Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

Just want to say,well done Pen on your last 12 months on the plot,you have done brilliant lass,collect a pat on the back for perseverance

Thanks lottie dolly, I've enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing how I can improve things next year.

[Penellype]

As anticipated the weekend weather was totally unhelpful. Saturday was a lovely day, but I had other things to do and only managed a few minutes at the plot, removing some old brassica leaves. There are still plenty of whitefly around and I need to spray them again really.

Sunday was a complete write-off, with rain all day, some of it really heavy. The garden was under water in places and I didn't attempt to go to the plot.

Apparently Yorkshire Water are saying that ground moisture levels are extremely low and we are likely to have a drought. I find that hard to understand with standing water on fields and the flood plains near the river, but what do I know?

[Penellype]

Monday was a lovely sunny day and I managed to sneak off to the allotment for a good hour. I spent most of the time pulling grass out from under the roadside hedge, where there was just enough sunshine to take the edge off the rather cool temperatures. I also harvested a beetroot and some lettuce for lunch.

No chance to garden on Christmas day.

[Snadger]

Monday was a lovely sunny day and I managed to sneak off to the allotment for a good hour. I spent most of the time pulling grass out from under the roadside hedge, where there was just enough sunshine to take the edge off the rather cool temperatures. I also harvested a beetroot and some lettuce for lunch.

No chance to garden on Christmas day.

I was out in my tee shirt today and it was quite pleasant.

[Penellype]

Definitely very mild yesterday. I went down to investigate whether it was possible to dig any horsetail. The hotbed area that I had covered with the tarpaulin wasn't too bad and I dug about half of it before I got tired. The soil was very heavy as it was so wet, but I did manage to remove a satisfying amount of root. I left the area uncovered in the hope that it might dry out a bit better now that it has stopped raining.

I also harvested one of the leeks for tea - these are Northern Lights, which are supposed to go a bit purple when it is cold. i can't see very much evidence of purple, but they have made decent sized leeks (something I have struggled to grow in the past) and they taste nice.

[Penellype]

More horsetail digging over the past couple of days - I have now re-dug the hotbed area and the path between the hotbed and the tomato bed. I'd hoped to be able to leave this area uncovered to allow today's wind to dry it out a bit, but I found that the local cats were using it as a large litter tray so I had to cover it up again.

Disappointingly the winter lettuces are showing signs of developing brown patches on the leaves and a couple are rotting in the middle. This doesn't look like botrytis, its more brown rather than fluffy grey, but I don't think they will survive much longer, so I am eating the good bits while I can. I also harvested a beetroot and some baby spinach leaves yesterday.

[Penellype]

All I managed to do over the weekend at the allotment was collect a few slugs and take them to the stables for the chickens.

This morning I spent half an hour digging the hotbed area again, then harvested the biggest of the leeks for some soup. I'm currently waiting for that to cook, so I thought I would post the recipe, which is my adaptation of a classic Vichyssoise, adding my favourite root vegetable carrots and serving it hot rather than cold.

Christmas soup

The aim is to end up with a velvety smooth soup, so this is best made around Christmas before the leeks start to go stringy. It is important to wash the leeks thoroughly to get rid of any grit, to peel the carrots and potatoes and to chop everything finely before you start cooking. You can use stock made from the Christmas turkey bones if you like. If you use bought stock, for example in "stock pots", sieve out any bits, herbs etc before adding it to the soup.

1 large or upto 3 smaller leeks, chopped
Similar volume of diced carrot
Similar volume of diced potato, preferably a variety that disintegrates on cooking
About 2 pints of chicken (or turkey) stock, preferably home made, sieved
Knob of butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Milk may be required for thinning

Serve with:
Any combination of a swirl of cream, fried bread croutons, fresh crusty bread, cheese or pate on toast.

Melt the butter in a large pan and add the chopped vegetables. Cook for about 5 minutes then add the stock and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for at least 20 minutes, until the vegetables are very soft and the potatoes are falling apart. The time required will depend on the variety of potatoes and how small you have chopped everything.

Allow to cool slightly then puree in a blender until absolutely silky smooth. If there is any hint of lumps or stringy bits, sieve the soup after blending. The soup should be of the consistency of double cream - add milk to thin it if necessary. Season to taste and reheat before serving.

[geepee]

Sounds Delicious..

[Penellype]

I went back yesterday afternoon and dug the pea bed and the path between the pea bed and hotbed.

This morning I dug the hotbed again - I'm wanting to get the edges back around this soon so I can fill it with horse muck.

I also harvested a few romanesco florets. I've been dying to try these as I have never eaten romanesco before. I've just sampled it and it is rather like cauliflower with a slight broccoli flavour, very much to my liking and worth waiting for. It seems to have avoided the aphids that have ruined the calabrese.

While I was there I took some photos:



Yesterday I dug the whole area where the fork is across to the tunnel. The 2 beds behind the fork are for cauliflowers and onions and will be ready to plant after I add a layer of used compost from buckets at home. The hotbed edges on the right of the photo will go back where the tarpaulin is soon.



The recently weeded roadside hedge, where I pulled a bucketful of grass out from amongst the emerging bluebells.



Pots of strawberries enjoying some new year sunshine in what was the wildlife corner. Behind the orange mesh is quite a pile of sticks and hedge trimmings which wildlife is welcome to call home.



The dug area at the front will house buckets of potatoes, like last year. Parsnips under the white net are slowly being harvested.



The raspberries have lost their leaves and have been mulched with shredded leylandii. Under the green net kohlrabi and swedes are growing slowly and a cabbage the size of a football needs eating, if it isn't full of slugs.

(Continued in next post).

[Penellype]

More photos:



The pink blueberry near the tunnel door still has its leaves and I am wondering if it is evergreen, although I thought it had no leaves when it arrived.



The tunnel is still looking very full with brassicas, beetroot and leeks.



Hard to see in this photo, but the PSB is nearly ready to start cutting.



Close up of the gorgeous romanesco, some of which I later harvested.



Winter lettuces are not at all happy, but the spinach is growing nicely.

[geepee]

All looking top notch (as always Pen' )

[Penellype]

Yesterday was 2nd January - I've had the allotment for exactly 1 year.

Due to something coming up at work I didn't have much time, but I did manage to take down 3 buckets of used compost to top up the onion bed. I don't have the onion sets yet, but with the possibility of cold weather later in the month I didn't want to be delayed by compost being frozen solid in its buckets! I will be doing similar with the cauliflower bed soon, but I need to finish eating the current bucket of carrots first.

I also took down my pruning saw and cut off a piece of ash tree that was sticking out of the bottom of the west side hedge.

What have I learned this year?
A lot!

1. Most importantly I've learned that I can manage an allotment this size (which I was not sure of before). The amount of work there has somewhat compromised what I can achieve at home and at my friend's, but there shouldn't be quite so much horsetail to deal with this year (I hope).

2. Horsetail is much more difficult to remove than ground elder, bindweed or creeping thistle.

3. Horsetail grows through heavy duty weed suppressant fabric, including double thickness. However almost everything else was kept at bay by this and I couldn't have coped with the weeds without using lots of it.

4. Pegging down weed suppressant for paths and then putting raised bed edges over it to create a neat pathway is a seriously bad idea if you have perennial weeds or need to push hoops, canes etc into the edges of the beds.

5. Sowing seeds in slug-infested allotment soil is often a waste of time. Leeks, turnips and carrots yielded zero results, being completely annihilated at the seedling stage, parsnips were the only direct sown crop that survived (apart from in the hotbed, which was made of fresh horse manure topped with new compost and sown in February while most slugs were still asleep).

6. Neither copper tape nor "slug gone" sheep's wool pellets on their own deterred slugs, but the combination of both worked reasonably well for newly planted young plants.

7. Nets are essential for raised beds filled with organic matter and covers of some sort are needed for bare soil, otherwise the local cats treat it as a big litter tray and the birds dig up any plants (including things as big as tomatoes) looking for worms.

8. Cabbage whitefly, which is almost absent at home, is a huge problem at the allotment. I ignored this for far too long and I'm still struggling with it as a result.

9. Contrary to all advice, it is possible to get a superb crop of summer fruiting raspberries (Glen Ample) in the first year by planting 4ft canes in March and not cutting them down.

10. The lack of running water was less of a problem than expected, even in a seriously dry summer. The only real problem was the threat of blocked road access due to road works, which meant I had to completely fill the water butts beforehand. Had the road works not been happening I wouldn't have needed to do this and the rain arrived before I would have run out of water.

There are probably lots of other things I have learned, but that will do for now.

[Snoop Puss]

Everything looking fantastic, Penellype. Looks like your tunnel has served you really well. You've put masses of effort in this year. Glad it's paid off.

Hope you have a brilliant 2019.

[Penellype]

Everything looking fantastic, Penellype. Looks like your tunnel has served you really well. You've put masses of effort in this year. Glad it's paid off.

Hope you have a brilliant 2019.

Thanks Snoop Puss - I've really enjoyed it, and the tunnel is wonderful. Very much looking forward to starting planting things again.

[geepee]

Congratulations on your first anniversary , not to mention the huge effort and amount of work you have done. !!!

Absolutely looking splendid...!!
Total Reformation from when I first saw it.
Have a successful 2019
Gp