Look at the hedge on that!

The Allotment Association was fortunate enough to get a grant for a hedge cutter earlier this year and I finally got my hands on it a couple of weeks ago. Harder work than I thought it would be - truth be told my arms ached for several days after, but that may have something to do with my nice comfy office job and not being used to manual labour! However, I'm quite pleased with the results. Even the hedge inside the plot isn't looking too bad, but you'll have to take my word for that!

Nice bulbs!
Those of you struggling with onions and garlic this year, look away now!

Plot no. 1

Plot no. 2

First onions

Shallots

Garlic, almost ready for plaiting

This is the 'reward' for our summer up here, apart from a few weeks in June it's been wet enough for them to grow very well, possibly my best year yet. Well for the white onions anyway, reds are a bit disappointing. The kitchen has been home to a tray full of shallots and another of garlic drying for the last couple of weeks too - as it's been far too wet to dry them outside. It does mean we end up waking to an onion/garlic aroma though and the bad news is I haven't dug up many of the onions yet...

Elsewhere on plot no. 1 the sunflowers are looking good, although they may be getting a bit too big to support themselves now and they could do with a bit more sun so they actually come out!

However, after that it all starts going downhill... The bottom of the plot has been 'lost' again and will need to be reclaimed so I can eventually get the greenhouse up.

Erm, wildlife area...

There should be a greenhouse here!

Continuing on the weed theme...

There's some Brussels in here

After a couple of hours I 're-discovered' this bed, reclaiming it from the weeds, planting some Purple Sprouting Broccoli (a bit late I know), giving them all some seaweed meal and re-netting the whole bed. Sadly no pics of this hard work, but I'm hoping to mulch the bed with leafmold later today to keep the weeds down - hopefully with camera in attendance.

Up on plot no. 2, the lettuce are going to seed (must try successional sowing...), the courgettes (aka marrows - must not go on holiday in summer again) are growing like mad, getting plenty of peas (all of which are eaten before ever seeing a saucepan), even some carrots (!), beetroot (which makes a great chocolate beetroot cake!), french beans are coming along well but could do with some sun and the pumpkin patch is giving the bindweed a run for its money.

The apple trees are loaded with fruit too, although a bit small still.

 And finally, the reason why I can get away with spending many a long hour on the plots...

... keeping Mrs D supplied in sweetpeas!

A trip to Grandad's

Needing to pick up some of our camping gear from my parents, a day trip to a somewhat parched Northamptonshire was in order. This also gave us a chance to check on the pumpkins I gave to my Mum to plant out in the 'family allotment'.

In reality this is an approximate 3.5 acre field adjoining my Grandad's house that has been used for many things over the last 30 years from strawberries to potatoes, but now Grandad is well into his 90s there is probably only around a quarter of it used now. And whilst he is still pretty active with his growing he doesn't need much room for just his stuff so it now functions as a space for my Mum and Dad to grow their veg, as well as Mum's sister and brother. And right at the end of the field is a 30+ year old orchard with a mix of about a dozen trees. And these apple, pear, plum and damson trees are prolific. Given there is far too much for Grandad, there's nothing he likes more than sending us off with as much as we can carry!


Pumpkin patch

As you can see it's doing quite well! There are approximately six different squashes in here: Tom Fox, Crown Prince, Gemstore, Goldie, Defender and some sort of butternut squash. There may be another pumpkin in there as well, but no-one's quite sure and it's kinda difficult to tell now they've grown in every direction. The Tom Fox is the 'traditional' orange pumpkin which my Mum is looking after to grow a pumpkin for each of her 3 grandchildren. These have recently been 'written' on with each of their names to grow into the skins, which are hiding under the leaves, and they are roughly all the same size of just a bit larger than a basketball. And at this rate it's doubtful where either of the two younger grandchildren are going to be able to lift them up.

The Gemstore and Crown Prince are there as a backup for our plants and the courgettes are there for who ever can eat them - which given the size of some of them and the number going straight on the compost heap, isn't that many people.


The Orchard

Although it's still a bit early in the year we still came away with a dozen or so apples and a load of plums - having sadly forgotten the names of both of them. However the rest of the trees are loaded with fruit so we're looking forward to a return visit at some point in the future and will hopefully be purchasing an apple press to take along too so we can make use of the ones that have fallen on the ground too.

The trees aren't that tall but are just right for climbing in though:

And one of the trees also supplies the family with mistletoe:

A quick browse through the raspberry patch and the greenhouse and our haul was complete:

Although to be honest, we have no need for the marrows and left them behind!

Gardening with the kids

School holidays are here and they're already bored, so a trip to the allotment was in order. They largely moan at the thought of this but always enjoy themselves when they get there, and today was no different. So they came, dug, planted, ate, argued and got muddy. Very muddy. So much so they needed a complete change of clothes when we got home!

First they tortured some worms:

Then they planted some leeks:

Big brother made the holes and his sister planted the leeks. After watering them in they had a snack on some fresh peas before checking on how the carrots were doing under the fleece:

"It's a whopper!" Yes that's why he actually said after pulling up that carrot! It might not be the biggest carrot in the world, but it's probably the biggest I've ever grown so he's right in one way!

His sister was quite excited with her carrot as well. Then of course they ate them.

The arguments started to come along a bit more frequently after that so we took this as a sign to go home (picking another courgette first) where they proceeded to eat courgette, mint and feta 'cakes' (savoury) and then courgette cake (sweet) later.

Catch up

The last month has seen a lot of strawberries, tidying and weeding, followed by a holiday and a couple of plots looking like I hadn't done any weeding... I know it's goes with the territory but apparently the allotment officer came round to inspect plot no 2 this week again when it was look a complete mess - aaarrrrggghhhh! The stone wall falling down at the front of the plot isn't really helping matters. Guess I'll be getting another letter soon...

Anyway, back to the review. The last month has seen a couple of firsts. Despite having the most unhealthy look plants I managed to grow one Okra. I hate Okra, but Mrs D likes it and confirmed it was tasty. Not sure it was worth all the effort to be honest and so far one Okra off for four plants (not to mention those that died in the cold weather earlier this year) isn't a great return, but there are a couple more growing.

Secondly, my first tomato grown at home. I know it's pretty sad, but I always fail to grow them for various (neglectful) reasons, but the one taking over the attic room is doing very well and has begun to fruit. Weather we get enough to make sauce from them is another matter altogether... Must get the greenhouse put up!

Now, the strawberries - gratuitous gloating follows! We've had a lot, even to the point of giving some away. They were great strawberries this year and to celebrate we made a lot of stuff with them:

Strawberry cheesecake

Strawberry flan

Strawberry jelly

Jam in the making

Jam, which did set, bit runny but the way we get through it, it's not going to be a problem!

We've had quite a few peas - all of which have been eaten straight from the pod, largely by the kids - and broad beans, although I never seem to get as many as I'd like - we like broad beans a lot! We're eating Charlottes for several meals a week, and very tasty they are too. Kids haven't started complaining we're having them too often either, so I take that as a sign they like them as well! The French beans (Major) are just starting off - they've been having to compete with the weeds so haven't been doing so well and some of my dwarf beans appear to have developed a climbing habit... Must have got mixed up with the labelling somewhere!

The summer raspberries are doing OK, most of the gooseberries seem to have been eaten (by what?) as did the red currants (must put netting on better next year).

Then we went on holiday for a week and this happened:

We ended up with 16 courgettes/marrows, all the lettuce ready at the same time (of course), some of the main crop peas coming through, good sized beetroot and some reasonable (it's all relative!) sized carrots. We're currently working our way through many different courgette recipes However, I'm with Nigel Slater - we should call them Zucchini it just sounds much more exciting!

Or maybe this?

Strawberry cheesecake, tonights pudding. And possibly supper too!

Edit: I should add, I was going to do some fancy design with the strawberries, until my youngest turned up. The control freak under my was reluctant to let go, but after a stern look from her mother I relented. She did a good job as well, just a shame she doesn't like strawberries.

101 Things to do with strawberries

Can you have a glut of strawberries? Well possibly...

picked these this lunchtime, then another punnet tonight. Looks like I could be making more of this:

or more ice cream. Or possibly marinated with a bit of balsamic vinegar and sugar. Or into a strawberry smoothie. Or more likely just on their own. Or maybe all of them. To be honest it's a nice problem to have!

Cracked it!

The ghost of last year's strawberry jam has been excised!

After trying a much simpler recipe this year (none of that fancy, over complicated rubbish) and continual stirring to ensure no sticking, the strawberry jam has set, and the HFW preserving book is off to the charity shop. I'm all the more chuffed as this year it was with my own strawberries, so the pressure was on not to ruin them.

Five jars in total from 1kg of strawberries. The fruit has risen to the top of the jars which is all the wife's fault as she worried me by telling me it would continue to cook in the pan so it could burn still. As a result I put it in the jars far too soon, but to be honest I don't care and I don't anticipate the jars lasting too long anyway!

First jam of the year too, bit slow getting going with it this year, but I always think of my grandmother when I make jam. I was given the preserving pan after she died - this one used to be my Mum's and she kept her Mum's, so it was a kinda inheritance. I like to think my grandmother would be pleased with the result, maybe not up to her standard yet, but I'm sure she'd be smiling at the thought of me making jam though!

Strawberries!

Despite the plants being 4 years old, it's fair to say this years' harvest is the best ever. The chicken wire defence is doing its job very well this year and picked over half a kilo of strawberries this morning. And very nice they were too!

In a rare departure from the plots I thought it was worth showing a few pictures from the garden. Firstly after a slow start (cold winter followed by late pruning) the roses are just beginning to come out:

First up is Evelyn, tucked away in the top corner of the garden where no-one can get to it - much to Mrs D's disgust.

Secondly, Gertrude Jekyll. It's a great rose for the garden it's absolutely prolific, survives my harsh (and late) pruning and loves being next to the compost bin.

Also in the garden are this years tomatoes after the loss of the greenhouse on the plot. This one (Aurora) has been outside for some time and is thriving in the sun at the moment. If these actually get to the stage where they ripen it will be my most successful year with tomatoes!

Finally, the window box is a complete sun trap and after many attempts to grown things in there and failing, this year we're trying strawberries. They're plants from the runners from plot no. 1 and didn't go in 'til quite late. Really I should have taken the flowers off this year to allow the plants to establish a bit more, but where's the fun in that!

You can never have too many strawberries!