Saturday 17th July 2010

I have not been good and kept this up to date so will try and remember everything we have been doing in the last couple of weeks.

Today we picked some more peas, took up the rest of the garlic in the 'onion' bed - except the elephant garlic which is still there. We also picked some gooseberries as these had gone red - I'm over the moon about that as I thought it was a green gooseberry bush and red are supposed to be tastier :-) There is a nice size pumpkin growing on Henry's plant so hopefully that will get nice and big for Halloween. We planted the leeks that were still in the tray in the greenhouse into the bed where the beetroot was. On the way out of the allotment we met a local farmer who asked whether we wanted free manure - he had a trailer load - he brought it down and we shovelled it into a couple of the spare beds, he said he would come back later on and drop some more off for us - timing is everything !

We have so far had 2 tomatoes (golden cherry), and there are plenty on the plants so they will come into their own soon. There are piles of chillies on the plants - none ripe yet but they look big and juicy - looking forward to trying them ! The 2 pepper plants look absolutely fine but as of yet - no flowers. We are keeping our fingers crossed for them !

In the last couple of weeks we have also harvested all the onions and shallots, staked the two apple trees which look much better and are also laden with apples ! We have tried some small borlotti beans (whole), and they taste very much like runner beans - the rest we are leaving in the ground to dry out so we can use them in stews in the winter.

Tuesday 29th June 2010

I went down on my own today as Henry was round at Jimmy's playing after school. I moved the fruit cage we had built and put it on top of the blackberries as they are starting to form now.

I then sorted out the tomatoes by tying them to the canes and also tying the canes to the structure of the greenhouse to make sure they don't fall over with the weight of the tomatoes as they are all starting to produce them now. I picked a lettuce for Julie (Jimmy's mum) and then gave everything in there a good water - I noticed the chillies just seem to be starting to grow after a couple of flowers - it'll be nice to see the different chillies we get this year. No flowers on the peppers yet but they are supposed to be more difficult to grow, we'll keep our fingers crossed and see !

Then I went out and sowed some more spinach seeds where the gaps in the row were, and also 2 rows of beetroot as we will be harvesting the majority of the beetroot this weekend coming - it looks lovely !

Redcurrant City !

We went down at the weekend and picked Henry's redcurrants - we ended up with 1kg which was really good considering we had about 12 last year ! Once they had all cooked down we made 1 pot of redcurrant jelly and a small bottle of currant shrub (some ancient alcoholic recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's preserves book).

We did a bit of tidying and weeding and then pulled up the onions - only about 3 were infected with white rot which again is better than last year. We have 64 onions drying in the garage at home now !

Thursday 24th June 2010

Henry and I popped down to the allotment after school today - his redcurrants are bright red, juicy and looking ready for picking - we'll do that this weekend I think. The gooseberries are also ready for picking as well.

We sorted out the raspberries (allowing 3-5 main shoots per plant and cut the rest out) after Grandad advised us on Tuesday. They look so much tidier and there are some small raspberries forming already which is lovely to see as I thought I had messed them up this year !

We gave everything a really good water as it has been so hot lately and then we tied up the borlotti beans. The onions are starting to fall over so maybe they are not far off being harvested - we noticed Max's dad had harvested some of his.

We picked a lettuce for Tina, did a touch of weeding and then came home.

Weekend of 12th June 2010

On Friday Dave had the off and we went down to the allotment to water the greenhouse, pick a couple of lettuces from the greenhouse and then just as we left we sprayed a load of wasps who had very kindly set up home in the small birdhouse we had on the tree next to the shed. Nasty beasts ! Luckily the wasp nest destroyer was superb and we left after a massive spray !

On Saturday morning we went down to check the wasps nest and found just a couple of small wasps around the nest but no more activity so we sprayed again and then picked a lettuce for Grandma and Grandpa and went round to visit them.

On Sunday we went down again and luckily the wasps nest was completely destroyed and Daddy took it apart so we could see the insides of the nest and all the grubs - mmm, nice ! Then we picked all the remaining leeks, some of which we gave to Nanna and Grandad, and some of which we have in the fridge. Then Mummy planted out the Green Trevi Cauliflower. All of the brassicas are being attacked quite badly by pigeons, I only have 2 Kale plants left now, 2 died after being planted and then I think one was pulled out by a pigeon. So we all made a netting cover to go over the top of the cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli. I just need to construct another one over the rest of the cabbage, kohlrabi, kale and brussels sprouts. We gave the greenhouse another water and noticed that there are some flowers coming on the chilli plants (Hungarian Carrot look closest to flowering) Fingers crossed for that soon !

Monday 7th June

I had the day off work today as we got back from France at the weekend. We had a lovely holiday and it wasn't so good to be back, BUT when we visited the allotment on Sunday morning it had really grown and everything was looking really well so that was nice.

This morning I spent a good couple of hours down there doing some major weeding, then I tied the tomatoes up and pinched out the bits inbetween the branches. I then planted out 2 tomato plants (Uncle Carl gave us them) into Henry's plot. I planted the climbing french beans (Corona Del'Oro) in Henry's plot. I planted a squash plant (Little Dumpling) next to the pumpkin, I also then planted out all the kohlrabi (Purple Delicacy).

Then I found a load of sticks for pea sticks and put those all in. I snipped the top off all the leeks to stop them flowering before we harvest them later this week to make leek and potato soup with !

I then gave everything a good water and noticed that a few of Henry's redcurrants had started to turn pink :-)

Sunday 23rd May 2010 - Phew ! What a Scorcher !

Well, we went down to the allotment first thing this morning and it was baking hot then ! We planted out as much stuff as we could - two lots of Cabbage - (January King and Greyhound), Sweetcorn, Kale (Black Tuscany) and then we watered everywhere where we had planted new seedlings and also in the greenhouse.

We picked 2 rocket plants to add to Mummy's salad's during the week and then we went to find Erica and Nick's plot (16), Erica was busy weeding (a large job - their quarter plot looked just like ours did when we got it !). Then after a chat and we gave them some leftover cabbage we had grown we went home and Mummy got changed ready to do the Race For Life.

Thursday 13th May 2010

Henry and I popped down after school today to check how things were going, despite the very cold frosty weather the beetroot and lettuce all seem to look fine. The courgettes look a bit frost bitten (or slug bitten!) If all fails we'll buy a couple of plants from the garden centre. We watered the greenhouse, picked a load of rhubarb (for Mummy to make rhubarb and custard muffins with tomorrow), and picked some rocket for Mummy's salads. We also took some photos. This first one is of Henry with his patch in the background and his newly protected redcurrant bush next to him !

8th/9th May 2010

We planted the lettuce out today - most of them in the greenhouse in between the tomatoes, chillies and peppers, and then the rest went into Henry's patch and next to the beetroot and also inbetween the courgettes. We did some tidying and then came home.

Bank Holiday Monday

We planted out the 3 brussels sprouts plants - Bedford Fillbasket (next to the row of peas), and Henry's pumpkin (Spellbound) next to the Jerusalem Artichokes. Then we planted out all the beetroot (some in Henry's patch - Kestrel) and some in ours next to the potatoes (Detroit Crimson Globe 2 and Kestrel). Everything that has been outside seems to be doing quite well and in the greenhouse nearly everything is through and doing well.

We then did some re-arranging in the greenhouse so we could plant the 7 chilli plants (4 Hungarian Carrot and 3 Cayenne Yellow), and we also planted out the 2 Pepper plants (Carnival Mixed). We also planted a tray of Cauliflower (Green Trevi), and a tray of Kohlrabi (Purple Delicacy). 2 things we haven't grown before - green cauliflower and strange little purple spaceship looking things !!

May Bank Holiday Weekend

Well, predictably the weather is nowhere near as nice as last weekend ! Of course, it is a bank holiday and that is what happens !

We went down on Friday morning to water as Daddy had the day off with Mummy, then we went down on Sunday morning. We built a frame with netting to go around Henry's redcurrant bush as there are lots of redcurrants on it, although not starting to turn red yet so we've caught the greedy birds out ! One of the gooseberry bushes is starting to produce gooseberries, the smaller 2 that Uncle Carl gave us last year don't appear to be but we need to be patient ! At least they look nice and healthy. In the greenhouse everything looks great, the borlotti beans, swiss chard, climbing french beans, sweetcorn and the kale are all through and looking great. Mummy planted the broccoli (Parthenon) out in the large bed that had potatoes in last year. We have 3 rows of them and have kept some more in the tray in the greenhouse in case anything happens to the ones we've planted out. There are quite a few more things that need planting out so we'll go down again tomorrow if the weather is nice and sort some more stuff out :-)

Weekend of 24/25 April 2010

We watered all the plants in the greenhouse on Saturday and then on Sunday morning we went down early - the weather was lovely and really quite warm. We planted the maincrop potatoes (Cara and Sante), 3 rows of 5 potatoes and then 1 row of 5 potatoes in another bed. Everything is doing well in the greenhouse, still no sweetcorn, green beans or borlotti beans through yet. There are no sign of the peas outside yet but the new broad beans are beginning to come through.

Henry's redcurrant bush is covered in flowers, as are the apple trees and the gooseberry bushes. Graham arrived after we had been there a while and gave us some parsley and some rocket as well so we have planted them in the greenhouse.

This afternoon we sowed some radish and some lettuce leaves in the guttering Uncle Nige got for us. Then we sowed a small tray of rocket and some flowers (Petunia, Sweet peas and Mesbrymanthemums (or something like that !!!)). All of these we are keeping at home for easy picking !

Weekend of 17/18th April 2010

Only watered yesterday and collected a load of rhubarb to make jam with but this morning Henry and I went down and the weather was lovely. We sat outside the shed and planted trays of borlotti beans, Kale (Cavolo Nero - from Rachel at work), climbing french beans (Corona D'Oro), lettuce and sweetcorn. We had a lovely time, watered everything and most things are through now which is great. We watered the chard, peas, spinach outside and harvested one of the leeks for tea.

This afternoon when tidying up the back garden we noticed that one of the potatoes (Amorosa) has come through which is good to see !

Weekend of 9th-11th April 2010

We went down on Friday as Daddy had the day off to spend with us. He measured up the shed so we could put a shelf in on Saturday and I checked on the trays in the greenhouse. We took the tomato plants down and planted them, the chillies and peppers are still too little to go in properly yet though I think, so they are in the greenhouse but in their pots.

On Saturday we went down, dug a load more manure into the empty beds, sowed a tray of Greyhound Cabbage and also a tray of January King cabbage. Some beetroot, lettuce and broccoli seedlings were coming through already which was nice to see :-) Daddy and Henry fixed the shelf up in the shed and we had a good sort out of all the stuff in it and tidied it up nicely. Daddy also put some nails up for Henry to hang his tools on. There is now plenty of room in there and it looks really neat !

We went down again on Sunday morning because the weather was so nice. Daddy and Henry used the hacksaw to cut a piece of wire that was stuck in one of the beds, and I planted a row of Hurst Greenshaft peas outside in one of the beds.

Easter Monday - April 5th 2010

We went back down to the allotment again this morning as the weather was OK. We dug over all of the remaining beds so they are ready for when we need to use them. When we went down on Saturday we didn't manage to plant the 2 trays of cabbage (we ran out of compost so we're ordering some more and some manure too which should be delivered later this week). Next weekend if the weather is good we are hoping to put the tomato plants into the greenhouse and sow some more trays of seeds, and also a row of Swiss Chard and Spinach outside. We didn't sow a row of peas either as we thought we would wait for the manure to arrive and dig that in first.

Good news from behind us at the allotment as well - it is defintely going to be a chicken house again - it looks really good, and the hut was in this morning. It'll be nice having chickens next to us again :-)

Easter Weekend

We all went down on Good Friday morning before the rain came. We put the manure in the bed we are using for potatoes and also in the greenhouse. It was all dug in and watered into the greenhouse. We did some general tidying up and I planted some Sutton broad beans where the Claudia Aquadulce ones had died from the harsh winter. Hopefully the worst of the weather is behind us now.

We are off shortly (Easter Sunday) to plant 2 trays of Beetroot (Kestrel and Detroit 2 Crimson Globe), 2 pumpkin seeds (Spellbound) and 2 Squash (Little Dumpling), 1 row of Hurst Greenshaft peas directly into the soil, 2 trays of cabbage (January King and Greyhound), 1 tray of Brussels Sprouts (Bedford Fillbasket), 2 trays of lettuce (Lollo Rossa and Tom Thumb), 2 courgette plants (Italian variety Uncle Carl brought back from Italy a couple of years ago - we'll only plant 2 seeds as we will be overrun with them otherwise and we are likely to get some from Carmine !!), a tray of leeks (Musselburgh), a tray of Broccoli (Parthenon - the one that Graham gave us !), and finally a row of Spinach (Tirza), and Swiss Chard (Bright Lights) next to the remaining leeks.

Sunday 28th March - Summer is here !

Well, initially we thought Summer had arrived as the weather today was lovely - we have even got the garden furniture out of the garage but are now quite disappointed as the weather has turned wet, cold and even the chance of snow tomorrow !!! How did that happen - maybe we jinxed it by getting the chairs out !

Oh well, we managed to put the early potatoes in behind the garage (a row of Foremost, then Lady Balfour and then a row of Amorosa). Then Henry planted a row of parsnip seeds too (which he brought back from school). We are aiming to go down to the allotment on Friday (Good Friday) morning and sow a few seeds, plant the tomatoes in the greenhouse and generally see how things are getting on down there.

Friday 25th March 2010

All 4 Bulgarian carrot chillies are through now, 3 cayenne yellow chillies and one of the Carnival Mix peppers. We'll have to pop to the allotment sometime this weekend as we have things that need sowing now the weather is getting better.

We're going to split the potatoes and sow the early ones at home in the garden as Daddy has cleared a space for some veggies at home as well.

Tuesday 23rd March 2010 - Henry's Birthday !

The update as of this morning is that 2 Hungarian Carrot chillies are now coming through, 2 Cayenne Yellow chillies are through, 1 of the pepper plants is just poking through. The tomato plants are growing nicely (about an inch and a half tall now). Still no sign of the Big Boy tomato plants - if nothing comes by the weekend we may sow another couple and see what happens.

Sunday 14th March 2010

Well, we now have all 3 Golden Cherry tomato plants growing, the 2 Shirley tomato plants and the 2 Gardener's Delight plants. So far, no sign of the Big Boy tomatoes (2), Carnival Mix Peppers (3), Hungarian Carrot Chillies (3), and Cayenne Yellow Chillies (3). Still time though, apparently the chillies and peppers are slow to germinate !

Went to see Graham yesterday at the allotment shop to get the Calabrese (Broccoli) seeds he promised me (he gave me them as they were last years seeds !) Cool, so hopefully this year we will have proper big heads on the broccoli rather than the sprouting type. Fingers crossed !

Thursday 11th March 2010

Hooray - two tiny seedlings (Golden Cherry Tomato) were peeping through the soil this morning when Henry did his usual checking :-)

Still no sign of the others but hopefully it'll be any day now !

Sunday 7th March 2010

The weather was beautiful today (exceptionally cold and frosty but bright sunshine) so we went down to the allotment about 9 o'clock in the morning and planted some garlic at the bottom end of the bed with the Jerusalem Artichokes in. We put some new wire around the posts to support the raspberries when they start growing again. We also noticed some small green buds on the gooseberry bushes so things are starting to look up :-)

We then dug up the remaining parsnips in Henry's bed and the one next to his. We had 3 bags full of parsnips and some of them were about a foot and a half long !!! When we got home I made some Spicy Root Soup using some of them (a recipe in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Book 4), and also par-boiled a pile of them and froze them for easy roasting ! We gave a bag to Dave's parents and we have about 5 large ones left in the garage, and I'll probably make more soup once we've used the Root soup up.

Weekend of 27/28 February 2010

I called to the allotment shop on Saturday morning to pick up some shallots and garlic for Les at work, Graham threw in an extra bulb of garlic as they are trying to get rid of the last few remaining Spring planting bulbs.

We bought some special vegetable growing compost and on Sunday afternoon we planted 4 Bulgarian Carrot Chilli seeds, 4 Cayenne Yellow Chillis seeds, 3 Carnival Mix Sweet Pepper seeds, 3 Golden Cherry Tomato seeds, 2 Big Boy Tomato seeds, 2 Shirley Tomato seeds and 2 Gardener's Delight Tomato seeds. They are all in the front bedroom and hopefully within the next week or so we should see little plants starting ! Henry has been to check the progress at least 4 times already !

In the morning we had popped to the allotment to pick up the seeds we needed for the afternoon and I also planted the Yellow Moon shallots I had bought a couple of weeks ago (in the same bed as all the onions and garlic), as there was an empty row where we had removed the pak choi a few weeks ago.

Weekend of 20/21st February - more snow !

I went down when the allotment shop opened this morning to buy Les his potatoes and get his membership, and also to buy my Maincrop (10 Sante, and 10 Cara). We had Cara potatoes last year and they were lovely, but we haven't tried Sante before so that'll be nice. Donna, Mark, Izzy & Olivia came over for the weekend and so we popped down to show them the allotment first thing in the afternoon before going down for an afternoon of fun at Blue Bear's playbarn !

We woke up this morning to about 3 or 4 inches of snow ! I thought we'd seen the last of it for this year ! At least it is melting so fingers crossed that was the last lot - I'm getting impatient now and want to start doing things down at the allotment !

Sunday 14th February 2010

Henry and I went down to the allotment this afternoon, it was overcast and a bit rainy but we managed to do some tidying up. Henry found a very useful old paintbrush in the tip which he used to clean the outside of the greenhouse with the help of his metal bucket from Great Grandpa's. Then we both planted all of Great Nana's bulbs around the edge of the rhubarb patch, raspberry patch and in the rough ground at the edge of our plot. When they all flower it'll be lovely to think of Nana :-)

Mark (next door plot) or his grandad Carmine have obviously been building something in place of the chicken run that was previously there - quite a high wooden fence now, very professional looking - unfortunately they weren't there so we still have to guess what they are up to ! We are both secretly hoping for more chickens though !

We dug over a couple of the beds and removed some weeds, and then we put the remaining compost we had in the shed, and the worm wee that Erica gave us into the soil in the greenhouse and dug it over and watered it in.

We dropped off the borlotti beans in the shed and stored them with the other seeds we have.

Saturday 13th February 2009

Henry and I popped to the allotment shop when it opened this morning to buy some Borlotti beans - we bought 12 for 10p !!!! Amazing value - if we like them and they do well, we'll buy even more next year. This year we are splitting our beans (half Climbing French, and half Borlotti :-))

6/7 February 2010

Well, the allotment shop opened this weekend and I bought our first and second early potatoes (7 Foremost, 7 Lady Balfour) then for joining the allotment association as a member we receieved some Amorosa potatoes as well. We also bought some Yellow Moon shallots to put in next weekend. We were going to buy some borlotti beans as we fancy trying them this year but they didn't have any (but then later in the morning Andrea rang and told us she had found some loose and would save them for next weekend so I must remember to pick them up on Saturday !

On Sunday Henry and I popped down to the allotment in the afternoon and were pleased to find that the garlic had all started to come through, and the rhubarb too. I did some pruning (gooseberries, redcurrant bush and the raspberries as well). We dug over the greenhouse and got the inside ready for when the weather gets a touch warmer and we can start the tomatoes and chillies off :-)