A week of extremes

At the weekend we had overnight temperatures of -1. As visitors to the gorgeous Brighton we had to scrape frost off the car on our way to a half marathon (ouch!) but were bathed in sunshine as the day warmed up.

London fared slightly better I believe though the nights are still chilly.

We are being lured into a sense of security and optimism about planting later though as Thursday temperatures are predicted to rise to 16 degrees. 

After a relatively dry winter (the second in a row) there are warnings of possible drought measures in the future and families are being urged to start saving water. Apparently, the average rainfall this winter has been lower than the months preceding the severe drought in 1976, which brought a summer of water rationing, damaged crops and wild fires. The worst affected areas are the east of England, the Midlands and the South East.

I recently had some good news - I am to be the reader of the month in April's Garden Answers magazine. Apparently there is a prize associated with it.  I'm seriously hoping it will be a collapsible water butt as they look awesome. And it will help with the upcoming drought.*

*Please note that predictions of drought often precede an unbelievably wet and unimpressive summer (see 2011).

Garden treasures

Despite PSB (purple sprouting broccoli) not working out for me this year (mainly due to labelling errors and then neglecting plug plants) I have still had some home grown broccoli. Or calabrese. 

According to www.allotment.org.uk the way you can tell the difference is not to go by supermarket labels which confuse matters. Apparently the main variable is that broccoli is an over wintered crop but calabrese produces its crop the same year before winter. and that the flavour of calabrese is milder and much preferred by many to sprouting broccoli and it is an easier crop to grow.

My versions are small and growing in the raised bed border where they were supposed to be adding a vibrant purple.  But that is the problem with mislabelling - heyho.

They have still been put to good use. I steamed and added the spears to a skinny minnie macaroni cheese from Cook Vegetarian magazine.  I couldn't find the exact recipe online for you but it isn't too different from this one. The one I made had more vegetables (carrots, leeks, onion, asparagus and peas) and less pasta - 175g. And the topping was grated parmesan (didn't have breadcrumbs to hand) though if you were really vegetarian you wouldn't use parmesan because it uses rennet (which is apparently something to do with cow intestines - oh yum)

Famous last words - never underestimate the weather

I don't mean "never underestimate the weather" are anybody's famous last words. Though they may have cropped up in a lightning storm and I might suggest them to Michael Fish (will we never let him forget dismissing reports of a hurricane? I probably won't).

I mean that it was only 10 days ago that I was thinking how mild it was and had bought countless bags of potatoes and was even considering recklessly planting them in February when, out of nowhere, along came snow. 

To be fair, it wasn't really a surprise - they had predicted it for over a week and we'd had a chilly period ahead of it. We'd even starting mocking the weather men as there was no sight of snow on Saturday evening. It was only as we started driving across town that the snow started in earnest. Damn.

But a day and half later, the snow man's head has rolled off it's body in a snowy parody of the French revolution and things are returning to normal. Except I STILL haven't sowed the broad beans, cut down the raspberries or prepared the potato beds.

In the mean time I have been reading gardening magazines. One feature on whether to dig or not (which appears in most magazines at this time of year) appealed greatly.  Clearly my lazy self favours the no dig method but only if it means that I don't find myself 'mini digging' throughout the rest of the year to get rid of roots and pernicious weeds. There is also something quite satisfying about digging over a plot (at least at the beginning before your back feels like it is breaking. Technique, I know, blah blah blah).

As it is, I did little bits of digging to neaten things up and then promptly made things messy again by upending a whole compost tardis (sadly not really rotted down enough). Fingers crossed the snow will have had a magical effect on the contents otherwise I can see me pleading with Tom to put the heap back into the tub whence it came. 

A dilapidated wheelbarrow and laziness are also the reason I haven't hoarded the manure that was recently(ish) delivered to the plot.  I did pick up some in the autumn and that will have to do for the moment on the pony poo front.

My friend Carol who has a plot in Thornton Heath has had great success with some winter green manure seeds I gave her to help control the weeds and protecting the soil from losing minerals over the winter. I just always worried they'd end up being more worrisome than the weeds...

Keeping up with the seasons or the Jones's

I have an admission to make. I think we are in March despite it blatantly being the end of January.

Two factors have helped me in this delusion.

Firstly, we seem to be playing spot the winter this year. 2011 was the second warmest on record and while December is officially average, it certainly felt unusually warm with reports from around the country of daffodils blooming early and roses blooming late. Perhaps we were collectively comparing it with the previous December which was the coldest ever on records.

The other factor that is supporting my early spring fever is being connected to other gardeners. I buy a lot of gardening magazines. And by a lot, I mean all of them. I follow fellow gardeners online via twitter and I have countless reference books at home. The advantage magazines and online updates have is that they are timely reminders of what we should be doing and when. It is too easy to leave the books on the shelf when glossy pages demand your attention.

The problem is that magazines in particular are ahead of schedule.  February issues come out in early January and have tips and things to do now. I no longer know if they mean now, early January, or now, the February that is still a month away. 

This means I am always worried about being behind time, like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.  Luckily my inertia and other time pressures means that I am a month behind (or ahead depending on which month the tips are supposed to be for). So I still have to sow the broad beans and chillies and tie in the raspberries (and cut down a third of them to see if they are really autumn or summer varieties).


At least the potato resolution is going well - one mammoth cooking session later and we now have Sarah Raven's dauphinoise to look forward to and we have already tucked into a bastardised version of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall' Jansson's Temptation. This is made of matchsticks potatoes softened in a pan with onions then stirred with cream and anchovies and cooked for 45 minutes at 200 degrees.  As I didn't have cream or anchovies I used up some left over bacon bits, chorizo and skimmed milk instead and I can say it was delicious even if it wasn't up to the authentic Swedish dish.

2011 yield review and the best intentions

Laziness, a new job and Winter has meant that I haven't updated in a while but now that Spring feels like it's round the corner, I am stirring like the snails crawling out of the nooks and crannies in the allotment and feel it's time to start writing again.

Where better to start in January but a review of the last year and a blog full of good intentions?

This is what I wrote back in July
Slow start to the year as things got into their swing. Things came early due to warmth but when growing from seed still need a growth cycle so not as successful than established soft fruits. Heat may have been a check and certainly the raspberries need magnesium (Epsom salts) to correct yellowing leaves. They also should have been tied in better. Next year or in the autumn I will create a framework of wires which should resist the weather better than normal string.

Now for the update in January 2012
We had a dreadfully wet summer and that meant the tomatoes got blight and yields were poor. It also didn't help that I didn't tie them in or support them well. Again - must do better next time.

Yellow was the colour of the season and yellow courgettes, patty pans, ornamental squash and yellow beetroot were great fun. The squash stored well and we are still eating it now in stews and bakes. Despite a slow start and early lack of germination the beetroot ended up doing well though they weren't the impressive giants that Bernie managed to grow.

I can't tell you what varieties did well because I forgot to label them, or labelled them in pen that washed off or on sticks that got lost over the season. Again, must do better this year.

Now in the midst of winter, incidentally the warmest winter since the early 80s apparently, we have had just one frost and the chard is still going strong and we are starting to harvest the Jerusalem Artichokes. We also had a potato harvest to make an Irishman proud. Sadly, though we tend to eat bread or pasta more as our chosen carbohydrate and my constant on/ off diet discourages me from even that so we still have mountains of potatoes at home. 

My resolve is to find recipes that are both healthy and that use up potatoes in vast quantities before the next season returns.  In fact the whole chest freezer needs a good clear out as I fear we may even have vegetables from Autumn 2010 lurking in there! 

So that will be my challenge for the next four weeks is to use up all the stored vegetables before Lent starts on the 21st February. Watch this space for recipes using fruits of the freezer...

Oh and I promise to:
- cut down a third of the raspberries to see if they are autumn or summer fruiting
- tie the raspberries in with wire (string just didn't work)
- label things properly
- tie in and support the tomatoes I eventually grow.
- I can't promise not to order too many seeds because that horse has already bolted but I can sow them with caution to avoid a glut

Drawing inspiration from the RHS Autumn shows

I went to the annual RHS Autumn show - what a great deal.  Free to member and £3 for non-members and slap bang in the middle of town - it gives you a wealth of inspiration and the chance to buy plants (always welcome!).

Among the displays there were some stunning giant vegetables on show - what an amazing amount of work must be involved. I also picked up a couple of recipes from the Vegetable Society. These include a recipe for Runner Bean Chutney (cue a trip to the freezer) and buttered shallots which I am looking forward to trying.



On my list of lovely new buys I got Elephant Garlic and two sorts of garlic to be planted (along with the garlic I bought in France).

I also have a bag of onion sets in three varieties (white, yellow and red).  The sets are mini onions that grow up to be big onions. I will be planting them 20cm apart and covering them to keep the mice and birds away as apparently they like to pull them up.

Amazing size vegetables on show - what an amazing amount of work must be involved
TO add to the onion field I seem to be building up I got shallots sets and an everlasting onion. I wish I had also got Egyptian wandering onions which apparently 'walk' by bending over and rerooting and meandering across the plot.

I have replaced the summer bedding in the steps planters with hardy herbs - pineapple sage, cat mint, thyme and bergamot.

Also on the list of things to do is to sow broad beans 'Aquadulce'.

Taking a break

I have been on holiday. The neglect and mini Indian Summer while I was away combined with the previous wet, bad weather meant that crops stopped much earlier than last year.

On my return I decided it was time for a tidy up. I took up the beans (remembering to keep the nitrogen fixing roots in the earth) and, with the help of my friend Carole, weeded the plot.  Now all I need to do is shift (I did say shiFt) a load of manure that a local pony owner left and mulch the plot to prevent weeds from regrowing and to nourish the land.

Earlier this year I was forward thinking and, looking to future, I ordered purple broccoli plants.  Unfortunately they arrived just before I went on holiday and while I was away in Sicily they died when left out (unplanted - very wasteful Katrin) in the unexpected late sun.

In the mean time I have gone mad and bought a myriad of vegetable based cookery books:
- Verdura - vegetables Italian style by Viana La Place
- River Cottage Veg Everyday by Hugh Fernley-Wittingstall
- Vegetables From an Italian Garden by Phaidon deserves a special mention for being a simply beautiful book with special seasonal sections on growing vegetables too. A delight to look at.

I can't wait to try out some of the recipes.