Gardening

We have gone slightly vegetable mad in the garden at the moment. I've planted what feels like nine million red onions, lots of salad/beetroot/radishes, potatoes, some sweetcorn (which may be a tad optimistic, in Gateshead) and several punnets-worth of strawberries. This year I've decided not to do the allotment, hence our new range of pots:




Excitingly, there's a new planter under construction, which is going to be perfect for the various beans (french, borlotti, runner) which are currently invading the living room.


It's rather sad to have to give up on the idea of the allotment. But I just don't have the time - hopefully it will be much easier to spend 10 minutes each evening pottering about in the garden, rather than feeling permanently guilty that I've only been to the allotment for an hour all week. I've already planted more things than I did in all of last year - not having to weed makes such a difference. Now all I need is for the slugs to steer well clear of all this food!

Spring planting

It's probably a bit early, but we couldn't wait any longer...

Gardening ahoy!

It's a funny old thing being a freelancer. Sometimes you're stuffed with work - so much so that you end up working all hours and juggling six projects. Other times you're much quieter - and then the guilt kicks in that you should be doing more, along with panic that nobody will employ you ever again. There doesn't seem to be a happy medium.

I'm currently in a slightly quieter period. For once, it's nice - finally I have a clean(ish) house, I don't have to work every evening, and I get to spend some time with M when she comes home from school.

Look - I even got out into the garden in the sunshine, and cleared back the undergrowth!

Later this week I may even get to visit my sadly neglected allotment and cut back the chard mountain, in between the school run, cleaning the house, the laundry and ballet lessons. Actually, I might go back to work for a rest...

Spot the difference

April 2010



May 2010


At last! Some summery weather. So we headed down to the allotment, and did battle with the weeds. Everything's grown remarkably well over the last couple of weeks while we were in France - lots of green strawberries (hopefully turning red shortly), some gooseberries that are nearly ready to become jam, and the best chard I've seen for a long time:

You say potato...

We've had a bit of a potato fest this week. First of all, M planted some with her Grandad on Monday, then we did these at the allotment on Friday, and today we've been helping some friends do theirs. And we had roast potatoes and potatoes dauphinoise for tea. I'm potatoed out.

Spring is here (part 4)

Which means it's time to plant some seeds. Here we have courgette, tomato, chillis and sugar snap peas, plus an unidentified bulb that I found at the bottom of my gardening box. Egg boxes are definitely the way forward...

Spring is here (part 2)

We toddled down to the allotment today for the first time in ages (I suspect it was last October, actually). The ground's still frozen (we managed to chisel some beetroots out, but failed miserably on the leeks). Much fun was had photographing Captain Jack in a variety  of locations, searching for non-existent worms, and generally getting muddy. Roll on Easter, then we can plant our potatoes...

It's all gone very green down on the allotment...

Here's the two main culprits from the current glut: courgettes and runner beans


The latter I've pickled, in a desperate attempt to stem the tide.

In other news, we've got sweetcorn. Hurrah!

Glut

There's definitely a theme to this month's recipes over at Recipes for Millie: courgettes. So far since coming back from holiday we've eaten

• ratatouille
• courgette and goat's cheese pancakes
• courgette, chickpea and filo pastry pie
• the smaller ones sliced raw in salads
• the larger ones diced and thrown into any recipe that requires vaguely Mediterranean veg
  

It's all a bit of a novelty, really, having so many of the things. The last couple of years we've grown them from seed, and then planted them on the balcony in large pots, where the slugs have promptly eaten them, or the courgettes themselves have turned yellow and dropped off. Turns out what we really needed to do was get a couple of cheap plants from B&Q, chuck them unceremoniously in a flat bit of the allotment with a bit of manure, and leave to their own devices. Maybe ignoring more plants is the way forward?

Anyway, next on the agenda: courgette and cheese loaf, piccalilli, and possibly courgette chutney, if I get round to it. Then it's onto the potato mountain...

In other news...

I'm over at Enjoy the Ride for the next two weeks, with a series of tips on kids and gardens.

Allotment mosaic

The tomatoes get a new home

It remains to be seen how long their plastic fortress lasts, given the force 9 gales that seem to sweep through on a regular basis...

Spot the difference

March 2009


May 2009

Mint and potato frenzy

This has rather turned into the allotment blog at the moment - blame the fact that (a) as ever work has taken over my life, and it's nice to post pretty pictures of vegetables (b) I'm avoiding the knitting as it's lurching from one crisis to another with rows having to be painfully unravelled and (c) it's allegedly summer. Normal service may resume around December...


It was fantastic though, coming back to the allotment after a week in France - everything's grown, especially the mint and potatoes (which will hopefully taste fabulous together).


In fact, I'm feeling rather pleased with myself gardening-wise, as yesterday we managed to use lettuce, parsley, mint and bay leaves from the back yard and front garden, and planted some dwarf broad beans and nasturtiums. Let's hope the evil slugs leave this lot alone - our tactics so far at the allotment seem to be working:

It's fruit-tastic

Lots of nice things happening on the allotment today - currants (above - not sure if they're black or red) are starting to form, the gooseberries are inflating by the day, and the strawberries are flowering.


On the down side, my spinach is being nibbled by the evil slugs. I've covered it with those plastic cartons your tomatoes etc come in at the supermarket (I don't have enough plastic bottles), so we'll see if that helps.

The rest of the weekend has been spent in the depths of North Yorkshire, which was equally sunny. We trooped off to Filey on Saturday, to marvel at the 1970s-ness of it all (actually, a lot of it probably hasn't changed since the 1950s). There were shops selling sticks of Filey rock, endless tea shops full to the brim with elderly ladies, more buckets and spades than you could shake a stick at, and a rather natty giant lobster in the middle of the crazy golf. M had a donkey ride on the beach and came back with a grin a mile wide. It were good, like.

Allotment frenzy (4)

Spent a happy afternoon down the allotment today - the perfect way to recover after my stint yesterday as the back legs of a pantomime horse (don't ask).

The latest additions - sugar snap peas and broad beans that have been quietly growing on the window sill and in the cold frame. Let's hope the slugs (and the pigeons) leave them alone.


I also planted some coriander and speedy salad leaves, and started off some runner beans in the cold frame. Now all I need to do is remember what I've planted where...

Allotment frenzy (3)

Gill found this round the back of the shed during a clear out. I think it's been there a while.


As opposed to these, which M and her Dad made last week, in an attempt to keep the pigeons off. Sadly, they appear to have no effect on slugs (I daren't tell M that all her precious radish leaves have been munched).

Allotment frenzy (2)

Here's what we have to work with. It's slightly less weedy now, as I spent a couple of happy hours in the sunshine with the girl this afternoon, pulling up the dandelions hiding in the strawberry patch.


Every allotment needs a shed, preferably one held together with string and sticky-backed plastic.

Allotment frenzy

Yes, it's finally happened. I now have shares in an allotment, courtesy of my friend Gill who was wise enough to put herself on the council waiting list when she moved here around three years ago. It's a lovely plot, which has been really well looked after by an old couple - so there shouldn't be too much of the horrendous digging to start off with.

So, it's time for a little light website reading - I thought I'd start with Jane Perrone, and move on to Alan Titchmarsh (if the pink shirt, Estate Agent Capitals and apostrophe misuse on his site don't drive me mad in the meantime). Has anyone got any other suggestions?

Update: The RHS Grow your own veg site has an excellent calendar of what to plant each month. Might be time to get the onions in, I think.