Organic Allotment

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.

Elephant Garlic

All things considered 2007 hasn't been the best year at the allotment. The weather has been so wet and cold that lots of things have struggled or given up the ghost totally - the only thing that's really prospered are the weeds. Despite this our elephant garlic were a real success when we picked them - absolutely huge! We're just waiting for them to dry out before we start using them though we did try one whilst it was still green which was delicious.

Strictly speaking Allium Ampeloprasum is actually more closely related to leeks than garlic so it's taste is much mellower and sweeter. I'm really looking forward to getting started cooking with them in autumn.

The No Picture Post

A broken digital camera has somewhat stopped play on the blog at present... Normal service will resume as soon as it's fixed!

Not Totally Blighted

Despite the fact that we've been totally hammered by blight at my allotments this year we've still managed to end up with some very tasty potatoes. It's been quite reassuring to see that all the old hands have had the same problem, which means it probably isn't just something that I've been doing wrong! On the flip side of that, it's quite frustrating that I paid a premium for blight resistant potatoes that didn't seem to make a jot of difference.

As soon as the tell tale black spots reared their ugly head on the leaves I cut back all the foliage in an attempt to stop the blight spores getting down to the potatoes. This seems to have worked and the harvest has been more than reasonable, all things considered. The main problem that could arise would be if we intended to store the spuds because any lingering blight spores would cause them to rot but these taste far too good so ther'es no worry that they'll be hanging around that long.

Just Add Sun.

The tomatoes in the greenhouse are coming on a pace - I can hardly believe they're the same tiny little things that were planted in February. The cool weather has actually been of some benefit to them because it's meant their soil hasn't been drying out so no blossom end rot for now!

These San Marzano plum tomato plants are being pinched out and grown as cordons but we've also left a couple of plants to go wild to see if the difference in yield is significant enough to justify the different in manpower involved in their upkeep. There's still a long way to go but it's looking neck and neck at the moment. What we really need now is a bit of sun to start ripening the fruit and it shouldn't be too long before we're finally eating homegrown tomatoes again.