Strawberry & Seedlings!

It was such an exciting day today as I popped in to water the plants in the greenhouse, as I saw lots of germination going on!  It's all thanks to this nice warm weather we are having....

Butternut Squash

 Cucumbers

Cucino

Carrots (it's the little green thing to the left of the picture)

Marigolds

& a Strawberry!!



Onions, Gnomes, Broad Beans & more.....

The Onions on plot 121 are coming along very nicely

Potty the Gnome is happily standing guard outside my shed & greenhouse.

Even my carrots are doing well this year - I have planted these in between onions to deter carrot root fly, or to try to at least!

And I have a baby Cucino Cucumber that's nearly ready to munch on!

The courgettes are coming along

And the Broad Beans are ready for picking

So that's exactly what I did! Broad Bean and Bacon Risotto tonight! Mmmmm

Carrot & Coriander Soup - Tonights Dinner

Carrots - Fresh from the allotment yesterday.

Preparation

All diced and ready to be "souped"

However I need an onion, which unfortuately I have to go and buy, because we have eaten all the allotment grown ones!  The moral of this story is to grow more onions this year!

If you too, would like the recipe - here's the link.

p.s. I will add to this post later to tell you how it turns out!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7003/carrot-and-coriander-soup

And this is the end result, a deliciously "I want more" very filling, comforting soup - the best I have had in years!

Autumnal Harvest

Another great crop from 144 & 121 plots!

Picked the last of the sweetcorn for eating that night and for the freezer......

I was overwhelmed with the aroma of the carrots whilst pulling them from the earth......

And the beetroot never fails to amaze me with it's vibrant colour and taste.....

Unfortunately all this autumnal harvesting was marred by the fact that my neighbour and ex fellow plot holder was over on my previous plot 142!

Although I had had a very successful morning digging 122 before breakfast I returned after coming home for nourishment to dig over some of 144 to find "Mrs Chicken Wire" as she is now referred to, and her shadow (Mr Chicken Wire) tending to plot 142.  Why is it that everytime I turn up her voice goes up by about 15 decibles and she laughs, no I stand  corrected, "CACKLES" at simple words like compost, seeds and Bamboo Canes.

Yes she grates me.

She annoys me to hell and back

and

it's not enjoyable being on my lovely plot 144 whilst she and sidekick are there.

I do try to avoid being on 144 at the same time she is on 142, but sometimes its not always possible, timewise to go down to 121 as jobs there have been completed.

So I have to turn my back and work away, trying not to listen for the high pitched cackled that may eminate at any second, disturbing the peace and tranquility that you would expect of ones allotment.

Still, the nice thing is, is that I am there on 144 more often than she is on 142, so I do get my little place of solitude and tranquility more often than not.

Back to the harvest.

The carrots looked very orange, smelt very carroty and tasted divine.

The Beetroot were a vibrant purple and roasted - melted in your mouth

&

The sweetcorn was way better than the Jolly Green Giants!!

He he!!

To top the morning off, another allotmenteer, Val, on a close by plot gave me a gift of a packet of Mizuna (very rare as I have not been able to source them for months) seeds and a lovely "Gardeners Handcream" for looking after her polytunnel for a few days.  Ok, so I did sing to them, but I didn't expect that - what a lovely surprise. 

Thanks Val!!

What a difference a day makes....24 little hours...

Yes, it was my day of yesterday, and I got organised and myself down to the lotty at 8.30am

As you can see from the first picture, all my little lovely seedlings are going to their new home - my GH

I was a very lucky girl yesterday and the COSMOS must have been looking after me, because I bumped straight into Derek our Lotty Fairy, and without allowing me to say NO he started to dig for me.

He dug and I de-rooted and de-stoned and look at this whopper! (not of the Burger King variety)

After a few hours hard work, and a couple of sore backs.....

I was able to plant pototaes, 2 rows of red onions, 2 of white, Autumn King Carrots and Parsnips!

These are my potatoes - Accent 1st earlies going in. I also planted my 2nd's Kestral and few Charlottes which I got given. I also measured out the space needed for my Maincrop so all my potatoes are together (planning in advance due to next years crop rotation you see!)

As you can see, I didn't dig long and labourious trenches, I simply used my bulb planter and popped them in. This was the tried and tested method that I used last year, which worked well and it's also mentioned in John Harrisons latest book - The Essential Allotment Guide - so it must be a good way to grow spuds!


Now this is my plot last year - April 2008

And this is my plot in April 2009!

It was the plot that no one else wanted - the overgrow, rubbish strewn plot by the fence that was anyones allotment nightmare - but not mine!

I even had time to organise the shed a little more! Please note the loo roll haha, just in case I need to use the toilet provided on site - lucky I was a Girl Guide in my youth as it's quite a challenge I can tell you!

That's it for today's report - hope you enjoyed reading it and the transformation taking place - there will be more to come as I have a wine an beer patio lounge planned next!

Giving them another chance.........

..........Only one mind you!

Yes - it's those carrots again - I have re sown Nantes and Amsterdam.I have put them in pretty much the same place as they were before - in between the onion sets.This time I made a small trench and made sure it was stone free.I then filled the trench with compost and broadcast the seed from top to bottom.

After watering in, I covered the seeds with a little more compost and marked the row.

So I now have a row of Nantes (according to the packet they are "easy to grow") and a row of Amsterdam - you never know, I might get some Tulips instead!

Still, it can't be worse that the last attempt, or could it?

I have asked around - Brenda a lady with a plot in the dip who can grow the most enormous calabrese, can't grow carrots. Mavis, my plot neighbour and vegetable growing expert, can't grow carrots, and I have just read that my latest hero - Mr Valentine Low (One man and his dig) and his wife have tried every method possible, and can't grow carrots. In fact, I think he mentioned something about the fact that hiring a limo and going to Fortnum & Mason's to buy some of their carrots would have been cheaper than what they had spent on all their efforts, not to mention seeds!

I think I will have to have a wander around Stanley Road Allotments this evening to ask anyone willing to stop for a chat, if they can grow carrots - so I'll be around 3 hours then as most people stop for a chat!!

This could be the great carrot growing mystery?

Who grows them and WHERE do they grow if the supermarkets are full of them?

As promised from the last post - these are the pictures of Susan's lovely new vegetable identification signs - just in casee - and yes - she can grow carrots !

Last Weekend.....

I had a lovely Birthday - Two trips to the Lotty and a fish "n" chip lunch in the garden.

I was then treated to a night away at a lovely hotel Buxted Park in Uckfield

Sunday was a washout and as I don't do mud - I had to wait to get back down to the Lotty.

This happened on Monday. I was going to the postbox anyway, and although it had been raining pretty much all day, it was in fact worse that Sundays' washout, I popped to the Lotty as I needed some spring onions and a courgette - fortunately it wasn't THAT muddy.

To my surprise - this is what a wet weekend can do......

Yes, these are my 1st ever tomatoes - They are the Marmande variety. I am SO excited - just think, I will soon be able to stop buying tomatoes from the supermarket! How very exciting.

I also noticed lots of flowers on my chilli plants and peppers, so hopefully they won't be too far behing the Tomatoes.

Then this happened - Yes, this is my butternut squash - the one I grew from seed from the gourd that had been in the fridge for a week. I was searching through the leaves for a courgette to take home and I found this instead!

Last but not least - This is Susan's latest harvest - yes a straight carrot!

Well done Susan.

Sweet Peas, Funny Carrots & the ones that don't want to die.....

At last - the sweet peas are in bloom

They are going to look SO pretty with a little more sunshine

Ah - the carrots - maybe a bit more thining needed?

I am not going to chuck them - I will just wash away the soil and chop them up for tonights dinner - I will then start again but this time I will remember to thin them more!

A quick peak in the compost bin this morning was a pretty sight indeed - yes the Nasturtiums that were thrown in there last week some time are refusing to die and continue to flower - how special is that?

Experiments......Hahahahahahahahahaha(laugh like a nutty professor for the right sound effect)

Today was a wet squid type of day here in the deepest darkest depths (sorry, it's that all that Paddington Bear TV from childhood) of Peru, opps - I did mean Carshalton, of course I did!

Needless to say I did NOT visit the lotty today, although I have to confess that I did a little "drive past" in Smarty Pants (the name of the Smart Car - very original I know) to make sure Tatty was still there, and Cutbert, and Dibble and last but not least Grub + Twirly was going around and around and around.....

Well, after a quick visit to Wyevale Garden Centre in Purley Way, which is infact an old outdoor swimming pool with a massive concrete structured diving board arrangement from years ago, which I used to visit as a child to practice my 100 yards (Yes, I did get my certificate) & (yes the concrete diving board is still in place). Well, after spending another £30 I felt quite triumphant that I had finally freed myself from the clawing grasp of Woodcote. It was very nice to go to a different garden centre for a change.

Right - now for the experiments...........Ha hahahahahahahaha (remember to do the nutty professor laugh!)

Notice the gloves, ready for experimental action - do I watch too many movies? - yes, probably!!!hahahah (oh dear not that again - sorry)

Composing myself to continue.

Ok, let me explain...... I decided to pot on my tomato plants - these are the Marmande variety, which will hopefully end up as BEEFSTEAKS - yummy - which I love, or why would I grow them? Anyway, this led me to thinking that I should pot on my "normal" toms which were currently in module pots and onto 3 inch pots, so I did this too, and then decided to pop them (the normal ones) into the cold frame - Question is will they survive? - Experiment 1.

Experiment 2 was to plant 2 x butternut squash seeds from a squash that I cut open and used in a slow cooker chicken casserole recipe yesterday - I will let you know the outcome.

Experiment 3 was to buy and use these new "Suttons Sow & Grow Peat Pellets"

Sorry these pictures are the wrong way around - I can't work this blog system out sometimes!

Ok, so they say "just add water" well it's a lie - you have to soak them as you can see in picture 1 for at least 15-20 minutes, so one Gin & Tonic later and they are ready - gone soft all the way through. If you just water them as is suggests, you just have a small hard pellet for ages! The picture on the left shows you a fully soaked one.

In the first tray I planted sunflowers and in the second Carrots (Nantes 2 variety)

Well, I said it was an experiment so I will let you know if they germinate.

Here are the Sunflowers and the finished positions on the windowsill - p.s. the propogators are infact recycled "Taste the Difference" Beef packaging from Sainsburys!

Recycling - the possibilites are endless !!!

And finally, I was rewarded by some Blue Tits, which I saw just outside my utility room window, having a FEAST on the fat ball that I leave out for all the garden birds.

My apologies in advance for the blurred picture - I will try better next time.

My Plot plans........

As you can see, Onion sets and carrots went in on the evening of Wednesday 9th, as per my blog below, and beetroot seeds were planted last night - Thursday 10th.

I am hoping to get the Parsnips and radishes in later this evening which is why there is only the one image of them - this will be altered to the rows they are in once they have been planted.

Below are the plans for Beds 2 & 3 and for the remainder of Bed 4

Again, once seedlings or seeds have been put in, the charts will be updated as to where they are.