From Plot to Plate

by | Jun 14, 2009 | Allotment

It was a long time coming but we have had our first allotment tea! In fact, the lamb was the only component that we had not grown ourselves – not worked out how to grow a lamb in a raised bed just yet! We had grilled lamb steaks with new potatoes, rocket and mizuna salad and mint and basil pesto. Dessert was ten sweet and juicy strawberries shared between us. The new potatoes were an unexpected bonus as we didn’t really know that they would be ready to harvest. However, our impatience was getting the better of us and we decided to empty one of the tubs we had planted a spare Charlotte potato in. We knew that this could have meant sacrificing this plant needlessly if the tubers were not ready but we felt that it was worth it and boy was it worth it! I counted 18 potatoes out as Neil rooted around in the soil to check we hadn’t missed any. If our other plants have such good yeilds we will have more potatoes than we know what to do with!

  

Quite a busy day at the plot today with lots of jobs completed, all in the scorching sunshine. We planted out the sweetcorn and the curly kale that had been hardened off in the coldframe. Both were sturdy enough not to need any support at this stage, but we will keep an eye on them for the next few weeks to make sure they continue to prosper. The sunflowers took their place in the frame for the coming week. Not quite sure where they will be planted out when the time comes as space is rapidly running out!

  

It was renovation time in the greenhouse due to the flourishing tomato and cucumber plants. They were all getting wider as well as taller so Neil took apart the two sides of staging and spread them out a bit more. He then used cable ties to fasten the vertical support canes to two horizontal canes rested in our greenhouse fixings. This has really strengthened them up which is important for when the plants start to fruit as they cannot hold up the weighty fruit bearing trusses without help. We potted on the aubergines and peppers and all the resulting black tubs in the greenhouse have been connected to the water butt irrigation system. There is very little left in the greenhouse now that is not staying there and what remains we potted on this afternoon – chillies, squash, basil and alpine strawberries.

 

There are signs of things to come all over the plot now, with more tomato nubbins, fledgling cucumbers, tiny broad bean pods and flowers blossoming. All very exciting and after seeing the tasty meal we made tonight it is enough to make your stomach rumble in anticipation!

 

A picture tells a thousand words..

by | Jun 2, 2009 | Allotment

.. which means this post is going to be an epic one.  We’ve had a very busy few days, helping people move house, cycling to Liverpool, shopping for my week in the Middle East, so we have not spent too much time at the plot.  Which is a shame because the weather has been perfect for it, however the advantage is that when we went tonight the plot seems to have kicked off it’s shoes, soaked up the sun and generally been having a fine time of it.

So, may we present for you a full on photo tour of our tiny piece of former car park in Manchester… (I’m not going to talk about all of them, it would take me all night!)

  

The broad bean flowers are a big hit with the local bee population.

  

The dwarf french beans are not looking great, but I only planted them out yesterday so I’m hopeful they will harden up over the next few days.

   

Before having an allotment I don’t think I’d ever seen a potato plant and now I’ve seen a potato flower. Aww, isn’t it cute?

  

The mixed lettuces look great.  Which reminds me, I need to google how plants photosynthesize with red leaves.

  

 

Lots of our fruit is starting to ripen.  We definitely didn’t plant enough strawberries this year, next year I think we will do them in some big bins we have with holes cut in the side.  I think we’ll get more plants, more varieties and a more efficient use of our space.

  

Things in the greenhouse are going well.  The tomato plants are big (and have lots of flowers) and the cucumber plants are so big they are starting to frighten me. 

  

Our flowers make a big difference to the plot, I think we will grow more next year. 

 

And this is what it is all about.  We got our first proper vegetables in the form some radishes (and also learnt a vital lession in remembering to wash our produce before eating. Mmm soiley).  And if you want you can play a fun game with the last picture – try and count the number of different varieties of plants.  I count 30.