Bit of a Washout

What a wet and windy weekend!  Braved the elements today to go and check both plots.  Localised flooding, trees down and generally very stormy today and felt a bit apprehensive approaching plot 119 as the first few plots we walked past were underwater.  Luckily our plot is on slightly higher ground and apart from a broken pane of greenhouse glass, everything was looking intact.

All looking good in the greenhouse though, not lost anything and the aubergines and tomatoes are looking good.  Got some more sweet peppers showing themselves too now.  And the spare broad beans I planted are going to be transplanted out when and if the rain ever stops!

 

Went up to plot 69 after, turnips are all surviving, no sign of being waterlogged there, however it is at the top of a hill so not worried about that site so much.  Nothing much changed up there since last Sunday, just all holding its own really.  Home then to warm up with soup and a coffee, really chilly as well as wet.  Where has Spring gone???

Making Nettle Beer

I know this post is not about growing anything, but I did collect all the nettles from around the allotment edges, so it's kind of in keeping with this blogs theme.

It is very cheap to make and follows a traditionally English recipe. These days almost all beers are flavoured with hops, but you might be surprised to learn that it wasn’t always so. In fact, hopped beer has only been popular in the UK for the last five hundred years. Before hops took hold, beers were flavoured with herb mixes known as ‘gruit’ which could contain any number of things, including bog myrtle, mugwort, heather, ground ivy and henbane. The Celts may have used nettles for making nettle beer as far back as the Bronze Age.

Nettle beer

• 900g nettle tops (with leaves 4-6) (about 1 carrier bag full)


• 5 litres water


• 230g brown sugar


• 7.5g ground ginger


• packet of brewers or beer yeast (available from all homebrew shops)

1.  Once you have your nettles, give them a quick wash and place in a big pot with as much of the water as you can, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.


2. Strain the mixture and add the sugar and ginger, stirring to dissolve.


3. Pour into a sterile brewers bucket and top up to 5 litres


4. Allow to cool to 18'C and sprinkle yeast onto the surface.


5. Cover & add a airlock and leave to ferment for about 3 days (or until the airlock stops bubbling)


6. Bottle into Strong beer bottles with 1/2 a tsp of sugar in each bottle ( 1/2 tsp per 500ml) and leave in a warm place for 3 days. Plastic PET bottles would be better as there is less likelihood of beer bottle bombs.


7. If you can, leave the brew for 1-3 months, it IS ready to drink a week after bottling though! My brew came out at about 3.1%

Washing the recycled bottles.



Nettle beer in the bottle.. Well, my book says that this is drinkable after a few days in the bottle, but I'll wait till it clears quite a bit before having one because at the moment it looks a lot like MUD!! I did have a little taste while bottling up the Nettle beer and it smells and tastes not unpleasant but it's not really beer as we know it by todays standards.



 

Rained On but Defiant!

After a really busy week at work for us both, today was the first opportunity for us both to go allotmenting together, Simon had popped into No. 119 on the way home from work one day to water the greenhouse bits but apart from that I have felt allotment deprived this week!  Stopped off at B&Q for lawn edging to mark our path on 119 then spent the morning down there catching up - more broad beans up, otherwise quite quiet.  Simon put his hops in, they arrived in the post yesterday and will form the basis of our hop arch.  Bought 2 varieties, Challenger - one of the few recognized dual-purpose hops combining moderate amounts of alpha acids with a good kettle hop aroma (apparently...) and Target - a second generation selection from Northern Brewer by a male seedling of English Goldings (according to the leaflet).

 

Should help him brew some interesting ale later in the year!  I planted some more broad beans, my Wahoo sunflowers (bushy variety) and then dug some more of the old compost heap out, now decided to turn that area into a raised bed.  Also marked out the right hand bed ready for planting.  But no more down 119 today, got rained on a few too many times and decided to head home for lunch.  Can't beat a bacon sarnie after a mornings hard work!

 

After being suitably refreshed, we had a break in the rain and headed up to plot 69 with our lovingly nurtured turnip plants, put in 3 rows and netted them.

 So home after that, with 2 bags of nettle shoots, gathered somewhat carefully from around the edges of the allotment sites.  Simon is now in the kitchen making some nettle beer.  Smells extraordinary... the nettle concoction that is, not Simon!

 

 

Hops, Compost & Seed Swap Day!

Up nice and early this morning, lovely weather but a bit of a nip in the air.  Down to plot 119 - first of all we went to the communal garden room where there was a seed/seedling swap morning, nice to meet some new people and get involved in things.  Everyone is so friendly here.  Had a cup of tea and perused the seeds and seedlings, we took some odds and ends we didn't want and came away with things we did want.  Result!  Good way of doing it.  Simons cape gooseberry seedlings went very quickly, bit of a novelty I suppose.  After a bit of socialising and meeting a new couple who were down here for their first day and have taken over a plot very close to ours, we got to work.  First job - plot inspection.... strawberries have a few flowers, broad beans are about 50% up now, no further tomato or cucumber losses, 3 courgettes up and not much else changed.  Then Simon got to work building the second part of the archway - got 2 hop plants on order so he can create a tunnel of hops for his brewing.  Got some growing at home but thought it would be nice to have them down the allotment too.

If things go really well then we may extend it to a 3rd arch and work our way down the path even further!  Plan with the path is to do a edging with log roll or something cheaper then returf it or re seed it just to smarten it all up a bit., though I'm sure after the grass has been cut it will look a lot better.

Whilst Simon was doing that I made a start on sorting out the compost heap.  Bit of a disaster area that, very messy, very big and very daunting.

But got started and found it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Good compost was lurking very near the top so started digging it out and putting it on the plot, and also made an extra bed in the greenhouse.  Simon then made a new compost heap out of recycled bits from the old heap, think he did a brilliant job with what he had!   Still got lots of compost to move but ran out of steam for today!  When the old compost heap has been completely cleared then we shall use the space for more planting, quite a large area.

Things Emerging!

Popped to Plot 119 after work yesterday as it was such a lovely afternoon and I wanted to check on the plants in the greenhouse, needn't have worried though, all still damp.  Excited to see some courgettes coming up in the seed bed, only 3 of them so far but its a start!  Tomatoes seem to be holding their own after a sticky start - seem to be left with the stronger ones now which cant be a bad thing, gave them a feed today as they have been in the same compost for some time now and will be a while yet before I put them in their growbags.

 

Not sure what is up with my first 3 cucumbers however, one looked so sad I had to put it out of its misery, the other two seem to keep losing their bottom leaves, they grow new ones on top but then drop some.  Ending up with healthy top growth but spindly stems with no leaves on.... very odd, they have been treated very well and given the best attention but are failing miserably.  Started off more now of a different variety in the hope that I will have more success second time around.   Maybe they are supposed to do this.. not sure!  Never grown them before.

And also emerging are the first of the Bunyards Exhibition broad beans, and some of our potatoes! Really pleased.  Just got to work out rabbit protection now - saw one hopping around the site further down without a care in the world and nibbling the grass.  Very sweet but unwanted on our allotment!

Jobs for the weekend?  Well, a seed swap morning on Sunday in our communal garden room, should be interesting, got a few bits and bobs to take down, Simon is planning to take down some of his Cape Gooseberries as he has loads.  And we want to start sorting out the compost heap and the path edgings - got lots of pallets there so will get busy with a hammer and nails.  Got a rackety old compost heap which is absolutely huge and not very user friendly, hoping to clear it out and rebuild a 3 way system....

Afternoon in the Sunshine

Day off today and spent the afternoon up at Plot 69, a beautiful day, out in a t-shirt and soaking up the sun.  Onions and shallots are doing very well, took their protective wire mesh off now that the threat of birds pulling them up has gone.  All nice and firmly rooted.  Excuse the weeds on the path in the foreground, the paths are a bit of a mess still, some we have re-seeded but they aren't brilliant.  Wanted to concentrate on getting the veg sorted first.

 

So, today I planted a few broad beans in the spots where some hadn't come up,  will provide some more beans later in the season too.  Then planted some Chantenay carrots and another row of beetroot in the root veg bed.  Enough room left for the parsnips (currently growing really well in the greenhouse at home) and the celariac (growing slowly but surely on the kitchen windowsill).   Not impressed with the Autumn King carrots I had planted there a while ago, not a sign of one shoot, yet the ones I planted at home later have all emerged.  Amazing how things can be so different in two different places.  Then I planted a couple of rows of perpetual spinach and a couple of purple sprouting broccoli.  Used the protection from the onions to keep the marauding predators off..... an allotment neighbour said the local badgers love to roll around in newly dug earth.... and there was certainly a few badger poos around to prove it!  Warning... here comes a REALLY boring photo!

Then to finish off, a long row in the 2nd brassica bed of green rhubarb chard.  Just one row as I will do another in a few weeks and stagger it a bit.  And we have the rainbow chard to go on our other plot and dont want chard with every meal forever more!  The only disappointment so far is the garlic, growing really well at home but only had 3 come up here..... not sure why, maybe not cold enough to get them started.

Finished Digging

Finished the last of the digging today, so that is Plot 119 all dug over.  Lovely to stand back and see it all done, has taken a couple of weeks and glad it is done now!

 

Simon found a lovely old clay pipe when he was raking the soil over too, a few hundred years old he reckons.  Good to find something interesting other than weeds!  I did find the other missing bit the other day when I was digging but didnt realise what it was and think it went on the compost heap!  Will have to keep an eye out for it.

Apart from digging, Simon prepped the plant pots for the grow bags.  We found some in the garden centre and were astonished at the prices, after all, they are just plant pots with no bottoms!  So he made some from old ones we inherited with the allotment.  Think they will work just as well.  And free!

Gently Ticking Over

Had a day off today so split the day between the two plots.  Plot 69 is ticking along quite nicely, few carrots poking their heads up, the broad beans I direct sowed are also being brave.  Onions and shallots are doing very well.  And the beetroot is emerging.

Gave the whole site a hoe, amazing how quickly the weeds come up after a week of sunshine then a day of rain!  Yes, rain!  We had rain!  Nice to see the ground all damp without the effort of watering!   Then over to Plot 119 and not very happy......  we last went on Saturday and since then our two big water butts have gone, as has some of the greenhouse staging and a few other bits and pieces.  All we can put it down to is the previous tenants coming to take some bits away.  Wish they had left a note or something to let us know.  We took over the plot a couple of weeks ago and it looks almost fully cultivated now, we cleared all the rubbish away (a whole car full) and had the allotment looking pretty good, bearing in mind it was in a bit of a state before.  No sign of the previous tenants all that time, then what must have been on their final tenancy day I think they must have come down to take the bits they wanted.  If it was me, I would have seen that someone had taken over the plot and just left them to it, especially as we were allowed to have  it for 2 weeks now.  People can be funny....  So now we have to find some water butts.  Not impressed.  And then to top it all, 3 of my tomato plants were in a draught in the poly tunnel and died.  As they forecast some cold weather now and my greenhouse at home isn't very warm I decided to take all my other tomato plants down to the proper greenhouse on 119.  Always really warm in there, even when the weather is cold, seems to retain its heat really well.  Also took down the rest of the grow bags.

Then managed to get a bit more digging in before it started to rain again, only this last little corner to do now.  Dug up some fruit bushes and transplanted them, not sure what they are yet, will have to wait and see when they fruit!