Tag Archives: allotment

grapevine, NaBloPoMo

#NaBloPoMo: Growing Grapevines on the Garden

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Grapevines on the plot
Grapevines on the plot: Boskoop Glory and Madeline Sylvener

 

There are two varieties of grapevine currently being cultivated on the plot. These are Boskoop Glory, a red grape and Madeline Sylvener, which is a white grape. Both are meant to be quite suitable for the British Climate. There definitely parts of the British Isles that can grow grapes, so why not the middle of land locked England. These are desert grapes, I think, so we shall see if they do produce a vast quantity of fruit, and whether anything can be made out of them. Other than eating them, it might be nice to brew something.

There is a fourth, much older grapevine in Dad’s garden. The vines produce mammoth crop in the south facing garden, and we do nothing with him. Those grapes are red, and ripen in October. They don’t particularly taste very nice though, and that is the pit fall. Hoping that next year, they can be converted into something useful. No idea what that variety is though, and I did one year squash the lot to make a litre of Cordial. Yep, a whole litre. I was there squashing for a long time.

Across the cane trellis, there are thre vines growing up and out. These vines are still quite young, have been in the ground less than five years so are very much in there infancy. It can take up to twenty years for them reach their ful potential.

With their tendrils and creepers growing without restraint, the vines are starting to look a bit wndburned. Some of the leaves are  alittle scorched. Overnight we have a our first frost, so I do wonder if the vines will look a little different today. They might also need a bit of a feed. Might dress the base with both chicken poop pellets and some fish, bone, blood stuff. I did that in the summer, and it didn’t appear to do any harm.

I do need to investigate how to prune the vines and when. That cane trellis is at the moment, barely five foot hight. This may need to be increased in time, with another trellis and some more canes to support the lower levels. Previously, I have spotted a very small bunch of graps. It was still there, when I looked on Tuesday. Not sure if it is likely to get any larger, and with the over night frost, may well have died a death.

cabbages and brassicas, Hobbit homebrew, NaBloPoMo

#NaBloPoMo: Decanting Day 2: Rhubarb’d Vodka

During the summer, I had harvested some rhubarb. This was then placed into a clip top jar, with cloves, ginger, sugar and vodka. This has been in the airing cupboard for approximately three months. I say approximately, as it had about another ten days to go for that exact term. Shaken at the outset, the concoction has then been left to it’s own devices.

Unlike the cordial that I had made, it actually looks orange. A lighter shade of irn bru, not at all pink as was expected. I had also expected a bit more liquid. There is exactly 70 Cl-ish there of vodka. Those bottles are 500 ml sized.. Unlike soft fruit, Rhubard doesn’t actually release it’s own juices. The boozy soaked rhubarb is now put aside for a boozy pudding.

NaBloPoMo, overwintering alliums

#NaBLoPoMO: Planting Autumn Garlic 2014

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Once again, I am planting garlic. I have already planted one batch of Provence wight into a raised bed. So today, I have plugged in garlic into a second bed. A third has been prepared and tidied up as I might plant some more yet. Every year, I try to identify and plant an appropriate variety. it’s been fun trying to establish the best, the results have been quite interesting. The one key finding, is that raised beds are beneficial. In the past, the cloves planted into raised beds have been bigger and more flavoursome. By that, I mean pungent!

On the other hand, cloves plugged into open ground, have been much smaller. Ma has complained that these are then very difficult to peel and prepare. You would easily use a dozen of those smaller cloves in the place of three larger ones.

Beyond the Provence wight, I am also trying Elephant garlic this year. It is technically, a leek with garlic tendencies, The first that I have tried this, and the difference is already clear in the size of the cloves.

The garlic arrives in bulbs, as you can see. This year, I have found some from http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/ I was impressed by the size and quality of these. As well as the fact that this is a nice autumnal collection. Whilst there were three loose elephant garlic cloves, the rest of the bulbs are broken down into singular cloves. These cloves are then plugged into the dirt, with only their tip exposed.

Many people, will use supermarket garlic. There has to be caution with this, I think, In some cases, the garlic is for different climates and may not necessarily take off. I’ve never done it, but that’s not to say it can’t be done or isn’t successful.

In the past, when there has been an abundance of garlic, some the crop has been pickled. Rather nice actually, and has kept rather well. The majority has been used successfully in cooking. There is just something about fresh, home grown garlic. It certainly keeps longer, and definitely tastes different.

NaBloPoMo

#NaBloPoMo: Welcome to the Plot

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Welcome to Hobbitland
Welcome to Hobbitland

 

Welcome to Hobbitland, or at least my little part of it. In Birmingham, England. For the benefit of new and future readers, this is a patch of land. A vegatable pot, rented from the local council for, the cultivation, funnily enough of fruit, veg, and flowers.

What started off as 100 square metres, is now 200 square metres. I took on the second half last year, and to be fair at that point; it felt as though I was running out of space.

There have been perils and puddles, you can read all about them in the past posts. But now, the plot is starting to get going properly. The amount of things you learn, is phenonemonal. Yet one growing season won’t necessarily be the same as the next.

The black and white diagram that you see above, is something of an annual exerise. An opportunity to plan out and prepare for next spring. Each of the squares is either a raised bed or a bed in open ground. The shaded boxes, are the smaller wendy house and the large 2m x 3m Polytunnel. The polytunnel is currently home to a clutch of Chilli Pepper plants.

As it stands, now is time for me to tidy up the plot and to also grow over wintering crops such as garlic. Sadly, there are times where the British Winter does get in the way. Come to think of, the summer also gets in the way too. Especially when it is wet, windy, and downright drab. At the moment, the one bed does have garlic in it. There is also fenugreek and spinach still cropping, as well as lovely red vulcan chard. In years passed, I have at this time of the year sunk lots of bulbs for the spring. However, I am happy for now to have roses up and down the plot. There two dozen, perhaps, roses, that in the height of summer have produced fantastic blooms. I concede that they are not really edible. But what would an English Garden be without a few roses. There is even one called William Shakespeare 2000.  As well as would be posh roses, there are some less posh ones. Some from a poundshop, some that are mysteries entirely. They are lost label roses, and could be anything. All of them will be pruned in the coming months to help them regenerate for next year.

You might have observed that there are some fruit trees. I have forgetton, to label the rhubarb. Most of these trees are two-three years old. I have victoria plum, braeburn and falstaff apple, rochester peach, a cherry tree the name of which escapes me. Concorde pear as well. The plot is home to one domesticated ‘Reuben’ Blacberry. In being domestic, this is thornless. Wild blackberries are full thorns and will tear you to shreds. I am lucky that the plot is edged on the far side by such wild blackberries. These have been jammed quite a bit this year.

 

overwintering alliums

Garlic planting: Provence Wight

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It is that time of year again, where I look at overwintering allieums. That’s garlic, onions and shallots. This year, there are no over wintering onions and shallots. These crops are simply not successful enough for me. With the heavy clay, tendency to flood, these tend to be written off. However, garlic is something of a staple. It grows well, and is always used. It is sad, when we run out of home made garlic.

This year, I have taken the decision to plant garlic into raised beds. Mainly as I have more success in raised beds, in comparison to the ones in open ground. This is across varieties, and I have sown many different varieties over the years. This year, I have gone with provence wight as it has performed the best when planted previously. At this stage, I have planted about four bulbs worth. This has filled one raised bed of 2m x 1. Far fewer than I haver planted, which is a little sad. I am looking into perhaps sinking more, being more scrooge like. Plus, mama H will bend my ear about how much room I am going to dedicate to garlic. Thing is, I can sow it around the edges of raised beds, and then plant things in the middle.The allotment wouldn’t be the same without garlic being planted.

Ghost rider

Baby of Bruno on the Mersey: Never walks alone

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King Kenny, Sir BoB, Bill Shankly
King Kenny, Sir BoB, Bill Shankly

My thanks to @Redlegend68 for the above image.

As you may be aware, a few years ago I grew a ghostrider pumpkin that we called Bruno. When Bruno was harvested in 2011, I saved the seeds and sent them the length and breadth of Britain. Some of the progeny went to Liverpool, and have turned into some beautiful whopping specimens. Two of the above were donate to a harvest festival.

My own bruno is waiting on the window sill, and the seeds of bruno 2014 will then be saved. Once more, they will hopefully go to good homes.

cabbages and brassicas

Final cauli collection

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These are the last caulis to be collected for this year. These were grown in raised beds, with lime added on planting, beneath a cover of debris netting. Most of them have been okay. Half, though, were blown and eaten by pestilence. I forget not what variety these were, but I do remember them being an F1 variety.

Some of the flower heads have been quite big with nice healthy looking curds. Others have been small. I guess putting them in 3×3 formation might need looking at. Using netting certainly helps. Without netting, it’s highly unlikely you would get a crop. I would also place stock in using plugs. My seedlings never survive the slugs.

grapevine

Baby grapes?

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The grapevines have really developed this summer, and are creeping in every direction. Think I need to build the cane supports upwards as the vines are getting taller.

In something of a surprise, I’ve spotted what looks like a bunch of baby grapes. Odd, as grapes are usually ripening about now. Rather than forming baby bunches. Will be a nice surprise if they are baby grapes.