Where will we be come harvest time?

our room on the beach

 

we’ll be on the beach – that’s where!  I was going to have a bit of a moan today about how our nextplot neighbour borrows the communal hose and then just flings it back rather than coiling it neatly like everyone else and about how I spent 20 minutes last night untangling the damn thing and how he got called every name under the sun…but instead the sun is shining and I am more in the mood to look forward to our Summer Holidays:

Our first year with an allotment so we blithely booked a week away at the beginning of August (Exmoor) and another week at the end (Jamaica) and we’ve only just realised that we should in fact be out there, reaping the rewards of our season’s labour.  Ah well, I’m sure we’ll learn to live with it somehow.  A Planter’s Punch or two should numb the pain…

Actually it is our rather delayed honeymoon and we are really looking forward to it.  This will be our third year returning to the same place in Jamaica. Because although we always swore that it was a waste of good travel experience to go to the same place more than once; it is just so utterly wonderful and relaxing there that we now can’t bear the thought of going anywhere else.  It is extravagant and an utter treat and if it means we don’t go out for the rest of the year then it is still worth it.  Exmoor is our family holiday, with my dogs and hubbie’s daughter but Jamaica is just for us.  Our first year there we got caught slap bang in the middle of hurricane Dean (the category 5 hurricane of ‘07) and the hotel really took care of us.  Last year we were lucky enough to be there when a batch of baby turtles hatched and we helped guide them to the water (they have no sense of direction at all!)  Our hols there are never dull, that’s for sure!

this is me on ‘turtle rescue’ duty:

swim baby! swim!

 

please note that even once in the water – the daft little bugger is still heading in the wrong direction! we can but try…

here’s another that we found a few days later in the swimming pool – we named him Dean after the hurricane the year before and released him to the sea.

Dean

gratuitous beach shot from under the parasol:

Wholesale allotments

Neighbours at our allotment are very friendly, generous and helpful (if somewhat know it all…) but I do have a gripe.  Our immediate neighbours have 4 plots and many other long time alloment holders there also have multiple plots.  Fair enough – they’ve been there 20 years plus and why should they have to give up space just because growing veg is suddenly in fashion?…well I’ll tell you why – they are producing veg wholesale and selling it! 

Our plots are barely half plots in traditional measurements.  They are (on average) 15-20ft x 80 ft.  We have managed to cram in 4 rows of potatoes, a 15 x 15 section dedicated to legumes and salad, a similar sized brassica patch, roots patch and fruit/permanent area.  We have also crammed onto one end of it, a small shed, 6×4 greenhouse, compost heap and slimline water butt.  There is not an inch unused.  I have had to dot my onions here there and everywhere (I even have them between my potato ridges!) and I still don’t know where my leeks are going once they are ready to transplant.  (amongst the overcrowded brassicas I imagine).  There is nowhere to sit and certainly no space for a pond or wildlife area. 

Today my brassica bed found itself playing host to sweetcorn and pumpkins too as there was nowhere else for them.  The bed is certainly an adventure in companion planting…I have 8 sweetcorn, 6 pumpkins, 6 cabbage, 3 sprouts and that is just in a strip about 6 x 15.

So I have to admit to feeling a little irked to turn round and seeing my neighbours planting up 3/4 of one allotment  just with pumpkins (the other 1/4 is beans).  They have another that is half full of pumpkins, one that is 3/4 full with potatoes and about another 1/2 that is just onions.  I can’t wait to see their sweetcorn bed – they spend £80 just on sweetcorn seed and have tray upon tray of it in the greenhouse.

I was weeding (more bloody marestail) when the lady neighbour stopped for a chat (to  give me more advice).  “what are you doing with all those weeds in that bin?” me “it’s an incinerator, we’ll burn them when they dry out” her – “tell you what I do, I get cheap bin liners (insert name of where to buy them) and just take it all home with me, put it in my wheelie bin and it’s gone” me – “that’s great but why add to the landfill with another black bag – if we burn it we can use the ash” her – “but it’s got marestail in it” me – “yes, but it will be burnt….” her – shakes head.  Ok, so she is 72 (a mighty sprightly one) and has been there 25 years, having previously farmed in Jamaica…but there is still more than one way to do things…

Anyway, I digress, so I decided on a change of subject “that’s a lot of pumpkins” her – “yes, we sell them”…..hmmm, so actually I am in the middle of a large cottage industry it would seem.  I also suspect that the 15, 20 foot rows of beans aren’t just for them and their family either….

Complain to the committee? point out the rules? yeah right! it’s like a family business round there.  I swear they only let a couple of us ‘outsiders’ in every year to try to look above board.  I am delighted to even have the space we have and also that the waiting list was only a year…but I still can’t help feeling just a tad peed off…

I’m doing a rain dance

…but nothing is happening so far.  The promised heavy rain last night amounted to oh about 3 drops I believe and the dark skies today have only managed to produce a smattering of bloody drizzle so far.  Just enough to warrant an umbrella whilst walking the mile to the train this morning and enough to ensure that SE London smelt once again like an open sewer but not nearly enough to quench the thirst of even the smallest seedling on the plot.

I imagine the weather gods are saving up the really heavy stuff for when I am trudging the return mile this evening, having no doubt forgotten my umbrella and left it on the floor of my office….

I honestly can’t remember the last good rain shower we had and how often can you say that in spring in England?  I know we had some weeks ago because that was when the slug attack was at its worst but since then we seem to have been watering the plot by hand every evening.

DH is away at the moment so I was hoping for a respite from the lone watering this evening but I need more than this pathetic drizzle.

Is this a taste of things to come in the Met Office forecast ‘bar b q summer’?  will we be back to the standpipes of ‘76?  I’ve got to admit that I hope so!  We are holidaying in the UK at the beginning of August and a week of damp Cagoules doesn’t sound much fun.  We’ll be staying on Exmoor in a charming farmhouse and will be taking child and hounds, so lots of lovely sunshine would be much appreciated.  We are also planning on taking DH’s new telescope as the lack of light pollution down there compared to here will make observations a whole lot better.

But for now, a few hours or days of steady (not torrential please) rain would be gratefully received by my sweetcorn, spuds and squashes.

Early Cucumbers

Can’t be long now before our first Telegraph cucumber is ready to eat

first cucumber

this little baby is now about 8 inches.  After multiple mishaps with our first sowings of cucumbers, we are just delighted to have managed not to kill this one before it even got beyond first leaf stage!  Our cat killed 3 by pushing them out of his way…we moved the remaining ones to a coldframe for safety and ended up losing another 2 to the wind when it ripped our coldframe out of the ground..

Oh and by the way, I enjoyed the shock at my early sweetcorn planting so much that courgettes, pumpkin and squash have now joined them.  Bare earth on all the plots around me (apart from the potato rows) and there is our allotment…almost fully planted.  I may live to regret it but what the hell?  If they die I am still only a couple of weeks behind the others who are just sowing their seeds.  Well that’s my theory anyway…

To be honest, we have so much truly serious shit going on in our lives at the moment that I can’t bring myself to lose any sleep over whether I lose the odd butternut or not

Tomatoes and Cucumbers

DH is in charge of tomatoes cucumbers and chillies this year.  They had all been brought on at home for a while now and  finally all made it to the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago.  So these pics are a couple of weeks old – now the tomatoes have all their flowers and trusses setting, the cucumber plants are about 5′ tall and the cucumbers themselves are about 4-5 inches on some plants!  Obviously impatience with the correct planting times runs in our family (if something can run in a family through marriage?)

tomatoes mid April

 

most are in the greenhouse but these 4 were easier to take a photo of.

 

 

cucumbers mid April

Now considerably larger!

Oh and I was right about the reaction to my planting the sweetcorn early…the allotment Secretary came over to us last night…’see you’ve got your sweetcorn out’ me – ‘yep’  him – ‘only sowed mine a couple of days ago’ (sucks air through teeth) me – ‘yep, early aren’t I? let’s  hope there’s no more frost’ him – ’see you’ve planted it in rows’ me – ‘that’s right it’s mini corn’ him – ’should be in blocks’ me – ‘not mini corn, you don’t want it to pollinate’ him – ‘yup, blocks’ (looks sad and walks away)!’  I guess they will have the last laugh if a late frost strikes but if it doesn’t and they are nice, I may let them share ours whilst they wait for theirs to ripen….

Sweetcorn planted – Gasp!

Yes, it’s true, we have thrown caution to the winds and planted out our sweetcorn. It has been in pots for weeks now and out under cloches for about 3 of them. I finally got sick of the constant demands it made for water in its pots and I turfed it out onto the plot.  No doubt our neighouring plotters have been shaking their heads at our rashness and I am sure that the ‘tuts’ rang loud at the sight of my planted sweetcorn, but sometimes you just have to live dangerously.  I have a confession to make though…I have a small back-up supply in the coldframe.  But don’t tell anyone. 

So I have 2 rows of Minipop corn and a block of Sundance.  If the Sundance falls victim to a late and vicious frost then I have some Zucherini in reserve.  If however the Sundance overcomes my impetuosity then I have to find somewhere for the reserves to go.  At the moment the pumpkin patch is looking likely.

Nematodes Away!

hurrah! it’s finally raining.  Not something you’ll hear me say that often…but I have been waiting for this rain.  I need the soil to get nice and soft and damp so that I can attack my slimey friends on the allotment (not as bad as it sounds!)…I have a packet of sociable little nematodes who are just dying to get out there and introduce themselves to my local slug population…mwah ha ha!

Our home from home

we’re loving our new shed! we’ve got our gas stove and kettle and room to shelter from the rain – what more could you want? simple pleasures

A little more greenery

little by little the once bare plot is starting to come to life.  My peas and broad beans are doing well and we have a very early crop of radish ready to eat (in fact we can’t help but help ourselves whenever we’re there these days).  I have also thrown caution to the wind and set out a few borlottis round one of the wigwams (not in pic) as I have plenty in reserve should the weather throw a cruel frost at us now.  Here’s a recent pic, it also shows our new shed, greenhouse and tomato growhouse (DH is being very precious about his tomatoes this year and is insisting on housing the majority of them under some sort of cover)

plot doughty

Pic of the plot

at last I have a snapshot (off my phone) of the allotment.  This was taken a couple of weeks ago and there is nothing in except the broad beans really.  Since then peas (both transplants and direct sowings have gone in around the wigwams (ditto kale, but not around the wigwams!), potatoes have been planted, onions sets and seedlings planted and direct sowings of parsnip, carrots, beetroot and chard have been done.  Oh and a few new strawberry plants raised from seed, 2 new gooseberry bushes and 4 raspberry canes (courtesy of a plot neighbour) and a blueberry have bulked things out a little.  Let’s hope it looks a little less stark in a month or two…

oops, forgot to mention the caulis, cabbage and brussels that joined them this weekend in the top bed.  I’m not holding my breath on these though as a disorderly queue of slugs and snails was seen forming even before I locked the gate behind me…