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.

First Strawbs

of the season from the cold frames. Ate them so quickly, still quite warm from the frames, that there was no time for a photograph. Either that or there was a super injunction.

Frames in Place

There you go. Frames in place over the already planted strawberry plants. They look a bit bright and light.

Also I tidied up what used to the old strawberry patch, now transplanted to a new bed. That has got three goosberry bushes in it:

This is my jotted map of the patch, so that's White Lion, first, that according to the fruit book of Great Britain at chestofbooks is

Large and obovate. Skin, white, and downy. Of first-rate quality, and a good late sort. Bush, pendulous.

While Howard Lancer is, according to perennials of distinction, is very large greenish white berries with a superb flavour. Strong grower and regular cropping.

and Lord Derby is a red berry that is the last of the red berries to ripen. The fruit is large and oval and is a good choice for exhibition purposes. Season Early August Dessert / Culinary, according to perennials.

Though this bush is looking a little sickly at the moment.

We had goosberry crumble the other day with the last of the gooseberries that were frozen last summer; the picture is up above as blogger is a bit glitchy with the placing of photos

I also planted 12 potatoes where the strawberries used to be and another 6 between the goosberries, as they're on the small side, for the moment.

A small line of spring onions, white lisbon was put in as well.

No Good from a Really Ill Wind

During the first year of my first ever vegetable garden in spring 86; at the back of a terrace house with nice silty soil, Chernobyl happened.

I remember as I was transplanting cauliflowers wondering with the wind coming from the east just how polluted it was going to be. It didn't rain over us, but a couple of days later it did rain over parts of the Lake District. And those fells are still being monitored pretty closely.

It's only a small world so if there is a melt down or a major explosion over in Japan it won't take long to have some of that dust drifting down onto our gardens and allotments.

One of the most haunting things about Chernobyl was a description of people watching the initial fire:

(Image credits:Vivo (Ben) )

“After the explosion at Reactor 4 the people of Pripyat flocked on the railway bridge just outside the city to get a good view of the reactor and see what had happened.

Initially, everyone was told that radiation level was minimal and that they were safe. Little did they know that much of the radiation had been blown onto this bridge in a huge spike.”

They saw a beautiful rainbow coloured flames of the burning graphite nuclear core, whose flames were higher than the smoke stack itself. All of them are dead now – they were exposed to levels of over 500 roentgens, which is a fatal dose.

Read more: http://funny.funnyoldplanet.com/strange/the-chernobyl-story-told-in-pictures/#ixzz1GhrBZpYq

A Battle to be Won for the Eating

Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington of Waterloo fame would have been proud of me, and his sergeant majors, as I lay out three precise squares of Amsterdam forcing carrots to bring on under a cloche. And that cloche should also help to protect these early ones from any carrot flies that might come surging over the allotment hedge, swarming in their thousands like the cavalry under Michel Ney the first Duc d'Elchingen and the first prince of Moscow, the bravest of the brave, but also the stupidest of the stupidest as he sacrificed his cavalry on the British squares that hot, dusty and deadly afternoon. And so the carrot fly should be repelled by my plastic cloche as long as they're not riding big thundering horses, wearing a lot of gold braid and have wickedly sharp sabres, no cloche however plastic can stand up to that sort of treatment.

For the main crop I intend to build three cloche-like structures covered in that white meshy stuff to keep off the fly. Adding more belt to my braces, for a Christmas present I was given a packet of Flyaway carrot seed and I will use that for one row of carrots, while for the other row I would like to get some James Scarlet Intermediate to sow.

Cold Frames for the Hot Bed

Those cold frames are just about finished now, sawn, hammered, screwed and painted into submission. I think I may paint my allotment number on to them, it might make them look a bit smarter. Working out the cost of the frames was a bit difficult, having to buy some tools and rather more screws than you need and also overestimating on the paint; but you can never have too much white gloss can you? Well using a variety of cost accounting methods that would make your average city banker pretty chuffed, I reckon that the pair of frames should cost around 60 squid for the pair. Not bad bearing in mind that the build quality is of a pretty high standard in terms of the materials, not my carpentry skills, and a double lick of paint is worth more than it's weight in gold. So there you go, voila!

Battered Broad Beans and Goosgog Chips

No, that's not a weak Scottish attempt at trying to get a healthy diet. But on Sunday I had to put in 60 odd broad beans to replace the ones that had disappeared over the winter; I had roughly 50 left and growing. other beans on the site look a lot healthier; what's the secret? maybe the weather was a lot better, soil warmer when they were planted? last year the Broad Beans were a magnificent sight.

I also tried to tidy up the old goosegog bush by opening it up a bit and sorting out some of the mesh of branches. Ended up with what looks like 18 cuttings. It's the wrong time of year to take cuttings, apparently, but the couple I accidentally took last year; snapping them off hamfistedly, have just sprouted over the last few days. If these cuttings do take then I might use some of them, but they might also make nice presents.

Chit! It's that Time already

Yes, it's that time already. Time to chit your taters, though the jury does seem to be out on whether it does any good anyway. As some people have been quibbling but the National Vegetable Society is pretty firm about it:

The "Chitting of seed tubers is one of the vital factors in successful potato cultivation. As potatoes are half hardy in Britain, to have good sturdy sprouts before planting will get the crop off to an excellent start. Early cultivars will mature up to two weeks earlier from properly chitted seed than from unchitted seed."

So, who am I to argue.

But I do have to make my mind up on which varieties to choose. And in this I shall take the wise advice of Dr Hessayon in his vegetable guide and Nigel Slater in the first volume of his Eat series.

I think this time I'll try to go for quantity, though inevitably I'll be seduced by taste, how different from real life.

Now Nigel reckons... to be continued when I get home

A Hot Bed of Activity

I love it when a plan sort of comes together even if it is all a bit synchronistic. The allotments are getting a delivery of horse poo this morning, straight from her maj Liz. All good stuff, but it does need to rot down for a year or so. That's a long time but I've had a bit of a brain wave; I'll use some of it to make a hot bed like the Victorian gardeners used to do to bring on veg and fruit early.

I had a dig around on the internet and turned up some interesting pages such as @ and also a very informative site @.

These cover all the basics. And then another layer of synchronicity was added when I looked through the recent blog postings on my blog roll and found this at Our Happy Acres where the latest post was about cold frames.

Which all fits rather nicely into building the lights to go on top of the hot beds to keep the heat in.

And what plants to force on? Well, I think I'll try strawberries and checking out how to force strawbs I found this book on google books .

This book, An Encyclopedia of Gardening might be worthwhile checking out for other nuggets of info.

But for the moment, I think I'll try strawberries, and then use the reduced heap to grow on melons, probably under the lights, as suggested here, depending on how hot the summer might be. A nice one might be Petit Gris de Rennes @, and Thompson & Morgan seem to have some nice melons. I must be maturing not a fnaaar in sight, doh!