The Thoughts of Moog

Sulking, sheds, and spuds

2012-01-25T12:25:00.000Z

I went to the plot at the weekend for a sulk in my shed, as the weather was too bad to indulge my other major outdoor pastime of cycling. I rescued the scarecrow from his prone position due to high winds, and found that all the sheds had been broken into again, but like last time, nothing was taken, or even disturbed, apart from the lock. I was careful to use a weedy lock this time, now I won't bother to lock it any more. I was able to get a little bit of work done, including turning my compost between rain showers. I also made a cup of brown liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea, which I threw away.

This week I also ound myself frozen in front of the potato display in the garden centre for what seemed like hours, completely unable to choose what I wanted this year. In the end I broke the deadlock and picked up Premier first earlies, which promise to be 'very early and resistant to both blight and eelworm' (although an early variety doesn't need to be resistant to blight, because that is usually a late-summer problem). Those were swiftly followed by Desiree maincrop. I was tempted by Pink Fir Apple but reading the description I don't honestly think we would get through many of them back at home, so I went for a traditional variety instead. I also picked up my year's supply of parsnip (Tender and True) and carrot (Flyaway) and some potato fertiliser, all on special offer. I do like a bargain.

Depths of winter

2012-01-13T12:34:00.001Z

I was able to supply parsnips and potatoes for the Christmas dinner table this year. Potatoes were from storage, parsnips were straight out of the ground (well cleaned and cooked first, obviously!). There are a lot of forked and twisted roots this year as I grew the parsnips in poorer soil than before, but they clean up OK with plenty left to eat. I seem to have lost my knack to roast properly and keep burning them, so more practice is definitely required.

There was one chance over Christmas when I had a clear day to go and do some more tidying up, so Scarecrow was stripped of his Christmas suit - although since I was last at the plot we've had really strong winds so I expect he'll be having a lie down when I return. I also cleared a few barrows of weeds, finished pruning the raspberry canes and mulched them ready for next year. I've found work done in the winter to prepare and keep tidy saves a lot of time in the spring and summer. I've taken to removing weeds right off the plot now, rather than composting or burning - it's too wet to burn, and I don't want them laying around rotting on the plot as they'll only re-grow. I'm pleased to report the garlic has finally decided to start growing, their familiar hard green shoots emerging like the tip of Excalibur rising from the lake. Hopefully the bulbs have put on a good amount of root growth under the soil.

I was able to donate some strawberry runners to a fellow plot holder who has done a remarkable amount of work, just round the corner out of sight from me. Pete and Jo, who are (I presume) retired have been spending every available day since late summer working on their two plots. One is a traditional veg plot, the other is like a pretty garden - still in its early stages but by summer it's going to look beautiful. I'm very impressed and will try to post some photos later in the year.

I still haven't really started my gardening 2012, despite having a bulging seed box to sort out, the latest seed catalogues to read, and a garden centre voucher burning a hole in my wallet. Hopefully I'll find time to make some plans and blog about them in the next week or two.

Festive scarecrows

2011-12-07T08:30:00.000Z

It's a quiet time of year down at the allotments, so it was time at the weekend to give the scarecrow a festive spruce-up:

The Santa suit was £2.99 and the red felt was so bright it hurt my eyes

Also spotted this Cyberman on guard over a nearby plot:

Cabbages safe from marauding Time Lords - for now.

Frosts and crumble

2011-11-28T12:58:00.000Z

Our expedition to collect apples was a great success this weekend. We collected windfalls in two carrier bags and later my wife made the most delicious apple crumble for tea. She has also frozen a further five portions, which judging by yesterday's first taste will not be around for very long. A great way to spend Sunday afternoon.

We also found time to plant a sack full of daffodil bulbs along the front of the plot. I always wanted the allotment to be like a garden, not just a working plot, so I hope we haven't put them in too late. These came half-price from Wyevale Garden Centre in Woburn Sands. They often have offers on if you go in regularly, especially toward the end of the traditional season, when they're making room for their Christmas junk. I'm not sure when garden centres became specialists in Christmas decorations but you have to admit it's a pretty good way of getting over the winter which would otherwise be a quiet time for them.

Speaking of winter, It's finally starting to feel like that season has arrived, so I'm glad I got a few jobs done before it got really cold. We have now had a couple of hard frosts, one last week and a proper chill last night (28 November) so I hope my parsnips will be ready to try the next time I go to the plot. Hopefully the garlic will be kick-started into life now we've had some really low temperatures, as there is no sign yet. Two rows of garlic are sharing a bed with a row of Radar overwintering onions which came as a kind donation from work colleague and fellow allotmenteer Derek. The broccoli is doing well although I do need to raise the netting a bit higher before the pigeons find it.

Broccoli seems to be growing well, hopefully it will be ready in around March to give us some produce at an otherwise lean time of year on the allotment

A good day's work

2011-11-28T12:35:00.001Z

I booked a day off work last week and spent most of it at the plot. What a great way to spend my day. I managed to get rid of a lot weeds and rubbish, starting in the morning by setting a good fire which smouldered all day. I also dumped a few wheelbarrow loads of rubbish and weeds and dug up two more massive blocks of concrete (as well as a bucket full of big stones). I dug over some ground and laid several new paths ready for next year.

Thanks to being out all day I also got chatting to a fellow plot holder who has a huge apple tree on her plot. She had run out of things to do with cooking apples, and with a pleading look in her eyes invited me to gather as many windfalls as I wanted. When I had a look there really were hundreds, so an expedition with the tiny human has been planned for the weekend to collect some.

New tidy paths. the dug strip in the foreground was just weeds when I started.

More neat and tidiness. Path on the left was overgrown with weeds before I started.

A very satisfying bonfire of weeds

Two nicely prepared beds with a mulch of compost applied by my wife and the tiny human last weekend

A close call

2011-11-25T15:51:00.000Z

Disaster was narrowly avoided last week when, after forgetting to pay my annual rent on time, the council threatened to evict me from my plot!

After calculating a suitable opportunity during the wafer-thin window that the council offices are actually open, my good wife popped in clutching the cash. There, she was told in no uncertain terms by Clerk No.1 (excessively rude and unhelpful) that we were too late and we had to collect our stuff and be gone by Monday! On hearing this, I went down there myself and had a polite, yet heated debate with Clerk No.2 (excessively jolly and still unhelpful). She, despite not really appearing to know what their own rules were, just waved a copy of the allotment agreement in my face and kept repeating the words 'it's a legal document' until I finally convinced her to check to see if I'd been sent an official Notice To Quit (I knew damn well that I hadn't). After a few minutes of panicked searching through folders with Miserable Clerk No.1, Jolly Clerk No.2 came back and promised me that Clerk No.3 (demeanour to be confirmed) would phone me back in the afternoon when she rolled into the office after lunch. This she duly did (turned out to be helpful but somewhat abrupt) and I was allowed to pay my rent at last, as long as I could get there between 2.30 and 3.00 and pay cash or cheque only before they closed for the week.

Quite why so many people in public, customer-facing roles feel they have to be so obnoxious is beyond me. The council clerks now join the doctor's receptionists and post-office clerks on my shortlist of PEOPLE WHO NEED TO CHEER UP! (except Clerk No.2 who was already so worryingly over-cheerful. She could tone it down a bit).

Surprise crop

2011-11-11T15:20:00.000Z

It's one thing going to the plot to harvest a long-awaited crop but quite another when you come home with a pocket full of something you didn't even plant. Today I found a truss of ripe tomatoes, nestling in amongst the skeletal remains of my Aster daisies. I hadn't seen the plant or fruits develop but they must have been there for some time.

Digging in

2011-11-07T14:34:00.000Z

I wonder if there is anything under my allotment? Apart from my parsnips, I mean, which are patiently awaiting the first frosts.

Moog used to do a bit of enthusiastic digging on the plot in his younger days, but he never found anything much, just soil. However, I came across an interesting local history website which mentions that the area was used for a large military exercise in the months before World War One, beginning on 29 August 1913:

http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/la/DaysofPride/docs/partone.html

Apparently a large division of British soldiers camped in the area very close to my plot and even held a party at Stacey Hill Farm when they left. they were only there for a short time but built quite a bustling camp. The army relied heavily on horse power at that time, and the Royal Engineers built a 200ft platform for unloading horses from trains, as well building a temporary veterinary hospital. No doubt the rural nature of the area (for the military exercises) and the railway (for moving troops) were a factor in choosing the site. Some local residents have reported unearthing things like brass buttons and other fragments of military kit in their gardens, so there may well be something of interest lurking under plot 29.

Sleep well, old friend.

2011-11-07T14:11:00.000Z

We took Moog to be put to sleep on Tuesday 25th October 2011 at 3.15pm. His last days were filled with cuddles, fuss and treats as we ignored his symptoms as best we could.

With his spotty coat still slightly damp from the torrential rain outside, he died quietly in our arms. He looked at peace for the first time in months, and we knew we had done the right thing.

He is very sorely missed.

Canine Cognitive Dysfunction

2011-10-19T13:45:00.001+01:00

Regular visitors to my allotment blog will be familiar with the description of my dog in the heading:

A Moog is a type of dog. Blessed with very little brainpower, he cannot think.

I am saddened to report that our very kind (albeit wealthy) vet has now confirmed what we had begun to suspect. What started as a good-natured joke with a companion who, let’s face it, actually couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag, has become his diagnosis:

Moog can’t think.

Poor old Moog, or Max to use his real name for once, is slipping away from us. ‘Canine Cognitive Dysfunction,’ Senior Dementia, Doggy Alzheimer’s; - call it what you like, but the end result is the same. He’s here in body, but not in mind, and it’s not going to get better. Now I realise the symptoms can be grouped under one heading, there’s no mistaking the disease. Gradually, but with increasing frequency in recent months, Max has displayed all of these patterns:

• Gets lost in familiar places
• Trouble negotiating doors and furniture
• Does not respond to familiar commands or signals
• Does not recognise or is startled by familiar people or objects
• Paces or wanders aimlessly through the house
• Soils indoors, regardless of access to outdoors
• Stares at walls or into space
• Seeks less attention, praise and play
• Spends much time asleep during the day and paces at night
• General confusion between day and night, or indoors and outdoors
• Develops separation anxiety
• Frequently trembles or shakes
• Forget they ate/drank and want to eat/drink again and again
• Altered relationships with humans/other pets

So it is with heavy hearts that we will soon be taking the vet’s advice and helping him on his way to some much needed sleep before things get any worse. The day isn’t here yet, but when it is, it will be our last act of kindness for the poor frightened thing we rescued from the kennels 10 years ago.

The Thoughts of Moog will continue. Let’s face it, they were never really his to begin with. But for now, let’s celebrate his life with all the nicknames he has accumulated over the years.

Doglet (like piglet, but a dog); Maxin Andrelaxin; Maximillion; Moog (who could not think). Moogfish (who could swim and swim and swim); Max Factor International Stunt Dog (See him leap through closed windows in a single bound). T.H.E. Moog; Old Moog; Moogos Moogos Gali (former Secretary General to the United Dog Nations, often shortened just to Moogos); Moof; Moogfishdotcom (n.b. to be sung to the tune of ‘moonpig.com’ advert), and Plumbo Columbo (no I don’t know why either). There are probably many more that I have forgotten.

If you’re missing him feel free to sing ‘You were always in the way’ to the tune of ‘You were always on my mind’ by Elvis Presley.

Maincrop harvest

2011-10-16T18:55:00.000+01:00

Finally harvested the 'Cara' maincrop potatoes last week, quite a big haul - two big shopping bags as heavy as I could lift into the car. A few have been spoiled by slugs and little worms (not sure if they are wireworm or eelworm, and can't be bothered to look it up right now). Those will be used first, and hopefully we'll have enough to last until Christmas.

Free seeds

2011-09-28T16:53:00.001+01:00

I have been down to the garden centre to redeem my reward vouchers, Only £3.00 this time but at least that means I haven't spent as much money this year. As with this time last year their seeds are reduced to 50p a pack. I've left it a bit late so not much to choose from, but I quite like that, it helps me choose! I plumped for:

Sweetcorn, Mirai. Early, extra sweet variety. Plant Feb-May, harvest Aug-Sept.
Celery, Granada. High yielding, stores well. Sow Feb-Mar, harvest Aug-Oct
Pea, Twinkle: Early, disease resistant variety. Sow Feb-April, Harvest June-July.
Pea, Lincoln, long cropping heritage variety, Sow March - June, harvest June-Aug

For the garden:
Nigella Mulberry Rose
Cosmos Purity

Evening tranquility

2011-09-20T20:36:00.001+01:00

I mentioned in a previous post that I've been combining trips to the plot with walking the dogs all this summer. This means I often find myself there at sunset. the nights are already drawing in so much that I won't be able to go after work at all soon, and I will miss the peaceful atmosphere until next year.

Here are a couple of examples both taken standing on my plot using my Panasonic digital camera.

April 2011

August 2011

Time to stop and think

2011-09-01T12:44:00.002+01:00

Things seem to slow down a bit in late summer, after the huge explosion of growth in June and July that has kept me away from the blog. Time to slow down, have a think and post a few photos.

First here's a self-portrait I took for my photo-a-week project over on Flickr (follow the link if you're interested in the results of one of my other hobbies).

31st August, officially the last day of summer

I'm pleased I grew the Aster daisies and sunflowers (foreground), they've given us a steady supply of long-lasting flowers for the house since July, and they're still going. Behind those you can see the pumpkins, the biggest I have ever grown. Behind that, parsnips, slow to start but now catching up and waiting for the first frost before I try them. Behind that, surprisingly good dwarf French beans, a steady, manageable supply of good beans from tiny 8-inch high plants, rather than a massive glut all at once. Behind that, well you can't see the cabbages they are too small, and behind that; me. It's OK, I'm a long way from the lens.

Compare this to a shot I took from roughly the same position earlier in the year, it's such a contrast it seems hard to believe it's the same place.

Taken on 9th June, just 12 weeks ago.

Infant asters, sunflowers and pumpkins shortly after planting out

Pumpkins doing well, this is only a small one. Recipes welcome

Rudbeckia in full bloom. Excellent for cut flowers.

Summer update: jam

2011-08-15T14:02:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I've had time to blog. Work continues on the plot of course, assisted, sometimes punctuated by, the tiny human. Over the summer I've been combining evening trips to the plot with dog-walking duties, so Moog has had more than his normal share of visits.

Mrs Moog Keeper has mastered the art of making jam this year, so instead of having no idea what to do with all our raspberries, we now have a steady supply of delicious jam. In fact I now can't keep up the supply of raspberries to match Mrs Moog Keeper's new-found appetite for jam-making. Thankfully the autumn bliss variety is just coming through to keep her in fruit. I may have to extend the amount of fruit I grow at this rate. Jam can be very easily made in the microwave, I recommend trying it. All you need is the fruit, some jars, plus some special jam sugar (easily found in the sugar section of the supermarket)- there's a recipe on the side of the pack.

Sadly we were not able to make such good use of the strawberries which looked so promising earlier in the year. The plants were laden with young fruit at one point, but I think mainly due to a lack of watering at the critical time (remember the really dry spring we had?), lots of them dropped off the plants, still green. We had a reasonable crop but not as good as I was expecting. Better luck next year.

Public Enemy Number One: And the winner is...

2011-06-07T12:20:00.000+01:00

Each year brings different conditions and some veggies do better than others. Unfortunately this also applies to weeds as my old enemies seem to devise new ways of taking over my plot.

Here are the top 5 worst offenders on my plot:

1. Dandelion
2. Bindweed
3. Creeping Buttercup
4. Couch grass
5. Stinging nettles

Dandy

This year there seems to have been a particularly strong dandelion crop. It’s levelling off a bit now but around April, conditions were nigh-on perfect and they just seemed to be everywhere. Thankfully the picture here was a local roadside verge, not my plot. I’ve dug up hundreds of them, and cut the tops of plenty more that I didn’t have time to dig out. Like Arnie, they'll be back. As plants, you almost have to admire them; cheerful bright flowers, lush foliage, tough long roots, all thriving with no care and attention whatsoever.

Second on my list is bindweed. There’s just no stopping this stuff. The only way is to remove the roots from the soil, but they’re so brittle and go so deep they always break off to leave a bit behind. Again, so devious you could almost admire them if they weren’t choking my strawberries and getting tangled in my netting.

Next are buttercups. Yes they look lovely in a meadow, but they creep their way round the edge of my raised beds like crazed groupies trying to get into a boy band’s tour bus. You literally have to beat them off. My main reason for hating these is they have particularly tough roots and will cling on, under the assault of a hoe or trowel to come back when you’re not expecting them, usually right next to an onion or somewhere hard to get at.

Finally, the creeping menace of nettles and couch grass. You neglect weeding for a couple of weeks and before you know it they’re back! Thankfully they are mainly restricted to one side of my plot where they weave their nasty secret way through the soil from the neglected plot next door. I find the searching white roots quite revolting for some reason and take a grim satisfaction in pulling them up and burning them. The nettles also make a fine compost tea which seems a fitting end, especially if they’ve managed to sting me whilst raspberry picking.

So those are the plants I could happily live without. Close runners up, if I was doing a list of 10, are plantains, volunteer potatoes, speedwell, dock, and oilseed rape.

What’s on your hit-list this year?

Help has arrived

2011-05-11T13:00:00.002+01:00

The Tiny Human is now just big enough to help out on the plot. She enjoys carrying the empty watering can down to the tap and watching it being filled up. She also wanted to carry the full can back to the plot, which was very sweet but it was too heavy for her to lift. I should add, I'm not enforcing child labour here, she volunteers by taking the watering can out of my hands, in fact it's hard to stop her!

My little helper

Her reward is a go on the new swing.

Reward after all that hard work

Roll up, roll up

2011-04-20T21:29:00.001+01:00

Gather round ladies and gentlemen, can I interest any of you in some of the things that have been left on my plot for me by a previous tenant?

A sample of some of the unearthed treasures

First up, who likes plastic? I've got plastic bottles, plastic cups, plastic plant pots; plastic bags, plastic mesh, green tinted plastic, clear plastic, plastic string. Plastic not your thing? What about metal then? I've got metal nails, metal bars, metal scissors, metal penknife (rusted solid, sorry), metal wire? Glass (hurry, only small pieces left); gloves (two, not the same)? a single very long woolly sock? What about a tub of slug killer - vintage circa 1980s at a guess. What's that? have I got any stones? well yes but sorry, you can't have the full bucket of great big stones, I've decided to use them in my drainage channel.

Don't worry if you miss this opportunity, there'll be more. ALL the above items have come out of one patch of ground about 8ft by 4ft in the last week...

Talking poo

2011-03-24T20:06:00.002Z

I wanted to have some compost delivered to the plot again this year, but the council have banned anything bigger than a car from the site due to damage to the ridings. They said I could still have it delivered to the gate, but I don't fancy wheelbarrowing a tonne of compost from the top of the site to my plot, so it's back to the drawing board. According to the council, the ridings are too wet, but I think they're talking poo.

My wife then started talking poo. let me clarify; she was talking poo with a lady who owns a horse. An unlimited free supply was promised, so I got all excited and went to have a look.

The pile was located about two miles from home. There was a huge amount of material, about 10 metres by 5, and nearly 2 metres tall. Unfortunately most of it was straw and woodchips. The decent rotted manure was right at the bottom, the owner of the farm told me, and would need digging out. Hmm, two metres deep of heavily packed straw? Well, I bravely dug into the pile, heaving straw out of the way and eventually getting down to some decent rotted stuff. With lots of huffing and puffing, I managed to extract two car loads before I lost the will to carry on. I don't think I'll rush back; it's useable stuff, but needs further rotting down on my own heap.

Some poo

Hopefully someone else will want to talk poo soon.

Soil

2011-03-18T20:05:00.001Z

Some soil

Alliums

2011-03-14T10:51:00.002Z

Varying degrees of success so far with my allium crops.

Garlic is doing well and has now received a dose of organic (blood, fish and bone) fertilizer to get it going. I've been able to keep the bed weed-free so far, but I know that won't last long once it gets a bit warmer. This year I've only grown one bed of garlic, the last two years I got carried away and had too much.

Leeks are looking healthy at home in a propagator. nice strong green seedlings are now all pricked out into individual paper pots. I've had patchy results getting decent sized leeks over the last few years, let's hope we get some big ones this year.

Onions started well but are now looking very sickly, after potting on they didn't really get going and haven't adapted very well to life in the cold frame. Not all are completely dead yet, but for the effort that is going to be required, for the production of about 10 onions, I think I will write them off shortly and reclaim the cold frame for something else.

Rather sorry looking onion seedlings

Structural jobs

2011-03-14T10:44:00.003Z

Lengthening days and rising temperatures have meant I've been able to get some gardening done again, at last!

I've been getting on with a few structural tasks around the plot. After the new compost area, I moved my lawnmower storage box up to the top of the plot as well, and began reclaiming the vacated ground for a new bed. I had forgotten what a state my soil was in when I first arrived three years ago; out came bits of plastic, metal mesh, broken glass, concrete, even an old spade head.

The new bed.

I found time to box in another bed with timber to make a raised area and have refreshed all my wood-chip paths. I've also dug up one of the grass paths and replaced it with wood-chip, that's another path that won't need mowing or strimming this year, hopefully leaving me time to tend my crops, or even sit and look at them! I'm pleased to say my plot is starting to look like one of the more tidy examples, although there's a bit of work to go yet.

New raised beds and paths, and a bonfire on the go

Next on the list is to grub up the rosemary hedge at the front of the plot, sadly this has been killed off by the cold winter. It's just clinging on to life to be fair, but it tends to shade out the edge of the first bed, so it will be coming up soon.

Rosemary, decimated by the cold weather

Garlic progress

2011-03-02T19:42:00.000Z

Garlic is making good progress down at the plot.

Potatoes 2011

2011-02-16T22:16:00.000Z

I have sourced seed potatoes from the garden centre this year rather than mail order, as I am normally disappointed by how long it takes for them to arrive. Often by the time they get here there's not much time for them to develop decent shoots before planting time. Plus, I'm impatient. So, two types of potatoes are now busy chitting on various window sills. I have Cara maincrop from Thompson & Morgan again, because I was very happy with results last year - not only a good crop but tasty potatoes. I am also trying Pentland Javelin first earlies, which are supposed to be ready only 10-12 weeks after planting. These are from Taylor's, according to the packet.

Not rotten enough yet

2011-01-31T21:21:00.001Z

The council have delivered some stable manure to the allotments. My neighbour John pointed this out to me in the late Autumn when he started to add mounds of the stuff to his beds. I went and inspected the pile, but to me it looks a bit too fresh to be incorporated just yet. There's hardly any muck, it's mainly fresh straw and wood shavings. In his book (that I have mentioned before here) Terry Walton notes that manure with wood chippings and sawdust is to be avoided, as it takes too long to break down, making plant growth poor. So, I have opted to stack a few barrow-loads in my new compost heap and maybe use it next year.

Roll on to January and John has now covered virtually all his 10 poles in the stuff, and I was a bit concerned to see another experienced plot holder, Roy, wandering off with barrow-loads of the same. However, when I spoke to Roy (a dangerous thing to do if you've got less than half an hour to spare), he volunteered that he wasn't using it on his plot, but was stacking it 'for a year, maybe two' before using any. Great, at least that's two of us with the same opinion. We mused a bit on the worn state of the ridings, and Roy told me how they used to bring sewage and waste from Wolverton Works down for allotmenteers to use. That was, until they discovered that due to the industrial processes it was full of poisons like lead. Hardly what you want on your vegetables. In those days, enterprising gardeners used to stack up the sewage (animal and human I guess) into a smelly pile, set a fire in the middle and let it burn for a couple of days to dry it out enough to use. I went away fairly pleased that we don't need to do that any more!

More seeds

2011-01-31T21:06:00.000Z

Leek seeds were sown indoors last week. Must remember to label them because they look exactly like onions when they first come up.

Onion progress

2011-01-14T13:09:00.002Z

Some very cheerful progess by my onion seeds. At first I thought they looked a little weak and pale, with one or two going down to a white fluffy mould. I removed the sickly ones so they didn't pass on any infection and the best examples have now managed to get enough light and are starting to grow strongly. I have negotiated a more sunny position with the boss so hopefully the rest will catch up.

Onion seedlings ready to pot on

Advice on Terry Walton's website http://www.gardenersclick.com/ is that these now need to be potted on whilst they are still at the 'hairpin' stage, so that is my job this weekend if I can find something to pot them into.

Parsnip success

2011-01-09T18:07:00.000Z

A 14" parsnip

There's always one crop that does particularly well every year, even if everything else fails. This year it's parsnips.

New compost bins

2011-01-08T19:00:00.000Z

Rain again this morning, but by the afternoon the sky changed from its usual grey to a funny blue colour and a strange, bright yellow light appeared in the sky, so I took a chance and disappeared off to the plot for a couple of hours until the light disappeared again.

I cleared out my 'rubbish corner' and used a combination of new and old pallets to make two new compost bins. It's been nearly a year since I dismantled my previous heap, and I've missed it.

Now harvesting: leeks, parsnips.

The new compost heap

Never make plans

2011-01-07T19:22:00.000Z

I was looking forward to heading down to the plot today, as for the first time in ages I expected to be free of other commitments for a few hours, but the heavens opened and it lashed down with rain most of the day. The moral of the story, never get your hopes up, you'll only be disappointed.

First seeds of 2011

2011-01-04T19:49:00.000Z

The plot has been a virtual no-go area for several weeks, but I spent a few minutes sowing some onion seeds earlier today. I usually order onion sets but always end up ordering too many and spending too much, only to get patchy results, so this is a new approach for me. These seeds were some of the ones I got in the sale at the garden centre, using my garden centre reward vouchers, so hopefully if they grow well my onions will all be completely free this year! At least that's the plan...

Tradition has it that onions are sown on Boxing Day, but this is most likely a rumour started by men who, by 26th December, needed a bit of alone time in the shed to escape the Christmas madness! It's true they need a long growing season, so any time in January should be fine according to Terry Walton on http://www.gardenersclick.com/. They need to be kept at about room temperature to germinate, so two trays of Duchy Organic Sturon onion seeds are now on the window sill under plastic propagator lids. My windowsills are quite dark so I have stuck silver foil on one side of the clear lid, in an effort to reflect as much light in to the seeds as possible at this time of year, a trick I saw on Gardener's World. The seeds are exactly the same as leek seeds which I have had good success with so hopefully these will do well.

Parsnips for Christmas

2010-12-31T19:06:00.001Z

By the 24th December the snow was showing no signs of melting but Moog and I needed parsnips for Christmas Day! We made an intrepid journey to the plot and scraped about in the snow until, happily, we were able to unearth enough to keep us going.

Unearthing parsnips in the snow

On the way to the allotments a local resident asked where we were going, and was appalled to find that we planned to dig up parsnips in the snow - in fact he offered us £1 to go and buy some from Tesco. My reply was, I haven't spent all year growing the b*stards to leave them in the ground and go to Tesco!

Winter on the plot - pictures

2010-12-16T14:02:00.004Z

Here's a picture of my scarecrow who remains jolly despite the thick layer of frost.

A bit chilly

2010-12-09T10:59:00.001Z

The whole country has been stuck with sub-zero temperatures for a while now; no point in writing about that when so much has been written and said already (Google News returns over 5,500 articles on 'cold Britain') - the British obsession of talking about the weather knows no bounds when a couple of snowflakes arrive. I can stand the cold by wrapping up warm, and it can be a very pretty time of year, but it's the lack of daylight that really gets me.

As I haven't ventured out much lately, the kitchen scraps for the compost heap have been building up at home, so I was forced to venture to the plot to empty the overflowing caddy. It was five degrees below zero on my car's thermometer so I didn't stop long.

Everything was covered in a thick frost except for the pile stable manure that the council have dumped near the entrance, which was gently steaming and adding to the mist. I did take a couple of barrows of the stuff but it is mainly straw and wood shavings - the latter I have been warned not to use as soil improver as they actually decrease the nutrients available to plants while they rot.

I took the opportunity to retreive some more parsnips. Being so large I have only used a couple of them so far this winter, leaving plenty left for Christmas dinner. I expected the ground to be frozen like concrete but was pleasantly surprised to find there was just a thin frozen crust. Underneath it was, well, just soil. I turned a couple of spades over so the local robin red breast could have a go at finding some worms, then made my way home to defrost with a cup of cocoa.

Tomatoes: Don't believe the hype

2010-11-29T10:59:00.000Z

I have heard from various sources that you can successfully ripen green tomatoes by putting them in a drawer, box etc. with a banana. The gas released by the banana as it ripens will turn the tomatoes red. I am happy to confirm that this is complete rubbish. All you get are mouldy tomatoes, a wasted banana, and if you're really lucky some nasty liquid will dribble out of whatever container you're using. The best thing I have found for green tomatoes so far is to chuck 'em straight back on the compost heap.

Mice don't eat cheese they eat raw potatoes.

2010-11-20T18:56:00.000Z

Potatoes in store at the allotment have been attacked by mice, so we brought them home today. When you start growing vegetables you think the hard thing will be the actual growing of the plants. In fact the hard part is stopping every other living creature on the planet from eating your crop before you do.

Pumkin Harvest

2010-11-01T14:47:00.001Z

Moog and I have had some quite good results with butternut squash and pumpkins this year (pictured above). One big orange pumpkin (variety 'Mars') has already been eaten, along with two squashes (variety 'Avalon F1').

These will be saved for soups and for roasting as the winter draws in. I couldn't bear to risk wasting my home grown produce at halloween, so we bought some from the shops specifically to carve into lanterns.

Bizarrely, these were labelled as 'Extra Large Monsters versus Aliens Pumpkins from Outer Space.'

What a whopper!

2010-11-01T14:36:00.000Z

Here I make a rare personal appearance in the blog to show you my first parsnip which I dug this weekend. No need to dig more than one, as the one I eventually prised out of the ground was a whopping 2lb 8oz! delicious roasted with beef Wellington for my tea. This was planted in the 'magic' bed at the front of my plot, if only the whole plot had soil this good.

Jack Frost

2010-10-22T16:37:00.001+01:00

We have have now had two good frosts in a row, brilliant news for my parsnips! I will give them a couple more cold nights then they should be ready to try. I can't wait, the tops look brilliant this year. Here are some pictures of them in June and October.

Spuds are up

2010-10-22T16:36:00.003+01:00

Main potato harvest has revealed a whole barrow full of potatoes. 'Cara' the most successful, 'Sarpo Axona' less so, tending to be knobbly with rougher skins.

Beets, roots and leaves

2010-09-24T13:10:00.001+01:00

I have found beetroot fairly easy to grow. Particularly nice is that you can use the young leaves in a salad or instead of spinach. They seem pretty immune to pests, which is another good attribute. They're a bit bland on the dinner table, but Moog's favourite recipe is for me to pan-fry them in balsamic vinegar and olive oil and serve with crumbled Roquefort cheese.

I have just spent an hour or so pickling the last of my crop. I am left with astonishing purple fingernails as a result. I also have four jars of pickled beetroot. Looking at them, I realised that this probably represents more pickled beetroot than I have ever eaten in my life to date. So, another vegetable creeps onto the 'not going to grow that next year' list.

the great green giveaway

2010-09-23T11:46:00.003+01:00

Well, that went better than expected...

As previously mentioned, I did neglect the plot a bit toward the end of summer, and by the time the August Bank Holiday had been and gone there were a few large marrows lurking under the excessively spikey leaves of this year's courgette plants. Since we have tried, and got bored of, virtually every courgette recipe we could find over the last two years, they continued to lurk in the fridge for a couple of days. They sat there taking up a whole shelf, blocking out the little light, a brooding reminder of my culinary incompetence, before I hit upon the idea of taking them in to work as a 'holiday gift.' I promptly piled them into a basket and set off, to see what would happen when I let my unsuspecting colleagues assume the responsibility of what to do with them. Surprisingly they all went within a couple of hours, and I was even asked for more; amazing bunch, my colleagues. Suggestions ranged from Zucchini Bread (for the smaller fruits), to an ambitious-sounding marrow and ginger jam, some of which I was promised if the recipe went well (it did not). I went home with an empty basket and a light heart, finally relieved of responsibility for the blasted things and having made a change from all the packs foreign sweets and shortbread that appear in the shared kitchen at this time of year.

I very much enjoyed reading this humorous article on marrows in The Telegraph today, it seems I'm not alone in wondering what the hell to do with the things. People all across the land must be having the same thoughts. I think I will quietly forget to plant any courgettes next year. No-one really knows what to do with them anyway.

STOP PRESS: Apparently you can also use courgettes as bear repellant. You heard it here first:
Woman fights off bear with courgette

Autumn bargains

2010-09-14T15:44:00.001+01:00

I've been letting the allotment manage itself for a few weeks, and to not much ill-effect thankfully. I've been very busy re-styling my back garden at home, and won another award for my front garden over the summer too. Luckily a couple of hours weeding and mowing and it looks quite neat again. Perhaps because I started my allotment at this time of the year, I always see the end of the main summer harvest as the start of the new gardening year. So here we are again.

This year's plan is to be a bit more careful where I source my seeds etc. I tend to buy online from the biggest suppliers but I want to be a bit more frugal. First off, seed potatoes. I read in a magazine that there are only a few companies that actually grow seed potatoes, and they do sell direct - so I'm going to try and track them down, as when I've ordered from Thompson and Morgan I find they take ages and don't give me an ETA.

Second, this is a good time of year to visit the garden centre, just before they get their Christmas stock in. My favourite local centre, Wyvale Woburn Sands, are running an offer for their loyalty card customers of all packets of seeds 50p each! At that price, it makes sense to buy what they've got and not worry too much about specific varieties. They also sent me a £5 voucher recently, so I went and filled my boots with 10 packs of seeds, net cost, FREE! As a result I will be growing mangetout peas and dwarf green beans in 2011, along with a selection of flowers for cutting. Can't go wrong really, all of them have 2012 'best before' dates. The garden centres just want to have fresh stock at this time of year.

One packet was onions - I'm going to try them from seed. I'm always anxious to do some gardening at Christmas when it's too cold to go outside and I've heard boxing day is the best day to plant onion seeds.

Finally I'm going to grow some garlic from my own bulbs this year instead of buying them in. It's supposed to be the best way, and I've got plenty spare.

The wonder of peas

2010-08-04T11:33:00.000+01:00

My pea harvest is now over. I have been growing a variety called 'Kelvedon Wonder' for three seasons now, and I have realised where they get their name, it is because I am always left thinking 'I wonder what's happened to all my peas.' Time for a change next season I think.

A ridiculously small harvest again this year, I suspect mainly due to drought. No pea moth attacks this year though, due to my ingenious mesh cage, created from bamboo canes, held together with old drinks bottles to stop the canes poking through the net. Excellent fine grade insect mesh purchased online from Harrod Horticultural. Best not to think about how much time, effort and money went into growing about 5 grams of peas.

This is an ex-worm. Thhhhhpppp!

2010-07-19T20:35:00.000+01:00

Well I found out why my supply of worm fertiliser has dried up, as my worms have shuffled off this mortal coil, are pushing up the daisies, have f**king snuffed it. So off to the worm farm for more worms. Meanwhile my nettle tea seems to be doing the trick.

Also today I just thought I'd write that I'm sick of raspberry picking, every time I go to the plot to do something there are hundreds more ripe raspberries to pick before they go over-ripe. I shouldn't moan, really, should I, but I've only got a small freezer. Just wizzed a load of them up with some ice cream to make fresh raspberry ice cream. Yum.

Garlic Harvest

2010-07-12T20:34:00.000+01:00

July is the time to harvest garlic, as the foliage turns yellow. Here is one of my first, a variety called Iberian Wight, next to a golf ball to show how big it has grown. Pete, who has the plot opposite mine, said it was the best he'd ever seen (I promptly gave him a bulb to take home for that). That was very nice of him but to be honest, I can't remember seeing anyone else growing garlic anywhere near by, so not sure what he based that on... it is pretty good though.

June update: Underground biscuits and the beans have gone nuts

2010-06-23T13:53:00.005+01:00

I earthed-up my potatoes recently, to ensure a greater depth of soil directly over the plants. I used my azada to draw soil from the edge of the beds to the middle. After the first couple of scrapes I found a bit of plastic in the soil - no great surprise there, I often find buried rubbish - so, assuming it was an old compost bag I gave it a tug. Up came half a packet of chocolate digestive biscuits. I'm not sure if I can adequately describe my shock at that moment, since they were actually quite fresh, a good 4 months off their sell-by date. I went and showed them to my neighbour, who was equally bemused. I can only assume some animal (squirrel? fox? the beast of Wolverton? The Moog?) has buried them there for safe keeping and will be disappointed to come back and find my potatoes instead.

Overall the plot is looking very healthy at the moment. The broad beans, in the ground since last autumn, have been threatening to produce useable pods for some time now. I kept checking but they were always too small, until about the second week of June when they finally reached maturity - all at once. So I have a bit of a broad bean glut on my hands. Luckily they freeze well whilst I find things to do with them! You can see clearly in the picture below the notches on the edge of the leaves, this means the plants have suffered the attention of 'Pea and Bean Weevil' again. These little beetles' sole purpose in life is to eat peas and beans. I wonder what they ate before I started planting peas and beans on this plot?

I have been quite careful to defend my crops from attack this year, but have still made some mistakes. My kohl rabi has been decimated by something, all leaves stripped to stalks. I assumed slugs, and liberally applied pellets until the same thing happened (quite literally, overnight) to my nice row of radish seedlings. they were coming up well, after I companion-planted them inside a ring of garlic. I called in my neighbour John for his opinion, and he suggested birds are to blame, probably pigeons. This makes sense, and on checking my reference books I drew the same conclusion. So, more netting and wire have been employed, plus my rather jolly scarecrow has been brought out of his winter hiding place to look after everything when I'm not there.

Worms and horse manure soup

2010-06-23T13:19:00.001+01:00

The worms have gone a bit quiet in my wormery, producing less liquid feed than I am used to. Really I need to face up to the job of emptying the whole stinking, festering mess out and returning the worms minus the compost they've made, but for fairly obvious reasons I've been putting that job off. Therefore I have been trying other ways of generating my own fertiliser. The first is to collect some of my comfrey and stinging nettles and submerge them in a bucket of water. I am led to believe the resulting 'tea' is a good tonic for plants. Second, I have put some horse manure in a trug and covered that with water too. Drawing off the resulting brown ooze is not for the faint hearted, and only marginally beter than tipping out the wormery, but I've started mixing that in to my watering can at a rate of about 1/4 brown ooze, 3/4 water. I got the idea from Terry Walton's book 'My Life on a Hillside Allotment', although the technique is not described in detail he does mention making fertiliser from bracken and sheep manure. Hopefully my version will do some good and not totally burn my plants, time will tell.

No more bare knees

2010-05-24T16:42:00.001+01:00

I learned not to wear sandals to the allotment last year when I got bitten by ants, this year I have also learned not to wear shorts. I was bitten by a solitary (and now very dead) ant on Saturday morning that crawled up onto my kneeling pad, and my knee has subsequently swelled up quite dramatically in reaction. Ants are now top of my hit list. Hopefully, many of them will be taken care of by application of the new Grow Your Own nematodes, which apparently contain a microscopic worm that ants cannot stand. Whilst it doesn't actually kill them, it makes them move out! It also covers a host of other pests, so I'm going to give it a go. Another weapon in the armoury against little beasties that want to eat my crops before me.

Distinct absence of April showers

2010-04-28T21:06:00.000+01:00

It's been a very dry April, the soil is now rock solid and splitting in big cracks that I would only expect to see at the height of summer. Hopefully adding all the compost will help with that - I've stopped sifting it through the bread crate and just started chucking it by the wheelbarrow-full onto the beds that need it. Sifting would be great in a perfect world but I'll just rake out the big bits instead.

First signs of carrot seedlings this week, they've actually come up faster than my radishes which is a surprise, but it's been too dry for small seeds to germinate properly. Also this month I've been using my liquid worm compost to fertilise my garlic and flowering broad beans. I've also had a big bonfire of old weeds and branches thanks to the dry spell, and collected a bucket full of wood ash which has been spread on my plot. Hopefully all these measures will lead to better crops this year.

Purple sprouting broccoli has now gone purple and started sprouting in abundance, except that half of it has been stripped off by birds. So I've had to construct a big netting pyramid to try and keep them off. I shant bother growing much in the way of brassicas in the future, there are just too many pests out to get them. I am already plotting what to grow next year, and intend to ditch a few of the boring potatoes and onions for something a bit more unusual, now I'm getting the hang of growing stuff.

Easter update

2010-04-06T21:21:00.004+01:00

I've just had a week off work and managed to get loads done on the plot. Spring has definitely kicked in, as the weeds have started growing - neighbour John told me that's the best way to tell if it's time to plant you're own seeds.

The local farmer I mentioned in my previous post has turned up trumps. I phoned him on Monday morning and within the hour he turned up at the allotments in a big digger, with two tons of compost in the front bucket. A bargain at £25, it is composted green waste collected by the council and rotted down in huge, steaming silos on his farm.

It is a bit coarse, having bits of stick and branch in it, so I have been sorting it through an old shop bread crate before adding it to the beds. I've been adding about four wheelbarrow loads per bed, and I still think that I could probably add more, but that is about as much compost as I can stand to sort through the holes in a bread crate in one go.

The onions I planted have started to come up, and it turns out they are shallots. That's good because that is what I wanted to plant first. The rest of the onions went in last week, red and white.

This evening I planted my first potatoes of the year, ones that survived The Moog's efforts to eat them raw, called Blue Danube. I also dug over another bed in less than 30 minutes, with my azada purchased from Get Digging. It would have taken me at least a couple of hours with a spade, and I would have aggravated my back too - no such problems with the new tool. I have yet to decide what to call it; one of my neighbours called it an axe-hoe, which I think suits it a bit better than azada. Apparently there is an ex-Ghurka here who has one very similar, and he reputedly dug his whole plot barefoot using it, after turning down the loan of a British spade.

Things to do in March

2010-03-25T13:47:00.002Z

If you visit any gardening website this month, pretty much all you will find is "a list of things to do in March." I assume this is because the journalists are all too busy enjoying our recent spells of milder weather to write anything new and are happy to post the same thing they did last year.

Anyway, here is what I've done in March, which is different to last year:

Planted Sunflower and Gazania seeds - never grown Gazanias before, got them free off the front of a magazine and not sure where I will put them yet. They're coming up already.
Put a load of Chive seeds in, these I collected last year from my own plants so not sure if they will germinate, I have patchy results with collecting seed.
Planted some squash seeds. I have read (in a list of things to do in March) that squashes benefit from early planting because they take so long to reach maturity, so I've popped some seeds of 'Avalon F1' in pots on the windowsill.

Other things happening on the plot this month include burning of old rubbish that has been stacked up since August waiting for a dry spell to burn it, and adding organic fertiliser to my garlic and onions. Well I think they're onions, they could be shallots, I don't know. I've also dug up most of my compost heap and used the compost on a couple of beds, but I will need a load more for the rest of the plot. As mentioned before, I don't think I've been adding enough. I have the number of a local farmer who I'm told will deliver a trailer-full of locally composted green waste on his tractor, I will try this and report back.

Digging it

2010-03-04T20:13:00.001Z

I can't seem to bend in the middle these days. So, I've been looking at ways that I can still achieve what I want without hurting myself.

Normal spades and forks are just too short. So the first thing I tried was a long-handled shovel. I've seen these advertised as Irish or Cornish shovels, but I always think of them as American, the sort you see in the movies with a long handle. This is OK, but it's very heavy, and really isn't much use for proper digging, because the pointed, curved blade is the wrong shape. It is still great for shifting compost and, unsurprisingly, shovelling. The label on it said 'good for shovelling material.' clearly the person in charge of labelling had run out of ideas that day.

Second I considered the no-dig technique. This is more complicated than it sounds - it's described all over the web, so I won't repeat it here, if you're interested there are several good articles on Charles Dowding's website. I've discounted using the full version of this technique, mainly because of the huge volume of compost that seems to be needed for it to be really effective, but also because I'm not convinced that it's the best answer for my soil. I think, on reflection, I just haven't been adding enough compost, manure etc to my plot. The amounts described in the no-dig technique are massively higher than I've been using.

Finally, we come to my new friend, pictured above, the Azada, a tool imported from Spain by Get Digging. The Get Digging website is well worth a look, there are literally hundreds of customer testimonials on there as well as descriptions of the tool itself, as well as lots of other backsaver tools. Intrigued, I ordered a heavy-medium azada a couple of weeks ago and waited anxiously for the snow to melt so I could see if it was all it was cracked up to be. Well. I don't like to speak too soon, but I think this could be what I've been waiting for. It's really easy to use, you chop into the ground with the heavy blade, and lever the soil up with the long handle, no bending required. You have to be quite energetic, but it doesn't put the stress directly on your spine like a spade. Brilliant! I've used it twice now, and so far, quite a lot of digging done and no bad back. I reserve my final judgement until I get the chance to do a bit more with it, but so far, I'm very impressed.

Give me a break!

2010-03-03T13:33:00.000Z

When digging at the front of my plot I keep thinking 'if only my whole plot had soil like this.' So, as previously discussed here, I decided to move my compost heap away from the front of my plot, in the hope that there would be good soil underneath. Early signs are good, the soil looks quite crumbly (gardeners say 'friable', not sure why, when 'crumbly' will do). I started with enthusiasm, but I forgot the joys of unearthing buried treasure such as broken glass, rubbish and bricks on a neglected plot. Here is a picture of the giant lump of concrete which seriously slowed my progress with the new bed. Eventually I levered it out with my long shovel, but I can't lift it, so it may have to stay as a 'feature.'

Progress

2010-03-03T13:20:00.004Z

Progress is being made on my 2010 plans. In the photo below, you can see:
Front right, garlic, planted using a sort of semi 'no dig' method. More on that later. Behind that, new location for the compost heap. Further behind that, the area to be used for more compost, & maybe my storage chest; in front of the shed, I will just lay to grass for now (whilst looking at this area try not to look at John's pristine plot next door. I find it helps to cover one eye). Middle left, you can just see this year's overwintered broad beans, and just in frame on the front left, is the cage for my purple sprouting broccoli, which at the present time is neither purple nor sprouting.

Plotting changes

2010-02-22T20:30:00.003Z

I think it is fair to say I'm not the only person who is fed up with the snow. I've been itching to get out on the plot and do something, and have been using the cold snap to do some head-scratching, ably assisted by the commonsense-rich Mrs Moog Keeper.

I had a fairly poor season last year, with swede, radish, peas, potatoes and carrots all doing badly. Mrs Moog Keeper was the first to spot the obvious dividing line, with one half of the plot doing well and the other badly. I think there are two explanations, both equally plausible. These are: (a) it has never really been worked very much at all, the natural soil is poor and everyone who's used it in the past has given up; or (b) it has been over-worked, the soil is exhausted of nutrients and there is a build-up of pests and diseases. I think this second explanation is more likely, and it makes me feel better, because it means it's not my fault.

To combat this poor performance we've decided to have a bit of a shuffle around. The poorest beds will become, variously, a storage area, compost heap, and rough lawn; this will then free up some space on the other side of the plot which I haven't worked before. Time will tell if the soil under there is any good. It will also mean I concentrate my efforts on the more productive side of the plot, with the aim of improving both crop yields and morale in equal measures.

Moog thinks all this is an excellent idea, but then, as we know, Moogs can't think. He's probably a bit spaced out from eating raw potatoes, anyway.

Moog the Unpopular

2010-02-22T19:57:00.002Z

I received my seed potatoes, onions and shallots by post last week. They were accidentally left on the floor in the kitchen overnight, and I woke up to find that Moog and his accomplice had been inside the box. Casualty count: One bag of seed potatoes totally consumed (why??) and the onions and shallots have been mixed up, so now I don't know which is which.

2010 plans

2010-02-02T19:20:00.006Z

I've been asked what I'm growing this year and I can never remember, so here for the delight of my readers but largely for my own memory, are my plans for 2010.

1. Carrots. I had problems with carrot fly in 2009, virtually all my carrots were ruined, so I've left spaces to companion-plant in between my rows of garlic, as I did in my first year. I have also bought Flyaway, the variety I had success with in 2008.

2. Coriander, I will try growing this again, because we use a lot, but it seems to go to seed almost before you get any useable leaves. I think it needs more sunshine than I was able to supply last year.

3. Beans, I am sticking with my favourite Cobra French beans. I have also been promised some runner bean seeds by neighbour John, who is now back from his hernia operation and has reclaimed his plot from the weeds. Again these didn't perform so well in 2009 so I have been slowly, slowly preparing the bean bed by digging fresh kitchen waste and horse manure into a trench and then filling it in.

3. Beetroot, I am going to try a variety called Detroit 6, which are supposed to be better than the variety I grew last year. I was quite pleased with what I grew despite the beets only getting to about golf ball size.

4. Courgettes, you can always rely on these. They seem to produce loads of fruit, even if they get mildew. I'm going to grow a variety called Fender F1, and avoid the yellow ball type we grew last year, because although they were OK they mostly went to waste because they spoiled really quickly after picking. I think there was also some hybrid pollenation which caused some wierd-looking and unusable half green, half yellow fruits.

5. Leeks, these will be the same variety as last year, Porvite, and they'll be planted this week indoors, time permitting.

6. Parsnips. I love roast parsnips but haven't really had good specimens yet, so I'm going to put the variety Gladiator F1 in my favourite, most productive bed, which happily sits at the front of my plot where everyone can see it.

7. Onions. Nothing exciting but a staple in the kitchen: Red (Red Baron) White (Santero) and Shallots (Picasso) all on order from Thompson & Morgan. Not the fastest of suppliers but a good range and it's easy to use their website.

8. Radish. I'll stick some of these in wherever I can. Last year the leaves were decimated by flea beatle (again) and slugs took bites out of the actual radishes, rendering most of them useless, but I'll give them a go because they come up fairly easily and I might get lucky.

9. Peas. Apart from the very first harvest (about 1 meal worth) most of these were riddled with pea moth larvae in 2009, but I am going to try Kelvedon Wonder again, this time paying better attention to the dates you're supposed to avoid to steer clear of moths.

10. Pumpkins . A Halloween variety, for fun. Grew some very small but delicious green pumkins last year and they stored for ages, which is a big positive as far as we're concerned, you don't have to eat them all at once.

11. Squash We had great success by just planting seeds from a supermarket-bought squash, so this year we're going to try a proper British variety, Avalon.

12. Chard. I have now grown this two years running and it grows slowly, but nothing seems to attack it, so it is a good standby to add colour to a stir fry, or just braised with garlic and served on the side of a roast. Also it looks smashing on the plot with its big glossy leaves.

And finally...
13. Potatoes.. Again, a really disappointing harvest last year, various diseases and mystery problems, so I'm going for slightly different varieties this year - Cara, and Sarpo Axona, both supposed to be disease resistant, and similar to the Sarpo Mira I have grown for the last couple of years. Fingers crossed it won't be wasted effort this year.

So, there you have it. This little lot will join the garlic and broad beans that I planted in the autumn. Hope my bad back buggers off and lets me prepare the ground properly.

2009-11-10T13:15:00.000Z

Think positive

2009-10-28T21:29:00.003Z

Quick list of problems suffered this year: Leek rust, onion white rot, onion stem rot, potato blight, potato black stem rot, potato scab, eelworm, cabbage whites, whitefly, carrot fly, slugs, snails, pea and bean moth, red ants, flea beetles, untold weeds, and cat turds. Sorry, I said quick list. There are probably more that I've forgotten...

Finally time to write!

2009-10-28T20:52:00.006Z

Finding time to write has been difficult recently, but work continues apace down at the allotments. I am motivated to write having just finished making a batch of fresh leek and potato soup, made from two crops that have fared very differently this year.

First of all, I am pleased to report that the leeks have been very successful, in size at least, they are a bit rusty again but that doesn't really affect the eating quality. Last year's were like pencils, these are proper leeks. The variety was 'Porvite' and they have come up nicely. Still not quite as good as I'd hoped, but I blame the long dry spell in August and September this year for stressing out my crops. I have tried a tip, which was to coat the tiny spots of rust with vaseline when they first appear, this stops the fungal spores from spreading. I can confirm that this doesn't work at all. I remember being impressed when I saw my neighbour harvesting his leeks when I first started, now I've got some to match. The smell, in particular, is amazing.

Potatoes have been terrible this year. I grew three varieties and had really small crops from all three. I mean, really small - only two or three potatoes under each plant, when I would expect a good bag full. I tried a 'heritage' variety, with dark blue skin and creamy white flesh, called Mr Little's Yetholm Gypsy. They plants grew well but the potatoes were small and knobbly, meaning that by the time you've peeled them and cut out all the bad bits, you've not got much left. Now I know why people stopped growing heritage varieties. I have still had some success with Sarpo Mira, thankfully enough to make my soup.

New pictures

2009-07-02T11:46:00.005+01:00

Time for some pictures from the plot which have been lacking whilst I worked out how to use my new phone. Here is my beautifully painted shed, along with the Moog looking wistfully at nothing in particular, and my new Summer Ball courgettes which are more exciting than the usual green variety.

Weeds for Sale

2009-06-25T15:28:00.003+01:00

Some wild flowers and plants are very beautiful, but I'd draw the line at deliberately introducing the invasive ones into a cultivated plot or garden. Not so for everyone, it seems.

My eye was drawn to a very overgrown looking area in my local garden centre the other day. 'That looks like weeds,' I thought. On taking a closer look, not only were they weeds, but they were for sale! I nearly dialled 999, Mrs Moog Keeper had to drag me away. They were in packs of six for £10, including teasel, creeping buttercup and other nasties. What were they thinking of, I wondered. "Wild Meadow Flowers" was the answer on the label! Ha! Weeds! I wasn't surprised to see they didn't seem to be selling very quickly.

Well, please do not rush out and buy a pack, I can offer FREE OF CHARGE any weed you like, fresh and organically grown direct from my plot! Please do come down and you can pick your own, if you want to. Then you too can be over-run forevermore with the damn things.

Beans, lots of beans, lots of beans...

2009-06-09T14:09:00.004+01:00

I thought I would take a few moments to extol the virtues of growing your own broad beans.

Like me, you may have a pathalogical distrust of broad beans, no doubt suffering from the same post-traumatic stress disorder after being fed those horrible, grey, leather-coated blobs of yuk from the freezer compartment. However, last autumn, still high on the excitement of the summer harvest, I took the plunge and planted a packet of "Aquadulce" overwintering broad beans. Overwintering means exactly what it says, they survive the winter to give you an early crop. Behind a chicken wire fence they were safe from marauding bunnies and they shrugged off the worst snowfall for 20 years, to give a little cheer in the dark winter months.

You get several crops for your money; pinch out the tips of the plants when they reach a decent size, have them in salads; stir fry the immature pods; then, before long, we have beans, lots of beans, lots of beans lots of beans, just like the cow who was disappeared by Magical Trevor:
www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/magical+trevor/

This is the best bit: They taste nice! Steamed for a couple of minutes they taste sweet and fresh, in fact a bit like peas, rather than the grey powdery things of my youth. Finally, because they are legumes, they will fix lots of nitrogen into the soil, via the little white nodules on their roots, so they help the next plants along as well.

So, with this sort of four-way payout from the humble broad bean, it would be hard not to be converted. Moog doesn't really like them, he just gives me his forlorn "hey, this isn't food" face; I don't know, it's hard to tell what he's thinking these days, especially as he's gone stone deaf since this time last year.

Whooosh... brum brumm.

2009-05-18T17:51:00.005+01:00

Oops. Whoosh, there goes April. And most of May. Time flies...

The grass and weeds are growing like crazy, and I spent far too much of my time last year mowing grass. So I decided to procure mechanical assistance. Item 1, petrol strimmer. After a few false starts this proved to be a lot better than my old battery powered one, no surprises there. Grateful thanks to Wise Mike for the gift. I have to say it is the noisiest thing I have heard for a long time, and have to wear ear defenders just to look at it. Brumm, brum! Or, WAAAAAAAAAAAGH more like.

Item 2, petrol lawnmower (oops, whooosh, there goes my carbon footprint). This came from someone else called Mike, and I haven't tried it yet. It is the sort that goes along by itself so I can't help being a bit worried about careering over all my crops by mistake. We'll see what happens. Long grass beware! Here I come! Poop! Poop!*

*(that's a Mr Toad reference in case you didn't get it)

No mention of April should go by without mentioning my wonderful wife, who as a birthday gift painted my whole shed, and provided me with all sorts of domestic items to keep in it, like cups, washing up liquid etc. and a box to keep it all in. A merry little scarecrow is also now standing outside. I was particularly impressed yesterday to find a jar of instant hot chocolate, so I had a cup whilst waiting for a long rainstorm to pass.

Time is an illusion

2009-03-23T15:50:00.003Z

Over the weekend I was accused by a friend of being old before my time. Judging by my screaming back muscles after an afternoon of digging the plot on Sunday, I wondered if he wasn’t far off the mark.

But what does old, or indeed time, actually mean? I’m reminded of a Douglas Adams quote: Time is an illusion; lunchtime, doubly so.”

For example, time is dilated for the young. My five-year old niece was bitterly disappointed that the seeds she had chosen in the garden centre didn’t germinate overnight. Then, a week later, when called in to see the magical little seedlings starting to sprout, she was still disappointed, if not completely indifferent to them. I suppose from her perspective, she’s got a point. After all, seedlings look nothing like the picture on the packet, and nothing like the ranks of perfect nursery-grown plants on sale, either. With only tales of the magic beanstalk to base her knowledge of seeds on, she can’t be expected to think long-term.

There was a time when I lived for the moment, too. I still do in some ways, preferring not to let words like ‘pension’ or ‘savings’ tarnish an otherwise good day, but in other ways my age is showing. I used to drink to get drunk, and hang the consequences. Now, I’m ever so careful not to get a hangover. I just can’t stand losing a whole day.

So, I wondered what had caused the change, and if gardening really had made me old before my time. I certainly can’t take things one day at a time any more. How could I? If I didn’t prepare things last autumn, I’d have no garlic this summer. If I didn’t order my potatoes in time, I wouldn’t get to choose the varieties I grow. If I didn’t take the time to dry my onions… the list goes on. In fact, as my hard-working wife will attest, I spend more time wandering up and down the plot, with a crumpled plan waving in the breeze, than I ever spend weeding or digging.

But I’ve decided I’m not old, and gardening is not to blame, because it’s all about the anticipation. From the first moment of putting those seeds in the ground, I’m like a five-year old again, willing them to grow overnight, and wondering what they’re going to look like in the morning.

“Youth is wasted on the young.” – George Bernard Shaw

Now, where’s my flat cap?

Even more free stuff, and wee.

2009-03-23T15:42:00.002Z

Arriving just too late for my Free Stuff post were about 12 paving slabs, gratefully received from another colleague at work, which will be used as a patio for The Moog to sun himself on. I say 'about 12' because they were so heavy I have lost the power to count over 10.

Next was some free compost activator. Well, wee actually. Sorry, I have to mention this, as Mrs Moog Keeper was horrified that, not to go into too much detail, I had decided to produce my own nitrogen-rich fertiliser. To prove I didn't make it up, here is a quote from The Allotment Keeper's Handbook (not to be confused with the Moog-keeper) p.170:

"...include some human urine to boost nitrogen levels. Yes, you did read that last sentence correctly. Your pee is a high-nutrient treat for your heap, virtually sterile and not in short supply."

Perrone, J. (2007) The Allotment Keeper's Handbook, London, Atlantic Books.

I told you it was true.

More free stuff, "tick V.G."

2009-03-15T20:30:00.004Z

I thought it was time for a quick Free Stuff update, as it is the allotmentalists favourite type of stuff.

The autumn planting garlic and onions that I received from a work colleague are all doing well. I was given quite a few leftover sets and bulbs, which I bolstered with some more that I had to pay for, so enough about those for now.

Moog and I have recently had a couple of offers of free compost from family members, which is great because I need loads. I have already used up nearly all my compost from last year so any extra is very welcome.

First stop was Wise Mike's, who had too much to use in his own garden and was happy to reclaim some free space in his enormous compost heap. I bought some sturdy bags, which I carefully left at home, but luckily Wise Mike lived up to his name and had some bags ready for me to fill. The compost is lovely stuff, well, lovely once the old socks, bits of wood etc. were sifted out. It has already been used up and I hope to be off to get some more soon. Next stop will be free compost from Moog's favorite auntie, otherwise known as my big sis. So much to do, so little time.

Finally this weekend I have planted the first of my free seeds from Youfarm.org, I decided to get a few lettuces underway. Just a few this time, as I was a bit over-run with lettuce last summer. Also planted, for free, were some marigold seeds harvested from last year's flowers, all planted in free paper pots made at home from free newspapers.

All this talk of free stuff reminds me of The Good Life, they repeated the whole series on UKTV Gold last year and The Moog insisted we watch every episode. Well worth watching, I thought,(1) for jokes surrounding growing your own food, and (2) for the delightful Felicity Kendal.

Tick, V.G.! as Tom Good would say.

Allotments in the news

2009-02-20T16:08:00.003Z

The National Trust have announced that they're going to turn some of their land over to alloments, which is good news all round now allotments are trendy again. There's lots in the news, this article from The Telegraph is a good example.

Quote:

"Digging the first new potato is better for body and soul than turning into one on a couch."

I couldn't agree more. I've been developing a couch-shaped arse and it's got to stop!

Free seeds

2009-02-05T21:22:00.005Z

I have been introduced to a character called Phil, who, just likeThe Moog and me, started growing his own vegetables last year. Like me, he enjoyed it, and in fact, was so taken with it, he decided to set up his own venture to get everyone doing the same. What can I say? Respect! Have a look now:
http://www.youfarm.org/

I put my name down for Phil's free seed pack, and here it is, some things I've grown before, some I haven't. Looking forward to getting them started. My favourites are the Swede (because they are such small seeds) and the spinach (because they are green).

Insert snow-based pun here.

2009-02-05T19:39:00.007Z

Well there's nothing I can do outside this week, with Broken Britain in the grip of Arctic snows.
I popped down after the first dusting of white stuff on Monday to take some photos of plot 29, but it's not really very picturesque at Stacey Hill. I thought the old farm machinery in the museum yard next door looked quite forlorn, so I took pictures of that instead.

Mouse in the House

2009-01-18T09:49:00.005Z

In the excitement of a visit to the plot, it's remarkably easy to forget things that you wanted to take with you. For me, this applies even to such things as the actual packet of seeds I was going there to plant in the first place. I have now invested in a camo bodywarmer, which as well as making me feel manly, has numerous pockets for me to keep things I always need, like my penknife and bits of string.

To further combat forgetfulness and to reduce the weight of things to carry on my bike, I leave my old walking boots and a waterproof coat in the shed. Unfortunately the coat got taken over by all sorts of creepy crawlies in the autumn and was chucked out. The boots are still there, but I favour wellies at this time of year as the clay sticks like the proverbial sh*t to a blanket. However, as you can no doubt guess, I forgot my wellies last week.

The boots always receive a careful pre-use inspection, especially since I was scared out of my skin by a mouse hiding under a hessian sack. Thankfully, I did not find a mouse. No, during last week's check I found 4 peanuts, carefully stored for future use by some small allotment resident! I tipped them out and left them in a little pile, which was gone by the time I returned. It is a strange feeling to be sharing my shed with invisible guests.

Keeping busy

2009-01-18T09:32:00.004Z

My friend Tom thought it would be all quiet on the allotment front at this time of year, but allotmentalism is an all-year round sport. He was surprised to find me planting leek and sweet pea seeds on the kitchen table last Sunday. We used a paper potter, which seems to be a good way of using up some of the many free newspapers people keep pushing through our door (much to the annoyance of the Moog). It was a Christmas present from Maria and Cameron, thanks guys. The seeds are already starting to show their little green heads.

Meanwhile, down on plot 29, work continues apace whenever the weather allows. I've started digging over beds and straightening up the paths - my plan is to narrow my paths to gain more growing space and use the woodchips supplied by the local council to cut down on the amount of lawnmowing I have to do in the summer. I wasted considerable effort on mowing and strimming paths in 2008.

The Moog, the Moog's friend and Mrs Moog-Keeper came to the plot yesterday and whilst Moog and his friend played with empty plastic bottles, we broke our backs trying to turn over one of my claggy clay beds. The west side of my plot has quite poor soil, and it really needs improving fast. I am going to have to bite the bullet and buy some horticultural grade grit from the garden centre at some point to break up the clay. Before that, though, I was pleased to use the first of my very own compost. All the stuff I've been chucking on the heap for over a year now has turned into some lovely soft soil conditioner. Let's hope it does the trick.

Christmas has gone, and so have my spuds

2009-01-12T11:25:00.006Z

I’m pleased to report Christmas dinner back at Moog HQ was a success. My allotment provided three of the vegetables on the table, even though it’s been months since the end of the growing season. The lamb was particularly nice seasoned with my own garlic and rosemary. The butcher kindly sawed the knuckle for Moog to enjoy, too!

Unfortunately this delicious meal also spelled the end for my stored potatoes, but they lasted really well and I didn’t throw any away. I tipped half a tray of scalding vegetable oil all over the floor whilst trying to roast them, but I didn’t lose any spuds! I’m now very impatiently waiting for my order of new tubers to be delivered so I can start chitting them ready for the new season. I hope they arrive soon; it’s a tense time. They took ages to arrive last year, but it’s a gamble; if they don’t arrive I won’t be able to get replacements as all the garden centres will sell out. I’m sure they’ll be here soon; I’ve got Moog looking out for the postman.

I’m also back to buying carrots from the supermarket, boo! It’s only now we’ve gone back to mass-produced varieties that we can really tell the difference in taste. Mine were so much more, err, carroty, than the ones you can buy in the shops.

My own parsnips also taste much better. I cooked a massive pot full of these on Christmas day and there were hardly any leftovers, which I take to be a good sign. I’ve got a few still in the ground which Moog thinks we should lift and roast soon, because the tops have now been virtually killed off by the cold. The roots are storing well in the soil but with no tops, I can’t find them!

We took advantage of one of the less cold days lately to dig up the remainder of the tiny leeks, which had started to attract the attention of some local wildlife (I presume hungry rabbits). This, at least, shows it’s not been a waste of time protecting crops with wire. Although small, they cook up alright and taste better than shop-bought ones too. Next job: plant some more!

Looking forward

2008-12-24T11:37:00.004Z

I've loved having a shed full of vegetables this autumn. That has pleased me even more than all the fresh stuff that was available all summer. So to cheer myself up I've sat down with the seed catalogues and ordered the following:

Potatoes: Sarpo Mira as my main crop again, to resist blight, plus smaller amounts of a couple of other fun looking early varieties to try out.
Onions: Red and brown. My autumn planted onions are doing very well but I've heard they don't keep as long as proper spring planted sets.
Garlic: My autumn-planted garlic is looking very sorry for itself, the soil is so heavy I think some cloves have rotted off in the ground, so I've ordered some more for spring planting ,just in case. I saw a good technique on Gardener's World for planting them: Mix in plenty of sand to the soil for drainage, then plant the cloves on ridges in the soil, so they don't sit in water. Shame I didn't think of that sooner.

Now just got to sit back and wait for it all to arrive!

Christmas Harvest

2008-12-24T11:20:00.004Z

I've now been to the plot and harvested most of my Christmas dinner, something I've been looking forward to for ages!

First on the list was a big bag of parsnips. There were plenty of these in good condition, good news as I love parsnips! The cold should have sweetened them up nicely. If they didn't take so long to germinate, parsnips would be the perfect vegetable, as no pests eat them, not even the tops, and they can withstand frost and snow. They were absolutely covered in thick mud, though, as the plot was very damp. I will grow more of these next year.

Second, carrots, out of their sand storage boxes. Thankfully they were still in there, and had not been stolen by the person who forced the lock off my shed. Not quite as good as I'd hoped, but still OK. The ones I stored in compost from a grow-bag are in better condition than the ones in sand. That is good news as I can re-use the grow-bag compost for improving my soil. I now know you can leave carrots in the ground until quite late, too, so I'll try that next time.

Third stop at the plot was plenty of fresh rosemary for the lamb. All the herbs in the supermarket had sold out this week (although they had no shortage of sprouts), so I may put some herbs in pots next year and try to keep them through winter.

Finally, I've still got plenty of spuds in the shed for Christmas dinner, plus garlic and onions if I need them. The Sarpo Mira potatoes I grew avoided all blight and keep really well, but they don't make the best roast potatoes which is a shame. I reckon they'd be nicer if I used goose fat or beef dripping to roast them, but we've got a vegetarian coming for Christmas! Curses!

Unfortunately I've had to buy leeks, as my diminutive specimens have now started to receive the attention of the plot rabbits.. but there's always next year. I can't wait.

Britain in Bloom

2008-12-09T20:31:00.009Z

Here are the promised pictures of my garden, winner of Best Small Garden in Wolverton 2008. Having seen these again, I'm glad I uploaded them in the depths of winter. It's warming to have a reminder of what things are like at the opposite end of the year. Enjoy.

The Joy of Soup

2008-11-19T16:45:00.005Z

One of the things about having lots of vegetables laying about is trying to think of what to do with them so they're not wasted. For example, I've lost count of the number of different ways I've served courgettes - our poor friends and family have had them in any number of guises all summer. Mind you, the Chinese fried courgette sticks never stay on the plate long.

So, my new favourite thing to do with a big stack of vegetables is make soup. I've never done it before, and even if I say so myself, my first efforts have been a resounding success. I should explain, my earliest experience of making soup. It was late 1995, and involved a packet of powdered mushroom and garlic soup from my best man's kitchen cupboard. We decided it would be a great idea to make it at around 3am, but we both fell asleep waiting for it and boiled the pan dry, much to the chagrin of his ever-patient wife who was trying to sleep through the noise and disgusting smell of our drunken antics. Therefore, I thought making 'real' soup would be really hard, and involve large black pots bubbling away for several days, maybe carefully adding eye of newt and toe of frog every four hours, only for the whole thing to get spoiled if someone rings the doorbell and distracts me. But no, they're dead easy.

So far I have made leek and potato (which nicely hides the diminutive stature of my leeks) and carrot and coriander. Both delicious, filling, and 100% nicer than anything I've ever had out of a tin or packet.

Autumn photo gallery

2008-11-19T16:10:00.014Z

In my continued effort to keep up to date, here are a few photos from the last few months down on the plot.

First, my sunflowers eventually started producing blooms, and we had a fair few vases full of these in the house for a while. I happened to notice them on sale in the florists for an extortionate amount! Mine cost the price of a pack of seeds, about £2, and now, of course, I have an airing cupboard full of free seeds for next year! The hyperbole on the seed packet led me to believe I would need sunglasses to look at these, and people would be coming from far and wide to view my many-coloured blooms. Far from becoming something of a local celebrity, I was a bit disappointed that the ‘harlequin’ seeds produced mostly bog-standard yellow flowers.

I was quite excited at the beginning of autumn, planning what to plant for next year, but the excitement has worn off in the face of regular rain showers and the return to GMT which have both been keeping me off the plot.

Here, however, are pictures of my first winter veg. Parsnips have been slowly growing away all year, thanks to early identification by John they didn’t get pulled up. They’re nice and sweet.

Pak Choi are now coming along well. These are to be used in the spring, or whenever they are big enough. I seem to have solved the flea beetle problem by applying simple cardboard collars (as seen on Gardener’s World) and covering them with a mini polytunnel, excellent value from B&Q only £9.99. Also in the polytunnel are spring onions and overwintering lettuce. I’ll see how the spring onions get on, but I may not bother with many more of those – they’re easy to grow but never seem to be ready when I want them, and don’t seem to store well – when they’re so ridiculously cheap in the shops all year round I might devote the space to something else.

Not pictured here are my leeks. I couldn’t get a picture because they’re too small for the human eye to detect. The biggest ones are only like the baby leeks you get from the supermarket. I suspect a combination of poor soil and late planting out.

Everyone else at Stacey Hill seems to have grown leeks as big as American fire hydrants, with their luxuriant, rust-free foliage waving and mocking me as I pass. Mine are more like pencils. And not even those big novelty pencils you get at the seaside. Mind you, they still taste good.

Late summer on Plot 29

2008-11-10T11:26:00.011Z

The Moog and I have been a bit busy to update the blog recently, or possibly a bit lazy, take your pick. I'm going to have a go at bringing things up-to-date over the next few days. Let's start with the end of August.

It occured to me in August that it's a full year since I've had my plot. You may have read that I invested my £7 winnings from second place in the 2007 "Britain in Bloom" competition; this year, ta-da, I have won first prize! a whopping twenty Great British Pounds, and a certificate to boot. I will post some pictures of my front garden for curious blog readers when I get round to it. This year, I invested my winnings in a delicious curry from Cafe Balti in Wolverton.

Also in late summer (Hmph! What summer?! I hear you cry) harvesting was in full flow. I was a bit worried about carrots splitting, so I pulled most of them up in late August and put them in storage. There were loads, as you can see from the picture. Some of them were forked, some of them were split, but overall they've been pretty good. No carrot fly attacks. To store them, I bought a grow-bag for about £1.25 from the nearest DIY shed, and filled two cardboard boxes with layers of carrots and compost. So far (November) they're as fresh and crunchy as they were when they went in. Mind you, the bottom did fall out of one of the boxes last week, covering my shed floor in carrots and compost, you can imagine how pleased I was.

Onions were also dug up, dried in the garden at home (between rain showers), and strung up in the shed. We've been gradually working our way through them, and they're storing really well.

From the greenhouse at home, we collected a big bowl of green tomatoes and ripened them on the window sill. I have to say I couldn't tell the difference between ours and shop-bought ones (that is, ours were not the delicious globes of sweet flavour that I'd been led to expect). And if one more person mentions green tomato chutney, I may have to set an angry Moog on them.

The final crop I started harvesting in late summer was potatoes. The Sarpo Mira variety have been really successful, lots of nice big potatoes, no blight, and they seem to store really well. They eventually all came out of the ground in mid-September, although I think they might have been happy to stay in the ground a bit longer, they were starting to receive attention from slugs, so they came up.

Failure Count

2008-08-21T15:26:00.005+01:00

I have had lots of congratulations from various people on my successes this year, so Moog thought I should let reality have a look in and share some of my failures:

1. Cut and Come Again salad leaves. These all bolted to seed. In fairness, not really a failure, because the reason they bolted was that I chose not to pick them - they didn't taste very nice!

2. Wild Rocket. All germinated, and then all completely wiped out by flea beetle. Almost overnight there was nothing left, not even a stalk.

3. Radishes and Pak Choi have been riddled with holes by flea beetle. This is probably due to me eradicating their favoured food source, which is Oilseed Rape. I can't win.

4. Tomatoes. I don't know why I bother. One minute they're fine, the next minute, the stems and fruits are brown with blight. John pointed it out to me this week and I was forced to burn all my allotment tomatoes. Greenhouse crop is still going steady at home. For now.

5. Leek rust. This covered my garlic, but luckily didn't spoil the crop. It has now graduated on to my leeks. Hopefully the white parts under the soil will be saved from destruction (apparently you can still eat rusty leeks if it doesn't get too bad) but after seeing how fast it spread I have decided to resort to a chemical spray of dithane (fungicide) on this crop to try and save them.

6. Split carrots. I avoided carrot fly, but quite a few carrots got too big and split, so I've had to harvest them all to stop them growing any bigger. Hopefully I'll be able to store them for long enough, only time will tell.

I blame all these problems squarly on the weather - a bit more sunshine and warmth in August wouldn't go amiss! The only time we did get any sun, I went to the plot in shorts and got attacked by my next pest:

7. Red ants. These aggressive little blighters managed to get into my boot and bit me 4-5 times, making my whole foot swell up to about twice normal size! And it itched like mad!

So there you go; it's not all rosy down at the plot, even if I make it look that way sometimes.

Beginning of the end?

2008-08-08T11:12:00.003+01:00

I had a bit of a shock when I spoke to John last, as I mentioned planting some more radishes, he said, "well, yes, there is just time if we get the right weather." It hadn't occured to me that the growing season is beginning to draw to a close.

Turns out he's right. I'd been so busy with the joys of weeding that I hadn't noticed some of my plants beginning to wane. Half my pea plants have turned yellow, and there's a distinct lack of flowers - I'll only get one more crop off those. The French beans, which have produced a magnificent bumper crop and filled my freezer, are also starting to slow down - again, hardly any flowers and the plants have stopped racing up the canes. My autumn raspberries are starting to fruit, too, it was only last week they were covered in bees.

But of course it's not over yet. I've still got plenty to go - maincrop potatoes are still 4-5 weeks off maturity, lettuces are doing fine as are spring onions and carrots (splitting problems aside). My leeks and parsnips are looking good for the winter too.

So, it's not bad news, just time for a change. That's one of the pleasures of gardening, it's never finished, and there's always something happening or something to do. Soon it will be time to start planting autumn crops again (more garlic - it doesn't seem long ago I planted my first ever cloves!), to learn from this year's mistakes and try something new.

Beautiful British Weather

2008-08-08T11:04:00.005+01:00

Yesterday Moog and me popped down to the allotment for a bit of harvesting. Of course it rained, but I got down to picking French beans by the handful, giant courgettes, peas, a few carrots and a lettuce for the fridge while Moog sat patiently on the bench.

While harvesting I discovered some of my carrots are split. This is a shame as they won't store very well now. The cause? Our Beautiful British Summer. Apparently carrots split when they start growing suddenly due to heavy rain after a dry spell, which is exactly what we've had. Moog thinks I should have watered them more when it was hot and dry, but then I can only find these things out with experience, and Moog was noticeably lacking in advice at the right time - hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I can only hope the weather hasn't also done for my onions, as I was hoping to store them well into next year.

Summer update

2008-08-06T10:35:00.006+01:00

We have reached the very satisfying time of year when I can easily raise a plateful of fresh food at dinner time. So far we have harvested: Radish, lettuce, spring onion, carrots, garlic, potatoes, peas, courgettes, French beans, raspberries and blackberries (those last berries being a benefit of having a wild bramble at the end of my plot). Currently waiting in the wings are: Onions, sweetcorn, leeks and parsnips.

I'm pleased to report my peas were delicious - one of the things I have been really looking forward to was my own fresh peas, as I can remember beign invited to eat them straight out of the pod by my dad when I was a boy. Here's a picture of one of my pods.

'Old Mike's' wise advice on plot location was proved right again last week, when I received a tip from two of my experienced neighbours about onions. Since we've had a hot dry spell, now's the time to lift my onions before they start growing again. Apparently if that happens once they've started to dry out, then they'll split and not store so well. I didn't have time to lift them all or anywhere to dry them (it's been raining since they told me) so I've bent all the tops over as instructed. They should be ready to pull up very soon and with any luck, will store until next year.

Beast of Wolverton

2008-07-18T14:44:00.004+01:00

An enormous scary wild beast has been spotted prowling around the allotments. I managed to take a photo and I present it here for analysis.

Moog thinks it might be a perfectly normal domestic cat, but what does Moog know about anything anyway?

The Ute is Here

2008-06-26T13:32:00.003+01:00

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

2008-06-25T14:54:00.005+01:00

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

2008-06-25T11:25:00.006+01:00

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

2008-06-13T15:19:00.003+01:00

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 Bean?

2008-06-12T14:46:00.005+01:00

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

2008-06-03T14:09:00.009+01:00

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!

Murphy's Law for beginners

2008-05-29T14:37:00.004+01:00

Everything is growing away strongly on the plot now, I'm just waiting impatiently to start harvesting stuff. I was so nervous earlier in the year that my carefully chitted potatoes weren't going to come up that I actually dug one up to see if anything had happened (of course it had). Now I'm a little more laid back - patience is a virtue. Not that I should have worried of course. I carefully prepared the soil, diligently chitted the specially-sourced seed potatoes in my spare room, acclimatised them to the outdoors, painstakingly planted them at the recommended spacing and depth, added fertiliser to the soil and weeded and earthed up...

Meanwhile, amongst the kitchen scraps, left alone, forgotten, discarded and with no attention whatsoever, I now have 3 healthy potato plants and a spire of brocolli sprouting luxuriantly from my compost heap!

Public Enemy Number 1 - GM Crops?

2008-05-21T13:33:00.004+01:00

Since the start of spring, a particular weed has sprung up more than any other on my plot, so I decided to look up what it was. I think I have found the culprit, and it is oilseed rape.

I found it on this useful weed identification site, which I think is primarily intended for farmers, but there are pictures of the seedlings and the fully grown plants.

I also found some interesting stuff about rapeseed/oilseed rape on Wikipedia. First, that it might have come from seed being blown in (there are numerous fields of this stuff on commercial land nearby). Second, there is a genetically modified, "Roundup Ready" (weedkiller resistant) version commercially available. I don't know if British farmers are using it, but that might explain why I've got so much of the damn stuff, and not much else - my application of weedkiller last season was Roundup (Glyphosate). Purely speculation, but interesting, Moog thinks.

Moog thinks this might be the first GM crop on my allotment!

Nodules

2008-05-19T14:39:00.005+01:00

Green Manure Final update. I thought I would share this picture of the super duper nitrogen nodules that have grown on the roots of my green manure. Nice to see something with my own eyes which I'd only previously read about in books.

Since chopping back these winter field beans I have discovered you have to cut the roots pretty short or they start to re-grow.

The trouble with seeds

2008-05-12T15:43:00.005+01:00

Moog thinks the most annoying thing about this allotment business so far is the seeds. How anything grows in the wild apart from weeds is anyone's guess.

The most disappointing seeds so far have been French Marigolds, which I planted to add a bit of colour and fragrance to my plot (they're supposed to keep insects off too). Out of an entire packet of seeds I've got about 10 little plants. That's still good value but not the big border full of colour I was hoping for. The most successful seeds so far are lettuce and courgette seeds. The lettuces are quick and almost all of them come up and start turning into viable plants. The courgettes also produce big healthy looking seedlings, none of the spindly stems that frequently collapse as soon as you water them. Moog thinks they're in proportion to the size of the plant so maybe I just need to grow big things.

I have had the following disasters so far, which have all tested my patience to varying degrees:

1. French bean seeds rotted because they were too cold and wet (despite being on a warm window sill in a propagator). All rotted except one single solitary magic bean which now a foot tall. Replacements coming on fine.
2. Chillis and peppers took ages to germinate. Consequently I managed to separate the seeds from their labels. I was just about to give up on seeds and buy some plants from the garden centre when they all started sprouting. The trouble is, peppers and chillis are identical as seedlings so I now have no idea which plants are which. Luckily, the tomatoes I had put in different shaped pots so I can identify those.
3. Leeks came up well but it has taken me the best part of a weekend to pot them all on into bigger containers, and I have no idea if they will all survive; time will tell. I would like to know how my next door neighbour John has got leeks like sticks of rock while mine are still like blades of grass.
4. When things did come through I was slow potting them on, as I expected them to get a bit bigger first. Moog now tells me I need to pot things on as soon as the first couple of proper leaves come through, otherwise little seed trays/pots get full of roots and the plant stops growing.
5. Some plants germinate but then just fall over dead. I don't know why, I am attributing it to "damping off" according to all the books which say it is due to fungal infection. Seedlings are so fragile, I don't know how wild plants make it on their own.
6. Leggy seedlings have been a feature, as I haven't really got a suitably light-but-not-direct-sunlight place to put them. The kitchen and spare room window sills are too dark, the greenhouse is too hot. Where is the Goldilocks zone for seedlings? Any advice welcome...

So much to do...

2008-05-12T15:29:00.003+01:00

Time marches on and the allotment has really taken off. It's hard to keep up with the blog.

The old man opposite complimented me again and said the allotment was a credit to me; this is great, I'm glad old-timers have looked on and approved, it's a great feeling for a novice like me to keep getting compliments. Also I met Irene, who like me is in her first season on her allotment. She commented that my plot looked lovely and tidy from her side of the riding, although I was forced to point out that those lovely green paths between my beds are in fact mainly weeds rather than grass...

Here's a quick list of what's been going on:

Onions are greening up well, stalks are about 6 inches high already. None have been uprooted by birds, as I planted the sets so that the tops were just covered, rather than leaving them visible on the surface.
First early potato plants are getting big too, I have scooped some earth up around the stems as instructed by just about everyone.
First row of maincrop potatoes are just starting to surface.
Garlic is plumping up and should be ready to harvest soon. Have planted some carrot seeds in between the rows to use up the space and to confuse carrot flies.
I have created a big fruit cage for my raspberries. Two posts with wire in between, covered in netting to keep birds off.
Planted in short rows in the same bed, surrounded by fleece for protection: Carrots, spring onions, Cos lettuce, cut-and-come-again salad leaves.
Germinated and growing on in the greenhouse: French climbing beans, courgettes, more salad leaves, red lettuces, tomatoes, chillis, peppers, chard, sweetcorn, leeks. They should all be in the ground in the allotment in a few weeks time
Still to go: Parsnip seeds and peas need to go in this week if I get time.

Garden gift review slot number 2

2008-05-12T15:15:00.003+01:00

My family and friends generosity continues unabated. Here are some other items to add to my list of gifts:

1. Plant labels and labelling pen. I didn't use these initially, in favour of remembering where I'd put stuff or making my own from strips of card. But I started to forget where I'd put stuff, and the bits of cardboard promptly floated away the first time I watered my seedlings, making it hard to work out what was in each pot until the plants got bigger, and I'm still not sure. So this is a great gift, and I used up two packs of labels before I realised the pen has both a wide and narrow nib. Everything is now neatly labelled, especially things that haven't come up yet.

2. Money... I received a cheque from my aunt in Germany, which has been very useful. My strawberries are now safely hidden under netting, my seedlings are now merrily growing on in bigger pots and my carrots and salad leaves are hidden behind a fleece barrier. Aunt Anne has admitted to having not just one, but two allotments when she was in the UK so I may yet be able to glean some useful tips as time goes on.

3. A big open-necked thermos flask for keeping hot stuff hot and cold stuff cold. It's great, I've got two cups of tea and a choc-ice in mine. Boom, boom.

4. Lots of timber. Hot on the heels of the BBC's Joe Swift, I've had a donation of timber planks from my brother-in-law Mike. They were sitting around in his garden, but are now sitting around in my allotment waiting to be used as edging.

Am I Organic?

2008-04-29T11:57:00.005+01:00

When I say organic, I'm not talking about the smells that come from The Moog here. I mean my approach to allotment gardening. I thought I'd probably be using mostly organic methods, but it's much harder than you might imagine. How organic is organic? How far do I need to go?These are some of the things that have come up lately:

How do I know if my beanpoles are from an ethical source? It doesn't say on the pack, but I can't grow beans without them. I expect my mesh and netting are produced in a plastics factory somewhere too, which uses oil and pollutes the atmosphere. But if I don't use them, the birds will eat my crops.

How do I fertilise my crops if I can't use chemicals? The instructions that came with my garlic bulbs say "spread sulphate of potash around the plants". Well, I've got some sulphate of potash, but it doesn't say "organic" on the label, and I'm pretty sure it looks like the sort of stuff that was produced in some vast chemical plant somewhere. I don't know how it was made, or where, or what from, or what the consequences for the environment were. All I know is that it was £1.59, when the organic fertiliser (which, I hasten to add, made no mention of "potash" at all) was £4.99. I realised in the shop that I don't know enough about fertilisers to choose the right alternative.

How do I keep slugs off if I don't use pellets? HA! I'm winning here. That one I've answered by using nematodes, I hope. I've watered in the special powder and I hope that it'll at least keep the numbers down, even if it doesn't completely remove them. I have used the same stuff at home to good effect. That means I don't have to use the little blue pellets as much, which must be a good thing.

Can I cut out peat completely? I try to buy peat-free compost, but the quality is really variable, it's more expensive and harder to find in the garden centre. If you let it get too dry it's almost impossible to make it soak up water again. Also, I like to use the little peat pots for my seedlings, because they don't need pricking out, you just plant the pot. Surely that's got to be better than using a disposable plastic tray? Which is best, saving the peat bogs, or using less oil to make plastic?

There's a lot of talk about organic gardening, and lots of the old fashioned chemicals have been banned now anyway. So I've decided to do what feels best to me - not what anyone else says. For example; I'll use sulphate of potash until I find out what the right organic alternative is. I'll make my own compost, but I'll burn stuff too. And I'll use peat pots - not because I don't care about peat bogs, but because I've had to spend hours and hours digging bits of old plastic out of my plot; and it really made me think about the amount of plastic that goes to landfill or gets dumped in the environment. If the government ban something I've been using, I'll move to something else; but for now, I'll just use my best judgement.

It's not that easy being green.

Shed

2008-04-29T11:54:00.002+01:00

The shed is up. What more can I say.

A few boards need replacing and it will get a lick of paint, but now I have somewhere to go when it rains unexpectedly.

The magic of television

2008-04-15T16:29:00.003+01:00

BBC presenter Joe Swift has taken on an allotment this year and they’re showing his progress on Gardener’s World. I have to say I’m glad he didn’t choose the plot next to me – I can imagine how his new neighbours must have felt, as a BBC Gardener’s World presenter pitched up next door with a camera crew! Mind you, if he’d have had the plot next door to me, then Foxy’s hole would technically have been on his plot not mine.

I’m sorry Joe, but I have a major problem with what you call “luck.” DIY stores and garden centres don’t just “give away” metres and metres of timber perfect for edging beds to any passing allotment holder; the “it’s not because we’re with the BBC” line just doesn’t wash with me! However, I’m happy to say my shed was in much better condition than your sorry affair – Joe, for £25 you were ripped off! I’m surprised it held together at all. At least it’s a fair portrayal of setting up an allotment – some highs, some lows.

Having watched the show I’m happy with my decision to do everything by hand – it seems that virtually everyone else who takes over a new plot gets it cleared immediately by the council. I think I’ve got to know my plot a lot better doing it myself – even though I’ve got to know Luther, too!