April 13th 2013 - Potatoes in!

It's been a long winter and a freezing start to spring. Things are looking up at last though withe temperatures in the teens. Popped down the allotment on sat morning with Ella and Georgia to plant the potatoes - Sarpo Mira, Belana and Congo (blue). 50 in total.

Plot is looking in good order. Been making good use of heated propagator at home with the following growing well:

- Brussels sprouts
- purple sprouting broccoli (summer)
- spinach
- artichokes
- parsley
- lettuce
- beetroot
- leeks
- spring onions

A few photos below...

Mid September harvest time!

With the nights drawing in fast it is weekends only now for visits down to the allotment. We have been picking runner beans, carrots and golden ball turnips since returning from France at the end I august.

Summer was short and not so warm this year. Must live abroad (France) in warmer climes when I'm older.

Recent jobs:
- picking runner beans, late sowing of peas are great, turnips, carrots, potatoes
- made some spiced runner bean relish
- blanched and frozen about 18 bags of runner beans and peas! A satisfying way to pass a couple hours, storing homegrown food for the coming winter months.
- picked the first of the pumpkins and made a lovely pumpkin lasagne
- salvaged one calabrese cabbage and have hopefully saved the two Brussels sprouts but am not holding my breath - the caterpillars have had their fill while I was on holiday

Some pics below taken last weekend: kale, peas, my neighbour with his onions for the Lymm produce show last weekend (must enter next year), pumpkin, sunflowers and more pumpkins!

2 weeks away from the allotment

Off to France shortly for a well earned break. I expect the plot to continue to grow wildly in the warm August sun whilst I'm away. Popped down tonight:

- Picked a big bag of peas. The girls can pod them tomorrow and we'll freeze them.
- Picked some baby runner beans to drop into a spag bol tomorrow.
- Purple French beans, borlotto and runner beans about 1 week away from harvesting - there will be plenty to pick on my return!
- Potatoes have blight so need to get them up and make sure I do not put th leaves onto the compost as it spreads the blight according to my neighbour.
- Squashes, sweet corn, turnips, calabrese, carrots, leeks all doing really well.

Really long calibra peas pic below along with a lovely fresh pea, courgette and mint risotto I created the other night.

Back at the end of the month to the jungle!

Harvesting the fruits of my labour

I find myself popping down the allotment every couple of days now to harvest:

- Peas

- Spring Onions

- Radishes

- Red Lettuces

- Baby Carrots

- Courgettes

- Potatoes (Charlotte and Duke of York)

French beans are in flower as are the runner beans. I just hope that I don't miss out on the bulk of the crop when on holiday in france in 2 weeks time! 

As usual some pictures below taken in the sunshine for a change.

Red lettuce:

Runner Bean 'Lady Di' in flower:

Runner Beans, Borlotto Beans, Peas, French Beans growth spurt in July:

Courgettes coming through:

Lovely fresh salad:

Ella and Georgia (with bag of peas) in front of their patch:

Peas, peas, peas...

It's the moment we've been waiting for, the calibra petit pois are ready. Picked a bagful last Saturday with Ella and Georgia who ate as many as they picked as you can see from the pic below.

Also dug up more new potatoes (Charlotte) that are lovely although not a a huge yield.

They also picked and ate plenty of lovely fat raspberries. At last we have some real warmth this summer but with it has come high pollen counts and I'm really suffering.

1 year on...what a difference a year makes!

I spent a couple of hours at the allotment last night and was reflecting on what has been achieved over the past year and just how different the plot is since I took it on a year ago. Here are a few pictures of its current state. I'll start with jobs done since the last update..

- Weeding and more weeding!
- Planted out half a dozen Calabrese Cabbage under a wooden frame with netting (pic below)
- Sowed Autumn King carrots around the brussel sprouts under cover with the Calabrese Cabbages
- Planted out more squashes and pumpkins and have three more at home hardening off
- Harvested Charlotte new potatoes
- Harvested the first of the Courgettes (4 plants this year so we will be Courgette'd out in a couple of months!)
- Harvested a few baby carrots - so sweet!

July 2011..What a difference a year makes..

July 2012..one year on..

Peas (Calibra) almost ready to pick..Ella and Georgia will love them!

Beetroot, Leeks, Golden Ball Turnips, Peas and Runner beans all doing well although 2-3 weeks behind where they should be.

 Freshly dug potatoes for tea, nice!

 Raised bed from the home with sprint onions, radishes and lettuces.

Carrots and Calabrese Cabbage under cover plus two Brussel Sprouts that I will be amazed if they fully grow as they look spindly.

 The view from the shed end..

 Found myself a new friend..hope he's feasting on the slugs and snails :-)

End of June - garlic, onions, shallots

Weather is still hit and miss. Reasonably warm but lots of rain and not much sun. Getting down to the allotment twice a week. Recent jobs:

- lifted garlic, smaller than I had hoped but they did get rust about two months ago. Roasted some last Saturday and they were sweet though.
- lifted snowball white onions, ok size
- lifted radar onions, not a bad yield but not massively successful
- lifted electric red onions, ended up with about half a dozen out of a full set of 30 or so planted!
- prepared ground for planting out squashes and pumpkins that have been hardened off in the garden. I have planted two more lots just in case they don't take as they were batterered by the strong wind and rain two weeks ago
- put up two posts and netting and planted out more runner beans. Have a feeling we'll be sick of runner beans in a couple of months!
- planted more peas in between the runner beans. Will have lots of peas to pick very soon - superb!!!
- picked red and cos lettuce, rocket and radishes for salads. Lovely. Salad onions won't be too much longer now
- sowed beetroot and boule d'or turnips directly in ground. Sprouting now.
- planted out leeks. Seem to be doing ok but are small - might be ready by Christmas if I'm lucky!
- planted out sweet corn, ended up with about 7 in the end out of approximately 20 seeds
- courgette plants x 3 are starting to flower. Lots of courgettes coming soon!
- planted out more borlotto bean plants after the slugs and snails decimated half of the original lot.
- covered raspberries with netting. Blackberry, gooseberry and blackcurrant plants were new in this year and will not yield until next year, they are coming on ok though.

Well that's a fair list of activities from the past month. I have been busy. Heres hoping we get some sunshine in July but it's not looking likely at present. Off to Brittany in August so will be praying we get lucky with the weather then as the wales camping trip at the start of
June was a bit of a washout.

Will take some photos next time I am down and post up shortly.

Note for next year: plant mangetout. Picked some up from kenyon hall farm PYO fruit and they were lovely.