The Ute is Here

The latest weapon in my allotment arsenal has arrived, in the shape of my new Kona Ute. Ute being short for Utility bike, this is the pick-up truck of bikes. Comfy to ride, not too slow and ready-made to carry me, produce and equipment wherever I need to go. The Ute is now my regular work commuting bike and it's doing a grand job.

For all those doubters who couldn't visualise what a bike like this was for, I have enlisted the help of some tomato plants, my compost caddy, watering can, and, err, The Moog, to demonstrate:

The author would like to assure readers that no Moog was hurt in the making of this blog. Actually The Moog was pretty happy in there and nearly went to sleep before I could get him out again.

Plan update

Moog thought I'd better update the plan, as most of it went out of the window as soon as I'd drawn it up.

Here's what's currently on my plot:

Garlic Update

Most of the garlic is starting to turn brown now, and there's a lot of leek rust on the leaves, so Moog thinks we should pull it all up this week. I'm well pleased as they were the first thing I planted when I took over the plot. Most of it will be dried and stored for use in cooking, but we're going to try eating some of it as 'wet' garlic, using recipes from Hugh Hairy-Wittingstall's TV programme River Cottage Spring that was on last week. If they're nice I'll report back, and plant more next year!

This picture doesn't really give you an idea of the size of these plants, they're much bigger than the bulbs you can buy in the shops.

Harvest Time

Moog thought our first harvest would be a big event, but it's nearly slipped under the radar.

The other day we pulled up some garlic because there was quite a lot of rust on the leaves - but it was still too early, the bulb was only just formed and still growing, so we left the rest in the ground. We also pulled up some potatoes, but only got 4 (they were delicious) so the haulm was replanted quickly and it's still growing. But, without further ado, here's a picture of my first proper crop, some salad leaves and cylinder radishes. Ta-da!

Where has John been... and beans

I noticed my neigbour John's plot starting to look overgrown, most unusual, and slightly worrying. The last time I saw John was about a month ago, when he arrived with a heavy heart to bury his recently deceased tortoise (same age as me, incidentally). Moog thinks that'll make a nice surprise for the next tenant of that plot, one day. John told me he now wishes he hadn't planted quite so much lettuce.

Happily I saw John again this week and it turns out he's been away on holiday, followed by a bad knee, so all is well. He thought we were suffering a bunny invasion, but it turned out he mistook Moog's burrowings for rabbit holes, and luckily I was able to put him straight as to their origin.

I reported in an earlier post that my first batch of French beans had rotted before germination. I have since found out that the same happened to a fellow allotment holder and work colleague Martyn, and, to my great surprise, my super-allotment neighbour John. So, it's obviously not something I did wrong, which is nice.

Precautions pay off

When Moog thinks we should do something on the allotment, I'm often left unsure whether it's worth it, or whether my effort would have been better spent elsewhere.

After the wet summer of 2007 I've always been mindful of the disaster of getting crops washed away or drowned - probably harder to deal with than drought because I can water when it's sunny, but I can't stop the rain!

Moog thought we should dig drainage channels down the edge of each bed, and I'm glad we did, as this picture shows, after a few hours of relatively light rain:



Not pictured are some of Moog's own holes, also filled with water!