Hurray!

I've finished grovelling among the leeks pulling up individual grass roots with tweezers (well, hands) Whew. Now for the rest of the allotment, which is now looking very tatty in comparison.

I've been able to spend an hour or two several times in the last few weeks and although I've been essentially face down in the leek bed most of the time, it really has been very pleasant. Lovely autumn sunshine.

Quiet though. Not many other people working there, which is probably why I was able to have this interesting experience a few days ago. As I arrived, while walking past Margaret's allotment, I heard a loud sneeze coming from the tangled ex flowerbed near the path. There was nobody there so I quickly deduced that an animal of some sort was hidden in the thick undergrowth, probably snoozing in the warm afternoon sunshine. (Good thinking, Watson) I spent ages poking my face into the shrubs calling out in an encouraging sort of way, but I completely failed to find the mystery sneezer. It definitely didn't escape while I was watching, but it was so well hidden that I've still no idea what on earth I was talking to. My best guess is a fox. They're pretty comfortable with people up there, so it wouldn't have been worried enough to make a run for it.
I can't think of anything else that could make such a human sound!

Happy gardening (and wildlife mystery solving)

Leek weeding commences

No photo today, I'm afraid. Just a quick line to record that the leek weeding has started (painfully slowly) the plum tree was pruned and wound paint slapped onto the fresh wood where the branches were cut. I also picked a good pile of beans, runners and french, two artichokes, spinach, raspberries, salad leaves, rocket and another little orange pumpkin.

While I was there I met an allotment neighbour who tells me she is giving up after 48 years. 48 years! For the whole of her life in Bristol she's been climbing up the hill to her allotment, tending the ground, harvesting her crops and looking out over the city. How things must have changed since 1960. The city has grown immensely in that time, spreading out across the surrounding fields. But almost more of a threat is the way green places inside the city are disappearing so quickly under new buildings . Back garden development is rife. There's a new secondary school rearing up behind us instead of playing fields. Urban allotments, once seen as an important food producer for the country, became unpopular and were used as building land. With the current allotment revival we must take the opportunity to make sure that these oases aren't swallowed up in the inexorable expansion of the city. Thank goodness for people like Margaret, who just kept on growing her vegetables, keeping her allotment going for all those years.

Happy gardening (for as long as you can)

Spot the leeks!

This probably looks like a grassy field. It isn't supposed to be, it's my leek patch! The compost must have had lots of grass seed hiding in it and over the last couple of weeks it's all germinated and grown into a fine lawn.

Grass is terribly difficult to weed out with a hoe so I'm now facing the delightful muddy job of hand weeding this lot.

I'm not looking forward to it, but if it's dry enough at the weekend, I'd better have a go before the grass takes over completely. I could almost sell it as turf! Leeky lawn anyone?

Happy gardening

Late summer harvest

I'm pleased with this lot. It includes the first cauliflower I've ever grown (thunderous applause) two of those little pumpkins, carrots, spring onions, courgettes, spinach, one thin parsnip, mounds of runners and french beans and a pot of those autumn raspberries I planted last October. The raspberries have been good so far, I'm getting a pot this size every two to three days - not overwhelming like the beans, but a lovely treat.

I've frozen lots of beans this year, blanching them for two minutes before open freezing them. It's more time consuming this way, but so much easier when you're cooking and you want to use a few frozen beans - you just shake out as many as you need, because they don't form a solid lump in the bag.

The earlier courgette glut has paid off too. I left some on my friend Yvonne's windowsill every few days during its height and now I'm starting to get some of her cooking apples in exchange. Isn't swapping great?

Happy gardening

Summer leave

I'm still here and I'm still working away on the allotment. I've just been a bit busy and I suppose the real reason for the silence is that last time I wrote anything on here, I made the mistake of looking back through some of my old postings and got depressed at how much I tend to witter on about nothing in particular. I don't actually intend to be a boring old fart but somehow that's what happens. Sorry.

So....new regime. Less wittering - more photos. Today's choice is me on the bench. The angle is less extreme than it looks, I think J lurched when he took it. I'd just finished picking runners, french beans, blackberries, spinach, rhubarb and courgettes and it was hot and sultry. As I write this (witter) it's back to grey drizzle. Oh well.

Happy gardening

Currants

Just a quick posting because I want to use this photo of one of my allotment neighbours. He was leaving with a great barrow load of currants, red, white and black and it was just such a fantastic display of home grown produce that I asked him to turn his barrow round the other way so I could take his picture. The turning round was because I didn't think it would come out very well facing into the sun. Shame I didn't spot the lamppost growing out of his head!

I've always though of him as "fruit tree man"but he's really Martin. J and I often have odd little names for people and on the allotment it's easy to label people that we don't know very well with stunningly obvious things like "rotovator man" (Chris) or "pond woman" (Pat). I don't think I'd better tell you grumpy man's real name!! Martin and his wife have put in some new fruit trees over the past few years and J and I had a good look at how they'd been planted before we put in our own. I think we must have named them "fruit tree man and fruit tree woman" at about the same time.

Our currants (just red and black) are coming along nicely too, but it looks like we'll have more redcurrants than blackcurrants this year. No matter, they're all good.

Happy gardening
Hey, - I wonder what they all call us?

Allsorts

A hotchpotch really, today. We've been a bit busy so although I've been to the allotment regularly and done things that I would normally have put into the blog, life has got in the way. J's got in the way as well really - he's been working away quite a bit recently and when he comes back he welds himself to the computer so I don't get a look in. I've had to wait for him to go away again!

During the silence I've planted out my cauliflowers and cabbages and completely filled the patch I had earmarked for brassicas. There's about twenty little purple sprouting broccoli plants that haven't got a home. I'm hoping I can just look after them at home until the runner beans come out because I really have run out of space. I may try re-potting them because they're in those teeny little plastic plugs that come in sixes. I've got hundreds of those so I re-use them for starting seeds off. They don't usually have to wait all year to go in the ground!

The redcurrants are ready. We've picked lots, unearthed the juicer from the back of the cupboard, made a pint of incredibly bitter juice that I plan to use to make a sort of cassis with a hastily purchased bottle of cheapo vodka, taken apart and cleaned the juicer, cleaned it again - tried to put it back together again, remembered why we never use the bloody thing in the first place and re-buried it even further back in the same cupboard.

The big question is, do we cook the juice first? I would have thought raw juice might make it go off even though the vodka acts as a preservative. I've done sloe gin before and of course that's raw but this is a bit different because I've only got the juice now. Does anyone know how we should go about it?

I've also cleaned up all those onions. They won't keep long because of the thick neck stalks that I have to cut out of each one before cooking, but for the moment they are on and under the piano. Where else? The piano is technically for sale because we don't use it now (except as a shelf for storing vegetables) but I keep forgetting to take the advert down to the shops when I go out. Mostly I forget we have a piano these days. Poor thing, I feel sorry for it.

Enough of these ramblings.
Happy gardening