More Piccies and some News!

So, finally a day off and time for us both to get to the plot! Unfortunately the early darkness means we couldnt spend as long down there as we wanted, but we did manage to get some work done!

Before having to stop due to failing light, I managed to paint some of the fence (that Lee had missed when he painted the shed), harvest parsnip, leeks and sprouts for tea, and move 55 self seeded foxgloves from the beds where they'd germinated into the flower bed at the front of plot 1 and along the allotment border near our plot!

As you can see, the fence is now painted, and the bed in front of it is full of foxgloves! The rest are planted along the fence to the right of where this piccy was taken!

Thought I'd take advantage of the reasonable light to take a few piccies to show how the plot is coming along! The leeks are looking good!

Cleared beds and newly barked up paths on plot 1!

Cleared beds and barked paths on plot 2, looking towards plot 1!

Plot 2, before the fence was painted!

Whilst I was moving foxgloves and painting, Lee was clearing the very back of plot 2, beyond where the rhubarb is, in preparation to laying the freecycled pavers that we are collecting soon, which are going where the plastic sheet is, and will have 4 BEEHIVES on them!

Yep, you heard right, we are becoming Apiarists! We both like honey, and with the decline in the UK Bee population, and the possible problems that this will cause with pollination, we had a chat, and along with another plotholder we've decided to give beekeeping a go! We've managed to get 4 Smiths Hives for a very good price, 2 for us and 2 for the other plot holder, and they are going to be located at the back of plot 2, beyond the rhubarb! If we enjoy it and they do ok, then we may look at further hives in the future! Stay tuned for more info, piccies and to see how we progress!

Finally a couple of piccies of the sunset, nothing spectacular, but pretty enough for a few snaps from the allotment!

GYO Grapevine Virtual Veg Show results + Newly barked paths!

So, the results of the GYO Magazine's Grapevine Forum Virtual Veg Show were announced recently, and we managed to do better than last years two 2nd places!! Below are the piccies of our entries, and where they placed!

These 2 Cucumbers got us a First Place!

3 Stalks of Rhubarb - this got us our second First Place!

These 3 Onions got us a 2nd Place!

These 3 spuds got us a Second Place!

These 3 Bulbs of Garlic got us a 3rd Place!

So, all in all, 2 firsts, 2 seconds and a third, not bad at all! Especially when you consider we only entered those five categories!!

For the full thread and a great place to visit, follow the link below to the Grapevine!

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/fruit-vegetable-showcase/2008-showcase-results_23820.html

So, the growing season is over and the time to tidy up and prepare for next year is now upon us! Today we managed to get to the plot for most of the day, Lee clearing another bed and having a fire before clearing the smaller greenhouse, whilst I tidied up a bit, then weeded and barked up about a third of the beds on plot 1! (Lee helped with the chippings too, once he'd finished in the greenhouse!)

So, as can be seen, the bark chippings do make the place look a lot tidier, as does the work Lee did with the celery (tieing and earthing it up yesterday)! Plenty more work to do before spring, but plenty of time to do it in, so no rush as yet!

Hope you're preparation and tidying up is going well! Thanks for reading!

Belated Samhain wishes, the Old Year is Dead, and now begins the New Growing Year!

Well, with what for us heralds the end of the growing year, Samhain (Halloween), we now look to the start of the coming years growing season, starting with the overwintering Garlic and Onions from set, which are now planted on Plot 1!

We've got 37 Christos Garlic and 99 saved garlic cloves (Electrik and San Marco) planted today, filling one bed on Plot 1, prepared firstly by digging in a load of manure, then Blood fish and bone and lime added to the bed, with a load of potash (from last nights end of season BBQ and bonfire at the site) cooling in the wheelbarrow (Lee went to fetch some, and came back with it flaming out of the barrow, a bit hotter than we'd thought it would have been, but a lovely warm mobile heater for todays planting!) ready to add to the beds in the not too distant future!

We also planted up 2 beds of overwintering Onion sets today, Senshui, one bed having 98 sets and the other having 130 sets in it, again prepared by digging in manure and then top dressing with blood, fish and bone (with more potash to follow once its properly cooled down!)

We've planned out the plot for the coming year, with 5 runs of beds (running front to back) spanning the 2 adjacent plots, we've decided where everything is going, with the second run of beds from the right taking the alliums (1 bed garlic, 2 beds of overwintering onion sets - already planted - and then the further 4 beds in that run planned for onions from seed - 5 varieties - and leeks).

The other runs of beds are going (in the main) to contain (from right to left) Brassicas, Aliums, Spuds, Beans and Peas, Sweetcorn and Squashes, so this should give us a 5 year rotational plan!

After a conversation with another plotholder today we are also considering keeping bees, tho whether this comes off will wait to be seen!

Anyhows, hope your plans for the coming year are progressing!

Time for an update methinks!

Sorry I havent posted about the plots for a while, been mad busy at work, then had a slight accident in my MINI, which really upset me for a couple of weeks, only just now getting back into the swing of things!

So, things are winding down on the plot now, and most of the harvests are now in, apart from the winter veg (sprouts, cabbages, jerusalem fartichokes, leeks, parsnips, celery, turnip, swede, etc) plus the last few peppers, chillies, tomatos in the greenhouses and the late raspberries, which are fruiting like mad!

The plot has become a bit weed infested over the past month or so, but we've still been cropping regularly, as can be seen from the balance sheet below!

Total costs so far this growing year

Rent (for 2 full plots and a half plot) £100
Seeds £30
Seed Spuds £20
Compost / Grow Bags £20
Fertilizers etc £20
Muck £10
Lopper (tool from wilkos) £13

Total costs £213

Total Harvests

2 batches overwintered garlic (97 bulbs) =£50
Rasps 60lb =£512 (£8.40 a lb at Tescos!)
Strawbs 13lb =£65 (£5 a lb at Tescos!)
Courgettes x 180 =£90
Rhubarb 21lb = £42
Cucumber 60 = £30
Chillies / peppers = £25
Spuds 90lb = £60 (£0.50 -0.80lb at Tescos)
Onions = £75
Radish =£8
Mange Tout 20lb = £50 (£2.50lb at Tesco)
Broad Beans 15lb = £30 (£2lb at Tesco)
Lettuce x 10 = £6
Broccolli = £30
Cabbage = £35
Caulis = £15
Carrots = £20
Tomatoes 145lb = £170 (£1.22lb at Tescos)
Peas = £30
Runner Beans 65lb = £130
French Beans = £15
Mushrooms = £3
Apples = £25
Aubergines = £2
Brussel Sprouts = £10
Leeks = £10
Pumpkins = 62 = £100
Sweetcorn = 35 = £40
Swedes = £5
Turnips = £5
Beetroot = £5

Total Harvest so far 2008 = £1693 - a profit now of £1480!!

I'd say there's 220+ more leeks (£100+), at least another 20lb rasps (£160), another 12 cabbages (£10), 4 more caulies (£8), a bed of Jerusalem Fatichokes (£50), about 50 bunches of celery (£40) plus about 30 bunches of grapes still to be harvested yet (the grapes are almost ready, another couple of nice days of sun and they'll be ready for harvesting!), so if they ripen and we get them in, we could be looking at a further £400+ of crops still to come, which would take our growing total to over £2000 for the year! Not bad at all, despite the lack of summer again this year!

We're on holiday in a couple of weeks, and are hoping to get the plot put to bed for the winter, rebark the paths and cover the beds etc, so hopefully we'll have some piccies to post at that point, but until then I hope you've enjoyed seeing how our plots have developed and what we've been able to harvest this year! I hope you're own harvests have been as good and that you've enjoyed you're growing, thanks for reading!

Alderley Edge - Cheshire

These autumn leaves really stood out to me, so I tried a couple of different edits, landscape and portrait orientation, which do you prefer?

Some of the paths reminded me of scenes from the LOTR films, have a look and let me know what you think!

Latest Balance sheet

Well, despite the weather and the blight, the toms are producing about 10lb+ twice a week now, the freezers are full of passatta and I'm now making ketchup and tomato puree for canning! Runner beans are cropping at a tremendous rate, we took over 20lb in one day this week, and they are still dripping in beans! The first of the sprouts are now producing, we had the first last night with tea! The autumn fruiting rasps are now coming into their own, we picked 3lb the other day and are harvesting abut 2lb at least a couple of times a week! The sweetcorn is ripening, so with any luck that should be a decent harvest, and the leeks and winter brassicas are going well too! The pumpkins and squashes look good too, ripening really well! The Jerusalem Artichokes are also looking like a bumper harvest, so with any luck we'll be eating fresh produce for most of the winter!

On the down side, the grapes havent yet ripened, so unless they do something soon it doesnt look like we are going to get a crop! The weeds are doing well too, methinks next year we've a bit more to do to stay on top of them!

Total costs so far this growing year
Rent (for 2 full plots and a half plot) £100
Seeds £30
Seed Spuds £20
Compost / Grow Bags £20
Fertilizers etc £20
Muck £10
Lopper (tool from wilkos) £13
Total costs £213

Total Harvests
2 batches overwintered garlic (97 bulbs) =£50
Rasps 30lb =£252 (£8.40 a lb at Tescos!)
Strawbs 12lb =£60 (£5 a lb at Tescos!)
Courgettes x 170 =£85
Rhubarb 21lb = £42
Cucumber 50 = £25
Chillies / peppers = £14
Spuds 90lb = £60 (£0.50 -0.80lb at Tescos)
Onions = £75
Radish =£8
Mange Tout 20lb = £50 (£2.50lb at Tesco)
Broad Beans 15lb = £30 (£2lb at Tesco)
Lettuce x 8 = £5
Broccolli = £25
Cabbage = £24
Caulis = £10
Carrots = £15
Tomatoes 95lb = £118 (£1.22lb at Tescos)
Peas = £20
Runner Beans 65lb = £130
French Beans = £15
Mushrooms = £3
Apples = £20
Aubergines = £2
Brussel Sprouts = £1
Total Harvest so far 2008 = £1139 - a profit now of £926!!

Update!

Once again I find myself having to apologise for not having posted recently, all I can say is I've had time off work with a bad back, then broke a tooth and had to take more time off (was in hospital til 1am in the morning with it!), and finally had it pulled out today!

Anyhows, it looks like the weather has turned, the trees are beginning to change colour, and autumn is here, along with the bounty of the ongoing harvest and the realisation that things are soon going to be out of time, so the last chances for crops to ripen!

We're still harvesting lots, a normal week will see us harvest about 15 to 20lb of tomatoes, about 8 to 16 large courgettes, a couple of cucumbers, an aubergine, a couple of peppers, about 5lb of runner beans, about 5lb of peas, a cabbage or two, and a few other odds and ends. Most of the toms and courgettes are being processed into tomato sauce / soup / pasta sauce, which we now have over 40x 1 1/2lb bags frozen in the chest freezer for the coming year! We've now got about 20lb of runner beans frozen for use in the winter, so think we may be alright for them!

On the plot we've lots more toms still to come, the autumn fruiting rasps and late strawbs are now starting, looks like a possible bumper rasp harvest, the pumpkins are ripening nicely, looks like this years squash and pumpkin harvest is gonna beat the 30 we had last year by a long way, the celery is looking good, as are the sprouts and winter brassicas! The first bed of leeks is also going really well, plus the sweetcorn is starting to ripen, hpefully there will still be time for us to get enough to see us thru the winter! Next year we're going to have to start it off earlier!

So, overall, although the weather hasnt been fantastic, we've been doing ok, just a shame about all the weeds that this type of weather brings out! Anyhows, onto the balance sheet!

Total costs so far this growing year
Rent (for 2 full plots and a half plot) £100
Seeds £30Seed Spuds £20
Compost / Grow Bags £20
Fertilizers etc £20
Muck £10
Lopper (tool from wilkos) £13
Total costs £213

Total Harvests
2 batches overwintered garlic (97 bulbs) =£50
Rasps 25lb =£206 (£8.40 a lb at Tescos!)
Strawbs 12lb =£60 (£5 a lb at Tescos!)
Courgettes x 150 =£75
Rhubarb 21lb = £42
Cucumber 40 = £20
Chillies / peppers = £10
Spuds 90lb = £60 (£0.50 -0.80lb at Tescos)
Onions = £75
Radish =£8
Mange Tout 20lb = £50 (£2.50lb at Tesco)
Broad Beans 15lb = £30 (£2lb at Tesco)
Lettuce x 8 = £5
Broccolli = £20
Cabbage = £20
Caulis = £10
Carrots = £15
Tomatoes 65lb = £80 (£1.22lb at Tescos)
Peas = £20
Runner Beans 20lb = £ 40
French Beans = £15
Mushrooms = £3
Apples = £8
Aubergines = £2
Total Harvest so far 2008 = £924 - a profit now of £711!!

So, with winter brassicas, leeks, apples, rasps, blackberries, peppers, chillies, runner beans, swedes, turnips, carrots, jerusalem fartichokes, pumpkins, squashes, sweetcorn, celery and herbs to harvest, I have a feeling we may well have an overall harvest equivalent of a lot more yet!

Hope your harvesting is going as well as ours!

Harvesting + Balance sheet!

Hi Guys, sorry not posted for a while, struggling to keep up with work and all the harvesting!
This week's harvesting includes.........

12lb of toms (mainly processed into tomato and courgette soup/pasta sauce and frozen) Lots more to come!

gazillions of courgettes (note to self, dont need 3 plants each of 4 varieties of courgette next year! 15lb made into soup and frozen, still about 10lb to eat or process!)

10lb runner beans (processed and frozen) lots more to come!

5lb mange tout (processed and frozen) lots more to come!

5lb french beans (processed and frozen) lots more to come!

5lb broad beans (processed and frozen) lots more to come!

40lb spring sown onions from set4lb pickling onions

5lb peas (processed and frozen) lots more to come!

couple of green peppers, lots more to come!

1 1/2lb broccolli (eaten!)

2 cabbages

1 cauli

about 200000 parsnip seeds!

1lb carrots lots more to come!

4 cucumbers lots more to come!

8lb cooking apples lots more to come!

First Turnip!

And the one that made Mr D smile more than anything else, the first mushroom from the kit we bought last month! Big enough to feed 2 of us, and as you can see, Mr D was really impressed! (when he first saw it there was a cry from upstairs, I wondered what had happened!:D)

The first Mushroom, 4" across!!

Proud Mr D!!

So, onto the balance sheet then!

Total costs so far this growing year
Rent (for 2 full plots and a half plot) £100
Seeds £30
Seed Spuds £20
Compost / Grow Bags £20
Fertilizers etc £20
Muck £10
Total costs £200

Total Harvests
2 batches overwintered garlic (97 bulbs) =£50
Rasps 22lb =£196 (£8.40 a lb at Tescos!)
Strawbs 10lb =£50 (£5 a lb at Tescos!)
Courgettes x 90 =£45
Rhubarb 21lb = £42
Cucumber 16 = £10
Chillies / peppers = £6
Spuds 90lb = £60 (£0.50 -0.80lb at Tescos)
Onions = £60

Radish =£8
Mange Tout 20lb = £50 (£2.50lb at Tesco)
Broad Beans 13lb = £26 (£2lb at Tesco)
Lettuce x 8 = £5
Broccolli = £15

Cabbage = £14
Caulis = £8
Carrots = £11
Tomatoes 22lb = £25 (£1.22lb at Tescos)
Peas = £10
Runner Beans 15lb = £ 30
French Beans = £10

Mushrooms = £1

Apples = £8
Total Harvest so far 2008 = £740 - a profit now of £540!!

Also managed to get a grabbed piccy of Mr D at the plot, which lent itself to a good B+W conversion, but meant it lost his lovely brown eyes, so a bit of a play in Photoshop and voila!

So, what do you think, does the piccy work?

Anyhows, hope you're enjoying the summer weather (feels more like late autumn round here!) and that your enjoying a bumper harvest!!

Update and piccies!

Ok, as promised, after last weeks post of pretty flowers, back to normal, along with the weather! lol! First a few piccies, then an update on the balance sheet!
A few days sunshine and everything seems to take off like mad!! A view of plot 1, with the courgettes, squashes, pumpkins and most of everything growing like mad!!

Another panorama, taken in the middle of plot 1, looking 180 degrees (7 pictures stitched together!) Click on the image for a bigger version!
One of the pears on plot 1, we've not got many, but are planning to esaplier the 2 trees this winter, and hopefully a good prunning will result in better fruiting next year (and more light to the beds beneath!)
The 2 sisters bed, the sweetcorn have started to show the tassles, and the Mars pumpkins are producing a LOT of pumpkins, 17 at last count, all of a decent size!
Romanesco Cauliflower, the only 1 we've managed to grow in 2 years! Looking forwards to eating this one when it gets a bit bigger!

Leeks (musselburgh) from saved seed! Planted early and doing well, looking forwards to these come the winter!

The other pumpkin / squash bed, lots of fruit on here too, and the purple podded peas behind are also doing very well too!

Peas and runner beans on plot 2, going great guns! We've harvested loads, and still have loads more coming on, perhaps a bumper harvest this year! I was originally a bit dubious of growing runner beans, with childhood memories of stringy yeuchy stuff served up, but I have to say the 2 varieties, (scarlet emperor and enorma) are absolutely delicious, tasty, tender and sweet!

So, onto the balance sheet then!

Total costs so far this growing year

Rent (for 2 full plots and a half plot) £100

Seeds £30

Seed Spuds £20

Compost / Grow Bags £20

Fertilizers etc £20

Muck £10

Total costs £200

Total Harvests

2 batches overwintered garlic (97 bulbs) =£50

Rasps 22lb =£196 (£8.40 a lb at Tescos!)

Strawbs 10lb =£50 (£5 a lb at Tescos!)

Courgettes x 60 =£30

Rhubarb 21lb = £42

Cucumber 10 = £8

Chillies / peppers = £5

Spuds 90lb = £60 (£0.50 -0.80lb at Tescos)

Onions = £40

Radish =£8

Mange Tout 15lb = £37.50 (£2.50lb at Tesco)

Broad Beans 8lb = £16 (£2lb at Tesco)

Lettuce x 8 = £5

Broccolli = £12

Cabbage = £12

Caulis = £7

Carrots = £10

Tomatoes 10lb = £10 (£1.22lb at Tescos)

Peas = £5

Runner Beans = £5

French Beans = £5

Total Harvest so far 2008 = £613 - a profit now of £413!!

Not a bad haul so far, especially with the tomatoes now beginning to crop! Courgettes are cropping like mad, we've a load of soup made and frozen, along with lots of peas and beans, with many more to come! Toms and courgettes are also going to be processed and frozen, the base for warming winter soups, pasta sauces and spicy indian meals!

Hope your growing year and harvesting is going as well as ours! More piccies n further updates to follow!

Moss View Allotments - Partington - some piccies!

Took my new camera to the plot yesterday, to have a bit of a play, and ended up being asked to forward any nice piccies to the council liason for them to see and possibly use on the official Allotment website, so decided to take a few piccies of some of the plots, the general atmosphere and some of the wonderful flowers that are growing on the site, so I've posted them here for any that are interested to have a look! I know its not my normal type of post, and that we dont grow many flowers ourselves (you cant eat flowers - well not many of them!), but I thought some of the piccies were lovely and wanted to share them! Please click on them to see them in full size and all their glory!

A panorama of the plot from the front entrance, our plots are behind the trees on the right! The 'road' goes around the central square of plots, with other plots to both sides. This is a photomontage of 2 piccies taken handheld (with the zoom set to a focal length of approx 50mm) that was stitched together with some of the Canon software that came with the camera!

Another panorama of the site, taken from the bottom (road end) looking towards the back! This is the other side of the circular road, and the piccy is again a photomontage, this time of 5 piccies! The plot directly in front is the Doc's, a wonderful productive and very pretty plot that uually gets a commendation in the Trafford Allotment Awards every year!

Looking down from the top end of the plot along the road to the left of the plot (other end from the lact piccy)

Wonderful and productive flower and veg plot, one of two thats tended by our council liason!

The second plot of the council liason, full of lovely flowers and very productive in terms of fruit and veg!

Believe it or not, this plot was a weed infested rubbish dump only 12 months ago, when B took it on! Both him and his family have worked exceptionally hard to get it tamed and looking as good as it does now!

Commonly known as the Ponderossa, the owners of this plot live in a flat, so their plot is both veg plot and garden, very well tended and very productive!

Another 'garden' plot!

Our old half plot, now cleared and with planning in place for paths and other works to be carried out in the near future!

P&C's plot, on the other side of the road from us!

The other half of P&C's plot, again the other side of the road from our plot!

M's plot, rustic, full to brimming and very productive!

A speciality of one of the plotholders, these grapes are the envy of most of the plot!

Another view of the grapegrowers greenhouse, showing the fruits of his labour!

And now for a few of the flowers that are grown on the plot!

Rose

Another rose!

Yet another rose!

I've no idea what it is, but the vibrant colours stood out, so I took a piccy of it! (edit - Happymouffetarde from the Grapevine forum has identified it for me - Hemerocallis (Day Lily) - thanks chuck!)

Carnation? I think! I'm useless at identifying flowers, as we grow virtually all fruit and veg, apart from a few companion flower plants!

Delicate!

Pretty!

Stunning!

Unusual!

Pretty!

Wonderful colours!

Bright!

Just trying out the Macro feature of the lens, the snap of the butterfly (Cabbage white?) on Lavender!

Anyhows, I hope this post gives you a better appreciation of the whole allotment site, and that you enjoyed looking at the pictures of the wonderful blooms on the site!

Back to normal posting soon!