All thanks to Claire...

...that I'm starting up this blog again. As you can see from the new title photo - things have changed quite a bit in...ahem...5 years.

And about time too...

...that I updated this blog. Not that everything has stopped on the plot in the last 6 months - far from it. It just seems I lost the desire to keep it updated. Well there's an imminent arrival that's distracted me rather slightly. Yes a tiny pair of wellies has been growing in my belly and should make an appearance in the next 2 weeks or so. So until then I'm going to catch up with some blogging now that I'm a lady of leisure.

April so far

Last weekend (4th/5th) was a busy one - two full days on the plots.
I planted out the broad beans...And transplanted the peas into the same bed. I love the way they almost instantly know where and what to curl their tendrils around.

I also planted out the yellow mange tout up against the hazel and chicken wire frame I'd put together.

And on Sunday we put in most of the potatoes - Nadine & Charlotte, with only the Pink Fir Apples to go.
I also sowed lots of flowers - poached egg plant, love-in-a-mist, cornflowers and two kinds of poppies.

Patience is...

...having to wait another 2 years before I can harvest any of these.

There will be fruit

Over the last 2 weeks or so the fruit bushes have been showing their minute flowers to the outside world and I noticed this evening that the bumble bees were doing the rounds.

The gooseberries are covered in tiny, delicate blooms and if the frosts hold off then it looks like we should get a decent crop (dare I say it maybe even a glut? I hope so).

The reliable blackcurrants are putting on a good show too.

The redcurrant that I moved out from underneath the Bramley apple is thriving and has lots of tiny trusses of flowers.

And the most exciting of them all is that the cordon apples have hints of blossom.

March

Seeing as we're almost half way through April I'd best write down what we managed to get done on the plot last month. All the weekends were spent at the plot (apart from the last week where we skived off for a week's snowboarding!!).

We finished the asparagus bed and planted the crowns....hopefully we've done it right.We set up the wires and posts for the cordon apples and planted them.
Decided on where the plum, gage, damson and crab apple should go - top of Plot 85 and planted them. The soil on that section hasn't been dug (as far as I know) for at least 3 years and it's solid clay. So we weeded where we were going to plant the trees as best as possible, filled the holes with compost and then have covered the whole area in weed suppressant fabric and wood chips to stop the docks and other nasties in reappearing.

Sowed an early sowing of carrots (under fleece), beetroot (white & red) and some fast growing turnips (for something new) and when we visited last weekend there are signs of seedlings.

April so far is proving just as busy....

Gourmet Lunch

The lovely thing about being able to go home for lunch is that some days you can treat yourself to something like this.



Steamed new season purple sprouting broccoli with a poached egg on homemade toast....it was really yummy! This is definitely our asparagus stand-in until we start producing our own...

Signs of Spring

With this latest bout of milder weather things have been stirring.

The garlic has shot up from these tiny shoots back a few weeks ago to this.

The rhubarb seems to be getting bigger every time you glance at it. The ramsoms have made an early return (so they must like our soil)... mmm wild garlic...

And there's buds on just about everything...

Appearances are deceiving

This blog for me is mainly an online diary to track the plots' progress. However there are a couple of people out there that pop in, read my posts and leave lovely comments and I bet they've been thinking is she still hibernating? or given it up totally?

Nope I haven't, in fact MJC and I have been busy building more raised beds and generally trying to get as much preparation done before the growing season in earnest... So here's a few photos to prove that I'm not lying...honest!

So we've cleared the weeds around the remaining gooseberry bushes, cut down the raspberry canes and given the whole area a good mulch to get one step ahead of the evil couch grass and other nasty weeds. I also rescued a redcurrant and another gooseberry plant that were being slowly smothered by the rasps. MJC also had the very good idea of putting bricks around one of the rhubarb patches to stop us accidentally stomping all over it.
I've dug and weeded a planting hole ready for one of the pear trees (Doyenne de Comice) I got cheap from Lidl's (£11.97 for 2 pear trees and a crab apple...bargain!!). We've both read Ken Fern's book 'Gardening for a Future' from cover to cover which sets out the principles of forest gardening so we're trying to create our own little productive area on Plot 85 next to the Bramley. I've also ordered (today) some more fruit trees today from Deacons Nursery. It was soo hard trying to limit myself on which apple varieties to choose so in the end I plumped for the following:

• apples - King of the Pippins and Reinette Rouge Etoille (these both flower at the same time)
• apples - James Grieve and Pitmaston Pineapple (same with these two)
• damson - Merriweather
• gage - Cambridge
• and of course the classic Victoria plum (which my Mum requested)

The apples I'm going to attempt to train on wires as cordons at a 45 degree angle and the others I think I'm going to plant at the top of Plot 86 so they don't shade out the neighbouring plots too much. I'm going to start preparing the area where they'll go this weekend - so I'll post more more pics of how it's looking.

Here's what we've spent most of January working on. Some of these have been dug over now and are ready for spring sowing and I have a grand plan ready on paper (well spreadsheet).

And we've ordered 20 asparagus crowns (Ginjlim and Backlim) so we've painstakingly prepared a special raised bed for them when they get delivered in March.

Onions and Shallots

Although we still have 2 more of the raised beds to finish off, we decided it was about time to plant the onions and shallots. Planted up 2 of the smaller beds and half the big L-shape bed with about 30 (2 rows) of 'Eschallotes Grise' - a new variety we're trying this year, several rows of 'Yellow Moon' shallots and 'Red Cross' onions. Oh and there was also a variety of white onion that I've forgotten the name of just now. To finish it off and make sure the birds don't pull them up - MJC covered the planted up beds with netting.

However that's only about 3/4 of the onions that we ordered and I've still to plant out the garlic (4 heads). I've decided though to plant the garlic in small pots first, so that they don't get too waterlogged over winter and then transplant them into the new beds in early spring. Just hope I've got enough pots!!

Chilly & frosty

The last few weekends we've been up at the allotment it's been really frosty. It makes the usually soggy looking vegetation magical with their sparkling jewel-like, frosted droplets frozen to the leaves. The brassicas are looking especially bling...

The Globe artichokes... And the fennel too...

Been a Long Time

Now that it's dark by 4pm the only time we manage to make it to the allotment is at the weekend but recently i.e. the last month we've been a whirl of activity building new raised beds in Plot 86. This was where the potatoes and courgettes were this "summer" just gone.

So this was how we started out about 2 months ago by measuring and digging out paths. It was a particularly spectacular autumn day as there was showers followed by amazing double and even triple rainbows.

Then finally 3 weeks ago we went to the timber mill to buy all the planks which we got cut to size. The first completed bed was honoured with its own photo.

And this was the end result after the first day constructing the beds. I measured and cut some weed suppressant fabric on the second day to cover the paths - well got to do these things properly! Then last weekend we had to bail out one of the paths for about an hour before we could started on putting down wood chips to cover the fabric.

The (almost) finished beds have an Escher like quality when you look at them. Although that's a nice way of saying they're not the straightest, parallel, right-angled constructions. However the sides are all completely level with one another...at least we got that accurate. I just think that no one will notice when they full to bursting with tasty veg.

One thing in common...

...in these 3 potted delights are the Bramley apples from my tree (still a whole treeful to deal with!!).
From left to right - bramble & apple jelly, spiced apple jelly and green tomato chutney. The chutney is a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall River Cottage recipe and the jellies are from this great little book (very retro!) that my sister found in amongst my mum's cookbooks and thought I'd like it - cheers M!! I adapted the apple jelly recipe with the addition of a few spices and making up the sugar content with muscovado (hence the dark colour) but it tastes delish! Will be making lots more of this to keep me in toast accompaniments over winter...
(Note: will post the recipe soon)

Needs more work!

Was the official verdict of Plot 86 from the 2nd inspection of the colony's plots this year. Fortunately Plot 85a passed even with very weedy paths. Just hope I don't get another snotty letter from the council...

And more work was just what this plot will be getting over the next few weeks. I started on it last weekend by clearing away all the sweetcorn and squash plants. This weekend I finally decided to uproot the courgettes, as it's unlikely that I'll get any more fruit and started setting out the new raised beds and planning what will go where.

Most of this part of the plot was where the potatoes were. It's a good crop to break up the soil as it had been left to go feral for a couple of years before we took it on last year. From right to left - apple tree just peeping into the shot, weedy area where some of the squashes were and now is a heap of stuff waiting to be burned, ex-sweetcorn and courgette area, main ex-potato beds, some leeks planted this year and then a carpeted area (of the same size again) which we've yet to touch (possibly next year's potato patch or chicken area??).
Looking from the top of this area down the plot, this new bed is going to be devoted to growing flowers - with sweet peas providing a seasonal windbreak as the colony is not that sheltered. There will be a similar sized bed on the other side where I want to grow some vine type courgettes and maybe try and train some winter squash to grow upwards rather than along the ground...

The rest of the area will be this year's onion, garlic and shallot beds as they will benefit from all the goodness the manure has left in the soil after the potatoes.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Once I'm used to the change in season I love Autumn. Although it takes longer to get used to the shortening days. After all the clearing, digging and weeding, I stood back to admire my handiwork and noticed that the setting sun was giving everything a lovely golden hue. It was one of those moments where you feel completely contented for a few minutes.....

Squash harvest

This is our total harvest (plus one other eaten before this photo) of squashes from 7 plants. Sadly the other 5 plants perished in the hands of the dratted slugs (slugs don't have hands do they?).

Particularly pleased with the Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato Squash as it was really prolific. We had 2 of the smaller ones in a roasted squash risotto.

Goodbye summer, hello autumn

Spent a thoroughly productive afternoon on Sunday clearing away the finished summer veg plants and planning what was going to go where for next year.

So I started out with this....

Loooked a bit better with all the sweetcorn and squash plants gone....

Then weeded, raked and sowed some more Phacealia, as I think this is where the peas may go next year.

Green manure

In the glorious warm sunshine on Saturday I weeded one of the ex-onion beds that hadn't been re-planted with anything and sowed a green manure - Phaeceila 'something'.

It has really cool shaped seeds (if you can see in the photo above). Shame my camera can't take a better close up.

Post holiday bellies and leftovers

It's all very nice being on holiday and going out for dinner every night and eating lovely food but the great thing about being home is cooking in your own kitchen.

The 'ripe' tomatoes (or un-blighted parts of) were simmered with garlic, onions, anchovies and a few glugs of olive oil to become a pasta sauce base for a future quick dinner.

I thinned out the fennel and used the tender 'micro' ?!? plants in a creamy, mustardy, left-over-roast-chicken and almond bake creation with rice.

Some more of the ripe tomatoes, leftover roast chook with various other home grown veggies went into a curry (sadly the chickpeas are tinned).And then this wee beautie today went into a pork pot roast with some rescued windfallen bramleys...yum yum!

I think they look like trees when cut in half.