2010 diary has begun

The January 2010 diary has been started on the website. Although I've used much of the information already posted on the blog there is a new video of the birds feeding in the snow click here to view

Final entry to the 2009 diary!

I can't believe that 2010 is just around the corner. It doesn't seem long ago that the year 2000 was thought of as the 'future' when people would be wearing silver cat suits and taking all their food in pill form. Fortunately neither the cat suits nor the pill meals ever materialised and we are fortunate enough to have an even wider range of fresh food available to us.

The last entry of my 2009 diary has now been posted on the website. Ironically as talks in Copenhagen focused on a strategy to avoid global warming we were harvesting our Christmas vegetables from under the snow in freezing conditions.

For the final December diary entry and video click here

Not so green at Green Lane!

Definitely not a week for being out and about in the garden or on the plot. A wet beginning to the week was followed by our first snow of the season. In terms of inches of snow we haven’t really suffered as badly as most – a few flurries and a light covering. (Click here for our weather blog). Enough to mean that any gardening work would do more harm than good. Tramping on frozen ground can damage the soil structure and also wear away grass from lawned areas. Click here for the update to our December diary complete with a larger version of the above slideshow.

Also see video clip on our weather blog here

In the bleak mid-winter

I have updated the December diary on the website. As you may well imagine there has been a very limited amount of activity so to compensate we took some video of our plot. A larger version is on the website. Click here for the web page.

Root vegetables come into their own at this time of year and are great for making soups Transferring soup in batches to a food processor and back to a pan is a messy business so I decided a hand held blender would be a good investment. I spent yesterday trying to decide which one I should buy but there are just so many. Has anyone any strong recommendation or even any a warning about which one not to buy?

Where did the year go?

Believe it or not it is December and 2009 is drawing to a close!

December announced its arrival with the first real frost of the year. For the past couple of years this wintery event has followed very close on from bonfire night and has ended our alpine strawberry season.

All is fairly quiet on the allotment site when we pay a visit to collect the weekly vegetable supply. The first entry in my December diary is now posted on my website here.

Much gardening is confined to indoors and our fairly newly planted hippeastrum/amaryllis bulbs are growing well, one having produced a bud - well if you look really closely a bulb is just beginning to emerge.

Can you spot it?

There's more about amaryllis here on my other blog.

Anyone any idea of what this plant is officially called now? It's a bit like the geraniums that are really pelargoniums! Although this plant is commonly referred to as an amaryllis apparently that isn't correct even though it is sold by that name in garden centres etc.  Amaryllis grow in South Africa and these bulbs - Hippeastrum - originate from South America. Hippeastrum is a Greek name meaning 'horseman's star'. There are over 75 species but only about three or four are commonly available in garden centres. Other varieties are available online with quite a good range available from here. More exotic varieties are shown on the posting here.

Advice on how to grow these bulbs is available here

Final Entry in November's Diary

With the ground really wet and soggy after so much rain there isn’t really very much that we can do on the plot. Our footsteps are accompanied by a squelching noise wherever we tread. The best favour we can do for the soil and grass is to keep off.

At least a weekly visit to the plot is essential in order to gather some vegetables, pick any chrysanthemums and make sure the garlic in the plot greenhouse hasn’t dried out – although at the moment there seems little chance of that happening.

With little else to compete for attention the fatsia is producing its amazing flower stems and as usual I can’t resist taking a photograph - or two!

To visit to complete November diary click here

For this week's entry click here

November?

Yesterday's visit to the plot and today's wander around the garden showed that many plants had not yet fully appreciated the time of year.

Lack of any severe frost to date and the fairly mild temperatures meant that even the rosemary was in flower. Also still showing a brave face were roses which were still producing buds, coreopsis, gaillardia, penstemon, cornflower, achillea and poached egg plants. Alpine and cultivated strawberries are still flowering and producing fruit but this isn't ripenening properly. Nasturtiums which tend to immediately disappear at the first sign of frosts are still managing to produce a few flowers.

Nemesia still sported flowers and the French marigolds and cosmos also had albeit small flowers.

For our weather diary click here

November diary has been updated

Just one visit to the plot this week, not really to do much work as again the weather hasn’t encouraged us to venture outdoors much. We have been lucky in that we haven’t suffered the flooding experienced by some areas but the strong winds make working outdoors an unattractive proposition. The rain has ensured that the soil is still too wet to work on.

Fortunately the only damage – if it can be called that – caused on the plot by the gales was the environmesh being blown off the carrots. We have so far escaped lightly. I just hope that isn’t tempting fate too much.



Click here for the latest diary entry and the larger version of our November photo album

Amazon have launched a pre Christmas Sale which closes on 4 December to browse click here

Preparing for winter

In anticipation of keen frosts we cut down the remaining dahlias. We haven’t yet had a frost keen enough to kill the dahlia foliage. Testament to this are the two dahlias growing and still flowering on our weed heap. Click here for our weather details.

This year instead of leaving all the dahlias planted in the ground, most have been dug and placed in a heap. The tubers have been covered with straw to hopefully keep the frost out. A large sheet of black polythene covers the whole thing. This not only keeps out the rain but helps increase the temperature underneath. Click here for more.

Beetroot have also been dug and placed in between the rows of carrots which will be left in the ground until required. Like the dahlia tubers, these have been covered with straw. The environmesh that has protected the carrots from carrot fly has been left in place. We have stored carrots in this way for a few years now and it seems to work really well, however it is a first for the beetroot. Click here for more information.

Click here for the November diary update.

Medlars bletted?

I think that most of our medlars have now bletted. They have turned a darker colour and are soft - but dare we eat them? More about our attempts at growing medlars here.

A new month and it seems like an entirely different country. Autumn now seems to be heading inexorably towards winter as posts in our weather blog show.

It was really just a flying visit to the plot to harvest a few vegetables and make sure plants in the greenhouse had sufficient water. We didn’t even stop for coffee which must have been a first. There is still a bit of weeding that needs to be done but the pull to be outside wasn’t as strong this week.

Click here for the first instalment of our November diary

Good Gourd!

Just one visit to the plot this week and really more of the same, the mantra at the moment is clear, weed, tidy and burn with little watering in the greenhouse, where the garlic is growing quickly and chrysanthemums producing lots of flower, thrown in for good measure.

We still haven’t had a frost to either sweeten the parsnips or knock back the dahlias so this week half of the dahlias have been cut down and removed along with the ornamental gourds that were growing amongst them. The gourds have been very prolific with some looking exactly like an edible squash variety but we won’t be risking eating any. Dahlia tops have been piled on the compost heap but the question now is what to do with several dozen ornamental gourds?

To read the complete entry for the last week in our October diary click here

To read about how the weather has affected us this week visit our new weather blog here

Feeds added

I have added feeds on the sidebar to our two other blogs:

Green Lane Allotments Weather Diary

The School Vegetable Patch

This way you can keep an eye on the most recent posts made on both of these blogs.

The Green Lane Allotments Weather Diary concentrates on weather records taken in our garden and the effcts that the weather has on our plot and activities.
The School Vegetable Patch focuses on gardening with children especially in a school environment but it has articles that would also be useful to adult gardeners or those who garden with children at home. This blog links to our School Vegetable Patch website just as this blog links to Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments website

Direct links are also given to all these areas on the sidebar of all our blogs. We hope that you find your way around.

Our New Weather Diary Blog

As mentioned in the last diary entry winter can be a time when gardeners can be at a loose end and so my husband has decided to take up another hobby – weather recording. He purchased and fixed up all the necessary kit in our garden. We have decided to create a second blog where the weather information can be shared.

To view click here

Hedgehog Ambulance

Inactivity on the plot has been made up for elsewhere this week.




At the beginning of the week our car became a hedgehog ambulance. Our September diary featured a video of two baby hedgehogs spotted in our garden. As these were obviously late babies I have been keeping watch for them. I was worried that they wouldn’t make the weight - 600g - needed for successful hibernation. One was spotted in our garden last week and ended up having an unexpected journey to a new home.

To read more visit last week's entry in our October diary

The October photo shoot of our allotment has also been added.

October diary has been updated

Our plot neighbours talked us into growing some mushrooms this year – not the common variety that grows quickly and prolifically but something that presents more of a challenge - shitake for us and lion’s mane and oyster varieties for them. We each received short pieces of dowel impregnated with the appropriate spores. These had to be embedded into sections of freshly cut, damp logs. Now it is just a matter of waiting for what could be quite a long time.

Click here for latest entry in October's diary

Click here to read more about this offer from Thompson & Morgan

October diary update

At this time of year weather conditions and the slackening of pressure to keep on top of things means visits to the plot are by no means as regular. It is also a time when changes and improvements are planned for both the plot and the garden. As usual we are full of plans, whether they will all be achieved is another story.
Click here for the diary update

As usual the months tick on by - October's diary has now been started!

October was heralded by fierce winds that have either stripped most leaves from bushes and fruit trees or reduced them to tatters. The large felty leaves of the kiwi are now brown and shrivelled and the banana plants in the garden are completely tattered and sorry looking.

One positive is that the strong winds have at least kept any signs of frost at bay.

It's a good plan to gather in your squash and pumpkins before Hallowe'en or they may just disappear! Now that much of the plant growth has died down they tend to advertise their presence and could be tempting to wouldbe witches and warlocks!

Click here for October's diary

September diary is now completed

The trees are really beginning to take on their autumn colours and now October has arrived we can't even pretend that it is still summer so work on the plot and in the garden has moved into a different direction - clearing, tidying and planning for next year. On our plot digging will have to wait as the soil is bone dry! Work last week was dominated by tidying around fruit trees and bushes.
To read the diary update and view the September photograph album click here

Septembers diary update.

Short and sweet September's diary has been updated.

Click here for latest entry

So what has happend to September's diary?

You may have noticed a lack of updates to the September diary as we have been on holiday for as week or so.

September is a fairly good month to leave the plot which with help from some good neighbours has managed well without our attentions. Our thanks to our watering friends.

We spent a week near Exminster in Devon staying in a chocolate box thatched cottage with a huge garden. It was also - weatherwise - maybe one of the best week's of summer.

I'll catch up with the diary as soon as I can.