Angel

Now that Angel is home she is still nervous but loves sitting on the window sill in the office if we are working in there. She loves being stroked but on her terms so we have to wait for her to come to us.


This is the first time we saw Angel at Battersea cat and dog home in Old Windsor. She looked so little and vulnerable and was very wary of people looking at her. Her home was lovely. She had a bedroom, bathroom and play area with a lovely climbing frame and a little tent that she kept hiding in.

It was wonderful to see the conditions as it was beautifully clean and all the staff were so jolly and friendly, the cats must have thought that they had gone to a four star hotel.

We went back a week later and collected her. They gave us all her details since she was found and her medical history. We met the nurse who had looked after her when she had her operation and she explained that her teeth were in a very poor state as she had obviously been living wild for some time and had a poor diet. They had had to remove quite a few teeth so we need to make sure that she has a lot biscuit to keep the few she has remaining healthy.

They gave her the name Angel and as it suited her we decided to keep it.

Update for July

Due to still getting the house in order, regular overnight stays in Sheffield and an outbreak of swine flu, the update is late this month and these pictures are a week old.


Due to the rain over the last couple of weeks, the squash in the compost bin have gone mad and taken over. The plants are loaded with squash of all sizes and shapes so we should be well fed over the winter.






I have added some trellis for the plants to climb up so I can keep them slightly under control. As we have the toilet on that side of the allotment, I am worried that the plants will reach there. Although it would look nice if they grew up the back and over the top. AS long as it doesn't take any small children into its grip - although !!!!!!!








As we had filled a second bin, I have planted some Butternut Squash plants in here. It is a bit late to get them going but if we continue to have rain and then get nice weather into September/October, we should get a reasonable crop from here. We can only wait and see. It is such a strange year, I have a feelingthat we will reap the rewards of being late with everything.









Another late starter this year is the Dahlias. At last we have some flowers but I am worried about slugs and earwigs. This one is bigger and better than all the others. Once again, only ourselves to blame as we got them in so late. We left a lot in over winter but we thought none had survived. There I was wrong as there are now three dahlias growing in the middle of the beans canes. There are no flowers yet, and I keep parting the beans to give them light so hopefully there will be some late flowers to bring home.










An update from the willow field. We only had about a 60% success rate with them taking, mainly due to us not planting them quickly enought when they arrived. They then didn't grow very well, mainly due to us not watering. Now that the rains have come, they are growing like mad. We have given up keeping the ducks out, but the plants are big enough that they don't trample them.

I don't think there will be willow baskets for Christmas this year though.







I had started a new lot of sweetcorn in the greenhouse, and as the onions and garlic have been lifted, I cleared this and planted out the corn. Not sure how it will do this late but might as well try. There is sign of corns forming so we may get some small ones. If not, it is good composting material. In the background you can see the outdoor tomatoes. I am not very good at keeping them in order so decided that they were bush varieties (they are now). What matters is that they produce tomatoes. These ae mainly the Italian varieties that will go for cooking - some for the freezer, some for ketchup and some for quick pasta sauces so it is going to be a good cooking session when they are ready. I have been quite ruthless in keeping jars this year and rather than keep all, it have been selective to more attractive, portion sized, rather than the bigger the better.









Another floral interlude from the red dahlia. I am sure they had names when I started but they now seem to have white labels as the sun has bleached out all the colour and writing.










Back to the garlic. I planted two varieties this year. Hardneck and softneck. I have excluded the Elephant Garlic as this is a member of the leek family. This is the hardneck which I have grown for the first time. I filled out very well and has very firm bulbs so I will save a few to replant in the Autumn.

I am afraid I don't go by the sales catalogues which say you must buy new stock each year and only locally grown (Isle of Wight). These came from Morrisons, the softneck was partly from Tesco and partly from last years crop, and, I know I wasn't going to mention Elephant, but that has been my own for the last three years and is still growing strong with no sign of disease.











I can't believe I have given such a long update without showing the ducks. While we are working they are lounging by the pond. They love the fact that it is raining as the slugs and grubs come to the surface so there is rich forraging.

Emily is always the first in the pool in the morning so I am convinced she is from German stock!








The rain is also helping the figs which are growing like mad. There must be at least 30 that look like they will mature this year, so I will be getting my fig recipes out. Alternatively, I could make some syrup for those occasions when we are egg bound.









We have had a good crop of currents this year and I have frozen mixed bags of black, white and red. The fruit cage is a bit overgrown with raspberry canes, and I didn't realise that there is a blackcurrent bush hidden behind them so a job for the weekend is picking a load more. Read and white currents are so much easier as they are on strings, so you just need to pull a string off and you have about 20 currents. Blackcurrents on the other hand are individual and take ages to pick.









We are also going into the super food growing with four blueberry bushes. One early, two mid season and one late. We are now mid-season and have a great crop. Late season looks like it is going to be good as well.

We bought a Goji Berry at Tonbridge garden fayre, and for some reason I thought it was a bush. Not so - it is now throwing out steps about 5ft long so I am going to move it to grow up one of the central circus tent poles in the fruit cage and see what it does next year.








One disaster, and the reason why you should never trust pigeons, is that I planted out some dwarf beans and the next day there was nothing more than a stick. All the leaves had been eaten. I am hoping that it is pigeons but I have a feeling that we may have a rabbit in 51 and 52 as there are some beans that have been chewed through and it looks too high to be rats.

Now I am worried that we have rats the size of fully grown rabbits. Moving on.......








..... to sweeter things. I have been so excited about the peaches that I hadn't checked out the other trees and found a fantastic apricot. It is fully ripe but is smooth skinned rather than furry. We cut it in half and I must say it was the sweetest, juciest apricot I have ever tasted - and I have tasted a few in my time.

The tree is going to get extra duck manure for next year and hopefully a bigger crop will appear.







Seasons are certainly changing and the apples have started dropping. There are some trees that only have a few weedy applies and others that the branches are almost breaking. We are going to have to start picking at the weekend so I looks like I will be starting to make chutney earlier than I thought. Thankfully we have a good supply of marrow and courgette so marrow chutney will be first on the menu.




We also sadly lost Apple last week. She picked up something toxic and by the time we got her to the vet she was too week to survive. We have been extra vigilent in inspecting the plot but with all the foraging they do she could have picked up anything anywhere.

We have fruit

It has been a while since I have updated the blog and this is mainly due to how poorly everything is growing. I can't remember the last time we had rain and it is a constant trudge up and down with watering cans to keep what we hae alive. I really don't like watering as it encourages roots to come to the surface rather than going deep to get water, but it has got to the point where they would need to go very very deep. We try to only water the courgettes and squash, tomatoes, and salad crops, but the poor beans are going to need a good soaking soon.

It is paying off with the courgettes. This is one that I had missed and it is already a small marrow. As well as the traditional method of cooked courgette, it is lovely julienne in salad and I am sure Nick hasn't noticed that it isn't cucumber.

Talking of cucumber, we have a couple that are about two inches long and should be able to start cropping soon, but we need to start watering these twice a day unless the weather starts cooling down.





The squash that I planted in the full compost bin is doing amazingly, in fact we are in danger of doing a reenactment of Day of the Triffids. Unfortunately, there are loads of male flowers and only a couple of females so not much fruit yet but there seem to be a couple that I am hopeful will set.

I have good intentions at the beginning of the year, and make lovely labels for all the seedlings. By the time it gets to planting out, I have either lost them or the writing has washed off. This is my way of not telling you what sort of squash they are, so we have some lovely surprises to come when I find a giant pumpkin trying to hang on to the side of the bin.





Still on the fruit theme, the figs are growing well andthe plant is covered. This will be the first year we have fruit that we can use and I am never quite sure when the right time is to pick them. The test is to give them a gentle squeeze but I tried that with the jostaberries and got juice all down the front of my T-Shirt.











The biggest excitement is the peaches which are hanging on to the tree so it must have good deep roots and isn't suffering from the draught. We have been picking off any leaves that show signs of peach leaf curl and the tree now seems clear, although a bit bald.










Lastly, the soft fruit. It seems a bumper year for white currents and we are seeing a real difference having the fruit cage as the fruit is all for us and not shared with the pigeons. Here is tonights meal of strawberries, jostaberries, loganberries, red currants, white currants, black currants and gooseberries. Our raspberries are a later variety so, although there is a lot of fruit around, none ready for picking.

Update for June

We have been so busy in the house since the building work was done and the carpet was laid, that the allotment has been slightly neglected and the blog has been very neglected.

My first update is what we are having for dinner this evening.

Our own potatoes that were self setters growing around the grape vines, and peas. There is a mixture of varieties but they all taste wonderful.







We are suffering a glut of strawberries and red currents so for desert, I have made some frozen yoghurt with some of the fruit for a bit of variety.









Followed by a report on the weather and how climate change is impacting on what we are growing. Among the fruit trees the have a peach. As we grow by organic methods I refuse to spray so we have a bad case of peach leaf curl and every day I pick off more leaves. We do seem to have a very robust tree and it is currently fruiting. At the last count there were 9 peaches. Not very big yet but I have great hopes for them.







After last years bumper crop of broad beans, the mice got all the beans sown in the autumn so we have a late grop developing. unfortunately, the black fly have attached and I am desperately spraying with the mix I made with rhubarb leaves soaked in a bucket of water. Not sure if it is working, but they still taste wonderful and have lovely furry insides.

Update from Old Basing

The smaller, very neglected plot at Old Basing has had some much needed TLC



We have some of the good stuff brewing. You will remember the impact that comfrey tea had on the courgettes in our first year, well this year the squash and beans will benefit at Old Basing.








We have decided to cover an area that is particularly badly infested with mares tail. Nothing will shift it so as a last resort we have covered with black plastic to shut out all light and water. We are going to plant squash in the bed next to it so they will scramble all over the plastic. Hopefully, this time next year it will be weed free.<








The garlic and onions are doing really well but bad news for the rhubarb which has all gone to seed in the heat. We have cut it back where we can but it is looking very dry and woody.







We had a few potatoes left over so planted them very late. They are all peeping through so a nice late crop or new potatoes looks likely.

Sunny June

We have a load of self setter potatoes from the area where we grew them last year and have had to clear them out so that we can get the grapes planted. We have left them as long as possible but they are overdrawing and the great surprise was that we got a good tub of young potatoes. They are really delicious bite size and lovely with a bit of mint and salad. You will have to take my word for it as I am not sharing.




Adding to my tea pot collection, I have two guest teapots. I must be spending too much time watching Dickinsons Real Deal and have become a fan of Majolica. Both were a bargain from ebay and I couldn't resist. This is my favourite so for really special guests.



Not that all guests aren't special, but as this one was less than £4 I wont be quite as upset if it gets tea stains on it.

I have heard that some people don't appreciate the artistic skill involved in the creation of these items - for those, it will be the boring old one. Or a glass of cold milk!






Back to growing - one of the compost bins has reached the top, so I have added a layer of 'soil' out of the duck compound and a bag of multi purpose compost. To this I have added two butternut squash, a patty pan, a pumpkin, and four plastic bottles. Keeping it watered will be a challenge as it will drain well but they should grow all over the bin and over the arch.


We have been doing a bit of bartering again and swapped a dozen eggs for five quince plants. These are going around the edge of the pond to act as a bit of shade and a screen. In a couple of years I should be able to add quince jelly to the list of produce available from Pyotts Products.





I must go back to the tea drinking at this stage and show you the new teapot stand that we were so kindly given recently. It is a very posh addition to our flask and tin mugs. I must look out for a tin teapot for the allotment.





A surprise egg at the weekend. Either a little bit got stuck or somebody not pulling their weight. Aparently it can happen occasionally and nothing to worry about but when we cracked it, there was no yolk.






Finally, a bit of animal husbandry. Not ducks this time but Star. He was very brave and had his injections, worming and flee treatment last week. We also asked out his sensitive eyes which are due to being a white cat so nothing to worry about. I was worried that he needed glasses but thankfully we don't need to take him to SpecSavers. We do have to protect his vulnerable parts from the sun though so had to get some sun block for children to rub on his ears.

I forgot to ask if the same applies to white ducks - they don't seem to be worried about the sun though.

The chickens have landed!

Well, the day has finally arrived after months of preparation; we have 3 new residents at 17 Lodge Road, and they're chicken shaped!

We picked the girls up from Ashford at 10am this morning, which is an hour's drive away. The re-homing woman (that's what they call the people who find homes for ex-battery hens) let us pick out our three new family members. I felt awful only having to pick 3, and very sorry for the scrawniest looking ones, but she assured me that they would all find homes over the coming days. We picked out three who looked like that had nice personalities and a good amount of feathers and here they are:



Aren't they posing well for the camera? We have named them Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch which are 3 coastal towns in Kent and the name of a small gauge steam railway. Our friend, Chris, suggested the names and they just seemed so perfect! They weren't very organised in this photo so didn't stand in the right order so, left to right, you can see: Hythe, Dymchurch and Romney.

Let me introduce you to them all individually:

Hythe looks very healthy, her comb is very upright which is supposed to be a good sign. She does, however, seem to be a little bit of a bully and I caught her pecking Dymchurch's bare bottom where she's featherless. I read that this could happen when there are feathers missing so it's a good job we have the week off to keep an eye on them. Here she is:



Dymchurch was the one that we named first - she didn't look in a good way when we got her out of the box and took a while to start exploring so "Dym" seemed to fit. She's much better now though and is moving around a lot. I know parents aren't supposed to have favourites but if I did, she would be it:



Romney hasn't let her personality come out just yet - she spent the first couple of hours sitting in the dirt box under the coop pecking at grass but is now out and about with the others girls. She has a bit of a bare chest at the moment but hopefully she'll grow some feathers there to preserve her dignity!



When they first arrived they were all pretty stationary but in no time they started exploring. This is them having a good look around:



I'm amazed at how much more confidence they've gained in just a few hours, it's lovely! They haven't yet ventured into the coop although Hythe made it halfway up the ramp, had a quick look, then turned around again. Darkness is a new thing for them, as is grass, bird song, bees, flies and a whole manner of things so it's lovely seeing them explore. We have to try to encourage them into their coop tonight and onto their perches to sleep so I hope we've given them enough room and shredded paper to lay eggs in! They are designed as layers so there is a possibility that they might lay straight away but we'll see. As the week progresses I'm sure we'll get to know them much better and hopefully get to taste our first home laid eggs!

What's happening in Hampshire

After the update from Kent, I realise why it is called the garden of England, but here is an update from us in the different time zone of Hampshire. We certainly seem to be 1-2 weeks behind in development.

I must start this edition by saying that one of the major failings I have is forgetting to take the camera to the allotment so these photos were taken with my Blackberry, so apologies for the quality.

The willow is really taking off now. Or at least the first row is, the others are coming along slowly. One of the issues that we have is lack of water. Although we have had some rain recently, willow likes moisture, so I think we are going to have to start watering.






The willow that is in pots until I find a place to put them is growing wonderfully. There are two twisted willow that I intend to put in pots in the garden as I think it will look a lovely feature in the autumn and winter.




After the success and popularity of the hamster ball, we have invested in another so that we can have double the amount of barley straw. The ducks seem to love playing water polo with the balls as they move them around the pond. The turf that we got from B&Q and added to from digging up the lawn at home, is growing well, but like the willow could really benefit from a good downpour so that we don't have to keep watering it.



Great excitement today when I found some lovely white flowers on the peas. I really hope that the birds and pea moth don't get to them before we do.





Another job that I did this week was to strip the infected leaves from the peach tree. Since planting we have had a bad case of peach leaf curl so the advice from Bob Flowerdew is to strip off all infected leaves. This exercise showed that under the horrible leaves there were able 30 peaches growing. I am not sure if they will stay on the tree, but it is now going to get dail attention and regular watering.




Another excitement after the total failure last year, is that we have loads of parsnip that have germinated. I have great hopes for a lovely tasty crop in December. It does seem a long time away but they really will benefit from a frosting. I am doing rain dances now, but will be doing frost dances in November/December to sweeten the parsnips.

I find crops that grow out of sight so exciting as, until you dig them you have no idea how they are doing. Most of the time they are forked and split but I have great hopes for this year as we have dug deeper and cleared more stones than ever before.



At the Tonbrdige Garden Fayre, Nick found a bargain. A goji berry plant for £4. According to Bob, they love poor soil and neglect so a perfect plant for us. Watch this space for updates on this super food. It has pride of place in the circus tent and I am sure we will be the envy of all other allotmenteers.

I am sure we are the topic of conversation with many at the moment due to the construction so I am sure ther eis a regular audience looking in to see what is happening inside.



We got a shock yesterday whe nwe found that Fennel had gone Kate Moss on us and picked up the latest fashion trend for ducks. She had a lovely neckless which thankfully was big enough not to be strangling her. A couple of days ago, I had lost my hair tie and Fennel had found it. I know that it was very old and stretched but I don't know how she found it and got it over her head.

It was another case of 'first catch you duck' as we had to chase her to get it back. She must have felt quite naked without it but we can't let her be a diva.


There are some among you who doubted the term 'figlets'. You may remember a couple of years ago, Katy got me a fig tree for mothers day. Last year we had a couple of figs, but this year it managed to hold on to some of the small figs from last year and they are developing well.

All I need to do now is plant a pastry tree next to it and we will be able to make our own fig rolls.



Having been given a lovely tea-pot stand at the weekend (photo to follow) it got me thinking about the appropriateness of our teapot. It is too but, too boring and too un-duck. So, in desperate need of some retail therapy, I logged on to ebay.

This is our new teapot. Ideal of two or for one person working from home, who likes to drink tea.




On the subject of ducks, we have a now sign on the gate to 53. A warning to all entering and it really is a warning that should not be ignored. I am constantly amazed how much comes out of the rear end of 10 ducks.






Next to the peas are the broad beans. Having lost the total crop planted in the autumn, when mice decided that their need was greater than ours, I resowed in the spring. Better late than never and it shouldn't be long before we have a crop. Later than in Kent but still worth waiting for.








Last but not least (and getting dark by this time) - artichokes. The plant is like a trifid and there is at least one choke forming so I am expecting a good crop this year.

In the foreground is the globe artichoke and in the background the Jerusalem artichokes which give a lovely late alternative to potatoes and should see us through the winter again.