Goodbye to the plum tree

RIP Marjorie's Seedling 
Planted spring 2006 died summer 2010

I don't know why it happened. It's been failing for months and we've tried to save it but now it really is too late. I've had several diagnoses from people who are very clued up about arboriculture but whichever of them is right still won't be able to bring life back into my dead tree. I don't think I've maltreated it, in fact I've tended it with more care than many other plants on my allotment. The only thing I can think of is that one time I sprayed it with non-organic bug spray but surely that can't be enough to kill a tree? I mean, don't people use non-organic stuff all the time anyway? There's enough of it in the garden shop that we use. They wouldn't sell it if people didn't buy it.

Apart from the starkness of the plum's shrivelled leaves, the allotment is looking good, J's strimmed and I've weeded and tidied, and the last of the summer vegetables are still quietly producing. But when I stop working and look around I get a melancholy feeling that isn't just due to the change of season.

Not quite so happy gardening this time folks.

Thankyou

By the time you read this, I'll have abandoned redcurrants in favour of blackberries. The bramble jelly-making has begun!

Two things. Firstly, thank you so much to all of you who actually read this blog. I only ever expected it to be read by my Mum (who now doesn't have a computer) and my two best friends from way, way back who don't live near me anymore. It's lovely to find comments from real people out there in internetland who share similar interests. I look at your blogs too and I'm always chastened by pictures of your wonderful allotments and gardens, and all the lovely produce you show. I'm particularly gutted by all the fantastic recipes and photographs of food that appear. It just doesn't happen like that in my kitchen, I have a strong tendency to eat my dinner as soon as I've cooked it - it doesn't hang around long enough to have its picture taken!

The other (earth shattering) thing of note in this posting is that I just have to tell you about the sheer pleasure of finding the right sheet of wrapping paper to cut into circles for jam-pot covers. Just look at this lot! Very Kath Kidson! It wasn't actually, just some nice paper from a local shop, but it's very like her brand. The lovely sweet peas aren't mine, they were given to me by Caroline who says she's been picking a bunch like this every day for a couple of weeks! Wow! Impressive.

If there's time today I shall pick four more lbs of blackberries to drip for the next batch of jelly. Lovely stuff, but the down side is that the kitchen is taken over by an upturned chair with a dripping jellybag attached to it by a Heath Robinson contraption of wires (made by the ever-inventive J) and it's such a slow process and each time, produces such a tiny amount of jelly! Is it worth it? Well, probably. I can't seem to stop doing it, anyway!
Happy gardening and jelly-making

Redcurrant frenzy

Susan looks happy (outrageously so, calm down Susan!) to have picked a nice bucketful of redcurrants.

I can't cope with the amount we get - there's still another bushful even after Susan and I have picked as many as we need. I think there are still some in the bottom of the freezer labelled 2009. And 2008. Oops.

This morning I made what I hope is my penultimate batch of 2010 redcurrant jelly, as later on today I intend to start picking blackberries for the bramble jelly. I love Mondays. (Day off) Mind you, pretty soon there's going to be a jam jar crisis. My jam jar box is kept in the loft when I'm not involved in jelly or marmalade making, but there's never as many as I remembered when I get the box down again. Where do they go?

While you're pondering that - happy gardening and jelly-making

Helen's beans

Helen was impressed to see that the beans she planted in the first week of May have now grown taller than she is and are starting to produce their first long pods for picking. We always get a good result from Scarlet Emperor, so I've stuck to the same variety for the last few years. Boring, I know, but it means we get results.

This year I was tempted to try something different when I came across an interesting sounding packet of courgette seeds, Tristar. I couldn't work out whether I'd get three different types of courgette on each plant or whether there'd be seeds for three different types of plant. It was the second option but I'm not sure it was terribly succesful, the little yellow ones are not very slugproof and we've hardly sampled them, the big dark green ones look like the ones we usually get and the pale green ones are very watery tasting. I think the verdict is that it's ok to stick to tried and tested varieties.

At the moment, the most pressing jobs are planting out the tiny threadlike leeks (now completed) and finding somewhere to put the purple broccoli and swedes that have been sitting in their little plug pots for far too long. Until the onions are lifted and the maincrop potatoes come out, there isn't any room.

Happy gardening (unless you're stuck in a plug pot waiting to be planted)

Various creatures

When J and I arrived to do our nightly watering on Sunday evening there was a pigeon sitting on the top of the fruit cage. It seemed entirely unfazed by our arrival, indeed it put its head on one side and watched us from about two feet away. J said he thought he looked "friendly". I thought it looked like he was after our jostas. Sure enough, when we were distracted by tramping up and down the paths with watering cans, he invited about five of his mates and they all had a go at getting under the netting. I hastily picked a punnetful (crumble again) but I see that the pigeons have taken most of the ripe ones. Grr.

J topped up the pond water too (loud cries of appreciation from the frogs and newts) Then he called me over in a sort of stage whisper to see a fox that was resting on a grassy spot. It wasn't very bothered by me taking photos but sauntered away slowly. 

It had a poor sort of tail though. I hope the mange won't come back as badly as it did a few years ago.  At that time all the foxes on the allotments were affected and suffered dreadfully. The thin tail is one of the first signs.

After the fox, we had a visit from Mirkin, our remaining allotment ocicat. The other two moved to the country so Mirkin is now definitely top cat.

He's a beautiful animal but J and I are slightly nervous of him because he once launched himelf at J's legs in an entirely unprovoked attack. I used to pick him up and stroke him but nowadays we admire but don't touch.

Still, he seems to be doing a good job as an extra badger guard on the sweetcorn patch.

Happy gardening (enjoy the wildlife)

Watering

Since I last wrote, I've demolished another seat! The sun lounger in the garden gave way under me last weekend. I really don't know why they should be so easily dismantled by someone of my build! Honest!

On another note entirely, Bristol, and probably most of England, has been a rain-free zone for weeks, so a considerable chunk of my evenings has been taken up with watering. To do the whole allotment takes anything up to two hours and when everybody's up there using the same water troughs, the level gets very low and the refill rate is slow. I also have to water my little garden every day too, nearly all the plants are in pots so they dry out by the end of the day and can't be left. And as for the peppers and aubergines on the kitchen windowsill....so, there's been no time for blogging because I'm too busy watering.

The strange thing is, the plants I'm carefully tending and watering don't look anywhere near as robust and healthy as these great banks of daisies. I've got them all over the place but particularly bordering the bed with the fruit trees. They started with a small plant, begged from a neighbour and they are now completely rampant. And I don't water them, ever!

Happy gardening. Enjoy the hard work, it's good for you!.

Are you sitting comfortably?

We're back. Wow, it's beautiful in the|Hebrides. I don't think I've ever seen such astonishingly lovely beaches - pristine white sands with a backdrop of mountains and islands and we had them all to ourselves. We even had very good weather. Amazing. I'd go back tomorrow, but it's just so terribly far away.

We've been catching up a bit since we've been home - you know, loads of washing, re-stocking the food cupboards after the boys had eaten everything while we were away, re-establishing cordial relations with the cat....the poor old allotment had to wait its turn.

Now that J's strimmed and I've weeded, it looks ok again and I'm pleased to see that everything's still there and still growing! The sweetcorn had been very puny when we went away, but it looks healthier now. Nobody ate the pak choi and it's bolted so we're eating it all at once for a week or two. The strawberries are producing nicely - in fact, it looks like it's a "strawberry year".

However, my first effort at tidying up was ruined by sitting down on the bench with a cup of (thankfully cooling) green tea. I went straight through and threw the tea all over myself, demolishing the bench as I went!

J has done a brilliant cover up job, but I shall have to be careful in future. (And so will everybody else - I don't actually weigh that much!)

Happy gardening (and be careful when you sit down)