December 19

Six on Saturday – 19/12/20

Six on Saturday is new idea to me but a friend pointed me in the direction of The Propagator blog and suggested I join in. It was after a whinge about blogger’s block, so here are my first six:

The seeds on the golden rod are full and ready to blow away . This is a plant that self-seeds all around my allotment and it is either chop the seed heads down or spend time in the spring weeding. Laziness now means weeding in the spring – as usual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am trying to make hot compost and failing miserably because I just won’t make it exactly as it says on the tin. This is December’s pile and I have not built it big enough or put enough green material in it to achieve the heat. January’s attempt will remedy this rather pathetic temperature.  They do say it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at something. I have a little way to go with the compost.

 

 

The fennel in the polytunnel is ready to provide a crisp aniseed flavour to the winter salads over the next few months. It is one of the few vegetables I have managed to grow throughout the year. Spring’s fennel is on the other side of the tunnel and still quite small.

 

 

 

The catkins are already out on the hazels, dangling in the sunshine and these have survived the massive coppicing that we did at the start of the month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This massive beetroot is still lying around and I was right that it wouldn’t make good eating because not even the slugs and snails have started on it. I didn’t aim for massive beetroot, I just wanted to save some seed and this grew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, lambs lettuce as a filler for my salads. I actually managed to plant these early enough for them to grow to a reasonable size before it got too cold.

 

What are your six for Saturday?

Category: december, six for saturday | 8 Comments on Six on Saturday – 19/12/20
November 30

Harvest Monday 30/11/20

It’s that time of year when I start to make a list of everything that can be harvested this month or that I have in storage just to make sure that I use it. I hate getting to March/April and finding that I have squash that have rotted or potatoes that have sprouted because I haven’t used them in time. I walked around the allotments and made my list and then took it home to plan the menus for the week. It really cuts down on the shopping list and time I spend faffing around thinking about what to eat.

I listed:- leeks. spinach (maybe a bit too much), fennel, Black Spanish radish (I don’t like them. They taste soapy.), parsley, coriander, sprouts, red cabbage, savoy cabbage, hispi type cabbage, leeks, lambs lettuce, lettuce, parsnips, chinese cabbage, chard, celariac, two types of kale, carrots, mustards, landcress, rocket and chervil.  In store I have winter squash, potatoes, onions and garlic.

So for a sausage casserole today one of the things I  picked was some fennel. I have settled on growing Rondo as it seems to be slower to bolt and grows well both outdoors and in the polytunnel. The outdoor fennel is finished so it is on to the first group grown in the polytunnel. I have a second group but they are for next year as they are still very small at the moment. I have always wondered what to do with the fronds as it seems such a waste but a friend showed me a recipe for fennel pesto and to that is now in the freezer ready to use when we next have pasta.

If it isn’t too cold we still have a salad at lunch time. If it is cold we have soup, but today was a sunny, bright-blue-sky type of day so to bulk out the lettuce, landcress and rocket, I picked some lambs lettuce.  This is Favor and in my normal, slightly slapdash way, I am not sure where I got the seed from. I buy as much seed as I can from Kings because we do this as an allotment association and get the seed quite a bit cheaper. However, as I am on a seed saving mission, I bought some from companies that sell open pollinated varieties especially so that you can save the seed such as Real Seeds, Vital Seeds and The Seed Cooperative.  I’ll save some seed and see what happens anyway.  Favor has quite big, dark green leaves and grows into a dense, compact plant so we only need two of the plants for the salad.

The celariac, Prinz,  needs harvesting. Last winter I left it in the ground as I am in the south and the winters are mild but the woodlice got into them and were a complete nuisance, going right into the middle of some. Charles Dowding harvests all his in November and stores them in a cold shed so I will do the same.

I have also harvested a LOT of twiggy peasticks and bean poles this week by coppicing the hazels on the wildlife plot. I can probably provide supports for all 300 allotments as there were about 9 hazels which had not been cut for quite a few years. Some of the wands are more than 5m long. I will write more about this during the week.

What is really good in your garden at the moment?

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Category: harvest monday | 7 Comments on Harvest Monday 30/11/20
November 23

Harvest Monday 23rd November 2020

Oh it has been wet here in the south of the UK and that means I haven’t been able to get out and ‘do stuff’.  I haven’t even really wanted to go down to the allotment so the harvest this week is from the garden.

I started growing vegetables in the garden this spring when I decided in the autumn that now would be a good time to start saving my own seed.  I didn’t want to grow the plants on the allotments because the chance of cross-pollination is very high.  So, I have grown some veg at home.

On Thursday I picked the very last of my tomatoes and removed the plants.  Surprisingly, these have semi-ripened so a few days on the window sill should see them completely ripe and ready to eat. The tomatoes from left to right are Black Russian, Rosella, Costoluto, Sungold and Shimmer.  All are delicious and I will grow them again next year.

The lambs lettuce is grown outside and has reached a good size. It is Vit and I am going to leave a few plants to set seed to see if it is possible to save seed from it.

The really strange harvest this week is my mahooooosive beetroot.  I built a hugelkultur bed in the spring and planted 6 beetroot at the short end of the bed and left them to grow until next year when they will flower and I can collect the seed.  It was a sunny day and so I cut the grass but caught one of the beetroot on the lawn mower which pulled it out of the soil. They have very small roots which don’t seem to cling to the soil much. Anyway, this beetroot is a whopper.

It weighs just over 3.5 kgs and I do not know what to do with it. I am not sure it will make great eating so I think I will have to chop it up and put it on the compost heap. I don’t want seed that makes enormous beetroot as I prefer my beetroot to be tennis ball sized.  The only thing we can say is that Boltardy beetroot really do not bolt.

In my next post I will be reviewing the hugelkultur bed and planning my next steps.

I have linked this post to the Happy Acres blog where Dave hosts a Harvest Monday series every week. It is a fascinating place to find out about what other people are growing.

Category: harvest monday, november | 4 Comments on Harvest Monday 23rd November 2020