Happy New Year

Somewhat belated, perhaps, but it coincides with my first trip to the Hill of the New Year.

Much to the disapproval of Reg-next-plot, I don't visit the plot much in the middle of winter when the weather is bad.  This is because I can see little point in getting cold and/or wet for the sake of it just in order to do some jobs which can just as easily be undertaken in another couple of months when the world is a more cheerful place.

However, it being relatively dry and bright this morning, I thought that it was high time that I dug up the remainder of the year's potatoes, and to make sure that all was in one piece after the recent stormy weather.

Unsurprisingly, I had the place to myself, and spent a good hour or so forking up the potatoes and turning over the bed.  The day became increasingly gloomy, however, and by the time the Richard three plots down arrived, it started with a cold drizzle too.

I was just bagging up the potatoes and digging a couple of leeks at that point, and after we'd had a quick mull over of varieties of potato to be considered for growing this season, was glad to go home an defrost and leave him to it.

I had one of the potatoes as a jacket for tea with stew and veg - good warming fare - and can report that picasso potatoes are the best bakers ever, so that's a definite to grow again this year.

If there is a downside, it is that they weigh best part of a pound a piece and are the size of my head, so are rather substantial - but I think we can live with that!

Garlic, Garbage and Uninvited Guests

The weather has been so gloriously Autumnal for the past few weeks that I'm finding it difficult to believe that it's the shortest day in just three weeks - midwinter!  Mind you, after ending up at the Hill in the dark this afternoon, perhaps it's no so surprising after all.

I wanted to get the garlic in today.  I usually manage to get it planted in late Autumn, then it can get a good head of steam ready for Spring; although this year it didn't go in until January, and if I'm honest there seemed little difference in the end result.

So that formed basis of today's plan, along with clearing and digging another bed - also on the list is to chop down the raspberry canes (here they are on the right of the pic), and dig the last of the potatoes, but both the latter jobs will wait if needs be.

I got to the Hill and found Richard (three plots down) busy digging over his potato patch.  We had a chat before I busied myself with the fork, and got the garlic split into cloves and planted out.

Then I cleared some debris and rubbish and went to open the nearest dalek composter - it was full, so I moved on to the next.  This was full too, when I took the lid off, but this one was topped off by a mouse, blinking in the light.

We looked at one another for a quite a while until he eventually dipped down underneath the mound of courgette leaves, out of sight. "Excuse me." I said to him, and put the lid back on.

I turned round and called out, "Er, Richard - what do we think about mice in the compost heap? Good thing or bad thing?"

"Well, it depends on your opinion of mice, I suppose," he said - most unhelpfully - after a moment's consideration.

I imagine that the mouse was having a similar conversation deep in the dalek. "What do we think about humans taking the lid off the composter? Good thing or bad thing?"

I would think that the mouse consensus of opinion was that humans are a good thing, as the lid taken off the heap means adding more grub to the top.  As for me, I'm undecided, but I guess that they can stay as long as they remain good tenants.

I found a less obviously inhabited dalek to deposit the weeds into, and moved on to cutting down the raspberry canes.  However, I soon got in a tangle trying to differentiate between the Summer and Autumn varieties, and it was rapidly going dark; so I called it a day and I'll finish tackling them next time round.

Tempus Fugit!

Now you must be thinking that SOMETHING happened between the Hill Show and the AGM last week, and you would be right - but clearly, blogging was not that something.

So things grew, things were picked, and eaten, and given away, and frozen.  Mostly beans, which did very well this year, and courgettes, of course (guess how many there were in total from my two plants and a runty one - tell you later).

And all of a sudden it is time to go off on holiday, and then back to start the winter clear up on the plot, and dig winter root vegetables, and - oh - and if it isn't the AGM upon us!

This year's AGM was excellent fun, for a number of reasons

• I picked up Chris from the bottom on the way, who had brought with her the tiger's eye earrings that she had made for me.  She had a sale of the jewelry that she makes back in August, and when I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, she kindly made something bespoke.

• The meeting was well attended - better that I can remember previously.  Lots of new and friendly faces, including Colin and Jane who spotted me and came across to say hello.  'It's Hazel, isn't it?' beamed Colin. 'We recognise you!  It's you! We read your blog - it's so entertaining!'.  I've never had a 'rock star' moment before - it was very flattering! 

'Oh, yes, we love it!' enthused Jane, 'Colin reads it in bed!'.  I apologised for the last couple of months radio silence, but the last few years' posts seem to be giving them enough bedtime reading to keep them going for a while yet. I will have to pull my socks up - oh yes!

• The meeting clipped along to the agenda at a reasonable pace - striking an excellent balance between information fait accompli and interminable discussion, which resulted in us all being concisely aware of what's going on at all levels with the site, and why; and with room for suggestions and discussion from the floor too. Marvellous.

• There was a display of photographs which had been taken by a photographer friend of one of the committee members for a project, and were there for us to collect our photo as a memento.  The A4 photo display captured the allotments and plotters from one sunny weekend in August, and were of incredible quality.  When I took the one of me picking beans and showed it to mum at the weekend she pronounced the it best photo of me ever - it certainly was of my hitherto unregarded crow's feet, but I'm sure they give me character.

• The buffet afterwards was excellent - all contributed by the committee members.  Star of the show, man-sized sandwiches from woodchippings Paul who had made the bread that very afternoon.

So that was that for another year - and plans are already afoot for 2014.  The thanksgiving/harvest festival (which I missed) was a great success and will be repeated - maybe with a recipe book compiled; it's the centenary of the start of the Great War which we are thinking about commemorating; the scarecrow competition is set to be repeated - Grumpy George came second - and who knows what else we will get up to!

Oh - and the total number of courgettes for 2013 from two plants and a runty one? 132.  That's one heck of a lot of ratatouille!

The Annual Show - and Courgettes

We had a fabulous time at the centenery Hill Annual Show a couple of weeks ago!

What helps in the enjoyment for me, is my new relaxed attitude to the whole show bench thing.  Before now, in an effort to get everything in as fresh as possible, I've been on the plot on the Sunday morning picking everything in sight, then zooming home frantically trying to find 7 matching runner beans from the 500 or so that are in a massive heap on the worktop, in the space of a couple of hours before racing back to display everything.

Well, not this year!  The strategy was to leave everything alone on the plot in the week prior to the show (er - except courgettes.  I think we all know what happens if we leave courgette plants to their own devices for a hot sunny week in August), then strip the plot like a plague of locusts on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday evening is spent playing a giant game of vegetable snap, trying to match up the required number of as near identical items as possible in each class, all ready for Sunday when the lucky contenders are all taken to be put on display.

The week before is not idle, though - cakes are made, jellies and chutneys and pickles all sorted out and labelled up.

Brilliant!

The day itself was a huge hit - the sun shone, the site looked fabulous with scarecrows and bunting and balloons; big sister Helen was up for the weekend and brought mum over with their cake entries.......





.........the band played; the judges were fair; the barbecue was delicious............






........as was the '100' cake which was enjoyed by all at the end of the afternoon.......






Helen did well with her fruit cake - beating Chris from down the bottom into second, and me into third.  No gongs for mum's sponge cake, or my redcurrant jelly, beetroot, choc/beetroot cake or pickle - but there's always next year!

My veg did better than my domestic entries this year - my crowning glory was a second in the prestigious 'class 1 - collection of veg' - beating the the fabulously successful Jason in the process.  Annoyingly, I have no photo of my entry.

I did well with Rhubarb, courgettes and won the 'odd shaped veg' class!







Everything was packed up after the prizegiving and raffle, and then back to mum's for our annual share out of the goodies!  A great weekend!


Oh - and the courgettes? 63 and counting from two-plants-and-a-runty-one.  Hard to believe that last year, I had no choice of courgettes to enter, just the first three courgettes to grow.

Three Cheers for Rhubarb Brian!

I've had an instance of why allomenteers can be really nice people this week - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

From a very slow start in Spring - how many times have I had the discussion with other gardeners confidently asserting that yes, we are a good four weeks behind where we should be - it is turning out to be a belter of a Summer!

The very hot and dry weather continued until broken by some really good thunderstorms a week or so ago, and now we have warm days with some sun and some rain.

The plot is loving it, and I have been picking courgettes (61 to date from two plants and a runty one), runner beans, french beans, raspberries and red and blackcurrants.  I've lifted the garlic, and the first and second early potatoes.

A slight disappointment was the peas - the pea moth played fast and loose, and many of the pods were infested with maggots. Yuk.

I pruned the current bushes, re-claiming the netting that they had grown though and picked the berries off them at the same time - I have about 5lb of fruit in the freezer, as well as having made some redcurrant jelly.

In our scarecrow competition, my Grumpy George came second to Lady Muck - a worthy winner - and it has been a lot of fun seeing the scarecrows presiding over their plots!

It's the Allotment Annual Show this weekend, and I've spent some time in contemplation of what to enter.  I've been baking too, so I'll have some entries for the domestic classes.

The Show will be our Centenary, and there will be music and a barbecue too.  Of course big sister Helen will be up for the weekend to come and join the party - but if her fruitcake beats mine, I will be most upset!

And finally, a great round of applause for Rhubarb Brian - not only did he casually ask me if I wanted some surplus woodchippings for my plot, but he also delivered them and popped them in piles all along my paths - what a superstar!

Thank you Rhubarb Brian!

Now That's What I Call Summer!

I didn't realise that when Summer had arrived on my last post, it had bought it's suitcase and was settling in for the duration.  I can't remember a summer like this since 1976 - just superb!

The plants love it too - after a slow start and a cool Spring, there is a great rush of growth, and along with the picking broad beans, peas and lettuce galore, I've had my first courgette, potatoes and  french beans - the ever reliable 'Early Warwick'.

The courgettes in particular are already going great guns - I've had 13 off the three plants in just a week. Eek!  The spaghetti squash is growing a-pace too - I have planted out the sweetcorn in the same bed and must make sure that they are not overwhelmed.  Cucumbers too are squashed in this squash bed (ha ha!) with the whole lot being watched over by Grumpy George.

We've a scarecrow competition at the Hill this year, and after a bit of a Blue Peter moment I came up with this fine fellow.There are some fine scarecrows on display, and I must take some photos for a rogue's gallery!.

A consequence of continued hot and sunny weather is that it's been very dry, and last night, despite 32 watering cans full, I only really tickled the surface.

The one crop suffering in particular is the celeriac, which needs plenty of water, and I regret planting it out at the point which is exactly the furthest away from the standpipe on the whole plot.

Coming to the fore for action this weekend is picking the red and blackcurrants.  I'm a bit worried about this, as at the mo, the bed is one giant currant hedge, and one which has eaten a whole load of netting too.  I'm borrowing some loppers tomorrow (the shoots and branches are too much for my secateurs), and hope to both knock the thicket into some sort of order, and come away with plenty fruit.

I foresee wine making in my future...

Summer's Here!

I bet you thought I'd fallen down a rabbit hole never to be seen again!  No, indeed not.

And I have been diligently gardening, even if I have not been diligently blogging. Tut tut!

So when you lot last metaphorically joined me at the Hill, you were admiring my newly planted out peas and broad beans, waiting for me to plant out my french and runner beans, and were watching me eat my first delightful spear of asparagus.  Yum.

So, during June, I have sneaked a little more asparagus (best not to overcrop); planted out my celeriac, squash and courgettes;






erected the bean frame and planted out all the beans;

watched the broadies and peas flower and yield pods;








planted out the tomatoes in the courtyard garden into their buckets, and watched everything grow like billy-o.

The weather has had a bit of a rush to the head with proper wall-to-wall hot July sunshine which is set to last, and the plot loves it.

And I have just started to pick lettuce, peas and broad beans - and tonight the first bunch of sweet peas, I love them!








It's not just been me gardening - we had a Work Party at the site at the weekend which involved all pitching in to spruce things up ready for the judging of the Best Allotment Site in Birmingham.  We hope to defend our crown!

And my fellow plotholders continue to make it a pleasure to be there - long my it (and this glorious Summer) continue!