Harvest time again on the plot.

Harvesting at full pelt. 
Here you can see all the Blackcurrants about 10lb, some Raspberries, Loganberries, Blueberries a few Courgettes & Sweet Peas too. 

Most of the Blackcurrants will be made into Jam (6lb) the rest I will make wine out of.

It was time to lift the Shallots as the leaves were flat on the ground. Once home I weighed them and placed them on our drying shelves made from an old pine shelf unit, there's about 12lb too!

Yet more Beetroot, this variety 'Boltardy' has been a good cropper for us, we had to thin these out to leave room for the rest to get bigger!

The Sweet Corn is getting bigger, we have weeded them to give them more chance to grow without competing with the weeds! A long summer is needed to ripen the corn, lets hope it will be.

On the wigwams I put up behind the Sweetcorn, for the Beans & Peas to climb up, here you can see the pea pods not full of Peas yet but wont be long. 
The Beans are doing well too, they have reached the top of the wigwam and pods are forming. 

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

July & the weeds march on!

Yes July and the weeds are taking over, well not literally, but they are growing faster than some of the crops! But in this picture you see some rather tasty looking Parsnips & these are just the thinning out's, we will have them roasted as usual and they taste so nice tender and sweet too. 

But as I said weeds are taking over so we cleared the Asparagus bed, that we put a couple of Courgettes in, now the weeds have been pulled it will give the Courgettes more room to spread out.

I weeded the Cara spuds and earthed them up again, in the hope they put on more growth now as not competing with the weeds!

Crops harvested this week: Charlotte spuds, a Round Courgette, Beetroot, Broad Beans, Rhubarb, Raspberries, Strawberries, Gooseberries, Blackberries & Loganberries.

I might have missed something out, but you see its a bumper harvest again this year.

The Teasels we have growing outside our plot are lovely at the moment, I have taken a photo through them looking onto the Poppies on our plot.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

End of June on the plot

Typical June week on the plot, more crops planted out in the little space available, more Dwarf French Beans in the raised bed we cleared of weeds and more Peas planted in the new raised bed. 

Plenty of crops harvested too, see below.

The Lavender in the foreground has taken and now in flower, to add the the other Lavender we have, it has attracted lots of honey bees too. 
Watch the video walkabout for more views of the flowers we grow to attract Bees.

Crops harvested this week:
Strawberries 
Raspberries 
Loganberries 
Blackcurrants 
Broad Beans 
Asparagus 
Parsnips
And Rhubarb. 
So lots of Jam making & the Rhubarb for Wine too. 

This picture shows Matilda, our only chicken now, sadly Freda fell ill and the only kind thing to do was to put her out of her misery, our local vet did the deed :( 
But Matilda, now just over 3yrs old is fighting fit and we hope to get her some new companions soon, ex-battery hens again from the British Hen Welfare Trust. Watch this space for news of the newcomers.

Thanks for reading/returning and don't forget to watch the video, link below. Ian

What a busy 2 weeks on the plot and more!

Quite a busy fortnight. Mainly been harvesting crops, as you can see here plenty of ripe Strawberries. I've repaired an old raised bed by making new sides from reclaimed timber & I found a Hedgehog sleeping in our wildlife corner, I have named him/her Sonic :)

The reason I didn't do my usual weekly Blog was last Sunday we went to BBC Gardeners World Live at the Birmingham N.E.C there was so much to see, Plants, Gardens, Fruit, Flowers, Veg & Monty Don live on stage!

But back to the plot and this week harvesting has been busy, so far (since April) we have picked: 
Rhubarb 56lb 
Strawberries 11lb
Winston spuds 8lb 
Asparagus 1lb 5oz
 Raspberries 7oz 
Blackberries 6oz. 

We have had sunshine almost every day too, just a few light showers. 
But it has meant everything has shot up, all the Peas & Beans are climbing, the Parsnips are swelling & need thinning out too! 

And the Beetroot is getting big too, so I decided to make another batch of wine from this years crop, there is about 4lb here and as I need 3lb to make a gallon of wine, by the time trimmed & washed, this will be perfect.

I made a few gallons last year and they proved to be very popular so it makes sense to make more. 
If you want the recipe let me know & I will send it to you. 

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

Allotment flourishing in June

Everything is growing at a pace now. 

Here are the Charlotte potatoes, planted almost 2 months ago (April 13th) and now in flower, so won't be long before we can dig them up.

The Onions are swelling now we have had some rain & sunshine.

They have been going to seed but I have nipped off the buds, just to give us some time before lifting, oops just noticed the label says planted 10/10/12 of course it was 2013!

The Currants, Black on the left, Red on the right, are doing well, there are so many and as you can see still very green, just need the sun now to ripen them. 

Its been a mixed week, sunshine & showers. 

On Friday night into Saturday we had Lightening & Thunder with heavy rain, but it brightened up later. At least it filled up the rain barrels :) But the Allotment is looking very lush and green, with the odd splash of colour from the flowers. 

Due to the showers, we were limited to what we could do, just a bit of weeding, planted a few more crops & harvested (see below). 
We planted a Honeysuckle to climb over the archway, but it hasn't flowered until this year, luckily the bees are busy now the whole plot is buzzing!



Crops harvested this weekend:
Rhubarb, Asparagus, Broad Beans & Strawberries.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

June already and Plot is Blooming

Strawberries almost ready to pick, and plenty of green ones to ripen soon.

The Charlotte 2nd early Potatoes, some in flower so will be ready to dig up soon. 
Will wait until flowers die back before a test dig though.

Onions also ready to lift soon, Potatoes beyond are Cara main crop. 
The wire frame has Runner Beans that we put in a few weeks ago. 

Really pleased with this patch, there's lots growing here: Parsnips, Shallot Onions, Beetroot, Broad Beans, Peas, French Beans & Sweetcorn. 
No space wasted even 4 Courgettes planted in between! 

Been clipping the edges of the grass path, looks a lot better now. 

The whole plot is buzzing with Bees too, we have spotted so many including: Banded Orange Tail, Black Bodied Orange Tail, Two Banded White Tail, Three Banded White Tail, Orange White Tail & Brown Bumble Bees. You can do your own Bee spotting by signing up to JoinThePod via this link: http://jointhepod.org/experiment-zone

We often get a few geese flying overhead, but today we heard them coming en-mass, probably heading for one of the local ponds at Gilroy Nature Reserve or Ashton Park in West Kirby.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian 

End of May Bank Holiday weekend

Busy, busy, Bank Holiday weekend. 
Weather was OK, a few showers on Sunday & mostly sunny on Monday, but we got lots of weeding, planting and tidying up done.

Well as I said lots done, so I've done a Video walkabout, with so many changes since last month and lots of Bees visiting. It's a long one this time, hope you enjoy the video, click the link below to my YouTube channel. 

Crops harvested this week:
Asparagus
Broad Beans 
Peas 
Rhubarb 
Spinach  

Thanks for reading/watching. Ian