Starting Afresh

I'm not usually one to make new year resolutions, but here's one for 2015: to get back to posting regularly on this blog - even if it's just a quick update, a picture or two, or what-I-did-on-the-plot-today for the record. And as everything out there freezes over and readies itself to start afresh, I plan to start afresh too, assuming you know nothing about my plot, and not worrying about repeating myself. Last year's posts were mostly theory and rants anyway - it's been a long time since I actually wrote about the day-to-day stuff of growing my own.

So this is me. I'm Naomi, and my wonderful husband is Eddie. We've had our allotment in St Albans since 2007, and it's had its ups and downs and we've learned an awful lot along the way. We very nearly gave it up once - what a lot has changed since then! We also grow veg in our garden, which is really my parents' garden. I passionately believe that we must all grow more food at home and in our communities, for the good of our health and the planet. (To this end I also help run a Community Supported Agriculture initiative where I live.) We grow sustainably, which for us means organically, often guided by permaculture principles, and supporting wildlife, soil health and biodiversity. We don't dig unless it's absolutely necessary. We don't grow F1 hybrids, which harm diversity and self-reliance. I love the great outdoors, I love food and I love to cook. I plan big and I dream big. I tweet a lot. I long for a smallholding of our own someday, with chickens and pigs and beehives and perhaps a little market garden business. I don't have a regular job at the moment; I have three casual ones and a few that don't pay - and I like to think of growing food a lot like growing money anyway, though it's a real shame you can't buy a house with it...

So happy new year and here's to a great growing - and blogging - season in 2015! Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll drop by again along the way.

New Beginnings

Well hello. It's been a long time, but I finally got round to realising that the only reason I wasn't posting anymore was simply for that reason; because it had been such a long time. Sometimes the hardest part is just showing up, isn't it?

So I'm not going to do a big long catch-up about everything I've done in the last year - partly because it's too much work and partly because it'd probably bore you all in one go anyway (and because the last time I did that was only three posts ago, which is a bit embarrassing). Instead, I'll just let you know that last year was pretty good and plans are afoot for an even better year ahead.

We seem to have finally beaten the grass in the middle section of our plot, allowing us to convert to no-dig growing for the most part, and this year we plan to work hard on the even grassier area down the bottom, and beat that too. This will involve some serious weeding and mulching of the raspberry bed, moving our compost bin to smother some of the troublesome grass, and digging over a tough area to plant our potatoes. Meanwhile, growing beans, roots and squashes on the middle part should be easy-peasy (though we've given up on onions and garlic thanks to the pernicious white rot in our soil), and we're going to commit one weed-free strip to perennial vegetables, including a brand new asparagus bed, some globe artichokes, and space for a new strawberry patch which we hope to plant next winter from this summer's runners. We've got some exciting new varieties to try, such as sweet-leafed stevia and Suffolk Herbs' "perennial salad mix", and we're also going to be trying out a new system for fertilising and remineralising the soil, from a fascinating book by Steve Solomon called The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food. More on all that to come!

For now, I'm sitting on my hands trying to resist sowing seeds, and wondering if this is it for winter or if it's finally going to kick in next week... or maybe in March or April just to wind us all up... I will permit myself to sow peppers from 1st February but, well, this happened...

...so before that, my first priority needs to be somewhere new to put this year's tender seedlings!

October Strawberries!

It seems that hot spell last month really confused a lot of our plants - a lot of plants in the garden are flowering for a second time and I know I'm not the only one whose strawberries have started producing a second crop! Crazy!

It was my pleasure to write a guest post for Tom, the 'Hapless Gardener' for his blog 'Growing Up' on Friday - please go read it here if you haven't already!

Danger: Construction Works

It's come to my attention recently that my blog template is waaaay out of date, and causing a few functionality issues, and probably looking a bit rubbish on a few people's browsers. So I've been busily reconstructing it today and it's nearly there - just a bit more tweaking to go and some new pictures for the header and such, I think. But if you happen to stumble in and everything looks really weird, I'm probably in the middle of something.

(If it stays that way, let me know, yeah?)

Hope you like the new look. And if you do spot any problems or if there's anything that gives your browser trouble, do please drop me a comment about it. Thanks.

You'll just have to wait...

I've been rubbish at taking photos recently.

I haven't taken any of our garlic and onions, which have settled in extremely well in the good weather we've been having and are growing away enthusiastically already, some several inches high.

I haven't taken any of our dozens of thriving seedlings, which are spending some milder nights outside in the plastic greenhouse already.

I haven't taken any of the ten big bags of manure we're spreading this year to revitalise our soil's fertility.

I haven't taken any of our various pepper seedlings, which finally sprouted after weeks of waiting.

I didn't take any when I potted on the tomatoes the other day, or when I sowed a new batch of squash and chard seeds, or when I planted out the winter purslane and some new rosemary and lavender plants I got from the market.

I didn't take any of the horseradish roots I dug up, nor the horseradish cream sauce I made for our roast dinner on Mother's Day.

I didn't take any of my failed first attempt at pickling beetroot, when I misguidedly topped-and-tailed the beets and they lost all their colour and flavour when I boiled them.

I left the camera at home when we (and some lovely friends) weeded and manured the strawberries and dug a trench all along one side of the allotment to try to keep the couchgrass out (I'll sow the trench with marigolds too and sprinkle with organic slug pellets, to try to stop the snails before they reach my crops!).

I forgot to take any pictures of our first asparagus harvest before I chopped it up and put it in a rich, buttery omelette... and I forgot to take a picture before I ate it.

So I'll just have to update you another time...

Back online!

Remember what it was like before we had the internet? How we used to sit down at a set time to watch the news and weather? When we had to walk into town to check our bank accounts? When we referred to heavy dictionaries and encylopedias or went to the library to find things out? When mail order meant filling in a paper form, writing a cheque and buying a stamp? It's insane how much we rely on it now! Writing blogs, reading blogs, buying things, online banking, checking weather and news reports, checking emails, doing business, buying more things, sending things back, and looking up information of all kinds. How do I get a tick off the cat? Why are my shallot leaves turning yellow? (Really - why?) Who's that bloke in that film? How do I prepare monkfish? Where are the seeds in a pineapple? If it doesn't have seeds it isn't a fruit so what is it? You know the sort of thing.

We've had no internet connection - and not a lot of TV signal - since my last post nearly a week ago and BOY, life has been strange. (I'm not really sure why it's back right now in fact, since the engineer is supposed to be coming to fix it tomorrow...)

Doesn't mean we haven't been busy on the plot though, despite scorching temperatures (can you believe those nasty frosts were less than two weeks ago??) - and even though we probably spent as long standing in the shade of the nearest tree sipping cider as we did working. Lots has gone on and I promise I'll post a proper update Thursday night if not tomorrow. Expect a long one!

And look up the pineapple thing. I thought it was pretty interesting.

Updated

Just been doing a bit of blog maintenance; updating broken links and whatnot.

I have posted my allotment plan for this year, and my crop rotation record, which you can see if you click the pics below, or in my notes in the link on the sidebar.

I also hoped to slim down the picture diary kinda thing on my sidebar, since most of what's there is really old now. But when I started editing things (adding the year to the ones I want to keep) the pictures shrunk, and I can't get them back to their proper size! Any blogger-users got any ideas?

Tagged. And some other stuff.

Hang on, I've been tagged by two different bloggers with two different sets of questions. (Paul and Melanie at Growing Our Own and Simon at The Plot Thickens.) What do I do now?? I don't even usually play these games, but I'm a little tipsy having finished a long hard day's work at 11pm and then fallen into a very large glass of wine, and tonight it sounds like fun. There seems to me to be only one answer; combine both little games into one great SUPERTAG game and continue as usual...

The Rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Write six random things about yourself. And answer the questions below.
  
• Tag six people at the end of your post linking to their blog.
• Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
• Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six things about me:

• The nickname Nome (started by my Dad when I was too little to fight back, I'm sure) has followed me without my encouragement to every group of friends and every job I have ever had. I never introduce myself as such, and somehow people just pick it up! (Could be worse; Dad also used to call me Splodge...) My real name (though I'm not really used to hearing it) is Naomi. (Is Nome a bad nickname for a young woman to have? I can never quite decide... If anyone spells it with a G, then there's trouble...)
• One day I will write a blockbuster movie! Or a blockbuster novel. Or both.
• Watermelon is my new favourite fruit.
• I love videogames, when I get time inbetween working stupid hours, writing and gardening.
• I am a qualified pyrotechnician! I never really put it into practice though.
• My favourite spot is on the shore of Crummock Water in the Lake District. It's so beautiful and peaceful and perfect.

What Was I Doing 10 Years Ago?
Preparing for A-levels. Ugh. Can we stop there? I loathed school.
Oh, and I was also just starting to find my brother's mate Eddie pretty cute!

My To Do List for Today/Diary of What I Actually Did
Very boring I'm afraid. Got up, surfed the net a little, worked my butt off. Tomorrow is pretty much the same, although I don't start 'til two so I'll probably lie in a bit (or a lot) and see if I can find any small non-messy jobs to do at the plot before I go in.

Snacks I Enjoy
If it's bad for me, I probably like it. Top of the list must be chocolate cornflake cakes, but any chocolate bar will do, and chocolate 'Frijj' milkshakes and Coca Cola feature pretty heavily too. Actually, my most regular snack is hot chocolate and white toast with marmite. In the mornings this is called breakfast, but it can also be lunch and is sometimes eaten as a snack late night or, well, anytime really.

Things I Would Do If I Were A Billionaire
I'd have to be very unoriginal and say buy a house with a load of land. Actually, my dream is to buy a load of land, then build the house. Out of straw. I've designed it already - it's all planned out. All I need is the ground to put it on. And ground is far too damn expensive.
Then I'd look after the family too, and give the rest to the people who really need it. No-one deserves bilions of pounds when so many people have nothing at all.

Three of My Bad Habits
1) Spending far too much time on the internet, learning about doing things, talking about doing things or telling others how to do things, rather than actually doing things. Yahoo Answers is my particular weakness at the moment!
2) You read the snacks question right?
3) I almost never tidy up after myself. I don't know how Eddie puts up with me!

Five Places I Have Lived
I've lived in St Albans all my life, and I pretty much believe in staying where I've been put. It's a lovely historical market-town with a beautiful Abbey and park, Roman ruins, lots of trees and historic buildings, and more pubs per square mile than anywhere else! I have actually lived at five addresses here; one town centre Victorian semi with an attic and cellar which were always dead exciting to me as a child, one huge extended sixties-built family home in the posh part on the edge of town (where my parents and brother and sister still live), one modern but gorgeous flat two minutes down the road from them, one modern but scummy flat two doors down from that (!) and now a teeny tiny Victorian cottage (in the town centre again, virtually in the shadow of the cathedral) on a teeny tiny road that was surely only ever meant for horses, with a bathroom and kitchen that I'm sure must have only been built on the back a few years ago, and a toilet cistern still evident in one of the teeny tiny sheds!

Five Jobs I Have Had
1) Various office posts with a temping agency, mostly involving filing and photocopying.
2) Casual work as a theatre technician, getting trained on the job in lighting, sound, stage set-ups, film projection, and general dogsbodying.
3) Drama technician at a school in the middle of building a theatre and applying for special 'Arts College' status. Within a couple of years I was theatre manager and the sole member of staff at the theatre - eek! I booked the shows singlehandedly, I advertised them singlehandedly, I sold the tickets singlehandedly, I ran the cafe singlehandedly, I did the techie stuff almost singlehandedly (lots of willing students in that area at least) and it wasn't long before I'd had enough.
4) Deputy Technical Manager at our local theatre (same place as number 2) - a mid-sized touring house that shows a variety of ageing rock-and-rollers, tribute bands, mainstream comedians, dodgy touring theatre, local exhibitions and movies. It has more downs than ups, in my opinion, but I get to meet more than my fair share of minor celebrities and the hours really suit me as I hate routine. No week is ever the same as the last, and I often work three or four ultra-long days and get a four- or three-day weekend. Whoooop!
Hang on; no five... Umm...
5) Assistant Stage Manager for one month (unpaid) at The Gate Theatre in Notting Hill. And some freelance lighting-design and mask-making jobs.

Howzat?

I'll tag
Grumpy Old Teacher (not a gardening blog but he's me Dad!)
Hedgewizard
Marigold
Gnome
Little Gem
and Lilymarlene


Anyway...
Yesterday we spent a couple more hours at the plot, sieving ten buckets of compost onto the new brassica bed (very tedious) and sowing swedes. We really need to empty that compost bin to make room for another year's weeds, so there's lots more sieving to be done in the next few weeks...

As I write this, the 'Wautoma' cucumber seeds are already sprouting! After just four days! I have a good feeling they're going to live up to the recommendations... The courgettes have buds already and the peppers and aubergines are doing really well too. Why is it the tender stuff is all dying to get onto the plot already but the hardy brassicas are being soooo slow??

SOWN:
one row swede 'Angela' (a pinch of seeds every six inches)

Snowed in

Well not literally. But the weather, as predicted, has been miserable all weekend and I've stayed safe indoors.


This is the home garden I've been working so hard on - ha! What a mess! There's still loads of rubbish to get rid of, and the high winds have kindly rearranged eveything for me too! As you can see, it really is tiny...
I was worried about the stuff in the greenhouse in this cold weather but it all seems to be doing fine, although the brassica seedlings on the very bottom shelf are straining for more light. I'll have to move them outside as soon as this cold snap finishes I think, even if only during the daytime.

The tomatoes and courgettes are sprouting in earnest now, though there's no sign at all of the melons which is a bit of a shame.



I've decided I don't really have room for all those tomatoes - perhaps just two of each variety. (Don't know if the problem was my maths or my overenthusiasm, but the previous plan meant they'd be planted just 9 inches apart! Now I'm a believer in spacing things closer together than they say you should, but that's just silly!) I didn't really expect every courgette seed to germinate, since they're quite old, so I've got more of them than I was bargaining for too - I think I'll be giving away a lot of plants in a few weeks' time! Ah well, I have a work friend who is thinking of taking on an allotment, and a sister-in-law who has just got her first garden, so it shouldn't be too difficult...

I've just realised that you can only see my Google Docs (under Growing Information on the right) if you're signed up to the site yourself, which is not what I wanted, so today I'm planning to have a go with Google Page Creator and/or box.net and see if I can do something better. Watch that space...

Too Many Toms!

I've never had much luck with tomatoes. In three years of trying, I have managed to grow and ripen just one tomato. (I don't mean just one variety; I don't mean just one plant; I mean one single tomato.) Yet somehow, I've collected 11 varieties of seed!
I've got currant, cherry, pear, plum and beefsteak ones! I've got red, yellow, green and stripey ones!
And I've only got 8ft square to plant them in!
I'd rather try them all than be left wondering if the one I missed was the one that would have succeeded, so I reckon I'll plant three each of the ten indeterminate varities in three rows; spaced a bit closer than they should be but held up using the 'Florida Weave' method that should encourage growth upward rather than outward, and improve air circulation and sun exposure... Time will tell...
The one determinate variety will be grown in pots (I'll decide where later...) along with some 'Hundreds and Thousands' tumbling toms I couldn't resist from Suttons (their photo). Two thousand tomatoes from a single ready-started plant? Surely I can't fail!


SO, last night I sowed my tomato seeds in toilet rolls (we've been collecting for months!) which can be planted whole to avoid root disturbance. Three of each variety, plus a few spares of the popular ones.

SOWN:
5 x Moneymaker (medium size)
5 x Gardener's Delight (cherry size)
4 x Alicante (medium size; an Italian favourite, apparently)
4 x San Marzano 2 (plum tom, good for cooking or preserving)
3 x Red Pear (small pear-shape)
3 x Red Cherry (cherry size, duh!)
3 x Tigerella (medium size, red and yellow striped skin)
3 x Golden Sunrise (medium size, yellow)
3 x Green Zebra (medium size, green striped skin)
2 x Costoluto Fiorentino (beefsteak, only 2 because I seriously doubt they'll have time to ripen outdoors)
3 x Sub Arctic Plenty (determinate variety, small/medium fruits, does well in cold weather and can reach harvest in as little as 45 days!)

Actually, I got so excited about the Sub Arctic Plenty that I sowed some a couple of weeks back too, to flirt with the late frosts and try for an extra-extra-early harvest. There they are in the corner of the picture, getting a liiiittle leggy indoors but growing away nicely...


I've got a few days off starting tomorrow and I was planning to spend them on the plot, but the weather is disastrous at the moment. I'll play it by ear - maybe I can still get something done down there. If not, there are still sowings to make at home, and the garden to work on (bushes to plant). So far, I've been making the most of time stuck indoors with lots of planning.

Here is the plan for this year:

OK, it turned out a lot smaller on the screen than it did in my head, so let me explain and please click to enlarge the picture! The compost/storage area is over on the right (north), with the asparagus bed at the top. The rest of the plot is roughly divided into 8ft squares, like last year. (Actually, this year the squares are 8'6" by 7'6" to allow for more sensible paths.) The pond area should be obvious, with tree positions marked too, and that light green colour indicates a thickly planted bed of herbs and beneficial flowering plants, which extends down the centre of the plot, between the beds, and in a narrow border round the edges too. The yellow strips are paths which I hope to plant with yarrow (which I read somewhere would smother weeds, put some pests off, make some ladybirds happy and be hardy enough to walk on - sounds like a miracle plant to me but here's hoping!)
The five beds in the top row (west) will contain (in order) melons, potatoes, sweetcorn and pumpkins, summer brassicas, and beans and peas. The six beds in the bottom row (east) will contain tomatoes (plus peppers and aubergines if I'm lucky), salads and spinach, carrots and onions, courgettes and cucumbers, strawberries (already in situ), and winter brassicas.

For the record, here is a plan of my crop rotation too:


I've recently discovered Google Docs, which allows you to store Word and Excel documents (and others) online, so I will be making some of my growing information available on the right hand side of this page for anyone that's interested. (Terribly vain, this blogging lark!) I'll include this plan, a record of my crop rotation, a record of important (to me!) gardening dates to compare year-by-year, a catalogue of my seed collection, and sowing records. And even if no-one's interested, at least I'll know where to find them from now on!

Blogging Buddies

If you know me then you'll know I like to keep myself to myself - I'm not usually the sort to go round introducing myself or leaving comments on other people's websites. But this blog is nearly a year old now and it's high time it had more than three readers (even three may be a little optimistic I think!). So I've been on a mission this week to get myself noticed a bit more, by e-introducing myself to some other veg-growing bloggers, and begging and scrounging for mutual links left right and centre.
So if you're reading this, please also take a look at some of my new-found blogging friends, especially Gnome (who said some very nice things about my pictures here), Pumpkin Soup (a lovely neat, organised and efficient blog the likes of which I can only aspire to) and Hedgewizard (what a hilarious and engaging writer - be sure to read the unfortunate story of his pond, Jan 24th!). The links are all over there on the right, and the list will continue to grow I hope!

My 'blogging' new year resolution is to post little and often, so they will be more focussed and not so daunting to sit down and write! Hopefully it'll make labelling easier too; no point tagging every post with "digging, weeds, slugs, potatoes, beans, rain, compost, lettuce, courgettes, sweetcorn, asparagus..." - you get the idea!

So that's your lot for today. Except for this picture of a rather strange sunflower which I never got round to posting last year. Siamese sunflowers, anyone? This plant (which was supposed to be a "tall single") produced several 'conjoined' heads like this!