Midweek Harvest

Welcome back to Reads Allotment Retreat. Crikey, that was a quick week! We had a visit from "Nana Pops" from Monday - Thursday, and we had a really great time - cramming a lot in. On Wednesday we all popped up to the plot to "show off " our allotment - mum was suitably impressed whilst suitably shocked at just how much work we now have in coping with all 3 allotments. As always, she didn't leave empty handed - managing to acquire one of our small pumpkins. Pictured here is our small harvest from the day before, including a Marrow, Pumpkin, some Zucchini, Maincrop spuds and a mixture of climbing beans including Borlotti, Runners, and Purple podded French beans. We have to say; the maincrop spuds (v.Cara) tasted delish. Also this week, I managed to start digging and weeding the new beds. Next year we will grow some of our spuds - probably the First Earlies - where the Runner Beans etc are this year, thereby taking advantage of the nitrogen now in the soil. The Runner beans themselves are going great guns - a late flurry of flowers should give rich pickings in the very near future.

Next week will probably be a tad quieter and we should be able to get a bit more done on the plots. Hopefully you'll pop back soon and check for more updates.

Don't forget our new venture : Reads Recipes. Jen has been busy in the kitchen, and has added more recipes. Go on, take a look ?

I hope you're still enjoying your plots as much as we are, and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Take care all,

TTFN.

Todays harvests & weeks update

Welcome back to our allotment retreat, where today we were greeted by the sight of our newly transplanted Rhubarb (v.Victoria) plant. As you can clearly see, it's loving it's new home, and sending up new shoots all the time. It's really encouraging to see such good growth, and together with the 2 crowns at home, should mean bumper harvests for the next few years. I know it takes up a lot of space on the plot, but in my opinion its a good sacrifice. This year we have experimented a bit with it - Rhubarb & Ginger jam etc, and then there's the possibility of wine too!

Today we harvested yet more veg. We have been getting a bag full every now and again! The spuds (v.Nadine) are the 2nd earlies, and we plan to leave them in the ground until we need them. This will continue unless we get a bout of wet weather, which may lead to slug damage. We are also now getting a good crop of Runner Beans(v.Scarlet Emperor), as well as the Purple Podded Climbing French beans. The latter are causing quite a stir at the plot - there's a well trodden path to our plot from other plotholders, keen to investigate this "new" crop! The Climbing French beans are also just starting to crop. Lovely!

We have more Marrows on the way too. This specimen now about 8" long and 4" diameter, and there's about 4 more starting off on the same plant! Yummy. In line with the experimenting(above) we are now thinking of Marrow Preserve. That's making my mouth water just thinking about it!




The second marrow plant next the the one above, is adorned with more large flowers, a beautiful sight and more promise of things to come. This has been our first year growing marrows - and even then its by accident - as the plants we purchased as "Courgette" were indeed Marrow! Oh well, we're not complaining!




The Butternut Squashes (v.Waltham Cross) that we planted atop our compost heap are also growing really well. This pic shows the 1st fruit starting to form, and there's plenty more buds too. It's all quite exciting, as we patiently wait to see what will / won't grow!








The plant's that were donated by Stephen at Victoriana Nurseries, are also growing on well. Several of the plants are producing fruit, all about the size of tennis balls at the moment. Considering how late these were planted, they are doing really well. There's also a couple of Courgette (Zucchini) plants which have fruit on them, and a sole Cantaloupe Melon plant. The latter is adorned with flowers but no fruit at the moment.


We have recently found a source of free manure, which we have started transporting to the allotment. At the moment we are spreading it over the beds that contained our second early spuds. Over the next few months we will get as much as we can and use it to improve our soil structure. Rather than "digging" it in, we plan to just mulch the surface with it, and let the worms do the work! The manure is all fairly well rotted down already, it doesn't even smell much! Just wish I had a towbar and a trailer!




That's it for today folks. Hope you've all enjoyed our update, and we look forward to welcoming you back to our allotment retreat soon.

Take care all and enjoy your plots.

TTFN.

1st August - And what a haul!

Welcome back to our allotment retreat, where we are enjoying the fruits of our labour once again! After a quick visit to the plot today we came away with this bumper harvest. We cant lay claim to the courgettes - they were a gift from a fellow plotholder - he grew so many he's been eating them every day for weeks! The marrow is our second this year and the plants are still flourishing. We picked a good handful of Runner Beans, French Beans and Purple podded french beans. Only a couple of Pea pods - but they are soooo tasty ! Finally we dug the first of our Second Earlies(v.Nadine). We'll be conjuring up some lovely home grown veg to go with our Hake Fillets for tea! Yum.
Our Butternut Squash plants are also going well. No sign of any fruits yet, but buds galore on the 4 plants that are planted atop our compost heap. The flower in this pic looks to have a fruit developing underneath, all we need now is some sunny weather to help it grow on a bit.
The mixed bag of plants that we were given are also doing very well, considering they've only been in the ground about ten days:


This one appears to be Zucchini - you can just see the yellow fruit starting to form.







Not sure what this one is either, but something is growing !! Unfortunately, the majority of the plants that Stephen gave us were without labels, so we'll just have to wait and see. We can't thank Victoriana Nurseries enough, and can't find enough superlatives to describe their nursery. Maybe we can show how grateful we are by buying a bit more from them next year!



Our newly located Rhubarb crown is going great guns too, obviously liking it's new growing position. Won't be enough growth to harvest this year, but we're hoping for bumper harvests in years to come.









Our first attempt at growing Borlotti Beans is proving to be a great success. Faced as we were today with a multitude of beans, we need to read up a bit before we harvest them. The plan was to grow them for drying, with a view to using the dried beans in winter stews and casseroles, but we are now thinking they could be picked to eat as "runners" - maybe one of our readers can advise us on this ?






On the way back from the plot, we stopped off at a newly discovered site (being vague on purpose!) and picked approx 10 pounds of these lovely Cherry Plums. As I sit here typing, wifey is busy preparing the first 5lb batch of jam - yummy yum. We already have about 4 jars in the larder from a previous picking a couple of weeks ago. If you could smell the fruit now as it gently boils on the stove . . . . oh, you can't ! Oh well!!


That's about it for now. Hope you are enjoying the growing and gardening, and also hope that you will pop back soon for more updates.

Till then, take care all.

TTFN

Five days - What a difference!

Welcome back to our allotment retreat. Just for a change we're bringing you pictures taken at the plot - Today! Check the pic from 5 days ago in our previous posting - I'm simply amazed at how quick this Marrow is growing. By way of a thank you, I not only watered it today, but gave it a good feed too. I think it deserves it, don't you ?





And here's the plant just 3 feet away, in the same bed. Obviously it doesn't want to be outdone and wants some of the attention too! These 2 plants were "shop" brought in Sunny Hunny a few weeks back, and considering how cheap they were, and the fact that they were a tad bedraggled, tells us we are doing something right. This second plant was planted over layers of garden compost/ grass clippings, and seems to be thriving on it.



After the many disasters of trying to raise Courgette plants at home this year (can't use slug pellets due to 2 year old Ruby might take a shine to them), we decided to plant this late developing Yellow Zucchini at the plot. It has found a new home in the bed that was home to our first earlies. Lets hope the recently introduced "spent hops" give the ground the nutrients it needs to support this new addition. Certainly smells nice !!!

The runners (all varieties) are going great guns at the moment - reaching as they do up and beyond the supports provided. When you stand next to them, they look just great, but it's not so easy to get a good picture of them, hence this shot taken looking underneath and through the foliage. I think it looks ok. Still not enough fully developed pods to get a plate full yet, so they have been left and will hopefully be more productive in a few days time.





We're really pleased with the Butternut squash plants, this is the strongest of the four on the top of the compost bin, but the other 3 plants are also doing well too. Squash has been a fairly recent addition to our kitchen, and we're hoping for a good harvest here too. There's so many delicious recipe's for squash, that we need as many as possible. I sowed quite a few varieties, but the ones doing best in this environment are the Waltham Cross variety.


The recently moved Rhubarb is growing well. It seems to send up new shoots every time I make an appearance. We are somewhat surprised by the growth, not withstanding the fact that it has been moved mid season. Great expectations here!
Well that's about it for today! Hoping for a few more trips to the plot this week, so we'll keep you all posted.
Till then, we hope you all enjoy your plots and gardens, and we look forward to seeing you back here again soon.


TTFN