Organic Allotment

Playing Catch Up

With one thing and another I've got a little bit behind myself with planting this year. It does feel worse because Easter was so early but there's no doubt that normally I'm a lot further on at this time of year. Having said that, there's no real benefit in being too hasty about planting stuff. Last year I planted my tomatoes in February but they were never really happy and took weeks to get big enough to move on. This year they've only been in for a fortnight but they already look much stronger and healthier.

Judging by the forecast for snow this weekend it's not a bad thing that there isn't really anything in the ground on the plot. I did get some peas planted into a drain pipe this weekend in the greenhouse though which will be much happier to wait a couple of weeks until it's warmer before they go out into the big wide world. The world may be heating up but last year the last frosts were not until the end of May for us in Manchester so, despite the warm days, it's best to hold off a little before even thinking about getting any of the more tender plants in like courgettes or sweetcorn... Regardless of how strong the temptation may be to plant, plant, plant at the first sign of spring!

Broccoli Part 2

As I explained in my last post, it wasn't looking very good on the purple broccoli front because the pigeons kept getting to it before I could. However, as you can see from this picture, things have improved and the broccoli is now coming so thick and fast that my feathered friends can't keep up with it leaving plenty for us to eat. This has to be one of my favourite crops off the plot so I'm really glad that we've finally got a share of the booty!

With regards to cooking it - the taste is so good that I don't like to meddle with it too much. One of my favourite things to do is pan fry it with a little garlic, fresh chilli and tomato to be served with pasta, fresh pepper and a little parmensan cheese. Deliciously simple!

Who needs a freezer?

We don't have a freezer at home for lots of eccentric reasons but who needs one with the weather we've been having? Finally we've had some real hard frosts at the plot over the last few mornings which has been just what the soil was waiting for! However, this kind of frost isn't without its drawbacks... I went up to the plot on Sunday morning to pick some goodies to take to my boyfriend's parents but everything was frozen hard with it impossible to dig a leek or cut a cabbage.

This is how the purple sprouting broccoli looked and, if I say so myself, I think Birdseye would be jealous of frozen veg of this calibre. However, you may notice from the picture that the pigeons have been the ones having most enjoyment from the broccoli this year, pecking all the goodness out of it at any opportunity, which is a real pain. The plants this year were the biggest and strongest we've had, and the pigeons have taken a real fancy to them which has never been a problem before. I can assure you that next year they'll be netted like all the rest of our brassicas. I don't mind sharing anything with local wildlife and normally argue that there's enough to go round everyone but this time I have to be tough because we haven't had a look in and psb is one of my favourites off the allotment. Any other suggestions for pigeon diversion?

Winter Oaks

Last spring when I was tidying up the plot I found a couple of acorns which must have been buried by a squirrel during the winter months and which were well and truly sprouted and fighting for life. One of my big problems as a gardener is that I can't stand to let any plants die if I can possibly help it so I decided that the best course of action was to pot them up and see how they got on. As seems typical with an unplanned or not strictly wanted plant they flourished, grew tiny oak leaves in summer, shed them in autumn and did great over the winter to such an extent that they're now nearly out growing their little pots.

The problem I now face is to find a home for my 6 tiny oak trees! Clearly I can't plant them on my allotment or in my garden because there simply isn't enough room - it's a big deal growing a tree the size of an oak and I think there's nothing worse than seeing a tree squashed in where there isn't really space. Another option is to plant them in the woodland park next to the allotments and see how they get on but I'm quite attached to them now and don't know what chances they'd have of survival in the big, wide world. Maybe the best possibility is to put them on Freecycle (if I can't get rid of them there I never will) and pass on the responsibility and guilt to another unsuspecting gardener.

A Little TLC

A rhubarb plant or two is a common sight on allotments everywhere but as a plant it is much neglected (well it certainly has been on my plot anyway). Part of the problem is that pretty much whatever abuse you throw at it it'll carry on growing so its needs often get forgotten in the wake of the demands of more demanding crops. It is probably this lack of care, combined with the rotten weather, that meant that I had a less than glorious harvest last year; there was lots of rhubarb but it was a bit weedy and the stems weren't strong at all.

This year I decided to buck the trend and give my rhubarb bed a little TLC and if you want to do this now is the perfect time of year. I had a general tidy around the bed as well as giving each crown a good covering of about 3 to 4 inches of garden compost which will serve to give them a good feed but also protect the early growth from any frost in the coming months. Now is also the time to have a go at forcing rhubarb as well if that's your thing; I've never done it myself but it means that the stems are more tender, sweeter and don't need to be peeled.

All you need to have a go is a container to exclude light - anything will do like a dustbin, a big plant pot, a bucket... If you place this over the rhubarb as soon as it begins to show signs of growth the lack of light and the heating effect of the container will rapidly bring on the rhubarb and it should be ready for eating in about four weeks, a good month or so before rhubarb that is not forced. When the rhubarb is picked (or it outgrows the covering) remove the covering and leave the rhubarb to recover for next year.

Happy New Year!

2007 seems to have gone so quickly as a gardening year with the weather being pitted against growers for much of the time. The start of the New Year also means that this blog has nearly reached its first birthday, which in turn marks my entry into the third year of allotment vegetable growing. In traditional New Year form I feel that it's only appropriate to mark these milestones with some resolutions for the year ahead.

1. Replace the wood around at least some of the beds - it's getting pretty rotten in places!
2. Finally find a workable use for the "problem" bed I've got next to the pond. Any suggestions?
3. Create a woodland area out of the shaded lawn that's between the shed and the composters.
4. Keep on top of mowing the grass paths which look oh so lovely when they're neat and tidy but oh so horrible when they're rough around the edges.
5. Hope for a nicer summer to make more use of the camping stove in the shed for alfresco, evening meals - one of the high points of allotment gardening for me.

Going Potty

One of the mysterious truths of veg growing is that you can never have too many plant pots.No matter how excessive your pot collection seems when they're all stacked together in the greenhouse at this time of year, you can be sure that by the time you're in the throes of growing in Spring you'll run out and need to buy some more. Even accounting for natural wastage and broken pots this doesn't make any sense by the laws of reason but by the laws of the allotment it's a reality that I have to deal with every year. Maybe part of the problem is that every year I insist on trying to grow more and more plants and refuse to throw away any seedlings, instead trying to nurture everything that has even the slightest chance of survival.

So, now that all the pots are neatly sorted and ready to go I need to start thinking about what I'm going to plant in them and when. All my seed orders are in now and my first batch arrived yesterday from Real Seeds in Pembrokeshire. This is the first year that I've had seeds from them but I can heartily recommend them for the wonderful selection of horticultural rarities that they source and stock and the super quick turn over from order to delivery. I'll keep you posted how I get on with my choices which include Giant Limousin Turnips, Purple Ukraine Tomatoes and Iranian Round Chillis.

Winter Pond

It's getting to the time of year when the lilies start dying back and I think about cleaning the pond however, against my better judgement, I have to resist the temptation and leave it to its own devices. The main reason for this is that I've got it on the plot as a haven for wildlife especially slug eaters like toads, newts and frogs.An ornamental pond would be a different story but mine has no fish in there and apart from the lilies it couldn't be described in any way, shape or form as being ornamental - although I do think it looks beautiful for most of the year! With the possible exception of scooping out any fallen leaves if they start to take over the biggest favour I can do is to leave the pond to its own devices and let nature take its course.

The Last Fennel

The first year on the plot I tried to grow fennel without any success - it was too hot... then not hot enough...then too dry...then too wet...the days were too long...the days were too short...Basically fennel's as fussy as anything and every single one I planted bolted - incidentally they do look really nice when they bolt and flower but that doesn't exactly win any points in the kitchen department. This year I started the seeds off in pots in late spring in the greenhouse and didn't plant them outside until after the longest day as they are very sensitive to the shortening days and will bolt if they are planted out too early. The weather was on my side with regard to watering and, if anything, they were too wet. I think the only problem was that the soil wasn't quite rich enough so the bulbs didn't end up as big as I'd have liked - the cool weather won't have done any favours in this respect either. Despite all these hurdles I did end up which I nice haul of fennel, the last of which I picked this week- small but perfectly formed and they taste fantastic.

Also in the picture is the last of the chicory which has been another success story this year and grown really well. It's an acquired taste because the leaves are very bitter but added to other lettuce in a salad it gives a real kick.

Pretty in Pink

As the nights get longer and the leaves on the trees start falling there isn't much colour left on the plot. A few hardy calendula are still hanging in there and the nasturtiums will stick around until the first frost but for colour at this time of year the humble chard is hard to beat. This variety is called Bright Lights and the colour on the leaves has to be seen to be believed - the photo can't even do it justice. They come in vibrant reds, yellows, oranges and pinks and they're fairly hardy as well so, in our increasingly warm winters, they'll probably hold their own right until spring.

Chard is a veg that you don't often see in supermarkets because it doesn't last so long once it's picked. That's their loss though because chard has a brilliantly earthy taste and you'd be hard pushed to get a healthier leaf. The leaves are pretty much the same as spinach in with regard to cooking but the colourful stems need a little more time so best to separate the two and cook them on their own. Tasty stuff and looks good enough to grow in your flowerbeds as well.