Plot planning

I’ve still not made it down to the allotment yet this year. I have vowed to get down there as soon as we have a nice dry day, but that’s certainly not today! However, it’s a good job we have these wintry months in order to take stock of seeds and supplies and restock.

The bulk of my seed potatoes come from our local horticultural stores, from where I have ordered some Kestrel (did well with these last year) and some Pink Fir Apple. After a trip to the garden centre at the weekend, I couldn’t resist adding in a couple of extra varieties in smaller quantities. Highland Burgundy Red (as pictured above) for novelty value, and some International Kidney, which are basically Jersey Royals, except you can’t call them that unless they’re grown in Jersey on their unique soil where they grow them with seaweed I think?

I also bought some Hercules onion sets, on the basis that they’re strong flavoured and good for storing. Two things you want in an onion!

Also new on this years list:

• Butternut squash – Hunter. I’ve grown lots of unusual varieties of squash in the past couple of years, but have decided butternuts are still my favourite.
• Cauliflower – Romanesco Navano. Some call this a cauliflower, some call it a broccoli. It’s sort of a cross between the two. It’s Italian anyway!
• Climbing mushy pea bean. I kid you not. I tried growing marrowfat peas a couple of years ago with little success (given up on peas now, except for sugarsnaps which I’ll grow at home so I can keep them well watered). But beans do well for me on the allotment, so thought these were worth a try.
• Tomato – New Yorker. ‘An early outdoor variety that rarely splits or suffers blossom end rot.’ I get a lot of blossom end rot on my allotment toms because they get quite erratic watering (and that’s usually just the rain). From the same company as above.

All the rest will be varieties I’ve grown over the past few years, and I know work well. I’ve restocked carrot and parsnip seeds as they don’t keep, and have indulged in some Russian giant sunflower seeds as they always look great on allotments where there’s enough space for them. I think I’ve been quite restrained on the seed buying front this year!

Comfort month

I’m happy to say my bread making has, so far, improved, thanks to a bit of trial and error and a great book by Dan Stevens. I’ve learnt that you can’t rush it, and you can’t put a timer on it, you just have to get a feel for it. I think I’m now getting a ‘feel’ for when the dough is kneaded enough, when it’s risen and proved enough and when it’s absolutely properly baked. I now realise that recipe instructions for bread are only ever a guidance. You can’t really say how long each stage should take, because it depends so much on the conditions and ingredients you’re working with. So you have to know how it should look and feel and smell, which comes with experience. Much like cake baking, you get to know that a springy top on a sponge or a clean withdrawn skewer are the signs of a fully baked cake, not 45 mins exactly because the recipe says so. I think a few failures in the past had put me off baking bread, but if I can get parsnips to grow after persevering for 3 years, I can tackle bread. There are some things in life that would be boring if they were too easy!

I’ve come to love the month of January now, after hating it for years. Forget new years diets, detox  and gym memberships, just make the most of comfort food that’s still healthy, brisk cold walks, and then hunkering down next to the fire with a good book and a warm blooded, furry animal if you have one to hand. Alicia over on Pozie Gets Cozy puts it so well. I’d quite like it snow now, just one Sunday when I don’t need to go anywhere, when the fridge is full and bread is baking in the oven!

Baking bread while not breaking beds

I should really be digging the allotment beds over ready for the spring, but it’s still a bit too early. A bit too cold and wet. And who wouldn’t rather be in a warm kitchen, baking instead? So for this month anyway I’m attempting to improve on my (usually rubbish) bread making skills.

My trouble is impatience. I don’t think I prove it for long enough and possibly don’t bake it for long enough either, and I end up with slightly dense bread with air gaps at the top (which I now know is called a ‘flying crust’ thanks to a great book from the River Cottage handbooks series).

However, I’m never one to admit defeat, I always believe in learning from mistakes and persevering, so I’ve started with simple wholemeal rolls (so far, so so) and I’ll hopefully get better. I’m probably going to end up looking like a great loaf of bread by the end of the month!

Storing winter vegetables

The weather has turned from mild and dry, to cold and wet. Still nowhere near as cold as this time last year, but pretty miserable non the less. And the last thing you want to be doing when it’s cold and wet (well one of them anyway) is trudging onto a very muddy allotment to dig up vegetables, as and when you need them. Also, once the ground freezes (which could happen anytime now) it’s very difficult to get them out in one piece.

So home storage is the key. Obviously you could harvest it all, peel, chop and fill a large freezer, if you have one. My freezer space is limited, and somehow vegetables that have been frozen are never quite the same as fresh. So I have brought home a large bunch of leeks and, in effect, replanted them in a large flower pot. Lots of books recommend ‘heeling in’ your leeks in a shallow trench, which is loose enough so as not to freeze solid, allowing an easy harvest over the winter. Which is fine, but I want my leeks easily accessible at home and I don’t have anywhere to make a trench in my garden. So I’m hoping this will do the same job. Just stand them up in a large flower pot and cover the roots with soil or compost, and make sure they get some moisture. You could probably even keep them in a shed or outhouse like this.

As for the root vegetables, I can recommend this method of packing them into sand. I tried this a couple of years ago (never got around to it last year) and I was amazed that they kept really fresh for months. I’ve used a plastic trug here, but you could use a wooden box, not cardboard though as it may rot, just something sturdy. Put a layer of sand at the bottom and then place the veg (trimmed of their green tops) on top, making sure they don’t touch each other, and cover them with sand, dampening down the sand slightly as you go. And then just keep adding as many layers as you need, and store it somewhere cool. A shed is great, just watch out for hungry mice.

Perfect, I now have easy access to fresh leeks, carrots, parsnips and swedes (not to mention potatoes in storage). Bring on Christmas.

Have a good one!

Unseasonable weather

The first of December today, but you wouldn’t know it from the flowers still happily flourishing in my garden. I have clematis in full flower, having it’s second flush of the year, and reaching up to the blue skies.

Osteospermum, only one flower on it, but still a welcome splash of colour against the numerous acid orange and yellow calendulas that splatter the garden through self seeding.

And foxgloves! In December! You’re meant to be flowering next year, not this one. Did no-one tell you?

Getting back to the topic of my allotment, I have broad beans in a cold frame, which are coming up nicely. I normally sow these directly on the plot, but we’re still in the process of digging over the beds. So I decided in the end to sow them at home, where I can cosset them over winter (I’ve lost a lot in previous harsh winters) and then plant them out as soon as the weather (and ground) allows in the spring. Bring it on.

Bargain bulbs

This sack of mixed daffodil bulbs was bought on our local market for two whole British pounds. I know, I splash out sometimes. They’ll fill a bit of unused space on the allotment over the winter months and provide me with cut flowers in the spring. Then, when I need the space for other things to go in, I can easily whip them out. Although, I have put them in a spot where I’m planning to grow some other flowers for cutting next year (larkspur perhaps, or more sweet williams), so I’m hoping I can leave them in place and plant (or sow) the flowers on either side of them, and they’ll come up and cover over the dying foliage of the daffs. Much like what would happen in a normal flower border.

If I have space I have an urge to fill it, even in winter. Better that than weeds.

John has been continuing the project of establishing our boundary line and creating a trench to stop the grass and weeds creeping in from next door. The bottom half of next doors plot has now been taken on by somebody new, so it’s a good time to do this. Hopefully next year we won’t have so much of a weed problem on this side.

The top end isn’t looking too bad, this contains all the winter root crops, the leeks, garlic and overwintering onions (which are just sprouting now under the netting).

Leeks are coming on well …

… and being eaten well too. Amazing how quickly it all comes around full circle, it doesn’t seem that long ago I was blogging about harvesting leeks.

It’ll be spring again before you know it!

Tidying up the beds

There’s nothing very exciting to post about just lately. We’ve mainly been clearing the beds of finished crops, burning any dry stems and composting the rest. I have dug a compost trench for next years beans, which was lined with cardboard and then filled with the remains of the tomato plants, courgettes and sweetcorn. Beds have been dug over and weeding continues around the winter crops (leeks, carrots, parsnips, swede and turnips). I’ve planted out 4 rows of garlic (Solent Wight, Provence Wight, Cristo and 2 big fat cloves of elephant garlic).

I’ve taken out the bed of Sweet Williams as they’d been invaded by the raspberries, the raspberries have been ordered back into their rightful space, and gradually order is being restored to the chaos that nature sometimes creates.

Also being chopped back into place is the grass path, which had crept a fair way into the borders. A little tip we learnt from our neighbour is to cut a trench along the edge to stop the grass from creeping in. It’s probably something we’ll have to re-do in time, but it should keep it in place for a while at least, and it will be easier to mow.

I still need to sow a row or two of broad beans before the weather turns too cold, and I also want to move the blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes, as they are not doing well next to the rhubarb. I want to plant the fruit bushes under the fruit trees, but first I’ll have to move a load of tulip bulbs. That’s often the problem on the allotment, you start one job and create half a dozen more.

We’re just happy that we’ve had some good autumn weather over the last couple of weekends, and that the soil is now getting much easier to dig over. Be thankful for small mercies!

Last orders for beans and tomatoes

This is the last of my climbing beans, which have finally been removed from their bed. The bamboo poles have been taken out, the soil brushed off them and stored behind the shed for next year. The bed has been weeded, gently forked over and planted with 4 rows of over-wintering onions.

I normally harvest my beans earlier in the year, and then lay them out in the sun to dry, but nature has done the job for me now. I just have to pod these and store them in clean jars, ready to be soaked and added to casseroles and curries over the coming months (picture update below).

I have a mixture of speckled borlotti and creamy flagolet beans, and large, white butter beans.

And this is the last of the tomatoes. Those in the bowl were used to make some sweet and spicy ketchup, and most of the rest were given away to friends, family and neighbours. I was almost tempted to put a window box on my front sill with a ‘help yourself’ sign. It might come to that one of these days if I can’t stop growing so much stuff!

Leek rust

This is leek rust, same sort of thing as onion rust or garlic rust. It’s a fungus that spreads itself via airborne spores. It wont kill the host plant, but it will severely affect it’s growth.

I’ve had a bit of this each year, mainly on the leeks and garlic, but it’s much worse this year. I’m going to be planting my garlic soon, and I’m concerned that it won’t come to much if it succumbs to rust from the onset. There’s not a lot I can do unfortunately. The usual crop rotation methods are recommended, along with good hygiene, i.e. clearing affected leaves from the bed and not putting them in the compost where the disease will remain.

So I have cut away the worst affected leaves – it’s too widespread to remove every bit – and going against my usual organic methods, I have sprayed them with a fungicide. Not ideal, but I want to try and clear the disease as best as possible before I plant out my garlic and onions.

Once we get some very cold weather, frost in other words, then it should kill off the disease. But obviously the plants will have already suffered a set back by then, so I’m holding off planting my garlic just yet, and I’m hoping I can at least alleviate the worst of the condition on the leeks. Fingers crossed.

Golden Apple Squashes

It looks like I’ve been growing oranges on my plot. I wish. No, these are little squashes called Golden Apple. They may be small, but so prolific. What to do with them all?

I’ve so far made some soup by roasted them with carrots, apples and potatoes. It’s just a pity that the weather has suddenly gone tropical and is more salad than soup weather, but it’ll go in the freezer.

I’m keen to try out this pancake recipe from Allotment2Kitchen, and I quite fancy trying some stuffed squashes as these would be the perfect size for it. Other than that I don’t know yet, I’ll let you know what I come up with.