the end of a productive year

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. So said Charles Dickens in the Tale of Two Cities.

In relation to allotment gardening it's been a good year for some things and not so good for others. Peppers and chillis did really well in the hot summer as did tomatoes.

We had some excellent cauliflowers and a glut of other vegetables many of which we are still eating now.

This is the first year we had lots of melons which we grew in a hot bed. It worked! Parsnips in black dustbins did well on neglect and a bit of water.

Potatoes and winter veg didn't reach there ususal big proportions due to a lack of rain and carrots and parsnips got decimated by aphids which we didn't pick up until too late. Sweet potatoes were grown for the first time. Not a bad crop but they don't look or taste like the sweet potatoes that you buy in the shops. We won't be doing them again.

We had some bad weather too and the site didn't escape damage in the storms of November and December.

one plastic greenhouse was completely lifted out of the ground and deposited some distance away. Another lost all of it's plastic panels. A couple of fence posts got broken and it's wet and muddy. However work goes on, manure to put down and beds to prepare ready for planting in March. First onion seeds in along with summer cabbage and broad beans. Autumn sown caulis, broccoli and sweet peas growing into sizeable plants now.

The new year brings new opportunities, new things to try and new plans to prepare for the growing season of 2014.

The South Norwood Allotment Holders Association (SNAHA) held it's annual AGM and BBQ in July.

The pictures below highlight the best plot winners on site this year:

Gill has struggled with her plot over the last few years, but has really got on top of it this year to become the best on site! She came First in the Best Plot Competition

Seamus is one of our new members of 2013, he took on a difficult plot and transformed it into a tidy and well cultivated, productive patch. He won Best New Comer 2013.

Tony has been on the site for 12 years and always has a wel looked after plot. This year, Tony won Second place is the Best Plot Competition.

Anita has been a member on the site for 10 years, and has worked hard over the years. This year she was awarded Third place in the Best Plot Competition.

Last year, the site saw a large turnover in members, Doreen on plot 6, Jane on plot 20, Frank T on 24 and Zoe on 31 were all recognised as best improved.

Both for 2012 and 2013, SNAHA came 1st in the Croydon Federation of Allotments Competition. This is a view of how well managed our site is. Last year was the first time that SNAHA had won since 1946.

Members 2013

If you're interested in having a plot and live in the South Norwood area, email us on:
southnorwoodallotment123@gmail.com

success at last

It's been a long time coming, but finally things have warmed up, days are longer and everything is starting to grow well. For the first time ever we are still eating spring cabbage in June, Normally they are all gone by now but this year they have just reached decent size hearts. At the same time our summer cabbage are nearly as big having responded well to the rain and warmth through May and June. 

The above picture is of chick peas growing on the plot last year. This year’s chick peas seeds (from a packet bought from a supermarket) have done well producing sturdy plants which are now starting to flower. We look forward to fresh chick peas again (but not the shelling of them). One of our allotment neighbours tells us that they are very good charred in hot sand and eaten whole. We'll probably try them on the BBQ. 

Two weeks ago we had our first peas. Sweet and succulent - that’s what growing your own is all about. These are from low growing plants. The climbing peas are covered in pods and around 7 foot tall now. Many of them will be frozen for peas to eat in winter as we get sick of eating them during the glut at this time of year. Tonight some rather sweet finger carrots which were sown in large plant pots in a greenhouse in January and are now big enough to eat. We have had some lovely lettuce, spring onions and radish which seem to taste better and are more tender than stuff grown in summer. 

Our winter cauli's have produced and been eaten. We have planted more at various stages of growth with those sown in February and kept cold over winter starting to head up now. 

Tomatos and sweetcorn are in. Beans doing well. Broad beans you can just watch growing. Just autumn and winter brassicas, squashes and  melons yet to plant. We are trying new "hot bed" technology for our melons this year - more of that in our next blog.

June must be one of the best times of year. Enjoy the exuberance and fresh colour of new growth and the honest flavour and goodness of food produced by your own hand.

The cock is crowing,
The stream is flowing,
The small birds twitter,
The lake doth glitter,
   The green field sleeps in the sun;
The oldest and youngest
Are at work with the strongest;
The cattle are grazing,
Their heads never raising;
   There are forty feeding like one!
     
Like an army defeated
The snow hath retreated,
And now doth fare ill
On the top of the bare hill;
   The Plowboy is whooping-anon-anon:
There's joy in the mountains;
There's life in the fountains;
Small clouds are sailing,
   The rain is over and gone!
                    

So writes William Wordsworth "March". 

Well the rain did go at the beginning of the month and the plot started to dry out enough to be    able to  rotovate the rough dug ground which has now put us in a good position to plant. The     couple of days of warm spring like weather had me planning to plant out first early spuds this      last weekend however the  rapid return to winter changed my mind. I did however put the over wintered  cauliflower plants out in a cold frame prior to planting them out in the ground (hopefully next weekend). 

This weekend has been nothing but rain making any ground work impossible and the hard frost we had last Thursday has resulted in some pea plant damage in the cold greenhouse. More     sown to replace them.

Everything else however continues to do well. Lettuces, radish, carrots, flower seedlings, chives, parsley, fennel, onions and early brassicas. The shallots in trays have put lots of roots down    and will be ready to plant out fairly soon. The onion sets that we featured in the last blog have    now sprouted. The greenhouse shelves are full and we are having to do a weekly shift around   now to accomodate new sowings going in. A trial of dwarf beans in pots in the greenhouse has gone OK - they are still alive as are the early chilli and tomato seedlings which we didn't think   would amount to a great deal. Garlic, broad beans, kale and  sprouting broccoli is growing       away in the ground despite the cold and wet. We continue to dig out and eat last years carrots and still using onions and garlic from store. Last year wasn't such a bad year after all. This time last year it was warm and sunny and we hadn't had any rain for a long time. Here is the apricot blossom last March. There is no sign of any of it yet this year. 

Whilst we wait patiently for the weather to get better here are a few gardening themed songs to have a listen to.

1. In a Little Wigan Garden – George Formby

2. Sowing Seeds – The Jesus and Mary Chain

3. Combine Harvester – The Wurzels

4. Hong Kong Garden – Siouxsie and the Banshees

5. Homegrown –Neil Young

6. Roses in the Snow - Nico

7. Strawberries Are Growing in My Garden (and It's Wintertime) - The Dentists

8. From Gardens Where We Feel Secure – Virginia Astley

9. I’m A Lonely Little Petunia In An Onion Patch – Arthur Godfrey

10. Rose Garden – Lynn Anderson

11. The Hanging Garden – The Cure

12. Octopus’s Garden – The Beatles

which one gets your vote for most obscure?

The question this weekend was what to put in the blog? Well what isn't there to write about at this time of year? Everything except the weather is hotting up and the pressure on the small time food producer (ie allotment holder) is mounting.
Mid February it is. Shallots and onion sets in trays in the cold greenhouse to give them a head start.

They are already putting down roots and we expect them to shoot soon. We have a few early spuds in large pots for an early small crop (if successful), peas, carrots, cabbages, broccoli, cauli's, poppys and hollyhocks all growing away well. The photo below shows our early cauli plants which we hope will keep until March for planting out - proof that things can grow in the coldest and darkest months.

The sowing list gets longer. We have a sowing spreadsheet that details month by month what needs doing. We have just completed the Feb list and will be looking at starting March soon. Early March is of course when the chillis, peppers and a lot of the half hardy annual flowers need to go in so plenty to do there. Windowsills are filling up with trays and pots and kids complaining about plants everywhere. It's about to get worse because March and April sowing lists are long.
The over wintered chilli plants in the downstairs loo haven't done well. We believe they are well and truly RIP so they will head to the compost bin next week.  However we are trialing some Feb sown chilli seeds to see how they get on in rather cool conditions in a greenhouse powered by a single parafin heater.
Have finally admitted defeat with old packets of calendula and hollyhock seeds which didn't germinate. They were five years old so I reckon we've done well with them.
I would like to report that all of the plot prep is done but it's not. The beds that are dug and weed free need a cultivator on them and we still have digging to do. Have to get the early brassica and spud beds ready for planting and identify where all the early peas are going. We did eight pea wigwams last year and still eating those frozen peas now. Going to do more this year as they are out of the ground by May and we can use that space for other things planted later in the year. As the pressure mounts our available time to do all of this work doesn't increase accordingly. We just have to work harder in the seven hours a week that we put into our plots, splitting the jobs between the two of us and being clear about what we are setting out to do. Invariably these days we achieve what we set out to do because over the years we have learned all about unrealistic expectations of ourselves. Never a pleasure to leave the allotment after working like a slave and not achieving what you set out to do. Always a pleasure however to leave knowing that various jobs are complete and looking forward to the next weeks bit of plot time.
We had a single plot come up for let (what better time of the year by which to acquire a new plot) and a very pleased couple who have waited a while for a plot and are looking forward to getting stuck in. We wish them  every pleasure and much success with their trip into allotmenteering.

What do you do on an allotment when it is snowing and freezing to boot? One of those days that make your eyes water, nose run and ears sting. Most people would stay at home. We didn't. The greenhouses were dark with snow laying on the roof - surprising how something so white can restrict the flow of light so much. So we swept the greenhouse roofs and in the time it took to do a few other bits and a cup of tea in front of the gas fire in the shed, the roofs were covered again.

So far only minor losses in the greenhouse from the cold spell. Hollyhocks don't like the cold and an odd sweet pea is RIP despite a paraffin heater that we set up over the weekend. Some of our radish seedlings have died but a lot in the pot remain alive so we will see what happens with them. We are potting up the onion seedlings sown at beginning of January along with summer broccoli and cabbage into twelve cell trays. The January sowing list is complete and we are waiting to start February's list which is longer.
Our stored butternut squashes have started to go rotten so they are now chopped up and frozen ready to make butternut squash and apple soup. The onions in store are doing well although we were unable to get anything out of the ground to eat because it was frozen. Thankfully all thawed out now.
Back to buying potatoes from the supermarket. We left a lot in the ground and they have rotted. We are going to buy the first lot of seed potatoes tomorrow from the spud fair. Early spuds going in big pots in the greenhouse for our first new potatoes in June. The rest will chit in the shed well wrapped up in fleece.

In an attempt to reduce our manure bill for next year we have begun collecting stable manure to rot down over summer. 4 car loads and approx 100 bags later we have two large compost bins rotting away. In true dedication to the cause we are hoping to keep up the fortnightly trips and to build another couple of bins to accommodate it all. In the coldest of last week's weather our manure piles were steaming away, testimony to the good stuff within.
Outside bulbs continue to grow and snow drops have flowers on them. The bellis flowers were the only colour in the snow last weekend along with an odd pansy flower. The sedum is budding and tree buds are getting fatter slowly but surely. The promise of better things to come - better get on with those jobs then ....

With Christmas and new year over it is time to really get down to thinking about the growing season ahead, which for us starts now. As you can see from the picture below we did as we said we would on Christmas morning, and visited a rather wet allotment to pick some veg for dinner and some greenery for a table centre piece. This had bay, rosemary, privet, holly and some variegated stuff, all off the plot. This would have cost a small fortune from a florist, but cost us the price of a candle and a piece of oasis.

   During the winter months, I find myself digging out (no pun intended) my old allotment books. I have just finished reading Terry Walton's My Life on a Hillside Allotment. A pleasant enough read but rather uncharismatically written and portrayed. It does however give an overview of what needs doing season by season and gets the brain thinking about the year ahead. My absolute favourite and a book that I turn to for comfort again and again is "Digger's Diary" by Victor Osbourne. A beautifully written description of some of the characters on his allotment site and the things he does month by month, the successes and failures and his observations about what is magical about having an allotment. If you don't have one then you probably won't appreciate the delights of this book.

   The weekend between Christmas and new year saw us making our first sowings of the new year. A tray of early peas, climbing peas and onions, a pot of belstar broccoli and greyhound cabbage and a few pots of sweet peas: all of them germinated in less than a week. Cleaned a greenhouse out this morning and done the minor repairs and bits and pieces to keep it in good condition. Bubble wrap going in tomorrow and the newly emerged seedlings will hopefully survive the cold weather. 

   We are disappointed with our over wintering broccoli plants which have been getting a bit on the big side. Four of them have started to produce heads because they had outgrown their pots. We probably grew them too early last year. We have re-potted the remaining ones in the hope they won't grow too much before we can plant them out in March. Another pot sown anyway just in case. We usually get broccoli in June from the over wintered stuff so it's worth doing.

   We will be working hard now for a few hours every dry weekend to get the ground dug, cleared, manured and composted before planting kicks off big time. On the 27th January it is the annual Potato Fair in Sydenham where you can buy spuds as single tubers. We buy rows of various different types, some turn out nice and others don't. Last year we lost our seed tubers because we put them in a shed and the prolonged frost in February affected them badly. We won't make the same mistake again. We bought five micro tubers of a blue potato last year, lost four of them and planted the one survivor to get some decent size tubers to grow this year. They did well and we have loads of purple tubers to plant this year. We'll let you know what they look like (if they ever reach a plate). Normally we would have shallot bulbs growing in the greenhouse in six cell trays. This gives them the opportunity to grow roots before planting outside and gives them a good head start on the worst of the winter weather and allows us to get them out of the ground a bit earlier at a good size so we can use the ground for something else. However we decided not to save from last year's crop as we had been saving our own for years and the crop wasn't great this time round. New stock then this year.

Our plot plans are now complete and up on the shed wall and our aspirations for 2013 clear. We wish our readers a happy new year and hope that your aspirations are fulfilled.