A Shed

No doubt many of you were thinking my long absence was me taking some time to wrap up, sit in front of the TV and eat lots of chocolate but actually I have been doing all that and also building the shed!

I am hopeful that the council have finished faffing around and that I am now a permanent resident on plot 19 (now re-numbered but that is a story for another day) so I have bought a shed.

The building project began back in December when I bought the flag stones and then provided my fellow plot holders with a long afternoon of entertainment as I heaved them from the car to my allotment. Once the bruises had subsided OH helped me dig over a nettle patch and we laid them in a vaguely level square.

The shed arrived and sat in the garden for oh a few weeks until my parents took pity on us and helped carry the pieces down to the allotment. A surprising number of trips later we had everything in place and just needed a cordless drill to get it together. Strangely there seems to be a unusually high demand for drills so we have to wait a week for HSS to locate one, finally, in the middle of the snow they did. One day later and the shed was standing.

So there you go a full 5 weeks to build a shed. We have actually put the roof felt on since the pic and there is a huge fat padlock which will hopefully keep my spade safe. But more importantly I have shelter from the wind and the rain so I can drink my tea in comfort. Just need to buy a chair now.

A look back at 2008

As we enter the new year amid frantic plot tidying and seed buying I thought I would stop and have a look back at 2008.

It was another washout summer but there was still plenty growing, I had my first experience of growing tomatoes and potatoes, and then my first experience of blight, although thankfully the potatoes were untouched. 2008 also saw me completely fail to get any spinach, beet or normal, growing.

The allotment was going well, the cold winter months gave me a chance to make some impact on the nettles and the vigorous growth of the squash and pumpkin plants helped keep things under control. There was a bumper crop of Crown Prince squash and the Baby Bear pumpkins were pretty good too. Once again I had far more courgettes than I would ever want to eat.

Sadly the plum tree failed to fruit and the apple tree dropped all its fruits and then had a nasty case of leaf miner which finally seems to be under control. I failed to net my blueberries so a lucky bird received a very tasty meal, but I did have some fantastic raspberries and the asparagus crowns seem to be settling in well; with a bit of luck I can harvest a few shoots this year.

The parsnips are making up for their poor germination by being huge and very tasty, the celeriac took plenty of time but I am now harvesting small but wonderfully sweet bulbs and there are plenty more to go. Sadly the carrots were a complete disaster, the fleece tunnel experiment gave the slugs some warm lodgings from which they ate most the carrots and the rest fell victim to root fly.

So the winners of 2008 were the squash, pumpkins, potatoes and celeriac; and the losers were the carrots, spinach, tomatoes and plums.

2009 will hopefully see a shed on the allotment, some proper raspberry supports, carrots, plums and asparagus. How was your 2008?

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Heres hoping for a warm, sunny (but not too dry) 2009!

Home grown food for Christmas

Today we are heading off up north to spend Christmas with OH's family. Yesterday I made a quick visit to the allotment to dig up some more potatoes, there is now just 1 and a half rows left (probably about 100 spuds), and more importantly the first harvest of this year's parsnips.

The potatoes are doing really well, I reasoned that since the soil is peat I could effectively store them through winter by not digging them up, a few were slug damaged but I still have more than enough for Christmas dinner. Mind you, I think I'll do the digging up and storage thing properly next year because washing wet mud off potatoes in December is really no fun at all.

The parsnips have somehow morphed into monster veg, sadly the photo I took before eating the really big gnarly ones was rubbish so I'll spare you the pain. I expect that some of the ones still waiting to be dug will give a better photo so be patient. Last week I dug some parsnips from the beds in the garden and they were very small, about the size of a large carrot so I was unprepared for the allotment versions, planted at around the same time. One of them was more like a swede with a long root! Luckily a few look like real parsnips rather than the more common multi rooted thing so they have been selected, and washed, ready for the Christmas dinner. I'm not sure OH's family are keen on muddy veg, or small holes in their potatoes so there has been more washing and selecting than usual.

I love being able to share home grown veg with friends and family, this year as well as the potatoes and parsnips I'll be taking a few Crown Prince squash as gifts. I think I am more generous with the root veg too, maybe it is to do with the fact it grows underground so I don't impatiently watch it ripening whilst salivating. All requests for soft fruit are ignored.

Onions

I sowed a pack of onions a few weeks back, can't remember the variety but maybe Rador? Anyway they have just started sprouting, something of a surprise for me since I thought they just stayed in the ground during winter and then put on all their growth in spring. Luckily dad was on hand to set me straight!

Next year I am intending to be self-sufficient in onions, or as close to this as possible, so from late February through to April I will sowing a couple more varieties as sets and hopefully at least one other from seed.

If you are new to onions then you need to know that some varieties are planted in Autumn and overwintered to give you an earlier crop next year, it works well but they don't store as well as spring planted ones which is why it is good to have a mix. Onions come in seeds or as sets, which are like baby onions that you plant where you want them.

This year we had just one overwintered variety, they were quite easy to grow and even if they weren't the best for flavour, nothing could beat the freshness of a home pulled onion.

The plot

I managed a brief visit to the plot last weekend and I suspect this is was led to the onslaught of flu. Now recovered enough to get the pictures off the camera. Not going to write much today so I will just share the picture of the plot as it is now:

Still have quite a way to go.

Snow and garlic

Waking up to snow on the ground and a lovely combo of sleet, rain and more snow coming from the sky I though that a positive post might be in order to cheer me, and hopefully some of you, up.

Yesterday I finally succeeded in planting the 5 rows (8 bulbs) of garlic, I hadn't anticipated needing to dig quite so much earth but I really do love planting garlic, I love the fact that the bulbs look exactly the same as the ones you eat, and in fact last year they were the same bulbs. I love cracking them open and removing the cloves from the papery wrapping, and the fact that each clove will hopefully turn itself into a whole new bulb, but most of all it just feels great to be planting something at this time of year when everything else is dying back for winter.

We have had a couple of frosts already which are finally killing the nettles, yesterday's digging removed some major nettle roots, this is the only time of year you can make such progress, the nettles are weakened and for once not growing, and the ground it still dry enough to dig. Roughly dig over the area and the frosts will break the clods down into lovely crumbly soil for you.

At this time of year, with the months before spring stretching ahead of you, I am always hopeful that I will manage to get on top of the weeds and next spring will be all about planting new seedlings into clear fertile soil.

To Do

Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny but cold, after weeks of rain and the rapid approach of Christmas I am determined to make the most of the sun and actually plant my garlic. I ordered the bulbs way back in September and they have been sitting in the shed ever since, somehow there has always been something else at the top of the to do list.

Tonight was also the night of the first celeriac and it was fantastic! Despite having been sat in the fridge for a few days it was wonderfully tender and with a little homegrown garlic and some herbs turned into a perfect accompaniment to the fish. Just as well since there are about 30 more waiting to be pulled and eaten.

Warning: Contaminated Manure

I have been asked to pass on the warning about contaminated manure, hopefully you all heard about this terrible situation earlier this year, but please be aware that it is still an issue.

If you, or anyone you know are thinking of getting some manure for your garden or plot please read this first: http://www.glallotments.btik.com/p_Contaminated_Manure.ikml

If you have already bought manure then please do read the warnings before spreading it.

Recycling

A worn pair of jeans is my latest recycling experiment; the bin is cooling down a little due to the cold weather but I am still expecting them to be reduced to hearty compost before to long. Amazing that you can nourish your vegetables with old clothes.