Peas, beans and roots

SomeBeans has been working hard digging the half plot over the past couple of weeks, giving me lots of planting space :)

The broad beans are looking neat and tidy (much to Somebeans' delight), but the spring cabbage which has been over-wintered has got damaged by devil pigeons, after the netting blew loose in the storms of the past few weeks.

I sowed some more broad beans last week (Bunyards Exhibition) and today planted:

• Onion sets: 'Red Baron' and 'Stuttgart Giant'
• Pea 'Douce Provence'
• Carrot 'Flyaway' (supposedly carrot rootfly resistant)
• Parsnip 'Imperial Crown'

It's still a bit too early/cold to be planting really, but I can always plant some more - I did a lot of seed sowing this time last year, but the spring was rather warmer (there's snow in some parts of the country today). I've not got any potatoes in yet, although the easter weekend is traditional potato planting time, I believe. However, with easter so early this year, I think it's safe to wait a week or two.

Seed sowing has begun!

First proper seed sowings of the year this afternoon. It's got me all excited for the forthcoming growing season.

Planted: Cabbages 'Hispi' and 'Primo', leeks, early sowings of lettuce ('Suzan'), broad bean 'Bunyard's Exhibition' (to complement the broad beans sown earlier directly into the ground).

Sown in the propagator: three types of tomato ('Santa', 'Czech Excellent Yellow', and 'Wapsipinicon Peach'; also Pepper 'Healthy' and a chili.

In flower:

• dwarf narcisssus (predominately Tete a Tete)
• various crocuses

The birds are singing in the morning - wonderful!

We had three frosty mornings of -5C or so last week - it is apparently warmer and wetter this week. I hope the Young broadies down on the plot have survived!

Rooting about

Down the plot for the first time in three weeks, we removed roots and got blisters.
We also saw the fox - at 10am on a Sunday morning! I used to think that foxes were crepuscular, but not this one.

Harvested: parsnips and a few purple carrots which I didn't dig up in the autumn as they were attacked by carrot fly and I was just going to dig the patch over and remove all the manky carrots. A few seem edible though.

No broad beans have sprouted, but it has been cold and wet, so I expect they have rotted in the soil. I'll have to get my act together and get them going in autumn this year. Still, I can plant some spring sowing beans in a few weeks time.

In the garden, the hellebores are starting to look good, and the Sarcococca is smelling nice. we have the first yellow crocuses up, and the miniature irises in the rose tub are flowering their hearts out. It's just a shame that I leave for work in the dark and come home in the dark, so see little of these small daily changes towards spring. The blackbirds have started singing in the morning now - a real move towards the longer days of spring.

"If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom." ~Audra Foveo

New Year, New Tidiness

If this blog is to work as a means of reminding me what I've done and whether it works, I better write things a bit more frequently in 2008.

So, today, we went down the allotment and:

• dug 1 row and removed buckets of weed roots;
• SomeBeans dug up some more of the path sections and raked up stems and rubbish

I planted 3 rows of brad bean 'Aquadulce Claudia' - a bit late; I should have planted them in November but didn't. Most of two rows are covered by cloche - it will be interesting to see if they grow faster, or if any grow at all, rather than just rotting in the cold wet soil of January. It looks quite tidy!

We have a small head of Romanesco developing on the half plot. The black tuscan kale is still quite tiny but should be harvestable soon. The 'Bleu de Solaise' leeks are thickening up, and the shallots and elephant garlic are sprouting.

Fruit-tastic!

The new plot is now coming along nicely. I have planted up a soft fruit area now - I must take a photo of it, as I've actually managed to do it quite neatly (if I keep this up, I'll have to change the blog name to Elegant Gardener!).

Planted:

• 'Octavia' raspberries - we have some of these in the garden and they are excellent;
• Blackcurrant 'Ben Sarek' (two of) - again, we have a bush of this in the garden; they are smaller than the average bush, and gave a wonderful yield this summer;
• Redcurrant 'Redstart' (two of)
• Whitecurrant 'White Versailles' (one of)
• Jostaberry - these are a cross between blackcurrants and gooseberries. I've not eaten one, but they sound intriguing...
• Gooseberries 'Hinnonmaki Red' and 'Hinnonmaki Yellow'.

Despite only having veg on the small half plot, we still managed to harvest parsnips and Brussels sprouts for the Christmas meal. Next step for the new year is planting broad beans, which I failed to do in late autumn, and continuing the digging and weed removal of the new plot.

The site is filling up gradually, which is good to see, although we've only seen one or two very hardy souls down there in the past couple of weeks. We have had some excellent views of the foxes, though - we only see them close up when we don't take the camera down!

A special sighting at Ness Gardens

We hadn't been to Ness gardens for six weeks or so, and as it was such a gorgeous morning, we thought we'd go today. SomeBeans nearly didn't take his camera but I suggested he did, and I'm so glad he did!


The weather was wonderful and the low sun gave the gardens a whole new dimension. But best of all was our 10 minute front seat view of a weasel who'd made his home in a drain in one of the borders. Having only caught a glimpse of a galloping weasel in the past, this view was amazing. What a gorgeous wee chap! Here, he's admiring some autumn crocus.

The long borders were looking good in the sun, as were the acers and Hammamelis. But what a wonderful day - the chance to spare a few minutes with what is normally a very shy creature.

Obviously nothing happened in September

Well, nothing except digging and removing barrowloads of perennial weeds from the new allotment.

We have now dug (thanks SomeBeans!) over half of the new plot, and my ability to recognise perennial weeds by their roots has come on leaps and bounds. Bindweed, ground elder, horsetail, couch grass, thistles, docks - all of them have different roots. All of them are a b***er to get out, too.

We've been enjoying the taste of Sweetcorn 'Tuxedo' for the past couple of weeks, but yesterday was the first time we've enjoyed really, fully ripe cobs. Out of this world! There's absolutely no point buying the cobs in the supermarket again - they taste of nothing compared to the freshly picked cob.

I also pulled my first mooli/winter radish/daikon yesterday; this one wll be going in a stir fry, along with the pak choi harvested. As for what to do with the remaining 30 or so mooli, answers on a postcard please, as I'm not sure what to put them in.

Having ordered some fruit bushes and raspberry canes for the new plot, we will be putting down weed suppression membrane before planting. They should arrive in November - prime bare-root planting time. More info as and when they arrive.

With the last of the spuds dug up on 97A, the bed has been dug over, roots removed and then raked flat (again, thanks Somebeans, as he realises that I have an inability to rake things flat and so many of the plants I sow are raised on beds with a profile like the craters on the moon).
Into this bare earth has been planted my allium bed part 1. Hot on the heels of the success of the elephant garlic, I'm planting:

• Purple Wight garlic (2 rows)
• Elephant garlic (2 rows)
• Shallot 'Griselle' (3 rows)
• Overwintering onion 'Swift' (3 rows).

I've got one more overwintering onion variety to plant - that will be going on half of the 2nd potato bed.

The cold autumn days (some mornings down to 3degC) has led to the slowing down of bean production. 'Lady Di' has done very well as a runner bean; despite my dislike of the name, I was tempted to buy it as it says it is stringless - it's been a success. I've been a bit disappointed with 'Blauhilde' (purple French Bean), but it could be the poor summer. And yesterday, I picked the first Achocha 'Fat Baby' - wierd looking thing but I haven't cooked it yet.

View of the strawberry bed and new overwintering onion bed.

Rooting out roots

Using the azada and right-angled fork from www.get-digging.co.uk, we've been digging and weeding this weekend. The fork is proving itself excellent for grubbing up couch grass. I've been following Somebeans as he digs, pulling out the roots. Slowly, neatness is being produced...

Below is some of the produce we gathered on Saturday: a couple of tiny heads of calabrese, lots of lettuce leaves, runners, borlotti beans, french beans, my first tomato of the year (Orange Banana), courgette, carrots, radishes and two types of potato. Good stuff!

SomeBeans has been very busy and produced this wonderful structure on number 99 - a stonking new compost bin. It's been built to allow for expanson, too - Somebeans says that putting extra bays on will be easy enough. It has been completely filled with the piles of vegetation he's scythed down over the past few weeks.

Brilliant stuff! And soon, it'll be the time of year when the weeds will stop growing - won't it?!?

Preserving

I've been making use of some of our harvest this weekend. It's been raining pretty much non-stop all weekend, so I've kept myself busy indoors. I made 1lb of bramble jam from blackberries I picked on the allotment site. I also made some red onion marmalade with some of the 'Red Baron' onions grown from sets this year. It's delicious and very simple to make.

We did get down to the plot but pretty much only to harvest some bits and pieces. Harvested: 'Bonnie' potatoes, 'Pink Fir Apple' potatoes (tiny but will taste nice and won't grow any bigger as I had to cut the haulms off due to blight), courgette '8 ball' (we're having stuffed courgette later in the week), Chantenay carrots, the first of the runner beans (only 2 or 3 though), ditto Borlotti beans. Tasty!

We went down to the plot last night. Somebeans finished 'phase 1' on plot 99: he's scythed down all of the long vegetation.

We discovered a small toad on the plot, but didn't have a camera to take a photo. Unfortunately, it didn't look big enough yet to ravage slugs, but given time and a lot of friends, it might reduce mollusc populations a bit.

Harvest:

The gladioli are looking good - we've had 3 harvests so far. Next year I'll have to plant successionally to extend the season.

I also picked some more blackberries- they are looking so good at the moment. Time to surf for some more blackberry recipes.