15 May 2010 - Potato shock

Jack Frost (and our friend Doone - see below) has been to visit. Yes, in the second week of May, practically everyone's potatoes have been hit by frost. The foliage of most potatoes look like small brown lumps. Ours have also been hit, but not so badly - there are still stalks at least. We worry and ponder. We are told that "they will come back". We earth them up and put the protective environmesh back over them. Frost has also hit our apple trees but hopefully we will still get a good crop. The strawberries seem to be OK. Our plot appears to be less affected by frost than others, maybe because we are bounded by trees. Makes up for the stones.

Another significant incident was the discovery of the still limp corpse of a small bunny laid neatly out on our allotment bank. There were no injuries and the eyes were still shiny. Was it a message? Had Archie (our bunny-killer cat) been at work? We will never know but we rejoiced as there is now one less rabbit to eat produce. Having said that, an exceedingly fat rabbit just sat in a neighbour's plot as we drove by. You win some...

We were honoured by a visit from Doone, a friend from Southampton. She was mightily impressed by the plot, the innovative creative solutions we had devised for raised beds, the fruit cage and the current state of the crops therein. We endowed her with some sticks of rhubarb and had leek and potato soup for supper. She was also taken with the garlic plait which is still looking fab and endorsed my strawberry jam (unlike the judges at the last show, chiz). Here is a link to a website explaining how to plait and the picture is of the garlic we did in 2009 for her future reference. She is now going to get her husband a greenhouse, having seen how fab ours is. We reflect on the contrast between our young, hedonistic selves and the two magnificent, accomplished and high-achieving women shown above.

So as we'd not been up for a couple of weekends in any serious capacity, we had quite a bit of stuff to do - strimming, watering (very dry), weeding and such. Weeding the beds is pretty easy but we have to keep an eye on the weeds that come up round the side of paths. The innovative plastic board solution appears to be keeping stuff out in the fruit cage. As one of us was not feeling very well, the session was not overly strenuous.

We planted out some more peas (more peas more peas more peas) and some mangetout, which were making bids for freedom. They are securely wrapped in mesh for protection. We also install all the leek seedlings into one tiny bit of the fruit cage so they can get established. The carrots are coming up fine and the first parsnip seedlings and kohl rabi (hooray!) are beginning to show. The spinach I planted out several weeks ago is getting into its stride now, though its fascinating to see that the four plants, in a line, decrease in size in order - must be something to do with the way the sun falls.

N harvests some comfrey and we donate some to Jan and Pat. We also put some in a bin and cover it with water. In a few whiffy weeks, it will be Magic Juice Extraordinare.

The giant garlic is holding its own on the bank and (we think) we can see the beginnings of small plants (green manure and wild flowers). We sow some poppy seeds given to us by Jan and think of a row of gorgeous orange flowers in the late summer. Some of the sweet peas that I have hopefully sown seem to be coming up at the side of the fruit cage - but they have to battle the weeds. Shallots are finally coming up and the onion sets appear to be growing well. The onions from seed are still looking little but we are confident. Lots of onions this year. The yellow garlic appears to have recovered slightly.

We are feeding the strawberries and overwintering onions with Magic Juice but nothing else as yet. It still doesn't feel spring-like enough - everyone agrees that it's a different feel this year. We have courgettes, celery, squash and beans bursting at the seams in the greenhouse but it's just not warm enough yet. We reckon the last weekend in May/first weekend in June which feels very late. Winter cabbage, red cabbage, petit posy and cauliflower are also waiting to be put into the earth. I feel an urge to rush everything out so that we can prepare the greenhouse for its next phase of existence with growbags and wire for aubergine, peppers, melon (! still not dead), cucumber and tomatoes (of course).

Shortly after the last blog, we took proud delivery of our 10 sweet potatoes. They looked a little tired and needed extensive resuscitation. Two have succumbed. They are very sensitive to cold so they have been hogging the warmth in the kitchen in root trainers. We hope to put them out on the bank. An interesting experiment if nothing else. As they are tropical plants it is definitely a gamble. If the summer is lukewarm and wet they will perish. C'est la vie at the cutting edge of horticulture.

Weather note: quite cold over the past two weeks. Sunshine and showers.

April 2010 - April is the Cruellest Month

So said T S Eliot at the beginning of The Waste Land - though obviously this poem could not have been named after our plot, which is beginning to show definite signs of life and growth. We have been very busy each weekend, putting the finishing touches to beds and making a real move against the weeds that cometh in from the bank at the back. We are confident that the plastic sheets that were going to be recycled will prove an effective deterrent in the Pagoda.

One important lesson for you backpain sufferers though - do not dig for hours on end, as we did on the bank, to prepare it for wildflower and green manure seeds. Many and severe were the repercussions! We had visitors for the Easter weekend, who were duly admiring of our plot and even lent a hand. We reflected on how different it looked 3 years ago and how much more confident (and yet still prone to disaster) we are. The daffodils made a triumphant - and much later than normal - appearance.

We have to start by extolling the virtues of the greenhouse. It makes so much difference to be able to start things off in comfort. Sowing and thinning seeds is easy and what used to be a bit of a chore is now a regular Saturday retreat into a kind of quiet cultivational ecstasy. Things that we have sowed are: green beans (from last year), purple beans, borlotti beans, corn, marigold, dahlias, cucumbers, aubergines, melon (though who knows), many kinds of tomatoes, peppers, peas, mangetout, celery, winter cabbage, petit rosy, red cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, winter squash, pumpkin, butternut squash. Not bad eh?

The salad bed at home is also now looking fab thanks to a great new protective (against the cats) structure and is bursting with parsley, chard, rocket, spinach, lettuce and radish, with some spring onions too. It's so good to go to the plot with the seedlings and put them in their new home. So far, we have installed cabbage, onions, broccoli and some peas on the plot (the latter may have been too early because of frost as they look a bit peaky).

Things that haven't worked so well were the mangetout that we overwintered in the greenhouse. Planted out in early March, it was clearly too soon and the poor little blighters just froze to death (the weather still being rubbish then). Also one lot of the garlic we planted has something very wrong with it - it is yellow and shrivelled in places. We cannot recall whether this was our own garlic from last year, or shop-bought. We hope it will pull itself together.

Otherwise on the plot, the potatoes are now showing, and the overwintering onions are doing well, though a bit yellow round the edges. This yellowing, like with the garlic, could mean a lack of water, as it has been exceptionally dry. We have had to water.

Regular onions, carrots and shallots are beginning to come up, as are the various sets of peas frantically planted to ensure that we get a bumper pea crop this year. Spinach, chard and radishes are also beginning to appear. We have sown two main lots of carrots, with room for more, and some kohl rabi (?) a vegetable we have never encountered hitherto. Parsnips have been sown too in the amazing J-bed (the envy of Jan and Pat).

We picked our first rhubarb last weekend and had a lovely rhubarb custard fool dessert. It is a lovely plant and we hope we can live up to its expectations. I have been looking up rhubarb jam and wine recipes - watch out Hugh F-Whittingstall.

The newly planted fruit trees (cherry, plum) are doing well too, and we are heartened to see plenty of apple blossom on our existing apple trees, especially the one that didn't really do much last year. We have put disgustingly sticky bands round each tree to protect them from the ants (remember, the aphid incident of last year). Do not underestimate ants - I peeled a potato today from our store and cut it open to find lots of happy looking fat ants which had spent a whole 6 months inside! They will be here long after us.

It is still not reliably warm enough to put out the beans, corn and squash - it has to be at least 5 degrees at night for a week. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will be able to do so. What we really need (and I shouldn't be saying this about to go on a camping weekend) is a lot of rain here - but not on our campsite please.

Weather note: warmer than March, not much rain

21/28 March 2010 - Spring cleaning

A blog in two halves - well what with one thing and another...

21 March saw the planting of the first - and second (a bit of a risk but hey) - potatoes in bed 3. These were Arran Pilot, Blue Danube and Orla. We then faced a quandary about the maincrops as there wasn't enough room for them too. We then decided to tidy up the patch behind the shed, move all our infrastructure stuff (useful bits of wood etc) and use that to take the overflow of the maincrops. It's still too early to plant them yet, though I know of at least one plotholder who has just put all his spuds in. Beware Jack Frost.

The new three sided bed was finished, and filled up with more topsoil and shop-brought compost, as well as a lot of our own compost from the black bin. It is amazing how it rots down. To make the extra room for all the stuff from behind the shed, N cleared the second of our compost pallet areas - this was the place where we dumped stuff like old brassicas - and quite a lot of it had rotted down very nicely. This is officially bed 6. We sowed some more early carrots and spring onions in it. So lots of getting in with the muck and sorting stuff out, which was very therapeutic. We marvel yet again at the seemingly limitless possibilities of our plot.

We sowed wild flower seeds in the Pagoda and added nasturtiums and sweet pea. Here's hoping for lots of lovely flowers. A few radishes for fun and that was about it (but it took a long time because of shifting all the poo about - I didn't mention the well rotted manure that we had stored - this had to be moved into other bins).

As the peas were proving mutinous we sowed some more of a different variety on bed 1. We'll probably end up with far too many. We also put more compost/manure on the fruit trees (did we mention that we now have a plum and a cherry, as well as a new blueberry to keep the other one company?)

Roll on another 7 days, and the first of the leek seeds sown in a little space in the Pagoda are beginning to show, as are some of the broccoli. Bloody slugs had already tucked into the cabbage seedlings so now they have cabbage collars, three lots of slug repellant and a plastic bottle thingy to protect them. We just won't have such nonsense this early in the season.

Weather is just what you expect at this stage in March, mixed but warm in the sunlight. So we took advantage of it by digging the new bed behind the shed - as yet unnumbered, but looking like bed 8, moving some more stuff around and, yes, for the first time in months, doing some weeding.

Another nice surprise was the appearance - finally - of the rhubarb. Last weekend there was hardly anything to be seen, and now there is the proud flush of a great looking plant.

14 March 2010 - Rites of Spring

Signs of life are beginning to be seen on the site. Several of us convened on Sunday morning to clear some vacant plots of rubbish prior to new tenants taking them on. We used it as a jolly excuse to have a bonfire (apologies no pictures) and generally reflect on the fact that it had been 6 months since we had last done anything communal on the site. This was almost entirely due to the dire weather which thankfully looks to be settling into the beginning of spring. Amazingly, there are no daffodils out yet and things are certainly at least a month behind in terms of sowing and growing seed etc. Or alternatively it's how it ought to be, we're just not used to it.

The weather being not too bad, N carried out some valuable infrastructural work. Firstly, the finishing of the construction of the fab new carrot/parsnip bed, started last week. It's J-shaped, darling and no-one else has one like it. We were going to sieve the soil for stones but in the end opted to buy a whole load of compost. We sowed four small rows of early carrots and covered them with a makeshift cold frame. More soil needs to be put in but in the meantime a great addition. We remain continually surprised at the amount of things we can do in such a small space. Maybe it's the Tardis of allotment plots.

Another one was the replacement of the table top which had somehow fallen to cardboard-like bits over the winter. It was never the most robust object anyway, and N has replaced it with a far sturdier and more elegant solution. This was in fact a small pallet but very stout. It will do us just fine.

Onto matters horticultural. Many seeds have now been sown in the greenhouse. We have: aubergine, various peppers, various tomatoes, broccoli, chard, marigold, red onions, leeks (though not many), rocket, lettuce, cucumbers - coming up - and still awaiting an appearance from french beans, borlotti beans, sweet peas, pumpkin, squash x 2 and peas. The latter is particularly concerning, as we have put two lots of peas in guttering in the greenhouse over the last 2 weeks with very little success - only two germinations so far. I've sown a separate lot in the heated thingy, only 3 of which have come up. And have sown some on the plot last week, using the raspberry sticks from last year (one of N's great ideas) as peasticks. We are worried that we may have got a dodgy lot of peas (Kelvedon Wonder from T&M).

In terms of the plot, last weekend we moved red cabbage, pak choi and spinach overwintered (what a great word!) seedlings from the greenhouse and planted out under protection on the plot, having cleared the winter leeks to one side. That was quite a good feeling. In addition, we sowed some more leeks in a tiny little seedbed in the Pagoda as we are concerned about the slow progress at home. Optimistically, I sowed some radish seeds (you can never go wrong) and chard. Overwintering onions are still heroically soldiering on.

Garlic is now beginning to show quite well, though I am anxious that we are not going to have as much as last year (well, no, of course we're not because that was a ridiculous amount). Everything is slower and later than last year and maybe it hasn't all come up yet. Last weekend we also moved our mangetout seedlings which had been growing all winter in the greenhouse. We've protected them to keep the worst of any frost off.

We had also been fretting about the rhubarb but we saw evidence that it was emerging from its slumber. Must be a later variety. Next weekend we'll plant the first earlies and then the growing year can begin in earnest. Oh and for fun, I planted some of the overwintered sweet peas and planted some sweet pea and nasturtium seeds. Let's see if we can get that colour off to a good start this year.

7 February 2010 - A quickie

This is just a quick blog to note a few things that we did today on the plot (remember I mentioned how useful the blog was for checking back?) So this isn't for you, the reader, but for us the growers.

We moved the strawberries from the Pagoda to the former carrot bed and covered them. It was an interesting experience - we didn't realise what tough customers strawberries are and how they proliferate. A bit like comfrey in their stubbornness.

We sowed the shallots and sowed a few broccoli seeds direct into the bed (same as the leeks bed currently).

We also cut down the raspberries and mulched the fruit trees. A bit of pruning was also accomplished.

I also sowed the following seeds in the greenhouse: two sorts of basket hanging tomatoes, red onions and lettuce. The previous weekend I sowed leeks, aubergines and cucumber (the latter two in the heated thingy), and peas in the guttering. And put a bin over the rhubarb (to force it). We hope it is not too cold to sow seeds as we head toward yet another cold snap in this seemingly endless winter.

Weather today was cold and grey but not unbearable.

Thassorl.

24 January 2010 - Earth Stood Hard as Iron

We've been through one of the coldest winters for 30 years (they say). These pictures were taken on 7 January. From 17 December to 18 January, effectively a whole month of snow, frost, ice and below freezing. It's just not what happens these days in winter. Apart from the inconvenience, moaning and groaning and general annoyance (not to mention cold), it also meant that it was too inclement to do anything meaningful at the plot for some time other than try and find snow-covered harvest. Which is a shame because January is quite a nice time to pootle about on the plot, doing structural things and such.

Yet again, the Pagoda stood firm where others buckled (the photo shows a view from inside). We think it's got something to do with the windbreak provided by the hedge behind us. Apart from the magnificent workmanship obviously.

What we have done is to organise our plan for the growing year ahead, putting seeds into alphabetical order, etc, in their new water-tight container, compiling the spreadsheet and so forth. We are definitely going to try to be more sustainable this year, within limits. The new seeds have arrived from T&M and represent a new start to our growing endeavours. And we have added celery, shallots and First Earlies to the list (we forgot to order these). First Earlies are the faithful Arran Pilot, purchased from Homebase. They look to be good healthy seed potatoes - much better than the ones we had last year, if memory serves. Jan and Pat are going to try celery too - so we can learn together. (Long-term readers will recall that we grew celery in our first year but that's because we were too scared to say no when they were proffered at the Garden Trading Hut. These will be grown from seed and started in the greenhouse.)

Another issue we need to address is how far we talk about the greenhouse in this blog. Do we only discuss those issues related to the plants that end up on the plot? Or are we extending the franchise to our garden, where (we hope) to be growing various peppers, aubergine, tomatoes, cucumber and melon? It might be all too much information. Maybe we should retain some mystery and privacy.

Anyhoo. Today was the first day for ages that we went to the plot and did some developmental things. Firstly, we planted our garlic in bed 5 - 44 cloves of Marco and (I think) 55 cloves of our very own Solent White (prizewinning ahem) harvest from last year - just under 100. We think we overdid it last year and have planted the cloves closer together. 4 cloves of elephant garlic have been put on the bank. We look anxiously under the pile of compost for the rhubarb. No sign at all. Hmmm.

Secondly, we dug bed 6 (which has overwintering green manure) ready for its new existence as a carrot/parsnip bed. We also dug up all the remaining (tiny) carrots from the current bed and have enriched the soil with leaf mould and chicken manure for the strawberries which will be moved soon. (Oh and last weekend, apart from harvest, we bought some strawberries back in pots to grow in the greenhouse for that special early crop. Everyone will hate us.)

We are very disappointed in the kale which seemed to have been attacked and have pulled it up. Do not buy this variety of seed again. What a shame - it was such a star turn last year. The leeks are fantastic and the chard is having a little think about things but will no doubt get going again. We are going to be entering the hungry gap soon, and with no sprouting broccoli or kale, we are a little under vegg-ed. But we'll be OK with our stored potatoes, squash, frozen veg and garlic.

The Arran Pilots (14) are in their egg boxes cosy in the greenhouse. Avanti!!

(We find this blog to be very useful to check back on when we did things or if we have forgotten how much/what we planted. It's not just to entertain our public. As we enter the third growing year, we are building a unique record of cultivation for posterity. Wotever.)

3 January 2010 - Happy New Decade Folks!

Happy New Year and Decade to All Our Readers! We hope that your year and decade will be productive and fruitful - and that ours will be rewarded by less slugs and more crops. We post a celebratory picture of our pumpkin's dramatic demise at Mr B's bonfire party event.

Since we last posted, we went on a trip to Canada to celebrate N's mum's birthday with all the family. Great fun to see everyone. We gave a jar of our chutney to N's mum and sister respectively as a reminder of the plot. So the allotment was never far from our minds. After we returned at the end of November, winter had well and truly struck and indeed has not let up much since. All we have done in the last few weeks is to tidy the last summer plants away (RIP the noble Autumn Broccoli only yesterday), harvest (leeks, chard, cabbage and kale) and stroke our chins a lot about the plan for next year.

We were somewhat hacked off to find that the shoebox we kept our seed collection in had got damp. So we threw the lot out and K spent an hour ordering on-line (around £120 worth - ouch) - including potatoes and garlic. We have kept pumpkin, squash, runner bean and climbing bean seeds from last year but have had to start from scratch for everything else. So what did we order?

Garlic : Elephant Garlic - 12 cloves - Spring Planting
Garlic : Spring Planting - 4 large bulbs (to be supplemented by some of our existing harvest)
Aubergine : Black Enorma F1 - 1 packet
Basil : Basilico Genovese (Ocimum minimum) - 1 packet
Bean : Climbing : Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco ( Firetongue) - 1 packet
Bean : Dwarf French Bean : Purple Teepee - 1 packet
Borage : Hardy Annual Herb - 1 packet
Brassica : Petit Posy Mix™ - 1 packet
Cabbage : Savoy January King - 1 packet
Cabbage : Spring : Advantage F1 - 1 packet
Carrot : Autumn King 2 - 1 packet
Carrot : Carrot Fly Free Collection - 3 packets - 1 of each
Calabrese : Aquiles F1 Hybrid (Summer-Autumn) - 1 packet
Chili Pepper : Meek and Mild (Poblana type - Mildly Hot) - 1 packet
Chili Pepper : Collection - 3 packets - 1 of each
Courgette : Soleil F1 Hybrid - 1 packet
Courgette : Defender F1 Hybrid - 1 packet
Cucumber : Cucino F1 Hybrid - 1 packet
Rocket : Apollo - 1 packet
Oregano - 1 packet
Kale : Scarlet - 1 packet
Leaf Beet : Duo - 2 packets - 1 of each
Leek : Autumn Giant 2 - Porvite - 1 packet
Lettuce : Culinary Collection : Nice 'n' Spicy - 1 packet
Lettuce : Green Hearting Mixed - 1 packet
Mangetout Pea : Oregon Sugar Pod - 1 packet
Melon : Tigger - 1 packet
Onion : Bunching/Spring : Performer - 1 packet
Onion : Red Baron - 1 packet
Pak Choy : Purple F1 Hybrid - 1 packet
Parsnip : Gladiator F1 - 1 packet
Pea : Garden : Kelvedon Wonder - 1 packet
Pepper : Chili/Moderate : Padron (The Tapas Pepper) - 1 packet
Pepper : Sweet : Gypsy F1 - 1 packet
Radish : Flamboyant Sabina (Cylindrical) - 1 packet
Spinach : Palco F1 - Organic - 1 packet
Squash : Winter : Festival F1 Hybrid - 1 packet
Sweetcorn : Honey Bantam Bicolour (30) F1 - 1 packet
Tomato : Balconi Collection - 2 packets - 1 of each
Tomato : Ailsa Craig - 1 packet
Tomato : Blight Resistant Duo - 2 packets - 1 of each
Sweet Potato : Twin Pack (T65 & Beauregard Improved) - 10 slips - 5 of each
Potato : Sarpo Mira - 20 tuber pack
Potato : Orla - 10 tuber pack
Onion Set Santero
Potato Blue Danube

You did ask.

I see now that we have omitted celery which we wanted to have another go at properly this year. You will also note that we have included peppers, cucumber, aubergine and melon as well as tomatoes for the greenhouse - this will be our first growing year with the benefit of the greenhouse. Indeed, we already have mange tout, red cabbage, pansy, spinach and sweet pea seedlings in the greenhouse, shivering away. So plenty going on.

I rather like the end of Christmas and the beginning of the new year. Although we cannot perceive it yet, the sun is setting later - spring will come despite the current cold weather. Why it is being referred to as a "cold snap' by weather forecasters beats me - it is far from being snappy. We've had snow, frost and below freezing temperatures over the last two and a half weeks, and it isn't even February.

The new year means getting your seeds, shed and plans sorted out, and your tools cleaned and sharpened. It means looking back at the things that went wrong as well as celebrating the achievements (which reminds me - I have to complete the harvest spreadsheet - no, seriously). It touches me that every meal we still have something from the plot (potatoes, garlic, squash) - and yesterday brought back a full carrier bag of produce (leeks, carrots, cabbage, kale, chard). Even during the winter, we can eat fresh veg and if we fancy a touch of summer, we have some locked up in the freezer. What's not to love about having an allotment?