Wednesday 3rd February 2010 - weather: dull, damp and chilly.

I am sick to death of this dull, damp weather. I know, I know, it is still late winter, but come on already, I want to see some blue sky! So, to try and cheer myself up, I stole a couple of hours on the allotment. Not a lot to do, and it was sooooooo muddy and slippery that I really was taking my life into my own hands. However, I did disassemble to brassica cage and get that whole bed tidy, straightened up the smaller cage over the later purple sprouting....no idea if it will sprout, and picked up all of the odds and sods that lazy old me had left here, there and everywhere. Once both plots were tidy, I did a manure run and carted 5 wheelbarrow loads of hot, wet stable manure from one end of the allotment site, to the other and into my compost heap. It could do with turning and the bottom stuff coming out, which I will do, but the manure goes so quickly that I thought I would get some whilst the going was good.

By now, I was wet and cold and ready to go home for a cuppa, which I did. I am hoping the family will pop to the plot on Sunday, if it is dry, and see about having a bit of a bonfire as I have quite a stack of rotten pallets, stems from sunflowers, jerusalem and globe artichokes and old broken bamboos. I also want to get a couple of good scarecrows rigged up as the deer are back, as are the birdies.

To recap what I have still growing away, onions, shallots, carrots, a couple of parsnips, spring onions, a few beetroot, jeruslam artichokes, leeks and the purple sprouting broc. I also noticed I have clumps of daffs up and I guess the gladioli will start to poke their noses through as the spring marches on. I am going to sow lots of flower seeds amongst those bulbs this year as I have lots of old seed which I could do with just using, and if they grow....bonus.

Tuesday 26th January 2010 - weather: cold but bright

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here we are again, the start of yet another new year, and the start of another growing year. I was a touch slack last year and didn't really post as much as I could have. I have my excuses, and 2009 wasn't filled with a lot of joy so I am putting that behind me and I am looking forward to getting more out of my allotment than ever before, and I don't just mean fruit and veggies, but I plan to get number one son up there more and have some quality family time there.

I have now brought my seed spuds for this year, but they are downstairs in the conservatory, and I can't remember the varieties! I do have International Kidney though, and Kestrel, both firm family faves. I also have plenty of seeds for the coming year, but haven't started sowing yet. I will start the toms and peppers of in the next couple of weeks, but I won't start anything major until mid to late March.

I did grab the chance today to get to the plot for a quick survey and see if there was anything worth picking, and I was delighted to be able to dig a huge bunch of perfect carrots, a couple of parsnips, some beetroot and a handful of jerusalem artichokes. As for greens, I pulled a stalk of sprouts, huge they are, a savoy cabbage and 2 lovely heads of curly kale. Very very pleased, and very pleased with how the plot looks overall. Work permitting, I will be able to get up there for a day next week and have a bit of a spring clean. I have some piccies to post, but, blah blah blah, the camera is downstairs and I am way to lazy to go fetch it. :)

The only other gardening news to report is the joyous news of tropical fruit. Yes, I have a new pineapple growing. It has been on the plant since mid November and is getting bigger and bigger. No idea when it will be ready, but if the last one is anything to go by, I will be able to smell that it is ripe. Yum.

As promised, photos of this weeks harvest. The roots are still covered in mud as it will keep them fresher longer, they will washed as and when I need them.

Thursday 15th October 2009 - weather: gorgeous autumn day

I arrived at the allotment at around 11am today as I take a friend into the next village to meet up with a bunch of our chums for morning coffee, then I help her run a few errands, so a bit of a late start. As I parked in the lane and got out of the car, a pheasant hopped out of the hedgerow and strolled along the lane, in no rush at all. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw a movement, and when I looked round, a muntjac deer was standing their chewing away at young shoots. He looked at me, I looked at him, the morning, autumn sun shining down on the common. After a minute or so, he wandered off, as did I. I know the deer are a pest on our site, but I love seeing them that I can forgive them.

Anyhow, first order of the day, picking the last of the toms and getting the plants oiked out. Filled a trug with green tomatoes and a few red ones. I have plenty for making chutney, but for now, they are in trays in the conservatory with a few ripe ones just to see if any fancy colouring up.

I dug the tomato bed over and weeded it through, then covered it with a thick layer of rotted stable manure that the farm at the end of our plot dumps over the hedge for us. This will break down over the winter, and I will fork it in during spring before replanting toms there in 2010. I have been thrilled with how the toms have done this year. No real blight at all. I have picked pounds and pounds and pounds of them and have gallons of pulp frozen for use over the coming winter. I still have a huge basin full in the fridge, and as I mentioned, plenty of green and slightly orange ones in the conservatory.

After that, for a break from digging, I picked a sack full of apples. They have done brilliantly this year, and some are huge, bigger than my fist, proper 2 handed eating apples. Very crisp, slightly sharp, delicious. Don't ask me the variety...I did know, and way back when on my blog, I have probably told you, but now I can't remember. One of the old boys on the plot told me once - when I next see him I shall ask him again and make a note.

Now back over to plot number 2 and I carried on weeding and digging at the top end when I planted all the seeds this year. In the ground, I still have carrots, parsnips, beetroot and spring onions. After I had tidied up this area, I sowed a row of sweetpeas in number one sons raised bed - seeds that Old Jack had given me. I will sow more at home in trays.

I had a general clear up, putting all the old bamboos in the shed, and gathering all the empty bottles that go on the tops of the bamboos and bagging them in the shed. The plot is still very productive, there is still masses of fruit on the apple trees, plenty of roots to harvest, and the greens look fab. I have 4 caulis!! Whether they will come to anything, time will tell, but I have some lovely savoy cabbages, sprouts, red cabbage and brocolli.

Hopefully I will get back on Monday for a few hours to carry on the winter tidy.

As a final P.S. , I thought you might like to see what is growing in my conservatory at the moment. I have grown this pineapple plant just from a cut top of a supermarket fruit a few years back. This is the second time I have successfully had one fruit for me and, fingers crossed, it will be ripe by Christmas.

Thursday 8th October 2009 - weather: clear blue sky

A flying, after school visit with number one son. Old Jack had kindly rotovated a large section on plot number 2, so son and I raked it to smooth it over, and then went about planting about 250 Japanese onion sets. I brought red and white so we planted them alternately. Should look pretty. We then planted 8 Webbs Wonder lettuce and 8 Iceburg lettuce. I might throw some fleece over them next visit, just to keep them a touch more cosy.

I picked a dozen or 2 ripe toms, and the same again that were just turning orange. I really think that is it, so on the next visit, when I hope (fingers crossed) to have more time, I will pick all the green ones and pull up the plants. I won't compost them as finally blight has moved in, so they will go on the rubbish heap.

Carrots, parsnips, beetroot and spring onions are still growing great guns, and we pulled a lovely thick bunch of large carrots. This rain should really give them a boost. The greens are also looking good, and there are a couple of caulis. Whether they will come to anything or not, we will have to wait and see - I try constantly to grow caulis, and am yet to grow a proper, decent sized, tight headed one. Fingers crossed this rain came at the right time.

Sunday 27th September 2009 - weather: not a cloud in the sky - GORGEOUS!

Well, it took some convincing, but today I managed to talk the old man into coming to the allotment with me to help clear the last of the spuds. You see, I have fluttered my eyelids at Old Jack, and he has offered to rotovate the plot wherever I need it. Now in the past, I haven't been a huge fan of rotovating allotments, unless you can guarantee they are weed free, or else you could end up making a slightly weedy plot into a weed plantation, however, time is always against me, and we are on rough, London clay, stoney ground, and I just struggle to get a fine tilth on which to sow seeds. Jack on the other hand as the most beautiful fine ground and gets an amazing show whenever he chucks seeds into the ground. So, the area I want doing is the spud bed, and since we had a drop of rain last week, it seemed a perfect time to get them clear. It was hard going, lots of bind weed to get out, but after a couple of hours work, half of allotment number 2 is completely clear and ready for Jack and his machine.

I have been up for a few flying visits, mainly to pick. I have been able to pick strawberries, which seems odd, but there are loads of fruit on about 8 plants, and providing the days are sunny, they are ripening. God they are sweet and umptuous, I can't begin to tell you. I have also been picking masses and masses of toms. Sometimes 20Ib in one visit. I should have weighed all of my tom crops, but as usual, my normal excuse....time. However, I would say in the region of 60Ib of toms, and still the plants are covered. But, with the days shortening, and the nights getting cooler, I have decided that I will pretty much pick all the toms that are a good size on my next visit, but that isn't until after next week as I am flat out at work, so I could be pleasantly suprised, especially if this warm sun sticks around.

I have decided to stop working Fridays, well, as much as possible, and this will be my allotment day. Sometimes, I will have no choice, and sometimes, I won't need to go to the plot during the winter, but I think if I get into the habit now, then by the spring, when I need to spend more time on the plot, my diary will already be sorted and it won't be a problem.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, we had the village show. I did well and got 9 firsts, a spattering of seconds and a few thirds. Thrilled to bits with my red cabbages as I have never had a great deal of success growing brassicas but this year, they are doing great!

Friday 5th September 2009 - weather: windy and overcast

In memory of our darling Jonny Young who died a week ago - 28/8/09

Went to the allotment today as the children are back at school and I haven't really had much allotment time over the holidays.

Plenty to do but the ground is so hard. I managed to dig a row and a half of potatoes up, but I gave up in the end. If we don't get some ground drenching rain soon, I will have to hire a jack hammer to break the ground up!

I then harvested another full basket of mixed tomatoes. I spotted the first signs of blight, but only on the odd leaf, so to be honest, it is so late now in the season, I am not going to worry. Next visit I will start stripping the leaves from the plants just leaving the fruits exposed to see if they will ripen off. Again, a mix of black cherry, roma, gardeners delight, great white, ferline, santa, cherokee purple, sungold, and a few others. I have been really pleased with the toms this year.

From there to the fruit cage. It was time to tackle the old fruiting raspberry canes and have a general cut back and tidy. Cutting down the old canes doesn't take long but I got stung and scratched to buggery. I still need to get in there and weed around the redcurrant bush as it has a lot of long grass growing around it. Plenty of new raspberry canes for next year, and the gooseberry bushes are thickening up. I did take a few goosegog cuttings and stuck the stems in the ground - well, I have nothing to loose.

I next started to dig up the pink fir apple and Anya spuds that I didn't dig up last year - tut tut. Masses of spuds as you can imagine. The Anya are rather small, but the PFA are great and so yummy as wedges and chips. I only made a start as I was also cutting back the currant bush hedge and apple trees that have grown into the area over the last year. I will dig the rest of the spuds next visit.

Finally I had a sort through the squashes. I gathered 8 sweet dumpling squash and a marrow. I cut back a lot of the foliage from the other marrow plant but didn't pick the fruits yet as we want those for the village show next week. I have one butternut squash, and no pumpkins which is very dissapointing as there were 2, but the slugs tucked in.

I generally just pottered and picked. As you can tell, I couldn't really get myself launched into any job completely, but spending the day on the allotment did help me loose myself a bit. Back on Monday to try and finish a couple of jobs.

Thursday 27th August 2009 - weather: warm but breezy

As is the way with the children off school, today was a flying visit to the allotment to pick tomatoes and to check if they had succumbed to blight. Well, I am very proud to say, no blight and lots and lots of toms! We picked Roma, Cherokee Purple, Black Cherry, Santa, Gardeners Delight, Great White, Striped Stuffer, Beefsteak and load of red 'regular' toms, whose name had rubbed off the labels!

The Cherokee Purple and the Great White weighed in between 8 and 10 ounces each with is excellent. Fingers crossed the blight continues to stay away as there are hundreds and hundreds of toms still to ripen.