick blitz with the blender, it only needed the 20 hours or so in the oven…

I’m thinking maybe the mixture was a bit too liquid when it went in the oven? But it turned out OK in the end and the kids both took some into school to show their respective classes and give some away. The remaining ‘sheet’ rolls up quite nicely and should store in the fridge for a while yet – certainly longer than it’s going to last!

I’m dragging the rest of the family off to the RHS Harlow Carr ‘Taste of Autumn‘ event this weekend – waiting to see which day looks best on the weather forecast first – to reveal all on the apple tree, with luck. Speaking of which, picked another 50 or so the other day, still plenty left… Currently storing the good ones on top of the wardrobe and in the outhouse, may need to find more room soon!

Farewell to the strawberries

After 4 years, I decided I’d pushed my luck far enough and dug up my original strawberry plants.

Fortunately I’d used some of last years runners to establish a new bed earlier this year, so it wasn’t such a painful task. The only problem is I had two rows of two different varieties of strawberries where I knew which was which. Unfortunately I wasn’t so careful when I planted up my runners…

Truth be told I got a little distracted with the usual allotment problem: chatting. As a result it wasn’t the comprehensive digging job I’d hoped it was going to be, but in my defence the soil was a bit too heavy to be digging anyway.

There’s not an awful lot left on the plot now, due to poor planning and planting on my plant but the Brussels are doing well – better than I’ve ever grown them before. Unfortantely something appears to be eating them though. It can’t be pigeons or pheasants this time though due to enough netting over them to cover half the site and it’s well pegged down. The only things I can think is mice?

Catch up

The last month has seen a lot of strawberries, tidying and weeding, followed by a holiday and a couple of plots looking like I hadn’t done any weeding… I know it’s goes with the territory but apparently the allotment officer came round to inspect plot no 2 this week again when it was look a complete mess – aaarrrrggghhhh! The stone wall falling down at the front of the plot isn’t really helping matters. Guess I’ll be getting another letter soon…

Anyway, back to the review. The last month has seen a couple of firsts. Despite having the most unhealthy look plants I managed to grow one Okra. I hate Okra, but Mrs D likes it and confirmed it was tasty. Not sure it was worth all the effort to be honest and so far one Okra off for four plants (not to mention those that died in the cold weather earlier this year) isn’t a great return, but there are a couple more growing.

Secondly, my first tomato grown at home. I know it’s pretty sad, but I always fail to grow them for various (neglectful) reasons, but the one taking over the attic room is doing very well and has begun to fruit. Weather we get enough to make sauce from them is another matter altogether… Must get the greenhouse put up!

Now, the strawberries – gratuitous gloating follows! We’ve had a lot, even to the point of giving some away. They were great strawberries this year and to celebrate we made a lot of stuff with them:

Strawberry cheesecake

Strawberry flan

Strawberry jelly

Jam in the making

Jam, which did set, bit runny but the way we get through it, it’s not going to be a problem!

We’ve had quite a few peas – all of which have been eaten straight from the pod, largely by the kids – and broad beans, although I never seem to get as many as I’d like – we like broad beans a lot! We’re eating Charlottes for several meals a week, and very tasty they are too. Kids haven’t started complaining we’re having them too often either, so I take that as a sign they like them as well! The French beans (Major) are just starting off – they’ve been having to compete with the weeds so haven’t been doing so well and some of my dwarf beans appear to have developed a climbing habit… Must have got mixed up with the labelling somewhere!

The summer raspberries are doing OK, most of the gooseberries seem to have been eaten (by what?) as did the red currants (must put netting on better next year).

Then we went on holiday for a week and this happened:

We ended up with 16 courgettes/marrows, all the lettuce ready at the same time (of course), some of the main crop peas coming through, good sized beetroot and some reasonable (it’s all relative!) sized carrots. We’re currently working our way through many different courgette recipes However, I’m with Nigel Slater – we should call them Zucchini it just sounds much more exciting!

Or maybe this?

Strawberry cheesecake, tonights pudding. And possibly supper too!

Edit: I should add, I was going to do some fancy design with the strawberries, until my youngest turned up. The control freak under my was reluctant to let go, but after a stern look from her mother I relented. She did a good job as well, just a shame she doesn’t like strawberries.

101 Things to do with strawberries

Can you have a glut of strawberries? Well possibly…

picked these this lunchtime, then another punnet tonight. Looks like I could be making more of this:

or more ice cream. Or possibly marinated with a bit of balsamic vinegar and sugar. Or into a strawberry smoothie. Or more likely just on their own. Or maybe all of them. To be honest it’s a nice problem to have!

Cracked it!

The ghost of last year’s strawberry jam has been excised!

After trying a much simpler recipe this year (none of that fancy, over complicated rubbish) and continual stirring to ensure no sticking, the strawberry jam has set, and the HFW preserving book is off to the charity shop. I’m all the more chuffed as this year it was with my own strawberries, so the pressure was on not to ruin them.

Five jars in total from 1kg of strawberries. The fruit has risen to the top of the jars which is all the wife’s fault as she worried me by telling me it would continue to cook in the pan so it could burn still. As a result I put it in the jars far too soon, but to be honest I don’t care and I don’t anticipate the jars lasting too long anyway!

First jam of the year too, bit slow getting going with it this year, but I always think of my grandmother when I make jam. I was given the preserving pan after she died – this one used to be my Mum’s and she kept her Mum’s, so it was a kinda inheritance. I like to think my grandmother would be pleased with the result, maybe not up to her standard yet, but I’m sure she’d be smiling at the thought of me making jam though!

Strawberries!

Despite the plants being 4 years old, it’s fair to say this years’ harvest is the best ever. The chicken wire defence is doing its job very well this year and picked over half a kilo of strawberries this morning. And very nice they were too!

In a rare departure from the plots I thought it was worth showing a few pictures from the garden. Firstly after a slow start (cold winter followed by late pruning) the roses are just beginning to come out:

First up is Evelyn, tucked away in the top corner of the garden where no-one can get to it – much to Mrs D’s disgust.

Secondly, Gertrude Jekyll. It’s a great rose for the garden it’s absolutely prolific, survives my harsh (and late) pruning and loves being next to the compost bin.

Also in the garden are this years tomatoes after the loss of the greenhouse on the plot. This one (Aurora) has been outside for some time and is thriving in the sun at the moment. If these actually get to the stage where they ripen it will be my most successful year with tomatoes!

Finally, the window box is a complete sun trap and after many attempts to grown things in there and failing, this year we’re trying strawberries. They’re plants from the runners from plot no. 1 and didn’t go in ’til quite late. Really I should have taken the flowers off this year to allow the plants to establish a bit more, but where’s the fun in that!

You can never have too many strawberries!