Barnes Allotment

Secret Santa

Santa me a gnome.  I can't believe my luck.  Another gnome.

Recovery and hibernation

It took a while for me to gain the enthusiasm and momentum to come back to the plot to start digging and planning again after Thames Water's inconsiderate distruction of my lovely "nicola" potatoes and the general disarray and mayhem, bits of rubbish and debris they left behind them.

But onwards and upwards, it is all cleared up.  The miniature cabbages survived the trauma and I did manage to dig up a whole side order of potatoes in the end.  I am sure there will be a few more left in the soil to sprout up next year.

The ground is so solid now, it is time to put the tools away and plan for next year.  I already have grapevines and blackcurrents on order. 

Tragedy

I proudly took Jerilynn to see the allotments today only to find Thames Water have dumped their rubble on top of my potatoes, pulled down the fence, thrown boulders of concrete on one side of shed and a digger on the other so I can't even get in to protect the last squashes from the cold.

No sign of anyone anywhere.

A Folly

It has been a plot day to remember.

It was Julia's first visit and we made some significant leaps of progress.  Not only did we "earth up" the potatoes to prevent them from exposure to sunlight, we bedded in the cabbages and squashes (by surrounding them with warming protective bark chips) and make real progress with clearing the back section of the allotment that had run wild and rugged.

But the all out success of today was the generation of an ornamental wonderland for the gnomes and their friends.  We created a small pond by the fence to attract wildlife and provide a natural habitat for the plastic people.  Twee it is not.

From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked

The last of the carrots came out today and the final spring onions so I dug the bed over.  It's been a productive day at the allotment and a beautiful sunny one as well.  If only this sun had come out before I ripped the final tomatoes up then I might just have been able to save a few more that hadn't been affected by blight.

It feels like new beginnings all over again.  Other than the potatoes and squashes I have nothing growing.

Today I did plant a fig tree that Scott picked up for me in the week and have some blueberries ready for planting when I pick up some ericaceous compost. They will all be espaliered across the bed by the potting shed.

More excitement for today, Cathy too a break from her study Cathy popped down to plant some mixed bulbs in the flower bed.  Hopefully we will see some alliums in the mix.  I also planted some bluebells in one of the pathways.  We await springtime for the results.

Potatoes take centre stage

The crops have been hit and miss so far.  The corn, aubergine and carrots were definite successes but cucumbers, peas and beans all suffered from the quantity of rain we have had this summer.  Sadly I had to pull the tomatoes out this weekend as well and it looks like they had suffered from blight.  I did try to save the green ones for chutney but they were all afflicted and had to go to the dustbin - totally bypassing the compost.

The potatoes however are going great guns despite repeated slug attempts.

Carrot tops

Of all of my produce so far,the carrots have filled me with the greatest joy.  I don't think I have ever grown anything that I need to pull out of the ground to reveal the results. It is amazing to see the orange carrot tops appearing just at the surface of the soil.

I can see the error of my ways having planted them too close together. The result a few three legged tidddlers and the odd nubbin but most of the carrots have been fully formed and juicy and very orange.

Rubbish doesn't describe it

More fool me for making a rash impulse grab and run in Homebase. This compost bin costs £26 and is possibly the most useless item I have encountered for some time. The click into place technology on all four sides, clicks right out of place when you move it, sneeze on it, go anywhere close to it.  Putting rubbish in it resulted in full 4-side-al breakdown.  Luckily I purchased £1.59 worth of twine to keep the thing together.

Wild and Abundant

The plot has been absolutely deluged this week and the result being my formerly orderly plot has turned into a rather chaotic mess of plants and weeds. The tomatoes have suffered the most; the plants have grown but the fruit have barely ripened.  Most of those that had nearly ripened have split as a result of guzzling too much water.  Scott advised me to pinch the side shoots to stop them being so greedy and taking on too much water. I did manage to retrieve a few.

Despite the mayhem, I did get another few corns, a couple of small aubergines, my first knobbly cucumber, the last of the under-performing peas. I impatiently also pulled up another couple of carrots.  They weren't quite ready but certainly delicious.

I was also quite pleased with the progress the potatoes have made.  I will need to protect that whole bed from slugs ... vaseline around the bed rim is apparently a trick.  May as well give it go.

Vegetables in Miniature

I completely forgot to post last week. Mainly because I was working most of every night and the weekend on a slightly less wholesome project.  But I did get to the plot for a short amount of rehabilitation on Saturday morning only to find that the rain had brought about the beginnings of many new signs of life.

I sacrificed a carrot to see how they were progressing (approx 2 more weeks) and spotted my first little pepper and chillis - see veg in miniature below:

You may also remember the echinacea that turned out not to be echinacea - well the first little flower did appear last weekend and this weekend several buds have appeared.  Any ideas what is is now?