by Philippa | Oct 19, 2014 | Allotment
It is now officially Autumn given we have entered October but the weather is unseasonably warm. We have picked one or two large bright red strawberries on each visit over the last week or two, along with lots of blueberries and while the squash are almost ready to be picked, the dahlias continue to bloom next to them. It is lovely to see but we can’t help but wonder what the impact on the next growing season will be!
Speaking of strawberries, we covered the asparagus bed with well rotted manure and the strawberry runners we potted on and cut off can rest there until there are ready to be planted out.
We cleared out the greenhouse beds on plot 118 and in order to make good use of all that space we buried some dahlia tubers from plants that had not lasted quite as long as some of the larger ones that were still flowering well.
Neil was on a mission, a manure mission, and put about eight barrows on the plot to be dug in at a later date. It really does feel like Autumn when the expanse of dark manure takes over from the green.
The basket of goodies has also taken an Autumnal turn, with gluts of tomatoes replaced by beetroot, apples and grapes making regular appearances. Although it is sad to think that the tomatoes, peppers, chillies and aubergines are gone for another year it is made better by the anticipation of parsnips, squash and kale and is totally forgotten in dreams of crumble and other treats to come!
by Philippa | Jul 23, 2014 | Allotment
I am always amazed at this time of year when the crops start coming in weighty armfuls just how colourful the allotment is. So vibrant and there is a lovely mix of hues. It almost looks photoshopped, especially the bright blue cornflowers. Perfect for picking and putting in vases to brighten up the living room.
I went to the allotment this evening to do some mid week watering, essential in this heatwave we are having and it was nice to spend a warm evening pottering. As well as watering there were some pickings that couldn’t wait till the weekend. I took a punnet full of blackberries with a few strawberries which will probably be the last for this year. It was a visit of ‘firsts’ too. I picked our first courgettes, 2 yellow, one green and one round, from plot 97 which are always ready before those on plot 118 as they have the advantage of being in beds. The raspberries on plot 118 seem to be ripening an bit earlier with the heat we’ve had so I picked a princely amount of three that were ready! Most of the plums were also ripe, not a huge number but we weren’t expecting there to be after the bumper crop last year. The blueberries are not far behind and judging from the flowers, I better start looking up plenty of blueberry recipes!
by Philippa | Sep 1, 2013 | Allotment
Wowee! What a result! Last weekend was the annual allotment summer show. We hadn’t been sure what we would have to put in as entries in the produce competition. Some things were passed their best, some things were not quite ready enough! It’s always a bit of a gamble what will look good enough in the day or two before the show. You would think that we would be lovingly tending to each and every entry for weeks, ensuring that it is up to standard but it’s more like ‘hmmmm what looks passable and do we have enough of it?’.
This year we managed to enter our old favourites, garlic and beetroot, along with a cucumber, a single sunflower and a corker of an aubergine in the open category.
It was a good turn out for the show, with lots of items lined up in the judging tent. After the anxious wait for the RHS judge to do the rounds everyone crowds in to check out the results. We managed a respectable second place for our cucumber, beetroot and sunflower. Our poor aubergine didn’t place but the open category is always a tough one. However that was more than made up by our garlic not only being awarded a first place but also winning the best in show! According to the judge he had never seen any as good as ours! What a compliment! So as well as a certificate we have a trophy which is to be engraved! Seeing some of the previous winners on there we certainly feel like we are in esteemed company.
Massive congratulations are due to Bob who won a trophy for best plot over all three sites. This was also decided by the RHS judge who had done a thorough walk round in late July, so he definitely knows his stuff. Well done Bob!
With it being the bank holiday weekend there was plenty of time left for other allotment activities. Neil worked like a trooper as I was off on a cake course. He dug all of the onions up which despite an inauspicious start look amazing. The average size is probably the best we’ve ever had. We’ve left the drying upside down on the bench but will soon have to bring them in for storage.
He also collected a mammoth number of wheelbarrows of manure to cover the area where the onions had been.
The peas had served their time so he pulled them up for composting. Some of the broad beans were starting to flop over and no longer had any harvest worthy beans on them so he pulled up the row which had gone in first. The remainder are still ok for another week or two as they went in later and still have a good amount of pickings on them.
The raspberries have really come on in the last week. We’ve had one or two at a time up till now but this time we could take a full punnet home. The blueberries are still going strong, one plant in particular has flourished since we moved it into a large barrel planter. It’s so bushy with new growth you really have to search to find the hidden fruit.
And to prove I had a worthy excuse for not helping out with all the wheelbarrowing, here is my Gruffalo cake!
by Philippa | Jul 28, 2013 | Allotment
We had trugs full of broad bean, blackcurrants, blueberries and blackberries. It also included our first cherries, courgettes, tomatoes and potatoes (but didn’t want that to spoil our title!). We are now consistently taking large amounts of produce home so it really feels like we are in the swing of things!
We spent a good few hours there this weekend and seemed to get quite a lot done. Most things are looking green and perky thanks to the heat wave breaking with a few rainstorms. The last of the brassicas that had yet to be planted out had come on leaps and bounds as a result so they really needed to go out. After unsuccessfully trying to buy some more netting from the local garden centre and B&Q, Mickey came to our rescue (thanks Mickey!) with some spare. That end of plot 118 still hadn’t been turned over since we put some barrows of manure on it weeks ago so we first had to dig it over which was no mean feat in the humid, sticky weather! We then planted the brassicas out in three more tunnels. This means we have Brussel sprouts, igloo cauliflowers, candissa cabbage, kalibos pointed red cabbage and Savoy cabbage in one block. In the second block we have minicole and tundra green cabbages, scarlet borecole, cavolo nero, dwarf curly kale, red arrow sprouting broccoli, calabrese green sprouting broccoli, summer purple sprouting broccoli and regular purple sprouting broccoli. Phew!
Neil planted a couple of rows of green manures between the tunnels, because he sure does love the green manures. I think he used phacelia, trefoil and some crimson clover.
It was a week of season firsts on both plots. We harvested a handful of perfectly sized courgettes, both green and yellow. Neil also dug up our first crop of Charlotte new potatoes which looked great, really good sized and consistent quality and probably our best for the last couple of years. In the greenhouses we have our first aubergines, chillies and peppers growing. We also managed a handful of the first tomatoes to turn red. Things in the greenhouses have grown quite a bit so I needed to tie some stems up to support canes, which was good timing as I had to hide from a pretty heavy downpour! Other maintenance jobs included weeding the front of plot 97 (again! It never stops!) and tying up some of the larger plants as they were starting to droop into the pathway.
There had been a manure delivery which was quite good quality, not too much sawdust or hay, so Neil collected about 8 barrows worth! I think he’s replaced Ironman training with wheelbarrowing, he kept getting some saying it would be the last then going for another until he’d finished one whole section of plot 118! We can properly dig this in once some of the produce comes out as that side could do with quite a bit of matter added, as it’s lagging behind the left side that we’ve given more attention to.
We’ve been seeing lots of wildlife on the plots lately. We had a new season little robin come and scavenge some worms when we were digging the soil over, lots of bees and butterflies are enjoying the lavender and sunflowers and we’ve lost count of the number of colourful cinnabar moth caterpillars we’ve found. Is lovely being down there when it is full of life!
by Neil Wilkinson | Sep 13, 2009 | Allotment
Another quietish day at the allotment. We didn’t plan to stay long because we didn’t think we had too much to do – there were a few tidying up jobs and a fair bit of harvesting, but nothing huge or time consuming. Whilst I was busy chopping down the spent cucumber plants in the greenhouse, Pilla was busy dealing with some overgrown chard and harvesting blueberries (sadly enough we counted how many blueberries we’ve had this year. From one plant we have had over 100, from one plant zero. Why?!)
We then set about clearing the cauliflowers. The cauliflowers were a disappointment this year, we didn’t manage to harvest a single one. They went from looking perfect, but small to bolted and flowery in a week. After taking down the netting (another thing we need to improve upon for next year) we composted the cauliflowers and put some manure on the half of the bed that we never planted anything in after our savoy cabbage seedlings failed. The manure is amazing – it’s been rotting for a good few months now and is absolutely full of worms. I don’t mean that there are a couple crawling around on the surface, I mean every trowel full has hundreds and hundreds of them. It’s quite impressive.
I then sowed some green manure on a couple of the beds we manured up last week. We then just had to harvest our goods. We are still getting loads off the plot – this week we took home blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, green & yellow courgettes, green and red peppers, chillies, aubergines, rhubarb and loads more tomatoes. Pilla put some to good use this afternoon by making tomato and chilli jam using our own tomatoes, chilli and garlic. Delicious!
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