Phew! What a nice day Sunday was to have an allotment. We had a list of jobs as long as your arm to get done, partly because the plots were being judged this week and partly because that’s what happens when you have an allotment. Handily enough pretty much all of the jobs were quite fun to do which worked out well as my cousin and family came down to see what we’ve been up to.
First up was harvesting the shallots, the stems of which had flopped over a week or two ago. I like the way shallots grow, they spend ages plumping up, growing big and then all of a sudden they flop over like they have given up. We had a full bed of two varieties to do and we must have got two or three times the amount compared to last year. Me and Denise strung them up and I then hung them out to dry, first on the bird feeder then finally a combination of the greenhouse and shed.
Next up was the garlic, which Kieran and Aidan helped out with. The garlic had also completely flopped over during the week which is a pretty good sign it’s ready to be picked. Only one type, the Solent Wight, was ready and it looks great. We spaced them out a bit more than last year and the soil is probably in better condition, but even so we weren’t expecting such a big crop. I think every single bulb is bigger and rounder than last year, I think we have 26 bulbs in total.
We then set about some furtling around in the carrot bed. I think we managed one measley carrot last year and the bed was looking very healthy so we dug up a few ….. and….. they look amazing! We were like proud parents! Pilla even ran off down the plot to show Bob she was so proud! The boys then happily wandered around sharing a carrot whilst pulling up some of the huge turnips. They have gone epic in scale. I’ve never seen anything like them, I’ll try and take a picture next week. Pilla got on with planting some more lettuce varieties and we tidied up some of the old lettuces which has gone to seed. Pilla has been really good at successional sowing this year – we are on our third lettuce crop already!
We had a great day out on Sunday. Thankyou for allowing us to assend on to your plot. We are still eating the rather large veg given away. We have been spreading the word about florist’s buckets and aquired many. Thinking of using them next year to collar my tomatoes next year. Just cut off the bottoms. Cheeper than shop bought ones and just right size.p.s. this months copy of kitchen garden has ideas of using florist’s buckets to extend growing season. Plant now for winter.