Refresh

Once upon a time this was a blog about a transplanted townie tending an allotment. Not quite the “good life” (whatever that is), but the odd belthering about weeds, polytunnels and broccoli.

All of a sudden, the calendar said 21 March. Vernal equinox. Or, as we know it in the northern hemisphere, spring.

And, allotment 5 1/2 is looking a sorry state.

That’s a poor show considering it’s been a mild and dry winter, suitable for clearing weeds and putting goodness back in the soil. There’s been too many distractions. Community life aside, Jeff Stelling, the Saturday Soccer crew and a comfy sofa have proved too much, too easy.

There’s no promise that I’ll get out this weekend. Rarely, the southwest forecast is the best of the regions: dry, bright and 16 C. But, there’s some stirrings in the loins.

In a week filled otherwise with telephone calls, meetings, internet searches, re-writing business plans and share offers (and this was supposedly a holiday), I did fit in a little bit of yard work (I love that phrase) before returning to the day job on Monday.

The raised bed has been cleared and primed with cat deterrent. I’ve even got some baby greens thriving under a cloche, a remnant of autumn planting. I spent a couple of back breaking days pulling weeds, hacking down redundant shrubs and stumps of trees that should never have been planted. The garden waste bin overflowed with green detritus.

Meanwhile, up at the allotment, my Brussels have finished. Three types of garlic have wintered well. There’s but a few stunted bulbs. So, if I can avoid rot, we should have a good crop come June.

The spring cabbages are looking slightly sorry for themselves. All bar one should perk up. But, that renegade has bolted, sprouted a seed head. I’ve never seen a cabbage do that. My thinking is it’s a function of the dry, mild weather.

Deid!

Next door to the cabbages, I have or had a good bed of broad beans that I planted out in early October.

Look at them now. Those that I covered under a netted cloche are straggly, but alive. In contrast, those left to the elements have expired.

Check out Mr F's forearms - wow! It's Popeye!

Always read the instructions - yeah, right.

So, off to our local budget garden centre last week to fill a big shopping trolley. With a small packet of discount seeds. And, three large bags of peat-free compost. And, cat repellent. Naturally slug repellent too. All organic, mind you.

The toilet roll method

Using the expired toilet roll method, I’ve started off another batch of broad beans, which hungry mice permitting should be ready to plant out by the end of April.

The rationale for autumn planting of broad beans is to avoid black fly which can devastate your crop. Late planting means you run the risk though by pinching out the tops once the fruits start to form also discourages the flies.

But, in three years of trying I’ve now lost well over 50% of my crops. Conclusion, next season I’ll start off beans under cover in January for March planting out.

For many gardeners in my division (Conference South) broad beans are one of the first crops to be ready, a bit of a treat in April or May.

The beans are quite versatile. You can eat them as young ‘uns, in their skins and quite sweet. As a mature bean, pop off the skin after a quick blanch: great in a salad with spring onions, kidney beans, couscous, lemon and oil. As old boots, add broad beans to casseroles and soups.

From indifference, I’ve become a great fan.

For the weekend, the lazy to do list consists of tomato seed sowing. The active, active, not sitting in front of screen list includes additional digging, weeding and shooting the breeze with fellow allotment growers.

Ctrl+F5.5=Allotment 5 1/2 refreshing.

If you look closely…

Not a political statement

Apropos of nothing, here’s a variation on growing vegetables.

I’ve never grown a successful beard or moustache though I haven’t had a serious go since student days.

Be prepared for some potentially hirsute photos over the next few weeks. Or not.

P.S. – broad beans planted.

Autumn roundup

Blog Action Day 2001 – #BAD11

My allotment

It’s been a mixed growing year on the allotment, in the garden and the greenhouse.

As I’m sure every gardener complains, the weather has not been co-operative this year. Spring was a mixed bag. It arrived early and promised a bumper year of fruit and veg. But, warm March turned to soggy, cool May. Summer in these parts never kicked off.

Tomatoes and cucumbers got a jump start, but as summer went dull, cold and windy my plants were reluctant to fruit. I can count the number of cukes on one hand: that from two wind swept specimens. (Just a quick word to the neighbours’ cats: can I grow my veg in your litter trays please?)

That early springs was a good news for the onions and garlic though garlic Sprint suffered from a mysterious mould that wiped out a third of the crop. Sandwiches are still getting a good kick from strong and sweet Red Baron.

Slugs and worms once again got to the potatoes before I could lift them – rain in June and July. Yet, there’s still two bags of salvaged tubers sitting in the shed.

As seems to have happened every year since moving to Devon, the summer brought the odd game that blew for a week or so. That did for the peas and September winds clobbered the runners just they were heavy with beans. But, overall I picked about 20 lbs of runner beans and 8 meals of broad beans. Not so successful with the peas which got hit by the full house – slugs, heavy rain, wind, weeds and rot.

So, to the winter.

Strawberries (and weeds)

I’ve moved strawberries – which went beserk in my home raised bed – up to the allotment. After a few weeks of bedding in, they’ve produced a couple of fruits. Not bad for some cast-offs and runner.

Raspberries

The strawbs are not the only cast-off. I’ve been donated some raspberry runners. About 2/3 have taken. I have no idea of the variety and raspberries are new to me, so it’s going to be yet another experiment.

Sprouts

Netted sprouts

Yet another experiment: a dozen brussel sprout plants. I’ve tried out netting them which seems to have had the effect of stunting their growth. There’s a lot of leaf damage, yet I’ve got a reasonable number of sprouts on each stem. The stuntedness might not be a disaster as it probably reduces the chance of the plants getting blown over. F1 Doric if you’re keeping score at home.

Cabbage

Further adventures in brassicas with my cabbage selection. I’m growing Myatts which should be ready about June or July. There’s a bit of slug damage, but all 10 plants look like they’ll form heads.

Four rows of garlic

At the back of the allotment I’ve got four rows of garlic. I’ve gone for Thermidrome which has been a success the past few years. Instead of Sprint, I’ve got Vallelado on the go. Another experiment.

Finally, at ground control I’ve just sown 16 broad bean seeds – Bunyards Exhibition. They’ve got a temporary home in the greenhouse hopefully away from mice and other critters.

Busy days.

So nice

Technically it’s still winter. Blue sky, temperature nudging the teens and hardly a breathe of wind: more like mid-spring.

Great weather for both planting out and putting in a few hours of digging. In fact, right now is perfect for digging. There has been hardly any rain over the last three weeks so the ground is soft but not claggy.

Broad bean protected from varmints

 

My replacement broad beans went in yesterday. Unfortunately, some little critter(s) had a nibble of the beans when they were hardening off in the greenhouse. With any luck they will recover and start to flourish in their nicely raked bed.

Onion and garlic bed

Today, I finished planting a second set of brown onion sets – Sturon variety. Back in the Autumn I planted out Swift sets. Most of these have sprouted though the hard frosts, snows and other critters have taken a toll on numbers and progress.

As you can see, the sets have been covered to keep the birds off. I’ll leave them a few weeks to get a start before exposing fully to the elements.

The nice weather brought a few other allotment buddies. Everyone else seems to planted broad beans this weekend. Let’s see who harvests first.

New Year allotment update

Today was the first chance after the December snows and frosts to check the allotment for progress and damage.

Value pack broad beans - 79p

Broad beans: last year, my beans survived the snows thaks to plastic cloches. This winter I neglected to cover what were twelve healthy plants. They’ve taken a bit of beating though some should survive if we can avoid further snow. Just in case, I planted another twelve seeds – an impulse buy, but just 79p.

Onions: the brown onions – Sprint variety – have weathered well. Some of them we’re sitting under a netted cloche. They look better than the rest. Onions and other aliums will shut down in cold weather, but thanks to early planting (early October) they had a good start before the frosts set in.

I’ve got some Red Baron planted too though these are last year’s failures. I wasn’t expecting much. Some have kicked on a bit, but the local mouse has dug up most of them. Yet again, not having much success with red onions.

Garlic: like the onions, these had a couple of months growth in mild autumn conditions before Jack Frost made an appearance. One or two bulbs have attracted mice, but nothing fatal.

Cabbage: I’ve still got half a dozen healthy cabbages under netting. They have formed their hearts so I’ll keep them protected from the birds until they get a bit bigger.

Elsewhere, there’s a hundred and one jobs to be done. Digging being numbers one to 99.

Back home, I bagged up some homemade compost. I’ve also got a small bag of wood ash from the fire which I’ll use on the potato bed.

Great to get a fine day in January to tick off a few outdoor jobs.

As autumn follows summer…

…or Indian summer follows autumn…

A lovely Sunday afternoon: sweating as I prepared another garlic bed and started digging a bean trench.

Four lovely Thermidrome bulbs arrived unexpectedly in the post this week. I couldn’t remember exactly what I had ordered. Sprint bulbs went in last week and I’d assumed that was it. More lovely garlic.

I have to admit that this year’s crop of garlic has been spoilt by nearly half the crop going mouldy. It’s my own fault for lifting the bulbs too late. They “went over”, but I delayed lifting for a couple of weeks. Seems like some of the early crop – Spring, I think – developed mould.

Up the other end of the plot, there’s now a nice trench that will, no doubt, fill with water this week. To avoid losing seeds to mice, the broad beans are getting going in the greenhouse. Most have germinated and I aim to plant out by the end of the month.

Here’s hoping for a few more decent gardening weekends before the autumn storms start tracking across the south-west.

Beans, beans the musical fruit

Not that I need any more seeds, but I picked up some left over runner bean seeds on Sunday as I cleared the bean poles.

The pea poles came down too and grabbed 20 or seeds from the wreckage.

One of my collected broad beans has germinated. I sowed and planted out 18 in a rather soggy bed over the weekend.

Bean picking

Picked a big bunch of broad beans this evening. Managed to get 1lb 4oz.

The pods are just about at their peak. So, even though this lot were for the freezer, there will be plenty more to eat fresh this weekend.

Jobs for the weekend:

• lift yellow onions (their leaves have turned over and some are threatening to bolt
• more digging
• even more weeding
• sowing cabbage and broccoli

Broad minded

First pickings of my first broad beans: a tasty treat for Saturday.

There were a few waxy looking pods of beans that had also fallen over in the wind; a bit chewed too. The pods felt as though they had decent sized beans in them. So, I tried them out on Saturday.

Tasty, that’s what I’d say. A little young so I’ll wait a week or so for the next picking.

Excuses

Just like last year, things up at the allotment are behind schedule. By now, runner beans and two types of peas should be climbing up poles and netting. Back the breeding farm (home, that is), leeks should have been sown. And, I should be thinking about cabbages and broccoli.

Alas, my body has let me down. Not to mention, occasional lethargy, laziness and bad weather.

Still, at least the first lot of runner beans have been placed under the sturdy pole construction. Another batch of beans are on the go, as are petit pois peas.

The pea bed is a work in progress. I’ve been lax in collecting manure. So, there’s a part filled trench from where the little marvels are supposed to be poking. I won’t mention the undug petit pois trench.

Oh well. It looks a lot better up at the onion and garlic beds. They’ve even been cleaned of weeds. (After this phot was taken, obviously.)