Drum Roll Please....

....I can now announce the varieties of potatoes I will be growing this year, well, subject to Thomson and Morgan having them in stock and delivering them. I have been looking through the potato supplement which they sent and it's been quite a hard choice. The first early I have chosen is Sharpes Express which is 100 years old. I have chosen International Kidney as my second early. This is the potato which is grown on Jersey and marketed under the name of Jersey Royal, however, if the potato is not grown on Jersey it is called International Kidney. The maincrop I will be growing is Lady Balfour.

I also decided to order some potatoes to plant in containers again at the end of summer to get a crop for Christmas. Thomson and Morgan do a Christmas collection containing Carlingford, Vivaldi, Orla and Maris Peer. There are five tubers of each variety so it looks like my greenhouse will be full of containers next Christmas.

Because I had spent over £19.99, there was an offer to take 10 tubers of Blue Danube for 99p. This is an early maincrop which has previously been known as Adam Blue. The foliage has moderate resistance to blight, but the tubers apparently have excellent resistance. It looks a stunning potato with blue/purple skin.

Another offer available to me was some Santero onion sets, again for the bargain price of 99p. I can't resist a bargain so they're on the way too. According to Thomson and Morgan, this is the first onion set with a resistance to downy mildew. I have never grown onions before, apart from spring onions, so I am looking forward to having a go with these.

We had more snow in the early hours of Monday but none since, however, there is lots of ice around. Hubby took me to work and a taxi skidded into the back of the car. There was only slight damage, thank goodness, as the kids were also in the car on the way to school, so no injuries to report.

A Belated Happy New Year

I really didn't mean to leave it so long to update my blog. I have had flu right through Christmas and New Year, and only now am I starting to feel that I am on the mend. Not that I would have been able to do any gardening. The snow which we had before Christmas hung around right through the festive season, turning to ice, and then on Tuesday we had a very heavy snow fall again. The kids were sent home from school, but although it snowed again yesterday, they were expected in, much to their disappointment. The poor birds have had their house decorated with snow, and as you can see, there isn't a scrap for them to eat either. You'll be pleased to know that that has now been rectified and the bird table is adorned with all manner of goodies.

I thought I should update you on my Christmas potato experiment. I had saved a couple of Kestrel tubers, which I planted in spring, and kept them in the salad drawer in the fridge. In late summer I planted these in a container and as the colder weather appeared, they were moved into the greenhouse for protection. The aim was to eat my home grown new potatoes on Christmas day. Owing to me having flu it was up to my hubby to empty the container on Christmas Eve and find the treasure. There were quite a few potatoes but they weren't very big. There was only just enough for the four of us to have some with our Christmas dinner, but they did taste delicious. I will definitely grow them again this way, in fact I have already ordered some tubers which will be delivered around July, specifically for planting up ready for Christmas. This year I will plant them earlier to see if I can get them to grow a little bigger, and also plant more.

The sun is out here today but it's bitterly cold and the snow is turning to ice. It seems that most of the country is suffering with the weather. Let's hope that the weather improves for the rest of 2010 and we manage to get a good growing season this year. I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

Introducing Sammy

You were introduced to my son's rabbit, Monty, in May in my post Coming..... Ready Or Not. This is Monty's brother, Sammy, my daughter's rabbit. When we went to buy the rabbits in February of 2008 Sammy was the smallest there, my how he's grown. He's now much bigger than Monty. They're Rex rabbits, quite a large breed, and they tend to have a fold of skin underneath their neck. Monty doesn't have such a pronounced fold under his chin, but Sammy does earning him the nickname Big Fat Sammy Double Chin. During the summer they have their hutches on the grass so that we can just open the hutch doors to enable them to come and go into their run as they please, but in winter their hutches are brought down onto the patio as the grass tends to get so waterlogged. We still give them access to their runs in dry weather, but in wet weather they are spoilt and brought into the house for some cuddles instead. With all the rain we have had lately we decided that now was the time for their hutches to be moved so they are now installed nearer the kitchen door than usual. This also means that they get spoken to everytime someone goes in or out of the house.

There hasn't been any gardening done lately, the rain has just been too bad. It's also got alot colder which means that the plants which were moved into the greenhouse will soon be getting covered in their winter blanket of fleece.

The potatoes which I'm growing in a container in the greenhouse, hopefully for Christmas dinner, seem to be doing ok still. I hope I'm not disappointed on Christmas day.

Putting My Feet Up

It seems that winter is certainly on it's way. We've had nothing but rain and strong winds for the last week, which means that digging over the allotment has been put on hold. Instead, I'm getting my gardening fix by putting up my feet and reading my magazines. I currently subscribe to Gardener's World magazine and Grow Your Own magazine, and I also have a stack of gardening books at hand ready for the long winter evenings when I'm confined to the house because of bad weather.

One thing I am short of is a good cook book. I have the usual celebrity chef books, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson etc. but I really want something aimed specifically at allotmenteers which also gives advice about storing and preserving so wondered if anyone has any recommendations.

Now that things in the garden have come to a bit of a standstill I won't be updating the blog as often as usual. There's so much to blog about in the summer months when everything is happily growing away, but much less in winter and I don't want each post to read that I haven't done anything due to the weather, I'm sure it would only get monotonous. From now on I'll only blog when I have something constructive to blog about. I hope that's ok.

Moth Orchid

I'm rather pleased with myself as I have managed to get my Orchid to flower again. I bought myself a Phalaenopsis or Moth Orchid last year and it was in flower for a few months. At Christmas, my hubby's auntie and uncle bought me another Moth Orchid which again flowered until about May. I read up on the internet about getting them to bloom again and the general advice was to cut the flower spike down to just above a bud, which I did. I then waited for months but nothing happened. They looked rather comical actually, bare spikes with no sign that they would flower again. In the end I decided that I would cut the spikes right down to the leaves. Within a few weeks of doing this both the Orchids sent out a new spike, and both are now beginning to bloom. The next thing I'll be Googling is how to repot them. The one in the photo is the one which my hubby's auntie and uncle bought me, and it's roots are growing so far out of the pot that it will definitely need repotting.

I spent Thursday finally putting the garden to bed for the winter. All the more delicate plants in containers have been moved into the greenhouse. I don't heat my greenhouse at all, but as the weather becomes colder I will drape fleece over the pots, and I find that this keeps the frost off them.

I forgot to mention a couple of weeks ago that I did finally manage to get my winter hanging baskets planted up. I have got one at the back of the house with Pansies in it, and two at the front of the house containing Violas. On Thursday I planted the few left over plants into the border to add a little more colour over winter.

Last week I was kindly given the Best Blog Award from Tanya at Allotments4You. I am very proud to say that I have been given the award again this week from Kella at Kella's Musings on Growing Her Own, Wildlife and Her Brand of Parenting. Thank you very much Kella, I'm really honoured that you consider I deserve the award again. Of course, this now gives me the chance to nominate some more blogs for the award as it was very difficult last week to choose just 15, so first of all, here are the rules again:-

Post the award on your blog along with the name of the person who passed it on to you and link to their blog. Choose 15 blogs which you have recently discovered and you think are great and pass it on to them. Don't forget to leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

The 15 blogs I would like to pass this award on to are:-

My Secret Garden

Little Green Fingers

Kitchen Garden

Reads Allotment Retreat

City Diggity

Organic Allotment

Green Tapestry

Green Patch

Frugilegus

Renaissance Little Green Book

Soilman

WeedyBeanz

Ryan's Garden

Woodland's World 2

Reap What You Grow

I hope you will all accept this award as I think you have great blogs. I have also found it fun to follow the recipient's links to the blogs they have nominated as it's a great way to find new great blogs. Other people haven't nominated the full 15 blogs as I have, so I think anything up to 15 will be acceptable.

Another Failure

As you can see, my leeks haven't done too well. I can only assume that the failure's I've had this year have been down to the condition of the soil. I'm trying to rectify this ready for next year by adding lots of manure and compost to the beds. This year it has been a case of planting everything into the soil as it was and hoping for the best. Luckily not everything turned out as bad as my leeks.

We had some nice weather over the weekend which enabled us to spend some more time digging over the allotment. It's a long hard task so we're getting as much done as we can before the winter really sets in and whatever isn't done then will have to be done in spring. I wouldn't have got half as much done without my hubby and son's help. They worked like troopers. When I first took the allotment on my daughter was really keen to help, but sadly her enthusiasm has waned along the way. She's quite happy to do little jobs like planting seeds or picking strawberries, but isn't quite so keen on the more laborious tasks. My son on the other hand is always happy to help out, and really is a huge help when jobs need doing.

I also dug up some parsnips this week which we had for Sunday dinner. When I say we, I actually mean myself and my daughter, no one else will eat parsnips, but I have to grow plenty as my daughter would eat them by the plateful if I let her. They were delicious and definitely one of the successes.

A Little Bit Of Magic

This is Skimmia Japonica - Magic Marlot. It's an evergreen shrub and fairly new on the market. This is now in it's second phase. The first phase is white flower buds, in the second phase the flower buds change to a deep pink as you can see, and finally in the third phase the white flowers open and these are apparently scented. I only bought this plant in spring so I'm witnessing these phases for the first time. It hasn't put on alot of new growth this year but I don't know if this is because I have it planted in a container. I'm looking forward to seeing the flowers open and finding out what sort of scent it has.

After a bit of a dull start today has turned out rather nice. It poured with rain last night but today has been dry, sunny and really quite warm. I took advantage of this and spent the day doing jobs in the garden.

I've tidied up the flower border again. There were still a few flowers around when I last did this, but everything is now well and truly finished for the winter so I've cut alot of things back. Some foliage has been left behind for insects to take shelter in throughout the winter. I saw two ladybirds today, one native and one which I think may have been a Harlequin. Hopefully I can get the native species to hibernate in my garden so that they are still here when I need help with the nasties in spring. The small pond still needs sorting out but I didn't have any rubber gloves, so that job has been put on hold for another day. The plants in the pond have really thrived this year so they do need a little cutting back and their roots need trimming.

The spring bulbs which I bought for the garden have been planted today. I planted some Fritillaries around the small pond, and also some Narcissus - Minnow which produce up to five flowers on each stem and are a creamy yellow colour.

I am the proud recipient of this Best Blog Award. This was kindly bestowed upon me by Tanya at Allotments4You. Thank you very much, Tanya. I'm pleased that you enjoy my blog. That also goes to everyone else who regularly reads my blog and makes a comment, it's very much appreciated.

I now have to pass this award on to other blogs who I think deserves this award, but first of all the rules.

Post the award on your blog along with the name of the person who passed it on to you and link to their blog. Choose 15 blogs which you have recently discovered and you think are great and pass it on to them. Don't forget to leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

The 15 blogs I would like to pass this award on to are:-

A Life Less Simple

Slow Growing In Scotland

Midges, Moss and Mud

Melanie Fleur

Urban Veg Patch

Moj Vrt

Secret Cottage Garden

My Small Cornish Garden

Manor Stables Veg Plot

Allotment Heaven

The Green Grower

Tales From A Cottage Garden

Allot Of Veg

Run For The Hills

Scattered Gardener

I hope you will all accept the award as I think you have great blogs. Other people haven't nominated the full 15 blogs as I have, so I think anything up to 15 would be acceptable.

Hooligans At Halloween

I was going to show you a photo of my son's elongated pumpkin which he managed to carve into something resembling Shrek (complete with ears) but unfortunately I didn't take a photo on Halloween. I had left it in the conservatory and intended to take a photo today, but when I lifted it up it had started to decay, and collapsed. So instead, here is a photo of my daughter's tiny Hooligan pumpkins which she instisted be carved for Halloween. They're only about three to four inch in diameter so you can imagine it was a tricky job. I think they are rather cute.

All my good intentions of having the allotment dug over before winter are dropping by the wayside. Time is ticking on and I'm getting nowhere. Family life has taken over and there's always something more important to do. Digging over the allotment seems to be way down on my list of priorities. I've got the next few weekends off work so I'll have to make more of an effort to put in some hard work.

The 'C' Word

Dare I mention Christmas yet? These are the potatoes which I'm growing in containers, hoping to get some lovely new potatoes for Christmas dinner. I saved a few of my Kestrel tubers which I bought in the spring and kept them in the salad drawer in the fridge. They've now been planted up in a container, and as you can see, are growing well. They've been earthed up as they have grown and the compost has now reached the top of the container. Now that we keep getting risks of frost I have moved the container into the greenhouse as it's important they don't get frosted. I've never grown potatoes at this time of year before so the results will be interesting.

I hate to admit that I still haven't got my hanging baskets planted up. I did start to make an effort today, but the weather was awful, it has rained all day. I thought I would bring everything into the kitchen and do them in there, but the plants were rather soggy after being out in the rain, so I have moved them into the greenhouse to dry out a little. I'm hoping to have some spare time this week as the kids are on half term, so I'll do them then. Watch this space!

On And On And On......

As you can see, my runner beans are still flowering, though now that the colder weather is upon us I doubt if these flowers will come to anything. They're a variety called Scarlet Emperor and have been very productive. I have picked more beans today, they just seem to go on and on and on, hence the title of this post. There are still more beans maturing on the plants, but as soon as we get a proper frost it will be the end of them. I pulled up the French beans at the weekend. I had my last harvest from them last week when flowers were still to be seen on the plants, but the cold weather finished them off.

The area of the allotment which has been used this year is in much better condition now than when we took it on. It's so much easier to dig than the area which has been left untouched. That area is back breaking to dig over. I'm trying to get out as many of the stubborn weeds as I can, and then hubby is going to dig over the area getting the rest of the weeds out as he goes. Well, that's my plan, he doesn't know it yet.

Lots of seed catalogues have been dropping through the letterbox, and I have been pondering over which potatoes to grow next year. I wasn't very successful this year as alot of the potatoes had slug damage. Charlotte seemed to do well, and they're known as having a good resistance to slugs, but I wasn't over keen on the taste so I'm looking for alternatives for next year. I'd like to have a go at International Kidney, but apart from that I'm open to suggestions.

Smiling Faces

Pansies always remind me of smiling faces. I don't often have them in summer, preferring the smaller Viola, but usually have them through winter as they hold up to the weather so well. I was supposed to have my winter hanging baskets planted up by now, but they're still not done. I managed to buy the flowers for them yesterday, but have been so busy that I never got round to that job. As you can see, I did buy some Pansies, but also chose some Violas for the baskets. I had wanted some really pale yellow ones, but didn't manage to find any so I've decided that I will grow my own next year so that I can choose exactly what I want. The pansies will go in other containers.

Another job I was supposed to be doing was planting my spring bulbs. I have got some Fritillary's which I thought would look nice around the pond area. I've got a few of them there already but thought I would add to them. I've also got some Narcissus - Minnow which are a multi headed variety, and fragrant. I want to finish tidying up the border before I plant the bulbs, but I will leave some old foliage there for insects to take shelter in during winter, after all, it is supposed to be a wildlife border.

One job which I did manage to do in the garden was emptying out all the containers which held the summer bedding plants. The contents were taken to the allotment and put on the compost heap there, as the bin in the garden is full.

A few weeks ago we visited Wyevale garden centre. They were advertising a bulb growing competition for children. They could take three tulip bulbs of either Pinocchio or Red Riding Hood and they have to plant them and record the progress in scrapbook form. The scrapbook should be handed in next year after the tulips have bloomed, and there are gardening related prizes. My daughter thought she would give it a go, so took three bulbs. The problem is, we can't remember which variety she chose. Still, it will be fun finding out when they eventually bloom. So this is another job on the 'to do' list. Obviously, it is a job which my daughter will be doing without help from me, but I still need to sort her a container out and get her some compost to use. I don't know where time goes.

Making Notes

I have always made notes about my garden. I make notes about when I plant seeds, what I have planted, how long they take to germinate, when I pot them on, when I plant them out etc. As well as making notes I keep any articles which I find interesting, or ones which I think I may want to refer back to at a later date. These are tucked inside my note book. This year I bought myself a second book to keep my garden and allotment notes seperate. The notes I have made this year will help me to plan for next year. I noticed that my allotment neighbour had alot of his plants out on the allotment alot sooner than I did, and he had a great harvest. As I didn't get my allotment until March I obviously was a little late in sowing things which could have been sown earlier, but my notes will help me plan the earlier sowings next year.

We spent part of Saturday at the allotment. I pulled up the courgette plant which has now given up the ghost, and picked more French and runner beans. There are still flowers on both of the beans but now that the weather has cooled down I don't think they will last much longer.

I enlisted my hubby's help to dig, whilst I dug out some of the more thuggish weeds from the top part of the plot. This is the part which hasn't yet been touched, but I'm hoping to get the whole of the allotment dug over before winter sets in so that the whole of it can be used next year. There's still alot to do, and now that the darker nights are here we don't have as much time to spend there as we did in summer. I'm hoping that the weather holds out a little longer as it will be tough going once the frosts are here.

The Last Of The Blooms

There isn't alot left flowering in my garden now. I seem to have a riot of colour in summer but as soon as the cooler weather arrives there isn't alot of interest. One of the plants which is still flowering is Cheiranthus Cheiri - Wild Wallflower. This was bought in April as a very young plant and it quickly established itself. It has flowered all through the summer and is still going strong. My Fuchsia's are also still flowering. I have quite a few Fuchsia's so these always give some late colour to the garden. I think I will have to look for some plants which flower a little later next year to add some blooms to the autumn garden.

I have cleared away my tomato plants. They hadn't quite finished fruiting but as the cooler weather has now arrived I need the greenhouse space to house my more tender plants. As my greenhouse is only 4x6 I can't afford the space for both. My tomatoes have performed really well this year and I'm really pleased with the amount I've harvested from four plants, certainly more than I would buy if I wasn't growing my own.

I had intended to get my winter hanging baskets planted up this week, however, I haven't had time to go and buy the plants so that hasn't happened. Last year they were just planted up with Pansies and I think I will do the same again this year. They go on blooming right through winter and they still look good in all weather, even snow.

I have started clearing away all the summer bedding plants, well, I say I have, what I really mean is that I enlisted hubby's help in doing this. Unfortunately, the compost bin in the garden is now full so that's something else which has been put on hold. The rest of the summer bedding will be pulled up during this week and taken to the compost bin at the allotment.

Halloween's Sorted

My son planted a pumpkin in the hope that he would have something good to carve for Halloween. The plant certainly grew well, sprawling out all over the place, but unfortunately it only produced one pumpkin and it grew in a sort of elongated shape rather than round, as you can see. If he does carve it for Halloween I think it will have to stand on it's side rather than it's end. We're going to have a go at growing a different variety next year. My daughter chose mini pumpkins - Hooligan. Her plant produced four tiny pumpkins which, according to the seed packet, can be microwaved. We haven't tried them yet but I will let you know what they're like once we do.

I had hoped to spend a good few hours at the allotment on Saturday, digging over the beds and generally tidying up, but the weather was against me. We had such high winds here, and also drizzle, so I decided on a day indoors instead. I was working on Sunday so I didn't manage to get down then either. There's so much to do before winter sets in, but now that the evenings are getting darker much quicker, I'm finding it harder to spend any time down there during the week.

We had a good downpour yesterday after weeks without any proper rain. It didn't seem to stop all day, so it will have given everything a much needed watering. Hopefully, it will have softened the soil ready to dig too, as it's been hard going trying to get the spade in.

I've been really pleased with my beans, both runners and French, as they've given us a huge crop. They're on their last legs now though, so they'll soon be coming out. I'll leave the roots where they are so that they can fix nitrogen in the soil.

The allotment bill dropped through my letterbox the other day. I'm charged £20.00 for the year which I don't think is bad at all. It's not a full sized plot, but I know of many other people who pay alot more for their allotment. We don't have water on site so we don't have to pay for that, but I think it's a bargain to be able to grow my own food.

Peppers

I've waited such a long time for my peppers to ripen, and at last they are doing so. I have some yellow ones, and lots of green ones which are still on the plant, but showing signs of turning yellow too. They should ripen before the really bad weather sets in.

Speaking of bad weather, yesterday was so blustery that lots of my containers in the garden were blown over, and the bird table was too. We had a little drizzle on Friday, but haven't had a downpour for weeks now. I'm still having to water the containers in the garden regularly.

Most of the bedding plants have now died back so this week I will be having another tidy up in the garden and emptying all the annual containers. My winter hanging baskets have usually been planted up at this time of year, but I haven't even bought the plants for them yet. I think this will be another job for the coming week.

I'm experimenting this year by trying to grow some new potatoes for Christmas dinner. I held back a few Kestrel tubers which I bought at the start of the season, and kept them in the salad drawer of the fridge. These are a first or second early potato, depending on which supplier you take notice of as they're described as both. I've planted them in a container and they're growing already. I'm watching for frosts as the container will have to be moved into the greenhouse at this point. I've never done this before so I'll let you know how I get on. Nothing ventured nothing gained.