2009

Yes, I'm still here!

I'm planning to get back on top of this in 2010, but I thought I'd better recap last year first so you know where I'm at.

2008 ended pretty badly, with our whole potato crop ruined by wireworm, tomatoes ravaged by blight, neglected beans drying on the plants, pumpkins mysteriously exploding (yes, exploding) and most everything else drowned in weeds. We did get some stupendously big parsnips, but they were too big - the middles were all woody!

2009 was more of the same - not enough time to do everything, broad bean plants turned to blackened stumps for reasons unknown, crops going to waste on the plants, weeds just everywhere...

And we decided we'd give up. We'd given it a good shot but we obviously didn't have the time to do the plot justice, and there are plenty more people out there on the waiting list who deserve a shot at it probably better than we do.

So off we went in September to harvest what was left; a few pumpkins, potatoes, onions and parsnips. And we were amazed. There was so MUCH. Four of the most beautiful pumpkins, a huge bag of parsnips, dozens of squashes from a plant I'd given up on months back but had seemingly revived itself. A big bag of healthy potatoes, despite last year's wireworm problem and losing half the plants to a very rushed and careless earthing-up job. So many lovely onions! And we thought, well, we grew all this with hardly any effort at all. Maybe we're just doing it wrong.

Duh!

So we're going to simplify. Fewer crops, given more space each. Add some more permanent things to the allotment (raspberries, raised salad beds) so we no longer have the daunting task of digging over the WHOLE lot. Fussy plants requiring more work will grow in our home garden, in pots or growbags, or not at all.

And maybe, just maybe, this year we'll get this thing under control...

Staving off the blog-guilt

I know, I know - it's been ages, I'm sorry.
The plot overwhelms me in the summer, and life's so busy even without it. And just as the blog and the allotment are supposed to motivate each other, so allotment-guilt perpetuates blog-guilt, and vice versa, in a paralysing vicious circle.

But two things have happened so exciting I had to write at least a quick post to tell you.

I harvested my shallots!

18 planted, 64 harvested. Doesn't seem like a bad turnover. Now I'm going to have to find somewhere to store them. The house is too warm, my onions told me last year, but if I put them in the shed I'm worried the rodents will get them. We have a pretty bad rodent problem.

Do rodents even eat onions?

And look at THIS!

Ok, so the plants don't look too healthy. Not sure why - it's not nearly destructive enough to be blight and I'm pretty sure they're getting enough food and water. But anyway I've eaten a good handful of the very first Nomegrown tomatoes now and they're delicious. A little thick-skinned (is that just down to variety?) but delicious!

The toms on the allotment are doing pretty well too, and despite my complete inability to prune them they're carrying a pretty decent amount of fruit.

The beans are doing incredibly well, and so is the sweetcorn and most of the squashy things. Two of my obelisks are covered in spaghetti squashes, the pumpkins had made a break for plot-domination and started over the top of the cabbage-patch netting when we returned from another holiday recently, and I swear we carried home nearly my body-weight in courgettes the other day. The cucumbers aren't doing so well, unfortunately, though this small-but-perfectly-formed specimen was delicious (the difference between shop-bought cucumbers and homegrown ones is astounding).

First year I grew them it was in grow bags, and I've just never had such good results since. I think next year I will have to try growbags again!

I Can Grow Carrots!

And they're SO delicious!

As you can see by the variety of sizes, I can't thin carrots, but one step at a time eh?

I was disappointed to find a couple had carrot-fly holes in them, and several more had little white eggs round the tops. This is from a row planted amongst nine rows of onions, leeks and shallots! This companion-planting lark seems a bit hit and miss to me. Ah well. Won't stop me trying...

Thank you for all your kind words, encouragement and advice after the last post - I knew I could count on you guys : )


You'll be pleased to know we did get the sweetcorn, pumpkins (above) and summer brassicas (below) planted out before Glastonbury (and we had a great time too!), and the brassicas have all been safely netted (although it was a bit of a rush job - don't laugh!).


This is our lettuce patch.

Oops. If I had time, I'd pull it all up and start again, but I just don't. I wonder if I can save seed from all the mustard, mizuna and cress which has bolted... In fact a lot of what you see here is bolted crops, presumably from the stress of weed-crowding (and lack of thinning, of course).

But who wants to talk about weeds? What's important is that the eating part of this whole enterprise has really got going now.

Tonight I cooked this amazing summer chicken stew, from a recipe I saw on Market Kitchen yesterday (which you can find here, if you like, and I highly recommend it) with Nome-grown potatoes, carrots, broad beans, onion, peas (the mangetout and sugar snaps have been getting huge under all those weeds) and lovage and mint! I have yet to master the art of food photography - the picture below looks rather anaemic - but WOW, it was well worth trudging to the plot in the rain after work for!

'The Wall'

I think I've hit 'the wall'. Just like last June too. It's weeks since I've done any decent amount of work at the plot, weeds are swamping everything, there are still two beds to dig over before I can plant out my summer cabbages, pumpkins and corn, and I just can't face it.

But this blog and the allotment have always motivated each other - that's why I started it in the first place - so here's a quick update on not very much to try to get me going again.

GOOD NEWS: The strawberries are fruiting away; no great amount but a decent handful every few days.
BAD NEWS: Actually considering they're mostly under two feet of grass they're doing pretty well, but the slugs and millipedes are eating quite a lot too.
GOOD NEWS: The asparagus is looking SO healthy compared to last year, with no beetle trouble at all, and my pride-and-joy seed-grown red petunias are flowering beautifully underneath it.
BAD NEWS: Still haven't planted out the replacement pea plants I started at home, and they're getting all tangled up.
GOOD NEWS: The beans are doing really well, with hardly any slug trouble. I've started a tubful at home too, and they're great.
BAD NEWS: The lettuce patch is so completely overgrown I don't think I'll get anything else out of it this year, unless maybe the beetroots are still ok under all that grass, or unless I clear it and start new sowings.
GOOD NEWS: My water lily is spreading its leaves on the surface at last and the pond and herb patch are looking lovely.
BAD NEWS: I've been persuaded that a lot of the slug-damage on my brassicas is actually pigeon damage. I thought pigeons only went for the flowering parts, but apparently I'm wrong and they need netting from the outset, so I'm kicking myself for leaving them unprotected.
GOOD NEWS: The broad beans are looking good. I don't really know when I'm supposed to pick them, but I think they're about ready...
BAD NEWS: Loads of the red onions are flowering already. Does that mean I won't be able to eat them? How can I stop them flowering??
GOOD NEWS: Some of the white onions are ready to eat already, so we've started harvesting them as needed, just as last year's supply ran out. This means we haven't bought onions in a year!
And REALLY GOOD NEWS: The tomatoes I thought were disease-stricken are all growing away healthily and happily now! Woo!

There.

Now I've got Thursday, Saturday and Sunday off and maybe some free time tomorrow afternoon, and the weather's looking pretty good, so there's really no excuse for not going down there and kicking some serious couchgrass butt before next week. Those pumpkins and sweetcorn WILL be planted before I go to Glastonbury...
Right, Eddie?

Planting out

What a lot of rain we had last weekend! I know bank holidays have a bit of a reputation, but that was just silly!

I was really worried for my newly-planted tomatoes, but on returning to the plot mid-week it looked like they enjoyed all the rain - they're looking much healthier already.

The rain did a nice job of settling in the petunias round the asparagus bed too. I planted them out a week ago but they didn't like the experience much - when I left them they were all limp and flopped over, and I thought they'd all die. They're growing strong now, apart from a little slug damage.
They're there essentially because I read somewhere that they repel asparagus beetles. I planted some there mid-season last year and saw a small decrease in my terrible infestation. This year I haven't seen a single beetle yet, so I'm wondering if just having had them in the soil previously has made a difference. The only other thing I did that could possibly have helped was to thoroughly weed and till the ground midwinter, to wake up any overwintering bugs early, but that wouldn't have stopped new ones arriving.
These petunias are a bright red variety (I hate those mixed-colour trays you get full of pinks and purples!) and grown from seed. Twenty four plants! I'm very proud of myself because my attempts last year failed completely!
I planted a row of parsley between the asparagus rows too, for the same reason. It'll all look rather pretty I think, when everything gets going!


The pond really enjoyed its rainwater top-up too. The level was getting worryingly low - I was starting to wonder how I could top it up myself without upsetting the balance of things, but there's no need now - it was actually overflowing after the rain!

Sadly the rain wasn't all good - it brought the slugs out in their droves and it has become painfully clear the tinfoil brassica collars make no difference to them whatsoever. Another bad year ahead for brassicas, I suspect...

I shall have to try nematodes again. I had a go last year but found the stuff really difficult to use and didn't notice much effect, but my Mum swears by them so perhaps I'll give them another go.

The wind snapped the stem of one of my courgette plants too. I heaped some earth up round the damage to give it a chance to put some more roots out and it seems to be doing all right so far. Time will tell...
And the wind and rain made a right mess of the broad beans - they'd flopped over all over the place. So I ran a couple of strings round them to hold the plants up together in a bunch. They're starting to grow little beanlets now - better late than never. Blackfly are making a meal of the tips, and dozens of ladybirds are making a meal of the blackfly!


I've been quite surprised at the beauty of the broad bean flowers, and the curious way the beans grow upright out of them! I don't think I've seen a broad bean plant before - I don't know what I was expecting.


I've been busy planting some other things out too; first the leeks in two rows alongside the parsnips, carrots and onions. I had trouble raising the seedlings last year (damn cats) so this year I bought a pack of 60 plants from Mr Fothergills; 20 'Lancia', for eating young in summer and autumn, 20 'Pandora' which mature in late summer and autumn, and 20 'Bandit' which should stand through winter and well into spring. I didn't have room for all of them (and I really don't think Eddie and I eat 60 leeks in a year!) so I just squished in as many as I could, alternating the 'Lancia' with the 'Pandora' in one row and with the 'Bandit' in the other. When I've pulled all the early 'Lancia', the later varieties will have more space to mature. Magic!


Next the cucumbers and butternut squash, which are to be trained up obelisks (fingers crossed). I've lost a couple of cucumber seedlings lately to damping-off and started some more which I'll plant out as soon as they're big enough. Looking on the bright side I guess it will spread my harvest a bit later. There are some spaghetti squash to go in the empty part of this bed too as soon as I have time to build the last two obelisks!

And finally, at long last, the beans. I started these at home ages ago and they've been getting so big they were trying to climb each other! Now all I have to do is pray the slugs don't kill them all off...

There are at least six plants each of six varieties. Not enough in my opinion; I LOVE french beans. I might start some in a pot at home too I think, since it doesn't look like I'll get round to doing everything I want to do on the plot this year, again. I'm starting to fear the 'spare' bed, which I was going to use for some extra squashes and beans, won't even get dug. And it's getting rather late in the season for my flower and herb borders.
It'll be different next year...

I wonder if I'll say that every year...