The Cheese Shop (TM)

A unique home made device for catching unsuspecting mice on your allotment -bird friendly.

To use:
Place mousetrap inside cheeseshop (ready to bite),
Wait
Wait some more
Wait a little bit longer
SNAP!
Remove dead mouse

This hand-painted, hand-made, hand-sculpted device has been made to the highest quality and is the only one of it's kind in the world, ever (until I make another one).

It will stop those pesky mice nibbling at your tender pea shoots.


Weather: warm & dry (BBC Look North advised that there would be no further frosts)

Peas are in the allotment!

Tonight I got my PEAS planted in the allotment, and as always I took a few pictures.
Variety: HURST GREENSHAFT

They're planted in Bed#5 and I've got high hopes for them.

As with peas I've got to think about 'protection' from slugs and mice.

I've put a moat of organic slug pellets and re-opened The Cheeseshop (TM)

Elderflowers

These are Elderflowers, taken from cuttings in October/November 2009 and put in a pot of compost (sainsburys peat-free) and left outside over winter. At first they seemed to sprout, then die off a bit and now, come the spring, have sprung into action.

5 of the 6 cuttings have survived and I intend to transplant them into individual pots, get them a bit bigger and then transplant at home in the front garden. They will (hopefully) produce me masses of elderflowers that I will be able to turn into Elderflower Cordial.

I tried to make Elderflower Champagne last year and the bottles kept exploding, and I'm loathe to try it again.

Bloody slugs

They've had a right good go at my sprouts and cabbages.
I've found the little blighter & chucked him on the garage (it's got a real rough gravelly finish & he'll struggle on there).

As a precaution I've moved sprouts & cabbages back indoors until they're a bit stronger and more likely to survive a slug attack.

Lean-to greenhouse

At the back of the house we've got this on the garage, it is south-facing, but unheated.
It's the pre-allotment stop for all of the vegetables we grow.
As you can see it's looking a bit worse for wear and we have a new, bigger one to replace it, we've just not had the time to install it yet.

Greek Tomato Varieties

Greek 2008 (original)
These were picked out of the greek salads I had on holiday in Greece 2008
They're a beef-tomato variety and are great for salads & sarnies.



Greek 2009 (1st gen)
Harvested from the fruits from the 2008 (original) seeds.

Sowing: w/c 12 April 2010

My weekly planting plan tells me I need to plant more peas, beans, cabbages, leeks and french beans.

As my leeks are fine, I'm going to make an executive decision (as head gardener) and not sow any more of these and I've also disposed of the 'Crown & Sceptre' broccoli seeds as I've deemed them too old (none of them from March sowing germinated).

Sunday 18th April

Broad beans (witkiem), 15 sown, 1 per module
Pea (hurst greenshaft), 15 sown, 1 per module
Cabbage summer (hispi), 6 sown, 2 per module
Cabbage autumn (minicole), 6 sown, 2 per module
Cabbage winter (tundra), 6 sown, 2 per module
Cabbage winter (red drumhead), 6 sown, 2 per module
Broccoli (purple sprouting), 6 sown, 2 per module
Dwarf bean (The Prince), 9 sown, 1 per module
Dwarf french bean (Purple Queen), 9 sown, 1 per module
Lettuce (Red Salad bowl) 3 rows (scattered) in a 6inch pot

Compost Mix: 3 parts Home-brew compost (sieved) mixed : 2 parts sharp sand

Location: Dining room table indoors

Brassica update

Brilliant F1, Sprouts: 10 seedlings from 12 seeds
Minicole, Cabbage: 3 seedlings from 6 seeds
Hispi, Cabbage: 1 seedling from 6 seeds
Crown & Sceptres, Broccoli: NO plants from 6 seeds

I originally planted these, 2 per module, and I've had to move some of them into new modules.

They are currently in the lean-to greenhouse in the back garden at home.

Update on peas, leeks & red onions

These have all been moved to the lean-to greenhouse at the back of the house. The peas are approx 3 inch tall.

Tomato transplants (1st transplant)

My tomatoes have reached a stage where they need potting on, so I've pricked out into 3inch pots, my step-son helped to write the labels.

Tomato type/successful seeds/number planted
Alicante 3/6
San Marzano 6/6
Gardeners Delight 2/6
Greek 2008 (original) 6/6
Greek 2009 (1st gen) 5/6

Note re: Greek Tomato Varieties

Tidying up the strawberry patch

Tonight I spent 2 hrs tidying up the strawberries, yesterday they were looking a bit overgrown, I'd not sorted out any of the 2009 runners.


I had a good sort out, cleared out the weeds, got rid of the weak plants, moved plants that had settled in the wrong place and filled in gaps.

It might look a bit harsh, but there's plenty of space for these plants to grow bigger, bushier and develop mounds and mounds of strawberries (I've got my fingers crossed).

Any decent looking plants that were dug out, I potted up and they're now at home (there's 26 of them!)

They'll be used as 'spares & repairs' to replace any plants that look a bit sad/dead. I've got one of those strawberry-pots at home, so I might fill that, and any other left overs will be given to friends/colleagues.

Unfortunately I've mixed up the varieties, so can't be sure which is which, I guess it'll be a nice suprise when they fruit; I've got early, mid and late fruiting varieties (Alice, Florence & Honeoye bought in 2008 from Thompson & Morgan.)

I also came across this little fella too - he can stay!

From Plot to Plate: Rhubarb Fool

Rhubarb Fool
Originally uploaded by looopeeelisa

This will make 2-3 good sized servings.

6 stalks of rhubarb, washed & trimmed to 2inch fingers
2 tbsp caster sugar
2-3 tbsp dessert wine
3 tbsp water
100ml double cream
2 tbsp icing sugar

Put the rhubarb, caster sugar, wine and water in a pan and simmer gently until the rhubarb is soft (test with a knife). When it's done remove from the heat, put the rhubarb pieces in a bowl & put the cooking juice to one side and leave to cool. Then, put the cream and icing sugar in a bowl and whisk until the cream is stiff. Once the rhubarb has cooled, carefully put it into the cream and fold in. Put into into little glass dishes, and chill for about an hour.

I've made a biscuit base (digestives & butter), and plopped the rhubarb fool on top. Looks scrummy doesn't it?

Planting: potatoes, garlic, onion sets

Weather: bright, dry, little breeze.

I took my garlic, white onion sets and potatoes (first earlies) to plant today, I'm hoping that spring has sprung and we won't get any unexpected frosts/blizzards.

My 2 varieties of garlic (purple early and rose de lautrec) had been pre-planted in modules in January, to get them settled. I seem to have problems with garlic, it gets too wet in my raised beds. This year I thought I'd start in modules and transplant into ridged mounds to help with drainage. Bed#6.

Also in Bed#6 I've put my white onion sets (setton) in, there seemed to be hundreds of the little fellas, I stopped at 60. I'm also growing red onions from seed to compare how easy/hard it is. The onion seeds are still in the house & not yet ready for transplanting.

I've planted Pentland Javelin first earlies, I got 2 bonus seed potatoes, and they're in Bed#1, 12-18inch apart, and 18inch between the rows.

Sowing tomatoes (5 varieties)

The planting plan says tomatoes, so tomatoes it is.

They were sown in a 5x3 module tray in the usual potting compost.
I've sown the following varieties (2 seeds per module (because they're old seeds))

• Gardeners Delight (cherry-type tomato)


• Alicante (regular tomato)


• San Marzano (italian plum)


• Greek original (seeds picked out of greek salads when on holiday in 2008


• Greek 1st generation (decended from the previous ones, but these were last years babies

Seeds sown, loaded into my little propagator and left in dining room (the new greenhouse)

Easter sunday: seedlings!!!

I gave them a team talk yesterday and this morning found a few little shoots appearing from the sprouts, peas, leeks and onions (all new seeds, except the peas).

There's still nothing showing in the broccoli and cabbage, they're last years seeds, so might take a bit longer to germinate.