Loving the sun!

After such a long winter, to have  stretch of sunny days like this is quite a treat.  However, the weeds obviously like it even more than us because they are growing much faster than the crops we actually want to grow!!!!

We took advantage of a weekend of sun to spend as much time in Doug and Nigel as we could, with some fantastic results....

New leeks next to the beans

The main task in Doug was weeding.  Although we've managed to cover a lot of the plot with straw, there's still a few areas which are open and the weed coverage in these was phenomenal.  Plus, even the straw areas had comfrey appearing in abundance - don't get us wrong, comfrey is an amazing herb with all sorts of uses but when it tries to overtake the plot it's a little frustrating!  While I set to starting to weed in amongst the beans / peas / beetroot, parsnip and carrots, Phil managed to get much of the grassy path areas under control and watered the whole plot using dozens of trips to the water butt.  The beans and peas are growing well, as is the beetroot.  The parsnip is patchy but there are some shoots showing through and out of  a whole row of carrot - approximately 300 seeds - we have a grand sum of 5 shoots!  We are fast thinking that carrot is just not something we will ever grow!  Between us we also manged to get some chicken wire up to support the peas.  We did decide to try out tomatoes again (last year was such a wash out) so bought some plug plants from the allotment shop - three plum tomato and three standard ones - to see how they grow in Doug (more in Nigel later.)  Our greatest achievement was the planting of 60 leek plug plants - very exciting - a mixture of two types of leek which should (hopefully) provide us with some delicious additions to our winter stews. Nom Nom Nom!!!

Background fruit bushes and foreground potatoes

The soft fruit is starting to look very impressive.  If everything currently in flower or with baby fruit on actually comes to fruition we are going to have a very jammy year (pun intended)!!!  All three strawberry patches are in full bloom and have a few small fruit appearing in places.  The currant bushes are covered in small berries, as are the jostaberry (a huge bush we inherited) and the gooseberry.  The raspberries should come soon as well.  We've now had our third harvest from the huge patch of rhubarb and there's definitely more to come.  We can now recommend vanilla ice cream topped with warm, stewed home-grown rhubarb on top :P

Onions, garlic and broad beans

We are getting very excited about the onions and garlic, especially the elephant garlic which is now too big to grasp with just one hand.  Although everything is a few weeks behind this year, due to the late spring etc. we think some of the garlic will be ready to harvest almost on time.  We might leave the onions a bit longer but it's getting very hard to resist pulling any of it up to have a look :) 

Nigel is now very much a part of our crop-growing efforts - it's so wonderful to finally have a proper garden in which we can grow various crops and flowers without the fear of them being demolished by people sharing the garden.  Freya and Sophie also seem to like languishing in the shade of a chair and for us, just being able to walk out in the garden at any time of day is wonderful.  All we need now is a table and we could be eating out there too.   There was a lot of weeding to be done here too this weekend but the beds now look a lot clearer.  We nearly lost our sweet pea plants over the previous weekend but I've planted them out now to see if they can recover, including three which will hopefully climb the renovated shelf end from work which I painted to act as a trellis.  The bedding plants are beginning to flower with varying success - at least the pansies are looking good!  

Tomatoes and carrots in the growbags

We've found that now the sycamore tree next door is in leaf, the areas of Nigel we thought would get good sun aren't quite that good.  We've therefore re-assessed the area for growbags and put them up against the fence instead.  Our own-grown tomato plants weren't growing, or haven't grown much in the past few weeks so we decided to put them straight into the growbags as small plants instead of waiting for them to get to full strength first.  We now therefore have 15 assorted tomato plants (they came as a mixed set so until they mature and start to fruit, we're not sure what they will be.)  We've also experimented with another growbag and turned it on its' side to see if we can grow carrots in it.  Since we don't have any luck with carrots elsewhere, anything has got to be worth a try!  We've also got another growbag for spring onion, lettuce and radish so we have a small supply for summer salads.  Since three out of the four gherkin plants died, I've also put more seeds into the raised bed in the hope that they'll germinate quickly.  The courgette plants have each produced flowers now so we're hoping they'll flourish.  The pumpkin is growing but is yet to flower.

The coldframe

The cold frame now has a brand new set of seeds alongside the brassica plugs we've been nurturing for a few weeks.  We have two more coloured varieties of cauliflower almost ready to plant out, along with the red sprouts.  They have been joined by further seeds for sweet peas, sweetcorn and broccoli (two types of the latter with one due for harvest later this year and the other for after Christmas.)

Herbs and our new Acer tree

Our potatoes are growing well.  We're hoping the new potatoes in the border will be ready in about a month, with the two lots in tubs being ready a month or so after that.  Most of them took a while to come through but now they have, we've been having to re-cover them after only a few days.  The herbs are all looking great in their respective tubs but the catmint continues to take a bashing from ours and the other local cats - we're still not sure how long it will be before we get complaints from the neighbours about their cats coming home stoned from too much catmint!


Long may the sun continue :) 

Things are starting to shoot

Well things are moving pretty fast at the moment, unfortunately so are the weeds! It seems that no sooner have you cleared one area and started on another that the original patch needs doing again. Still, such are the joys of gardening/having an allotment.

We have finally gotten all of the beds dug that we think we'll need, and what can be strawed over has been. This serves two purposes. Firstly in the warm weather it helps to keep the moisture in the ground to prevent it drying out. Secondly, come the autumn once everything is harvested it can be dug in and help fertilise/enrich the soil. Then the whole process can start again in the Spring! Fortunately we have a ready supply of straw and manure at a very good price!

 




The potatoes have started to poke their heads up at long last. I must admit I was starting to get worried. Between the four rows we have on the allotment and the two planters growing in the back garden I'm hoping we should be OK for potatoes for a while come harvest time. We also have a small bed of new potatoes in the back garden as well. This is earmarked for potato salads to go with BBQs!

The onions and garlic are looking fantastic. I'm especially excited about the elephant garlic. We've never grown it before but if what's going on underground is as good as what's happening above ground then it should be most impressive. Apparently these bulbs can grow to over 6" across and weigh in at over 2lb!
 
All of our soft fruit seems to be coming along nicely. We have strawberries, gooseberries, currants and jostaberry coming in to fruit. The blueberry is in flower and our raspberry bushes are starting to show buds.

All in all things are looking very good indeed!  

Farewell Doug and Hello Dugless!

Well it's been a while so I thought I would put finger to keyboard and write an update on our allotment adventures.

We said good bye to Doug, our original quarter plot, in October and moved on to Dugless, so called because the previous occupant had a no digging philosophy, a very nice half plot.

Because of the previous plot holder's philosophy there was quite a bit of work for us to do when we took over. Both Mary and I like a nice tidy plot and tidy beds. However, it would have been churlish of us to complain as Alan, the previous occupant, left us some lovely fruit bushes that we have great hopes for this year. If everything comes to fruition we will be swamped with currants, strawberries, gooseberries, blueberries, raspberries and josta berries ( a blackcurrant and gooseberry cross).

So far we've only managed to harvest some rhubarb, and it made a wonderful crumble! We've got potatoes, various beans, sweetcorn, parsnip, turnip, beetroot and cabbages planted at the moment. We also are waiting on delivery of some leek seedlings and some multi-coloured cauliflower seedlings as well (white, purple, orange and green). I saw them advertised in a seed catalogue and just couldn't resist. Look out for some very colourful dinners as we've planted purple majesty potatoes again this year.

The crown jewels of the plot at the moment  are the various onions and garlic that we have coming on. My brother holidayed on the Isle of Wight last year and brought back some garlic gloves from the Garlic Farm there. They really are looking magnificent, with the Elephant garlic looking particularly splendid.

Now that the weather has started improving (sort of) a lot of our time is dedicated to weeding. The weeds seem to sprout up twice as quick as the vegetables. It's one of those chores that never seems to have an end! The end results are worth the effort though.

At the time we were moving allotment plots we were moving homes as well. We've moved from a flat to a house with a lovely back garden (Nigel II). The beds in Nigel are a mix of veg and flowers now. We also have plenty of herbs, the cats being particularly fond of the catnip, and some growing sacks for potatoes. Once the tomato, courgette and pumpkin seedlings are ready in the cold frame they will be going out into planters and grow bags. They will be joined by some red brussell sprouts as well!   


Despite my saying I wasn't going to bother again I've succumbed and got some chilli plants; Jalapeno, Habanero and Dorset Naga. I really am hoping for a better growing season for them this year. 

Well that's it for now, hopefully we will get back to regular updates in the future.

Doug's Days are Done :(

What an amazing year!  We set out to see what we could grow - and to see how many purple varieties of our food would succeed.

Doug's final hours

We've battled against one of the most bizarre, unpredictable growing seasons and in some cases this proved to be the downfall of our crops.  But we had some outstanding successes and we definitely achieved what we set out to do - to be able to go to the allotment on a Sunday morning, decide what we wanted for dinner, pick it and then have the most delicious meal of home-grown produce.

As first-time allotment owners a year ago, we really didn't know what to expect - both from being a member of the allotments and from being able to grow so much of our own food.  A year later and we are bona fide members of the Allotment Association and no longer the "new kids on the block!"

Two of our tomatoes!

The last couple of weeks have been extraordinarily emotional.  We decided quite some time ago that we would be able to make good use of a bigger plot than Doug and it was more than a month ago that one of the other plot-holders suggested we take his half plot because he was moving up to a full one.  However it wasn't until we had to start properly clearing Doug that it all began to sink in.  This weekend marked the end of an era (albeit a rather short one.)  

Parsnips!

We were suitably astounded that once the sun started to fight its way through the rain clouds in late July, our crops began to respond accordingly.  It was too late for our tomatoes - we eventually grew just four green ones - but we did get a final surge of growth from the Borlotti beans (purple stripe) and parsnips.  Our solitary sweetcorn plant is still growing but we've been told it won't survive a transplant so if it grows any more it will be a bonus.  Our beetroot crop (OK, maybe not purple but a gorgeous, deep red) was truly sumptuous.  We have discovered how delicious it is roasted with balsamic vinegar  as well as mashed with seasoning.  We now have a freezer full of our own vegetables - portions of cauliflower, broad beans and peas abound and are now joined by the parsnips and beetroot.  Not as good as freshly picked but still streets ahead of buying from the shops.

The new fruit patch

Lyta stomps down the compost heap!

So we spent the last two days clearing Doug.  We were fortunate enough that when he became ours last year, he had been lovingly tended by his previous owners and given to us in almost perfect working order.  We were determined that we should do likewise for his new owner.  And so we dug up all the parsnips, harvested the last of the Borlottis, moved our currant , gooseberry & blueberry bushes and the purple raspberries and transported them, along with the rhubarb and sweetcorn, to their new home.  We also potted up all our fragrant herbs and brought them back to Nigel - we are moving home soon as well and our new abode features a garden where we can have a proper herb patch within easy reach for regular cuisine!  We also had to transport, barrow-full by barrow-full our compost heap!  This proved exciting in itself; as I thrust the spade in at one point, I found myself with a family of baby mice on my spade as well as the compost.  Sadly, we're not sure if they will survive the disturbance but we did our best to hide them under a nearby lemon balm bush.  Finally, we dug Doug over, leaving just a patch of strawberries and a few herbs. 

Watering in the new onions.

Our new plot, Douglas, is quite close by (50 yards as the sparrows fly.)  He is double the size of Doug and has probably the most well-nourished soil you could need.  He does require a lot of TLC however so our time over the next few months will primarily be spent clearing and organising.  Just in case you're wondering, Douglas' previous owner operated a no-dig method of gardening, hence he was dug less....  Anyway, during our first visit this weekend, we have achieved all of the above transfers as well as planting some cabbage seedlings and two rows of onion sets.  The new season has truly begun!  In the next few weeks we will be adding broad beans and garlic.  We can order our potatoes for next spring and begin scouring the gardening catalogues for our next purple crops.... Once more, the world is becoming our oyster but this time it will be bigger and better! :)

Surveying his new plot!

Summer has finally arrived :)

Wow, what a difference three consecutive days of sun make, especially when there is the prospect of more to come.  We were all beginning to wonder what the strange yellow ball was in the sky and then something from the depths of our memories began to come back to us.... Warmth, light, SUN!

We spent a good three hours today tending to Doug's needs (some of us more enthusiastically than the others!)  

Purple Haze Carrots

Supper!

I pulled up a few more carrots - strangely two more were displaying the split root feature of the first one we harvested. However, these were at least edible and one of them was definitely a Purple Haze.  The area is crawling with red and black ants (I disturbed at least four nests with plenty of eggs being hurriedly transported back underground by concerned adults.) I also thinned out the turnips, swede and beetroot so we had a good selection of root veg in general to add to our supper.

Pink Fir Apples & one Purple Majesty

Two meals of peas ready to go

Phil dug up the last two rows of potatoes and we came away with a rather nice haul of Pink Fir Apple and Maris Piper (the latter cropped very nicely considering the recent weather.)  Phil also gave several areas a good going over with the hoe.  Lyta concentrated on the peas and beans area, giving them a good weeding and collecting all the ripe pea pods.  I dug up as much as possible of the weed growth around the fruit bushes and then planted out a half dozen tomato plants we bought at the shop to replace the ones we lost during the recent deluges. 

I then picked a Lollo Rosso lettuce for our lunch and some of my sweet pea flowers.  We cannot believe how fragrant they are (not to mention purple and very pretty!)  Every time we now come into the lounge, we are greeted by a fantastic aroma.  Beats buying cut flowers any day!

These smell amazing!

Peas, sweet peas & lettuce

Finally, we had to water the plants!  No kidding, we actually had to use the watering can.  We took the opportunity to feed everything too, as we are reliably informed that the rain might have leeched the nutrients from the soil.  We were also given the "unofficial" confirmation of the next plot we would be getting.  We had requested a half plot upgrade and one of the committee members had mentioned his because he, in turn, is going up to a full plot.  Changeover is on 30th September.  Very exciting. 

Rain? What rain???

We popped down to see Doug very quickly this Sunday - I had to study so we couldn't stay long.  

There wasn't much we could do however.  The ground was sodden and digging it would have been pointless, even standing on it was ill-advised.

We are suffering the same problems as every other allotment-holder, gardener, arable farmer in the country - too much rain, vital nutrients being perpetually washed from the soil, not enough sun, not enough warmth.  We've had some amazing successes but we've also had some devastating failures.  Never, in the last four years of growing tomatoes in Nigel, have we ever failed to get good plants with a decent crop.  This year, we can't even get the plants to grow, let alone crop.


The turnips have grown really well, the swede have grown but not bulked out and were woody.  The beetroot has done as well, if not better than the turnips.  All in the same patch of ground and planted at the same time, so not sure why the difference in growth.  Behind them should be the tomatoes and aubergines.  Whilst the plants are mostly still there, they've not grown above 6".  Behind them are the parsnips, which are looking very healthy and further back is the area where we had to cut off the tops of all the potatoes to stop the spread of blight.  Such a mish-mash of success within a small area is baffling.

We also tried pulling one of the handful of carrots we managed to grow - literally no more than a dozen have survived from three packets sown.  It was a rather amusing shape but again was too woody to eat.

On the other side of Doug we had a good show from the brassicas.  The cabbages look like they're close to being ready to harvest.  But we had to pull up all the radishes because they bolted before bulking out.  Yet in the same patch, the peas are growing apace and seem to be thriving - along with the sweet peas which are truly resplendent.  

We have a single (possibly a second) sweetcorn plant coming through and the lettuce does look like it'll get bigger and better.  The Borlotti beans are finally showing signs of growth but we've lost almost all the dwarf french beans (again - third sowing lost) with only two plants surviving and even those are barely alive.  The herbs do appear to all be flourishing with one exception.  The local slugs and snails do appear to think we only grew the basil for their own delectation.... I was actually thinking more tomato, mozzarella and basil salad but since we don't have the tomatoes either, I guess it's not the end of the world!

In summary, it definitely hasn't been summery and some of the failures have been devastating but to have just some of our own grown crops in our kitchen, freshly picked when we want them is worth every ounce of disappointment.  Let's see what the rest of the "summer" has to offer :)

Purple Patch Pleasure!

I fear we're making all this sound too easy but it is so very much nicer to celebrate the harvests more than to moan about the failures.

It hasn't all been plain-sailing - we have yet to successfully produce a decent french or borlotti bean, tomato, or pumpkin plant and our carrots are sparse to say the least.  But the successes have been amazing.  So far, since the spring, we've harvested purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflowers (which were the envy of the whole allotment site,) broad beans, peas, garlic and potatoes, along with various fruits and herbs.  

Now we're turning our minds to how we store everything - the idea being that whilst eating our produce when it's in season is great, being able to enjoy it later on the year will be fantastic too.  We have a large seletion of books  (probably too many) but each has their singular attraction and we've gleaned assorted methods and recipes from them all.

Next on our picking list was the shallots, which have now been fully pickled, thanks to a great recipe from John Harrison's book (he of http://www.allotment.org.uk - a veritable fount of information) It'll be a while before we can taste how good they are but so far they look and smell much better than anything available in the shops.  

Today's foray was one of hard work.  We've not really been doing much proper work on Doug for a few weeks - a few other things seem to have cropped up (no pun intended!)  So off we went this morning, knowing that we would spend quite a few hours tending to Doug's every need - otherwise known as weeding, digging, weeding, cutting, weeding, thinning, weeding, edging, weeding and finally, more picking!  And we're still not done.  But Doug does look much better than he did last week.  

To be fair, we did pop by very quickly yesterday to pick all our ripe soft fruit.  We came home with a bowl of strawberries, red and black currants and purple raspberries.  We then used them to make our first Summer Pudding - not a perfect example but delicious nonetheless.  We know next time to have more fruit, to wait for it to be riper and then we will have the perfection we crave.  

Phil harvested all of our red onions (as close to purple as we could get) and we've brought them home to our coldframe to dry - there's more rain forecast apparently, which is odd because it hasn't rained for ages.... NOT!  He also thinned out some of our purple radishes and put in some netting for our peas to climb.  Meanwhile, I thinned out the turnips, swedes (not too confident about these growing well) and the beetroot.  There are signs of at least two (count them, TWO, not two rows, just two!) purple carrots growing but not many more!  

Phil also dug up two rows of potatoes, one of Pentland Javelin and one of our Purple Majesty.  We had a few of the Pentland Javelin for tea and the rest are now stored in potato sacks in the shed, along with the garlic which we hung up yesterday.  The bikes have never smelled so good!

And just to prove we're doing our bit for the bees, Doug also now boasts some really stunning purple sweet peas.  I never really managed to succeed with these in Nigel so am really thrilled that Doug has produced such a vibrant display.