Our Allotment Journey - Day 1 !

Lotus-eater

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/pruning_prunesoftfruit2.shtml

The blackberries will fruit on the new canes this year, so don't prune them whatever you do!

Leave all the rhubarb to rot down where it is.

Edit, sorry, to be clear, the blackberries will fruit next year on the new canes produced this year.

jtb2412

Hi everyone

Thought I'd better pop on and see what you've all been up to !

No excuses for not being around other than that I've been exceptionally busy at work (interviewing) and the garden/allotment has taken up more of my time than I ever imagined possible ! Watering is our main problem (an hour for the allotment and roughly the same for the garden !!!! :eek:) However, this week has been a bit quieter (less watering ) so I've managed to catch up a bit with the mundane things like housework .

I'm so glad to see all is well with everyone and gardens/allotments are being productive and providing lots of yummy food !

We have had a few problems (slugs, caterpillars and rats :eek:) but it's to be expected and I over-compensated with my sowings to allow for the little critters. Our other problem (and don't laugh !) is that everything has grown so well that it's come early (I know, I shouldn't complain !) However, when your fellow allotment neighbours keep commenting that your cabbages are huge and your beans are being picked when theirs aren't even at the tops of the canes, it gets a bit embarassing :rotfl:. I think the secret has been that the plot hasn't been grown on for a couple of years and the soil is incredibly fertile. It has posed me with the problem though, of finding somewhere to store it all - I never expected to be freezing runner beans this early in the season and my freezer is still full of rhubarb and gooseberries that I haven't had opportunity to turn into jams/chutneys yet. I need to get a move on !

School holidays are just around the corner and I intend to make some freezer space then so if I can manage for the next 2 weeks then I think we'll be ok!

Tomatoes haven't been very good this year - how has everyone else done with these? Loads of flowers but not much fruit - good job I grew lots ! Cucumbers are excellent (weren't last year) and I have one solitary water melon that I'm really proud of - I hope I don't lose it to a slug :mad:.

Raspberries are early here too (autumn fruiting) so I can only guess it's because of all the hot weather we had a couple of weeks ago.

Peas have all but finished (quite a few never made it to the freezer :rotfl:) and although having the dreaded pea moth in quite a few pods, we have a nice big bag of fresh peas to eat over the next couple of weeks.

I won't bore you any longer but thanks for posting all your progress (I have been watching ) I should have more time to come on here now so looking forward to 'nattering' with you all again soon xxx

Have a good day !

shaz_mum_of__2

Thanks lotus eater i think a more permanant structure may be in order......hubby will be pleased........no he really will............. he loves jobs

JTB lovely to see you i ave been disappointed with tomatoes same as you lots of flowers but as yet not much fruit(i am blaming the blackfly but not sure)

had 8 cucumbers so far i am pickling a couple today as there will be 2 more before the weekend when we go away for a week i use rhonda jeans recipe and its lovely like sweet gherkins

Aubergine in greenhouse is flowering so fingers crossed, frozen some courgettes today and still got a lot to use up for tea tonight. french beans have tiny yellow beans on them and so have a few runners

Shaz

Rummer

How is everyone?? I have been working hard enjoying my produce and starting to prepare my beds for the winter veg that hasn't been planted yet. I am beginning to think that nature is conspiring against me as caterpillars ate all my brussell sprouts and weeds appear straight after I have pulled previous ones out, the work is never ending but definately worth it!

Frugaldom

Hello allotmenteers

Haven't been posting here much but now it's time to catch up. We're nowhere near as advanced as 'down south' but I have harvested loads of cauliflowers, broccoli, peas and spinch beet along with plenty of lettuce that's constantly on the go. I have dozens of cherry tomatoes coming on my plants and have already picked/eaten the first few. Tonight, I have dug a row of potatoes from my raised bed and am sad to say that hardly any were edible - slugs! A couple of the potatoes were completely hollow and almost all of the others were infested. I got enough for a pot for tonight's dinner and some of them were almost big enough for baking! The bucket grown ones have been lovely, so far, but I'm tempted to dig up the whole raised bed just to find out if any of that crop is salvageable. One corner of the adjacent raised bed now cleared out and oh my! How big do onions grow? I pulled up half a dozen that were sort of 4cm diameter and then up came the last one, a whopper that was twice the size of the others. I have more seedlings ready to go in - turnip and Utah giant onions - so I may harvest the rest of the first onions and get the second lot in to see if they grow as well. STILL waiting for the spring onions, carrots, beetroot and I am beginning to think that I didn't plant any cabbages or brussels sprouts. Ducks have been incredibly helpful in demolishing all my lovely rasps when they got in beside them - more contingency plans needed.

I now have loads of space in the square foot garden, as it had several broccoli and cauliflowers in it, plus I pulled up the snowball turnips. I now have a large bag of diced turnip and several bags of cauliflower and broccoli in the freezer, plus I've been saving all the peapods for winemaking.

Yesterday, whilst friend was visiting, we opened the first bottle of elderflower champagne to test it. Yum! Sweet, fizzy, looks like real lemonade, so I'll need to remember that it may have an alcohol content when we're guzzling it.

Foraging is on-going. I got a few gooseberries and rasps, so made a thin jam that got used up in a jam sponge pudding. Surplus eggs are made into lemon curd & meringes and the strawberries all got eaten with icecream or drunk in smoothies

Not sure if this veggie gardening lark really is frugal at the start but I'm learning loads, saving a bit on groceries and eating almost vegetarian with whatever is in season, so it has to be healthy. Can't wait to see if the courgettes, butternut squash and cucumbers produce anything.

Sorry to have waffled on and on. Keep up the good work, everyone and I'm now off to see Natalie's allotment photos. Hope the chickens are doing alright, any eggs yet?

PS - weather here is continuing to hold although we have had a few heavy showers in the past week but on the whole, we've had it great since late May and it's still t-shirt weather now with blue sky and sunshine. Bad weather should be due to start this week, though, as it's the holidays and then the annual agricultural show first week in August. We always get soaked at that.

jtb2412

Hi everyone :hello:

Ticking along nicely here and have a glut of cucumbers at the mo, so have pickled some - not sure how they'll turn out !

Hopefully spending the day down the lotty tomorrow, lots to do (weeding, picking, peas need to come out, leeks need to go in and general tidying). I know what you mean about work being never ending rummer, I sometimes feel like i've not time to do anything apart from weed or pick or pickle or freeze ! lol :rolleyes:

Shaz, glad it's not just me with the tomatoes (well, not glad for you , you know what I mean ! lol) Tis such a shame as my tomatoes were great last year so I planned to grow lots (39 :eek:) and make Mrs M's passata but I don't think it's to be ........ I'll be lucky if I get one batch made out of the fruit I've got. Growing both outside and in greenhouse and neither is any good . At least our runner beans are doing well !

I must get some winter veg started .... I'm way behind with that due to extra hours at work and trying to declutter the house. I hope I'm not too late, need to consult my seed packets and books I think.

Next week I've got 17lb of rhubarb to jam/jelly :eek: and about 6lb of gooseberries to make into something scrummy.

We had our first cauliflower the other day - small but delicious. I think there will be another couple at least ready tomorrow so I'll cheese them up and pop in the freezer.

Still eating potatoes here, on to our second earlies now. We grew Vivaldi variety and they're wonderful ! Very buttery and a nice size but not as many potatoes per plant as our first earlies. 2 bags at home left and about a row down the lotty so should see us through until main crop are ready.

Shaz you can use the green rhubarb stems for jam but be careful not to take too much off - the green stems are needed to feed the plant while they die back for next year's growth.

One of our neighbours down the lotty has let me pick his blackcurrants to make jam and I get to keep half of what I make - he's on his own so I'm happy to make it for him plus I enjoy it so I'm happy with our little 'arrangement' . He also gives us lots of other bits and bobs too so I like to think I'm repaying him somehow. We're very lucky though, all our neighbours are lovely and willing to share knowledge and produce :T

Anyway I've rambled enough, DH is making me a coffee so I'm going to sit and drink it while I peruse my books/seed packets.

Have a good weekend everyone ...... I'll check in at some point - might even take a few pics .

TTFN xxx

Rummer

I just ate a meal with my first ever home grown cauliflower! It has made all the hard work so worthwhile! I can't believe that just a few months ago they were seeds and now they are smothered in cheese sauce and being eaten!

Frugaldom

Well done, Rummer, it's so satisfying to finally be able to say it's a home frown meal! I love it!

Almost all my cauliflowers are in now, only 3 left to pick, but there mucy be several meals worth in the freezer, along with peas and broccoli. This weekend, I'm planning on lifting the rest of the potatoes from the raised bed, as I think I've lost all of them to slugs! I'd have been as well leaving the hens with access to them but they kept eating the leaves, which are poisonous.

Happy gardening everyone. I'll have a proper rake in mine at the weekend to see what's doing best then decide how best to proceed for winter growing. What's everyone else doing? I have leeks, onions and swedes so far but hope to keep the lettuce/salad leaves going in their covered tub.

Rummer

Going for carrots, leeks, swede, turnip, kale. broccoli, parsnips and whatever else I can squeeze in. A lot of the winter things go to the animals but we benefit too! My peas didn't really grow this year and we were all devastated as we loved them last year, however we did get a huge number of raspberries which made up for it. Not long until we will be out picking brambles and filling the freezer with them!

jtb2412

Morning everyone

NYK, your cauliflowers look fab (been keeping up with your webpage)! We had 8 but they went a bit purple on the tops (think it's the sun that does that) and they had quite a few caterpillars in them - I think I got them all out :eek:.

How gutting about your spuds, ours remain untouched by the little blighters, but I've yet to dig up the main crop so I'm not out of the woods yet !

Winter veg is going well although I could have done more. I've got leeks, winter cabbage, squashes, purple sprouting brocolli, parsnip and swede. Could have done some cauli and brocolli but I've missed the boat for sowing times. I'm starting off turnips, late dwarf beans, fennel and a few other things this week but I'm going to learn by my mistakes and make sure I plan better over the winter.

Kale = whitefly :mad: so keep a close eye on it. I picked some of the black kale the other day (with plans to make soup - found a lovely recipe) and the leaves were covered in them and their eggs. Far too many to remove/spray so the plants are coming out this week. MIL did say it was very bitter and she pulled all her plants up too. However the curly dwarf kale is yummy and as yet remains untouched by the whitefly so that's staying in.

Shame about your peas rummer - we had a very good season with ours although they've all gone now, didn't last long :rolleyes::D. It's funny how some things do well one year and awful the next. Our tomatoes are very poor, just hope they're better next year. Cucumbers were awful last year but prolific this year. Must be something in the air ! :rolleyes::rotfl:.

Plans for this week/weekend are to tackle the garden. Need to get the last of the second early potatoes out of their bags and move the tomatoes to the patio to ripen. General tidying up of the greenhouse etc. Oh, did I mention I got a shed ! lol It's my shed and it's tidy (unlike DHs :rolleyes:!) and houses all the garden things so we don't have to rummage in amongst all the carp that DH has in his. It's only a little one (6x4) as we had to squeeze it in a triangular space behind the greenhouse (nothing grows there) but it does the job. So, more of my garden budget gone and a bit of an impulse buy but not wasted iyswim.

Anyway, rambled on enough as usual. Brekkie and then out in the garden while the sun is shining (not sure for how long !) :rolleyes:

TTFN and happy gardening !