Last week we officially gave up the bottom end of our allotment - about 50ft.   

 

We weeded the beds (the one in the foreground included)

We have dug up half a dozen gooseberry bushes - but left the biggest and best one, and have left a bed of fruit bushes for the new holders.

I got a  phone message to tell me that there was no rush and they didn't have a waiting list - and that it would be advertised in the church magazine.  

Well we did rush, and it's finished - job done.

Now there is just a tidy up our top end to do, manure to spread, and then 'put it to bed' for the winter

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 82 hrs He: 73 hrs

 

These photos are a bit late being posted - I took them on the 7th October when we went up the allotment and I havested most - if not all of the last of the produce.

 

After cutting up all the above I ended up with a few large bowls

 

Ready for a cook up

 

I added six tins of chopped tomatoes (my own grown ones were too delicious eating them fresh to use up on this mammoth cooking session.   I used one stocking full of onions - about 8 and four jars of roasted red peppers - and garlic and anything that came to hand

 

Oh and all the potatoes that had been speared when dug up - all mixed varieties

 

And I created 14lbs - yes 14 pounds of scrumptious Ratatouille.  All now frozen in meal sized bags ready for winter.  I use them for veggies with meals, I turn then into soups, add them to stews, eat them with fish, chicken, red meat, pasta, rice - and each mix is always different.  Yummy.

Here are a few photos of how 'Kath's Garden' is looking.  I created it around two sides of my garden room a few months ago, so it's in it's infancy but has been very pretty up to now.

 

The weather has turned cold and we have had a light frost, bu the chrysanthemun bushes are just glowing.

I have three of these

 

The other perrennials are clumping up nicely, and I'll be widening the beds and planting bulbs and crocus for the spring

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 78 hrs He: 69 hrs

My intention today was to just mow the lawn in our gardens - to pick up some of the Autumn leaves, but Mr L wanted to go up the allotment and help me finish off the 'move'.

Three and a half hours we were up there - and not another soul was up there for even part of the time!

Still we got done everything we wanted to in order to give up the 'lump' of the allotment that I want to.

We mowed all the paths of the sections we wanted to give up.

And it's looking neat and tidy - we even moved all the stuff ready to compost!

Wish it looked like this when I took it over years ago.   But instead it was covered with perrennial weeds as tall as me.  40 carpets in different stages of rotting, lots of discared metal, rubbish, chunks or wood, old kitchen units - you name it - we found it in amongst all the weeds!

This post is just for my records so that if no-one takes it over quickly - as least I  can prove that it was left in pristine condition.

I rescued some Patti Pan squash and some courgettes.

 

Roasted red peppers not grown by me!

 I added onions, garlic, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, marrow, pumpkin, cabbage, and more....

Roasted three trays of it all in the oven, stirred it half way through, added a few spices, and roasted it some more.  We had some with our lunch - and I've bagged the rest for freezing - we have around 30lbs of different combinations of my ratatuille - it's such a treat in the winter, and we hardly have to buy any vegetables until Spring.

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 69 hrs He: 63 hrs

We went up the allotment last weekend and picked lots of runner beans, dug up some more potatoes, which were huge - the ones that David gave us which were free from his son.  We also picked pumpkins, courgettes, Boisenberries, etc.

Today we went up there for an hour or so, before the heavens opened.   I was shocked to find that someone had stolen two of my four large cabbages, all my ready to eat courgettes, and I am sure a couple of pumpkins as well.   I noticed that a gate I had secured with a big chunk of metal had been breached and the cabbages which were hidden in a bed in the fruit cage and netted, had the net taken off and the bare holes where the cabbages had been ripped out.  Nasty, nasty, person.

I am giving up a big chunk of my middle plot, and leaving myself with just a third of a plot - if I get produce stolen or any damage next year then I will give up the plot altogether.

Patrick picked some more Boisenberries, and I picked almost a full bag of lovely runner beans - from just the few plants I had.  I also picked three large orange pumpkins which grew on the compost bins, a couple of small ones, some lovely pattie pan courgettes - obviously the thief didn't like these, just the normal green ones, some little yellow squash - which he missed, and a couple of large courgettes which had turned into marrows.

I was so flipping cross, I felt like giving up all the plot.  To think that over the  years I have given away so many of my crops to other plot holders, and neighbours and even strangers who wander up there now and again.  This year when I haven't been able to grow much because of the hot sunshine, someone goes and steals stuff.

It has to be someone who has a plot up there - as the cabbages were hidden and not visible unless you know they were there.

Still - I have just paid my rent for this year - £6 - which is a bargain, notified Mrs M of the theft and my giving up part of the plot - leaving me with just a third.

Off to bag up a big couldron of cooked plums and apples we got on holiday

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 66 hrs He: 60 hrs

Well we managed to go up the allotment before the heavens opened and the day progressed with thunder and hailstones almost all of the day until around 4pm

I was determined just to make a quick visit to pick any runner beans that were ready........but.....

 

As usual I got distracted and we ended up weeding around the runner beans and squashes

 

These are the Patty and Pan are really prolific, so I must remember to plant them again next year

 Mainly pumpkins here and yellow and green round courgettes

 

The climbing beans, which I thought were a failure this year due to the drought - have picked up and despite losing quite a lot, I got almost a bag full today of runners, flat italian, and french beans

 These are some of the Patty Pan, the bigger ones were as big as my hand, but were still soft and tender

 

Out of sequence - but had to record my cabbages up the lottie - really large and I am pleased with them

I bought one strip of the seedling from Attleborough market - a bargain!

 Courgettes ready to be prepared for the roast mix I made

 

My first chillies went into the mix too -very very hot!

 My blackberry and boisenberry cross - second picking

 

These are the veggie mixed ready for the oven.

I used, all the squash and courgettes, 2 jars of Lidl roasted peppers, one whole bulb garlic smashed, three onions, all the chillies, potatoes (odds & ends of new spuds - little ones and damaged ones, the 'free' unplanted ones)   4 tins Lidl tomatoes with basil (fabulous), tube of tomato pesto - cooked for half an hour.   No room for climbing beans this time.

 Chickens queuing up to be let out at breakfast

 

Fresh little cabbage from garden, a bit holey! 

 

It tasted really really delicous. we had loads with roasted chicken wing on a breast with chicken seasoning. 

(Looks a lot more tomatoe=y in real life.  Froze 12 x 1lb bags for the freezer

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 60 hrs He: 55hrs

I have had such a busy week working in the gardens.  Hedge trimming, lawn mowing, weeding.  It doesn't sound much, but my hedges are hard work and had gone a bit wild very quickly lately with all rain we had.  I also had to prune my willow arch - for the second time in as many months - it too had grow - three feet of luscious willow branches on the top - it looked like a very big hair do!

The garden room came to an abrupt halt again this week, and although we were promised the floor would be laid today - it has been delayed until Monday - which I hope they stick too as the furniture is now arriving on Tuesday morning and we have nowhere to put it in our tiny bungalow!

On the plus side, Richard spent half a day yesterday and a few hours today getting rid of all the builders rubble and rubbish, and he spread out the excess soil from the footings, which I was really thrilled about.

 

The lawn is recovering where it had all the bricks and blocks on - and looked dead.  But a bit of tlc and plenty of watering has renewed it.

Seeing this area, it is hard to picture that there used to be a big pond here.  The space is bigger than it looks in this photo.  I think I will seed it and 'live with it' next year before doing any hard landscaping with it.  My first instinct before it was all cleared and levelled, was to have a paved patio on which to put my table and chair - it would be nice to eat breakfast outside.  But the soil will sink over winter because of the pond 'hole' apparently so it's best left for now.

We moved a lot of slabs and laid them behind my studio this morning, then decided to go up the allotment - I must be mad!

 

I can't believe how tall the grass has grown in one week

 

And those dreadful weeds have grown from nothing

 

To this is just a week too.  I had so much to do!

 

Whilst Mr Lottie did what he does best, I set to with the lawnmower to cut the grass down.  

The row of 2nd earliers need digging up!

 

I cut down and pulled up all the weeds and mulched between the rows

 

With grass cuttings to prevent any more growing - or slowing them down!

 

This is how long my plot is - I don't often pause to look at the length of it!

 

It's nice to get the lawns and paths back under control, it makes a huge difference

 

Well YOU know I weeded all around these last week - but here they grow again

 

And here they grow again too.  I picked 10 mixed courgettes, and made a lovely lunch with some of them.

 

The pumpkin is going rampant on my compost heap

 

It's looking good

Three and a half hours later we made our weary way home.   I laid four paving slabs - but gave up because I could hardly stand let alone do any more.

A lovely hot shower soon rejuvenates one - but here I sit exhausted but happy at our achievements today.

Lunch was stir fry of fresh picked courgettes, onion, cauliflower, shredded cabbage, new potatoes, tomatoes,  seasonings, and cubed fresh tuna - yummy.

Allotment Diary 2011 Me: 59 hrs He: 55hrs ....cont

No builders, no electrician, no body here today so we were free to go up the allotment.

 

What a shock - two weeks ago these beds were weed free!

 

This dreaful weed started appearing on our allotments down one end a few  years ago. and since then it has spread rapidly each year at this time of the year and no-one knows that it is called

 

So our primary mission today was to weed out as much of it was we could.

 

And to pick some cauliflowers and one of the cabbages

 

This is how the perfect and weed free potato bed looks today.

 

We dug out every single weed two weeks ago.  Interestingly there are no thistles or any of the other thugs we dug out - just this weird unnamed weed.  We didn't have enough time or energy to tackle this bed today

 

So two hours later the difference is quite dramatic

I was rewarded with a nice first crop of courgettes and squash

 

With more to come in the future in this lovely weeded bed where the early potatoes were.

 

And this squash is on the compost heap

 

And it has grown dramatically in just a couple of weeks of rain

 

I wish I had taken a 'before' photo of the rhubarb bed - you couldn't see the rhubarb for weeds

 

We  had a nice harvest to bring home - a small trug of new potatoes, two cauliflowers, and the first of our cabbages.