Organic Allotment

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.

Autumn is Here

It's all looking distinctly autumnal at the plot now. All the newts and toads have upped sticks and moved from the pond, as I discovered this weekend when everything I moved had a toad or newt under it! For this reason, at the top of the plot behind the shed, we've constructed a wildlife zone so they've got a safe haven over the winter which guarantees that they'll return in spring to feast on slugs and snails - a more than welcome activity round these parts! This basically consists of a pile of twigs and wood (imagine a bonfire that's never going to be burnt) where the animals seem to be happy and which offers a great way of getting rid of tough twigs and branches that will take ages to compost. We've also got a selection of hidey holes for ladybirds and other little bugs all over the plot - this can be as simple as leaving a few canes stuck in the ground which ladybirds love to crawl into for winter shelter.

In front raspberries you can just see the rye grass coming through that I planted as a green manure. It's growing apace at the moment and is one of the most vividly green plants that I've ever seen. The other manures I planted all seem to be doing well and I've just got a couple more that I need to get in at the weekend before the weather gets too cold for the seeds to germinate.

As the evenings start to get darker my colleagues at work and friends have started to moan about what an awful time of year winter can be. This is particularly true for me as working in a basement with very few windows means that in winter I often feel like I haven't seen daylight for days on end, but I have to confess I can't share their sentiments. I don't know if it's true for other people out there, but one of the great things I find about being a gardener and grower is that there's always something exciting on the horizon. If there aren't seeds to plant, there's veg to pick or bulbs to choose or beds to turn over... the list is endless. Gardening makes me feel so much more aware of the natural process of things, happy in the knowledge that cold, dark winter nights are the perfect preparation of the soil for warmer spring mornings when everything  bursts back into life.

Adventures in Green Manure

I started planting green manures on the allotment this weekend and as it's the first time that I've ever used them I'm really curious to see how they'll get on. They're supposed to be multi faceted in the benefits for the garden adding organic matter and nutrients, keeping weeds at bay, protecting the soil from the winter rain and providing a haven for wildlife. So far I've planted Hungarian Rye Grass and Phacelia into the ground where my legumes will be going next year, and the plan is to fill all empty spaces with a variety of manures over the next week or so. Any tips or advice from people who've used them before would be much appreciated... and I'll keep you posted on how I get on with mine.

By the way, I've cheated a bit with the picture today. It's actually nothing to do with my allotment and is one of the flowerbeds from the campsite we stayed on in Spain but it was so much brighter than any of the snaps I've got of my grey and windswept plot that I just had to get it in.

The First Seed Catalogue of the Year

I received my first seed catalogue of the year this morning from Real Seeds in Pembrokeshire who have to be one of the best seed companies you could find anywhere! I was too late to order from them last year but am really looking forward to sitting down and taking my pick from their selection of really interesting seeds, many of which are unique to their catalogue. Highly recommended!

Catalan Veg Plot

We've had a break from our allotment spending the last two weeks in Catalonia. We had a week with my friend in Barcelona and a week walking in the Pyrenees. I don't know if it's just me but whenever I'm away I love seeing other people's gardens to get an idea of what they're growing and possibly pick up some tips to take home. On this theme we stayed at the most beautiful campsite in a village called Espot which had the feeling of somebody's garden that you were allowed to camp in.

All the camping plots were surrounded by beds of marigolds, dahlias and cosmos, with apple and pear trees for shade and an amazing veg plot which was fairly small but packed with a huge selection of veg. It reflected the style of the veg gardens throughout the village and was particularly nice because all surplus veg was for sale in the teeny "supermercat" in the village. Despite what greenwashed advertising campaigns to the contrary  may try to persuade us is true, you certainly don't get a service like that in my local supermarket - no, not event in the "finest range".

And the other good thing about the garden? It was a real conversation starter with the lovely couple who owned the campsite giving me a perfect opportunity to try out my less than perfect Spanish. The universal language of gardening you see - it means that you've always got something to talk about to fellow gardeners, regardless of the fact that that may be the only thing that you've got in common and it's one of the things that I love most about being a grower.

The Carrots are Ready

Jo was on a really mission this year to try and grow carrots. Unless you buy organic ones they're one of the most chemical soaked vegetables you can find, alongside lettuce, so he was really determined to try and grow our own.

As with many allotment sites carrot fly is rife on ours so it's impossible to even think about growing them without some kind of protection. The first attempt was in an outdoor bed with fleece making a fence around the sides of them but this was a total failure - the fleece kept blowing away in the windy weather that we had is spring. Carrots are also very fussy if the soil isn't fine enough for them and clearly our soil wasn't fine enough because not a single one germinated but he was still determined and Jo set to preparing our next carrot bed.

It was in the same place as we'd already tried but he really worked the soil so it was as fine as it could possibly be, adding loads of sand to make it even finer. This time they were still covered in fleece but more in a cloche style so the carrots were totally covered. It's also really important that the fleece around the edges is well bedded into the soil as well because if those pesky flies can find a way in they certainly will. The main problem with this was that it was so secure that it was hard to see what was going on with the crop so we had to make a couple of holes to peep through, letting us keep an eye on the couple of seeds that actually germinated. A second failure!

The final attempt was in the greenhouse. We've got a big wooden planter that we grow early courgettes in so Jo decided to have a go at planting them in there in a mixture of new and used potting compost and finally...success! I'm not sure how well they would have done in a hotter summer because the greenhouse has remained relatively cool this year but this time round it's worked perfectly. The carrots taste brilliant and we've got enough to keep us going at least some way into the autumn. Delicious.

Success At Last

Just to recap this year... The potatoes got blight, the pumpkins and squash drowned, the courgettes refused to grow, the weeds prospered.. Finally there's success in one of the crops that we planted. Our San Marzano tomatoes have really come up trumps which is very satisfying - especially as we tried to grow them with no success what so ever last year. It's been a while since the little green tomatoes appeared but finally we've had enough sun to ripen them and the results are glorious.

I have to be honest and confess that I can't take credit for them though. My boyfriend Jo has taken charge of the greenhouse this year so they're all down to his hard work, though I have managed to slip some chili plants into the corners which are coming on great guns as well. I'm just hoping that we can make use of all the tomatoes (either through eating or giving them away) before we go off on our holidays in a couple of weeks. The gardener's perennial problem of going from famine to feast strikes again.