Frosty Plot

Have not been to well of late so have not visited the plot as often as usual. Barbara and I did go early this morning though and it was perishing. We were able to take home some potatoes, swede, parsnips and a cabbage and also some rosemary and thyme to go with the shoulder of lamb that we bought from our favorite Greek shop. This shop is wonderful and opens at 7am on a Sunday morning, rest of the week it is 6am so they do get a bit of a lay in. Barb was a bit put off as next to the shoulders they had sheeps heads complete with eyes ( apologies to all veggies reading this )

Last Saturday we visited Borough Market near London Bridge. If you have never been it is really well worth a visit. Lots of stalls selling fresh vegetables, meat, fish, cheese,oils, herbs, wines, bread. I could go on and on.

These are a few pictures we took today.

XXXXXXX Foxes

Spent loads of time on the plot yesterday planting my Garlic and Onions. I left the lines of string as I was going to put name tags in today. It seems that during the night the local foxes had a get together and danced the night away on my plot. Grrrrrrrrr.

On River Cottage yesterday Hugh F.W. went to his local barbers and collected the cut hair and hung it in bags, old tights etc. around his sheep and hen pens to deter the foxes. Anyone know if this works? I would not mind so much ( he says through gritted teeth ) if they ate the garlic and onion bulbs but the just throw them around. They seem to like chewing string for some reason, the next time I shall impregnate the string with mustard, that should make there eyes water.

Harvested some swede and chard and raspberries yesterday so was not a complete waste of time, will try to replant tomorrow if it is dry enough.

A Little Rain Works Wonders

Went to the plot today and was amazed how a few hours rain can freshen everything up.

Pure Bliss

It was my turn to man the trading shed today, 10.30 till 12.00 but because it was such a perfect day to be on the plot, sunshine, cool, no wind, I was chomping at the bit to get started.

Barb reorganized her herb plot and dug up the mint and replanted it in a pot into the ground to limit the root growth but the fennel roots had grown much more and so she did the same with that.

When I finally shut the shed { two customers all morning } I was able to prepare the bit where my garlic and broad beans will be planted next weekend. It was really wonderful on the plot today and made us realize how lucky we are to be able to do something we both enjoy and have a shared interest, we are also having for lunch homegrown pumpkin, parsnips, potatoes, and I am making a tomato and basil sauce, and later in the week, sage and leek stuffing all from our plot.

Pure Bliss

Roll on Autumn

I managed to get to the plot yesterday for the first time in a week. The weather really had a feel of autumn about it and made me realize just how much I love our seasons. Cleared all the runner bean canes but felt like I was being attacked by Triffids trying to compost all the foliage wrapped around them. Nothing much growing at present, Swede,Parsnips, Cabbage and Chard ,which we tried for the first time last night and found it to be really tasty, prefer it to Spinach.

Will spend this weekend preparing the beds to plant my Garlic and Broad Beans the following weekend, also planting some Sweet Peas.

Tried and failed to find anyone who sells muslin bags as we are going to make chutney from all our surplus tomatoes, perhaps a piece of cotton will do the same job?

It is quite encouraging that this is only our second season growing but we have done so much better than last year, still plenty of errors but we are learning fast.

Long time no post

I really can't believe that we are nearing Autumn already. We have had a fairly good summer, loads of tomatoes, runner beans, carrot's, beetroot, potatoes, and for the first time really good cauliflowers but the courgettes and marrows were a real disaster when last year we had loads.

We won first prize for our herbs at our local show and second for Barbaras shortbread biscuits and first prize for one of my photographs, but being a professional photographer I would have been a bit embarrassed if I had lost. We decided not to show any of our veg as we thought that it was not up to standard but looking at some of the exhibits that won we may have stood a good chance, I think that sometimes we are a bit to critical and anyway we are only doing it for a bit of fun, no way do I want to be Medwyn Williams with his giant veg at Chelsea.

We bought a breadmaking machine last week and it is brilliant, as long as you measure everything correctly you just load it all in and hey presto a delicious loaf of bread with very little effort. We also made Pizza dough in it and made pizza with a topping of our own tomatoes, herbs and peppers, how good is that ? it tasted better than any Pizza Hut or Express and at a fraction of the cost and did not have to wait for some scruffy biker to deliver it two hours after phoning our order. Just making a malted granary loaf and the smell is out of this world.

Must go to uncork the Barolo.

Weeding Heaven

After all the recent rain yesterday and today the weeds had no chance. Awhile back I bought a small hand held rake from Lidl for £1.50 and it is the best value piece of kit that I have bought for weeding. I never buy anything else from Lidl but there gardening bits and pieces are a bargain.

I really want to be on the plot tomorrow but have to work at a wedding at Oxford a place that I can get into with out any problems ,but with all the oneway streets I take forever finding my way out.

Am in charge of opening our trading shed on Sunday so Barbara is on Blackberry picking duties with my grandson, so full metal jackets are called for.

This is how the plot looked this morning.

Hissing Sid

Well here he is and growing bigger day by day.

Raindrops Are Falling On My Bed

What a difference some rain makes. I was even scraping mud from the bottom of my boots,something that I had not had to do for months.

Today I bought home four pounds of Kestrel potatoes, some parsley,mint and lemon thyme to go with the shoulder of lamb from our Greek supermarket. I also picked almost a pound of blackberries and our plums are beginning to turn, well plum colour, and getting plumper.

We are growing a Snake Gourd from a plant that our friend from Malaysia gave us. It measures about two foot long at the moment and we hope to put it in our local show as .Novelty Class 93. A fruit or vegetable which is unusual in shape. Entry must have a suitable or humorous caption.

At the moment I can only think of rude captions but do not think that they will be suitable, so back to "Hissing Sid" variations.

It Worked

At long last it is raining. It looks like Barbara's dancing had the desired effect , or maybe the rain Gods did not wish to witness a repeat perfomance.

It is quite heavy here in Beckenham but I think we needs days of the stuff to make any real difference. Anyway must not grumble as it may stop just to spite me.

The combined sigh of all my poor shriveled plants was quite deafening when I arrived this morning and everything was looking loads better already. I have the coming week off work so am really looking forward to spending as much time as possible on the plot. Am going to put my mobile in a drawer and forget about it as I have yet to have a whole week off without someone from work trying to contact me, well this week they WILL NOT SUCCEED.

PLEASE RAIN

Visited the plot today and saw tumbleweed blowing gently across it and where we had foxes they have been replaced by camel's and the odd palm tree can be seen.

Barbara had a go at performing a rain dance without any luck, but she is now down to a size 8.

We are quite lucky as we have a water tank on our plot so not to much carrying but you can't beat proper rain for getting everything growing. Our annual allotment show is looming but at the moment we do not have anything worth showing,still three weeks to go so PLEASE RAIN.

When is a Marrow really a Courgette

Being quite new to growing veg and still wet behind the ears I was under the impression that a courgette was just a baby marrow.

How is it then that you can buy both marrow and courgette seeds? I have three courgette plants and one marrow . The small marrow has stripes but the baby courgettes are all dark green. Can I eat baby marrows as I would courgettes or do I have to let them grow big .

My head hurts, need to go and lay down.

A Productive Weekend

We both spent yesterday afternoon and a lot of today on the plot. We harvested the remaining beetroot and have sown another two rows of a different variety ( Solist ) and also planted some January King cabbage. Everything seems to be doing quite well , especially the weeds, and yesterday we were able to take home some potatoes, spring onions, beetroot, cabbage, carrots and a couple of courgettes. Managed to get some digi pics and this is the plot this afternoon.

Escape from the madness

After all of the horror of the last few days we send our prayers to anyone involved in the madness. I spent a few hours trying to find out if my sons were ok and thank God they were.

When things get to much and I need to de-stress I visit our plot which I did that afternoon. It was raining and I was the only one there but it did help,in a strange sort of way I felt safe there and though only 10 miles from London I could have been 1010 miles away.

Beetroot Heaven

We have just returned from three hours on the plot. We have four pounds of Duke of York new potatoes, a couple of pound of carrots and best of all six beetroot. We have loads of beets still to come and its a good job we both love it.

The plot was really dry but its nice that we have a tank on our plot so not far to walk. The plum trees looked very sorry for themselves but are smothered with plums so hope they will be ok.

We have just discovered a great Greek supermarket in Penge, so many different olive oils, wonderful bread and so many different pastas and beans and rice I was like a kid let loose in a toy shop, and as for the goats cheese.

Looks like it will be a tasty summer.

We have just bought a new digital camera ( trod on the old one , not recommended ) so will add some pics after I have worked out how it works ( about December )

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

A great day but far to hot for me. Started the morning watching my grandson Rhys at football training, watching lots of six year olds running around in that heat was quite impressive.

We did intend to go to Beaver World but thought that it was to hot and we would have a barbie in the garden instead, made more sense sitting in the shade drinking cool beer.

Did go to the allotment early evening and got my son and Barbara and my two grandchildren to water everything in sight.

My fathers day pressie was a new super-doopa pair of secateurs , they even have their own polished wood case, how cool is that ?

Managed to get a ticket to watch Kent play Surrey at Beckenham in a 20/20 game on Wednesday ( thanks to my son ) the tickets are very scarce so looking forward to going very much.

Phew almost a scorcher

I finished work early today and visited the plot as I had not been since Monday. Everything has taken off and all looked so dry even after a bit of rain the last few days. I saw four small birds which up untill yesterday I would not have been able to identify but saw the same on Springwatch last night and they are young Robins, brown with spotted breasts, not a red breast to be seen.

My first early potatoes are just beginning to flower so not long to wait for delicious new pots.

Barbara took some of our beetroot, garlic, and radish into work today. Everyone wants some so will have to grow more next year and set up a stall at the hospital that Barbara works and sell it.

It is Fathers day on Sunday and we are going to Beaver World with my grandchildren. A long day is planned at the alottment tomorrow to plant the remainder of our seeds, must remember SUNTAN LOTION

A not so satisfying day

Visited the plot today and my near neighbour told me that he had found two dead fox cubs on the overgrown plot between us. One had been quite badly attacked , no idea by what though.
I know that these things happen but I had seen these cubs playing a few days ago.

A lot needs doing on the plot but could not get motivated today.

A Satisfying Day

We have just returned home after four hours working on the plot. I felt a bit weary today as I spent most of yesterday walking round Harbour Park at Littlehampton with hundreds of children making quite a racket, bless them !

Picked the last of the Broad Beans and cut off the plants at ground level and left the roots in the soil, apparently it adds nitrogen to the soil as the roots rot. We have had a bumper crop, about 12 pounds and Barbara will be making soup with some of them. At the moment she is making spring onion soup.

We bought home lots of sweet peas the smell of which is wafting across the room, wonderfull.

We have planted some courgettes but what is the difference between a courgette plant and a marrow plant? our garden centre sells both, I thought a courgette was a baby marrow.

Just looked out of the window and glory be it is raining, well spitting but hopefully it will get a lot heavier.

I cant type anymore as Barb has just given me a baby beetroot to eat that was in the ground one hour ago, and I am drooling over my keypad.

What a strange week

Intended to spend a lot of time on the plot last week, and then my working partner was taken ill and ended up in hospital having a pacemaker fitted. Barbara happens to work at the same hospital he was taken to so instead of giving my veg some tlc I have been back and forth to the ward. It was also Barbara's birthday and my Mum and sister put on a party for her, and very nice it was to,but all the time inside my head I keep seeing weeds growing bigger and bigger and I am not there to zap them.

Managed a couple of hours today, watered a lot and and was pleased to see our runner beans have germinated, I took Monty Dons advice and planted two beans to a cane but will find it very hard to terminate the weaker one.

I am working the whole of this weekend as I have to cover for my poorly colleague (sp) so will try a couple of evening stints on the plot, need rain but hope it stays fine for the next few evenings.

We have agreed to have a rest day today after spending six hours onSaturday and four on Sunday working on the plot. Sorted out the weeds round the potatoes, untill the next time. We called it a day with the peas, in since last October and produced about six pods but the broad beans which we sowed at the same time are brilliant, lots and lots of healthy pods.

Planted three Alicante tomato plants and will buy three different varieties from Coolings next week. Will be sowing Swede, Turnips and Rainbow Chard during the week. Our garlic is looking good and we tried a bulb but it still needs a few more weeks to mature, tasted good though.

When I planted the potatoes I had a few left over so I threw them on the compost heap, they have started to grow and they look better than the ones in the soil.

Had a few showers this morning which will hopefully freshen everything up.

We have one bird seed feeder hanging from one of our plum trees and I am having to refill it every morning, at the last count we have seen seventeen different species on and around our plot.

The Herb Garden is looking very good and Barbara made a delicious Sorrel sauce which we had with some fish, we have about ten different herbs growing. Barbara planted a few lettuce and mixed lettuce leaves and the slugs have not touched the ones among the herbs.

Jim and Barbara

Barbara arrived at the plot well before me today as I went to watch my grandson play football.I joined her just after mid-day and she had thinned the carrots and beetroot and they look very good. The herb garden also is producing loads of new growth. We took home lots of broad beans which we planted last September and as I type this, Barbara has bought me a hot platefull and they are delicious. The peas that we planted at the same time are very poor though.

At this point I must appologise for my spelling , never been very good.

Tomorrow will try to get to the plot and weed round the potatoes, they have been singed by the frost and need a bit of TLC.

This is how it looked a few months later

This is how we started on the plot in April 2004