Fruit Plot Planning

September has been a month of harvesting and planning for next season.  The Blue Lake beans have been good again this year but going to try Cobra next year as this is supposed to be even heavier cropping.  Not going to bother with too many runner beans next year as not everyones favourite at home, might just do one row of Equator as they were stringless and the most successful out of all the varieties we have tried.  Learnt lots of lessons this year.  Cabbages = nightmare.  Everything wants to eat them.  Need more protection.   Florence fennel = not to bother, didnt produce bulbs.  Courgettes = grow in the ground rather than grow bags as they dry out too quick.  Aubergines = dont bother.  2nd year of failure.  Sorted out most of our seeds for next year and sat down with paper and pen to plan the plot.... rotation is proving to be a little difficult but hopefully we will work it out eventually.

 

Main job for September was taking up all the potatoes - had an excellent crop of Pink Fir Apples and Nicolas, Roosters were good as well but the skins were quite tough.  Got enough stored in the garage to last us quite a while.  Used the last of the garlic last night though so our decision to grow a lot more next year was the right one.  Ordered 2 Provence Wight bulbs and  12 Elephant garlic from Marshalls, and a few hundred Senshyu Yellow onions so will put them in as soon as they arrive.

Other big job was planting the new fruit bushes.  Picked up some cheap and cheerful ones from the Range, 4 for £10 so a bargain and look healthy enough.  Got some blackcurrants, a fig tree to go in a big planter, a blueberry, some yellow raspberries and some redcurrants.  Together with the rhubarb, currants, jostaberry, gooseberries and raspberries we already had it has turned the right hand side of plot 119 into a proper fruit patch.  Just got to sort out some sort of fruit cage for next year.



 

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!







 

 

Not just Veg and Fruit

One of the things I love about the allotment is all the other lovely things we find going on down there which are nothing to do with all the fruit and veg.  Today we enjoyed the sunflowers, out in all their glory and buzzing with bees.  Got three sorts growing this year, Wah-hoo (dwarf),  Solar Eclipse (mid-sized) and Giant (obviously huge!)  All the Cosmos (Purity) are out too and again, buzzing with bees.  Sweetpeas are all over now but loads of seed pods for next year.





Also found a little lizard scurrying around the paving slabs - we see them from time to time and they are really delightful little creatures.  He was rescued and put out of harms way and away from being stood on.   Then I went into the polytunnel (which I leave the door open to as it gets so hot in there) and it sounded as though there was a bird trapped in there.  In fact, it was a huge dragonfly that couldnt find his way out.  Luckily Simon rescued him and set him free, after he had his photo taken of course!  Beautiful insect.





And so ended a nice trip down to the allotment today, headed home with loads of veg for tea and an armful of flowers to brighten up the kitchen, cosmos, marigolds and huge daisies.  All with a little help from grandson who will be getting his own raised bed and little trowel as soon as he is walking about!



 

Glad of the Rain

After endless weeks of endless sunshine it has been lovely to have some refreshing rain.  Makes weeding a whole lot easier!  And fewer trips to the tap with the watering cans.  Just the polytunnel and greenhouse needing water at the moment which is much less effort.  Cleared the broad beans today and picked the last of them, going to leave that patch fallow for the rest of the year and just enrich it as there was a large patch where nothing much grew.  Onion patch is all empty now and waiting for some purple sprouting broccoli to go in, and some more leeks.  Climbing beans and runner beans are all flowering now.  Cabbages and other brassicas are seeming to be avoiding the cabbage white butterflies thankfully but time will tell.....  Got quite a bit of bare space now but hoping to get some more things started, with the ground a bit softer and damper now it will be much better.  The beetroot seeds I put in just before the hot spell havent really done very much at all.  So, picked the last of the broad beans today for dinner - and some chard and curly kale.  Also the elephant garlic came up.  HUGE!  Really pleased with them.

All the onions are hanging now and hopefully will be enough to see us through the winter.  The freezer is heaving with beans and soft fruit which is a little unfortunate as the freezer is on the blink and we are awaiting delivery of a new one today.... hopefully it will come before everything has defrosted!

Sunny Days and Lots to Do

Well, what can I say?  It's all growing!  Picked our first two cucumbers of the year today and have our first tomato doing tomatoey type things.  Picked zillions of kale for 2 different recipes this week and brought home the first of the onions.  Sweet peas are being a constant joy to the nasal passages and the broad beans are about to produce more beans than we know what to do with.   Simon is cooking with peppers a lot, and drying a lot in his dehydrator, and hanging more to dry.  Picked the first of the blackcurrants, jostaberries and gooseberries to go in the freezer for jam making later in the year.  Lots of weeding, lots of watering, lots of getting a little bit sunburnt but worth it.   Dinner tonight is Simons risotto with everything except the rice coming from the allotment.  Heavenly!

A montage of photos from today..... a taste of plots 119 and 120!