Archive of ‘Winter’ category
This has been our first winter where we have been 90% self sufficient with vegetables over the winter period and it’s been great! Obviously we won’t ever beable to grow the amount of potatoes needed for a family of four to survive on all year round, but the other vegetables have been fantastic. I still have kale, flower sprouts, chard, leeks and carrots left for harvesting on my little plot. We finished the red cabbage off a while ago and everything was harvested before the frosts got them. Over on my Dad’s larger plot he has swede, sprouts, flower sprouts, calabrese, purple sprouting brocolli, cavolo nero, curly kale, cabbages, leeks and parsnips. We are in veggie heaven right now!
I am an avid second season grower, if theres space on the allotment I’ll be sure to fill it with flowers or vegetables! I’ve always liked the idea of overwintering vegetables to fill in those hungry gaps when nothing else is growing and carrots are one of those perfect crops to grow. They actually say that carrots which grow over winter are sweeter in taste, and I have to completely agree. I sowed these ‘Autumn King’ variety of carrots at the end of August, and I am only just starting to harvest them now. They may be dinky in size but they sure are tasty!
To learn more about my second growing season plans and ideas head on over to the ’2015 Plan’ page.
I was so happy this morning to find out that a layer of snow had finally made it down South, it was only a very small amount but I was so excited! I love this season and absolutely adore the snow, we didnt get any last year but I remember there being lots of snow the year before that. My little allotment however, has never seen the snow (well not in my care it hasn’t!) so I raced downstairs, pulled on a coat and some boots and headed to the plot with my camera.
Luckily I was able to capture the snow before it melted, and sure enough an hour later it had vanished. At least all this cold weather is doing wonders for the garlic, fingers crossed for some delicious large cloves this year!
Winter is starting to set in now and the temperatures are dipping ever so slightly (it’s been an ever so mild Winter so far hasn’t it?!) The frosty mornings and cold weather does mean one thing though, and that is soup!
I am a little addicted to making soups and never realised how easy it was to turn vegetables into such a simple and delicious meal. One of my favourite soups is leek and parsnip, it just so happens that me and my Dad are growing both of these vegetables and now is the perfect time of year for harvesting them.
Yet again I must confess that I was never a leek lover before owning my allotment, I had never tasted them before let alone grown them before! However, leeks are one of the easiest vegetables to grow not only when it comes to planting but also when it comes to looking after them. As a matter of fact they don’t need any looking after at all. They are hardy and therefore can be left out all winter, harvesting them when you need them (although this can be a tad hard when the ground has frozen!)
The variety I grew are called Musselburgh and I planted 2 rows out in July, replacing the potatoes that had already been harvested from that bed. They were ready to harvest by October and since then they have been turned into mainly soups and ham and leeks pies and I only have 8 leeks left.
After growing them for the first time ever and falling in love with their taste, I can proudly say that I am in love with leeks. It’s rather lucky I do love them as my Dad planted 6 rows of leeks at the same time as me, and he still has 5 rows left! Now I didn’t really have to grow any leeks at all but I had the spare soil left over from my potatoes and I thought why not?
And anyway, I couldn’t not grow any leeks on my plot could I? 
Hooray! Today is the Winter Solstice and I am welcoming it with open arms. It’s the shortest day of the year which means one thing, the daylight hours will start increasing and we can start to spend more time outside.
I love this time of year but I am longing for Summer, not only the heat but I’m missing the amount of time I could spend up the allotment pottering away in the shed and watching the bees bumbling around the plot. Time has been hard to come by since the nights have been drawing in, in the Summer I was up the allotment until 10pm and these days it starts getting dark at 4pm, whilst I’m busy working. Which means evenings and early mornings were out of the questions and it left allotment time for the weekends only.
So here’s to less evenings working up the allotment in the dark and to more time in the glorious sunshine!
Happy Winter Solstice everyone x
I’ve found a new love for robin’s that is almost verging on obssesive! This little beauty has been visiting our garden everyday for almost 3 weeks now. He waits patiently at the patio window in the morning for us to put some mealworms out, he even sits right on the wooden step with his beak pressed against the glass urging us to hurry up! Later in the afternoon he joins me up the top of the garden where I wrap parcels to send out, he sits ontop of the summer house singing me a merry little tune and often jumps down onto the table. He is a clever little Robin though, he knows that I will always bring him more mealworms in the afternoon and he is becoming one pampered little red breast.
I’ve always been very interested in animals and wildlife but I must admit that I am becoming rather fond of this little Robin and whenever I go into the garden I will always keep a look out for him.
It’s that time of year again and hasn’t it just come around so quickly? I do love Christmas time though, the traditions, the songs on the radio, christmas dinner and of course spending time with the family. I do apologise for the lack of posts but I have just been so busy getting ready for christmas and of course there was plenty to do on the allotment along with videos to film. I did get round to putting a few metres of tinsel in the shed as well as a little christmas tree and some lights on the allotment, it looks very festive indeed!
There’s been plenty of jobs to keep my busy up the allotment, I managed to plant my grapevine, sow some broad beans, plant the garlic and tulips, plant some herbs and get the chicken area dug and leveled out ready for the coop to move up. Winter has caught up with me though and I never got round to weeding or digging over other areas of bare soil, so my allotment it looking a little bit sorry for itself and a tad messy, hence the christmas decorations to try and cheer the plot up!
Now that the allotment is being tucked away for the Winter I can concentrate on the christmas presents. Over the past couple of years I have tried to make my gifts, whether it’s sewing, cross stitch, woodwork or jewellery. There’s something special about making a handmade gift for someone and I just love taking the time to create each unique gift. Next year there are plans to create allotment themed hampers for the family, my allotment will hopefully be more planned out and ready for it’s second growing year with lots of herbs, flowers veg and maybe even some eggs!
However, yet again I have left the gift making process a tad late and I’m starting to get a little stressed, there is only 10 more days until Christmas!
I hope everyone is having a lovely and stress free run up to christmas x
It was officially the first day of Autumn yesterday and boy don’t we know it! I’m one of those people that get cold easily anyway, or maybe I’m just being a big wimp but it’s starting to get very cold, as a matter of fact I woke up to a thick layer of fog this morning and left the house wearing a coat and a scarf! Oh Summer I miss you already!
The allotment is also showing signs of Autumn with a few plants starting to die back. The pumpkins for instance have already been harvested and the munchkin pumpkins look a little sorry for themselves with their large wilted, brown leaves trying to cling onto my archway but failing miserably. I’ll be alittle sad to see my archway all empty and naked, maybe I’ll have to decorate it with bunting and fake flowers once the pumpkins and borlotto bean plants have all gone! The climbing french beans have also come to an end and I will have to take down the supports later this week. The tomatoes came down with blight and were removed a few weeks ago and the strawberries, gooseberries and blackcurrents have started their hibernation.
On the other hand, I am a little pleased with how my allotment looks so far. I look around at the site and see that quite a few neighbours have dug over their plots and left nothing but a blank canvas of soil. My plot on the other hand is still full to the brim with crops and flowers and I’m managing to use nearly every inch of it, if you’ve got the space then you might as well use it right? The dwarf purple french beans which I sowed back In August are starting to crop like crazy, I’ve already had 2 large harvests from them and they keep producing more perfectly shaped, purple pods by the minute. I have 4 rows of swiss chard in the old root bed and 3 rows in the fruit cage (I’m realising now I sowed too many!) and they all goot lovely and bright on these cold Autumn days. There’s also the carrots that are either still growing or being stored in the ground waiting to be eaten, and the leeks are starting to bulk up now. The brassica bed is a little weedy but very productive, the kale is ready for harvesting, the flower sprouts are growing bigger every day and I’ve already eaten one red cabbage (which was delicious!)
Fingers crossed there will be plenty more harvests to come, I’m just trying to hang onto the gardening season for a little while longer. I’m not sure what to do with myself otherwise!
Its officially the worst start to the year in history, we have had the wettest January since records began more than 100 years ago and it looks like the rain wont be stopping anytime soon! I am itching to get up my allotment and start getting it ready for the year ahead but alas, like everyone else I am stuck inside watching my potatoes slowing chit away and dreaming about Spring time. There is a plus side to this bad weather mind you, I have had time to actually sit down and plan my little wildlife friendly flower patch so when it comes to planting all the flowers and making the houses I will be well away (hopefully!)
I have always wanted to grow flowers and I am in love with wild flower meadows, the small delicate flowers simply look beautiful in a small vase on the table. Some of the flowers which I would like to grow are ox-eye daisies, field poppies, cosmea dwarf, gypsophila and scabious. I also want to grow some Verbena which I just adore, as well as some sweet peas and some dill which I think look beautiful as a cut flower! Giant sunflowers will also grace my plot, I just love everything about sunflowers and they would look great lined up next to my shed (and afterwards they can be a treat for the birds!) Another reason for planting flowers in my allotment is the beneficial factor of the bees and what they will bring with them. My fruit bed which will consist of blackcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries will all rely on insects to bring about pollination. Some of my vegetables will also benefit from the bees, such as my broad beans, french beans and my pumpkins.
Along with catering for the bees I also would like to create a haven for other wildlife such as hedgehogs, bugs and birds. My plan is to try and make some houses using reclaimed wood and materials which I already have at home or I can pick up at my local reclamation yard. I already have my hedgehog house all planned out and I have been inspired by Pinterest with all the pretty bug houses which have been made using bricks, tiles, bamboo, fircones etc. My bird house is painted to match my shed and is ready to be put up, I have a bird bath and a floor feeding station which I might change to a hanging feeder simply because it will stop the pigeons swooping in. Now all I need is some sun and I can get started!
Being new to this gardening marlarky I was very unfortunate to have missed the Edible Garden series by Alys Fowler when it aired back in 2010. Thanks to Youtube I was able to start watching it and I am loving it! I feel so inspired after watching each episode that I try not to watch it before bedtime otherwise I can’t sleep with all the ideas floating around in my brain! I absolutely love Alys Fowler, I can relate to her so much and it seems we like the same things. I recently had a dilemma (if you can call it that!) over whether to buy a tea flask or a small stove to make tea and warm soup up my alloment and then lo and behold, up popped Alys on one of her Youtube videos making tea over a funny little fire stove. I just had to find out what it was! I searched the good old internet and came across a volcano kettle, then I came across the brand name Ghillie and popped down to one of the many local country shops to buy one.
It was a glorious day today so I popped up the allotments with my Dad to help him on his plot and to play with my Ghillie kettle (there was nothing to do on my own plot can you believe it!?) After I tidied his shed and he had tidied his cabbage bed we popped some twigs and small kindling into the small firepit base and started the fire. It took a little while for the whistle to blow mind you but I’m putting that down to us not knowing what we were doing! The verdict? The best cup of tea in the world AND it was so much fun! I’m going to get the cooking kit this week so I can make lunch on the lottie using my homegrown produce, maybe even a swiss chard omelette
I have had my lottie for 7 months now and I am lucky enough to say I am still enjoying last years crops. My swiss chard is still growing well and the beetroots and carrots are stored in the ground waiting to be cooked up. The garlic is also still growing, although I’m a little worried about the yellow tips appearing on the leaves. I managed to get some broad beans in the ground in November and they are surprisingly growing really well (although I think thats down to the cat in the house behind scaring all the mice away!). The gooseberry, raspberry and black currant bushes are all starting to show signs of life and my strawberry plants are still hibernating. However, it is January and I know we are more likely to get snow in the next month so I am expecting and preparing for the worse (and raiding the recipe books for something other then quiche to make with my swiss chard!)
On other news I planted 2 cranberry bushes in hanging baskets underneath my reclaimed windows and they look perfect! I was debating whether to put flowers there but cranberries won with an outstanding vote, I am planning on making cranberry sauce with them for christmas dinner (if I dont eat them before that is!)
