Erratic thoughts while chilling out, allotment beds map

Not so long ago Thompson & Morgan updated their website, and although this is a purely commercial site and not specifically dealing with organic, they have included a little interesting content – on the other hand they have ended up messing up the online order form considerably, and you never seem to know exactly what you will pay.

Anyway, I find useful the “What to plant this month” page, which gives me ideas for last-minute planting (being a compulsive buyer of greenery). Also, I find that you often get extra information on the plant from the website cards that is not on the seed packet, and keep telling myself that I should go back and read it before planting – but that is too time consuming so I never do. Having the information grouped by month has slightly increased my chance to read it , i.e. when I receive the newsletter – beware: they do send quite a lot of paper and email, which is quite annoying, but obviously it does them good because they keep sending more.

The Seeds of Italy newsletter, which I received as well, has also a little bit of suggestions on what to plant in the coming month (and they are more sparing with information): I did not realise you could plant some peas at this time of the year, so much to learn for me yet!

Back to the T&M newsletter, I followed it through tonight and had a lazy look around so I noticed a “Gardening Hints and Tips” section. Some areas were fairly easy to read – such as the ‘Germination guide’ and the ‘Growing potatoes’ page – I will print it out for taking to the allotment.

There are also pages on geraniums but I did not find any information on overwintering them, which I am quite keen to do as last year I managed to grow only 1 of 5 seeds of my Summer Shower Mix and the plant was really beautiful (unlike most of the varieties that are sold as plants). I still hope to save my lonely plant, despite the fact that it got frostbite when it snowed last month.

More allotment-wise, I have almost done preparing my beds map to plan next year’s planting. I will post it when it is ready.

Crop updates, autumn cleanup, cooking

Unlike my student and business life, I seem to do better when I am not pressured for time on the allotment. Yesterday I had a great time preparing the mushroom bed in the greenhouse (apparently mushrooms do best on horse manure under the greenhouse bench, so I have prepared them a nice pile of it), planting garlic and covering up the herbs.

Allotments abroad, clearing up, crop updates, encouraging wildlife.

This week I have been travelling to Switzerland and I must say my allotment holder soul was struck by a view from the train just outside Zuerich. Not considering the numerous chicken pens which made me think of the mountain village I used to spend my holidays and – more recently – weekends in in Italy (which I am sort of missing), I was surprised to see an allotment site over which, flapping in the wind, were flags from several countries. What a curious idea – I was thinking – when the train went past another one exactly the same. Obviously it is a tradition, and it felt good to see different nationalities so openly celebrated together in the close community of the allotments.

Anyway, back to England, this weekend I finally managed a visit to my allotment after more than two weeks.

To start with, everything looked horrible and I felt so disheartened. The snow had damaged the Borlotti beans and the sweetcorn, and most plants were either dead or dying, with the exception of the green manure Phacelia which is doing pretty well. It is really annoying to find out that the only thing than one would hope to be exterminated by snow – slugs – have instead survived pretty well, indeed so well that it would not be inappropriate to think of the plot as Slug Central.

Although the weather was not particularly exciting, it did not rain, and I managed to clear everything up and dig the half bed that I will need to plant the garlic as soon as the ground is not waterlogged, hopefully next weekend.

I guess I cannot complain. I have picked four pumpkins in the end, three of which should be ripe according to the rule that a pumpkin is ripe if it resists puncturing by fingernail.
Also, I got 15 corn cobs, which are eatable albeit a bit starchy from staying so long on the plant. And 300gr of Borlotti beans – very little considering how many pods were on the plants before the freeze, but it is better than nothing, isn’t it? I will try them tomorrow.

Despite the overnight rain I managed to go again this afternoon, when it felt much better compared with yesterday, probably because it looked cleaner. As it started drizzling, I decided to clear up the greenhouse so that I can plant something inside: salad and mushrooms for example. It was a proficuous time: I managed to make everything neat and tidy, which was needed as there were signs of mice. Finding some chitted potatoes in a paper bag, which I must have brought over some time ago, I planted them inside, just to see what happens. It is not the wisest of ideas, as I had to plant them in compost that had previously hosted my blighted tomatoes, but I decided to give it a try anyway. I also planted some tulip bulbs and erected a trellis to protect and train my fig tree on.

In terms of socialising, it was good to meet the angel neighbour who felled the obnoxious tree at the top of the plot. While we were on the topic, and since he did not need his logs and wanted to burn them, I asked if I could have some myself.
I will use them to start building my little “nature reserve” housing block. I have seen a great picture of one in “The Organic Way”, the magazine that comes with the Garden Organic subscription. It consists of 6 pallets in a pile, filled in between with logs, hollow pipes, bricks, straw and rolled cloth: I want one!

I have not been away from the allotment so long since I got it last year, but yesterday I felt pretty awful and today I have had to catch up on housework.

Really counting on next weekend: garlic and broadbeans are waiting to be planted before the ground is too hard. I have found a leaflet on crop rotation and – between that and the instructions on my (very useful) book – I figured out that both my garlic and the broadbeans are going to go where the tomatoes were this year.

Time to go now, I have to prepare for the week ahead…

I did not go to the allotment last weekend (same reason as ever, the weekend has become essential to my weekly rest and housework needs since I changed jobs) and, because of British summer time coming to an end there is no chance for me to go after work…

… so when it snowed copiously on Tuesday I was worried for the herbs – which I have not covered yet – and of all the other crops, in particular my Borlotti beans. It seems on our side of London it had not snowed in October since 1974.

… all the time I spend at the allotment, I would be Anthea Turner’s Perfect Housewife, and my husband would shower me with gratitude.

However, we cannot all be perfect, so I must content myself with being the allotment’s “whirlwind” and take pleasure in the extremely limited domestic glory that the title provides…

Quick visit to the allotment, community feeling.

It was such a good day today that I could not resist going out of the office dot on the hour and pop in to the allotment, where I met my new neighbour: Keith, who is a newbie but will have his green-fingered wife’s contribution. Actually, I discovered that I have two new neighbours: Keith in the bottom half and another guy (the angel out of my dreams who felled the tree) at the top.

And I realised that my nickname of “whirlwind” has stuck, and fellow holders are still talking about me in those terms. I must say it is flattering, I pride myself in being “a doer”, although I would not know about actually being a “whirlwind”. The nickname originated when in a matter of a month or so I built both the greenhouse and the shed. Well, I needed them, I hoped to set everything up before the planting season (but I ended up running late anyway).

It is nice that people bother to stick nicknames onto you, it creates a community feeling. I bet it’s Nikki and Tom that spread the word, they are so nice and friendly and have spent a lot of time chatting with me, advising, helping me identify plants, sharing cuttings etc. They themselves are nicknamed something like “the farmers” as they are very organised, very meticolous and have a very professionally-looking greenhouse.

Other characters are Geoff (who has three plots, considerable experience and I dare say a very respectable age besides a generous attitude) and the lawyer (I do not know his name, but he is there most evenings and has even gone some lenghts to greet me in Italian!).

Those are the people that I meet more often, then there are some that I meet occasionally, as my other neighbour Tony, Jean the allotment manager, the guy who looks a bit like Robert Redford and whose accent I do not understand, Claire (who got the allotment this summer, after some hankering), the Scottish lady whose orderly plot I really admire…

A lot of us are newbies, and it seems that there are more and more people in their late thirties to early forties. Sometimes there are kids playing on the path, or helping out and some dogs as well (very controversial topic, that of the dogs, as it can be argued that they are not overly hygienic besides devastating seed beds and seedlings, albeit occasionally and unwittingly).