16 Apr - 2013 - Potatoes time!

Wow!  Twice in one month!  The rumour-mill will be turning!

We had gale force winds this week, so I was a bit worried about what I would find - my little seedlings only in last week, and the fence that I put up as well.... all I can say is, it turns out those were the least of my worries!

I started my day off by having to go to St Johns Ambulance course for work, so I put all my allotment gear in the car, including the last of the sprouts seedlings (yes, I did make my colleagues have a look at them!)

I was confused about the missing cloche bottle, which is clearly shown as missing in this pic - but how is it not rolling around under the netting somewhere!!!!!









Then it was time for the triffods (I mean potatoes!) that have been waiting impatiently at home to be planted!

Last year, the potatoes were in the larger square bed, but now rotation says they move up the plot and are in the smaller rectangle beds.



This doesn't mean that we're having less potatoes, it means that I need to come up with a Plan B!  Tyres it is then.

I actually got this idea off the owner of the tyre shop I used to go to.  I kept taking his "rubbish" tyres for my old allotment to edge the fruit bushes and he told me that he gets a lot of people taking them for potatoes.  It saves him money for getting rid of the tyres, and then he gave me a discount when it was my turn to get new tyres on my car. 

I've gone off on a tangent....sorry.

I've left the good spinach & leeks in (for now). 

Anyway, you can see how it starts.....

26 Aug 2012 - Our first ever Artichoke!

Here's today's crop - a hellava lot of garlic, some turnips, rainbow spinach, 4 raspberries, 2 plums and our first ever globe artichoke!

We nibbled on the raspberries while trying to work out what to do with the artichoke!

 Two bags of cut turnip for the freezer, one for soups, the other for steaming.

Unfortunately, it looks like we've missed out on using the middle leaves for a salad, but the outer ones look okay (to us beginners, anyway).









Mike sets to with cutting the tips off, and we just put it in the oven with some oil and the potatoes.

(We did find a really cool recipe, but it looked a bit much for our first attempt!)

....and not much left, it was great!

22 July 2012 - how it's going so far!

Me & my turnips!

Mike & his snack

Amaranthus Calaloo

 My plan for putting toilet rolls round each seed so I'd know when an experimental seedling has come up - got a big FAIL - here's the 4 different types of seedling for amaranthus calaloo - definitely recognise 2 of them as weeds!  No idea what the plant should look like... Google images, here I come!

Leaves bed 1

Here's the first "leaves" bed - the brussel sprouts have survived their rabbit attack, nasturtiums doing fine and the toilet roll farm is growing well (whether they are seedlings or weedlings is a different matter altogether!). Got some brocolli and cauliflower come up, the leeks are doing fine between the leaves rows and the spinach is surviving at the end of the bed.

Sweetcorn

The sweetcorn has started to come up, I'm not sure if we'll get any crop but this is inspiring because I never got this far with sweetcorn at the previous allotment.  Very excited to see more coming up too!  It's not the crop, it's the growing something that counts (that's the link to when all these were planted!)

Here's the first roots bed, with the turnips that we're thinning out gradually (in the middle).

Mike's protected the Jerusalem artichokes at the end (just behind the sweetcorn, and I've protected the smaller sweetcorn and carrot seedlings.

At the front, we've protected some of the Scorzonera and right at the front is some carrot and the unknown-but-probably-beet seedlings coming up.  We've got a few beetroot coming up right by the turnips as well.

Sweetcorn, Carrots, Artichokes

Everything's a bit slower this year, probably because of the amount of rain & lack of sunshine, but here's hoping that everything works out!

Ornamental Gourds plants

Globe artichoke

Potatoes bed 1

First raspberry crop

2nd turnip crop

Slug eater bathing!

2 June 2012 - filling in the gaps

 The latest bed that was cleared of weeds, the toilet rolls have got the cauli in, so I don't pull up my last 5 seeds thinking they're weeds! - in this half theres:
chickory, purple cauliflower, green kohl rabi, kale, rainbow spinach and savoy cabbage.

In the other side of that bed is:
purple brussel sprouts, nasturtium, purple sprouting brocolli, pak choi and purple kohl rabi






at the very end of the bed are some old seeds - that may, or may not come up.... sweet pepper bush and a licquorice scented herb plant.... well, may as well give them a chance....

 Then there was filling in the other end of the roots bed, and filling in the gaps where no seedlings have come up.  Because nothing goes to plan (and I wouldn't have it any other way.....) one envelope split, so in my hand is possibly spinach beet, or beetroots of some sort.  I put it at the end and we'll see what we see!

we have some new flowers in the pond ;-)

the raspberries get bird-proofed

 

Have a look at the quick 30 second video - my first attempt at uploading one on here - the resident sheepdog rounding up the chickens! 
Round and round and round she goes - when she stops, nobody knows!

19 Feb 2012 - Seed Swap Day

Well, Lovely Greens has been involved with planning this day for a while, and I've really been looking forward to it.  Yesterday we got some snow and I was a bit worried we wouldn't get there afterall because of the hills in and out of the area, but I still got my seeds ready - in eager anticipation.  Snaefell is already closed this morning, due to snow.

Bramley Corner recently went to a Potato Swap Day, which I was very jealous of, so hopefully this will make us even!

Going to catch up with The Looney Leadleys and hopefully meet some people from our allotments since we haven't been there long!  I've put my blog address on the back of the seed packets so that hopefully there will be more of us on here chatting away and passing on tips, although it is great reading what people are doing in other areas as well!  (Claire, you've created a monster!)

Of the 24 packets I made, the seeds I chose were: Capsicums (jalapeno), Kohl Rabi (green), Carrots (orange), Artichoke (purple), Spinach (rainbow), Komatsuna (Japanese spinach), Scorzonera (black salsify), Brussell Sprouts (red), Perpetual Spinach (leaf beet), Aubergine (purple).  So, not too many, but enough variety and some exotics in there as well ;-)

Girlie Gardening set up a wee stall in one corner

The weather turned out okay, no problems - the Laxey Sailing Club very nicely put the fire on for us and the turn out was so good that they were running out of members to sign us all in! 

Mike & the Looney Leadleys

Seed Swap table

We caught up with Alison & Tony and the skeet from The Braiid allotments, and we all shared our findings, so we have a few things to experiment with and can compare notes later - see what grows better in the north and centre of the Island!  Also caught up with Vic & Karen who are neighbours at our new allotment, got some potatoes from them and Vic giving us tips on what did well down there for them in previous years.  No sign of Richard, but did find out which plot is his, and it's not the one with the cage.

So, what did we end up with?  Well, we're now the proud owners of Feverfew (herb), Jerusalem Artichoke, Pink Fir Apples, Echinachea, Black Forest Squash, Cape Gooseberry, Garlic Chives, Brocolli - white and purple and Amaranthus Calaloo Red Leaf (which we think is a Jamaican spinach) - so all in all, a fab afternoon spent chatting about things we love! 
What more could you want in life?

If you were there, I'd love to hear what you thought of it, what you got and what you swapped!  If you weren't there, I'd love to hear what other allotment groups get up to!  Thanks for reading.

14 Jan 2012 - seed planting time

Well it's time to be digging out the seeds, checking the planting dates and resisting the urge to plant everything right now!

I've sorted them into two lots, plant now and plant later - easy peasy!  The windowsills will be full for a while!  For Claire's benefit, I've taken photo's of the packets in two lots - exotic & reliable.

I'll start with the fun bit first - Exotics ;-)

Khol Rabi (Luna) - the longtails got to this one before I had a chance to harvest, so it's getting a second chance.
Artichoke (Violetto di Romagna) - I've never eaten this, but neighbouring plots had success, I'm just curious.
Aubergine (Viserba) - expensive to buy but I love it, lets see if I can grow it!
Cauliflower (Purple Graffiti) - just to be a bit different
Cucumber (F1 Natsuhikari) - been trying to grow this for 2 years now, it's getting one more chance!
Japanese Spinach Te-suto (Komatsuna) - A Christmas present, other spinach did well, so I'm curious, looks like soft leaves.
Savoy Cabbage (Brussels Winter) - this grew, but only very small, I wonder if a new area might work better for this one, cos this is one of my favourites to cook with.

Here's the reliable ones:

Nasturtium (Jewel mixed) - grows well, looks good, attracts bees and butterflies - this year, I might investigate eating the flowers!
Perpetual Spinach (Leaf beet) - has a bigger dark leaf, strong stalk and more flavour, grows really well.
Perpetual Spinach (Spinach beet) - a soft smaller leaf, smaller plant, watch out for longtails nicking the whole plant tho!
Rainbow Spinach - purple, yellow, white, green, orange!  Grows really well, potluck on the colours in the packet.
Leek (Bandit F1 Hybrid) - I'm going to have a go at getting longer plants this year (using toilet rolls or pipe insulation).  Watch this space!
Brussels Sprouts (Bedford - Fillbasket) - If you don't like sprouts, you haven't tried them when they're fresh picked.
Cos Lettuce (Little Gem) - much nicer than iceberg lettuce!