September Update

It was with much trepidation that we finally went back to the allotment today...
During our loooovely two week holiday in Thailand we had cleverly forward planned and arranged for Charl and Jon, expert horticulturists, to pop up in keep an eye on things. We were thrilled to see that they had done their best to plunder as much as possible, and we only had a glut of runner beans to contend with on our return.

However, since getting back we have been slightly less well organised. Our weekends have been spent attending a wonderful wedding in Belgum and massacring an effervescent fig tree in Oxford, and as going up on weekday evenings had not even occurred to us, its been even longer than we'd hoped since we were last there.

But as ever, we were pleasantly surprised to see how hardy our plot has been to our blatant neglect. The beetroot that were only just seeded when we left are now definitely established nicely (we even managed to harvest one that was doing far too well compared to its siblings).

French beans and runners are continuing to be amazingly successful and we harvested about 3 kgs today, despite us already taking about three times that so far this year! Unfortunately, the growing frame has taken a bit of a bashing. Need to do a better job when we re-build it next year.

But the champion of the trip was the monster 'courgette' that we found. Must have been about 50cms long and weighed over 1.1kgs. Totally unexpected compared to the tiny 15cm jobbies that we'd been getting off it so far.  I'm not sure what the difference between a marrow and courgettes are, but this one was definitely upwardly mobile.

Cabbages are still looking like cabbages, but as we both dont really like cabbages, we left them where they were. Note to self: dont plant as many cabbages next year.

A summer summary

Yes, it's been a long time since we blogged. We have no excuse.

July and August are exciting months in the allotment holder's year. Here's some of the food we have harvested since the last post.

1. A load of Red Duke of York potatoes. Delicious and very good for mashing.



2. A broccoli and a cabbage. Andrew made the cabbage into coleslaw. I haven't had a chance to taste it yet but he says it was delicious. The broccoli was amazing. We shared it with Murphy: he supplied a steak and ale pie, we supplied the vegetables. We have lots of broccoli, cabbage and cauliflowers almost ready to go.



3. Beans. Lots and lots and lots of them. Dwarf French and runner, grown from the seeds Jill gave us. They are so delicious, and it's very exciting hunting for them and picking them. You think you've found them all and then you discover loads more. We shared some of the french beans with Murphy and I cooked some of the runner beans for Emma when she came round for dinner.



4. A courgette. Here's a picture of it on the plant (with another one growing in front of it). I picked it today, so I can't tell you how it tastes yet. We bought this courgette plant from the plant stall at my school summer fair. That's why there's only one of them. We'll try to grow more next year. I'm quite excited about the concept of a courgette glut.



Things we have learnt over the last few weeks:

1. Beans are easy to grow, fun to pick, delicious to eat, and therefore generally the perfect allotment crop. We'll be growing lots more beans next year.
2. Strawberries don't do very well if you don't water them.
3. Brassicas are very attractive to all sorts of pests, particularly slugs and white cabbage fly. They require an awful lot of work. And then, in the case of cabbage and cauliflower, you remember that you don't really like them anyway.

Bean caning this evening

Popped up this evening on my own to install some much needed support for our rapidly growing runner beans - they've already shot past the 3 foot canes we'd plonked in as a temporary measure.

Lessons learnt when installing cane structures:
- look at the canes before you leave the shop. Skinny ones are no good! - Bigger is better!
- Do not assume they will all be of equal length.
- Stepladder or box would be useful...

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Our first harvest!

The last few weeks have been very good on the wedding, engagement party and housewarming party front (none of them mine, by the way), but pretty poor on the gardening front. It's quite hard to have an allotment and a social life, it seems. The weeds and the pest don't really take account of this though and have well and truly invaded us. Our beans are covered in aphids, our cabbages have been chewed up by slugs, our gooseberries (every single one) were devoured by some unidentified trespasser and the whole plot has been taken over by weeds of every kind. We've got a lot of work to do. You can't just leave an allotment to get on with it, apparently.

However, we have had some success! On Sunday night we ate our first meal using produce that we grew ourselves. Broad beans and pototoes (along with some other, non-homegrown items. Absolutely delicious! Here the food is, before and after. Yum.

The allotment owner's perfect birthday present

It was my birthday last week. My wonderful parents gave me a Roberts solar powered DAB radio. The solar panel charges the battery while you listen, so you can get hours of unplugged listening pleasure. Perfect for an afternoon on the allotment, which is annoyingly short of electricity.

So, I gave it its maiden outing yesterday. Andrew was at work, what with it being a Thursday afternoon, so the radio was the perfect companion. A sunny afternoon listening to Mariella Frostrup and Eddie Mair, what could be better? I decided that Radio 4 was the most suitable allotment radio station. Somehow it didn't seem right to listen to anything aimed at the under 50s.



While on the subject of perfect birthday presents, it wouldn't seem right not to mention the amazing present that Andrew built me. My beautiful bike, also an allotment owner's dream possession. Actually, I can't speak for any other allotment owners, but it is MY dream possession.

Here it is, isn't it beautiful?



Yes, I do realise it doesn't have any pedals, before you ask. They're soon to be added!

Allotment Quiz: Name that brassica

There's a little part of our allotment that we haven't dug over yet. It's mainly, of course, covered with weeds, but we've got three plants growing that look a lot more vegetable-like, and less weed-like, than the others. Despite a look through some of my gardening books, I have no idea what it is.

Can anyone help us? Here's a picture:




Anyone who can help us will be high on the list to benefit from our first harvest.

Photographic evidence

For any that didn't believe me, here's a photo of Ben doing a stirling job of weeding around the broad beans and peas.


Here's Ben and Andrew finally achieving success with the pesky downpipe. It wasn't as easy as it might look. Ben and our watering can made an excellent rain machine.