Rainbow Haul & Delicious Dinner

Went up to the lottie for a harvest and a poke about today. Lots to sort out there but that's for another day. Picked some goodies and what a pretty, colourful selection. I expect the courgettes will get turned into chocolate cakes (got a bit of an obsession with them now!). The marrow will be ratatouilled I think as I love that taste and texture. The gooseberries have gone in the freezer. They're marvellously translucent now - very, very ripe and sweet. I ate a few that burst in my hands :) The solo kohl rabi is a bit pathetic. If I grow them again, they'll need more water but I don't think I will bother next time. The purple radishes were grown for their colour really - radishes don't really do it for me! Silly eh. The patty pans on the front-left are a slightly different that the other yellow patty pans - paler and taller. There's a normal one in there too. The green beans are prolific, as per usual. But I love them so it's all good :)

The purple radishes are very pretty - almost as if they've been painted with ink.

I decided to roast up the patty pans, radishes, some (supermarket) onions, 

as well as the beetroot that was languishing in the fridge with some oil & rosemary.

Everything took on a lovely pink colour from the sweet beetroot :)

I had a portion with some lottie green beans. Yum yum!

Close-up catch up

Here's a little catch up of some close-up photos. I like these. Lots of things are looking good :)

sweetcorn & kohl rabi

gold rush courgettes, marrow, patty pans

patio apples

dwarf dahlias, LOTS of cornflowers with buds, gladioli

purple podded peas

Thinning out, planting & harvesting

Last night I popped to the allotment. Just for a little while after work... but then stayed 'til it was dark! That's a habit I am getting into. Too many jobs, not enough time.

My seedlings did pretty well sown directly into the soil in rows, under the cling film cold frame. I took the frame itself off a while back when the frost had gone and almost everything I planted has gone great guns. So much so, I think I have too much! The kohl rabi was my task last night. I thinned out all the seedlings and planted them in-front of the sugar snaps/cornflowers. There was a reasonable amount of weeding to do but the soil is lovely up this (shed) end of the plot and the weeds came out easily. I am very pleased with the kohl rabi seedlings and I am hoping they will now start to swell. I had some seedlings left over so I gave some to a plot neighbour and some to a friend at work. She also got a chinese lantern - seedlings are popping up from one I bought last year which I thought had died a death, and some cosmos - also self-sown from last year's plant.

I also harvested some radishes which look mighty fine :) I thinned the seedlings a couple of weeks ago to give them room to swell. I like this photo :) Anyone know any good radish recipes?

These are leeks I grew from seed. I am going to thin these out too and sow them in place. I ran out of time last night.

I read somewhere you can germinate shop-bought seeds. This is my 'bean experiment' so I will see if anything grows. Just a bit of fun really. Not the end of the world if it doesn't work!

I picked my first ranunculus too. It is a bright poppy-red but looks orange on this pic. Pesky camera!

I also planted out the aubergines, patty pans, butternut squash and marrow plants I bought from Potten Farm in Kent. I did this is the dark though so no photos yet!

I've just been to the nursery near work to get a few more things. As the seeds I planted did nothing and I want to grow them, I bought a tray of self-blanching celery and two trays of celariac. I also got more seeds and some flowers. Photos to follow :)

After saying I wouldn't grow them again, like I did with the tomatoes, I bought a pot of runner beans! Aww, but... there were 8 healthy plants in one pot... it wasn't much money... last year's were super-tasty (but SO prolific!)... ah, I am sure I will enjoy them this year. Note to self - create a STURDY frame this time! No idea what sort they are. It just said 'runner bean'. Hmm!

Sunday's sowing

So, here they are, the tomatoes I wasn't going to grow this year! I've got some of the tumbler variety. They're in a hanging basket, dangling on a long string on my balcony. I've already walked into them a couple of times when I was hanging out the washing! Let's see if they drive me up the wall...

Down at the allotment, the seeds I planted last time are already starting to show through under the clingfilm coldframe. The radish and kohl rabi are doing the best, with the broccoli also poking through the soil to the left of the photo.

I was wondering if a pesky animal has been digging in my flowerbed as I spotted this mystery hole and soil overspill. Hmm...

The tulips should be out soon, and the mint I thought would be dead by now has resurrected itself! I should have known you can't kill mint so easily :)

I did some weeding in the first shed-end bed & planted some Lily of the Valley I got on a shopping trip, as well as some Baby's Breath Gypsophylla.

I am also wanting to plant up some different varieties of lavender as I love the smell & it is practical too. This is a pink variety. Didn't get the name. Will have to check the pot next time I'm in the shed.

The rosemary I got last year was a sorry sight. I think the cold weather finished it off. Rather than have an almost dead plant struggling on, I sent it to the compost afterlife and planted this fine specimin in its place. I also had to move the caraway which is going great guns but was too close to the lupins (behind the rosemary in this pic).

The rhubarb I got for a snip went in today next to the globe artichokes. Hopefully I've left enough room for both to grow ok. The plants look really healthy.

The onions & garlic are doing well.

The asparagus is already coming through
- looking forward to eating that this week sometime :)

Finally I planted lots of seeds in pots (about time!) and put them outside in my mini-greenhouse. Hopefully there will be some greenery soon :)

Making new beds

Well, down the allotment I went today, with a helper - huzzah! My friend, Nick (a star of a friend, if ever there was one) volunteered digging services today. Of course, I happily accepted :) While I waited for him to arrive, I gave my shed's potting bench a dust down and found these bulb cards hiding. Now I know what should be popping up in the 2nd bed, 'shed end'. This is great as I didn't really make a proper note of what I planted. Tut tut! This is one of the great things about a blog - a searchable record of what went where, when :)

I also took some snaps of yet more shopping I did on Friday evening - more seeds for this year:

Celariac: giant prague, sugarsnap peas: sugar bon
& kohl rabi: purple vienna (which I have never eaten,
in any form, so this will be a proper first!)

Sunflowers: sunburst mixed, marrow: long green bush2 

(LOVE marrows!), leek: lyon2 prizetaker (sounds promising!), 

& some mixed annuals - planning to plant these in strips 

at each end of the veg beds.

The crocuses growing next to the shed are also further on than last week. lots more of these stunning purple ones and each one open. Sigh :) Looks like even more will come out soon too.

So, what did we do? Well, I attacked the 'dump mound', left by the last tenants, next to the globe artichoke, on the end of my herb bed. It was full of old potatoes of various varieties and jerusalem artichokes (all rotten), as well as loads of bloody sloe tree roots! Grr! Ahem. My cunning plan for this area is to build a cold frame. It should then be sheltered by the shed and close to it for moving and acclimatising my new plants. The soil, once I'd attacked it for a couple of hours, was perfect. Just right for purpose :) No raking needed - which is good as I snapped the rake before Xmas! I also dug out last year's woody spinach so there is another bit of bed ready for something new, next to my tree onions. The pic above shows how it looks now. I really want to get hold of some scrap wood to edge these beds, now I know I will be keeping them like this. I shall keep my eye on skips...

Nick, well, he's a digger. A digging machine, who will work as long as there is a supply of tea and biscuits (and cake!). I set him about digging over last Sunday's new bed which I'd de-turfed. I was going to bury the turf but he ended up shifting it onto an existing mound behind the shed. Out of sight out of mind ;) One day I will sort it out. Perhaps. This just needs attacking with a rake - which I need to buy. Nick did take one off the shed (read earlier posts if this sounds odd!), but I reckon it will snap soon enough, like the other one.

Bed dug over, time for tea. Nick brought his camping stove and some chocolate biscuits. Nick rocks! :)

His next task was to dig another new bed, a bit bigger this time, between the strawberries and the other globe artichokes/spring onions/asparagus. Safe to say he did this MUCH quicker than me last weekend. But then I am a feeble girl ;) Again, this just now needs to be raked over, once one is purchased!

The other job we did was to move 3 compost bins out from behind the shed and under the trees, into the open. I am hoping being in full sun will create some heat to break things down faster. It also means they are easier to get to. We put lots of the rotted compost onto the beds and Nick dug it in. I was on barrow duty. I also put the unrotted compost back into the bins. To be honest, a lot of what was in the bins was trash, literally! Jam jar lids, sweet wrappers, crisp packets, carrier bags. Doesn't make any sense to me. Hardly going to rot down eh. There were also lots of sticks, stones and bits of metal I also picked out. At least I know what's in the bins from now on will be useful for the allotment!

This last pic shows the 1st bin we moved - the bin far right was already out on the plot. I now have 2 more black bins between the two. I may move the black ones down to the other end of the plot, the 'road end', so there is compost on each half.

Well, might pop down the allotment tomorrow, might not. We shall see! I do need to mow though. Claire's mower wouldn't get going today so I think it needs some 'go-juice'! Hope you're making the most of the finer weather this weekend. :)