Awaiting another frost

Got back from Christmas in Cornwall which was lovely. Wet though. I took down some veg from Plot 35 for Christmas dinner (see below - note the lovely Christmassy thumb nail of my future mum-in-law).



The homemade plum gin also made an appearance as part of the meal - in the cranberry sauce. I was loosely following a Nigella recipe but replaced cherry brandy with plum gin and it worked very well.

I'm itching to get onto the plot to start tidying things up. See below for the how the plot looked a couple of weekends ago, before the frost really hit hard. So much to do.



Tomorrow will be my main opportunity this week as it will be dry (perhaps not on the ground though) and it is due to snow quite heavily on Tuesday.

Oooo, and I think I might be buying a wormery in the New Year.

Silly me...

The ground was so hard at the plot today that it was touch and go whether or not I'd be able to get any parsnips out for Christmas dinner let alone plant out any garlic. My fork bent with the strain. I think I chiselled just enough roots out for the 6 of us. I was surprised at how hard the ground was - silly me. I'll plant out the cloves in trays at home later.

The trick of leaving the cut stems of the Jerusalem artichokes over the ground to keep the frost off came into its own. It was easy to get some of those out to supplement the parsnips. Plus, a sweet little robin used the stems to perch and look to see if I was revealing any worms in the soil. I also took a cabbage to supplement the meagre number of sprouts produced in Bed 7 this year.

Just one other fellow plotter over there today but it was lovely to see him.

Leaving it a bit late?

Today, I came across the packages of seed garlic I received a while ago. I figure those should go in the plot asap. That's one of tomorrow's jobs sorted (there is also harvesting to do - parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, chard, cabbage). There are 10 varieties in all - I fancied trying a few just to see. Fingers crossed that the ground isn't too hard.

Today, I tidied up the shed and lean-to at home a little bit and sowed some onion seeds. It is a bit early but I wanted to celebrate Midwinters Day somehow. Plus, I found some Christmas crackers in the shed so that was a bonus. I also got round to repotting the lemon and lime plants, bringing the lime into the house and putting the lemon in the lean-to to overwinter.

Too damp to dig...

...today. No-one else was at the site. The morning was nice and sunny but it greyed over in the early afternoon. I nipped over to Plot 35 (it had been ages) in my wellies to check things out. I was all ready for some digging but it was simply too wet for digging, soil sticking to the boots and all that. Nevermind. So I harvested some stuff instead.

I dug up a few kilos of Jerusalem artichokes which I'll take into work this week for colleagues to take home (reserving some to try mangocheek's stoved Jerusalem artichokes recipe). I also took a small handful of parsnips (first of the year), a cabbage, three small horseradish roots, a few baby leeks (to use like spring onions) and a couple of handfuls of Brussels.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the weeds hadn't taken over too much at the plot. I am looking forward to having some time over Christmas to tend to the allotment and garden.

mangocheeks was so right...

...with her prediction that the weather would not be suitable for gardening this weekend. It is still windy and wet here. I was hoping to get over to the plot this afternoon just to drop some peelings off but the rain has started again. I'll keep a look out but in the meantime I'll stick with GQT on Radio 4.

I did go through all my seeds yesterday so work out what I might need to buy for next year and to separate out some seeds to give away to colleagues. In particular, I am going to give away most of my packets of tomato seed because of the blight problem on our site. Nearly all of these tomato seeds came free with magazines - I don't have a particular tomato seed-buying habit (honestly). I have bought Ferline and Legend to try out next year. I have loads of seed in terms of types of veg rather than quantity but many of them could really do with using up next year. I am also going to give away any duplicates (again due to freebies - gratefully received) and some others that I don't fancy growing again (e.g. the Lady Godiva squash). It turns out that the only seeds I really need to buy are celery, celeriac, potato and pumpkin/squash. And I found a £5 garden centre voucher left over from my birthday some months ago so that was nice.

I think I will dig up the paths on Plot 35 over the remainder of Autumn and the start of Winter so if I can't get out this afternoon, I'll focus on drawing up a new planting plan. If I do manage to get over to the plot, I'll pick up some Jerusalam artichokes and a cabbage to go with a patridge I bought from the Farmers Market earlier.

Plum gin gets the thumbs up

It was very windy and quite wet yesterday so not a good day for gardening. So, I spent the day doing stuff around the house including making mincemeat for the festive season and bottling up my plum gin which had been in the making for the required 3 months. My word, the plum gin is good! Nipped round to my neighbour's to try it with her. It was a hit. It tastes deceptively non-alcoholic which can only mean trouble.

It was drier and less windy today so I nipped over to the plot for an hour in the afternoon. I had lots of kitchen scraps and lawn mowings to take over. While there, I quickly dug over Bed 5 where the green manure was growing. The soil felt easy-going and I was impressed by the lack of weeds there. The green manure is a hit too then.

Fingers crossed for a clear weather window for next weekend...

Tubers revealed

I hadn't been over to the plot for a couple of weeks as I was laid up with a nasty cold. It was lovely to get some fresh air at the 'lotment today though. The ground was wet this morning with some drizzle but it cleared up a bit in the afternoon.

I was planning on cutting down the Jerusalem artichoke stems and was considering harvesting a few tubers. As it was, when I arrived, one of the bigger stems had been blown over revealing some its tubers. Bingo! I cut down the stems and lay them over the ground to keep off hard frost.

I checked Bed 7 to see how the sprouts were doing. I picked a handful (literally) as some were already looking blown. I also pulled up a cabbage and cut off a few small florets from the remaining calabrese plant going to seed. After washing the artichokes and a spot of raking over what was Bed 1, I left with my harvest.

The artichokes are now in a large batch of Jerusalem artichoke and carrot soup (some for me and some for my lovely neighbour who brought me soup when I needed it last week) and the calabrese florets are in my tummy.