couch grass clearance

The cosmos is still really going for it but autumn has definitely arrived.....

Which means that it's time to get to grips with the couch grass.
Back in April, I did a bit of rough digging on the middle section of the plot. The ground was like concrete but I managed to break it up a bit. I chucked down some piles of well rotted horse manure and covered the whole section with black plastic. Then I cut holes in the plastic and planted through it squashes, courgettes, dwarf French beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and sweetpeas; all of which did really well and produced bumper crops.

Now the crops have been cleared and I can clearly see my trio of most tenacious weeds.





The docks and bindweed have

Dock sneaking out

taken advantage of any tiny gap in the plastic, even forcing themselves through the neckhole of a pop bottle. A part of me can't help to be impressed! Isn't it a shame they don't make good eating? The couch grass, though weakened where deprived of light, has redoubled it's efforts along the edges.

I will dig this area now and remove roots as I come across them; maybe border the edges with wood. I plan for this area to become 'no dig' beds in the future.

The docks grew like crazy where the plastic was split

No Dig systems sound so easy but the truth is that couch grass and bindweed will quickly overwhelm them, strangling plants both above and below the surface. The ground needs to be 'cleaned' of perennial weeds first.

Horseradish growing in pipe

In other news, the horseradish in the pipes seem to have taken well. Here at the stoney end of the plot I have planted my elephant garlic and some wallflowers this week. I will edge this bed with daffodil bulbs. Apparently, couch grass hates daffs! (Who knew? ) and won't encroach the bed past them. What's more, a host of bobbing daffodils to greet me will be a welcome sight on a cold February morning.

A less welcome sight is this poor dead rat. I hoped that a fox might come and remove it but no, looks like I'm going to have to overcome my squeamishness and move him myself. What does one do with dead vermin these days? Bury it? On a plot where you grow food? Insights and sage advice gratefully received!

Gorgeous globes

September End

As September came to an end I had a look around the plot.....



mint at the stony end of the plot.

The stony end.

This strip, at the southernmost end of the plot, is where generations of plotters before me have chucked all the stones as they were working the rest of the allotment. It is impossible to dig here with anything but a small hand fork. On the plus side this area is free draining and the stones retain the suns heat. I have decided, then, to make this my herb bed with a few self seeding annual flowers thrown in.

 

Horseradish

I love horseradish sauce. Seriously, I could eat it straight from the jar with a spoon. It's ridiculously easy to

Horseradish growing in pipe

grow....too easy in fact; horseradish is a real thug and will take over the whole herb bed if I let it. This year I'm trying an experiment. I have planted it in 2ft long lengths of pipe. This will hopefully mean that I get long, straight roots (which is the part you use to make the sauce) and will prevent the plants from spreading all over the place.

 

squashes, plastic and pop bottle.

 Squashes and pumpkins

I lost my vines to powdery mildew a few weeks ago. Planting through plastic (while waiting for the couch grass to die) makes it hard to water. I did 'plant' pop bottle funnels by each plant and I have plenty of good sized fruits. Unfortunately, they weren't quite ripe when the mildew struck and so how well they store remains to be seen.

 

globe artichoke year one

 

We've had a long old summer here in London.

September has been the driest on record with high temperatures and plenty of sunshine. I got off to a late start in the spring when I took on this new plot and so it follows that seeds sown late will flower late. As the plot should be winding down for winter, I am being treated instead to a spectacular show! The globe artichoke is more than 5ft high and has thrown out a dozen buds.

Also the cosmos, sown a little late, has waited until now to flower. These sweet peas just won't quit! I stopped picking (and watering) at the beginning of the month to allow seeds to develop for next year but they just won't stop flowering and the scent as you brush past is just amazing.

sweetpeas still flowering
 

Cucumber Pickles

 I harvested the last of the cucumbers and used two different recipes to make sweet pickles and sour dill pickles....

cucumber glut to be processed



 

The first recipe was this one for sweet dill pickles. I do these as slices and they are very popular with Little Flower who will pop a jar and eat the whole lot  while doing her homework....better than sweets I s'pose!

 

Little Flower's pickled Qs

 

250 ml white wine vinegar

salt

1 dessert spoon of mustard seed

1 dessert spoon  of dried dill

130 g ordinary white sugar

250 g sliced onions

450 g sliced cucumber.

 

Put the sliced onions and cucumbers in a bowl and layer with salt.

Leave for four to eight hours, rinse well, strain and turn out onto a clean tea towel to absorb any excess water.

Put all the other ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

Simmer for 5 minutes before adding the cucumber and onions....allow to come to the boil again and immediately spoon into hot, sterilised jars and seal with vinegar proof lids.

 

Leave for at least six weeks before scoffing.

 

 

 

My mum prefers sour pickles. They're not easy to find in the shops but I found this recipe online by the wonderful Delia Smith.

 

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/preserve/sour-dill-pickles.html

 

I left the onions out (mum doesn't like them) and I only had dried dill available but apart from that I stayed true to Delia's recipe.

Now I just have to wait THREE MONTHS to try them and tell you how they taste!

 

Dill pickles

 





I've got a greenhouse!

My neighbour was getting rid of it so he passed it over the fence to me. Marvellous!

Okay, it could do with a bit of a clean.....

damaged corner

And there is the odd bit of damage here and there......but nothing than can't be fixed

grotty greenhouse



The frame is a little bent and some screws are missing. It hasn't been used for four or more years and there is an accumulation of green crusty stuff, immense spiders and the odd snail. Even so, a bowl of soapy warm water and a soft J-cloth......

after washing the right hand window with soapy water

Chili peppers and aubergines are soooo on the menu for next season!

So, here we are again at my favourite time of year...

 Blogger and me are not getting along. This is my third attempt to publish this post  and I'm starting to get the hump. I'm giving it one more go but if it doesn't work this time I'm going to flounce off, slamming the door behind me.

Harvest 20 September

 

The new allotment still looks pretty crappy but is providing a great deal of food. Unable to tackle the couch grass head on I planted through black plastic and in small, roughly cleared areas just to have something (anything) growing while I waited for autumn and the chance to sort it out properly.
I didn't have high expectations so didn't keep an accurate tally but there has been lots to eat and a surplus to store.
Today, for example, I am mainly turning 9lb  of  cucumber into pickle.



 

It's starting to feel like sprrring!

Oh! for goodness sake ....... Get a room......

Designing a new allotment

Where to begin?

Starting a new allotment is at this time of year is tricky.
I am plagued with indecision. Should I wait to see if any useful perennials emerge? Or should I cover everything with black plastic for a bit?
If I go with the plastic, should I rake first to make it lay flatter or leave the bushy tussocks to rot down and eventually add to the humus in the soil?



1st raised bed weeded

 While I pondered these questions I set about making the most of what the last plotter had left me.
I weeded one of the raised beds....this is going to be my seed bed so that at least I can have something growing while I sort the rest out. I'll go over it a couple more times to get the rest of the couch grass roots then fill with a mix of compost and vermiculite for seed sowing



compost bins

I also pulled the couch grass from the compost bin and found underneath some good dirt that will be sieved and used to fill the raised bed. I've started taking veg peelings and chicken poop up to fill the right hand bin so hopefully I'll have plenty of compost/manure ready come autumn.

I have bought some weed membrane and put a couple of strips across the middle of the plot but it might not stay there.
A neighbour mentioned that there was a lovely, established asparagus patch somewhere to the right of this membrane so I'm going to hold on and see if any spears emerge. If they do I'll build the whole plot around them because I absolutely love asparagus and it takes so long to get going from scratch.



Weed membrane

The rent for these plots is astronomical. A ten rod plot costs £200 a year! Fifty odd plots on the site, probably forty or fifty sites in the borough. Must add up to a pretty penny. And for that, the council do absolutely nothing. They will not collect rubbish or provide a skip. They take no responsibility for paths or fences, there is no lighting and we garden at our own risk. It's easy money for them and a pain in the bum for me. I'm having to drive car loads of rubbish to the dump. My car is smelly and there are slug slime trails across the upholstery! I just know a big fat slug is going to land on me one of these days....probably as I'm bombing down the motorway!

And So We Start Again!

After a difficult year I'm back! Picked up the keys to a new allotment last night and I'm ready for the spring rush....

It's a small plot. I haven't measured it yet properly but it's 18 paces by 10 paces on my fat little leggies.
Now...obviously, it doesn't look great just yet....but try to see the potential

It's a little overgrown.........

 

and for some reason there is a bath full of couch grass plonked in the middle



But there's a sturdy looking compost bin....

And a couple of raised beds........

A tree (possibly plum?) and a rusty bar that might do as a bean frame....

And the obligatory piles of crap........

Some of which I might even find a use for!
 

Blazing June Jubilee?

This was the view from my front door on the night of our street party.
The wind was howling and snapping at the flags, the rain was coming down like stair rods and the temperature plummeted.
So what could we do?


Well, get all dressed up and head outside to dance in the rain of course!!!

This is England after all, we expect our bank holidays to be rainy and a double bank holiday obviously means double the rain!
So we took a demijon of particularly potent homebrew to fortify our intrepid neighbours, put up a gazebo over the BBQ and another over the DJ and we all danced in the pouring rain til after midnight.

Her Majesty The Queen also braved the rain along with her adoring husband. She in her eighties and he turning 91, they stood for four hours at the prow of a ship, refusing to disappoint the hundreds of thousands who came to see them. I am very, very proud of England today.

elderflower cordial

And it hasn't been all bad weather in recent weeks. I managed to get some elderflower cordial made last week. Not enough to see us through the summer but some. When the rain eases up I'll see if any flowers remain to make more.

Next week, the planting out begins in earnest up at the plot. A couple of years back a heavy frost on 5th of June destroyed a whole years crops so now 6th of June starts my summer season. It might even be dry enough by then for me to take my camera!

A way forward

Permaculture...baby steps
So, I've been reading about it.
I've been watching you-tube tutorials on it.
Now it's time to start trying to implement it.

mini beast hotel

                                                           This year then, I'm moving towards designing my allotment along permaculture principles. I'm hoping some of you old hands will help me with advice from time to time, I'm new at this after all.

no-dig lasagne bed

I've made a start with some no-dig beds, a mini beast hotel, some 'wilderness' areas and I've planted three fruit trees. But there's a lot more I can do.

Meet Wallis

Wallis thinks he is the big man (he weighs just 14 ounces full grown) and he struts like he owns the world.
We called him Wallis because when those beautiful feathers came in they reminded me of a Tiffany lamp and so (hoping for a hen) he was named after 30's icon Wallis Simpson.
Sadly, Willow then named her hen 'Gromit' thus forever tying the pair to 'Wallace and Gromit' the ugly clay figures from a cartoon.
Ah well, my mum reckons Simpson was tarty strumpet anyway!

The Autumn jobs continue here. Today I'm harvesting the last of grapes for jellies and jams. The crop suffered with the strange weather we've had this season, hot and dry spring followed by a damp, grey summer and we lost quite a few to mould.

Still, there's enough for jam if not for wine and the chickens are loving the pulp from the jelly bags.
There's going to be lots of weird purple chicken poop for the compost next week!

Perfect piccalilli

I'm fed up with chutney.
Each year I use all the odds and sods from the plot, chop them up, spice them and cook them in vinegar til they're completely unrecognisable and when they disintegrate into a brown, smooshy mess, stick it in a jar.
Chutney tastes pretty good and is generally well received but it seems a shame to to reduce all that colourful, crisp veg down to gloop.

  So this year I made piccalilli instead.
The beauty of piccalilli is that the vegetables are raw. You don't cook them at all and they retain their colours, crunch and vitamins. 
You take 2kg of chopped veg (I used cauliflower, onions, peppers, nasturtium seedpods, chard stalks, cucumbers, green tomatoes, immature tiny pumpkins, carrots, bulb fennel and purple beans) layer with salt and leave overnight.
Next day, rinse the veg and drain,
Make the sauce.
Mix (all heaped teaspoons)
6 of cornflour
2 of turmeric
2 of colemans English mustard powder
2 of ground ginger
2 of all purpose seasoning
1 of smoked paprika
make into a paste with some vinegar taken from 1.2 litres
Heat the rest of the vinegar with 300g sugar and 100g honey to boiling.
Thin your sauce with a little of the hot vinegar then put the sauce into the saucepan and stir.
Boil for 5 minutes or so then remove from the heat, fold in the veg and spoon into hot sterile jars and seal immediately.
Allow to mellow for a good six weeks before eating.

 For the vinegar I tend to use whatever I have...wine or cider, sometimes pickling. I find brown malt vinegar a bit strong but if it's all you have then so be it.

I use jars from instant coffee because they have plastic lids....metal lids react with the vinegar. If you only have metal lids put a wad of cardboard in between the cellophane cover and the metal.



And I know American readers will be stressing about the lack of a waterbath and the inclusion of cornflour but truly, piccalilli has been made this way for centuries! 
It's delicious (even though it looks a bit radio active in the picture) Give it a go.

Best Beans

This year I grew two different types of  'new to me' beans.
They were so good that I think I'll be sticking with just them for a year or two.

 First, the beans drying in the picture are 'Frost' or 'Pea beans'. A very old variety they have a multitude of uses. You can pick and eat the young, almost empty pods like mange tout. A little later you use them as french beans. Wait another while and use the beans out of the pods and they taste like peas! Wait again for them to change colour and use as fresh beans and at the end of the season shell and dry for winter soups and stews.
With their half cream half brown colouring they look awful pretty in a jar too!
I just love them. I only had three beans from a friend to try and they grew so well we've been eating them all summer.
The other bean I grew was 'cosse violet'. Beautiful and tender and untouched by pests these will also be regulars at the plot from now on. They lose their vivid purple colour when cooked (reverting to fresh green) but they're so tender you can eat them in all their purple glory, raw in salads.
No pictures I'm afraid.....I've just bunged the most recent picking into a batch of piccalilli so you'll just have to trust me....with these two varieties there really is no need for any other bean on my plot!

Mabon Blessing

At this time of equal light and dark,
And of ingathering,
May you find balance and abundance in your life
And wish some of your good fortune upon others.
Blessings to you x

I copied this blessing from a generous friend who also writes a blog. I know she won't mind because she states on her blog that anyone is welcome to copy and share anything they find there.

Refreshing attitude isn't it?

Might copy that too.

So to those of you in touch with the seasons I wish you an excellent harvest to share with  generous and inspiring friends.

Top Find....

Autumn is definitely here now.
The leaves on the long suffering conker trees have browned and fallen and the die back is well underway at the plot....

 And just round the corner, near my daughter's school, we've found a group of walnut trees!
Each morning, when Wurzel walks her to school he picks up another few pocketfuls of this wonderful free bounty. I can't imagine how we've never noticed these trees before except that they appear to be young so maybe this is the first year of real production?
Anyway...160 walnuts are now drying in my dining room.
Walnut loaf anyone? 

A mixed flock...

.....means it's easy to know which hen laid which egg!

  


From the left; 
Hattie (welsummer) 
Racey Lacey (wyandotte bantam) Millie (pekin) 
Lola (serama)








We no longer have any hybrid birds so egg production is slowing down now for the winter.
Soon we'll get none at all until spring. I've read on the internet that some folk crack eggs into little bags and freeze them so I might give that a try.
I hate to buy eggs, especially since companies who claim to be particularly concerned with animal welfare keep being exposed by undercover journalists....check out 'Happy Eggs' and see what I mean.

Okay, My bad.....

I have been neglecting my blog.
I have excuses, London riots, summer holidays, computer problems, a busy life, writers block but at the end of the day I know it's just me, it's my bad.

So, to get back in the habit, I'll be doing things a bit differently for a while. Instead of saving up a nice selection of pictures and things to tell you about I'll just aim to put something up most days....just one thing, or maybe two.
For today, here are some images from our summer holiday by the sea. I think they pretty much speak for themselves, we had a blissful time!
And, just for once here is a picture of me. I hate to have my picture taken but it has been pointed out to me that loved ones far away that read this blog want to see me so, here it is.