2016 - The View from the Plot

So I think it can safely be said 2016 was an interesting year on the plot. Weather-wise it took a long time to get going with several of my 'early' sowings of carrots and beetroot either not germinating, or getting eaten by the dreaded slug patrol. Yep, thanks to last winter being a mild one, there were plenty of the pesky things around all looking for a tasty morsel to munch on, however small!

Saying that though, things did improve. There wasn't a late frost like 2015 and the summer was quite long and warm in the end.

As my son had finished working on our new half plot as part of his DofE, I've been slowly digging it over. It has been a slow job as I try and keep on top of my half of the plot at the same time but I think I'm gradually getting there. This half of the plot will be mainly for fruit, with a few veg which need a bit of space like squash.

The new half plot - early 2016

I'll remember 2016 as the year of the trials. I was lucky enough to take part in a seed trial of heritage veg from Rob Smith of the Big Allotment Challenge and also got to try some new varieties of sweet potatoes as well as growing oca and yacon courtesy of Pat Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Nurseries in Ireland.

Oca

Yacon

I think my favourite seed from Rob's trial was what was called Chill B, which turned out to be a fish pepper chilli. I loved the variegated leaves on this one so I'll definitely be growing that again.

Fish Pepper Chilli aka Chilli B

I've set up a new blog for my sweet potato growing adventures. You can read more about it here. I'm up to 7 different varieties now! As for the oca and yacon. My yacon were a disaster but I'm hoping I've saved the tubers to try again this year. Likewise, it wasn't a good year for oca, so I might have another go at growing those this year too as they are quite low maintenance.

Successes and failures this year? The sweet potatoes were much better this year and there were gluts of raspberries and runner beans as usual, despite losing some of the plants early on. We also got to harvest out first asparagus spears this year! Failure again was my sweetcorn; that's two years in a row now so not sure what is going wrong. I think I need to help them a bit more soil quality-wise adding blood, fish and bone etc. Fingers crossed for a better harvest this year!

The plot in early summer

Preserving successes included an excellent strawberry jam this year and a raspberry and vanilla syrup that is to die for when added to a glass of cava! It's my new favourite tipple.

The other main success on the plot this year was the scoring of some paving slabs for free and a nearly new shed, which was moved across five plots with the help of some willing volunteers on the site. Allotment folk are lovely!

The new shed in position

Both half plots - December 2016

I think this year I need to try and do a monthly update on the plot as it's not easy to sum it all up in one post. Well that's my allotment New Year's resolution sorted!

Joanna

I have a problem....

I'm addicted to my allotment!

There! I said it! Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery isn't it?

Except I don't want to recover. 

I love spending time on my plot. Yes it's hard work and a constant battle with Mother Nature and her plans. Yes I get all grubby and hot and sweaty, but it's just so calm and peaceful when you are there; somewhere to escape to when the endless demands and deadlines of working on a magazine get you down. Well that's how it is for me anyway. 

But it's more than that too. When I'm not on my plot, I have this need; an urge that I need to go and visit it. I feel guilty if I haven't been able to pop over for a day or two. I feel guilty if I sneak over to it during the working day which is silly as I'm freelance, I can work when I want to. It calls to me. 

Perhaps it's the fact that something always needs doing? A bed to clear; something to plant out; the endless weeding. There can't be any plot holder out there that doesn't get a bit of satisfaction when pulling a bindweed root gently out....and not hearing it snap! Maybe it's the creating something out of virtually nothing; from seed to plot to plate. 

Whatever it is, I can't get enough of it. 

Joanna 

Spring Cleaning Allotment Style

A beautiful spring day with warm sunshine plus advance notice that our allotment association are going to get a skip for the site sometime in the next six weeks to clear rubbish off the site, was enough to persuade me it was time to tackle the collapsing shed on our plot. 

One of the reasons we took on this extra half plot last year, was because it had a shed on it, albeit one in a dire state of repair. 

There were several reasons why I hadn't tackled it previously, mainly because I wasn't sure I could! I was worried that the upright posts of the lean-to would be really hard to dig out and then there was that huge mound of earth piled against one side of it. Who knows what horrors lay beneath it!

I needn't have worried of course. It did take a bit of effort but once I'd managed to jemmy the roof sections off, the posts came out quite quickly as they were old and rotting. 

That side section of corrugated iron took a bit longer to remove as I needed to dig away some of the earth piled up against it and then jemmy it off from the side of the shed, but the pile of earth itself is a lovely bit of soil! Unfortunately there was some horseradish growing it in, but I'm pleased with our efforts at the end of the day. 

And our reward when we got into the shed for the first time?

An old rotary mower!

It seems to work ok, just needs a bit of tlc

So the shed as it is now will do temporarily, but at least we have the room to put a new one up. And all the rubbish on the plot is now collected together ready for when the skip arrives

Definitely a Good Friday!

My Allotment

I did something for the first time this week, I went to a meeting of my allotment association. It wasn't just any old meeting though. It was an EGM to discuss accepting the terms of new leases for both allotment sites in the town where I live and to also vote on the association changing its constitution so we could self manage the sites.

 

Important stuff.

 

It's been a long process to get this far; over four years in fact. The other site in the town is relatively straightforward, although it still took numerous draft leases before the association committee received one that they felt was good enough to accept the terms of.

 

My site however is a different kettle of fish.

 

Apparently my site has been an allotment site for over 100 years yet despite this it hasn't been designated what is known as 'statutory allotment land'. When a site is designated as such, it has additional protection under the Allotments Act of 1925. Section 8 of the act states that local authorities cannot dispose of allotment land without the Secretary of State's consent.

 

And why hasn't my site been designated as statutory allotment land? Because the actual land is owned by the county council. County councils cannot be allotment authorities so they can't lease it directly to us. Only district or local authorities can be allotment authorities. And so the county council lease the land to the district council who then rent the plots to the tenants of each plot.

 

A simple solution would be for the county council to sell the land to the district council so we could then become a statutory site. But they refuse to do this.

 

Currently, when our tenancy agreements are up for renewal on 1 April each year, the district council could just say they won't be renewing them i.e. we have no protection at all. The new 25 year lease will give us 12 months notice that they wish to evict us and while this is far from ideal, it is more protection from what we have now. So that is why I voted to accept the new leases.

 

The extra complication and perhaps why it was better to accept a slightly more protected position, is the councils are currently still in discussion about the local plan for the town. Supposedly they need to build nearly 3,500 homes in my little market town which has a current population of around 10,000 people. And guess what? My site, which is bordered by farmland on two sides and roads on the others (one an A road) is one of the areas that will possibly be allocated for development.....so everything may all change in 18 months time.

 

Self management will hopefully put us in a stronger position should we have a fight on our hands, as well as bring our extortionate rents down in a few years time.

 

I guess only time will tell.

 

Joanna

 

Allotment Update

Thought it was about time I posted an update on our progress on the allotment!

I'm also trying out the blogger app on my phone to see what the post looks like. 

So what have we been up to? Digging and planting! All the potatoes have gone in over the last month. The earlies are growing really well but we had a frost a week ago and even though a fellow plot holder covered them with fleece for me, they still got affected a little 

We planted out the sweet peas a couple of weeks ago after building a frame for them 

Most exciting of all the asparagus crowns arrived and started growing not long after planting them 

They've grown quite high now but again got affected a little by the frost. 

We've almost dug over the whole plot now and it's almost weed free, apart from the bindweed sprouting everywhere. 

Indoors we've sown tomatoes, sweet corn and Savoy cabbages. Last week the sweet potatoes slips arrived and it's exciting to see new growth on them already

So lots going on. And the most exciting news of all. . . . . . we have acquired a bench for our plot!

What I've been up to - March

This month seems to have flown by and yet by birthday seems ages ago now! You will be glad to hear we managed to fit the tap to the water butt.........

 

So what have I been up to this month? With spring finally on its way I've finally managed to sow some seeds indoors. Some summer cabbages - Bourbon - germinated within a week

 

 

They are much bigger than this now and starting to get their next set of leaves. I'll need to re-pot them soon I think.

 

We also sowed some tomatoes and leeks which took a little longer to germinate but they are coming along nicely too now.

Added to these were sweet peas this week. So the conservatory is looking a bit like a greenhouse at the moment.

 

The potatoes are chitting nicely and we're hoping to get at least the earlies in this weekend as the weather is looking very mild

 

 

I've been busy digging over the potato bed in readiness for planting them out but there has been a frost this week.

 

Cooking-wise I made a delicious cream of leek soup this week after a fellow plot holder gave me a few leeks and we harvested the first of the rhubarb a couple of days ago (which the cat promptly sat on)

 

 

and we turned it into rhubarb and custard cake (without cat)

 

 

It took forever to cook because I made it in a loaf tin but it tastes pretty yummy!

 

My sewing has consisted mainly of making blocks for a layercakesampler quiltalong which is great fun

 

 

And I have also gone back to making my City Sampler blocks. I thought I would try something different and use a striped fabric in each block together with some Kona solids which my parents bought me for me birthday

 

 

And while its working quite well

 

 

These are blocks 1 to 6, I'm not 100% sure about it. Mainly I think because I thought I would arrange the blocks in a barn raising style........which means most of the blocks are green ones.....

 

So I've also added to the taupe ones I started.......

 

 

I'm making these blocks as a quiltalong with a couple of quilting friends as it does help to keep you going with them

 

So quite a lot done in March....and its not quite over yet!

 

 

Full of the Joys of Spring!

Had a really productive day yesterday and it feels good when that happens. I may even need to do two different posts about it - that's how productive it was!

 

The beginning of March sees my birthday and yesterday was a lovely spring-like day. The daffs are just coming out at the front of the house

 

 

One of my birthday presents was a water butt for the allotment and as it was a nice day TK and I decided to go and set it up. Amazingly it did fit in the back of the Mini!

 

And yes he is inside the water butt as we tried to work out how to fit the tap!

 

Unfortunately, it went downhill from there.........

 

 

We didn't manage to fit the tap but at least its in situ

 

 

It will of course now stop raining, in which case.........you're welcome!

 

After TK had gone back home, I returned and turned over Bed 4 which was starting to sprout a few weeds. Trying to keep on top of them but its not easy. Bed 2 is quite grassy again and Bed 1 that I am in the middle of digging over is quite wet at the moment so need a few dry days before I can do some proper digging again.

 

 

 

A bit of progress..........on the allotment

I haven't done a huge amount of sewing this week, been a bit side-tracked in the evenings watching the Olympics on my laptop and stuff like that. I did start work on a new project for the magazine with some fabrics that EQS have given me and did a little bit more quilting on my Kaleidoscope quilt.

So today's post is about the allotment as it has finally stopped raining!

 

The over-wintering onions are doing well

 

 

We moved the redcurrant bush down to the perennial bed today so it is with the blackcurrant bush. We'll need to put some kind of cage over these though as the birds pinched all the berries last year.

 

 

So the perennial bed is ready and the rhubarb is growing nicely

 

 

Last weekend was Potato Weekend at the shed shop and we picked up our seed potatoes for this year together with some onion and shallot sets.
First up are Rocket, the first earlies

 

 

Second earlies, Kestrel

 

 

Two main crops, Picasso which we grew successfully last year, and Desiree

 

And finally Sturon onions and Golden Gourmet shallots, the latter are supposed to be good for pickling!

Let the chitting begin!