We are Martin and Amy and we live in a cosy Warwickshire market town where we enjoy growing our own fruit and vegetables on our allotment and we also keep chickens in our garden. We both love cooking and especially baking bread. Welcome to 'our good life'..
Well Gold is definately this month's colour. With the unprecendeted number of olympic gold medals being won by Team Gb, and also the prospect of Golden Sunshine this week things are starting to look good again. We've also been digging up some Gold treasure down the allotment in the form of our maincrop potatoes. We took advantage of the mid-day sunshine to dig up a row of our main crop Maris Piper's. I was expecting them to be a good size for Jacket Potatoes and also for mashing but in reality the size varied greatly with small to medium potatoes and then the occasional whopper. We decided to only harvest the one row and have left the other 5 for next week!
We easily got 5-6kg off the small row. Our rows are only about 1/3 of the size of the allotment's width so it was a very good haul indeed.
The rain in recent weeks has ruined crops such as onions and shallots, but it seems to be doing the majority of the cucurbit family a world of good. We've had Golden Yellow courgettes to pick daily and the monstrous marrows keep coming too. Here's a picture of our marrow and courgette harvest from one day last week. This was a particularly bumper day but we are picking at least 3 courgettes per day...
The Pumpkin patch is also looking great too. We have at least 6 pumpkins which have set and are forming nicely. A couple of the hundredweight variety are already past an acceptable size for a jack o'lantern at halloween and seein as they have the best part of 2 months left to grow then we shall see what they are going to do. It could all be very exciting...
After 6 years of trying, this week brought me one of my greatest triumphs as a vegetable grower. I finally managed to grow, harvest and eat one of my own cabbages. I had told Amy that for years I have failed to get my cabbages to heart properly, they have always ended up with open leaves and not tight hearts. Well this year I changed my growing method slightly and I now have 2 rows of perfectly hearted cabbages and delicious they are too. I bet you think I can't keep up my gold theme now, well I kid you not but this variety of cabbage is called 'Golden Acre'..
I am very pleased with the final results. I had said that if they didn't grow properly this year then I might give up on brassicas next year. However, this delicacy has given me some hope at least. Sods law indicates that they will not heart properly next year, but I will try!
The allotment is abundent with growing produce and plenty of weeds too. The forecast is good for the rest of the week so I shall be going up to tidy everything up. As we harvest these cabbages it is a good reminder that it is time to sow some for spring time. I will be doing that in the next week or so, as I continue to plan for next years 'hungry gap' already.
On my way back from the allotment today, I popped by my town's new golden glory...
With 3 bags of produce in tow, I think they probably thought I was coming to sell it to passers by, but in reality I was only getting a picture for my loyal followers, who keep coming back to read my blog even when my posts are slightly infrequent.
The post box outside our post office has been painted Gold as a result of the success of local equestrian rider Nick Skelton who won a Gold medal in the team event at the London 2012 olympics.
Well done Nick and thanks to everyone else for reading.
I am way behind on blog reading but I hope your harvest are as good as ours.
( Not the original words, but more appropriate in our circumstances!)
Well the produce keeps coming. It's a daily battle with the soft fruit bushes to keep on top of picking. We have huge amounts of Raspberries and Blackcurrants. I've actually got a blackcurrant and apple crumble in the oven right now, so it is an ideal time to sit down and write a blog post.
The rain hasn't stopped in recent weeks but admitedly the weather is starting to ease and believe it or not they are predicting that we might have a week long summer next week. I'll certainly be getting my shorts and wellies on to get up to the allotment. Due to the weather the only visits we are making is to harvest fruit and vegetables for dinner. The weeds keep growing, but there is little chance to do anything about it until we get a break in the rain. We had planned to have a whole day down at the plot on Friday but due to the weather it turned in to a solitary hour, but we managed to weed the onion bed in that time.
Aside from soft fruit, we've been harvesting lots of vegetables too. We are harvesting potatoes every other day and each plant is giving us a good amount and is plenty for just the two of us. We are getting between 7-10 potatoes off each plant and they range from golf ball size to just under the size of a tennis ball. Some of them are the biggest charlotte potatoes I have ever seen. When I have grown them in the past they have been small and kidney shaped, but these have completly dwarfed all of my previous efforts.
The courgettes keep coming and you could say we are beginning to enter the glut period. One of my favourite times of year! The other cucurbits doing well are the pumpkins, their plants are almost 10ft long now. They are running away from their patch and encroaching on paths and other beds. We're really hoping for a giant pumpkin this year but at the moment we'll settle for a giant marrow and giant lettuce. The rain must be good for something. Although this marrow isn't a giant, I read that you shouldn't let the first one get too big and then pick it and this will encourage more growth. We're not growing for the show bench, but for the dinner table so this is a very good size.
I was about to sow some lettuce seeds about 10 weeks ago when a fellow plot holder came over to me offering me some of his spare lettuce seedlings, not only did it save me a job then but it has also provided us with lettuce in the kitchen. We have had it in salads, in sandwiches and on top of big juicy burgers in a bun and it has been great. He didn't know what variety it was and I still don't know exactly either. It looks like a cos, but what variety, who knows? I've decided to call it Jumbo Gem and you'll see why...
Other things we are picking include broad beans, strawberries and other varieties of lettuce. The runner beans and dwarf beans are flowering now so it can't be long until those. I must remember to take pictures of the allotment. You can just about see it behind Amy, but the weather never really does it any justice when we take pictures of the whole plot. I'll try it tonight after dinner, we'll be making a flying dash to pick some more soft fruit and courgettes to top our pizza for tomorrow night.
It's an absolute delight being back on the allotment site after a 2 year absence due to studying. It's fantastic to be picking and eating delicious food again, and great to see Amy's enthusiasm continue to rise every time we pick something new.
If you're lucky I might upload some more pictures tomorrow. I was busy at a job intereview today for next year's placement year at university, I was amazed to see their fantastic grounds and gardens. It is located in Selly Oak and the manor was owned by George Cadbury who was of course the founder of the iconic chocolate brand. They also had an allotment area and polytunnel and ran gardening courses. I would be deligthed to get the job there and contribute not only to the business function side of it but also get in and amongst the gardens too! Paradise!
Will be setting time aside tomorrow to catch up on my favourite blogs, have not had time to read them for well over a week.
Well, we are about a 1/3 of the way through our new potato harvests, and the rest of this years crop should see us up and onwards until the maincrop are ready at the beginning of August.
We have been really impressed with the potatoes, it is so nice forking them up and seeing golden balls of luxury gleaming back at you. They are a great size for new potatoes too, we bought them as 'Charlotte' seed potatoes, but I don't think they are. They don't share many of the main characteristics of that variety, so I am adamant they were marked up wrong or either we provided such a fantastic growing medium and quantity of fertiliser that we really have encouraged them to bulk up greatly.
It's not just the potatoes that are ready. We've been picking plenty of blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries. We enjoyed some raspberries with meringue and cream on Thursday evening, it was heavenly! There is a punnet of blackcurrants in the fridge ready to make a pie or crumble tomorrow afternoon.
The lettuce are still growing well, but like quite a few of the leafy vegetables and plants they are looking a little bit scorched. Over the last few days we have had torrential rain in the mornings and baking heat in the late afternoon. It's doing the pumpkins and the rest of the cucurbits the world of good, but a lot of the other veg aren't too fond at all.
The shallots were one example of vegetables that hated the diverse weather. They really struggled when the weather changed from scorching hot in late May to wet, wet, wet in June. The leaves died back and I've decided to pull them out, because a few of them were showing signs of re-growing and dividing again. The shed currently smells like and onion factory (if such a thing exists) they are spread over newspaper on the potting table whilst they dry off. They are all a good size for pickled onions. We did actually plant some shallots in mid May when the sets were reduced at a garden centre, they have thrived and have already exceeded the size of most of the March planted shallots. It definately is a case to illustrate the case for staggering planting and sowing of vegetable crops.
Anyway, here is a picture of what we harvested this evening...
Plenty to look forward to tomorrow dinner time.
Weather permitting Amy is coming down to the allotment tomorrow to help to do the weeding which is a real God send. Knowing my luck it will definately rain.
Well. I took this video at 4:30 pm today on our way out to the garden centre from Amy's mum's house. This has been the picture for the last 10 or so days...
Crazy!
It is more like November than July, but at least the fresh produce keeps on growing, albeit rather more slowly than per usual!
We're now harvesting plenty of broad beans, courgettes, lettuce and soft fruit including raspberries and blackberries. We made a blackcurrant and apple crumble yesterday and today we had homemade ratatouille with chopped tomatoes, courgette ribbons and chunks as well as handfuls of broad bean served with pasta! Delicious!
When the weather sorts itself out, I'll give you a proper allotment update!
Seeing as we are now back online, I am going to be writing several blog updates over the next week or so, focussing upon a different aspect of the allotment each time. After today's post there will be 4 more catch-up posts; veg beds, soft fruit area, navigation and sustainability.
We've had the allotment since the end of February, so almost 2 whole months now. Having the smallest garden in the world at home, and having to use Amy's Dad's house to home our beehive and chickens, we do not have a play area for ourselves. Seeing as we are two young adults, you might think the idea of a play area is quite odd, but what I really mean is somewhere where we can both sit out in the summer, drink chilled ginger beer and pick fresh produce from all around us and maybe accompany all of that with the odd barbeque here and there.
Being the main grower of the two of us, I really want to get Amy more engaged with things happening on the allotment, and to date I have to admit she has exceeded all expectations so far. When we got the plot the first thing she mentioned was a paved area to sit, and being the loveliest partner in the whole world (sickly I know!), I set out straight away to make her area, and I showcased the beginning of this side project in this post here.
If you forgot what it looked like, here it is..
Apart from substantial weed growth all around and the abysmal weather, a lot has changed since this picture. Those rotten bamboo canes in the old blue waterbutt have been thrown out, that rusty old metal bin has been moved to the 'wild area' and of course that particular greenhouse in the picture was stolen! The Rhubarb crowns have burst in to life at the edge of the second raised bed, and the whole 'freshly dug' bed in front of the paved area is now full of establishing onions, shallots and garlic. A third mini raised bed has taken up residence on the left hand side of the bed and is now full of plastic bottles we have grown...
...I meant lettuces......
We currently have little gem and lollo rosso in the raised beds but there are iceberg and more lollo rosso seedlings just emerging elsewhere. The other raised beds are full of....
....and other emerging seedlings including beetroot, swiss chard, perpetual spinach and a hell of a lot more raddish!
We had a taste of the very first raddish the other day. Amy always thought I didn't like raddish and that is because out of principle I refuse to eat shop bought raddish. You can not compare the taste of the shop bought stuff to the home grown crops which are so quick and easy to go. They indeed were delicious and most were perfectly formed!
Following on from the theft of the greenhouse, my grandparent's actually bought me 2 more for Easter which was very kind of them. These have been bolted to the shed and cemented to the ground and are therefore unmoveable, they have also been marked with our names and plot number! In a way the burgular did us a favour, because if we didn't have 2 greenhouses now I don't know what we would be doing! The two are rammed to the brim and we have so many seedlings that constantly need potting upwards and onwards. Here is a sneak peak....
We actually have about 30 courgette plants, it's a good job they are one of our favourite vegetables and we have a whole bed dedicated to them! Bring on the glut!
So anyway, in case you were actually wondering here is Amy's area/the potting area/the shed today..
Not bad hey with table and chairs too, we even have a parasol in the shed, but I think that is a bit optimistic in this drizzle!
I also spoke of the 'wild area' and this is something that happened by accident. We inherited an established rosemary bush and we planted a few rhubarb crowns nearby. This patch has burst in to life but was missing something. So the old rusty metal bin is now in the bed and the plan is to have a clematis grow around it in the summer, but then use it for holding bags of leaf mould in the winter. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but we shall see! Here it is...
I'm hoping all of the contrasting colours and leafy growth will look great in early summer.
Well that concludes today's mini tour and update. Check back over the next couple of days for a re-cap of the vegetable beds and soft fruit area!
Thanks for reading. It's now my turn to catch up on your blog too!
Wow! It's been a whole year since we started blogging again and if I might say, we've done rather well in my opinion. I did have the urge to do a review of the year in January like so many other bloggers did, but that would have actually been a review of the last 10 months as opposed to a year. So waiting until our blogging birthday was definately more suitable.
Every year, it is nice to go back and look through the blog posts that have accumulated. Having made around 150 posts, averaging about 3 per week, it can take a long time to look through them all. However, it is really beneficial to refresh your memory of what you should be doing now and also remind yourself of the things that worked particularly well and then of course.. those that didn't!
April
This is where it all started again. A spontaneous trip to a local garden centre resulted in us returning with a bag of early seed potatoes and some courgette plants...
These courgettes were a fantastic success, but the potatoes which we grew in bags were not so great. After giving up my allotment 2 years ago to concentrate on studies it was definately nice to get my fingers dirty again...
May
This was a very exciting month. Amy who had never grew anything before was witnessing tomato plants shoot right up and we also saw those two measly courgette plants burst in to a jungle of foliage. This month also brought our first pickings of courgettes too. Simply delicious..
The above photo show our measly patch turning in to a green canvas of leaves and growing produce..
June
It was nice to get the bees back. After 3 years of beekeeping I have still not managed to harvest a good deal of honey. I only ever intend to take what the bees don't need and with the bees being quite a small colony they have never produced a great deal. I'm hoping for a much more vigorous honey crop this year. The first inspection of Spring is upon us!
July
My highlight of the year was adding the Bantams to our ever growing very, very, very, very small holding. Having had 2 hybrids for eggs already in an eglu classic, it was nice to add some more chickens to the menagerie. Lesley and Geraldine our two original hens were rather shocked to see the impecably beautiful bantam trio of Margot, Barbara and Mrs.Weaver pitch up across the path in another eglu. These young, point of lay ladies came to strut their stuff and takeover the ruling of the roost.
There was some sadness to this story. Who can forget when one morning a 'cock a doodle doo' rang throughout the house, and upon very close inspection we realised that Barbara was more of a he than a she. No wonder there was a short term lack of eggs from these 'point of lay' pure breeds.
Here is Barbara in all of her 'cock-a-doodle-doodlingness'...
Anyway Barbara was replaced with Barbara II or Barbaradeux as we like to call her. The Bantams have been laying better than expected through winter and have been putting Lelsey and Geraldine to shame at times.
August
Our first green pepper came this month along with plentiful amounts of courgettes, tomatoes and mange tout. The potatoes however were a bit of a damp squib, with the potato in bags experiment being less successful than I had hoped it be. A lovely sunny month full of fresh produce on the table, what could be better?
September
A new academic year saw our blog posting tail off slightly, but good things still happened in our good life...
This month saw us doing lots of nice things inside rather than out. We got our Christmas cakes baked and I also helped Amy bake her first loaf. It is certainly a taste to savour, fresh homemade bread. We also went foraging in the park for crab apples which made a splendid jelly. Christmas things started to appear in shops and our countdown really began..
October
One of Martin's favourite times of year and not only for the soul reason that it is his birthday. October is a month of Orange. Orange leaves on trees and of course the wonderful pumpkins that emerge on doorsteps around the world at Halloween. We had an extra special Halloween this year with our trip to Disneyland Paris. A truly magical month, but food produced in the garden started to dwindle..
November
Our only post in November was an introduction to Barbaradeux. It certainly started to feel like Christmas in this month. Barbara was definately glad she wasn't a turkey...
December
We had a very merry family christmas this year, which was splendid. With the bees sleeping for the winter, and the eggs starting to come to a stop we weren't up to too much in our good life venture but we did get crafty and make some homemade cross stitch cards for our nearest and dearest..
January
A very happy new year! Christmas seemed to have flew by without stopping and it was time to sit exams for us both. Not the best month from the 12. Roll on Spring!
February
Amy's Birthday was celebrated for what seemed forever. With such a large family we had birthday meals here there and everywhere but she certainly wasn't complaining..
I taught Amy how to make perfect bread this month and I think you can agree she is a quick learner..
February is such an important time for vegetable growers and gardeneres. The seed potatoes are ready to start chitting and it's time to think about early broad beans and garlic. Tomatoes and Chillis can be started off too, a small taste of things to come..
A late Christmas present came to us at the end of February in the form of our new allotment. Initially being allocated Plot 16 brought so much happiness, but when faced with the decision betweet Plots 16 and 114 there was only one clear winner. Plot 114 became our new home and definately ensured next month was going to be a busy one..
March
Like I stated earlier, Plot 114 ensured March was a busy month for us. Clearing the site and getting it ready for planting took some time but we are sure that it is going to be worth it come harvest time..
What next?
Well here's to another year of blogging for a start. We have really enjoyed giving an account of our good life and sharing it with all of our 54 followers and those who don't follow publicly aswell. We have really enjoyed reading everybody elses blogs too and we always try to publicise others blogs as much as our own, so I think that this month I will start featuring our favourite blogs in special posts. You can learn so much from every blog you visit.
For us, Plot 114 is such an exciting project. We can't wait to get things in the ground and start picking them soon. Martin also fancies some new chickens, but that is something we will have to see about, and we really hope that we get a honey harvest this year no matter how small.
One thing we are really keen on is improving the readability and graphology of the blog. So all of your feedback will be appreciated. We hope to include better quality photographs and more posts sharing hints and tips as opposed to just accounts of our days. We've already taken your feedback on board to remove the word verification process when posting comments.
Last but not least we really, really want to thank all of our followers and readers. Our site has been visited over 10,000 times in just under 12 months and from all corners of the globe too. Thankyou so much and we hope you continue to visit throughout the rest of 2012 and beyond.
What a strange day we have had today weather wise. I was up at the allotment at 09.30 this morning and there was a light drizzle, but nowhere near enough to put me off a bit of a digging. Then within half an hour I suppose the inevitable happened and there was a terrible downpour which lasted about 15 minutes, I will be eternally greatful to our shed for providing shelter. The showers were on and off every 15 minutes which is really annoying since it was my day off and my main day this week I had allocated to spend sorting out the allotment.
Dinner time came and I picked Amy up for lunch at my grandparent's house before returning to the allotment where there was CLEAR BLUE SKIES and SUNSHINE but a horrendous WIND blowing. The weather really was throwing everything at us today. But we did manage to get things done.
I finished off digging the 2 beds on the right hand side and I also spread some homemade compost from home over the bean patch. Amy pottered around in the shed sowing seeds for Kale, Kohl Rabi, Lollo Rosso and a a couple of courgette seeds in the hope of an early crop like last year. Amy also planted some raddish seeds in one of our salad raised beds that I filled with a bag of compost this afternoon.
Anyway, it's time to show you Amy's little area that she wanted..
It's not completly finished but the foundations are there. On Friday evening my Dad came down to the plot and helped me move the slabs in to place. We actually had the chairs out on it earlier but we put them away before I took the pictures. The 2 salad raised beds make the border for the slabs and I think this area will look great in the summer. We are going to get a table and put some pot plants in and around the area to make it a perfect hangout for those sunny summer days. Amy is pleased anyway so that is good!
It's nice to be able to show you another perspective of the allotment from the slabbed area...
You can see the beds on the right hand side which I finished today. One of the beds on the left is covered with cardboard to surpress weeds until we need to plant our potatoes out and the uncovered bed is the bean bed where I spread the compost today. The runner bean trench is also there and is now full of rotted manure, grass clippings, banana skins, apple cores, tea bags, shredded paper etc. A perfect mix for the beans to thrive. Again you can see at the back the tarpaulin covered area for the pumpkins and root beds. The soft fruit bed is being tackled tomorrow if I remember to take my gloves up with me.
It was definately nice to sit back today and reflect on how much we have done already. We can't wait for the seeds to start germinating now...
In just under 30 minutes. We picked our own veg to accompany our dinner tonight. We are pleased to say that the mange tout is now ready for picking, and they looked extremly scrumptious last night. Such a divine tasting vegetable..
The mange tout seeds were the first seeds we planted this year. We planted out the courgettes on the same day, but we bought those from plants. In fact one of the first posts on this blog outlines what we did. (click here)
To see how far we've come when we simply look back on blog posts from a couple of months ago is very exciting! This whole journey started with a few pots and seeds and now we have tons of stuff that is growing at a rapid pace.
Mange tout alone would have been a dissapointing side to go with our lovely pork loin, so a few courgettes freshly picked from the flourishing bushes was a bonus too. They were delicious too, so both were a real success.
We had to cheat with the potatoes by buying them, our first 'harvest' resulted in a solitary potato but we are optimistic about the next lot of bags nonetheless.
Finally..We are going camping today! I cleaned out the car last night, and loaded in all of the things we needed such as sleeping bags,food, stove, folding chairs etc.
We are staying in Bourton on the Water for a single night tonight, and returning later tomorrow because Amy has work in the evening. Bourton is a gorgeous place to visit, and almost two full days will give us plenty of time to explore the quiet village.
We rather embarassingly had our first potato harvest of.. one potato, but never to give up we have hope with the others. The plant seemed to be dying so we pulled them up a few weeks before they would normally be ready, and all that was in the bag was one solitary potato. Oh well. Hopefully the others will provide more...
The 'barrow of berries' as I like to call our strawberry patch is full of fruits, none are ripe yet, but it won't be long now. They are in the front garden and this area has a lot less sun than the back garden. Most of the blogs I follow are already proudly displaying their finest, juciest, red strawbs.
In the veg patch, most of the tomato plants are establishing flowers. Harvesting tomatoes is one of the best bits of growing your own and so easy to do too!
The next picture shows that we have 5 MORE tomato plants that I need to find some room for. They've come on leaps and bounds since they've moved in to the greenhouse. The sunflowers in the foreground likewise. These are going in to Grandad's garden as soon as they are big enough! There also some pak choi sowings, some lettuce seedlings, beetroot and pumpkins.
The growbag at the bottom of the greenhouse is now planted up with 3 courgette plants. I'm hoping they'll grow rather wildly in the bottom of the greenhouse and we'll be harvesting courgettes well in to the autumn.
A quick snap of the jungle as a whole...
Remember, that arched structure we made for our runner beans? Well we've put the runner beans in and some of them are starting to make the long, winding journey to the top. I'm sure some of you will be familiar with the '3 sisters in a bed' form of gardening where you grow courgettes, runner beans and sweetcorn in the same area and thus maximizing the useage of your ground. Well we've adopted a similar idea and put a marrow plant at the bottom. I Will be happy if we can grow a few marrows to stuff with minced meat later in the year.
It's great seeing everybody elses blogs and seeing similar things going on. I am very proud to say that we are in the middle of a massive courgette glut. We've had about 8 or 9 lovely courgettes from only 2 plants. I see that some people's plants haven't even started producing yet, and they are green with envy at my harvest.
The raddishes should be ready very soon and most of the potato bags are full up. So much going on, just off out to give them a sprinkle of water due to the huge amounts of sun we've had already this week.
Almost half way through the year, today is the beginning of the sixth month.
Bought myself a treat today to welcome the month in.
A new mini greenhouse!!
I made it at Amy's house and then popped it around to my house to pop it in and amongst the vegetable patch.
I've popped a grow bag on the bottom shelf. I haven't decided what to put in there yet. Maybe some courgettes or some more peppers.
The other three shelves have all the sowings and small plants that were on the old rabbit hutch. That ghastly old thing is now gone.
I've penned it down with some tents pegs and stakes, so hopefully it won't blow over in the wind!!
This mini green house will really increasing growing space...
Oh how I love the mis-shapen vegetables you will see when you grow your own veg. On one of the courgette bushes we have this odd-ball...
It looks like two courgettes which are physically stuck together to form one and each half has it's own flower!
You would never see anything like this ending up in the supermarket, the quality control processes these days are too vigorous, and hybrid vegetables means that all crops are identically perfect. That's why it is always such a novelty when you see a potato shaped like a love heart in Tesco. Never mind a carrot shaped like a dog, or twin courgettes or a raddish shaped like a fork...
I am definately a member of the mis-shapen vegetables appreciation society!
Are you?
Ooooh... and we just enjoyed some more home grown courgettes in a meatball pasta bake! Homegrown salad leaves for sides too!!
We baked these courgettes the other day and served them with some sausages, asparagus, mashed potato and carrots. Amy said they were 'the best courgettes' she had ever had!
The tiny one on the end made us laugh. We left it for a week and it did not grow at all, whereas the other courgettes were growing noticeably each day! So we decided to pick it and eat it. It was very sweet and really lovely!
We've also been eating the salad leaves we sown out at the same time as we planted the courgette plants. We've been enjoying the fresh leaves in our sandwiches on a regular basis. When we've been picking the salad leaves we've been sowing a few raddish seeds directly in to the freshly vacated soil. The first ones have germinated so we will be enjoying fresh raddish in about 24 days! Brilliant! They are Amy's favourite too!
Well, there are plenty more courgettes where those three came from..
I am going to have a productive day today.. I hope!
Good Morning!! Just planted another bag of potatoes. Having such a restricted space for growing in, it is very convenient to grow potatoes in a bag. We have 6 bags and 1 pot of potatoes on the go at the moment. I have always criticised garden centres who sell a 'potato in a pot' that has almost reached harvest. The plant is flowering so the potatoes must be almost ready. I saw one garden centre sell this sort of thing at.. wait for it.... £7. Ok, granted you got a terracotta plant pot but then again they are the most expensive potatoes you have ever had, but realistically how many potatoes will you get in a small pot. 3 or 4? That works out at over £1.50 a potato.
I was intrigued to see a particular blog post the other day. They grew 7 perfect new potatoes in a plastic plant pot. I hope they doesn't mind but we've nicked their idea!! (I can't remember who's blog it was, so if you're reading, remind me and I will put the link in) Seeing as the whole sack of seed potatoes cost us 50p (for about 30 seed potatoes) and the pot is just one that was lying around it's a bit of a saving on £7. We are just open to seeing what works well when growing in a small space. Remember - Kaizen is Japanese for 'continuous improvement'.
I documented in a previous post about how that when growing potatoes in old compost bags like we do it is important to make sure that the bags are effectively covered so that no UV light can reach the potatoes and give any potatoes touching the surface a green tinge. However I've now manouvered a few things and the potato bags are now being sufficiently covered by other growing things. The courgette plants and tubtrug are covering two of the bags, the courgette leaves are really offering a lot of protection. Also the wigwammed mange tout, combined with the runner bean plants, the rhubarb, the fence and the eglu are offering more protection.
Here is the picture from wednesday's blog post..
It is quite hard to notice, but the potato bags are at the back of the courgette's foliage and are on the edge of the eglu run. (Please note, this eglu is empty.)
Things are looking really, really, really good for a continous supply because all of the bags are at different stages, so fingers crossed.
It has come to that point where all the summer crops are blooming and I know it's only May, but it's time to think about Winter..
Well, it was only on the 15th April that we bought these teeny-weeny courgette plants, and we planted them in a tubtrug full of multi-purpose compost!
They then turned into these bushes...
Now they are overflowing the tubtrug and there are courgettes growing left, right and centre...
The whole centre of the above picture is made up of the large courgette plant leaves. In just over 4 weeks, we have gone from two tiny plugs, to two vegetable bearing bushes.
It is great to reflect on a plant's growth by revisiting blog posts. When you water and tend to them everyday it is hard to realise how much they actually have grown.
