March Madness

First visit in a while to the plot as it's been either very cold or very wet for ages. The soil was still waterlogged so I stuck it out for an hour or so turning over some plots to put the wet stuff on the top and the dry stuff underneath.

Too cold ( and snow forcast!!!) to pop the spuds in yet so took a few snaps to show where the plot starts after a year of work on it.

This is the plot from the road. Compared to last year, all the beds are formed, all the paths are in, there's a coldframe for raising things that are a bit fragile, and there is a coffee table and chairs for those custard cream moments.




The garlic bed is coming on a treat, now being the size it was at the end of last season, with another 6 months growth in it yet. Should keep the vampires at bay (there were none on the plot so it's obviously working.



The leeks are still failing to bulk up, despite the ones on my neighbours plot coming on in leaps and bounds when planted at the same time. This year I'll plant them in another bed and make sure there's plenty of pork pies dug in to feed em well and make them bulk up. Well it's worked with me ;-)

Seeds to sort out this weekend ready for planting in april when they shouldn't get killed off by the nasty frost.

Xmasy Comestibles

In preparation for Sundays Xmas dinner (round 1) I went up to the allotment to gather in the sprouty goodness. As you can see from the picture, the sprouts haven't done badly (that's the Sunday times underneath them for scale).




The parsnips that I left in the ground also have really bulked out, and there were even a few carrots in there as well that I forgot about.



The leek plot is still there and I reckon should be coming good in about a months time. The fennel finally died off without ever bulking up into proper bulbs so it's gone on the compost heap to be recycled back into the ground.

Well, it's 36 hours till dinner time. I'd best put the sprouts on.

Goosberry Fool

The frost over the past couple of days has killed off the chinese gooseberry so I checked how large the berries in it had become.



By the size of the lantern things that covered the plant, I was hoping for something a bit bigger :-(.

On the plus side, the garlic that I planted a couple of weeks ago is already starting to come up in places.




This gives them about 5 months more to grow than the last lot, so with a bit of luck they should form bulbs this time rather than single cloves.

I also found out that the jerusalem artichokes need cutting down to a foot above the ground until I want dig them up, so some swift pruning endeth todays lesson.

Addendum: That font of knowledge, wikipedia, has just pointed out that a chinese gooseberry is a kiwi fruit. The things I've been failing to grow are cape gooseberrys. You live 'n' learn.

Spinachy goodness

There's nowt to do in the allotment now so I popped up there briefly today just to check it was still there.

The spinach has done well in my absence so I harvested a load of it to take in to work to stop it going to seed.



The sprouts are also firming up nicely ready for Xmas.


The overwintering onions also look to be overwintering nicely so I should have a good early crop to tide me over when the ones in the garage run out.

And the Jerusalem Artichokes are now dying back. Now I've just got to work out what to do with them ;-).

And finally, the fennel. It's just not putting the effort in! 9 months after I planted it, it's still not swelling into bulbs. I'll give it another month or two, but this may be one to miss out next year.

There's no welcome in the hillside for vampires here boyo.

Today I planted 3 different varieties of garlic to hopefully get a decent sized crop next year. These have gone into the beds formerly planted with tomatoes (the ones that got blighted) so next year the toms go somewhere that isn't full of nasty tomato pox.

The chinese gooseberry bush is also looking good. The little lanterny shaped things should contain gooseberries with a bit of luck.



The leek patch is also doing well although there are no more ready to turn into leeky comestibles just yet.



Finally, the whole plot got a good scattering of chicken poo pellets to ensure that what gets planted in here next year should have lots of goodies to suck up out of the soil.

Leeky action

There's not a lot to do on the plot at this time if year so I wandered up to see what was ready to pick, and to turn over some of the empty beds to keep the weeds down.

The leeks have started to come good at last so I harvested the first two for my tea tonight.



There are several dozen in the bed still growing but not quite up to this size yet so looks like leek soup will certainly be on the menu this winter.

Last weekend I cut back all the spinach in the bed that looked ready, and this weekend you can't even tell I was there.



I cut a whole lot back again but looks like this might be a nice regular crop at this rate.

The brussel sprouts are also coming along nicely.

You can just make them out up against the stalks and with another couple of months they should make an ideal accompaniment to the christmas turkey.

Cabbages and salsify are also doing well but the fennel is still not forming bulbs, preferring instead to go to seed which I keep lopping off the top.



Next week, the garlic should be going in the ground (to give it time to form bulbs which this years crop didn't).

Popeye is sorted.

The spinach has now showed itself so I know what is a weed and what isn't.



The cabbages that were doing nothing for ages also have gone nuts this week with all the nice weather we're eventually having.


And the seeds I sowed are also starting to come up (I think).


The cabbages are on the right, but the things on the left are allegedly salsify. However, walking back across the meadow there were a lot of plants with remarkably similar leaves to these, so I think the jury is still out on that one.

There are still a few courgettes swelling up which should be ready shortly to add to my second batch of chutney (the tomatoes for which are currently ripening on the windowsill).