2009 – A healthy year

parsnip

It’s been a while since I last updated this so there are a few things to show.

First is this parsnip about a foot long and 5 inches across – the first of many back in October. This was Panache from Marshalls, from my first sowing. Plenty more right up until Christmas but the later sowings were smaller and in 2009 I plan on sowing earlier and in cardboard tubes or root-trainers.  I didn’t notice the mark when I took the picture or I would have turned it round but none of the parsnips were so badly affected by pests they had to be discarded.

gourds

 

I planted a packet of mixed ornamental gourds picked up cheaply just to fill a spot and these are the result. I planted about 30cm apart each way and trimmed them back when they started spreading to neighbouring beds. They look good in the kitchen doing just what it said on the tin.

Ice

When we had that very cold snap at new year I drained the water butts before they split. You can see I just caught them in time since these beautiful ice spirals about 2 inches long spreading towards the middle. Very difficult to photograph and shortly after getting the pics the whole lot crashed to the bottom.

sprouts

These are some still left after raiding on Christmas Eve. The pest damage is only on the very outside and they taste delicious. I’m puzzled since I had two types, Montgomery and Cromwell, which should have been ready at different times but they both seem to be producing together. I did pick some and freeze them a couple of weeks before Christmas just in case I lost the lot.

From the allotment, Christmas lunch included fresh sprouts and parsnips and very tasty peas, broad, french and runner beans  from the freezer. Also desert included raspberries that were as tasty as the day they were picked.

Winter plot

 To finish – a general view of the plot as at 2nd January 2009.

In the foreground are some January King that I suspect may be Jan 2010 before they’re ready!

Under the cloche are Webbs Wonderful lettuces.

Behind these are swedes “Marian”, which we may try soon. The largest is still only about 6cm across and about 12cm long.

In the bed behind are purple sprouting broccoli, turnips that really did not work this year and on the right chard “Bright Lights”.

Further back are the leeks that still need another month or so and the sprouts.

I’m already up on last year as all the heavy digging and manuring was done before the rain and cold. I will need to get out there and replant the broad beans soon as I can see none of the 96 have survived the birds and mice.

The shallots and garlic I planted are looking OK but not up to last years levels yet.

 Here’s to a good, healthy 2009.

Yet More Triumphs – Largest Pumpkin, Third Prize

3rd prize pumpkin

 

A very unexpected bonus last Saturday when Mike, one of the allotment wardens, pulled up and handed me an envelope. Inside was not the expected summons to pay the next years rent but my Hundredweight pumpkin at 40 inches diameter had won me third prize in the largest pumpkin competition judged that morning. Luckily for me Dennis was not allowed to win more than one prize or his would have taken first, second, and third! I understand Mike himself had won second.

My wife Joan has already made pumpkin pies and pumpkin soup that was perfect yesterday.

I’ve been too busy to do much on the allotment lately let alone add anything to the blog but here are a few recent goodies.

Cauliflowers

I was very pleased to get these caulis since everyone told me how hard they were to grow. They were given to me by our friends Barbara and Jim as 6 plants ( all the year round ) so I put them in to the only space available at the time along with the lettuces. The cabbage whites had a field day as you can see. One failed to grow at all, two grew but the centres were eaten before forming, one I picked but froze and when it was taken out a week later it looked disgusting but the one here on the left was perfect in a cauliflower cheese on Monday night. I’m hoping we catch the other before it goes off.

red and white onion strings

Just to prove that the winning onions were not a fluke here are some of the Red Baron and New Fen Globe I strung up in the garage. About 5Kg each string and all the smaller ones are in hessian bags. As I wrote before, the White Prince were hopeless.

cucumbers

Last but not least, here are about a dozen of the cucumbers (Marketmore) that have such flavour and texture compared to the shop ones.

I’ll save the cornfield for later.

Bathford Flower & Veg Show – A First

First Prize - Onions

The culmination of a good year so far was being awarded First Prize for Onions in the Bathford Show on Saturday 6th September 2008. I thought they were good with such a golden glow (New Fen Globe) when I lifted them but it is nice to know that the judges agreed. I read up about showing them but discovered on Thursday night that I really should have started preparing them about six weeks ago and not two days before the show. Maybe next year. I was tempted to oil them but settled instead for whipping the ends. I also notice that I should really make the ends a bit shorter. I’m sure I lost a few points for that. I’ve included the other 9 entries below to show that I had some worthy opposition.

The Competition

I also succeeded in taking second place with my cucumber (Marketmore) grown outdoors. I’m not too disheartened as the winner was a greenhouse grown, arrow straight, perfect example.

A lucky dip gave me second place in the “Longest Bean” entries with 18 and a half inches (White Lady).

A final selection based on smaller is better for the Purple French climbing beans (Empress) gave me a surprise third place.

Second Prize - Cucumber

 

I also entered sweetcorn – top not quite ripe but the rest looked wonderful, courgettes – too big, beetroot – too small, runner beans – not good, potatoes – too small.

As a final thought on this – I grow the veg for flavour rather than to look good.  

The beans have been appalling this year, both to get them to grow and then to pick them at the right stage. Almost all of the white onions I grew have rotted but the reds are not too bad.

After almost 30 years my Chamomile Lawn takes shape

Chamomile Lawn

Back when I bought my first house in Midsomer Norton in 1979 I had plans for a chamomile lawn in place of the scrappy grass fronting on to the Fosse Way. This was before the novel of the same name that was published in 1984 and has no bearing on this!

I spotted a tray full of the Treneague variety which doesn’t flower and is reckoned to be the best for this and, using guestimates of sizes, reckoning on getting about 4 of 5 sprigs from each pot, I bought the tray of 18 plants. I spaced them as described at around 5″-6″ spacing and it was just about right for the small area in front of the bench. I’m not sure how long they will take to fill out but I’ll wait.

Allium is not lost

Garlic Plait

After my worries with the garlic I am very pleased with the results of my first attempt to plait them. I tried following the directions given from the Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight but could not grasp it until I found a pictorial sequence froman American farm site Bloomingfieldsfarms and realised that you just keep three strands and do centre – right - left repeatedly.

Shown are twenty five Solent Wight garlic. I planted thirty cloves but some were eaten, some split and some rotted . The largest are about 3cms diameter. Weighs in at 635grams.

I suspect I may plant one or two of the other varieties but in general I don’t think I gained much from the other thirty odd bulbs. Early Purple, Chesnok Wight, Albigensian Wight, Iberian Wight and Lautrec. The Early just did not seem to work at all but the others provided acceptable garlic.

We haven’t investigated how they differ in flavour yet.

The Onions

 Two for the price of one today. I decided not to risk losing more of the onions to rot or any other so here are 100 of my finest Red Baron, White Prince and New Fen Globe drying in the brief sun. I must try to devise a better rack for drying them.

Overall I ended up with 86 New Fen Globe, 77 Red Baron and 45 White Prince a total of 208 out of about 300 planted. Next year I will definitely not put them so close together as the whites were particularly badly hit by rust and rot.

My First Cucumber

First Cucumber

My first cucumber poked his head out on Wednesday this week. Just two inches long but ready to go. Since then I have noticed a couple more and the squashes starting to fill out. I’m tying them up to the wigwams and they are about 2 ft high so far.

I think it must be down to the warmer week we have just had.

Yet more surprises

Redcurrants

Blackcurrants

Courgettes

Leeks and Pumpkins

Yet more surprises on Saturday when I spotted these red and blackcurrants hiding at the base of their respective bushes.

Kicked out on Friday night to allow Joan to host her leaving do so I spent an hour or so digging over the beds that had the garlic and broad beans. Saturday morning saw me roto-tilling them and I planted up around 60 leeks (Prizetaker) and some Christmas Charlotte potatoes. There were also some reds that were chitting strongly in the veg rack so I put those in as well to see how they will do. The theory is that although they won’t get the full growing season they should be good enough to lift around Christmas. We’ll see. In between can be seen the pumpkins coming along nicely.

Joan felt that 6 courgette plants weren’t enough so I found a packet with three different types and sowed them a few weeks ago. I sorted the seeds by sight only and all but one came up strongly. I planted out two of each of the three types but have no idea which is which yet. They should be Opal, Gold Rush ( the same as the six in the background) and Zuccini.

Garlic at last

Garlic

I finally decided enough was enough and lifted most of the garlic this weekend. I left them out in the sun on Sunday and then hung them in the garage.

I was very pleased to find that both of the Elephant Garlic bulbs from the allotment were a good size at just over 4″ across. The one planted in the garden and then moved to a pot was less successful! Until I saw its siblings I though it was an ordinary onion at about 3cm across. Lots of baby ones attached so I’ll try to grow those on for later years.

I couldn’t resist showing them off and Dave – the allotment long-timer – gave me a great compliment by saying that he would be proud if he had grown one like it. (He has in the past and being Dave he also mentioned that it wouldn’t win the prize in the flower show because it wasn’t a cabbage!)

There should be enough over all for me to save some of each type to start next years crop and I will definitely try the Bordeaux mixture sooner to reduce the effect of Rust.

From the front and left:

Onions: Red Baron, New Fen Globe and White Prince. the biggest about 3″ across

Garlic: Early Purple,  Iberian Wight ( the big white bunch cos I’ve cleaned them)

Elephant Garlic: the tiny one and the two giant ones ( 105mm 4.2″)

Garlic: Albigensian Wight, Solent Wight, Lautrec Wight and Chesnok Wight

There are still about 15 Solent wight to lift and I can’t see them improving now.

I investigated and a very few white onions in the close spaced middle bed do have what looks like white rot after all so my 5 year rotation plan may be necessary after all. I pulled up quite a number of those that looked as though they were struggling and I’ll keep a very close watch on the remaining ones so I don’t lose them. The other bed appears unaffected so far.

Unexpected pleasures including the “Arte y Pico” Award

Whitecurrants

I was absolutely delighted when I had my first comment from Peggy at http://www.organicgrowingpains.blogspot.com, followed up by the “Arte y Pico” award for inspiring her. I’m regretting the “corny” pun now.  

I started this blog purely as a way of keeping a photographic record so my far flung relatives and friends could see what I get up to. I put in the good and the bad to keep my spirits up.

I haven’t had a chance yet to decide on who I’ll pass it to apart from mtp, but I’ll get there and thanks again.

The photo shows another unexpected pleasure of some whitecurrants. As they were only planted in November I did not expect anything this year

A “Corn”ucopia on its way – with luck and hard work

A busy weekend but not all on the allotment. (Ikea trip and helping youngest son David to move house).

Not one of my best photos of the plot but it does show the sweetcorn is doing very well – I’m sure it is because it is where I stored the manure originally. I transplanted a dozen lettuce from the cold frame into the gaps where they will like the partial shade. There is also two rows of French Breakfast radish between the remaining rows and columns, the first of which should be ready by next week. I moved the frame towards the path slightly to make it more usable and put the manure there. Also showing are the cucumbers just starting to climb, the beetroot coming on and the adjoining allotment that could do with a weedkiller! One plot further away is how the plot should look.

The Sugar Lord snap peas have reached a good height and are showing their first pods.

The sweet peas have been beautiful bringing colour and a lovely smell to the rather more usual greens and browns on the allotment.

A wonderful bowl of raspberries on Saturday evening was the reward for removing the last of the leeks to leave some space for the early purple broccoli plants to be planted out. It also gave  motivation to dig the last patch by the compost bins where the manure has been stored, ready for next years leeks to go in.

At last enough French beans grew to about 5″ in the root trainers to go out to join the one that survived the earlier attempts at germination. I might try a further planting of runner beans since Joan found last years seed.

The third set of parsnips (Panache and Hollow Crown) are germinating at last in the seed tray although the ones sown direct have done nothing.

Sprayed all the potatoes, the garlic and the onions with Bordeaux Mixture to try to lessen the effects of blight and other nasties that hit so badly last year. I did dig a good collection of Swift spuds first.

The garlic continues to disappoint after a really good start. I suspect I planted them too deep and they just have not felt the heat. Dug a few of the earlier ones up and cleared the soil off some of the others. One or two had rotted but it does not look like white rot. Lets hope they have not all gone.

The onions on the other hand seem to be thriving. I pulled two White Prince each around 4-5 cms  diameter from the close spaced bed in the middle to give the neighbours room to grow. Reading about cucumber troubles on another blog, I decided to dig a small trench around the four I have planted to reduce the chances of rot at the stem.

And finally, the cauliflowers were attacked by pigeons so on went the netting. I must find the best technique for supporting it. It always seems to take a disproportionate amount of time to fit.