Slug attack!

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Oh well. With all the rain we’ve had I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. This last week seems to have been more about feeding the local pest population than growing produce for our plates! The flowers we had planted out last week were the favourite targets, some sunflowers had been totally decimated. We had bought some more organic pellets during the week and within about five minutes of arriving at the plots we had used almost a full bottle! To fill the bare spaces we planted out some chrysanthemums as they were bursting out of their tray.

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We also planted out the ipomoea. We had grown some last year but left them and left them and they were never put out but even then they grew some beautiful deep purple flowers shaped like trumpets. This year I was determined to do them justice. Having wanted some more information about where they are suited to and how they grow I did some googling and discovered they can grow up to 5 metres tall! Not sure I realised that when I bought the seeds! Or that they are the same family as bindweed. They grow in the same climbing fashion, twisting round things. As soon as I told Neil that, he wasn’t keen on planting them out in case they run riot with their roots! As a compromise I planted them along the back fence of plot 118 as this gives them something to grow up without risking them spreading further.

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We did a lot of watering, the tomatoes were ready for tying up and needed side shooting again. I also gave them some feed for the first time this season. They’ve grown so big in the last week they needed moving to their final spacing which meant Neil had to dismantle the side staging to make room. We potted on the peppers (new ace) and the chillies (jalapeño) and everything looks quite tidy in plot 97 greenhouse.

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Outside things were looking quite good. The beetroot and carrots I sowed (or in the case of the beetroot replanted!) had germinated really well, as had the turnips which I thinned out as they were already a good size. The chard and parsnips were fairing slightly less well, so I’ll check their progress next week and see if any more sowings are required!

Despite the warm weather Neil did a mountain of digging! He cleared enough space for the hoops and canes that will cover the brassicas in the next week or two.

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The sun also meant we have signs of ripening, the redcurrants are turning blush pink and there were quite a few strawberries tantalisingly close to being ready. Am just hoping the liberal scattering of pellets means the slugs will have left some for us!

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And a sunny note for the end, thanks to Bob for a lovely bunch of beautiful sweet williams to brighten up the living room!

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Always ‘things to do’

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Glorious sunshine on Saturday and given the forecast worsens for the rest of the bank holiday weekend and Neil has the minor distraction of another marathon to run on Monday we thought we would make the most of it today.

In a fit of giddiness of being ahead with our ‘things to do’ plan we did some more planting. The first of the seeds to be sown straight outside this year were parsnips (countess and imperial), spinach (medania and perpetual), chard (red and rainbow) and beetroot (boltardy, forono, golden and barbabietola di chioggia).

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More planting in the greenhouse of green and purple basil, melon (Blenheim orange), courgette (zucchini, jemmer, tondo chiaro di nizzi and dundoo) and cucumber (gherkin and burpless tasty green). Things that had not even germinated last week, such as the cucino cucumbers or Savoy cabbages, had grown pretty tall, all in six days. Some of the brassicas were growing so well that they needed thinning out, especially as we have no need for 50 plus red cabbages! Neil got busy snipping with the scissors-cruel but necessary! He also pricked out the pak choi and in a bit of an experiment put some in black growing bags and some in a seed tray to see which fares best.

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Due to the warmer weather the onions and garlic looked like they could do with some water so I watered them with some organic feed which should perk them up. I always worry about how much this feeds the weeds too as I’m sure things like mares tail must love it! We did some outside sowing of flowers too. Cornflowers were sewn in ‘deep masses’ and poppies were cast in ‘majestic drifts’ according to packet instructions. Otherwise known as fling ’em in and see what happens!

Neil, always one to be tempted by an internet purchase, had added a white marker to his order when getting some seeds online and now it had arrived was keen to try making some signs for our crops. So we used it on some slate pieces that we have previously written on with chino-graph pencil with only short term success. Apparently it is waterproof but can be easily removed with soapy water. Stand by for reviews of its progress in a few weeks time. Meanwhile Neil thinks any allotment judges will like the extra effort to make the place look nice!

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Having emptied the manure bay on plot 97 with recent loads to dig into the plots, Neil filled it back up again while there was spare manure in the communal bays. He also put about 6 barrows of it at the end of plot 118 which was only cleared of the kale a couple of weeks ago. I’m sure digging it all in will appear on the ‘things to do’ list for coming weeks! So much for being ahead, there are always jobs to be done!

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Recipe: Leek, broccoli and bean orzo with halloumi

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This recipe served two but is easily scaled up or down and can use lots of things you might bring home from the plot. This weekend we came back with the last of our leeks which have been a great crop this year as well as a tray of purple sprouting broccoli which has been the most successful we have ever grown despite an inauspicious start. But there is no reason why you couldn’t use other veg, such as spinach, chard or peas as alternatives, depending on what you have available and what you like to eat.

Knob of butter
Splash of olive oil
2 large leeks, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Leaves from a few sprigs of thyme
150g orzo
1 tin of cannellini beans, drained (or flageolet or butter beans)
Bunch of sprouting broccoli (or other veg as suggested above)
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp cream cheese
Handful of grated Parmesan cheese
Block of halloumi cheese, sliced.

Melt the butter with a splash of oil over a medium heat. Add the leeks, garlic and thyme and cook down for about 10 mins until tender. Meanwhile add the orzo and the beans to a pan of boiling water for about 8mins. Halfway through this cooking time add your broccoli or any other veg you are using to the boiling water. When done, drain and add to the leeks with the lemon zest and juice and a generous amount of seasoning.

Heat a frying pan to medium high and fry the halloumi in a splash of oil until golden on both sides. Stir the cream cheese and Parmesan through the leek, bean and orzo mix and serve with the halloumi on top. Enjoy!

adapted from a recipe appearing in April 2014 issue of Delicious magazine

Bank holiday boom part 2

The weather was much cooler today and it was very very windy so I took refuge in the greenhouse with a mammoth planting session. Neil loves sunflowers so there are several trays of them (Pacino, earthwalker and ring of fire). I also did cabbage (savoy vertus, pointed red kalibos and red drumhead), pak choi (joi choi and rubi), leek (almera), celeriac (prinz), cucumber (cucino), squash (honey bear), climbing French bean (cobra), peas (early onward, purple podded, sugarsnap and Oregon sugar pod) and watermelon (charleston grey). The staging is now heaving and it is pleasing to see all the trays in various stages of sprouting.

I also planted some flowers as well and discovered my new favourite seed! They are for the acroclinium and they are like little dots of cotton wool, all fluffy and white. Although I had to be a bit careful with it being so windy that they didn’t get blown away!

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Along with the acroclinium (double mixed) we now have aster (milady), zinnia (Oklahoma), chrysanthemum (rainbow) and ipomoea (grandpa ott). The dahlia and marigolds we sowed a couple of weeks ago have all germinated really well and so we pricked out the marigolds to individual cells of the seed trays. We haven’t been great at doing this in the past with our flowers and so we are trying to do better this season. So we now have nearly 100 marigolds! Oh well, if there are spare we can put them in some planters and I’m sure they will be appreciated in the gardens of friends and family.

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While I was in the greenhouse Neil was on to his second DIY job of the weekend, building a coldframe. It certainly kept him quiet for a good while as there were lots of angles to cut. In the end he had to move on to another job as he needs to buy some longer screws (in all the boxes of screws we have there aren’t any long enough, which seems unlikely but true!) so he cleared the couch grass from the rear of plot 118.

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We both then tackled the digging over at the front that Neil started on Friday. It is so much quicker with two of you on the job and satisfying how much progress you can make. So much so we were able to plant the potatoes that we have chitted, only one variety this year, Charlotte, in three rows.

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We think we have passed the milestone of digging over half of plot 118, woohoo!

Another exciting milestone, we spotted the first signs of the asparagus! I’m sure that it has usually arrived by this time of the year and so I had thought that maybe it had died so I’m pleased to see it again, fingers crossed we might get a crop of it this year (only about four years after we planted it ha!).

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We took home the last of the leeks-I think it is a record as this year we have eaten every single leek we grew! Also a bundle of rhubarb and a tray of purple sprouting broccoli that would not look out of place in the supermarket! The leeks and most of the broccoli made a tasty tea for two. Recipe to follow…

Big Catch Up!

It has been far too many weeks since our last update so this one covers quite a lot of happenings! We knew that the end of June and the start of July was going to be a busy time as we had Glastonbury festival and Neil’s Ironman event, both of which spanned full weekends and which fell consecutively. In addition, just prior to going to Glastonbury the weather really picked up and temperatures were consistently high meaning that lots of jobs that needed doing couldn’t really wait what would amount to more than a fortnight.

Prior to Glastonbury both of us spent almost a full day at the allotment getting things ready to be left alone for a couple of weeks. This involved a major weeding of both plots, including the paths on plot 97. We had a lot of things still in the greenhouse or coldframe that needed to be planted out or potted on. We potted on all the tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies, peppers and aubergines into their final larger pots. We added a handful of the organic pellet feed that lasts for up to 8 weeks to each of them. In the greenhouse on plot 118 Neil dug the pots down slightly into the open soil, this seemed to work quite well when we tried it with a few select items last year as a bit of an experiment. It does seem to mean they don’t require so much watering.

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We potted on all the brassicas but they had still been in the small trays they were sown in so they went into the small black bags we use as an intermediate stage. We put them straight out into the coldframe as we didn’t want there to be too much delay in them being ready to be planted outside once we returned from all our festivities!

Courgettes and some squash were ready to go outside and they did their usual impression of looking like they had died in the days following being planted out! But, as usual, they perked up in no time and once we had returned they looked much better.

There were loads of other things that we did and I had been really efficient and written a list of them for blog purposes but due to a technology fail this got deleted! But we did get to a stage where we felt content that the plots would not come to ruin due to our absence. Once we returned we were pleasantly surprised by how good they looked and also by how much had grown in the sunshine. We were also able take our first produce home-strawberries, rainbow chard and some mini cucumbers. In fact we have declared this year the year of the strawberry. We are at 25 punnets so far and there are still fruit on some of the plants!

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In the last week or so the heatwave has meant that some things look permanently parched. Neil has set up the greenhouse irrigation system on plot 97 which helps. We have now planted out all of our squash varieties. All of the brassicas are either planted out under netting or are outside but still in the small bags still developing their roots. It does feel like they are really behind, I’m not sure whether this is due to the cool start to the year or our being busy or a combination of both, but they will be ready to go out this week. We have had a couple of trugs filled with produce, which along with more strawberries and cucumbers has included some peas, broad beans, red and blackcurrants and a handful of blackberries.

Having visited today to do some watering in the greenhouses we have our first red tomato! There are lots of green ones on all the plants but this is the first one to ripen. It is the gardener’s delight variety that is in the lead, although the plant does not look too healthy so it may be in a panic that its days are numbered! I also discovered that one of our pepper plants had lots of tiny holes in most of its leaves. I had expected to find some whitefly which we have had previously on some greenhouse plants but there were none. After very close inspection I found lots of very thin, bright green caterpillars. My internet searching has not given me a conclusive answer yet as to what they are or how to treat them but as the only thing I had at my disposal was some whitefly organic insecticide I gave the plant a good spray with that – even if the active ingredient doesn’t see them off the drenching might have drowned them! I’ll do an inspection at the weekend to see if there is any change.

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