OUR ALLOTMENT - Life on the Weald November 2018

OUR ALLOTMENT - Life on the Weald November 2018

The first few days of November saw the demise of our Halloween pumpkin which we had hoped might dry out and be kept but alas it collapsed

We had taken out as much of the flesh as we could and had several meals of pumpkin curry and spicy pumpkin soup but had loads left over.  We pureed and froze some....

.... we made pumpkin bread...

and we saved the seeds....

...which we coated in cumin, coriander and paprika and roasted

We also had a surfeit of courgettes/marrows which we prepared for jam making

Surprisingly, at the beginning of the month we were also able to harvest the last of the outdoor ridge cucumbers, which were excellent

We have a plentiful supply of cavolo nero, purple kale and spinach which will keep going through the winter months and the purple sprouting broccoli is looking fine.  We have covered the broccoli with netting which we hope will keep the pigeons off and stop them pecking off the flowering heads when they come.

There was much work to be done in November.  In September, I had started to get the beds ready for the onions, garlic and shallots as I intended to use autumn/winter planting sets. I had spread a mixture of compost from the wormeries and grass cuttings in the raised beds and added some top soil.  In October, I had forked this in with some top soil and now have raked it finely, lightly dressed with bonemeal and this month I have planted the sets - two varieties of onion, one yellow (Autumn Champion), one red (Electric); two varieties of garlic (Eden Rose and Printanour); and two varieties of shallot  (Griselle and Longor). It is necessary to keep an eye on the bulbs after planting as birds and other animals tend to lift them before they have rooted and if so they need to be re-planted.  

The middle of November has seen quite a lot of rain and most of the sets planted seem to have rooted.

With Luke's help we have removed the cardoon, although we may not have been able to get all the roots out as they went so deep but we now have a large hole to fill and an area to weed and dig ready for next year's brassicas.

The hole where once the cardoon grew

One of our neighbours has given us a few medlars, an old English fruit not seen much these days, and we need to find something to do with them.  They are a bit like apples but are very hard and acidic and not very pleasant when picked from the tree.  They need to be "bletted"  i.e. stored until they begin to rot and then they become soft an sweet.  I think we will try making medlar jam or jelly for which you need mostly bletted fruit but also some hard unripe ones for the pectin to get the jam/jelly to set.

Medlars

Dog's arse

Given the laborious process of bletting to make them edible and their appearance and nick-name - Chaucer and Shakespeare refer to medlars as "open-arse" fruits; their name in French is cul du chien (dog's arse) - is it any wonder that they have fallen out of fashion!

Whilst waiting for the medlars to ripen, there is much to be done on the plot.  The leeks are faring well but need frequent hand weeding, and although they were planted out  quite deeply, I am earthing them up a little to increase the white proportion.

I have also experienced some problems with the black currants that I planted when we first got the allotment two years ago.  In a hurry to transplant them we didn't clear the area of weeds as well as we should so they have faced a problem of being choked by couch grass and bindweed.  Also in the rush to get things started two years ago, the raised beds are in odd positions and look untidy.  So this month I have lifted two of the currant bushes and moved one of the raised beds to where they were and have replanted the fruit bushes where the raised bed was.  We removed all the annual weeds, thoroughly dug the area and removed as much of the bindweed and couch grass as possible.  We added some good compost to the holes where we planted the currants and gave a top dressing of blood,fish and bone.

Where we relocated the raised bed, there is a Brussels sprout plant so we put a layer of cardboard down around it and covered the whole area where the frame would go with cardboard (and a little beyond) and lifted the frame over it.  The cardboard will help to retain moisture in the raised bed, will prevent perennial weeds such as bindweed from coming through and will eventually rot down.  On top of the cardboard we added a layer of compost from the wormery plus some of the soil from where the raised bed had previously been and also dug in some fresh lawn clippings.

We laid more cardboard around the raised bed and covered this with a dense mulch of woodchips and hedge trimmings which we use on all our pathways and between beds. If you are using wood chippings, make sure they are from a reliable source and disease free - we get ours through the allotment society and they come from a reputable local tree surgeon.

November is a good time to plant blackcurrants and unlike other fruit trees/bushes, they can be planted deeply with some of the stem below the surface as this will encourage the growth of new stems from the base.

Having transplanted the currants, I will apply a mulch, give them a chance to re-establish themselves and hard prune them in January. 

The second half of November has seen torrential rain and little opportunity to do much more work on the plot and our infrequent visits have been to feed the worms and harvest the greens.

But we haven't been idle as the medlars have ripened well (bletted) 

bletted medlars

and we have spent time in the kitchen making medlar jelly.

I suspect we will get little done in December due to the weather and the usual pre-Xmas panic, but hopefully we will be almost self-sufficient in veg.

John Austin

Hove, November 2018

OUR ALLOTMENT - Life on The Weald July 2018

Life on The Weald July 2018

We missed the end of June and the beginning of July on the allotment as we had escaped to the sun in Spain – just in time to coincide with the heat wave at home!  Thankfully, Luke was on hand with the hosepipe and prevented total disaster.  But after a very wet and cold winter it has been one of the driest and hottest periods on record in southern England.

No, these are not my tomatoes.  They are local from the area south of Alicante and north of Murcia and we found  them at the Lemon Tree Market, Montesinos/El Moncayo, south of Guardamar (Mercadillo de Campo de Guardamar) 

After a week of superb vegetables, fruit and seafood......

................we returned to England where the heat wave and drought continued throughout July.

In June  I had planted a grape cutting given to me by my eldest son, Damien, taken from the vine in our old home in Charlton.  It had been grown from a cutting from the vine that grew at the old Mind day centre at Ormiston Road in Greenwich and had been taken in the 1980s!  More than 30 years later, my new cutting seems to be thriving and I need to clear a spot in the wilderness around the shed on the allotment to transplant it.

On our return to the UK, we found the cardoon in full bloom.  It is majestic and beautiful but once it has flowered, I fear it has to go.  It is useful in attracting bees when in flower but it takes up too much space and consumes a great deal of water.

Cardoon 16 July

As a result of the drought the foliage on the onions and potatoes has died down earlier than expected but the onions are a decent size and looking healthy.

Onions 16 July

Red onions 16 July

Sadly, however, the shallots have not fared so well and are much smaller than last year..

Shallots harvested 20 July

....and the same is true of the garlic.

garlic harvested 20 July

I think I must have been away at a crucial time when they needed watering as the foliage had all died back by the time we returned from holiday.  On the good side, we have harvested our first crop of outdoor cucumbers and they taste great.

First cucumbers of 2018

I lifted the first row of Charlotte potatoes.  Fortunately, unlike the Rocket crop, they had not been attacked by slugs but they were rather small, which is clearly the result of the drought.  Having cleared the area where they had grown and the area where I had lifted the Rocket potatoes, I planted out my first batch of leeks. I must make sure to water them regularly during the early stages to get them established.  I planted them out in a traditional method, making a hole about 6 inches deep and dropping in the young plants - not filling in the soil but watering the hole regularly as the soil naturally falls back in as the leeks expand.  If the plants had been bigger, I would have made deeper holes which would have given more white part, but I will gently earth up as they develop with compost to increase the white content.

winter collection of leeks

Fruit has also been a victim of the drought and the berries are much smaller than usual.  This may also be partly due to the fact that I moved and transplanted the bushes last autumn and they may not have had time to fully establish.

22 July blackcurrants 

I find picking blackcurrants very tedious, which is a pity because along with raspberries they are one of my favourite fruits.  Luckily we enlisted the help of my nephew Charlie and his partner Fran to do some of the picking.

22 July blueberries

 We also removed the nets from the blueberries and then picked our first harvest. The blueberries are growing in large pots as they will not thrive on Sussex soil, so they are grown in ericaceous compost and occasionally fed with a liquid feed that I use for the camellias at home.

Although there are lots of cabbage white butterflies about, our kale (cavolo nero - Tuscany black) and purple sprouting broccoli appear to be caterpillar free (so far) but I am aware from past years how quickly that can change and with devastating consequences.

Cavolo nero is said to be at its best after the first frosts in October but it is cropping well and I see no reason to wait, so we have had our first pickings - and it was very good.  The beauty of cavolo nero is that it is a cut-and-come-again vegetable.  

22 July Cavolo nero - black Tuscan kale

In order to conserve water and stop erosion, I have mulched as much as possible using grass clippings from the lawn at home between the rows of potatoes and using the wood chippings provided at the allotment on bare ground and around established plants.

Wood/bark chippings are a useful mulch as they slowly break down adding nutrients and texture to the soil. It is not advisable to use wood or bark chippings as a mulch around young plants, however, as in the process of breaking down they will rob the young plants of nitrogen.

We have the benefit of 3 wormeries where we compost all our vegetable kitchen waste plus shredded paper and old egg boxes.  We have been spreading the composted material around our beds as a top dressing and mulch.  The liquid run-off from the wormery is a very rich fertiliser which we dilute and use particularly on the brassicas and chard - anywhere where we need good leaf growth.

The climbing French beans were coming along and between the two rows I had planted a pumpkin hoping to train it out of the raised bed.  It is rampant with a mind of its own but I have just about managed to train it.

Pumpkin growing between French climbing beans 25 July

 We also managed a small portion of runner beans from our first picking.

the first of our runner beans 25 July

We lost a few more allotment days at the end of the month as I was involved in the Ride London cycling events over the last weekend in July.....

Ride London 28 July, The Mall

...watching, not riding!

28 July, The Mall

And then my daughter, Zoë, came to stay for a few days with her partner, John and his mother Lenore who was over from New Zealand.  I did manage to drag them to the plot on the last day of July, when they helped gather the last few blackberries and blueberries that were left.

Lenore, John and Zoë 31 July

 John also managed to spot a couple of cucumbers 

Pepinos - outdoor cucumbers 31 July

 We harvested a few courgettes of reasonable size

courgettes 31 July

 whilst others were almost achieving marrow proportions 

I suspect we will be making marrow and ginger jam, courgette cakes, courgette Soufflés, vegetable curries with courgettes and courgette soup during August !

John Austin

Hove, July 2018

OUR ALLOTMENT - Life on The Weald June 2018

Life on the Weald, June 2018 

June is very much a month for harvesting with an opportunity to make some late sowings.

We have had several pickings of raspberries - the taste was excellent but because we have had one of the driest couple of months on record they were not as plump as last year....

the first raspberries of 2018

....but they were delicious

The raspberry canes are a bit choked by couch grass in some areas so may need digging up and replanting in the autumn.

Our redcurrants looked reasonably well, having been moved from Mile Oak in the autumn

Sadly the birds (I am assuming it was birds and not poachers) stripped the lot before we had time to pick them. Building a fruit cage is onbviously a task for the autumn.

The outdoor cucumbers which I bought from the Allotment Holders' sale were looking good at the beginning of the month but need some encouragement to actually climb up the netting which I have provided.  The ones I grew from seed are just a couple of inches high.

Cucumbers 11 June

Cucumbers 26 June

Although we have been watering regularly, the lettuces are beginning to bolt.  Some were grown from seed planted in the winter and having survived the cold and the wet at the beginning of the year, it would be sad to lose them now.

One crop that seems to have done very well is the onions and we will be harvesting and drying them off later this month or next.

Onions - Autumn sun

Red Onions - Electra

In the meantime a spot of hand weeding is required!

I have managed to clear a raised bed to sow some dwarf French Beans which hopefully will be up next month.

Raised bed ready for the French beans

Meanwhile the runner beans seem to be surviving the drought

And we have erected a new frame for some climbing French beans (and planted a pumpkin in the middle of the rows).

The purple sprouting broccoli has been planted out.  We have protected the plants from pigeons with mini-cloches made from plastic bottles and will keep a watchful eye for caterpillars.  The plants look very vulnerable!

What we had hoped was a Globe Artichoke is regrettably a Cardoon.  It's very decorative and no doubt will be stunning when the flowers open - but its not an artichoke!  Its over 2m tall and has a spread of 2m so it is taking up a lot of room and no doubt depleting the soil of water and nutrients.  So, sorry but it has to go.

Cardoon

The courgettes, marrow and pumpkin plants are all looking good.  I bought the plants from the Allotment Holders' plant sale as the ones I had grown from seed had all been eaten so I am not sure what varieties they are or which are the marrows and which the courgettes!

I have planted them in what was an overgrown wilderness of couch grass, nettles and bindweed next to the cardoon, where the previous plot holder had grown cabbages and sprouts and obviously some Duke of York red potatoes which we keep unearthing!

Courgettes and marrows

And at the end of the month we had the first courgette in flower.

Courgette in flower

We have harvested our peas - Kelvedon Wonder - and they were so good we have made some more late sowings of both Kelvedon Wonder and Boogie.

Our first peas - best eaten from the pod!

June was the month to dig up the first early potatoes and the first to crop were the Rocket variety.  This is supposedly the earliest cropping variety but various sources suggest it is not best for flavour.  They are right.  They do not taste like the freshly lifted new potatoes I remember from my youth.  They are just bland potatoes.  They also don't look like new potatoes as they are the size of baking potatoes!

Early Rocket potatoes

They do seem popular with slugs though!  Many were pitted with large holes made by slugs -some were still in residence but most had been vacated only to be re-occupied by woodlice!  I lifted one plant of later Charlotte potatoes to see if they had suffered the same and they had not.  Speaking to my colleague and fellow plot holder, Simon, I discovered he had the same problem and only his Rocket potatoes were affected by slugs and not the other variety he had planted.   Well, that's one easy decision - I won't be growing Rocket again.

We had a few surplus seed potatoes, Vivaldi and Nicola, and some old plastic recycling boxes in which we made some late plantings - so hopefully will have some new potatoes before Christmas! And we are making sure they are well watered.

Earlier in the year I had planted a mixed collection of lettuces bought from the garden centre and we have lifted our first from the crop and it was very good - lollo rosso.

Our first Lollo Rosso 

There is still no sign of rain in what has been the driest June on record and at the end of the month we're off to Spain!  Bad timing.  Urgent need to recruit volunteers for watering duties.

John Austin

June 2018, Hove