Rusty Leeks

Rust!

After germinating in abundance, being potted-on and then lovingly planted on the plot my poor leeks suffered from the driest spring and summer we've had for some time. They survived with watering and finally as autumn progressed, seemed to be recovering - only to develop rust! 

Reading various forum posts there are a number of suggestions including spraying with gin...

Royal Horticultural Society

BBC Gardening

Cooking Potatoes - Quick and Easy

A favourite way with our allotment Desiree potatoes.

Prick skin and microwave until almost cooked through.

Cut in half, put onto grill pan and score the cut surfaces in a criss-cross pattern.

Smear a little butter over the scored surfaces.

Grill until golden.

Yum, Yum!!

Potato for Supper

It's so nice to go out into the garage and choose a potato for my supper from the crop harvested at the allotment. So satisfying - why did I wait so long for this experience? I should  have done it years ago!

Planning

Possible planning programme at Suttons Seeds

Rats

Rats!

The birds in our garden have been deprived of food ever since I saw a rat skipping along under the hedge this spring. The photo is from last spring and led to us paying vast sums to a pest controller. He did the job but Ratty was back this spring.

I love to feed the birds and want to help them through the winter so I've moved the feeders closer to the house - but will this bring Ratty closer? Maybe I should put them down the garden...

Allotment Planning

I've been looking at websites with reference to planning the allotment for next year. Is it worth buying a bit of software? It would certainly save several sheets of crossings out....


I might do worse than follow this plan from the 1940s Dig For Victory

Paid My Dues

Am just back from the Annual Allotment Holders' Meeting having settled my bill for the past year. The meeting was well attended, the allotments are clearly valued by their holders.

I'm Learning

Manure Heap!

The outside of my manure heap is hard and dry, I didn't get around to covering it with a tarpaulin and we've had drought for most of the year. When I dug into it on Saturday I was delighted to find that just beneath the surface all is moist and cake-like and looks even better that last year when my ton of 'well-rotted' was delivered. 

I now have a little more knowledge about where to use manure and won't be flinging it far and wide with the same gay abandon as last spring. There will be more serious planning this time with the needs of various crops taken into account along with exactly where they're going to be put. This first year has been haphazard and experimental but has produced enough successes to whet my appetite for more.

Having had time to observe the planting on neighbouring plots I can see that I've wasted good growing space. I'm trying rows this time.

Allotment Birthday 2

Allotment October 2010

Allotment October 2011

Things are looking better this year than at the same time last year. Winter cabbage, cauliflowers and purple sprouting broccoli are coming along well. The strawberries need moving and I plan to make a new bed for them. I've lost some of the leeks but am hopeful that the rest will be OK and the nasturtiums are still blooming!

It's been a year of learning, failure and success.

Failures: carrots, parsnips - seedlings overcome by weeds - couldn't even see them!

              pumpkins - not same plant as as on the packet and weather too dry for resultant         

              plants.
              globe artichoke turned out to be a cardoon


Successes: early and main crop potatoes
                summer cabbages
                beetroot
                butternut squash
                courgettes
                onions
                shallots
                patti-pan squashes
                spring onions
                peas
                broad beans 


On balance I'd say that the year was a success - and the learning goes on. It also provides me with speech material!

Sweet Potato Harvest!

Amazing!

Wow!

They're not the most impressive sweet potatoes I've seen but they're the first I've grown! The plants were put in late after I saw them reduced at the garden centre. I didn't know sweet potatoes could be grown in the UK until then.

Looking at this result from two small plants I'm determined to plant sweet potatoes earlier next year for a, hopefully, larger harvest.

What's Best for Winter?

I can't decide what's best for the winter; to dig the soil, cover with manure and leave open to the frost or to cover with tarpaulins to prevent weeds growing. A covering of manure should help to keep the weeds down too. After such a dry year maybe the soil should be uncovered so that it can soak up as much water as possible over the autumn and winter.

One- Armed Gardening

I'm having some problems with one of my shoulders which started after carrying heavy cans of water during the drought - and then digging up all the main crop potatoes while it was still sore. 

This has started me wondering whether I could do the necessary jobs on the allotment without causing further damage to my shoulder joint, after all there must be plenty of gardeners out there with a similar problem. So far I've found the following:

Single Arm Gardening Equipment

Carry on Gardening

Variable Results with Seeds

Coleslaw

I made coleslaw with some of my first winter cabbage, it was lovely. The cabbage is sweet and the seed was a good choice - Unwins Gro-sure Cabbage Kilaxy. According to the packet it is clubroot resistant and results are guaranteed. Every seed germinated, unlike some other seeds I used this year. 

Only three out of a dozen sweetcorn seeds germinated, a friend kindly supplied me with more plants. I had little luck with the winter squash seeds I bought, only one grew and that plant had one very small squash. 

Apart from those two disappointments, however, most seeds grew successfully, especially the leeks.

Cauliflower Cheese

Cauliflowers

The leaves are looking healthy, I don't know how soon the 'flowers' will appear. Hopefully they'll be bigger than my first attempt (20+ years ago!) when they were tiny. They were so tiny that I didn't bother growing them again - until now.....

If they're successful they'll end up as:

Cauliflower Cheese.

Steam 1 washed and cut up cauliflower, including the leaves (best bit, family members always fight over these) until just tender.

Make the Cheese Sauce

Put half a pint of milk, 1oz of flour and 1oz of butter into a pan and heat while whisking to prevent lumps forming.


When the sauce has thickened remove from the heat and stir in 3oz of grated mature cheddar cheese.


Season to taste with pepper, salt and a little mustard powder (if liked).


Put it together


Put steamed cauliflower into an ovenproof dish and pour over the sauce. Sprinkle with 1oz grated mature cheddar cheese.


Bake in the oven at Gas mark 5 until surface is golden - 20 /30 minutes


Remove from the oven and allow to cool a little.


Enjoy!  Lovely on its own and also great with roasts, sausages, chops etc


If eating it as a dish on its own it's extra tasty with crispy bacon bits sprinkled over the top.

Green Peppers

Green Pepper

The pepper plant is in a tiny plastic greenhouse outside but I think I'll need to bring it in if the peppers are to ripen. We've already had two frosty nights.

Quince Jam - 1st Attempt

My first attempt at Quince Jam; what a lovely colour!

The recipe I used gave 1lb 4oz sugar to 1lb quince but I think it's resulted in a rather sweet, though still tasty, result. I'm going to reduce the sugar to 1lb per 1lb fruit and see if the flavour of the quinces is more pronounced.

Allotment Birthday

The Annual Allotment Holders meeting is coming up - it's a whole year since I inherited plot 4a. I've learned a lot this year, with much more to learn in the future. 

It's been so satisfying eating our own potatoes, courgettes and onions since June. We've had a few lovely sweetcorn cobs, summer cabbages, spring onions, peas, broad beans also rhubarb and raspberries. There's been a good crop of butternut squashes too to enjoy over the coming months.

One thing I've learned (by watching my allotment neighbours) is that you can keep on planting broad beans and peas all spring and into early summer. 

I need to reorganise how crops are set out next year. I think rows will work better than beds - again after watching my neighbours. It's lucky that my plot is next to experienced growers.

Interesting information about allotments from Directgov

Beautiful Winter Cabbage

First Winter Cabbage

I'm very proud of my first winter cabbage - ever! It has a well-developed, firm heart so I've cut it to eat now. 

The others are at different stages and some won't be ready for a while. But I'm not going to make the mistake I made with the summer cabbage. I waited too long to start cutting them and so they 'went-over' before we'd had chance to eat them all. I hadn't realised that they would split.

Might try this recipe from Delia.

Spring Cabbage

Hooray! I've just been given a tray of spring cabbage plants by a thoughtful friend.  I'll get them into the ground tomorrow and it must be time to plant broad beans too. 

Long Season for Figs

Ripening Figs

Has anyone else got figs ripening in October? Amazing and quite delicious!

A Crowd of Winter Cabbage

Winter Cabbage 

(photographed at dusk hence the rather dramatic effect)

It looks as though I planted my winter cabbages too close together. They were very small when they went in, and I measured the gaps between them pretty accurately, but now they seem to be elbowing each other out of the way. 

It's a double row and they are huge (or 'hooge' as we say in Suffolk).  They are also a bit mis-shapen because I kept them under a protective cloche for some time to keep the pigeons off and prevent butterflies laying eggs on the leaves.

Leeks

Poor Leeks

My leeks have really suffered in the drought, as have those of other allotmenteers. Now that cooler weather is here - and some rain - I'm hoping they will recover.

I Googled 'leeks and drought' and this blog popped up - expressive writing, I think.

Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato Vine

I found some sweet potato plants in a garden centre and put them into my plot - it was fairly late on but I wanted to see what would happen. They're looking healthy but frost is just around the corner and as they originate in tropical and sub-tropical climes I imagine they'll die. In a few days time I'll dig them up and see if there's any sign of tubers. As the vines haven't spread far I think the tubers, if any, will be very small.

It's apparently quite easy to grow shoots from a sweet potato which can then be planted so I'm going to try that next year. If we have as much warm weather in 2012 as in 2011 I just might get a crop! 

After reading some forum posts on the subject I'll also use an organic tuber as often tubers are treated so that they don't sprout, for longer storage.

Artichoke Flower

Flowering Artichoke

As my supposed Globe Artichoke was not what I expected I've let it flower, so that, at least, it is brightening up the allotment. I've still not managed to identify the variety...

Nasturtiums are So Useful

Bright and Cheerful Nasturtiums

While everything else has been feeling the effects of the drought these nasturtiums have remained green-leaved and healthy! I knew that there were good reasons for growing them (apart from being easy and beautiful) - such as: they attract aphids away from vegetable crops - but I found even more good reasons here at iGrowVeg

Squash Harvest

Car boot full of squashes.

All the foliage has died so I've harvested the squashes as they won't get any bigger. Although it's been so dry the butternuts have not done too badly. They were put in before the others and maybe had deeper roots to search for moisture. The other squashes haven't done well at all but still look decorative.

Just picked Butternuts - all different sizes

Courgette Soup - Late Growing Season

October and still growing!

Courgettes I picked yesterday.

Yesterday, October 4th, I picked courgettes! It's been so warm that my plants are still flowering and producing fruits. What a bonus! The plants are outdoors and usually it would be too cold, even frosty, for them to survive and I would have pulled them up - in fact I almost did last week, then I saw fresh leaves and decided to give them a few more days.

When my girls were small they wouldn't eat courgettes so I began to make courgette soup which I served up as 'Green Soup' - they loved it!! Sometimes there is something in a name.

Courgette Soup

2 large or 3-4 smaller courgette, washed

1 large peeled onion

1 organic chicken stock cube

freshly ground black pepper or mixed peppercorns

olive or vegetable oil

Chop the courgettes and onion and saute in a little oil.

Cover with water and crumble in the stock cube.

Bring to the boil and simmer until the vegetables are soft.

Take off the heat and allow to cool a little.

Blend  (a hand-held blender is easy, if you have one)

Season with the pepper.

Serve with bread of your choice and a swirl of cream or creme fraiche, if you fancy it.

Enjoy!

Squash or Pumpkin?

What is this?

This is another of the plants from our 'pumpkin' seeds. Is this edible? I suppose I'll find out when I try to get a knife through the skin. It will be very disappointing to have nurtured all these supposed pumpkins and find that they are only ornamental! My allotment is for food - and the occasional flower.

The photo was taken at dusk and the true colour of the squash/gourd is more blue-green. If anyone can identify it I'd be grateful, especially if you know whether or not it can be eaten!

Have just spent an age Googling and still can't identify this squash.

Not Pumpkins

I smell! Just watered the allotment and a neighbour had a big bonfire, the smoke was blowing across my plot - now I smell like a kipper. A true autumnal fragrance.

Not pumpkins!

The seed packet said 'Pumpkin', these look more like ornamental gourds. They're small and have very tough skin - I was going to cook one at the week-end but couldn't get the knife through it! We certainly won't be carving them for Hallowe'en.

What to do with Old Sweetcorn Plants

What do you do with old sweetcorn plants? Will they rot down or do they need burning? That's something I need to know as we'll be digging them up next week-end. They're not suitable for my compost bin - maybe I should shred them?


I've been browsing answers on the web and it looks as though shredding is the best way - then I can add them to my compost bin.


Better talk nicely to a friend (maybe take round a jar of chutney) - he has a shredder!

Parched Leeks

Just back from watering the allotment again. This has been the hottest day yet and my leeks are looking very much the worse for wear. I hope they'll recover. A lot of their outer leaves have dried up but I'm ever hopeful. I use a lot of leeks in soups and creamed as a side dish over the winter months and it would be nice if, this winter, they were home-grown.


I found a bit of history about leeks here.