Must do before November...

Well, the last time I made a blog post I am sure the leaves on the trees were green if not with a slight tinge of yellow. Since then the glorious autumnal colour show has really got off with a bang. Red, Orange, Purple are just beautiful colours to see on the side of the road, back garden or at a public park. It makes a nice change from the mass quantity of green we have seen over the last 7 months.

With the end of Autumn and beginnning of winter does come a tinge of sadness, the first frost has been and gone and it is a timely reminder that the clocks go back on Sunday morning. I like to pop up to the allotment when I can after work, but I know that from next week it will be very dark at 5pm and I won't have a chance of getting up there. The next 'day at the allotment' will probably be in February. Only sparing visits will take place from next week until then. However, the allotment isn't being completly put to bed. Some things continue to grow like Purple Sprouting, Leeks, Parsnips and lettuce. Broad Beans can be sown from next week. So some joy still does exist.

We have just got back from our annual trip to Disneyland Paris and that really enforces the message that this time next week it will be November and Halloween will have been and gone. There were a few things I really want to get done on Friday at the allotment which didn't take too long which included tidying the shed. The last thing I want to do is go to the allotment on February 16th to find that the shed is a mess and I can't find the right sized seed tray to make my sowings. Other things to do in the next week or so include collecting leafs for leaf mould and making christmas cakes.

I also raked three barrow loads of compost in to the old bean bed which is going to be next years' brassica bed.

The frost had killed off all the bean and squash plant a few weeks ago, so it was also time to harvest the dried runner bean shells so that I could save some seed for next year. Runner beans in a small little bag sealed with a ribbon make a wonderful gift for those family members who have birthday's early in the year. There were plenty of beans left so we have a good stash of seed now..

We also picked up a couple of butternuts I had missed before when the foliage was still quite big, they are going to go on the window ledge to ripen up. The leaves are all curled up and black now so they were easy to spot. We also harvested the first 'purple top milan' turnips and the last pumpkin, which is going to have a big job on it's hand to be orange enough for Wendesday.

I think that last pumpkin may end up as soup. Never mind the other 5 pumpkins in the conservatory are ripening nicely as you can see. The one in the bottom left is particularly orange...

It was also my birthday last week. I had asked for euros for our trip to Paris as well as Gardening Vouchers if they prefered so that I could buy a small polytunnel. Tomatoes and cucumbers have been a small disaster over the last few years, so I want to give them a bit of a helping hand next year. I have £65 in vouchers so that will be very helpful indeed. We're going to be changing the allotment layout again next year based on what worked well and what didn't for us this year.. More to follow soon..

I think that's all for now.

Thanks for reading..

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

 



The sweet taste of success...

Well here we have it. The first sweet taste in 2012 of homegrown sweetcorn..

It was absolutely delicious! We served with plenty of butter and I have to say it was a) the sweetest and b) the biggest I have ever grown it. It was simply perfect, and I can't wait to harvest plenty more of the coming weeks!

Today we also picked kale, cabbage, runner beans, borlotti beans, strawberries and raspberries. The beans and brassicas were taken to my grandparent's house and the strawberries and raspberries are waiting to be devoured as soon as I publish this post. Amy has been down to the allotment three times this week to pick strawberries and we have picked over 50 each time. We also have raspberries by the bucket load too...

 



 

You might already know if you have seen our live twitter feed on the right, but at the weekend we visited Ryton Organic Gardens near Coventry. We had scheduled to visit West Midland's Safari Park because we HAD some free tickets, emphasis on the HAD because as we about to step out the door we noticed that they expired the week before! Typical!

Anyway we ended up at Ryton. Amy had never been before and I hadn't been in a couple of years. I love the idea of growing heritage varieties and this is something they really promote. We obviously paid most attention to the vegetable growing side of things.

This would be idyllic wouldn't it...

They also had a greenhouse full of interesting tomatoes. This tomato really caught the eye. They didn't seem to form on 'trusses' like normal tomatoes do...

They were actually dangling on their own. They were absolutely huge and almost pepper like. Here is the placard with the variety name on...

The amount of tomatoes growing perfectly was very enviable. So many fellow bloggers (ourselves included) have reported about the widespread blight problem that we've had in this country this year. A real shame. For all of us who forgot what home grown tomatoes look like, here is a reminder...

 

 

Right, I'm now off to enjoy those strawberries and raspberries. Don't forget to follow us on twitter @ourgoodlifeblog ! I am slowly making it around everybody elses blogs leaving comments. Thanks again for reading. We hope you have a plentiful harvest this week! I have another blog post planned for later this week, so keep your eyes peeled.

 

Thanks,

 

Martin

Nights drawing in? Bring your gardening inside!

You are probably wondering what is wrong with us making so many posts in a week!

Anyway, we really are having to play catchup at the allotment with weeding, sowing, harvesting etc. I managed to get down again last night and bagged up some of the couch grass I had dug up ready to take to the refuse centre tomorrow. Don't put couch grass roots in your compost bin, it will come back and you will be making a huge mistake, trust me!

Anyway I did manage to sort a few things down the allotment tonight, I went down at about 7pm for an hour. Still in my shirt and trousers from work, so it was only some light and not too messy work. Anyway come 8pm I could barely see a thing and this was the seen. Because the perimeter to the site is surrounded by lots of large, established trees it does become a pit of darkness as soon as the sun begins to lower.

 

 

Following the recent set of break ins a couple of the old boys are doing a night patrol and walking around the site as the sun sets. Aparently in total 15 sheds were broke in to or vandalised and we also have the recent emergence of a 'phantom fruit picker' who many plot holders (us included) have seen walking the allotment site in the evening and leaving through the gates with a bowl full of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries etc. We don't know who she is, where she comes from but we're gonna catch her nonetheless!!

 

Anyway, because it was so dark I decided to allocate some homework to myself. I mentioned how I had not managed to sow my spring cabbage seeds yet so I filled a couple of seed trays with compost and put my seed box in my bag.

 

After dinner I ripped the seed packet foild and made the sowings. We have sown 2 cabbage varieties which were 'Pixie' and 'Durham Early'. We also decided to sow some winter lettuce, we coincidentally had 2 winter lettuce varieties too; 'Winter Gem' and 'Arctic King'. We'll keep them on the windowsill for a couple of weeks to give them a chance to catch up and get to where they should be. I think we'll be ok. I remember last October being quite warm and dry so if that is the case we won't be at much of a disadvantage at all...

 

 

 

 

Now that I'd finally got that bit sorted, it was time for a cup of tea and a read of my new magazine..

 

 

 

I normally buy this magazine on the day it comes out each month. But I've just been too busy this month that I finally remembered to pick it up at the petrol station today on the way to work. I'd be interested to hear what magazines you like to read. I always buy 'Grow your own' and I subscribe to 'Gardener's World' (just to get the free gift at Gardener's World Live'!

 

Look at the front cover though! PUMPKINS! Which can only mean one thing. It's almost Halloween, which means it's almost my birthday and it is also almost time for our annual trip to Disneyland where we will be from 15-19th October. I really love autumn from a romantic perspective. Red leaves, the first tender frost, conkers on the ground, christmas things appearing in shops, it's a nice time.

 

Anyway, we obviously haven't harvested our pumpkins yet but we have had something just as good. Our first ever Turk's Turban Squash! I'm not sure wether to call it ugly or a piece of natural art. We're not going to eat it, we are using it for ornamental purposes...

 

 

Not bad, hey?

 



I'll definately be growing them again this year. This little baby has really inspired me to grow some other varieties of ornamental squash and fortunately look what was attached to the magazine as a free giveaway this month...

 

 







 They certainly look interesting don't they.

Anyway be sure to follow us on twitter @ourgoodlifeblog and we'll be going live on Facebook next week too. Don't worry, we'll be blogging here as normal these are just some new ways to increase our readership and allow us to share more with friends and family!

Have a good day! Also remember to let me know which magazines you read!

Martin

At least it's not this bad..

Last night's allotment trip was an absolute wash out and continues with the theory that I am cursed. Anyway, I did manage to cover up 2 of the beds which were this year occupied by onions and potatoes. Before covering them I raked in a sack of compost for each bed. They'll get some well rotted manure and soil improver come the spring. Anyway this washout gives me a chance to share something with you that really get's on my nerves.....

This is the biggest plot on our site and look at the state of it!

Apparently it used to be held by 'Barry Trout' who won the Best Kept Allotment competition every single year! He grew the biggest pumpkins, tastiest onions and was the awe of the site. Unfortunately when he died, his family took over the lease and have not bothered with it since due to their own unfortunate circumstances which I won't go in to. It is a real shame, it is the size of 2 of our plots and it overlooks the river and part of the cow field. I hope that somebody takes it over next year and restores it to it's former glory. It's a shame that the local town council don't do something about it. There are genuine people on the waiting list and this double plot is untouched and has been for years. It could have been ours if somebody had sorted it out when we were on the waiting list.

I often get a little depressed about the state of weeds on our allotment, but at least it doesn't look like this plot. Everyone has struggled with weeds this year due to being unable to get to the plots between heavy rain and even thunder storms.

Roll on Summer 2013, a bit more sun would be a delight!!

Martin