Allotment goodies

I love pottering around on the allotment and bringing home little treats to proudly show off to my boys, so can you imaging my glee when I came home today after a trip out with a bag full of apples (not from the allotment, but free none the less), a bag of veggies (monster sized beetroot, potatoes, carrots, leeks, parsnip and sweetcorn) and a modified 6 pint milk carton fruit picker full of raspberries. Yes I was beaming from ear to ear :)

Now all I have to do is process it all for eating and storing

What am I going to do with these beetroots ?

Seeds!!!!

I took a trip to the garden centre this morning to buy a couple of £1 hozelock attachments for the water butt so I can attach the timer for the watering system (and yea :)))) it works), but I spent £26!! On what?? 1/2 price seeds for next year. I've done this before and knew they would have seeds this time of year, so I dont know why I suprised to get the bill at the checkout. However I am now the proud owner of a whole load of fruit, veg and flower seeds for next year and will add them to the stash I already have. Perhaps the most exciting (for me anyway) is the melon seeds. I am sooo looking forward to putting some strings up in the conservatory next year and growing melons along them :)

Water Butt and green tomato mincemeat

My lovely son played 'man' today and helped me install a water butt into the back garden, in the pouring rain. I'm hoping to connect my watering system upto it for next year. I figured there is no point this year as I am coming to the end of garden cropping time and can use the exiating system until winter when it needs to come out anyway. I have a timer on the watering system, but it connects to a tap with a screw thread and I want to connect it to the tap on the water butt, so I will have to see if I can find a connector (suggestions welcome).

I love mince pies at christmas so as I'm going to have a bumper tomato crop so thought Id make use of some of those green tomatoes early.

I spent a few hours making green tomato mock mincemeat with the green tomatoes in the garden.

I was pleasantly suprised with the results and now have 3 large jars of mincemeat for my christmas mince pies, yummy.

Grow bag holder

I've seen a couple of products on the internet that hold grow bags on thier sides and claim to provide more space for roots. The plastic version is availiable for £26.99 + P&P from http://www.kakoi.co.uk/ and the wooden version £24.99 from www.nucan.co.uk/grow.html.

I figure they look pretty cool and could increase the space in the garden I use to grow my tomatoes, or at least make it more portable. I have lots of scrap wood around (thanks neighbours) and will try to figure out a way of making something similar over the winter ready for next year.

I have a couple of plans on paper. The wooden version looks easiest and it's all slot together, so this is what I will be aiming for, with the possible addition of something on the ends to hold bamboo canes in place. This will allow me to cover the holder in plastic (instant mini green house) or netting, or construct a system of strings for the tomato plants to grow up. This years tomatoes have very sucessfully been grown up the tomato frame I built earlier in the year.

Allotment - this year and next years plans

I finally seem to have got on top of the allotment and all it's weeds, with the help of black plastic (not very eco friendly I know, but it worked a treat and will last for years).

I have divided the allotment into sections and have a crop rotation system in place. The raspberries have a permanent spot as do the strawberries. I have 4 vegetable plots, divided by grass paths and bordered by fruit trees that I'm trying to train to espaliers (I say' trying' because I've never done it before, so its all a bit hit and miss).

The plot has been easier to keep relatively weed free, but the produce is not as much as I'd hoped. Maybe it's because I'm growing in traditional rows????? So with the use of my plot planner on http://www.growveg.com/ I converted the plot into a square foot gardening style (even though I won't be growing in raised beds) and increased the potential plot productivity.

Here is next years plan, although it doesn't show the raspberry plot (incidently growveg.com allow you a free months trial, so it's well worth checking out)

Cuttings

The cuttings I took from my fuschias, rosemary, rose bush and next doors clematis all seem to have taken. I think this is mainly due to treating my cutting correctly after reading the http://www.hccollege.co.uk/ RHS level 2 sample chapter, which just happens to be about propagation. My plan now is to get as many free plants as possible for the garden and the allotment.