Fruity

The summer fruits are coming thick and fast.....

This delicious concoction is made up of a few last strawberries, with red currants and saskatoons. The Saskatoon bush has really come along this year with loads of fruit (most of which I've just been eating down the plot) but I saved a couple of days worth here.

The raspberries are doing really well. We've had lots if rain recently so I'm trying to go through picking every couple of days as otherwise they'll spoil. It was raining this evening and there's not enough space to get between the rows without getting soaked from the leaves so I stood with an umbrella and just reached in as far as I could. A nice way to spend the evening listening to blackbirds singing. I'm keeping the rasps separate and freezing them for later use.

Less pleasant was the snail and slug squashing part of the evening...urgh. But I did see a couple of frogs who will do their bit for slug control too. 

Back garden update

So here's a few pics from the back garden - toms Sweet Baby in the lean to. Am also growing money maker, Craig, super marmande, something pear and another I think! The iPad camera doesn't like the low light levels this evening so sorry for the poor quality.

Next up is the beautiful parsley which has gone to flower, this was from the set of plants from our Rocket Garden Mediterranean gift set last year. The flowers are stunning and the insects love it. I've pruned a few stems off already as it's pretty huge but am leaving as much as possible. 

Here's one of the courgettes, I have five in total, two in the back garden and 3 on the allotment, all in slightly different stages of growth but two of them have baby courgettes nearly ready for picking. You can also spot 3 sweet corn plants, some small peas at the bottom of the netting and some lettuces under plastic bottles. I was going to direct sow some dwarf French beans but ive got a few beans growing up the fence behind and a gherkin plant so don't think there'll be room, especially when the courgette gets going. There's also some rocket plants left from last year's Rocket Garden gift set which I keep hacking back and they keep producing more leaves so might as well keep them going for as long as possible, sort of on a rotation of coppicing! The netting is to try and keep the local cats (including our own) out of the veg plots. I've adapted the design this year and made little gates in each so I don't have to wrench my leg over every time. Have had to put in sticks and string to make the fence a bit higher too. Seems to be working now after some fine tuning! So thought I'd grow the peas up the netting to make use of the space this year.

 And finally this is the plot on the other side of the small garden with netting again and peas at the base. I have a bean wigwam this side plus beans up the fence. I had a courgette in the middle last year but it didn't do very well so I wasn't going to bother this year with a curcurbit there. However! In the tomato compost in the lean to I've had a few germinate so thought I might as well transplant a couple and see what they do.

So that's me for tonight, a rather cool, dreary evening which led me to sticking inside mostly, very unlike me for a Monday night! I might just blanch some broad beans now to at least do something veg related! Eating a whole bar of green and blacks spiced chilli chocolate probably doesn't count, oops.

Oh just finally, a pic of the chilli plant bought for 70p from a local hardware store (Thorns - fantastic shop in Norwich). Already in flower after potting on twice, I might just pot it on in to an even larger tub as only have the one plant. Lovely flowers though.

Hot tomatoes!

We've got our first baby toms forming , yay. Aside from today we've had lots of hot weather here in Norwich ( and hardly any rain) which must've helped bring them on. Will take a piccie tomorrow. If I counted correctly earlier, I've managed to squeeze 21 tom plants into our little lean to! I've saved a bit of space as decided not to do cukes in there this year ( they did ok last year but had red spider mite) so have a bit more space for toms. Also the peppers did badly, think I overwatered them, so not got so many of them either.

Down at the allot things are going ok. Lots of strawbs ( about 10lbs so far). Lots of other soft fruit on the way, rasps have just started ripening. Ooh and my Saskatoon plant has loads of fruit that's ripening , quite tasty but I think the dry weather hasn't helped them. Have given the bush a good water to hopefully make them more juicy. Also gave the rasps a water too as last year lots of these shrivelled up when it was dry.

We have our first little baby courgettes forming, yay. Had a few losses to slugs a few weeks back but have re-sown the beans and most things're ok now. Had some excess squashes as well so it wasn't too bad. I found some slug and snail hotspots so now know to keep an eye on those places e.g. Under some newspaper I was using to keep an area free from weeds.

The early potatoes are really tasty, have Colleen. I've been trying a different harvesting technique - instead of digging up a whole plant, I feel around in the soil and pull out any larger tubers. Has worked really well so will try this again. Quite often when you lift a whole plant you get a mix of sizes and the plants themselves still have a lot of life in them. So with this method, the plant carries on growing and the small tubers continue to grow. I think I'll try and make it easier to get to both sides of the plant next year ( I have two short double rows which means having to reach across between the plants)

And some bad news, we've had some thefts on the plots this week. I had some onions stolen from the ground and my shed was opened, but nothing taken. They returned a few nights later and took some tools from an allot neighbour ( wrenched open a locked drawer) and also uprooted a whole apple tree and took it away.this was particularly stupid as of course the tree will have died, what a waste. We've reported it to the police who've been round and taken it quite seriously (PCSOs) but not too much they can do without any witnesses. They did ask around the neighbouring house but no luck,  The perps broke in at night.....

But to end on positive note, tomorrow I'm going to pick a load of broad beans and cook up a soup or something :)

Rain stops play

Well it hasn't really been great allotment weather over the last few days and today is no exception, so I'm munching my way through a bag of Montezumas dark chocolate buttons instead. Better save some for JB. I did buy some dill seeds yesterday as am going to have a go at gherkins this year and dill seems to be the standard herb to go with them. Also bought a chilli pepper plant and two sweet pepper plants for 70p each as mine didn't germinate very well, with only one survivor, I think I over watered them. Most other things doing ok- ish though. Am waiting for a bit of improvement in the weather before planting them out, hopefully next weekend.

Rainy Wednesday update

Some much needed rain has given me the chance to write a quick garden update.

I spotted a comedy runner bean plant just now - it's rather tall! There's another one peeking through too so hopefully will be followed by a few more. I sowed some more recently too, in loo rolls. Will prob direct-sow some on the allot later but need to set me wigwams up.

Here's another pic from the lean-to, some toms and lettuce -  

And a view of our little garden - have got a courgette planted out under a plastic bottle plus several lettuces too under plastic. I did buy this courgette from a house in the countryside as it was well ahead of all mine and at only 50p was worth a go for some earlier courgettes. Oh and also plantd out 3 sweet corns, protected too. Am planting more sweetcorn on the allot plus plan to direct sow some as only 12 germinated. You might also be able to spot more squashes being hardened off and some brassica plant I've let go to flower, sweet peas growing up the fence. Got rocket from last year that over-wintered nicely, and a bit of chard. Ok, now going to sow some more peas in modules. Have been watching Charles Dowding videos - he's amazing!

Ppppppeas!

Noticed my first two pea pods in the lean-to earlier :D

Toms

 

I potted on the toms that were large enough last night and moved them into the lean-to. These are a mixture of money maker, Craig, marmande and sweet cherry. I also sowed some a few weeks later so there are several just germinating, plus some peppers and chilis that'll need potting on later.

I had a look through my 'seeds you can plant in April' stash last night too.....panic! There's always so many! But we're only just at the start of April and there is a bank holiday coming up, so panic not....probably.

Breaking radio silence

Wow, I can't believe we haven't posted since October, doesn't time fly! It's been relatively quiet on the plot over winter, though I'm trying to sort out the space for the greenhouse, which I've had in bits on the plot for about 3 or 4 years now, oops. I'm sorting it in between doing other jobs on the plot so it's slow progress.

Sunday was actually sunny! lots of people down on site making the most of a dry day. I've prepared the bed for some broad beans but didn't get chance to sow. If I manage to take a long lunch break from work tomorrow I might just get time, though it's always a bit of a challenge to not get dirty in my work clothes! I do keep an old coat in the shed but it tends to make a nice home for spiders. *shudder*

Have made a start at weeding round the fruit trees and bushes, hoping the birdies will help eat up any unwanted pests in the soil before mulching later in spring.  I do tend to get distracted and go from one job to another but it means you don't get too bored doing one thing for a long period. Though this is the problem with the greenhouse - next job for this is to lay out the bricks, and it's very faffy making sure they are all level. Have to do on another warm day as it gets cold crouching down not being very active.

Might try and sow some tomato seeds this week and put them on the window sill but more likely to do this next week I think. Have got the potatoes chitting in the lean-to.

Well, I was going to add a photo but this blog system has changed and isn't synching photos properly. Technology eh.

Something for nothing

I love it when you get bonus veg or fruit. A few years back I sowed pak choi as a catch crop after something else. It didn't really come to much and some ran to seed. Each year since I've had a few small pak choi plants germinate in that same bed, from the seed, which has been nice.

This year, something has really got them going! The bed had early potatoes in which I dug up quite a few weeks ago. I then weeded the bed and planted out the leeks, under enviromesh. The pak choi has loved the disturbed soil and conditions under the mesh. Excellent! 

Anya potatoes

Decided to dig up the rest of the anyas today, in case we get any rain at some point (though is unlikely at the mo). Quite pleased with the harvest, this was about 8 seed pots I think.

We've been eating lots of lovely fresh veg recently, the patty pan squashes have done really well and there are still lots of beans coming, I have dwarf french beans under the corn(which has also done well, plants are small but cobs are well sized and v yummy), runner beans in the back garden, borlotti beans which am leaving to fatten-up rather than eat the pods, and a couple of blauhilde purple climbers that are just getting going. Some of the beans at the allot are from a second sowing as the first lot got eaten-off by snails. The dry weather seemed to give the second lot a chance to get away without being bothered, though alsoy hunting down of nearby snail hotspots probably helped.

Here is tomorrows lunch with all home-grown veg including broad bean burgers. Am looking forward to it already.