An Early Christmas Gift

A friend called round on Tuesday to drop off some Christmas gifts. Among the gifts for me was one I had to open immediately, this beautiful orchid. I already have two orchids, they've been in flower every Christmas for the last five years, but this is the first Christmas they haven't flowered so it's nice to have a new plant which is blooming for the festive period. It's a Phalaenopsis or Moth Orchid, and contrary to what many people believe, they're so easy to care for. I water mine once a week by allowing the water to run straight through and drain off, they don't like to stand in water, and when they've finished flowering I cut the flower spike right down to the base. This encourages them to send up another flower spike and they begin to bloom all over again.

We haven't spent any time at the allotment lately. November and December always seems to be such a busy time of year for us, not only with Christmas on the way but there's always lots of family commitments around this time too. I'm hoping that the weather stays mild over the festive period, with Hubby off work, we should then be able to get a few jobs done.

The wind's back again. We had some big gusts last night as well as a torrential downpour, and it seems as though the windy weather is here to stay for a while yet. A couple of panels have blown out of the greenhouse again, but I don't think it's worth putting it back together just yet, no doubt it'll only blow out again in the coming days with the wind that's forecast. It's lovely and sunny here today though, but very cold.

Self Watering Planters

I've been eyeing up Mark's tomato planters for a while now. Mark blogs on Mark's Veg Plot blog and has mentioned these planters a few times. They're self watering planters and are supplied with a feeder tube and reservoir. They work by holding water in the reservoir which is then delivered in to the compost by capillary action keeping it consistently moist. At the beginning of November, I noticed that there was an offer on Amazon, the 40cm planters were reduced to £5.87 each from £7.99 and the matching drip trays which they stand on were reduced to £2.99 each from £3.99. Hubby said he'd treat me, so I ordered three and I'm now looking forward to trying them out next year. I have to say that this size is quite large and will take quite a bit of compost to fill them, I think I could have possibly gone for the 35cm and they'd still be large enough to house a healthy tomato plant. Anyway, there should be no excuse for my plants under performing next year, certainly not down to watering anyway, these containers should ensure that the plants get exactly the right amount of water when they need it.

The wind did get up again over the weekend, though it was only in the early hours of Sunday morning and it was nowhere near as bad as we'd had it the week before. It's a bit gusty again today, but not too bad, and the greenhouse is still standing, thank goodness.

I've noticed lots of blue tits around again just recently. They seemed to disappear for a time but there's plenty of them back on the feeders again. They're a regular visitor to my window feeder, it's lovely to see them at such close quarters. I got my window feeder for Christmas last year and I can highly recommend them. There's lots of different types, but they all cling to the window with suction cups and once filled with a little bit of seed, the birds just can't keep away. I've had blue tits, coal tits, great tits and robins on mine, and even gold finches on a couple of occasions. A regular visitor is the collared dove, I have them queueing up for a turn. I'm so impressed that I've bought a couple of them as gifts this Christmas, I hope the recipients enjoy them as much as I enjoy mine.

Thinking Ahead

I've already bought or ordered just about all the seeds I need for next year, so I already know what I'll be growing. I suppose there'll be one or two extras which creep in nearer the time, but the staples are already chosen. I've decided to cut down on tomatoes next year, not the number of plants I'm going to grow but the different varieties. There's only three types which I've bought, though an extra one or two more might be added later. The first is Ailsa Craig. This is a medium sized tomato and one which is known for having a good taste. My dad is a fan of this one and always used to grow it, so I'm sure he'll be pleased to see this on my list. The second is Gardener's Delight, a must have as it's a variety which rarely lets me down, either in yield or in taste. This one is a cherry tomato and delicious when picked from the vine and popped straight in the mouth while still warm from the sun. The last one I've chosen is Totem, a bush variety. I grew this last year and was so impressed with the yield that I'm growing it again. The plants were literally covered in medium sized fruit which had a good flavour. I also like the fact that bush varieties require much less maintenance than cordons. I still had to give the plants some support by the way of a cane as the huge amount of fruit produced on the plants made them inclined to be top heavy and topple over, but there was no pinching out of side shoots or tying in as they grew. I usually grow a plum variety but haven't been very successful with any I've tried in the past. San Marzano are a favourite but they always ripen very late in the season and have never given me a very big crop so I'm not going to bother next year. One which I may grow again is Costoluto Fiorentino, a beefsteak variety which I grew for the first time this year. It was just like biting in to a very ripe peach, it was so juicy and sweet. I have a few seeds left so I may give them another go.

Hubby had some trees tidied up at work so he asked the tree surgeon if he would bag up some of the resulting wood chips for him. I've now got quite a few bags of the stuff which I'll be able to lay out some paths at the allotment with. I know that some sites have wood chip delivered free of charge, I wish this happened on our site as I could certainly make use of some more.

The fence panel which got blown out in the high winds last week wasn't as damaged as I first thought. After Hubby nailed the top back on, it slotted back in to place between the concrete posts, so that's saved us a bit of money. We managed to find all the bits of the greenhouse which had blown in to various neighbour's gardens and that's also been put back together. How long it will stay that way for remains to be seen. More wind has been forecast for this weekend, though I'm not sure if it will hit this part of the country, but stay safe, wherever you are.

Blog Of The Month - December

This year, I'm dedicating one post each month to Blog Of The Month. This is where I feature a blog I'm enjoying reading. Some blogs will be new to me, others may be blogs I've been reading for a while. I hope that by doing this, I can introduce some of my readers to other, interesting blogs, though I know that some of you will already read the blogs I feature.

It's a two for one this month. My Blog Of The Month for December is A Gardener's Weather Diary which is written by Martyn. Martyn is the husband of Sue who writes Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments. Many of you will know Sue already but if you don't, you're in for a treat this month as there's links here to two great blogs.

There's so many topics which crop up on Martyn's blog. As you might imagine going by the title of the blog, Martyn follows the weather quite closely and he blogs about the trends he's noticing. It's really interesting, we don't live very far away from each other yet we can often experience very different weather. Martyn sometimes blogs about things which Sue's already blogged about, or vice versa, yet the posts come from very different angles which are always interesting to read.

One of the things I love to read about on Martyn's blog are the birds which he and Sue encourage in to their garden. There's even a camera rigged up to one of the bird boxes so that the babies can be observed hatching from their eggs. Unfortunately, this particular bird box was unoccupied this year, but I'm hoping that a bird takes up residence ready for the next batch of eggs to be laid.

Martyn sometimes touches on his other hobby, steam engines. There's some fabulous photography on the blog of engines he's captured chugging through the beautiful Yorkshire (and beyond) countryside, though I should point out that Sue takes many of these photos too, she's a dab hand with the camera.

If you haven't yet acquainted yourself with Martyn's blog, do pop over, you're in for a treat. I've only touched on a few of the topics which Martyn blogs about here, there's also lots of posts on days out which he and Sue have had, and of course, lots of things about the allotment. Don't forget to tell Martyn that I sent you.

Edible

You may remember the post I did in October about the squash I managed to harvest this year. I'd grown Crown Prince and Queensland Blue and managed two of one variety and one of the other. The Crown Prince squash didn't actually look the colour they should, so I think the seeds I sowed were from a totally different variety, though which, I don't know. I decided that I'd still give them a go and see what they tasted like, I didn't know if they'd be edible or not. You can see that there were lots of seeds, but once scraped out, there was also plenty of flesh. It was cubed and roasted and it tasted delicious. It's a shame I don't know what variety it is as I'd grow it again. I suppose I could save some seeds, but there's no guarantee that they'd come true.

I've had a couple of trips to garden centres recently but you'd think you were in Santa's grotto rather than a place which sells plants. Most things have been pushed aside to accommodate everything you need for Christmas. I do enjoy looking around all the seasonal paraphernalia but I just wish that they'd remember that they're there to sell plants and gardening equipment too. Christmas seems to take over and there's very little else for sale.

The weather here today is terrible. We've got high winds and rain and it doesn't look as though it's going to let up any time soon. The wind got up during the night and we woke to a greenhouse without a door, a side panel out and half the roof missing. I suppose it'll be in one of the neighbour's gardens but I'll wait for the wind to subside before I go looking for it. There's also a broken fence panel so we'll have that to replace. I don't think we've got it as bad as the people in Scotland, and it's expected to hit East Anglia quite bad later on today. I hope everyone's safe.

Up Too Soon

These crocuses aren't supposed to wake up until late winter or early spring, yet here they are poking their heads out of the soil already. This variety is Advance, one I haven't grown before, but its lilac outside and yellow inner drew me to it. It looks like I might get to see it sooner than I thought at this rate. They're tough little things so I'm sure they'll survive whatever winter throws at them, even though they're already shooting.

Last week was a busy week here so nothing at all got done in the garden or on the allotment. I haven't even started digging it over for winter, behind with everything again, as usual. Getting the digging done in autumn is a good idea if the soil is clay as it is on my allotment, as the frost over winter helps to break up the clods of earth. It's something that I don't stress about these days though, I know from past years that whatever doesn't get done now will get done later.

We've only had a couple of frosts so far this year, November seemed to be mild in comparison to other years. I wonder if we're going to be hit with a cold spell soon, it doesn't look as if the next few days are going to change at all going by the five day forecast.

Meet Mavis

I have lots of quirky things in my garden. I don't think they'd count as classy but I don't care, I like my garden to be a fun place to be. You may or may not know that I have a thing about pigs, I love them, so when I saw this little pink porker in a shop in Mevagissey while we were in Cornwall this year, I knew she had to come home with us. She was a bit dirty, as all pigs are, but because of this, her price had been reduced by half, result. It didn't matter to me, she was going to be stood outside in all weathers and she would have got dirty anyway. I won't tell you what Archie uses her for, that's better left unsaid. She stands in the middle of my lawn and makes me smile every time I look at her.

Hubby was hoping to pick up a load of manure for the allotment this weekend. The farm where we get it from is currently up for sale so I don't know how long we'll have our source for, so we really need to make the most of it while we can. We're getting a new car soon too, so we want to transport it in the boot of the car we've got at the moment rather than wait until the new car is here. It's well rotted so it doesn't stink the car out. Unfortunately, we're at the time of year where family matters are taking precedence over the garden and allotment so he didn't manage to get to the farm, though he's hoping to make a trip next weekend.

The weather looks set to stay mild this week, actually warming up on Wednesday and Thursday here. The leaves are still clinging to the trees too. It can't be long now until the really cold weather arrives, after all, we're only just over four weeks away from Christmas now.

Cotoneaster Again

Back in June, I mentioned that the cotoneaster in my front garden was attracting lots of bees and I was asked if I would put a photo of it on my blog, which I duly did. At the time, it was covered in a mass of tiny flowers. I thought now would be a good time to come back to the cotoneaster to show you what it looks like at this time of year. Berries have now replaced the flowers and the little red jewels make the plant glow. In summer, the flowers attract bees, but at this time of year, and throughout winter, the berries attract birds. Blackbirds in particular love to gobble up these berries and it's fascinating sitting and watching them feast. Cotoneaster is definitely the shrub to get if you want to attract wildlife to your garden.

Hubby has now managed to source some bubblewrap so the containers which my small trees are planted in have been swathed in the stuff. It should help to keep the roots from freezing when the cold weather eventually arrives.

It's that time of year again when the bunnies are brought down from the grass on to the patio. Throughout summer, their hutches are moved on to the grass so that the doors can be left open and they can come and go in to their run as they please. In winter, the grass gets so sodden that this isn't an option, so we move the hutches on to the patio. It gives them a bit of protection here against the elements and they get plenty of attention each time someone passes by, they'd be a bit out on a limb on the grass as we don't venture up there as much in winter. They still get carried on to the grass to have a run around on fine days, but at least they're all set for winter now.

Blog Of The Month - November

This year, I'm dedicating one post each month to Blog Of The Month. This is where I feature a blog I'm enjoying reading. Some blogs will be new to me, others may be blogs I've been reading for a while. I hope that by doing this, I can introduce some of my readers to other, interesting blogs, though I know that some of you will already read the blogs I feature.

My Blog Of The Month for November comes from Scotland and is written by Rozzie. Grow My Own Eden is a new blog, there's only twenty two posts so far, but I enjoy reading a blog right from the beginning and following the journey. I've gone back and read all of Rozzie's posts, which are really interesting.

Gardening in Scotland can be hit and miss because of the weather, but it doesn't put Rozzie off, as you can see, she makes good use of her greenhouse and packs it to the rafters.

I was really interested in some of the things which Rozzie is growing, things I haven't tried myself such as goji berries, cucamelons, okra and sweet potatoes, not to mention an almond. I'm looking forward to hearing more about these and everything else which Rozzie is growing.

I'm sure there'll be plenty for Rozzie to blog about over the coming months as she is going to try and overwinter various plants. I'll be especially interested to hear if she manages to keep the aubergines growing as I'm sure they'll benefit from being established early in the year.

If you haven't yet had a chance to pop over to Rozzie's blog, do try now as I'm sure you'll enjoy reading it. Don't forget to tell her that I sent you.

One Out Of Two Ain't Bad

You may remember that I sowed a couple of containers towards the end of August, one with beetroot and one with spring onions. I didn't think there was much chance of the beetroot coming to anything and I was right, they germinated well enough but it was just too late in the year for the roots to swell. The spring onions were a different matter. Again, they germinated well, but they've also put on plenty of growth. There's between thirty and forty in this small wooden trough. I suppose I could eat them as they are now, they'd give plenty of flavour, but I prefer my spring onions to have a good sized bulb on them, so I'll leave them over winter and harvest in spring. They'll be perfectly fine over winter if I move them in to the cold greenhouse, I've done it in previous years, and I'll get a good early harvest next year.

I saw on Sue's Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments blog that she's wrapped the containers which she's growing her trees in in bubble wrap to give them a bit of protection over winter. I haven't done this before with my trees, and they've fared perfectly well, even in the harsh winter we had last year, but I don't think you can ever be too careful where the weather's concerned so I'm going to do the same. I'd be very upset if I lost any of my trees so it's a good idea to give them a bit of protection. Hubby is able to get some bubble wrap from work, so I'm just waiting on his firm getting some deliveries now so that I've got a supply with which to wrap the pots. I hope it won't be too long as the colder weather is surely on its way.

We found a hedgehog at the allotment recently. At first, I thought it had gone in to hibernation, but a little investigation revealed that it was unfortunately dead. I just want to mention that hedgehogs need to be a decent weight in order to survive hibernation, at least 600 grams I believe, so please be on the lookout now that winter is on its way for any small ones which are out and about as they would need to be looked after, perhaps by a shelter. There's a decline in the number of hedgehogs which is a sad state of affairs, so they need all the help we can offer.

Sedum For November

This year, I'm taking the late Geoff Hamilton's advice and visiting a nursery each month with a view to buying a plant which is in flower for my garden. Doing this should ensure that I have something blooming in my garden every month of the year.

I absolutely love sedums, so when I saw this beauty, spectabile Brilliant, flowering away in the garden centre, I couldn't resist it for my November plant. It's actually at the end of its flowering period now, it usually flowers from August to November, but it's good enough to brighten up the November garden.

Sedums are a great source of nectar for bees and butterflies, so this plant will go on supplying them very late in the year. I always try to do my bit for wildlife and like to find plants which will help them out, especially when lots of plants have now finished blooming.

Flowering plants are now dwindling in garden centres so it may be a little tricky finding one for December, though I'm sure I'll come across something.

The Allotment Planner Giveaway Winner

The giveaway for The Allotment Planner ended at noon today. A winner was drawn at random from all the entries received and I'm pleased to announce that the winner is CJ from Above The River. Congratulations, CJ. Can you please let me have your name and address details so that I can pass these on to the publishing company so they can send out your prize.

Thank you to everyone who entered. Don't forget that if you fancy buying a copy of this book yourself, the publishing company are offering it at the discounted price of £12.00 including p&p. Please look at The Allotment Planner post for details.

I should also mention that I've seen the book advertised for sale on The Book People website for £4.99, though p&p is extra.

Congratulations once again to CJ who has won the giveaway.

Rent Rises

You may remember, back on the 16th of July post, me mentioning that we'd received a letter from the council advising us that they were reviewing allotment provision in Leeds. They had proposed three different options, basically wanting to increase the rent. The proposals they had made would mean that our rent would be rising from £37 each year for a full plot to over £100. Meetings were held and we've now been advised of the actual figures. There is a requirement to give us twelve months notice so the rent this year will rise by the marginal increase that we were notified of last year, however, next year, it will rise to £58, the year after £65 and the year after that £72. This is for a full sized plot of 250 square metres, smaller plots, such as mine, will be charged pro rata. This isn't as bad as I'd expected and I think it still represents good value for money. There's no water on our site, but there's a charge of £6 per year for plots on sites with water, and there's a £3 charge for allotment association membership.

I have a couple of moth orchids which are always in flower over Christmas. This year, the flowers have lasted and lasted and it isn't long ago that they finally faded and I cut down the flower spikes. There's no sign of another spike starting to grow yet on either plant so I think this will be the first year that I'm without my orchids over the festive period. Even if they start to grow now, I doubt there'll be time for the orchids to produce buds and then for the buds to open in time for Christmas. Never mind, something to look forward to next year.

We haven't had another frost since the start of the week, though it's still very cold. The sun is shining today, it's a beautiful, bright day, but there's still a nip in the air. I'm already willing spring to come and we haven't had winter yet.

Don't forget, if you haven't yet entered my giveaway, you've got until twelve noon on Sunday the 10th of November 2013 to do so. Just leave a comment on The Allotment Planner post.

Straight As A Poker

I dug the first of my parsnips up at the weekend. They may not be huge but they're perfectly formed, in fact, they're the straightest parsnips I've ever grown. In previous years, most of my parsnips have been all shoulder and not much root, but you can't say that about these. I hope that the rest are just as good, and if left, grow a bit bigger. I wasn't expecting huge roots just yet, but couldn't resist pulling a few to have a taste. We'll be having them with our meal tonight.

My next door neighbour knocked on the door at the weekend with a bag of pears for us. He said his tree had only produced one single pear last year, but he's got a bumper crop this year and wondered if we'd like some. Yes please! There was just under four pounds in the bag, so a good amount for us to go at. I'm looking for recipes now, I quite fancy having a go at a pear cake and a pear tart.

We managed to get all the containers in the garden sorted out on Sunday. The tender plants were moved in to the greenhouse for a bit of protection over winter and the annuals were added to the compost bin. The fragile pots have been stored away safely. It was all done in the nick of time as we had our first frost of the year that night, winter is on the way.

Don't forget, if you haven't yet entered my giveaway, you've got until twelve noon on Sunday the 10th of November 2013 to do so. Just leave a comment on The Allotment Planner post.

Bulb Planting

I bought my spring bulbs a little while ago and I finally got round to planting them in containers yesterday. I've gone for crocus - Advance, an unusual variety in that it's lilac on the outside and yellow on the inside, they should make for a pretty display, iris reticulata - Gordon, I love these tiny iris's, they're such pretty flowers, narcissus - Tete a Tete, a tiny, bright yellow daffodil which bears one to three flowers on each stem and daffodil - Professor Einstein, a flower with white petals and a vivid orange cup. I have to admit to preferring the traditional yellow daffodil but thought I'd go with something a little different this year. I also bought some allium - Spaerocephalon, but they're to join the allium - Purple Sensation which are already planted in the front garden. I'm also looking forward to seeing if last years bulbs, which I planted in the ground after they'd finished flowering in their containers, flower again. The garden will be very colourful in spring if they do.

I've ordered my potatoes for next year from the allotment shop. I've gone for Arran Pilot for the third year running as I've been really impressed with both the taste and yield from this variety. I grew a small quantity of Anya this year and was really impressed with them. Anya are a cross between Pink Fir Apple and Desiree so I thought I'd give Pink Fir Apple a go next year, as well as a larger quantity of Anya, so that I can compare the two. I ordered the Pink Fir Apple but unfortunately, the allotment shop doesn't order Anya in so I'll have to source those elsewhere.

Hubby completely cleared the greenhouse of all the old plants yesterday. Today's job is to move the more tender plants in there to give them a bit of protection over winter. There's a biting wind today, it's only a matter of time now until we get our first frost.