A bit of Pruning

Sometimes you get so used to something that you don't see it anymore. A thicket becomes overgrown and full of dead, or near-dead, branches and then you finally notice that it's become impenetrable. So it comes time to get in there and do some sawing and cutting to let the light and to wake up the trees.

Much the same thing has happened with some of my links. I have a lot of links; it's quite nice to see how things are happening the world over. But in such a dense mass some links, for whatever reasons; personal hiatuses, operational reasons or sheer fecklessness, go dormant.

Well, in a fit of spring cleaning, I swear it's not my usual behaviour, just ask the commander. I've gone in there with my heavy-duty pruning shears and lopped and cut away the silent. But, true to my form, I can't throw them away. So, much like the branches that I cut in the garden and the allotment I put them into a pile, as they'll be useful for something one day, if only for insects and such like.

So I've created a section on the blog for "Resting Blogs" you never know, they might, like a neglected plant in a pot, spring into life again.

Also it has been salutary to see some of the blogs that bristled with enthusiasm just dry up. But that may not be a bad thing, maybe the authors are so tied up in their growing that writing up a blog is the last thing to be done. Fair enough. Though, it is possible to accuse me of a bit of tardiness in writing up this blog but I try to write it up every six months whether it needs it or not.

It was all prompted by my not being able to add a blog to my world of diggers list. So there is a finite amount of space. But I've fitted it in now. So welcome to "Out Of My Shed."

Feel like I need a lie down now, some early mince pies and a glass of sherry.

You've been Christoed

Christo and his Mrs may have wrapped the Reichstag, a bridge in Paris and put up an artistic fence in California but they never wrapped a couple of rows of peas.

The weather has been so good lately, famous last words, that the peas sown this autumn have charged on so much that I felt compelled to put in some pea netting and, with an ear to the weather forecasts, decide to cover them with fleece as they are so far advanced. Last year the peas were hardly affected the cold weather, but they were closer to the ground and for some reason I think that offered them a bit more protection. Less to get nipped by frost and it seems more akin to hunkering down and letting the weather pass.

But this time they're up there and might need some protection, so with the help of my artistic- structural engineer we christoed the peas.

There was a strict colour codes for the pegs, like the Pompidou Centre in Paris, apart from that green peg at the end of course. There's always one isn't there.

The peas should be snug in these, cross fingers.

There is some more good stuff on shelters and winter gardening at Subsistence Pattern, along with a few links, and he should know as he's in Northern Idaho.

And it was -4C at the time of writing.

Seed for Thought

I do occasionally try to save some seed. Fnar Fnar, settle down at the back there, or you'll be in at lunchtime, writing out "I must not laugh at saving seed."

Anyway, I do. Usually beans and peas, but this year I've saved some winter lettuce seed as well. Let's see how they turn out. Last year's runner beans were useless at sprouting.

However, just a heads up that there's an interesting piece about seed saving over at Daphne's Dandelions, give it a look see.

Also there this thing about Harvest Monday, where you log the weight of produce gathered over the week. Might be interesting to do for this next year, I'll try to remember to weigh the stuff.

Strawberry Fields Forever

October 23rd and I was picking strawberries. Some of the plants have decided to give it a second go as it's been so hot and dry. The weather has been so strange that I have been watering my savoys and kale. Who'd a thought it.

Despite that I have started putting in garlic bulbs, white ones and the large purple cloves I saved this summer. The purple garlic did have some rust like the white this summer but on the whole grew bigger. So I'm wondering why I bought three heads of white garlic, errr. So let's see whether those big purple cloves produce even bigger heads of purple garlic.

Talking of eugenics, I noticed when shelling the old dried pods off the runner beans that one pod produced almost totally black beans, while a few others produced almost totally pink beans, rather than the usual patterns using both colours. So I wondered could I take those four black beans, grow them next year and see if they produce more black beans, and the same for the almost totally pink beans? To what point ? Well just to see if I could, maybe they will have qualities or maybe not?

Though I did sow some of my saved runner beans this spring and very few came up, which was a bit strange, and I was forced into buying some cheapo packets from Wilkos.

The Millennium

I thought something had happened. Possibly it was the long line of people wandering around the allotments whipping themselves, and calling on god, or as you know him the chair of the allotment committee, to give salvation, or maybe it was those four horse men that cantered through the other day. But I definitely thought something was up.

And lo it came to pass that the thousandth reader has been and gone. Mmmm I should really try to do more updates about the allotment if I'd persevered and written a bit more, well who can say what the marketing rights might have been worth. Maybe I should put Allotment Porn in the site description ?

Everything has gone pretty swimmingly this year apart from that really dry spell in the spring then that really wet spell in the summer, but the tomatoes seemed to like it. Hardly any blight at all. Talking of solanums, the potatoes did well, and loads of them.

I embraced change and planted some sweet corn that came up a treat. I normally don't like sweet corn but if I've grown it myself, well stand back and let the bear see the dogs. I think I quite like it now.

A right disaster were the runner beans, there was a flourish and then they just dried up, while everybody else's were so much more fecund. Maybe I'll move away from the Scarlet Emperor and try something else. I only plant it as me old dad used to. Well, looking at Marshall's web site the Celebration looks quite good and with pink flowers, but I may plump for St George which is supposed to be the heaviest cropper in RHS trials, and it has red and white flowers. But maybe White Lady might be worth a try. Perhaps all mixed in together, they'd be easy to spot which was which.

Another success were the peas, the earlies sown in October, and the main crop ones, tons of peas. I used four packets of peas seeds for one bed (11' by 5' odd). Also quite high yielding were the broad beans.

An utter abject failure were the cauliflowers. Not a head, not nothing. And the giant winter ones that I had planted have been wiped clean by the wrath of the slugs while I was holidaying.

Still there's some savoy cabbage on the go and kale, along with a small horde of spring cabbages ready to spring.

It's all go.

Munchen Beer

I'm off to the allotment to pick some of the Munchen Beer radish pods. The roots are quite fiery, and the pods are supposed to be quite peppery as well. The plants have sprung up from the roots left over from the winter. The bees loved the flowers. Will I love the pods?

At Last

It's been bucketing down, since 4 Sunday afternoon.

You can almost hear the plants slurping it up.