Runner beans no good

I grew lots of runner beans, but didn't manage to pick enough, so I've lots of big stringy tasteless ones left. Part of the problem is previously I've just grown white flowering stringless ones, but this year I had some heritage ones, and some red flowering ones, and they've just been too stringy.

Bit hard work..

It's fair to say that I haven't really enjoyed the allotment much this year. Partly because it's been a really busy summer, and I haven't so much free time, partly because of 'the letter', so I'm debating whether to carry on next year. My garden at home has suffered quite a lot as must of my free time has gone on the allotment.

We we also away for the peak bean time, so most of those went to waste.

Lettuces have been really good, and still getting squashes (though had to throw away loads of un wanted marrows).

Sweetcorn has been pretty good, and Jerusalum Artichokes look huge.

Also, managed to grow a really big sun flower!

Everything growing, especially the weeds

Everythings growing well - as you can see from this picture, it's looking pretty good, although there are a lot of weeds around as well.

As usual, too many squash all at once, and also, I think I should have dug up some potatos at lot earlier, as they are now a bit big, and we'll never eat them all.

Also, have dug up most of the onions and put them in the garage to dry (it's another rainy, rainy month), and planted a few carrots in their place - normal ones and some round ones.

Riverford order put on hold

I've just put the riverford veg box order on hold for the summer, as I'm now getting enough from the allotment.

Here's some food...

Here's some food! This is the first proper beetroot of actually managed to grow. I've got loads and loads of artichokes as well - I'll never manage to eat the all. Quick tip - you can cook them in the microwave - about 6 mins in a covered bowl with about half an inch of water. Much quicker than 40 mins in the oven.

Beans out, salad in

The broad beans are over now. I had a pretty good crop, and have frozen some.

The rocket is growing really well, we've had lots of that, and I picked the first courgettes today, some small yellow ones and a green one. It looks like we may end up with huge amounts of various squashes.

Broad Beans

We had our first big crop today - a big pile of broad beans! This is the first time they've really been that successful - probably because of the good weather.

We also had a good amount of rocket from seeds from the real seed company. Some of it had a few holes in, but not too bad.

Reasonable progress and strawberries

The weather's been pretty good - some sun, some rain, so things are going ok, especially the globe artichokes (near the back of the picture). The summer squashes are all in (about 10) and are starting to establish themselves. Winters ones aren't so good: greenfly.

Talking of flies, the broad beans had a nasty dose of blackfly. A rare organic success - ecover washingup liquid in a sprayer, then wiping them off, did the trick.

It looks fairly weed free doesn't in? Handweeding has played a big part, but also, sadly, has the Roundup, which has meant that most of the grass is kind of under control.

Final thing - planted a couple of strawberry plants today after realising the existing ones were past it.

More eviction bits

Great article in the Telegraph about a poor chap evicted from his plot:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/rowanpelling/5389415/Theres-more-fun-to-be-had-on-an-allotment-than-gardening.html

Here's the original article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5387934/Gardener-evicted-from-allotment-for-not-growing-enough-vegetables.htm

A quickie picture update as well...

Here's a quick picture update as well. If you look really closely you can see the effect of the weed killer (look at the path in front of the potatos).

Still here

Well, the eviction notices have gone out, and we don't seem to have got one, so we're still here! Quite a few of our friends had 'the letter' over the years, and they are mostly pretty bitter about how it's been done. It's call Leisure Garderning. It's supposed to be fun! We don't want to have it ruined by not coming up the the same standards as those who spend their entire lives at the allotments. So long as we grow things then surely that's fine?

So, talking of growing things, we got the squashes in (the summer ones anyway), a couple more artichokes, a few peas and beans. They all seem to have survived the first few days, which is good. 

I've ordered a bunch of stuff from the Real Seed Company again after the success of their peas (all the seed I collected last year has grown. 

Weedkiller

Well, we've decided we are going to have to use weedkiller to keep the committee happy. We found a few stories around the net that resonated, like this one:

http://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/free/Good-Life-dream-goes-rotten.4042781.jp

and this one made me smile!

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/gardening/urban-gardener-organics-anonymous-888019.html.

Basically, its seems allotment committees expect semi-industrial style ground utilisation, and want your plot to be excessively tidy. To be honest, I don't really understand this - nature isn't tidy. Their advice on the couch grass is to keep digging it, but this is just making it worse (our plot was in a seriously bad way when we took it on).

So, there it is, I've spayed some weed killer on the worst areas.  

I've also had to remove my path that I was making out of recycle bits - stone, dries organic matter etc, as apparently it was just considered 'rubbish' on the plot.

We'll see what happens next I guess. Hopefully the weedkiller is a one-off appeasement act - the plot really needs to be covered for a long time to do it naturally, but I'm not going to get away with this.

Most of my friends haver also had 'The Letter' at some point - it's not very pleasant, and really should be done a different way.

Getting told off!!!

Hmmmmm. I got a letter from the allotment committee today telling me my plot wasn't up to standard! I think they send them out a couple of times a year to plots they don't like the look of - our friend got one last year. Trouble is the organic plots do look tattier than the weed killered ones. It tells me to dig it over and get rid the weeds! Not a lot left to dig really though, so not much I can do. Also says there is no sign of cultivation! Maybe they looked some time ago?

Anyway, I really hope I don't end up having to choose between weed killer and giving up - it would be a real shame if the committee don't accept there us more than one way to garden.

First bits planted

I've added a row of carrots as well as some ready grown lettuce from Usk garden centre.

Raised beds ready

I dug hole to get soil to fill the raised beds and filled holes with weed infested soil hopefully killing two birds with one stone!

I've planted a few beetroot and some salad under the Poundland coche.

Raised beds

Couch grass! Everywhere! Latest plan is a couple of raised beds made from decking. I've lined the bottom with newspaper, and then dug a hole and started filling the beds with soil from below the couch grass level.

Good news - the broad beans all came up!

Indoor I've got lots of squash. Sweetcorn are just coming up ok pots, and i've got a few more artichokes growing.

New fruit area is coming
Along well as well.

Broad beans, garlic and Jerusalum Aritichokes

The weather was a lot warmer today, so we did a bit more clearing and planting. 

Broad beans went in - never been very successful, but they are fun as they are so early.

Garlic didn't go to plan - bought Elephant garlic by mistake, so only had four cloves to plant. I thought the pack had four bulbs rather than four cloves.

And Jerusalum artichokes - £3 for 2!!! Really! Couldn't believe it! I bought them anyway as I'd made a special trip to buy them but, wow!!! Howfully we'll get some in the organic veg box, so I can plant a few more from there.

Fruit planting

New plan this year - I'm going to keep things simple and concentrate on things that actually grow.

Things that grow:

• Potatoes
• Squash
• Runner beans and Telegraph peas
• Onions
• Artichokes (globe and Jerusalum)
• Soft fruit (rasberry, blackberry, currants)

Things that don't grow

• Brassicas. All of them. Or rather they grow, and then are eaten by slugs, caterpillars, whitefly, you name it...
• Carrots
• Leeks
• Chinese leaf  (they just bolt).
• Most other root vegetables.

Actually, this isn't quite true, most of these do just about grow, and with a huge amount of effort I get about 50 pences worth of veg at the end. Just not worth it. And I've totally had it with ALL brasiccas. 

So, I've been planting more soft fruit. I got a Tayberry and Blueberry for Christmas, and I've added rasberries, a red Gooseberry, redberries and another blackberry. I've also planted out dwarf apple and pear trees that I've had in pots for a few years.

Here's a quite piccy of the area - not much to see at the moment.

Snow

Not a lot happening at the moment - it's snowed for the last few days, as you can see there's a bit left. The winter veg (purple sprouting, kale) have been more less eaten (or at least, aren't there any more). 

There's still are fair bit of grass, and (controversally with my neighbours!) I'm going to try and minimise digging this year, as I think this just makes it worse. Instead I'm going to cover as much as can - you can see one piece of plastic sheeting, and I added another after the photo. Organic matter would be better, but I haven't got any. I might try cardboard.