Worried Wilfred

Handsome Man - Prize Winning Scarecrow

Second Prize winning “Worried Wilfred” ( or “Handsome Man as he was called in the village scarecrow competition) was moved this week to the allotment to keep Aunt Sally (3rd prize)company on the adjoining plot.

 

He was designed and created by my granddaughter Lianna with help from my wife Joan and the rest of the family.

 

Here he is keeping a close watch on me whilst I lifted the Foremost early potatoes – 16Kg from around 25 plants. I  needed the space and as all the foliage was dying I preferred to lift and store even with the rain rather let the slugs have them.

 

 

In the foreground are the Jersey Royals and just behind are the Solent and Albigensian garlics.

 

I planted up 10 Oarsman leeks given to me by Jane and was about to plant my main Musselburgh Leeks in the remaining section of the onion bed when I realised that it was not a good idea with the amount of rust on the garlic.

 

So I decided enough was enough and lifted all the remaining ones.

Shown here are 30 Solent Wight and 12 Albigensian. I already lifted 4 Albigensian and 15 Early purple earlier this month.

Armfuls of Garlic

Just to show the wonderful size here is a close up. I had many that were over 50mm across and I measured one of these at 63.3mm across.

 

Solent Wight

I keep a close check on these at this time of year. Every year so far I have lost a few with a touch of rot but have plenty anyway. I also found a couple of elephant garlic bulbils I planted had grown and produced their own.

So all in all a good year for the garlic.

The Results of Hard Work

After several months of hard work

After months of work digging, digging,  and rotovating, the new plot takes shape nicely. This shows the view from the same place as the last post showing the results of all that work. I spent so long on the new plot that I still need to get more plants into the ground on the old plot.

You can see the new wires for the raspberries. The single wire system did not work well so I fitted spreaders and 2 wires but not very tidily. I intend to fit cross wires every so often and that way I may get away without any ties.

Against the wall you can also see the cupboard from my sister Rosemary’s house. It frees up the cold frame from the junk giving more space for plants. I also have a plastic chair deemed unusable for the garden. I’ll find the right spot sometime.  

 

New plot almost full

 

“This year I am mostly growing Potatoes”

 - oh and onions.

I have 2 rows of Kestrel on the right, 2 rows of Rooster next and then 3 rows of Desiree.

 

Both sides of the path are multiple rows of different onions. On the 8th May I finally planted out 5 rows of Bedfordshire Champion grown from seed. About half of the bought Mammoth plants I planted out earlier had failed.

 

In the cold frame I sowed 24 sweetcorn – Honeydew, 1/2 tray of celery – Loretta and 3 pots of Russian Giant sunflower. It is very late for celery and the sunflowers are old so we’ll see.

 The Wee B Little pumpkins I sowed earlier in the month are growing well although none of the other cucurbits have shown yet.

 

In the nursery bed are cauliflower – All the Year Round, sprouts – Clodious and Berwick, calabrese – Zen, chard – Bright Lights, lettuce - Webbs Wonderful, Tom Thumb and Lollo Rosso, broccoli – Red Arrow and Rudolph. 

 

We learn every year and this time I learnt not to leave a bonfire too long. I earthed it up to keep it safe overnight. By the time I decided the weeds were probably dead and scattered the pile, it had fired the earth and it now looks like a builders rubble site with red fired clay. Hopefully with manure and care that part will come back.

 

You can also see the sticks for the runner beans which are growing well in their trainers in the cold frame. 

The roots and brassicas are finally in

After so much work on the new plot I really have not done a lot on the old one.

 

Last night I managed to sow 3 rows of Swede – Ruby, 2 rows of American land cress in the brassica patch (below the potatoes and to the right of the broad beans), a row of beetroot – Perfect 3 and a row of turnip – Golden Ball in the roots patch(nearest the camera). The turnips are very old although still sealed so may come to nothing and I sowed them between the rows of parsnips. I really must get some carrots in!

 

 I did manage to dig over most of the remaining part after the rain at the beginning of May. The paths and ground around the overwintering broccoli, swedes and parsnips was rock hard before so it is nice to be able to at least get the fork in there.

I need the space for two beds, brassicas and the other more urgent for legumes.  I need places for peas and dwarf french beans - real soon now.

 

A Brave New World

Back in late January my badgering of the wardens was finally rewarded with a letter invoicing me for a second half plot. Within minutes I was over on the plot digging over as much as I could to allow the winter frosts in.

Before major work

I only remembered the camera half way through hence the strip of dug ground you can see.

This shot is taken from my existing plot across the line of raspberries and the new plot extends from the wall in line with my posts up to just past the black compost bin and then back to my existing bins. The leeks, the cloches and the barrow are all on my existing plot and you can see the path dividing the two plots.  

Not a lot was done last year on this new plot apart from growing weeds and the year before the holder had been called away right at the start of the season so was unable to do anything.

I knew the soil underneath should not be too bad as the year before that the holder had worked very hard and had dug most of the plot apart from the row of about 20 blackcurrant bushes at the top.

After the worst of the winter had gone in early March and after a good few hours of work by my eldest, Tim, and me clearing the weeds over a couple of weekends, I managed on Saturday to plant up my rows of onion sets – Hyred, Hytech and New Fen Early. 16 to a row with half of each row spaced at 100 and the other half 125mm. I reversed the spacing for each row as an experiment in how much effect it actually has. Each row was at 300mm and I left room for 3 rows of Bedfordshire Champion grown from seed (but still in the cold frame) and also 3 rows of Mammoth plants spaced at 300mm. I suspect I may have put them out too early.

 You can also see the results of a skip raid for the pallets to make a bin by the wall. Because I did not want it above the wall I ended up digging out all the soil and weeds that had built up along the wall and then digging down to seat them in. I could go no lower as I managed to reach the electrical warning tape for the 11000 Volt cable that runs along the base of the wall!

I also had a few minutes to spare so I dug over the lowest section of the new plot where I moved the cold frame to a couple of weeks back and after digging weeding and then rotovating I have a lovely nursery bed. ( I started after breakfast around 11:45 and came back in at around 8PM – I did have a cup of tea and toast around 4:30)

Also in this shot you can see the benefit of the wall - Two buckets of manure delivered direct to the plot – no barrowing uphill this year.

 

Looking the other way from the manure heap you can see the nursery bed, the cold frame and the onion rows.

On the other side back on my original plot I have not been idle.

Before I knew I had more space I decided the small 3ft by 11ft beds were just too small for the  brassicas and the numerous paths were being smothered with weeds that then spread. The good part about the small beds was that they were easy to manage mentally.

So instead of 15 3×11 beds I dug up as much as I could before the winter, then slowly I have removed the weeds and turned the plot through 90 degrees to give 10 beds each 3.1 metres by 1.65

Into that I planted 30 potatoes – International Kidney a couple of weeks back,  75 broad bean - Jubilee Hysor, and then last weekend I lifted the last of the leeks ( lovely dead straight, thick white stems most at least 10 – 12 inches ) managed to dig over the remaining areas, manured  and planted a further 30 early potatoes, Foremost this time, along with 48 each of the onion sets.

That left me free to concentrate on the new section this weekend just gone. I think I have the major part of this rework sorted now with just the old brassica beds to clear when the broccoli is done.

The broccoli is finally almost ready to pick at last and I lifted the last of the swedes to clear another of the old beds. I moved the last of the parsnips into a trench next to the cold frame a week or so ago.

So the rain looks set for a while this week and with a family barbecue on Sunday it’s just as well I got as much done before!

Better Late than Never

Garlic Harvest 25th July 2010

Well, I just haven’t got around to updating this year but the plot is going as strong as ever.

I came across this photo taken by Joan at the end of July showing my garlic harvest. Since they are already braided we can assume they came out of the ground around mid July.

The braid is Solent Wight, the others are Early Purple and Albigensian Wight all grown from last years bulbs.

I’ve given up on the shallots and with the revamp on the plot I have managed to squeeze in 73 cloves plus 8 small bulblets of elephant garlic  last weekend. 

I also managed to plant 6 Elephant garlic cloves in the herb bed in the garden.

On digging over the garlic bed after the frosts killed the gourds, I discovered another 4 early purple that had sprouted so they have gone in as well.

I gave away a few bulbs to people who say they “can’t grow garlic” so we’ll wait and see.

Winter Whiteout

The allotments at peace

Not too much happening on the allotment back in mid January. Very peaceful and beautiful. I am so lucky that with the internet I can work from home as easily as my work desk on the snowbound days and my customers in hotter climes are fascinated by the views from my study window. ( Unfortunately my study faces the other way from the allotments)

Lettuces in the mini greenhouse

To try to keep up I have some mixed lettuces under a “sun tunnel” on the plot and also a number of plants growing in the mini greenhouse. Hopefully when the frosts stop, I’ll be able to plant them on and get early salads. This picture was early January of mainly Webbs Wonderful and Lollo Rosso.

They are all still going in mid February although the outer leaves have suffered.

Broad Bean sprouts

After last years 4 attempts at growing broad beans I tried something completely different this year. I put  around a hundred seeds in a pot and soaked them overnight. They were nice and full by the morning. I then placed some seed compost in a freezer bag with the beans, shook them around and left them to it for a week. What you see above is what was left after planting on about 60 into 15 cell trays  into the mini greenhouse. No more gaps, no more resowing. and hopefully an early good crop.

Winter Pleasures

Savoy Endeavour

Winter this year has provided many vegetables for us. Savoy cabbage Endeavour pictured along with Ruby Perfection red - not many but good enough to eat!

First Parsnip and Leek

Very pleased with these as the first parsnip of the season and the first leek around mid December. They both tasted as good as they looked.

Small but beautiful celery

I planted my celery out too far apart for a self blanching type but still had some for picking. I’ll learn for next year.

A perfect ham for Christmas

 I couldn’t resist putting in this photo. I wanted a “traditional” ham so found a gammon along with the recipe. I prepared and cooked it a boxing day treat and the recipe worked so well that it looks just like the photo in the book. Tasted superb so it didn’t last long at all! 

A decent sized bunch of Leeks

Leeks Musselburgh, sown earlier and going strong in midwinter. Still growing well now. I’ve already sown this years seeds into a pot in the mini greenhouse for an even earlier crop.

Of Mushrooms and Manure

First and last crop

Finally managed to update the blog – here are the great mushrooms I grew from the kit in mid December. Tasted superb. The only downside is that I think I overwatered them so that they were too cold to grow any more.

I did try to sow some more earlier this month but failed. I’ll try again later in the year.

Manure Heap

I also had manure delivered in mid December and after 23 barrow trips ( 46 based on last years barrow sizes) I have a nice pile of manure waiting to be dug in where needed. I was short last year so got between 2 and 3 times more this year. Now dug into the potato beds and will get the cucurbits working well this year hopefully.

Micro Gardening in the dark

Mushrooms

 Too cold and damp to do much on the allotment at the moment. Just waiting for the manure.

So instead here is the result of my birthday present mushroom farm. This is after about 10 days in the dark. Looking good. 

Three little mushrooms

A close up shows that with patience I should get a few more and with luck we could have some for breakfast by Christmas.

Popular Penguins

The Penguin

 

Just to show it is not all work, I could not resist showing Lianna’s penguin made from vegetables. Four weeks earlier and I think it could have been a worthy contender in the Bathford Flower Show.

This was after a hard morning helping me to harvest and also clear the peas and sweetpeas to leave room to put the strawberry runners. Not sure how many will take but we’ll see.

Strawberry runners

Last of the Cucurbits

Crown Prince pumpkins

 I decided not compete on size this year and just as well having seen the monsters growing.  Instead we chose these blue / green pumpkin called Crown Prince. Only two pumpkins out of three plants so not really sure where I went wrong apart from lack of water. 

 

cucumber

I have also been disappointed with the cucumber crop this year. Not even good enough to think about entering for the show but when eaten it still tastes good. Just not enough and too late. This is one of two reasonable size ones and although there are maybe another half dozen on their way, the salad days are almost over! I planted five plants,  two types, Marketmore and Burpless. The Burpless just did not survive and I think next year I will try to grow these closer together for cross pollination. I also suspect that the roots were suffering from the other gourds planted. 

Decorative gourds

 These are amazing and great value from just five plants. This is still the same 79p packet from Lidl last year and there is enough seed for next year. There are at least another half dozen on the plants including a light green bottle type. The only snag is that when sowing or transplanting I have no idea what I will get until they form the fruit.