Since it’s the start of the season
It’s here! This seasons must have accessory. Courtesy of @loldeantimber; a personalised trug for trips to the plot. As you can see it has already been put to good use. Very very happy!
Yearly Archives: 2015
#NABLOPOMO: Spinach and Chard
Ma rather likes rescuing spinach and chard, and here we have it. The Spinach is rescued, and we have found some chard for her to plug in. It’s a bit hard to resist, when she waves the tray at you, says your name and does that wide eyed thing that only mums do. She has been somewhat worried over the last few days, that the rain might bring the slugs and slimers out to kill the new plugs. For the moment, they are still there. My on concern, is that she planted them into open ground and this is going to make them very vulnerable on a plot where open ground isn’t necessarily a good place to be if you are a new plant.
I don’t mind spinach and chard myself, it’s a reliable crop that makes for interesting onion bhajis and pasta bakes. Along with cauliflowers and cabbages, spinach and chard make their way into the ‘Indian’ Food that ma cooks. The spinach that she has rescued, she tells me that it’s perpetual spinach. In her eyes, this is proper spinach. Mainly because it has large, broad leaves with quite a thin spine. This makes for me leaf, and less stalk. The other time of spinach that Ma is hoping to get onto the plot, is Mustard Greens. I need to look into getting the seeds what ma calls proper, proper indian saag. What she really wants, is that yellow flowered stuff that farmers sow on an industrial scale on their fields as a green manure.
Chard is a good substitute, and seems to also do well when left to it’s own devices. Not sure what variety we have here, but I do remember having both Vulcan Chard and also bright lights chard. The former, has lovely bright red stalks, with the latter having stalks that can be bright yellow at times. What I don’t have at the moment is Kale, but there are a few cabbages knocking around.
#NABLOPOMO: Spud Sinking Saturday 2015
Finally. The spuds have been looking at me for some time. Calling at me, to be sunk on the plot. Today, is Good Friday, and I like other folks on the plot, were going to sink spuds today. Off I went, with compost-trundled along in the wheelbarrow-bags of seed spuds and hand tools. There were also some ear phones and maroon5’s V on shuffle. I was on a mission.
First thing first, I had to fill a few of the beds with MPC. Much of the soil that they had been filled with had sunk after last season’s growth. Also some of the beds had been filled with leaf mold, and this had to be topped off for this year.
This years varieties:
- Red Duke of York: First earlies
- Kestral: Second earlies
- Lady Balfour: main crop
- Pink Fir Apple: Salad
- International Kidney: Salad
In February, I had sunk Red Duke of York potatoes in the poly tunnel. A tad early, yes, and with the clay that the poly is sat on; have taken a while to get through.
You have to squint a little, but you can see the red and green of the red duke of potato just starting to come through. I was starting to lose faith with these things, especially with the clay. Yes, I know there is a weed and algae. It does get warm in there, especially as Spring attempts to arrive. Will pass the hoe across to aerate the soil and get rid of the algae. Spotted a couple of shoots, but not many. Hopefully, a few more will come through before I put tomatoes and chillies in there.
Next time, I should perhaps scale down on the salad seed potatoes. I underestimated the amount of international kidney and pink fir apple seeds and also the space I had available to put them into. Will probably see those knobbly critters in my sleep. Plus, no one told me about the rather funny shapes and form that pink fir apple seeds take.
There is further experimentation, in that some of the raised beds contained soil topped off with leaf mold. The seeds potatoes were sunk deep into that soil, with the leaf mold already sitting on top. This was then topped off with MPC. Remains to be seen as to this will be a success or I will end up with scabby potatoes. Raised beds are the only way that I can cultivate any form of edible potato. Last years open ground experiment indicated that the heavy clay, wet weather and slug population were going to annihilate anything that was put into it.
Sinking potatoes has taken a chunk out of the number of raised beds being used this year. I have two that already occupied by garlic. I also have to keep one free for Ma’s fenugreek-She will not be best pleased, if she doesn’t have somewhere for her fenugreek. There are not four beds left, 1mx1m in size. Not an awful lot of room for all those squashes to be sown. There are however two other beds, open ground where I am plotting to have running beans. I have tried squashes in open ground and the results weren’t good.
#NABLOPOMO: Chillies chugging along
NABLOPOMO would be fairly replete if I didn’t mention the chillies. Let’s face it, they have had a lot of blog space dedicated to them as we experienced inclement elements out doors.
We have a number of chillies this year, largely habaneros. These were sown very late December and very early january. All in yogurt pots, sat on a warm window sill, covered with a food bag. These were then eagerly,slowly, observed, and have been pampered ever since. For now, we have a number of leafy specimens. There have been tantrums, when the odd one has crinkled up dehydrated.
The list:
- Dorset Naga
- Purple Haze
- orange habanero
- chocolate habanero
- aji limo
- hungarian hot wax
- serrrano
- pettie belle
- apricot
- pumpkin
- bellaforma
The one thing that I was surprised by, flowers. The cayennes and the purple haze have already started to produce little flower buds, with the plant’s themselves being quite diminutive. Suggesting, that they are a bit happy. None of the plants are in the final pot yet, and it’s still a little cold at night for them to be in the poly tunnel where they are eventually going to reside.
Potting them up,will cause them discomfort, and slow down their growth. Not really a problem, as it would be useful if they were bigger and a tad more robust before they are put into their final position. At least if they are bigger leafier, more robust, they have more of a chance in being able to defend themselves. I would say that they are probably one pot away from the final pot. The final pot, is likely to be one of those black morrison’s flower buckets. Dad has already been kind enough to have drilled drainage holes through the bottom. Those I believe are big enough for the root system to be developed and constrained enough at the same time. Though I might think about the plants getting a little taller, having them acclimatise gradually to night time temps in the poly, pot them into the black buckets and watch the plants grow into the buckets that way.
The habaneros are still quite small, in comparison to the hungarian hot wax and cayennes. The hungarian hot wax and cayenne are comparatively faster growing, so that accounts for some of the difference. This, I suspect, also translates to flavour.
#NABLOPOMO: Garlic growing good
#NABLOPOMO April 201 starts today and the theme is Grow. Seems fairly apt for a blog that centers on growing your own fruit and vegetables.
Garlic, this is something of an update. I have a number of varieties that are currently growing. These are::
- Early Purple wight
- Lautrec Wight
- Elephant garlic
- Provence Wight
Other than the odd weed, the garlic seems to be doing okay. The green shoots appear to be strong and robust. With he wind of the last 24 hours, they are probably little wind scorched today.
This crop was sunk in the autumn last year. Here in England, sowing garlic happens-in my experience-from about October onwards, and then can also be done during the following spring months. In my experience, I have found that sowing garlic in October, and in raised beds, is a more effective, and produces a reliable crop. In comparison, sowing into open ground, and I have heavy clay, has not been as effective. They require little maintenance, and are pretty much left to their own devices.
In years passed, I have sunk a lot of garlic. Mostly to see which varieties produce the most bulbous, most garlick-y of bulbs. We use a lot garlic in Ma’s kitchen, most of her cooking has garlic in it, so it is always used. I think I even have a large jar of pickled garlic, somewhere in Ma’s pantry. There are of course, also a number of health benefits associated with it.
The seed garlic that I have sown, is from The Garlic Farm on the isle of wight. I know that some growers do tend to use the sprouting garlic that they may have lurking in the back of their cupboards. I’m not sure if this is a good way cultivation, since I have never done that. Some of the garlic that we buy in the supermarkets is better suite to different climates and is commercially produced.
Inaugral Aubergine and Mint Chutney
The jam pan has been sat idle since the summer, I’ve not done anything since then in terms of maslin pan preserving. Until now. Woke up today with the intention of avoiding all school work, quite a bit of that’s been done over the last few weeks. Today, we were going to make a variation on aubergine and mint chutney that I experimented with last year. Rummaged in the shed to retrieve the jars to be used. Washed them out, sterilised them. Today, we were to chutney.
I had to go find aubergines, I’m not growing any and not at this time of year anyway. Ma wouldn’t let me pinch the ones that she and Dad were going to have for their dinner. Four medium aubergines took a while to chop. Not to mention the red onions and fleshy tomatoes. The red pepper was simple enough. As well a few spices from Ma’s pantry and red wine vinegar. Did I mention the dozen or so dried chillies? It’s a good thing that chutney changes flavour with time. At the moment, chillies and red wine vinegar make for an interesting combination.
This started out as a me thing. I will make chutney today.
I was wrong, the ‘production manager’, namely my mum was going to help. She’d help me, if she could carry out her own seed sowing experiment, She has saved some indian baby pumpkin seeds, and wants to sow them into pellets. Plus, if the two of us chop, then it doesn’t take too long. She’d also, dragged along the stool before I could occupy the hob. I was not going to get a look in, and this is, after all, her kitchen. I spent a lot of the process by her elbow as she tended over the jam pan. Plus, the mint in question, is her home grown mint. Harvested and dried, it’s in there somewhere.
#NABLOPOMO: April 2015 ‘Grow’
Came across this the other day, and having participated in the November one last year, thought why not. Especially as the theme is ‘Grow’. That, I think, lends itself to the spirit of the blog. Since there is mostly growing, of fruit, vegetables and me as a person.
All being well, the usual allotment adventures will continue and there will be the usual blog posts about them. Last year, It was really nice to see how far away the blog was read. It gets read far and wide anyway, which is lovely to see!
The biggest difference was that the lovely folks on the other side of the pond were reading-remember, I write in England, Great Britain, about the plot. I’m not sure that allotmenteering is the quite the same thing over there. I am sure that there are people who grow fruit and veg, just not in the same way as allotments are organised here in Britain.
As always. I shall be sharing the highs, the lows, the slug stories and the weather damage. And if you want to head about anything in particular, then all you have do is ask.
Update: Psychology Sunflower Challenge 2015
As you are aware I am trying to start a Psychology Sunflower Challenge.
About two dozen seeds were started off in damp jiffy pellets, and made quite rapid progress. In my experience, they do grow very quickly, and you do end up potting them up quite rapidly.
The seedling babies were growing quite quickly on the window sill, so did need to be potted up. Otherwise they get leggy, bend, and keel over. Cue emergency pot up. As you can see above, they have placed into small pots and are on their first baby leaves with the true leaves just about to sprout. These are greedy, sun loving creatures. So they do need warmth, light, and for now, water. The compost is full of nutrients for the next six weeks. By which time, it will be necessary to harden them off, having possible put them into bigger pots. They will need to be protected if there is a sharp drop in temperature and a frost.
I have sown two varieties here. These are sunburst, which get to about five tall, and giant sunflowers, which are something even taller and with multiple flowers.
Hopefully these will all continue to thrive and survive. Will hopefully sow a few more and encourage more pollinators on the plot.
If you have sown some sunflowers, then please let me know. Would be lovely to see what is happening ^_^
the Chilli Menagerie 2015: Window sill Shuffle
With the tomatoes thrown to their possible impending doom into the 4TB, there has been a window sill shuffle with the chllies. The larger chilli plants are serrano, cayenne, aji limo and hungarian hot wax. The habaneros bring up the rear in the second smaller batch. I have left the habaneros where they are, but others have moved to a cooler spot. Mainly because they are trying to escape their pots and I don’t really want to pot on too quickly. They get comfortable, and things start to go a bit awry. I have found, through observation, that the cramped drier conditions foster a more positive outcome. Plus it is only nearly the end of March. I don’t want to plant these out into the Poly tunnel in bigger pots just yet.
The wendy house also needs tidying before I do that too. That is the wendy house blow, when the one side did actually do up. Ah yes, I need to repair the door. I am not buying another cover. Why is it, that I always take the one door of it’s hinges? I have done the same with the 4TB….meh.
Tomato transfer 2015-this may not work :S
The lovely Not Just Jams was talking about how she had put her tomatoes into her insulated greenhouse, with fleece. And I thought I might risk it. Not Just Jams also that she had had hot water bottles. Think that was milk bottles with water in, that heat up naturally. And since she is lovely, and has given me a lot of valuable ‘lotment and preserving advice, thought I might try some of her ideas. I didn’t get as far as the hot bottles. If only I had nabbed some out of the recycling that went out yesterday.
So I scampered this morning to tidy up the four tier blowaway, that has housed nothing but trays and things since last summer. I also need the window sill space. In the coming month, different things are going to get sown.
I did fleece the top deck of the 4TB though, and line it black bin bag. From GCSE science, that absorbs heat and light, as does the black trays. So here’s hoping to trap the heat.
And now I am a scared. That these pampered things are not going to make it til sunrise. They were starting to sulk whilst they were just sat on the flagstones whilst the sun was out.
They are fleeced. In that I have managed to create a box with it on the top shelf. Two sheets of cut down fleece are placed at right angles to one another to cover the four sides.
Closed the door, and I shall try and sleep tonight. The poor things.
horticultural 'obbit 