Easter Sunday: Operation potatoes

Happy Easter.

Today at the allotment was potato planting day. We have had the seed potatoes chitting in the kitchen for the past few weeks, but today we planted 5 first earlies and 5 main crop. Then in a few weeks we will plant another 5 of each so we can stagger the harvest. Earlies will be ready around June/July then the main crop in August/September. 

We had to do a fair bit of digging to get the beds ready, especially as we decided to extend the last two beds and join them together. So we now we have two big beds instead of four smaller ones, which gives us a bit more planting space.

I managed to get muddy as usual.

Leap year at the allotment

Our little allotment was the setting of a very special occasion this week.
I decorated one end with bunting, fairy lights, tea light lanterns, I had insense burning and a BBQ on the go. When the sun went down it looked great. The photos don't really do it justice. It was actually very cosy.

I left a note for David to dress warm and meet me there. I got down on one knee and asked him to marry me...

..He said yes!

😍

At last some sunshine

We finally got onto the allotment and did some much needed weeding. The herb patch is now clear, just need to redistribute the herbs a bit as they are all bunched together in the middle. It looks so much better though.

David was busy clearing one of the other beds and the ground under the cold frame. There a few strawberry plants left in there. They were a disaster last year so hopefully we'll get more fruit this year. Once the ground drys up a bit and we can dig it over properly this bed will be ready for planting.


And in the flower bed it's nice to see a bit of colour coming through. A few crocuses starting to open up showing off their lovely purple petals. Can't wait for the spring now.

Cooking with runner bean beans

Howdy all, bit late but, happy 2016!

Life at the allotment has been quiet over the winter. Beside monitoring the red onions and garlic, which are growing well, there has been little for us to do. But with the days lengthening it's time to start getting back on the land.

The manure has been rotting into the ground, so that can be dug in soon, and there is some weeding to do to prepare the other beds.

One of the first jobs we need to do is prune and stake up the apple tree. There are a lot of low laying branches where we lost a lot of fruit last year so we need to see what we can do to straighten the little tree up a bit.

Job 2: Herb patch. Some of them have gone mad, the chamomile has spread to cover half the bed, the curry plant is more of a bush and there are a lot of weeds to get rid off.

Job 3: Potatoes can start to be planted out next month so we will need to get our seeding potatoes soon to chit and then plant out once there will be no more frost. I once overheard an old gent say that you should always get your potatoes in before Good Friday. So that's the plan.

Job 3: We need to plan what we want to grow this year and get the cold frame ready for seedlings.


The jobs will be endless so I will leave it there for now and update you with progress once we get going. We just need a dry weekend.


On a side note, we had a ridiculous amount of runner beans last year and we couldn't eat them all. So, the ones that grew too big we popped all of the beans out of their pods and froze them. You can see from my last post they are pretty pink beans. Well, we got them out this week and added them to a stew and they were damn tasty.

Runner beans

As most people tend to be we have been inundated with runner beans. They always end up growing to big and therefore tough and stringy to eat. So we've decided to pop all the beans out of their pods which will then be added to stews and chilies.
The colour of them is amazing...

Allotment sort out

Things are winding down a bit at the allotment so it's time to start sorting out ready for next year.

The wild flowers are still looking great though, here's are pretty poppy.

We decided to create more growing space to join two of the beds together and extended out into the path a bit. We have gained quite a lot from doing this actually. More space for yummy veg. Have of the bed is planted with garlic, red onions and fennel. The other have has been manured ready for runners, courgette and squash next year.

Clearing the beds we harvested leeks, parsnips, a few courgettes and the lovely lady next door gave us some potatoes and a squash which looks like a mini pumpkin. Very festive

Also picked some rhubarb and some cooking apples going free for some puddings.

Courgette and Sultana Wine UPDATE

Here we go, seven bottles of Courgette and Sultana Wine. This will need to lay in the wine rack for at least 3 months before trying it.

Let's hope it tastes ok...