So thats it then… after a few good months of growing it was time to say goodbye to some of my faithful veg! To be fair I was surprised to get any crops out of my plot this year seeing as I got my little slice of land in July, but I worked hard and managed to plant swiss chard, turnips, french beans, carrots and beetroot just in time. I must admit I’m not to fussed on turnips (they taste like sprouts!) and I will definately not be growing beetroot next year! The frost finally caught up with us however, and my poor french beans were unprotected from the weather. I popped up the allotment to find them drooping over with wilted leaves and the few remaining beans were shiny and slightly rubbery. They served us well and will definately be gracing plot 15c with their presence next year.
It’s my first ever winter working on the land and I was a little sad to see all the allotments looking so lonely and lacking colour, although my rainbow chard is unbelivably still looking bright and cheery. On a happier note, the lavender which I thought was dying has 3 little and very beautiful flower heads 
There is hope for my lavender pathway yet! I also managed to get some broad beans in the ground, fingers crossed that they make it through the frost which is supposedly going to hit us hard in the next week :S
My name is Katie and I have a strawberry addiction!
Strawberries were the first plants I have ever grown myself, and this was when I was 22 years old. My dad had just been given his very own allotment plot and I was officially put in charge of a strawberry bed, like an over excited child I painted up a little picket fence to surround them and waited for those juicy red balls of deliciousness to arrive. Only for a big fat rat to eat them all! And not even that… the rat left a trail of lovely plump strawberries leading to the compost bin and thats where we found a pile of them left uneaten. I was simply gutted, so after turfing the rats out of the plot and securing the bottoms of the compost bins we built a wire fortress around my strawberry bed so we could atleast enjoy some of the strawberries that had been left. That year we enjoyed a mere bowlful of strawberries, but like most things in life, we learn’t from out mistakes. Last year on my dads plot we built a raised bed, lined the bottom with chicken wire and built a removable cage for the top. Success!
Now I have my own plot I am the proud owner of two wonderful raised beds which each have 24 strawberry runners planted inside, thats a grand total of 50 strawberry plants which equals a bumper crop next year (fingers crossed!) I plan on making jam using one bed, but thats only if I don’t keep eating them as soon as they ripen!
On another note, something has been eating my french bean plants! I suspect deer are the culprits which makes my plans of a picket fence around my plot even more important. I do love you deer, but please stop eating my yummy french beans
I’m not really one to celebrate bonfire night, I even forgot to buy a pumpkin this year for halloween (although I do desperately want to grow some on my plot next year!) So when my dad mentioned buying a box of fireworks for the garden I thought why not? We own a fabulous fire pit which has been constantly used on holidays in the campervan and for BBQs in the summer so we piled it with logs and sat round it during a lovely autumn night. I even cooked a delicious homemade goulash soup with meatballs that helped to keep us nice and warm before lighting the fireworks. I must admit, they weren’t anything special, but we all enjoyed every second of it! I have never, ever, lit fireworks in our own garden before so I was like an excited little kid when the rockets zoomed up and the catherine wheels span round (although 2 of them didn’t really spin, they just basically fizzled!). After the fireworks we played with some sparklers and attempted to write our own names and draw pictures with them, which might I add, was a lot harder than we thought it would be! Although my Dad impressed us all with a magnificant flower. We ended the night with toasted marshmallows and hot chocolates topped with whipped cream… heaven!
All in all it was a great night, so great infact that I think it should be a family tradition from now on and I can’t believe we didn’t do it sooner! Our dog, Barry the boxer, was not at all impressed and spent the night laying inside the house.
Happy bonfire night everyone! Be safe and have fun xx
