Stringy beans!

The runner beans I picked on Sunday were dreadful - short and fat rather than long and thin - and very stringy. They all went in the compost bin. I did find some lovely french beans though - crunchy and tender.

I've been spending a good deal of time watering lately mostly the tomatoes, celeriac and butternut squash. The squash don't seem to have found water yet as every time I go down they are wilting. I dug up the remaining new potatoes today and was again surprised by their size.

Kevin's plot is looking very neglected - he's had a busy time lately, what with a wedding and a honeymoon to plan. However he's got some potatoes and onions ready to pick. Where are you Kevin - the slugs will have 'em before you do!

I have loads of marigolds coming up all over the plot, and although they look pretty, I don't want them to increase a hundred fold next year, so I pulled most of them up today. I decided to pick the two large marrows today as I think they are stopping any further courgettes from developing. I'll have to try and give the marrows away, or sell them as we're not keen.

Blueberries at last!

Peter picked the first of our blueberries today and some of them are almost as big as grapes. He panicked while we were away and was going to ask a friend to go and pick them for us. However, they're quite slow to ripen and don't all ripen at once, so we waited till we got back and they still weren't quite ripe. We seem to have so much fruit coming at us at the moment that it's all we can do just to keep on top of the picking, never mind doing anything with them. At least if they're in the freezer I can use them later when I have more time. Fat chance!!
The week before last we went away with the family to celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary, and also the boys' birthdays. It was great to spend time together and once we were away I more or less forgot about the allotment. However, the week before we went away was spent frantically picking all of the red and white currants, and also some of the gooseberries which were going soft. I managed to make a gooseberry crumble and a cherry pie to take away with us. The pie was superb.Since we came back we've been busy picking the blackcurrants and the remaining gooseberries. We've had six pounds of blackcurrants from the one bush. Incredible.

The courgette plants have begun to take off now and in fact we came back to a very large marrow and some small courgettes. This is the first time I've grown them and I'm amazed at how fast they grow. I think I'll leave the marrow to fatten up for a giant marrow competition - if there is one! I've also watched a tiny pumpkin grow this week into the size of a small football. The celeriac is doing well and doesn't seem to have anything attacking it - so far.

I picked a few peas this week, although barely enough for a couple of mouthfuls each. They were delicious though. I dug up some lovely new potatoes today, some quite large ones, although it surprises me where they find the moisture from as we've had very little rain. We picked the first of the runner beans today although the plants don't look as lush and healthy as last year.

I picked a cabbage today to make into coleslaw. It was one of the plants Bernie gave me earlier in the year. When I showed the cabbages to Bernie's wife, Jacqui, she said she'd she'd better not tell Bernie as mine were bigger than his!

I also planted another small row of carrots, one of parsnips and one of fennel, in a last ditch attempt to get some of them to germinate. For all the seeds I planted earlier in the year, I can count about 3 carrots, no parsnips at all and all the fennel has been eaten.

Fruit Picking

Tuesday July 5th
I can't believe it's nearly two months since I last wrote a blog entry. I bumped into Kev the other day - at his wedding as a matter of fact, and he asked me where I'd been!
Peter wanted me to record the day we started to pick the redcurrants. It was Friday 25th June. We'd been away for two weeks, and the berries were dripping off the bushes. Fortunately not all of them were ripe. Peter spent two hours picking berries and cutting the grass, while I picked gooseberries, planted leeks and did some watering. The fruit cage is working well at keeping the birds out, although I think we could probably have allowed the birds have a few this year. Peter found a couple of bushes with berries on which weren't quite ripe - then I remembered - John had said something about white currants. They look like albino berries as you can see the seeds inside. But what on earth do you do with them?
I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time looking up recipes on the internet, for what to do with currants and cherries. I've made cherry compote which was great, cherry and yogurt ice-cream, just ok, and now we're trying cherry jam. Of course the cherries are best just eaten. I've made one batch of redcurrant jelly which didn't set very well so I'm going to have another go.
I planted two rows of celeriac plants before we went away and most are survivng. I wasn't sure if they'd be attacked by anything so I had hedged my bets and covered some with wire cloches. The peas however have not fared so well. Every time I remove the wire cloches all the peas disappear! People tell me it's the pigeons. Peter helped me to make a new netting cover to protect them earlier this week, so hopefully in a few weeks we'll have some fresh peas.
We missed the best of the strawberries while we were away - but they didn't go to waste - Kev ate them! His new wife, Lauren said she hadn't seen any of them! She reckons he ate them all in this van!!
We had picked a good crop of broad beans just before we went away and there were lots more when we returned. Other crops haven't done so well. I still haven't managed to get any carrots or parsnips to germinate. I even bought a new packet of parsnip seeds as they tell me you can't plant old parsnip seeds. Still nothing! All the fennel has disappeared - they seem to have been nibbled off at the surface.
This week I've picked some lovely new potatoes though and the first of the onions are ready. All the garlic has now gone over and is waiting to be lifted.
Now we have the mammoth job of doing something with all the fruit. I must say Peter has been great, picking all the berries and then cooking them to extract the juice. We also have a huge crop of cherries at home this year, so he's spent a lot of time pitting cherries. We also have loganberries this year and a good crop of raspberries. HELP!!

The weather has been steadily hotting up all week until yesterday when it reached 25 degrees. I've been down every day to keep the seeds watered, although I still can't see much coming through apart from the odd beetroot seedling. I've planted half a row of Florence Fennel - there were 500 seeds in the packet, so I figured I wouldn't need them all! They looked remarkably like caraway seeds. I also planted another row of parsnips. Peter came down on Friday and finished off the fruit cage, which is now complete with gate. He also filled up the water container, and I did some watering directly from the hosepipe. I put the sweetcorn in yesterday, which had grown well at home and also chanced one of my pumpkin plants. I'm not sure what to do with the rest! On Gardener's World this week they said that to grow a giant pumpkin plant you need 36 square metres of space! We finished off with a cuppa in 'the orchard'.

Late frosts and tadpoles

Despite the lack of blog entries lately I have actually been down to the allotment over the past two weeks, I just haven't got round to writing anything down!
I planted my dahlias out about a week ago and lost the lot on Tuesday night when there was a hard frost! I also lost the French beans which Bernie had given me. I'm silly really as I'd bought fleece for this very thing - I just didn't believe the forecasts. The fig tree had about three leaves on it and they've all gone, as have some of the leaves on the grape vine. Ah well, that's a lesson learned for next year.
Peter came down this week and cut the grass which had grown quite long. He also measured up for the wood to make a fruit cage. He's now finished constructing the wooden supports and has attached the netting to one side. The red and black currants are growing fast, so we need to get it finished soon. The gooseberries are also looking good again this year.
I've prepared the soil in the raised bed ready for the butternut squash plants. All the seeds I saved from last year seem to be thriving and I've even given some plants away.
Today I planted the runner bean plants, some of which were about 18 inches tall, and beginning to climb round each other. I don't think there's any frost forecast for this week, I hope not anyway.
Many of the peas are now big enough to need staking so I've put in the pea sticks. And at last the sweet peas are beginning to take off. I'm still watering the carrot, beet and parsnip seeds regularly although there's nothing much happening yet.
I've been doing a bit of weeding alongside all the planting and have planted some cornflower seeds as well as the flowers George gave me last year, in the little border near the gate.
We were delighted to count about four big fat tadpoles swimming in the pond-bath today. We added some chickweed for food and poured in some water from a height to add a bit of oxygen.
I made some nettle soup a couple of weeks ago for my 'Souper Lunch' club. It was really just a variation on an Irish potato soup and was actually very good. I must have looked a strange sight, picking the nettle tips from the side of the road with my rubber gloves on! I also used the last of the parsnips to make a spicy parsnip soup.

The vandals return!

Saturday1st May
I've spent this week slowly building up my strength again. I found that digging and planting two rows of potatoes in one day was just too much so I had to take it easy and do a bit at at time. I've now planted all the seed potatoes, as well as another two rows of peas. I've planted beet, carrots and parsnips straight into the ground, although I'm doubtful if the carrots will grow as the seed is from 2008.

It's been a real treat to come home every other day for the last couple of weeks with a lovely bunch of fresh asparagus. The weeds are beginning to take over though.

I was clearing out the shed at home the other day and found .... wait for it .... another sack of potatoes, completely untouched! They look like they were the best ones too. Unfortunately they were all sprouting so I'll just have to plant them now.

Bernie gave me some of his left over cabbage plants which I've protected with netting as we still have rabbits on the plot. He also gave me some French bean plants which I've now managed to get in the ground. I still haven't got any planted at home yet, but the runner beans are starting to grow. All my seed trays in the conservatory are beginning to get going now, after a slow start. The pumpkin seeds are romping away and almost all the squash seeds I saved from last year have now germinated.

The apple tree is looking fantastic and is loaded with blossom. I'm so pleased it's doing well as it was planted rather too late last Spring - much against the advice of the nurseryman. However, we did look after it well and watered it often. Unfortunately the pear tree doesn't seem to have any blossom at all. It has lots of leaves though and looks very healthy. Here's hoping for next year.

We took some friends down to show them round the plot this evening, but found that the vandals had smashed their way through the gate and broken the latch. They've also forced their way into the shed and broken the catch. Nothing else seems to have been taken or damaged. I guess they were just showing that a simple thing like a padlock wasn't going to stop them getting in. It's so frustrating.

A new pane of glass

Wednesday 21st April

Well it's been three weeks since we did any proper work on the allotment. This week the weather has been beautiful and we spent about 4 hours there today. Peter was able to borrow John's rotavator and dug over some of the previously dug areas ready for planting. The new rotavator doesn't dig as deeply as the old one, but at least it saved me from doing any more digging. I was able to get in all the second early potatoes - tried Estima this time. I haven't bothered with the first earlies this year. I planted another row of peas and protected them this time as the first row are struggling - they've probably been eaten by the mice.

Peter had made me a bug box earlier in the week and so we put that up on one of the old bean posts, to encourage the ladybirds. If you look closely you can see it in the picture.

Peter put in a new piece of glass to replace the broken pane in the shed, and I cleaned up the debris from the fires they had started to light. The fire in the corner had been worse than we had thought, and if it hadn't been for the quick thinking of one of the allotmenteers who noticed some of the sheds smoking, ours might have gone up in flames too. He had thrown water to put the fire out and stop it spreading. We've put a padlock on the shed and the gate now but many people say that it will be counter-productive.

We were both exhausted by the time we went home.