Enforced neglect of the allotment

In my earlier blog post, I mentioned that, for various reasons, we didn't visit the allotment other than to do some necessary harvesting. This week matters were even worse and we only managed a harvesting session on Sunday.

Martyn suffers from bad nosebleeds and, the week before last he had a bleed, that took over an hour and a half to stop so we didn't do much on the allotment as we didn't want to risk setting the bleed off again. Last week, matters were worse and another nosebleed caused, Martyn to be admitted to hospital for a couple of days. Not the sort of thing you need at the best of times, but at the moment hospitals are not the safest places to be in. Fortunately, Martyn was in a room on his own as the nosebleed meant he was unable to wear the required mask. 

When he came home, Martyn had to avoid bending down or any strenuous activity so any work on the allotment was out of the question.

If you imagine how an allotment looks after a two week holiday multiply by two. If we had been going on holiday we would have prepared for the absence. On top of this, we haven't had any rain for a while now and our soil is bone dry and some crops, especially those newly planted, really could have done with some watering. Courgettes had assumed monstrous proportions.

I didn't take any general photos, as it was too depressing a sight, but we did put together a video.

I managed some emergency watering but mainly we concentrated on harvesting.

September 5 - Mixed dahlias, Sweet Peas,  Climbing French Beans - Cobra, Plums - Victoria & Marjorie's Seedling, Greengages - Mannings, Blackberries - Loch Ness, A sprinkling of Blueberries, Beetroot - Boltardy, Carrots - Flakee, Cabbages - Mozart, Tomatoes - Sungold, Crimson Crush , Crimson Plum & Shirley, Raspberries - All Gold, Apples - Fiesta and Peas - Onward & Terrain

Martyn concentrated on harvesting the crops that he could manage from an upright position like the blackberries. Loch Ness produces some fairly large fruits.

We decided to lift a different variety of carrot, this time the variety was Flakee. As with Romance we pulled up some good sized carrots, although as is usual for us some were 'interesting' shapes.

I also lifted a few beetroot, the first of the season. We don't eat a lot of beetroot so we only sowed a short row. These will be pickled.

This year, varieties of apples have fared differently. The Discovery apples that usually crop well produced just half a dozen fruits but the small Fiesta tree has produced its best crop. I'm guessing it all came down to when the trees had blossom.

The plums and greengages both flower early and none of the trees have produced as much fruit as usual but at least we have some to enjoy.

Our garden and garden greenhouse have continued to keep us supplied with tomatoes, mini cucumbers and, I even managed to remember to photograph, some radishes. We've made good use of the salad ingredients as Martyn had to eat only cold food for a couple of days. 

Neither of us was impressed with the food that the hospital managed to offer him. For one of his meals the only option was a small scoop of ice cream. No other cold options were provided, despite him being on cold food only. He asked for either a sandwich or a salad but was told neither was available. If he had stayed in for a further meal his only option was a slice of cheesecake. Unfortunately, we didn't find out that I could have visited until it was too late as I could have popped down to the on site cafe and bought him something from there.

We did have a couple of cooked meals that used some of our vegetables. The first was a cabbage stir fry with cashews. Into this went our onion, carrots and cabbage, along with mushrooms, peppers, celery and cashews. It was based on this recipe.

On Tuesday, whilst, Martyn was 'enjoying' his ice cream dinner, I made myself a vegetable tagine. Into this went our onion, courgette, cherry tomatoes and peas along with some chickpeas. It was based on this recipe although I used a ras el hanout spice mix instead of the individual spices.

We're hoping for a less fraught week, this week. Wish us luck. Just to cheer us up though we have clusters of tiny cyclamen popping up on the plot and in the garden. They appear in the most unexpected and inhospitable places. We don't know how they arrived at the allotment as we never planted any there. Presumably, the seeds hitched a ride on something brought from the garden. Over the years the flowers have multiplied and spread. No doubt the armies of ants have been very busy.

As always wherever you are keep safe and well.

This week I   am once again joining in with Dave’s Harvest Monday collection of posts over at Our Happy Acres.

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