It's summer at last at the allotment!!

The allotment is looking wonderful at the moment, albeit everything is probably four weeks behind in development due to the cold summer we’ve had so far.

Looking at the healthy crops, the half decent soil, the lovely flowers covered in bees, it’s hard to believe that just 4 years ago this whole area was a stony field, covered in weeds and grass. What is more, it was a quagmire!! One very wet day when it seemed, at last, that we may be allowed to move over from our existing allotments, I climbed the gate and started walking into the field to get a closer look at what we may have to work with. Soon I was sinking into what felt like sinking sands!! Only it was really sticky boggy clay, with a consistency I can only describe as “gloopy”! How different it is now!

As we started digging our plots over that first winter of occupation, we were soon rewarded by the song of a skylark high above us, come to see what was going on. Of course it didn’t take long for the pigeons to visit as well, in their droves. Locust like, they can be guaranteed to appear as soon as some unsuspecting “plotter” plants out any kind of brassica, without protection, when these pesky birds come down to strip the plants bare to the midribs of the leaves. But we have netting and scarecrows and glistening CDs and other ideas to help keep the pigeons away, some methods more effective than others.

Now a friendly robin sometimes comes to see me while I’m working. She probably nests in one of the sheds dotted around the site. And we have pheasants galore! Beautiful birds, I don’t think they do much harm to crops, although I’m convinced that they eat my organic slug pellets that I put down!

So work is now going on in earnest up at the site and soon I’ll be harvesting strawberries, new potatoes, spinach, beetroot, chives, swiss chard, and hopefully some courgettes…

Is Spring here at last?

Unbelievably this is the allotment only 4 days ago!!

Today it is sunny - the first sun we've seen for ages - albeit still very cold - little more than 3 degrees centigrade still. But at least I have been motivated to venture outside and sow a few seeds - the first of the year I confess! I've found it so difficult to get going this year in the garden - it has been so wet, then so cold!

What have I sown? Well to start with I've sown two different varieties of Broad Bean into 3" pots of seed compost, watered them and covered them with panes of glass on the staging in the cold greenhouse. I hope the ever present mice out there will not be able to climb up to the staging - and anyway the glass covering will defeat them at the moment. Mice love digging up broad beans - all through the process of germination! Last year I sowed the seeds directly into the soil at the allotment - and lost the lot to mice!! The heater in the greenhouse is set to prevent the temperature going below freezing - that is all. I have given beetroot seed and asparagus peas the same treatment except that I have put individual seeds into 2" square modules in seed trays - and will transplant them out on the allotment in due course when it is warmer up there and they are well hardened off. I also thought it was time I sowed the tomatoes. These I have treated like the beetroot, sowing them into modules in seed trays. But I have brought them indoors and they are on a warm window ledge above a radiator, covered with cling film to keep them moist until they germinate.

USA and Canada won't let you grow your own vegetables?

Just found this amazing story! Across the USA and Canada there are apparently authorities who restrict the amount of space given up to growing vegetables in your yard or garden. Sounds crazy? It is! Follow the link for full story.
How can a pristine striped lawn with hefty use of chemicals and copious watering to keep it that way be at all sensible in a world where growing our own organic food has to be the best thing we can possibly do to help us in developing healthy eating habits for our families?
I thought it was a wind up to start with but the article seems genuine enough.
What do you think?

Grow your own Drugs and a Homegrown Revolution

I braved the weather today and went up to the allotment to see what is going on up there. The sun was shining and the sky blue but it was very cold! And the ground is totally waterlogged - so absolutely impossible to dig the ground at all - it would really damage the soil to even attempt to walk over the plot.
But I did manage to pick some lovely sprouts, some purple sprouting broccoli, and dig a few leeks and parsnips. I shall roast the parsnips with a grating of parmesan cheese - delicious!
And quite unbelievably the rhubarb has started sprouting. It clearly thinks it's spring already!
Had a super book as a Christmas present. It's Homegrown Revolution by James Wong, the author of Grow Your Own Drugs. And in it he shows us how to widen our horizons, to grow the exotic and unusual - and he trials all these in his own small suburban garden in South London. How about callaloo, watercress, cucamelons, chop suey greens, tomatillos, inca berries, shark's fin melon, dahlia yam, electric daisies .... The list seems endless; he calls them "incredible edibles." So I'm really looking forward to following his advice and pushing the boat out this year on the allotment. I can see I shall soon run out of space up there.
And through the blog I shall let you know how I get on!

Frog in a flowerpot!!

What is eating my potato flowers?

Anyone have any ideas? I have never ever seen potato flowers disappear like this before?

What a challenging year this is proving to be on the allotment! The rain continues - unrelenting. In the past week we have had thunder and lightning, hail stones and rain the like of which I have never seen before.
And the plants struggle with so much wet and the attacks from slugs and snails which are delighting in the conditions.
Some things have been good - strawberries were amazing albeit two weeks late in coming - but they are now over. The new potatoes are tasty and abundant and the perpetual spinach and swiss chard are keeping me in healthy greens!
The broad beans need another week probably to swell up but the crop doesn't look too bad, as long as the pigeons stay away. And the various brassicas, totally protected by netting from the unwelcome attention of birds and butterflies, are growing well.

As soon as the ground dries a little (if it ever does?) I shall tidy up the strawberry bed, digging out the oldest row and planting a new row from healthy looking runners, on a three year rotation plan. Then I shall put plenty of manure down between the rows, to feed them and also to keep weeds at bay  - then I can forget about them for another year.
I also intend this year to sow some broad beans where the potatoes are being cleared, hoping for an early spring harvest next year. I've never done this before but others do with seemingly good results. And I shall sow some more spinach and swiss chard to keep the supply to the kitchen going.
My main hope now is for a late summer burst of warmth and sunshine to give the poor courgettes, pumpkins, squash, etc a chance to grow and mature - otherwise I shall be missing out on beautiful squashes to store over winter for lovely roast vegetables.

Flaming June. What a month it was! Everyone is saying the same thing; plants on the allotment are just sitting there, doing nothing, especially the runner and french beans, and the courgettes, pumpkins etc, that need sunshine and warmth to really get going. And they hate the wind. It has battered all the young plants relentlessly for weeks and they simply hate it.
Nonetheless, not all things have been bad. I am still picking and enjoying spinach and swiss chard, carried over from the winter and last year's sowings. They are tending to bolt, but even the flower heads can be chopped up and steamed with the rest of the leaves. I must sow some more soon to carry over to next year, as surely the existing plants will give up soon and end up on the compost heap.
And talking of compost, I have just emptied one bin and used the contents to top dress the asparagus bed.
And the strawberries have been amazing. They loved all the rain to swell the fruit, and then a week or two of warmth came just at the right moment to ripen them. Yes they have been very late, but for the last ten days I have been picking up to 6 pounds every day!! And that is after the birds and mice have had their share and in spite of the many that have gone moldy on the plant.

And in case any of my readers wonder why I have been silent for a while, it is because I have had my head down getting my next book through the copy editing and proof stages. The cover is now designed and it is all very exciting! But with the allotment and garden to look after as well, there are simply not enough hours in the day to keep blogging as well. Mea culpa.