Contrast

Last week we made one visit to the allotment which again was primarily to stock up on vegetables. It was rain free and, although it was very cold, the sun was shining. At this time of year the sun makes walking in certain directions rather difficult. There is a tall row of conifers along one side of the site which means that for much of the winter half of our plot is in shade but as we walk towards the shaded half the sun peeping over the top of the hedge is blinding. The shaded half of the plot is often colder and frost lingers longer there, often for the entire day.

Due to the conditions photography is challenging as you can see if you watch the videos that we took on Monday

As usual the first thing we do, on arriving at the allotment, is to have a wander around. 

The contrast between two of our hazel bushes was startling. They are side by side and enjoy the same conditions, however the leaves of the one that we coppiced this year are only starting to lose the green colouring, whereas the one that wasn't touched this year is a glowing yellow.

One of the roses  - Elmshorn- was still flowering. The flowers are produced in small clusters and seem to stand up to the poor weather well.

I also noticed that some of the fruit bushes had already produced buds. The ones below belong to a blackcurrant bush.

Rather than just gather some vegetables and leave, we tried to get one or two jobs done.

Martyn, decided to turn over part of the old strawberry bed - top left of the arrangement below. As it is still very wet, it wasn't going to break down but the hope is that in this state the weather may do a better job of breaking the clumps up so that we can plant potatoes in this area next year.

Whilst he did that, I cleared the dead French beans from the bed on the top right. As it was wet and I didn't want to step on the soil, I had to get into some rather strange positions and managed to strain my back in the process. Thankfully after a few days it is almost back to normal, but a lesson had been learned.

As I was incapacitated, Martyn was left to take down the second sweet pea frame and pull up the remains of the cosmos plants - bottom photo. I did give a little assistance cutting the string that bound the frame together as that was an upright job!

Before I 'injured' my back I had popped all the dahlia tubers into potato sacks. The temperatures were forecast to drop below freezing the next day and so we wanted to get the tubers home and into the garage for some extra protection.

 It was just as well we managed to do this, the forecast proved to be correct as the temperatures dropped to -3.2C (26.2F). 

We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon on Tuesday at RHS Harlow Carr and some of the ponds still had a covering of ice.

However, the ducks managed to find enough water to keep them happy.

It was a case of dodging tractors as the staff were busy setting up for the light show that is being staged for the next month or so.

Some of the lights were already lit, probably being testing. It will obviously be far more effective when it is dark so we will be back one day at a later time.

I mustn't forget to report on our harvest. Again it is typical for this time of year, although one addition to previous weeks is a bunch of beetroots. The ones sown in open ground had the tops munched away by slugs and so I sowed some in a crate. As these were sown much later the roots are quite small but some are an ideal size for pickling. 

We cut another couple of cabbages, one being a Savoy. Once all the damaged leaves were removed they were both very small but the Savoy was big enough for a couple helpings each. The other cabbage went into a batch of coleslaw which we eat most days with lunch.

We dug some good sized, regularly shaped parsnips in contrast to the motley collection of carrots. The carrots just haven't done well in the conditions this year and many end up straight on the compost heap. Usually they keep us supplied over winter but this isn't going to be the case this year.

You just never know what each year will bring when you grow your own do you?

Our complete monthly harvests are listed here.

You can view a video of our Novenber birds' eye view here

This week I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on 

Dave's blog Our Happy Acres

Thanks to those who responded to my invitation to make a comment. I appreciate you taking the trouble to say hello. I know I get lots of visitors who never comment and I'd love to know who you are - unlike the annoying spammers who can't seem to grasp that their comments go straight into my spam folder and never see the light of day.  I am getting lots of Anonymous spam comments which go straight into the spam folder and then deleted as there are far too many to check through so I'm afraid that if you comment anonymously this may happen to your comment.

You don't have to have your own blog in order to join in conversations. It may seem that everyone who comments knows one another but bloggers always welcome new commenters, after all that is how we all started. 

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett