Sparrowhawk on the allotment

Went up to the allotment to dig some carrots, pick some spinach and take some household waste to the compost heap there (an enclosed plastic bin to keep rats at bay).

As I drove in I disturbed a beautiful sparrowhawk - at least I think that's what it was -  that took flight and soared down the track ahead of me. I hope he's earning his keep and keeping the pigeon numbers down!!

In Remembrance

A lone poppy captured in full bloom on the allotment yesterday!

Autumn fruitfulness - and flowers!

Out in the garden yesterday clearing up mountains of fallen leaves - all very soggy, but so mild!!
Never before can I remember the fuschias being still out in their full glory in November at the same time as the fungi in the lawn! And even the fungi seem to be twice as big this year as usual. We have plenty of the beautiful Fly Agaric toadstool - often called the Mabel Lucie Atwell fungus, because it featured in many of her illustrations. But be careful - it's very poisonous. 
So I took a camera around to record all of this yesterday. Just look at the Azalea just come out - even that is twice its usual size! And the Iris seed heads with their gorgeous red seeds are in abnormally super abundance. If old wives' tales have anything in them, this is going to be a very hard winter again. Poor birds!

How "green" is your garden?

I've just been clearing out some old papers, trying to get rid of a few "piles" of them that threaten to take over my writing desk. And I found an article by Lia Leendertz in TheGarden, the monthly glossy magazine of the Royal Horticultural Society (June 2011 p. 410, The Moral Garden Maze"). 
I had obviously kept this for a reason. I had scrawled a pencil line down the margin against this: "We aren't children," she writes, "we in the Western world have taken and taken - isn't it now time to face up to our responsibilities? Gardening more sustainably, especially by growing some of our own food, is what we should all be doing, if we care at all about those beyond our imaginary drawbridge outside the garden gate."
Now I guess any one who finds this blog is already interested in growing their own - most probably already does. So this may be preaching to the converted. But it is so easy to grow many vegetables in window boxes, containers of all sorts, if a garden or allotment isn't available. 
But I think what I liked most about Lia's article was her bluntness! "Should" and "must", she says, are words that rankle and are often avoided by many environmentalists as being too off-putting. And I have often been told that I am too direct sometimes in my thoughts and writings - that cajoling is better than ranting. But hey, Lia is right. We are not children. We should be able to take the rants to heart and change our ways, accept our responsibilities like the mature adults that we are.
The serious point behind Lia's article is that as gardeners we should be not only growing our own veg., but also reducing our consumption of materials by innovation e.g growing our own plant supports, using hand mowers and hand tools where possible, reducing our peat use, making our own compost, etc.) Because our consumption affects our carbon footprint and can contribute to pain and misery elsewhere in the world.
The article is tough on gardeners. Lia does not mince words. She does have a very good case. But here is a thought to ponder: To what extent is it morally wrong to cultivate ornamental plants only on land that could be productive? Should all gardeners grow at least some food?
 What are your views?

More scarecrows and frost!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote this post and then couldn't work out how to upload the photos - using a different camera from normal. So here it is but not illustrated I'm afraid.
"One rogue early frost has suddenly changed the entire face of the allotment. Courgettes that were still growing last week are now useless, even where they were protected in the lee of the warm compost. So today I was up there pulling up all the frost-bitten plants and piling them high on the compost heap. How much more can it take? So it was time to empty the other heap onto the now cleared ground. And it’s lovely stuff too!And amazingly, in the midst of that sorry scene, I picked a punnet of luscious alpine strawberries and autumn raspberries!"
And having tidied everything up I then walked around (with my usual camera!!) and took pictures of some fabulous scarecrows on other plots!

Autumn crops on the allotment - some more photos

Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness

I’ve been so very busy over the last few weeks on the allotment – it seems I’ve totally neglected the blog!
As John Keats wrote in his ode To Autumn in 1820:

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;”

My plot has certainly been blessed with a super abundance of crops – although the grape vine back at home has sulked this year after removing the dilapidated greenhouse that was falling down around it and leaving it to the elements of the English “summer!” So no grapes and no delicious grape jelly this year to grace our roast chicken and lamb at the dinner table.

But down at the plot I have been harvesting potatoes, courgettes, butternut squash, runner beans, spinach, swiss chard, summer cabbage, spring onions, strawberries (yes really!), autumn raspberries, beetroots, and some really pathetic tiny carrots. I just cannot seem to grow carrots – they don’t grow beyond the miniature stage – but with our predilection for miniature vegetables in our supermarkets, I can at least pretend I grew them that way on purpose!!

So the plot cannot be dug over and put to bed for the winter as other plotters are doing around me. My winter cabbages are growing well now, as are the brussel sprouts, hopefully ready for Christmas, along with the spinach and swiss chard, that only deep frosts will finish off. Not to mention the parsnips which are now swelling up. Unlike the spinach they will benefit from the first frosts – it improves the flavor!

But I have given all the grass borders a good mow and edged all around to make the plot look neat and tidy, and I have carted loads of horse and cow manure over to the plot. The latest delivery of horse manure is very fresh, so I have put it onto the overflowing compost heap. There it will rot down well over the winter, hastening the rotting of all the other material there at the same time.

All I need do now is keep an eye on the plot, ensuring pigeons cannot get at the brassicas, harvest as necessary, turn over the earth as it becomes bare and keep the weeds at bay.