Carry on sowing

The squash seedlings (pumpkin and courgettes and BNS) are through and growing madly.  The cavolo nero seedlings are also through but pretty tiny. I need to get them all in the ground before I go on an extended jaunt in France.

We were in France just a week ago too and, they are having as bad a time of the weather as we are. In fact it was the main news item in France - it was apparently 10 degrees colder than last year (which was hardly ideal) and some areas even had snow. We spent the weekend in the Champagne region avoiding showers/ torrential rain.  The cold and the wet will have hit the wine trade hard and I assume other farmers will also be suffering.

The basil seedlings I put out have curled up and died in shock from the cold and I can't be bothered to sow more. I wonder if in 'normal' weather they could have coped outside - I'll try again next year.

There is still time to catch up which is good news for a friend who has just got allocated a plot after 6 years of waiting. the plot is overgrown with weeds and he is tackling it bit by bit.  As his back is breaking under the work of clearing the plot, this is probably not a good time though for him to remember that he likes very few vegetables!

We took advantage of some dry weather to finally clear out the shed which was more than a dumping ground - more of a Bermuda triangle lurking in the garden. I feel much less guilty now and ready to start filling it up again now.

Harvest festival

This is cheating slightly as the apples that are the main ingredient in this recipe were not grown in my garden but they were given to me by a colleague and it's a great way of using cooking apples. It's even a little healthy I like to think as it has yoghurt in.
Natalia's Apple tray bake cake
1 cup yoghurt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 cooking apples, chopped
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix yoghurt with the bicarb of soda and then all the rest - the dough will look really sticky. Add the apples and add the cinnamon. should have more apples than dough. Pour into a brownie tin and cook for 160 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

The second set of potatoes did OK but I only harvested 3.3kg from the 8 or so seed potatoes. In comparison with last year's haul 2012 has not been a stellar year. I suppose I could have left them in longer but the slugs had already got started on themand the top growth was less than perky looking.

I also harvested 950g of rhubarb which I was going to make apple and rhubarb jam but unfortunately I burnt the jam by leaving it on the heat too long while I was focussing on sterilising the jars. Now I have sterile jars but no jam. Damn.

I have 4 more beetroot which I roasted and will make beetroot houmous with using a Nigella recipe (below but with sesame seeds substituted for cumin which is verboten in our house because it's horrid) though I am also partial to a Beetroot horseradish dip where you combine 250g of beetroot with 2 tbsp of horseradish and 100 ml of creme fraiche or yoghurt and blitz in the processor.
Ingredients

• 400g Chickpeas in tin, drained.
• 2-4 fresh Beetroot, peeled & boiled until soft.
• 2-4 cloves Garlic, crushed or chopped
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• 90ml Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon fine sesame seeds
• 1/4 Cup Tahini (optional)

Method

1. Place all ingredients into a blender and process till smooth.
2. If it is too thick, gently drizzle a little water into the mixture until just right 

As a final fling the yellow courgettes have done me proud (ish).  I gathered 2.5kg of yellow courgettes including one that got out of control -1.7kg alone.  I'm not sure yet what to do with these monsters (along with a gifted marrow). Thoughts on a postcard please.  Maybe Nigella's courgette and raisin pasta...

The butternut squash look promising and I planted some Charlotte seed potatoes by the Jerusalem artichokes as an experiment. Even if there is no sign of growth I will leave tehm in for an early start next spring. Broad beans were sown in the potato area and deep rooted weeds dug up (mainly). A productive session.

Medal winning plots?

While Team GB may have won a record haul of medals the plots of Great Britain are unlikely to have flourished in the sporadic weather. Or certainly judging by my plot.

People generally seem to agree that this has been one of the worst summers on record and we are seeing productivity way down on previous years. There is very little happening on the plot at the moment but all is not lost - I planted purple sprouting broccoli seedlings (16x Extra Early Rudolph plants from Marshalls) and more potatoes (some of which have already curled up and died) and will plant my living salad (mustards which survive colder weather better and don't bolt) at the weekend.

I cut down the old wood of the raspberries and saw that the grape vines are hugely overgrown - time soon for a trim and some dolma (stuffed vine leaves) soon.

Keep on top of weeds and check your potatoes that are in storage. I had an unpleasant and stinky experience with an exploding one - most unpleasant!  Keep them dry and in the cool but allow them to breathe.

The courgettes are still under attack but 2 beautiful yellow monsters appeared when I wasn't looking.
Cut them into thin slices, griddle, serve with feta, toasted pine nuts and mint. (The BBC recipe also says chili but I wimped out). It's a really delicious, fresh and summery dish - great as a starter or main depending on how greedy you are.

Fruits of the freezer

If, like me, you are facing a new growing season with a freezer full of vegetables you never got round to eating in the last one, you may well appreciate recipes that help you use up the last of them. Especially if they are a little past their prime.

I love runner beans for their scarlet flowers, the traditional feel they give to an allotment and for their prolific cropping. However they are not the most versatile of vegetables. Basically it pretty much seems to be a case of with or without bacon. I did dabble in chutney but there is a limit. Therefore I had a lot of blanched beans in the freezer along with some mushy courgettes (which, I have discovered, don't freeze well).

This is where the secret veg mush comes in. Admittedly I may have to refine the name a little. But basically you chuck unloved veg in with tomato, onion and garlic and reduce. Blend and serve with pasta. Maybe not the most complex or thought through meal but bloody useful. And pretty healthy.

With a simple name change and the subtraction of pasta and addition of butter nut squash you can call it 'BNS ratatouille'. Or not. The choice is yours.

Tidal waves of squash

Not orange squash that you drink but summer squashes that you eat. These include edible gourds, pumpkins and courgettes. There is a great variety and among my harvest I have collected striped, pale green and yellow courgettes.

The problem I now face is 'what to do with them all?'. If I weren't trying to be healthy I would definitely make courgette cake which is delicious and moist. But I am on a health kick so avoiding too much sugar.

I discovered a recipe in a free booklet from a cooking magazine: Quinoa, courgette, tomatoes and feta. Now I had neither tomatoes nor feta and rather than wait I improvised slightly. I mixed the 1tbsp of red wine vinegar and 2tbsp of olive oil in a pasta sauce jar so infusing it with tomato flavours and then stirred it through 75g of quinoa (a great protein source). The courgettes were finely sliced into ribbons and mixed in. As I had no tomatoes I used a little green tomato chutney from last year. Finally I chopped up a little Turkish cheese but unfortunately it is more like a waxy mozzarella than feta so I doubt it will add the right sort of crumbly saltiness. It's lunch today so hopefully is tasty.

At the same time I made courgette lasagne from the same booklet. It also serves 2.
2 courgettes grated
1 garlic clove (I used 2)
Parmesan grated
Lasagne sheets
100g ricotta
Jar of tomato pasta sauce
(I left out the chilli and substituted low fat yoghurt for the ricotta and strong cheddar for the Parmesan)

Fry the crushed garlic and grated courgette until soft. Add the ricotta and 2tbsp of Parmesan. Place 2tbsp of the mixture into a small dish, layer on a quarter of the tomato sauce, place pasta sheets on top then repeat until you run out. Make sure the top is tomato and sprinkle with cheese.

Preparations for neglect

With holiday plans afoot I prepared my plot for a little more neglect (though to be frank, an extra week of it won't make much difference).

Next to the tomatoes and courgette/ squashes I pushed on some upended plastic bottles with their bottom cut off. The idea is that these provide reservoirs of water in times of drought. The thing is that I don't think I've buried them enough as they fall over with a little water in them. Looking at a good tomato growing plot they have buried the bottles half way. Perhaps a job for Tom to do.

The plant fair at Kent house gardens got me a few new plants to try without the fuss of germination. 10 runner bean seedlings (st George because of it's red and White flowers) went in to the base of a cane tunnel Tom built (incidentally, what's the difference between a wigwam and a teepee?). A large (pink) fruiting brandywine tomato also went in with a slightly sturdier stake than a cane but I might need to replace it with something longer later.

Two cherry tomatoes (totem) went into pots on the steps at home. The name seems to suggest cordon but the tomato expert lady said it was tumbling and tastier than garden pearl. Must look it up.

Seven degrees and sowing

They say that 7 degrees are when things start to germinate (including weeds sadly) but to me it feels colder than last week. Though dry, the winds are bitter.

The period between February/ March when the last of the winter veg are harvested and may when the spring veg start to crop is called the hungry gap. It's clearly a hungry gap for the birds as they've stripped the leaves off some of my brassica seedlings. I hasten to add I won't miss them and they were refugees from other parts of the plot that must have germinated late.

I am preparing a list of what to sow and plant.

In March I want to plant:
Outside - mangetout, potatoes, beetroot, corn salad and winter salad leaves.
Indoors (end of the month) - tomato, courgette. Squash, extra mange tout and broad beans just in case the ones I plant outside don't do well.

The magazines suggest waiting till the end of the month before sowing the tomatoes and squash to avoid them getting leggy.

To come later: French beans

I will also get the salads from supermarkets and plant out as I find lettuce difficult to germinate

PS the purple sprouting brocolli is still not sprouting much more. Lovely leaves though.

Weighing up 2010

Despite the snow and ice thawing and in theory I could revisit the allotment and start digging. But as the rain falls I still don't feel like it.

Instead I am enjoying staying on my sofa and dreaming of the crops to come in 2011. Surrounded by seed catalogues and an insatiable urge to buy more seeds and plants I find it useful to look in my seed store to see what I already have, look over past posts to remember what was problematic and, in a nerdy way, look at my crop spreadsheet.

Not only did I weigh every harvest (apart from a few of the later ones) and chronicle when they were harvested but I also went round a local supermarket getting a guide price per kilo so I can now work out which crop was worth the effort and if the plot itself broke even.

As we were starting from scratch there was some spending (£253) on tools and plants and scaffolding for raised beds (still not built!) which will be spread over the years but on the whole it seems to have worked out well. I slipped up a little in record keeping in the party season and didn't measure everything (including the Brussels sprouts on Christmas day) and don't have prices for all the vegetables I grew but even taking that into account, the value of what was grown was £800 (and 187kg of produce). Of course we had to buy a new freezer to keep them all in!

By far the most productive vegetable was the tomato - 67kg and worth £374 alone. 23kilos of Runner beans while worth a decent amount, £152, was excessive as they are not as versatile as tomatoes and courgettes. I also got 23kg of courgettes (worth £79) however they proved to be great for cakes and stews though not so good at freezing as they get water-logged.   26 kilos of potatoes were very welcome and we are still eating them now. Definitely worth repeating again though I will have to switch our carb habits from pasta and rice to potatoes so we use them up quicker.  Jerusalem artichokes are promising to be very productive too - 3.6kg from just one plant already. Delicious and difficult to find in shops - definitely on the list for the coming growing year. Salad is not only easy and fast to grow but also expensive to buy in shops - another winner.

The Patty Pans were cute but I wasn't fast enough in using them all, equally the excitement of finally managing to grow radishes doesn't overcome the fact I'm not too keen on them.

What else is on the plans for this year? More soft fruit like currants (red and black), gooseberries and raspberries.  I can't wait.

Enjoy the good weather while you can...

Saturday brought us a rare gap in bad weather. The fluffy clouds in the blue sky and being surrounded by green and productive plants just makes makes you happy. Perhaps having had almost 3 weeks of constant rain make you appreciate things all the more.  All that rain has also meant that crops are swelling almost as you look at them - runner beans are growing prolifically, tomatoes are splitting with juices and courgettes are turning into marrows if you don't spot them early enough.  I discovered this monster when clearing the mildew-y courgette leaves. It weighed a massive 3.2 kilos. Luckily I bought "What will I do with all those courgettes?" by Elaine Borish which should help me find some recipe ideas on how to use the beast.

It is hard to believe on days like this but winter is coming - the mornings are getting chilly and in Scotland they are being threatened with light frosts. At this time of year it is important to keep harvesting but start to clear plants that are past their best. I have already cleared the last of the tumbling cherry tomatoes and pulled up a courgette plant that was suffering from mildew. When clearing the worst of the leaves on the other plants I had to debate with myself whether to compost leaves or to burn them as recommended by some.  In the end I compromise by piling them up around the corner and wait to see if it rots down without contaminating the rest of the compost. 

I have also started to plan ahead for next year. I already ordered in vast quantities of seed (despite having loads left over from my binge buying in Spring). I have also planted a soft fruit collection which includes a thornless blackberry, an autumn fruiting raspberry and a red gooseberry. As the gooseberry is spiky and grows vigorously I need to allow space.  Unfortunately this is something that is running out on the plot.  Maybe I can consider training it like they do at West Dean Gardens in West Sussex - amazing kitchen gardens that put my humble allotment to shame.

I also bought some scaffolding planks from the allotment organisers to make raised beds. This will make access easier and the marginally warmer atmosphere might make plants grow earlier.  The only downside, apart from having to build them, is that I will lose a bit of space as I sacrifice space for paths.  I did apply for another plot that has been overgrown on the allotment but it's a strictly one plot per person policy. I am still considering applying for one on another plot for my soft fruit (which are less trouble than vegetables I think)but I'm not sure if I can wait another 5 years.

In areas I have cleared I have sowed green manures which can be used to block out weeds and enrich the soil when they are dug into the soil. I started with Phacelia which is a quick growing hardy annual green manure that germinates at low temperatures and is ideal for sowing from March until September. Now all I need is on that is suitable for overwintering - mustard is a strong candidate.

Courgettes, Pine nuts and SULTANA pasta - adapting a great Nigella recipe

This is a testament to being adventurous in the kitchen (and other places of course!). Inspired by the Cookbook a month blog I decided to challenge my prejudices and try Nigella Lawson's recipe that involves sultanas with courgettes (which I have only tried in carrot cake style cupcake).
It has turned out to be yet another way to use up courgettes but this is worth it even when you don't have a glut as it's surprisingly delicious. The quantities are supposed to serve 4 but I found it was fine for two greedy people. I also reduced the parsley to 3 tablespoons and increased the garlic to 4 cloves (there is always a risk of vampires in South London and we need to be prepared). We also tossed in a couple of extra tablespoons of butter with the pasta at the end as we crave heart attack by fat later in life.

•3 tablespoons butter
•1 tablespoon olive oil

•675g courgettes (4 medium)

•4 cloves garlic, chopped

•salt

•3 tablespoons Marsala (keep it boozy!)

•1/3 cup sultanas (golden raisins)

•2 tablespoons pine nuts

•225g egg pappardelle

•5 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan

•3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

Heat one tablespoon of butter and oil in a heavy-based saucepan, and cut the courgettes into very fine rounds before adding them to the pan. Chopped up the garlic and add in, season with salt. Cook over a low to medium heat for about 45 minutes, stirring every now and again.

At the same time, warm the Marsala, pour it over the sultanas and leave them to plump up for about 15 minutes (pop in the microwave for 30 seconds to speed things up). Once the courgettes are cooked, stir the sultanas and their juices into them. Taste for seasoning. Toast the pine nuts by cooking them in a dry frying pan until they turn a golden brown, and remove to a cold plate.

Cook the pasta according to package instructions, then drain and tip into a bowl, toss with the last two tablespoons of butter. Add the courgette mixture and fold and toss to combine. Sprinkle over the pine nuts, Parmesan and most of the chopped parsley and toss everything gently together again. Sprinkle with the remaining parsley and take to the table. Add even more Parmesan. YUM!

Saving the best to last

Top tip: Use vegetables as soon after picking as possible to keep nutrient levels up. If you can't eat them all immediately then blanch the vegetables to reduce harmful bacteria. Cooked tomatoes have higher levels of Lypocene which make them better at fighting heart disease and protect against cancer.

There is a saying that we are all either green and growing or we are ripe and rotten. This holds as true for fresh produce as it does for us.  Wine and cheese may get better with time and exposure to the air but this is rarely true for crops. Vegetables, like our skin, start to lose water and become flaccid as soon as they are picked. Why grow your own, only to neglect your crop once picked and eat vegetables that are no fresher than in the shops?

They also start to lose their vitamin content. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation  of the UN) state that vitamin C content decreases with time after harvest, and that little may remain after two or three days. When you do cook the vegetables, bear in mind that overcooking means a significant drop of vitamin content - try steaming instead of boiling (also eat potato skins as their vitamins are just under the skin) and use the water in a stock as the dissolved minerals stay in the water.

It can be hard to eat all the vegetables fresh so it helps to have a few ways of processing them. Our new freezer arrives in three days and I can resume blanching duties (the existing two freezers are already full). In the meantime, I have got a free extra fridge (from Freecycle) to store jams and chutneys in.  I am particularly fond of Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall's recipe for 'Glutney'.

This is a great way to use up summer vegetables and you can just use whatever is taking over your plot at the time. The quantities he recommends make 10 jars so i halved everything here. I also kept out the chillis as I am a wimp. I also rarely have all the spice to make the spice bag so I just use some allspice and nutmeg.

500g courgettes, diced into 1cm
500g red or green tomatoes (I don't bother to skin them though it was recommended), roughly chopped
500g cooking or eating apples, peeled and diced
250g onions, peeled and diced
250g sultanas or raisins
250g brown sugar
375ml white wine or cider vinegar, made up to 500ml with water
1 thumb sized nugget of ginger roughly chopped
1 tsp of mixed spice
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1 tsp mustard powder and 1/2 tsp salt

Put all the ingredients in a pan. Heat the mixture gently, stirring to dissolve the sugar, bring to the boil. simmer uncovered for 2-3 hours (this makes the kitchen smell great). Stir to make sure it doesn't burn. it's ready when rich, thick and reduced. Put while warn in sterilised jars. Leave to mature for 2 weeks, ideally 2 months, before serving.

This recipe is also a speedy way of using up cherry tomatoes that is surprisingly healthy - in fact I adapted it from a Weightwatchers recipe. It takes just 10 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook.

150g ready rolled puff pastry (I used a pack of feuillete pastry that I picked up in France on a day trip)
60g light mozzarella, sliced
60g goats cheese
500g cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp green pesto (I forgot to add it tonight but bet it would be yummy)

Score a line around the pastry 2.5cm from the edge to make a border then prick all over with a fork. Chill for a bit. Preheat the oven to 220C, bake the pastry for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and using the back of a fork push down the centre of the tart leaving the edges puffed up.

Reduce the oven temperature to 200C. Cover the base of the tart with the cheese slices and top with the tomato halves and bake for 15 minutes. Remove and drizzle with the pesto. Leave for 5 minutes and serve with a fresh salad and balsamic dressing.

Recipe: Moroccan style garden vegetable couscous

I am not just greedy in terms of growing or shopping, I also love food. And hate waste. At the same time I try to stop my greed from expanding my waistline so tend to cook healthily avoiding cream, butter, salt and too much sugar but have been known to indulge occasionlly and have a weakness for cheese.

This is a simple weekday recipe that you can adapt to whatever you have to hand at home but it's perfect to use up a glut of courgettes and tomatoes. It would serve 4 or else you can portion it up for a healthy packed lunch - it's good hot or cold.

3-4 courgettes - sliced on the diagonal
1 butternut squash - chopped into chunks
1 can chopped tomatoes
1-2 tbsp tomato concentrate
1 onion roughly chopped or sliced
Garlic powder and mustard to taste
Scatter in some herbs - I used ras el hanout (a Morroccan spice blend)
80g plain couscous
1 drained can of chick peas

Put the lot into a slow cooker and cook on low for 4-5 hours until it's all soft.  Blend half of it into a chunky soup texture and mix in a large bowl with the couscous. Cover until the couscous has fluffed up (should be fine in 15 mins max). Roughly chop the remaining vegetables, drain the chick peas and mix in with the couscous. Healthy, speedy and ideal for summer.

PS This is a very versatile dish and you can leave out the couscous and serve the vegetables as a side dish (seen this refered to as a tumbet) or whizz it up in a blender as a thick soup or pasta sauce (thicken it first).

Useful resources: books

26.07.10
It is not just food, plants and land that I am greedy for. I obsessively buy books and magazines to help me learn more and find new ways of growing and cooking produce. My current measure of if a book is a good cookery book is the variety of courgette and potato related recipes it offers.
Some books defy classification into gardening or cooking as some have cleverly combined the two but tend to skimp on detail for either.

Both
Food from your garden and allotment (Reader's Digest)
- Billed as all you need to grow, cook and preserve your own fruit and vegetables, this is a very comprehensive compendium of fruit, herbs and vegetables. It is excellent on how to grow and care for your plants and for this rigour we can forgive it's brevity on how to cook the produce – besides other books cover this more extensively and with better credentials. What it does have is an excellent section on preserving fruit and vegetables with a good variety of recipes. It goes into the difference between pickles, relishes and chutneys and even has a section on making wines – my own personal new area of focus. NB suggests a 3 bed rotation system)
Fruit and Veg Grower's Cookbook – Kathryn Hawkins
- Recipes ordered by course rather than vegetable
- One Swiss chard recipe – Swiss chard with sweet spice
- 4 courgette recipes (with eggs and chorizo, summer veg and pesto meatball pasta bake, tagine of chicken and autumnal vegetables, and muffins)

Cooking
Delia – The Frugal Cook
Delia – Kitchen Garden
- How to grow the plants (with advice by Gay Search) and some recipes by Delia
The Cook's Scrapbook (Reader's Digest)
- A return to traditional recipes organised like a cook's notebook with wisdom on seasonality, growing tips and a strong section on preserving and game
The Great Allotment Cookbook (GAIA)
- Comprehensive and laid out by season – courgettes here are classified in Autumn despite me enjoying the onset of our glut in mid July
Tender – Nigel Slater
- Very comprehensive and inspirational cook book devoted to vegetables – I can't wait until his fruit volume comes out (though it will frustrate me as I don't have all those lovely fruit yet).
- Excellent on Potatoes and Courgettes – chard recipes are limited
Using the Plot – Paul Merrett (noticed it has been renamed to 'The Allotment Chef' in paperback version)
- A humorous book written by a chef taken with the passion to be self sufficient. Pleasing to see that others have similar challenges when starting out and definitely reliable on the recipe front – very good on variations on the crushed potato theme
The Ration Book diet – Mike Brown, Carol Harris, CJ Jackson
- Going right back to basics – the original driver to get Britain growing and self sufficient. Based on newly discovered science about nutritional values and a desire to reduce dangerous importing of food from the colonies, the British government encouraged the home front to a) waste less b) grow more themselves and c) cook more healthily.
- This actually is now mirrored in our desire to not over-cook vegetables, to move to a more vegetable based diet rather than eating red meat, to grow food organically (though mechanisation, fertilisers and pesticides meant that women found the arduous job of farming easier and more productive) and to eat locally and seasonally
- Good recipe for Nettle soup and nettle champ
Perfect preserves – Hilaire Walden
- Good for using up gluts through jams and chutneys
A Greener Life - Clarissa Dickinson Wright, Johnny Scott
- Old school skills includes a section on preserves and foraging (possibly more useful than spinning and butchering)

Gardening
Allotment Gardening – Kevin Forbes
- Pocket sized and hard backed – should survive the rigours of the plot well
Your organic allotmenteer – Ian Spence, Pauline Pears
- Sensible approach and comprehensive without being preachy
- Four bed rotation system recommended (potatoes put with squashes & tomatoes)
- Good on green manure
Alan Titchmarsh How to Garden series – Vegetables and herbs
Dr Hessyan series
– Very good, reasonably-priced specialised books on vegetables and fruit. Also with compact pocket editions.

The kindness of strangers

Top tip:
Take time out from all the work to talk to your neighbours - you never know what you might learn. Besides, it's just nice to get to know new people.

20.07.10
Having an allotment is more than just growing food for yourself, it is about connecting with a variety of people in your area. Much like your family, you cannot choose your allotment neighbours but you are united by a common interest and it is in your interest to get along with them as it makes life much more pleasant. Whether it is advice, help with the watering or free plants there are great benefits of building relationships with your fellow allotmenteers.

Within just four months I have received spinach, peppers, curly kale, Spanish onion plants, runner beans, Jerusalem artichokes, a fabulous metal rod for holding my hose, help with carrying scaffolding boards and eaten some wonderful broad beans, spring greens and cima di rapa (a fast growing sprouting broccoli type of plant). These last 4 days we have had winds of over 45km per hour and my immediate neighbour has kindly helped piece together my runner bean framework. I've also had a convivial drink and a chat with a few others along the way.

This generosity of spirit spreads around – some seeds here, tomato plants there or the offer of a building job is offered in return. Even non-allotmenteers start to benefit as the gluts become so great that the freezer and belly is full of chard, tomato or courgette.

My Spanish onion courtesy of a fellow allotmenteer

Thick and fast

Top tip:
Keep a record of what you are harvesting and when so that you can plan for gluts. Balance the flavour and satisfaction of growing your own with the cost of buying it in - if it doesn't taste better or save you money, it's not really worth giving it limited space.

26.06.10
I have been harvesting cut and come again salads and chard for some time now and had may first sweet and juicy birthday strawberry (in early June) but things are speeding up now. I have been lifting the first of the potatoes since the 14th June but today I got 1.73kg and I feel this is just the beginning.

Slightly anal, I know but I have been keeping an excel record of the main crops by weight and date harvested. Between 26th June and 10th July I harvested 2.75kg of mangetout. Thinking that the plants were spent (and some were very yellow) I cleared half but left the healthiest plants to see what would happen. By the 20th July there was a new crop and I'll keep you posted on the total haul.

Courgettes are notoriously prolific and my heart sank when I read that one plant produced enough for a family of four until September as I had planted at least 6 plants. The first proper lot of courgettes arrived on the 7th July and by 24th July I had harvested 7.77kg of courgettes (and that doesn't include an enormous marrow that I missed). I have had to become pretty inventive in finding new recipes to cope with this and am on the look out for a third freezer to accommodate the loot.

Radishes, a plant normally so easy to grow they give it to children, have more or less failed me but I am persevering. Carrots were pretty when pulled but slow to germinate and so cheap in shops I am not sure if I want to repeat them next year.

When wandering around the allotment it is hard to avoid plot envy – one plot's sweetcorn are magnificent and has grown a turnip enormous enough to make Baldrick proud (it must be all that water), anothr neighbour has inherited an amazing collection of fruit and one green fingered allotmenteer has raised infamously hard to grow cauliflower with impressively large heads. My Chinese neighbour has a perfectly neat plot (I must do better next time) and one of theTurkish ladies has built little earth walls around her plants which seems like a good idea to adopt in later years.

One other plot has not fared as well - most of the plot is left fallow and the gooseberry bushes are groaning under the weight of soon to be wasted fruit. For a greedy person like me that has aspirations for a fruit zone this frustrates the hell out of me – I wonder if I can wangle another plot?

Just a small sample of the courgette glut.

Creating structure out of chaos

Top tip:
Have a plan but stay flexible. consider the essentials such as access to water and which way the garden is facing. Leave space for courgettes and squashes to grow - more space than you thought was necessary.

24.07.10
“We adore chaos because we love to produce order.” - M. C. Escher
“Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.” - Stephen Sondheim

I have to admit I like creating something out of nothing. I like imposing structure where previously there was disorder. I also love a plan. After reading vast amounts of books and websites, I drew up a plan. To scale.

In my favour, I wasn’t as anal a fellow new allotmenteer who was seeing marking in each individual plant on an incredibly detailed plan of his plot. I just created zones of planting and winged it from there.

I took into account which direction most of the allotment faced (South), where there were hard structures already that would be hard to move (water butt, wall and wooden posts formerly used for runner beans), I also started creating zones. I decided I would turn the former runner bean area into my fruit cage (or actually fruit area until I get around to doing cage things to it) where fruit can grow permanently. I highlighted an area for compost that had access but that wasn’t in a prime area – this will move again a little next year as it takes up too much space.

I made a list of all the fruit and vegetables I like and that I would like to try to grow. I then grouped them by type. Books differ on what is and isn’t in these groups (and how many groups there are) but roughly speaking there are the brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, sprouts and such like), legumes (peas and beans), roots (carrots, swede, beetroot, onions, garlic etc) and everything else (tomatoes, squash, courgette, sweetcorn, potatoes, peppers). In fact there is also a final group of permanent vegetables and fruit such as asparagus, rhubarb, currants, strawberries and raspberries.

Once you have these crops it is advised to rotate them every year to avoid build up of disease and to avoid the same crops over using certain minerals in the soil.
Some of the features I liked about my allotment also meant that I had to sacrifice some growing space - access to compost, the water butt and a path that was installed to reach it. There is also an arcane rule about how far away from the wall I am allowed to plant in case it creates damp. This means that I am in process of finding new ways to fit in more plants. I am reclaiming an area around the corner and starting to use wasted space under climbers and between slow growing plants like cabbages.

Other unspoken rules that I have been made aware of and had to allow for are that you should keep bushy plants away from paths and you shouldn’t grow tall things where they will cast shadow – a neighbour got into big trouble for growing Jerusalem artichokes and letting them get out of control.

Overall I have underestimated the space some crops will need and despite following packet instructions my courgettes are so close together now it is almost impossible to bury among the leaves to reach the little green fingers. The suspected summer squash (Patty Pan) is making a break for Kent through the brassicas (cue much head shaking from a neighbour who holds brassicas very dear to his heart).

The current layout of the allotment (or lottie as some afficianados call theirs) is based on a pre-agricultural revolution style: a patchwork of crops fitted in where the will took me and in-filling when something has been harvested. While this is attractive I do admire the more uniform rows and neat zones of other plots. They also have the advantage of allowing easier hoeing without fear of cutting an emergent plant off in its prime.