I've been a bit neglectful!

And it doesn't take long for the weeds to make their mark.

With the weather having been what it's been this "summer" visits to the plot have been a rare occurence as I may have already said and certain things have done really well despite my neglect, and others haven't faired so well. Peas have been a disaster with beans coming a close second in the rubbishness stakes.

Thankfully two of the varieties growing this year have been Heritage varieties - so should be ok to grow from next year (unlike F1 varieties).

Some of the peas/beans have dried in their pods and others I'll have to dry "manually" as you can see.

Martock broad beans:



Stephens peas:



In other bean news - the Blauhilde climbing beans have finally started to produce and I walked away with a fair decent haul - two hands full from the 5 plants that have survived. A sample of which we'll be trying with dinner tonight (slow roasted lamb).



I pulled up the last of the beetroot today too - the final two. One of them was a respectable cricket all size and the other slightly smaller. I also pulled up a few more carrots, three of which had been keeping slugs in food and shelter for some considerable time it would appear (one slug was sat halfway down a carrot with one whole half having been stripped away. I also had a pretty decent harvest of courgettes of various sizes as you can see.



However - that isn't all my courgettes. One of the consequences of neglect and rain has meant that in place of a couple of my courgettes some monsters have taken their place!

Monster 1 (7lb in weight)



Monster 2 (8lb)



I had to weigh them on our "big" scales as the kitchen scales just kept displaying "err". Not sure if it couldn't make up it's mind if it was a courgette or marrow, or if the cour-marrows were just too heavy for the scales. Either way, I still have to figure out what to do with them.

The apple tree is nicely laden with apples and I managed to reach (ok, so I can reach higher than most) a whole carrier bag full - which should see us ok for apple sauce and crumbles for a while. I was going to pick some blackberries too, but I ran out of bags/carrying recepticles.



I'm going to need a ladder to get the rest.

Dug up the rest of the Kestrel potatoes to - 5 plants that gave me a big carrier bag full. Not enough to last through the winter, but should give us enough spuds for some weeks to come yet anyway.

In my haste to get to the plot today I forgot to take the camera - hence all the photos are post-harvest, and my phone is low on battery having left the charger at work (d'oh). Anyway, there are a few things still growing well en-plot. The sweetcorn plants are all showing a husk (?) or two - I only hope that they don't all come to harvest whilst we're away on holiday.

The sweetcorns' neighbour - celeriac is also growing seemingly well and some of them are about the size of tennis balls now - so I'm pretty sure it won't be long now before we taste our first home grown.

The Achocha is in need of further support - I may put the second garden arch next to it to give it some height (the short canes and netting are looking woefully inadequate).

Asparagus peas are chucking them out at a rate of knots - yet we have still only eaten them once (they go beyond being "edible" rather quickly).

The brassicas all look quite happy under the netting - purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts - I'm just hopeful I'm not too late. Maybe a winter harvest?

Squash has established itself quite well, with several flower "buds" along its length, but again I fear I may be too late - unless we have some of those trendy "baby" squash. The same can be said of the pumpkins, I think I was too lax in getting them out of the pots and into the ground. Hey there's always next year!

I had some spare Sub-Arctic plenty tomatoes and I thought I'd stick them in the ground to see what would happen - and to my surprise I noticed a few green fruits on a couple of the plants (I only planted three). If they're anything like the ones I've got in the greenhouse though - they'll be green for sme time yet!

We've been using the herbs for some time now - regular cutting from the oregano, rosemary (some is cooking with the lamb as we speak), sage and thyme. Some of the decent sized onions are nicely dry in the greenhouse now, and the ones I forgot about and left on the floor didn't dry out so wel, so I may have to make some chutney/marmalade with those.

Oh, one more thing before I go - as fellow Grapevine members will know one of us (Hazel) recently entered into her village show and came away with some top prizes. Well, yesterday was our village show and no, I didn't enter, but did go along to see what all the fuss is about having never been to one before. I have to say I was somewhat disappointed. In part because it was just the village hall with four lines of tables with various things on them - some vegetable/fruit, some cakes and jams/chutneys. some with flowers/pot plants and others with kids "art". I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't it. Also what was slightly disappointing was the number of entrants - our resident "expert" seemed to feature quite a lot and also the village gardening society's secretary. LadyWayne has convinced me to enter next year if for no other reason than to up the numbers.

Watch this space!

Well, after all that typing I think I deserve an ale, so I'm off for a bottle and a feed.

Which reminds me - did I tell you I'm going to be a dad?

If it ain't one thing...

Well, yesterday was a complete wash out - rain from the moment I got up to the moment I went to bed. Surely clouds run out of rain after a certain time?

Weather is not my best friend at the moment - any time I get to go to the allotment is usually - no in fact always, met with equal amounts of persistent rain.

Today, LadyWayne had booked her hairdresser to come and visit us at 11 am. So I thought - I'll wait until she arrives before going to the plot, so I waited. LadyWayne suggested that Tina, her hairdresser would probably arrive early, so we expected her at around 10:30. At 11:45 LadyWayne started to doubt herself and considered she maybe had the wrong day. Guess what? Yip, we're booked in next week.

So, after getting myself together I headed on down to plot 35 with a spring in my step - well, it wasn't raining!

Weeds!!

Why is it that mother nature decided to make it so that weeds are the fastest growing plants known to man?

I set to it, hoe in hand and made inroads on the weeds formerly known as paths, but if I'm anything I'm easily distracted......

One thing I did notice was the strength of the wind on the plot. I think next year I'll grow something along the south face to try and soften the strength of the force ten gales that seem to rattle through. My 45 degree sweetcorn will thank me for it I'm sure.

Can an allotment be maintained effectively with a once a week visit? I've had my doubts - but then I saw Jow Swift on Gardeners World on Friday and he mentioned that he only gets to the plot once a week. His plot looks great - from what I saw on the telly anyway. Well, if Joe can do it....

In my quest for a low(er) maintenance plot, I think a surefire way of helping achieve it is to complete the raised beds for the entire plot. One thing it does is gives clearly defined borders, edges, seperations - call them what you will. I noticed this with one particular bed today. Weeds as we know don't take long to take hold and the lines soon became blurred between path and bed.

Anyway, that's for another time. For now, back to the plot in it's current state.

Oh, one thing before I start. I won't have any photos to show this update. Reason? Well, I forgot to take the camera but fear not, I have the trusty Swiss camera phone. You know the one that can play music, surf the interweb, make calls, send text and media messages, make a cup of tea, iron your shirts and take pictures...

Well, not mine. For a completely unknown (and hopefully not for long) reason the phone has no screen - well, none that works anyway. If someone is in the market for a Samsung U600 just stand outside my window and there should be one on it's way shortly, you just need to be able to catch.

Plot 35.

The last of my Kestrel potatoes are just about ready to pull up. I pulled up two plants today and some of the spuds are whoppers - really great baked potato size. Next to them where the 1st and 2nd early spuds perviously grew I've now planted some Falstaff and Bedford Fillbasket sprouts - nicely netted over to keep the pesky flying rats off.

I've also planted 4 pumpkin plants - they'd previously been growing in vending cups, but they do have some small flowers on them. I have a feeling that they're a bit late - well, I am not the pumpkins.

In one of the beds previously occupied by the onions and garlic is now home to some cauliflower plants and purple sprouting broccoli.

The Stephens peas have definitely seen better days - yellowing stalks and no more flowers or pods appearing. I've given up on their neighbours too - the Mange Touts that live next door. Hopefully I'll be able to let enough of the Stephens get to the stage where I can harvest seed pods for next year - just need to work out how to dry and store them...

Broad beans are also on their way out - the Aquadulce are in a worst state than the Martock - it won't be long now. I'm hopeful that the Martock will save and store too.

Pulled up a few more carrots today too - only minor slug damage. Two more beetroot too.

Courgettes are going well now too - cut 6 of varying sizes and donated some to the brother-in-law.

Squashes are starting to spread across their bed - not sure if they'll set fruit in time, but hey, we'll see I guess.

Achocha needs more support - I think I saw some flower buds starting to form - so I'll be keeping a close eye on him - and weather permitting I'll hopefully get on to the plot one night this week to put up some more supports.

Celeriac still looks good, asparagus peas are taking over and throwing out little pods like there's no tomorrow. I haven't tried any yet, but am hopeful that todays harvest will be consumed this week - maybe with some nice fish.

Bindweed has once again taken over the pile of manure - I'll have to resort to some Roundup to try and get on top of it.

Well, the battery is just about to die on the laptop, so before I lose this post - which has taken enough time for me to avoid watching most of some rubbish Jennifer Aniston film that LadyWayne is watching.

Goodbye for now.

Long time no see

Remember me? It's been such a long time since I last posted, I bet you'd forgotten about me.

There are no excuses for my neglect so I will just get right back on into it and update what's been going on. I apologise.

But first.

Myself and LadyWayne are growing something extra special this year, and with a bit of luck and a prevailing wind we'll be parents in February next year - real parents!!!

Exciting and nervous times ahead, and I fear that the plot/blog may suffer as a result. I will do my utmost to ensure that neither are completely neglected, but priorities in all aspects of our lives will change from now on.

Now then, back to my other growings on...

With the recent mixed bag of weather we've had - typical British weather in it's most varied form, my ventures to the allotment have been equally sporadic. Law of the sod that when the weather is good, I am unable to get to the plot for one reason or another.

However, I have also found new joys in all things floral - and a combination of garden and plot floral displays have lifted the spirits and kept me going.

Having thought some time ago that our garden was too green (in terms of colour not environmentalism) I decided I would create a flower bed - something I'd been threatening to do for some time. Anyway, it all started off quite simply, mark out an area of lawn to be sacrificed and get digging.



Then plant like mad a series of bulbs, seedlings and the odd shop bought plant and you're left with...



Ok, it doesn't look particularly great as a whole yet, but there are elements within.

Short stemmed lillies.




Love in a mist (seeds donated by Hazel on the Hill - Grapevine friend)



There are also some Marigolds, some ground cover plant I've no idea the name of (LadyWayne bought them and threw away the label) and some red hot pokers grown from seed, some foxgloves grown from seed and some other bulbs including gladioli and sparaxis (all of which I think must have died or gone into hiding as there's no sign of them.

Of the seven Astilbe bulbs planted only one has grown. Looks quite pretty in the sunshine though I think you'll agree...



We also planted a Jasmine about 18 months ago and it didn't really do much - I even thought about moving it as it's in the shaded part of the garden. It never really grew and some of the leaves started to yellow. Over the last 3-4 weeks it's had a new lease of life. Beforehand it never grew any higher than the wall it's in front of, but as you can see from the picture it's started to work it's way up and through the trellis we put of top of the wall for this very purpose.



Now all we need is plenty of flowers and a few balmy evenings to really get the scent going!!

To the plot...

Over the past couple of months (yes, it's been that long), a number of things have happened - namely the weeds have grown and are putting up a good fight. However, a few things have settled in quite nicely that can be harvested. There are a few acceptions - the Stephens peas after a decent start are now showing signs of deteriation after only a couple of crops. The mange tout never really got started (I may yet get some early cropping varieties in).

I've lifted both the first and second early potatoes - the main crops are almost ready, so they'll be lifted within the next week or so.

Casualties:

Melons that looked quite healthy when I planted them (I bought and erected a rose arch to grow them up) died with the sudden chilly/windy snap we had.

Every garlic bulb bolted, along with the red onions (onions were made into onion marmalade courtesy of recipe posted by pigletwillie on the Grapevine:

Red Onion Marmalade

6 large onions, thinly sliced
3 cups sherry or red wine vinegar
3 cups sugar
2-4 bay leaves
20 black peppercorns, cracked (mixed ones work too)

Place all ingredients in a non-reactive, thick-bottomed pan over low heat. Simmer until almost all liquid has evaporated and onions are translucent. Set aside to cool. Place in sterilised jars and seal. Will keep for up to six months.

If you dont have red onions, normal ones will do just as well.

One of the easiest things to make, so if you have a surplus I'd thoroughly recommend it.

I planted 5 Achocha seedlings some time ago and again these were healthy plants when I put them in, but they seemingly all suffered our inclement weather - or so I thought...

One of the plants only just survived - there was a tiny bit of greenery visible above the soil. I decided to leave it and see if anything would happen. I wasn't very hopeful.

I should have been. The plant as you can see, is now doing really rather well, so much so that I need to put some larger stakes and netting in to help support it. It has the most fantastic little spirals shooting out in search of somewhere to grab hold of.



If you look closely at the leaves, they do look remarkably like a certain plant that thrives in warm loft spaces across the country...so I'm told.

You can also see the asparagus peas have filled out the rest of the bed behind the achocha. These are cropping nicely - although I've been too slow to harvest them and they grew too large to eat. They should be harvested when the pods are and inch or so long.

I had a similar situation with the squash that I planted the same time as the melons - they seemingly disappeared and I gave up hope.

They too proved me wrong.



There are even a couple of flowers forming which in time I'm hoping will become squash.

Sweetcorn is now nicely established too - I've only grown 12 plants as the harvesting period is quite short, and likely to be whilst I'm away on holiday, but we live in hope. Over the past couple of weeks they seem to have grown significantly with the little "tufts" now clearly visible.



You can also see alongside the sweetcorn that the celeriac is doing quite nicely. I had fears that this would be a difficult crop to grow, but it seems my fears were unjustified - touch wood. The foliage looks good and healthy and the "bulbs" or roots are starting to swell nicely.



All my onions were pulled up on Monday - and to be honest I should have done this a couple of weeks ago and let them dry out properly. As it is, I've had to put them in the greenhouse to dry out. I might be making some more of that marmalade!

There have been three lots of beetroot harvested and my brother-in-laws girlfriends father (still with me?) boiled them up for me, and today I will have my first taste - in my sandwiches. I'd like to get some more in the ground, but I'll need to be quick I think!

Here's the first three I harvested a few weeks ago - along with my first courgette, some potatoes and broad beans (Aquadulce Claudia).



Parsnips are also going really well, having adopted the toilet roll centre method to get them germinating I think I'll do the same thing next year! I'm just hopeful the slugs don't get hold of them. I pulled a few carrots the other night and they are showing some slight slug damage, but I still think they're salvagable. I'll use one of them when making a chilli tonight.

Don't look bad from a distance though do they?



Those are asparagus peas you can see beneath them.

Not long to go now, I promise - it's been a long time, I've lots to say.

The pond is starting to establish itself nicely now too. I've let the plants around it run a little wild in the hope that it will provide some decent shelter for the wildlife. I had my first glimpse of one of my frogs (at least I think it was mine - it was tiny) but I was too slow with the camera so you'll have to take my word for it. Here's where I hope he calls home though.



Another little wildlife "project" was my mini meadow. You may recall my seeds that I bought from The Eden Project and the little bed I made to sow them in last year. Well, I sowed the seeds and waited, and waited, and waited. I'd almost given up hope, when all of a sudden - within about a week or two, this happened...




I've taken a few close ups - mainly because I'm so happy they flowered, but also because I think they look quite spectacular individually.






Finally, I'm glad I gave my apple tree a good hard prune during the winter. Last year I think I managed to get about 5 apples from the tree. This year however....



I haven't counted them (I don't have that many fingers), but I think there are more than five!

Ok, that's me done for now. Hopefully I'll be able to update a little sooner than 2 months from now!

Until then.