Parsnips

Yes, I braved it back to the allotment plot 144 and dug up a few parsnips for Christmas Day.  As advised by the kind lady from Green Lane Allotments, as long as I left them muddy they will store well, so I have put them in this old mushroom crate and into the store room by the garage.

So thank you GLA for your sound advice - with another cold snap predicted I would have a hard job digging them out of solid icy ground!!

If I don't blog again *MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR* to you all.

First Broad Beans

Yes, I have managed to walk to the allotment today in -2 degrees, so my smile is currently frozen to my face.  I had to get my kitchen scraps down there, or they would start to pile up and I would have to get the bike trailer out to get them there soon!

Anyway since the 2ft of snow that we  had I am sad to report that my Brassica Cage (yes, your guess is as good as mine - remember that?  it's gone.  The snow crushed it so I went last week to salvage what I could of what was left.  Some of the rods were totally snapped and others badly bent under the strain of the weight!!

This means that I have now exposed my Brussel Sprouts to the eliments and the wildlife, so the thought of eating home grown sprouts for Xmas this year may not happen after all.  I will probably get a few savoy cabbages and if we don't get a white Xmas I might be able to did some parsnips up - although I might just go and do this tomorrow and just bung them in the freezer??

Anyway the good news is that Junior's Broad Beans have sprung to life........

The news you've all been waiting for - Sweet Potatoes on plot 144!!

It was with GREAT excitement that I too, my spade from my allotment shed and walked from said shed to the Sweet Potato Suite!

In went the spade and out came,

out came,

out came,

so rather incey, wincey, teeny, weeny, baby but perfectly formed

SWEET POTATOES !

Yes they were rather small, and for all the effort that I put into growing them they did look rather dissapointing, however, they were lovely, roasted alongside a nice juicy chicken!

MMMMmmmmm

If I do try them again next year I may just try old compost bag in the greenhouse as I think they need the heat to produce a bigger yield.

Potatoes and Piccalilli

 I am on plot 121 here and as you can see my potatoes are REALLY full of overgrowth which includes weeds, brambles & bindweeds from the plot next door.  You can see just behind my bike trailer that there is a mound. Well that mound is actually a compost bin from the next plot that is covered in brambles and bind weed, so that's where it's all come from!

I managed, on my first day back from sickness, to dig out 2 rows of Cara Potatoes.

This is them coming out of the ground. Thats the most exciting bit - digging them out!!

I then put them into a large tray and into the greenhouse to dry out as it's still damp out there!

These are my 2 marrows which I am entering into the Twitter Marrow Competition

As I was digging up potatoes, I dug up a couple of parsnips too, as we were having roast chicken - Mmmm - they were delicious!

This is my harvest (mid illness) which I decided looked like a good Piccalilli crop!

 So I chopped it all up

Add some Celery from the fridge

 And hey presto - Piccalilli will be ready in December

Return from Holiday, Tomato Glut & Gastroenteritis!

Where do I start? From the begining I suppose would be a good place.

OK, so I return from Marrakech on Wednesday, but had a very dodgy tummy, so I didn't make it down to the allotment until the Thursday & when I got there, I found this lot!

Brian from 144a helped me to pick them all as I was rather "delicate!"

 I spent the next couple of days making batches of Tomato Sauce -
The Fiorentino tomatoes made tomato & aubergine sauce and the Roma tomatoes were turned into tomato & courgette sauce - I just used what I had to hand at the allotment!

Unfortunately my tummy bug turned out to be a little more serious than first expected.  I was so ill by Sunday morning that I phoned NHS direct.  They were obviously concerned as they got the "on duty" doctor to call me, who in turn sent another doctor round to my home to see me.  He then wrote a letter and told me to go to the hospital as soon as I could, so I was there within the hour.  I was put on a drip (one of 6) and was kept in. The good news is that I am now home (and itching to get to the allotment, but I am not allowed until next Monday)

The foxes at the hospital, sunbathing!

I am proud to present......

My certificates from the London Borough of Sutton 

Sutton in Bloom 2010 &

From London in Bloom 2010

The accompanying letter reads:

"Thank you once again for entering this year's competition which  continues to be an excellent way to encourage residents, businesses and schools to improve the appearance of the Borough.

I am pleased to say that you have been awarded a Certificate of Excellence by the London in Bloom judges, as they feel that you have made a significant contribution to gardening and the floral enhancement of the Borough this year.

Your support of the competition is much appreciated, and I hope that you will continue to enter the competition in year to come. "

I must just add that I am THRILLED to have these lovely certificates which I will frame and put up on my wall. I will also copy them, laminate and pin to the shed door at the allotment !!



More Tomatoes, Chilli's, Hangings & a good tidy up

I had a bit of time on my hands today (Saturday) so I decided that after a few household chores, I would spend some "proper" time at the allotment.  I desperately needed to get rid of the onions that have been drying in the Greenhouse, give the said Greenhouse a jolly good tidy up and re- arrange and stuff like that.

This was my first "sighting" when opening the GH door - and that's just one of them!

Another ripe Fiorentino tomato ready to pick

And this is the result of more pickings from the GH and outside.  Outside, there are so many Roma, Cherry & Fiorentino tomatoes still to ripen - lets hope they do before the blight comes.

These are the "hangings" - I actually had another lot but I gave one away to a fellow allotment holder that didn't have such a successful crop.

 She was very reluctant to take them but I told her of my 5 strings of the over wintering onions currently hanging in my store room at home and I convinced her that she will have some crop more successful than mine so we can swap then!

Now for the big GH tidy up - as you can see the onions are well and truly gone!  I inspected all the tomato plants and if they didn't have anything much left on them I composted them.

 This means that I can now actually walk into my GH with more ease and I have re located the Sweet Peppers in their growbag from the middle of the floor to the very end by the vents as in this picture to the right.

 As you can see, the Sweet Peppers are looking really good.  I have 3 Sweet Pepper plants outside too, but they are not doing so well - alot smaller but they will catch up.












And now for my Chilli Plants - next year I won't be going so mad on the quantity of Chilli Plants I grow - I have far too many for only 2 people to consume.  I might ask the local curry house if they will do me a swap - a dozen chilli's for a chicken madras - it's worth a try!








 This is one of several aubergines thriving in the GH - sorry about the picture - it's sideways and not your vision gone funny!

And last but not least is my favourite Sweet Pepper - my only one that's turning a slight shade of red.

August: confessions and harvesting....

My confession is that I do feel guiltly that I haven't updated my Allotment Blog for what seems like ages, but I do have a very very good reason.  You see, me and Hubby have been on the road to "Adoption" since October 2008. We did all the required course and got "Approved" in September 2009.  Since then we have been searching for a little boy to come and share our lives.  I say little - 5 years old plus.  Anyway, it's finally happened and instead of the normal "9months" you would have to prepare if you gave birth naturally or "3months" which is the norm in adoption, we are getting 6 weeks! so now you can understand my slight loss of computer time as we have been busy preparing a room for Junior as he will be here mid Sept!!

Anyway, back to Plot 144:

I couldn't resist this picture - reminded me of someone wearing a little hat!

This was a very juicy "Fiorentino" tomato - Mmmmmm

One of my chilli's is going red!

Another Fiorentino in the greenhouse ready for picking!

The same chilli getting redder!

 Oh look at the sweet peppers - nearly ready and way ahead of the ones outside!

And finally, my water butt needed brightening up so I bought so wheelie bin stickers from the Pound Shop and now its very SPRING like!!

We have been eating lots of produce from the allotment including: Lettuce, tomatoes, beetroot, courgettes, potatoes, cucumbers & khol rhabi!  I have been planning my recipes around my produce rather than the normal way of findig a recipe book and going off to the supermarket for ingredients! Last night I made Potato & courgette gratin which was a massive hit! Mmmmmmm

Frogs!

 As you know I have a micro pond (a washing up bowl) at  plot 144.

It has had tadpoles in it for a few months now.

To my delight I spotted this little fella there this morning!

He let me pick him up and happily sat on my finger for a long time

Before I put him back into the micro pond for a swim

Then Brian on plot 144a called me over as he had just discovered this big

Frog on his plot!

Fruits, Frogs & Flying Ants!!

Well what a week this has been!

Firstly I will start off with the Fruit Trees, as I haven't blogged about them much lately.

Above is the Apple,

below is the pear and

 this is the Plum (just in case you hadn't guessed already!)

They all seem to be doing well and their fruits are swelling nicely.

Now for the horrible bit. 

I decided that I needed more room in the Greenhouse, so I put one of my aubergine plants out to play in the Sweet Potato Suite as I believe it will have a similar enviroment to the Greenhouse one and it won't distrub the Sweet Potatoes, which as you can see are doing very well.

Unfortunately, shortly afterwards, a fellow allotmenteer noticed that I had a Flying Ant invasion!

There were everywhere!

However the next day (today) they are nowhere to be seen!!

I harvested my 1st Earlies earlier on in the week (Pentland Javelin) and after sitting on the shed floor for a day or two, to protect them from the rain, they came home, accompanied by 2 lovely looking courgettes.

My neighbours Artichoke had flowered so I had to take a picture of it's splendor.

And this little chap, I rescued from being entangled in a courgette flower.

And finally, when I watered the sweet peppers in the greenhouse today I spotted this Frog.

I am informed on the highest authority (aka AllotmentMate on Twitter) that it is indeed a Frog and not a Toad.

I am very lucky to have a resident Frog in my greenhouse and I hope he stays there for some time!