Job of the Day

Thanks to Monty Don and his inspirational compost heaps Simon has been working really hard to create the same sort of thing.  He managed to get some good quality pallets via our plot manager and today he cleared the area to the rear of the greenhouse and made a system of three compost bins.  First bin for fresh allotment waste, second bin for when it is partially rotted down and a bit more crumbly and the third bin for when it is sieved and ready to use.  So far the first bin is filling up nicely with the contents of the old compost heap.  Already got some of the organice matter from the bottome of the heap into bin number two though.  Looks a lot better than the compost heap we had before and hopefully the system will provide us with some brilliant usable compost next year.  He just has to do the front slats now so we can get in and out of them easily.  Got to empty the two plastic compost bins yet too, however not in any hurry as we know a slow worm has taken up residence in one of them!



Just a couple of other pictures - firstly Simons little melon in the greehouse - its surviving and getting bigger by the day!



And his lovely hops looking lovely in the sunshine today....

Harvest and Preserving

Harvest is slow but steady this year, keeping us ticking over with veg at home.  The green beans (Blue Lake) are doing well again this year.  The onions are all picked and hanging, had a bit of rot but mostly they were excellent.  Used some of the red onions to make red onion chutney again this year as it was so nice last time.



 





 

 



 

Not doing any jam at the moment as still have so much left over from last year.  Might be tempted to make some blackberry jelly next weekend though as so many of them down at the plot.  What else is being harvested?

    Lots of green beans, turnips, kohl rabi, potatoes (Nicolas), courgettes, cabbages.  Just picking what we need at the moment and     using them while they are fresh.  Had a lovely stir fry with lots of our produce the other day, tasted great!

Simon has a blackberry wine on the go and lots of yellow plums to do some more this week, also got some ginger wine 'brewing' too, not technically from the allotment but still.....

 

 

 

 

   Our crop of onions, right by the kitchen door so very handy when cooking!

A Busy Month

Wow, can't believe we are nearly at the end of August, not sure where that month went!  Its been a month of watering cans, picking beans and cursing the caterpillars!  Keeping on top of the watering has been a challenge, the polytunnel and greenhouse are certainly needing a lot of attention and we havent had much rain either to drench the rest of the plot.  Put in some late leeks today that have been grown on in pots and the earth was as dry as a bone, more like sand really.  The caterpillars have managed to become a real problem, despite netting the brassica bed we are still overun with them.  Just like last year though, they dont seem to like curly kale very much so at least that is safe!  The cauliflowers all bolted so lost them all - not been a good year for them at all.  Luckily, the brussel sprouts seem to be coping with the crawlies and we have the first signs of sprouts already.  Ah, the challenges of allotmenting.  Would just be perfect if we had sun all day and rain all night but guess that would be too much to hope for!

Had our open day for the National Garden Scheme, was very successful and the allotment raised over £600!  Was a really nice afternoon, cookery demonstration in the communal orchard, tea and cakes in the garden room and lots of people milling around, and good weather too.  We spent the week before making sure the allotment looked as tidy as possible so glad we made an effort with it.

A few pictures - Simons chilli house looking fabulous, some of my tomatoes underway and one of my giant pumpkins.  Not quite giant yet, but working on it!