Last week's snow

I know it is not really related to the blog but here are some picture of last weeks snow. We (me & the wife) love the snow.

Look at my Cabbages

Never turn down help

Well he didn't actually volunteer I pretty much told him he was coming and doing some digging. But I suppose that's how you treat children. We are talking about 'Boy' as he is know to me and the wife. He is infact twenty odd and nearly a city lawyer - but we see him as a surrogate son. So after a night of beers, curry and him telling us about his love life (never simple) we set him lose on digging a few beds and planting some garlic. As with most things Boy does he does with non stop yabbering and oodles of energy. Still he did a good job!

Allotment Fees and seed catalouge

I have just had seed catalogue through for this year. I have to say it is one of those times of the year when you don't feel guilty about sitting at home on s Sunday watching the football on SKY when you should be down on the plot.

It is a time to plan what you are going to do next year and decided whether you should grow sweetcorn for the wife as she didn't eat it when you grew it last year...

We have also had our rent through for this year. It has gone up by eight pounds a year to thirty pounds - still not bad value. Next week it is the AGM - the excitement is unbearable!

We are back in Business

As some of you know we have spent the last 7 months travelling. Fortunately I did take a few measures to prevent the allotment getting completely over grown. Despite that, the poor weather and the council trying to allocate the allotment to someone else it looks like we are back in business.

The person who was given my allotment started to redesign my plot i.e. rip up some of the raised beds, big up rhubarb crowns and raspberry canes! So I have had a bit of work to do.
Still from the pictures it is amazing what you can do with a few hours.

Not a bad first year!

Even though I took the allotment in June 2006 last year (2007) was my first cropping year. I had some successes, a few failures and I learnt a lot of things.

Successes
Green Beans
Onions, Garlic and Shallots
Pumpkins & Courgettes
Parsnips – I thought they would only be ready Dec but I could have started eating them in October
Leeks
Made Jam, Chutney, pickled shallots, pickled beetroot and Piccalilli for the first time


Failures
Peas – use fresh seeds
Sweetcorn – pray for some sun!
Potatoes – dig bigger trenches
Dry my onions thoroughly some of them moldy

Things learnt
Use fresh seeds – if they are past the date don’t use them
Need bigger canes for runner beans
Need to have more veg ready in the Jan- April e.g. winter greens and spring broccoli

Here are a few pictures from the end of the year.