This season I shall mainly be growing onions

Yep, onions it is. I found these did really well last year - and they were a cinch to grow. Plant, water hardly ever and leave to grow :) I also use onions in my cooking all the time, and they last well. Why wouldn't I grow them again?! Last year I just grew 'Red Baron' red onions and they did really well. I am now down to my last 2 in the store cupboard. This time around I've got more to go with the white onions and garlic I planted before Xmas. The packs in the photo are the varieties I'm putting in this time: more Red Baron, Stuttgarter & Centurion. Yes, I'm the last of the big spenders! ;)

I would like to grow peas again this year, and fine/french beans. Might give the runner beans a miss this time around as they were super-prolific! I couldn't keep up. Hmm, maybe I could try them in a simple wigwam with just three plants rather than the full row I did last year... I mean, I like runner beans, but not that many! They did surprise me though - I'd never eat them raw from the supermarket, but like a lot of things grown fresh, they were nice eaten raw when they weren't too big :)

I will not be bothering with broccoli or cauliflower again - too prone to bugs & netting is a pain in the butt! However, I will try chillies again as they did well, as well as sweetcorn I think - give it another try. BUT NO MORE TOMATOES, that is for certain! And definitely more flowers. It was so nice to pick a bunch for my table :)

I am planning on going to the allotment today after a bit of an absence. Hope things aren't too wild down there!

What are you doing at the lottie at the mo?

Very first globe artichoke, picked, cooked and eaten - the verdict...

Well, I inherited some very attractive globe artichokes with the allotment. I've never tried them before so now they are getting ready for eating I thought I'd give one a go. I found this link on the internet and I followed the steps. They are very majestic plants and the heads are beautifully symmetrical - I like symmetry, me!

First you have to snip off the prickly, pointy tips of the leaves and remove the stalk.

Then you cut off the top.

Boil in a pan of salty water for 35 mins, making sure all the 'choke is covered in water - weigh down if necessary.

Scoop out the furry bit in the centre and discard. Eat the leaves by biting on the big end of each one and drawing out the flesh with your teeth, outer parts of the leaf are too tough. You can eat all of the fleshy heart as is.

Verdict - not too much hassle and DELISH! :D Hooray!!

Also chowing down on cauliflower cheese using the first cauliflower from the allotment, as well as some butter-fried mushrooms (from the supermarket!). Yummy :D

If you have globe artichokes I recommend you give those funny-looking things a go!

Firsts in the latest food harvest

I didn't get too much done this weekend down the allotment. Mum and I did pop down on Saturday morning to water - and, as usual, got distracted by other tasks! We did some harvesting which was the main reason for going. We picked raspberries and gooseberries and the final redcurrants the birds hadn't eaten! They look beautiful, like little jewels. Hopefully there is enough to make a jar of jelly. I am planning on making a cake and some oat bars with the raspberries and some chutney with the gooseberries - all will be adapted recipes I am sure :) Mum took some fruit for herself.

We also got to harvest my very first broccoli florets and a head of cauliflower. I also picked a bunch of sweetpeas but have found the flower stems are shorter on the new blooms. That means a smaller vase is needed! When I inherited the allotment, some produce was already there. I had a poke about in amongst the weeds and found a few (what I assume are) shallots ok to pick. I am drying these out and will see if they are edible!

We also picked, but didn't photograph, more charlotte potatoes (delish!) and the first globe artichokes. I am going to try mine tonight and see how it tastes. Will let you know! Cauliflower cheese is also on the menu. Yummy :) I hope you are enjoying your harvests.

I have now taken the netting off the strawberries and started to pot on the runners. Hopefully this will give me more strawberry plants to keep or to pass on to others, perhaps in a plant swap which they do at the allotment - not that I have had time to go to one yet!

1st spuds and other jobs

Ah, what a nice view. The photo above is the sight that awaits me as I pull up to the allotment. The sweet peas are glorious so I think I will have to have some of those in every year.

I thought I'd take a snap of that flowering shrub I mentioned in the previous post. Isn't it pretty? It says it grows to 30x30cm so I thought it would be fine in this old metal bucket. It makes me smile anyway, even if I can't eat it like most things on the lottie!

As I was tidying up the edges of the 'road end' bed and doing a spot of weeding, I noticed how many ladybirds there were on the plot. Of course, this is a good thing - I have plenty of blackfly they need to eat and they're just so darned attractive! This is a snap of one that I spotted (hardy ha!) on the runner beans.

Hooray! I got something ticked off my 'to do' list - I re-netted the broccoli as it was growing too big for the original net protection I put up. You can see the difference between the cauliflower (left) and the broccoli (right). They were the same before I re-netted. I don't think I need to re-net the cauliflower as they look like they're just about right. I did some weeding around the broccoli as I had the net off but I think I'll just leave the weeds under the cauliflower net for now. I noticed that all the plants had broccoli forming so I can't wait for that to be ready :)
I am getting a bit fed up with all the grass, and to be honest, a little embarrassed I'm not using all my plot for growing. Yes, I know I've not been there that long really (especially as I had most of May off!) and I am doing most of the work solo, but I am feeling guilty. I plan on putting 3 new strip beds in between the 'road end' bed and the 9-grid bed. I made a start on taking the turf off the first one in the stifling heat of yesterday. It was hard going as the ground is pretty rock solid from the hot weather and it must've been in the high 20s when I was digging. I did set up my chair and parasol with a big water-filled bottle for breaks but I didn't get as much done as I'd like before I started to feel a bit too faint to carry on! Ah well, at least I've made a start.

I'm a curious ol' thing and thought I'd take a peek at the progress of my charlotte potatoes. One of my allotment neighbours told me that once the flowers turn, the potatoes should be ready, apparently. My flowers on the pots were on the turn so I thought I'd take a peek at the new potato crop. This is what I found...Yes, there are potatoes to eat - and delicious they were too, but I think I'll wait a while longer before digging too many up. There were still quite a few tiny potatoes so I replanted one of the plants I dug up to see if it will keep growing. This is the 'haul' from 2 plants...

What's going on down't lottie?

So, as promised, here is a photo-heavy post about all the plants that are making progress in my plot...

the 'road end' bed. row nearest us: dwarf beans, hopefully on road to recover after they got a bit too much water, runner beans looking ok but got blackfly i need to attend to, 4 remaining pea plants looking a bit sad now. sweet peas in the background going great guns!

runner bean flower, plagued by bloomin' blackfly

sweet peas are always covered in flowers, even if i pick most of them the day before. my flat smells wonderful from all the posies i am picking :)

broccoli ready to burst! must re-net this asap. L-R: charlotte spuds, red baron red onions, broccoli (don't know the type), morning glory cauliflower

charlotte potatoes in full flower. might dig some of these up to see how they are doing. can't wait to eat these, especially mixing them with my homegrown mint from the 'shed end' of the allotment.

red baron red onions fattening up and starting to burst through the soil. can't wait to eat these :) this one is about 3 or 4cm across i'd say. yes, i need to get in and hand weed around these.

pumpkin flowers starting to form. there were some little pumpkins on these, like marbles, but they've dropped off. i think it is my fault from ham-fisted watering. i am now watering these very carefully. i'm still learning! very blurry photo!!

midnight courgettes flowering and another coming through on this plant. i bought these from the market and they've not been in long. they are already about 3 times as big as when i bought them!

chilli peppers seem to going really well so far. lots of flowers and quite a few fruits at the mo.

sweet peppers look like they are going to start flowering soon :)

was a bit worried about these 'sale' buy cherry tomatoes but they must be reasonably happy as they are starting to flower. phew!

sweetcorn (left back) and baby corn (right front). i usually weed mostly by hoeing but can't around the sweetcorn as they have shallow horizontal roots. will have to hand weed this soon.

this is the bed down the allotment from the 'road end' bed. it had parsnips and onions in it. i need to clear this and make another strip-shaped bed next to it to the right. it's on my 'to do' list. maybe this weekend?

ok, end of part one. part two to follow later! :)

'Surgery', strawberries and sale plants

...hmm, how do i do this??!

Saturday afternoon/eve was spent down't allotment with my friend, Eva. I needed a helper so I could get my raspberries netted - not a solo task! - so I was terribly greatful she volunteered her help. There are many jobs an allotmenteer can do solo but sometimes one needs help! It took a while to decide how best to tackle the netting as the raspberries are mixed in with the other soft fruit in a 7 x 5m bed. It would cost a fortune to do the whole thing so I am prioritising raspberries this year as my fruit to protect :) I plumped for a longer-lasting net and went with 2 packs of 8 x 2m 12mm pond netting. Luckily most of the raspberries are at one end of the bed so I could net most of them. Here's some pics - I was quite pleased with the results and, like ever, I did a neat (read "perfectionist's"!) job and more or less sewed the two nets together - I felt a bit like a surgeon!

i'm going in!

...and for my next trick, i will make a raspberry net out of bamboo canes, plant ties and pond covering!

ta da!! surgical stitching!

here's the finished result. no bird is getting at them there raspberries!! muhaha!

So, job done :) That was all I'd planned to do. That, and water the plants. However, we all know it is far too easy to get distracted, especially by reduced sale-price plants. Yes, I succumbed to 2x sweet peppers, 1x tomato (will look up the type), 1x pack of 6 cherry tomatoes, 4x pumpkins, 2x leek packs. I also got drawn in by a handsome-looking blueberry bush. Not that I needed more soft fruit but I don't have a blueberry... oh it is all too easy to get sidetracked!

2nd big bed, newly planted out with pumpkins, peppers, tommies to go with already planted sweetcorn, aubergines, baby sweetcorn and potatoes - busy bed!

Next, plant out that impulse-buy blueberry...!

Look at me go! ha! However, this next photo will show you why I bought it - it's so handsome!

*sigh*

I am also having a fantastic run on juicy, scrumptious strawberries. I picked about 750g of ripe red beauties. The net I put over them really has protected the crop and more or less all were pristine. There are some real whoppers and the taste and smell is heaven!


The rest of the allotment is coming on in leaps and bounds. Here are a few snaps of what's growing...

sweet peas

developing flower and herb bed

vialii primula

ripening blackcurrants

globe artichokes starting to flower

charlotte potatoes - bottom right's looking a little sad :(

broccoli, red onions and charlotte potatoes

charlotte potatoes, red onions, broccoli and cauliflower

So, all going well. I hope your growing's going good :)