Allotment Tour

We finally made it to the allotment this week, after having not managed to go at all during December, and did some much-needed catching up.

Here it is:

Of course, it doesn't look like much at the moment, but there's plenty going on, and considering what a battle we've always had with couchgrass and other perennial weeds we're pretty pleased with it. But it's been a long time since I took or shared any pictures of it, so let me give you the tour...

It's split roughly into seven sections, more by accident than design, with woodchip paths in between them, lined with bricks and some cheap weedproof fabric that isn't quite doing the job any more.

Section one, above, is where our compost bins are. We built them last spring to replace our old ones, in another spot, which were falling apart, and we relocated them here because it's under the shade of an elder tree and the soil is full of roots - everything we've grown here in the past has struggled a bit, so it's a good spot to use for something other than plants! The area covered in weedproof fabric over there has also been problematic, but we're determined to get it under control this year and plant a new fruit patch here, mulching heavily between the plants to try to beat the couchgrass!

Section two is the first of our three rotation beds. Last year we grew potatoes here - now the near half is covered in a phacelia green manure (and quite a few annual weeds) and the far half has rows of spinach and chard (again with the weeds...) There's also a row of scabiosa I planted out too late to flower, but it seems to be coming through the winter a treat! After we clear this patch in late spring we'll grow squashes and pumpkins here.

Section three (our second rotation bed) is where our root crops were grown, though it's beginning to look a little sparse now. The spring cabbages in the foreground are at a variety of stages - we picked our first this week but others are not ready yet, and one has rotted! :-( Beyond that is a small row of calabrese which should produce in the spring, some carrots, parsnips, swedes, celery and leeks. We've just finished the beetroots. When this patch is clear in early to mid spring, we'll plant our potatoes here.

Section four (our third rotation bed) was pumpkins and squashes last year, but now it's bare, which is pretty disappointing because I sowed most of it with field beans (a green manure) and broad beans in November. (The cardboard is there to protect a patch I left unsown, intending to make a second sowing in March.) I guess I left it just a little too late; they say early November is the latest you should sow but we did it near the end of the month. Still, never mind, there's plenty of time to sow more broad beans, and our root veg and leeks will go here from March onwards.

Section five is what we call our perennials bed, though it's not the only one! We planted it last year with asparagus (along the left hand side) strawberries (in the raised beds) and globe artichokes (far end, under little mounds of woodchip mulch and black plastic to protect the crowns from frost), as well as some parsley, sage, lavender and lemon balm. It's done okay so far but the plants are still getting established - hopefully they will be even better this year. I'd also like to plant some perennial kale among the sage - supposedly sage keeps cabbage white butterflies away, but we will see!

Section six is home to our pond (far end), two columnar 'spur' fruit trees, and our old strawberry patch (this end) which is now under a mulch of thick cardboard until we can dig it over. There used to be a really nice herb garden planted around the pond and the trees, but over the years it's become swamped with couchgrass and very few plants are left, so this area is up for redevelopment this year... We will replant the herb garden - perhaps through a membrane to keep the grass down - and the old strawberry bed will become a flower patch! We'll also be giving away the pear tree - we don't like the fruit! - and we need to right the very wonky apple tree before it goes over! We'll have to do this soon while the trees are still dormant - they won't like having their roots messed with.

Finally, section seven is where we keep our tools in our storage bench, and it's where our old compost bins were (on the right). That spot is now a lovely fertile patch where we'll put a plastic greenhouse this year for a few tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. We've also got a little comfrey patch here which we use to feed the compost and make plant feed, and at the far end is a little bed which used to grow asparagus, though it's almost all been choked out by grass - another redevelopment project for this year. I think it's just big enough for a couple of bean teepees... or I might decide to grow the beans at home and grow sweet peas here instead, or some more fruit! I'd also like to narrow this path a bit to maximise the growing space in section six on the left.

You'll notice there's not much space here for summer fruiting crops like French beans, courgettes and tomatoes, nor salads or brassicas. A few years ago we decided we were better off only growing reasonably low-maintenance veg at the allotment, since we struggle to get here enough to look after them. It's working out really well, and we can still grow those things at home where we can keep an eye on them and pick them regularly! We don't grow many brassicas simply because we find them so problematic (what with flea beetles, whitefly, rootfly, slugs, three kinds of caterpillars and pigeons all wanting a share!) but we are adding them to our repertoire gradually. And we don't grow onions or shallots because we have dreadful white rot in the soil which destroys the crop, but we manage a bit of garlic and plenty of spring onions at home, and I'm sure we'll return to onion-growing at some point...

During our trip on Monday we pruned the apple and pear trees and made a good job of weeding and tidying the perennials bed, cutting down last year's asparagus ferns, herb flower spikes and sunflower stems. Here's a 'before' picture!

There's much more weeding to be done before things start growing again in spring, and we need to make a start on that digging very soon too. We're all crossing our fingers for no flooding this year, so we can keep at it!

Allotment Week, Part Two: Goodbye Digging!

Think about allotments or growing-your-own, and digging is probably one of the first activities that comes to mind. But digging, it seems, is not the best choice for the soil, and more and more gardeners are giving it up. I've been following the work of gardening author and teacher Charles Dowding, who promotes no-dig gardening, and the efforts of Roy and Tanya from Pushing up Dandelions, who created a wonderful and productive no-dig plot from scratch last year by bringing in mulch, manure and compost from offsite, and the advantages are clear:

• It preserves and protects beneficial soil life: the six legged kind, the wriggling kind and the oft-forgotten complex fungal organisms that weave their mycelia through the dirt.
• The soil develops a more stable and open structure, which admits air and water, drains well and can be walked on (carefully) without compacting.
• The soil surface stays loose and is less likely to harden into a crust.
• Leaving roots and other organic matter in the soil to decompose naturally adds structure and nutrients.
• Regular digging means old weed seeds in the soil are constantly brought to the surface where they can germinate and grow.
• Most crops actually establish better and grow faster in undug soil, thanks to its improved structure and microlife.
• Digging takes a lot of time and can be jolly hard work!

(For more about no-dig gardening, check out this handy leaflet from Garden Organic.)

When we started out with our plot, I don't think we could possibly have avoided digging: the couchgrass problem was severe, and we couldn't have afforded to ship in enough compost to just cover it up - and anyway we wanted to grow in the fertile allotment soil, not shipped-in compost from goodness-knows-where! But now, having dug annually for a few years and finally gotten rid of most of the grass across the main growing area of the plot, we're making the big switch to no-dig gardening...

The two beds in the foreground of the pic above have only needed hand-weeding for the last year or so. We helped the third one along last year by basically digging all the soil out of it to about a foot deep, lining it with a couple of layers of thick cardboard to smother the grass, and putting the soil back minus the grass roots! Our squashes grew well here last year and again, it only needed hand-weeding. The cardboard will decompose eventually, but hopefully it will take long enough to smother and kill off any remaining perennial roots below.

Our card-lined no-dig squash bed!

The fourth bed, way over near the compost bin, is still chock-full of grass. We're planning to grow potatoes there this year and Eddie has started to dig it, but those plans may yet change to no-dig plans...

You will have noticed we've put in some (hopefully) permanent paths now, too, lined with weedproof fabric, edged with bricks and filled in with woodchip. This added structure will really help us keep control of things better, I think, and provides something of a barrier to any remaining weeds and those creeping in from the sides.

Taken last summer

So anyway, now we've got a big weed-free area, we're giving up on our thoroughly weed-ridden strawberry and asparagus beds, and planting a new perennials bed was our other main task for 'allotment week'. Below you can see how our old strawberry bed looks right now, and the asparagus bed is in the same state. Hand-weeding them every year when the couchgrass is obviously still so established is just soul-destroying. We were obviously very naive about how long it would take and how hard it would be to get rid of the perennial weeds!

Our old strawberry bed - yuk!

Our new perennial bed has 24 strawberry plants in two raised beds (Florence, Mae, Lucy and Albion runners transplanted from the old bed and from home) and two new rows of asparagus (10 x Gjinlim and 10 x Backlim). Eventually we'll also plant some globe artichokes, a perennial kale or two, and some herbs!

Asparagus crowns going in the ground

So here it is: our new perennials bed (with fox protection on the far raised bed, as we keep finding decomposing animals and bones in it!). There are still a few swedes and leeks here too, but we're getting through them fast now. It won't be long before the asparagus is popping through the soil and the strawberries start leafing up again!

In the meantime, I've taken some cuttings from our perennial Daubenton kale to go here...

...and I'm raising Green Globe artichokes from seed at home. They say you get a lot of duds growing artichokes from seed, so I started by sowing 20 seeds, and culled the weaker ones from the 16 that germinated, so now I have ten. I'll be sure to get rid of any others that don't keep up, and if there are still more than I can handle, I'll take the surplus to swaps! I have bought artichoke plants before but they struggled and died (they were in the troubled bottom end of the plot, where the compost bin now is) and they were expensive! Seed is much cheaper!

Of course, there's still some digging to do: we need to start from square one on the remaining grassy areas now, including the old strawberry and asparagus beds. But it's great to know we can now start to say goodbye to that back-breaking chore we had to get through each season before we could start the fun stuff, and I know the plot's going to be much more productive for it!

Allotment update. Gah!

I'm finally starting to face up to the fact this is a bad, bad year for growing. Between torrential rain and scorching sun, and thanks to weeds thriving through the mild winter, we still haven't cleared enough earth to plant out our sweetcorn, beans, sunflowers and squashes, and they're languishing and potbound at home. Grass is taking over everything and slugs are eating everything else. We've had the worst asparagus crop ever, and the spring hail that blasted blossoms off fruit trees and bushes is going to mean a pretty poor fruit crop too. All my cucumbers and gherkins (at home) yellowed and died for reasons unknown - I suspect they just couldn't take the prolonged cold, wet, dull weather - cutworms (or something) mowed down 90% of my broad beans, and my shallots have inexplicably gone straight to flower without swelling to any kind of decent size.

At least the potatoes are doing okay.

The garlic is looking good and the onions are doing all right, albeit with rather liberal applications of (organic) slug pellets to try to keep it that way.

And despite a lot of slug damage and a few weeds as always, we're picking plenty of strawberries, which are always a joy.

We've achieved one of our allotment goals at least - we've finally planted up the corner patch we hardly ever use (hard, root-filled soil) with some artichokes, perennial cauliflowers and heritage kales - all planted through weedproof fabric to try to keep things under control...

I'm gradually covering it with stones to protect the fabric (it's gonna take a while!), and plan to plant some sage between the brassicas to try to keep caterpillars at bay - apparently cabbage whites hate the smell. I'll believe it when I see it...

At home, our tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, herbs, mangetout, chard and French beans are doing all right, I've resown a couple of cucumbers, and I might actually manage to grow some aubergines this year - they're loving the extra warmth of the plastic greenhouse - so all is not lost.

But I'm gonna have to accept we're just not going to get everything done on the plot this year. Sigh.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Come on now, this is getting silly. I know we're in a drought situation (whatever that actually means) but we still need sunshine too, and the man on the telly said only winter rain could help us so your efforts are wasted. I swear most of my warm-season plants have just stopped growing - even the ones that didn't get smashed to bits by hail - and a few are just rotting in their pots, including the artichokes I spent good money buying. The slugs and snails are doing so well, in the meantime, that the remaining plants barely stand a chance, and after frost got my first early asparagus spears, the next wave has been so slow to grow without sunshine that most of it's been eaten before it's big enough to cut! Beans sown under fleece have not sprouted yet, and I strongly suspect they're rotten by now. There's a serious amount of weeding to do before I plant my maincrop potatoes and it's such a muddy job when the ground is practically waterlogged. I bought one of those weed wand thingies to burn the weeds but I can't do that when they're soaking wet, can I? Frankly, it's just depressing and uninspiring and motivation-crushing when the skies are grey and gloomy all day every day, and I'm not usually one to complain about the weather, but seriously, we don't usually have three (or is it four?) solid weeks of the same. Enough, okay?

Of course, I try to look on the bright side. The early potatoes and most of the herbs are doing well (except the rosemary which doesn't like to be wet), and the peppers and cucumbers in the relative warmth of the greenhouse are doing okay, if a little slowly.

The strawberries are pretty happy and green, with a few flowers appearing, and a couple I thought I'd lost to vine weevil have suddenly bounced back. The radishes, lettuces and mizuna are doing really well, too, although it's a constant battle keeping the slugs off them.

The tiny pots in which I've sown my brassicas are getting a constant watering where usually it'd be a fight to stop them drying out! And I have now harvested the first of my asparagus, even if it doesn't look very appetising.

Having battled with the allotment weeds for five full years now to virtually no avail, I've given up on digging and bought, as I said, a 'Weed Wand' to kill 'em all with. The environmental (and financial) cost of the gas canisters is not ideal, but as long as I'm economical with them and dispose of them properly, I think it's got to be better than either of the other options, which are using chemicals, or throwing in the towel. The cell-damage to the weeds is supposed to kill the whole plant, so I have high hopes that with this we'll finally be able to gain control, and it's going to be so much easier and less daunting than all that digging! Once the weeds are dry enough to start, anyway...

I'm also delighted to report the arrival of the year's most awaited seedling! After the hail killed all my ancho peppers - the ones I was most excited about growing - I sowed the last few seeds I had to replace them. And I waited... and I waited... and everything else I sowed came up but them. Finally, one has arrived! I hope more will still follow in the coming days.

At this time of year I'm usually starting to think about the likelihood of any further frosts and looking forward to planting things out, but everything's so far behind this year! So come on, rain. Enough!

White Asparagus

You may recall I bought some white asparagus a couple of weeks back on our trip to Borough Market. White asparagus is a bit of a delicacy, and a new one to me that I'd wanted to try for ages. It's exactly the same stuff as green asparagus but grown in the dark, which produces a sweeter, milder, nuttier flavour and a rather different texture; crisp to the bite but smooth. It also tends to be thicker, and usually needs peeling to remove the woody outer skin.

White asparagus requires a much longer cooking time than green - some 10-15 minutes - but is prone to absorbing much too much water if overcooked, so you have to be careful! Some chefs recommend boiling it in water with salt and sugar and a splash of lemon juice, to concentrate the sweetness and prevent discolouration.

Some quick internet research showed that it pairs best with salty or nutty flavours. Hams or strong hard cheeses such as parmesan are common accompaniments, as are nuts, mushrooms and truffles. Handy then that I'd just invested in some truffle-infused olive oil too...

White truffles are said to go best with mushrooms, eggs and beans, so after a bit of thought I decided on a carbonara-inspired dish of spaghetti, mushrooms and the asparagus, with a seasoned cream and egg mixture stirred in at the last minute so that it cooks onto the other ingredients. Sadly it's not exactly the best-looking dish in the world, what with white asparagus, white spaghetti, white mushrooms, white parmesan and white bread...

White Asparagus Spaghetti
(serves two)

• Cut 6-8 spears white asparagus on the diagonal into 1" lengths and boil with a little salt, a little sugar and a tablespoon of lemon juice for 10-13 minutes, until al dente but not soggy.
• Boil 150g spaghetti in salted water.
• Saute sliced mushrooms and a couple of crushed cloves of garlic in a generous knob of butter. 
• Break one large egg into a cup or bowl and beat very well. Beat in an equal amount of double cream and a glug of truffle oil (optional). Season.
• Stir cooked asparagus pieces, spaghetti and mushrooms together on the heat.
• Remove from heat and quickly stir in the egg mixture until it is cooked.
• Check seasoning, and serve with crusty bread.

Mmmmmm. An indulgent meal for an indulgent evening. It's rich but the flavours are delicate, and the salty parmesan certainly sets it off well. Of course, this dish would work fine with green asparagus too.

Will I be going out of my way to eat white asparagus again? Well, it's good, it's different, but I love the green stuff and I don't think this is necessarily better. Although I might be tempted to splash out again for a special occasion, at nearly twice the price I certainly won't make it a habit!

The Simple Things

As much as I like fancy, cheffy food, and learning new dishes, and trying new things, and making stuff up, and fresh ingredients, there are times when you just want a quick, simple, fuss-free supper, and while it's easy to turn to a frozen pizza or beans on toast (and I often do), at this time of year when there are so many fresh green veg to be eaten it'd be a crime...

My go-to at times like this is a frittata (now served with some fresh, Nome-baked, no-knead bread!), and it's another one of those dishes where you can pretty much throw in whatever's available.

And I know I've blogged about frittatas a few times before, but they're so damn good I don't care. And I've stopped burning myself making them now I've bought myself some fancy 'Glovens'!

To make this frittata for two I dropped thinly sliced new potatoes and bite-size asparagus pieces into boiling water for 3 minutes, then fried chopped bacon and spring onions in a generous knob of butter, added the potatoes and asparagus, threw in some perpetual spinach and sorrel and let it wilt, then beat up four eggs with seasoning and a few tablespoons of milk, stirred the egg mix into the veg and topped the whole lot with chunks of brie. Then I let it sit still and cook on a medium heat until the edges started to look cooked (a few minutes) before popping it under a hot grill until set through and golden on top (a few more minutes).

Mmm, eggy, bacony, melty cheesy goodness - but with vegetables! We have vowed to have a frittata at least once a week, with whatever's available at the time - maybe a few more cheap suppers will save us a bit of cash too!

Allotment Update

Despite being way ahead of ourselves earlier in the season, it's a real struggle keeping up with things at the allotment at this time of year and we've got the usual mix of good and bad going on.

Good: the potatoes are doing well, and ready to be earthed up just as soon as I pluck all the bindweed out.

Good: I've planted the leeks out. 12 Autumn Giant, 12 Malabar F1 and 12 Musselburgh. These were sown in seed trays in late February.

We plant them in a grid, pushing a 6" deep hole in the soil using the end of a hoe, dropping the baby leek in and watering well. I do think some of them were still a bit small really, so fingers crossed they're not too swamped! I'm keeping the extra seedlings on standby just in case.

Bad: the spinach has gone to seed in the warm, dry weather, and I barely got to harvest any! Boooooo.

The chard is finished too, and will need clearing a.s.a.p. to make room for a new lot.

Good: the broad beans are thriving and flowering away. As always, please ignore the carpet of weeds...

The two lefthand rows are Aquadulce, the two righthand rows are Bunyards Exhibition. I know which one I'm growing next year!

Good: We've weeded the asparagus (again) and planted out the petunias (reputed to keep away the dreaded asparagus beetle).

Bad: the asparagus beetles are really going for it this year and causing serious damage. Some of this could be slug/snail damage too. I've never seen anything like this - the whole tips are gone!

Good: we've netted the strawberries, adopting a much simpler system than the rickety frame we constructed last year!

The net is simply draped over a few canes topped with plastic bottles, and weighed down round the edges with stones tied into the netting.

Good: I've direct-sown runner beans (Polestar) round the feet of four obelisks, and a few rows of French beans (Delinel) in front. Eddie's grandparents kindly sent us a few runner bean plants back at Eastertime, too. They've been getting a bit stressed and lanky in their little pots and will take some settling in, but they're out there now and will hopefully give us a small early crop!

Bad: we still have to finish digging the brassica patch and the three squash patches! The weeds have really taken over since last growing season and the soil is very hard and dry because of the weather we've been having, so progress is slow. I'd hoped to have cleared the paths and got some weed-proof membrane down on them by this time too, but I guess that can wait til everything else is sorted.

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...

Busy Busy Busy

Eddie and I have had a week off together this week - aaaah, bliss. And what great weather for it! Of course, we've taken the opportunity to catch up with everything in the garden and the allotment, which has meant a pretty busy week!

I've sown all my seeds for March at last - there's just some chard, corn, squashes and beans left to sow in a few weeks' time. I've sown purple sprouting broccoli, calabrese, swedes (Angela and Marian), sprouts (Evesham Special), spring cabbage (Offenham), courgettes (Astia F1), squashes (Sweet Dumpling, Butternut and Crown Prince), plus summer savory, catnip, rosemary, tarragon, sage, Thai basil, red basil, and dozens of marigolds, poppies, poached-egg plant and cornflowers. And some more Angelle tomatoes to replace the seedlings that we lost.

My seed collection is getting a bit silly. Am I the only one that accumulates tons of half-packets of seeds past their use-by date? I don't want to just throw them away and I don't want to use them in case they don't work! I've tried to thin them out a bit this year but my seed drawer still looks like this:

It's sorted into families: peas and beans, flowers (annual and perennial!), herbs (annual and perennial), tomatoes and peppers, brassicas, curcubits, salad veg, and miscellaneous! And I keep two big bags of silica gel in there to keep moisture low - I don't know if it does any good but it seemed worth a try.

Also, on the plot, we've dug several beds over and planted our onions (Stuttgarter Giant, in an effort to get some decent sized bulbs this year!), shallots (Picasso) and garlic (French Cledor), and sown parsnips (White Gem, which always do really well for me).

And it's not just us that have been busy - there are plenty of signs of life appearing on the allotment too. We have radish seedlings...

Spinach seedlings...

Broad bean shoots...

And look!

Asparagus! In March! We usually don't see it until the first or second week of April. I'm very excited!

The pond is full of frogspawn...

And the purple sprouting broccoli is finally sprouting...

Ha! I want to say spring is definitely here, but 'British Summer Time' begins tomorrow!