Harvest

Long time no visit. To the allotment that is. I've been away on two trips this summer and as a result the allotment has been neglected by me. Not by Mrs. G. though. When I last went to water (a few weeks ago now) the beds were overflowing with weeds. Not now. Mrs. G. and son have been very busy!!

We met up for a coffee and chat this afternoon. To start with. We have two beds of late potatoes but the greenery disappeared weeks ago and we have no idea why. Nor have the allotmenteers around us. However, the potatoes are not likely to grow without the leaves so we decided to dig up the Romano potatoes to see if there was something in the soil. And there was! They are red in colour and look pretty good!

Half for me and half for Mrs. G.

The spuds have been cleaned up and are now drying out in the garage before being placed in paper bags.

We managed to grow loads of courgette last year and wanted to repeat the success this year. So we planted several plants of the lovely green courgette. We thought. This is what we've grown:

It looks more like a pumpkin than a squash. And it's enormous. We had two of them! I have no idea what to do with it yet. It sounds rather hollow when you tap it so there's probably not a lot in it. 

There was a marrow amongst these huge things so I suppose we did plant some "ordinary courgette". That one came home with me as well. 

The tomato plants are looking good and there are lots of green tomatoes on them. The lettuce is ok as well and the few beetroots that have grown were ready to pick. 

We'll have to dig up the King Edwards one day soon as well and then we've got leeks and onions to pick once they're ready. An on going task but a fairly pleasant one. Now I just have to figure out what to cook with all the fresh produce. 

Mrs. M.

PYO

It's the time of year when you can Pick Your Own. How lovely. Well, I suppose I pick my own rhubarb, potatoes and onions at the allotment but the raspberries have not quite taken off so we went to the local farm shop this morning to pick raspberries. 

  

Little Miss M. and friend picked a punnet each while I picked two plus a tub from home. There were loads of lovely, red berries and the practically fell into your hands. And mouth...

 One of the punnets is already half empty as I started freezing them on a tray straight after we got home. Freezing them individually helps a lot as you don't have to deal with lumps of raspberries that go all soggy when defrosting. I haven't yet decided what to do with them all. I might make some cordial. Or jam. Or just eat them. 

Later on in the day we waved goodbye to the older Master M. who's off on a bike ride to Paris. Taking the overnight ferry, biking for two days, spending one day in Paris and then biking back to the ferry terminal on Friday. Four 19-year-olds on an adventure. Such fun!

I do envy them the trip to Paris. But I don't envy them the sore bottoms...

Mrs. M. 

And then there was none

What a sad sight in the chicken run we were met by this morning; a dead chicken. Gwen had stayed out all night and we think she might have been frightened by something and suffered a heart attack. She was lying in the corner of the run and it looked as if she had toppled over. Poor thing. She must have been very lonely since Marjorie and Peggy went and she did seem rather old and sad. 

All three are now buried in the garden and it's time for us to remove the coop and run, give the remaining food to somebody else with chickens and say farewell to keeping hens. It has definitely been a worthwhile experience but I would only recommend chicken keeping to people with a big enough garden. They do need to come out and they definitely destroy most plants in their way. It's wonderful to be able to have fresh eggs though, so for anybody with a biggish garden and an interest in chickens I say "Go for it!"

Mrs. M.

Flowers

Nothing much is happening at the allotment. I go there, I water, I admire some of the neighbouring plots and I look back at ours and think that we haven't really had any luck this year. Or maybe, we haven't put in as much work this year. Or maybe, we haven't planted as much this year. There's nothing to harvest at them moment so I go back home and water and admire my flowers instead.

We've planted a lot this summer due to a new garden "shed" and patio at the back of the garden. A large flower bed was dug out and had to be filled. Some of the plants are doing very well and some have already died... I hope that the ones that are doing well will spread a bit before I plant more. Next year. 

Ruby Anniversary

Leucanthemum Freak "Shasta Daisy" and Alstroemeria Princess Mathilde.

The lavender we've had for a few years now is looking and smelling lovely!

And then there are some potted plants as well. I love plants in pots in the summer. Two of them I've placed on the new patio outside the new garden shed. I love the colours!

Just look at these ones! The blue against the terracotta pot is just stunning!

The weather has been truly lovely these last couple of weeks and I spend a lot of time in the evening sitting in the garden. Long may it last!

Mrs. M.

Water

On days like today and all the other boiling hot summer days we've had, it's nice not to have to lug a watering can for miles. We're not allowed to use hoses on our allotments so carrying a watering can is the only way to provide our precious plants with liquid. We're very lucky to have the trough right near our plot. 

View from the bottom corner of our plot.

Our plot seen from the trough.

Even though it's near, we still  have to lug the can quite a few times as with the heat we've been having lately, each bed requires about two full cans. Lots of muscle workout in other words. Thank goodness we don't have very far to go!

Mrs. M.

Potatoes and rhubarb

What a weekend! Scorching hot weather and completely still evenings. Gorgeous summer weather!

Mrs. G. and I met up on Friday afternoon to check whether the new potatoes were ready to go. And they were! There wasn't a whole lot underneath each one of them so we had to dig up half of the plants to gather enough for a traditional midsummer meal. Never mind. 

We celebrated midsummer at Mr. and Mrs. G.'s house on Saturday evening and enjoyed these delicious, home grown potatoes. What a feast!

I had found some more courgette plants and some Brussels sprouts at the local farm shop yesterday so I took a trip to the allotment today and planted the lot. It's very dry now so I had to water everything and then really soak the newly planted plants. I put the sprouts where the new potatoes had been and hope that they'll be ok there. They'll be at the end of the plot, just next to the shed and so a little bit protected. The plan is that we'll dig over the beds this autumn and not leave it until next spring. 

 The rhubarb isn't doing as well as last year but there is still enough to pick now and then. I have a few stalks in the fridge and fancied a bit of baking today. I decided to make rhubarb muffins. Well, muffins with rhubarb bits in that is. I found a plain muffin recipe in an old cookbook:

2 eggs
2 dl sugar
3 dl flour
2 tsp baking powder
50g butter
1 dl milk

I mixed it all, put it in muffin cases and added chopped up rhubarb. I then sprinkled sugar on top, put them in the oven at 225 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes. 

Mr. M., older Master M. and moi then had some tea and muffins in the sun. Lovely!

Needless to say, there aren't any left after younger Master M. and Little Miss M. and friend came back from the beach and raided the tin...

Mrs. M.

Tomatoes? I don't think so.

I love tomatoes! Especially home grown tomatoes. Therefore it's quite natural to plant tomato plants at the allotment, n'est-ce pas? I bought 5 plants a while ago and planted 3 at the allotment and 2 in pots in my garden.  This is what's happened on our plot:

A rather sad collection if you ask me. I guess they might be too exposed up there and they don't like wind that much. The ones in my garden look quite different.

 

I have a feeling I know where I'll be picking tasty tomatoes later on this summer. And I have a feeling that we won't be growing tomatoes at the allotment next year. 

Mrs. M.