More planted (including 2nd batch of beans)

Spent the morning at the allotment (weather: bright, warm, light breeze) and planted out:
courgettes (1x gold rush (yellow skinned), x3 black beauty (green skinned)) I had 2 spare so planted these on the compost
squash x4,
leeks x5 rows of 10,
sprouts x7 plants,
sweetcorn x14,
runner beans x8
french beans (x6 climbing green, x6 green, x6 purple)
The beans have been covered on netting (as have sprouts) and sprinkled with slug pellets. I hope this time they don't get eaten.

The allotment is looking really full now, no room for much else to go in. This is the fullest I've ever had it!

I harvested a cabbage and handful of strawberries :)

This afternoon it began to rain - perfect timing!

Tomatoes need moving on

My tomatoes are still at home & should really be up at the allotment in the grernhouse, so tonight I'm potting up as many as I can & will get them installed this weekend.

Fungi in my pots

I have a collection of this fungi growing in my courgettes, squash and gourds. I had some of this at my old allotment in Jesmond, I'm the horse manure which was spread under my raspberry plants.

Using my river cottage book on mushrooms & fungi I've identified this as Cup fungi, from the Peziza family. This is a poisonous variety, because it always grows on soil.

I originally wondered if it was Jelly Ear, but his grows on dead tree branches, not bare soil.

Thank you John Wright (whom I've actually met), for your informative book!

Violent attack on innocent beans

I was worried that after yesterdays weather: severe gusts of wind, I'd go to my allotment & find it minus a greenhouse and severe damage to plants caused by the wind.

Instead I was met by carnage: the entire planting of beans (runners, French) and peas had been eaten by birds (probably pigeons). I only planted them last week :(

I was cross, no not cross livid, no not livid fuming! And I wasn't going to let these f*****g pigeons win. I vowed to plant more & not be defeated. The stalks that remained seemed to look like they might sprout but they wouldn't be strong plants, and so I went home & planted more.

1 tray (40 modules) of peas
42 French beans
12 runner beans

17th May: transplanting

Took afternoon off work to plant stuff and give it a good water, we've had a lot of dry warm weather recently.

Here's what's gone in/happened this week:
20 Swedes in
Potatoes earthed up
Harvested Cabbage
Purple beans in 12
Dwarf green beans in 8
Runner beans in 7
Peas in 1 row
Watered up & seeded paths. I seem to be growing masses of creeping buttercup, bloody annoying stuff, but in this dry weather you can pull it out (roots & all) fairly easily.

The plot's looking good, still plenty in the greenhouse at home, but looking better than last year.

Tomatoes in the propagator & germinating

I was a bit worried about these fellas, but I think we're okay

Peas & beans - a day after planting

Weather: bright, mild & breezy.

Planted these yesterday, 9.30am, which is early for a Lisa.

Update on the tomatoes, rocket & salads

Came back from holiday to find a JUNGLE of rocket & salad leaves in my lean-to greenhouse, which were enjoyed with smoked mackerel and tomatoes (shop bought).

The rocket has been harvested and blitzed, olive oil added and decanted into a jam jar, ready for me to use as: pesto, pasta sauce, salad dressing etc etc.

The tomatoes I'm trying to grow aren't showing any signs of life, so I've taken an executive decision and put them in my heated propagator, in the house, as I don't think they were quite used to the variable temperatures of West Monkseaton.  I'm hoping I get some life in the next 7 days, otherwise i'll be a bit worried.

When I start my peppers and chills, I will be starting them off in the propagator.

Sowing: dwarf beans, courgettes, swede squash, gourd, leeks, tomatoes

Mr Lisa has been pestering me about our tomatoes, his dad is growing them already, but his dad used to live down south and IMHO isn't ready for the northern growing season yet.  I'm planting tomatoes, when I always plant them.  End of story.  And today that day came, we've got:

• x5 san marzano (italian, plum variety - makes a great tomato sauce)
• x10 Greek 09 (beef variety, picked out of holiday greek salads & subsequently makes great greek salads)
• x5 Spanish 10 (plum variety, picked out of spanish tomatoes bought on holiday last year) - nothing to compare against (fingers crossed).

I've also set off:
dwarf french beans: x15 Prince (green), x15 Purple queen (purple)
Courgette: x5 gold rush (yellow), x5 black beauty (dark green)
Swede x26
Squash x5
Gourd x10 (not for eating, more for decoration)
Leek oarsman x1 pot scattered seeds, spanish leeks (bought on holiday last year) x 2 pots scattered seed

I've also planted some random seeds I picked off some pretty flowering plants I walked past near Barx, Spain last year, I dont normally do this but thought I'd see what happened.

These are all in the lean-to greenhouse at home, out of all of them I'm a bit worried about my tomatoes as they tend to start in a heated propagator - so I might need to reconsider this if they don't show signs of life soon.

Update on the garlic



Remember when my garlic went in, way back in February?  Well it's 2 months gone and it's looking like this - tall, lush, green and poking out the top of my little cages!!




February 2011 - garlic IN

 





April 2011 - garlic BIG!















Planting: cabbages

I bought some cabbages from the Grainger Market, at the same time I bought my onion sets.  I've decided that it's probably more expensive for me to buy seeds when I only grow a handful of cabbages each year, and I end up having about 6 packets of seeds which last me about 3 years (well passed their 'sow by' date).  So I bought 2 polystyrene trays of cabbage, savoy and red - about 8-10 of each, for 80p a tray.  Which I think is a bargain.

They've been planted in the allotment, in the beds next to the rhubarb.  The rhubarb is going to get picked today - I feel a rhubarb fool for dinner...

I've also had a good check up and water of all the other plants too: those spring brassicas I planted in October (we've had a few casualties), but spring cabbages are nearly ready, kale is going a little bit wild, and broccoli is beginning to spurt.  I've taken out the last of last years sprouts.

Trifle/Fool type dessert

I did harvest rhubarb, and turned it into a trifle-esque type dish: poached rhubarb in dessert wine & water, strain (but keep liquid & rhubard).

In glasses put plain sponge-cake, pour over some poaching juice & another glug of wine, add some poached rhubarb, then mix icing sugar, whipping cream, rest of poaching juice until stiff, add rest of rhubarb & stir thorough, plop on top of glasses.

Planting: onion sets & first earlies

• x3 rows of charlotte potatoes (3 per row, the last row only had 2, 8 spuds in total)
• 9 rows of Sturon onion sets (7 sets per row, 63 sets in total)
• 12 rows of Red Baron onion sets (7 sets per row, 84 in total)

The onions were bought from the Grainger Market, and I've planted them quite near the top of the soil, in previous years they've been too deep and haven't grown very well (or got too wet and rotted)

The potatoes were bought from JBA Seed Potatoes - I've not bought from this supplier before, and I've got high hopes

Sowing: Herbs, Cabbage, Lettuce & Rocket

I've planted these at home in the new lean-to greenhouse.

I don't tend to grow herbs, as Mr Lisa looks after this side of things (things that we grow at home), but I've offered to help out and have done him basil, coriander, parslet and oregano.

For the allotment, I've grown cabbage (hispi) and cabbage (april) - 6 of each, these seeds are quite old and I'm not sure how we'll fair with these.  I'll give them a fortnight.

I've also set off some salady stuff, the cut & come again type stuff which includes, red salad bowl and some free seeds I got in the 2010 dig-in campagin, and rocket.

I should add that this greenhouse is now heated overnight (on a timer) and during the day, heated by the sun.

My new greenhouse (at home)

I've started planting in my new lean-to greenhouse, the old one was fairly small and unheated.  This is the mark2 model, bigger (in height and width) has a sliding door, stronger plastic-windows, shelves are mounted on the wall rather than built into the wooden frame and it's just a lot nicer.  We even got given an old electric heater from Mr Lisa's dad, so we've set it up to stay on overnight and go off during the daytime - this should please the seeds.

Now that we've tidied up (decorated) our dining room, I'm not allowed to grow my seeds in here.  So I've got to sow in the garage and grow from the lean-to.

My planting plan for March instructed: peas & beans w/c 7th March, so I planted some on Sunday 13th March, and there they are.  As you can see, I've recycled some old Flavia cups, cleaned & skewered with holes.

Garlic Planted, Alltoment visited & spring is on its way!

Garlic has now been planted; 2 bulbs split into 24 cloves and planted in 2 rows, in bed number 3 (the one next to the fruit).  The tips are just poking out of the ground & I've covered with a metal cage.

I should type in the variety, but I'm crap & I forgot to write it down :(

I do remember that the variety is good for British weather, and my soile (not as well drained as it could be).

The weather was mild, dry and nice.

I had a bit of a tidy up too, after the recent windy days I was worried that there might be a bit of damage.  Fortunately no, my greenhouse is still there!

 

I harvested a handful of spindly parsnips (a bit pathetic really, only as wide as a pritt-stick), I took a manky looking cabbage (which has probably 2 servings for 2 people), and a stalk of sprouts (which had about 18 good sized sprouts on).

The spring brassicas are a bit hit & miss, some have been nibbled, some didn't survive the hard winter, but others (kale) is looking pretty good and strong.

The strawberries look as chaotic as they did just after the harvest - must have sprung more runners since giving my dad over 100 in the autumn.

And to finish my day, I noticed this beautiful colourful thing, peeping out from the old rhubarb...A taste of spring to come :)

The best mashed potato

The best mashed potato (in my humble opinion) is made using Cara potatoes.  I think that different potatoes produce different flavour mash.  In 2009 I grew Rooster potatoes, which were nice, but not as nice as Cara.

I planted 30 seed potatoes last year, dug them out in October, and am still eating them.  Sizes ranged from bramley apple to big-fist sized.  They store well and seem to make the best mashed potato.

How to make the mash
I don't do anything fancy to them, peel, chop into chunks, boil in sightly salted water until tender, drain, chop up and mash with a masher or ricer.

I then season well with salt & pepper, add a good knob of butter, a splash of milk & mix with a wooden spoon until smooth.

New Year update

My allotment blogging was shoddy last year, it started well but then I got sloppy (with my gardening habits as well as my blogging).  This year I promise better things.


Planting Plans
I've sorted the old seeds out, planned the beds for 2011 and aim to do a better job of reporting progress.

Shopping List
My seed shopping list includes, onions (preferably sets), borlotti beans, pumpkin (an edible variety) and/or squash. It did include potatoes, but I've now ordered them (see below).

Ordering Seeds
I've ordered seed potatoes from a new supplier, I normally order from Thompson & Morgan (which offer cash-back via quidco), but instead I've opted for Scottish seed potato merchant JBA Seed Potatoes who offer a better price.  They also have a wider range of potatoes, not that I'm looking for any wierd and wonderful varieties.
So, I've ordered: Charlotte, Nicola (earlies, 5 of each) and Cara (maincrop, 30 of these).

State of Allotment
I went up on Saturday 8th Jan, it was cold and wet.  The recent frosts and snow had collapsed the nets covering my spring brassicas*, but not enough to kill the plants, and they all look like they're holding in there.

The greenhouse was intact, nothing broken or damaged - so far so good.

Winter Vegetables
I've still got sprouts in, and they're looking fine, slightly wonky, but full of sprouts (not too big, not too small).  We're harvesting these by the stalk, which lasts us about a week.
The parsnips grew, but they're thin and spindly, so a bit of a disappointment on that front.



*Spring brassicas: bought & planted in October-ish, bought from Thompson & Morgan, 36 plants, 6 varieties of each: broccoli (x2 types), kale, cabbage (x2 types, i think), cauliflower.  Even if I can't remember what they are, they'll be a nice suprise when they're ready