Pushing up the daisies

Invigorating

2012-01-23T12:48:00.002+01:00

A word we use when we are too polite to say "freezing the bollocks off". Actually it wasn't really that cold down the lottie yesterday, and I worked like a navvy so I was actually a bit clammy by the time I had finished. I got stuck into the raspberries, chopped the whole lot down, removed a few rogue suckers and some old wood. They look much tidier now and I even had a little hack at the gooseberries, so they grow outwards more (easier to pick!).
I then had a big of a dig in the soon-to-be onion bed, pulled out the old nasturtium vines and chucked them in the compost, threw a layer of sand over my top path which tends to get grassy in spring, though that might calm it down a bit. I pulled out a couple of dead brussel sprout plants and generally had a wee tidy up and a prune. I also did something a bit sneaky which may or may not work. My neighbour has 3 lovely grapevines. I noticed that she had pruned them and the vine cuttings were lying in a big pile by the path. I nicked about 6 or 7 of them.... Even though they were not just cut, I read that any trimmed wood will retake if put in the soil, so I stuck them into a pot with some sandy compost. I wouldn't take any living plants or crops, but as the dead wood was just lying there - I figured a few sticks missing won't be noticed. Except later I might have to explain how I got a grapevine :-S That is, if they even take, it's a bit of a long shot. But as the vine had been trimmed, I couldn't ask her to cut even more off, and I only see her once in a blue moon. if they take I will admit to my bit of thievery. So that was my confession for this week.
And after my criminal activity, I packed up and went home with 4 leeks, a bag of sprouts and some green kale. Yum yum.

In the house, the onion seedlings are doing well! I am chuffed as I have never grown onion from seed before. I even sowed another two pots, to see how they get on. I did half and half of Bedfordshire Champion and Ailsa Craig.

Friendship cakes

2012-01-12T14:24:00.002+01:00

I recently have been experimenting with a friendship cake mixture (sometimes called a Herman Cake by our American friends). This is basically a yeasty sponge starter that you can use for baking. As it reproduces itself, you can make it ad infinitum and pass it on to friends (hence the name). The usual thing to do is 1 cup to 2 friends, keep a cup for a new batch and make a cake with the rest.
I have a confession to make - we are not big cake eaters. So the idea of making cakes every week with the mixture was in fact an oversight on my part. But I have found another use. It makes fantastic sweet bread doughs, for brioches and fruit breads, of which we eat quite a lot.
So how do you do it?
The starter is this:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 teas baker's yeast

Mix that in a small bowl, cover loosely with a tea towel or plate and stir daily with a wooden spoon. About every 5 days, feed it with some more of the same mixture (Usually once you feed it twice, you can start giving it away) and occasionally make something with it! At the moment I am feeding it about twice a week with 2 spoonfuls of flour+sugar+milk and it is going great guns.

Recipe
For great wholegrain raisin bread, this is what I did:
In the bread machine, on dough cycle, I put:
250ml water - 400g mix of strong flour and multi-grain flour - 1 teas salt - 2 teas sugar - 1 dessertspoon powedered milk - 1 teas mixed spices (cinnamon, nutmeg) - 1 teas active yeast - 2 heaped tablespoons of the friendship cake starter.
Once the dough was well under way in went 1/2 cup of sultanas.
Now I don't like the bread cooked in the machine, I prefer just making dough with it. You can leave it on bread cycle if you prefer.
So afetr the dough was risen once, I removed it, folded it over a couple of times and put it in a long loaf tin, and left it to rise again for about 1 hour. It rises wonderfully with the starter mix. I baked it for 25-30 mins at about 180-200deg C.
It made a tender, beautifully risen loaf with just the right amount of sugar and it has kept for 3 or 4 days in a plastic bag.
happy baking!

Back again for 2012

2012-01-09T11:56:00.002+01:00

Yes I have neglected the blog in December, as the garden has been, mostly.

But the days will start getting longer and time waits for no gardener. SO this weekend, I rebuilt a composter - my heavy wooden one was destroyed by a big storm we had a couple of weeks ago and I am thinking it is time to move on. So I was given a new one, a big plastic Dalek, by our allotment site and I put it up. It was hell. Took me 40 minutes, sweating and grunting, but I finally managed to get it set up. Now to fill it!
The old site is blessed with a big heap of ready compost! I will mix some of it with some sand to get some potting compost for the first sowings. It was funny, as soon as I moved everything off, the birds, sparrows and robins, came over and were soon rooting around in it, looking for insects no doubt as it is alive with them, worms but also different types of borers, spiders, snail, slugs, a veritable feast no doubt, not to mention the edibles still rottng down.

Sowing has started, I did two small trays of Bedfordshire champion and Alisa Craig onions, first time I have tried seriously to do onions from seed. Not quite sure how it works, better scout around for more info. But they are happily sitting on the kitchen windowsill for now.
The year has begun! woo hoo!

Seeds for 2012

2011-11-21T10:17:00.002+01:00

I have been incredibly precocious and have started ordering my seeds for 2012!
I ordered a first lot from www.vegetableseeds.co.uk, who are really kind and their seeds are great value for money. Much cheaper than seeds in France.
I ordered:
Squash Winter Waltham Butternut - these are meant to be a good butternut, and as I didn't do any this year, time to do some again.
Squash Winter Uchiki Kuri - the good old Potimarron, such great flavour
Courgette Nero Di Milano - I couldn't get any striata d'Italia but these looked a good second choice.
Pea Alderman - I loved this climbing pea this year and it saves on space so they are retained for next year's season.
Pea Early Onward - you can never have enough peas. I still have some Kelvedon Wonder left over too. Successive sowing is the way to go with peas.
Beetroot Boltardy - I have to find a way to stop the voles getting the beetroot. I am thinking of making a raised bed, with a solid bottom, so they can't eat them.
Sweet Pepper Long Red Marconi - I wanted those good Robertina peppers but can'[t get them. These look wonderful, long red variety and they say they are productive. Peppers seem to do better than aubergines so I willl stick to them from now on.
Climbing French Bean Cobra - My reliable favourite. I saved my own this year but you can never get enough.
Dwarf French Bean Safari - these performed quite well this year so I will go for them again.
Onion Bedfordshire Champion - I will have a go at onion from sed this year. I will sow indoors at around Christmas time and see if I have some small seedlings to plant out in February. If it works, it is much more economical than sets!
Leek Musselburgh - Leeks were a bit of a flop this year but next year I will try hard to make a proper seed bed outdoors and fleece them well and try and raise my own plants.

Warm November

2011-11-21T10:11:00.002+01:00

This month has been unseasonably warm! So many things are still alive and kicking in the allotment. Nasturtiums are still rambling over the empty spaces, giving flowers for the insects, lettuces are under covers to blanch them (we ate a very nice frisee on the weekend), the sprouts and cabbages are getting quite big. The raspberries even still have a few fruit on them. But as they are no longer really tasty I will let the birds take advantage of them.
Garlic is in, and so are few echalotes, to see how they go being overwintered (I usually plant them in spring). The plot has been mostly tidied for the winter.
On Saturday a local farmer deleivered us some manure, about twice the amount we had bought! Unfortunately, the load was delivered clumsily and a huge pile is now sitting on top of my flower patch :-( I tried in vain to dig it out, but as a few of us moved an incredible amount of manure on the weekend, I was knackered and now I will try again next weekend to get it off. I hope that the artichokes survive! It also killed off what was left of my seedbox so I will pull that up and try and repair it in spring with some duct tape.
All is now ready for winter to take over.

Summary of 2011

2011-10-18T15:34:00.005+02:00

Neglect of the blog and somewhat of the garden although I am slowly turning it over for winter.
I harvested all the squash and now have to get them down to the cellar before my OH smashes them to bits with a hammer, because he will have tripped over them for the nth time.
I had the best harvest this year!
I had 6 Black Futsu (you can see two in this pic), 2 big Queensland Blue (There is one here giving a piggyback to a Black Futsu), and 2 other mysterious grey-blue pumpkins.

I also got a huge Atlantic Giant - 8.2 kg!

and there are 4 orange pumpkins (one got eaten before the pic was taken) - funny because I only planted Turk's Turban - the others appeared magically!

SO we will have pumpkin coming out of our ears, I predict! Good, pumpkin scones, muffins, flans, pumpkin fruit cake for Christmas! Yummy! But I guess I will have to give half away whenever I open some, most of them are well over 3 kilos!

Funnily enough the last two years the courgettes have been middling. The quantity was ok for me, but not what I would call a glut. I have trouble with the pattypan squash which is a shame because I like that a lot. It's been a bit cool for them, I feel they prefer the heat.

So the results of the growing season, now that everything is dying back?
Great garlic and onions. Reasonable potato harvest but it was a bit dry during their formative years... Good beans and peppers and excellent squash harvest. SO far the green cabbage and Brussels look good.
Lots of raspberries and gooseberries although the rasps tended to be squishy.
Excellent herbs and flowers (nasturtiums are all over the place now that the crops are out and we finally had beautiful lilies) and late rhubarb (had to restrain myself). Hopefully the baby artichokes will come into their own next year as they just put themselves in their places this season.

On the downside: tomato blight destroyed the crop, aubergines were crap, peas were not the best due to extended spring drought. Carrots failed to grow again and beets destroyed by voles. Good start to cucumbers but badly affected by powdery mildew).

On the whole it was a good year and I felt proud as I mostly kept on top of the tidyness factor. Maybe over time I am actually getting the better of the weeds?

Notes to self for 2012?
- Grow more cucumbers!
- Stop growing carrots!
- Find a way to keep the voles out of the beetroot.
- Grow herbs and salads in early spring and late summer.
- Go with the Rosabelle mid season spuds which were good.
- Grow kale and cabbage later. and try to grow broccoli and cauliflower again!
- Direct sow courgettes (esp those Striata d'Italia which were beaut!) but sow a couple in pots for earlier harvest.
- Grow only one cherry tomato plant and keep persisting with the heirloom varieties.
- Grow chillies and more sweet peppers! And take better care of the aubergines.
- Grow runner beans.
- Cut back the raspberries that are too unruly.
- Keep mulching and killing the weeds!
- Pat self on back for hard work put in.

last of the season

2011-10-06T11:54:00.003+02:00

I am starting to be able to say this for several things. I think I can safely say that we ate the last strawberries last night - the plants are starting to die back and the weather has turned blustery. The pumpkin vines are dying off quickly so this weekend will be the pumpkin harvest methinks and then clear the ground and dig it over. On Saturday must go get some horse manure at the pony club and spread over the ground.
I picked more beans but there are no more flowers - still, last beans in October is great I feel. Last peppers on the plants, they have been excellent this year. Rhubarb is dying back, raspberries are giving their last fruit (not really very nice in fact), the courgettes too are on their last fruit (I leave them till it get decidely frosty though, you never know). The brussel sprouts are starting to sprout and the kale is growing well. I am starting to harvest the blanched Cornet d'Anjou scarole lettuces, the bloody vole ate through one! Bastard! But the others are nice, very crisp, a little bitter but the heart has stayed tender. I now need to fleece the frisée and mache I think. The winter spinach has germinated well, if we now get some rain it will be a good harvest (Winter Giant).
It is always sad when the summer harvest finishes, but there is still loads of work to be done - I want to move the compost heap (what an idea! But it is full of unused compost and I want to plant an artichoke in its place....) and it is definitely time to dig over, prune and tidy up before winter. I also need to prepare the garlic bed as that will start going in at the end of the month. One last thing to sow this weekend and that is the White lisbon spring onions.

Foraging

2011-09-26T10:42:00.004+02:00

A spate of bad weather and busy-ness kept me mostly away from the allotment for the last 2 weeks, except for a few brief harvsting spurts. We are still eating lots of greenery - coriander, lettuce, parsley, rocket, mint - and also french beans, sweet peppers (good harvest of those this year), raspberries and strawberries and obviously the spuds and onions and garlic already harvested, and now we have started eating the kale and the first Brussel Sprouts!!! yes already. still waiting for carrots to be big enough to eat.
The pumpkins are ripening nicely, yesterday my hubby, for once, was at the allotment and was rather alarmed by them. Firstly he said they are growing onto the path, which is against his world view, and then he counted them and said what are we going to do with all of them!? (Eat them , you fool!).

The spud patch is now completely dug over, there is a box of red Desirees in the cellar and another in the pantry so plenty of spuds for a while. In its place I put in winter spinach and lamb's lettuce.

Another thing we have been doing lately is foraging. This year the big thing is apples. A friend was cheerfully throwing away all the apples on her tree, which was heaving with hundreds of apples. She said they tended to have worms... oO
Complete shock horror to me, who went and harvested them and I now have 3 boxes of apples in the cellar and another big bag in the pantry of the slightly damaged ones, which I am slowly turning into pies and applesauce. They are some kind of wild Reinette and I think rather tasty.
I also found, with a good tipoff, several apple trees hidden on a pathway on our local common. Unfortunetly I only had a wee bag and realised that the scale of the operation was way over that! there were still dozens of apples on the trees. I need to take a ladder down and a few boxes and pick them before they all turn into windfall.

Black death

2011-09-12T10:22:00.002+02:00

Thy name is tomato blight. I pulled up the last plants yesterday with a bitter taste in my mouth, the stems actively rotting, the decomposing fruit lying mournfully on the ground. even if the plot looks tidier for it, it was a sad moment.
On Saturday I reaped the benefits of the recent rainy weather. I picked a whole carrier bag full of green beans, a little young lettuce, handfuls of spicy rocket, chives, parsley, thyme and mint for drying, wonderful leaf coriander which is now packed in ice cubes for winter stews and curries. It was a beautiful green bundle that I brought home.

I always feel that one of the greatest benefits of an allotment is all these extras. Herbs, flowers, salad greens, all things that bring such flavour to food. And which usually cost a fortune in the shops to buy!

The pumpkins are ripening nicely. I ate the first Turk's Turban over the weekend. I was apprehensive as many people had told me that it was just a decorative pumpkin and not nice to eat. But I found it fabulous! Quite a dry dense flesh, but wonderful mashed, and the second half I roasted in foil in the oven, with the seeds scooped out and milk poured into the hole. Salt, pepper and mash the milk into the cooked flesh. I bet that it makes great soup too. The other pumpkins are looking great. I have a very grey Qld Blue that is now over 40 cm across and a huge Atlantic Giant, that must weigh several kilos. There are at least 6 Black Fujutsu (Is that the name) with their dark dark green flesh. They are not quite ripe as the vine is still very green.
A good autumn predicted!

11 September 2011

2011-09-12T10:15:00.003+02:00

On this commemorative weekend, we spare a moment to think of those that can no longer feel the grass under their feet, that can no longer cut the roses and tulips and honeysuckle from their gardens, that can no longer pluck ripe tomatoes from the vines in their backyards and give them to their children to devour, that can no longer feel the warm September sun on their backs as they dig the good earth. Those who became dust roaring through the streets of Manhattan, those who became disbelief and horror in the form of a pile of rubble of cataclysmic proportions, those for whom horror continues in wars that have, despite patriotism, failed to rid our world of terror and led to even more destruction.
May we plant seeds for them.

Datura

2011-09-06T14:18:00.003+02:00

I had the chance during my holidays to discover some new types of plants. One that intrigued me was a plant that was highly common in the Toulouse region, which was a bushy shrub with large pointy leaves, spiny fruit about the size of http://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gifa plum, and delicate white trumpet shaped flowers. It looked most peculiar, I had quite a close look but somehow my instinct told me not to get too close.
My instinct was right, the plant was a Datura: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium
Image:

Also known as the Devil's Trumpet or a stinkweed, it is highly poisonous and has hallucinogenic effects. A most striking plant despite its deadly nature.

I'm back!

2011-09-05T17:20:00.002+02:00

After a well earned holiday. During which I saved lots of nice tomato seeds for next season. Just as well as this year's crop has now been destroyed by late blight. Still, I got several jars of tomato sauce and we have been eating nice tomatoes for a couple of weeks. Have to be more vigilant next year.
Lots of work in the allotment - cutting down lots of grass for one! And weeding, about 5 wwheelbarrows full. It's now looking grand, with lettuce and swiss chard planted in the former tomato bed, pumpkins spread all over the place ripening, Brussels and scarlet kale looking good for winter. Beetroot has been severely nibbled by voles...
But I have been harvesting cucumbers, and loads of green beans, as well as rocket, parsley, purslane, coriander and baby lettuce for salad and mint, lemon verbena, lavender, sage, thyme, rosemary to dry for winter. There are still plenty of raspberries on the bushes and the courgettes are giving a new push. I even picked a few stems of rhubarb which has come back in dramatic fashion, huge thick stems. The sweet peppers are good this year, plenty of fruit. Eggplant is disappointing though, just a few small fruit, although the RedEgg variety is in flower - can't wait to see if it fruits...
All in all, an excellent crop this year. But still no joy with carrots! They are tiny... even months after sowing. So if the late sowings are just as bad I will definitely call it a day on those, as they just do not work on my plot.

Last minute rush

2011-08-10T15:18:00.003+02:00

Before my hols. Picking vaguely red tomatoes so they don't over ripen while I am away, chopping down the rocket so it doesn't bolt, planting out lettuce, lifting some spuds. Unfortunately I don't have time to weed :-( so it's a bit of a mess. But after that I have another week off so I can tidy, prune and prepare for the end of the season.
Happy holidays to all! I will try and take some more pics of the wonderful fruit and veg in the south of France!

Still raining

2011-08-08T10:57:00.002+02:00

The summer is a total washout. The weekend again was filled with rainy skies. So what does one do in that case? You bag up your onions! :-) I went to fetch them (during a brief non-humid period) and discovered that something (probably the bloody vole)had been rifling through them and a couple were even nibbled! The cheek! So the shed is not rodent proof (note to self). Still not too bad, I filled 3 5kg spud bags with brown onions and 2 2.5 kg bags with red onions and 5 small bags of echalotes. That's plenty to see us through the next year, especially as I have lots that are slightly damaged that we will eat over the next few weeks.
Incidentally the bloody rodent has been chewing the beetroot too. For once I got some decent size roots and they have big chunk taken out of them! So I lifted them scrubbed them and cooked them, we will just have to chop them about a bit. Maybe before the late harvest it will have breathed its last or been eaten by something.
In a rare moment of lucidity, I also planted out a doezen small lettuce plants - it subsequently drizzled all day which is a great way to start them off!
I harvested some more tomatoes, a yellow courgette as well as a bagful of mint which is currently steeping to make mint cordial, and lots of sage and thyme for drying and a heap of rocket for salad. Lots of cucumbers on the vine but still very small. I hope they will be ready when we go on hols at the end of the week. There are plenty of peppers growing, and a few aubergines (not the best harvest this year). I also brought home the first Turk's Turban pumpkin, beautiful creation in dark orange and green stripes. Striking.
I also cut a bit of grass, hacked down a few weeds, so it didn't look so untidy, but I fear that the plot is going to be in less than pristine condition when I leave it.

Unpredictable weather

2011-08-05T14:28:00.003+02:00

The weather is just stupid right now. Rain, then sunny periods then grey skies and cold winds. All in one day. Freaky.

So maybe now is a good time to make Mint Cordial! A friend gave me her recipe. It's really refreshing in cold water and probably nice in cocktails too! It doesn't have that sickly chemical mint taste (commercial mint cordials are like drinking toothpaste, erk) but is more like the taste of mint tea. I have loads of feral mint growing around the sides of the shed, sounds like the perfect time to hack it all down and put it to good use.

SO:
300g fresh mint, washed, which is basically several big bunches
1 litre of water
1.2kg sugar
(Yes you can reduce or increase quantities proportionally).

Chop up the stems of mint roughly and bruise it.
Boil the water and pour over the mint in a bowl, and steep the mint in the water for 24 hours, covered.
The next day, wring out the mint getting all the drops of juice out.
Dissolve the sugar into it then boil for 2-3 minutes.
Cool and bottle.

Change in the weather

2011-08-02T15:20:00.003+02:00

Last night, after a day of very hot sunny weather I was rushing down to water the vegetables, including the pricked out lettuces that were looking decidely shrivelled under their fleece (I have more if I have accidentally killed these). Today it is warm but overcast and it definitely looks like it will rain for most of the week. There is no justice.

The tomatoes are starting to ripen, I picked 3 reddish ones yesterday and there are several others that are looking quite yellow. But I am rather hoping that many will be ripe before my hols, in a fortnight's time... There really are some splendid toms this year, if I may say so myself. There is a large fruited-variety (it is probably Marmande I think) that has a truss of 6 huge fruit, tightly packed around the vine and dark green so far. A great outcome, as last year's fruit were healthy but quite small. I think the July rain was obviously a big factor.
I also dug up a few kilos of spuds. As predicted, the red Rosabelle second earlies are very good. About 6 or 7 spuds per plant of a good size, many 8 or 9 cm long. I hope the Desiree mains will be just as good - their foliage is almost completely dead now so underground they will swell for another week or so, I guess.
It was a quick visit, just time to water, and rip out a few weeds here and there. It does need a pretty good cleanout before the holiday break, but if it rains, will I be able to do that in time?? Ah, always something getting in between me and complete vegetal victory.

First tomatoes

2011-08-01T14:05:00.002+02:00

At last! I got 2 Coeur de Boeuf (note to self - remember to save seed from this baby), and a couple of Gardener's Delight.
In a rather paranoid fashion I have been pulling off any yellowish or imperfect leaves I have found, in a blight panic attack, following all the wet weather we had. So far, so good. There are masses of fruit and flowers, now it just has to all ripen!
I also ate my first cucumber, beautiful; not a hint of bitterness. There are 3 more swelling and other vines are still to reach fruiting stage. So hopefully many weeks of cukes to come.
The courgettes are now up to speed, giving several fruit a week. The Serpente has not yet given fruit but as it is covered in its gorgeous white flowers it will surely not be long. I have also identified my other courgette plants: there is a Sunbeam yellow summer pattypan squash and a yellow Parador courgette. So lots of colours this year.
On Sunday I pricked out some lettuce seedlings, and fleeced them as it has suddenly turned hot. Didn't want them in full sun unprotected.
The pumpkins are still suffering from powdery mildew but I am trying to remove affected leaves and giving them milk baths, so hopefully the fruit will still ripen. There are heaps of fruit on them! A very successful start to the squash year!
And strangely enough, the rhubarb has suddenly decided to perk up and throw out wonderful stems! I may be tempted to pinch a few of them, they are much better than the spring ones which suffered badly in the drought conditions.

Blatant publicity

2011-07-28T16:50:00.003+02:00

Yes I am now going to do something rather shameless and float my own boat. As Google loves blogs, I am trying to gibe myself a helping hand by posting my site here.
As I also do freelance translation and writing, I have set up my site to publicize my contact details.http://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
If anyone would like French to English translation, editing, proofing and suchlike, please visit my website:
(In English): http://transdoc.nantes.free.fr/index_en.html
(In French): http://transdoc.nantes.free.fr/index_fr.html
I will be pleased to help you with your documentation needs.

Last sowings

2011-07-28T13:24:00.003+02:00

It's now getting on for the end of July, the summer season is in full swing (or it would be if anything would ripen!) but you have to prepare now for later on. I admit that I don't grow a lot in winter, although I could if I was more prepared with polytunnels and fleece. However we have a fairly mild autumn so this year I have prepared some end of season sowings so that September is not the end of everything.
Yesterday I sowed a last row of French beans (beans this year have been utter crap so far! I think they hate changeable weather), late beets and carrots (Boltardy, Monotruba and Autumn king carrots), frisée for autumn salads, lamb's lettuce, coriander for some autumn curries and also some spring cabbage. All these in seed beds in the open which I will fleece if it seems to be getting too hot.

I also picked the first tomato! Shame that it had been rain damaged but I cut out the cracked spot and ate it in a sandwich and it was just fine - a Coeur de Boeuf. The fruit on the tomatoes is impressive, now if it would just turn red, we'd be laughing! I am always rather dismayed to see other people's tomato plants, almost stripped of their leaves to allow the few huge tomatoes on them to ripen. I would rather let the plant live, have smaller tomatoes but more fruit. I find that my tomatoes liver longer that way.
Noticed that most of the site is decimated by powdery mildew. I am rather pleased as my proactive efforts are paying off - the squash and courgettes are only mildly affected, I continue the milk drenches and pick off affected leaves and remove them. The courgette plants have loads of baby fruit! so cute!
Just need to tidy up the fruit bed now which is getting very weedy. Nice and sunny here today, maybe the tomatoes will agree to shed their greenness in exchange for a little sun!

300 posts!

2011-07-25T12:17:00.005+02:00

Woohoo, up to 300 posts! This will be rewarded by some pictures that I took yesterday in the garden.
Here, the weather is really crappy. Cold, wet. This is not really that good for the plants, although the raspberries are huge, as they have plenty of water, as are the tomatoes. Trouble is that without sun, nothing is ripe!

I worked hard yesterday weeding as best I could, actually I got a bit carried away with the time and lunch was late. Oh well. Not too much bindweed, but loads of annoying annuals, toadwort, fat hen, groundsel and bloody couch grass. I filled a wheelbarrow again. Tidied all round the cukes and melons and the tomato/aubergine patch. It does look better I must say.
There was some harvesting to be done yesterday: the first cucumber!

And a few courgettes, still slow on the takeoff. The Serpente di Sicilia have been tied up!

A few rasps and strawbs. The raspberries are very tall this year:

But the tomato harvest is still not forthcoming, even though the fruit is plentiful and swelling wondefully.

These will be the biggest fruit I have ever had. San Marzanos are in huge bunches! The gardener's Delight is laden with long rows of fruit, the MoneyMaker have trusses of 4 and 5 fruit, all round and perky, the Tigerellas are staring to produce big flushes of smallish striped fruit and the Marmande are flat, fat and wrinkled. But everything is resolutely, positively, depressingly green.

There are baby aubergines growing now, at least 3 of them. Including the Red Egg which are meant to give red fruit (but all it has for now is a funny plant shape). Don't worry, the invading grass on photo below is now but a memory.

Actually, I realised that two of the aubergines were completly shaded by the tomaotes, which had grown too lushly. SO I dug them up, rootball and all, and moved them into a more exposed place. I do hope this encourages them, they are tall and hardy but have no fruit yet. I also have several green peppers, which one day may turn red if the sun ever shows its face again.
The melons are doing well, obviously fleecing them was an excellent idea.

And the squash! So much fruit! Hopefully it will all have time to ripen, I have started pinching out the ends of the vines.
Turk's Turban:

Atlantic Giant:

Unknown, although I suspect it's a Qld Blue:

Here is a little overall view, unfortunately taken efore I had tidied it up a little. I find that most has gotten a little out of hand this year but as long as the veg are there it's ok. Left front in the kale, Brussels and the remainder of the spuds (still underground), right front is the squashes and beans,
back left was the onion patch, now has just a pumpkin and some stray tomatoes, back right is the tomatoes/peppers/aubergines/courgettes, with the fruit bed right at the back:

All in all, not such a bad year but now we desperately need some sun!

Milk fungicide!!

2011-07-22T16:25:00.003+02:00

The dreaded powdery mildew has struck again. It has been raining so much the last two weeks, we have hardly had any sun, so the mildew has started on the cucumbers and pumpkins. The courgettes seem OK for now...
In an attempt to find a solution, I did a bit of research and asked around and came up with...milk. Yes, it would appear that there is something in milk that doesn't cure the fungus but stops the spores spreading. So I made up a diluted milk solution and watered it all over the leaves of the cues and squashes. I can help wondering if it will not smell dreadful after a few days? Still, if it stops it spreading long enough to harvest, I will be grateful.
The cucumbers have a few fruit on them, one is about 30cm long but it is still a bit skinny. Hopefully the abundant rain will plump them all up a bit. The melons too have swelled - as they were fleeced and had had Bordeaux Mixture, they seem untouched by the mildew. We are finally eating the courgettes, but they are still a bit slow. I have discovered that a couple of them are those long Italian gourds! SO I have hoisted them up on stakes and tied them in. That will be fun to watch them grow!
The tomatoes are loaded with fruit but it's all green :-( Today has been brighter and full sun in forecast for the next week so I am hoping that our tomato harvest is just a step away.
Yesterday after the milky watering, I did some picking: a handful of strawberries, a courgette, 2 beetroot (finally!), a handful of kale leaves (the first ones, bubble and squeak this weekend!) and 2 sticks of rhubarb which seems to have picked up no end: it really suffered in the drought conditions. I won't pick anymore but I really wanted to make one more crumble before the end of summer. In fact I think the rhubarb is going to get a little haircut and a feed and be pampered a bit as it did look quite sad for a while there.
The harvest is slow but picking up bit by bit.

Ruthless!

2011-07-18T14:22:00.003+02:00

That's what I was with the tomatoes over the 14 July break. No more Mr Nice Guy! I chopped off without mercy, excess branches, side shoots, anything that looked slightly dodgy. I tied and straightened and pruned. There are now loads of fruit forming but nothing that is actually ripe yet! I am having trouble keeping my patience in check!
Got the first courgettes, at last, the Striato d'Italia that I got in a seed swop, beautiful pale and dark stripes and a delicious flavour. But the Black Beauty is not far behind, and it has handsome fruit, very dark and shiny. I am a bit puzzled, as I also got a Serpente di Sicilia, but I was expecting a courgette bush: instead it is acting like a pumpkin vine??? Have to wait and see. Not even sure that they will actually be nice to eat.
The pumpkins are mad, I have several big fruit forming, and the vines are running riot. One of the Turk's Turban fruit is nearly ripe, it's quite a dark orange. My mystery squahs are turning out to produce longish pumpkins that for now are a yellowish colour (actually a bit like a spaghetti squash...). Unless they are melons.... but I think not. Speaking of which, I have widdle baby melons! The first ones ever! I have high hopes of them ripening! And I am close to picking the first cucumber, especially as we have had loads of rain so they should now soak up water like nobody's business.
All the onions have now been harvested. I got two wooden market crates full of onions and another full of echalote (now I have to dry, trim and package the bloody things, which takes ages). And I strung up around 30 heads of garlic which is now swinging joyfully in the pantry.
Beetroot - might actually be picking some soon! Victory! And the new sowings have done pretty well.
My autumn lettuce has germinated well, even though the seeds weren't all that fresh. A week or two and I will plant it out, under fleece to protect it.
I'd liek to take some pictures but Eldest Son has taken his camera on hols. So might have to wait till the weekend for that.
And when I wasn't torturing the tomatoes, I turned out the shed and tidied it. Well kind of. More like taking everything out, removing the cobwebs and putting it back. But i did throw some things away! And I can now actually enter the shed! Hoorah!

Quick weekend visit

2011-07-11T11:34:00.002+02:00

I did a casual weed but I didn't do as much as I should! But there is a public holiday Thursday and I will try and get a couple of hours in. We actually had a BBQ in the garden, although it was a bit blustery and the idiots on trail bikes in the field next door ruined the peace and quiet. Need to choose a better day I guess.
I tied up the cucumbers (ooooh they have widdle baby fruits! I am so thrilled! They are the first ones I have ever grown!!!) and the tomatoes, although they still need further tying in, they are completely rampant. Gave a feed to the squashes. melons, courgettes, cukes and gave them some Bordeaux mixture, as last year I had lots of mildew, and don't want the same thing again. I actually have melons! I did coddle them, they are fleeced, weeded and fed and looks like this was a good idea, there are at least 3 or 4 tiny fruit and the vines have loads of flowers.
Only harvested a handful of beans and a few onions, but I am almost ready for the main onion harvest (there are kilos and kilos of them this year!) and the first courgettes will be ready this week. Thank you Anya, from the A4A forum, they are your italian courgettes! Last in and first to give fruit!! I am still digging up the spuds, on the seconds now, the red Rosabelles, some are quite a good size. And there are a couple of beetroot that are ready, can't believe I have managed to grow some! The later sowings are also coming on well. Wish I could say the same about the carrots, they have germinated OK but still not a carrot big enough to eat :-( I fed them this weekend though and will keep watering them, hope springs eternal...

Still no crop!

2011-07-07T11:13:00.002+02:00

With all the variations in rainfall and temperature, there is still little to show for in the way of crops, except the spuds (starting to hit the second earlies, orangey-red Rosabelles). I have dug up the garlic and echalotes which are drying in the shed, and on the next sunny day I can start to bring up the onions, their stalks are bent and many are already dried. The onion crop looks set to be excellent, good sized bulbs. The echalote was OK, most crowns had at least 6 echalotes of a fair size. Last years were bigger though, I think they too suffered from the unpredictable weather.
The squash is rampant, there is a fair sized Turk's Turban alredy on the vine and many other smaller fruit. I have pinched out one of the growing tips of the Atlantic Giant, I haven't found all the others yet!!!
The kale is doing very well, as are the Brussel Sprouts. The courgettes are finally showing tiny fruit, and the melons also have a couple of babies on them. Still nothing on the cucumbers but the vines are growing well.
The tomatoes are thick with foliage and flowers - there are several fruit forming now, I can see the distinctive stripes on the Tigerella fruit and the elongated shape of an Italian plum tomato. The Gardener's Delight are full of flowers and green fruit so won't be long now. I have beautiful purple flowers on some of the aubergines too. I feel they are the prettiest flowers of the cropping plants. A couple of tiny peppers can also be seen on the sweet pepper plants.
Yesterday in an hour, I did quite a lot of work, digging up spuds, garlic, echalote, watering a little, I even managed to do some sowing, filling in some holes in the French beans with Cobra and Fin de Bagnols beans, the last lot of carrots (Early nantes and Autumn King), and beetroot (I WILL get some this year if it kills me!) - both Cheltenham and Monorubra although for the former it is a tad late. And also some scarole lettuce (Cornet d'Anjou) and red scarole which is in quite a protected spot and I am hoping I have sowed at the right time. When the warm weather returns I will fleece that to protect it.
Now, I just need for the strawberries to start giving again and I will start to gain faith back!

Scorching hot!

2011-06-27T11:14:00.003+02:00

yesterday was 37 deg C here! Phew! Luckily, Biggest one (bigger than me now!) had to go to a rugby tournament and needed dropping off at 6.45 am... lucky me. Anyway I took advantage to go spend a few hours on the plot. And readers, I worked like a navvy it must be said. By the time I got baxck mid morning it was getting really hot out there, so timing was just right.
Job 1 - pull out all the bloody groundsel that was edging the onion bed. Left it in situ as mulch along the edge of the bed
Job 2 - harvest the garlic. 32 bulbs, a pretty good result. Not too big but it's lovely pink garlic, excellent flavour. Also pulled up the early echalotes - there is at least a kilo of those! Beautiful pink and red long ones. The onion harvest should be a really good one. The bulbs are very big, the necks are starting now to droop and yellow and fall over so I am guessing that harvest can take place in about a fortnight or so. No bolting! I am soooo pleased.
Job 3 - Stick in a bit of manure and replace the garlic with some leftover tomato plants that were hanging around. Might as well let them grow, even if it's getting a bit late, I will get late fruit off them at worst.
Job 4 - tie up the tomatoes again (some are getting very unruly) and start to trim their foliage. Loads of flowers and a few small fruit developing - the beefsteak that I bought at a boot sale is getting quite a few fruit and I think it will be a good one. I noticed that the Evergreen green toms have odd flowers - really big ones with a lot of petals!!! Strange. But the plants are really vigourous and seem to love this hot weather. Many are now well over a metre tall. The aubergines are still quite small. but I persevere with them. The peppers are in flower, superb. There are about 6 pepper plants surviving in all, but that is enough.
Job 5 - Rip out the peas that have finished now. Didn't manage to get any seed to save from them, which is a pity. The Alderman were good, I will grow them again but I think in a wetter spring they will be much better. Dug in some manure and buried a whole box full of scraps under the bed and sowed French beans: Safari,YinYang, Yellow wax dwarf and Konigsneckern and Cobra talls. These should give me beans later in the season, when the first lots have given up.
Job 6 - Pick the gooseberries. DAMN IT! They hurt like f**k! Big spines, in fingers and ripping down arms. Got at least 2kg of fruit but it bloody hurt!

I pottered - weeding, watering, training the pumpkin vines which are completely rampant! The Turks' Turban has gone mad, and the Atlantic Giant has small fruit on it. Tidied the strawberries, pulled out the broad beans that are finished, tied up the cucumber vines that are starting to flower (as are the melons which are really vigourous!). Courgettes struglled for a while as the temperatures fluctuated a lot but they are growing, just taking their time this year (I was quite late with them, usually plants are in by may and this year I direct sowed in June :-S). The carrots and parsnips I sowed recently are starting to germinate. The lavender is in flower and all is well with the world.

Quick harvest

2011-06-20T10:57:00.003+02:00

As the rain which has stayed so long away has now decided to come back with a vengeance, there was little that could be done this weekend, except watch the allotment get greener!
I pottered for half an hour, picked a few green beans (the first! - but noticed that the stems have been wind damaged!!! Luckily there are more sowings to come), the last pens, broad beans, a few raspberries, and the first lot of gooseberries! at least a kilo! Small this year but sweet. I will have to get some sugar and get the jam cooking!
While I was picking them, I heard a rustling in the mulch, and suddenly, right near me, a tiny snout came up, then two bright eyes! The vole! Well, I don't doubt that it's not the same one... but I had noticed a few tunnels here and there. As I am one of the few that mulch, obviously my plot if a great attraction! She was under the raspberries, so probably picking up the windfalls. I noticed a few opea pods that were close to the ground, had been nibbled too. Oh well, She's so tiny and cute, I can't begrudge her a few veggies. She looked at me for a while then scurried back under the straw.
The tomatoes and peppers are going great guns, and the pumpkins are just going absolutely mad (I just don't actually know what some of them are! I am guessing butternuts but am unsure)! Courgette plants are growing quite well, some male flowers but no females yet, but the largest plant is starting to grow a dense interior section, with flower buds, which usually means that fruit will soon be on its way. I tied up one of the cucumbers, it is now about 30-40 cm high, and I think will soon be flowering. The melon plants are quite vigourous now, they are in flower. Wonder if we will get fruit though??
The garlic is dying back, soon be harvest time, when there is a sunny period. The onions this year are magnificent, and no bolting at all! Terrific!
New tasks for this week, if it stops raining long enough: pull up the dead pea plants and sow more green beans for the end of the season. Weed and feed the strawberry beds and tidy that general area. Hoe away the weed seedlings that are growing like mad... Last post before the official start of summer....What a strange spring it has been.

Soggy week

2011-06-17T12:55:00.003+02:00

Well the much needed rain we were all hoping for has arrived. It has been raining off anf on for most of the week. And good rain it is too, not torrential just mild steady showers on and off. Good for soaking into the ground but not running all over the place.
Hope I don't find to many weeds on teh lottie this weekend! I can't help thinking though that this will give an excellent start to the root veg I sowed last week, and encourage good growth on the courgettes and squash and tomatoes. Guess it will do the maincrop spuds good too, although probably a bit late for the earlies whose vegetation has already died off.

Whit weekend

2011-06-14T11:52:00.002+02:00

It was Pentecost weekend, so a whole day more to work on the lottie. We are finally getting some rain, and that is seen by the huge amount of weeds that have suddenly sprouted! Luckily the plants are also responding well to the watering.

I dug out an incredible amount of weed, 2 whole barrows full. Mostly bindweed I add, although also a lot of fat hen, funnily enough, all in with the squash and beans.

I planted out the Brussels Sprouts which were really calling out to be planted, and pricked out some beetroot. I dug over the carrot bed, around the existing carrots (if you can call them that, put on some fertiliser and sowed Autumn King carrots, late beetroot (monoruba) and some parsnips, as the first row has so much weed I can't tell if they have germinated or not. Also sowed some summer lettuce, thinking maybe growing under fleece will help me get some lettuce!

Weeded, remulched the tomato/pepper/aubergine bed, and tied the toms up, First green tomatoes can be seen and some of the others are flowering. I also have a few feral tomatoes growing wild, I have grouped them near the flower bed and in with the garlic which will come out soon.
Picked the last of the peas, bar a few odd ones. Those Alderman were really good, I must do them again next year. Much better than the smaller varieties.
The first and second potatoes have completely died off! This is a strange phenomenon but which happens every year so I now assume is normal. I have started bringing out the Belle de Fontenay, they are still smallish but they taste lovely.

The squash are rampant, starting to run all over the place, but I am finding the courgettes slow. The first one I planted out has its first flowers but no fruit yet. The others (There are 5 plants this year) are just on their first true leaves. The cucumbers are starting to grow upwards on their wigwam, and I put some wooden frame around the melons so they can grow upwards a little. They are flowering but no fruit yet. The French beans are in flower so I guess that we will have beans quite soon.

My legs are pretty sore today so I must have worked well, The plot certainly looked tidier. I just managed to chuck the weeds on the waste pile and hotfoot it, as a fine rain began to fall, lightly but quite relentlessly. Oh well, it will be good for the new carrots!!

Brief reprieve of rain

2011-06-07T12:18:00.003+02:00

On the weekend we finally had some showers but I would say that it is not nearly enough to help with the drought situation. Still, enough so I don't have to go running with the watering can!
I tidied up the garden a little over the long weekend. but not nearly enough to satisfy me. There is a lot of bindweed, and I really need to sow late beetroot and autumn carrots. Still, I planted out the kale, and some more broccoli (hope springs eternal), and sowed late French beans (Safari and some yellow wax).
I dug up a few kilos of early spuds too. Actually they are not all early. I did plant a few random Ratte type - they are really too small right now but I need the space for other things! We ate them regardless. The Belle de Fontenay are small but delicious. I will do them again next year, with hopefully a bit more rain.
The big surprise is the onions. They are doing extremely well, some bulbs are looking mighty handsome. I can't believe how well they have grown with nearly no water except a few bits of hand watering.

A sprinkle

2011-05-30T11:11:00.003+02:00

We finally got a little rain this morning, but really only a sprinkle. I fear it goes a long way off being of any use. I guess at least it will freshen up the plants a little.
I watered copiously this weekend. Most things actually seem ok, but the carrots look unwell and the broccoli has actually died. The beetroot was very floppy but a good soaking and it has perked up again. A couple of onions have bolted but not too many. The garlic is dying back, quite early and the shallots etc seem to be preparing well, the crowns are starting to rise up out of the ground.
The potatoes have actually been hand watered but it's not enough. The earlies and mid-season are actually dying back. The maincrop are in flower.
The tomatoes and peppers seem to love the heat though. Some of the tomatoes are flowering even though they are quite small still. I pinched off a few sideshoots and trimmed the bottom stems a little to encourage them. The aubergines are doing Ok but I think they prefer it to be milder.
To my surprise. the melons have not all died off! 3 are in fact doing quite well with new growth! I dug the others out next to them and buried a whole heap of kitchen waste and then sowed more cucumbers over the top and fleeced the lot. Thank you Anya for your cucumber seeds! Hopefully they will do well!
Some of the courgettes and squash have germinated, I soaked them all again and hopefully the others will follow suit. The little courgette in the corner is doing well and looks ready to flower soon.
I netted the gooseberries, this year the crop is abundant, and I am guessing they will be full of sugar. They are not very well netted, I was in a hurry, but I find that the birds that eat those are quite easily dissuaded, with the spines in the gooseberries and the net, the fruit should be oK.
Harvest: not much yet, about a pound of new potatoes, small but healthy, and a small container of peas and mangetouts. The Alderman tall peas are full of pods but teh peas have not plumped up yet. Hoping that the watering will help. And 4 lovely artichokes! Which we will scoff joyfully this evening.

Dry, dry and dry again

2011-05-20T14:36:00.002+02:00

Still no rain in view. Yesterday the garden had to be soaked by hand, luckily it stayed overcast so evaporation would have been minimal. I watered everything, took nearly 45 minutes, by hand, even the onions and potatoes (with Bordeaux Mixture for safety's sake). Surprisingly, many crops are still doing well, and the squash and peppers and tomatoes seem to actually like this hot spell. The raspberries are starting to form fruit! Exceptionally early. And the gooseberries are fruiting well, however they must soon be netted as the berries ripen.

We are still eating strawberries and peas and there are 4 artichokes which will be ready in a week or two.
Pictures soon.

Hi ho Hi ho, it's off to mulch we go...

2011-05-16T11:19:00.002+02:00

OK, crap cultural reference, I admit it. But the plot is hopelessly dry, still no rain in sight here. So on the weekend I went and filled my boot with garbage bags of horse manure from the pony club and then watered the plot thoroughly and mulched as much as possible with the straw+manure mixture. I didn't get around to the onions, but would like to do them this week. They are doing pretty well, considering, and mulching would protect this growth methinks.
In fact everything is doing well, considering. We ate 2 big artichokes and there are 4 more growing, the strawberries gave about a kilo of fruit and the pea plants are starting to show fruit too. The tomatoes and aubergines and peppers actually seem to be thriving in this warm weather, and all have taken well since planting. Just have to keep watering...

Everything is now in place: on the weekend, I put in the courgette seeds (2 Black beauty greens, a yellow Parador,a Serpente di Sicilia, and another Italian one which escapes me), and planted a Qld Blue and a Fujutsu Black (That might be an approximate name) pumpkin near the compost bin, and a Pink Banana squash behind it. The Turk's turban and Atlantic Giant sowed about 2 weeks ago are doing very well indeed.

I have also noticed an advantage to this dry spell - the weeds are struggling! As I spot water the plants, really soaking only their roots, the rest has been left to its own devices, and the usual groundsel, thistles, toadwort, seem to have trouble getting a hold this year. The bind weed is still present but to a lesser extent than usual. Everything being so well established this early give me more time to eradicate the weeds, which I another advantage!

At last some rain

2011-05-10T11:21:00.003+02:00

And well needed it was too!
I had a week off work and did some amazing progress in the garden, thanks to my brother and his good digging technique! My neighbours were amused, as he speaks no French, I said I have hired a foreign labourer to help and they all giggled.
So I got the tenders planted - about 15 tomatoes, 7 or 8 aubergines and the same of sweet peppers. Also went in 5 melon plants given to me by a workmate. I have fleeced those, I find melons so dodgy, I don't know if they will take but they were free so no grumbles. The climbing beans are in, Cobra saved from last year and too from a seed swap, yard long beans and some other climbers whose name escapes me.
I sowed more squash, two or three courgettes including a Serpente di Sicilia, and beetroot and parsnip. The plot got a good kicking, the whole tomato patch was turned over and weeded in a couple of hours, I have just got the courgette patch left and that is covered in cardboard so will be a doddle.
The plot is beautiful just now - I harvested a pound of delicious strawberries and later in the week we will eat our first artichokes and peas (kelvedon).

The sage is in flower and for the first time I got irises! Gorgeous.

There are flowers everywhere:
red roses,
chive flowers,

purple honeywort,

brilliant orange california poppies,

white thym and what is called apparently "Honesty", or money plant, which in French is called the Pope's Money. It's a lunaria in fact, but gave purple blooms and now the strange translucent pods good for decoration indoors. That took 2 years to grow from some seed sown!

I can honestly say that despite the lack of rain, the plot this year is looking tip top, loads of fruits on the bushes, squash has germinated fine, and the beans and peas are in great shape. Will I get carrots? Who knows, but the seedlings are abundant and healthy for the first time. And yes this is getting slightly obsessive.
Now we just need another few heavy downpours and we will be in business!

Photos April 2011

2011-04-28T13:49:00.003+02:00

Finally got the photos loaded!
First an overview of the garden as it stands:

You can see on the left the spud patch and on the right the peas and broad beans. The plastic bottles are cloches for squash. A Turk's Turban, a summer pattypan and an Atlantic Giant that can run down the edge of the plot (that was a freebie!).

In this view you can see the herb bed next to the shed, the seedbox and the small patches I havenext to it with lettuce, radish and beetroot seedlings. Behind those is the "mother" artichoke, she is now 4 years old and gives excellent fruit. The rhubarb also appears in the foreground.

The spuds are going great guns despite the dry weather, it was a good idea to heavily manure that patch! they are partially mulched but I have run out of straw for now.

I am a bit worried about the onions but watering them by hand just seems futile. Still, they have come up very well. A good downpour would do them good.

The raspberries are totally feral this year, I fear I may have to cut back some of the foliage as I can hardly get past them! They are much leafier than last year!

I will post some other photos once they are ready.

Just a drop

2011-04-28T11:17:00.003+02:00

Finally got a small shower of rain last night, I don't know if it will make a great difference but at least the very young crops might have been freshened up a little.
But we really need a good downpour, it has been a few weeks since we had good solid rain. I do feel weird saying this though as I am on holidays next week. maybe just a day or two?? :-)

Easter work

2011-04-26T11:38:00.002+02:00

Did just a few bits and bobs this weekend, even though it was a public holiday!
Took some pics but they are still in the camera! bugger!

Sowed: cucumber, beetroot (Monoruba), and some wildflowers to fill that annoying gap between the strawberries and the path!
Weeded; the strawberries, the peas, the carrots.
Planted: 2 aubergine (Halflange Violette) and the first Gardener's Delight tomato.
Watered a lot - still no rain!

Progress: Fertilised the strawberries which have lots of green fruit and flowers, must keep watering so the fruit forms properly. The peas continue to grow, as do the broadbeans. The new broccoli have taken well despite the drought and have put out new leaves. The lettuce and beets transplanted last week have also taken well and the radishes have germinated very well. The raspberries are totally feral and I may have to cut them back as I can almost not get past them already!!
Potatoes certainly like manure!I dug up a volunteer that had been growing up through the manure that was spread in winter - and already there were 3 big spuds on it! So we will eat those, yum yum. I think they were Charlottes growing there.

Thanks to my big son who has put his new muscles to good use Monday, helping me to dig.

Weeds - getting better

2011-04-21T15:12:00.001+02:00

I am gradually starting to become a weed expert! It has taken me years but I am slowly but surely naming (and getting rid of) the weeds in my garden! I don't really count the field bindweed anymore as it is just now a neverending source of misery and lamentation, rather than a simple weed.

However I can also boast these annoying little buggers:
- Dandelion
- Sow Thistle (really hurty if you pick it up accidentally)
- Scarlet Pimpernel (Pretty! but invasive)
- Groundsel
- Narrow leaf Plantain (mostly around the edge for some reason)
- Chickweed
- Red Clover
- Creeping Buttercup
- Lamb's Quarters

Among others!

dry dry dry

2011-04-20T11:07:00.003+02:00

Still no rain, but lovely April weather, so it doesn't do to complain. I am pleased because the indoor seedlings are doing well (except the courgettes that don't seem to want to sprout) including the ones that I just pricked out over the weekend, and I had to go down the lottie to water and saw that the new seedlings are coming on wonderfully - the pricked out lettuce and beets seem to have taken, as have the broccoli, and the peas are thriving. I will have to go down and water again though, probably tomorrow morning. The new season's crops have come up so well, I don't want to comprimse them via lack of water.
I gave the strawberries a good soak yesterday , as they are under black plastic they should be ok - they have lots of flowers, which means lots of fruit! Yum, can't wait, I only ever eat my own now, more or less. Others are just awful in comparison!

Make hay while the sun shines

2011-04-18T10:49:00.002+02:00

OK maybe not hay, but a good bit of sowing and weeding does wonders! I did get a wee bit carried away but the weather was so perfect, sunny but cool, not a cloud in the sky.
I staked the peas that are now about 20cm high and coming on well. I earthed up the early potatoes, which have excellent growth on them.
Then for sowing, I put in some beetroot, lettuce and broccoli seedlings that had been sown a few weeks ago, sowed some radish, beetroot and lettuce, in nice neat squares.
I then attacked the bed where the peas are, because it was seriously overgrown down one end, and after digging it all over, I sowed 2 rows of French beans (Fin de bagnols and Kingswax yellow beans) and finally, under cloches, an Atlantic Giant pumpkin, a Turks Turban pumpkin and a yellow pattypan squash, Sunbeam. I will try and successively sow the beans this year, they always come too many together! So a small patch each fortnight!
It looks much better, there is only one quarter left to be cultivated, and the edges tidied a bit.
I headed off to the pony club in the afternoon, where I filled 3 bin bags full of stable waste (in which there was rather a lot of very smelly poo!!!!) and carted them off, 2 were used to mulch the first half of the potato bed (the others haven't come up yet so I need to wait a week or so!), the peas, and broad beans. I think I need about another 4 or 5 bags, because I would like to mulch everything this year, even the onions. That makes less work watering.

I have a week's holiday beginning of May so I will be able to do then the hard graft of digging over the tomato patch, planting and staking all the tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, courgettes. I spent some time too on Sunday pricking out the last of the tomato seedlings, I now have about 15 plants, which is great, just the right number, even though they are fairly banal varieties: Gardener's delight, Moneymaker, Tigerella and Marmande for the most part, although 3 of the Evergreen green and one of the yellow Beefsteak tomatoes did come up - that will be a fun novelty! I also have 6 aubergine plants in good health and about 6 or 7 peppers, which I guess will be enough.

Coming along nicely

2011-04-14T14:18:00.003+02:00

I was definitely daft this morning as I went down for a quick water (that sounds a bit like I am having a pee on the veg, doesn't it??) and I had a camera on me! And I forgot to use it to take some pics! But I know they are badly overdue. I would like to get a chance to weed a bit first though...
So pleased - for the first time I have excellent carrot and spinach germination. I have learnt how valuable fleece is for those baby plants, it will definitely be a habit for me from now on. SO this year maybe there will be carrots for the first time.
The spuds are coming on in leaps and bounds - they need earthing up and mulching. The onions are all up now and they look so sweet with their green tops waving in the breeze. Everything has taken, the early and late garlic and the shallots. Now just have to hope that the warm weather doesn't make them all bolt.
I left a lot of rocket on the plot, to self seed but I might have gotten a bit carried away I think. There are huge clumps of it, and they are all in flower and over a metre high! But they are attracting insects so that can't be all bad. I guess I will chop most of them down when planting the summer stuff and just leave a little to make new leaves for salads.
There are loads of volunteer spuds coming up in the bean and squash bed. I am loathe to do it as I don't think there will be many potatoes to speak of but they will have to come out. It's just a matter of time. Beans will start going in under fleece this weekend and the squash are only 2 weeks away from sowing... Shows that I should dig a bit more zealously when I harvest spuds!!!

Mind the gap

2011-04-11T12:39:00.002+02:00

In the rows of peas! Last year there was a successful manoeuvre on my part to fill in the gaps in the rows of peas once I noticed them. I found that this lead to a better harvest, as the older plants tend to protect the new ones, and it leads to a better usage of space. Sowed more Kelvedon and Alderman in this way.
Gorgeous sunny weekend, almost like summer. I finished planting the maincrop potatoes (Desirée), so that's done now. I howed the onions and shallots and the early spuds are well through so I started to earththem up a little and have made note to self to get in some stable waste to mulch with.
For the first time my carrots have germinated really well under fleece. But it is getting really warm so I lifted that on Saturday, and I think that I might actually grow some carrots this year!! The spinach too is coming on well.
I sowed some things in my seedling shelter - many flowers for transplanting (zinnea, marigolds, carnations), some basil (rather pessimistically but you never know), broccoli, brussel sprouts, kale and more beetroot. I ran out of time but I really wanted to sow some more beetroot straight in rows, and also more spinach and parsnips. I must try to do that this week.
The fruit bed is still a bit of a dog's dinner. there is bindweed coming up in the strawberries, it seems to love covered areas, the bastard! That needs removing, and I should get some fertiliser on the plants, which have a lot of flowers! A great fruit harvest is looking likely, as the raspebrries are covered in growth and the gooseberries are in flower.

Inside, I pricked out more tomatoes, the peppers and aubergines are small but still growing, they have another 3 weeks to get a move on! I sowed a pot of basil too, since it seems to grow crappily outside. And even though I said I wouldn't, I gave in and sowed 2 cucumbers (Burpless Tasty) and 2 courgettes (Diamond, ordinary green), to get a head start. Hopefully they will be able to go out in the next two weeks if they sprout quickly.

had a bit of a seed tidy up, threw out some old stuff, and I realised that I have squash seeds in abundance! Some free Atlantic Giant (that I don't especially want! But I might grow one for fun, maybe I can get permission to put one in the borders of the carpark??) , Qld Blue, Butternuts, Turks Turban, was meant to have some Uchuku Kuri but I can't find the packet, Pink Banana from a swap. Dunno where I will put them all! because there are also 5 varieties of courgettes! Oh well, one of each??? :-)

Spuds again!

2011-03-29T14:24:00.004+02:00

Ah lots of hard yakka this weekend. Saturday was gorgeous, although the air was heavy with the promise of rain. SO in went just about all the Desiree maincrop potatoes, all except about ten that I forgot in the kitchen :-D I noticed that the earlies I planted end of February have tiny leaves peeking up. The mild March weather has done them good. The shallots and garlic and onions are all putting out shoots: this week is pretty rainy and I think a good soaking will boost them on no end.

Peas were also the star of the weekend. I filled in the gaps of the Kelvedon Wonders and planted out some samples I was kindly given in a swap - Half Pint and a Golden Mangetout variety (never got those to work before. Hopefully if there is not a lot to eat I will at least be able to save some more seed for next year!

The spinach is sprouting, excellent news - I sowed a new row of early Nantes carrots, mixed with a few spring onion seeds for fun. The plot is looking reasonably tidy (although that will change, with the rain) and spring is definitely pushing everything up. There is not that much to be planted in April, except some more sowings of beetroot, broccoli, kale, brussel sprouts and spinach and some flowers, so I will spend my time mostly tidying, weeding and edging the paths (a pretty big job!). It is starting to look OK, with some new pathing and I am keeping a check on the grass and weed, as far as possible.

Indoors, I repotted the aubergines and peppers. I am a bit disappointed with the germination rate to be honest, but I think there are at least 6 or 8 little plants of each which will be sufficient. the tomatoes are not all big enough yet to be potted on - there too I have had poor germination, I don't really know what the reason is. Perhaps not enough heat, not enough water, very mysterious.
Raining outside - fill up my rain barrels please!

First week of spring!

2011-03-21T11:37:00.002+01:00

Officially that is...
And the garden is definitely waking up. I worked hard down there this weekend (even made a semblance of tidying the shed, God forbid!). In went the mid-season spuds, Rosabelles, now just have enough room for the Desirée maincrop.
In went a row of spring onion seeds (probably a waste of time as usual, but you never know).
In went a seedbed of spring lettuce and leeks (which are doing hopelessly indoors. I wonder if the seeds are rubbish?? They hardly seem to have germinated).
I weeded the flower beds, and mulched them even, so they look really tidy. I relaid my paths in two places where they were getting out of hand, looks really different.
And I harvested all the old onions that were resprouting - gave me a whole heap of spring onions that I put in a stir fry! Yum! And had the first harvest of rhubarb - only 4 small stalks but they were yummy and the plant looks like it will give a good harvest this year, after lots of TLC in the winter. My second plant was divided so it is a bit smaller but that was to be expected.
The garlic has started coming through with a vengeance, and so have many of the echalotes. A few of the onions are laready showing green, which means they are taking root. I love watching alliums grow :-)

At home, I am a bit disappointed with some of my seeds. The aubergines and peppers are now doing Ok, they need to be transferred to new pots, I will buy some new potting mix for that I think. But the tomatoes are really slow coming up?? There is saved seed and bought seed and it doesn't seem to make a difference? I think I will still have at least 10 plants, but it is strange as usually I have so many I don't know what to do with them? Maybe it's still a bit cold...

Spuds and sowings

2011-03-14T11:17:00.004+01:00

In rather drizzly weather on Saturday, I still managed to plant out the early spuds, Belle de Fontenay, and a few more Ratte from 2010 that were sprouting merrily in the bottom of the veg trolley. You never know, they might grow oK, even though they are quite shrivelled.
That's one third planted, about 40 plants, the other two thirds to go in as March marches on.

I also sowed more peas, Alderman climbers (a first for me) and a variety I got in a swap called Early Alaskan, which is meant to be a nice cool weather pea.
I also have tried sowing some carrots (glutton for punishment) - Healthmaster and Early Nantes - and spinach - Medania - and have fleeced it, for once, so maybe I will get better results this year. I don't really know what else to try, as my carrots are usually so dismal. It was cold work down there but somehow I was pleased with the results.

Spring work starts

2011-03-10T10:53:00.003+01:00

I had a full work session down the allotment on Sunday - sore legs afterwards though! But the weather was just gorgeous, although pretty cold still. Irresistible.
I got all the onions planted! Brown and red, so pretty pleased with myself. This week has been lovely and warm so that will encourage them on no end. I also gave the herb bed a good tidy up, digging out a lot of chickweed and some dock and groundsel, and turning over the soil, which had a good dressing of manure over the winter. The soil is just a treat right now, full of organic matter and worms. I planted a lemon thyme and oregano plant that I had picked up cheap and finally planted out my poor Christmas Rose that was suffering indoors. I can see that parsley is already coming up from self seeding and the thyme and rosemary are looking well.
My rhubarb and artichokes seem to have taken well! Which is a relief. So now I have 4 rhubarb plants and 4 artichokes. Which is probably too many... oh well. The rhubarb is still small but it has survived this cold winter, which is one thing, and it had a good dressing of manure all winter, so hopefully I will get a good crop from the 2 older plants. Love love love rhubarb.
I had some broad bean seeds left. Now I told myself I would not plant broad beans again but I just didn't know what to do with these seeds...so I ended up putting them in along the edges of the pea patch and the spring cabbages, and another small patch near the irises. I admit that I do like them in a spring veg medley... OK, you can say I told you so when they get blackfly :-(
I also gave the strawberries a tidy, sowed some radishes YES YES I say every spring I won't do it again as they never come good, but I did have some free seeds.... SO I stuck a trowel full of manure in a little row and whacked them in.
There is still a lot of work to do, as usual - the seed beds are completely delapidated so I need to mend them and fill them with compost and start some seedlings of beetroot, leeks and broccoli. I need to prepare the carrot bed - I had an idea and bought some fleece. I will dig over several rows and sow carrots interspersed with spring spinach and spring onions and fleece it. Maybe that way I will get a better crop (OK, get A crop since usually my carrots don't work at all).
Oh and plant ALL my potatoes... I think I need a few days off work !!!! ;-)

Rotovating

2011-03-04T14:52:00.002+01:00

I have realised why some of my neighbour's on our allotment site seem to find it so easy to dig over their site: They rotovate the whole 100 m2!!! I realised this the other day as there was mud all over the paths.
As I use the hand digging method, no wonder I seem to always have so much work on my plate!!!

Perfume of spring

2011-02-28T11:53:00.003+01:00

Driving to work this morning I noticed that many of the trees along the ring road were in a bloom of white flowers. This is a definite sign that spring is almost upon us! Despite temperatures that are still chilly, the days bring many bright sunny periods, to cheer us up after all the winter gloom.
Yesterday was a productive day down the allotment. I spotted the garlic shoots finally coming up, but I planted another 10 cloves nevertheless, for some fresh summer garlic, even if it stores not so well as the overwintered variety I find. I also got in my 500g of echalotes, only the long variety this year, hopefully I will harvest several kilos like last year. I am still working my way through the 2010 harvest of onions and echalotes! Planted too were 250g of Stuttgarter brown onions, I will do the Jaune Paille des Vertus and the red ones later in March.
I tentatively started the spuds, putting in several Ratte that were left over from last year and the first of the Belle de Fontenay earlies. I will keep planting spuds from now till end of March.
And I even managed to get in a couple of rows of Kelvedon Wonder early peas, netting them from marauding birds!

The winter garden is finished, I pulled out the last sprouts and the broccoli, which had rewarded me with a last flush of shoots - I will definitely do some early this year, in April, to try and get some broccoli going most of the year. It takes up less space than other brassicas. I pulled up the remaining leeks, which are already chopped in the freezer!
And as for the spring garden - the rhubarb is growing, the baby artichokes have taken well, in the last weeks of wetter weather, and the overwintered spring Durham cabbages are growing too. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have fresh baby cabbages!
I now need to reconstruct my seed beds which have fallen apart slightly over winter! and get sowing with beetroots, salad greens, and spring onions.
And at home, the first aubergine shoot has come up in the pots, now I need the rest to get moving. This week the tomato seeds will be sown!

Bought - spuds and onions

2011-02-14T13:59:00.003+01:00

OK, for 28 euros, I have my spuds and onions and shallots sorted. I didn't really get what I wanted:
I had to make do with:
Belle de Fontenay as first earlies,
Rosabelle as mid-season (actually they seem to be equivalent to Rosevals).
Desirée as lates,

So lots of red-skinned spuds this year!

And as usual, the Jermor long shallots, which I grow every year - I even replanted a few of last year's of these to see if they do OK.
Also Vigamor shallots which are also a long variety.
And for onions, no surprises, brown Stuttgarter, and the most squat Jaune Paille des Vertus, both performed brilliantly last year.
And some reds, think they are Red Brunswick.

Yesterday it rained and i had a fearful migraine so they will have to wait another week. I plant shallots, then onions, then red onions, trying to have them all in by mid-March. The Belle de Fontenay will probably go in the 28 Feb and 7 March.

I also started the first seeds!
Aubergines: Black Beauty, Halflong Violet and Red Egg (red fruits!)
Sweet peppers: Robertina and some saved pepper seeds from last year.
Leeks - De Carentan, as last year - I will do a seed bed of those too, which worked pretty well last year...
Now I just have to stop the cat eating the labels :-(

Seed ordering time again

2011-02-09T11:35:00.004+01:00

Yes yes time to scour the net. But I am back to Alan Romans again, and this year www.vegetableseeds.net who kindly sent me a 10% discount that I then forgot to use... oh well, maybe I will need something else as the season wears on!
SO what will I be growing?
From Alan Romans:
Aubergine 'Red Egg' - the aubergines are actually red instead of black! A novelty!
Beetroot 'Cheltenham Greentop' - excellent flavour
Brussels Sprout 'Bedford Darkmar' - they looked good but we'll see if they produce good sprouts!
Carrot 'Early Nantes 2 ' - yes I am a glutton for punishment.
Courgette 'Black Beauty' - maybe the courgettes won't get sick this year.
Cucumber Burpless Tasty - first time with cukes!
French Climbing Bean 'Cobra' - my favourites
Peas - Early Onward and Kelvedon Wonder
Tomato 'Gardener's Delight' - they are awfully messy but the fruit is wonderful
Tomato - Roma - not tried this variety before but I do love plum tomatoes.

From VegSeeds:
Dwarf French Bean Safari - such a bargain! I couldn't resist.
Cucumber Burpless Tasty Green - oh bugger I ordered them twice! Oh well, a little advance on next year then!
Carrot Autumn King 2
Spinach Medania and Giant Winter - I enjoyed growing spinach last year and hopefully this year if it is not so dry, I will get some again.
Aubergine Rosa Bianca - white aubergines! A test.
Pea Alderman - Tall ones! Must remember to grow them up some trellissing!
Parsnip White Gem - they grew well this year and taste great.
Pepper Sweet Spanish Mixed
Squash Summer Sunbeam - love pattypan squash! drool
Squash Winter Uchiki Kuri - love these and have never grown them before,
Squash Winter Turk's Turban - weird shaped ones just to scare the neighbours ;-)

I will also be raiding Lidl seeds for more tomatoes, basil, yellow wax beans and probably flowers for companion planting.
Now I am soooo looking forward to planting it all!!!

Winter starts to lose its grip

2011-02-07T12:37:00.003+01:00

The new year doesn't really start in January at least not in the garden. In February, new shoots start to appear on many plants: the rhubarb has shown its face and new shoots have come on the artichokes.
So yesterday was an excellent moment to prune the raspberry canes before the buds grow, to divide and plant out rhubarb crowns (hope I did it properly! I just stuck the spade into the clump and planted the bits that came away!) which is what I also did with my artichoke that is a bit tired. Now of course I have little artichokes in several places - I might have to give some away or there won't be room for anything else!
Last day for Brussel sprouts, I had a magic crop this year, and now they have been ripped out, poor sods. Also dug up the last parsnips (excellent flavour, White Gem. must get more, except Alan Romans have none left :-( ) and snipped out some baby rocket leaves. Delicious.
Have started planting shallots. I am a bit concerned about the garlic - I can only see one sprouting so far. Maybe I will plant some more now to be on the safe side. They were planted in December during a moment of respite from the bitter cold. I hope they were not frozen. maybe they are just taking time to root....
I also did some tidying up yesterday - put manure and shredded paper around the fruit bushes, spread the manure a little more, cleared off the paths and pulled out all the dead stems of flowers etc. I also pruned the roses, better late than never.
So little by little it is getting ready for a new year of cropping. Now I just have to wait for the first bursts of spring that mean it's time to really get stuck in.

New Year, New Dig

2011-01-17T11:43:00.002+01:00

Yes I have neglected the blog because I have neglected the garden! Christmas and New Year whirled by in freezing temperatures and even snow. But the weather has become more clement so this weekend it was down to have a look. The cold frames have really suffered, I will have to do some major DIY on them before the new seedlings can get started in spring. But I am sure they can be fixed.
There is a bit of chickweed but mostly the plot is just looking sad and forlorn. So I did a bit of work, planting the rest of the garlic, 3 nice rows this year, about 30-40 heads if they all work. At least one of the cloves planted in December has started sprouting, I hope the others will follow with the longer days.
I dug a little to prepare for the shallots, but on the whole, avoid digging so as not to disturb the very cold and wet earth. There will be a lot of DIY to do, paths are overgrown, my tile path needs relaying and some of the borders are a mess, but a good afternoon's yakka and it should be right.
The rhubarb is showing its head already! That's the spirit! My baby artichoke has survived the very cold spell we had, soon I will move it to its new location behind the raspberries. This year I will split and divide the rhubarb and the artichoke. I also need to cut the raspberry canes.
There was some picking to be done! Fresh baby rocket leaves, loads of shoots of calabrese broccoli! (although i think that will be the last now) and almost a kilo of Brussel Sprouts! We ate a big handful with the broccoli with Sunday lunch, they were delicious, I will freeze the others to use later on. Unfortunately they were a bit mixed up, so I don't know if I planted Samba or the other variety that starts with an M whose name I have forgotten!

Anyway the indoor season should kick off this week, with: onions from seed, an experiment for this year. I also need to go through the seeds, chuck out the rubbish and make a list for the purchases that I will do beginning of February. The idle time is over, have to move with the season and start getting ready for spring, just like the plants!
Happy New Year too, somewhat belatedly.

Running for the Congo

2010-12-03T15:37:00.002+01:00

Completely off subject, but I was moved by an article about Chris Jackson who is involved in running marathons to raise money to help women and children victims of the civil conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Please give him some support, and sponsor him if your means allow it.
His blog has all the info you need:
http://runforcongo.wordpress.com/

Sooooo cold

2010-11-30T13:42:00.003+01:00

Freezing here, a sudden cold front has sent the temperatures right down, with snow flurries to boot.
That did not stop me going down to the plot on Sunday (BEFORE the snow) and hurling some manure all over the onion and fruit beds and then planting the first lot of garlic bulbs. I guess I got about 15 in. I would like to get about doubel that this year - last year's harvest was excellent in quality but I didn't do enough. SO try try again, as always in the garden.
Despite the booby-freezing weather, I actually worked up quite a sweat and also came home with a lovely head of broccoli (that's 3 whole heads this time around, which I consider a great success), a bag of Brussel sprouts, at least a good pound if not more, which were delicious steamed up with the broccoli,rhubarb chard and some young rocket leaves.
Oh and I also brought back a raging head cold, as I sit here dripping snot onto keyboard. It's a mug's game, no doubt about it....

Cabbage!

2010-11-22T14:17:00.002+01:00

OK brassicas to be precise. No pics because we ate them too fast but I actually managed to produce two decent heads of broccoli! I am so proud of myself. And there is another one still developing. They were delicious too.
And we ate the first brussels sprouts which I also found to be fine and dandy. There are loads of those still growing, I harvest them right through the winter.
Unfortunately here it has just been totally disastrous weather, rain rain rain, the plot lloks like some kind of bog. The weather is now clearing but they say it will now get fearfully cold. I have not yet planted the garlic and really feel as if I should. Maybe this week it won't be too late, if I surround it with lots of manure to keep it warm???
basically i still have to dig over the whole plot, pull out the last of the summer installations and dig in the manure that was delivered...Piece of cake...

I was down the gardens at 9am on Saturday morning anyway, in the rain, to listen to a complete load of twaddle. A couple of gardeners had anonymously complained to the council and to the association president about "serious anomalies" in the functioning of the gardens, and cheek of all, had signed in the names of the whole group! To cut a long story short, we are one group in an allotments association who work land rented to us by the local council. Their gripes were that certain people had put things outside their sheds that they didn't agree with, that they had no map of the plot with everyone's name on it (why? so they can go complain about aforementioned sheds??) and that the guttering had not been repainted often enough, well and other associated bullshit. The association president and the council rep called a meeting.Most of us were appalled that time had been wasted like this, especially as we had no idea that this letter existed or its contents. Most of the people on our site are friendly and tolerant and I feel on teh whole it is well run, the site manager is often present and I find him very apporachable. It was agreed on that this was a complete waste of time and if people weren't satisfied, they should see the site manager and if not, well, just leave if you're not happy with it! At least it gave me a chance to chat to some other plotholder's, whom I don't always see that often, and to see that 2 plotholders are giving up this season and are having drinkies next week. One is a rough-edged old lady who is now 80 and it's too much for her, the other I suspect is one of the letter writers....
So no tears there!! Except when I go and look at the huge piles of sodden manure hanging around my unkempt plot :-(

November floodout

2010-11-15T13:55:00.002+01:00

Well, all the best laid plans - I had planned a day off to really sort out teh garden but work commitments saw me cancel it. That was last week. It turned out to be quite a good day, and fairly dry. After that there was a long weekend - where it utterly poured the whole time. So I STILL have not planted the garlic or spread the manure or turned over the soil :-(
Hopefully I will take another day off in the next two weeks and see to it then before it gets too cold.
I have been spending my time cooking mostly! A friend gave me quinces, and I cooked them up into a jammy purée with apples to serve with meat, paté or foie gras. Delish.
Not much to soeak of garden wise then, with a bit of luck I will get the first Brussel sprouts next time I am down there. Yum.

Autumn waning

2010-10-19T09:54:00.002+02:00

The garden is dying off rapidly. All the squashes bar two are harvested and are curing. I think it may be the end of the tomatoes, I got about 2 kilos on Sunday. It is starting to get frosty in the mornings, I hope that the last French beans will be ready this weekend, they are Cobras and Saxas, there is plenty of fruit on them but they are too small yet. hang in there guys!
I did a bit of work on Sunday but it is all a bit overrun. Preparing for winter is gonna be a big job. Although it's easier ripping everything out than planting! I trimmed the leeks, weeded them and the Broccoli and spring cabbage and fertilized them a bit. I added more straw and manure to the herb bed, I have cut the last of those now - sage, tarragon, thyme, mint, all dried up for winter.
We are eating the pak choy, the rhubarb chard and the last peppers. And waiting for the Brussel sprouts! I picked the tops off, and steamed them (they had aphids, beurk, but I managed to wipe them off), they taste very sprout-y.
Now I just have to find a big section of time to go down, rip out all the squash, weed it all and spread stable waste and manure, maybe some leaves if I can find a source. And I am still looking for some elusive chicken manure, that I would like to add in the spring. Friday I will pay a visit to the poultry man on the market...

Sorry for this long absence!

2010-10-11T10:31:00.002+02:00

Which translates also as an absence from the garden for the most part. After some very late holidays, in Italy for a friend's wedding, and some rotten weather, the autumn work is going to be very hard!
I have been steadily harvesting though - tomatoes, peppers, all the squash bar two that are still growing, Pak Choy cabbage and the beetroot that is small but which I pulled up anyway and pressure cooked yesterday. The Cheltenham greentops are actually excellent and I think they just needed a lot more water than they got during our unusually dry summer. I will try them again next year.
yesterday I went down and pulled up all the remaining spuds, as attested by very sore legs today. I got a whole crate full of Mona Lisa variety, excellent yield, I will grow them again definitely. I finished the Rattes - on the whole disapponting, nice flavour but small potatoes and the last ones were starting to sprout in the ground!! So I daresay they won't last long. I am sure there must be several in the ground still, so pleanty of new potatoes next year from the volunteers!!
Still growing - Brussel Sprouts (they were infested with aphids that have mysteriously disappeared! Has something eaten them??), leeks, pak choy, late beetroot and parsnips, and the last Cobra beans that can be harvested next weekend. Now it's all downhill: Ripping out the old plants, making lots of compost for spring, digging over, weeding, fixing paths... the only thing left to plant is the garlic.
Another season, a bit disappointing, but I know I am getting better all the time!

Out with the old

2010-09-13T14:15:00.003+02:00

I have started pulling up the old plants ready to start off the winter season. Out came the dead courgettes and squash; the rocket seed was shaken off into a bag and the old stems ripped out: the dried bean pods were picked for seed and the old bean plants hacked down. It is starting to look much tidier already! Now I have to dig out the second lemon balm, and the old artichoke and it will look splendid.
Some new things still going in though - spring cabbage just went in, with some autumn lettuce. There are still a few beetroot seedlings to go in too, that will be next week. The last beans are flowering so maybe some beans soon, and the Cobra beans are starting to climb, so beans from them before the first frosts I would say. Mornings here are now fresh but not that cold.
Still getting loads of tomatoes. I am disappointed with the Tigerellas, they ripen too fast and go squasher, However I am delighted with the Moneymaker, and Marmande, very good. Rather disapponted too with the Totem and Pannovy. The Gardener's delight are excellent but I have too many of them.
The Pak Choy have been a great success, we ate some more yesterday and there at least another 6 in the garden that are growing well without bolting. They obviously like it cooler. They are lovely in a stir fry, just a bit bitter and a very green taste.
We will be away for a few days including the weekend, but the weekend after that, I want all hands on deck to dig up the maincrop spuds for storage. I usually store mine in my cellar, in wooden crates covered with cardboard and newspaper. That seems to work pretty well.
Then that section will be dug over, and covered in straw, ready for winter, and after that I will do the old onion patch in the same way. I want to spend autumn tidying the plot, relaying the path that has gone wonky, continuing with the edging and generally making it look nice. I want to redo some of the perennials in spring - plant new herbs, new artichokes, divide the rhubarb, maybe plant some dalias next year.
Oh and I need to clear out the bloody shed... :-(

Garden weirdness

2010-09-08T10:31:00.003+02:00

On Sunday I saw a huge iridescent beetle in the raspberries. Unfortunately only had my phone camera which is crap but he got his piccie taken anyway!

My sweetcorn was inedible this year, and one ear had a strange object in it, a sort of white pocket inside that was filled with a black grainy substance. Dunno if it was pollination gone wrong or what... next year I will do a big patch of sweetcorn so it can pollinate, and direct sow, pot sowing is just crap I think.

Long time, no blog

2010-09-08T09:56:00.003+02:00

But we have had some rain in August and a good downpour yesterday!
So, after the hols, the garden is a bit of a mess, a bit weedy but OK. The season has once again been mostly disappointing, due I think to the extreme dryness.

TOMATOES: are giving a wonderful crop and are disease free so far. I already have cherry tomatoes for stews and soup in the freezer and jars of coulis.

BRASSICAS: I have eaten a couple of the Pak Choy and they are very nice, although small, and the Brussels are starting to sprout tiny buds so we will get sprouts.

POTATOES: maincrop spuds, which I tested, are wonderful, despite my fears. Large smooth spuds, and the flavour is great. MonaLisa variety, I will definitely do them next year, if they store well. The Ratte have swelled by being in the ground longer, but actually they have rather a floury texture which surprises me. They are very nice roasted though (fiddly because they are long and thin) and sautéed. I am tempted to do red potatoes next year in the second earlies, I seem to have better success with those and I personally prefer their texture.
BEANS: There are plenty of dried bean pods to be picked for next year's crop. Unfortunately The Cobra that I like fruited a bit too late, we were on holidays. Next year I will do more of them and make an early and late sowing. There are 3 late sowings that should give beans soon, there are flowers. Just ordinary French green, another small patch of Cobra and some yellow wax.
SQUASH: Such a disappointment, the plants are mostly diseased. I have had a couple of tiny butternuts and the large pumpkins are growing but I fear that they won't store, or will start to rot (I have powdery mildew...)

The courgette plants have all died. I will move that bed next year to a completely different spot, maybe at the top of the garden, where I have not grown courgettes before.
CARROTS and BEETS: Complete crop failure. The late sowings of beetroot seem better, I am hoping they will give a few fruit. The incapacity to grow these root veg intrigues me, I will have to think more about where I plant them, maybe I should put carrots near the beans for shade? Or they need more fertilizer...
OTHER PLANTS: The aubergines have a few fruit but on the whole I buggered them up this year. Next year I must give them more care when small to make luscious plants to plant out. The peppers have fruit, it just isn't ripe yet. They are not too bad. There is one melon growing...whether we will eat it, is another matter.
FRUIT: The strawberries have gone quiet and the raspberries have suffered from the drought but I got a pound of fruit off them. I might make some jam.

Apart from that, I have dug out all the unwanted herbs, like the lemon balm, and the excess parsley, mulched the herb bed in horse manure and will now wait till spring to plant new useful herbs like oregano and sow nasturtiums and maybe sweetpeas to give some colour. The herbs have been a wonderful success this year, the kitchen is full of home dried thyme, sage, tarragon and mint. I have cabbage seedlings that can go out soon, I have sowed late lettuce seeds and I will sow some mache (lamb's lettuce) this week, trying that again, didin't work the first year, but who knows.
Almost the end of the season, the harvest has been reasonably poor, except for the spuds and alliums and the tomatoes, but keep on keeping on.

getting ready for holidays

2010-08-09T10:39:00.003+02:00

Which means a big tidy up in the garden before heading off. It is still desperately dry here. Not sure why I did that but I decided that it really was time to plant out the beetroot that was sown in modules and the last pak choy. I will have to water them heavily this week then just hope it rains at some point while we are away. I also sowed the last beans, a few Cobra climbers that were left in the packet and more green and yellow French.
The carrots are really a disaster. Again, they have failed to really develop. Why? I am guessing lack of water. Hand watering is just not substitute for a good shower occasionally. I will try again next year but it is discouraging. The beetroot are not much better, but next Year I will try the Cheltenham greentop again, as the couple that were actually developed were pretty tasty. They need more water though. And I think it was a mistake to plant them near the parsnips, I feel they are more efficient water seekers and maybe that was bad for the beets.
The squash are already dying back. sigh. not a good sign. Still, there are pumpkins on them, let's hope they swell enough to get some kind of harvest.
Still eating green beans, delish. And now steadily picking a few tomatoes every day. There will be an enormous glut when return from hols! The Moneymaker have really tasty fruit, although the skins are a little thick perhaps. I don't know why some people seem not to like them. The Tigerella still are very green, but I have had a couple of small Marmande. Again, very tasty, but one had a touch of blossom rot. I find they are pretty susceptible to that. The Gardener's Delight have already given several juicy cherry tomatoes, the kids love them. I will pick as many as can before going, I can always take a bag with me, and just hope that not too many rot away whil we are absent.

Tiny harvest

2010-08-05T10:29:00.003+02:00

Making myself ridiculously late for work, I couldn't help going down this morning to see if there were any more Cobra french bean. And there were! Enough for a whole meal! I can't get enough of them - they are currently winding their way around the trellises I put up for them and are covered in pretty purple flowers. I just hope that the beans come out before our holidays at the end of next week :-S Then at least I can freeze them or take them with us.
I just rushed around this morning picking everything in sight: 2 small yellow courgettes, 2 green and yellow Oz squash, the beans, a small punnet of strawberries and about 4 or 5 small tomatoes. These are MoneyMaker and cherry tomatoes.
Now despite my labelling efforts, I am confused with my small toms. I planted them in a row and it seems that I put in Gardener's Delight, Totem and Pannovy. But now I don't know which is which... One is really a tiny miniature bush (maybe that is Totem) but with great big bunches of tomatoes close to the stem. They may be small but there are at least a dozen toms on each one and they look in excellent condition. But slow to ripen. Good, they will be ready when we get back from hols!
I had a couple of other Gardener's Delight but they are huge! So they don't resemble the other cherry tomatoes at all? Oh well, some of it was saved seed so maybe I just mixed it all up.
Some people say they don't like MoneyMaker but I don't know why - they are early ripeners and are producing numerous small and juicy salad fruit. I find the taste to be quite refreshing and the plants are healthy. I will certainly be buying some more of those next year.
We had a sprinkling of rain yesterday but only enough to just freshen up the ground a little. Not sure it gave any real benefit to the plants...

Dry as a bone

2010-08-03T10:17:00.002+02:00

We are still in the middle of a drought period - no real rain since July 14. That's 3 weeks. It is starting to be desperate down there. I can do no other work apart from watering and harvesting. It's so depressing.
I got my first tomatoes! Unbelievably late this year, next year I must start earlier and use cloches.
I am also keeping this year an Excel sheet so I can keep track of the growing periods of each crop. For example, the first tomatoes are MoneyMaker type - they have a growing period of 133 days, so it seems. This will make it easier next year to backwards count and to sow at the optimal dates. And as I know that the French beans crop in 60-70 days, I am sowing a last batch now that I will pick before the first frosts!

The crops are looking tired, they are thirsty for a really big drink, not just survival rations. The pumpkins and butternuts have fruited excellently but I must keep watering so the fruit can swell enough. The courgettes just keep giving and I have more pattypan squash at the moment. Those excellent Cobra climbing beans have started cropping, they are just too good. If there are some more left in the packet, I will erect some stakes and resow, as they are a very fast cropper too (barely 60 days). Some watering has prompted the strawberries to fruit again. They have not done too badly for their first year but the drought has been hard on them too.

Leeks!

2010-07-23T14:21:00.002+02:00

I found more leek seedlings! I planted them as white onions! what a dork! anyway I took out a row of Ratte potatoes (not such a bad yield, I got a carrier bag full!) and put in the leeks.
I had a good cleanup, weeding the squash, peppers, aubergines (more bloody grass), staked another tomato, cleaned up the edges. Now I just need to do that for the other half of the plot!!

Last sowings

2010-07-22T10:51:00.003+02:00

Well, in an attempt to have some kind of winter crop, I have made a last ditch effort to sow some seeds. In the cold frame are:

red radicchio lettuce, winter scarole and some summer lettuce,
more Monoruba beetroot (the last lot died in the heat)
Curly red kale
winter cauliflower (starting to realise why I have never grown it before, it's a bloody pain in the arse!)
Durham Early spring cabbage.

Must water them a lot!!!
More rain today. The top soil is still dry but underneath I noticed it was rather cool and moist so at least some water has soaked down.

Gooseberry chutney!

2010-07-21T14:03:00.002+02:00

I finally found something different to make with the gooseberries, and that was chutney!
How I did it (this only made 2 jars but that is fine with me, they don't eat much chutney in my house):
about a large cupful of gooseberries, topped and tailed,
2 small apples, chopped,
3 onions, one brown and two red, chopped,
a small green pepper chopped,
1 small cup of sugar and another of cider vinegar.
spices: pepper, paprika, some mustard seeds, a few coriander seeds, a large pinch of salt. A little chilli powder and a clove of garlic, chopped

Put it all in a large pan, simmer for a looong time until jammy and well reduced. It was a lovely pinky red colour (they are red goosegogs), and was fruity and acidic and spicy. Mmmm can't wait to taste it with some cold meat.

A little more rain

2010-07-21T13:55:00.003+02:00

finally a little rain this morning. Not a lot, but it was actually running down teh gutters so I assume that the ground at the allotment at least got wet. The ground is really parched so it's certainly very welcome. Not sure it will continue though...
Yesterday morning I netted the broccoli as I am sure they had already been nibbled by pigeons or other birds. bastards.

Taming the toms

2010-07-19T11:31:00.002+02:00

The tomatoes were still jungle like, so I spent a goddamn long time on the weekend pruning them again, and stringing them up. The cherry tomatoes got the treatment this time too. I am growing Gardener's Delight, I can see why they are called that! They are now over four feet high, and there are litterally dozens of flower trusses on them as well as lots of green fruit that should soon be ripe.
The Marmandes and Moneymaker are also marvellous this year. I have not tasted the Moneymaker yet but it is certainly prolific and the fruit look healthy so far. I spotted the Tigerellas starting their fruit too, little stripey tomatoes! So cute. The other cherry tomas are also doing well, I have Totem and a variety called Pannovy and they are more manageable, the bushes are smaller.

The pumpkins are going great guns: the butternuts are a great success, each one has several fruit! And the Trident blobby pumpkins are fruiting too. I also noticed the first baby Hooligans, they already have a distinctive pepper-type shape. I think it will be a successful year for Winter Squash.
Other work on the weekend:
A lot of picking! Beans, yellow courgettes, the last of the gooseberries and a continuing crop of strawberries.
Some weeding of the aubergines and peppers (they are starting to fruit).
A lot of watering!
Some planting and sowing:
Planting out some broccoli and sowed some autumn carrots (Frubund variety, a freebie from RHS) and the last of the French beans: yellow wax and more green beans. I need to sow more this week of the kale, late beetroot and spring cabbages and caulis and all the late salad veg, the others have been attacked by something and the seedlings are all eaten up!! Boo hoo!

Rain!

2010-07-15T09:40:00.002+02:00

Yesterday, somewhat spoiling several Bastille day fireworks displays, we finally had a good heavy downpour. I hope that the allotment has profited from this, as it has been bone dry.

Drought conditions continue

2010-07-12T15:01:00.006+02:00

Yep, still no rain. And the potatoes are suffering a lot, most of the foliage has died, even on the maincrop... Not sure what I will get in the way of potatoes this year...

Anyway, apart from that, some regular watering has kept the rest going. The baby pak choi have struggled on, hopefully I will be able to start harvesting leaves from them in a few weeks.

I checked the root veg and they are still hopelessly small. Must water a bit more. I got one beetroot, a Cheltenham Greetop, so a long beetroot. It's all alone but it looks very nice. I shall grate it raw in salad I think, hardly seems worth cooking it.
The pumpkins are going great guns - on the butternut pumpkins, there are already several small fruit forming!

I must keep adding some compost and watering. The non-bush types are starting to throw vines down the edges of the lottie. I love how pumpkins take over everything!
This is a Qld Blue:

And this Trident variety is running for dear life!

Tomatoes - well, I had a bit of a prune, as they were really getting thuglike.
On the right there are the tomatoes, on the left the beans:

And the tomatoes...

They need tying in again too. But already by eliminating part of the foliage, I could see more light and air getting through to all the plants, which will do them a world of good. I tried to remove the bottom leaves and I chopped off quite a bit of leaves to give them some room to breathe (note to self, plant much more spread out next year. Or maybe not be too ambitious in the number of plants! 30 seems too many!). The aubergines and peppers got a little weeding too, they are being suufocated with couch grass :-(

Harvest:
Still harvesting raspberries and strawberries (and made 4 pots of jam from the leftover gooseberries! so a good fruit harvest in my opinion).
Beans are in full swing, although they are a little stringy (wonder if the weather is to blame?). Green Fin des Bagnols and yellow Kingwax.
I got loads of yellow courgettes and finally a green one. The green ones seem slower. Must try some different varieties of green ones next year, I just got some ordinary "Diamant" type from Lidl.

The potatoes are puzzling: I lifted another ratte - the spuds are healthy but very small... The foliage has all died. I don't know if they will swell further but as rain is expected I am going to leave them for a while yet. I have not dared to try the maincrop, they also look very unwell.
Finally, I got around to harvesting most of the onions, except for the odd few I planted with the carrots and strawberries for pest control.
The onion plot just before harvesting (Gave me a chance to weed it too!)

I got an absolutely terrific harvest, several kilos, 3 big boxes full!

And the onions are very swollen and healthy looking, even the Red onions were excellent this year.

The echalotes are great, really big bulbs. It was a good idea to invest in a good variety (jermor drumstick variety).

The heat wave continues

2010-07-05T11:53:00.002+02:00

Still pretty hot out there this weekend, I have to water a lot as the ground is really hot and dry. I ended up gardening in shorts and a sports bra as it was so hot!!! Oh well, give the neighbours something to gossip about.
There is lots of bindweed everyweher, it's most frustrating. I need to do some more heavy scale weeding. Maybe during this week, my kids are on camp (yippee!!!).
so:
Work done this weekend:
Space made in potato patch, compost added, two short rows of Pak Choy planted.
Echalotes harvested by my daughter, they are spectacular, a really terrific harvest this year. Now I need to get some manure this week and dig that over and cover it up.
A little cursory weeding, round the courgettes and strawberries which are plagued with bindweed.
Lots of watering, although we are getting a sprinkling of rain this morning, it's nowhere near enough, it will just freshen things up a little.

Harvest:
A few kilos of early potatoes, about 5 kilos, that is starting to get to the end of them now, they were ravaged by my vole (read "vile") that I thought was so cute but was really eating me out of house and home. I should take my cat down there next time.
A good punnet of green beans, the first ones, wonderful.
Several courgettes
Strawberries, raspberries
my gooseberries! AT LAST! without them being eaten by other creatures. I plan to make a small amount of jam and some puree, there are only red ones! Which is odd as I planted green ones originally ???

Harvesting in the heat

2010-06-30T10:50:00.002+02:00

A quick trip to water this morning, considering that we are again in a very hot period. I am a little concerned about the potatoes which are losing their vegetation at an alarming rate. I will see if I can figure out the cause or if it is the normal dying off process. It seems a little early to me.
I noticed that some of the gooseberries are dropping off the bushes! So they are definitely ripe now! I scooped them off the ground, making a mental note to go back as quickly as possible to pick the others. I seem to have only red gooseberries, which is a bit of a shame. I also got a small punnet of ripe raspberries, the first green beans, very slim and tender, and about 8 small courgettes! Especially the yellow Parador which are such a terrific variety. I can't get enough of them!
My mulching and watering on Saturday, plus the considerable downpour we had on Sunday seems to have helped it all no end. The squash have doubled in size, the beans are in full flower and the corn and melon, which were slow, has sprung up even. The peppers and aubergines have also had a fine growth spurt, with the peppers getting their flowers and fruit buds. The tomatoes have also filled out alarmingly and they are starting to be abundantly flowered.
The onions are all flopping over, so the harvest of those is not too far off now. Means I need to go and get a few bags of stable waste from the pony club, they have some that is really well rotted in their huge pile, I want to take out the onions and immediately put down a thick layer of that as a mulch and to prepare the ground, which will be next year's potato patch. Yes, the season is just starting and you must already plan ahead!!
There were several bees down there this morning, a wonderful thing to see.

Scorcher

2010-06-28T14:22:00.003+02:00

It was indeed a scorching weekend here with over 30 deg. I worked in the garden on Saturday morning but by 10 am it was starting already to get a bit unbearable. Still, I was really pleased with the work I did. I finally did a bit of work on the herb border which was completely overgrown with 5 foot high parsley (yep!), rampant lemon balm and the bloody bramble have made another attempt. There was also bindweed crawling over everything. SO I ripped out all the nasties, chooped back the parsley and lemon balm, made some room around the sage, thyme and tarragon and it all looks much more civilised now.
The peas have now been chopped down and left to rot in place. I will slowly dig them back into the earth.
I watered everything copiously, the heat was terrific. And in some ways the plants appreciate some hot weather, as there are plenty of courgettes on the plants (got my first one! A Yellow Parador.) and the tomatoes have come on very well. I weeded and mulched the tomato bad and tied the now tall tomatoes to their stakes, pulling off a little excess vegetation here and there to give the flower trusses the best air exposure. There are a couple of wee tomatoes, and lots of flowers so I am looking forward to a terrific harvest again.
I also gave a few shovelfulls of rich compost to the squash, mulching it around them and watering heavily before covering the whole squash bed in thick straw. I also did the same to the aubergines and peppers. The peppers are getting their flower buds, bless 'em.
Sowing:
I sowed some more stuff to keep the garden going throughout the cooler months. sowed: radicchio, scarole lettuce, ordinary lettuce, and started sowing spring cabbage.
Harvesting: it starts to get interesting.
The last peas, strawberries, raspberries and even blackcurrants that I forgot I had as they have been swamped by the raspberries. The first courgette.
Picked a couple of shallots, they are going to be a bumper crop I think. Each bulb is at least 5 cm wide, a great size. I can't wait for the onions to be ready, they are all flopping over now with gusto.

Plans for the next week or two:
as often as possible, add more compost around the beans, which are in flower and even starting to make tiny baby beans.
plant out the pak choi and kale that are patiently growing in the coldframe.
weed round the rhubarb bed that is looking a bit straggly. The rhubarb got the rest of the manure that was sitting in a corner of the herb bed, as it has been a bit poorly this season.
keep harvesting early potatoes, bordeaux-mixture the lates and keep weeding and tidying. And hopefully start picking all that wonderful summer produce!!

some work but not as much as I should

2010-06-21T11:51:00.002+02:00

There are some weekends where you plan to do a lot but just don't manage it! That was mine. I suppose I can't complain.
Saturday: I went in the afternoon, just an hour and a half, and I picked some new spuds (well dug, you know what I mean) and peas, rhubarb and a few bolting onions. Oh and the first gooseberries! Which I used to make a wonderful fool on Sunday! I tidied up rather well, weeding by hand the most obvious weeds, but I should have hoed between the tomatoes and I didn't get around to that.
Sunday, I slept in, So not as much work as I wanted. I went down full of good intentions, I wanted to plant my leek seedlings. Surprise - when I opened the coldframe to dig them out, I got a closer look. And they aren't leeks. They are spring onions. Which makes me think - did I plant out the leeks as spring onions? I must look closely at them this week!!!
So now I have a row of rather healthy looking transplanted spring onions! Maybe I will be able to eat them soon! And I also found that I had some leeks left in a pot so I planted them out anyway. But they are nowehere near the quantity I would normally have! there are about 20! Must keep an eye out at the garden centres, see if I can get some proper seedlings to help myself out!
I wanted to tidy up the herb bed which is completely overgrown, filled with rampaging mint, parsely in flower and lemon balm. And bindweed, grrrrrr. But my alarm rang, time ot go make lunch, so that will have to be done one evening this week instead.
No rest for the wicked, I say.
Oh and today is the first day of summer! Nice!

quick check

2010-06-16T10:43:00.004+02:00

It seems that the best way to handle an allotment is a little and often (rather like sex!).
So I keep popping down there for this and that. A quick trip this morning before work (OK it could have been quicker, but anyway...) got me some peas and strawberries and a small bag of new spuds (it's amazing how you can wield a spade in high heels if you really need to).
The beetroot I planted earlier in the week seems to have taken, and the rhubarb chard is floppy but I think it will pick up once it gets established. Had a quick walk round the perimeter - the melons have sprouted up, hope they now have time to grow properly, the courgettes are really growing well, and the tomatoes, aubergines and peppers are shooting up in their rich manure-filled bed. All the new beans have appeared through the ground and the pumpkins are going great guns.
But I realised that the herb bed is getting completely out of hand, and on Sunday I will need to hack out all the bindweed that is growing over everything, and cut right back the parsley that is flowering (as tall as me) and the lemon balm that is feral again. There is a lot of mint now too, so time to cut a whole lot down and dry it for later use.
can't wait to cut down the first artichokes. they have aphids but hopefully I can wash them off.

Does gardening send us barmy?

2010-06-15T11:24:00.002+02:00

I am starting to wonder, as maybe that would explain why I was down the allotment at 6.15 pm last night, in office trousers and a pair of wellies planting out a handful of beetroot plants kindly given me by my neighbour, in addition to the rhubarb chard that was sown in the coldframe but was now poking alarmingly out of the top of it. It rained a good portion of the night so they will be well established.
Beetroot is a curious case - I have several patches around the allotment this year, Boltardy and Cheltenham greentop and yesterday I sowed modules of Monoruba, a late bloomer. This is all a great experiment to see which variety works best and whether it should be sown in situ or if it does indeed do well from modules. I always thought the roots should not be touched or disturbed but seems this is not necessarily the case. I followed my neighbour's advice to trim both roots and leaves. We'll see what result that gives.
I also could not resist the temptation to weed the onions a little, they were getting a bit invaded by thistles, fat hen and groundsel and a bit of bindweed too. Seemed easier to rip it out than to hoe. They all seem to be doing well, even the spring onions (which will be summer onions now of course), although the garlic is getting a touch of rust and looking distinctly yellow. Time for it to be harvested methinks. I will have to wait for a dry spell, as harvesting in the rain is a no-no.
I also had the good idea of emptying out the water barrel that is under the overflow to fill the one next to it, as last night we had steady rain and with a bit of luck, both barrels will soon be generously filled. The growth on the plot is quite startling, and Sunday it is going to take a bit of work to weed it all, mulch the tomatoes and peppers and tidy the path and edges. The leeks also need planting as they are now pencil sized and will start hankering for the open ground. Roll on the weekend!

It's a cat's life

2010-06-14T16:02:00.003+02:00

While emptying the digital camera, I found some portraits of our cat, Ella, who is quite used to being photographed oftem by various members of the family. She's 14 now, but sprightly. As you can see, it's not a dog's life, but definitely a cat's life!
Sunbathing:

did the alarm just go off?

Ironing? It's a doddle.

Yeah, it's a hard job but someone's gotta do it.
Beats working for a living in any case!!!

Pics for June 2010

2010-06-14T14:03:00.004+02:00

Finally made it down there with a camera! So this will be a more cheerful post.
First let's have an overall look at the plot, from the onion and potato beds down. This is the lushest part I guess:
Looks like I need to weed it again! Along the side, I took advantage of the spare place to put in a few lettuces and some marguerites. They look nice. If it's warm this evening I will go down and hoe, just to tidy it a little.
The artichoke is finally getting some fruit on it (well, flowers, but let's not split hairs):
You can see that the self seeded marguerites next to it have gone beserk, but by September they will all have died. sad isn't it? Behind it you can see the rhubarb, and the little wild patch, where I grow mint, lavender, lemon balm, a rose bush etc.
Between the two is the carrot patch, a row of parsnips, a row of beetroot and the Brussel sprouts! But the artichoke is blocking the view!
On Saturday, I picked my first crop of peas. They were still dewy and fresh, we ate them for lunch and they were just perfect.

They are Kelvedon Wonder, sowed in March and April. So quite a fast cropper.
The fruit beds are always sweet at this time of year. I have not had so many strawberries, but all the plants are new, so I guess I have to be patient.

The gooseberries are ripening wondefully, I protected them with netting this year.
Squash and pumpkin is the crop of the year. The courgettes and pattypan squash have taken off well:

You can see the mass of straw behind that is the melon bed. The plants are not obvious yet but some have survived. Next year I will sow direct as that seems to give the best results with squash! Another new thing learned this year.
A Parador yellow courgette - soon it will have flowers and fruit.

The 3 sisters bed is a bit of a mixed bag this year - 4 straggly corn plants! but the pumpkins seem to be enjoying themselves. Some old garden trellises behind will support the tiny Cobra beans that are just peeping through the ground. The beans are surrounding the squash this year, for easier picking.

And finally, the tomatoes. You can see that they on a very rich patch of soil this year. They are growing on a load of manure. I hope to get a really good harvest this time! I am growing salad toms and some beefsteaks up the stakes, and along the back there are some bushy cherry tomatoes, Totem or Gardener's Delight. I didn't get a good cherry tomato last year, so I have put a lot of effort into that this time!

I hope you all enjoy seeing what the plot is looking like! I think this has been my most successful year so far, and now I have to concentrate on getting things ready for the autumn and winter crops (planting leeks and beetroot and caring for kale and oriental greens that I have just sown) and caring for the current plants (putting bordeaux mixture on the tomatoes and spuds, weeding and continuing to harvest).

Downpour

2010-06-10T12:24:00.003+02:00

Just to keep a little record of the meteorological conditions, today and yesterday we had some really good downpours. This is an excellent time for it, as it will establish all the new plants, like the squashes and tomatoes, and will give a terrific growth spurt to the potatoes and onions which are in their formative stages now. I am hoping that, as the weather has already been wet, the soil will be well disposed to soak in more rain, as when it suddenly pours after a dry spell, the ground is hard and runoff is often high.
Looking at last year's posts, I see that things are late this year - I was already into several harvests of peas and artichokes, but this year it is only just starting (There were 2 artichokes finally showing this week). However Nature is trying its best to catch up on the extreme cold of late winter and early spring. I noticed that the courgettes were starting their first flowers, and that the raspberries seem to be fruiting already, even though they are not as high as last year (they did get well cut down in winter though, maybe that did them some good). Last year I also got some lettuce from the garden, apparently, perhaps this is the only period when it grows successfully? I am going to try late varieties this year and see how I get on.

Old blokes

2010-06-08T10:30:00.004+02:00

My site is touchingly full of them.
Yesterday one of them, M., came over and said hi. "It's growing, it's growing" he exclaimed, waving his hands at the potatoes, onions etc, which I admit do look lush and potent at the moment. "Sure it is," I replied, hoping he would not notice all the bindweed coming out of the paths. "OH at first we were a bit worried about you (they were? why?) but I'm not worried anymore".
I can imagine conspiring whispers about this crazy woman covering the plot in cardboard and straw and growing weird shit like parsnips and gooseberries. But I believe in the 3rd year theory, with the 3rd year being a turning point, with less weeds, more experience and a sudden increase in successful harvests.
I love these old blokes, who are so certain they have it all down pat but in the end they concede that someone doing it differently can still produce a good spud. Shame that I rarely have tome to go and have a glass of cheap rosé with them.

2 sisters instead of three

2010-06-07T10:31:00.002+02:00

Due to the extreme crapness of my corn sowing, I have 4 flimsy corn plants. pffff. This will be my challenge to resolve for next year I see!
So undeterred I planted around it my little squash plants, butternuts and Qld Blue pumpkins. And then a row of Cobra climbing beans up some trellis that fell off the back of a lorry. That looks really cool! And a new row of green beans.
To plant all that, I uncovered the tarped area that had been protected for the last few weeks. It was really easy to turn it over, and it was full of potatoes! Volunteers that had grown around the edges during the spring! I think they were Charlottes from last year. In any case I got about a big salad bowl full of spuds! Ate them in salad yesterday, they were divine. So sometimes you can get something for nothing!
The tarped area had been turned into a mini resort by my resident friend the vole. As I lifted it all up I saw him scuttle away under the beans. I saw him twice on the weekend, he's really cheeky. I couldn't bring myself to trap or kill him - they say that they only live a few months. How sad. I almost got to stroke him but he managed to scurry a little further away. He's not that shy, I managed to shoo him under the raspberries, as i was afraid of walking on him. I know that they do some damage in the garden, well I don't really have bulbs of precious ornamentals and I think he is mainly living in the compost, that's where his tunnels go. I figure that he couldn't really eat as much as me, so I am willing to share a little with him.
I also had the chance to give the garden a good tidy up, getting a lot of bindweed out. 2 wheelbarrows full of weeds, oof! It is looking much tidier though, I really feel like I have kept on top of things this year, hoeing regularly, putting in borders, it all helps make it look nicer. Despite only occasional rain, mulching is helping to keep the moisture in. (But probably encourages Mr Vole a little too much).

First potatoes for 2010

2010-06-01T10:43:00.003+02:00

I dug up the first potatoes yesterday, I got about a kilo from a couple of plants. They are beauties! Large, well shaped with fine skins and a wonderful taste. They were Agata variety and planted end of February. I can almost not wait to try some of the Ratte variety I planted in March but I am being a bit hasty methinks. (I think I am even boastful enough to say that I had spuds from my organic veg box, yes yes I still get one of those! and mine are nicer! theirs had bitter skins which I had to take off. But mine had almost transparent skins that melted in your mouth.) nom nom nom nom.....
Also got about 250g of small and medium strawberries, with a terrific flavour, very sweet and also juicy after the last days of rain. And today for lunch I will be eating my first lettuce! (cut and come again, green) with a handful of rocket and landcress. So proud...sniff sniff sniff...

UPDATE - Looked and saw that those spuds were planted on February 22. So they have had 98 growing days. Spot on.

Rain, finally

2010-05-31T10:57:00.002+02:00

After quite a dry patch, some rain. Good rain, steady drizzling rain that will penetrate well into the soil. cool. Not so cool that it came the weekend I was participating in a garage sale. Now I just have a basement full of damp stuff...
So no gardening, except for a quick 20 minutes on Friday evening when I planted 2 spaghetti squash and 3 Tristar pumpkins given to me by a workmate (thanks Chris!). I spotted my furry friend again too, some rodent that is living in the compost box because I saw it shoot back in there out of the corner of my eye. Hope it's not going to eat my squash seeds that I sowed last week.
I was quite pleased because the tender plants seem to have really taken well. I am hoping that this rainy period will help them develop their root systems and boost their growth.
The garlic and alliums are going strong, and even I must say, the spring onions, to my surprise have finally taken off. I won't have any straight away! But they are now about 10cm tall and finally look like they are plumping up.
Now I will have to start the great weeding campaign! A little and often is what I will try to do this year!

skiving

2010-05-27T10:52:00.003+02:00

off work for half an hour to come and sow seeds! Yes, that does seem rather extreme, I admit. But this weekend, I am selling our crap in a garage sale and then Sunday we are invited out, so no gardening possible this weekend.
But I got me seeds from DT Browns! I am trying to ensure more even cropping throughout the year so this year I took advice and got in some more brassica seeds, autumn varieties so I can keep harvesting as much as possible.
I bought:

Artichokes: these are now in the seedbed, I am hoping to renew my stock for next year.
Beetroot, a late variety (Monoruba?). I will sow them a bit later, when I have had time to prepare a little space.
Durham spring cabbage, that's for sowing in summer.
Cauliflower - the All Year Round failed totally, so won't try that variety again, I bought a winter hardy variety and I sowed it today.
Pak Choi- my first time growing these! sowed them this morning
Kale, curly variety - my neighbour gave me some of this last year and I admit it was delicious. I have grown winter cabbage before (cow cabbage) but this seems finer and tastier. It also makes the garden look productive even in very cold weather :-)
Libon winter onions, for cropping in early spring - they get sown later too.

I also sowed some green broccoli and coriander (in modules) and some Flyaway carrots, to fill in an empty space in the current carrot patch. The carrots are off to a good start this year, there is still hope then!
Next week I will try to find time to sow some more lettuce, although the ones that have been planted recently are starting to be well established. I will be able to start harvesting the cut and come agains I think. I also noticed that my squashes have germinated in the coldframe, I will plant them out in a week or so once they have their proper leaves. For now, the melons seem ok, they had been covered up a little by my straw, so I exposed them again. Perhaps not my best idea. Soon they will be too big for that to be a problem. The other plantations from the long weekend seem to have recovered from the trauma of being planted out, even the aubergines which worried me, and are eagerly drinking the rain we had yesterday and last night. Not nearly enough but at least it helps a little. Now the garden just needs a good weeding and it will be well on the way to success!

A scorcher!

2010-05-25T09:57:00.003+02:00

The Pentecost holiday weekend was a scorcher! We had temperatures well in excess of the normal season temperatures, well into the high 20's. And me, perhaps rather zealously, had to do all my major planting this weekend. So I then spent hours watering everything. Still all is not lost, there is rain on the way today or tomorrow.
So every morning early I was down there in my wellies (pools of sweat forming inside them) digging, and planting:
- melons: 4 Gallia melons and 5 Charentais, plus I sowed some more seeds in between each plant. Hopefully they will take off well straight from the earth. radically, I decided not to plant them through plastic but through a thick bed of straw (discreetly taken from the racetrack so it does have some horse pee in it). I am hoping that will provide heat but not too much and protection.
- courgettes; again 3 green and a yellow, plus I sowed some summer squash, and some pumpkins in the same bed. The pumpkins are having trouble taking off, I will sow some more in place this week.
- peppers,
- aubergines
and finally the tomatoes: 6 Gardener's Delight, 3 Totem, 3 Pannovy, and about 4 each of Marmande and Ananas Beefsteaks, Moneymaker, and Tigerella. There are about 25 plants in all. And despite the heat they looked as happy as pigs in s....

Harvesting! A big bunch of rhubarb and at last the first strawberries. small and sweet, a bit of rain will really help the crop along.

So the allotment is looking terrific, not too many weeds, everything in full growth, onions and potatoes looking green and healthy. I had a firkle and the garlic is swelling beautifully underground, dead chuffed as it was only precariously over wintered. I guess the cold winter was good for it. It is starting only now to yellow off a bit, I am thinking that in 2 or 3 weeks it will be ready for harvest.
Left to do now: climbing beans, more pumpkins, leeks (when a bit of space is made for them), and some sowing for winter And the weeding, in earnest.

New seed order

2010-05-20T17:14:00.002+02:00

After reflecting on what I should do to keep more crops going all year round (as someone said on a web forum "That is taking growing to a whole new level"), I made a new order of seeds this morning, this time from DT Browns seeds. My idea is that I have too few things for winter and early spring, but if I sow some of these now, I will have a chance at getting some interesting new crops for the dfficult winter/spring season.
Among others, I ordered a late cropping beetroot, some spring cauliflower (OK I am glutton for punishment, the early caulies didn't work out, so I will try this strategy. Plenty of room in the cold frame for a seedbed now...), Pak Choi (first go at that), Purple Kale, some winter hardy White Lisbon spring onions, (which are supposed to give me onions early spring if I sow in summer??) and some spring cabbage also.
In the order was also a packet of artichoke seeds. I really want to grow another artichoke plant, although I haven't yet decided whereabouts I could put it, so I figure if I get the little plants going now, I can put them in their final spots later on, when other things move out of the way. I currently have one beautiful artichoke bush but it is getting old and maybe next year it won't give me a great result, best to foresee some new plantings.

Still working hard

2010-05-17T12:23:00.004+02:00

I put in another few hours on Saturday. I must say that it's looking OK. There are strawberries starting to grow, the onions, garlic etc look great, as do the spuds which have luxurious foliage.
I weeded, watered, keeping it all tidy, transplanted a few lettuce from the cold frame, and planted out Brussel sprouts, a few red cabbage and broccoli that I grew from seed in the cold frame as well as the first courgette plants and some pumpkins.
The cold frames have turned out to be a terrific success, now I see how to work them, I will use them more and more in the coming seasons.
I also transplanted spinach, that I started in the coldframe, as the ones I direct sowed seem useless. The others will go in later this week, and I hope to plant out the tomatoes, aubergines and peppers which for now are discouragingly small. I hope that by planting them out, they will take off... I try to be optimistic!
I sowed some more sweetcorn into the cold frame, so far it has been hopeless, I have almost no viable seedlings. Last ditch attempt, perhaps it has been too cold this year?
I will try to do some pics soon, to show how it's shaping up...

Spuds - what we don't see

2010-05-03T14:57:00.004+02:00

This interested me. I pulled up what is called a "volunteer" which means a spud that has grown from a forgotten potato from last season (errr actually there is a whole ROW growing for me at the moment, I think I should revise my harvesting technique!!).
And I took a picture of it, as many people have never seen how a potato actually grows lots of other potatoes!

You can see the "mother" spuddy - it will eventually rot and dissolve into the ground once its job is done. It throws out a central stem which will be the leafy part that appears above ground, and from that there are side shoots, which produce new tubers. Which is why it's good for the potato to be buried deeply and to keep putting earth around it, as that produces more potatoes.
Another example of the wonders of nature ;-)

Our allotment site

2010-05-03T12:21:00.004+02:00

Here are some pics taken Saturday, to give you an idea of what our site looks like just now.
I was talking about this plot on Allotments for all forum the other day - the guy came and dug this all by hand in one day... Now it's getting weedy again - but no doubt there is some science behind this that I am unfamiliar with...

This is the plot of a new guy, who took over from one of the "old boys" who passed away in the New Year. he has made it very fussy, not my style at all. he is the owner of the "drinks table, so he now has to be friends with all those around him :-)

And this is the plot of Therese - she is 80 this year and says she is giving up as she is getting too decrepit (but she says this every year). Her plot is very tidy and she is the queen of little containers and setups to protect and frame out her crops. Not sure what is under here, maybe courgettes...

This plot is 2 behind mine, I noticed the guy had everything labelled with sweet little metal labels. Another one of the ruler and spirit level brigade! :-) His peas are taller than mine though...

And finally, I was having a little moan the other day that no one mulches on our site except me, BUT I seem to have been proved wrong: this plot has some straw mulching...what? potatoes? I didn't get close enough to note it down.

hope you liked that little tour of our site, there are lots of hardworking gardeners on it.

Hard work

2010-05-03T12:01:00.003+02:00

On Saturday I did something that was approaching insanity. My kid had to go to a rugby tournament and he had to be at the stadium at 6.45 am. Yes you read that right. "Sparrow's fart" as my friend Sandra would call it.I dropped him off and then instead of crawling back to bed, I went to the allotment. And spent 3 hours working, mostly unaccompanied except by birdsong and the sunrise. It was glorious. I should do it more often. I took some pics (bad ones again with the portable phone), and then set out to do the following:

Tidy the edges, digging out dandelion and scraping earth back onto the plot.
Weeding the peas, uncovering their netting and letting them grow in the fresh air. They are now big enough not to interest birds.
Sowing a row of beetroot, a patch of rocket and two rows of green beans, one row of drying beans (end of a packet) and some yellow butter, or wax beans.
Moving around some chive plants that are getting a little invasive on the paths.
Cleaning the paths a little.
Earthing spuds.
Planting some lettuce plants and transplanting some marigolds here and there.
Netting the gooseberries, a little sloppily but I WANT THAT FRUIT this year. They are full of tiny berries.

It was a wonderful morning, but tiring, and in the next couple of weeks, I need to have almost all the season's crops in the ground, namely the tomatoes, melons, courgettes, corn and squash. So I still have a large section to dig over and weed (about 4 x 2.5metres) and also uncover and dig over the 3 sisters patch which is currently covered to prevent weeds.
I took a couple of pics, not terribly clear...

This shows the rhubarb in the foreground, and the few flowers that surrounds it, and behind, the herb bed, with lemon balm, thyme on the left, mint behind that, sage to the far right, andparsley everywhere else. There are a couple of rose bushes here and there too. The artichoke can be seen in the bed opposite. The bessa concrete blocks are for the water tanks that are being installed - not on my plot next but one will go behind mine, to save water.

This one shows the plot from the far end, I am standing near the strawberries, so you can see the potatoes on the left and the onions on the right. The peas are netted here but just after I took the pic, they were un-netted and weeded. I also planted some lettuces next to them, where there was a blank space.
You can also see my shop-bought cold frame and the home-made one on the left. Still, they work...

And here, I am a couple of plots down and the plot with the orange roof tiles along the edge is mine. This year it is looking really good (well compared to some previous years!). Gives you a look at our plots (see today's other post).

Rain at last!

2010-04-29T11:19:00.002+02:00

Just when I was scraping the bottom of the water barrels it has finally rained. Phew. the lettuces are just starting to take so this will be a blessing for them.
Last night I was off work early so I went down with Smallest One and we pottered. Yeah, for an hour and a half! I hadn't seen the time go by! we were all running round like chooks with their heads off after that. Still, it was a very productive time - I earthed up the potatoes, harvested our first radishes (small but tasty, I will pick others after the rain), Then went around with the hand trowel and had a good attack at the bindweed which has come up just this last week and is already rip-roaring through the place. I have found this is as good a method as any to get it out. I have a bucket beside me and I just dig down with the trowel then pull out as much of the root as I can. It will come back but this will hinder it at least. I did that through the potatoes, down the sides, through the strawberries (where I got visiously stabbed with a gooseberry spine from a dead branch on the ground) and through the herbs and flowers. They are looking really nice just now. My little flower "wild" bed has a rose bush, a lavender bush, daffodils, honeywort, Californian poppies, a lemon balm (which I am trying to tame), and later usually pop up cornflowers, marigolds and various self seeded things :-)
So small periods of time well spent can be more productive than whole days slogging in the mud!

Sowing pumpkins

2010-04-26T12:06:00.002+02:00

Oh I nearly forgot to note down the pumpkins I had sown! Quite a motley lot this year, I have done:
About 8 Hooligan mini squash, I will probably give away a couple,
Harrier Butternuts,
Australian Butternuts
Queensland Blue big pumpkins
and also many yellow and green courgettes and some Aussie patty pan squash, which I particularly love.
No sign of growth yet, except for the courgettes, but they will only be indoors a short while, by early May they will be outside to romp over the hills and vales....

Success in the garden, less indoors

2010-04-26T11:51:00.002+02:00

Despite a very dry period that has sent me down there watering frequently, everything is going very well on the lottie. I think in fact the frequent watering has made me succeed better with the seeds than in previous years, obviously something I was not doing properly last time. The carrots are actually growing!!!! yay! And so are the radishes! In a few days I will actually be able to eat my own radish, something that has usually always failed.
Spring onions - tried two different things, growing in pots then pricking out and direct sowing. Well this year, both methods seem to be working! :-S how bizarre, I have never succeeded them before.
Potatoes - all are coming up very well. great. I will be eating those Ratte potatoes before I know it.
Now will come the hard work, digging the ground for the melons, Three Sisters and tomatoes. I am also hoping for rain as it is pretty dry out there...

Now, indoors, many things are working well, except the peppers and aubergines! They are looking yellowing and sickly! Tonight I will repot them into new pots, with new home made potting mix and see if that makes a difference. Otherwise, the tomatoes, corn and squashes are going great guns.

Seedlings - still going

2010-04-21T00:31:00.003+02:00

I am still going on with the pricking out. Today I transferred about 20 tomato plants - there are still a fair few to do. Ideally I want to plant out about 5 rows of 6 plants, so I need about 30 plants. As I have about 6 varieties (Marmande beefsteak, Totem, Moneymaker, Pannovy and Harzfeuer salads, gardener's delight cocktail tomatoes and large yellow beefsteaks), there should be a few of each and the spares I give to friends.
The corn has come up, now just have to make sure the household feline doesn't snack on it, and I am still waiting for the courgettes and melons to come up. At the end of the week, I will start sowing the pumpkins, last home strait!!

Hot and sunny

2010-04-21T00:21:00.003+02:00

Unseasonally hot for April in fact - I had to wear a bleedin' HAT!
Had a few chances to tidy up well this wek, the warm weather makes everything spring up though!
I have been planting lettuce (grown from seed in my own little seedbox!!), and spring onions and sowing beetroot, spinach and parsnips. And watering a lot all the rest!. I managed to put together the other seedbox, which is now half full of brassica seedlings, more lettuce, broccoli, flowers and spinach. Nice.
Today I did two important jobs, prepared the courgette bed (just to get ahead of things): it's been spread with loads of manure and today I forked in a few shovelfuls of compost too, then covered with black plastic. Then I just have to plant the courgettes and squash straight in once they are ready! Later in the week I will do the same thing opposite it, for melons.
Other job was mulching the fruit bushes with shredded paper. That amused the neighbours...
Otherwise, it's all going swimmingly, the herbs, strawberries and rhubarb have sprung back after our harsh winter, the potatoes and onions are growing well, I have a lot of radishes that will be ready next week.
Next job: take some pictures, then tidy up the lower border and use the planks I managed to scrounge to edge them off (all the soil keeps running off otherwise), earth up the spuds which are growing vigorously now, make the melon bed I just mentioned, and go get some stable waste so I can mulch the aubergines and peppers when they are planted in a couple of weeks time. I should also be able to start sowing the early dwarf beans.

Pricking out

2010-04-16T11:19:00.003+02:00

What a rude word...
Anyway I spent ages last night doing this, transferring all the aubergine and pepper seedlings from trays into bigger modules, so they can grow bigger. Haven't done the tomatoes yet and I think I might need to go get some of my home made compost to do the job! It will be a big one, I have dozens of seedlings, many of which I give away (I usually plant about 30 tomatoes in season).
I also started the sowing of the tender plants:

green Diamant courgettes and yellow Parador courgettes.
About 20 sweetcorn plants, now up on the fridge to avoid consumption by the household feline,
several melons (yes yes I know, it's hard to do, but as I have lots of manure, I am gonna give it a go, with some fleech over them), green Gallia and orange Charentais melons.

Just got to do the pumpkins now, but as they are so invasive so quickly, I will do them next week methinks.

Slowly improving

2010-04-12T11:42:00.002+02:00

A good work session yesterday. Weather sunny but cool, in the end I left my coat on.
In an attempt to make it all look less unruly, I have decided that small sections are easier to look after. Little beds, set out with rocks etc seem to look much tidier. So as planned, I took some old wall tiles and made a little bed next to the water barrels. First I dug out a whole load of couch grass, bloody bastard it is too. Then I mixed some manure into the soil and then laid out a little square, not so big, about 60cm square. I then planted a few pot marigolds that have self seeded all round the place, and sowed some rocket and landcress, and there is room for some hollyhocks and a few chives. that will make a pleasant decorative corner and gets rid of all the dandelions that were squatters there.
Next, looked at the peas. They are sprouting well, those sweet little green seedlings. There were however lots of gaps in the relatively large bed (about 1/2 m2) so I filled them in by hand planting more pea seeds, one by one, hopefully that will keep me in peas for a couple of weeks at least.
Still spreading shit. No, not rumours about the Sarkozys, real cow poo :-) Creating several little mounds for squash, here and there, where they can run down the edge of the plot or along the paths.
I also:

sowed: beetroot, and spinach. Actually, the spinach packet flew out of my hand and I fear that several spinach seeds have now been spread all over the shop. Oh well, can't hurt I suppose!
planted some lettuce seedlings in between the strawberry beds, that will help fill it up.
planted a few spare potatoes in a corner too, just couldn't resign myself to chucking them out. The earlies are starting to show, I started earthing up one or two. Excellent, excellent.
tried to work out where to plant the broccoli. That's a tough call, and still haven't quite decided.
Harvest! The first rhubarb stems! Bless 'em! Butwhat to do with just 4 stems? A cake? Fruit puree? Maybe a fool...?

I love spring!

Little by little

2010-04-08T11:20:00.004+02:00

It is amazing what you can do in half an hour. As the weather has finally turned clement, I decided last night to go down and water the new sowings. I spent half an hour down there and managed to do all this:

water the radishes, carrots, strawberries, peas (just breaking through the soil!) and herbs,
water the seed box where lettuce, leeks, spring onions and flowers are germinating,
spread a little more manure on the potato bed.
scratch out the surface soil in the flower beds and around the garlic and artichoke and add more manure and water it in.
get the hand trowel and make a quick tour of the edges and pull out numerous dandelions and plantains that have sprung up almost overnight. Those b**&^$£ds won't be seeding, not this time...

Perhaps weeding like this could turn out to be time better spent than huge blocks of time, where you get frustrated and tired pulling out huge amounts of weeds?
I also looked around the top end of the plot. This is where I have sundry items like the herb bed, the water containers, and a few random flowers (lavender, a rose bush, some daffs, some mint, some annuals that pop up each year like Honey wort, marigolds and lemon balm, mostly to attract insects). It tends to get infested by grass, and the soil is gradually falling down over the path. I was wondering if I wouldn't try to make a much clearer well defined bed, with some tiles or wood to prop it up, and I was thinking of digging over a small patch (about 50x50 cm) next to the water barrels that generally just goes wild, but where I could establish a small square bed. I was thinking a mixture of flowers, like hollyhocks that could lean against the corner post, zinneas, and small crops like cress, radish (again! my radish obsession!), chives, rocket, which would create a nice "corner" to the plot and prevent soil movement all at the same time. hmmmm...

Spuds are in!

2010-04-06T14:56:00.002+02:00

I finally finished putting in the potatoes on Sunday morning. I had just enough space! Although I think that probably they are a bit too close together. Oh well I will just have to feed them well and mulch them so no spuds grow through the soil. The very first ones I planted back at the end of February are just peeking through, so I shall soon be earthing them up.
I sowed some more carrots (Flyaway variety), after having dug up some couch grass that is really being a nuisance along the top path. I got some of it up, I will have to persist with that over the next week or so. I surrounded the carrots with a few spare onions, since they say to do that, and I can't bear wasting even a dozen onions.
I noticed that there is quite a big space between my garlic and the onions, I obviously didn't mark them out right. So I have sowed a few spare white spring onion seeds I had left (they never seem to take! But I am eternally hopeful). There will be room there for a few lettuce probably as time goes on, so I shall leave it empty I think.
That was all I really had time for. It was still quite cold, but many things are taking off, like the artichoke and the rhubarb which are looking splendid, I think the cold winter did them a world of good.
My next challenge is to dig over and black-plastic the future courgette bed, that will be less work in May then, and to prepare the small melon bed that I am trying. I will get some fleece and try and grow some melons under a bit of cover, as I still have all that cow manure, seems a shame to not to try some greedier plants this season. I also have to get the "real" cold frame up and built so I can move all the tenders into it soon, to avoid cluttering up the house.

Seedling dreams

2010-03-31T11:30:00.004+02:00

I did get carried away with myself last weekend, I can't move at home for pot plants. Every time I want to play piano I have to move off 3 trays of tomato seedlings, 2 trays of peppers and 2 of aubergines. The top of the piano gets nice sun in the mornings! I tried to kid myself that it was my playing making them grow ;-)
I have dreamed about the plot, what I will do this season. Somehow in real life it never looks as I imagine it will.
I imagine pumpkin vines weaving their way up the edges of the plot (last year one was growing on TOP of the raspberry canes, I didn't spot it straight away).
I imagine beautifully straight rows of spuds, earthed up with geometrical precision (mine look like they have been planted by a drunk on crack).
I imagine pristine cabbages, glinting with dewy freshness (last year, I had to scoop out snails with my fingers and crush them underfoot, then wash out their poo with the watering can. the cabbages were tasty though, what was left of them).
Next time I see my little seedlings, so innocent and full of hope in their tiny pots, I will try and persuade them that it will be OK, they can grow, they will grow! they will resist the slugs and bindweed, they will not rot or get blight or be massacred by freak summer storms (like last year's aubergines)!
Then I will go and pop a few Valium before I get me wellies on...