Why does it always hail on me?

In a shocking development, the weather forecast on the BBC web site was correct. I suppose the fact it was snowing when I was about to leave the house should have been a sign, but as a arrived at the site it was beautifully sunny. So I set to work on weeding the fruit bed and pruning the raspberries. Turns out there are a lot more weeds in that bed than I thought, so after an hour or so I was only about half way through when it started to hail – just as it said it would.

After sheltering in the hedge for a while the sun came back out (whilst it was still hailing) and produced this rainbow. And when it did stop hailing everything was far too wet and sticky to do anything on the soil. I took my frustration out on the hedge (still of mammoth proportions) to attempt bring it down to a level that lets the light onto the plot in the afternoon and cut it down to a level I can manage on my own since my long absent neighbour has never done anything with it. I was cold and (very) wet after not very long and I’m sure the hedge just laughed at my attempts into this third year in the knowledge that it’s been winning easily to date.

Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

So just before leaving I took the picture of the rhubarb I’m forcing under a large flower pot. There’s quite difference in colour between this and the crown next to it that’s just growing ‘normally’.

Previously on plot no 1…
I managed to cover this years potato bed with manure and tidy up the bed with the tulips and daffodils in. Not very well, but better than it was. I also managed to rescue the purple sprouting broccoli that had been flattened by the snow, which had also ripped the nets. There’s only one plant still standing, but the others are picking up a bit. However this PSB is going to have to be good to justify the space it’s being taken up for almost a year now.

And on plot no 2…
The apple trees have been pruned, courtesy of my Dad. As have the black currants and raspberries. I’ve been busy removing the slates from the randomly sized beds to save me and/or the kids a trip to A&E at some point in the future. In doing so I’ve expanded the fruit bed out a few feet to join the path going up the centre of the plot. I dug over this space, removed the weeds (hopefully) and a medium sized shrub at the end of the bed. I then added a few bags of bagged manure from the local garden centre, some rockdust and then raked it over. I planted some of my many strawberry plants (Gariguette) I took from the runners on plot no one. I managed to squeeze about 30 plants in then gave the rest away to a neighbour – and I’ve still got 20 odd at home in pots…

Numerous shrubs have been removed, but many more still remain – sometimes I wonder in the previous ‘owners’ ever grew anything. The shed roof was cleared slightly – I didn’t want to cut away too much of the climber since it’s probably holding the roof on! I’ve also given the greenhouse a wash down, attempted (and failed) to repair it – next time I’ll take some suitable tools for the job, strangely a pair of scissors in place on a spanner didn’t do what I was hoping they would – and then set about moving things around for this year. Finally I started the digging of the beds I’m combining for the big veg bed. This is very easy on the old beds but a bit of a sod when digging up the old paths as they have lots of bindweed.

Back home…
The attic bedroom has been turned into a greenhouse/nursery with a couple of hundred onion sets (Sturton and Red Baron), Shallots (Longor), Sweet Peas and Broad Beans coming along nicely on an old desk up there. In the kitchen I have the Charlottes chitting and some parsley and tomatoes germinating. I’d have planted more but I haven’t really got the room. Well we have got more room but Id be pushing my luck a bit too far if I took up any more of it!

And in the home made ‘earthbox’ outside are a couple of different varieties of carrots (Amsterdam Forcing and Early Nantes). Just a shame about the weather really!

First planting of the year

It’s far too cold out there to be doing anything that isn’t going to keep me warm. Unfortunately whilst I could probably manage a bit of digging these days it would only be ‘a bit’, and this cold I’ve managed to pick up isn’t helping matters so it’s not really worth going down to the plot still at the moment.

Never mind, there’s seeds to be planted! Despite my main order with King’s Seeds (via our allotment association) still not being sorted (and they were crap sorting the order out last year too) I have plenty of seeds to keep me going. Some may say too many already… So the propagator was cleaned up and my helper summoned. At just under 4 years old she has perfect sized hand for filling small pots and handling seeds, and is keen too. She also has more knowledgable than her mother who asked if I was planting potatoes in the propagator…

Using the root trainers acquired over winter (aka toilet rolls), we planted 20 Broad Beans (Green Windsor) then a dozen sweet peas. We then sieved the compost and added some sand from the kids sandpit outside to create our own potting compost. This was put in three trays, in which we planted Chillies (Ring of Fire and Hungarian Hot Wax) and some seeds from Tesco finest pointed red peppers. Well the amount we seem to spend on them it’s got to be worth a try! This was pretty much the same planting at the beginning of the season as last year, but miraculously a whole 4 days earlier this year ;>)

Come Sunday, I had hoped to pick up a cheap bin from Wilkinson’s to force one of the rhubarb crowns but they were sold out ;>( Then it started to snow. I can take a hint. After watching Sunderland throw away the game against Newcastle when it was there for the taking (sigh), the plan was to make some marmalade. Probably should have checked on the sugar supplies first…

"You can just look"

It’s been almost two months since my last visit to plot no 1 and now I’m beginning to feel better I was itching to get down there to see if there was anything worth picking. I was under firm instructions not to do anything too strenuous and I promised to just look around, pick anything that needed picking and be back in half an hour. And to be honest whilst it was good to get off the sofa I probably wasn’t up to much more than a casual stroll around.

There wasn’t a lot going on. My leeks are still crap – I picked 4 ‘baby leeks’, the rest not being worth picking and one of those was no good on closer inspection. I also picked the Brussels that weren’t too far ‘blown’ or had been eaten after my net defences had been breached (they’d blown down in the wind!). These were combined at home with some of the remaining potatoes to make Bubble and Squeak, which was very tasty.

What looks like Purple Sprouting Broccoli is coming along well and should hopefully get some off it in a few weeks all being well. Although I could really do with a gardening knife before that so I can cut it!

The rhubarb is beginning to sprout as well. I was hoping to force one of the crowns this year. At what point do you cover it up though? Hopefully not too late, but I’ve not got anything to put over it yet.

As ever, my half an hour was stretched as Matt came round for a chat. We discussed all our best laid plans for the coming year, trips to the pub, etc. whilst Ziggy (Matt’s dog) trampled over what was attempting to grow – mainly the overwintering onions, which I’ve since decided are growing in completely the wrong place anyway. I may have to try and move them?

Too much time on my hand?
Sitting around on the sofa a lot I came across Earthboxes. I like the idea of these and they seem to have good reviews from people who have used them. I’m hoping they’ll help with the ‘erratic’ watering my tomatoes suffered from. However, at £35+ each they are too much for my budget, so I set about making one. I have or have ordered the stuff I need and reckon I can make the equivalent for about a fiver – some of the stuff I already have in and some of the stuff I have ordered is primarily to be used for something else anyway.

The plan (currently) is to make the prototype then if all goes well build a few more to have 3 in the greenhouse on plot no 2 and a few more split between plot no 1 and home. I’m waiting for some chicken wire (which is primarily going to be used to protect my strawberries – and if this doesn’t work I’m giving up on them) to arrive which will allow me to finish it off, so watch this space for some photos and whether they work or not.

Thanks for all the good wishes. Fortunately feel a lot better, not going to be running anywhere for a while but I can cope with that! I get to go back to work towards the end of next week, which is a good thing… I think. Well at least I get to leave the sofa!

Fun-filled Christmas

Turns out I was right and didn’t get to the plot before Christmas. Of course the fact that I went down with a virus that turned out to be ‘proper’ flu meaning I spent most of the holiday period in bed feeling very ill didn’t really help. So no sprouts for Christmas lunch ;>( Which was probably just as well since I’m the only one who really eats them in the house and I wasn’t eating at the time.

Fortunately, I got a couple of books on gardening and preserving to keep me occupied during dismal Christmas TV, endless viewing of Wall-e on DVD and watching the kids play on the Wii.

From bad to worse
Sadly things on the illness front haven’t really improved. After a chest x-ray the other day it turns I have pneumonia. Bit of a blow to the plans to remodel the new plot over the winter. Given it’s not likely I’ll be seeing either of the plots anytime soon, I’ll be experimenting with the ‘no dig’ system this year.

I’m consolling myself with ordering seeds, potatoes, etc. Ordered 24kg of potatoes the other day from Alan Romans. These were:

3kg Charlotte
6kg Desiree
6kg King Edwards
3kg Majestic
3kg Pink Fir Apple
3kg Sarpo Axona

This may sound like a lot for my two plots, and indeed it is! The vast majority of these are for my Dad and Grandad – they have a bit more room to play with than me, about 3.5 acres, although they only use a fraction of that these days.

The potatoes that are actually for me are the Charlottes and Sarpo Axona (these are supposed to be highly blight resistant). I may ‘acquire’ a few of the others though…

Guess it’ll be a while before the next entry since I’ve been ordered to spent a lot of time on the sofa for the foreseeable future by the doctor ;>(

And then there was nothing

Having only managed a few fleeting visits here and there recently, not much to report. Plot no 2 remains largely neglected as I’ve only managed a couple of hours in the past couple of months. To be honest there’s not an awful lot growing up there since I picked the apples and I’m just removing the current bed structure and generally making a mess. It’s looking pretty desolate up now and when I visited on Sunday it was far too cold to stand still and do things like take photographs…!

Down on plot no 1 the leaves have disappeared from the trees and you can now see across the site. Again it’s pretty desolate but I do have leeks and Brussels growing down there. Neither of which are doing very well – the leeks are very thin and I have no idea why (suggestions gratefully received!) and the sprouts have largely ‘blown’, but I think this is due to the ground not being firm enough. They both still taste good though, which is the important thing. Apparently not been a great year for leeks on the site and I’m changing the variety of sprouts I grow next year as I’ve not been happy with them.

Can’t imagine getting lot of time on them this side of Christmas either so will have to console myself with some seed orders…

Autumn = Leaves and Manure

Bright (!) and early on Sunday morning, I set off to await the manure delivery I was sharing with my allotment neighbour Dan (on plot no 1). Farmer arrived 15 mins late due to a ‘heavy night’, and I can’t say I envied him the job as he had several more deliveries to make! Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be as well rotted as last year, it was certainly smellier. On the plus side that meant it was lighter to shift than last year.

More than one barrow load…
After the disappointment of just how little leaf mould was actually produced from last years leaf collection, I’ve decided to scale up ‘production’. Chris from one of the neighbouring allotments gave me a couple of old builders sacks to try out the ‘pub theory’ (see previous entry) and ever since I’ve been trying to fill them. Approximately 20 bin bags of leaves later, they’re almost full – and that’s not counting the old leaf basket that I’ve also filled again.

Fortunately Sheffield is very green and has lots of mature trees. I decided to check out the nearby (posh) tree lined suburbs for supplies. This was going very well (so long as you ignore the strange looks!) until I was driving round them and struggling to find any leaves. They either paid someone to come and take them away or the council beat me to the clearing them up. So I had to do a bit more driving than I thought I would but think I’m just about there now. It also amazing at just how heavy a bin bag full of wet leaves can be when you’ve squeezed as many as possible in there.

The leaf bags are at the top of the plot just above the top bed. There’s plenty of room there and a couple of comfrey plants growing there. After watching Gardener’s World the other night I decided to relocate my other (larger) comfrey plants up to this spot as well. This will be the second move in two years for the comfrey plants, but they didn’t seem to mind the move last year. They could also probably cope with being split as well. The only reason I can think of for not moving it, is that it is doing a good job at containing the Jerusalem artichokes in the corner of the plot they are currently in.

“Why does the car smell of beer?”
After dropping the mother in law off at the station I then spent the next half an hour getting lost in the new ring road system, trying to avoid fines for going down bus gates, getting stuck in traffic, etc. all in an attempt to find the local brewery to pick up some spent hops for the plot. When I eventually got there loaded up the boot with a few bags which I then took straight to the plot, putting one on the compost heap and the rest as a mulch on part of next years brassica bed. Now there is a the combined smell of beer and manure at the top of the plot. Lovely.

I planted the garlic, this year putting it in two rows at opposite ends of the bed, so be interested to see which is best. I used a couple of bulbs harvested this year. I know you’re not really supposed to do this, but I did it last year and the garlic did really well. The cloves were really big as well so fingers crossed, as ever.

Dug over another few metres of the bed that’s going to be home to next years brassicas, incorporating the remains of last years manure – definitely well rotted now.

Sadly no picture for this one as the battery was completely dead when I came to take the pictures ;>(

First order of the ‘season’

Well the email to say the new Real Seeds catalogue was out, proved too difficult to pass over. So the following was ordered:

Cherokee Trail of Tears – again – not sure what happened to this years sowing as I got Borlotti beans where I thought I’d planted them!

Summer Crookneck Squash – hopefully an improvement on this years summer squash

Parisian Pickling or Salad Cucumber – again – this time I’m hoping to get some planted out before the slug get them

Leek (Jaune de Poitou)

Leek (Bleu de Solaise) – bit disappointed with the varieties I’ve tried in the past (Bandit and Pandora)

Leaf Selection Coriander

Pea (Telephone) – again, this time the ambition is to eat some before they are eaten by something else

Waltham Butternut Squash – managed to grow pumpkins this year, hoping for third time lucky with these

Double Standard Sweetcorn

Tomato (Aurora)

Tomato (Red Cluster Pear) – the plan being to seriously cut back on the number of plants grown this next year, so hoping for lots off these.

“Why is her pumpkin bigger than mine?”

Last weekend consisted of one day of glorious warm sunshine and the other of cold and rain. I went down to the plot on the latter day…

With the nights getting colder thought it was probably time to pick the second (and last) pumpkin. It’s not orange, but it does weigh just under 2 stone! Daughter was suitably impressed with ‘her’ pumpkin though. After picking it the pumpkin plants were removed to the compost bin, pretty much filling it on their own.

I also cleared away the pile of rubbish at the top of the plot near the entrance, to make to pile of rubbish under the tree larger. It’s obviously never going to dry out enough to burn so best hope it rots away over the winter. Wishful thinking. The plan is to store this years leaves in this space, once collected. My original thoughts of making a new leaf basket from chicken wire have been put on hold after discussion in the pub the other night as to weather the big builders sacks that sand, gravel, etc come in would do the. Now just need to go looking in skips for the old sacks…

Apple Day

It’s getting cold and windy. Well it was, so I thought. Certainly windier than it has been which was a good enough excuse to pick the apples from plot no 2. Still none the wiser as to what they are, but there’s an apple day in Sheffield this weekend, so might take them along there to see if anyone has any ideas. It’s also surprising just how many there were.

I wrapped about 40 in newspaper for storing in the outhouse and the rest need to be used up. So to start, I made 7 jars of spiced apple chutney using apples, chillies and onions all of which were grown by me. Think I may have overdone the chilli a bit though…

A Path

The path down the middle of the plot has been a long time in the making. The weed fabric I used to line the path has been fixed to the scaffolding boards on the ‘veg side’ of the plot but I never put any boards on the ‘fruit side’, as I ran out of them. My neighbour Dan had some left over and kindly let me have some so I put these in and fixed the weed fabric on the other side now and the resulting path looks quite good even if I say so myself – the picture is only half way through the job and it helps if you ignore the mess at the end of the plot! It’s not particularly straight but then neither is anything else on the allotment!

Finally managed to get enough Borlotti beans to make a meal. They look great both before and after podding. There are still plenty more growing, but how long they’ll survive I don’t know.

Let the digging commence
I’ve dug over about a third of the bed where the beans are still growing. The plan was to grow winter tares here, but since the beans are still occupying most of this bed, I added a lot of manure as I was digging it and then scattered some rock dust on top. It’s certainly a lot easier to dig over than it was last year, so with less weeds more fertility fingers crossed for next year!

Should be getting some more manure delivered next week – if I remember to order it – which I’ll largely be throwing on the bed for next years potatoes. I was hoping to grow Hungarian Grazing Rye and Buckwheat there, but I think I’ve just been feeding the local bird population again.

I’ve also started digging the area where the pumpkins and squash were growing. There are a lot of weeds in there so it’ll probably need digging over a couple of times I reckon to get most of them out. Can’t decide what to plant there next though.

A thing of beauty!

After a year in the making it was time to break out the leaf mould. Now I have to say after two car journeys to fill about 10 old compost bags full of leaves, then cram them into the leaf mould basket, I’m a little disappointed that the end result is just one wheelbarrow full of mulch.

Needless to say it didn’t go far, but it did look good. Nice and dark, crumbly, smelled good… And then I realised I was possibly a little too much into it ;>) Anyway, I put it round the brassicas, not as deep as I’d like it to have been mind. I should also point out that the picture is very flattering to the Brussels, they’re not as tall as they look!

Fortunately (?) there were two less celeriac to mulch around after they joined the long, long list of casualties lost to the slugs.

The ‘Great Autumn Tidy Up’ commenced and I cut down the remains of the broad beans and peas to add to the compost heap. The summer squash were no more (well they were only maintaining a healthy slug population, it’s not like we’d seen anything off them for sometime now) and the comfrey (again maintaining far too many slugs than should be on an allotment) joined them all on the compost heap. The weeds that have been covering my main path were cleared off and I weeded some of the empty parts of the beds. Obviously there’s a little more work to be done…

After I difficult birth…

I’m pleased to announce the birth of this years’ first pumpkin! He weighed in at 1 stone 3 pounds and was picked this morning after it seemed to be getting a bit nippy in the evenings. I say ‘he’ as he has my son’s name (faintly) etched on the skin, you can still the ‘F’ quite clearly on the left of the pumpkin. His sister is still growing and still not showing any signs of turning orange. So fingers crossed the nights don’t get too cold.

Managed to pick some of the perpetual spinach, which was pleasing to see I get some as well as the slugs. I’m sure the kids will be overjoyed with it…

What tree?
Moving on to plot no 2, now stuff is slowing down growing I thought it was best time to start the big tidy up. So I removed some of the slates edging the beds to try and make things a little safer, may eventually use them for the central path when they’ve been broken up a bit. I also took up some of the carpet that was lining the paths, just in time as I don’t think it would have lasted out the winter, however I’ve still got to get rid of it somehow – I’m not a big fan of carpets on allotments at all, I’m still digging up the stuff on the old plot, as well as having a huge piece down there to somehow dispose of. Carpets may seem like a good idea at the time, but they’ll come back to haunt you!

Pruned the summer raspberries and had a look at the blackcurrants before seeking advice from someone who know what they’re doing – Richard from a couple of allotments away. Ditto the rather sickly looking gooseberries. Hopefully with a bit of hard pruning, some TLC to the soil and a relocation across the newly expanded fruit bed they will do better in years to come.

The apples still aren’t ready, but I did try one – after hitting my head on it and knocking it off the tree! – and at least confirmed they were edible. Bit sharp and very hard still, but should be good when they are finally ready. Bit worried to see what looked like a woodlouse tunneling into it though, not going to help them store well. Although the rate we get through them in our house, it’s not likely to be a long term issue.

Having confirmed one of the trees was just for ‘decoration’ that was next on the hit list. There’s another tree on the list and a few shrubs, in an attempt to turn it back into an productive allotment as opposed to a garden extension. Needless to stay by the time I left it was all looking like a bit of a mess…

Autumn it is then

The nights seem to have well and truely drawn in now, so I’m only getting to go down at weekends from now on. It was distinctly Autumnal this morning as I made an early start to pick up a few things from plot no 2 before trying to sort out plot no 1 (ha!). I was just about to go through the ‘gate’ when I disturbed a fox on the plot. Sadly it disappeared before I could get the camera out.

So I picked the remaining tomatoes, admired the slug population I’m now supporting and then picked up some seaweed meal and chicken pellets to take down to plot no 1. I also took pictures of the apples trees to see if anyone has any ideas as to what variety they may be. They’re currently quite large, bigger than my fist and have been red since they were quite small.

Moving on to plot no 1, a quick review revealed the weeds remain healthy. The raspberries are still struggling through, but the pumpkins are coming on nicely. A few weeks ago I attempted to write my son’s name on the one pumpkin I had at the time. Not necessarily that succussful, but you can see the ‘F’ on it – if you look carefully on the left hand side. Fortunately a couple of weeks after this a second pumpkin appeared and (with a little more success) I managed to write the letter ‘E’ on it – well I wasn’t going to get ‘Elizabeth’ on it!

The larger pumpkin is now a bit bigger than my foot in diameter and the smaller one is catching it up fast. And to be perfectly honest I could do with them both being the same size to save arguments!

I dug up the particularly crap looking leeks from the new plot in the hope that transplanting them to the old plot would help them get going. So put them in next to the others I was given earlier in the year, they’ve looked considerably better since I transplanted them.

These were the ones that were trasplanted some time ago, I’m too ashamed to show the others! I also planted some red and white over-wintering onions, alternating them!

I then put the seaweed meal on the compost heap, the whole compost area looking a bit rubbish still. But I ‘acquired’ a couple more pallets and the next job will be to sort them out so that they stay standing in the Autumn winds. The leaf mould next to the complost heap on the other hand is looking very good. I’ll be applying that as a mulch somewhere soon – not sure where is best to put it, possibly round the brassicas. Speaking of which some of my Brussels are looking very close to being ready, don’t think they’ll last until Christmas!

I then moved on to sorting out the strawberries, cutting the leaves and runners off the plants and clearing the straw from around them. I took the runners home to pot up the plants and ended up with over 50 potential plants…

Just before leaving, I picked a couple of Borlotti beans that were ready. There are plenty of more coming and fortunately the mice (or what ever they are) that ate the broad beans and peas seem to be ignorring these.

Finally, I made these the other week. I’d like to say these were entirely from our allotment, but they were mostly from my Grandad.