Planting bulbs and beans

Before I start telling you about bulbs and beans I must just say that the heating engineer has been with us this week and has performed miracles! Our house, which is large and Victorian with the usual lovely high ceilings and original sash windows, has always been difficult to heat in the winter. Since the old boiler died it has been pretty grim and we'd dug out a selection of unflattering woollies to wear as we huddled around the cat to keep warm in the evenings. With our new high efficiency rated condensing boiler the cat cuddling has returned to previous levels (the cat is, of course, bewildered by the sudden change) The heating engineer was reassuring that the insulation we use will keep the heat in, so we don't intend to overheat the place. It's just so wonderful to be warm! He says the new boiler is 91% efficient compared to probably less than 50% for the 30 year old one we replaced. After the initial play around with the controls we'll probably stick to a modest 17 or 18 degrees in the evenings. Not tropical anyway.

Anyway, with the advent of some more cold, dry weather I've been messing about under the old apple tree. When we first took over the allotment it was a fine, low branched, (huge) tree of unknown variety that the boys used to climb. Because it was so useful as a climbing tree we though of the apples as a bonus, they came early and didn't keep but the flavour was very good. Over the years, the boys got too big to climb the tree and it managed to acquire all sorts of pests and diseases so after several attempts at pruning and even more poor fruiting years we gave up. We chopped it down as far as we could and I was going to try to take it down even further, put a plank on top and make it into a bench. But, I could never find the right tool to saw through the thick trunk and while we deliberated, it sneakily threw out more and more branches until last year, we realised, it really, really wanted to be tree again. So...I've done some more pruning and today, I've planted bulbs around the base. Welcome back tree. I only chopped you down because I thought you were pretty dead! I'd mulched the grass in a sort of circle around the base so it was easier to dig into it and make holes for the bulbs and I was going to clear the grass away but I was overwhelmed with indecision (it happens a lot, I'm afraid) and I think I'm now going to let the grass grow back. It'll look more natural.

Before I went home I put in another row of broad bean seeds and sat on the hut step admiring the autumn colours. Because we're on a hill you can see down over the city and at the moment every little bit that used to be green is tinged with lovely russets and browns. The sky was clear too, winter clear, which is quite different from a clear sky in summer. Lovely. Maybe I'll make a small stained glass sculpture to hang in the tree. I'm making garden sculptures at the moment, mostly to "plant" in the ground or in a pot, but I could do some hanging ones too. As long as they're wired onto a branch they should stay on ok in the wind. Hmm. I need to go and do some designing.
Happy gardening

Wow - frost

The first thing I do most mornings is fumble for my glasses and read the temperature on the inside/outside sensor on the wall next to my bed. I'm ever so slightly obsessed with the temperature so there's another one in the kitchen too! At this time of year it starts to get quite interesting, 2 degrees this morning and there was quite a frost on the roofs and the cars outside.

It felt like quite a few degrees of frost in the house as well, we've got no heating until the (dead) boiler is replaced. Not long to wait now however, the man says he's coming next week and we're all looking forward to his arrival even though I'm sure we'll have a week's worth of builder type upheaval. Ed (older son) has taken to saying things like "ooh, only another 14 days" as though the heating engineer is Father Christmas or something!

It was so beautiful this morning with the sunlight streaming down and highlighting the glittering frost, so I wrapped up like a roly poly woman and went up the road to take some pictures. The standing stone is sheltered from the early morning sun by a bramble hedge so there was enough frost left there to photograph but the sun is obviously still pretty strong and it melted fast.

My total haul of vegetables was a sad little butternut, the last one on the plant and unfortunately partly frozen. We'll have to eat it very soon. There's not much left to pick at the moment.

In my dreams, we would move away from the city and create a haven of self-sufficiency a la John Seymour and only ever need to shop for tea, coffee and bananas, but in my heart of hearts I know that we'd probably starve. I wish I was more organised and then at least we'd have successive plantings and a more reliable source of our own food throughout the year. Project - must do better.
Happy winter gardening

seed order

I spent part of yesterday morning poring over the catalogue and trying not to go too mad choosing seeds for next year. I think I've made some good choices, I've gone for the same parsnips and runner beans as this year because they were really good (Tender and True for the parsnips and Scarlet Emperor beans) but when J came home from work he did his own bit of poring and made some novel suggestions about what we shouldn't plant this time. He reckons we should give the potatoes a miss this year along with the sweetcorn and concentrate on squashes.

It took me a few moments to come to terms with the idea but actually, we didn't get any cobs off the corn because the badgers (wildebeeste) had them all and potatoes are cheap to buy locally so, yeah! I think it's a good idea. In 2008 we will not be growing potatoes or corn!

We're planning on growing carrots, parsnips, turnips and maybe a few beetroot, runner beans, french beans and sugar snaps, lots of interesting squashes, lettuces and other salad bits and pieces. The onions, garlic and leeks are already in the ground for next year as are the winter cabbages and purple broccoli and actually you know, we haven't really got much more room on our plot. There are some unused patches at the moment, but come spring, I expect I'll have the usual problem of finding somewhere to plant out seedlings grown at home.

We had a quick visit to the allotment today (Saturday) but didn't get much done. J made a new brick path across the top patch while I popped a row of broad beans in where the courgettes had come out. It was nice and sunny and there were quite a few people there. We met some new neighbours and admired what they've done so far. I also had a chat with some not quite so new neighbours who have just planted some new trees, including a Marjorie's Seedling plum, like ours. They'd been impressed by the amount of fruit on it this summer so I hope theirs is as productive.

Now we've made our choices, we've got to do the actual ordering. I believe we can do it online these days so I'll do it tonight when I get back from the pub...on second thoughts...

Happy gardening (and planning ahead)

Planting raspberries

Ooh me back! I've just had a hot bath and I'm still almost bent double!

I took out the runner beans, dismantled the poles and dumped all the greenery onto the compost (leaving the roots in the soil to fix nitrogen). Then I dug it all over and added masses of compost before digging three trenches for my new raspberry canes. I really, really hope they take. I've had bad luck with my summer raspberries so I'm hoping these autumn ones will be more resistant to diseases and bugs. We all love raspberries and they are always dreadfully expensive in the shops so I wouldn't buy them if I didn't grow them. This year we hardly had any.

So, here's hoping....
Happy gardening

Autumn recipe

Well, I know this is a really rubbish photo but I took it myself, holding the camera in one hand and hoping I'd got my whole head in the shot along with the butternut squash. As you can see, it grew enough to be harvested (and for me to be ridiculously pleased with myself) so I had to put it into the blog, even though the photo's so fuzzy that my own mother wouldn't recognise me. Probably just as well!

We eat lots of these in the winter months along with various other squashes and small pumpkins and a particular favourite recipe with my family is this one.
Take a squash, halve it and scoop out the seeds and fill the hollows with lumps of butter and loads of chopped garlic and microwave it until it's a bit soft. Then fill it with a pre-cooked mixture made of:
chopped onion
diced carrots
diced parsnips
diced sweet potatoes (lots of dicing going on here)
red lentils and enough water to cook them
a few small tomatoes
tomato puree
salt, pepper, a teeny bit of tabasco, fresh oregano's good too
a teaspoon of the mystery ingredient (ok, it's marmite)
anything else that seems like a good idea at the time

Then I put grated cheese on everybody's bit except mine because I don't eat cheese and it goes in a medium hot oven for half an hour or so
It's very, very yummy - real comfort food which for some reason the boys have always called Mr Grumblebum and if you think it's because it has an unfortunate side effect, it's not. When they were little we had a small pumpkin sitting on the kitchen table for a week or so and the kids gave it a name. Honest.

Well, time to go but I've been given some bare rooted autumn raspberries so whatever the weather chucks at me tomorrow I shall make time to go up and get them into the ground. I've wrapped them in wet newspaper for tonight so they should be ok
Happy gardening (and comfort cooking)

Pond Clearing

It's my favourite sort of weather today, the sort of crispness in the air that makes you think of frost, steam rising up from the wet long grass as the sun's heat gets going for the day and a perfect blue sky. It won't be long before there really is frost. The garlic should go in before it gets cold, it's better for it to be in the ground by then, it seems to give it a kick start. I don't think there's anything else that could be seen as urgent though, I mean, there are always jobs to do, but nothing that can't wait a day or two.

Actually, something that shouldn't wait much longer is paying the allotment bill! I've had it these last three weeks and I keep forgetting to bring my card up to the office so that I can pay online. In theory it should be so much quicker than sending a cheque but that's only if I actually get round to doing it! This weekend, honest!

This morning I took my washing up gloves with me as well as my camera and got to grips with the very overgrown pond. I've hardly been able to see the water all summer, the plants had burgeoned massively this year. So, I've thinned (hacked at) the yellow flag irises and marsh marigolds and also some other stuff that had become so rampant that it was climbing out of the pond altogether and I don't even think I put it there in the first place. I've no idea what it was but there's considerably less of it now! Then I took my chair and my flask and set them where I could admire my work and enjoyed my coffee break with a couple of frogs staring at me all boggly eyed. I don't think they minded really, they always look like that!

As I left for home, I put my old yellow bucket on the wall with the salvaged flag irises. I can't bring myself to just shove them in the compost. I hope somebody will take them. I've left a note so hopefully the bucket won't go too. It's not much use really (no handle). My other bucket has a handle but it's also got a big split in the bottom! And before you suggest it...no, the handle won't detach and then go on the yellow one. I'd already thought of that! Time to go I think..
Happy gardening (with boggly eyed frogs)

Butternut squash ok?

Whew, what a scorcher! Fabulous weather, endless blue sky and vest and shorts temperature again, particularly when you're digging. I alternated between digging, clearing up and sitting under the tree drinking green tea with lemon. Lots of people were there today, I think Friday must be a popular day to have off work.

Today I've pulled the sugar snap peas out and stacked the canes away, dug up some madly seeding salad leaves that had been far too peppery for me to bother saving them, I've taken the netting off the strawberries and rolled it up into a bundle and stowed it carefully in the hut. Next spring, when I go looking for a nice clean piece of netting I know that it will have turned into a knotted, tortuous bit of unravelling knitting and I won't have the patience to untangle it so I'll have to buy some more! That's what usually happens anyway!

I had another look at the butternut squashes. The plants are amazingly prolific with fronds escaping all over the path in several different directions. What I had been going to say about them last time was that the little butternuts don't seem to be doing very well. There are lots of them but when they get to about two inches long, they go yellow and drop off......but......today, I was complaining about their lack of progress to a friend when we spotted that three of them have got bigger and bigger and finally look as though they'll grow into big butternuts! I'm really pleased. They looked so promising it would be a shame to end up composting the lot without some successful produce.

Last time I wrote my diary entry I was chased off the computer by a desperately hungry cat, this time it's J, just arrived home from work and still in his cycling gear but hovering anxiously over me because it's really his computer! I know my place.
Happy gardening.