Squash challenge

It's that time of year again. The time when squash become a staple of our diet and I need to get creative in the kitchen.

Currently we have 4.41kg of yellow patty pan squash which look like mini flying saucers but taste much better.

On top of that a kind allotment neighbour, Adrian, offered me 3 of his courgettes which had overgrown into marrows when he wasn't looking. (Another 3.06kg)
Definitely time to search out the squash recipes.

The weather has been weird - more like April sunshine and showers. (17/8)
Tomatoes are starting to ripen but I should have staked them, fed them and pinched out side shoots. They are now prolific and resting on the ground.

I also cut down the old raspberry canes but didn't have time to take them to the tip. With winter brassicas in under weed suppressing fabric it's starting to look ready for Xmas.As I said I planted winter brassicas through weed fabric but most have been eaten. How can I help them survive?

I also stripped our stairs of carpet so will use that over a mulch of manure to prepare the soil for planting next year.

Assessing the harvest to date

After a fair bit of neglect, a late start because of frosts and a recent heatwave (including a plague of flying ants) it's surprising that there has been anything to harvest. And yet there has been. By far the best performer has been the raspberry patch - 7.2kg by the 26th July. There are more raspberries to pick but it's just too wet to pick them today. That should probably be the last picking then I can dig up plants near the path and cut down the old canes.

The mangetout are still giving a little (660g) though they are best as peas now

I get the occasional red currants from the plants in the garden - they are very tart but have high levels of vitamin C so are best mixed into a smoothie.

I'm so glad that I started growing some cutting flowers - I got this great bunch of statice which will also dry well and give me colour even in the winter. I also saw a brave first gladioli (Gladiolus) flowering in the rain today.

The latest, and more or less final, haul of potatoes was 4.5kg. Not bad but it could be improved with better soil preparation ahead of planting next year.

In a strange turn of weather it is now the 30th July and pouring down.  I got two more little patty pan squashes, taking my total harvest to 1.3kg, so I have to find some great recipes to use them up.

Looking towards future harvests, the tomato plants have developed little fruit and one of them is almost red. I didn't stake or pinch out side shoots so they will be a little floppy and will put too much effort in creating new fruit rather than feeding the existing ones but I'm still looking forward to the next summer harvest.

Finally, with the potato area cleared, I have ordered plug plants of winter/ spring brassicas to use up the space. the debate I'm having is whether to try to plant through a weed suppressing fabric to reduce work as I am starting a new job and want to concentrate my time on the allotment on fun things not weeding.

We're having a heat wave

For once, London is hotter than Central Europe and on a par with some of the southern areas.

This being Britain there are already some people complaining about the heat but I am enjoying it while it lasts. The Daily Mail (apologies, I didn't mean to read it, honest) did recently run a story about the wasteland southern England has become.  Certainly my plants might not like it quite so much but they will have to lump it. So far there seems to be no threat of a hosepipe ban which is good as I have a lovely new hose that coils itself up again. Bliss - no more hoses snaking around the garden and sweating over buckled pipes.

I was in Berlin recently and was very taken with the now defunct airport, Templehof (in the picture above), which has been turned into an impromptu leisure park. The runways make amazing rollerskating, running, cycling and roller skiing (yes, that's right) arenas.  In between that the land is used for kite flying, picnics and general lounging around.  There are a few unofficial allotments which, unlike in the UK, do not seem that focussed on grow your own just colourful wildflowers mainly.  There was even a nature crazy golf - with all the obstacles growing.

Templehof may be huge but no space is too small to grow things in. A neighbour down the road is using the patch of land outside his house which is shaded and with no soil to grow vegetables. In reclaimed containers he is growing a great variety of plants from seed. More power to him.

Fabulous fertilisers

Shit matters. Or at least fertilisers do.  Looking at the abundant foliage of Bernie's potato plants compared to  my rather scrawny efforts just shows who manured the plot before planting (Bernie) and who, sadly, didn't (guess who). And his potatoes are bigger too. Damn. On the other hand I still managed to harvest 4.545kg.

I have potato fertiliser and tomato feed but so far I had not used them. Given I am now at harvesting stage of potatoes I guess it's perhaps too late for the potatoes but I have a) started to water the tomatoes occasionally (which are flowering) and b) have put some feed on them in hope.

Looking elsewhere on the plot, the allium family is suffering as they are smothered by weeds. Bad me. As penance I indulged in a spot of hand weeding, which is pretty much back breaking.  Bernie suggested to completely soak the ground you want to weed a day a head of the weeding which makes the weeds less likely to snap and stay in the ground.

Rhubarb was as always great this year and keeps on giving though I have stopped harvesting now to avoid stressing the plants. In fact, fruit as a whole (apart from some fairly lackluster strawberries) are the success story - the raspberries are rampant. Too rampant in fact and they are over taking the path. Someone kindly tied them back but they are still blocking way. I used a strimmer line to add to the reinforcements and once they are done providing mounds of fruit (828g at the last harvest) then I will have to dig some canes up and relocate them further away from the path.

Another overly robust plant is are the rosemary plants. If I had a sheep farm there still wouldn't be enough lamb to use up the rosemary branches that I had to lop off to clear the path. In fact I broke a pair of secateurs in the process.

There is a mystery weed that is popping up all over the place which seems to be very deep rooted. That will be fun to dig down to Australia in an effort to dig those out.

The one place I did manure was where the tomatoes are planted. This may well have resulted in the copious amounts of nettles that I need to do battle with (mental note - use gloves because even if the stings are supposed to help arthritis, I don't have arthritis and it hurts like hell.) I also need to constantly have spare bags with me to collect produce.

The mangetout  are also producing well - 445g at last count. The squashes are also starting to flower.

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.

It might as well rain until September

So we are at mid- late May and the temperature is still in the low teens.  Even though I have done the great winter summer clothes swap over, nobody has told the weather gods and I am hankering after thick jumpers and duvet coats.

The cold weather isn't deterring my greatest garden enemies - the slugs and snails are definitely getting into swing of things. Not known to be nature's acrobats, they are reaching new heights in among my roses and eating the flower buds off my flag irises. Apparently there is a new Spanish slug invading but to be honest I'm equal opportunities in my hatred of all slugs (snails at least give you something to hold without covering your hands in slime.)  Salt is very effective to kill them (they shrivel alarmingly fast) but does leave a CSI-like outline around the desiccated corpse.

I took advantage of brief sunny spell last weekend to weed a bit and plant out (most) of the seedlings.  After planting I watered them with some of Bernie's magic water which apparently is used to help plants establish roots and has worked wonders on his crop so far.

In my rush though I forgot to cover the brassicas. I promise myself that I will do it at same time as I plant out beans and sweet peas that I forgot to plant. If I don't then the brassicas will be ripped to shreds by the pigeons and the snails/ slugs will have eaten all the bean seedlings.

I'm cold and considering yet another jumper. Will we never see the sun again?

This is the busy time where you can hear the plants growing and panic starts in that you are falling badly behind. Or is that just me?

To make myself feel better here is what I HAVE done (too much that I haven't done to list!):
- Planted Sharps Express on 16th April
- Planted out mangetout but didn't support them well, planted Duke of York potato at row ends, and added an extra row for Maris Piper on 17th April
- I repotted all plug plants and seedlings

- I harvested 840g of rhubarb and made some rhubarb syrup for cocktails. Delicious.


Things that I really must make a priority:
- Sow more seeds (Maybe Cavollo Nero)

I need to establish when can I start to put seedlings out

Frost watch
We were still getting frosts on 27/28 March and we had snow in the 4th April
Just as you thought it was safe. Following 20+ temp on Thursday the temperature plummeted again down to 9ish degrees. Hopefully temporary blip.

Bulbs and blossom are finally emerging (unfortunately so are weeds and snails and I've been told this will be a  bumper year for them - damn)

Warming up now on the 2nd  May (I should hope so too!)

I just planted the last of the potatoes into a bag for the patio - in layers. But I won't be earthing up as apparently it makes no difference.
- Innovator at the bottom
- Purple Majesty in the middle
- Anya on the top
All from a stall at RHS spring show

I also planted out the onion sets which were in modules. While popping them in I noticed the tops of the Jerusalem artichoke are showing through in garden (and the tops of the Charlotte potatoes in the patio bag are just starting to show). On top of that I potted up 6 strawberry plants - I can never resist.

This is such a  busy time and I just can't find time to plant out tomatoes/ chillis/ look after peas properly/ plant brassicas (summer cauli and kohl rabi). I'm also not sure where to put wild garlic - I don't want it to spread but I also don't want it to die out....

Argh... Spring does my head in!