Allotment update (all be it belated) part 2...

Welcome back, so if you remember I left off at the end of July, this post is from August up to now.

Not much to say about August, we harvested a good crop of onions (best I've ever grown) and other things were starting ripen up ready for picking.

Pumpkin starting to go orange -

Looks like a good one.

Started getting the plot ready for next year, this section has green manure sown into it, this will be where the squashes go next year, we also sowed some swedes, turnips, carrots, raddish and lettuce for a late crop, and we'd been letting some things go to seed, like the lettuce plants so we can collect the seed for next year.

Preparing for next year - 

Still plenty going on.

We found some Russian kale plants reduced at our local garden centre, so we put those in, they'll over winter, along with other things we'll be putting in before December, like onions and garlic.

Russian kale - 

Looks tasty.

Borlotti beans, we'd already harvested one lot, this was the second flourish - 

Looking forward to eating some on stews over winter.

Borlotti beans ready for drying - 

They look great.

The apples on our inherited trees were doing well, we're not sure of the varieties yet -

Apple 'A' - 

Apple 'A'

Apple 'B' - 

Some kind of russet maybe ?

If you read part one you'll know we put various things in our polytunnel, and I obviously under estimated how much room things would need, jungle like is a good description.

No room here - 

There's veg in there, I can feel it.

And onto September which was basically frequent visits for harvesting purposes and a lot of time spent making stuff out of the things we took home, here are a few examples - 

Apples from both trees (about 40kg in all) - 

This wasn't all of them.

Which we (mostly my wife) turned into dried apple rings, apple dumplings and wine, the rest were blanched and frozen for pie fillings and obviously we've kept a load of the best ones for eating.

Apple rings - 

the kids loved them.

Apple dumplings, a family favourite - 

Awesome.

Home grown rhubarb and custard ice cream - 

It was awesome.

Pickled lemon cucumbers (grown in the polytunnel) and pickled onion slices -

Very tasty in sandwiches.

Courgette relish in the pan - 

We make it with pumpkin as well as courgettes.

Grape cordial we froze a load for Christmas as well, just add some sparkling water for a homemade sparkling grape drink - 

The kids love it, it's good with vodka as well.

The grapes that didn't get turned into cordial and jelly (yes we made grape jelly as well) have ended up as wine, quite a bit of it in fact, I don't know what variety of grapes these are, but they are the same as the grape vine we have in the back garden, they don't make good dessert grapes but they do make excellent wine.

Wine, it'll be ready next year - 

I need more demijohns.

This is just a small amount of what we've grown and turned into various things, every year that goes by we get better at preserving and growing, and now with the larger plot we intend to grow and make as much of our own stuff as possible, it saves money, it's better for you, it's a no brainer.

And so with that in mind onto October, we've been clearing up and sorting things out, there are plants that will over winter that we can eat, and we've started preparing for next year, we'll be putting in onions, garlic, shallots and broad beans soon, and we've started planning where things will go next year.

Our latest harvest - 

Bit of everything there.

We cleared out the polytunnel and are making use of it over winter, we left the chilli plants in as there's a chance they'll survive the winter in there, it is possible to over winter chilli plants and the ones we have at home will be bought in to see if we can do it, we have also put in some grape vine cuttings, and when I've pruned the currant bushes at home we'll be putting a load of currant cuttings in as well, and probably some other assorted cuttings.

Polytunnel cleared - 

I'll plan the planting better next year, but for now it'll act as a nursery.

grape vine cuttings - 

It's as simple as sticking a stick in the ground (apparently)

By the end of this month we should have the plot cleared and all the beds prepared for next year, yes there'll be some weeding to do in spring but hopefully not too much and we'll also have a head start with the onions and such like, I will put another crop of onions and broad beans in, in the spring.

Next year we'll be trying out some new stuff, like cucamelons here's a picture of some of the seeds, I got these for 46p a pack in a sale - 

Looking forward to the Turks turbans.

All in all it's been a good year, next year (fingers crossed) will be even better, but for now the plot is pretty much dormant apart from the things we plan to over winter, but the work will continue.

The plot so far - 

Not too much to do.

And that's it, just need to figure out what to do with this lot - 

Happy Halloween.

Thanks for reading.

Allotment update (all be it belated) part 1...

So another year done, and to be honest it's been a bit of a mixed bag for us, we decided early on to focus on the new full sized plot and we've had some good results, and some not so good, but we're still learning about the new plot, even though it's on the same site the sun hits it differently, the soil is a little different as well, but stuff grows well which is the main thing.

Rather than write large posts I'm going to post some of the pictures we've taken over the last few months, split over two posts.

Things were doing well in May (we moved the shed) -

Moved the shed, quite a big job.

We put in the squashes, pumpkins, courgettes etc and the corn, the plot was looking good - 

A vast improvement on how it looked at the start of the year.

And we put some chilli's, peppers, tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, melons and butternut squashes in the polytunnel - 

Plenty of room for everything, as it turned out no there wasn't.

On to June, I made a net from rope to train one of our grape vines across - 

Needs more support now, grape vines are heavy as it turns out.

We put in some assorted brassicas (cabbages, kale etc) - 

We netted them well, still got caterpillars on them though.

Things carried on growing well, the weather was good - 

The hard work seems to be paying off.

And so onto July (which was a busy month) the plants continued to do well - 

Corn doing well, two types growing here.

Squashes doing well - 

Should get some good pumpkins this year.

And then around the beginning of July we had some bad weather, high winds and the like and our polytunnel suffered a small set back, in fact it got shredded by the wind, whether this was because I hadn't stretched the polythene tight enough or whether it wasn't up to the task I don't know, but it did set us back a little.

Some repair needed - 

There was a lot of swearing.

The plants however continued to do well, so there was that, and as we were giving up our old plot for this bigger one we decided to make a start on moving some of the plants from the old plot to the new plot, we started with the asparagus, now generally speaking it wasn't the best time to move the plants, it should be done in early spring when the plants are dormant least that's what the books say, but we weren't able to wait.

Asparagus in their new home - 

Fingers crossed they'll be happy here.

We were worried they might not survive given the weather was warm and dry and we were concerned the crowns might have suffered too much in the heat.

However they seemed to be fine, in fact they started growing again, but we'll have to wait and see how they do over winter.

Asparagus starting to grow again - 

They seem to be fine, despite the move.

We learnt that rats like to dig up and eat potatoes, so we harvested what we had which turned out to be around 35kg.

Exhibit 'A' your honour - 

You learn something new everyday, didn't know rats liked spuds.

You're not getting your paws on these Mr Ratty - 

Bagged up and ready to go, love new spuds.

We harvested some of our grape vines for leaves to make dolma (stuffed vine leaves) - 

Another way to use things we grow.

The grapes continued to grow well - 

These will end up as wine.

Our borlotti beans were coming along nicely as well, not grown these before but they did well and we grew them for drying and storing, which again is a new thing for us, but we got a lot of beans from a small amount of plants.

Borlotti beans growing - 

They look great.

Pumpkins and other assorted squashes continued to grow well and we set about fixing the polytunnel and that was it for July.

Polytunnel fixed with slightly more robust material - 

And it's still standing, and performing well.

One of a few pumpkins coming along nicely - 

Should be a good one.

And I'll leave you with a small white butterfly caterpillar eating one of our brassica plants - 

They've all gone now and most of the plants survived.

Thanks for reading and look out for part two, which should be along shortly.

Allotment update (part 2)

Welcome back, this is part two of my current allotment adventures, I had to break it into two posts as it seems I've done quite bit.

So this is pretty much where the new plot was at in part one -

Oh look weeds, some things never change.

The first job this visit (it's now March the 18th by the way) is to prepare some areas for sowing more seeds, and do some weeding.

Bit of digging and raking and voila - 

On to sowing.

You may have noticed that I haven't sorted out pathways and such like yet, this is because I'm taking the same approach with this plot that I did with our half plot, that being I'm letting it evolve, I will eventually put in a path that runs the full length of the plot, I'm also not having a load of defined beds for growing things, apart from the fruit, and I need to put in an asparagus bed, but that will be it for beds as I like to move things about.

After a while the newly prepared section is done, I've sown carrots, parsnips, three different types of radish, mixed salad leaves as well as lettuces, mud fruit (beetroot) pak choi, and spinach, although I suspect the parsnips won't do anything, every seed from that pack of parsnips has failed to germinate, even the ones I've sown at home to see if they'll grow.

Sown areas sectioned off and watered - 

Looking like it might actually be productive.

And now we get to April, this visit consisted of putting in some canes for beans and peas, I also rescued a few more alliums and put in some more parsnips, this time from a different packet of seeds, I'm also pleased to report that the grape vine I moved is showing signs of life, it may not produce any fruit this year, but at least it's still alive.

Pea and bean canes in, peas (Kelvedon wonder) and beans (borlotti) sown and watered - 

About half of the plot is now doing something.

Rhubarb is coming along nicely now as well - 

Quite a lot of it as it happens.

And that brings us up to date, I have recently finished the main frame work for a home built polytunnel which needs to be put on the new plot and be covered in plastic, I will write about how I made it so keep an eye out for that, and obviously there will be a few more allotment updates throughout the year, but for now I'll leave you with a picture of a hedgehog, I found him stuck between a gate and gate post on the site, I set him free and he seemed to be fine, hopefully he'll repay me by coming onto my plot and eating all the slugs that usually eat all my veg.

He's not very talkative - 

He was a good weight, at least a kilo.

Here's the plot as it is now - 

A far cry from what it was just a few months ago.

Thanks for reading.

First allotment update of 2017...

I had intended to do some more work on our new plot this weekend, but the weather had other ideas, so here's an update on where we're at with it all.

This is what the our new plot currently looks like -

Much improved.

Since the third of December I have mainly been sorting out fences and gates and a few other things, I'm almost ready to begin the task of digging it all over with the view to planting things in spring.

3rd of December trip.

New gate (which I made at home) fitted -

Not very pretty, but better than what was there.

I made a new gate, and I can now lock the plot up with a length of chain I found and a padlock I bought, given the choice I would have left the old gate where it was, but as I had to cut my way into the plot a new gate was a good idea.

Whilst sorting through the undergrowth I found some (very heavy) concrete slabs, there are just about enough to make a base for the shed that currently lives on our other plot, so I roughly laid out the slabs, although I'm still debating the best place for the shed, so this may change.

Slabs roughly laid out -

Subject to change.

Fixed up the back fence where an old gate used to be, I used what I had and what I found on the plot rather than buying new stuff, so it's not very nice looking, but it serves a purpose.

Old gate patched up -

I did say it wasn't pretty.

I've decided to grow blackberries up the back fence, along with some dog roses for two reasons, firstly there will be blackberries for jam and such like and the dog roses will produce rose hips which can then be turned into rose hip syrup which is very rich in vitamin c, we use it to help prevent colds, it was something people living in the country used to do in ww2 as a way of getting extra vitamins and dog roses also have nice flowers that bees and other bugs love.

The second reason is that brambles and dog roses tend to be a bit prickly and as they grow into the fence they will hopefully provide a bit of a deterrent to anyone who tries to climb over it and so to that end I've been relocating all the dog roses I've found to the back fence, along with any brambles.

Onto the next trip (10th of December)

This was just a short trip to add a bit of height to the back fence, I had a roll of old chain link fencing that I decided to use, so all I did was fix it to the fence posts at the bottom of the plot, this has raised the height of the fence to about nine or ten feet and once the dog roses and brambles get established should provide a nice sturdy growing frame.

Bit hard to see in this picture, but you can just make out the chain link - 

It was a very gloomy day.

I did a bit of clearing around the apple trees as well - 

Starting to look better.

And that was that, a week later (17th of December) I was back sorting out the compost area.

I ripped out the old pallets that were a bit worse for wear and using the parts from the other plot I set about making a new compost area, and once that was done I did a bit more clearing.

New compost area and some more clearing - 

Much better.

That was the last trip in December as it was nearly Christmas and as is usually the case we were very busy trying to get presents and such like sorted out, and we all came down with the flu so we had that to deal with as well.

So onto the first (frosty) trip of 2017, just about recovered from the flu (or what ever it was) on the 6th of Jan I decided to move one of the grape vines, it wasn't really in a practical place so I made a new frame for it to grow along, now runs parallel with the larger one that's growing along the front of the plot.

I used the two posts from it's old frame and added another post and fixed a few rows of garden wire between the posts the frame itself is bigger than a usual grape vine frame, but I want to encourage it to trail along the entire frame.

Moving the vine itself wasn't as hard as I thought, after some reading I had figured I was going to have to do a lot of digging in order to get the entire root ball out, but in the end the root ball was smaller than I thought it was going to be given the size of the plant.

Frame done and vine replanted - 

You can't see the wire, but it's there.

I also added a couple of rows of wire along the very bottom of the frame so that I can grow french beans along it as well, these won't interfere with the grape vine, if for some reason the vine doesn't survive it's relocation then I've got a nice big frame for growing runner beans up.

Extra wire for beans - 

Seemed like a waste of growing potential.

And that's it so far, I will keep an eye on the weather for next weekend and hopefully I will be able to carry on and get it in better shape for spring, but it's come a fair way since we took it on in November last year.

November last year - 

Slightly over grown.

January this year - 

Getting there.

Thanks for reading.