Onions

Didn't manage it on Christmas day, but today I sowed the first onion seeds (Bedfordshire Champion), the first sowing of the new season.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to our reader(s).

Today the final Christmas vegetables were harvested ready for tomorrow. Due to the poor quality sprouts (blown) and carrots (root fly) these have been supplemented from the shops, but otherwise its all to be allotment grown.

The weather is still mild, such a contrast to last year, but we've finally got round to bubble wrapping the greenhouse.

The plan is to sow the first onion seeds tomorrow, Christmas Day.

Winter Warmer

Today was our "Winter Warmer", a chance to say hello to fellow allotmenteers over a soup and roll and a cup of mulled wine.

Clearing the "Sunny Bank" and the "Bee Mountain"

The JCB digger did a good job on the allotment site, but mostly buried the rubbish.

This weekend willing volunteers had to pick over the surface by hand. The huge walk in skip was easily filled.

Note the new palisade fence under construction. Next week the Hawthorn and Blackthorn hedge will be planted.

Tales from the potting bench

Having explored the price of greenhouse of more greenhouse staging, I've decided the DIY approach is best.

Here is the potting bench nearing completion.

It's also that time of year when all the produce comes home splattered with mud after heavy rain (at last, and too late). The easy way to clean today's pickings involved a blast from the hosepipe:

Clearing weeds the easy way!

Today the heavy plant moved in to clear the "tip" and recreate the space that was plots 1-5.

Meanwhile here you can see the benefit is sowing parsnips in a hole filled with compost: long and straight:

Autumn Friday

First row of Picassa potatoes dug and resting in the sunshine.

Pumpkin Soup

The first use of this season's pumpkins, with greenhouse tomatoes and cucumber shown

Very tasty.

Harvest Festival Sunday 18th September

Here are a few photos of last week's harvest festival (courtesy of John Kirk). £220 was raised in the auction, which was donated to the DEC East Africa Appeal.

This is me in auction mode (or Henry V as someone else suggested!)

Keith (secretary) thanks the two Johns for their long service as Chair and Secretary.

A small section of the crowd. We had over 50 turn up.

Autumn Harvest

Clearing the old strawberries on 53B

Self explanatory!

Coffee time on 54B

It's been so busy that I haven't posted for ages, what with harvesting, and last week our first allotment harvest festival. We raised £220 for the DEC East Africa appeal.

Autumn has come early, so I'm now having a rest during the clear up.
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Pumpkin Harvest fills the boot.

With some bad weather forecast, I decided to harvest the pumpkins and let them harden at home.

It's getting chilli in the greenhouse.

All is going spiffingly in the greenhouse, with peppers, chillies, tomatoes and cucumbers in full fling.

There are lots of cuttings etc. coming on as well.

On the allotment everything is very dry, but doing well. Pumpkins are swelling nicely, and summer squash are forming. Swedes seem very slow.

The shed

Not so much the shed, but the hollyhocks. I do love them, and wish I had the cottage to go with them.

Pumpkin Soup due

One thing that is doing really well in this dry weather: pumpkins.

Cherry Tomatoes in the Greenhouse

Everything coming on nicely.

Rioting stopped.

Despite the best efforts of the aphid scum, the ladybirds in full protective body armour create a no-go area on the sunflowers.

Confused greenfly

I was just browsing through some great allotment blogs, with photos, and noticed a greenfly crawling up the stems of some tomatoes... tomatoes in the picture, green fly on the picture, i.e. the screen!

All strung out to dry!

Onions and garlic hanging on the shed.

Onions and Garlic

First crop of red and white onions, and garlic, drying in the sun.

Eat Your Heart out Pablo

Fresh from the allotment. Pity I'm not a flower arranger as well as a grower. No doubt SWMBO will re-arrange later.

Cucumber sandwich?

This is the first year with a proper greenhouse, so also the first year with indoor cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, peppers, chilies and aubergines.

The cucumber is now in flower:

The Cherry Tomatoes are forming well:

And here is a blurred photo of a pepper (just set in the foreground), and a melon plan behind.

Gooseberry Fool and Lazy Housewife

I've never liked gooseberries. Every time I've tried them I've hated them.

Until today.

Our allotment neighbour persuaded me to try one of his, saying that everyone who hates gooseberries changes their mind when tasting his straight off the bush

How true. They were sweet, juicy, with a hint of apple and grape. What a fool I'd been.

I'm now converted, and will look for a few bushes to plant for next year.

Meanwhilst I must report on the Lazy Housewife, a heritage variety of climbing bean that Captain Custard acquired. Here they are, the leaves are quite different to our other runners.

We've been harvesting a few carrots from the greenhouse recently, but here are the first allotment crop: Early Nantes 2. No sign of the dreaded carrot root fly this year yet.

Flowers and Berries

One of my allotment goals this year was to grow more flowers for cutting. In additional to the usual sweet peas, today I found the first of the sunflowers for cutting were ready. I'm also trying to grow more fruit. So far it's only strawberries that are ready, but they taste great.

Everything else just keeps growing quickly, especially weeds. The peas aren't cropping heavily, and courgettes are struggling at the moment, but I'm sure they will pick up.

Sunshine, showers and a mega-harvest.

The weather never gets it right does it?

After weeks of no rain and unseasonably warm weather, all we seem to get at the moment is rain (good), wind (bad, unless I was out kiting), and cooler than expected weather. I just hope it doesn't turn into "blight" conditions.

Last weekend we had a super blitz on tidying and weeding, but I haven't managed to get up to the plots at all this week, apart from a quick trip to pick some peas and broad beans . Today was a "must do" day - apart from the fact I wanted to get a selection of produce for tomorrow's lunch.

When I walked down the plot, I couldn't believe how much everything has grown in just 4 days!

Just as I was settling down to tidying up rather weedy brassicas, the heavens opened (again) and I retreated into the shed and closed the door to keep dry. It's sad when all I could think of doing was taking a photo of myself to prove it!

When it eased off a bit I then took photos through the rain from the shed door, where you can just make out what 54b looks like and can see some of the work we've started on 53b.

All ended well. The sun came out and I set to harvesting:

• four nice* cauliflowers, one of which was swapped with Maddi for a punnet of raspberries (*family joke)
• two spring cabbages
• three beetroot
• purple sprouting broccoli
• calebrese
• strawberries
• lots of sweep peas
• loads of peas
• carrier bag full of broad beans
• and the first potatoes of the season - yum yum.

The Blitz

Today Captain Custard and myself spent 5 hours (10 man hours) on plot 53b, next door to our main plot 54b.

Having cut down a lot of the top growth on Sunday, we got stuck into the roots today, prepared the ground, and planted out beds for:

• Celery
• Turnips
• Carrots
• Beetroot and Chard
• Peas
• Sweetcorn

Hard work, but amazing progress.

Things to sow in June.

Found these useful links:

Flower seeds to sow in June

Vegetable seeds to sow in June

Cauliflower Suprise

The suprise was that we didn't expect to see this lovely head yet. It made a lovely meal.

June signals a new start!

Having been away for a week, everything has grown, including the weeds. Everything is green and lush despite the lack of rain.

The highlight of yesterday was harvesting a big bag of strawberries (now all eaten) and lots of peas and broad beans.

Last night I made a very nice broad bean and pasta meal:

• Pasta
• broad beans
• onions
• bacon
• seasoning
• cream cheese

Cook it all up and mix it all together with the cream cheese. Reheat.
Serve with a Greek Salad.

The other activity started today. My neighbour on plot 53 cannot keep it up, so is letting us look after just under half of the plot (53b). It was very over grown, so today I started the clearance.

Before:

After 3 hours:

No strimmers were used in the making of this sequence.

What a glutton for punishment!