Autumn harvest

Despite completely neglecting our allotment for most of this year, we have managed a small but pleasurable harvest. I have never grown squash before but will definitely be doing so again! The cooking squashvariety that I grew didn’t spread too much – I thought I was growing a summer squash variety but nothing appeared until later in the year. There was only one plant but that produced 5 or 6 good sized squash. When we harvested the squash, we pulled them off from the plant but I have now learnt that you should cut them off, leaving a ‘stub’ of the stalk. This apparently prevents rotting of the squash. I tried a couple of recipes from my ‘Riverford Farm’ cook book (a soup and risotto) – both were a hit!

We dug up a decent amount of Jerusalem Artichoke – something I’ve never even tried, let alone grown before. We were given some plants last year from the land owner and thought we may as well give them a go! We tried not to leave any tubers in the ground as they spread and grow easily apparently. I have now learned that the tubers are best stored in the ground until needed, however we wanted the bed cleared anyway. The Riverford Jerusalem artichokecook book has an interesting recipe for Jerusalem artichoke which I’d love to try soon. However, I am a little hesitant as apparently this humble little vegetable has “legendary flatulence-inducing properties”! The Riverford Farm cook book describes it as a vegetable that “threatens marriages” but reassures us that  “the effect is more thunderous than malodorous”! (Quotes all from the Riverford Farm cook book).

Our onions, although neglected after harvesting, are looking good. I’m not sure they will store for very long as I didn’t dry them well enough but we will keep an eye on them and hope for the best. I use a lot of onions anyway so hopefully will get through them before too many rot!

I’m desperately trying to make more vegetable based meals as our diet has been very meat heavy recently. I’m finding the Riverford cook book very handy in this respect and have added their other recipe books to my Christmas list!

 

It’s been a while…

Back in July…

It’s been so long since I’ve posted and the allotment has changed a bit since my last post! All seemed to be going well, with the exception of the usual war against the weeds. Then Ashley and I spent a week travelling through Devon and up to Hereford in a friends camper van and, of course, upon our return we were met with overgrown weeds, a tangled mess of rogue tomato plants/lettuce/anything else that happened to be in that bed, salad and radishes that had bolted, our fruit cage and sunflowers that had been totally destroyed by the wind! To be honest, the state of the allotment got us down a bit and we felt it was a bit past saving/getting anything useful from it this year. However, 2 trips that were solely focused on getting the paths and weeds cleared have made it all seem a bit brighter. Our main problem seemed to be that the weeds would grow up the fencing that we had put in and we struggled to keep seeds from that spreading across the allotment. Also, as it was an unused field before we started using it, the dock and nettles were very persistent across the entire plot. So using some blue carpet that we had obtained, we spent a good number of hours cutting it to fit and covering all pathways and surrounding areas bordering our plot. We had to dig up the fencing (as we’d buried it to stop the rabbits getting in) and laid the carpet underneath that too. Now we’ve done that, everything else seems more manageable and even though we’re behind with planting it feels like we might get some produce this year.

We had planted a small bed of potatoes, but they have all been hit by blight so had to be dug up a bit early. The potatoes we did get look great, there’s just not very many and I had hoped to keep them in the ground until I needed them.

On the good side, our peas are coming on well and we’ve had a few picking from them with more to come, the rhubarb is ENORMOUS, the onions look like they’re coming on well and the runner and dwarf french beans have plenty of flowers on. I’ve had an endless supply of sweet pea flowers to pick for the house and there have been plenty of fruits on the raspberries – although of course the birds are getting them all since the fruit cage was destroyed by bad weather! I don’t mind sharing with the birds…this year!

October…

Well, I haven’t done a very good job of updating this blog and an even worse job of looking after the allotment this year!

I was talked into going to go back to work full time at the beginning of August (I’ve worked part time for several years now) and that unfortunately left very little time for the allotment (or anything else really!). Full time soon turned into 60-80 hours a week at work and any time off left me completely unmotivated to do much. So by mid September I had made the decision to go back to my part time hours and at the beginning of October, I breathed a huge sigh of relief!

allotment harvestDuring July and the beginning of August, we were harvesting fairly reasonable amounts of peas and runner beans, rhubarb and were hopeful for many other crops. Unfortunately, disaster struck and on one of our sporadic visits to the allotment we were met with our runner bean supports all toppled over, squash plants (that we hadn’t planted – must have not rotten down properly in the compost!) smothering seedlings and other plants, garlic destroyed by rust and everything generally in a very sorry state. We decided there and then to harvest everything we could at that point (a reasonable amount of runner beans, a few small carrots, some beetroot and one lonely little fennel bulb that had survived the smothering by squash plant!) and mulch most of the beds with fresh horse manure then cover with some black plastic we had. We left the onions growing a little longer and a couple of kale plants that were doing well, plus a squash plant and what I thought was a courgette plant that hadn’t produced anything so far.

In September, we harvested the onions which were wonderful specimens! We intended to head back again soon to clear and mulch the remainder of the beds but, of course, that ended up being several weeks later! The weeds certainly took advantage of this and when we returned in October were faced with what seemed like a monumental task! Just 2 visits of a couple of hours each put the weeds in their place! We were able to harvest several squash that had done well left completely on their own and 3 superb pumpkins that had grown on what I thought was a courgette plant! We dug up all of the Jerusalem artichoke (later finding out that they are best stored in the ground – still, we wanted every bed as clear as possible) and cut back the raspberries and blackcurrants. We have left one bed ‘open’ with the kale growing and will hopefully plant some broad beans in it soon.

manure on bedsallotment mulch and clear up for winter

 

I’m hopeful that we will be more committed to the allotment over winter and next year – It’s totally our fault that things haven’t gone so well this year, allotments take a lot of time and work and we just haven’t been going regularly enough.

Onwards!

 

Hello sunshine!

The last few days here in Cornwall have been fab! The sun has shone, I feel like I’ve got plenty done and the rate of seedling demise seems to have slowed. The alliums in the garden have started flowering, I’m definitely planting some on the allotment next year – the bees can’t get enough!

I have plans for making more rhubarb jam this week (hopefully I won’t burn it this time!) and have seen a recipe for a rhubarb cordial that I’d like to try.

On the allotment, the peas we put in at the weekend have so far avoided any significant damage from birds and we found a birds nest above our potting bench – the chicks are now big enough to peek out of the nest:


Yesterday, Ashley and I collected some carpeting from a local marquee company that was to be dumped or burned – we are going to use it to mulch our paths and other areas for the next year in the hope of really getting on top of the weeds. I’m hoping for another good weekend so we can get some more work done – although it’s a bank holiday in Cornwall which practically guarantees rain!

I’ve spent loads of time this week sat out in the garden potting on seedlings, sorting and clearing pots that have been emptied by the slugs and re-jigging plants to hopefully have some colourful flowers in the garden in a few weeks time.

Hope you’re all enjoying some sunshine too!

Another wet weekend…

After some lovely weather this week, this weekend is predictably dreary! So today was an ideal day for some baking and jam making.

As you can see, the cake isn’t lasting long! My excuse is that it’ll be much better fresh!

During the week, I pulled some fairly sizeable stalks of rhubarb and have been wanting to try some rhubarb and ginger jam from a preserves book I got for my birthday last year. It seems to have set, but I think I may have burnt it a little. We haven’t tried it yet, so I’m just hoping it doesn’t taste too bad!

 

I’m so pleased that I managed to get to the allotment during the week when the sun was shining. I managed to weed most of the beds – the ‘crop’ of fat hen that self seeds all across our plot have sprung up in the warmer weather.
As you can see, there was a fair covering of weeds before I started.  I planted some runner beans and sweet peas, cleared the kale and cabbage that hadn’t done very well and had gone to seed, and removed the netting that was protecting the kale etc from the pigeons and used it to cover the frame over the raspberries. I also sowed some carrot, beetroot, pak choi and fennel seeds. Ashley and I tried bulb fennel for the first time last year and really liked it so I’m pretty keen to try and grow it myself. I was enormously happy to see the potatoes, onions and garlic finally showing.

There’s still plenty of weeding, clearing, planting and covering to do. At home, the cauliflower seedlings are doing well and some of the sunflowers are really coming on. Unfortunately, most of my tomato seedlings have died off (I have no idea why!) and a lot of other things seem to really be struggling. It’s quite depressing seeing all my seedlings suffer and die when I’ve spent so many weeks tending to them daily. I’m really hoping to start seeing some good progress soon! And I mustn’t give up – I’m terrible for giving up when I’m not seeing the results that I want.

Thanks for reading, see you soon!

Sunshine and Flowers

It has been a beautiful day here in Cornwall! The sun has shone all day and you could almost imagine that summer might be drawing near… if it weren’t for that chilly wind that just will not desist! Ashley and I started our day in the front garden; Ashley potting on his beloved Foxglove plants and myself clearing debris from plant pots and checking my seedlings.

Ashley reminded me this morning that we used to take many photographs, almost daily, with our DSLR camera, but these days photo’s often get taken on mobile phones which then stay there and don’t get viewed as part of our photo collection. Today, we have both picked up the ‘proper’ camera again and have thoroughly enjoyed it! Cameras on phones are so good these days, but there’s a depth of field and quality that you get with a DSLR that just isn’t the same on a mobile phone. And of course, you can change settings, use specific ‘modes’ or go completely manual with a DSLR camera. I hope that we continue to use the camera more again and develop (ha! I’m so funny!) our photography skills.

Saturday 30th April 20161The sun was bringing out the vibrant colours in the garden today. It’s been such a pleasure to sit out and enjoy the garden.

I should be able to fill more of the garden with flowers soon, as there are now no chickens to destroy everything. That’s right, Blue and Penny have gone to their new home to enjoy an endless supply of fresh grass and bugs, make new friends (hopefully) and maybe even meet a man! We have been a little undecided about getting rid of them this week as we do enjoy their daily goings on and adore the fresh eggs. But ultimately, it just didn’t sit well with us that they didn’t have free space to roam and were, at times, clearly bored. So off they’ve gone! We hope to buy fresh eggs from the friends that have taken the girls and we know that they will be well looked after there.

After dropping the chickens off at their new abode, we headed to the allotment this afternoon. I FINALLY planted some onions and garlic, we did some weeding and tidying. The potatoes aren’t showing yet (I was quite late getting those in too), but the rhubarb is romping away! Saturday 30th April 20162It was much later than we had planned when we got to the allotment, so we didn’t get as much done as we’d hoped.  I did manage to get a few snaps of the rhubarb in all it’s glory – I hadn’t noticed the pink edges to the leaves before. That’s something I really love about taking photo’s; noticing the details and seeing things from a new perspective. Tomorrow we will head back and get some carrot seeds in, amongst others, do some more weeding and clear away the brassica’s that aren’t being productive any more. I also plan to sow some poppy and other flower seeds.

I now have to go and supervise Ashley – he has grand plans of a rather large shed going where the chickens used to be in the garden! Without intervention, I fear I will end up with more shed than garden!

Thanks for visiting! Hope you all see some sunshine this bank holiday weekend!

Quick allotment trip, 16th April 2016

allotment April 2016I had hoped that this weekend would see us busy at the allotment, but when it came round I just didn’t feel like doing much! We did pop down quickly, taking more compost from home to mulch the beds. Ashley did a bit of weeding and I mainly poked and prodded at tRhubarbhings.

The rhubarb is coming back nicely now, I’m looking forward to harvesting some soon! It seems to have responded well to a decent covering of compost.

We seem to have been somewhat successful at keeping the weeds at bay so far this year – although it’s early in the year yet, they may be back in due course! I think we’ll mostly be OK on the plot itself, but round the edges is another matter. The dock and nettles are vigorous in the summer – maybe full protective equipment and making some nettle tea for the plants is in order? We plan to mulch the paths between the beds better this year – there’s enough weeding to be done on the beds without spending hours weeding the paths too!

The blackcurrant bush and raspberry canes are showing plenty of fresh growth – I did intend to move the blackcurrant to the same bed as the raspberries to make it easier to protect them all from birds but maybe it’s too late now that the blackcurrant is growing again. I will research but imagine I will now be better off leaving it until autumn. 

 

Allotment visit 8th April 2016

Despite the weather being a bit hit and miss, Ashley and I spent several hours at the allotment today. We emptied out the compost bin in the back garden and took it all down to dress the beds. We thought a whole compost bins worth would be enough – how wrong we were! We’ve managed to give about half the beds a meagre covering each. It’s a good job we have another compost bin at home that should be at least half full of well rotted compost! There is another compost bin full down at the allotment, but it is barely a month old so won’t be ready yet.  It’s amazing just how much compost is needed to refresh each bed. I will have to check on our bags of leaves soon to see how well rotted/broken down they are so far. We took the chickens with us today and they  were more that willing to help by scraping the freshly laid compost around!

Ashley had the good idea of using the damaged poly tunnel frame as a frame to net our raspberries. We considered trying to fix the rips in the cover, but they went pretty much the full length and width of the cover in some places. We have brought it home to try and reuse some of it to make a cover for our little seedling bed. We also thought that we might be able to find some suitable material to re cover the frame, but it is quite bent and leaning to one side. One of the base poles has also snapped. I thought that the only remaining conclusion was the tip, but Ashley doesn’t like to waste a thing and so came up with his idea. We got as far as moving it and placing it over the raspberry bed today.

Ashley built another compost heap at the allotment from some old wooden pallets that had been hanging around. We’ve never had an open compost ‘heap’ rather than an enclosed bin before; I hope it’s efficient enough to break down the vegetation in a reasonable amount of time.

I was so pleased to see that the rhubarb is starting to grow again. You may have seen in a previous post that it disappeared completely over winter and just a few weeks ago, there was still no sign of it reappearing. My little gooseberry bush that I got last year has produced lots of new leaves and I can even see some very tiny gooseberries beginning to form. The small plum tree is also sprouting – these are both in pots and I thought that I may have neglected them too badly last year and over winter for them to survive. They seem to be tough old things! I must remember to add some fresh compost to all of my potted plants soon!

Today was very much a day about finding uses for old, damaged and previously unused (by us) things. There is a certain satisfaction in finding you have all the things you need by just being a bit creative. Admittedly, Ashley is much better at this than me!

Thanks for reading!

March 2016 trip to the allotment

The sun shone in Cornwall for a good few hours this weekend! Ashley and I have been meaning to get to the allotment for several weeks now, however bad weather and a dislike for standing out in the cold meant that we kept putting it off! The last meaningful visit to the allotment was just before Christmas to dig up some parsnips for our Christmas dinner!

We were greeted by a flattened gate and we were already aware that the poly tunnel hadn’t survived the winter. There was little other damage which was a relief! The aim of the day was to clear weeds from the beds. Working at a leisurly pace in the sunshine was a joy – I was a little worried that I had fallen out of love with the allotment already, but it turns out it was just the weather that was the problem!

3 hours of weeding later, all but one bed was weeded, the autumn raspberries had been cut right back (leaving a few new shoots that were already growing), and we moved some wooden boards to mulch different parts of the paths between beds. We completely filled the (previously pretty much empty) compost bin! It felt very much like a job well done and it’s great to have the beds cleared ready for this years seedlings.


We already have some cabbage, kale and purple sprouting broccoli growing that were planted last autumn. The unused parsnips are still in the ground to be dug up as we want them and there are also some leeks left in the ground, although they aren’t looking too great. I thought the leeks would be fine left in the ground over winter – maybe it’s just been too wet for them or maybe I should have stored them some other way. I will have to do some research for next year.

At this time of year, it seems quite exciting to see the purple sprouting broccoli in its glorious colour!


I am ever so pleased that the autumn raspberries have spread, but I’m a little concerned that the rhubarb doesn’t appear to be showing any growth at all after dying right back before Christmas. We will see soon enough if it has survived or not, and there’s nothing I can do about it now.

Next, planning when to start seeds off and get planting at home. Thanks for reading!

September on the allotment

Leeks are looking lovely on the allotment in September

Things are still looking quite good on the allotment. As you can see, the leeks are doing well and I think that some might even be about ready to use. Unfortunately, the wind has been a bit too much for the sweet peas and they are all at quite an angle! But they are still flowering well, so I will keep picking them! Last weekend, Ashley and I made 2 new beds, we will let them sit over winter and start planting in spring. We dug up the first of the vegetable bedsparsnips to have with our Sunday roast – I was expecting them to be a bit small still but boy was I wrong! They are absolute beasts! And very difficult to dig up as they have grown down into the packed earth under the shallow bed – I think I’ll put them in the deep bed next time! I have heard that parsnips are better tasting after frost, but these were delicious! There are still plenty of runner beans to be eaten and they are going down well in all manner of meals. The summer fruiting raspberries are finally booming (although only getting 5 or so ripe ones at a time).

As my kale seedlings were completely neglected whilst we were away, I bought some ‘ready made’ to try out. I also got some cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli. A few of each of these have gone into the top middle bed and promptly covered with fleece as the cabbage whites are very active still.

Next on the ‘to-do’ list is sorting the poly tunnel for winter planting. I would love a raised bed (or two) in there to keep some more tender plants going over the winter, and the shelving needs organising to make it more productive. Ashley has also mentioned making me a cold frame at home, so he has plenty to be getting on with!

Hello September!

Well hello there! I must apologise for my absence but it has been a busy old summer! I have been looking after an unwell Grandmother (who is much better now, thank goodness), had my brother, sister in law, nephew and neice visiting, then a week away in the Lake District for our first holiday in 7 years! I have been doing allotment visits in between but unfortunately not nearly often enough and have been quite unmotivated to write about it. But here’s to a new month and hopefully a more productive one.

I think that September is one of my very favourite months of the year. Once the school holidays have finished, the weather inevitably cheers up and Cornwall goes back to being a relatively peaceful place! The evenings are still relatively light and I can still enjoy being out in the garden. There is plenty of veg to be harvested (assuming I have bothered to tend to it!) and more to look forward to. My absolute favourite thing about this time of year is the wild berries that can be harvested for free. I popped out for a quick wander with Ashley earlier this evening and was gutted that I hadn’t taken a bowl to pick blackberries. I wanted to go back out as soon as we got back but unfortunately the rain started – I will be out there tomorrow picking them I think. Last year I made blackberry jam and I like to make a few blackberry and apple crumbles for the freezer. I like to add a bit of cinnamon for a really warming flavour on a cold winters evening. Nearby, there is an apple tree that I have picked apples from in previous years, but it is quite tricky to get at!

After our week away, one of the first things we did was, of course, take a trip to the allotment to see how things were doing. We were greeted, unsurprisingly, by lots and lots of weeds and about 6 giant marrows. I gather there was a fair amount of sunshine and rain whilst we were away so the courgettes grew and grew! The heaviest weighs nearly 10lbs!

 There were no runner beans to speak of (only the tiniest start of beans) a few days before we left and I have since picked a bag full of good sized beans and a couple of super long ones, over 30cm in length! I’ve never grown runner beans before and have to say I’m very pleased with them. I have blanched and frozen some and kept a few fresh in the fridge for the week. There will be plenty more to harvest in the weeks to come. The peas have been cropping fairly well, though I haven’t stayed on top of picking them as much as I would have liked. There are some pods that have started drying out on the plant, so I will leave them to dry and save them for seed next year. The swiss chard is still going strong, though I’ve long run out of ideas to use it up! Our harvested onions have dried well and should keep nicely, I wonder how long they will last us – I use quite a lot of onions. The leeks are looking fabulous! I’ve only tried growing leeks once before, and the neighbours cat sat on the seedlings and killed them. I can’t wait to get using the leeks, I’m not sure if I can start using them now but I think most need a bit longer to grow. Next year I must plant them a little deeper and maybe earth them up a little to blanch (i that the correct term?) the stems a bit more. I like the green bits on leeks though, so I’m not too worried about that. Unfortunately, whilst we were away the cabbage whites got to the brocolli and brussel sprouts and have done a fair bit of damage. We might still get a bit of brocolli as the heads have started developing on a couple of the plants, but I fear that the Brussel sprouts may be past it. I planted out some dwarf french bean plants (that had been started in the greenhouse) before we went away – these haven’t done much. The sweet peas are going strong and I think we will have quite a lot more flowers before the end of September.

I have started planning for winter and next year at the allotment. I should have already sorted seedlings and young plants such as Kale, but I haven’t so I’ll be keping an eye out for small plants being sold locally. If I don’t see any for a reasonable price, I’ll leave it until next year and try to be better prepared. I would like to get the blackcurrant bushes from our back garden moved to the allotment soon, then I might actually have some flowers in my garden next year! I’m thinking about having quite a few flowers at the allotment next year too – you can never have too many pollinaters! Next year, I need to make some proper fruit cages as the temporary netting around the raspberries isn’t big enough – the plants are outgrowing it and it’s quite difficult to get at the ripe berries. There will be blackcurrants to protect next year too. I need to re pot my patio plum tree soon, it has grown well this year and needs a much bigger pot already. We have mulched an area big enough for 3 medium sized beds so they need creating this winter, and all of the beds already there need a good layer of compost and/or manure. We are very fortunate to have a ready supply of fresh and rotted manure and we have 3 compost bins on the go with the chickens doing their bit too! We also found out that well known coffee shops such as Starbucks (other coffee shops are available) will give you bags full of used coffee grounds for free and this is a great addition to a compost heap.

So plenty to be getting on with and plenty of lessons learned as we near the end of our first summer at our allotment.