It's all going Pete Tong

Not having a very good week with the allotment. Firstly something has munched my brassicas - they were being brought on in the mini greenhouse at home. I initally thought it was a slug or two - I found some large examples lurking around my tomatoes and threw them over the fence. I covered some of the plants as best I could, and moved some out of slugs way. But they are still being munched - it could be birds I guess.


Then tonight I made a rare mid-week trip up the allotment to pick the promised strawberries - only to discover that some bastard had beat me to it. Well bastard children - as they have also trampled my rhubarb and french bean seedlings and uprooted the paving slabs in search of slow worms. I am very tempted to write to the local school to ask them to remind the bastard children that slow worms are protected species and it is a criminal offence to remove them from their natural habitat.

Thankfully I managed to salvage some of the rhubarb - especially as today I treated myself to a home winemaking kit to deal with the pre-bastard children excess. I have trawled friends and foes to find a decent recipe without using sulphates - which make me sneeze.

Rhubarb Wine

Cut 2-3 lbs of rhubarb into chunks – freeze overnight in freezer

Add 2lbs of sugar and half a pound of squashed white grapes to the rhubarb and cover and leave for 24 hours.

Add 1 gallon of boiled water that has been left to cool, then strain into a demi john adding a sachet of wine making yeast.

Leave to ferment (approx 3 months) then rack into bottles.

Rain stopped play

The last 48 hours have seen about two inches of rain. I have been forced to stay indoors and do some housework!! Including four months of paperwork filing and shredding.

One of the best presents I received that was allotment related was my Dad's old Mantis Tiller. He has been gradually cutting back his veg plot at his home and now at the age of 82 he has grassed it over with the exception of a small area for runner beans. He gave me the tiller a couple of years ago. With my clay soil, it has been a God send. The picture below demonstrates the before and after


The soil on my allotment is heavy clay. In dry weather it is like rock - in wet it is a heavy solid mass. However when it has the right amount of moisture, it is a joy to work on. After the rain of the last two days, I will need at least a couple of rain free days until I can do anything. Otherwise I will end up with heavy feet having collected a large amount of soil on my boots. Tedious.

Strawberry Fair

I picked my first strawberry today - not the one in the picture as that is not quite there - but it was a big fat juicy one - and I devoured it before remembering that I should have photographed it. Tasted delicious.

After last year's dismal crop, I had decided that the whole strawberry patch would get a make over at the end of this season and had largely ignored it. This year I have got a good supply of nice fat strawberries developing nicely. The patch has been there for about 6 or more years, having been generated originally from 3 plants (Marshmallow) that I bought for £1 from the Kitchen Garden. I will keep some of the runners, but intend to replace them with Royal Sovereign which I think is a much better cropper, judging my my neighbour's plot.

I have also got a few tiny flowers coming on my runner beans. I took a gamble and planted them out early to much scoffing from the old hands. Looks like my gamble paid off and I will be the first one to be picking runner beans this season.

The Melons also got planted out. Unfortunately I am suffering with the munchings of slugs and snails this year and came up with an ingenuous method to protect the young plants - hope it works.

Ambidextrus digging

Did you know that ambidexterity is also know as Cross-dominance! Oooo er.

Anyway - after last week's marathon effort digging, I suffered more than the odd twinge of back ache. I initially thought that this was due to the office chair, but when I started to dig the old brassica patch, I realised that it wasn't.

When digging, I always use the same actions. Press in the spade/fork with my right foot, lever with my right arm and lift with my left arm - hence the muscle ache below my left shoulder blade. This weekend, I decided to try and dig using the other side. How strange it felt. I was certainly not as quick - but hopefully it will prevent an over development of muscles on one side of my spine.

I only got 3 hours up the allotment this weekend due to social stuff, but it was a productive 3 hours. In addition to the digging, I planted more runners, carrots and some peas. The peas are a gamble. I gave up growing peas the season before last. I was losing the battle with pea weevil and mice; but I had some seed left and it seemed a shame to throw it away without giving it a fighting chance.

The bad news is that my onions are going to seed.

Knackered

Part of the satisfaction in doing a task is knowing that you have had an effect. This could be why I enjoy weeding.

Today I cleared the area where the beetroot were planted. I am afraid to say that some beetroot were still there and sprouting well. I hadn't harvested all the beetroot last year - this was due in part to a lack of storage jars and also a lack of time to cook it. As you can see it was well overgrown.

Three hours later, after some weeding, some digging and a seeing to with the tiller and some edge trimming - it looked like this.


All ready for the melon plants that are growing on the window cill in the lounge.

After a marathon 6 hours today, the allotment is starting to look like it should. I planted pumpkin, courgette and lettuce plants and sowed a row of dwarf beans (Opera). But now I am knackered - even after a long soak in the bath, I am aching like I have run several miles.

Just as I was packing up the heavens opened and it has rained off and on for most of the late afternoon. Which has saved me some watering-in.

Rain at last

Today it rained. It started overnight and rained on and off for most of the day. The water butt at home is now nearly full - it was down to a third full the day before.

I was up the allotment on Saturday - but there was very little I could do as the ground is still rock hard. I finished the shed painting and trimmed the grass on the edges of the path. Weeding is impossible as the ground is still rock hard.

Amazingly enough the runner beans are doing well even though I planted them out a bit early.


I planted some more runner bean seeds out this weekend and they are on the window cill in the lounge hopefully germinating.

Phil, my allotment neighbour picked his first broad beans this week.