Keep the faith

After the slightly negative tone of the last note, I thought I should report on a few positives.  First and most uplifting of all is the sight of my sage plants in full flower.  This is the bush I pruned hard last autumn as it had become a bit woody and the result is a re-vitalisation.

Alongside its place in lots of traditional British recipes, I love using sage in Italian dishes and a few leaves fried crisp make a fantastic temper for beans, dhals and hummus.  The bees love the nectar, of course, and there are few more soothing sounds than the happy buzz of their industry while I work.  The flowers will fade just about the time the oregano and marjoram is in full flower.  I’ve wondered whether the herbs can be tasted in the honey.  Must ask Jeff the Hive next time he comes to collect a swarm.  Incidentally, the day rose in front of it is there because it reminds me of holidays in Portugal.  Alongside the flowers, there is a rich, herby/piney scent which covers the plot.

The warm weather has also reinvigorated the blackcurrant bushes I planted in the spring.  I had reconciled myself to losing one of them after the shoots were nipped.  But there must have been enough strength in the roots for another effort.

The potatoes are also looking strong – so should I lift one of the flowering plants?  Interestingly, the second-earlies are further on than the firsts.  Think I will as this year I’ve decided to sacrifice quantity and take the spuds early and at their best.

 

Self-serving, authoritarian, bureaucrats

I was just dozing in front of the football (is there another way to watch?), when the call came.  Urgent committee meeting tomorrow.  An incident involving the sit-on mower.  Hoping that this would involve forensic investigation of a decapitation, or at the very least limb-removal, I agreed to come along.  Sadly, no plants or even people were injured in the making of this incident.  We were called to take a view of another ‘grumpy old man’ incident.  You may be familiar with the same.  The protagonist is someone whose enthusiasm for growing traditional vegetables masks a deep-seated misanthropy which is stirred to passion when the committee is involved.  The ‘casus belli’?  The sight of the new sit-on mower be used by a volunteer to cut the paths and verges on the site.  Were the views on such a flagrant waste of Society funds expressed in reasoned, rational terms?  What do you think?

From an initial salvo about the cost, to a broadside on self-serving bureaucrats and on to the killing blow: a rant on corruption, cronyism and casuistry.  All accompanied with lowering brows and and vigorous arm-waving.  To his credit, Neville held his ground, explained the reasoning behind the purchase of the mower and suggested that Rambling Sid might like to attend a committee meeting to give his views.  Luckily the mower has a reverse gear or he might have had a clip round the ear in reply.

So we were called to consider Neville’s complaint, not that the evidence needed much scrutiny.  Rambling Sid has form in this area.  But what to do?  He pays his rent, keeps his allotment tidy and, aside from an unwillingness to engage civilly with any other than Foul Ol’ Ron and Mad-Eye Mick, is a model allotmenteer.  In the best-tradition of self-serving, authoritarian bureaucrats, we decided to send him a letter, a strongly-worded letter accompanied with a copy of the Tenant’s Handbook.  I’m sure he’ll give them both appropriate consideration and, in any event, the composting toilet on the site will cope with the paper.  Neville is satisfied, although Big Norm, the former RSM, will have the fun of cutting those particular paths next time around.

It all set me musing, though, about the particular set of life experiences which lead to the development of the affliction known as Grumpy Owld Sod Syndrome.  What is it that drives people to choose a hobby, which can largely be solitary, contemplative and soothing, and then work themselves into distraction over the actions of those others who enjoy doing a little for the greater good.  And,if the reward for putting in a few hours running the shop, cutting the paths and generally keeping the enterprise going, is a bit of fun on the sit-on mower, who can complain at that?

Is this to be our summer?

Sunday was lovely here in the North East. The sun shone and the rain stayed away. So I was able to press on preparing the beds for cabbage, courgette, squash and bean plants. But it’s a race against the weather on most days. Not only has it been unremittingly wet, it has been cold overnight. So I’m holding off planting out because the seedlings will just sit and sulk until it does warm up. And while they are sitting, the snails and slugs will make hay (nobody else is). Still, the weather is bringing out some of the flowering perennials beautifully. The irises have been very good this year and the escallonia is better than it ever has been.

 

I’m slightly worried about the asparagus plants that I’ve planted.  They were dispatched late and some had started to sprout.  So, although I’ve planted them as recommended and the rain has sorted the watering, they aren’t making much progress and some look as though they are going back.

Aside from the brief interludes, it is a bit frustrating waiting for the warm dry weather to return.  I’m running out of indoor jobs: the tomatoes, cucumbers, chillis and aubergines are potted; the cuttings have been transplanted and my flowering plants are in their summer locations.  Come on sunshine, time to come back.

Make hay while the sun shines

On reflection, this year’s spring weather is better then last: there is enough rain to encourage seeds and seedlings and when the sun shines it is good growing weather.  But the daily swings of temperature between 4 and 25 C are making it tough for plants.  In the greenhouse the range can be much higher with peaks in the high 30s.  This shows through in the slow growth of chillis and tomatoes which look healthy enough but will not shoot onwards until night-time temperatures rise.  It’s a time to be patient.  Putting on the paraffin heater overnight helps – not so much by warming the greenhouse but by raising CO2 levels.  I’ve read somewhere that this stimulates photosynthesis the following day.  Well, they do raise CO2 levels in horticultural greenhouses to increase tomato crop sizes.

I’ll confess to finding being patient difficult, but this year have held back planting out the leeks and courgettes until things warm up.  In the past, the new plants have sulked a bit in the cold soil and that increases the risk of slug damage.  I have them hardening off outside at present and have noticed that the early leaves are being replaced by smaller, greener and tougher ones.  They should gallop on when the warm weather comes this week.  I’m growing a mixture of Green Bush and a white Italian variety this year and will be looking to do a swap for a couple of yellow plants.  Yellow zucchini make a great salad if sliced using a mandolin (which is a French cooking term for thumb-slicer) and dressed with a sharp vinaigrette.

Saturday’s rain was really torrential and the most obvious consequence is the washing out of a newly-emerged line of turnip seedlings.  I’ve never had that happen before, must have been lucky in the past.  I’ll re-set the seed because turnip seed is very small and tends to come all together.  The chard in the row next to it was also affected, but there will be some later germination and I can transplant instead of thinning.

My last job before the rain was to hand weed the strawberry bed.  A bit of a back-breaker, but necessary because my last lot of compost had too much grass seed in it and it was spreading everywhere.  The heap mustn’t be getting hot enough – I think because it dries out quickly.  This year’s plan will be to wet it regularly – from the water butt and not as Barry-next-door waters his.  I think he believes he can’t be seen peeing.  While Bob Flowerdew recommends this as a way of adding nitrate, I’ll stick to using a watering can.

This year I have replanted my asparagus with a dozen new roots.  The general opinion on our site is that the ground doesn’t drain well enough for health plants, so I’ll have to see.  If they don’t take well, I’m tempted to create a raised bed.  There’s always something to do.

Making the most of the opportunity

The rain has been very welcome – and will be more welcome when it goes away.  The overwintering crops have leapt forward and the soil now looks ready for some of the early seeds.  So, in between showers, I’m pressing on getting the roots and peas started.  Like me, you might find yourself with pinches of seed leftover once you’ve sown the rows.  Although it’s tempting, I try not to use these by going back down the row.  That usually only leads to weak crowded seedlings and more work to do thinning them out.  A couple of years ago, I tried another approach: mixing the surpluses and scattering them on the top of big pots in the greenhouse.  Wait a month or so and you get a crop of leaflings which brighten up the early summer salads.  Don’t be too fussy about what you use, I’ve found that lettuce, peas, carrots, beetroot, celeriac, herbs and even turnips and swede all reward a little experimentation with a tasty small leaf collection.  You may also find that the stronger seedlings can be pricked out and fill gaps in the allotment rows.  Everyone’s a winner that way and you resolve the problem of dubious part packets of seed which flatter to deceive next year.

 

Starting a new plot

The conversation over the fence this week was about the essentials for a new allotment.  We were watching the new tenant applying the scorched earth approach to taking on a rather neglected plot and thinking about the plants which bring early positives to help maintain the enthusiasm.  My list included:

1. Herbs – a collection of perennial herbs either grouped in a decorative form or scattered around the plot to provide form and function as well as useful cropping.  I like to scatter mine to make it easier to control spread and weeding.  Couldn’t do without:

• Marjoram and Greek Oregano.  I grew these from seed and then used cuttings to create low hedges along the boundaries of beds.  They flower prolifically, keeping the bees well fed and ensuring other crops get good pollination.  Both are cut to the ground in late autumn after I have harvested the stems for drying.  A mainstay of the kitchen cupboard.
• Mint.  Albeit controlled in pots, common peppermint, pineapple mint and greek mint provide lots of options for Middle Eastern dishes and a mean mojito.
• Rosemary.  No rosemary, no lamb.  Another freebie cutting pinched from a neighbour’s hedge and grown on to make a marker bush.  Evergreen so it’s useful when all else has failed.
• Sorrel.  Easy to grow and adds a lemony hit to new potatoes – but also good mixed in with spinach or chard.
• Thyme.  A bit fickle here in the North, so I replant every couple of years.  a mix of common and lemon thyme grows nicely under fruit trees.
• Chives – common and garlic.  They edge plots nicely and look attractive when in flower.
• Borage.  Attractive blue flowers for salads and summer drinks.  They also draw up minerals rather like comfrey and get the Chelsea crop to feed the compost heap before coming back green and fresh.
• Basil – common, lemon, small-leaved.  Can’t grow enough of the stuff – but under glass as it doesn’t tolerate the cold coastal winds.

2.  Fruit – Start with a few purchased plants rather than cuttings from someone else’s stock and you’ll reduce the risk of disease.

• Plums – personally, I don’t think there is much nicer than a warm, ripe plum or damson straight from the tree.  Look for plants on dwarfing stock for your allotment and you will still get pounds of fruit.  I prefer damsons for jam and damson gin, although my Victoria tree yields great amounts of tasty fruit.
• Raspberry – a mix of summer and autumn fruited types.
• Gooseberry – unfashionable but hardy, reliable and source of crumbles, fools, jams and chutneys.  Very versatile, easy to cultivate and propagate and I think they look great in spring.
• Strawberry – again choose a mix of early, middle and late varieties and avoid the names familiar from the supermarket which look good but taste like turnip.  More work than the others as the bed needs careful tending, netting etc.. But little beats the first warm fruit.  Occasionally, we manage to bring some home to eat with cream.
• Rhubarb.  Just scrounge some healthy roots from a neighbour.  Mulch well and step back to avoid being hit by the stems.  I force a couple of plants each year to get the earliest stems.

3. Vegetables

• Nothing beats potatoes to clear weeds.  On my ground, red varieties suffer less from slugs and Pink Fir Apple sits in the ridges through the winter for the best Christmas roasts.  So many varieties to choose from – just avoid the Sarpo cultivars if you can.  True they are blight resistant, but the flavour is dull.
• Beans.  So much choice, good for your soil and attractive to grow.  What’s not to like?  Broad beans start the year (steam, remove the outer skin, puree with some tahini, lemon and garlic and you have a dip to beat hommous).  Runners, french and climbers fill the basket through the summer and then the borlottis provide a store cupboard treat.  There is no comparison between fresh picked seasonal beans and the pallid options flown in from Kenya or Chile.  Look around for yellow, purple, speckled varieties to brighten up the plate.
• Leeks.  With a little planning you can crop from September to March and they have so many uses (not just soup).  Safer option than onions.
• Broccolis.  From early sprouting to late main crop, you get a reliable tasty vegetable which doesn’t suffer much from pests – provided that you net against the pigeons.
• Chard.  a mixture of colours, annual and perennial chard give you an attractive row of useful plants.  So much easier than spinach and good in any recipe calling for spinach.
• Cabbage.  With a bit of planning you can crop from January to December.  But think before to plant, have you seen those long rows of over-mature cabbages?  It’s easy to plant more than you will use.  Mixing seasonal types and sequential planting makes best use.  A little lime in with the seedling helps fight off club root.
• Lettuces.  So easy to fill a bed with plants destined to bolt unused.  I plant into a cold frame a little at a time.  The choice is endless, the results good and little work involved.  Cook them with mint and peas if you get a glut. Why do pigeons in our area strip the kale but leave the lettuces?
• Courgettes and summer squashes.  Easy, productive and useful, provided that you can start them indoors.  Look for unusual varieties as the shops fill with the boring straight green jobs.  Try courgettes raw in ribbons in a salad.
• Roots.  Beetroot, turnips and parsnips are productive as long as you keep the bed clear.  But carrots do best in raised beds or tubs off the ground – carrot fly gets everything grown on the ground.

Things to avoid – in my opinion

• Odd shaped roots: Salsify, schorzonera, skirret etc.  they became unfashionable for a reason.  As for Jerusalem artichokes, even the thought makes me want to open the windows.
• Peas: mice, pigeons, pea weevil, weeds, damp conditions, wind all queue up to make them impossible on my ground.  You might be luckier.
• Sweetcorn: Shame, really, as the crop is lovely, but the rats finish off the corn after they have feasted on my neighbour’s chicken feed.  Not a creature I want to share anything with.
• Onions and garlic: so much weeding, so much chance of white rot.

I could go on.  My wife adds that I often do.  What do you think I have missed?

A slow wakening

In the last week, the allotment has gradually returned to life.  Buds are starting to swell and the warm air is hustling in the awakening process.  The soil is still very cold though and, even though it is drying nicely, I’m going to leave seed sowing for another few weeks.  George doesn’t share that view, however.  First of March and first planting for him.  Well, when I write ‘first planting’, I really mean all the planting.

Potatoes, broad beans, peas, beetroot, onions lined by theodolyte and regimented into the compliant earth.  And for the rest of the season, George sits watchfully over the plot eliminating any weed which dares to raise a shoot and tending his productive and ordered garden.  No doubt, he occasionally mutters at the chaos ( I call it creative productivity…) which reigns in my plot across the way.  But then he doesn’t have long to fret because by August, his bounty is all harvested and stored and the plot reverts to turned, bare earth.

It takes all sorts and I’m certainly not suggesting that he’s wrong in any way.  It works for him and he gets good crops, it’s just he sets the bar at a place most of us can’t see let alone reach.

Meanwhile, I’m unsystematically tidying and enjoying the early spring which is moving at pace.  I missed the bud break of the rhubarb, which is pretty enough to justify growing rhubarb even if you don’t like the crop.  The first stems are up and off and will be covered in old steel buckets to force the sweet pink stems.  Roasted and served with cream, it beats even the best crumbles which will follow.

Meanwhile, the pigeons have had their first crop of the year!  I missed the net which had come free in the weekend gale and they got in as can be seen below.  A row of early cabbages which will probably now be mid-season greens.  My neighbour re-set the net for me after releasing a trapped pigeon.  I was grateful for the net-fixing, but might have been a bit less kind with the cushy doo.

Luckily, they missed the cauliflowers which had just produced perfectly edible heads, more like sprouting broccoli than standard curds.  Which is ironic, because I thought I’d planted sprouting broccoli but must have mislabeled the pot.  The sprouts will be cooked with shallots, cumin and fenugreek and then pureed with some coriander leaf as a kind of sauce to go with tandoori chicken tonight.  Cool and earthy to contrast with the spicy chicken.

My ending musing is on the calendulas which have flowered happily all winter.

They evidence of the absence of winter frosts and have self-set across the plot.  I like the splashes of colour they provide and will only hoe them up if they really do get in the way of something important.  Random dots of orange and black break up the rows of vegetable in a way which pleases me.  Although I suspect George wouldn’t agree.

Signs of spring

It’s tempting, isn’t it?  The rain has stopped, the sun is out and there are signs of life beneath the soil.

So should we start the spring preparations? Hard frost overnight seems to suggest otherwise and the soil is still cold and claggy.  I’ve been looking at my notes from last year and remind myself that I started the chillis and peppers around this time and they germinated well but then sat and sulked because of the low light levels.  It’s tempting though, to start a few seeds.  Perhaps leeks and cabbages will be happy enough.  They’ll keep pace with the broad beans which have done well.  Unlike last year, they have broken through without becoming leggy and seem primed for rapid growth once the spring really arrives.

I guess the hope is that we don’t get a spring like we have had in recent years: warm but very dry and then followed by cold, wet weeks.  That seemed to draw the plants and wear them out.

Time to be patient.  The canes and the berries are pruned and are showing signs of bud break.  Seed potatoes are set out in the light and cool conservatory to develop chits.  Light really is important here as you want the dark green sprouts which will grow strongly into shoots rather than the pale sprouts familiar from spuds left at the bottom of the dark vegetable box.

The old shed has been removed.  No small task really, although the wood was rotten, layers of tar paper and pounds of galvanised clouts made it a challenge to break apart.  Its replacement, transferred from the back garden, will be ready for installation, once I’ve finished a little carpentry to reduce the size.  It will keep me occupied until the real gardening can start.

Never perfect

Pruning logan berries in warm winter sunshine today, I was struck by the realisation that chasing perfection in gardening is futile.  This time last year, I did the job on a bitterly cold day, pruning out the fruited canes and tying back the new growth onto the wires.  So, logic would suggest that this year, the job would be easier working from the order already established.  It was even possible that this year the canes would be cleaner and straighter than last.  Not a bit of it!  The plants seemed just as tangled as ever, although to be fair they looked stronger and more healthy.  After an hour’s prickly work, there was even an  illusion of perfection.  But it won’t last.

No perfection in the broad bean cloches though.  A couple of weedy looking shoots in the whole batch.  I guess that the cold wet weather has been too much for them and the rest have rotted.  I’ll have to replant in spring.  Still it was worth trying for the sake of an early crop.  So, the production from the allotment is reduced to cabbages, sprouts, leeks and turnips.  There are still some sprouting broccoli shoots and the chinese mustard greens are resisting the frost, but from now we’ll rely on the freezer.

We had the first of the pumpkins last week.  Roasted with allspice and cinnamon, cubes of the fruit were very tasty alongside a boiled ham and the greens.  I still haven’t worked out how to grow them consistently.  Too many of the flowers rot off early.  I know the problem is caused by irregular watering, so will have to try something new next year.  Raised beds and leaf mold to create a richer soil may be the answer.

One bit of good news though this month, when the council withdrew their plan to massively increase rents on allotment sites.  A coordinated campaign from all the societies seems to have worked this time.  But it feels like the start of a process.  Councils are under such pressure to claw in every extra penny that it seems inevitable that the campaign will continue.  We found the National Association very helpful and supportive with information and legal advice.  I hope you won’t need it.

 

It isn’t always green to garden

My hands provide the evidence of this week’s battle with the blackberry bushes.  I’ve yet to find a pair of gloves which keep out the thorns whilst leaving you any kind of dexterity.  So pruning out the old wood and tying in the new means the gloves come off and the blackberry gets its revenge.  This year I’m pruning half the plants to the ground as they have become overgrown and need retraining.  The other half will be treated as usual: all the fruited stems removed and this year’s growth tied into the frame on the fences.  It will be interesting to see whether the crop yield is much different.  Probably worth any reduction to get control over the wayward patch.

Which leaves me with the problem of disposing of all the prunings.  Some of the other allotmenteers hold that winter bonfires add to greenhouse gases and should be avoided.  On the other hand, taking the cuttings to the tip uses fuel miles and the gases get released as the bacteria in the dump go to work.  A difficult balance if it weren’t for the fact the lighting fires is so much fun.  Pick a windy day (when the wind direction is away from the houses) and liberate your inner boy scout.  And you get useful potash to boost root growth on the fruit trees next spring.  No argument really.

I’m not planting many crops this winter.  In the last few years, the Japanese onions have flattered to deceive, looking good in spring and then stalling as the weather warms up.  I’ve emptied last year’s leaf mould onto a prepared bed and will start onion sets in January indoors.  As the weather warms in March, I’ll hope to catch up on the time lost with the Japanese sets and perhaps get a better crop.  I have planted broad beans again though as they somehow survive the winter in good shape and produce an early crop.  Once the weather warms, it’s time to plant some more and stagger the crop into the summer.  Even though podding and shelling them is fiddly, they are such a joy to eat with ham and smoked paprika.

The beans need protection against the mice until they have established themselves – or the weather gets too cold for the little beggars to bother! So for the first few weeks, my rusty old cloches come into play.  I sometimes use the old-style approach and plant sprigs of holly everywhere.

The rest of the plot is sown with green manure, fenugreek this year.  I had hoped that the fenugreek would have some flavour as well as growing well, but, aside from a twang of pea pods, it bears little resemblance to the herb which goes so well in curries.  Even so, it will protect the top soil from the rain and turn in nicely come spring.