Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Glorious weather
The sun is shining, the trees and shrubs are putting out new leaves, the birds are singing. Spring is here with a vengeance!
Last night I popped down to the lotty, emptied the highly odourous kitchen scraps into the compost, sowed the first row of Alderman tall peas and netted them (rather casually but they will be all right to start off) and also a row of spinach before it gets too hot for it. The radishes are almost ready to pick, they got a good soaking last night and they will get another this evening. They started off with cool damp weather but now it has turned balmy they will go hard and have too much heat without a lot of water.
The shallots are romping away and the garlic looks great (needs weeding). Disappointed again by the seed onions, a few have come up but not really many. Maybe the warm spell will help them on. I would like a few to work, if only for spring onions...
Indoors, the tomatoes need pricking out, they are tall with true leaves now. The peppers and aubergines are looking really healthy! They are now several centimetres tall, and lush. It would be so nice to have a good harvest of them this year, peppers are one of my favourites. Those strange Red Egg aubergines are doing better this time, hopefully we might get to taste one this year! They are spectacular to see too.
Last night I popped down to the lotty, emptied the highly odourous kitchen scraps into the compost, sowed the first row of Alderman tall peas and netted them (rather casually but they will be all right to start off) and also a row of spinach before it gets too hot for it. The radishes are almost ready to pick, they got a good soaking last night and they will get another this evening. They started off with cool damp weather but now it has turned balmy they will go hard and have too much heat without a lot of water.
The shallots are romping away and the garlic looks great (needs weeding). Disappointed again by the seed onions, a few have come up but not really many. Maybe the warm spell will help them on. I would like a few to work, if only for spring onions...
Indoors, the tomatoes need pricking out, they are tall with true leaves now. The peppers and aubergines are looking really healthy! They are now several centimetres tall, and lush. It would be so nice to have a good harvest of them this year, peppers are one of my favourites. Those strange Red Egg aubergines are doing better this time, hopefully we might get to taste one this year! They are spectacular to see too.
Labels: heatwave, peas, peppers, radish, spinach, spring, tomatoes
Thursday, October 06, 2011
last of the season
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.
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.
Labels: autumn, beans, dying_off, harvest, peppers, pumpkin, spinach, sprouts
Monday, September 26, 2011
Foraging
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.
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.
Labels: apples, autumn, beans, lettuce, potato, pumpkin, spinach
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Spuds again!
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!
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!
Labels: aubergine, carrots, peas, peppers, potato, rain, spinach, spring
Monday, March 14, 2011
Spuds and sowings
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.
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.
Labels: carrots, peas, potato, spinach, winter
Monday, May 17, 2010
Still working hard
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...
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...
Labels: broccoli, cabbage, coldframe, courgette, pumpkin, spinach, sprouts
Monday, April 12, 2010
Slowly improving
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:
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...?
Labels: beetroot, flowers, peas, potato, rhubarb, spinach, spring
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Our 150th message!
A long weekend - the perfect excuse to do things in the garden.
On Saturday there were friends coming to eat so I was actually able to harvest enough to make a nice steamed veggie combo, which everyone thought tasted "garden fresh". We ate a mixture of shredded cabbage, carrots (not mine), green beans, fresh peas, red onions and courgettes.
And salad with lettuce, thinly sliced raw fennel, and red onions from the garden too.
Monday, public holiday (thank you to all those revolutionaries that stormed the Bastille some time ago). Time to dig...
I harvested all the yellow onions, the remaining red onions and the echalote. I was quite pleased with the latter, they are healthy and well formed, perhaps some are a little small. But nice fragrance. The onions are again a little small, I think I will try seeds next year... I asked my neighbour who has massive onions, how she did it, she said she bought sets and did nothing special!!! well maybe just luck then. The onions are now in a wooden box on the window sill drying out.
In place of the red onions I put the sprouts which are really big and healthy, and a few smooth head cabbages that I bought as plants. Very pleased with my brassica seed efforts, all the red cabbage, broccoli and sprouts look terrific. Much cheaper than plants too! In the place of the yellow onions, I put the rest of the bought cabbages and I sowed some autumn spinach.
While I dug up the onions I also dug up about 1 and a half kilos of spuds that were volunteers!! bonus harvest! They were red ones, probably got more there than from the harvest last year :-)
Then ran around the other side, lifted the tarp and dug over the ground, a doddle, it was damp and crumbly, and only had bindweed. However I have found that when covered, the bindweed becomes very white, and its roots consolidate underground which curiously makes it easier to rip up. It will keep coming back but that gives me a head start. I dies off in a few weeks' time anyway. In that place I planted 60 leeks, grown from seed. De Carentan, winter leeks.
Just enough space now to sow a few more green beans and the garden will be full for the cooler season!
Most of the rest is doing well, especially the three sisters, I have a few pumpkins developing, I put a little straw under them to protect their little botties and the beans and corn are splendid - the corn is about 120 cm high but is already developing bearded bits! which I think means cobs will soon follow. That is definitely a good idea, I will do that again next year! and since that area was heavily manured this year, I think it will make a splendid patch for the alliums at the end of the season.
I wil try to post some more close ups soon, now that it looks relatively tidy :-) The little celery plants, the red chard, the fresh rows of tiny bean plants, all look so cute and so edible...
Labels: cabbage, echalote, harvest, leeks, onions, red onion, spinach, sprouts, summer
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