Pushing up the daisies

After a bitterly cold few weeks where the allotment was entirely out of the question, with the ground frozen solid, I can finally start working on the new season. The seeds are bought, the potting mix is there, and we are ready to go!
Yesterday I sowed a few echalote bulbs and I planted the seed onions that have been moping round the kitchen. I can't say that I thought I had done a very good job of it so we will soon see if the poor things take or not
It was sunny but cold. I pulled out the remaining sprouts, which gave us enough for Sunday lunch and a few leftover, and also pulled out a few dried flower stems and the rocket that had seeded itself over winter. I know I will get lots of fresh rocket shoots there in a few weeks. The poor old artichokes got well and truly frozen so I pulled out the old rotten leaves. I know they will pick up of their own accord. Thje garlic has survived the bitter cold - there are over 30 stems up so another good garlic harvest seems set to happen. It is about the most reliable crop I grow...
The plot looks desolate, and I must say that the whole site is the same. The extreme cold drove everyone away. So for once, my plot is looking reasonably well kept in comparison!
If milder weather continues, I will sow a few radish and fleece them and next week I will start on the onion sets. I also have finished the potato buying. This year I am planting:
25 Belle de Fontenay as earlies,
15 each of Vitelotte purple and Pink Fir Apples as lates
and 3kg of Claustar, which are a maincrop and which apparently give an excellent yield. I have not tried those before but they sound potentially good.

Labels: onions, potato, sprouts, winter

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.

Labels: autumn, beans, dying_off, harvest, peppers, pumpkin, spinach, sprouts

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!!

Labels: carrots, peas, potato, spring, sprouts, squash, tomatoes, weeds

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??? :-)

Labels: aubergine, broccoli, carrots, peas, peppers, potato, spring, sprouts, squash, tomatoes

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.

Labels: artichoke, parsnip, pruning, rhubarb, sprouts, tidying, winter

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.

Labels: broccoli, cold, roquette, sprouts, winter

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....

Labels: autumn, broccoli, garlic, roquette, snow, sprouts

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...

Labels: autumn, beans, dying_off, sprouts, tomatoes

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...

Labels: broccoli, cabbage, coldframe, courgette, pumpkin, spinach, sprouts

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

Just a wee update on the seedlings.
The tomatoes are going great guns, quite tall but once I pot them on they will do well.
Once again the lettuce is terrifically tall! I don't know what to do about it, maybe indoors is too hot for it?? Again, maybe potting on will do the trick.
I was starting to despair for the sweet peppers but I moved them nearer to the radiator and last night noticed a little bump under the soil so I think they are just coming up now.
The first leeks are now about 7 cm tall and the second lot are just rearing their heads.
Also good germination on the brussel sprouts, the rhubarb chard (red silverbeet I would say) and my dwarf marigolds are looking splendid. I couldn't get them to come up in direct sowing last year but maybe this is the wayto do it. I want to use them as companion plants to the tomatoes.
I am hoping that some of these bits and bobs will be ready for a cold frame by the time I need to sow the courgettes and squash otherwise the windowsills are going to be under great strain!

Labels: chard, leeks, lettuce, seedlings, spring, sprouts, tomatoes

On Saturday, it was a glorious day, quite unbelievable for February, brilliant sun and quite warm. So it had to be an afternoon down the allotment. There were loads of people at the site, all making the most of the lovely weather.
I attacked the onion patch, digging in some manure, and I uncovered the bean area that had been tarpaulined since October. I had let all the chopped down beanstalks rot and underneath the ground was dark and crumbly, I just dug in the grassy dead material, it will break down. A few good forkfuls of manure went on too then I planted the echalotes (Jelmor cuisse de poulet), the red onions and the yellow onions, all sets. Today (Monday) it is a bit rainy so they will be well watered in.
While feeling terribly enthusiastic, I also manured and dug over the patches where the spuds will go and covered them with the tarp. That will save me a lot of work in a few weeks' time ;-)
The broad beans have flowers, will they give any beans I wonder? They have been in all winter.
I looked at the new strawberry plants, and I put little sticks around them to keep the black plastic back off the crowns so they can get the maximum sun and rain now. They all seem to have taken, now they just have to grow.
So many heralds of spring, the cherry trees are starting to flower around town, and I noticed that the gooseberries and raspberries are starting to have buds. The rhubarb is growing well, as are the artichokes, and the roses given to me by a friend have all got new growth so they must have rooted well over the winter.
Oh and I nearly forgot, I planted some first peas (Kelvedon Wonder) and ripped up the last remaining Romanesco, broccoli and sprouts. Got about a pound of late sprouts, about 1 1/2 kilos of Romanesco heads and shoots, and 5 lovely leeks. Blimey no wonder I was knackered afterwards, that was a lot of bloody work in retrospect!!!! Still when I look over the plot I see how much work is still to be done :-( BUT the plot on the whole is much more worked over than last year so if I take one patch at a time I am sure it will be OK.

Labels: onions, peas, potato, romanesco, roses, sprouts, winter

Cabbages.
That seems to be an appropriate subject for January, as it is the only thing that will grow at this time of year :-D
This was Saturday's cabbage harvest:Brussel sprouts, the last of the Romanescos (they were delicious, made them into gratin), a few fleeting spears of broccoli and two cabbages
OK I admit that I have cleaned them all up a fair bit for the photo, producing this pile of waste (that will go piously onto the compost heap):

The other event of the weekend was the Great Horse Poo quest. In the weekend drizzle (well, ok it was pretty much rain but I had some time on my hands), the Small Ones and myself trotted off to the local pony club. They obligingly told me to help myself to as much as I wanted of the 3 TONNES of poo that is stacked up in a corner. Unfortunately I didn't make much of a dent in the pile, still we filled up 4 big black bin bags of the stuff, it was boiling hot and steaming!! The kids thought that hilarious and rather odd. To my surprise it weighed a bloody ton, so I asked to borrow a wheelbarrow which they didn't really appreciate. I will bring my little trolley next time.
It made quite a decent pile once we had taken it back to the lottie: if I can go and get the same amount again I will have enough for the areas where I will plant the spuds, onions, beans and tomatoes. Then a bit later I will go and make another pile for the courgettes, melons and pumpkins. Hopefully the soil will be much improved by my work, some green manure where I could, digging in the bean plants, leaf mulching large areas, and I should have some decent compost by the time spring comes too, which I will use mainly in the root veg, salad greens and flower areas.
Oh and I did manage to order some seeds from DT Browns but so far I can't get the online ordering to work at AlanRomans which is a real bugger, he has some great bargains. Mmm can't wait for my first seed packages to arrive!!!

Labels: cabbage, harvest, manure, seeds, sprouts, winter

Operation Big Freeze...
-2c here this morning, there was actually a sheet of ice on the car. bbrrr
so yesterday it was down to the allotment to snatch up everything we could, which included a kilo or two of parsnips, two cabbages, the romanescos, a heap of big Brussel sprouts, all the first leeks and all the tiny carrots and beets that were still in the ground. I think I might have to put some veg in the freezer this week :-)
It is my first experience of seeing the garden over the winter, all the fruit bushes have lost their leaves and gone to sleep, the leaf mulch I spread out has started to decompose into the earth, as has all the other vegetation. The rhubarb has disappeared and the artichokes have sort of sprawled out as if they are kipping.
The compost bin had collapsed again, so I took the opportunity to dig over the compost before rebuilding the bin.
The water barrels are full of ice! that is quite a spectacular sight! luckily they are not sealed. Maybe it will kill any nasties in the water too. And just think, it is not even winter yet!!
Still I took a moment to look around and think, in the spring I will be digging all this up again, but keeping in mind that next year I am going to cover and mulch as much as possible. Because I have made so much effort not to walk on the beds, the earth is still soft and aerated. The things I dug up yesterday, I dug over a little to let the frost into the soil. And had a little moment to visualize in my head, ok where the tomatoes were, that will be beans and peas - and over in the onion bed, the spuds - and in February I will see the sprouts of garlic there - ok the spuds were there so that will be the squash next year and this bit here will go out and be root veg. Now where will I put the broccoli....
Gardening - 2 parts sweat, 7 parts weeds, 3 parts delicious home grown veg and 0.02 parts pure fantasy

Labels: autumn, cabbage, freezing, planning, romanesco, sprouts

Still harvesting. It is getting distinctly cooler here and it is quite dry, although rain is predicted for later in the week. I can see the weeds in the garden starting to die off like the rest of the vegetation, it is quite fascinating to watch. Time for a big weed clear out that means, as they are easy to pull out just now.
And still, some things are not dying, but just coming into bloom...

That is a chrysanthemum that I bought for about 2 euros last year! Small cultural diversion - in France the chyrsanthemum is the flower traditionally placed on gravestones on All Souls Day, November 1. After November the 1st you can pick up loads of flowers for next to nothing!!! I had this one on my balcony but it was unhappy, so I moved it to the lottie and it has thrived!! It is a very pretty one, you will see when it blooms completely, very big whitish pink flowers.
I took stock of the lottie yesterday, hmmm what is left to be done before it gets too cold? Plant the garlic (update on that next week probably ;-).
Rip out the devastated tomato patch (so depressing to look at):

And of course keep harvesting all the autumn veg:
Sprouts and leeks

I think I have created some monster cow cabbage (what is this actually called? it was given to me. Here it is called "green cabbage" or "Feed cabbage" used to feed livestock! Maybe it is really a type of kale? Anyway it is delicious braised with onions.):

Next year I must be more careful with the broccoli, it went straight to flower this year, dunno why:I mean it is pretty but you can't eat it!! Actually it has seed pods, I wonder if they are viable??

My broad beans and red endive seem to be doing well, I must do a bit of transplanting next weekend... There are a few gaps in the broadies, might be a good idea to fill them in. And you can't see them but my white onions are at least sprouted, now let's see if they grow!!I had quite a nice harvest yesterday, a small bag of sprouts, two leeks, beets (already cooked and ready for salad tonight), radishes, physalis, some nice parsnips, not too big, baby tomatoes, and a BEAUTIFUL CABBAGE ! (like the ones in the broccoli pic above), handful of rocket, handful of parsley. Best of all, a big bag of yellow beans! I will freeze some of them, as there are too many to eat all at once.
And let's leave the lottie with a look at the bean patch (there will be another bagful at the end of the week unless I am very much mistaken) and you can see too the rhubarb slowing down, the artichokes and the flowers (nasturtiums and marigolds) that are at the end of their tether too. I hope they have done their bit for some self-sowing next year :-D

Labels: autumn, cabbage, chrysanthemum, harvest, leeks, sprouts, tomatoes

Ok here are some of the promised pics.
Something is on my sprouts !! waaaah! I asked at A4A and they said either mealy aphids or white fly... wtf? whatever, gotta find a way to kill it.

anyway, in other news: here are the fruit bushes, you can see how big the physalis (cape gooseberry is, it is actually a bit invasive. I wonder when it will start perishing??
I took a few views of the overall picture, you can see that if you compare it with January's pics, there is no contest...
This is a view from the compost end
You can see in the foreground the cabbages, and some greenmanure behind it, the very green bits. The tallish things round the edges are cow cabbage, the leeks and sprouts are on the left side.
Then there is a view from the top end, you can see the last of the flowers, orange and yellow and the amputated sunflower stems. This is the section with fairly new seedlings, beans, beets and carrots.

Here you can see the artichoke and rhubarb.
I guess I am pretty proud of what I have done, but I know there is still a lot to be done!!!! sigh...

Labels: autumn, beans, cabbage, fruit, leeks, rhubarb, sprouts