Tag Archives: allotment

herbs

#NABLOPOMO: Herb Planting on the plot

Did try to plant and cultivate herbs once before. But the plants were small, and I didn’t take perhaps the best care of them. So we are trying again. In the last week, Ma and I have planted rosemary, silver and common Thyme, oregano, spear mint and sage. Ma did try and dissuade me from not planting silver thyme as it looked sad compared to the common one. We have both.

At home, the Rosemary seems to thrive in the clay, so that is my rationale for sinking it on the plot. I don’t particularly mind i if any of the plants spread out, even with the mint. That at least means the ground is cultivated.

NaBloPoMo, Preparation

#NABLOPOMO: Compost clear out

1 Comment

I’m not very good at composting. I have two daleks on the plot, they have been in the same position for the last four years, they get filled and pretty much left to their own devices. I do add all the green waste that I can get my hands on, it is layered as well. Rather than put in, in an ad hoc fashion. I even have organic activator that gets added from time to time.

It is predominantly green garden waste and the occasional set of veggie peelings that gets parcelled up and put in. No food, very few onion skids and nothing cooked or citric. These can not only invite unwelcome guests, acidity can rather upset the worms that end up living in the compost bin.

Ma and I went today, the bells of the local church was tolling for Easter services. Ma wanted to pull up grass and weed, I probably should have had a job in mine too. The plot varies in level all over. Yet there are very obvious dips, where at times the soil is liable to flood and very little grows there. In emptying the daleks, I could actually start build up one bed on the top part of the plot that is always soggy, and doesn’t facilitate an awful lot of cultivation. And I also manage to put some into a 1mx1m raised bed that will also have some MPC put into it.

I was rather pleasantly surprised by the contents of the two compost bins. Firstly, by the fact that things have actually decomposed, and produced rather full bodied, fine tilth in places, compost. Secondly, the volume. I had easily six or seven full wheelbarrows full of compost that were trundled across to whether the plot dips. This dip, incidentally, is where ma has put her rescued spinach. I don’t want the plants to be dead before long, so this area would benefit from the extra support. Hopefully these will now start to be filled and the cycle will start again. I have chose to move the daleks, to where they can easily by unloaded. This means the dips and areas not yet cultivated. I am also thinking, of how easy it might be to use a compost bin to grow squashes. If the contents of the bin were covered with a mound of  MPC and a squash plant stuck on top. Apparently this can  be done!

Planting out

#NABLOPOMO: Spinach and Chard

1 Comment

spinchard

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, Potatoes

#NABLOPOMO: Spud Sinking Saturday 2015

1 Comment

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.

Red Duke of york coming through with a pernicious weed
Red Duke of york coming through with a pernicious weed

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.

Dorset and Bengle Naga, Experimental Chillies and be;;s, NaBloPoMo

#NABLOPOMO: Chillies chugging along

4 Comments

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.

overwintering alliums

#NABLOPOMO: Garlic growing good

1 Comment

NaBloPoMo_GROW_april

#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.

garlicbed

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.

NaBloPoMo, Taking stock

#NABLOPOMO: April 2015 ‘Grow’

2 Comments

NaBloPoMo_GROW_april

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.

Psychology Sunflower Challenge

Update: Psychology Sunflower Challenge 2015

1 Comment

As you are aware I am trying to start a Psychology Sunflower Challenge.

baby sunlflowers
baby sunlflowers

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.

update260315

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  ^_^

Dorset and Bengle Naga

Dorset Naga, Trying again 2015

4 Comments

dnaga

I wandered around the stands at he edible garden show and was lucky enough to bump into the lovely lady proprietress of seaspringseeds.co,uk Since I haven’t sown the dorset naga from seed, and have run out time to do so, I picked up a plug Not strictly cheating, as it’s now up to me to look after this young plant. This and another chilli variety, purple haze, were wrapped up delicately and placed into my rucksack to bring back to Birmingham. I had visions of them being half dead when I got back home, but they were okay.

I had no plans to have the Dorset naga amongst the vast collection of chilli babies that I have currently have. But seeing it, i couldn’t resist.

There have been valuable lessons learned from the experience of last year. This year, the Dorset naga and the other chillies will be in pots. I am not sinking them into the ground, to have lots of leafy luscious plants. This year, we become a bit precious about the plants. The hope is that the pot root constriction method will help plants be productive.

Looks tiny, but hopefully the plants of both varieties will grow stronger and robust.

Oh, and it will need a name. How else will it know it is being spoken to? 😉

Taking stock

Horticultural ‘Obbit at the Edible Garden Show 2015

EGS

Well, I went!

I booked my ticket a fortnight ago, having established that I would be away from work. I would have a few days off, and why not revisit The Edible Garden Show at Alexandra Palace in London. The ticket was reasonably priced, you would pay a lot more than the £16 to visit a tourist attraction in the Capital and especially on the first day.I queued, post full English breakfast, as did a few hundred others, having arrived before the 11 am opening. No one told me, about the steep hill from the Alexandra Palace train station. I huffed and puffed up the hill, to see the view over the city in the very crisp weather. It wasn’t sunny, as the world and his wife had just viewed an eclipse. The other event, that was happening that day.

The plan, was to not spend any money. This was an exercise in window shopping. Perhaps learn something too.

dnaga

And that partly went by the way side. I made chilli based purchases, more on this later, but I didn’t come back to Brum laden with goodies. I didn’t fancy carting them all back, for one.

It was a nice day out, and having arrived early, I had a lot of time to walk around. Window shop, at first, what was around, work out what I wanted to see in the Expert’s theatre. As I got there, James Wong was running late and there were people already waiting. I kept walking around. There were a few schools there, kids and teachers, waiting for winners of Lunch growing scheme. I had empathy towards my slightly harassed looking colleagues, and the excitable kids.

I did spend a fair bit of time sitting in the Expert’s theatre, watching and listening.  I heard Pippa Greenwood, talk about veg, another chap talk about the factors that influence the vegetable patch. Last but not least, there was a question and answer session with the contestants of the Big allotment challenge. Was lovely to meet and speak with both Rob and Rekha. No, I didn’t swoon over Rob, and there were no screaming hoards that I had fight off to have a chat with him. Yes, I was surprised by that too.

This is not my first visit to an Edible Garden show. I made a visit to the show when it was at Stoneleigh. The show at Alexandra Palace felt different. It felt smaller for one, as though there was less there. I think I saw two seed companies. As well as a couple of equipment people. There was the experts theatre, and make/eat demos. Had I not left for the train, I would have stayed for the jam making bit.

It did feel very different to Stoneleigh, though I did go on the saturday that year. A lot less to look at, less hustle and bustle. Didn’t see alot on preserving fruit and veg, I think that would have been useful. There wasn’t anything there for me, that would have made me want to spend my money on goodies. Other than the two baby chillies. I feel that the show has lost a certain something. It just didn’t feel like a show, about edible gardens. There were poly tunnel people, greenhouse and shed people. Even furniture people. But something was lacking. A spark of something,

But I went, and even spent a fiver.