We have had a bit of a topsy turvey weekend where our plans were put on hold. Which meant we had a little gap to visit the allotment and check what was happening. As we loaded the car I thought it unlikely the kids would last long, so did not really expect to get anything done.
At the site all was well, the storage box was secure and my recent ground cover was still in place. The plot was just screaming dig me, dig me now. Across the site the wind was strong and icy. It quickly chilled us all to our bones. My hands could no longer feel or do anything, not even take a picture with the camera. We left very rapidly.
I popped into the site shop to see if the potato orders were ready, there were loads of allotmenteers helping to sort the delivery into individual orders and they will be ready next week. I also wanted some other bits for the gardening club but was out of luck and did not want to interrupt the complex work.
On the way across the site I bumped into a new allotmenteer who is in the photography society I go to, so it will provide a good mix of things to discuss on the society evenings.
Good news is our 'jedi' garlic has some shoots, some cloves have been disturbed by animals. I popped to a garden center and got some modules and some mung beans to sprout. I thought the modules could be used to plant up some left over garlic cloves both at home, and in school. I thought sprouting seeds would be a good bad weather thing for the gardening club I hope the teacher agrees. She wasn't at her plot to ask.
I got home and planted some left over garlic cloves rather than wasting them (also cooked some fairy cakes as seen in the picture). Do you think I have a potting shed with an oven or a small multi functioning kitchen?
As I post the back garden has been dusted with what looks like white icing I doubt there will be gardening club on Tuesday if the forecast is correct
....its raining.
I'd planned to do a little allotment work today in the forecasted gap in the rain, but the gap has not appeared at all. Owen's weather house (a Christmas pressie from gran) has been much more precise than the BBC. I love weather houses when I was a girl I had a 1970's style orange one that I looked at every day with out fail, its a shame that it didn't survive into my adulthood as it would look very cool and retro now. Owen seems quite pleased with his and I catch him checking it regularly - perhaps one day the lady will come out.
As it was raining we all took part in the RSPB garden birdwatch today and counted for a hour through the patio windows. Owen was much more engaged in taking part than I thought he would be, Huw also made squawking sounds when he saw a blackbird. I wasn't hopeful that we would see much as we haven't got feeders in the tree this year. We actually saw a lot more birds than I thought we would and I'm now sure that a wren is living in the ivy on the back fence. I'll be submitting our results later this evening.
I bought a red gooseberry bush yesterday on a whim and the afternoons are getting lighter so maybe I'll get a quick visit in in the week to plant it. that is if Owen is willing to go after school.
Today was seedy sunday in Trumpington, nr Cambridge. I have never been to a seed swap before and wasn't too sure what happened at them. The problem with not having many plants outlive the munching army of slugs is that we ate anything we had, rather than let it go on to produce seed that I could save and swap. What I didn't know was that I could swap unused and part used packets of seed at the event.
I turned up empty handed, despite this I left with plenty of seeds to plant. There were heritage seeds for sale and the heritage seed libary also had seeds available, I took some packets in exchange for donation.
What I have to plant are salmon flowered peas, a pea called 'poppet', dwarf french beans 'emperor of russia' and some climbing french beans 'jack edwards' from the heritage seed libary. I then got some kohl rabi 'purple vienna' and asparagus pea from Thomas Etty seeds. (All of which might become slug fodder, but if I am lucky I can save some seed for next year, I'll need to look into how to do this).
I also discovered that there is a community orchard that runs activities such as moth trapping.
Yes it's a review of the greenpatch year, as I came to the conclusion that if now is not the time to do it when is?
It was in March that I ventured into the world of blogging and I am not sure why I did. It coincided with starting to get the patch going. Being on maternity leave and with the brain cells a little depleted I thought it would be a way to record all the things that we have done, what went well etc. It would hopefully show me which of the mad plans I hatched for the patch actually managed to be put into action. I fear it became a list of things that were eaten by slugs. In the spirit of learning from the experience this is what I think of 2008.
The thing I learnt the most over the year was don't count your produce before it is ready to harvest, something just might happen before you can get to eat it - the gooseberries were a good example of this - I still don't know what happened to them.
The best weather moment for me was the day I spent dodging spring showers under the tree in my waterproof. There is something so lovely about the sun glistening through the curtain of rain bucketing down beyond the cover of the tree branch. It was fun. I was full of hope with what we were going to achieve. But I didn't know that the rain would not stop and the slugs would have their own jungle to roam around.
The best produce we had in 2008 was our sweetcorn it was just so tasty and fresh, Owen just loved harvesting them so we must grow lots in 2009.
Our growing disappointment were the peas I tried several times but failed miserably to grow any, but there is always 2009
Funniest moment, I've been meaning to share this for ages, I arrived with the kids and laden with stuff. I put the baby into the red three wheeler pushchair and piled stuff on top. As I went through the gate one of the old boys was approaching in his car and gesticulating. He obviously wanted something and despite the kids and all the stuff I thought I would be helpful and open the gates for his car. More gesticulation later it wasn't the gates that he wanted and he was rather gruff and rude I think I heard him mumble about getting his potatoes in. I was completely frustrated and confused by his rudeness so grabbed the pushchair and headed to my plot. The old boy at this point seemed to have made a sulky retreat. I spent the next few days thinking about how unfriendly and rude some of the old buggers are. It was at a subsequent visit next to the club house I noticed there was a wheelbarrow that obviously some of the older members consider they have earned the right to use (this is not offered to us newbies as far as I know and is the shops to deliver manure I think). Yes you have guessed, what colour is it, red of course. I laughed, until I realised that the old boy really couldn't see my baby in the pushchair and this old boy is driving his car around town.
The thing I wished I had done most on the patch in 2008, is actually doing the marrowthon (not just buying the seeds) and other competitions for the open day I definitely will do the 2009 events and hopefully our corner of the site won't have to hang its head in untidy shame this year.
What I am going to grow again this year: definitely more sweetcorn and I am going to try and get the pak choi and kohl rabi to make it to harvest.
What I am going to grow new for this year: lots and lots of sunflowers
What I am definitely not going grow again: nothing really falls into this category apart from waist high weeds but I can't promise on that one!
I will be waging war on slugs in 2009 as I think that can lead to rapid improvements, I may even like many bloggers before me, try different methods to see which is best and blog about the results
It is really the end of our first proper year at the patch and I think I understand how to improve things. Next year I have to have a bit of a better show on our patch as rival patches have now been revealed during the year. No I have no intention to compete with the neighbours, but teachers patch is on the site and there is the other mum from school who made better progress than me this year and she has four kids and spent less time at her plot than I did. Arrgh... I resolve to have less of a scatter gun approach to cultivation in 2009
My other resolutions for 2009. This might not be what you expect as it is not a detailed work harder plan. No, I just resolve to visit Harlow Carr and the Malvern Show, there should be nothing difficult in that!
What now for the next few weeks?
Dig and tidy the patch before the weeds spring to life, then think about what we need to sow and when, oh and maybe I might get a new gooseberry bush.
Merry Christmas and a great growing new year to one and all
Its nice to have a break from the Christmas madness. I squeezed a visit to the allotment into the mayhem of today between clearing out the old toys and taking Owen to a birthday party. Our tree still isn't up and there is a lot of other sorting etc to be done, but hey I have dug a little bit more of the patch. It was an hour of peace and quiet. It was warm and almost spring like today which is strange after the last few weeks cold snap.
When I will get to go again I'm not sure,dependant on the weather,work and the festivities it might even be next year (although escaping for a quiet hour on Christmas day when the niggley squabbling of the boys breaks out will be very tempting).I looked today and thought so much to do. I might need to make another one of my not likely to be completed lists just to cope with my flitting around the plot. I realise from watching Alys on Friday's GW that there are better ways to plant garlic than what I have done luckily I've got another bulb so I might do her ridge method to give better drainage. Then we will see which does better a la jedi or a la alys.
I've covered part of the area planned for next years potatoes with a mulch of newspaper, cardboard and landscaping fabric just to help with the digging in the new year. Dug the little square salad bed and part of what I suppose is our main bed. I was just about to cut down the dead nettles when it was time to go, I really noticed that here is lots of tidying up to do our neighbours seem to be cracking on with tidying. On one of our adjoining plots the shed has gone so I think that the old man who hadn't really worked the plot last year expect with intermittent help from his family has given up, its that time of year when there is likely to be change as the notice is up to pay the rent.
Our site has been threatened by the plans to put an underpass for the train line and It is thought that we might lose a few plots where the lane and gates are. There has also been mention of asbestos in the land near the train track in the local paper, a little worryingly they are surveying the lane for evidence of this before they commence any building work. I think the people in the local houses must be concerned if they do disturb something. I'm a little anxious as asbestos and allotment health don't really go together. I might have to talk to some of the plot holders to find out what is going on.
For the last couple of weeks allotment care has amounted to passing it once on the train (the day my car broke down). As I glanced from the window down to the patch things looked pretty much in the same sorry state as when I last visited in person. My sense of guilt at not having done more to the patch by now could possibly be felt in the whole carriage. My sense of wanting to be there rather than on the train was overwhelming.
Weekend weather and family activities mean a rapid allotment visit has to be slotted in where we can.Today was cold but sunny so after the visit to the town's Christmas carnival we arrived at the allotment about 1:30pm. The ground was still frozen in most places on the patch. Up until now I hadn't considered how little sun our end of the site gets at this time of year. As the sun is low we are thrown into the shade from a few trees and the nearby houses.
So frozen ground makes me think should I really be putting garlic out, oh why didn't I get it done weeks ago, but one thing I know it won't grow on my window sill. Owen helped me plant out the cloves once we ad hacked at the frozen ground. For some reason (well star wars is the sort of thing little boys think about far too much) Owen said its "jedi garlic". I certainly think it needs to be jedi garlic if it is going to survive what we have asked of it.
We did pull some lovely leeks as well which are now part of a tasty soup, yum.
