Finally catching up...

Well this blog post is certainly long over due. In fact, everything I will mention took place about two weeks ago when I took a couple of days annual leave to catch up at the allotment. So when you come back to read tomorrow's post, pretend it's been a whole two weeks since this post and not 12 or so hours...

Anyway....

The Potatoes and Onions are finally in the ground!!

We might have slightly overdone it with our potatoes. We have 4 rows (5.5m long each!) of Desiree and 3 long rows of Charlotte and we still have some seed potatoes to spare. If I get some big pots I might just put them in there and see what happens. It's not like we are going to be short of them anyway... Well, I hope not after the back breaking amounts of work I put in to planting them..

Next along from the potatoes are two rows of Onions (Stuttgarter Giant) and then a row of Beetroot (Boltardy)!

After the onions there is currently a large gap which come the middle of May will be planted up with Cabbage, Kale, Pumpkins, Courgettes and Squash. After this currently empty space, closest to the patio area is the beans. 6 rows of broad beans and there is space for a further 2 rows of dwarf French beans. I have also dug out the trench and emptied one of the compost bin’s contents in to it and then filled it on top with some used compost from last year’s raised beds, the support frame has been erected for the runners, and finally the allotment looks like an allotment again and not just a wasteland!

Here's a full on shot of the once again allotment like allotment!

The next couple of jobs are to actually sow the runner beans, courgettes and pumpkins and also prepare the ground for the cucurbits by digging in some well rotted horse manure!! There is also the unappetizing job of weeding the strawberry bed at the top of the allotment. It will be done, but when... I am not sure!

More soon!!

Martin J

This is the week!

This week the sun has come out and somewhat un-coincidentally everything is starting to look a little brighter. All of the seedlings are really getting a move on and it will soon be time to move things on up to the plot!!

For the first time I was able to make use of the extended daylight hours yesterday because it was dry, sunny and warm until almost 7pm! It was lovely to be back up the plot and I am so glad that we started digging it over last Autumn, because if we hadn't we would be in a real mess now. Thankfully the head start has really paid off!

The plot is now almost completly dug over and ready for use. We have 3 compost bins full of compost to spread over the potato patch, and providing the weather stays dry, I'm hoping that Friday might well be Potato day!! At last!! I have previously said that we always liked to get them in on Good Friday, but this year there was still snow on the ground and the plot was just completly unworkable. The potatoes still cover the kitchen table but all have really healthy strong sprouts/eyes which will be a real benefit when they finally get in the ground!

It's also good to see signs of life already emerging on the plot without having to plant anything, the rhubarb is getting stronger each day and I love seeing the contrasting colours of the bright red stalks and succulent green leaves! Rhubarb is an allotment favourite, and I really don't know what an allotment would be without it. After all, it comes back every year without much need for love and attention!

Inside, the tomatoes that we sowed in the last week of February are now several inches tall, the chilli plants have also started to kick on this week which is great news.

There is so much positivity for gardeners to embrace in April and May and it is much needed after the extremly long winter we have endured. I still can't believe that in less than a fortneight I should really consider sowing runner beans and courgettes yet on the other hand the potatoes and onions still aren't in the ground yet! Madness!!

I'll be back down the plot tonight finishing off the potato bed, and if I have time I will plant out my 30 new strawberry plants and 7 bareroot gooseberry bushes. That may have to wait until tomorrow though, we'll see!

I really look forward to catching up with other blogs over the common days. It is very nice to see so many signs of life on my 'reading list'.

Have a good week!!
Martin

A year on plot 114

It's been a year since we took over plot 114!!

I can't believe how fast it has gone but then on the other hand it seems like we have had it forever!!

Do you remember what it looked like on Day 1? It was a mess...

Come May it looked like this...

Late June...

And earlier this week it looked like this...

To celebrate 1 year on plot 114 I went down after work and stayed until sunset at 18:19 - in that time I managed to dig an area about 10ft x 5ft and that has released a little bit of the worry I was feeling earlier this week.

If the pleasant change in the weather extends to tomorrow then I will be there for the first allotment DAY of the year. Happy times!!

Here's to another bountiful year on Plot 114!

Martin

Time to kick on...

It's almost March! But where did February go?

Having been in France from the 11th-15th and then bed bound with flu from the 16th until yesterday, this month has completely passed me by. Whilst I lay in bed on Wednesday I was flicking through some gardening magazines only to start panicking by how little I had done in preparing for the new growing season. The only respite was that we only took over the allotment on February 28th last year and it was covered with brambles and couch grass from bottom to top. Despite all of that we still had an amazing year which kept us well fed from on a daily basis from late May until early October! So if I look at it from that perspective then I have such a good head start on last year with 3/4 of the plot dug over and ready to go. I want to get the other 1/4 dug over before I start planting so that I have a blank canvas to start from. That is something I would like to do on Friday - weather permitting of course!!

The plot would definitely benefit from a few days of TLC. Following the shed tipping, every time I visit I seem to find more and more bits of broken plastic pots or newspaper. There is still some stuff which needs clearing and the annual allotment skip can not come soon enough!! I think it normally arrives mid-march but you have to be quick because it fills in a day!!

Despite the little niggly negatives that I am confronted with, there are of course lots of positives too. The extended daylight hours mean I can get up to the plot after work for an hour or so which is of course very welcome, today I managed to clear some weeds from the rhubarb patch and then added a mulch of home made compost around each crown to not only feed them but also keep weeds further at bay. The crowns have burst open and there are lots of mini stalks of rhubarb emerging from the ground. I don't think I will harvest any rhubarb this year, I want the patch to get stronger for future years. Short term loss - long term gain! It is nice to see something actively growing on the plot in addition to the purple sprouting!

I haven't even thought about planting anything out in the ground as of yet. It's still far too wet. I think onion sets would rot and likewise broad beans. I think that when I buy my onion sets this week I will start them off indoors before planting them out when the elements are slightly more favourable.

Another positive thing is that the kitchen table is covered in 'chitting' seed potatoes..

This year I am growing Desiree. Although I did Maris Piper last year and they turned out fantastically well, I wanted to try and be a bit more imaginative and try a new variety for the first time. These potatoes come highly recommended by my Allotment neighbour and when reading about them I was impressed by so,e of tenor properties. I haven't bought my early potatoes yet because I haven't been out and about but I can not forego growing Charlottes like last year, because they were simply magnificent and after all.. Amy insists!! However, I would also like to try another early variety in addition this time!

There is certainly lots to do on the plot. If March lends itself to some warmer weather then I'll be spending every possible minute down the plot trying to make the improvements I want to. It was nice being down there today and just getting my hands dirty!!

Have a good evening,

Martin

Victory!

I am a bit tired of the overuse of the 'dig for victory' motto. It appears on cups, cushions, tea towels you name it in most modern garden centres but it is nice to have a feel of victory in your gardening at times.

Since it was tipped over last year you may remember that my shed and its contents have been piled up and covered in tarpaulin through the winter. But today was the day it returned to its standing glory.



The sense of achievement is phenomenal and it sure does feel good to have got rid of the blighty pile from the corner of the plot. To make it more stable we have used a tonne of screws to screw it to the base and we have put slabs around the edge to make it more difficult to repeat again. We have also reduced the size of the patio to make way for some prickly gooseberry bushes to make access to the plot for intruders a lot more difficulty. Oh and a lick of paint certainly won't go a miss either!

That's it from me today. I do have more to share with you but I have a busy evening ahead which includes making up a cabinet, oh joy!

Thank you as always for reading. It feels great to restore some normality and direction to plot 114.

Martin

Walking in a winter plotterland..

It was quite a surreal experience this morning when taking my brother to work. We were driving through icy white fields and the hedgerows and trees were like something you could only imagine  reading about in a book - it was spectacular.

Anyway, I haven't mentioned it as of yet but we're on a bit of a health kick at the moment which includes sensible eating and more exercise. Well, I've managed the sensible eating bit so far but I hadn't done much excercise, so seeing as I had a day off I thought I'd make the most of the winters weather and take a walk up to the plot. Now, the allotment is about a 10 minute walk from our house but seeing as we always have something heavy to take there or lots of plants etc. it is always likely that we take the car. It was nice to feel the crispness of the air and it really was a pleasant walk taking in the wonderful views over the cow fields as I went by. I took these photos on my iPhone and they really don't do the wonderful sight any justice. I am sure if you have taken a walk in any part of the UK today then you may be able to relate to what I am trying to describe...

Anyway I had come with a bag of compost material so I slung those in to one of the compost bins. Here are a couple of pictures of the plot and the allotment site on this beautiful Winter's day.

As I have previously mentioned the shed is still covered in tarpaulin ready for erection as soon as the weather changes. It is a truly depressing sight whatever the weather...

Pick your own frozen veg. Do you think there could be a market for that?

This short little visit to the plot has made my day. I think I'll promise to try walking more often this year...

Martin

I did it - One more year!

Allotment rent paid. Who's ready to go again? I  certainly am!

The allotment has been a complete no go area over the last couple of weeks. Christmas, New Year, Flood and Snow have made it completly impossible to do anything. I still have a good area of land to dig over and I want to get the shed back up again as soon as possible.

Driving past a local garden centre on the way home from work yesterday, I spotted a big sign saying 'SEED POTATOES NOW IN STOCK', so there is some optimism now that things will be back to normal soon. I suppose it is not unreasonable to start thinking about sowing tomato and chilli seeds over the next couple of weeks despite the bitterly cold snap of weather we are having, with even more snow expected at the weekend. I am going to get some Broad beans under way over the next week or so too. It will be nice to have some green shoots emerging from the plot again. That is all weather providing though of course. Last year, I remember sowing broad beans in an old grow bag by the side of the house and moving them up to the allotment at a later date but the plants weren't as strong as ones sown direct, so I won't be doing that again this year I don't think.

I am going to get a bit of rough paper and a pen out at some point and have a quick sketch of what is going where for the year ahead. I also want to make my plot a little more secure so I am going to remove the paving slab path which leads from the road track to the patioed area. I think they must be using the path to get at our plot. Seeing as the site has been so muddy due to the wet summer and winter, I recon that giving them dry access has made our plot more targetable. I am also going to move the patio over and plant some gooseberry bushes on the side where it can be accessed via a grass path between mine and my neighbours plot. Hopefully these prickly bushes will deter them, but we'll have to wait and see.

On another note, I also seem to have amassed quite a lot of gardening vouchers over my birthday and then the Christmas period. I was adamant that I was going to buy a 3x2m polytunnel for the allotment before the last bout of vandalism. Now I am too scared to put it up there and I don't have room at home. Seeing as my mini greenhouses were also smashed I really need somewhere to keep plants warm come the end of February when I start sowing winter cabbage and the like. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet as such but I am looking forward to spending them when I do.

I've mentioned before that we enjoy regular trips to Disneyland Paris from time to time, and although we are back there in just 27 days time, I have also been planning a couple of more trips away this year. I really want to take Amy down to Jimmy's Farm in Norfolk to see the pigs and also just have a country break. We are really looking in to keeping pigs and are actively searching for a plot of land to buy or rent to do so, I think that is one of my targets for this year. To be a pig keeper. I'm in one of those moods at the moment where I want to do something and I think, why should I let anything or anyone stop me? I'll keep you updated on that anyway...




Pig at Hatton last summer..


But for now it'll be dreaming of Spring, seedlings and salads. Roll on March, that's when the fun really begins.

Thanks for visiting as always,

Martin

The big sort out and a taste of... SPRING!

I have a problem. It's a type of addiction and it mainly happens when I'm in garden centres. It's quite embarassing and it costs me a fortune but for some reason I can not stop buying seeds.

I already have two containers full and I now need a third. On the way back from Ryton we popped in to our local Wyevale garden centre. I joined their gardening club and they sent me a leaflet saying that all seeds were 50p. So I made a visit a priority and stocked up. We managed to get £60 odd worth of seeds for only £12. We also got plenty of seeds for free which were the promotional packs you get when you buy 2 or more packs of a particular variety. Because I bought so many new packets, I promised myself I would sort out the ones I already had and throw out any unlabeled, out of date packets and also chuck any that had a poor germination rate or simply didn't live up to expectations!

Anyway next year I will be trying to grow watermelons, yellow carrots, banana shallots, gourds and many other weird and wonderful things that I have been jealous of seeing other people grow. I am now ready for next year and have a seed collection to envy...

 

Although it is getting darker and colder every evening, I still have a small sense of optimism and excitement. Buying seeds and sowing them is something that you normally do in March onwards, but in order to get the most out of our plot I've bought seeds to sow now including some chards, lettuce and radishes and I also have seedlings emerging from the cabbage and lettuce sowings I made the other night! With all of this spring like activity, I'll probably forget to put the clocks back next month and will instead put them forward!!

 

It is nice having a year round vegetable garden. Not using it for summer crops but autumn, winter and spring really does increase it's efficiency and worth. Being able to pick runner beans, dwarf beans, squash, marrows, raspberries, strawberries, cabbage and kale in mid September certainly ensures we don't go hungry!! We've also got the delights of celery, celeriac, turnips, swede, pumpkins, leeks. sprouts, parsnips and lettuce to come before the end of the year. Then at the beginning of 2013 we'll have cabbage, purple sprouting, chard, lettuce and kale still to pick! Long gone are our days of only growing summer crops like courgettes, tomatoes and peppers. This is a 365 day a year thing now!

 

We're still getting used to this plot so we can certainly learn from what we don't have enough of this year and what we have too much of also. So next year we know to only plant 1 marrow plant instead of 3 and to double the amount of sweetcorn plants and broad beans that we sow! One day we'll be able to sit down and say 'yer, we got that just about right', but that's if the weather plays ball of course!!

 

Never mind, it's an interesting learning curve! Gardener's certainly never stop learning!

 

Enjoy the rest of your week!!!

 

Martin

 



September Strawberries and other musings...

Well, at least it's now official! The craziest growing season that we have ever had!

We had literally a couple of strawberries to harvest during the sunny spring, nothing all summer and now....

 

 

I think this picture taken only a couple of days ago really sums up the rollercoaster that all of us growers have been on this year. Many, many downs but thankfully some ups too!! It's been really exciting seeing what has coped but also dissapointing to see what has flopped. The strawberries are still on a resurgence and there are plenty more to pick in the coming days.

 

Other recent picking have offered...

 

...plenty of beans....

 

 

...and GIANT MARROWS!!

 

 

 



 

The last week or so has been pretty good weather wise, but due to the new job the allotment is a little bit more neglected than I would like. We are also going out for the day on Friday so there will be little time to visit the plot then. Thankfully Amy has agreed to come to the allotment to give me a hand tomorrow evening, so it will give us some chance to catch up.

 

 

So hopefully we'll get the weeds under control at some point and we'll be ready to put the beds we used for potatoes and onions to bed this week by raking in some new compost and covering them over until next year. I have been so busy elsewhere that I haven't even sown any Spring Cabbage seeds despite having the packet sat on my bedside table to remind me. I might have to buy some plugs in a few weeks or sow some in the next couple of days and really hope for the best. Never mind. We're still eating a plentiful supply of summer cabbage, but we are definately going to suffer come the hungry gap!

 

I must remember that this is our first year on this plot, so we are still learning all about what grows well on this site and we are always thinking of things we can do better. Despite having the allotment for only 7 months we have already been hit twice by mindless thugs. You might remember that our mini greenhouse was stolen a couple of weeks after we 'moved in' and last week some thieving scum bags broke in to a whole host of sheds on the plot. Thankfully they didn't manage to get in to ours but they did have a very good go and there is noticeable damage to some of the shed panels and to the lock which is obscurely bent and now difficult to close.

 

 

Thankfully there is nothing in there worth stealing......

We opened the door, it wasn't ajar when we discovered the failed break in attempt.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh well! It is depressing, but at least they didn't damage any plants or steal any veg! That's the main thing!

 

Well. I hope to bring you more updates here soon. I would also just like to clarify that WE ARE NOT moving to facebook permanently. It will just be a subsidary of this blog and will make it easier to communicate with a large pool of our followers and we also hope that our 'min updates' will  feaure here too. Please don't worry, we aren't going anywhere and we are here to stay.

 

Thanks again for reading. I am hoping to get some pictures of my new work place on here before too long. We have 6 acres of beautiful gardens including a kitchen garden!

 

Keep smiling, it's almost Christmas!

 

Sorry!

 

Martin :0)



Cursed?

I'm feeling a little bit like I've had a spell cast upon me by the weather witch. Whenever I am doing something that I don't want to do but I need to do then the sun is shining, but when I am wanting to do something I want to do then the rain starts to drum down.

Every time I put on my Allotment gear ready for a trip, the heavens open. Oh well, we are getting up to pick bits and bobs and we've had marrows, runner beans and french beans in plentiful supply. The courgette glut is almost over, they are definately slowing down now and the picking isn't as heavy or frequent. However, there is still plenty to eat and we certainly aren't going hungry as you can see in the next picture which shows some recently prepared Mediteranean inspired potatoes and roasted vegetables....

I really need to get a move on with a few things though. The winter cabbage seeds really should have been sown last week, but will have to cope with a week less of growing time and I am sure they will. Linda also asked about a how to grow perfect cabbages guide, so that will be coming up when it's time to put the spring cabbage plants out.

On an interesting note, we're dabbling our hand at... showing vegetables. Apparently there is a local vegetable show on September 1st, Amy picked up a leaflet in one of the local shops. It's all a bit spontaneous but we are entering 4 categories. We know our veg isn't perfect, simply because it was never intended that it would be, if it was good to eat that was good for us. But we will be challenging for the honour of the largest marrow along with contending in the classes for courgettes, runner beans and french beans. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

I have also started my new job this week at a college in South Birmingham. It is a beautiful college with fantastic gardens and if I get permission I will be regularly taking photos and posting them here. They have their own veg patch and the food is used in the kitchens and so far so good. I am working in a marketing position and one of the things I am looking forward to is the first ever 'Open Gardens' at the college, where hopefully we'll be inviting the general public in to the grounds for the first time to view the beautiful collection of plants and trees that we have there. There is also a large ornamental pond and orchard. It's just great and I am really enjoying it.

However, due to the increase in my working hours there is obvioulsy less time for blogging, so I'm working on several social media streams including Facebook to bring you short, snappy updates as opposed to large posts. However as Friday is my day off I hope that Friday's will be my regular allotment and blogging day. So hopefully it will be something for me to look forward to at the end of my week and also give you a good read for the weekend.

Amy also works on Thursday evenings so until the night's do really pull in, I'll be visiting the allotment then too, but how many weeks of light evening's we have left is surely limited.  You might be lucky to see some photos tomorrow. But only if you are lucky.

Have a great day!

Martin

August

It's a funny month. After all your hard work some vegetables growth comes to end like the potatoes and the onions and others really just start to kick in like th runner beans and courgettes.

We currently have courgettes and marrows coming out of our ears. My favourite thing to do with them at the moment is to make mediterranean style vegetables using red onion, courgettes and pepers. Simply delicious! We will be having that tonight with some burgers.

Like I've just said the runner beans are starting to come on leaps and bounds and due to them being so late this year we have only just picked our first of the year today. I would normally expect them by mid July at the latest, but rather late than never as they say. Here''s a picture of today's harvest anyway...

The Maris Piper gave us a really good crop of potatoes. The charlotte first earlies were sensational and our maincrop aren't bad. Blight was quickly spreading over many fellow allotment holders crops so I thought it was best to get them out of the ground straight away. It might have been better to give them another couple of weeks to bulk up but overall we have about 25kg which will suit us perfectly.

So now there are no potatoes there is a huge empty bed on the left and on the right is another where the onions took up residence. The onions were pretty poor and out of the 40 or so maincrop onions we planted only about a dozen are worth keeping. The shallots we planted in May were'nt too bad so this is something to remember for next time! All of the alliums we are harvested are currently hanging on the washing line at Amy's house..

The onions are on the line in the foregrounds and the shallots are hanging on the line in the background!

The produce keeps coming and we are eating fresh vegetables daily. The first cabbage has turned in to the second, third, fourth and fifth so we are doing very well.

I would like to catch up on my blog reading, but with starting a new job next week it is very difficult to do as much as I would like and that does include getting up to the allotment. As you can see in the next picture some areas look like a pit of weeds. Never mind...

Although I must add that a lot of the plots on our site are 'occupied' but people have done a little bit and then let the weeds completly takeover so it is an absolute constant battle. The two allotments to our left were 5ft high with weeds before he came and strimmed the lot (including the veg he had planted) last weekend. There are about 7 allotments which are completly covered with weeds on our site. I wish the council would do something about it!

There is plenty to do when I do get some time, I need to plant the Christmas new potatoes and sow some spring cabbage seeds too! Plenty to be done in preperation for winter in August, so I better get shifting and that includes shifting horse manure on to the two empty beds which will be occupied by beans and pumpkins next year, so the more manure the better!!

Thankyou as always for reading. I hope your harvest is as good as ours. Will do some reading of your blogs before bedtime too, I promise!!

Martin

Ooohh and I almost forgot. We have grapes forming too...

Gold! Gold! Gold! Even a GOLD Post Box!

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.

Enjoy the sun,

Martin

Food, Glorious Food

Hot crumble and custard!

( 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.

Hope the sun shines for you!

Martin



Plenty to pick and much to eat!

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.

Fingers crossed!

Martin 

Welcome to November (July)

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!

Martin

A note to the sky..

I have had enough of this weather! Have you? Yesterday morning we were sat in the living room being deafened by rain pelting against the windows, the whole road was flooded and there was no sign of it letting up. Then came the thunder and lightening, what a great insight in to summer time this was.

However, cometh the afternoon it was blazing sun with temperatures at 25 degrees celcius. I made my way to the allotment and came back in the evening with blackcurrants, lettuce, strawberries, raspberries and a tickle of SUNBURN!

Absolutely unbelievable. It is so hard to plan days at the allotment when the weather is so varied. Thankfully yesterday afternoon was good enough for me to get a lot of weeding done and also plant out the carrots we had started off in old loo rolls. We also planted some lettuces which we bought from a large food retailer that I work for. They were those cut and come again 'living lettuces' that are quite fashionable in the high end supermarkets. They had apparently exceded their sell by date and thus were destined for the bin (how a living thing can exceed it's sell by date is beyond me!), but I did manage to get them via a friend for 8p each from the staff waste sale. We had 15 so they are all now planted up and should in theory give us lettuce throughout the summer. We've picked some leaves from all of them to encourage them to produce new growth!

They are a gorgeous colour and I will be letting them go to seed at the end of summer to save seeds to plant again for next year!



We've planted 12 out in between the broad beans and dwarf french beans to fill a gap from the second lot of broad beans that failed to get going due to mice/bird problems. I don't normally use slug pellets but I've had to give in. We were losing a lettuce per day last week due to the wet conditions. We had tried using 100% natural organic pellets but they made no difference. So we have reverted back to the blue pellets but they are supposedly repellant and non toxic to domestic wildlife so that is good.

There are plenty more weeds to remove over the coming week, and I also want to get straw down at the top half of the plot to keep weeds down. The top area was awash with couch grass and the only way to get rid of it/to reduce it is to cover the area for 6 months or more. Obviously it would be suicidal to cover 1/3 of the allotment and not grow on it so we have dug over it several times and have planted it up with pumpkins, sweetcorn and some brassicas, so now I can cover around them with straw to keep the weeds at bay but also retain moisture for the vegetables if we do get a warm patch. Unlikely I know..

Anyway, I'm going to be catching up with other blogs today if I can. However, I do need to get up to the allotment and weed around the strawberries. I'll try and take lots more pictures to give you an idea of how the plot is doing.

Have a great weekend!

Martin

First Earlies, First Strawberries, First Courgettes and a lot more firsts...

Wow! Things are really picking up on the plot now. I won't do a full allotment update because I am saving that for Wednesday or Thursday's post.

Anyway I just wanted to share the joy we have had over the last few days. We have harvested some first early potatoes, the first strawberries, first courgette, first raspberries, first blackcurrants and MORE LETTUCE!

I was waiting for our potatoes to bulk up a bit, all of the first earlies have been flowering for between 1 and 2 weeks now which means they are ok to harvest, but for a bigger yield you can wait longer. Seeing Monty failing to resist temptation on Gardener's World last Friday, I went down to the allotment this morning to dig up a plant and see what was beneath...

I rushed home after picking a courgette and lettuce before I left, and quickly boiled up a pan of water for the potatoes, put some local sausages in the oven, and made a ratatouille using the courgette, the last of the bought onions (before we harvest ours) and an aubergeine we bought at gardener's world. I then smothered the new potatoes with butter and mmmmm mmmmm mmmm!

Let's put it this way, we didn't need to wash our plates afterwards.. they were spotless!! The tastiest potatoes I've ever tasted, they really were, I'm not just saying that because we planted them ourselves, if you can find me a shop bought potato that tasted that good I wouldn't bother, but until then I will continue to grow my own! Truth is you will never find a shop bought potato that was in the ground 1 hour before I put it in to my mouth. That's a fact!

It has also been satisfying to pick the first few strawberries over the last couple of days because that only means one thing, Wimbledon starts today! You know where to find me for the next few weeks.. In front of the telly, or down the plot in between the big matches!

Thanks for visiting the blog, I hope you are harvesting lots of tasty fresh produce too!

Martin

British Summer Time is here..

It's raining! Again!

I almost went with the title 'Rain stop's play' but I must have used that over a dozen times since I re-started blogging last year.

I was up the allotment for a very short time today, whilst Amy had a phone interview for a new job in fact. I was going to stay for a bit longer but then the pitter patter of rain droplets started hitting both me and the ground, so I knew it was time to go.

Despite the rain, I did manage to sow a few more rows of dwarf french beans. I had spoken to a couple of allotment holders and they were having a nightmare getting them to germinate this year. The site's 'Allotment of the Year' holder even had a mere 7 beans germinate out of a whole packets worth he had sown. Knowing this I sowed very generously, and guess what! It looks like they've just about all come up! Typical! However, I do find that if your soil has enough nutrients in then you can sow them very closely together and still get a good crop from them.

You can see the two current rows of dwarf french beans from the last sowing. Then from the row of beans to the wooden plank is another 3 rows. Hopefully this will give us a large quantity of beans but in two harvests rather than all at once. Although they do freeze well, it is a real treat to have them fresh.

I did gloat yesterday about my cabbages, which are really flying. I can only see one allotment holder on the whole site who is having as much luck as me. I didn't realise until I published yesterday's blog entry that I hadn't posted a picture of the cabbages. So lucky you, here is a sneak peak...



Looking good aren't they! It is quite apt that I did say to Amy that if the brassicas didn't grow well this year then I wouldn't try again. So that means they will grow again so that I plant some next year and they won't be anywhere near as good! Watch this space.

I'm trying to catch up with all of the blogs I follow. This is a great time of year to be in the garden, rain or shine!

I am also giddy with excitement like a child at Christmas with the prospect of going to Gardener's World Live on Friday. I can't wait!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Martin

I swear that veg is growing...

Blimey!

This rain is certainly increasing the amount of foliage on the plot. As you can see below the potato bed is now a sea of green leaves and small flowers. A very promising sign indeed, the cabbages, well, they are certainly flying along and the lettuces don't seem to stop.

It definately looks like an allotment now doesn't it. Onions and potatoes in the foreground then beans and brasiccas just beyond.


We'll start at the back and move forewards in today's blog post.

In the soft fruit area there is plenty of growth amongst the raspberries which now present a huge green canvas of lushious leaves, with the not so glorious bindweed wrapped around it of course!

Our grape vine has finally started to get a shift on too. Everybody has a vine on our site and they all started off as cuttings from my plot neighbours single vine he purchased 31 years ago when he first got his plot. Everybody's elses have been running wild for the last month or so, however mine hadn't even broken out of it's winter dormancy, until now! The weeds on our site really are rampant due to 5 or more years of neglect. I have put some black tarpaulin over the grape vine area and cut a hole for the vine. This should supress the weeds and give the vine more of a chance. Here is what the area currently looks like, it is certainly  a work in progress!

Just in front of this area we now have 5 pumpkin plants. 2 hundredweight and 3 smaller Jack O'Lanterns. Amy and I are having a competition to see who can grow the biggest one! They were planted on top of heaps consisting of a mix of horse manure, farm manure, multipurpose compost and top soil. I've got a few tricks up my sleeve to make sure I'm the winner...

The thing I am most pleased about is the brassicas. I am the envy of the whole site. My cabbages are hearting already and my brocolli have heads! Unbelievable, I've never grown a good brassica in my life, I hope my luck has changed and we'll be enjoying some delicious greens in the future....

You might have noticed my home made net tunnels before, they are fantastic at keeping pests out and also shading the crops from the blazing soon. They also allow perfect ventilation on moisture to enter. They are a real secret weapon..

They're not massive weeds between them either, they are actually rows of fast growing Cos Lettuce, to allow us to maximise our space!

Opposite the brassica bed is our bean bed. Our broad bean plants are starting to produce a few bean pods now and the dwarf french beans have germinated plentifully. I also managed to get my runner beans in today at last. They are a real staple for all allotments, plots don't look the same without them!

With the amont of horsemuck I put in their trench I really do expect a good harvest from them!

Here is a picture of the potato sea. Lots of foliage, let's hope there are some good tubers underneath..

Elsewhere, I was very glad to see Monty cover dealing with bolting onions on last Friday's gardener's world. Many of mine had repented the recent weather conditions and decided to bolt, thankfully I've now nipped them in the bud so there is still some hope.. I hope!

Although the allotment is being stocked well, there is still plenty in the mini greenhouses including kale, red cabbage, savoy cabbage, more lettuce, sweetcorn and french climbing beans. They'll all be making their way out in to the ground over the coming weeks...

Final installment of this update, is a suprising advancement. Remember those 19p Asparagus crows I bought from a large supermarket chain...

Only 2 more years to go and I might be able to taste some. At least they're growing! Best 19p I've ever spent, that is for sure!

Enjoy the rest of your week. If their is a break in the rain make sure you are in your garden or on your allotment!!

Martin