Green fingers

After pinching the growing tips off our tomato plants I now have an idea as to where that phrase came from...


The tomatoes are just starting to ripen and for once - hurrah! - we seem to have a healthy crop with no signs of The Dreaded Blight. (Touch wood). We've got a veritable field of tomato plants... well, a small field at least, which is good as they're all helping to prop each other up! (Some of our stakes aren't quite big enough!) The yellow cherry tomatoes are ripening first, with the red cherry and red standard ones close behind. The giant beef tomatoes which Frank gave us are getting HUGE but most are still green - a few just showing an orange blush. The smaller ones were red so I've picked 'em.

Sorry I haven't got the varieties to hand, maybe I'll let you know what's what next time.


The courgettes are also doing pretty well, especially as they've been a bit neglected as we've been away for the last four weekends, so they're surviving on fleeting evening visits from us and whatever rain they get. I'm trying to pick them before they get too large and watery.

The sweetcorn is growing well, but we were a bit late with it this year, so I doubt they'll get large enough to pollinate each other and ripen the cobs. Oh well. And the squash and pumpkin plants are also doing well, with a few summer squash on the way.

Toms!

The yellow tomatoes are ripening - I picked a big mixing bowl full yesterday, along with a few red ones and a few cherry tomatoes from our grow bags in the garden. Yum. Now I have to decide what to do with them. I'm thinking about making some tomato sauces to freeze and maybe some chutneys too - the local shop is selling sacks of onions at a ridiculously low price (I'm not so bothered about our lack of onion success this year now, seeing as how they're so cheap to buy down the road!) so some tomato and onion chutney could be just the thing. And it'd be nicely matured by Christmas.

Did lots of weeding yesterday, tackled the four worst beds which had the biggest weeds on. What's the phrase? 'One year's weeds, seven year's seeds'? In that case, we're doomed... we're going to be weeding forever.

Adam's away this week so I took it nice and easy, had the radio on, and stopped for an egg mayo sandwich and a cuppa for lunch in the sunshine.

Peggy Sue's managed to find a way of escaping the chicken coop. We saw her jump up onto the top of the cage door, so we put some bamboo canes across the top to stop her begin able to flap and flutter up there, but she's still found a way to get out into the garden. Hmm, I'll have to keep an eye on her...

Blight.

Gah! The evil blight has struck.

At the weekend Adam pulled up all our Marmande tomatoes. They were just starting to turn orange, too, the majority having survived the attack of the chavs. (Please note I am speculating wildly here; the vandals could as easily have been embittered old folk as delinquent yoofs... but somehow I doubt it.)

Anyway, it doesn't seem to have affected the other two tomato beds yet (touch wood) and we ate our first red tomato straight from the vine. Now we need just a bit more sunshine, please, to ripen the rest and help the sweetcorn along.

And we have beans, beans and more beans. We're leaving the borlotti to ripen and will dry the beans for storage. The French beans are delicious, crunchy and juicy, even the ones we missed and picked when they were six or seven inches long. But the runner beans are not great - a bit stringy and fibrous, even when we get them when they're tiny. We're thinking we may not bother with runners next year and go for different varieties of french beans instead.

We have a baby butternut squash, 'ickle and green but still that recognisable skittle shape. And a handful of winter squash, some green, some yellow, as well as summer squash and courgettes.

Oh, and potatoes! Still un-blighted, and we're working our way through digging up the second earlies - delicious.

The damsons have ripened (sorry Mum - forgot to tell you! The damsons are ripe!) and we've picked some, but not as many as we'd hoped. Enough for just about two bottles of damson gin for Christmas. And the blackberries on the giant bush next door were plump and juicy, so I've made some bramble jelly (which hasn't quite set so will probably end up swirled through some yoghurt, at which point I'll pretend it was intentional) and some blackberry flavoured vodka. Mmm.

And I haven't mentioned the parsnips for a while, have I? Well, after all that faffing around with kitchen roll and windowsills and toilet roll and greenhouses, two (count them!) have survived and seem to be doing well. Now I'm willing them to grow big and strong and pointy and hope they don't just put all their effort into pretty leaves.

Bank holiday weekend coming up... lots of weeding in store. And does anyone know when is the best time of year to move strawberry plants?

Easter fun and frolics

Had lots of fun down at the allotment on Monday. It felt a lot more Easterey than Sunday did, mainly because it was sunny, which made a change, though it doesn't look that bright in the pic. Here's everyone at the allotment for a little gathering we had, with bacon sandwiches, tea, coffee and cakes, and an Easter egg hunt. Oh yes. You're never too old. And I put up bunting. And there were Easter-themed napkins.

Thanks to everyone who brought extra delicious treats - home-made chocolate chip cakes, chocolate brownies and hot cross buns (Terry I want the recipe please!). Yum! And everyone seemed to have a good time. Maybe it'll become an annual event.

After people had left we pottered about for a while. I sowed the last of our broad beans but I don't think we've got enough rows yet, so we'll probably need to buy some more. Adam started putting together the next raised bed, I picked some more rhubarb and weeded the spinach. Here's the view from inside my shed...

And then I mainly enjoyed the sunshine.

I tidied my shed a little and caught this view in the light...

I quite like it. Must remember to take more pics like this as they seem to capture the mood more than a generic snapshot.

Back home the tomato plants were looking a bit pathetic in the greenhouse. Maybe I put them out too early? So I've brought them back inside again for some TLC. We've also got some sunflowers which I potted on. I think they could probably manage outside now but what with the chickens an' all I think it'd be a massacre. Anything they can get their feet onto they scratch to death. I also sowed some lettuce a couple of weeks ago - a mixed variety of cut-and-come-again plants - and they're just starting to show. So I'm looking forward to fresh salads soon!

Lots of stuff

We've been shopping. Yesterday we went to the allotment shop to buy our seed potatoes. We've ended up with 'Arran Pilot' first earlies, 'Wilja' second earlies and 'Cara' maincrop. I'd post some pictures, but I think you can all just imagine what a string bag of potatoes look like...

We also got a bag of 'Green Windsor' broad beans, ready to sow when the weather warms up a little bit. And we got some 'Centurion' onions and 'Yellow Moon' shallots. We've already planted some red and some white onions on the plot, but we use onions in everything so a few more won't go to waste!



We had some garden centre vouchers from Christmas so today we decided to use them to buy our seeds, rather than send off a big long list and pay postage. And - extra bonus - the garden centre had 25% off all seeds! Excellent! We had a list of things we'd chosen from a catalogue, but there weren't as many varieties available on the shelves so we didn't always get the exact variety we wanted. But then, a beetroot's a beetroot, when it comes down to it. As long as it grows and can be eaten, I'll be happy.


Ready for a list? We've bought...

• 'Cobra' climbing french bean
• 'Firetongue' borlotti beans
• 'Oasis' and 'Twinkle' peas
  
• 'Cobnut' butternut squash
• A mixed selection of winter squash
• 'Marmande' beef tomato
• 'Alicante' regular tomato
• 'Golden Sunrise' yellow tomato
• 'Marketmore' cucumber
  
• 'Sundance' sweetcorn
• 'Bosworth' brussels sprouts
• 'Autumn Giant 2' leeks
• Perpetual spinach / leaf beet
• 'Kilaton' autumn cabbage
  
• 'Ruby Ball' red cabbage
• 'Neapolitan' basil
• Mixed leaf salad
• Rocket (great on pizza!)
  
• Swiss chard 'Bright Lights'
• 'Parador' yellow courgette
• 'Defender' green courgette
• 'Globe 2' beetroot
• 'Purple Haze' carrots (purple!)
• 'New Red Intermediate' carrots

And left over from last year we have:

• 'Scarlet Emperor' runner beans
• 'Panache' parsnip
• 'April' spring cabbage
• 'Rainbow' mixed radish
• Dwarf green curly kale
• 'Marian' swede
• Acorn mixed summer squash
• 'Tasty Trio' beetroot
• 'Emilia' spinach
• 'Rainbow' mixed carrots
• 'Golden Ball' turnip

Plus (plus!) Suttons were offering a free pack of certain seeds when you bought two other packs... so we've also got three (three!) packs of 'Purple Dragon' carrots, two (two!) packs of 'Hilton' Chinese cabbage and a pack of poppy seeds, called lilac pompom.

Can't blame a girl for sneaking in some flowers...

Quick plot stop

Our friends Sian, Kate, Louise and Ian came to stay on Friday for some pre-birthday fun and frolics. We had a massive dish of roast allotment veggies for dinner, with salmon, which seemed to go down well. I love preparing and cooking our home grown veg, and sharing them with others is a strange feeling. I almost feel a bit nervous to start with, in case they aren't as nice as they should be, and then kind of proud, like I'm saying: "Look! Look what our clever courgettes/squash/potatoes/onions did! All by themselves!"

Anyway, we popped down to the plot this morning to have a look - Ian and Louise had never seen it but they made all the right appreciative noises. Sian stayed a little longer, donning gloves and a healthy sense of disgust to help me pull up all the blighted tomatoes (*shudder*) so we can burn them in the incinerator. There's nothing quite so sad as a whole bed full of blighty tomato plants. I think we ate a grand total of 7 tomatoes this year... maybe 8... Although it's heartening to know that pretty much everyone else I spoke to (except Nic, grr, jealous) has also had a rubbish tomato year, either bring struck by blight or just not getting enough sunshine to ripen. I think we may have cursed British Summertime though. Ever since we've had the plot, so the last two summers, it's rained and rained and rained. But it has meant we haven't had to worry about watering so much!

Sian also planted three small rows of red onion sets which my mum gave us last week. Apparently they'll over-winter ok for an early crop. I'll just have to find out whether they need any protection from the cold.

After Sian had gone, Adam rotovated the old tomato bed and strimmed the paths, and I sowed a few rows of spinach. A bit late, maybe, but if they do come up it'll be nice to have some more winter greens. The spinach that's currently growing is doing ok, but there's not as much of it as we probably need to get a decent portion from them.


The plot is looking quite tidy 'cos the grass seed has taken well on the paths and it's just a case of getting the weeds out now. But what you probably can't see in this picture is the couch grass which is beginning to infiltrate the front beds. Any tips for getting rid of it? Or is it - as I fear - another bindweed-type-jobby where it's a case of digging it out, piece by tiny piece...?

We've also got a few flowers (a type of marigold?) which have self seeded around the place. They look lovely in the sunshine, but I have a feeling that they're just planning on taking over while our backs are turned. I'm going to transplant them, I think, to go alongside the shed wall. Just need to attack the grass there and make a little bed. I was also thinking about planting a honeysuckle or some other evergreen climber - preferably with flowers and a scent - to ramble over the sheds. Not only will it look nice but might act as a deterrent to anyone thinking about burning something down (which has happened in the past, though luckily not to us - touch wood).

Hot 'n' tasty

So, Saturday was a busy day. It was very, very hot, so I made best use of the shed and a rather attractive, if not droopy, sunhat to avoid as best as possible going pink. Adam only has to look at the sun to go nice and brown but I - alas - am not so lucky and have to work at getting a tan. I am getting an allotmenteer's tan - brown arms, feet and face/neck but sadly pasty legs. I'll have to hit the bottle before going on holiday, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I digress...

Adam chopped down all the broad beans, leaving the roots in the soil to make use of their nitrogen nodules (sounds like something out of Star Trek). We also picked the past of the pea pods which we'll dry to save for seed for next year. There weren't very many, but Frank the Italian came over to see how we were getting on and he was quite adamant (Oh! I've just 'got' the name of Adam Ant... he he... oh dear) that we should save some. We picked the first kohl rabi - I still think it is possibly the cutest vegetable I've ever seen - and inspected the tomatoes for any red ones. Not yet. But they are coming along nicely. 6 cherry tomato plants, about 20 beef tomato ones and 7 regular sized ones. We'll have a taste test when they're ripe!

We also discovered that the nicely laden bough of the damson tree behind the shed Has Been Cut Off! Seems we may have suffered from the lack of bees that the paper keeps mentioning, cos not very many of the blossom from spring have been pollinated, and now the one branch that had has gone!! We think it's the new people behind us, who've done a fantastic job clearing the plot and attacking a bramble bush with gusto, but still... looks like we'll have to buy damsons again this year for the gin purposes. Bah!

So what else did we do on Saturday? We weeded and weeded, watered and tweaked. I got excited about little yellow courgettes and tiny cucumbers. We tried some asparagus peas raw (Bleurgh! Don't try this at home!) and picked and ate some mange tout. Now, here's a thing. Waaaay back, we bought the sugar snap peas and mange tout from our local allotment shop (not attached to ours - it's at some allotments the other side of Bedford) and one of the nice, rustic brown paper bags actually had 'Mange Tout' crossed out and hand-written 'Sugar Snap' instead. Now it's come to cropping time, I think they ballsed up, 'cos none of our sugar snap peas are sugar snapping. They're all mange tou-ing.

Never mind, still very tasty.

And carrots! Finally, they've decided to play ball. We had a grand total of ten (count them!) carrots which had germinated from the second sowing we did - the first was an outright disaster, even though we covered them with snuggly fleece an' everything. But now, we've got proper rows of carrot seedlings, god only know which ones are which though, I'm just hoping we end us with some of the 'Rainbow' multi-coloured ones , 'cos strange coloured veg is fab.

And then, Saturday evening, it was time for the barbie. I popped back home for get the chicken portions, local Bedford sausages (Lingers butchers' pork and Bombardier beer ones are highly recommended) a red pepper - not one of ours, sadly they're no where near that stage yet! - and plates, knives forks etc, and away we went. Tried barbequeing the sliced kohl rabi, which was nice, but I think it'd be better boiled. The highlight - of course - was the courgette, picked and sliced straight onto the BBQ. About 30 second from plant to grill and five minutes from plant to mouth. Just add olive oil, salt and pepper... Mmm.


How's that for cutting down on food miles?

And the grass grows on...

Today Adam's dad Terry, sister Ruth and her boyfriend JB came to the plot see how we were getting on. JB dug up some new potatoes for us, Ruth attacked the shallots with gusto, and Terry made admiring noises about the compost (which is looking rather fine). We ate peas and mange tout straight from the plants, and freshly pulled radish which has a good bit of a kick. Quite nice to be out in the sun on a day which they'd predicted to be rain, rain and more rain. And other creatures were enjoying the sunshine too. I think this is a Red Admiral, but correct me if I'm wrong...

I also stuck in all of the plant labels I made during the week, so it actually looks like we know what we're doing now! But I need to make more labels, as there were a few things that we forgot about like the turnips, broccoli, radish and beetroot.

The strimmer is playing up again. After Adam had it running quite nicely during the week, come allotment-strimming time it decides to sulk. We've both had a tinker, as well as Terry and JB, and even Ruthie made a couple of suggestions for cunning starting techniques, to no avail. I think we may have to resort to slashing at the long grass with a machete.

Everything is growing pretty well now. The pumpkin and squash which Adam sowed from seed under little bottle-end cloches are starting to germinate. The first sowing of leeks are ready to be transplanted (must add that to the to do list) and we've got the first few Marmande tomatoes on the plants. No sign of blight yet, which is great, because last year it wiped out our tomatoes completely. But I think we've come to the end of strawberry season, all of a sudden, which is a shame because I never did get to make that jam.

The Asparagus peas are flowering with pretty little red blooms. Strange little rambling plants they are - and a bit of an experiment. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for when they start podding. We're picking more mange tout than we can eat - have given some away but will probably start freezing it if that's possible - and the onions are looking fatter and fatter as the days go on.

Louise - plot secretary - has promised us some asparagus seeds. Her and Mike have grown a great bed of asparagus from seeds which they were given, so were hoping to be able to create an asparagus bed at the far end of the plot, below the crookedy fence.

And we still have to build a bench from the lovely pallets I picked up last week. So much to do...

Eats, shoots and leaves

First of all, a big Hello! to any new readers. And thanks so much to those of you who have left a comment - it's nice to get some feedback and to know that we're not struggling against the rain and snow alone! My apologies if I don't reply to you all... But rest assured, all comments are read and very much appreciated.

I've realised I forgot to say that we had our first 'proper' allotment meal last week. The same time we dug up the pathetic (oh, how pathetic) turnips, we also pulled up three cabbages (which were going to seed anyway) all the spinach (we're going to sow some more next week in a more sensible place) and the remainder of the brussels sprouts off the 3 plants we had (which had started to go to seed as well). Then Adam made a nice big bubble-and-squeak-ish mess, with bacon and mashed potato and it was DELICIOUS! So I'm not worried about the cabbages not hearting-up any more, because eating them as spring greens is just as nice.


We've also had success with the Super Marmande tomato seeds - they've started to germinate, all of a sudden. Hoorah! I was getting worried because the toilet rolls were starting to look a bit mouldery (that's a technical term - like mouldy, but without actual mould...) and I thought the seeds may not like it. It certainly didn't look like ideal germinating conditions, I must say, and if I was a seed, I probably wouldn't have bothered. But this morning, there they were! Little green shoots emerging and searching for the light.

I always get impatient waiting for things to germinate. It may say 12-16 days on the packet, but there I am, 4 days after sowing them, wondering why nothing's happening yet. Patience is a virtue? I suppose it's true, at least where allotmenteering is involved.

I'll have to move them to a sunny spot now so they don't get too leggy. And hopefully they'll look like the picture above in a few months! (I'll stick a proper photo on later, when I've got a battery in my camera!)

Also, is it true that if you plant tomato plants deeper than they were in their pots, the stalk that was above but is now below soil level will put out more roots, creating a better root system? Is this a good way of making tomato plants more drought resistant??? I'm sure I read this somewhere, but I can't find it now!