Allotment News

2011-10-09T23:38:00.003+01:00

Sunday 9th October 2011 - weather: chilly and overcast

Not on the allotment as it is all shipshape still, that is the great thing about this time of year, the weeds have stopped growing. Today I was in the garden. I am planning a major hack back and dig up before the spring as the shrubs have all got huge and the clumps of crocosmia are out of control. I have so many young plants, cuttings and chunks of perennials that I have acquired from my customers gardens for my own, I just need to make room for them.

Outside the conservatory is a large Buddleia, Philadelphis and a Photinia 'red robin', al of which had grown into one another and were towering over the conservatory roof. Now I ask you, what is the point of having flowers and scent all the way up there when I am just a little shorty 5 foot 3 inches? So, the Bud and Philly have been cut right down to 6 inches from the ground but the Photinia has just been thinned and cut back towards the fence. I started this several weeks back and already there are lovely new, bright pink shoots emerging so I am now confident in cutting it back even more. I am a little nervous at being so bold as it will open the garden up and we will loose our privacy for a year, but it will let so much more light into the beds, and hopefully I will be able to keep the shrubs under control so they don't get out of hand again.

Next to the Photinia is a Ceanothus which is very old and woody but it does give a lovely show of electric blue flowers. It hasn't liked the last few cold winters and has suffered with some die back, but I have been pruning this out over this year and it has lots of new growth, so I am ignoring this particular shrub.

Underneath these large plants are alsorts of smaller perennials, grasses, ground cover plants and bulbs like pulmanaria, bugle, iris, crocosmia, asters, kniphofia, cyclamen, roses, etc. Some of these will be moved around, some split, and some chucked out, like the darn crocosmia. They aren't special varieties, just the old fashion monbretia type and they are thugs and the foliage is messy and smothers everything around them, so I am gradually removing the clumps. I will leave some where they are tucked away, but this particular bed is the only sunny area, so I want to get in lots of colourful perennials. After lifting the crocosmia I moved a small hibiscus plant to the back of the border and also planted a small forsythia cutting into the back and then planted a large drift of apricot coloured foxgloves. I also planted a load more daff bulbs and some imperial fritilaria.

By now the brown wheelie bin and trailer were full and the afternoon was leaning towards the evening so I down tools and poured myself a glass of wine and threw some more wood into the chimnea. I hope to continue pottering during the next few weeks whenever I have the chance as I want to thin out the bugle and pulmanaria and get some of my heucheras in.

On the allotment front, the only thing I have done up there during the last couple of weeks is plant 20 young winter hardy lettuce plantlets and pick several sacks full of apples.

As for the quaily birds, they have now pretty much stopped laying for the winter and have become very quiet and lazy. The boys have lost their sex drive, much to the relief of the girls and they are all hunkering down into the layers for straw to keep snug.

The tortoises are preparing themselves for hibernation. Travis, our Hermans, doesn't hibernate, never has and the vet told us not to attempt it as he been kept in a heated viv all of his life - until he came into our lives. He has been out with Tom and Bertha in the garden all summer, but now the temperature has dropped, he has been sent to Coventry and is back in the heated viv for the winter. Tom and Bertha, our adopted Greek spur thighed are spending a week in the conservatory to make sure their digestive tracts are clear by not eating and allowing them to shit all over the conservatory floor. They will then be packed away into insulated boxes to spend the winter in the garage, sleeping until late spring wakes them with a kiss.

Dear reader, I will now depart to try and remove some of the splinters I managed to get into my hands today whilst untangling stray brambles from my Pittosporum.

2011-09-29T16:59:00.002+01:00

Friday 23 and Saturday 24th September 2011 - weather: bright and breezy

Okay, I confess, I have been popping to the allotment for the odd half an hour to pick and start tidying up for autumn, but I had a surprise day off on Friday, so I headed to the allotment straight from the school run. The paths hadn't been cut for weeks and weeks and were very shaggy, and full of morning dew, but I managed to get the mower through them. As I was struggling with the dense grass between plot number 2 and my neighbour, a very long slow worm slithered out and I just spotted it in time as he headed onto the brassica bed and avoided the mowers blades. It is amazing what a difference just cutting the grass can make, like hoovering a room, even with the weeds, the plots looked neater.

Now dear readers, I could give you a blow by blow account of my weeding, but I don't think it would make for gripping reading. Let's just say I started at the top of plot number one, amongst the strawberries, and worked my way right down to the shed. This took the rest of the day but the plot looked fab after I had finished.

I have in my onion sets, 3 varieties of garlic and 1 variety of shallots. Also still growing on plot number 1 are...working from top end to shed end... wallflowers, perennial salads, strawberries, globe artichokes, turnips, chard, onions/garlic/shallots, peas, spring onions, beans, leeks, apple trees, fruit cage, carrots, chicory, turnips, spring onions, kohl rabi, spinach, swede, parsnips, beetroot, beans, rhubarb, Jerusalem artichokes.

A good day, and I met several new allotmenteers to the sight, young, friendly families so hopefully the site will be buzzing with activity next year.

Saturday was also an unexpected lottie day as I was planning to spend it in my garden, but the family had other ideas, so we packed up BBQ supplies and headed back to the plot. Whilst the kids built dens and played in the stream, hubby sorted out the waterbutts for the winter as I have been given another one, so they are all set up to collect every drop mother nature deposits. He then fixed the shed roof and re-felted it and then promptly emptied it and loaded all of the rubbish and unwanted toot onto the trailer and headed for the dump. I swept the shed and refilled it with everything I wanted to keep and tidied the area around the shed. I have to confess, it is all looking rather neat and tidy over there.

Whilst the kids cooked the bangers and burgers I started clearing plot number 2. I had already stripped all of the leaves from the tomato plants, and binned any suspicious, blighty plants, and already the fruits were ripening. Again, you don't want a blow by blow account of my weeding fun and frolics, but what I can tell you is I cleared most of the squash plants as they were dying back. So, still growing on plot number 2, starting at the top end by Darren and heading down to the stream there is a blackberry bush, Daughters patch with celeriac, carrots, spring onions and chard and on sons plot there are carrots, spring onions, chard and flowers. There are a few squash plants, like courgettes, marrows, cucumbers, plus a row of rocket and a row of lambs lettuce. Then we have the beans, tomatoes, chillies, then brassica heaven. Here we have sprouts, broc, cauli, savoys, pointy cabbage, round cabbage, purple sprouting and kale and at the end of the brassica patch is a long row of mixed beans for drying like borlotti beans. Plenty still going on there.

By now, the sun was getting low in the sky, we had fed our faces, and the children were becoming restless, so we headed for home. Visits will become few and far between now, just visiting to pick, although I did notice in our local nursery that they have an array of winter veg plug plants to get in now....so I may be back to do some planting. Hoorah.

2011-09-11T22:25:00.019+01:00

Sunday 11th September 2011 - weather: cloudy

Such a long time since I updated my blog my ever faithful readers, and I can only humbly apologise. I blame the summer holidays, the kids off school, and us going to West Sussex for a week, and then a couple of weeks later, 2 weeks in the South of France, close to the Spanish border. A fabulous holiday was had by all, but now September is here and life very quickly gets back to normal.

The allotment missed us terribly, and how did it show us, by growing like some possessed tropical rainforest! We visited on Sunday 4th September and came away with 14 kilos of ripe tomatoes, a carrier bag overflowing with runner beans and the same with French beans. We also pulled a couple of turnips, and picked 20 courgettes. There was plenty ready, but I only wanted to pick things which really needed picking.

Before leaving, Darren, another younger allotmenteer, was digging up 2 monster cabbages and I mentioned how we had all been admiring them as they were mahoosive! Just like that, he said I could have them as they don't eat cabbage!! 'Well why grow them?' said I, and he just shrugged his shoulders. The tortoises will be living off the outer leaves for weeks to come and we will be having cabbage at every meal for a month.

Finally, we popped onto Jacks plot and picked some raspberries as he had left me a message whilst we were away telling me to help myself as he is getting sick to death of them. He is filling a bowl full every other day and his freezer is full. Well, how can a girl refuse such an offer.

The children and I popped to the plot again on Friday 9th September for a quick harvest and filled another carrier bag with tomatoes, another with runners, and we filled a basket and large tub-trug with apples. My two trees are so heavily laden I don't know what to do with them all. I have been making tomato soup and tomato pulp for the freezer. I have also done a couple of batches of chunky tomato sauce using courgettes and onions with the toms and freezing that. I have frozen a lot of the French beans as I do find they freeze okay, and have frozen some raspberries. I have juiced a large batch of apples and have about 6 pints of juice which I am going to turn into hot chilli jelly and mint jelly for winter use. I will juice more apples and freeze the juice, and I think husband is going to have a go at making cider now we have found somewhere that stocks home brewing supplies.

Our latest visit was today, the 11th of September, and the main plan was to get my Japanese onions in the ground. Husband dug the last of the spuds - won't be bothering with Maris Piper again as they were scabby and sluggy, so next year I will just be growing Kestrel, International Kidney and Pink Fir Apple. He then picked crates and crates of apples, clearing all of those that over hung the paths and beds. He then cut the branches back and tidied up. Meanwhile I dug and raked over the old spud area and planted my Electric, Radar and Biondie onion sets. The onions were pretty rubbish last year so I am hoping that these will do better as they have gone in a touch earlier.

I picked yet more ripe toms and then we headed for home. There is still masses on the allotment for harvesting during the autumn and winter. Swiss chard, purple kale, savoy cabbage, pointy green cabbage, white cabbage, purple sprouting brocolli, caulis, sprouts, spinach, spring onions, beetroot, leeks, parsnips, turnips, kohl rabi, swede, chicory, chillies, jerusalem (f)artichokes, french beans, runner beans, peas, carrots, courgettes, marrows, cucumbers, various winter squash and tomatoes. I have some radish which have run to seed and I have tried their pods, something which Alys Fowler from the beeb reckons are great with a beer rather than nuts. Don't know if I would go that far, but they aren't bad so I will pick some of them next time as I think they would be nice mixed with a salad.

Next visit, all being well, next weekend.

2011-09-11T22:09:00.002+01:00

Sunday 11th September 2011

Ten years since the '9/11' terrorist attacks. Can you remember where you were? I can so clearly. Jessica was only 2 and James still a baby at almost a year so I was still at home. I had the lunch time news on, flitting in and out, when I saw what was unfolding and couldn't believe my eyes. I had friends in NY at PolyGram, and we have friends who are bankers in that district. Shock, sickening shock. To this very day I still cry when I see those shocking images of people choosing the throw themselves out of the windows, and I cry for the babies that were born after their daddies had been killed. I cry....

2011-08-17T18:15:00.005+01:00

Tuesday 17th August 2011 - weather: Overcast but warm

Went for a quick pick today.

How to use up 7 courgettes and several dozen quails eggs. Nigella's courgette sponge, the beebs courgette and choccy sponge and a friends courgette and cheese bread. Delicious. Tis how I keep my size zero figure. :)

2011-08-10T23:08:00.003+01:00

Wednesday 10th August 2011 - weather: bright and breezy

Welcome home Sally and Ian all the way from the land down under. Do women glow and men plunder I wonder?

And welcome home Geoff and Karen from across the pond. Hope you had a lovely holiday.

Now down to business. I am a slacker, I have no photos to show as it is late, they all need resizing, and to be perfectly honest, after the day I have had, I can barely keep my eyes open. I promise faithful reader to resize and post a plethora of photos once I am recovered.

Today was the day I had threatened to take the kids to the allotment for the whole day. Yes, the whole day including lunch and dinner. You can imagine how excited this made the hormonal 12 year old. The hyper 10 year old didn't mind, he likes nothing more than playing in the ditch with sticks and bows and arrows chasing goodness knows what.

We arrived, with various picnics, at 11 and the allotments looked like a tropical rainforrest. Someone had obviously sown lots of prickly sow thistle seeds all over both plots as they were infected. However, very easy to fork out. Plot number one was first under attack and as I had already cleaned the strawberry bed, I started in the spud/onion/leek/others bed. All of the lettuce plants have now bolted so they were all pulled out and in no time at all, the whole area was looking a lot more under control. I picked a big bundle of french beans and asapagus peas (which I think taste like grass but the flowers are pretty and the seed was free) and dug some International Kidney spuds. The leeks are growing really quickly and I think for the first time ever, I will have some decent sized aliums for winter use. There is also a row of young French bean seedlings, peas and spring onions which only recently germinated for a very late harvest in the autumn.

Beyond the apple trees is my seed bed, mainly roots and salads. Again, all of the bolted lettuce went followed by the bolted beetroot, although I have kept these to juice. A lovely show of Borlotti beans on the vines and huge spring onions.

For lunch we fired up the BBQ and enjoyed toasted bacon sandwiches after which the children were told to keep the home fires burning as it is such a faff to light a BBQ that I didn't want to have to go through it again at tea time, so whilst playing, they would through little bundles of dry twigs onto the coals to keep it quietly smouldering.

Meanwhile I headed for plot numero two and set about sorting the squash plantation. This is going to be a great year for the squashes, a lot of variety, and at least 2 giant pumpkins. Harvested 10 courgettes....again.... and weeded through. Not such a bad job as most are planted through membrane. The corriander has all run to seed, but that is okay, I will keep the seed to dry roast and grind. The rocket hasn't gone to seed, but also hasn't grown much which is a shame as I do love it. The lambs lettuce has made very pretty rosettes which should give us leaves into the winter. I picked a few toms, and a bundle of runner beans. I then set about clearing the sweetcorn bed which either the squirrels or the deer have completely decimated. I have some fab brassicas forming, some huge cabbages and there are already mini sprouts on the brussel plants. This wet, coolish summer has certainly benefited some plants.

Dinner time and the BBQ was still nicely hot so we topped it up with more coal and waited a while before throwing on some sausages. The kids chopped some freshly pulled onions and as their dad had now arrived, we all sat in the shade of the willow and enjoyed our supper al fresco and out of doors. Perfic.

We left after nearly 9 hours on the plot in which time I had humped dozens of trugs full of weeds over to the compost dump, picked lashings of crops, got stung by nettles oodles of times and completely forgotten about the worries of the world. The children had a great time spending the whole day away from the TV and out in the fresh air and by the time I left, I could look over the plots and feel very proud of how neat they both look and how much produce is still growing on them. A good, if exhausting day.

2011-07-03T22:26:00.016+01:00

Friday 1st July 2011 - weather: sunny

Such selfishness. Another full day on the allotment. I was hoping to have a sneaky visit on Thursday but due to the teachers deciding to strike, daughter number one's school was closed so I decided to keep myself available for her and her chums rather than loose myself on the plot.

Really, todays visit was a continuation of last Fridays visit, so to pick up with the weeding, where I left off. However, I think someone had been along with and shaken the trifid stick all over my allotment as in the matter of a week, everything had grown like the clappers, and not just the weeds.

The tomatoes are romping away and I am once again growing them under a roof which prevents rain splash, one of the quickest spreaders of the dreaded blight spores. Normally this means I am picking toms long after everyone elses have succumbed to blight. It isn't perfect, but it certainly helps.

The courgettes have now readily set fruit and I was able to harvest good sized courgettes. I have about 8 plants, but sown at different times so hopefully I will be able to have a longer picking season.

I picked the last of one patch of broadbeans. The rest will be left to really swell and will be frozen to bulk up winter stews.

The cos lettuce have bulked up so rapidly that they are harvestable now and are delicious. The butterhead, winter hardy lettuce are also putting on good growth quite quickly so another couple of sowings at home are required.

The apples on the trees are swelling quickly and there didn't appear to be much of a June drop so the boughs are weighed down with fruits. I did remove a couple of low hanging branches that were proving a black eye hazard.

I am digging spuds as we need them - we aren't great tatar eaters so once or twice a week is more than enough. I am working through my row of Kestrel at the moment and they are the most delicious spud with small purple eyes. Very creamy, slug and scab free. A definate for every year.

The soft fruits have been sumptuous and I shall once again wax lyrical about the abundant Glen Ample raspberry. The fruits are large and so flavoursome and they are produced in masses...one could say they are ample.

The beetroot haven't minded the dry spring and wet early summer and have grown magnificently. I will never bother sowing them directly again. These were sown, 3 to a module, planted out when they had their first true leaves, and left to their own devices. Two varieties, old reliable Boltardy and Bulls Blood. The first thinnings were just smaller than a golf ball, took minutes to cook and were sweet and succulent. The next thinnings just smaller than a tennis ball, and I am enjoying those now. The rest will be left to get as big as you like and will probably be roasted or blasted in the pressure cooker. Next year I plan to try more varieties.

Salads have been great keeping us, and the livestock in greens for months now. Cut and come again is definately the way to go and I shall resist ever pulling a lettuce from the ground again. I just cut cleanly across the plant down low, and within a week new leaves are developing and within 2 weeks, I can cut again. Staggered sowings will be keeping us in salad leaves until the winter takes its toll or the tortoises go into hibernation.

As I have been weeding and clearing, I have also been sowing and planting. More salads, radish and peas have gone in, along with yet more carrots, turnips and swedes. The leeklets I planted a couple of weeks back are now looking very perky and green and the asparagus peas I sowed are up. I have grown them before, and although I am not keen on them, the seeds were from mum, the flowers are pretty, and they aren't very prolific so there will only be a couple of meals worth of pods. The rocket is growing and seems to have beaten the flea beetle attack and the lambs lettuce sown alongside it is growing into neat little rossettes. Even the corriander is growing - I now because I accidentally weeded some out and I got a waft of that unmistakable soapy smell from the crushed leaves. I am delighted with how everything is coming along, yes, some of the rows are gappy, some seeds didn't germinate, and some seedlings were frazzled clean away, but I do believe this is the most organised I have ever been. Do you think.....after 40 years of life, and at least 35 of those gardening, I am finally getting the hang of it?

2011-06-26T22:41:00.005+01:00

Friday 24th June 2011 - weather: bright and breezy

A whole day, yes, one whole day all to myself at the allotment, between school runs of course. So that is roughly five and a half hours. I kid myself that in such an acre of time I can get on top of all jobs and have time to chat to any lottie friends that arrive. Of course I didn't.

Thanks to the wonderful rainfall the weeds are all growing fast and out competing my desired veggies. Plan of attack, begin on plot number 2 at the brassica end and work my way up, then across to the top end of plot one and work my way down to the shed.

The brassicas are mostly planted through weed supressing membrane, an exercise I would recommend to anyone who has a plot and doesn't have enough hours in the day to visit as often as they should. The brassicas love the cool, damp earth and the complete lack of competition from weeds. However, I didn't have enough membrane at the plot in the spring to cover the entire area, so there were sections that needed some TLC. I oiked out the failed Japanese onions, loosened the soil and planted all of the spare, unlabelled brassicas that I had knocking around, roughly another 15 plants. I sowed a quick crop of radish between these brassicas. I weeded through the sweetcorn and was rather disappointed to see flowers forming, and the plants are only about 3 foot tall. Does this mean no sweetcorn for us again this year? Finally the beans, a mix of borlotti, climbing french and runners. I am not a neat allotment holder, I don't really do straight military lines and strict veggie varieties in rows, so my runner bean canes will by a mix of colours, shapes and sizes and will look a picture as it all comes into bloom.

I had already sorted the toms on an earlier flying visit so straight to the squash area, another area with 75% weed supressing membrane in place. At long last the squash seem to have greened up and taken off. They have really struggled with the dry this year, but thanks to the rain, they are now away and going mad. The Speckled swan gourd is clambering through the blackcurrant bush, the courgettes are covered in baby fruitlets and the Atlantic Giant pumpkins already have set baby pumpies. The mini corns are growing well, surrounded by sunflowers which are shooting up for the heavens. I have left the last few broadbean plants in the ground for these pods to really get huge so I can freeze them for winter soups and stews. More beans here, just runners, but these are mixed with the cucumber plants, all sharing the canes and netting. The rocket sown a couple of weeks ago has germinated and is duly being eaten by flea beetles but the lambs lettuce is up and doing fine and the corriander is up, although patchy, but I don't need masses. In the gap where the failed rocket failed I sowed a row of carrots. I had sown another patch of mini corn seed direct, but the mice really enjoyed them leaving a bare square, so I filled it with lettuce plantlets that I had sown in modules at home.

The kids patches are doing great but number one sons patch was looking a little nude as we had consumed all of the lettuce so I weeded and sowed a row of carrots and a row of radish. Plot number 2 is now filled to the rafters with young plants and seeds.

Over to plot number one. A few weeks ago I sowed a row of wallflowers along the daffodil line, and there is a row of seedlings, but I am unsure if they are weeds or the wallflowers. I shall have to keep an eye on them. The netting came off the strawbs as they have almost finished now and I weeded through them. This took an age as the mares tail was thick, as were the dandelions. The basil seed I sowed directly, just because they were excess seeds and it has been so hot I thought why the hell not, are now growing like crazy so I think I will make a huge batch of pesto in the autumn and freeze it like Ina Garten from the Barefoot Contessa does. The perennial salad plants, also sown direct, are growing really well and are lovely and peppery. They should overwinter to give us light pickings.

As the day was marching on I went and picked the raspberries, goosegogs and currants. I say this every year, but Glen Ample are the best rasps and grow so well in the dappled shade of my apple trees. I also cut the grass on the patchs, which was appreciated by my lottie neighbour Caroline.

That was it, time was up. Looking over the plots I realize I will have to dig up and chuck out the globe artichoke plants as they haven't produced any flowers for the last 2 years, and as I am the only one who likes them, I think I will just buy, or acquire, one plant to replace the half a row of tired plants. The cardoon hasn't grown as tall this year as previous years, but blame the drought. The insects won't care though as there are plenty of flowers and those thistles are packed full of nectar and pollen and the bumble bees get quite drunk dancing from flower to flower. I have a few empty areas on plot number one to fill and I have plenty of seedlings and young plants in modules at home which can start going in as they get large enough and I have ordered my Japanese onions, garlic and shallots from Unwins which should arrive late summer early autumn, so I will have to remember not to fill every square inch so I can squeeze them in.

2011-06-21T22:02:00.004+01:00

Tuesday 21st June - Quail diary (and tortoise update)

Again, slacking on the quail news. So, what news. All is very happy in the quailarium at the moment. We are getting between 8 and 11 eggs daily, there doesn't seem to be any bullying from the chaps, the girls all look very prim and proper with hardly any neck feathers missing and they are all in tip top health. This batch of birdies, unlike the lot that the fox set free over winter, just adore lettuce leaves, which is great as I do have quite an abundance of lettuce on the allotment as I am hoping to grow a constant supply to supplement the tortoises hunger and the guinea pigs taste buds. I throw in a few leaves in the morning and they descend on them like a pack of hungry wolves. I just wish the kids were as keen on their greens. We have had one cull so far, so from 16 birds in the quailarium to 15. It was a chap, a very, very noisy chap. The neighbours don't really complain about the noise, but the lady next door but one did mention that she could hear one even when her windows weren't open. Of course, when I suggested that hubby do the business and make the noisy bugger oven ready, there was shock and consternation. Welcome to the world of animal husbandry. As I keep explaining to people, I adore my birds, but they aren't pets, and thus I personally don't name them. The gals provide lovely eggs, and the boys are delicious gently roasted with some allotment veg.

As for our hatchery department, today is day 0 on the incubator and these are our own 7 eggs from our own gals, not bought in eggs, or given eggs. Fingers crossed. The Bobwhites were a failure. Just one chick and it is THE most skittish, insane, mad and crazy chick in the world, ever. But you don't know these things until you try. Just gotta hope it's a girl.

The fox proofing seems to have done the trick and the furry tailed fiend hasn't been seen for a couple of weeks. Mind you, the people round the corner have hens now so maybe he has bigger fish to fry....

Tortoise news for those who know. Tom and Bertha are doing great. Tom badgers and shags poor old Bertha regularly. However, we have dotted around various obstacles and there are lots of mature shrubs that she gets in and he can't find her so she can have a peaceful sleep. Travis, our tropical boy (or girl, the vet has never been sure) lives happily with the couple and they all put themselves to bed every night, all cuddled up in their wooden penthouse. They have a feeding board so they can all clearly see the fresh food which is out in the full sun so they can eat and bask and generally behave like teenagers and sleep, eat and shit just where they stand. The three of them are eating me out of house and home and I come home most days from work with a bucket full of mixed weeds from peoples gardens. I also gather lots from the allotment for them. In the autumn, the apples will fall from the trees...I wonder if they will scoff them? Tom is still a toe biter, and Bertha drew blood on number one son's finger when he was hand feeding her. But they are great and I love them all. I am such an old hippy at heart. :)

2011-06-21T21:55:00.004+01:00

Tuesday 21st June 2011 - weather: bright but very windy.

Another flying visit, a little earlier than promised in my earlier post, but I had half an hour before I had to begin the school run/mum taxi service, and I really fancied some new pots with my salad, so I swung by the allotment. It is amazing what you can achieve in a very short space of time. I tied in and removed all extra shoots on my tomato plantation and am pleased to report that there is a smattering of baby toms on most plants. HOWEVER, I am less than pleased to announce that I think my lottie neighbour already has blight on her spuds. Eeek. So early!!

After the tomato job I dug 2 Kestrel plants up and furtled around in the soil and found over a dozen decent sized spuds. Not bad considering the drought, and they are such a lovely potato, definately to be grown again next year. I am just digging up a plant as I want the spuds, so with this current wet spell, the tats are just getting bigger and creamier by the day. I still have International Kidney, Maris Piper and another....whose name escapes me. I also grabbed a handful of fat pea pods, 2 beetroot, a handful of broad beans, 3 perfect spring onions (better, plumper and whiter than I have ever purchased or grown before), and an asparagus spear. I had a late lunch on site, 2 strawberries, a handful of white strawbs and a bigger handful of raspberries.

Before dashing off, I quickly weeded around my only successful onion patch. Looks like we will have some decent sized onions even after the complete lack of rainfall when they needed it most. If only the reds would catch up, but I think they have had it.

Promise I won't be back on the allotment until Friday...promise.

2011-06-21T07:54:00.004+01:00

Tuesday 21st June 2011 - weather: changeable

Sorry dear readers, I have been slacking with the Blog. Of course, since my last entry I have been to the allotment numerous times, however, I haven't had the chance to do any full days, lots of hours here, half an hours there, but no dedicated time. Life has just been a rollercoaster with family events, animal husbandry and work work work.

So, to recap. The allotment is so very grateful for the recent rainfall. For a brief spell, East Anglia, our region, was in an official drought. Farmers had to ration water on their crops, rivers and streams were running dry and trees started shedding leaves like autumn. Now however, lawns are again green, crops are pert and blowing in the breeze and the weeds are growing quicker than I can oik them out. I have sown a lot of seed on the plot as I am determined not to have bare patches or miss out, so I have rocket, dill, coriander, lambs lettuce, Kohl Rabi, dwarf french beans, radish and carrots all sown direct and starting to germinate thanks to the rain. I have also sown seeds at home in modules to fill in caps and so far have beetroot, turnips, chard, spinach, florence fennel, french beans, lettuce, purple sprouting broccoli and pak choi. At home, already growing as strong plantlets I have leeks, lettuce and an array of brassicas. I also have a few straggly tomatoes and squash plants that I may just poke in around the edges rather than compost them. So, the theory behind this sowing madness is that everytime I dig up a potato plant, for example, I rake the soil down, give it a light feed, then plant something immediately in its space.

Things are growing well on the plots. The toms are big and bushy and desperately need their side shoots nipping off and tying in. The sweetcorn plants are growing fast now thanks to the rain, as are the brassicas. In fact, I am planning to start harvesting some of the purple kale now before the horrid white fly strikes. The squash plants still look a little weedy, but they have time and once they get going, there is usually no stopping them. We have had a few courgettes already and there is a baby butternut developing nicely. The raspberries have been a joy, as they always are. Glen Ample is a really good, large berry, sweet and delicious. I have a few unamed strays that have wandered onto my plot from surrounding plots, and they all come a few weeks later which is perfect. The strawbs were okay....we started picking them weeks ago, but because they were so dry, a lot were small and seedy. The first flurry were devine and I noticed there are still flowers and fruits, so hopefully now we might get a late picking.

Directly sown seeds are patchy, aren't they always, but the gaps soon fill either with the same plants, or I fill gaps with other things. The parsnips are big and busy, but from a short row, I think there are only about a dozen plants. The carrots are all patchy, but I just keep sowing those as we don't mind them finger thin or arm thick. The spring onions and beetroot which I sowed in modules in very early spring and planted out and fab and we are already enjoying the thinnings. We have had our first few feeds from the peas, but the marrow fat style have out performed the petit pois varieties. Again, I have sown more directly and they are through and romping away. I will sow more of those directly. In fact, I will continue to sow right into August with the faster growing and hardier crops as I have found on our sheltered site, things grow almost 12 months of the year.

I have taken Friday off work to spend the entire day on the plot, so I will have my trusty camera to show off my labours. I shan't have to water which will be a relief, but I know the weeds are growing thick and fast thanks to these wet, warm, bright days.

2011-05-22T23:34:00.004+01:00

Sunday 22nd May 2011 - Quail Diary

It has been a hair raising, or should that be feather ruffling few days here due to the renewed presence of a bold fox. As you may recall, we lost our last flock during late winter when a fox bashed his way into the Quailarium, killing at least one birds, and setting the rest free. People don't realise they can fly. Well let me tell you, they certainly can, straight up and away. After this tearful event, Hubby went about reinforcing the Quailarium with galvanised wire, sleepers and paving slabs. Well reader, I am glad to report that the fox proofing worked. Not to say the red fiend hasn't had a very good try at getting in, digging up my pot of mint which stands alongside the Quailarium and generally scratching around and making a mess, but he couldn't get in. We know that it is a fox because our neighbour but one was eating her brekky and glanced up the garden only to see Mr Fox (or Mrs) sunning itself on her lawn. Then, that very night, the foxes were in the street making such a racket. To be honest, it sounded like a young woman was being killed! The neighbours shot out hunting for their cats, and the foxes shot off down the road, 2 of the buggers.

Anyhow, Hubby gave the house the once over, and did even more reinforcing to make absolutely sure no uninvited guests could make themselves at home, so much so that if there is a threat of an atomic bomb being dropped around the Essex area, the family and I will cower with the birds within the Quailarium as it is quite probably stronger than our house.

Still haven't taken the camera up to see the kids, but I did take a piccy of their produce. Egg count is now at 14, not bad as the ladies are only just reaching egg laying maturity, and so far, it seems as if we only have 1 male to 13 girls. What are the odds?

2011-05-22T22:28:00.019+01:00

Sunday 22nd May 2011 - weather: very windy and cloudy, but warm.

Someone said to me the other day that my allotment was just like my work, 'same shit, different place'. How wrong they are. The pleasure of bringing home this harvest in mid May is wonderful. Just wait until things really start. By mid July I will be giving my surplus away to the neighbours. There is nothing quite like the taste of an English strawberry, ripened slowly during late spring, or the sweetness of that first freshly podded pea, nothing like those in a tin or from the deepfreeze. But, it is a personal thing. I am in awe of nature and am amazed to watch seeds germinate - it is my 'thing. Other peoples thing might be hitting a golfball around, or catching fish, I don't get it, but that is 'their thing'. Good job we are all different I say.

Anyhow...I digress. A family day on the allotment was forecast as I really needed to plant out the last of the surplus squash plants and hubby had decided that if he filled the compost heap to the brim with manure from the pile, we could plant at least 10 in there and if they do the business, result, if they don't, well, they were destined for the compost anyhow so nothing lost.

Upon arrival of course a row breaks out between adults and eldest child who decided she really didn't want to be on the plot, but, after a lot of letting her cool down, and pointing out the abundance of huge ripe strawberries, she soon calmed and we had a lovely 5 hours on the allotment, including our now legendary BBQ lunch.

So, Hubby and number one son went back and forth to the manure heap which is generously given to us by the farm next to our site. I reakon it took 15 loads to fill the heap. Once filled, I planted an array of squash, all far to close together, really not sensible, but as I said, they were only going to end up on the heap anyway so any fruit will be a bonus. Two cucumbers, turks turban, butternut, sunshine squash, 2 ornamental gourds and 2 atlantic giant pumpkins. They will wander up and over the shed, down over the heap and along the path, in fact, wherever they like. Of course, these buggers will perform better than the molycoddled ones in the pumpkin patch. Sods law!

Number one daughter, after I dragged her away from the strawberry bed, dug up my wilting garlic plants, a variety called Marco. They really shouldn't be ready yet, but with it being so dry on the plot, this variety is dying off so it had to come out before the dreaded white rot set in. To be honest, there is probably enough garlic to last us a year, and I still have another 30 plants, a different variety, growing well.

Monty Don on Fridays Gardener's World made me feel that I wasn't making the most of my allotments when he showed us his frankly stunning veggie garden, so I had taken an array of seeds with me to plug the gaps. Problem is, there really aren't any gaps. I did sow 2 rows of Rocket, 1 of lambs lettuce and 1 of corriander where the garlic had been though. I am also going to plant the last of my brassica plants in amongst my ailing Japanese onions as again, due to lack of rainfall, they haven't bulked up, and a lot are running to seed. I may even just oik them all up next visit and use them as salad onions. The maincrop onions, which I don't normally do due to the white rot, are doing slightly better - if only we would get some rain. My last brassicas are sprouts, purple and white sprouting and some cabbages. My brassicas are planted through weed supressing membrane and are under net to keep the pigeons off. At the end of the row are my beans, a mix of climbing french and runners one side and a row of runners and borlotti planted as seeds the other side.

The generosity of gardeners is constantly felt by me. Not only do many of my customers give me cuttings, clumps, seedlings and flowers from their gardens, but my veggie growing friends are always giving me their spares. I have already had cabbages from Joe, white sprouting from Jack and courgettes from Ray. Then on Friday one of my customers gave me a bundle of leeks plantlets, and today Jack gave me 6 brussel sprout plants along with an big bunch of sweetpeas. I will give Jack some quail eggs when the girls really get into their stride.

As you can see, things are growing well. I am astonished at the state of other peoples plots on our site as I really do seem to be the only one harvesting anything much at the moment.

Before leaving, we had watered, weeded (see windswept me with a handful of mares tail and a handful of dandelions. One for the rubbish heap, one for the animals), and picked strawbs, broadbeans, radish, lettuce and rhubarb and had pulled a couple of onions to cook on the barby to have with our bangers. A very productive day even if we did all come home rather windswept.

2011-05-19T08:19:00.002+01:00

Wednesday 18th May 2011 - weather: overcast.

Firstly, apologise for the blog looking like this...something odd is happening and my non computer technology brain cannot fathom it. Give me cuttings, seeds, poorly plants and I am your girl. Give me a machine that is playing up, no idea.

After my mammoth visit last Friday I have managed to get in a few half hour visits after work and before doing the school run. I am pleased to report that my test basil plantation has germinated and is growing rapidly. Home made Pesto all round. Also the perennial salad seeds I sowed at the same time are germinating. Beans are starting to poke their noses through as are the peas. The baby sweetcorn bed is germinating more and more but I might have to do some thinning as I forgot how many seeds I had sown, and as I had a dozen or so left in the packet, I shoved them in also...if they all come up, we will be on stir fries for every meal come late summer. The kohl rabi is up - have I said that before? - but the turnips were a no show, so fresh seeds were purchased and sown. The spring onions from seed never showed and as I have planted out hundreds as young plants, I scraped that row and have sown swede over it instead. Of course, now the spring onions will germinate! I have sown more parsnips in the gaps in the row, same with beetroot and carrots. The larger carrot patches have started to germinate, and the blessed rain last night will certainly have helped.

Back again on Sunday with the family and BBQ and will take the camera. Hopefully by then Blogger will be back to normal and I can post properly.

EGG COUNT - 8

2011-05-16T22:34:00.012+01:00

Monday 16th May 2011 - weather: warm but overcast

It seems my computer is still playing silly buggers, but whilst I can, I thought I would give those interested in my ramblings a quick animal update.

We have invested in 6 mature quail hens to boost our flock. We now have 16 birds and it looks like only one is a male, and he is a rampant boy packed full of testosterone. There is a little bickering in the flock, but I know from last year, this settles, or else the most spitefull quickly become oven ready. Of course, no photos, but I shall correct this over the next couple of days. We have an array of colours from range to fawn to white. We also have 7 fertile bobwhite eggs in the incubator. They take longer to hatch that the Japs and Italian so we have had to do some research. Should be interesting. Egg count so far, only 3. One pure white, one with colour only on it's top and bottom and one healthy speckled egg.

As most of you know, we are the proud owners of 2 new tortoises, Tom and Bertha. They needed a new home that they could ransack, and we have just the spot. They have they whole top end of the garden to call their own, an area put down to bark, grass and paving and has several flower beds and lots of hiding places and they can stomp around and watch the quail in the quailarium if they like. Tom is rampant, another male in the house with a big ole hairy chest, strutting around like Tarzan. Poor Bertha must get a headache from the shell bonking, so we have made lots of obstacles for her to hide behind, and there are several mature shrubs that she can sneak into. They have settled into their wooden home and put themselves to bed every evening as the sun goes in. They will have eaten every dandelion in the neighbourhood, and per instructions, they get regular feeds of softly cooked broccoli and cauli. We also have Travis, our hermans who is now spending all day out with the loving couple, but he comes in at night as he is a softy and lives under lights in a tropical atmosphere.

And here are our other 2 scaley friends. Leccy is a Bearded Dragon and Crystal is a Corn snake. We have had these two characters for approaching 4 years. Leccy should eat plenty of greens along with his locust, but, typical of this family, he refuses anything that contains any vitamins and only scoffs the crunchy insects so we have to make sure they are well fed.
Crystal devours whole mice, nice. She is beautiful and is now 3 foot long, very slender and very soft.

We also have a guinea pig, Pebbles, who is incredibly grumpy and an array of fish, tropcial indoors (2 oscars, 5 silver dollars and a plethera of small community fish) and a pond full of goldfish, frogs and newts. Apart from the guinea, no cuddly pets. I like them scaley or feathered personally, although I fear I will have to give in eventually as the pressure is on to get a dog. Groan.

2011-05-16T17:40:00.020+01:00

Friday 13th May 2011 - weather: still hot and dry (and some photos - at long last)

A whole day at the allotment, alone. Can't be bad. Today was tender planting day, so squash and toms. I filled the car with as many plants as I could and headed off. The problem with these tender plants is they have all been growing for several months so are all in large pots, so even in my big old Landie, I couldn't get loads in. I sensed several journeys home were infront of me.

Upon arrival, of course, I was alone on site. No mucking around, down to business. I planted an array of toms; Alicante, Gardeners Delight, Marmande, Roma, Yellow Stuffer, Tigerlla, WhiteBeauty, Rose, Lemon Drop, Idle, St Pierre, Riesentraube, Black Plum, Moneymaker, Costoluto Genovese, Jersey Sunrise and San Marzano. I think that is all. The great time saver is, the leaky pipe watering system clever hubby installed the Sunday before. Once all the toms were planted, I turned the tap on and 20 minutes later, turned it off leaving happy, watered tomato plants. I also planted 8 mixed chilli and pepper plants and 3 aubergine plants at the front of the tom bed.

Squashes next, and after last years failure thanks to our slimey friends, I have grown larger, stronger plants which should withstand a certain amount of munching. An array went in, through weed supressing membrane and in rich planting holes full of ripe manure. I can't remember them all but those I can are; Hooligan pumpkin, Atlantic Giant, Butternut, Cobnut, Turks Turban, Marrow, Marina di Chioggia, Hawk, Arrowsmith, Courgettes green and yellow, 4 different varieties of cucumber - approximately 10 plants, Uchiki Kuri, Sugarsweet, Sweet Dumpling, Watermelon and Honeydew melon. There are also a couple of gourd plants; Caveman's club, Speckled swan and a small gourd mix so it could produce anything. I reakon that should cover all of our squash needs. The irony is, I am alone in my liking for cooked squash, although the family do get it in soups and stews during the winter, but I like it steamed or roasted as a veg in its own right. They love me to grow them purely for ornamental purposes, but I don't mind, I love them all.

By now, I had been home once and filled the car back up with plants, leaving the allotment site empty. When I got back, there was nowhere to park! All the old boys had arrived, Ray, Jack and Joe and even the site secretary was over planting and sowing. You have to understand, for our allotment site, which is small, that is very busy.

The lovely Jack, my allotment buddy, gave me 6 white sprouting broccoli plants and Joe (aka smokey or coughing Joe as he has terrible Emphysema) gave me 6 spring cabbage plants. I never turn down donations, but it does mean I have a shortage of room for my brussel sprout plants. I think they will have to go in once my garlic comes out. I also planted another 8 Cos lettuce plantlets. I am really trying my best to be organised and keep sowing at home in modules so everytime a gap appears, I have something to put in it. I still have masses of plants at home and have just germinated another tray of All Year Round lettuce seeds, runner beans, peas and red sweetcorn.

The turnips haven't germinated but the kohl rabi sown the same day has, so the turnip seeds must have had it. I will buy new and sow again. Parsnips are up, beetroot and carrots are starting to push through. Mixed salad leaves are germinating in dribs and drabs but that is okay as it means I should have plenty to pick as and when, little and often. The baby corn seeds I sowed direct are starting to push through properly now and the childrens rows of carrots are through and are very thick so some careful thinning will have to take place sometime soon.

That was it, time up. Hopefully next week I will be able to make several brief visits after work, and have at least half a day on the plot on Friday again.

Now for some more long awaited photos. As you can see, things are marching along - I seem to be the only person on site harvesting and am regularly picking strawberries, lettuce, spinach and broadbeans. I have also had a couple of spears of asparagus from my one that survived the cull a couple of years back.

2011-05-10T18:32:00.006+01:00

Tuesday 10th May 2011 - weather: hot hot hot!

Is it ever going to rain again? The poor old allotment is starting to resemble a dustbowl. I have sown seeds, but even with watering from a can, not a lot is germinating. However, the young plants that are in are growing great.

So, since my last report, there have been several short and sweet visits.

On Friday 6th I popped down between jobs and watered and sowed a row of runner beans with my borlotti beans. I did this last year and they are so obviously different that it isn't a problem, and anyhow, you can eat young borlottis like runners so everyone's a winner. I also sowed some more cut and come again salad and sowed a row of basil. Well, I couldn't get the stuff to germinate in pots at home, so, with it being so warm and sunny, I thought why not, nothing to loose and the prospect of a thick row of lovely basil is an enticing thought.

Sundays visit was to lift the membrane in the tomato house, put down a thick layer of my lovely home made compost, then peg down a leaky hose and finally, replace the membrane. The leaky hose fits directly to the waterbutt, so in theory, when all the tom plants are in, I can turn the tap on when I arrive, let it dribble for a while, then the toms will be watered from beneath, reducing water splash, one of the causes of tomato blight, and I should get lovely plump toms in August. The three tom plants that I had already planted have done great and already have flowers on them. The rest will be planted out this coming Friday. I also picked a few ripe strawbs and some salad - an early summer bonus.

Another brief visit took place on Monday for watering and weeding. Even the weekend rain didn't penetrate deeply so I am emptying waterbutts trying to keep things turgid. (I like the word turgid.) I picked a couple more strawbs and my first broadbeans, which although still small, are perfectly formed and delish quickly boiled and served with my home grown salad and home grown peppery radish. Actually, the salad is doing really well and I have managed to do several sowings over several weeks so I should have plenty for the summer.

Finally, today after work. Had an hour so took my sweetcorn plants with me and planted approximately 50. I now have a big blood blister in the palm of my hand which is stinging, but I am pleased to get those plants in and watered.

I may have a chance for a brief visit on Thursday, but I will definately be on site all day Friday and plan to get as much planted as possible.

2011-05-03T22:03:00.002+01:00

Sunday 1st May 2011 - weather: bright and breezy

No photos...sorry readers. Still having computer issues, but hope to get that sorted later this week so should have a few snaps to show you, including Tom and Bertha, our 2 new residents (who Flora, are doing great, eating us out of house and home and shagging constantly), and photos of the quail and allotment.

News on the quail, the 3 adults are now as free range as flying birds can be in that they have the whole of the extended greenhouse with exterior run to roam and flap around in, the 5 teenagers are in the greenhouse (aka the Quailarium) but housed in the guinea pig run for another 2 weeks, and the unborn are hopefully hatching as we speak...well, 3 eggs had signs of breakage so all being well, by morning there will be new life. Of the 3 adults, at least 1 is a chap, and a noisy chap at that, but he is the incredibly handsome range colour and is very tall, so he will be our stud. We have rather efficiently ringed the broods so we can make sure we know who is who so when we start hatching our own eggs we don't have any dodgy inbreeding going on.

So, the blog is called Allotment News, so what news have I to report. Well, a flying visit last Wednesday (27th April) cutting paths, watering, weeding and sowing more radishes. I also got the runner bean poles up. For me, an allotment isn't an allotment until the runner bean poles are up. A productive, if rather quick couple of hours. The proper visit took place on Sunday with the family. BBQ packed, trailer full of young plants, off we went. As we approached the plot, I saw movement, and sure enough, Mr Muntjac was grazing happily. Hmm, I don't mind him grazing the grass and young spring buds, just wish he would keep off our allotment.

A full day was planned and whilst I planted and watered, watered and planted, hubby erected the last of the muntjac proof netting, he weeded the tomato bed (!!), he strimmed and strimmed and he sorted out and netted the brassica bed and sorted out and netted the strawberry bed. I hate dealing with netting...it gets all tangled and flaps around. Of course, he did a lovely neat job and it is all secure, so a big old raspberry to the fat pigeons. I planted caulis, cabbages, sunflowers, lettuce, french beans, florence fennel, spring onions endive chicory, runner beans, 2 squash plants, 3 tomato plants and 1 sweet pepper plant. Just for those of a sqeamish disposition, the pepper is under glass and the toms and squash are just a couple of hundreds I have at home, to be honest, the garden is creaking at the seams with plants so I decided I would take a chance. 'Old Jack' doesn't think we will get any more frosts in Essex, especially on our plot as it is very sheltered and the wind doesn't blow that way, and the sun rises over there, and.... you get the idea. The kids played, watered cooked lunch on the BBQ, argued, watered and then demanded to go home, so that was the end of our day.

Things are looking great, and there are little broad beans already developed, the garlic looks great, if only we would have some rain to help swell those bulbs, the spuds are all through and earthed up, the strawbs are smothered in flowers and already have some small green fruits, the raspberries the same, the beet, spinach, chard and salads that I planted are all growing well and I pulled 4 little marble sized radish to scoff with my burger at lunch time. The seeds are proving very slow at germinating, but of course, I blame lack of rain. The beets are just starting to show, as are the carrots, but I thought parsnips were through, but I don't think they are and there is no sign of the spring onions. Rain dance please!!!

2011-04-22T18:45:00.002+01:00

Good Friday - weather: Beautiful, glorious, sun drenched day. BLISS.

Happy Good Friday dear readers. Have you had any chocolate yet? I haven't received any Easter eggs this year, which is fine as I am just going to explode one of these days if I don't loose some weight. However, mother dearest brought me one of those cup and saucer planters for the garden as well as some other bits and bobs and we are having all of his family over on Bank Holiday Monday for a boozy BBQ so I don't need any Easter Eggs. Ooo, and no photos today, forgot the camera. However, I will be back on the plot on Royal Wedding day as I have no interest in watching it and have plenty to get on with on site.

Being a public holiday, and being so gorgeously sunny, we had a long lie in, then headed off to the allotment at 12ish. We had our trusty disposable BBQ and some big bangers and french bread, so all was well with the world. Hubby's main job of the day was to sort out our new mega water tank. Mine was to plant a bit more and water water water.

I planted a block of lollo rosso lettuce, a row of spinach beet and a row of true spinach. I helped the children sow some carrot seeds on their plots and they gave them a good water. I then planted a row of giant sunflower plantlets. Is it too early for sunflowers? Are they really that tender? They grow around my bird table all year round and with this tropical weather, I fear I have been lulled into a false sense of summer, frost free security. So, being so dangerously carefree, I also planted 3 courgette plants, 2 green, 1 yellow BUT they are all under cloches so all being well, they will survive. Also, they have been living outside in the garden for the last 2 weeks so they are well and truly hardened off.

Whilst pottering, I spotted our site secretary and I took full advantage and asked if I could use her hose to fill our waterbutts. She was more than happy as she wanted a hand getting the hose out and across her huge garden, across the stream and onto the plot so you scratch my sunburnt back, and I'll scratch yours. Two hours later, the monster tank was filled, as were most of the other waterbutts. That should see me through until we get some rainfall.

The strawbs are smothered in flowers, so next visit, first job, try to erect some sort of netting to keep the birds and deer off. The apple trees are also weighed down with blossom and the scent is heady. Picked a load more rhubarb as it is trying to take over the world, and my allotment and smother the pea plants growing nearby. I shall use it all and make an array of rhubarb cakes over the weekend.

Another good four plus hours on the plot, a lovely BBQ and a serious case of dehydration that can only be cured by a couple of very long, cold beers. Homeward bound.

2011-04-22T18:24:00.005+01:00

Sunday 17th April 2011 - weather: hot hot hot!

What glorious weather. Is this it though? Is this the 'Great British Summer'? As lovely as it is, and boy is it lovely, I really would love some good, long, steady drizzle for a good few hours just over the allotment as it really is becoming an arid dessert. Not good for germinating seeds.

Visited the old plot with the family today. Never sure how that is going to pan out. Hubby isn't a gardener, but loves all the tinkering around, building, dismantling type jobs. The kids get bored, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowely, but usually they want to head for home after an hour or so. Well let me just say, after a perfect six hours, yes reader, you did see that correctly, SIX HOURS on the allotment, we all headed for home, happy, sun bronzed and exhausted.

Number one daughter has decided that she would like to try and grow some veggies. This is a first. She has never shown any interest in the allotment, but chose some celeriac plug plants when we visited the garden centre over Mothering Sunday weekend. So, first on the agenda was finding her a spot on plot number 2 and teaching her how to plant plants. She quickly filled her little square with celeriacs, chard plants and spring onion seedlings. Number one son's plot is already well established with peas and lettuce growing quickly, so he added spring onions and chard to his patch also.

I weeded, watered, weeded, dug, earthed up potatoes and planted chard, spring onions and cabbages. Meanwhile, Mark rebuilt my tomato house giving it an even larger corregated roof than ever before which means not only will I be able to harvest gallons of rainwater, but also provide my tom plants with a warm environment which remains almost blight free even when everyone else on the allotment site have it.

We had a lovely BBQ lunch which the children were in charge of, something that keeps them entertained for a good hour and the local, meaty bangers are so delicious that it was a pleasure to sit in the shade and rest for half an hour.

Just as we were packing up, Darren, the fella who has the plot at the top end of plot number 2, and coincidentally, his son goes to school with my daughter, arrived with a HUGE water tank. Jealous? I think so. However, he told Mark that there was another identical tank just waiting for collection on the way to Maldon, so of he and daughter trundled to collect it. Whilst gone, number one son and I deer-proofed plot number 2 with that orange plastic netting that you see around road works. That should keep those muntjac off. We also harvested some purple sprouting broc, rhubarb and leeks. The garlic plants are growing really well and the broadbean plants that overwintered are smothered in flowers, although they are still only about 10 inches tall. There are flowers on all of the fruit canes and bushes and the apple blossom should open any day.

The tank is huge. Will there ever be enough rain to fill it? On the upside, it is in a metal cage so I am going to grow my cucumber plants up it. Well, why waste such a valuable growing space?

2011-04-13T15:22:00.002+01:00

Wednesday 13th April 2011 - weather: overcast and breezy

Quail Diary

No allotment news today, only quail news. The kids and I ventured out and visited Barleylands Farm in Billericay this morning, and as we were about to walk out of the front door, a movement caught my eye, and yes, chick number one had struggled free from it's egg in just 10 minutes flat. Joy. Another was almost home free, so we were expecting to arrive home to 2 new chicks in total, but no....we arrived home to be greeted by 5 little quail chicks all squeeking 'mumma' at us. It looks like one range, 2 white and 2 bumble bees. There is still one egg with a crack in it, and one with no movement at all, so fingers crossed we get at least one more babe. Pictures will follow, but my computer has the dreaded back screen of gobbledeegook death, so I am using he who must be obeyeds pc and I can't work out how to do the pics on this one....technofear Eddie Izzard would say.

2011-04-10T22:28:00.003+01:00

Friday 8th April 2011 - weather: absolutely gorgeous.

(That phrase always makes me think of Gregory's Girl)

Number one son's school was closed today, an early start to the Easter break, so after a quick visit to the supermarket, the two of us headed to the plot. I knew his patience and tollerance wouldn't last long, so I listed the jobs and we knuckled down. He played in the stream whilst I planted around 40 white onion sets and 40 red onion sets in the patch spare after my rows of spuds. (Just want to quickly point out before anyone starts referring to me as a bad mum or calling social services, the so called stream at the allotment is little more than a ditch which is dry for at least 8 months of the year. I refer to it as the stream to glamourise my time on the plot.) His boredom by now had set in, so we now attended to 'his' patch - a small square over on plot number 2, about half the plot wide and about deep enough for maybe 5 rows of smallish veg like Little Gem lettuce. He weeded it with me looking on, then together we planted a row of marrow fat pea plants all along the little fence that edges his patch. He then planted 10 butterhead lettuce in 2 rows. He carefully watered them, and sin of sins, we scattered a few wildlife friendly slug pellets. (Again, just want to point out that I hate using slug pellets of any sort, but if I don't during spring, I have nothing to harvest come Summer. I didn't use any the other week when I planted my young cos lettuces under the coldframes, and the very next visit, 4 had been completely munched down to the ground, as had my sweetpeas, and you could see the slime trails everywhere. GGRR) Before we left I noted that my 2 rows of radish between the spud rows were up, as was the patch of mixed salad leaves, also between the spud rows. The Jerusalem Fartichokes are poking their noses through and the fruit bushes, trees and canes are all smothered in blossom. We harvested a monster bag full of rhubarb which is destined for the freezer and gathered a lovely bundle of white and purple sprouting brocolli. Now, we really could do with a drop of rain to get the seeds going, but watching the Countryfile week weather report (yes, I am writing this on Sunday), it looks like East Anglia is going to stay dry for another 5 days so a mid week visit with my watering can might be called for.

Egg watch - 2 days to go (again, this is Sunday evening) until hatching. It would be lovely if all 7 eggs hatched so we could have the makings of a flock again. The three first borns for 2011 are huge, Pip in particular, but she/he was born 48hours before the other chaps. We have ringed them with fetching baby pink rings, and when we know if they are boys or girls, we will mark their rings. This will hopefully mean we can keep our gene pool nicely mixed, no dodgy incest thankyou very much.

The quailarium has been re-fox proofed, as much as possible in a suburban garden. Lots of chicken wire and wooden boards, tight frameworks and locks on the doors. I wonder if those sonar cat scarer things also spook foxes? Might investigate, although we have a new garden visitor, a little hedgehog and I would hate to put him off. As soon as hatching begins, I will update and bore you all rigid.

2011-04-04T22:18:00.009+01:00

Friday 1st April 2011 - weather: ummm, I can't remember!

A flying visit to the supermarket, then one of my customers meant I didn't arrive at the allotment until 11am. Not to worry, it is all looking so shipshape on site, I want to brag, but alas have nobody to brag to.

I realised last visit I had cocked up my rotational plan so my greens are going to have to languish in the same bed as last year. However, last year they were down the bottom end half of plot number 2 and this end they are at the top end half of plot number 2...clear as mud? I have limed the ground and relaid the weed supressing membrane. I have grown the best brassicas since I started using the membrane. Whether it is because there is no weed competition, or whether it is because the plants have a cool, damp root run, I have no idea. Mind you, as smug as I am, I still can't grow successful caulis. Such a shame as I love them so. The white sprouting is making up for the lack of creamy curds though and again I picked a bag full. The purple sprouting plants have sat for at least 12 months looking lush and static and they were about to be pulled out by their shirt tails when I noticed the first sign of 'sprouting', so they have been repreived. I planted a row of red curly kale and re-netted the brassica plot, a somewhat frustrating, and earing slinging job. I lost a pair of opal earings on the plot a year ago when they were whipped clean out of my lobes by some windswept netting.

The rhubarb is growing like a triffid so it was radically reduced in size and will next be found taking the form of a crumble or pie. It has to be said, a good top dressing of slightly rotted manure is very late winter or very early spring gives it such a good kick up the bum. I am going to split a couple of the crowns this autumn as they are becoming huge, but I don't know if I really need anymore bubby plants hogging valuable plot space. I may plant them around the back of my shed where I am currently planting all of my spare fruit bushes that I strike from the prunings and then can't bear to bin.

I planted a row of young mixed salad leaves which I had grown in plugs and I must start direct sowing some little gem now things are starting to grow.

I pottered around, had a chat with Jack, sorted out my canes ready to put them in for the runners and then headed for home, picking the last of the daffs for a vase. The schools Easter hols are looming so goodness knows when I will next be down, if the ankle biters have their way, it won't be with them, but planting and sowing is reaching fever pitch so I think I will have to come up with some suitable bribes.

Just to show you how I spend my 'down time, here are my seedlings to date. In the conservatory are my tender babies, toms, chillis, peppers, aubs and squash. In the greenhouse, semi hardy and those that just need hardening off, so brassicas, beans, lettuce, etc. Then on the garden table are those which are as tough as old boots, peas, broadbeans, celeriac, lettuce, leeks and so on. Begining to think I need a better social life.

The quaily babes are doing great. I am constantly amazed at the rate of growth. Today (Monday) they are 10 days old, and they have their adult plumage, apart from on their heads which always seem the last to turn. They are very cute. Pip, the first born, is a thug, is huge and loaths being handled. James, the range, is placid and doesn't mind being held, and is also huge (he may also be a she). Migit, the last babe is still by far the smallest, and she also dreads being held.

The second batch of eggs have only 7 days to go. It would be great if we had all 7 hatch.

2011-03-27T22:21:00.002+01:00

Friday 25th March 2011 - weather: blue sky sunshine Actually, the date is a bit of a fib as I went to the allotment on Thursday and Friday. The weather was gorgeous, so much so, I actually got a bit of colour on my otherwise palid skin. Both plots look great. All weeded, all neat, all ready for this coming year. First job on Thursday, spuds in. International kidney, Kestrel and Maris Piper. I do normally grow more but always have mixed results, and last year we were lucky to get half a sack from a row thanks to the lack of rain, so this year I am scaling down. I may well get in a row of Pink Fur Apples yet but I am not decided. Then followed lots of little jobbets. Planted 3 stray strawberry plants that I had at home. Planted a row of you pea plants which I had started at home a few weeks back. Pulled some rhubarb, picked some spinach and cut a handful of white sprouting (photos to follow). I also sowed a row of carrots, parsnips and beetroot. Last thing was planting a pot full of broadbean plants - 12 in all - that I had brought for a pound from the little local country market. It wasn't a full day on the plot, I didn't arrive until nearly 11, and after a chat with old Jack, that was my day filled. Friday was much of the same. Again, I didn't arrive until 11 but sowed 2 short rows of radish, a patch of carrots, a patch of mixed salad leaves, planted 12 cos lettuce plants under glass and sowed a patch of calendulas. I sowed 2 rows of peas and rather daringly, I sowed half a row of climbing French Beans. I did give them the protection of a corregated plastic sheet which should keep the worst of the cold off....if only it were as easy to keep the mice off. I also moved a large sheet of weed supressing membrane from allotment one to allotment two and pinned it down ready for the squash plantation. Husband has purchased a mass of cheap tent pegs so I will be able to put down the rest of the membrane. It is such a godsend as I means I don't have to waste so much time weeding and it keeps the ground beneath damp, great considering the constant lack of water on our site. I had a long chat with Lorette, our site secretary, and we watched a bird or prey way, way up in the thermals and she reakoned it was a Black Kite as they have been spotted in the area this spring. I left with an armful of daffs and a big bunch or rhubarb and a big smile on my face. I am so ahead this year.....don't fear readers....this efficiency won't last. NB: Quails eggs hatched...not great odds. From the 7 eggs, only 3 hatched. Two were infertile, the other 2 had chicks in which didn't make it. However, 3 is better than nothing and it is the beginings of our new flock. Two are pale with faint stripes and the last is much darker, and bigger, with thick dark stripes. We had also ordered more eggs from another breeder, this time, English Whites, and they are safely tucked up in the incubator due to hatch in 17 days. Yes yes, I do have photos, but they are on the camera which is downstairs, and I am upstairs and it is nearly 11pm so I am going to wimp out and sort them out tomorrow to post. Thank you for your continued patience.

2011-03-08T21:53:00.007Z

Monday 7th March 2011 - weather: glorious spring day

Firstly, an apology. I have been very lax at updating the blog of late, but spring is just the busiest of times...well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I have been to the plot several times for long bouts of digging, weeding and more digging. The strawberry bed is weed free and orderly - now I have to 'acquire' some tube piping to create a tunnel to keep the birds and darn deer from scoffing the fruits before we do. The spinach didn't mind the winter freeze and is growing away quickly now the days are warmer. It will quite probably bolt by May, but I will get a good few harvests from it before it goes over. The chard on the other hand suffered before we really got a good meal from it. There are 3 tiny plants still struggling, but the big meaty ones are all gone. The onions and garlic are growing really well, again, they didn't seem to mind the cold winter. In fact, it should have encouraged the garlic to split into lots of juicy cloves. The sorrel is growing well. Boy is it lemony. I really should use it more in salads and when cooking fish, I forget how zesty it is. Also, the bubby is growing like crazy. It is always a joy to see those red and pink leaves breaking free. I reakon I will be pulling my first few stems next week for a small pudding.

I still have turnips and a few parsnips in the ground, but I can't imagine they will be any good by now. I will have to get them all up next visit and cut them open to see if they have gone woody. I suppose the guinea pig (only one piggy now as we lost one over the winter) will enjoy them. I also have an array of greens still in the ground, but they all need to come out now. I did harvest a trug full of mixed kale which I will enjoy stir fried. I loves me greens. The brocolli plants still look so handsome so I might leave them in a bit longer until I need the space, just in case they suddenly get the urge to produce flowers. The daffs are all up and have lovely plump yellow buds just waiting for a few more sunny days before they burst open.

The great news is, no more digging in 2011. Hoorah. I still ache, and it is Tuesday evening, but then I did dig all of plot number 2 on Monday, and then humped 10 barrow loads of manure and dumped onto the pumpkin patch area, and then humped a similar amount of compost from my heap onto the seed sowing area. Phewie, a good work out at the green gym.

Hopefully, weather permitting, this weekend we will finally get the fruit cage sorted. The work has been promised time and time again, but life, and mother nature keep getting in the way. Nothing planned for this weekend, so fingers crossed.

At home I have seeds a-plenty growing. Tomatoes and chillis are all up, along with a couple of aubergine plants which I am delighted with as I can't normally get them to grow. I also have an array of brassicas growing, some salads and at the weekend, I sowed at least 16 different varieties of squash, both ornamental and edible. I am determined this year (yeah yeah, I say this every year) to grow some of the large gourds up a frame with net on it to leave me with more ground space for bush squash.

The other big news is we have 7 eggs in our incubator. Hoorah. The quail project is off again. The quailarium will be completely renovated over the next few weekends and made as fox proof as poss, including electric fencing! Eeek. We are going to have a hatching frenzy and buy a selection of eggs from different breeders to have a good mix of colours and genes. I am going to ring each family, and also ring males and females so we can segregate as necessary when we want to start hatching our own eggs.

So readers, hopefully more pics and news at the weekend....fingers crossed.

2011-01-10T18:21:00.011Z

Monday 10th January 2011 - weather: cold and frosty

After my traumatic weekend (see earlier post), today was much more fun as I went to the allotment. The ground was frozen, and stayed mostly frozen for the duration of my stay. Had it have been slightly warmer, I might have stayed for longer. So, first visit of the new year and what to report. Well, the site secretary came calling and my old lottie neighbour, Peter, who has been noticeably absent for at least 18 monthes now, has sadly died, so I have new neighbours. I think there are 4 or maybe 5 new plot holders, which is great, providing they don't loose enthusiasm as the mares tail starts to grow, and their waterbutts run dry in early spring and the ground cracks open. I think I had previously mentioned, but the heavy snow in December brought my fruit cage crashing down, along with the roof on the tomato house. All is not lost thought. The tomato house only needs 6 new sheets of corrugated plastic and a new peice of guttering. The fruit cage is a larger job, but the netting is salvageable, as is some of the wood. However, both are jobs that I will leave for him indoors to deal with.

The purpose of todays visit apart from assessing the damage, was to harvest anything left, and to start clearing and tidying in preperation for spring sowings. I cut down the Jerusalem artichokes and dug up a few. They were a gift from a dearly departed chum, so although none of us are that keen, they remain in-situ in her memory. I also removed the last of the bean poles and lifted the weed supressing membrane. So, the lower half of plot one looks lovely, and loved. I then moved up the plot and cleared the last of the bean poles there and did some digging. The ground however is so wet and heavy, and waterlogged in places, that I gave up.

I harvested a bundle of turnips, some slim parsnips, beetroot, yellow carrots, brussel sprouts, and the artichokes. The sprouts look lovely, if a little on the small side, but they had been squished when the snow weighed the pigeon netting down, so I am very happy with them and will enjoy every last one.

I left the plot at around 12.30, freezing cold and slightly damp. The forecast for the rest of the week looks rotten, but if it is dry on Thursday, I will be heading back to finish the little bit of digging and get plot numero uno neat and tidy.

2011-01-09T22:37:00.002Z

Saturday 8th January 2011 - weather: dull and cold

We are in mourning. A tragedy has struck. My babies are all gone. The fox did what foxes do best, and he broke into my quailarium and killed at least one. All I hope is that the rest were able to fly away in the confusion. He broke through a piece of wood and broke a pane of glass so the whole was very big. Heartbroken just about sums it up at the moment. Funny thing is, I watched the big ole dog fox outside out house, howling and barking at the moon...probably just after he had filled his belly on my girls. Today, Sunday, husband and I cleaned out the quailarium and now it looks very empty and very sad. Up until that point, I said no more, but whilst I was working away, getting covered in quail poop and trying not to cry, I decided not to be beaten. I love my birdies so we shall begin again, reinforcing the aviary and attempting to make it predator proof. Am I cross at Ferdinand, no, it is the circle of life, and I put up with the deer munching my greens on the allotment and the birds eating my berries, and at the end of the day, foxy needs feeding also. I am just sad. The boys had started to crow and chatter and I really felt spring was in the air. I shall dwell no more, British Bulldog spirit, we will not be beaten.

2010-12-01T17:46:00.003Z

Wednesday 1st December 2010 - Weather: 8 inches of snow!

This was Tuesday morning. We have had another 4 inches since then.

We awoke on Tuesday to the promised snow. Can you believe the weather men actually got it right? Monday, number one daughter and I had gone into town (a non pupil/teacher training day) and although it was chilly, the roads were dry and clear. Twelve hours later, the white stuff was falling and Essex ground to a halt. It took my brother-in-law 9, yes you did read that correctly, NINE hours to get home from work last night, a journey which is usually little more than an hour and a half. Of course, with the snow, the schools have closed, and our little cul-de-sac is like a skid pan, so we have been house bound. Or do I mean home bound? We have ventured out into the street and enjoyed huge snowball fights with the neighbourhood kids, and we have ventured down the garden to tend to the livestock.

The guinea piggies aren't keen on the cold as their water bottles keep freezing solid. Hubby has now lagged their cage, which I hasten to add is a thick plastic/fibre glass jobee so actually, completely draft proof, so their bottles now remain fluid. I cleaned them out so they weren't standing on damp shavings and gave them an entire bag of sawdust to nestle down in and a complete bag of straw to snuggle up in. They have a big bowl of food, so hopefully they will be cosy until this nasty weather passes.

The quailly birds hate the cold even more. I did have a warm air heater in the greenhouse with them, but to be honest, all it did was create a cool draft, so that has gone. The greenhouse is double lagged with bubble wrap, and they are also now nestling down on an entire bag on sawdust and an entire sack of straw. Their big pots are loosely packed with the straw, and bless them, they huddle in pairs within the nests. No eggs now for over 2 weeks...well, that is a fib, every once in a while, one is laid, no idea who from, but I imagine with this rotten cold, they will stop altogether now. Hopefully they will survive this cold snap. Tomorrow, as gardening is now out of the question, I will have the day off, again, so will trundle down to the pet shop in the village and get another sack of straw to give them a top dressing.

2010-11-14T18:01:00.002Z

Sunday 13th November 2010 - weather: wet, cold, windy, grim!

Seriously now, getting really fed up with this autumn/winter weather. I have so much to do, but so few decent daylight hours to do it. The allotment could do with some TLC, although I did manage to weed and tidy it through a few weeks ago. I really want to try and tackle putting some weed membrane down under the apple trees this winter as they get so thick with brambles and nettles, it looks rotten.

I have managed a couple of flying visits, and the last visit, last week, I was able to pick a lovely bundle of brocolli heads which were devine, sweet and tender. Nothing like freshly picked brassicas for me. Glad to report, there will be a good bounty of tight sprouts for Christmas, and the chard and kale as growing so fast. The caulis all got heads, but they were grey and slimey. I think I really should stop trying as I just can't master those white curds. Looks like I should get some purple sprouting over the winter also as the plants are HUGE! The onions and garlic are all growing and I have a lovely large rectangle of broad beans, which I am very excited about, as I have never grown overwintering broadies before.

All in all, the allotment looks great - well, it did a week ago. Of course, since then we have had gale force winds and gallons of rain, but hey ho, that's Mother Nature for you.

The quaily birds are still gorgeous, and driving me to distraction. We now have 19 lovely plump birdies, but I fear at least 9 of them are chaps, so a cull will be taking place anytime soon. Because we recently introduced the last batch of new hatchlings, we have had a heat lamp on in the greenhouse, so they have all started laying like mad again, and taking part in carnal pleasures, and cock-a-doodle-doing. Yesterday we had 10 eggs, which is a joy, but I would like them to stop laying and fatten up and relax for the winter, so the lights have all gone out. Regardless, they laid another 8 eggs today. I'm sure by this time next week, the laying will have stopped and everyone will have settled down. On the upside, I am planning to hold back on using some of the eggs so we can enjoy the last dozen or 2 laid for breakfast on Christmas morning.

I think I have chosen which boys are heading for the freezer. I know it seems mean, but that was the idea of keeping the birds, they aren't pets, they are livestock. I love them all, and it does pain me to think of them being killed, but I am also looking forward to eating them, and I know what they have been fed on, I know they have had a great life with access to the outside world, good food, room to fly, mealy worms and greens so are happy birdies, and the meat is all the more tender for it.

The only bad news to repot, my Rumtopf went dodgy. I opened it to give it a stir and there was a fine layer of white mould. All I can think is that some of the fruit we above alcohol level and went mouldy. A shame as that we destined for Chrissy, but you win some you loose some. I will start again next spring as the fruits start.

2010-10-17T23:31:00.006+01:00

Thursday 14th October 2010 - weather: wet and windy

After a brief coffee with chums in the village, I headed to the allotment. The weather was 'orrid! There was a fine misty rain blowing in my face all morning. You know the type, you don't realise how wet you are getting as it is such fine rain, but when you break for a coffee, you realise you are wet through and shivering.

However, regardless of the rubbish weather, I had work to do. The main challenge of the day was to completely weed the winter root bed and finish de-dandelioning the strawb bed.

The roots are all looking great. I have more beetroot than I have ever successfully grown...the same with turnips. The parsnips were so late germinating, I think I will sell them to the family as chic baby veg. I also have a late row of carrots and some baby spring onions. I don't know if the fine builders netting I have around the bed helped not only keep the muntjac off, but also reduced the number of flea beetles, but the turnip foliage is wonderful.

I checked out plot number 2 and my oriental greens and radish have germianted.....somewhat sporadically. Not ideal, but something is better than nothing over the winter. The garlic and broadbeans however are up already and growing away fast. The onions have some green shoots, but at the moment, they aren't very action packed.

I cleared away this summers sweetpea plants now as they were ready for the compost heap, but I did gather a handful of seed, but low and behold, it had started 'chitting' in the pods. Not wanting to waste such keen to grow seeds, I quickly put up a wigwam of canes and planted a thick ring of the seeds. I have more at home in packets to sow, but I wasn't going to waste these babies.

As the rain drove on, I began to loose the will to live, so after weeding through, I picked the borlottis that were ready, some runner beans and a courgette, then called it a day.

As I headed for the gate, I took a last glance at my white alpine strawberry plants and noticed they are covered in young fruits. I picked a few, which were heavenly, so now I am hoping for a few sunny days to ripen some more. They really are luxurious.

2010-10-17T23:17:00.008+01:00

Friday 8th October 2010

Quail Diary

After a stupid accident, which I am not prepared to talk about, we lost 2 of the teenagers so are down to 4 - the pied white, the range brown and 2 goldens. They are gorgeous and perfect and have now been sent to coventry....well, down to the greenhouse where they are currently residing in the lap of luxury under a lamp and inside the old guinea pig run. They have full adult plumage now, and to be honest, are almost as big as the original family, so I think it will be safe to let them out and take away the lamp. There is plenty of straw in the greenhouse, and I have nearly finished lagging it for the winter. When the weather gets really nasty, we have a small fan heater which we plan to put up on bricks and put an old freezer basket over it. This has a frost free setting which should just keep the kids cosy during the winter. There are also 8 large flower pots stuffed with straw in which they can huddle down, plus their lovely wooden home that Mark constructed, but only 1 seems willing to use. Maybe they will see sense as the winter weather sets in.

Group 2 hatched successfully....well, 5 babies made the hatch easily. Number 6 struggled and struggled for 36 hours, so we did the unthinkable and we gave it a helping hand. Of course, we should have let nature takes its course because when it did finally break free, it was bent double and couldn't hold itself upright. We gave the poor little chick 24 hours in the incubator alone to see if it improved, but it didn't and Mark quickly and kindly put it out of it's misery. Egg number 7 sat in the incubator for another 24 hours, but as there was no sign of action, I cracked it, and it wasn't fertile. The incubator has now been cleaned up and packed away until the spring. So, we have 5 little urchins leaping around, adult feathers already showing through, 2 pied whites and 3 goldens. This gang are much more skittish, but just as cute.

We haven't had any eggs now since the end of September, and although we toyed with the idea of giving them artifical light to encourage eggs, we have decided not to and to let them preserve their energy for the winter. The scruffy brown girl who was being constantly ravaged by the lads has grown all of her plumage back now the boys have lost interest in procreation, so fingers crossed, by the time spring is in the air and making babies is on their minds, the ratio of boys to girls will be better and she will be left alone a bit more.

2010-10-08T22:22:00.003+01:00

Friday 8th October 2010 - weather: unseasonably mild

Quail Diary update

Day 18 for the first family, and they are practically fully grown. I will have photos to update you tomorrow, but we have 4 stripy golden, 1 range and 1 pied white.

You may of course recall, that as soon as the family left the incubator, I filled it again, and yesterday afternoon we spotted the first signs of hatching. Reader, as I type this we have 5 chicks and 2 yet to hatch. They do look mighty uncomfortable all squeezed into the incubator, but this time tomorrow they will be in their nursery with room to roam. Four of those eggs had been freshly laid that day, the other 3 were from a supply in the fridge! I did wonder if refridgerated eggs could hatch, and the answer is, yes, they do.

I will take photos of the new batch tomorrow as we move them.

The main family have now stopped laying, so there will be no more incubator action until early spring when I am hoping to purchase 6 fertilised eggs from another source to mix up the gene pool.

2010-10-05T18:06:00.008+01:00

Sunday 26th September 2010 - weather: rain rain rain, a brief break in the clouds, then rain.

Inbetween the rain, we had a family outing to the allotment for an autumn clear.

The apple trees had a mass of apples, but all at the top beyond my vertically challenged height.

Also, with all of the rain, I feared for the well being of my gourd collection, so they needed to be picked.

Such a bounty.

2010-09-30T22:45:00.002+01:00

Thursday 30th September 2010 - weather: clear blue sky, but a chill in the air.

Another flying visit today after work, during which time I mananged to plant 100 Japanese onion sets, 55 garlic cloves and 25 broadbean seeds. I still have another 100 onion sets to plant out, but I need to clear the runner beans first, and I am hanging on as they are still so productive. Plot number 2 is now completely planted for winter use - oriental greens, aliums and leafy greens.

Picked another handful of runners, an armful of apples, and the other big pumpkin as the secret pumpkin muncher has now emptied the third pumpkin and I don't want it to move on to the next one on the vine.

Pulled a few more weeds, and then headed for home. One of these days I will take a camera!

2010-09-29T17:59:00.003+01:00

Monday 27th September 2010 - weather: Dry

At last, hoorah, my blog can remain the Allotment News, as, for a brief two hours today, I got to the allotment.

I adore the changes in our seasons, it is one of the joys of living in the UK, and the signs of autumn covered the allotment site. The trees have started colouring up, the rosehips are glowing rusty orange (I really should pick some and make some rosehip syrup), the tomato plants were all blighty and finished and the leaves on the squash plants have started to frazzle away revealing a plethora of cucurbita fruits.

My beans are still going great guns - see, the slugs did me a favour munching off my first sowing of runners. If the weather remains mild, I could be picking runners for another month as there is a huge flush or crimson flowers. The Borlotti beans have finished flowering and the plants are weighed down with pods. I have been picking them as they dry, podding them and freezing them. I have never had any success drying the beans out and storing them for the winter, the just go mouldy. I have an abundance of beetroot and a large patch of carrots and turnips which I plan to leave in the ground to use over the winter. The parsnips were very, very late in germinating, and although they are growing very rapidly now, I don't thing we will be winning any 'biggest parsnip' awards at the Hort. Soc. AGM. However, they will be perfect for Christmas and the new year when harvestable crops are lean.

Lean....did I say lean....? Not on my plot. This year, thanks to, well, luck rather than judgement, I planted a large selection of brassicas through weed supressing membrane. This was so successful last year, that I doubled the area this year, and as a result, I have brussel sprouts - purple and green, purple sprouting, brocolli, 3 varieties of kale, 3 varietes of cabbage, kohl rabi, and cauliflowers, not that caulis are ever succesful on our site, but I try every year, just in case. I also have 2 rows of spinach and a lovely large patch of swiss chard. That, the leeks, the roots, and the new oriental greens that have just started germinating, should keep us in veggies well into next spring when the young salads and baby roots take over. GLEE!

I spent my 2 hours as productively as possible, cleared all the old tom plants, and filled a trug to overflowing with the red and green fruits - the red will be frozen, the green will be turned into my black mango chutney. I also picked a bundle of beans, pulled a couple of beetroots and picked the large pumpkin as I noticed a mouse/deer/slug has attacked one of the smaller ones, and I didn't want him to get bored and start on the whopper. Over the next few visits, I will bring all of the squashes home. After picking and dealing with the blighty tomato plants, I weeded around the young beetroots seeing what was there. Plenty of tennis ball sized roots, and a lot of smaller ones which will be used for leaves, or left to see if they develop as the larger ones are cleared.

That was it...two hours comes and goes in a blur. Saw Caroline, she has had a huge success with one butternut squash plant, producing over 10 fruits. Her plot is one of the neatest, but she leaves nearby and is retired so has planty of time on her hands....lucky girl!

2010-09-26T22:24:00.010+01:00

Sunday 26th September 2010 - weather: rain, rain and more rain.

Quail Diary

I really must get to the allotment and post some pics of life there...otherwise I am going to have to retitle my blog...something along the lines of 'Quail life and ocassional veggie news'.

Cleaned out the big family today and found 3 eggs. They were well hidden, so probably laid during the last 48 hours or so. Lots of straw has gone down to continue wrapping them up for winter. Open window that provide well needed ventilation during the summer monthes have now been blocked up and draft proofed, so next job is bubble wrap insulation. Mark is on the case. I also have 2 old duvets - one to got over their wooden house and one to go over the staging to try and help draft proof things for the family. I also have a fan heater (have I told you all of this before? I sometimes forget if I have told you, or my mother) and it has a frost free setting, so that will go under an old freezer basket to keep the gals cosy during the winter monthes.

The babes are now a week old, and they are looking like spotty, scrawny teenagers. Proper wing feathers have arrived in the last 24 hours, as has the attitude. How come other people wax lyrical about their friendly little birds, being able to hold them and hand feed them? Mind, scatty, hairbrained - or should that be feather brained? - flighty and generally terrified of me. I shower them with love, affection and mealworms, at great expense, and what do I get in return....well eggs I suppose. Is a little friendliness too much to ask??

2010-09-25T12:44:00.006+01:00

Saturday 25th September 2010 - weather: Frosty morn, clear blue sky, FRESH!

QUAIL DIARY

A pictorial update. The brood are visably growing by the minute and already, only 6 days old, we can see their true feathers coming through, in pin as I believe Chris Packham would say. These pics don't show you as they were taken on Tuesday 21st. I will take some close ups later.

The white baby I am more and more certain is a lad, he is definately the leader, and the biggest. Eleanor, our lazy brown baby is still the smallest, but stands up for herself. They are eating, drinking, sleeping machines, just like any baby. The amazing thing is, at only 6 days old, they are all trying their wings constantly and leaping several inches in the air. They are adoreable, and I fear the family and I are hooked on these birds.

The big family in the garden are all becoming lazy now the days are cooler and the nights are longer and we are lucky if we get an egg or 2 a day. Husband has mentioned putting in some lights over the weekend which will come on using a timer at around 5am until around 7.30am when the sun finally bothers to show it's face. Hopefully this will encourage them to lay a few more for a while longer. An experiment as you can appreciate - we are new to this livestock husbandry lark.

2010-09-21T18:17:00.011+01:00

Sunday 19th September

Quail Diary

After nothing more than just some crackage during Saturday, we awoke early Sunday morning to find 4 chicks in the incubator, all excited, all cheeping and clambering on top of eachother, desperate to get out. They had to stay put for 24hours so they could gather their strength and their bodies could absorb the egg yolky stuff. You can tell I know all of the techy info re rearing quail chicks.

They are ADORABLE!! But, the excitement grew as, during Sunday, around lunch time, another egg started to break, and after a struggle, out emerged chick number 5. So far we had an all golden chick and 4 stripy like little bumble bees - gold main with thin dark stripes. I guess these will be the traditional coturnix colours and the all gold may be a white laddie. As the afternoon wore on, yet more excitement befell the household as chick number 6 emerged....exhausted and a tad weak. We were concerned that it wouldn't make it through the night with the other 5 all pounding on it's little head. We hoped it would be okay as this one was nearly all brown with just pale stripes. It was christened by wicked step daughter as Eleanor, as it has lazy teenager attitude as it appeared to be the last of the brood. No signs of life from egg number 7.

After 24 hours, the little family were moved from incubator to brooding tank where their comic antics make us all coo and ahh. They are eating and drinking machines and are all now looking strong, even Eleanor. Of course, as soon as the family were moved into the brooder, 7 more eggs entered the incubator. Well, bringing new life into the world is a precious thing, and the babes are soooo precious!

We left the last egg in the incubator for another 36 hours, but nothing. I opened it, and sadly, there was a little brown chick in there. Natural selection...survival of the fittest...he who has the strongest beak tooth laughs last.....

Our egg count is now mid 600's, but we are down to just 2 or 3 eggs a day as the light levels are so low and days are so short.

2010-09-20T18:39:00.021+01:00

Saturday 18th September 2010 - weather: overcast

SHOW DAY

After a very dry early summer, and then an incredibly wet late summer early autumn, the veggies on the allotment haven't know whether to grow, bolt or rot. However, there was enough growing well for me to have plenty of entries in the Danbury and Little Baddow Horticultural Society Show. Up bright and early and staged an array of fruit, veggies and cooking. The kids also took part and did flower displays and cooking. Did very well and all three of us won tropheys, mine and Jessica's were for most aggregate points over the year and James won his for being the Presidents Choice. A lovely time was had by all.

I have had a few visits to the allotment to just weed weed weed. Thanks to the lovely rain, the waterbuts are full and the weeds are 10 foot tall. I have thoroughly cleaned out the strawberry bed and planted all of the rooted runners in rows, oiking out the rest. I now have a lovely large strawberry bed, and I will definately construct some permanent netting over the winter to protect them from the deer and birds.

I have been picking tomatoes by the bucket load, even though blight is spreading across the site. I read somewhere that cherries and plums aren't so affected, which is great as that is mostly what I am growing. I have stewed down over 15 bags of toms which now rest comfortably in the freezer for winter use. I will continue to pick and stew down, but I think I might make some home made chilli and tom ketchup. I will hold off making chutters from the toms until I have a bucket of green ones and make my black mango chutney. mmmmmm.

Courgettes have been rubbish this year. I have picked about 6 in total, but the slugs munched my original plants, and when I did a rush resow, I sowed various squash, but no courgettes. Similar situation with the cucumbers, we have had about 4.

The runner beans are loving this cooler, wet weather, and have sent off masses more flowers and we are eating beans at every meal. I have also had a bumper harvest of bortlotti beans which I am leaving to almost dry out completely on the plants, then shucking them and freezing them for winter soups and stews.

I love my allotment, even with it's annoying challenges, and the surroundings do allow masses of wildlife on site. I know the muntjacs are a pain in the butt, but I love to see them, and last week on one day I went to lift my wheelbarrow on the compost heap, and there was lovely long slow worm under there, then the following day as I went to dump some rubbish, I disturbed an adder sunbathing. I know we have a lot of adders on the site - a dog was bitten by one on there last year - and they are so beautiful, but I did admire it from afar.

Hopefully I will get down more and more now autumn is here and gardens slow down. In the meantime, I have a huge glut of fruit and veg to use or process before it takes over the world!

p.s. Quail news......Saturday lunchtime, day 17, we notice definate cracks in some of the shells.... would there be babies by Sunday?

2010-09-01T22:09:00.004+01:00

Wednesday 1st September 2010 - weather: blue sky, chilly evening

Quail Diary

Incubator DAY ONE

Inspired by my fellow quail addict, Wallfishwife, we went ahead and ordered the R.Com Mini Digital Incubator with quail egg tray. It arrived today - good service as we only ordered it Monday, and by 6pm tonight, it had 7 freshly laid, and hopefully fertilised eggs languishing in it. In 17 days time, we will find out if all the bonking that takes place constantly, is wasted energy, or if the lads are firing on full cylinders.

I cleaned the quail house out today and started snuggling them up as the evenings are getting chilly and quaily birds aren't keen on the cold. I know how they feel! Plenty of straw in their flower pots and a thick layer of sawdust in the hen house with another big wodge of straw. As it gets chillier, I plan to lag the greenhouse with bubble wrap. I also have to old quilts at the ready, one to wrap around the wooden hen house, and one to drape over the greenhouse staging. Belts and braces and all that, I also have a fan heater which I can have on a frost free setting which will go in to keep the house as toasty as is sensible, without cooking them in their feathers.

Daylight hours are gradually reducing, and some days we still get 6 eggs, but for the last few days we have been down to 4. I don't know whether we will give them artificial light to keep them laying, or let them have the winter to rest. I might stick a light in for a month or so, and then leave them in peace until Easter.

I must do a proper egg count so I can keep you updated.

P.S. Went to Wyvales today in Chelmsford where they have their legendary seed sale on. All seeds reduced to 50p a packet so stocked up for the allotment. Spent just £15.50 on seeds, but the RRP should have been £67.82 so I saved a rather impressive £52.32. Then, to top it all, mum went to her Wyvales in Sutton, and spent another tenner on seeds for me, so another 20 packets. I think I will have more than enough seeds now for the next few years!!

2010-08-26T16:41:00.005+01:00

Thursday 26th August 2010 - weather: bloody awful, rain rain and more rain!

Come on weather, pull yourself together! We haven't sat out and enjoyed a balmy evening since returning from France at the start of the month...and as for summer BBQ's - fat chance. And thanks to the constant rain that Essex seems to be suffering, I still haven't got to the allotment.

Thanks to the wet weather, I have been taking advantage of the fruity gluts that come my way courtesy of the hedgerows, family and friends. Plums at the moment, although I do have 4Ib of brambles in the freezer, and 4Ib of Mirabelles. The in-laws have a rather stonking old Victoria plum tree and after a visit, we came away with 3 carriers full of the mouth watering, golden plum coloured fruits. I still had a 3Ib bag sitting in the freezer, so today was preserving day. Well, what else is there to do when the house is tidy, the kids are entertained, and their is bugger all on telly to watch.

Firstly I made James Martins plum chuts, altho I did had 5 thai green chillis to the mix to try and pep it up. I also did 4 times his original recipe. I couldn't get the heat from the chillis, but I am hoping on storing, the flavour will mature. Next boozy plum jam. 5Ib of plums, stoned and cooked until soft, then 5Ib of warm sugar joined them. Once setting point was reached, I poured in about half a pint of my home made damson gin, stired through and bottled in warm jars. Whenever I make boozy jams, I can't taste it, but when you compare it to a plain version, you can definately recognise a taste difference.

I still have a big bowl full of the beauties, so am toying with the idea of making a plum crumble, then perhaps chinese style plum sauce, and the remainder can go into the freezer for use another time.

The great thing is, my apple trees on the allotment are weighed down with fruit, so I have that to look forward to in a few weeks time, followed by the pears that I have permission to scrump from an old orchard at the back of the allotment, and that doesn't include the hedgerow fruits that I forage along the way.

I did look at a preserving book whilst I was in Wyvales this morning, enquiring as to when their cheap cheap seed sale starts, but I already have 3 preserving books, plus several war time books with great jam and chutters recipes, and to be honest, in the age of the internet, do we really need lots of books when recipes are at the end of our fingertips?

2010-08-18T22:32:00.002+01:00

Wednesday 18th August 2010 - weather: bright and breezy

Flying visits seem to be all I can fit in during the kids hols. I have told them that I want to go for a decent visit, but they moan and groan. Mananged an hour yesterday and the same again today which was good.

Yesterday was just to pick. Came home with a carrier bag of mixed French and Runner beans. I also cut a couple of courgettes (they are very slow at getting going) and cucumber. I picked a bowl full of tomatoes (I am not sure if they aren't just beginning to show the first signs of blight) and pulled some carrots and spring onions and cut the first few mini corns. There is still plenty on the plot to bring home, beets, spinach, chard, kale, spuds, onions, cabbage, and so on, but whilst I don't need it, it can stay put. I do need to sow some more fast growing things and overwintering bits, so I need to get up to the plot and the kids have promised that next week we can.

Amazing what a drop of rain can do. My squash bed looks amazing. It is a jungle and there are loads of fruit developing which is exciting. After going to a potager in France that grows over 300 varieties of squash, I have decided next year to devote a bit more time and attention to my squashes.

Anyhow, I digress. Todays lottie adventure was mainly to tie up my wayward tomato plants. They are soooooo heavily laden with fruits, that if the blight holds off and they all ripen, I will have tomato sauce in the freezer to last me into the summer of 2011 !! Plum toms seem to have done really well. I am relieved as I had a tomato disaster during spring. When we first got our gals and moved them into the greenhouse, I still have all of my young tomato plants living on the staging - 30 odd varities, looking lovely. All was well for the first few weeks, until the gals spotted greenery, and up they all went one night, and ate every single plant down to a stump. Buggers!! So I had to start again. I didn't sow, but I begged, pleaded and purchased plants at local plant sales, at peoples gates, and took peoples spares. So, I now have quite a mixture of plums, cherries, regular, stripey and huge beefsteaks. Phew, alls well that ends well and all that.

So that was that, home again. Now, fingers crossed next week I will have a more detailed blog after being able to spend a bit more time on the plot.....we shall see.

2010-08-02T22:17:00.002+01:00

Monday 2nd August 2010 - weather: overcast with light rain

QUAIL DIARY

After my earlier posting, the weather started to become quite grim. Excuse me mother nature, where did the summer go??

Anyhow, just a quick post really with a quail update. As you know, we have 11 birdies, and it turned out that we had 6 gals and 5 lads. Way to much testosterone, so numbers had to be reduced. The first boy went tonight. Gingernut is now languishing in our deep freeze. Hubby did the did quickly with as little distress as possible. He was a plump lad with big breasts and quite a bit of fat on him, which should keep him moist when we cook him. We have decided that the small white and the scruffy brown boy will join him over the next couple of days. The children agree that as our numbers are now down, we should buy a few more ladies, so I will contact our original supplier and get another half a dozen.

The other story is regarding one of our brown range gals. She has been bonked and bonked by the lads and had become completely exhausted. We also noticed that she tends to gather the eggs up and sit on them, dare I say, broody. So, she has come into the house into the first aid cage to rest. She laid an egg on the first evening, and sat tightly on it, so I snuck another 2 under her and she has sat on them all day. I moved her off tonight, and marked the eggs so we know which ones are the old ones in case she lays any more, and also so I can tell which way is up so I can make sure they are turned. The eggs were all warm, and she sat back on them again. So, we shall wait and see. They may come to nothing....she may get bored....but we might end up with 3 chickadees.

Oh, just to add, so you don't think we neglected our birdies whilst off galavanting in France, our neighbour came in and tended to them for us, and gathered 50 eggs in the one week. She really enjoyed looking after them and has keenly offered to do it for us whenever we are away. I hoped she would keep the eggs and use them, but she gave half of them back to me!! I think a quiche for dinner tomorrow.

2010-08-02T11:22:00.007+01:00

Monday 2nd August 2010 - weather: bright and breezy

In loving memory of my darling daddy who died 10 years ago today.

I miss you so much dad, and miss our time on the allotment together - you chief weeder, me chief grower.

Love you. xxx

Okay, so I didn't go to the allotment today, it was yesterday, but having only returned from our glorious week in France on Saturday evening, I didn't get my act together yesterday.

So, a quick over view of our week in France. Glorious! The Vendee region is gorgeous, long sandy beaches, amazing food, wonderful people. Yes, I would live there in a shot. Went to the zoo, aquarium, boating, markets and went to a fabulous potager garden where they grow over 400 varieties of pumpkin, and probably a similar amount of tomatoes. Fab time was had by all.

But so much can happen on an allotment in a week. Before we went, the kids and I picked all of the raspberries leaving a lovely lot of just ripening fruit to harvest upon our return....but the wasps had different plans, and had sucked the lot dry. There wasn't a decent rasp to be had. On the upside, they had totally ignored the currants, so picked plenty of red, white and black currants, and a massive bowl of Jostaberries.

The French beans don't mind the hot and dry weather, infact, they prefer it, so I picked a nice selection of purple queen and haricot vert (seeds purchased 2 years ago when we were on hols in the south of France). I also picked the first bundle of runner beans, and am pleased to report that they are smothered in flowers. Runners haven't been great for the last couple of years, but this year I planted them in the dappled shade of the apple trees, and I think the shade has kept them a little cooler and they seem to be thriving, where the few that are in the middle of plot number 2 in full, dry sun are really struggling to make their way up the poles.

The beetroot don't seem to have minded the drought and I picked a few whoppers. The turnips have germinated, but unless they have some more rain, I don't know if they will come to much. I do hope to get to the plot in the week - with our without the sproggles - so will carefully give them a can or 2 of water and thin them out, less competition should mean more water for them.

In general, things are doing okay-ish. Everything looks dusty and slightly limp, but there are some different squashes developing and plenty of toms. Fingers crossed we avoid any blight. Next visit I will take the camera to show you how sad things are looking, but also, how good others are doing.

2010-07-23T17:40:00.002+01:00

Friday 23rd July 2010 - weather: bright and breezy.

Just a quickie really as we are packing for a week away. Shot to the allotment today to pick the raspberries as they don't last on the bushes like the currants do. I had already gathered several pound of rasps last week, and picked another 3 and a half pounds today. And still the canes are smothered in young white fruits still to develop. It is a stonker of a year for the soft fruits. I did also manage, before the kids started whinging, to fill a bowl with Jostaberries, another 3Ib. The lot have been sorted, bagged and are now in the freezer awaiting inspiration. I am tempted to start my Rumtopf this year ready for Christmas, so maybe the next round of fruit will head into that - so, note to self: Pick up a bottke of rum in Duty Free.

A quick glance over the plot and everything has started growing like made since we had rain. Several baby squash all set and growing, although still no courgettes! Maybe this will be a courgette free year. Yeah Gods!! Fortunately, everyone else will have an abundance so I won't starve. I shall try and bribe/beg/plead the kids to spend a bit more time on the plot once we are home so I can keep on top of things.

The ladies are all doing okay. For 2 days, whichever chickadee lays the blue eggs has been keeping her legs crossed, but today we are back to normal. I worry that it is the brown girl in the ring that the boys are shagging senseless who is slowing up. Three boys are definately for the chop upon our return. Six to five really isn't a good ratio, and never the plan.

I am wondering if they will enjoy scoffing earthworms? My neighbour has one of those plastic dalec compost heaps and it is very wet and packed, and I mean writhing with worms. I wonder if I fill up a tray with them, the girls will enjoy them. They love live mealworms so I can't see them turning their beaks up at worms that have lived on a rich diet of kitchen waste.

I need to do a proper egg count, but we must be nearly at 400. Gave a dozen to a neighbour today who is going to top and the gals water whilst we are away, and I have hardboiled 24 to take with us as hubby loves them, even though they are a BUGGER to peel.

2010-07-15T16:32:00.003+01:00

Thursday 15 July 2010 - weather: overcast, wet and very windy

Who told the wind it could blow my hair all over the place? I look like that fella, you know, the lead singer from The Cure!! The wind is knocking the leaves, and branches out of trees, blowing over flowers and blowing showers around. What a blustery day.

Anyhow, a flying lottie visit as I had to work until 12.30 so arrived on site at about 1pm. The rain has been a godsend. Someone somewhere must have seen my dodgy raindance and came up trumps. Now, some sunshine again would be good, just to get everything really romping. Of course there are weeds everywhere, so I spent the first hour weeding the brassica bed which doesn't have weed supressing membrane down. Such a shame I didn't do the entire area, but I still had onions and shallots growing there. It wasn't so bad, the ground was lovely and soft and the weeds mostly just pulled clean out. Plenty of greens growing. The kohl rabi are globing up nicely, the sprouts are already getting tall, and a few cabbages appear to be trying to heart up. The kale, red, green and black is ready to start loosing leaves as is the spinach. I suppose now summer is over, we will be back on cooked dinners so I can start using my greens.

I then spent the last hour harvesting. I gathered 2 and a half pounds of raspberries and there are still mountains on the canes. I also havested a bowl of red currants, and again, that was only the tip of the iceberg. I did however strip the gooseberry plants of fruits. Now to decide what to do with them. The rasps are already in a pan cooking to extract their juice so I can strain it and make raspberry jelly for use over the winter. The next batch will be frozen to use in trifles, crumbles and pies.

Before leaving I picked the first 2 cucumbers and gathered the onions and shallots to dry off at home in the conservatory. Looks like the shallots are white rot free. Some of the onions are dodgy, but in general, not bad at all. I also picked a small handful of purple queen french beans, the first beans of the season, and dug some International Kidney for some new pots. Looks like it is going to be a lovely lottie supper tonight.

Quail Diary

The gals are all doing just fine, bless 'em. They are still a little timid, but then I don't have the time to sit in with them and get them used to me. I have taken to feeding them dried mealworms by hand, and some will take from me, some won't. The boys, Gingernut, Grumpy, The Big One, Bobble and You...you, the Brown Boy are constantly shagging the gals and leaving them all with bald necks. I fear a cull...I keep threatening this, but the children scream in terror at the prospect.

I wonder what the neighbours think the strange noise is at 3am when the lads all come home from the pub and start crowing. I know they do this at 3am as we have had the joy of having windows open during this hot spell, and when I get up for a tinkle, as I sit there answering this call of nature, I hear their call of nature - the quail equivalent of cock-a-bleeding-doodle-doo!!

They love lettuce and radish leaves, which I have a plentiful supply of on the allotment. I have also told 'Old Jack' on the plot to keep his old bolted lettuce for me as the clan demolish a little gem in a morning. They adore dried mealworms, but the food of choice are the live giant mealworms. I am not allowed to give them anymore though as they are pricey and really they are to feed hubby/son's lizard, not my gals. Also, I think it puts hubby off the eggs a little bit to think they are eating wigglies. Don't know what he thinks free range hens chow down on, but I am sure a lot of it wriggles, creeps and crawls.

Very proud of my gals. Six eggs a day, except on clean out day which puts them off their stride so we usually only get 4. I would just like to add, quails eggs make great cakes. Number one son had a go and we weighed the eggs, broken into a jug, and then did the same measure for fat, flour and sugar, and they make lovely light cakes. I have been giving the odd dozen to chums, and of course family, and people are in general, delighted with their gift. At the weekend I plan to make a quiche...I shall take piccies.

Egg count - 323

2010-07-02T22:56:00.013+01:00

Friday 2nd July 2010 - weather: hot, sunny with a light breeze.

Forgive me bloggers for I have sinned. Today I plucked the first ripe cherry tomato from the vine, and popped it straight into my mouth without a thought for others. No photograph, no chance of sharing, not a care in the world. And it was sinfully good. Slightly acidic, warm from the morning sun, juicy and full of the flavour of summer. Happy days.

I suppose my penance is the lack of serious rain. Honestly, my allotment is like a dustbowl. Carrots and parsnips refuse to germinate, even with me watering them as often as I can from a watering can. Courgettes and marrows just sit there looking bored - although I do have my first cucumber set which is something.

Spuds are very small, plenty on each plant, but still all so very small, the same with the raspberries. Loads and loads there, but they are not fulfilling their namesake - Glen AMPLE they are not!

Down the cooler end of the plot, by the shed, the radish and spinach are romping away, and I don't seem to be suffering any flea beetle damage this year. Could this be because of my deer proof mesh?

The runner beans are at the top of the poles, the french climbers aren't far behind, and the dwarf purple queen have just started setting.

Picked a mass of peas - a highlight. They must have been sown, and recieved the little rain we did get, at just the right time. I froze a pound and a half of shucked peas this evening, and there is a similar amount still on the plants just waiting for a downpour so they can swell.

My day consisted of watering with stinking nettle tea, weeding with my trusty hoe, sowing more seeds - carrots (again), parnsips (again), turnips, leeks and peas and planting out more courgette and cucumber plants, bright light swiss chard plantlets and pakchoi plantlets. Now I know the pakchoi isn't supposed to transplant terribly well, but if they start to bolt, they are still perfect in stir fries, and the young leaves are good in salads, and if all else fails, the guinea pigs and quaily birds will enjoy them.

I had a chat with the site secretary who is missing the adders as they seem to have vanished since this hot, dry spell started, then I chatted with my old mate, Jack and he gave me a bag full of little gem lettuce for me and the various animals. We also enjoyed sampling his various goosegogs and blackcurrants. Yum. Emphysema Joe was also there loving the heat, but cursing his forthcoming holiday to Portugal when it is currently sunnier and hotter here in Essex. Jim from next to Jack was over briefly, but I didn't get a chance to say hello before he was gone again...apparently he isn't well.

All in all, a full day, and I didn't get all of my plants out - still have leeks, courgettes, peas, spinach and spring onions to plant, but I have another day off next week, and who knows, it may rain between now and then and 6 packets of carrots, all sown in the same patch, will all germiate and I will be surfing the web looking for 101 things to do with carrots.

2010-06-17T22:07:00.003+01:00

Thursday 17th June 2010 - weather: clear blue sky and sunshine.

What a beautiful day, hey hey, what a beautiful day....as the song goes. Not a cloud in the sky on this late spring morning. I didn't arrive at the plot until 10.30, and before I could even get to my allotments, I was collared by old Jack who pointed out that blight has already hit some of our plottie neighbours spuds. EEEK! He then cut me some little gem lettuce, not that I need any as I have a nice row of my own, but I don't like to say no to him as he grows so many, they only end up on the compost heap, plus they keep so well in the fridge, so they will get used, and any left overs, the guineas and quail get to scoff. He loves to share his bounty with us lottie ladies.

Still no carrots. What is it with me and carrots this year? I have purchased new seed, have a fine tilth, watered and destoned, but still no stinking carrots. The same can also be said for Parsnips. I have some brand new parsnip seed, so will sow again next week, but if nothing grows, then I shall stop worrying and sow some peas in their place.

I got out my trusty hoe/rake tool, and de-weeded both allotment plots. I LOVE that tool. Once again I ask you, why oh why didn't I learn how to use it years ago?

On plot 2, I hoed all around the onions, pulled those whose necks were bent, and planted the last of my brassicas under the new net construction. I have more greens planted this year than ever before. There is also an ample space for my late sowing of spinach, chard, pak choi and peas. Of course, if I plan to plant these in the next couple of weeks, I am going to have to sort out my deer netting, which was my next job, using the last of my dayglow yellow builders mesh. I know the deer are about as I sowed a row of dwarf haricot beans inbetween a row of cabbage, and those inside the net cage have all germinated and are growing lovely, nothing beyond the net.

I planted 16 runner bean plants - 2 to a cane, and 8 dwarf frenchies that I had sown just to use up a packet. The tomatoes are all growing very well, plenty of flowers, and on my tumblers in the scarecrow head....fruits. Don't know how the spuds are doing really. Not a lot of growth above ground, and I blame the lack of rain. However, loads and loads of time, and they aren't showing any signs of flowering, so I won't worry about them, however, I will get myself a job lot of Bordeaux mix and spray the spuds and toms next week.

Strawbs aplenty on the plants. I have already picked 2 punnets full and enjoyed them with cream, and there are loads and loads to come. The same with raspberries. Looks like it is going to be a bumper fruity year.

Had to leave the site at 2 to collect daughter number one and a couple of her classmates who were at a creative writing event but I was really pleased with what I managed to achieve in that time. Didn't take the camera, will endeavour to remember it next time.

2010-06-08T13:49:00.004+01:00

Tuesday 8th June 2010 - weather: short sharp downpours, followed by sunshine, then more rain!

QUAIL DIARY

All is well with the gals. Sex is still the most important things in their lives, followed by eating, and finally, laying eggs. 9 yesterday!! Today my parcel from live food direct arrived containing 100 locust - for the lizard, a pack of 50 giant live mealworms - for the lizard and oscars and 3 packs of dried mealworms as they had them on special - these for the gals as they love them. However, after reading how Wallfishwife has been feeding her girlies woodlice, I wondered if mine would like a live mealworm or 2. Now these are big wigglies, probably 10 times the size of the little freeze dried mealworms, and they put up quite a fight. To be honest, they make me shudder and I can only pick them up using proper bug tweasers. What a whimp. So, I sat myself on their wooden house, a place that has become a convenient seat to watch the ladies at play, and I waited until they settled and came to see me. Bobble and the Big One - the 2 white boys came out first and I gave them both a wiggly. What a giggle. Peck, peck peck, grab, peck, chase. Bless them. At first, I don't think they really knew quite what to do with them, but animal, or rather, bird instinct soon took over, and wham, swallowed whole and then they were begging for more. Of course, the other birdies were all paying close attention to this spectacle, and before I knew it, I had all 11 clucking around me, dare I say flirting with me to get their beaks on a squidgy, tasty, plump mealworm. I sat with them for a while, tossing them the mealworms and watching battle commence. The older gals were very cheeky and would wait in the wings until the other birds had knocked 10 bells out of the worms, then they would saunter in and steal the mealworm, only to swallow it whole. A few tustles broke out, only to be expected and I decided before blood was shed, so sprinkle a few dry ones around, and leave them in peace. What fun. I will now endevour to find catterpillars and other critters for the gals. I should imagine the cabbage white will have smothered my brassicas on the allotment in eggs, as they do annually, so rather than squidge said catterpillars, I will harvest them for my ladies.

Egg count: 171

p.s. or is it an n.b.? Anyhow, this afternoon, as the rain stopped work today, I sowed a tray of bright light chard and mix colour pak choi for planting out as the spuds come out. I often do a very late planting as they don't tend to bolt and stand well over the winter. I also sowed some seed on Saturday when we got home from the plot - more runners, peas, florence fennel, spring onions, french beans, courgettes and cucumbers.

2010-06-08T13:24:00.008+01:00

Saturday 5th June 2010 - weather: sunny start, overcast later.

Flaming June.....flaming blooming June. If the forecast is anything to go by, it will be soggy June. Not that I am moaning - no siree. The plot is like a dustbowl and my darn seeds just aren't germinating! So, bring on the rain I say.

Family visit today, with BBQ and bangers. Mark cut all the paths...in fact...he cut all the paths on the whole site. He likes to keep busy on the plot, and growing seeds and weeding really isn't his thing, but give him a power tool and he's in heaven. He did a great job, and then got out the petrol strimmer and cut back the nettles and other overgrown patches down our end of the site. He did a great job and I know everyone is grateful when he does it as they all thank me.

I got busy with my hoe...my new toy. At last, at just 39 years of age, I have mastered the hoe. The great thing is, I weed the whole plot in no time, and it looks so lovely and neat, and I am rewarded with a lovely fine tilth. Why didn't someone teach me the ways of the hoe years ago? Or is it one of those tools that you can't master until you age a little? Hmmm...should I be investing in a flat cap and a tartan thermos flask?

Weeded around beans, carrots (what carrots?), beetroot (plenty of them I am glad to report), spring onions (patchy row, but I have some at home to fill in the gaps), parsnips (no show) and florence fennel (the one that had germinated has now been killed by the May sunshine). The children and I then picked the first of the strawbs. Only a few I know, but the plants are laden with fruit, and if we get the promised rain, followed by sunshine, fingers crossed we will be sick to death of strawberries in a couple of weeks time.

Old Jack, my allotment chum, has given me 2 cucumber plants. Good job as I neglected to scatter slug pellets around my squash plantlets, and what do you know, the slimey beasts scoffed half of them! Fortunately I did have a few spares, and I have sown some more at home, which isn't a bad thing as it will spread the harvesting period. I have planted courgettes in August before and been picking into November successfully.

Now to let 2 under aged sproglodites loose with a disposable BBQ and a box of matches. Hey presto, a lot of smoke, and arguing, then peace as they set about preparing our lunch. Lovely local bangers with fresh allotment salad. Onions, little gem lettuce and radish, all picked and placed on the grill or our gobs within a minute. Now you can't get fresher than that. Even daughter number one tried some grilled onion as she loves the smell, and she admited to liking it. So, since we have been lunching on the plot, she had taken to eating both radish, and cooked onion. What next I wonder?

Hunger and thirst sated, Mark went about building me another brassica cage to cover the recently planted curly kale and cavalo nero. I also still had a few odds and sods of the brassica world to plant, so they are now all planted ready to furnish our winter dinners with greens.

A very productive day and I left feeling very satisfied. I was hoping to get back during the next week, but I think work will take priority, especially with the weather forecast - I can see jobs backing up and me rushing to catch up. However, I do need to go back on Wednesday as I have promised a few lettuce and some rhubarb to the local country market. Maybe by then there will be more strawbs. mmmmmmm.

2010-05-31T22:42:00.006+01:00

Bank Holiday Monday - 31st May 2010

QUAIL DIARY

Constantly amazed by my gals, they are now delivering us 6 eggs per day, and as I estimate we have 7 ladies in all, only one isn't yet ready to do the business.

Today they had a good clean out. For small birds, they are messy buggers. Some deliver nice firm little poops, others leave great big messy slimy craps. Very unpleasant. However, very little smell from them, and they are just so darn cute that I can forgive them anything.

They used to lay their eggs neatly in the pots that we are using as little nesting homes, but now they just lay with gay abandon, wherever the urge takes them, and whenever it seems. At first, we didn't get eggs until around 6pm. Now the first eggs are deposited before lunch time. I assume this is down to sunrise getting earlier and earlier.

I am yet to see one of the ladies actually lay, but they are doing it, which is good enough for me.

Each girl lays a very distinctive egg, which means we are able to monitor who is doing the laying. We get a blue one, a little browner one, a larger chalky one and so on, as you can see from the piccies. I can also report that they are fertilised eggs as we have had a couple which have a smear of blood in them which confirms that it is time for hubby to set about constructing an incubator. I definately want to hatch a dozen and see what colours, and sexes we get. It could mean a glut of quail meat in the freezer, or enough eggs to supply the local village market!! Oh the excitement. :)

2010-05-26T18:44:00.003+01:00

Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th May 2010 - weather: bright and breezy

I really need to perfect my rain dance, and quick. The plot is just so dry my seeds won't germinate. The beetroot has, but I figure that is big seed, and I drenched the drill, as I always do, and they popped up, as did half the row of spring onions, but only 2 florence fennel seedlings and a smattering of carrots. No parsnips or turnips. I shall carry on sowing and hope that when the rain does eventually come, which inevitably it will, I will be inundated with seedlings of all description.

Anyhow, to business. Tuesdays visit was short and sweet as I only had an hour, and I got called away by school after 30 minutes as daughter was having an asthma attack. She is fine, fear not. This visit was meant just for earthing up spuds, and I did nearly all of the 6 rows before the call, so I was pleased.

Todays visit was a longer one, arrived at 1.15 and didn't have to leave until 3.15. I earthed up the last of the spuds, then hoe hoe hoed around the last cabbages/spring greens. They are hearting up and I really should use them, but I need to do a roast or else be imaginative. I also weeded number one son's small plot where he has 3 pointed cabbages, half a row of calendula, and 2 red lettuce planted. I then planted a dozen 'Black Magic' sunflower plantlets in there for him. They should look very sexy, providing the snails keep off.

Now plot number 2 is weed free and looks great, so I planted half a row of red and green kale and half a row of cavalo nero kale. I did put some netting over them, just hope it is enough until I have time to construct a proper pigeon/deer barrier.

Over on plot number one I weeded around my seedless seed bed and sowed half a row of climbing french beans. I am growing more frenchies than runners as I prefer them and think they freeze better. I shall probably miss the runners and end up doing a late sowing....well, I do have a dozen spare 7 foot canes just hanging around.

I had a good natter with Jack, and Mrs Chapman, who's hubby broke both his ankles in a motorbike accident, and then watered what I could. That was it, time up! Half term next week and lots planned, but I am hoping I will be able to beg/bribe/plead the kids into going so I can sow another row of peas and plant out my spring onions and leeks that are in trays, wilting at home. Wish me luck.

2010-05-24T22:58:00.009+01:00

Monday 24th May 2010 - weather: hot hot hot

QUAIL DIARY

The pecking order in the quailarium seems to be sorted. Out of our 11 birds, we are farely confident we have 4 boys. This is okay, they don't seem to harrass the ladies too much - just the odd quickie, no foreplay, no boxes of choccies.

The family are becoming friendlier and as they reach maturity, we are starting to see their personalities. Grumpy and gingernut, both chaps, love to crow. It is such a great sound, a muted cock a doodle doo. They seem to like the sound of their own voices mid afternoon. I have no idea if they are crowing during the wee small hours as they are at the end of the garden and have to compete with the blackbirds who seem to wake up at 3am to start the dawn chorus.

One of the fat range girls has left the madding crowd and lives up on the shelf. I have given her a box to live in and some straw and she has a flower pot full of compost which she snuggles down in. The rest of the clan had adopted pots, or the wooden house to sit in, although they all love to fluff up the dry compost and cause a dust storm before nestling down in the impression they have made.

The new clan were all quite scruffy when they arrived, but I am glad to report that injuries have healed and feathers have all regrown. I put that down to a healthy diet of mealworms, quail mix, dandelions, cabbage leaves, corn on the cob and soaked bread crusts. Am I fattening them up for Christmas??

Have we named them all? No is the short and easy answer. We have stumpy, named as she is missing at least 3 toenails, bobble, named by daughter, The Big One, our large pied white, who is large, and fat, and wobbly, Grumpy a mean boy who shagged everyone upon arrival and started quite aggressively. He has now settled down and is slightly gentler in his love making. And finally, gingernut. He is the odd one out, the only ginger quail we have. He was very scruffy upon arrival, but has settled in to the house well and is looking much less shabby. I haven't seen any bedroom action from him, but he does stand on tip toe and crow loudly.

The greatest news so far - EGG COUNT 72 !!!!!

2010-05-24T22:33:00.003+01:00

Monday 24th May 2010 - weather: Even more scorchio

Yet another seriously hot day. Not really a day to be out working with the noon sun on my back, but my allotment time is rare, so after weight watchers (lost another pound), and Asdas (spent way to much, but have stocked up now for half term), I got to the plot around 11, and could stay until 1.30 before heading to work for an hour.

A busy morning on site, my old mate Jack, Ray and his wife who have the neatest allotments in the world, emphysema Joe who has to take things very carefully, and me. On our site, this is a full house.

After a brief chat with Jack, onto my plot. I planted the rest of the brassicas, so the current cage is now full. I have netting to create another cage, but really need to clear the onions. This happened to me last year and I will probably end up doing the same again....build the cage over the onions and plant the brassicas inbetween said alliums, oiking them out when they are ready, leaving the brassicas behind.

I then decided to try and use one of the hoes that Jack gave me. I am not very good with hoes, and I don't like leaving the weed debris lying around, but this funny contraption has a blade on one side, and with a quick flip, a small 4 pronged raked the other, so I hoed a patch, then quickly raked up the weeds and stones as I went. Very tidy indeed, and I had completely hoed and tidied the onion bed in about 20 minutes. Fantastic job. So, enthused with my success, I then did the same further up plot 2 and cleared the area infront of the tomato house. The lovely soft tilth left behind allowed me to plant another 8 tomato plants. Perfect. I also took advantage of a gap in the onion bed and sowed a row of slender french beans. No idea if they are climbers as I bought them in France, so will have to wait and see.

Over on plot one I planted 2 short rows of perpetual spinach plantlets, and sowed a row of french breakfast radish inbetween. The deer proof netting is so fine, I don't seem to be troubled by flea beetles, and if my carrots ever bother to germinate, I don't suppose I will be worried by carrot fly as I have such a high and fine barrier.

I was able to use the hose from our allotment secretary, and filled all of my butts up. Suprising how quickly the levels had gone down since last filling.

A brief visit, but plenty done. Next visit, I shall get busy with my hoe/rake and tidy the spuds up and get them earthed up.

2010-05-24T21:56:00.013+01:00

Sunday 23rd May 2010 - weather: Scorchio!!

Can you believe this weather?? Glorious, just glorious, although apparently, only a brief visit from Mr Sunshine as the days will be considerably cooler as the week wears on. The car themometer registered a balmy 25' on route to the plot Sunday lunchtime.

Mobhanded Jack told me, and we were. All of us made the trip, including step daughter, the plan being sort out some more deer proofing, BBQ lunch, a bit of planting, then home for a cold one and a relax in the shade.

Hubby was definately in the zone - I told him what needed doing, and he got on with it, no questions asked. He put up our scarecrow and planted the 2 tumbling tomatoes in his head. He cut the paths all around both of my plots, and run the mower around old Jacks to thank him for the 6 white sprouting brocolli plants, onion seedlings and 2 cucumber plants. He then constructed pigeon proof netting on plot number 2 for my various brassica plants, put up deer proof netting on plot number one around my courgette/sweetcorn area and finally helped me water everything in. What a star.

Whilst he was working up a sweat, and a rather fetching sunburn, I planted 12 squash plants - courgettes, marrows, cucumbers, gourds and pumpkins, purple queen dwarf french beans, 18 tomato plants, 3 aubergine plants and 24 different brassicas ranging from white sprouting broc, calabrese, different cabbages, caulis and sprouts.

A leisurely lunchtime break with the kids, all sitting in the shade by the shed, the barbeque sizzling under the weight of sausages and burgers and will all shared a bottle of cola. Even though it is still only May, I was able to harvest some lettuce, radish and a leek to compliment our grilled lunch, and even daughter number one ate a radish...her first ever. Of course, the first was mild and sweet and she loved it. It had lulled her into a false sense of security as the second one was the king of peppery radish and you could see the steam coming out of her ears!

It is such an innocent way to spend a couple of hours - no telly, no technology - well, once the charges had run out on the i-pods, just gossip, jokes and laughter. A perfect day.

2010-05-13T18:11:00.002+01:00

Monday 10th, Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th May 2010 - weather: changeable

Well, can you believe it? Three days in a row on the allotment. Granted, they weren't full days, but I worked like a dog whilst there and achieved a lot.

Monday - I had to visit a client for her to tell me what plants she wanted me to buy for her garden, but then I hot footed it to the plot. The deer doesn't seem to be munching my uncovered lettuces, but I am making the plot a bit of a maze with planting, and bits of chicken wire here and there, so maybe that, and the fact that I am on the plot a lot at the moment, has put it off. However, lots of tell tale footprints on Jacks plot. My main objective of today was to get some more seeds planted, plants in, weeding done and finish off laying the weed suppressing membrane down for the squash/corn bed. Got the lot done, and planted 2 last rows of spuds!! Seeds in, beetroot, carrots and parsnips. Plantlets in, broadbeans, runner beans, peas and sweetpeas. Shifted 6 barrows full of manure and spread it around the squash area, then put down the membrane and pegged it in place. Knackering work, but if it helps with the weed control, it will have been worth every stinky minute. Finished the day weeding - bloody weeds don't care about the dry soil or the hard crust in places. No, they grow regardless where as my poor carrots struggle to break through. :(

Tuesday - a flying visit. Worked nearly all day and had just an hour to go before collecting the kids, so, as the mower was in the car, the paths received a very short hair cut. I also had the strimmer, with just a little charge left in it, so I was able to edge also. A productive hour.

Wednesday - a couple of hours spare. I worked until 1.30 and didn't have to be at school until 4, so the job I planned was laying more membrane down on plot number 2 at the bottom end, the end where the cabbages were going. Firstly I had to weed the area. Actually, it wasn't in to bad a state, but those darn creeping buttercups come up from the centre of the earth! Anyhow, once cleared, I spread over a few handfulls of lime, raked it in a little, then got busy laying the membrane. I wonder if the deer will be put off walking on it?? Of course, I cut it short so had to do a bit of a jigsaw, but that was okay. And the bonus prize, enough left to do the tomato area. I could hear the weeds shaking in their tap root boots. It is a faf, but it will be worth it.
Caroline, my lottie neighbour, popped up, and she told me that the deer had munched her raspberry plants to the ground. AAGGHH! Glad mine are safely tucked away in the fruit cage. Of course, this means I am going to have to spend more time putting up net fences when I should be sowing, planting and weeding. Anyhow, in the last hour of the day, I pulled a huge armful of rhubarb and set about weeding the onion bed. I must remember not to bother growing red onions as they just don't grow on our soil. We do have white rot, but the red ones don't even get started, they just sit there, whither, and die. The whites however, begining to bulb up nicely. The shallots are also really growing fast now which is very satisfying. I am growing the garlic at home this year as an experiment as it always grows well on the plot, but when I come to dig it up, all the bulbs are rotten in the ground. If we get decent garlic at home, I shall continue to grow it there.

No photos, forgot the camera every day- useless bird. I shall take it next visit, promise. Hopefully next visit, netting will be erected and the brassicas will all get in the ground, then the visit after that, beans and squash, if any have survived the couple of frosts we have had this week.

2010-05-05T23:13:00.002+01:00

Wednesday 5th May 2010 - weather: bright but chilly...again.

QUAIL DIARY

News flash! News flash! News flash! News flash! News flash! News flash!

Day one we were greeted with 3 eggs. No idea from which hen's bottom they came, but after that, we had only one egg delivered on the next 4 days. Overjoyed that my girls had started thinking about laying, and were obviously reaching laying age, we hoped for more. On day 6 our wait was rewarded with 2 eggs, laid by different hens as the eggs had a different pattern. One of our girls is laying eggs which are cream in colour with brown splodges, the other hen is laying cream eggs which are spotted with brown and white. Our 2 egg banquet continued for another 4 days, bringing us to this wonderous day. Today, whether from one of our new ladies, or from one of our mature fawn girls we don't know, but today, 3 eggs, and the new egg was blue in colour, more dumpy with brown smears. We have no idea if this will be a regular laying, but where normally the girls leave their eggs neatly in their flowerpot homes, the blue egg was just deposited on the ground on the earth.

The family have taken to sitting up with the quail for a while each evening, watching their antics and listening to their chatterings and them tapping on the greenhouse glass wishing they were outside. Of course, they have an outside run, which they all use, I think they just forget where the door is.

My cup floweth over.

Egg count - 18

2010-05-04T22:28:00.005+01:00

Tuesday 4th May 2010 - weather: overcast and chilly

QUAIL DIARY

Of course, 5 quail just was not going to be enough, so hubby found another local dealer and we pootled off on Saturday to buy another 6. We now have 5 fawn quail, 3 range quail, 2 white pied quail and 1 who is still in her baby plumage, but I think she might be a fawn lady. Sods law, we have at least 3 boys. Oh well, at least it mixes up the gene pool, and if it becomes necessary, they will wind up in the freezer.

There does seem to be a lot of hanky panky going on, and I have to say, I don't want to come back in my next life as a quail. The boys grab the gals by the scruff of the neck and pin them down whilst they do the deed. No dinner...no flowers....no foreplay!

Our large white pied is very much in my bad books. I had a tray of lovely tomato plants growing nicely. They were up high on the staging, and to date, the birdies had ignored the tom plants....until last night, when our lovely big white girl, scoffed the lot! Thanks to her, I had to spend £6 on 6 new tomato plants. The things we do for pets.

Our new ladies, and men, are only about 6 to 7 weeks old so not laying yet, but the good news is we are now collecting 2 eggs a day, so our egg count is 15. Happy!

2010-05-04T22:24:00.002+01:00

Tuesday 4th May 2010 - weather: overcast and chilly

A flying visit to the plot this afternoon, only from 12.30 until 2 as I was working in the morning and had to do a couple of chores before collecting the urchins from school. I really need to press on and get the brassica bed limed and covered in weed suppressing membrane, and the same with the squash corn bed, but rather than lime, a good thick layer of manure needs to go under the membrane. Well, today I managed to weed and lightly fork over the squash bed and humped 5 wheel barrows full of manure from one side of the allotment site to the other and dumped it on the bed. I will need to do at least another 5 journeys to get a decent covering, but I ran out of time. Hopefully next week I will have a couple of hours on the Monday to get to the plot, and a full day on the Friday so I should be able to get both beds sorted, the last of the spuds in, and the brassicas in.

To say I am knackered this evening would be an understatement.

2010-04-28T18:22:00.002+01:00

Wednesday 28th April 2010 - weather: humid and hot hot hot

QUAIL DIARY

A quick update to let you know that after an impressive start of 3 eggs, for the last 2 days we have only had one egg a day. We are not complaining however, 1 is a 100% improvement. So, egg count currently stands at 5.

2010-04-26T22:02:00.008+01:00

Monday 26th April 2010 - weather: bright but overcast

QUAIL DIARY

Big news followers. Today we can start our egg count. I paid the gals a visit at around 2pm, and found 2 perfect eggs in the flowerpots. Later, when I finally arrived back home with the sprogs after swimming and shopping, they went to check, and to their great pleasure, another egg in the flowerpot. I am overjoyed. Hubby and I had them fried on a slither of french bread, and they were devine.

EGG COUNT - 3

2010-04-25T23:49:00.002+01:00

Sunday 25th April 2010 - weather: overcast

Quail Diary

Still no darn eggs. I cleaned the gals out yesterday and chattered with them, gave them lashings of food, fresh water, and a sprinkling of mealworms. Were they grateful, were they pah! Still no eggs. I am obviously doing something wrong, or they are all boys. It is a good job they are cute or else their days would seriously be numbered. So, bugger all to report. No mice or rats, they are eating well and gaining weight, they are plump and have lovely shiny feathers, neat beaks and feet, and they do flap around from time to time and trash me seeds on the staging, but other than that, nothing at all to report. :(

2010-04-25T23:04:00.012+01:00

Friday 23rd April 2010 - weather: fabaroonee

Happy St. George's Day

I didn't get onto the allotment until 11ish as I had to work a couple of hours, but when I got there, I knuckled down. I planted the last of my lettuce seedlings out and am glad to report that the ones I planted previously, with no netting or deer proofing, are still intact. Hopefully the muntjac have found a bountiful harvest elsewhere. I then sowed a row of florence fennel, beetroot and spring onions and finished off sowing a block of carrots.

Everything is struggling to germinate due to the lack of rain (although I am typing this on Sunday evening and we have had several welcome downpours today), so I did start watering with my can. Already one waterbutt is empty and 2 others are only half full, and this on an allotment where watering really doesn't take place very often. Action was needed, so I tromped over to see if the allotment neighbour, and site secretary was home. She was, and after some polite chitchat she was more than happy for me to run her hose across her garden, fill my waterbutts and water the plot. It was a bit of a carry on as the hose was blocked with algae, which I managed to clear, and of course, it was in a tangle, which I undid, but after about 20 minutes, I had lashings of water spraying about with gay abandon. The hose ended up being on for a good couple of hours, during which time, all of my butts were filled to overflowing, and the seed bed and all of my recently plants seedlings received a good water. Now that was a seriously good job well done.

I still have a couple of varieties of spud to get in, so I cleared the last of my spring onions, and planted half a row of a maincrop variety called Bambino. I then wandered down plot 2 and dug up the grass/weed infested path so that I can plant another row down that end on my next visit. Whilst down that end of the plot, I took the time to weed around my Japanese onions, and I must say, the white ones have really put on a burst of growth. The red ones however, very weedy. Talking of hunions, old Jack had left a tray of what looked like blades of grass, but what I knew were maincrop onion seedlings, so I went back over to plot number one, and planted them on a spare square of ground up by the cardoon. I watered the ground well first and once it had all soaked in, I planted roughly 25 maincroppers. Generally, I don't have any luck at all growing maincrop onions due to the white rot on the allotment, hence this year I am growing my garlic in troughs at home, but I will give them a go. If I have to pull them very young and use them as salad onions, I haven't lost anything.

The globe artichokes are looking fab after I was a tad worried a few weeks back, and the cardoon is growing like a triffid. The rhubarb is also growing at quite a rate of knots and we have already had several delicious feeds from it. I also still have a lovely thicket of parsley, but I know this will quickly go to seed now as it is left from last year. I really should pick it all and freeze it, but I don't have any problems getting it to germinate, so I never bother.

Hopefully I will get back to the plot next week, but I have a pretty full working week ahead of me. If nothing else, we need to get to the plot to deliver our new chum, Bill, who we made to try and deter the deer. He is rather dashing, don't you think?

2010-04-18T22:00:00.004+01:00

Sunday 18th April 2010 - weather: STUNNING!!!

Who would have thought...a suntan in April?!? Yes, after spending most of the day on the allotment in glorious April sunshine, I have sunburnt shoulders. Am I complaining? Not on your nelly. It was so lovely to be out and feel the sun on my skin, although I wouldn't complain if we had a drop of rain as the allotments are bone dry and my seeds are struggling to germinate.

So, up with the lark and on the plot by 9am. A fabulous time to get there on a Sunday as all I could hear was bird song. My main aim of the day was to weed and sort out the fruit cage. I didn't really do much in there last year and the grass and nettles had really crept in and infiltrated the currant bushes, so now was my chance to have a good weed through and put down some weed supressing membrane that I had left over from a previous job.

Labour of love, that is all I can say. Fiddly, plenty of nettles and brambles, but on the upside, loads of flowers on my purple and green goosegogs, red and black currants and the jostaberry. Also, the raspberries have put up lots of canes, so should be a good year for fruit. And a bonus spotted whilst weeding around the green goosegog - 2 layered cuttings, 2 two nice young plants for free.

Putting the membrane down was a palava, and I only did the back half of the cage as I didn't want to supress the raspberries, but what a lovely job. Hopefully the fruit bushes will benefit as there should be no competition from weeds, it will be easier for me and the kids to get in and pick the fruit, and it is a weeding job I can cross of my list giving me more time to concentrate on other jobs.

Now, the family arrived for a couple of hours. Mark strengthened the fruit cage as it had sagged and a couple of cross beams had broken after the heavy snow, he cut the grass on all of my paths, and he sorted out and tidied the shed. I weeded under the apple trees, sowed a row of beetroot, planted my broadbean plants and a row of little gem lettuce plants and iceberg lettuce plants.

After lunch, I was all alone, so I carried on weeding around the strawberries. They have put on an amazing amount of growth in the last few weeks. I am going to have to think about netting them once the flowers are open and young fruit start to develop otherwise the pesky deer will be enjoying the strawbs before we do. I then sorted out my runner bean canes and tied them all in place. I think I am going to have to put up some more somewhere as I have sown a lot of bean seeds this year in an attempt to use some of them up. Can a girl ever have too many beans?? Last job of the day, watering. Never easy on our site as we don't have taps, so no hoses, and the only water we have is the water we save. Already one of my waterbutts is empty! Honestly, some nighttime rain would be lovely please mother nature.

No photos...camera had no charge, but I will be back on the lottie on Wednesday afternoon for a couple of hours, so will endevour to take the camera then.

2010-04-15T18:27:00.003+01:00

Thursday 15th April 2010

Quail Diary

Nothing, nada, zilch! Not a sausage, or an egg. I don't think my girls like me very much. I am spending a lot of time in the greenhouse and hope that will make them less timid. I wonder if they are all boys? Everyone keeps reassuring me that they will get around to it, but when I check out the quail forum, everyone seems to be getting at least 2 per day from their birds and have been for weeks. Patience girl, patience.

Their saving grace is that they are beautiful and I adore the sound of their chatterings and the way they tap at the glass hoping to break free into the outside world. One big girl has made a new home seperate from the others in a big clay flowerpot. The others all still huddle together under the greenhouse staging in the straw.

I have brought some dried mealworms for them, as a little treat, and yesterday, when potting on my kale, I ended up with half a seed tray spare. Now I could have potted them up, but who needs 100 kale plants? So I put the tray down on the ground, and by this morning, most of them had been picked and scratched up, so they obviously enjoyed that treat.

Now come on gals, get laying!

2010-04-15T18:19:00.003+01:00

Thursday 15th April 2010 - weather: glorious again.

I wonder if this weather is the calm before the storm? I heard a rumour that the temperature is going to drop down into the minuses again at the weekend. Not good for all of my emerging seedlings and plants. Oh well, nothing we can do when mother nature decides to play silly buggers.

I have spent the last 2 days potting on seedlings. Not the most exciting job, actually, one I dread, but this year I am determined to be more organised and grow more variety. Every year I seem to run out of room or time and there are things left unsown, so this year, I am trying to be efficient.

I have potted on calabrese, brocolli, cabbage, cauli, toms, peppers, kale, spinach, dahlias and pansys. I have also sown some more basil as the last lot failed to germinate and I have a wodge of seed packets to sow in trays tomorrow and over the weekend. There is a lot of germinating going on - hollyhocks, sweetpeas, peas, beans, chillis, celeriac, calendula, chrysanths and sunflowers. No show yet from the squashes, but they only went in at the start of the week. As you can see, plenty of flowers as well as veggies.

I watched Alys Fowlers program last night about her edible garden and I thought that I really should grow a bit more at home. I do have a trough of cut and come again leaves in the greenhouse which should be ready for a picking next week but that is all. I have masses of pots, troughs and other containers I could use, so I think I will do a wigwam on the deck with some beans, and perhaps a tom plant or 2 in the garden.

Today I purchased 2 aubergine plants which will spend their life in the greenhouse. I have zero joy with aubs, and had decided not to bother sowing any, but my allotment friend Caroline is much luckier than I, so I brought 2 from her at the country market today.

Fingers crossed, an allotment visit looms over the weekend, and again Wednesday afternoon.

2010-04-13T22:18:00.002+01:00

Tuesday 13th April 2010 - weather: Glorious!

A brief allotment encounter today. Daughter number one is attending a school club every morning this week, so number one son and I popped to the plot today. The deer proofing seems to be holding up well, and there doesn't seem to be any damage anywhere. I have peas germinating, radish and salad bowl lettuce. I also think I spotted some teeny carrot seedlings. Plus, the first Maris Piper spud is poking through the earth. Hoorah - spring is springing all over the plot at long last.

This morning was really for him, so we weeded and gently forked over his square, which he then meticulously raked level. He went on to plant 8 greyhound cabbage and 3 red lollo rosso lettuce. We also sowed a short row of calendula seeds. Of course, all of this had to be netted. Honestly, the netting takes longer than the planting and is becoming somewhat frustrating. I am going to have to invest in lots and lots of netting. Anyhow, whilst he went of to play shipwrecks in the stream, I planted the rest of the lettuce and got them netted.

I started to weed the last area in my netted seed plot over in allotment one, but number one son was by now geting bored, so we picked some daffs, the first 4 longest stems of rhubarb, and 2 stonking, show stopping leeks and headed for home.

I may well try to get back to the plot early Sunday morning for a few hours. The fruit cage is incredibly weedy. I need to sow beetroot, turnips and so on. I haven't yet tilled the old brassica area in preperation for courgettes and corn and I want to put down weed supressing membrane also. And both plots could really do with edging and the paths need cutting. Will I ever get on top of things??

2010-04-12T16:41:00.010+01:00

Monday 12th April 2010

Quail Diary - New owners!

Because I obviously have so many spare hours in the day, we have decided that keeping a few birds could be fun. Actually, I have always wanted to keep birds - as a child, Lovebirds, but as I have gotten older, and some say, wiser, I have come to appreciate the rising cost of our food, and the naff quality of a lot of what we buy, and as we have only the best fruit and veg courtesy of the allotment, and the local producers, I felt it about time we tried to produce more for the table, so we are now the proud owners of 5 Italian Quail.

We purchased them from a local breeder in Chelmsford, and they are darlings. Plump gals, somewhat stroppy, and of course, to be a member of our family, greedy little darlings.

We have modified the greenhouse and Mark has made a fab run for them, with a little door, so they have access to the outside world and grass and mud in which to play. I have also temperarily covered the opening window with chicken wire so I can open it during warm days, just to let a bit more air circulate. However, I have done a lot of reading over the last 3 weeks, and it seems that quail like to be toasty and hate drafts, so the greenhouse should be the perfect penthouse with en-suite. As the weather warms, I will remove the glass from the opening window and compeltely cover it with chicken wire. I think we will do the same with the door as I am concerned we will come down one afternoon and find them all spit roasted!

Mark has built them a lovely home, which they refuse to use, prefering to huddle together under my greenhouse staging. This is fine and I have shoved some straw under there for them to make them comfy. I have also put down some turf at one end of the greenhouse. Well, we all like a little shag pile in our living rooms. Today, after yet more research, I went out and brought a bag of bird sand and oyster grit for them to eat and bath in. I also put in a few large flower pots, on their sides, in case they wanted some privacy. Finally, I have brought some seaweed and vitamin dust to add to their food. A teaspoon is enough for 16 girls, so a scant quarter of a teaspoon went into their feeder today. Now, this mix claims to improve laying. Laying huh?....do we mean laying in the sun, topping up our tans?....laying a carpet so improve our living conditions?... no, we mean laying some eggs please girls!!!! Have we discovered any eggs yet? No we haven't!! I tell you, at £4.50 a tub, this seaweed extract had better live up to it's promise otherwise I sense quail casserole might be on the menu pretty soon.

So there we are, it will be 3 weeks on Saturday 17th April since the girls moved in, and 3 weeks with no eggs. Rumour has it we may add to the brood, as according to 'the experts' our quail accomodation could house up to 16 birds. I don't want 16. I just want layers.

I will keep you posted of egg production....if we get any. Oh, to be fed up with quails eggs on toast, poached quails eggs, mini scotch eggs, hard boiled quails eggs..........

2010-03-28T22:19:00.011+01:00

Friday 19th March and Tuesday 23 March 2010

A double issue this time as we have been without internet access for a couple of weeks, thanks to the local 'travellers' wripping up the copper telephone wire linking our village to the outside world. However, back with you all now, and after 2 visits in close succession, I finally feel like I am getting on top of the plot.

Our newest, and now, biggest problem are the muntjac deer. We had signs of them last year, droppings and mystery vanishing crops, but now they seem to have really made themselves at home, eating green manure, emerging broadbeans and sweetpeas, overwintering greens and salads. Rumour has it, there is a cull going on in the area, but whether it is true or not, we will have to wait and see, so deerproofing was the order of the day. Now, in my humble opinion, an allotment should be a place for recycling, reusing, and making do. I am certainly not going to spend upwards of £100 per plot, netting them in. So, as you can see from the picture, I made do with some scaffold netting I had been given. It isn't pretty, but it does the job. I have the same amount again which I will erect once I have planted my squash and corn plants. This area is for beans, peas and salads. Apparently, those in the know tell us that the muntjac don't eat onions, spuds or rhubarb, although one of the allotmenteers on site reakons their emerging bubby had been munched away to nothing! And there was me thinking it was toxic. Once the net barracades were in place, I went and checked with the site secretary, whose garden also backs onto the site, to make sure she didn't mind, and she had no objections at all, agreeing that if we don't protect our crops, what is the point of having the allotments.

During my coffee break I watched a mad March hare in the corn field next to the site, 2 woodpeckers zipping about, an array of small finches and tits along with the usual black birds, starlings, crows, jays and magpies, and this rather handsome fella had a stroll around, squarking away. We are very lucky, our allotment is like a nature reserve, and I am sad that the deer might be shot as I love to see them, but they are just so darn greedy.

Now my seed area was safely netted, I put up my bean poles, just so I had an idea how much room I had to play with, then sowed a row or little gems and a row of radish down the middle of the poles. I went on to sow a large block of peas, carrots, parnsips, and more salads. I still have lots of room for more beans, peas and so on.

Next job, clearing my strawberry bed. I have quite a large strawb bed now with a mixture of varieties which I have been given, or purchased over the years. It means I have a good long harvest, and a mix of size and flavours of fruits. However, a constant weed issue in the strawbs is creeping buttercup. Thankfully, due to the rain, the ground was good and soft and I was able to do a really thorough weed. I will scatter some rotted manure around them next visit, but I ran out of time on these two days.

My cardoons and globe artichokes reside alongside the strawbs, and as you can see from the picture, the cardoon clump looks fab. I had given the 'doons a good deep mulch of manure before Christmas, which I didn't do to the artichokes, and don't they look poorly? I weeded thoroughly around them, cut away dead and yucky leaves, and gave them a mulch. Hopefully it isn't too little too late as I do love my artichokes, if not to eat, then just for the globes and the way the bumble bees bury themselves in the purple flowers, getting drunk on their nectar.

Along the top of this allotment are my bulbs, daffs and glads. I also usually plonk in a few dahlias grown from seed (and they have just germinated in the greenhouse for this year), but I also decided to sow a mix of other flowers amongs the bulbs, so I weeded and raked the area next to the daffs, over the glads, and mixed together a packet of cosmos and cornflowers and broadcast sowed them. I will take poppies and nigella next time to finish the row. I do love flowers on the allotment, just a small area, but it brightens the plot, and it gives me lots of flowers to cut and take home, hence I have sown 4 packets of sweetpeas in the greenhouse at home to be planted out on the plot...I suppose I will have to net those to protect them from the darling deer. :(

Spuds were next on the list. I have Bambino, Internation Kidney, Maris Piper, Rooster, Dunbar Standard, Pink Fir Apple and Asparges. Of course, always way to many tats and not enough room, but I did manage to get the Int Kids, Maris, Rooster and Asparges in. I shall get the rest in over Easter. I did chuck a nice layer of rotted manure over the spud beds once they were planted. Well, it seems foolish not to as the stables next to the site is providing us with so much lovely manure now. I also put some in my compost heap for good measure.

From here, onto my bubby, sorrel and Jerusalem Fartichokes. A funny thing, what are us allotmenteers like? I don't like the fartichokes, nor do my family, but they were a gift to my from a dear friend who I got to know through the Allotments 4 All forum. Her name was Sarah, her user name Supersprout, and she had cancer. Within a week of her sending my the artichokes, she had died, so I grow them in her memory. Like the cardoon and globe artichokes, they do reward me with a magnificent wind break, and lovely bright yellow, sunflower like flowers. The sorrel was also a gift from a chum on A4All, Saddad, and I have Buckler leaf sorrel and broad leaf sorrel. I don't use it as much as I should to be honest. It has a lovely fresh, lemon flavour, so I am planning to feast on it this year. And my rhubarb was also a gift from Hyacinth on A4all, probably 8 years ago when I first took on my allotment. All three were thoroughly weeded, docks are a problem down this end of the plot, and then I caged in my bubby, better to be safe than sorry, and them gave them all a good top dressing of manure. A bumper harvest from all three hopefully.

That was it, time had run out. I was pleased with what I had achieved during my 2 visits, and I even had a gossip with Hillary and Caroline.

At home I have sown a selection of chillis and tomatoes, which are now germinating quickly, leeks, celeriac, sprouts, cabbages, brocolli, a deep tray of cut and come again to live in the greenhouse, dahlias, pansies, evening primrose, hollyhocks, kale, caulis, broadbeans, adzucki beans and soldier beans. There are probably others, but I can't remember, and it is nearly 11pm, so I am not going to venture down the garden now.

Next visit, hopefully, will be over the Easter break when I should get the last of my spuds in and dig lots of manure into the area where I will grow my squashes.

2010-03-14T22:54:00.005Z

Sunday 14th March 2010 - Weather: blue skies and sunshine

Happy Mothering Sunday

Being Mothers Day, I had a completely guilt free day in my own back garden today, joy of joys. It meant, at long last, I was able to start sowing seeds for the allotment. I didn't do everything, as I ran out of potting compost, but at least it's a start, and I feel much happier now. So, sown today was:

Broccoli - Red arrow

Calabrasse - Marathon

Cabbage - Golden acre

Broad Beans - Longpod

Celeriac - Brilliant and Alabaster

Dahlia - pompom mix

Spring onions -Paris silverskin and White lisbon

Brussel Sprouts - Brilliant

Kale - Cavalo Nero and mix

Mixed salad leaves

Sweet Basil

Leek - Goliath

Verbascum nigrum

Sweet pea mix

Perpetual spinach

Cauliflower - All year round.

I can also confirm that chitting away merrily in the conservatory are Bambino, International Kidney, Maris Piper, Rooser, Dunbar Standard and Pink Fir Apple.

I have Friday off work, and come hell or high water, it will be an allotment day. I hope to get the spuds in over Easter weekend, so I need to prep the ground and generally just tidy through. I have to say, spending the day in the garden today, with the sun shining down, and flowers poking through everywhere, I could really sense that spring is well on it's way, at last!!

2010-02-04T13:24:00.003Z

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.

2010-01-26T21:52:00.003Z

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.

2009-10-18T23:31:00.005+01:00

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.

2009-10-08T17:27:00.002+01:00

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.

2009-09-27T18:43:00.013+01:00

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!

2009-09-06T23:47:00.002+01:00

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.

2009-08-28T12:53:00.006+01:00

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.

2009-08-09T23:22:00.008+01:00

Saturday 8th August 2009 - weather: lovely!

Only a flying visit to pick and check on progress. Glad to say the oriental greens I sowed last weekend are already starting to poke through, I must sow more to fill in all the gaps else where on the plot. Picked more cute cucumbers, carrots, courgettes, runner beans, picked sweet peas and gladioli and picked my very first 3 tomatoes of the year. Only little plums, but toms nevertheless. I also gathered a handful of white alpine strawberries, a couple of stray red strawbs and a few loganberries from a derelict plot.

I will be making a few impromptu visits over the coming week as there are council workers setting to work on the stream. There is currently a small ford over the lane but as the road is an unmade one, over the years it has become deep and quite a hazard and the stream no longer really flows but floods the road. The council are going to re-dig the ford and move down the stream onto the allotment site to clear as far as they can to try and get a flow going again. Next weekend, a group of us are going to spend the weekend clearning the rest of the stream down to the farm to try and clear it's path, and possibly sink a couple of bins in to act as wells as we have no piped water on our site. I am sure I will have plenty of pictures of the event.

2009-08-02T22:26:00.004+01:00

Sunday 2nd August 2009 - weather: bright and breezy

In memory of Gerald Overton who leapt from this mortal coil 9 years ago today

Can you believe it, I actually got away with another day on the allotment, and the weather was grand. Upon arrival, at 10am, my new lottie neighbour, Hillary, was already there with her team of helpers erecting her new shed. I carried on weeding from the strawberry bed up to the end. Whilst weeding the strawbs, mostly mares tail, I found one huge red strawb, which fell straight from the plant and into my mouth! No idea how that happened. The plants are all looking good and there are masses of runners so I should be able to double my stock next year. I weeded around my young leek plants and they have really come on in the few weeks they have been in the ground. Amazing what a bit of rain can do.

Noon and the family arrived. I left Mark in charge of strimming and cutting the paths and he did an amazing job. He cut all of my paths, strimmed all around the shed, the nettles around my neighbours path, around the derelict shed by the stream, well, everywhere where nettles and brambles were growing. By the time he had finished, our end of the site looked very neat and tidy indeed. Whilst he was strimming and the children were having alsorts of adventures in the stream, I started weeding the top end of plot number 2. Mark dug the spuds for me (he didn't dig the PFA that I mentioned he might yesterday, we just didn't have the time) that were planted by the fig tree and turned the ground over leaving young James to rake it level for me. I weeded down towards the tomato house. This area was my seed sowing area and I have to say, germination has been very erratic. I don't know if this is due to duff seed, wildlife interferring or the weather, but I do have 3 rows of young beetroot, half a row of parnsips, several thick rows of carrots, a row of young lettuce and a row of spring onions. I plan to buy brand new seed of everything next spring so fingers crossed for a better rate of germination.

As the children started to get bored, I asked them if they would like to pick my blackcurrants, and sure enough they filled 2 punnets for me. I could probably fill another 2 next visit, but I still have the redcurrants and jostaberries to pick. The birds don't eat the black currants for some reason, so they aren't netted and are weighed down with very ripe fruit. James had sown some carrots back in the spring and he wanted to see if they were ready and he pulled a lovely handful which will be sugar sweet for their tea.

By the time I finally reached the tom house, the children were bored and it was 4pm, so they cleared up and left leaving me all alone. It was lovely having the whole family there with me, the kids of day I always imagine having on the plot, Mark getting all of those manly jobs done, the kids having fun and adventures and me pottering with my veggies.

Next big job, into the tomato house. There are masses, and masses of toms, all shapes and sizes. I have Roma, and Gardeners Delights, and White Beauty and beefsteaks and cherries and plums and Tigerella and loads and loads. It took me ages to tie them up properly and cut back some of the foliage and stop some of the plants so the fruit will ripen. None had even the slightest hint of colour so I am hoping now I have tidied them up, the sun and air can get in better and they might start to colour up before the blight strikes. Mind you, talking of blight, I did give them a really good spray before moving on to my next job. I HATE spraying, but I have lost all of my toms for the last few years and it isn't going to happen again.

As time was moving on, I thought I should do a bit of planting and got in my crystal apple cucumber plants and a wigwam of late runner beans. I also sewed a row of white Pak Choi, red Pak Choi, Mizuna, spring onions and mixed oriental salad leaves. I fleeced the oriental greens to try and stop the flea beetle from attacking them before they get a chance to get established.

From there, I was toying with the idea of going home, but after a phone call from HQ, I decided to stay for another hour and weeded all along my runner beans picking a few as I went, around my minipop sweetcorn and made a start weeding through the regular sweetcorn.

By now it was nearly 7pm, so I took my aching body home for some tea. I am hoping to get back to the allotment for an hour or 2 with the kids in the week so I can finish of weeding around the corn and sew some kohl rabi, spring onions, lettuce and spinach.

2009-08-01T18:03:00.020+01:00

Saturday 1st August 2009 - weather: overcast but dry

Well, after a visit in the week to pick, I was somewhat ashamed of the weedy situation on both of my allotments. The weeds so outgrow the veggies - GGRR. So, as we had a weekend free, I decided that I would get to the plot both days. So, Saturday is visit number one.

I started at the shed end of plot number one and picked a lovely couple of handfuls of sweetpeas and deadheaded like mad to try and keep the display going for as long as possible. Actually, I wasn't expecting a great deal when I planted the 2 wigwams as they are in the dappled shade of the willow tree that overhangs my shed. This is the dampest, shadiest part of both of my allotments, and some plants thrive, others hate it, but the sweetpeas are going great guns. I may well do the same again next year as the scent down by my shed was so strong, a delight.

Next to the sweetpeas are my Jerusalem (F)artichokes which were a gift from a dear friend just a couple of weeks before she died. They have formed a massive clump this year so will need seriously thinning out and I shan't plant as many next spring.

I then moved to the next bed where I had the remainders of my red onions, a few lettuce and a sprinkling of volunteer spuds. The red onions were a reasonable success - 50% were a really good size, a few had a touch of white rot, and the rest were smaller, but still perfectly acceptable.

This has been a really good year for my onions, but a rotten one for my garlic. At the end of this bed is my rhubarb. Again, a good year for my bubby, but I think that is because it has been cool and damp. I took a good pick though, taking about 50% of the stems, and that will be it now, I shan't take any more this year. Over the winter, I heap some lovely manure all around the crowns which keeps them cosy, and feeds them up for next year.

From there, I hopped into the brassica cage. Now, I may have said it before, but I will say it again, I have never grown such good brassicas. I don't know if this is down to the weed supressing membrane I put down before planting, or just the weather, but they are getting huge. I already have the startings of brussel sprouts, the savoy and red cabbages are getting nice firm heads and the purple sprouting is reaching for the stars. I shall have to stake some of the plants up as they are getting so big.

I weeded up to the fruit cage, clearing around the late caulis and white sprouting broc that Jack gave me. I also have a couple of rows of Tom Thumb lettuce in the brassica cage which are starting to get a bit blousy, but they are fine, plus a late row of peas which I took a chance on, and they have a flowers already so we may have some peas in late August/September.

Into the fruit cage and I filled a box with raspberries. I am toying with the idea of making raspberry jelly this year rather than jam as everyone moans about the pips. I don't mind it personally, but as I have never made it before, I think I will give it a go. There are still the red and black currants to pick and the Jostaberries, and I will pick them tomorrow and then cut down all of the old raspberry canes and get that area cleared. A few canes have poked up outside of the cage and I don't want them, but my allotment neighbour was over today and she would love them and has given me a bundle of leek plants for the plot, and 2 lovely courgettes for my neighbour.

The otherside of the fruit cage is very sunny, usually, when we have sun, but today it was cool. I have 2 rows of spuds here, charlotte and pink fur apple, but they are all from last year. I was very naughty last year and never had the time to dig them, so just left them. Well of course, this year, up they all came, so if the family come to the plot tomorrow, I may get hubby to dig them. I know if it is early for both varieties, but I want them out so the area can be cleared as there are a lot of thistles, and I have some huge pieces of cardboard which I want to put down on the ground under the apple trees to keep the weeds down, and at the moment, I can't get in there because of the spuds and weeds.

Next to these spuds are my squashes. I have grown a few more this year, but not masses. I have a couple of pumpkins plants, 3 green courgettes, 1 yellow courgette, a marrow, a butternut squash, a turks turban type, and a couple of cucumber plants. These are all cropping well, in full flower, and the fruits are swelling faster than we can eat them thanks to the rain.

I also have the worlds cutest cucumber plant ever growing.

I was sent seed from my friend in the US and I think they were called Watermelon cucumbers. Well, I planted these small seeds and then dutifully planted out the small vines, and watched the tiny flowers form, and wondered what on earth these cucumbers would be like on such a tiny plant. Well, today, I picked nearly 30 cucumbers! Aren't they just the sweetest things ever?! They taste like watermelon, but the bit of the melon where you bit a little to close to the skin, the whiter flesh if you know what I mean, and then, like cucumber. I shall definately save a couple so I have sow some for next year - such a novelty - great with a bowl of olives.

The weather was closing in now, but I did manage to take up the net that was covering the old pea plants and the purple queen french beans. They have been cropping very well, and so much earlier than my runners. The peas didn't do so great, but the rotten muntjac kept eating them so they really struggled to get going. We have had a couple of meals from them though, so not a total flop.

So, tomorrow I will weed the strawberry bed and the leeks and then it is over onto plot number 2. Lots of spuds and seedlings to weed. Eeek.