Trimming the vine and general tidy-up

February (Well January really) is supposed to be the time for cutting back grape vines. So that is what we did. All of the stalks and growths from last year were trimmed leaving the main growing struts ready for this years crop.

Yes I know the main trunk end looks kind of scraggy, but that is how we inherited it in the first place. Unfortunately there isn't a way to fix that now. The trimmings were cut and then used as the base for the new compost bins. That way it keeps a decent amount of air at the bottom of the bins to ventilate it. The old compost bin has been emptied and the larger remains transferred into the new bin. The good compost will be mixed with the soil emptied from the potato bags and will be mixed in with the various beds.

The "small" rhubarb behind the artichoke has done it's usual trick and started up first. It always seems to start ahead of the big rhubarb, same as in previous years. Unfortunately it always seems to act as a focus point for slugs so the actual rhubarb is produces is not the best.

Meanwhile the Daffs are in full swing.

But there is still much to do on the rest of the plot, as it kind of looks like a bombsite.

We need at least 4 more raised beds, three to complete the mains group of six - which will then have a cage built around it, hence the need for the old for-sale signs. Then one larger one at the front for the strawberries.

Things are starting to come back to life. But whether the weather promises a cold snap in the future remains to be seen. But we're not going to be planting our seeds just yet as it's still too cold. But there is still a lot of work to do.

First flowers

Well technically they're not blooming yet, but the Daffodils are starting to make an appearance and will probably be flowering before the week is out.

During this past week we had some severe temperatures. -5c was recorded at some places. Well quite a few British plants are used to that sort of thing, but there are other which cannot take it. The Artichoke seems to have exploded in the cold.

I suspect that the sap in the leaves ruptured the cell walls causing them to fail. I'm not particularly worried by this though, as the central core of the plant appears to be fine. It will grow again. There is no stopping this beastie.

However the cold does mean that the plot is still not ripe for any significant work at present. All I did this weekend was dig out some weeds and hoe out some grasses from the paths. Nothing major, but certainly worth doing before the weeds and grass get a good foothold.

First visit of the New Year

It's not raining today. Makes a change. So It's time to go to the plot to see how flooded we are and to see how everything is getting on.

So, we're only a little bit flooded. Nothing like the major floods of previous years. But then Winter hasn't finished with us yet.

The onions planted back in November are starting to get off to a good start.

And the strawberries that are over wintering in the greenhouse are also holding their own.

Still haven't separated the runner from the mother plants at present. S where we did have about 5 mature plants, we now have about 20 overall. Bodes well for a decent harvest.

The Strawberries that are outside are looking a little worse for wear. They're still alive, just a little frost bitten (yes we did have a frost) and almost drowned. But they should recover. Hopefully this year I'll be building a proper strawberry bed for them, where they can permanently reside...

... but only if it warms up and stops raining.

Meanwhile we have a new resident who thinks we really should start getting some food for him.

I think he was watching to see if we'd turn over some ground and expose a few worms or bugs. Sorry little feller, perhaps next time.

End of year roundup

So it's been a busy old year down the allotment.

What has worked well, and what didn't? Well this year I started getting the beds into shape. Still have a few more beds to build and there is the ever present threat of bindweed and brambles. Those I suspect will be an ever ongoing battle. But by having clearly defined growing spaces it's easier to pull what shouldn't be there.

So here is a full list of everything:

• Apples - Good crop. Certainly better than last year. But again infested with maggots.
  
• Artichoke - More blooms than last year. Bees really loved it. One of these years we may actually eat some of them.
  
• Beetroot - Again a pretty good success. New batches of pickled beetroot were produced as well as them being in copious salads and dinners.
  
• Blueberries - Produced more than last year. So they're on their way. Next year they will have to go into larger pots in spring.
• Borlotti Beans - A goodly amount. Though suffered slightly from mildew. There was a sufficient amount that it will be worth trying again next year, with this years resulting beans.
• Carrots - Despite adding sand to this years bags, they came out all deformed. Still edible, where you could actually get something of a reasonable size. But even so, still no a success by anybodies measures.
  
• Cauliflower - Hmmm. They seems to be coming along nicely, then after the rains they suddenly turned to mush without getting to any really decent size. Not sure what went wrong there.
• Courgettes - Yeah, for the third year running these have been a runaway success. Good job we really like courgettes. Next year definitely have to get around to trying my hand in drying them.
• Flowers - The wife loved the flowers this year. Foxgloves, Cosmos, poppies and loads of other varieties. She's going to be taking over more of the plot next year. Guess I may as well try and put up with it.
  
• Grapes - We actually had some this year. Previous years had seen them stolen off the vine (and no it wasn't the birds, birds don't take the stalks as well). They were sweet but a little tart. Suspect they may be wine grapes as opposed to dessert grapes.
  
• Herbs - Hmm. Partial success. The herb bed was just a scattering of various seeds. Unfortunately the haphazard way of planting also resulting in a multitude of weeds taking hold which kind of throttled the herbs. The Basil withered, the thyme seems to have survived though so maybe it's not a great loss. We'll probably rip it out and try anew next year though.
• Kale - Grew brilliantly. Loads of leaves all ready to eat... and then the pigeons discovered it.
• Leaf Beet - Big success. They went to seed this year, so in the bottom of the leaf beet bed, there are hundreds of seedlings. Looking forward to a good crop next year.
• Leeks - Never really amounted to anything. Anyway, they're still in the ground, so maybe they'll pick up somewhat.
• Onions - Slightly better than last year, but still not much of a size. Still two new full jars of pickled onions to replace the ones used up from last year.
  
• Potatoes - Good crop of Maris Peers and Russets. A rogue one popped up in the ground as opposed to the bags.
  
• Rhubarb - The large rhubarb at the front once again produced a staggering amount of stalks. More Rhubarb and Ginger Jam.
• Runner Beans - Huge success. Some were eaten young as normal. But others were left to grow into huge bean pods which resulted in a huge addition to the soups and stews.
  
• Soya Beans - Abject failure. Not one of the 50 beans I planted germinated.
• Strawberries - Big success. The tendency of strawberries to produce runner means that these are slowly starting to take over the plot... which is no bad thing.
  
• Sweet Potato - Despite an early failure these were a reasonable success. Will be bother again? Probably not. The corms that were produced seemed a little on the small side. Plenty of them, but it makes cooking rather tricky. 
• Tomatoes - the smaller cherry toms did really well. But the outside larger ones were less so. For one, the Black Russian ones didn't have much taste. Nice colour, but we won't be growing those again. Cherries however are now a firm favourite.
  

Cooking wise, there we certainly made the most of the abundant berries and made jams galore. Both the afore mentioned Rhubarb and Ginger, and the Blackberry jams meant I was starting to run out of jam jars. The new label printer has certainly help though. Maybe I ought to think about a Plot 30 logo?

Although I mentioned it last year as something to try, I never got round to dehydrating stuff. The courgettes would be a good starting choice, but possibly the apples as well. Really must do it next year.

Anyhow, the remainder of the year will see me pulling and pushing the beds into better shape. Hopefully building some sort of cage to prevent those pesky pigeons getting in and maybe even some sort of strawberry tower. We shall see.

November days and blue skies

Don't let the blue skies fool you. Over night the temperature went sub-zero as evidenced by the ice on the water dip tanks, and the weed mulch bucket. It also took a toll on the last remaining sweet potato plant. Definitely time that this was dug up.

The corm were a reasonable size. Not massive, but definitely sort of edible. I say sort of, because there was a lot of evidence of worm activity. However if they are anything like the normal potatoes that were dug from the ground, then it's not worms which are the major problems, but ants. They do like making their nests inside. They get a decent meal, are reasonably secure inside, and can carve out their nest chambers with ease from the inside out.

Elsewhere on the plot the flower bed has finally stopped producing flowers. It's been a good run and we let the all go to seed. So hopefully there will be more next year. But given that this flower bed was built on top of the old spinach bed, there a still a lot of spinach plants that want keep rearing up. As the saying goes, a weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place. And these are definitely considered a weed. Albeit a delightfully edible one.

Time to attack and pull them out. Some will go for tonight's dinner. Others will grace the compost heap.

The Kale has also come under attack. But from aerial predators. The "rats with wings" (aka pigeons), have take delight at the bounty now before them and have happily munched their way through a whole load of leaves. They seem to have managed to unhook the netting that was being used to protect it. But then again that may have moved in the storms.

Hopefully it'll regrow.

There is still a lot to do over the winter. I spent most of today digging the fox mound. Those foxes seemed to have been very house proud as I dug out some industrial carpet squares and paving slabs. They seemed to have been using those as roof supports. Although technically I suspect they simply dug under the existing, buried, slabs. Either way, the mound is being moved off to the side to become next years courgette mound, and make place for a new long bed which will probably be dedicated to strawberries.

I think I'll have to do a separate yearly round up post as we have had quite a few successes and quite a number of failures this year. It'll be good to make a note of what worked and what didn't.

But our mound of beans has dried off nicely.