The Turn Towards Autumn

I'm starting to notice the plants changing with the seasons, although the plot still seems productive so hopefully the frost will hold off and the fresh vegetables will keep coming. I'm very excited as my chillies are starting to redden up and I have my first flower on my aubergine plant. It probably won't get time to fruit so I will try it earlier next year but still it's very pretty to look at.

Allotment Sunday Dinner

Well the allotment is busy producing at the moment and as I planted most of my seeds late because we were building the raised beds my produce is about a month behind, so hopefully the frost will hold off and the slugs will get full and not eat any more....



The most exciting part about our Sunday visit was when we came home. We had enough produce for a Sunday dinner with all the vegetables grown by us at the allotment, how exciting is that!!! It tasted delicious.

Welcome home harvest

I went to Cornwall for a couple of days and when I came home and went up the allotments I had lots to pick for tea that evening. I had a chilli, variety of beans, potatoes, swede and courgette.








I also noticed that my tomatoes and pepper plants have finally started to fruit. I doubt the tomatoes will turn red now as we seem to of entered Winter already but I can make some green tomato chutney.

Finally a Sunny Day

Yes we have sun :) I've spent most of the day up the allotment today. I managed to sort out 3 of the beds and weed the surrounding areas so if we have sunshine again tomorrow I will be back on top of things before I have to leave it again for another week!!

I planted out what was left of my seedlings after the slug damage. I have broccoli, spinach, pak choi, chard, winter lettuces and cabbages. now in the old potato bed and I also planted some onions, spring onions and turnips in the root bed so I am all prepared for Autumn.




















I managed to come home with more food again today. I dug up my garlic and now have it drying out on the window sill in my kitchen and pulled some of my rhubarb, just enough for a few mini tarts. The rhubarb was new this year so I shouldn't really cut it but it was so big it was blocking the light and the amount that's there it's not going to miss a few sticks.

Babies Everywhere

Just went up the allotment after being away so it was very exciting after not seeing the place for over a week. The good news is the weeds haven't gone too crazy and I still have vegetables left so the slug damage isn't too bad. I also got to harvest lots of nice vegetables for my tea including courgettes, peas, runner beans, bay leaves and radishes.It's a very exciting time up there at the moment as I planted a lot of stuff late so there's lots of baby vegetables around the place and its so exciting watching them grow, I get very maternal.


See if you can guess what the following babies will turn into??

Catch up on the lottie

I haven't blogged for a while so here's a quick catch up of what's been going on...

I moved all my strawberries to a new area as next season my OH is going to build a cage for them to stop the damn squirrels!! He has had an idea of adapting a second hand fire guard, just have to find one now.

I decided although I loved my shopper bike it just wasn't practical living in North Wales so I asked the chairman of the allotments to look out for a new bike for me and he had two bikes given to him and I got one of them and guess what it's purple!! My shopper had a happy ending it went to a local 60 year old who was interested in getting back into cycling.


I went away for a week the beginning of August and obviously came back to a jungle but we had a community day up the allotment yesterday so it's now all prim and proper and the whole allotments are looking great. We have the judges from Wales in Bloom coming around today which is very exciting.

Before I went away for the week OH and I discovered the smell of rotting perennials in our new compost system. We had to empty two bins full of perennial weeds covered in water that had been sitting in the sun for over two weeks it was not a pleasant experience and I have now adapted the new compost system to no water on the perennial weed bins!!!

Anyway here's what my plot is looking like at the moment....

Compost Day

We had a great day today as we had a communal compost day to sort out the compost bins. We emptied all of the bins and made different piles of compost, perennials, nettles, left overs and rubbish. It was amazing what we found in some of them, polystyrene, plastic cassette tape, shrew and toads the mind boggles. We had lots of compost at the end and I have enough to finish my plot which is great as that means I haven't had to pay for any compost to get the plot finished. We are going to now have 8 compost bins along with a perennial bin and nettle bin to make nettle feed. It was a fab day, I got to meet everyone and it was great to be up there with lots of people and pass information and stories. Here's some pictures from the day...

Baby Chilli

Earlier this week I noticed that one of my flowers on my chilli plants is starting to turn into a baby chilli. It's amazing how you can plant a seed, a plant will grow, flowers will bloom, flowers die off and a vegetable starts to grow, WOW!

I have also planted some more leeks, carrots and onions in my root bed. I am not sure if it's too late to sow some things but I am going to give it a go and see what happens.

Meeting

Just come back from my allotment meeting. I have been officially put in charge of compost, compostwoman's information helped, so if you are reading this thankyou! There was a lady from BTCV there and she informed us that she wants to arrange an event for all local organisations and allotments to get together for a social along with some training, they will even arrange a mini bus to the event for us. The event will probably be in a local environment centre Moelyci as they have a lot of good practice going on there for us to see along with a lot of knowledgeable people.She also said she would try and arrange a group visit to Centre of Alternative Technology for us to get information from there. We also agreed it would be good to get rainwater harvesting so are going to try and get B&Q to donate some equipment to us. We are also going to try and get a bit of funding to allow us to put a roof on one of the out buildings so we can turn it into a potting shed. It's all very exciting and inspiring.

Beans and Squash are in

Risked it and went up the lottie this morning. The skies were blue by the time I left the house and I had to change into a vest top in the shed when I got up there because it was so warm. I managed to get the new bean bed finished and planted some runner beans and squashes. I got caught in a shower but it was really refreshing so I didn't bother with my coat I just enjoyed the downpour. I picked some potatoes, broad beans and peas to have for tea tonight and a bought a tub of local oak smoked sea salt made by Halen Mon on Anglesey, I think this will be lovely to go with the fresh vegetables from the lottie.

Bean a good day..

Went up the allotment yesterday and got 80% of the bean bed dug over. The squirrels are still attacking my strawberries so I am thinking of putting a caged strawberry bed down the middle of the first half of the plot.







I have recently tried out an oyster mushroom straw kit at home. I didn't get that much of a harvest from it, I think this was because I left the spores for too long in the fridge and they were a solid mass before I used them. Anyway after I finished with the kit some of the straw still had spores on it so I decided to lay the straw on a shaded bit of the patch up the lottie and just see what happens. Worse case scenario it will just mulch the soil.

A step further

Sunday evening was really nice so we decided to go up the allotment for a couple of hours and get the bed sorted that my OH made the day before. While I was planting the tomatoes, courgettes and aubergines my OH started digging the new ground in the second half of the plot. It hasn't been dug over for years so it is very tough with some well established weed roots. Hopefully I we will get it ready in the next week and I can get some late beans and squash in there. Then there's only two more beds to dig!!

Last bed and clearing the second half.

Today I had company up the allotment. My OH came up the allotment to finish the last raised bed and got stuck in and helped clear the second half. I also resowed some seeds in the root bed. I got a row of beetroot, parsnip, onion, carrot and leeks. Managed to cut back a lot the weeds in the second half of the plot and clear all the left over wood. It's looking really good now and it was great to enjoy it with someone today, although I'm not too sure if my OH saw it like that. Hopefully we will have a warm Autumn so I can get away with a few late sowings.

Seeing the light at the end of the weeds!

Weather was grey with light showers but I decided to go up the allotment as my OH is going to be coming up with me tomorrow to finish the last raised bed so I needed to get the area clear. All I need to do tomorrow is clear the pile of wood and clear the weeds under the wood and soil bags.







I have decided to practically start again in my root bed as so many of the seedlings were entangled with weeds making it hard to untangle the mess. I did manage to save a couple of carrot, leek, onion and swede seedlings. At least this time round I can try and sow in a straight line.








I have noticed that something has been nibbling at my ripe strawberries. I will have to find a solution for that possibly build a structure with a netting. There was one bright red strawberry so I waited until I finished my work and ate it. It tasted so sweet, I haven't tasted a strawberry that sweet, ever!

I See Soil

My body was protesting but I got up the allotment and I was determined to find my plants in my beds and I did. I think I ripped out a few of the plants while weeding as I am not sure and if in doubt rip it out!

I also got reminded of the joys of having an allotment today. I saw squirrels running around and the little robin came to say hello and feast on what I had dug up but the highlight was seeing a mother feeding her chick and then the chick went for a bath in the pond if you look really closely you can see the baby in the water.

Potato Worries

As you can see from my post below I harvested my first potatoes today and they look delish.

But shock, horror aghhhh!!!
The same time I harvested these I noticed marks on the leaves on a couple of the earlies, what is it, is it blight??? I have posted on the INEBG forum and I am now awaiting some help!!!