Update on My Lack of Recent Postings.

I have just started writing again after a big gap.

The allotment still is important to me and I am still busy working on it. I have now finally started to plan ideas that will make it (hopefully) less work so I will have more time to write and enjoy the results (instead of being occupied and concerned about the perennial weed battle) . I have a plot that likes to grow bindweed, mares-tail and couch grass as soon as I look away.

I will try to update and post photos  ( of the results from the plot and include good, the bad and the ugly) as often as possible. You know how sometimes there is a back log of jobs that need doing at both home and the allotment, well that is how it has been for sometime.

Now off to see -  if the pigeons have attacked any of my young pea plants overnight.

Potatoes Planted 2016 Season

June and none of my first early potatoes are in flower yet.

I confess that I planted them later this year. However, several nearby plots planted at the normal time and are experiencing something that is a bit unusual. The main crop potatoes they planted after the first early potatoes have come in to flower first and earlier than expected, while the first earlies still have only leaves on display.

 I do not know what this means, I know weather wise we had a warm spell, then a colder one so maybe it was the cooler soil temperatures when the first early potatoes  where meant to be getting started into growth but just had to wait for the soil to warm up. But how have the main crops flowered early? Maybe warmer weather and soil when they were planted but that is just a guess,I do not have the definitive answer.

If I hear any more about this I will post an update here, meanwhile it may require a bit more patience than usual before we can harvest them. BTW I have noticed that the supermarkets have had Jersey Royals in stock but not many English new potatoes yet. So the warm weather this week may be just what is needed if we are not to be lacking in tasty new potatoes to go with our salad meals.

Flowers on the plot.

Next year,  I am going to grow some flowers on the allotment although the main areas will still be used for fruit and vegetables.  Some of the allotment flowers will be to add colour and interest to the plot but others will be for cutting to use in the house and also to give to family and friends.

I feel that improving the 'frontage' of the plot with a splashes of colour from seasonal flowers, annuals, perennials and bulbs will be worth losing a bit of food growing space.


Flowers Update June 2016. 

Earlier this year, I had a nice selection of tulips to brighten the plot for passersby or to use to cut and put into vases at home this spring.  However, summer now and the burst of cutting flowers colour that I was hoping for has not yet happened. Well, in one way it has, last years phacelia and red clover ( green manure crop seeds) was left to self seed and has now almost filled over the planned cut flower part of the plot. A bit disappointing in one way but in another I am happy to leave the purple and red flowers in place as it is a delightful place for the bees who are attracted by these flowers to this part of the plot. I believe we need to encourage bees with areas like this as they have suffered from pesticide use and also diseases in recent years.

 I will never have the courage or time to have a hive on my plot but I am happy to offer this small patch of flowers as a place for them to visit. Bees are also very busy on the tayberry flowers at the other end of the plot and I can also see the fruit forming in large quantities.

The Shocking Idea of Eating Ugly Vegetables.

Like many people watching a TV program about food waste I was shocked. Especially to discover the quantities of good food wasted. I was not previously aware that some of this waste is just because the vegetables did not pass the supermarkets/shoppers appearance perfection test, the one required to get them from the farm to a place on the supermarket shelf.

It has never crossed my mind to discard one of my home grown vegetables because it was not as good looking as the shop bought equivalent.  But then if I pause and think about it maybe I am guilty and when I have to buy vegetables in a shop I may have unintentionally sorted through the tray for the 'best buy'.   However, if  next to the 'immaculate vegetables' on the shelf  there was a tray of the containing the vegetables that were more irregular looking and the price of those edible good quality but more irregular looking vegetables were a slightly cheaper, I know that I am intelligent enough to go for the lower cost option.

I lost respect for the supermarket that ran a very poor example of a test of the side by side pretty versus ugly vegetable sales, as I felt they only wanted it to confirm their current beliefs and practice.
Besides if some of the vegetables are not fit for customers eyes then why not make them into soups and sauces to sell. Such soups could be frozen and given away to food help charities, served in the shops cafes or donated to food banks. It is a sad world that discards such quantities of food when others need it.

If an allotment grown  vegetable ever turns out to be that ugly I guess it could always play a starring role on a bloggers website but so far I have not discovered one.

New Challenges, Trying to Grow Different Things for Meals.

The Beetroot Novice. 

The first time you attempt to grow something that you have never tried before is always interesting and adds a bit to the 'drama' to the monitoring of how well is it doing.

This year must have been a good one for anyone growing beetroot in the area where my allotment is or I may have just had beginner's luck, because as a novice I have managed to raise enough to give some away. Not sure why I did not grow it before but it will be a regular now on the plot. This year's crop came about because a nearby plot holder gave me some beetroot seedlings that did not look very promising to begin with.

The Leeks have also done well and they will make a tasty addition to soups and other meals.

I am not so sure about the Brussel sprouts as these where firstly invaded by the Cabbage White butterfly who got in under the net and donated numerous eggs, which then grew into an army of caterpillars, though small in size they where large in numbers. I picked them off, shaking the sprout stems to dislodge as many as I could, also spraying water over the plants to disclose those in hiding.   Now the sprouts seem to be home to a number of baby snails hiding in the foliage, hopefully not yet in the tiny sprouts that are forming. I will try to pick the tiny culprits off , because chemical spraying etc. or slug pellets are  not things I am willing to use on or near my allotment crops or even in my flower garden.  I have no wish to harm the beneficial creatures just to rid my plot of pests. The balance seems to have worked so far, again on the win some lose some principal.

Five things you quickly discover about allotments.

Five things you never knew before you started to growing things 
/ working on an allotment.

1/  The weeds have more stamina and tricks than you do. 
     They will appear even when growing conditions are poor.

2/ You win some and lose some. 
   Because the weather will play tricks on your planting times and growing seasons and some crops        are not affected but others are.

3/ Soon you discover you hate to waste anything you have grown.
    You will become ingenious at coping with gluts.

4/ The distance to the allotment's water tap gets further away -
   every time you make a trip back to the plot with full watering cans.

5/ Some crops will grow even if you break the so called rules.
   Other crops just give in and disappear.

Almost the end of September and two crops seem to like the weather the last few weeks, my beetroots and leeks are doing well. Then again so are the weeds this year which is not so good as it means work on the plot will be needed to try to remove as many as possible before the really cold weather starts. Is it not always the same, win some lose some.

September thoughts.

September, thoughts on crops.

The weather wins this year in the attempts to grow some things, but there are somethings that have grown to triumph over the oddities of the weather.

• A good crop of apples. 
• Some very nice Tayberries ( I want to plant another of these) which seem to suit the allotment soil and growing conditions.
• Redcurrants ( after netting). 
• Peas.

Still looking OK : leeks, beetroot, sprouting broccoli.
 Possibly  sprouts but the caterpillars from the cabbage white butterfly that got under the net cloche may have harmed their potential.

I have managed to produce a good batch of compost that will be added to the plot in the coming months. Well, that is it for this update, things to do next.