Back On The Plot

Everyone loves pumpkins. Don’t they?   I love to grow them but to be honest I could take it or leave it as food apart from the seeds which are awesome toasted with sea salt.   My kids love to make pumpkin lanterns with them for 10 minutes then get bored and I have to finish them off and my wife can’t even stand to be in the same room as a pumpkin if she can avoid it.   We can safely say then that our big orange obsession is actually a bit marmite?   I asked around the allotment and most people I spoke to said that they don’t eat them.   So why is it that walking around the allotments almost every plot has a pumpkin when they are for sale at Halloween for a fraction of the price of a packet of seeds?   I think the answer lies in the thrill gardeners get from growing something so big.   We all have a desire to control nature to some degree on our allotments and in our gardens.   We want to bend nature to our will so what bigger buzz tha...

So today, Monday marks one week since I signed the tenancy on our new allotment and also one week since I started this blog.   It’s only been a week however I feel part of gardening is taking time to reflect. It can’t all be work work work!   This is what I’ve discovered so far. The plot has been given up only this year by the previous tenant.   Despite this said tenant decided he wanted to keep the crops which have been planted.   As a result, we have had to work around these “crops”.   As far as I can tell this consists of 10 withered cabbages and some rows of potatoes which haven’t seen a drop of water in over a month!   We have had to work around these “crops” but despite this we have made good progress. The main beds had not been touched in months and had a fair crop of dandelions and a plentiful supply of mare’s tail.   The fact that we had such a blank canvass gave us a decision to make as to how to approach the land in term...

Having only obtained our allotment and having to spend a lot of time clearing soil I feel it is highly unlikely that we are going to get many crops from out allotment this summer.   With the current drought continuing and seed drills Turing to dust in a matter of half an hour I have decided to turn my attentions to crops which can be sown/planted in late August to September.   Potato’s  For me there is no better way of showing off than going to the allotment on Christmas eve and digging up the spuds for the Christmas dinner.   In late August you can plant varieties such as Maris piper and Emerald.   If the weather continues to be very dry during August, you will have to water but hopefully once September arrives there will be enough rain to keep them happy.   Winter lettuce Lettuce is far harder than it looks and will survive harsh frost and heavy rain.   Sow now and you can often be eating your winter lettuce in early April...

As well as clearing more ground today the shed got a once over.   In my last allotment shed I had easily 50 tools many of which were stolen.   That got me thinking which tools do I actually need and which tools are designed to separate gardeners form their money as opposed to actually making the job easier or doing it better.   Not being able to keep anything in the shed due to thefts.   I have had to put together a bit of a grab and go collection of tools I couldn’t be without.   The first is without a doubt my digging fork.   Clearing a plot is tough at the best of times but when a plot has been left to the weeds there are often dandelions with roots in the bedrock of hell.   I don’t get preoccupied by weeds, they’re a fact of life.   Having said that there’s nothing worse in my opinion that putting a spade through the root leaving it to come back bigger and stronger. Second is the spade, the temptation with a spade is to get the big...

Its that time of year again when the courgettes are glutting like crazy and you need a wheelbarrow to get them back home.   Your friends and family are most likely sick of them or scared to come round for tea but it needn’t be like that.   I for one love courgette and cant get enough of them.   I have put together this handy little guide of my top   courgette recipe’s and where to find them. 1. Tomato and courgette bake.   I love making this for the family and the kids love it.   Its ideal to take care of those excess tomato’s too.! I like this recipe from allrecipese.co.uk http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/19059/courgette-and-tomato-bake.aspx 2. Courgette, jalapeno an feta nachos. These make a great light lunch ideal for those long summer days where you need to grab a quick bite between shovelling courgettes. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/courgette-jalapeno-feta-nachos 3.Courgette Chutney I know its hard to be...

So day two of the clearing is done and a weary family of 5 have retired for the evening.   The bean frames have been dismantled as even just walking past them made you feel you were in mortal peril.   This got me to thinking which manner of supporting climbing beans is best.   There were several disadvantages to the system installed by the previous tenant.   Although substantial is scale the frame I dismantled today took around 2 hours to remove.   Surely not conducive to healthy crop rotation.   The bottom to the frame was difficult to get to with a hoe which as far as I’m concerned is absolutely essential to good gardening and finally, the material used to put the thing together were a mix of timbers, rusty metal poles, stiff wire and duck tape.   As a family of 5 ranging between 3 and 6 feet there was a poke in the eye waiting for all.   The decision was taken to remove the frames and opt instead for long canes lashed together at the top with...