Even MORE Spuds July 12, 2010

So, another visit to the plot on Sunday after several days failing to get there. It certainly is noticable how much more watering the plants in the pots in my yard need than the plants at the plot! Everything still growing like crazy and looking really healthy. I failed to take any photos as my camera charger is lost (suspected lost in Hull) so you’ll have to just take my word for it!

It feels a bit weird though, as it all needs so little effort from me now it’s all doing it’s thing. The red currants are ready to eat (and taste lush), the courgettes are growing so much it’s a bit unreal and the beans are setting their fruit. It looks like this year I’m going to have more tomatoes than I know what to do with and the basil has germinated and is looking healthier than I’ve ever managed to grow in a pot.

We finally took pity on the last potatoes though, they’ve never flowered and the leaves were starting to go yellow. So the decision was taken to pull them up and use the soil. Needless to say we got one of our better harvests off them!

One of the purple beans was ready to harvest and it’s a striking colour. The purple mangetout have started to flower and they’re stunning (will take photos I promise, when I have a battery charger!).

So this was our take home last night

Boring July 3, 2010

OK, disclaimer first off, this post may be boring.

Do I care? No, not really, as I’ve had a lovely day just pottering in the back yard, fussing cats (more of them later) and watching the world go by (or my own little bit of it anyway).

I was supposed to be going to a carnival and then going to meet some friends in the pub. But I’m tired, and a bit down, and the one thing I’m bad at is actually just chilling out – so when I woke up today I thought today was as good as day as any to spend it doing just that.

I’ve failed to make it to the allotment (that’s tomorrow morning now) and the sum total of my effort today includes having my eyebrows waxed and going to IKEA (quickly!).

Are you bored yet?

So what did I achieve? Well I’ve fussed cats:

tidied up their favourite sombero (don’t ask)

and swept the bricks up it looks so much nicer – moved some plants around too so the colours are more spread around

you can see the outside broom in the above photo – it broke – stupid thing

and this simply has to be the happiest looking tomato plant I’ve ever grown

right I’m off to bed – night all x

Bounty July 1, 2010

Each visit at the moment means more produce. The Pak Choi looks fantastic and I harvested some. Lesson to be learnt – raw pak choi makes me sick

In better news everything looks fantastic! Will take photos tonight of the plot and the yard so you can see the progress.

More potatoes June 23, 2010

Another visit to the allotment yields even more potatoes. I have seriously reservations about this. Does anyone know how many potatoes a person can eat before they start becoming one?

Last nights tea was a well balanced affair – potatoes (a white skinned one I dug up yesterday evening – very bountiful, no idea what it was), peas, butter and sea salt As there was a clear lack of protein in the meal we added some cheese. Heaven. That’s all it was, heaven.

It would have been my own peas but in a stupid decision made in spring I didn’t actually plant any – only purple mangetout. BUT, and it’s a big but, some of you might remember the random peas that Pete planted just because we could – well they’re producing quite nicely and we tasted one of the pods on the plot last night (YUM!) but there is only one plant and it’s never going to produce enough. Lesson to be learnt for next year – GROW PEAS.

Everything is growing frantically and adoring this heat we’re having at the moment. No new photos today but I will try to remember at some point. Image the previous photos only with the plants getting bigger – you get the idea

But the main update is really the backyard. Everything is growing like crazy. The tomato plants have set their first fruit, the chilli’s and peppers are flowering nicely, and the flowers are looking beautiful. I think I have grown too many tomato plants (yes yes I know, AGAIN). I have 3 Garden Pearl plants, 2 in hanging baskets and the third in a pot way too small but I was supposed to bin it but I just couldn’t. Annoyingly it’s growing he best of all! I also have a moneymaker, marmande and 3 Gardeners Delight. All doing really well.

The peppers are either Di Torro or (?) and they’re looking like they wish they were somewhere much hotter than Brum but they’re flowering. Whether I get anything from them is another matter.

The best chilli’s so far are the cayenne which are thriving in the pot with one of the tomato plants. Lots of flowers but not very big. Then I have a selection of chilli’s that I wish I knew which type they were. I sowed seeds for 10 varieties, 1 of which just refuses to germinate and some which have just died in the heat that they get behind the window in the spare room. I do however have about 14 plants of unknown origin. I’ll know what they are when they flower and fruit, and I’m hoping the Dorset Naga is one of the ones that has survived…….

The idea of the chilli’s is to acually manage to overwinter them this year. I want to establish some happy plants for next year’s harvest and without a greenhouse it’s going to take some effort on my behalf. Maybe next year I’ll have a greenhouse……..

Pink June 20, 2010

Today’s theme seems to be pink!

Pink potatoes, pink radish (should have been red but they were a few days too old so have lost their bright colour) and a single pink strawberry!

Everything else is growing great guns and tonight I also spied the first tomato fruit set in the back yard! Brilliant!

All gone…. June 13, 2010

Cooked and eaten by yours truly, they never made it to teatime

WOW things grow fast June 11, 2010

So it’s been over a week since I could be at the plot last. I spent some time in Hull helping my Dad with some bits in his house. And going to Betty’s in York for afternoon tea

Look at it! How perfect is that! Everything apart from the coffee cake was eaten (Dad finished mine off, I HATE coffee).

Anyway, back to the allotment! It’s all growing so well and I’m so excited. Everything got a feed today too. Thankfully the weather wasn’t baking hot whilst I was away which has helped. And one of my lovely neighbours has kindly given me some spare lettuces too Need to get some slug pellets this weekend though – grrrrr

So, I know you all only really want photos so here we go!

The plot in almost full

Isn’t it looking fantastic! Everything is really getting into the growing groove now, even the very late planted seeds! The rhubarb is starting to look better again – amazing what feeding things does isn’t it!

The potatoes are really doing well, and one plant has started to flower! Now given I can’t remember what I planted (other than the pink fir ones, which are on the far left on this photo) I’m going to have a little dig around the plant that’s flowering and see whether they’re ready or not. It’s all a bit exciting! Roll on Sunday!

The onions and tomatoes are going great in this bed, the garlic remains pathetic and tbh I don’t really know why I bothered when my local asian supermarket sells it so cheap! Won’t be growing this again next year! Everything else is going really well though. The basil seeds have just germinated too and the parley and oregano is doing well. Yippee!

Now this bed is a wonderous thing! The back has some purple beans, then the next row is broad beans, then the front half of the bed has beetroot, raddish, rocket and something I *think* is little gem lettuces. Now it’s dead easy to weed the beds where I have followed the square foot gardening idea as the seeds are in neat places, but the rocket isn’t and now I regret sprinkling it! Ah well, live and learn

Then there is this bed

Which sits to the left of the one above. The back row and half the next row is runner beans, the plants kindly given to us by a neighbour. Then the right hand side of the front is a pretty cannelini bean and the front left is a purple mangetout (sent from an internet forum). I’m so pleased they’ve all germinated – now they just have to catch up as they were planted late.

Finally there are these 2 beds

The front one is sweetcorn and brussel sprouts (with some random lettuces as I needed to find them a home!). They’re germinating well although one of the types of sweetcorn is being VERY slow. The back bed is a mixture of tomato plants (another donation from another plot holder) and beetroot (or radish, I forget) at the front and the back half of the bed is squash and courgettes. Who knows if they will actually achieve anything but only time will tell

And finally, just for those that were worried about the rhubarb, here it is, looking a lot healthier. It certainly can’t be picked this year but hopefully it will have settled ready for next year. In the meantime one neighbour has kindly offered some of their spare rhubarb so in my kitchen is a trial rhubarb gin. Another 4 weeks before I can drink it though.

Oh and today I learnt that Miracle-Gro makes your fingers go BRIGHT BLUE – oops

Photos May 31, 2010

Right todays photographs are ready!

This is now how the plot looks looking towards the bottom of it – looking good isn’t it! The new bed is the one at the back of the photo on the left (next to the black covering).

Everything is growing really well. Especially the potatoes! If I’d known how stupidly easy they were to grow I would have a) put them in a bigger space and b) grown more of them!

This is the new bed with all the extra black covering down to start to kill off the random weeds/plants that are growing on the bottom of the plot. We won’t be sowing any more seeds in this space this year, just preparing it all for next year.

And finally, the bed aka “bugger me what did I sow in there” – you can see things are growing but so far too small to identify! The handy thing of using the square foot gardening principle is that the seedlings appear in certain places only which makes weeding much much easier!

I know that the plant is a tomberry, and I know I sowed some minipop in there too but the rest is a bit of a mystery. There’s a lesson there isn’t there – MAKE NOTES!

Another great day May 31, 2010

Well after not managing to get there all weekend, today was marked out as the day to try and get there and get cracking with the other bed. So after a pottering morning we arrived early afternoon and set to it! There was digging, bagging up, swearing, aching, muscles complaining and some seed sowing and it’s looking so much better again. Another 8′ x 4′ bed is in place and it has cabbages and tomatoes (free from a plot nieghbour) and sowed some courgette and squash seeds.

Now look, before anyone says anything (yes you Pete), I know it’s quite late but I also know that courgettes and squashes hate having their roots disturbed and need to be planted in situ, and until today there was no in situ for them to be planted in. If they do nothing so be it, I’ll try again next year :p

Everything already planted looks great and the bean/pea seeds planted last weekend are already showing their heads – clever things! One of the other plot neighbours did say they’ve been having problems with rats but I haven’t seen (yet?) any evidence of them eating my stuff.

I also spent some time clearing out the very bottom of the plot to try and get some more space to plan for the extra bits I want next year. My master plan of extending into the other half of the plot was scuppered by its owner arriving and starting to dig things – grrrrrrr. As she has, I need to plan carefully the rest of my plot for next year to get space for the fruit bushes I want to grow.

And finally, I think I’m not going to bother earthing up my spuds. 2 reasons (well 3 if you include sheer laziness), 1) it’s to stop the tubers being affected by the light – as they’re quite close together and the sides are in a wooden surround I don’t think this is too much of an issue and 2) because they’re close together how the hell I’d get earth in there is not something I know the answer to! So they’re staying as they are this year and I’ve learnt for next year!

Puss Cats May 31, 2010

By request! Meet my two gorgeous boys

Archie:

Bertie:

They love the yard, they love eating my plants more Bertie has a particular love of eating chives, and Archie eats anything, currently taken with pansy flowers.

Weird things that they are