Boxing day so back to work

Boxing day and back to the allotment for the men while the women were confined to the kitchen. They were there for nearly 5 hours so I think we got the best job.

The duck area is being levelled and a start on putting 8 ft posts, 2 ft into the ground for the compound. Not an easy job for anybody but we did call with a flask of tea and a bit of encouragement to keep going (while we went home to the warm).

A sad turn of events. Maria called for help as a group of lads were on the allotments. Luckily Nick and Matt were there and chased and confronted them. She was understandably upset as there had been a group that got in last week and vandalised here shed and greenhouse and taken loads of her tools and used them to break into the brick sheds and caused a lot of damage. This also explains how the small greenhouse had been torn to shreds. Although this had happened last week she thought that they had come back for more but this was a different, younger group. They had got in via the railway line but climbed over the gate to get out so no way of keeping them out. They had the cheek to ask Matt for a key to let them out!!!

A wonderful Christmas but now back to work

A break from gardening to join Christmas at the funny farm.


Katy was quite concerned when everybody turned into poodles but........


..........Aaron, Matt and Rebecca drew lots as to who was going to save us. Matt seems to have them under control.

Meanwhile, the after dinner frog walk seems to be attracting quite a crowd.





One mystery remains from the day - ‘who is Mr X?’

Happy Christmas

Two wise gardeners travelled from Old Basing, they followed the signs that led to the allotment where they found the manure laying on the ground.

What a fantastic weekend

Fantastic weather this weekend so we decided to spend some time at Old Basing, clearing the main bed to spread the manure. Along one some are still loads of strawberry plants and amazingly loads of them were in flower.

Just shows how the seasons are changing and the plants are confused.

We are still getting produce

Having never imagined how much produce we would get in our first year, I am even more amazed that we are still cropping in December. We have almost run out of parsnips but there are still leeks to pull and we still have a couple of heads of celery although only good for cooking now. I sowed some rocket in the greenhouse and the first cuttings were made today so we will be able to have some salad for our sandwiches. There was also a handful of sprouts and a couple of broccoli florets (too few and too small to see). We also found three potatoes that we had missed in the autumn.

Also, after the report last week re the camera, it was terminal so we made the decision that it was something that we couldn't live without, and the amount we have saved on vegetables this year covered the cost many times over. There may be more photos than usual as I am getting used to what it can do. Fantastic for close ups and much greater intensity of colour.

Wonderful sunshine

As the sun was shining we had no choice but to catch up at the allotment.

In the bed, that was the potatoe bed this year, the garlic is taking up half but the other half is for the winter broad beans and peas. Nick is finishing off digging for the plants to go in while I am shifting muck. I moved 28 barrow loads and don't seem to have made much difference to the pile.

One big disappointment was to find that the broad beans that I planted as beans rather than growing plants to plant out, have been dug up and eaten by mice. I was a bit odd that there were uniform holes on the bed so I dug down to find only the shell left behind. Oh well, we learn by experience.

The parcel that was delivered was in fact our Christmas present to ourselves, a selection of fruit trees and bushes. This means that No 53 has finally become the focus of our attention. It is amazing how quickly the space was used up, we have planted 5 apple, 1 pear, a cultivated blackberry, 1 tayberry, another whitecurrant and another blackcurrant. Next time I will make a list and plan of all of them so that we have a record of what is where just in case we lose the labels.

We still have to move the gooseberries that we inherited and a couple of currents that we planted on 51. This is in addition to the 72 strawberry plants and about 50 raspberries. So expect it to be a fruity 2007.

Christmas is coming

Christmas is coming and it is with great disappointment that I have to report that we will not have many sprouts of edible quality. To cheer us up, Nick decided to model the Christmas hat. If it is as cold tomorrow as it has been today, I will be wearing this at the allotment to keep my ears warm.

Garlic day

Yesterday was a rather late garlic planting day. We already had two rows that Rebecca planted a few weeks ago, but spent yesterday preparing the ground and planting more. There were:

5 bulbs of Solent Wight
5 bulbs of Early Purple
5 bulbs of Iberian Wight
5 bulbs of Lautrec Wight
5 bulbs of Albigensian Wight
8 cloves of Elephant Garlic

It doesn't sound a lot except the solent has 10-12 cloves per bulb and the others 6-8. The elephant garlic was per bulb but they grow to about 7 inches across.

I make that over 200 garlic bulbs that we should have early summer. Maybe we have over done it, or as we like to call it 'done a courgette'!

Big excitement when the postman called

We were expecting this parcel to arrive sometime in December but didn't expect it so early.

Can you guess what it is yet?

Note to our readers

I must apologise for the poor quality of the photographs recently but the battery has gone on the camera so these are taken with a mobile phone.

Thank you for your patience, normal service will be resumed shortly.

Wine bottling

I spent an evening last week straining the wine and leaving the sludge behind. It is now down to 10 gallons of assorted wines in various stages of clearing. I think another coupe of weeks and it should be ready for bottling.

Although it is not ready yet, it had to be tasted and Nick was the official taster but was rather non commital. Thankfully Jan (who I used to work with) popped in so was the guinea pig. The verdict was quite positive, the favourite being apple and plum which has a nice light bouquet but a rather strange orangy-pink colour similar for a blush sancerre. The runner bean and grapefruit was the most controversial but the final verdict was that it had the 'potential' to be a nice desert wine.

There was one demijohn that I siphoned a couple of weeks ago that I have bottled. This was the elderberry that I made using raisins instead of sugar and I must admit that it tasted alright. It is much lighter and paler than the elderberry made the convential way with sugar which I am sure would make you over the legal limit after one mouthful and is more like sherry.

So, as we are almost at the stage of bottling, the official 'Pyotts Products' labels had to be designed. Here is the 2006 prototype.

Memories of summer

Isn't it fantastic when it is a cold, wet, dark day and something reminds you of summer. This evening was one of those occasions when we decided to have soup for our evening meal - Courgette, sage and cheshire cheese - Oh how I miss them!!!!!