Tidy raspberry bed

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We spent the morning tidying at the allotment.

The biggest issue with tidying in the raspberry bed is clearing the raspberry routes, these have a tendency to put out shoots so as to colonise new areas, so we dug up masses of these so that something else can go in this bed too - possibly the spinach, but I'm not quite sure yet.

Today's the 3rd March, you can see the rhubarb sprouting in the background, won't be long until we are picking it.

Garlic and onion bed 2013

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16th Feb 2013, the onions and garlic go in.
Garlic - solent white
Red onion - red karmen
White onion - rumba

I've used a fleece to make the bed a little bit warmer and will leave that on for a couple of more weeks yet.

Harvest Time

This year has been really hard on the allotment, the weather hasn't been great, and I have also been working crazy busy on the Olympics. Despite all of this, the freezer is about full, and for the first time, I have grown some broccoli that actually looks like that which you buy in the supermarket

Flowers

We have only recently started growing flowers at the allotment, last year it was Sweat Peas, this year Sweat Peas and Sweat Williams. I've picked the first few tonight and they look fabulous. Most of the rest will be left for the bees.

Asparagus

This year is about the 3rd year we've been able to pick asparagus, and it is definitely the best year to date. We've had a good number of full portions - even thought about serving it at a dinner party!

Potatoes

So a little late, we got our seed potatoes tody. We get ours from Longbarn (www.longbarn.co.uk). This year we have picked twotypes:

Wilson - first earlies

Rooster- main crop

I now have the first earlies Chitting in the downstairs loo for the next couple of weeks before they go in the ground.

Hopefully these won't get eaten by slugs!

Winter hibernation

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but it is winter and my allotment is all nice and asleep and covered in manure. Back when it is spring!!!

Wimbledon

As it's Wimbledon (and as I write, Murray has just made it through to a Semi Final match against Nadal), it must be strawberries and cream season.




And so, I've been out in the garden and picked these. Should go well as a pudding.

Asparagus

One of the first crops of Spring is asparagus, coming up at some point in April, and pickable until Royal Ascot (obviously a posh vegetable), which is early June I think. After that the plant needs to be given some time to grow and regenerate for next year.

Asparagus is a very fussy vegetable, starting with root stock, it takes two years of growing before you can pick at all, and then for the next couple of years, you need to pick fairly lightly so as not to damage the plant.

Then, in dry weather, it needs water, and in the summer it gets Asparagus Beetle (a red-backed beetle), that it and its larvae need picking off.

So, with all of this, we don't get that many portions given the size of the plot that it takes up and the cost of the route stock in the first place. I can understand why it costs so much in the supermarket.

A few portions a year are great for us.

Spring is here

After a long and dark winter, this weekend G and I finally got back down to the allotment. We hadn't done much work done here over the winter (apart from fix the broken window from where the youths broke it). All in all, the place wasn't in too bad a shape. After a couple of hours, we had dug over two beds, dug in some compost and planted the first early potatoes and first batch of summer beans.

Yesterday, I was working from home, and popped down after finishing work, and cleared most of the raised bed and planted some salad crops there.

Our back garden now also contains the pop-up greenhouse, which will be out until the summer, which has broad beans, peas and cauliflowers growing (hopefully) in it.

And on the windowsill, we have chili and tomatoes.