more growing, less typing

I've been neglecting this blog, so my apologies.

However, you will be pleased to know that I haven't been doing quite so badly on the allotment. It is still a running battle between us and the weeds, but we are winning in enough areas to have some decent crops going on.

So, a catch up post. In May things just kept on growing. I was away on Skye for a while, but everything survived my absence. The summer squash and courgettes went into the beds, the salad started filling out the bath and the peas and beans grew like crazy.


In June this first bit of June we have got our scarlet kale in, potted up our peppers and chillis to bigger pots, saw the Jerusalem artichokes shoot up, and loads of fruit and flowers appear.

The tomatoes have started to flower, the vintage wine and red robins are furthest along: the biggest and smallest fruit.


And the sweet peas have been planted to grow up the old metal frame we put in our flower 'meadow'.

Back Down To It

I've been a bit lax of late, in blogging here and in going to the allotment. But I'm back to it now.

We have actually been doing quite a bit, but it has been in our flat. We have a small heated propagator and several unheated ones that we have been starting everything off in, and it is turning into quite a production line now.

And several things have made it to the allotment already. Corn, courgettes, tomatoes (several kinds), aubergines, peppers, chillies.



We have also set off plenty of things in the greenhouse at the plot: lettuce of various kinds, including a salad leaf mix, scarlett chard, peas, broad beans, and various herbs and flowers.


Also yesterday I did a bit of DIY pot making. We received a parcel the other day that had tubes of paper scrunched up in it. It was perforated so that they could just tear off as much as was needed. As with most things these days we looked at it and asked 'do you think we could so something with that at the allotment?'. It turns out: biodegradable pots for beans/peas/sweet peas. They don't like root disturbance (their growth slows down for quite a while after being moved too roughly) so it is ideal to have a pot that they don't have to be taken out of when you move them on to their final location.

I separated the paper into a tube about 20cm long, twisted the base together and then turned the whole thing inside out so the twisted base was inside. I put a couple of beans in each, and also did some with 5 sweet pea seeds in each which can just get planted out whole when it gets warm enough.

We will see how they hold up, I'm hoping they don't disintegrate before I want them to!

tomato farm

I now have a veritable forest of tomatoes and other heat loving things on my kitchen windowsill.

5 types of tomatoes, 1 type of chilli, 1 type of pepper, 1 kind of aubergine. Plus some pansies, busy lizzies, lobelia.


Next will be squashes, gerbera, pinks, and marigolds.

I'm aiming for a bed fiull of flowers and a greenhouse full of tomatoes.

true leaves

I'm quite excited today, my tomato seedlings have started to get their true leaves.

Only one has died before getting to this point, the Banana Cream. I remember not having much luck with that last year, it took ages to germinate, so I'm assuming it needs much higher temperatures. I'll leave it til later in the year.



The others are looking strong and healthy, if still tiny. I got worried about night temperatures after the Banana Cream started to shrivel so I put plastic bags (with vent holes poked in the top) over the pots. They look a lot happier since I did that. I whip the bags off to let them have a bit of air during the day.

Long Purple Bolivian Robin Maker

Or something like that!

I've been enjoying seed variety names today. I put 2 types of tomato, 1 sweet pepper, 1 chilli, and 1 aubergine into the heated propagator today and was luxuriating in the marvellous sounding titles. I think Purple Calabash is my favourite, but Red Robin comes a close second as it just seems so descriptive of the lovely little bushy plants of cherry tomatoes that it will produce - perky and cheeky!

On a grey day like today the exotic, warm sounding names were giving me a lot of joy. However as well as the Doux Long des Landes, and Bolivian Rainbow their was one name that is recognisable, steady and traditional sounding.

Exerting a calming influence the reliable Aubergine Money Maker will keep the rest of these flighty numbers in line!

Tomato-tastic II

The 8 tomato seedlings have been transferred now; 4 to a smallish terracotta pot. I'm hoping to keep them in these until they are big enough to get moved to their final pots, probably in April.

I planted them quite deep, as they had got quite leggy. They seem to be doing OK so far. I kept them in the heated propagator for the first day and night, and then moved them out of it this morning.

Here's hoping for good strong plants this year.

Tomato-tastic!

We bought a little 7w heated propagator the other day to start off our tomatoes, chillies and aubergines at home. Last year we couldn't start off our seeds until quite late in the season and with the rubbish rainy summer they didn't really get far enough along, a lot never ripened at all. We got something off them, but the real stars were the tiny 80p plants we bought (Shirley, Golden Sunrise, and a Plum I think) .

So the plan this year is to get the plants from our seeds to a similar size before taking them to the allotment. We decided to try 2 of each of our heritage seeds from last year first, we had 4 seeds of each left and had slow and patchy germination last year: Vintage Wine, which is a kind of knobbly stripy one ; Banana Cream, which has long 'plum' type yellow fruits; Christmas Grape, which produces vines of small cherry toms; and Lemon Tree, which has surprisingly lemon looking fruit, right down to the point at the end!


And so far 2 of each of everything except the Banana Cream have come up. In just a week. The Banana Cream took longer than all the others to come up last year, so I expect that to pop up in a few days. Then we will stick them in a normal propagator, and then pots, and try and them get a bit bigger ready for transferring to the allotment.

Next on the list are: Red Robin tomatoes, little bushes of cherry ones; Purple Calabash, lovely knobbly dark red/black ones; Bolivian Rainbow chillies, and Money Maker aubergines.

Here is hoping for a good crop this year.

Helloooooooooo!

I haven't posted for a while, but I promise we have been doing some stuff at the plot.

Most things are over, but some tomatoes are still going (in the lean house), chilies are ripening, and various kinds of salad are going (also in the lean house). The Christmas Potatoes are also coming on well, and I'm quite excited about them.

So, what have we had?

The last courgette before the frost was more of a marrow, I took it to my Mum's and we stuffed it with couscous and topped it with goats cheese, which was lovely:



We took up the rest of the potatoes shortly after the frost too, they are fantastic, a beautiful colour and flavour:




I made a thai potato curry with some tonight:



I'm also ripening some of my 'heritage' tomatoes at home at the moment, I have them on the windowsill in plastic tubs to try and make the most of the light. I've left some ripe ones in with them in the hope the ethylene they give off will encourage ripening:



The main kind are Lemon Tree ones which are such an amazing shape, really like lemons!



We are now looking forward to getting a few jobs in the winter. The Lean House needs ends, and we need to sort out a few beds. I'm looking forward to having the stove on and drinking coffee in a crispy frosty allotment.

Back after the break

After a lovely holiday in the Netherlands we came back to find our plot in good health. A kindly neighbouring plot holder had been roped in to water (and eat) the tomatoes and they were all doing very well.


Many things have sprung into life or attained monster proportions. Peas and bean plants are getting to a good size, one of the courgettes is well on the way to becoming a marrow, several of the lean-house™ tomatoes are a good size, and the cucumber had run away with itself and has become enough for a whole meal rather than an addition to salad.

Some huckleberries have also ripened and flowers are starting to appear on the squash.

And . . . we have some leaves appearing on the 'christmas' potatoes.


The seeds I put in for turnips, radish, spring onions, and beetroot have come through as well, I just hope the weather will be good enough for them to grow to a decent enough size. The radishes should be quick enough.


The seeds in the greenhouse are doing well too, the rainbow chard is looking pretty already.

Not quite the Whistle Stop Café

One of the branches of our plum tomato plant had bent with the weight of the tomatoes and broken so I brought home the green tomatoes. Not quite enough for green tomato chutney (I'm waiting til September for that) so I decided on fried green tomatoes.



I dipped halved tomatoes into egg (they were only small so I decided on halves rather than slices) then put those into a little tub of flour with chili flakes, pepper and salt in it and shook them around until coated. They then went into hot oil for about 3 mins each side.

I wasn't amazed by the taste, but they looked very pretty on the plate and I think I'll try them again another time.

Strawberries and Heatstores

The tomatoes seem to be doing well in the lean-house™ , quite a few flowering and some have some fruit too.
Also in there now are some strawberry runners which we have potted up. We have left some to just root themselves in the existing patch but we want to have another patch as well, so nine have come out to get moved later in the year when the bed becomes free.



As you can see they are sat on bricks. We have added these as a drainage aid and heatstore to the lean-house™. We had to dig a trench to put the back wall in (to get it level and to get the right slope on the roof) this has been filling with water a bit so we have moved some of the rubble that is on the plot into it. This means we can then sit plants on top of this without them having to get soggy bottoms. Hopefully this will act as a heat store too, and keep the night-time temperature up later in the year.


We haven't put the ends on yet, but the temperature is still pretty god so we are going to leave it for a while.

Another bout of weeding

You can now see our cabbages and onions a bit better, as we had a massive weeding session around them, they seem to be doing rather well, although there are only a few onions still in.


Most of them are drying on a rack in the greenhouse. I'm glad we did it, they are the first two beds we see as we come in the gate and it is much nicer now they are free of weeds. It was also nice not to be building something, but actually getting up close and personal with the soil and plants.

But . . . on the drying and building front, we are thinking of trying to make a solar airer/dehydrator. Saw a thing on TV on the "it's not easy being green' programme, and I think we have all the bits we need: wood, glass, black plastic, wire mesh. And hopefully soon we will have lots of tomatoes, so it would be good to be able to dry some and have our own dried tomatoes to put in pasta and on pizzas. Might as well make use of the warm sunny weather while it is here.

Tomatoes on my Potatoes

I thought I was imagining things the other day, and then remembered that tomatoes and potatoes are both of the Solanaceae family. My potatoes had little berries that looked like tomatoes!

They are inedible, in fact somewhat poisonous. I've been told the berry production is unusual, but about 6 of our plants seem to have fruit. I think I'll remove them so that the plants concentrate on the tubers rather than trying to produce a new generation.

Although we grew potatoes as a child I never remember the flowers setting and producing fruit.

Somewhat more worryingly I thought we may have blight, but having looked at the plants it looks like early blight, which isn't too damaging, rather than late blight. Early blight is also supposedly unusual, so we obviously have odd potatoes. The difference is explained here but one of the main differences seems to be early blight being shaped on the leaves by the position of the veins.

I cut the leaves with signs of it off and burnt them, just in case, and will keep a close eye on them to see of anything further develops. I also signed up for the blight forecast here from the British Potato Council, this uses temperature and weather forecasting, and local sightings of blight in your area to alert you to the risk.

All our tomatoes are unaffected, both indoor and outdoor ones.

lean-house™ 2

We now have all the walls and roof cladded. We just need to put walls and doors on the ends, but we need to build wooden frames for that and our drill ran out of power again.

But it is sheltered in there so we moved in the tomatoes that have been getting a bit crowded in the cold frame. Because of the bars on the ceiling we can run strings from the tops of canes or grow bags up to the ceiling to stabilise them, which is great.

So we have 15 tomatoes (5 varieties) and 4 aubergines (2 varieties) in there now. I hope they like their new home.

Salad

I mentioned a salad a few posts ago, pea, bean and mint. We are going to have it again tonight with a little paté and bread on the side.


These are the raw ingredients from the allotment (well we won't use all those peas and the tomatoes will be with the bread and paté). I'll pop back and post another picture once I've assembled it all with the lidl feta.

[edit to add photos]

Check out those colours! The plates have orange and red tomato slices laid out alternately.

Mmmmmmm-mmmmmmm

Harvests continue aplenty.


Latest recipe is a pea, bean, feta and mint salad. Equal amounts of peas and broad beans, then proportionally slightly more feta, and as much mint as you fancy (lots!). Mix in with salad leaves and add lemon juice and olive oil to dress. It's fantastic.

Also good were noodles with chilli (3 tiny ones from our plant), bacon and peas, topped off with caramelised shallots and finely sliced plum tomato. The tomatoes were the first from one of our plants and they taste fantastic, really fragrant.


I'm now wondering what to do with cucumber (no sniggering at the back) as we have two approaching readiness. I've seen a garlic chicken and cucumber recipe on the beeb site that looks promising, and also cucumber salsa to serve with fish, so I might try those. And there is always tzatziki (sp?) and raita.


We also made raspberry and strawberry cheesecake, doesn't really count as from the allotment as only the fruit on top didn't come from the shop, but I had forgotten how good proper homemade cheesecake tastes. Really simple too: digestives, butter and sugar for the base; cream cheese, greek yoghurt, double cream, and icing sugar for the top. Just add fresh strawberries and raspberries.


Mmmmmmm-mmmmmmm

new greenhouse

Well all the plans from the last time I posted changed as we inherited (or re-inherited) some things which moved the greenhouse on.

A while (6 years) ago we designed an exhibition that had some 'leaning posts' - tall upright metal posts with padded cushions, so that people could lean back and watch an overhead projection screen. After the exhibition they went on a tour round various storage spaces and theatre companies and have now ended up back with us. So, greenhouse time!

It took us a day to load them and a load of wood onto the van and to the allotment (thanks to Sarah, and to Bard in the Botanics for the help). And then today we started building. We have ten of these posts and they are 1.5m wide and 2.3m tall. We are going to use 3 for the front and 3 for the back, and 3 for the roof. No idea what we will do with the 10th one.

They are going to go next to the current shed/greenhouse combo.



The walls are in and the floor is levelled, so just the roof to go.



We are going to clad it with transluscent correx. If we can convince a delivery company to send stuff to an allotment (tomorrow's task).



I think it is going to look great, the metal is powder coated in a teal blue which is quite good. And their will be loads of room for all our tomatoes, which are languishing in the cold frame at the moment.

Tomatoes and stuff

Flowers! Only on the bought tomato plants but at least it would seem we will get tomatoes this year.

When I went today there were open flowers on 3 of the 4 plants - the plum looks like it has quite a few trusses forming, the others 1 or 2 so far.

Looking at the plants from the seeds we planted it looks like it will be ages until they get to this stage, but then I remember these plants were tiny 80p ones only a few weeks ago.

The greenhouse had got to a ridiculous 39.9˚C today, which I think is a bit much even for tomatoes, so I put up some more shade fabric. It is already over the windows, but I draped a bit more from the ceiling. Whoever built the greenhouse didn't really include much in the way of ventilation, there are 2 small vents in one corner but everything else is sealed tight. I guess we will need to add vents in the roof at some point but for now I'm just trying to shade it all as much as possible.