All about those Bs

In good old fashioned 'Sesame Street' style, this post is brought to you with by the letter B....

All I am about to tell you what happened on Saturday, a rare day in my life when I was able to cope and more than that, actually enjoy being at the plots!

This year, (as it is for everyone on our allotments) hasn't been going too well; we have been plagued by birds and the weather has been terrible. Thus it was that I found myself, on arrival, pulling out all our diseased and pigeon decimated broad beans. They were still in the flush of fruiting, some had flowers still to mature, but we had to say goodbye, even to the baby successional ones planted in a wee triangle further along the bed.

Beside them, the mangetout are starting to look in a bad state too, though there is plenty of flowers and pods on them. The birds have been nipping off the tops of each plant and every growing tip, they've been tugging at them hard too as quite a few plants were barely in the soil at all and had started to crisp up and crumble away from the bottom up. It really could get you down but I wasn't having any of that.

Pretty much all and I mean all (we had about 6 berries left) of our gorgeous blackcurrants were gone on Saturday. Only a day, one blasted night, after the bush had been full and gloriously bursting. Boy was I looking forward to a dark, juicy harvest only to have it snatched away from me by - you guessed it, the bloody birds. They ate every ripe one and took those on the verge of perfection and ripped them off and left them on the ground :( Such sad times.

I weeded wildly, fuelled by my annoyance for a while but soon calmed down. Andrew was off again to Gleno village for more wood - by goodness there was a netted fruit cage to be built this day! Damnation - thou shall not pilfer our blueberries! *shakes fist at sky*

the fruit cage has been working!

But, I mean look  - bird beaks have gotten to our Kale and the Pak Choi. Plus the Kohl Rabi  and PSB looks so sad. At this rate we would seriously need to consider netting our whole plot; one great big fruit cage!

So I turned my back and focused my attention on the beetroot, which amazingly Andrew had forgotten about. But then he has been doing everything else and was on Saturday building us a lovely gravelled parterre path on 14b. We really wanted a big tonne bag of the stuff but had to be happy with some smaller bags as the deliveries were over for the day at the depot. However he did a fabulous job.

Plus the Blackberries or as I like to call them Bramble berries are fruiting like crazy over there, it really does the heart good to see that one bush so big and healthy this year when so much else is a little disappointing.

Anyway, back to the beetroot, both yellow and red varieties had been sown direct and forgotten about so I thinned them all out, put the really tiny ones straight into the compost and the rest into our harvest bags. Oh did we have a feast! Now the rest will have more room to grow and become big and beautiful.

Lastly, I missed my own Blog Birthday. It was on Monday and it passed me by in a whirlwind. So happy belated 7th blogiversary to me - yay! I must remember to eat cake at some time :)

More photos to come from that day and some from Sunday too when Andrew made a quick visit :)
Love and Hugs
Carrie

harvest time on the allotment

This is a mostly very enjoyable post with much to be pleased about and a fabulous dinner for Andrew and me at the end of it. It's all about the harvest bag he brought home from the plots on Saturday.

Let's get one point cleared up and put behind us right at the outset. The carrots had carrot fly (I didn't know about this) and when lifted they had carrot fly larvae in them. Oh gross, how disgusting to watch them try to flee their host and to think, it was happening in my kitchen, on my draining board! I have a graphic photo I am going to share in the interests of science, be warned...

Can you see that in the carrot behind there are 2 more larvae coming out, the longer we watched the more emerged from all the carrot harvest and they were very quickly dumped in the bin - by Andrew, I couldn't touch them.

* We planted a variety called 'fly away' which are meant to provide carrot fly resistance and it did work for a few weeks but then this. We will be doing everything next year, all the tips and companion planting possible - I love me a carrot and so does Maggie.

****

On with the rest of the harvest. The yellow beetroot, ugly even after a good scrub, but super tasty..

I love the beetroot 'dye' that comes out and disperses into the water after scrubbing with our Mr Carrot brush.

The kale is still going, though not for much longer, which is really sad as I love it and it seems to be one of the best foods for you too, if you believe the hype around it. Superfoods, why must there always be something in fashion - good food grown organically and picked at the right time is always going to the best there is for you!

Not a thing wrong with the beautiful newer harvests of scallions, mangetout and green garlic, long may we eat these glorious fresh veg. For a summer snack, mangetout dipped in hummus is a tasty and much healthier nibble than crisps any day! Plus the garlic is drying in the shed so we'll have it for months :)

Our pak choi is coming to an end now, only one left and yes they all had little holes caused by flea beetle but that's harmless enough.

Then is was time for a stir fry with added chicken and rice (which we can't grow on our plots). YUM.

****

Goodness I started writing this post way back on Monday but I've been going through one of my sleepy periods where I sleep nearly all day and night. Getting back to normal now though (in time for more action on the plots this weekend!) and have so much still to share and blogs to read... Plus it's going to be my blogiversary on the 10th - I can't believe it 7 years!

Hugs and love
Carrie

Sunday allotment live!

My smartphone, like most I would suppose, has a feature were you can write yourself notes, reminders or indeed long pieces of prose. For today's blog I thought I would share a couple of hours on the aplotment (wow, I haven't called our plot that in years!) as it was happening...

3.00 pm
Thank goodness we're here I really thought it wouldn't happen today with all that rain. I've just got Maggie all set up on her running lead and am now admiring the cosy hideaway corner Andrew has been building. At the moment he's putting up netting around the trellis for more of a wind break. Time I got my weeding stuff together.

3.15 pm
I'm alone on the plots for a wee while whilst Andrew runs and gets his drill, some netting and hopefully some marigolds for me. I told him I could do this on my own but I'm struggling, someone else is in the field, I can hear them but not see them. Thing is, what if they come over for a chat - I'd die, dead on the wet grass, dead, that's how strong my anxiety levels are right now.

It's rained heavy most of the day and the ground is really squelchy. I can also hear the boats on the Lough as the Tall Ships leave Belfast. Oh and I just saw that wren Andrew's been harping on about - it's nesting in our compost heap.

Big deep breaths.

I really miss my music at these times. I need to get one of those wee mp3 players and wireless headphones...

3.40 pm
Andrew's back and instantly it rains. Maggie has gone bonkers, she hates the rain yet she will not stay in the shed and goes for a run around - who is this imposter dog?! ....We three are now locked in the shed, not exactly fearing for our lives but it is a downpour of quite epic proportions.

Now we can but stare out at the plot and the things we so want to do. Andrew wasn't able to get netting for over the blueberries and gooseberries and it's just as well as there wouldn't be time to do anything with it. There are puddles forming all over and I only brought one glove in here with me, why, Carrie??

3.50 pm
Ventured out again. Oh goodness that other glove is sodden, gross.

4.00 pm
Typical, it's gotten sunny again and the fleece is off; that's Northern Ireland for you. I've just hoed around the peas - our compost had a lot of seedlings in it - oops. It goes against everything I stand for, I get very weed by the root and turf it, but boy using a hoe instead, well, it was extremely satisfying and the area looks great in no time at all.

Andrew is planting the celeriac babies, they're really healthy looking and will love all this crazy apoplectic rain.

4.20 pm
Andrew is just thinning out the kohl rabi and pak choi (which are being attacked by flea beetles). We need to move the netting from over the kale and calabrese to over them. One line of garlic must be lifted to facilitate this - eek!! our first harvest of the season :)

4.45 pm
All paths are weed free (for now, boy that was 3 trug loads! Now to more glorious weeding and removal of dead leaves in the newly released brassica area :)

5.00 pm
I run around tidying up my stuff, taking some pictures and throwing in a few yoga moves. I'm desperately trying to find any more gooseberry sawfly too, darn things, I hate them! You can really tell I am nought but the undergardener here :) But awesome work have been achieved between us.

Parsnips, carrots and beetroot doing good - turnips have bolted; pink roses and poppies; the asparagus fronds are so pretty

Proud I came, glad I got over the panic attacks but...time to go home :)

Hugs and love
Carrie

Taming nature and pilfering on the plots!

Okay so I waxed lyrical about the joys of wild flowers in my last post and how beautiful and useful they are. Yes at the sides of the road a thistle, dandelion and long grasses make me happy but in my lottie, well they are nought but weeds.  Mr Titchmarsh sort of agrees with me, he once said that 'a weed is a plant in the wrong place' and boy did we have a lot of weeds to contend with on our return from France. I swear we could have lost Maggie in there!

There aren't any before and after photos but this one below. It's only a tiny part of 24a but it's all you are getting. Yes, shame was all encompassing when we saw our dear lottie plots for the 1st time, I couldn't even bring myself to take a photo, no, it was just too terrible. So think of this, but EVERYWHERE and you will get an idea of the horror, the horror.....

 

Only 'after' photos will be shared here and let's us forget about the 'before' ~ we are past winners of the 'Best Kept Allotment Award' for goodness sake!

We were methodical in our attack, almost military, a 2 pronged attack, a pincher movement.... Andrew took on the right hand side, I the left, grass was cut and beds weeded like there was no tomorrow. We started on Thursday night and on Friday night we did the next 2 beds and here is the joyous aftermath - some path and 4 beds, one with very healthy celeriac, one with very healthy leeks and 2 clear ones. Thank you very much; *I hear applause in the distance as the plots themselves weep with joy*

However on our return to the Allotments on Saturday we discovered that our shears had been pilfered - shame on you, whoever you are!!! By mistake we had forgotten to put them in the shed overnight and someone took advantage yet again. I say again, as we also noted that very first night that one of our biggest and best Squashes had been taken whilst we were on holiday. Argh, the duality of allotmenteering ~ the community aspect of many people and conversely, the people, all sorts of people.

Saturday saw all the sweetcorn harvested (a mixed bag in the end) and the squash plants below them lifted; sadly no edible fruits there. Then onto the cut and come again beds where all those bolted herbs and lettuces were turfed on the compost heap. Plus Andrew bought these, my new favourite things in the world - new shears!! They are so sharp and have a cushion-y  bit and make a quick whooshing sound when they cut through the grass = happy Carrie.

 

All we have now up that end in the long beds is Scallions, some Rainbow Chard, Sorrel and these beauties (Pak Choi). I am hoping to get the rest of the plot finished today! Andrew has already moved over to 14b and worked hard but I haven't seen it, I've been focusing on 24a.

New plans for the space are afoot and I shall post those (with one of my fabulous drawings) and the finished plot taming story/photos next time, probably tomorrow night. x

*****

Thank you for all the comments on Wild Flowers; so happy that many people have wild flower borders in their area and like the idea (and practice) of seed bombing :)

Migraines and seedlings

I must of been a terrible person in a past life - bad back at the start of the week, a tummy bug in the middle and today a bloomin' nasty migraine. It's starting to get dark now - that dusk time I hate the most, but it's helping me today, I can open my eyes and not be in total agony.

Had to come here and write a bloggette, the day has been boring, as anyone with migraine trouble knows - you can barely move without pain. Fighting through it now and actually washed my face, yes I know it's 5.15pm!

So to cheer myself up I took photos of the greenhouse and the dining room window sill - otherwise known as the Lottie nursery. Does everyone's house have a room like this at the moment!? and this is it tidied up, hahaha.

Our little greenhouse is all we have room for but it did us proud last year and suits our needs, though it does need weighed down or it blows away (too upsetting to talk about). In it we have about a million Leeks germinating (fingers crossed) in these 2 trays. I did take a close up but really, there's nothing to see yet! Up above are some more Echinaceas that Andrew got at a fab price that couldn't be walked away from - or so he tells me.

In the dining room I have some Lettuce in a tray which I'm going to grow in the garden for easy access. It's 'Salad Bowl' the mixed leaves. I can grow successionally and always have tasty leaves - though, and I've just thought of this - Maggie will have to be looked at more closely when she goes out for her tinkles!! The other tray, on the other side of the spuds, houses Perpetual Spinach, Brussel Sprouts, Pak Choi and Kale - forgive me for not walking into the dining room to find out the varieties - the head aches remember.

So that's that, just a wee catch up. Oh, and I did want to talk about the wonders of Vermiculite but that will have to wait I guess.

The crushing nature of depression

My dear GOOF'S (Grow Our Own Followers) I must apologise for my lack of blogging prowess... I am truly being suffocated by depression these days and have no oomph at all. I did desperately try to upload my video of the lottie yesterday but it just wouldn't work - Sorry, I'm sure you're upset, hehe.

Here is the lovely produce we collected on Saturday past though

More Pak Choi, the last of the turnips, a leek, 2 parsnips and loads of Beet Spinach. Apart from the Pak Choi, which we had in a stir fry on Sunday - the 2nd Picture shows a totally lottie dinner from Saturday night, with the now complusory HP sauce dollop in the center. YUM.

We also had a raspbery each - Okay, not a big harvest from this plant this year but I have hope and the 10 or so we did get were excellent.

Random Harvest (I LOVE that film)

This isn't about the film though, it is about the glorious harvest our wee plot gave us as a welcome home present. Here is the now standard harvest photo, but wait til you get the full run down of what's in there...

2 Pak Choi, 4 baby Lettuces, 3 Parsnips, 1 Leek, a massive handful of Parsley and 4 gorgeous wee Turnips. I was very happy, let me tell you.

The Pak Choi was used in stir fries (I was heard to proclaim "It's like real Pak Choi" - what an eejit) the Lettuces were eaten by me with a little cranberry sauce (more about that later) and last night Andrew made the best dinner ever with the rest and some couscous (which we'd grow ourselves if we could darn it!). He simply roasted the parsnips, leek and turnips and mixed it all up with couscous and lots of lovely flat leaved parsley. The only other ingredients were Ras el Hanout (Moroccan spice mixture) and a little salt and olive oil - Heaven!

So to the lettuces. They are growing away beautifully under one of our little mini polytunnels and are so tasty, especially lifted young like this. I am genuinely surprised at how well these little tunnels are doing, they were a good buy alright and to think, I almost doubted their necessity (apologises Andrew!).

Yes, the cranberry sauce and lettuce mixture. This comes from the 1st meal I had when we arrived in Krakow, I was so impressed by this dish I wrote it down in a notebook whilst eating it (never done that before). It had a Lettuce mix of course but added to that was grilled chicken strips, cashew nuts, Sunflower shoots (!) Basil mousse, a few perfectly ripe cherry tomatoes and Cranberry sauce. My socks were blown off - simple but my my so tasty. (If you've never had Sunflower shoots before - they taste a little like firm/ripe melon, beautiful.) Poor me I had hardly any of those ingredients but I made do.

We aren't the only ones to be enjoying the success of their lettuce. These ones are so cute in their little rows; they were planted in between corn until recently. I don't know the names of this lovely couple but they gave us a very big handful of said baby sweetcorn a few weeks ago and it was gorgeous - green fingers on that plot alright.

They aren't 'real' polytunnels but Andrew brought home some used Water Cooler Butts from work and cut their bums off. They have been very effectively used as cloches for 2 of our Parsley plants. Look how this plant was trying to escape (that's before I chopped it down for dinner, hehe), goes to show you don't have to pay for purpose made stuff, eh?

Lastly, for today, I'd like to mention our Leeks and how we've been blanching them with bits of drainpipe. It was found way back in the spring in a little stream along with lots of other dumped household stuff and we thought it might come in handy - we were right. I have an intolerance to 'real' onions but can eat leek, so it's an important crop for us. Using the collars around the young plants makes them grow up to have a longer, thicker white bottom half, where most of the flavour is. Gosh, I'm full of tips today! (This pic doesn't show our best ones but it gives a good idea).

New Harvests

Here's a wee run down of what is growing away at the plot for the future (don't forget we are still eating potatoes, carrots, beetroot, lettuce, runner beans, spinach and sweetcorn at the moment).
In this bed alone we have Pak Choi, more carrots, more mixed lettuce, scallions and more turnips (they were a surprise for me, I'd been complaining that we'd finished them all). I thinned them out on Sunday and everything is very healthy. I have high hopes for the Pak Choi, fingers crossed.


Elsewhere we have leeks fattening up nicely, parsnips, beetroots and spring cabbages. Oh and a great turn out for the books - our own chillies, loads of them. We have 2 different types (under a mini greenhouse we bought in Woolworths for next to nothing) both flowering and producing fruit, one is a Jalapeno, but this one is miles ahead and it's the one with no label! Andrew ate a big bit out of one of these, but it wasn't hot - not ripe yet. I thought he was mad when I saw him crunching away.

We also have radishes but we're not interested in them - they're for Mamma G and Anne to eat. But look how cute they are; I managed to get this photo just mins before Mamma G ate it up straight from the bed; the beautiful redness shining at her was too tempting.

There's nothing wrong with them, I just don't think we'll bother again. They are a little fiery, peppery but mainly (and I mean this for all radishes I 've had) watery. It's not exactly wasabai is it!

More Weekend stuff

Heart broken that that was our last summer weekend; the weather man said that 1st September is considered the first day of Autumn - I'M NOT READY! It's already getting darker sooner and on Sunday, I couldn't see in the port-a-loo and we had to put the headlights on when driving home.

So, anyway, at the weekend we got some Green Manure for one of the old potato beds. It was a Thompson and Morgan variety, just multi-purpose stuff. The other old potato bed has Pak Choi, Scallions and Carrots in it, they're germinating fine, especially the Pak Choi which I'm very excited about. The carrots are the same as in the ones we're eating now 'Autumn King 2' and the Scallions, we have been growing throughout the spring/summer, 'White Lisbon'. Once they are all over, we have more Green Manure for that bed too.

Stuff we Found

Apart from actually gardening we also found some interesting stuff while digging around in the beds and weeding. I actually managed to get some more pics of bugs, though not the ones on our parsnips - Andrew squished them.

We also have some Prehistoric flint - an End Scraper and a sharp edged cutting thingy. There was also some 19th century black ribbed glazed earthenware. Andrew is the archaeologist, and knows exactly what they are and although very interested in the subject, I can't remember the details. Here they are anyway....

Best thing though was finding a horse shoe! All rusty and with the nails still in it - exactly what we wanted for the apex of our shed - for luck.

Then to top it all off, I found Alan, I had forgotten all about him, he was being smothered by grass and pumpkin tendrils, but I think he's okay. He is our ironic gnome.

Total wash out!

Yesterday was bloomin' terrible weather wise. We decided to nip down to the plot cos we want to try and get a crop of turnips, scallions and Pak Choi in one of the old potato beds before winter. We did manage to buy the Pak Choi in our very local nursery 'Sunnybank' (it's just 2 minutes away from the allotment fields), and have a good natter as usual (they're so friendly and helpful there). But when we got to our shed we had to settle for a wee cup of coffee and gave everything a good coat of looking at, out the window.