Karen's 2015 garden diary

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wildlifemad
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by wildlifemad »

Great to see you are reaping the rewards of all your hard work. Your purple beans sound like our French beans we keep thinking they are over & then they give us a few more! I picked half a pound yesterday! Keep up the good work & if you ever move to Warwickshire I'll welcome you as one of my allotment neighbours anytime!!
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

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The grow-your-own is coming to its end now. I've harvested the sweetcorn today - great crop of good sized cobs this year and the chooks have just had all the half formed secondary ones. We are having it for tea tonight! The last of the french beans are picked and the plants are now in the compost. I have a monster pumpkin which unfortunately the slugs have been at the underneath so that's probably not going to last much longer. I have another decent sized one ripening, and loads of mini pumpkins which are so cute but not much good for halloween carving. I've brought one home to see what they taste like.

4 large butternut squash on the plants, first time I have ever been successful so well pleased with those. Haven't harvested any yet.

The cooking apples are coming down from the tree at home and already struggling to give them away to neighbours! Of course we love pies and crumble but there's only so much you can eat.. pity we can't do a harvest swap on DTL. The cox is looking good with its tiny, bright red apples and hopefully will do well once transplanted onto the lotty for next year, and the patio pear too. I picked a surprising amount of autumn raspberries last night, and even more surprising the summer raspberries at the lotty seem to have flowers on yike*

The strawberries at the lotty are chucking out runners left right and centre. Not sure what to do with them all - any ideas why this might be? I got no fruit at all from them, and they were mostly bought this year.

We've had a great crop of tomatoes this year, even though I grew less than I usually would. And to my surprise the melons have been prolific! Small though and the one we tried so far wasn't all that nice to be honest - quite disappointing. I'm going to see what I can do with tomatoes and aubergine. We've already been eating brushetta and salads, and I have some pasatta in the freezer already.

Loads of weeding needed at the allotment, and in the garden too. I've made a start and am feeling it already! The kale and cabbage is growing nicely at the lotty and I am hoping the brocooli and sprouts survived the caterpillar attacks.

It's going to take me ages to clear the weeds - as usual!
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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Mo
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by Mo »

I have put my apples on Freecycle - pick your own. Already had pickers, in fact some contacted me from last year to ask if they could come again. I take apples to the dance clubs I go to - either for the charity bring & buy or to give away. There is a limit to the storage space in the porch - I used to keep them in the garage but the mice found out about it and seem to have passed the info on to their children. But last year I had flocks of Fieldfares and jackdaws eating them, so they weren't wasted.
My strawberries are putting out runners this year, I'll root them as I didn't have enough plants. And there are still some unripe fruit on them (they flowered a second time - I guess the daylength was the same) Doubt they'll ripen.
Enjoy your crops
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Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by KarenE »

I don't think it was a great year for strawberries this year (not for me anyway) so maybe that's why they are setting runners. I quite like to keep the apples as long as I can and put them out for the birds when the weather gets colder. If I get desperate, there's always cider making :-D

We just ate the corn and the french beans. Delicious!
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
wildlifemad
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by wildlifemad »

Hi Karen. Congratulations on your first allotment growing season! You did really well to get it all cleared & planted for saying you got it quite late for the growing year. You asked for tips so the biggest one I would give is to cover the beds for winter if you can, we have only been doing this for the last couple of years & it saves soooo much time in Spring. We've had our plot 10yrs & in that time have certainly noticed the winters getting milder so the weeds just keeping growing! Another thing we do is when the Runner & French beans have got too big to harvest we leave them to dry & then use them as dry beans in chilli, soup, etc. Other than that sit back,relax & sort out your seeds for next year!!!!!!
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by KarenE »

Already on the seeds, I've been buying reduced from wilkies, and I have some weed suppresant ready to go although not enough. Just have that mnasive pile of ever growing weeds to get rid of now! But whenever I get the urge, it's always raining. )t'
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

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Well what a good year, considering it was late when I took over the plot. 4 massive butternut squash, 1 large pumpkin ready for carving (my massive one didn't survive) and loads of mini pumpkins. Now just got to get to the plot to harvest them if it ever stops raining.

I've still got savoy cabbages, kale, sprouts and brocooli up there, plus a few leeks and celery here in the garden. We ate our tiny surviving cauli and it was lovely. Next year the brassicas are going into the extended fruit cage to keep the pests off.

All the peas, beans and sweetcorn are up, and now it's mainly weeding and tidying to do. It's such hard work trying to keep on top of the weeding, especially with that darned bindweed.

The fruit cage will need work - the strawberries have set runners everywhere so they need tidying up, and I need to sort out the blackcurrants as I am extending the cage. But again once weeded that should be fine.

We had a smashing crop of tomatoes from the garden, I've pureed them down as well as making lots of salads and bruschettas. Great crop from the raspberries here, without any from the lotty ones so that should be good next year. Loads of apples, my little mini pears are lovely and even the cox did well considering its stilll in its pot. The melons were amazing, I had fruit everywhere but not too big ones and we never managed to actually eat any as the one we tried wasn't all that nice. Not sure I'll bother next year. Disastrous again for peppers and cucumbers, I really don't have much luck with them.

All in all a good year and apart from the weeding )t'
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
Melisa
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by Melisa »

The tomatoes are coming up well, the tumbling toms are starting to come through as are the roma. No sign of the san marzano but they may have been old seed
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Mo
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

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Where are you living? I would have thought it was a bit early for tomatoes in the UK, and certainly too late for peas.
Welcome, tell us a bit about yourself, maybe start a thread in Introductions
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Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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Richard
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

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Hi Melisa

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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2018 garden diary

Post by KarenE »

Well it's 2018 and we're off!

Just paid my lotty fee for this year - it's £5 a year (would be half that if I was an OAP!) and I think it's so cheap because we have no amenities down there at all.

Hubby did a bit of repair work to my storage chest down there over winter, as the lid had broken, and I took down the netting over my fruit cage just to keep it safe. So all that needs doing is for the soil to dry out (!!!!!!) and for me to dig over and weed. That will be a nightmare and I'm seriously considering seeing if I can get hold of a rotivator or something, which isn't ideal with the type of weeds I have but will be a lot quicker. It's such a pity because I was doing well with clearing the plots last autumn but it doesn't seem to have stopped raining since or at least every weekend which is the only time I had. Now the lighter evenings are back, that'll give me a bit more time, if it ever stops raining.

This year, I'm going to extend my fruit cage to include my brassicas in there too - I'll just build a support frame out of long bamboo and extend the net over it, it's a massive net.

This week, I've begun sowing in the greenhouse (still the chickens official winter residence) after a good clean out last weekend. So far I've sown:

Sweetcorn; green, yellow and purple beans; garden peas;
Broccoli, kale, cauliflower and spring cabbages
Pumpkins and butternut squashes
Tumbling toms and roma tomatoes; yellow peppers; aubergines
Basil and oregano

I've still got cucumbers, spring onions, lettuce and salad crops to sow but I'll do that later in the month when the weather's warmed up a bit
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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Mo
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by Mo »

What all those nice seed trays/ dust baths in the chicken's residence? That will be fun.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by KarenE »

Yes Mo it is but not as much fun as it will be when it's time to evict them!

Just been in there with them again and planted up some borage, sunflowers, asters, zinnias and dahlias as well as spring onions and leeks.

The chicks had a great time fighting for sunflower seeds and bits of corn that I threw them )t'
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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Mo
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by Mo »

How do you keep hens & seed trays apart?
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Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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kitla
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

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How do you plant your peas Karen? We were told to plant them straight out into the veg patch, but they always disappear/get eaten by mice, so for years we havent bothered growing them. Last year on advice we grew some in the greenhouse in some guttering & slid them into the ground later. Yes it worked & Clive thought he was very clever, but that flipping guttering was such a pain, it got in the way & I dont want to do it again! So what works for you?
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
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