I've grown too much AGAIN !!!!

Last year I vowed not to grow excess amounts of veg on the plot this year, but I'm not sure how it happened but I have done it again.  Although it's lovely to share with the neighbours (which I did today !) but it all takes time to look after such vast amounts of plants. Trouble is I can't bring myself to compost healthy plants so even though I give away lot's of plants every year, I still have way too many.

I had a good harvest today and It's scary to know that although my fridge is full there will be more to harvest on my next visit. Next year I have to get it right !! how do you manage to just grow enough ? or do you also do as I do and grow too much ?

Here is some photo's taken on the plot today, it's all looking very lush. I dug up some garlic from the second bed  and this variety 'Cristo' is huge, it fit's into the palm of my hand.

The Globe Artichokes are enormous and growing like crazy.

The onions are growing well, they looked like blades of grass when I put them in as I grew them from seed.

I have lots of  self seeded Sunflowers and Calendulas, all brightening up the plot

The pumpkin and squashes are in

The Spinach has been amazing, but is slowly going to seed now so I have sown some more today.

The Runner beans and French beans have now reached the top of the wigwams and are all in flower.

The Tayberry has quite a few fruits now and I have been eating some for a couple of days.

The gooseberries have loads of fruit, the green ones are huge and the red ones are just turning from green to red and are delicious.

I am growing Cape Gooseberries in the greenhouse and this one is really getting big now and has quite a few fruits forming

And finally  here is the Broad beans, Mangetout, and Calabrese that I harvest today. I haven't grown calabrese before and I am so pleased with it as the heads have grown so big over the last week, I will definitely grow it every year.

It's been an amazing year so far, and there is so much more to come. All the potatoes are dug up now as I only grew first earlies. I will post the results on the varieties soon, as they were unusual  and I haven't grown them before.

Truly Allotment Heaven today

I feel very fortunate to have my allotment plot ! I read about long waiting lists and that in some areas especially in London that it can take between ten to fifteen years to get a plot, so yes looking around my plot today seeing all the lovely veggies and flowers growing I really appreciated my 'Allotment Heaven'.

I worked from 1.30 pm until 4.50pm weeding mainly, as the rain seems to make the weeds prolific and the onion bed took some backbreaking work to weed.  I dug up 3 plants of my early potatoes ' Ulster Prince' and took them straight home, shared some with my lovely neighbours and cooked a few for our supper and they were delicious. We don't eat many potatoes so I have only planted first and second Earlie's this year.

I have dug up my first bed of Garlic 'Cristo' which this year thank goodness didn't get rust. It is a great crop and I think once again I have gone a bit overboard as I have a slightly larger crop to come up yet of a French variety.

The Globe artichoke bed looks brilliant and has a little squash in between Globes and lots of Asters  I can't wait for them to flower as it's the first time I have grown these flowers

The Spinach (three different varieties) is amazing and I am picking a large bag every other day and also giving the neighbours some. I intend to keep sowing so that I have enough until the winter months as we love it.

The Tayberry has fruit and I can't wait for it to fully ripen and pick my first berry, Yum !

The cucumbers in the greenhouse have tiny fruits YEAH ! we love home grown cucumbers and the tomatoes are full of flowers, and I have loads of lettuces and peppers coming on in the greenhouse. So all our own salad stuff sorted !

And here are a few photo's taken around the plot today. Lot's of flowers and bees buzzing, truly Allotment Heaven.

What more can one ask of life ?

Almost forgot to mention that I have been sent a lovely book to review which I will post about over the next few days. I think most of you with fruit growing on your plots will like this book,  it's all about making cordials, wines, beers, soft summer drinks and more from fruit we grow, buy or forage.

Have a lovely week.

M x


New Asparagus plants and an allotment update

My asparagus plants which I planted last year weren't a great success, only three out of ten survived.  I don't know why as I planted them all the same, in the same way and the same depth, and the three survivors look very healthy.  Anyway today I received ten new very healthy  replacement plants kindly sent by Stephen and Serena at Victoriana Nursery.  Here they are all planted up  looking small at the moment, but I have a good feeling about these, some are planted in another row just out of view.

Thanks to  Stephen and Serena for replacing them !!

I harvested the last of the Purple Sprouting Broccoli at the week-end. Out of six plants which had all grown very tall and looked healthy until our severe winter, only three survived and only one of those gave any decent pickings. It really wasn't worth waiting any more for the measly pickings left as I needed the bed to get my canes up ready for the runner and french beans.

So the bed is ready for the beans which are growing like 'Jack's Beanstalk' in the greenhouse and need to go in. I will probably get them in next week, surely we wont get any more frosts after next week ????

The Greenhouse is productive !

The Tayberry is doing amazingly well and has had loads of flowers, so hopefully lot's of fruit this summer.

There are so many flowers on the strawberries, and not just on my plot. Everyone else's plots seems to be having a successful year with the strawberries too.

Rhubarb has been amazing this year. It's the third year now so all the different varieties (which I forgotten the names as the tags are now lost !)  are at the right stage of maturity for a full picking. YUM !!!

The gooseberries are full of fruit, but I am a little concerned about the colour of the green gooseberry fruit as it looks like it's tinged a bit pink !!  and NO this isn't the red gooseberry which is green at the moment, but does turn red later on. The labels are still on the bushes from when I first planted them, so I know I haven't mixed them up (as the hubby suggested) so it's a bit of a concern in case there is something wrong with the green one (any Ideas anyone ????) I just clicked to enlarge this photo and the fruit looks a bit spikey doen't it ?  I must go back and check this out tomorrow.

The green gooseberry (honest)

The red gooseberry (it goes red later on) below. I checked the original tags still intact and it really is the red variety

 And finally, broad beans (doing very well) and red veined spinach, I love this variety and have also grown the larger leaved green one and a baby leaved variety as well ( Look out Popeye !!!!)

I almost forgot the Blackcurrant ! also full of fruit waiting to grow and ripen, it's going to be a great year for fruit. The late fruiting raspberries are growing like mad after being cut right back.

Such a long post ! isn't it nice when everything starts looking fruitful ?
M x

A busy time at the allotment

I've worked at the allotment for two days this week, and enjoyed every minute of it. The sun was shining, and I met with a good friend up there who also has a plot and we sat in the sunshine outside her shed (Oh the good life !!) and chatted and had a drink break, TRULY Allotment Heaven !!!

The Broad beans are doing well, but still covered for the moment as they were raised in the mini greenhouse and not planted direct. I had hardened them off for a couple of weeks, but a severe frost could still knock them back. I dug up a row of parsnips 'Hollow Crown'  the seeds were from Victoriana Nursery and they are so nice that I got the same again for this years planting.

I still have this row of parsnips to dig up a bit later on. I will probably have to blanch and freeze them as I will need that bed soon.

The Tayberry is doing well and looks like the fruit is starting to come which is exciting as this is the first year, although it was a good healthy potted specimen and a good size to boot. again from Victoriana Nursery.

There are so many ladybirds about on the allotment, so hopefully they and their young will keep the aphids down, it's wonderful to see so many.

My plot is beginning to look more alive and lovely and green again.  I have Calabraise, cabbages growing, and  purple Sprouting broccoli I actually got my first harvest from it last evening (at last) it's in for such a long time. I lost three plants out of the six I planted, but the remaining three don't look too bad. I am hoping to harvest for a couple of weeks to make up for the long wait.

I did manage to sow some carrots as well. I sowed two rows each of Early Nantes 2 and Nantes 5, not sure what the difference is ! we shall see ! Oh and the potatoes went in at last too,  all earlies.  I don't grow main crop any more as we don't eat that many potatoes, so its  just for the fun of digging some up for salads really.
SO lot's done and heaps more to do. I have a mixture of traditional veg beds and also raised beds on my plot and I must say the raised beds are so easy to dig over as the soil is lovely in them. But all beds are full of lovely fat worms this year more so than any other year. It must be the good manure I put on in the autumn.

Have a lovely weekend and don't forget to leave your comment on the post for the giveaway David Austin Roses book if you would like a chance to win it.

The Beans are in AT LAST !!!

I finally got my broad beans in. The roots were long and thick and sticking out of the bottom of the root trainers. The bed was already manured and prepared, so it just meant working out the spacing and length of rows.
Here they are :

on the left are Bunyards Exhibition and on the right Red Epicure, I've not grown the red ones before and it says on the packet that lightly steamed they keep their colour, and as I always steam my veg we will see if that's true when the time come.

The first Asparagus spear is up , that's exciting as I have been looking for it on every visit. I'm not sure how many are going to make it but fingers crossed a lot more than this one.

Even more exciting is the new Tayberry bush, it's growing so well and looks really healthy. The Tayberry and the Asparagus were both from  Victoriana Nursery .

I've managed to clean the greenhouse at the allotment with good old Jeyes fluid, it pongs a bit but does a good job. I haven't actually moved anything up there yet as it's all still in the mini-greenhouses in my garden (much easier to look after until all frosts are gone) There is still heaps more to do and lot's to sow, but I am holding back as things like cucumber, courgettes, french beans and mangetout all come on very quickly and then I will run out of greenhouse space.  I hope to sow a lot of things direct this year, thats the plan anyway !

Friday again !!!! have a lovely weekend everyone and please don't forget to leave a comment for the giveaway book by David Austin (Roses) see previous post.

Teasing myself with photo's of what's to come !

We went up to the allotment today to check on the Tayberry which came from Stephen at Victoriana Nursery and I was excited to see that many buds have opened and little curly leaves are unfurling. It looks very healthy

There was gorgeous rhubarb up and lots more peeping out. I have to admit to being over the top with the rhubarb planting and have about 6 plants of different varieties, but my daughter is going to have a couple of plants on her plot as I really don't have the room for them as they get bigger.

The garlic is doing well, still a bit spindly but it was only planted in the autumn so has a while to fatten up yet. I have two varieties in one being 'Cristo' and the other is a french one that I can't remember off hand.

The purple sprouting broccoli is only just beginning to sprout, I do hope I get a good harvest as I love it.

And we still have some parsnips to harvest. I dug up a lot last week which is now in the garage awaiting to be made into curried parsnip soup Mmmmmm. I will need that bed soon so the rest will need to come up in the next week or so.

Here are the photo's  I have been teasing myself with ! I can't imagine the plot looking like this again, but I know it will with a bit of hard graft.  Oh I just can't wait, it look so full and lush.