Dig It Up

It was time...

...to say "Goodbye"...

... to the Cardoon...

...that was supposed to be...

...a Globe Artichoke.

The plan was to quickly dig up the Cardoon and then get on with other things. I hadn't bargained on the thickness, strength and depth of the roots. It took ages to dig the plant up and even then there were bits of root that I simply couldn't reach - they had gone into the subsoil, which is very hard. I do hope new plants don't grow from the left-in roots.

Still Cutting Broccoli

Can we go now?

We called by the allotment for some purple sprouting broccoli and I filled my carrier bag. The five plants are providing more shoots than I can use and family members are very happy to share in the bounty. 

I'm going to try white sprouting broccoli this year, the seeds are already in pots in my mini plastic greenhouse together with Greyhound cabbages. 

Rogue Plant

Cardoon

It's growing beautifully but this cardoon will have to go. When I bought it last year the packet said 'Green Globe Artichoke'. The flower buds were nothing like I had expected and on further investigation it was identified as a cardoon. 

It has similar thistle-like flowers to an artichoke but they are small and, although edible, I found them too fiddly. The central ribs of the leaves are edible and taste a bit like celery, apparently - I'd rather eat celery. 

I don't like getting rid of plants and, if I had room, I'd keep it for its flowers, however,  I only have  half an allotment and I need all the space for vegetables we are going to eat.

Whoops!

Whoops! Having an allotment is a major learning curve. I planted my early potatoes this week - so far, so good. 


The day after I realised that I'd planted both 1st and 2nd earlies at the same time - so my 2nd earlies will be ready at the same time as the 1st. Why didn't this occur to me when I was putting them into the ground???


I've also totally underestimated the amount of space 60 tubers will need. I have to prepare more ground - I really should have counted how many potatoes I planted last year. But I am determined to plant all 60 because I'm trying 10 different varieties - so I suppose I could pass it off as a carefully planned experiment....

First Tenants move into Cold Frame

Strawberry (Elsanta)...

...the first tenants...

...in my new cold frame!

I've put a piece of cardboard down to discourage the grass from filling my cold frame, it doesn't need any more encouragement to grow. As you can see there plenty of room for other seedlings. There are five pots with squash seeds in, keeping the mail-order strawberry plants company. The strawberry plants were a freebie - postage only  - from the 'Kitchen Garden' magazine.

To Test or Not To Test

My soil testing kit.

Last year I threw manure all over my allotment, stuck in the veggie plants and waited to see what would happen. This method was surprisingly successful, though it owed more to the resilience of the plants than to my innate skill. 

Now that I'm becoming a 'proper' vegetable grower, I've decided to test the pH level of my soil. Thinking about it makes me slightly panicky - is this going to complicate life on my allotment? I like things to be simple - mostly because I'm lazy. So why do it at all? Well, it might explain why some cabbages grew large and others didn't, ditto the onions. On the other hand, it might not. But having seen a large tub of lime in the garden centre, I've been wondering if I need to use some.

Which bit of soil should I test? Will there be different pHs in different bits of the plot? What about areas I manured last spring and those I manured in the autumn? Already I can feel myself making this really complicated.......

And now I've read about testing for something called 'free calcium carbonate' - 

think I'll just stick the veggie plants in...

It's Begun!

The sowing has begun! In small pots of compost I've started off:

Leeks - 2 varieties: Musselburgh and Bulgarian Giant.

Cabbage - Greyhound

White Sprouting Broccoli

Today I bought the remaining seeds that I need:

Winter Squash - High Sugar Mixed

Parsnip - Albion

Butternut Squash - Avalon

Dwarf Runner Bean - Pickwick

I'm really looking forward to growing 'Pickwick' having always grown full size runner bean plants before. It will be interesting to see what yields I get. The plants do not require staking and can be grown in large containers.

Plotting

Wonders of technology! Today I downloaded an App to my phone that you use to plan your plot. I had great fun filling my virtual plot with the crops I intend to grow this year. The plot was full in no time at all.


I did have to leave some spaces because the programme doesn't have fruit symbols and I had a problem 'saving' crops that I entered myself. The cabbages saved but none of the other things (raspberries, winter squash...).


It'll be useful to have a reminder when I'm on my half-allotment and handier than a sheet of paper. I know I have a final paper plan somewhere but I can't find it, although I have found all the previous attempts. Having only one phone -  that's easier to find!

After the Rain - Broccoli!

After the torrential rain I harvested a whole carrier bag full of sprouting broccoli. The plants had really taken advantage of the welcome watering. 


Even though they were flattened in the gales, my tenacious plants are growing up towards the light and producing most delicious shoots. Next year I'll remember to stake my broccoli plants in good time so they can withstand the 'winds that do blow'.

Simple Pleasures

It may not...

...be necessary but...

...I like chitting seed potatoes!

Just seeing those little shoots waiting to go into the ground and provide me, and my family, with lots of tasty tubers does my heart good. Simple pleasures.

It's been another cold day of high wind and heavy rain - lovely to get the rainfall, we'll appreciate it later. The winds were so strong last night that they blew the back gate open and my newly constructed cold frame down the side of the house! My husband rescued it at 6 am and put it into the shed. Hopefully it's not sustained too much damage and I'll be able to put it to work soon, raising seedlings.

Drought in Suffolk

Finally...

...the much needed...

...rain.

Plans to go to the allotment today were scuppered by heavy rain - but as our county is now officially suffering a drought, the more rain we get the better.


Suffolk: Drought places wildlife under threat.

New Cold Frame

Have assembled my new cold frame but forgot to take photos! A job for tomorrow.

The instructions were surprisingly easy to follow considering there were no words - luckily it wasn't very complicated. 

I don't know how I'd get on with a more challenging structure with only small diagrams to follow - might have to call in one of those 'flat pack assembly' people - or my daughter.

The last of the winter (Kilaxy) cabbages.

Plans and Dreams

I bought a cold frame yesterday and will be attempting the self-assembly in the next few days and photos will follow. I haven't decided what I'm going to grow in it yet - I've never had one before - I'll probably just use it to get seedlings started off.


I also bought a long, plastic cloche. I intend to sow parsnip seeds tomorrow, weather permitting, and I'll put the cloche over the parsnip-strip to protect it from the forecasted return of winter.


This is such an exciting time of year, full of plans and dreams of bumper crops - before the reality of pests and drought kick in. One of my beds will be home to the Three Sisters; sweetcorn, squash and beans which, so I've read, love to be planted together. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.


This YouTube video explains the reasons for Three Sisters planting.