I have been very kindly presented with this Award from Jo at The Good Life - I feel very privileged to receive it and has left me feeling proud and appreciated. Thanks again Jo.

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn. ~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard in Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You

I love this quote, it's so perfect.

It's been a long weekend with my 3 year old burning a fever and the constant driving rain keeping us indoors for the most of it. Cabin fever. I was delighted to wake up to sunshine this morning which meant one thing to me - Allotment!

With the help of my young under-gardener, I dug over last year's garlic and onion bed. I had tried to grow sweetcorn after the alliums, although pretty unsuccessfully. I sowed two rows of Nantes carrots and one row of Cobham Improved Marrow parsnips. I'm hoping the parsnips and the carrots will be happier than the corn! I had dug in a little manure before the sweetcorn so I think by now the soil will be about the right richness for the carrots. It's definitely not a good idea to put grow carrots in freshly manured ground as they will 'fork'.

I weeded the raspberry bed while my darling fella, who'd made a rare but happy visit to the plot, dug over one of the long beds in which the potatoes and courgettes had grown last year. Time flew by and when my little one cracked me on the nose with a bamboo cane - AAwOOuch! - it was time to go home.

I do hope it's sunny tomorrow as I really want to go back and get more done, I'm hooked again.

xx

The beginning of the season...

Super Aguadolce broad beans, first planting under cover.

Pomodori Italiano!

A few days ago I started to get a little buzzy feeling about this year's growing season. Opening my seed box and seeing all the potential is such a thrill. I think I learnt a lot last year, my first true season. For a start, I sowed far too many tomato seeds and each sprout I potted on, and on, and I found it impossible to throw any away. Not only did I become consumed by tomato plants, I left myself with no space (in the conservatory) to sow anything else. Also during the season I wasn't prepared with what to put in after things had finished. This year I want to have brassicas or something ready to go in after my broad beans. I may only put a couple of tomato plants at the allotment because of the whole blight thing last year which totally depressed me. I now have a strange grudge against last years tomato bed. For me it seems poisoned. I don't know what I should plant there. Perhaps I'll find something that will help clarify the ground?

I am sure it's because I have some italian blood coursing through my veins that tomatoes are very important to me. I worked on an Italian film last year, as the UK art director and I got a tip from the production designer that the best flavoured tomato to eat straight is a variety called Datterino, it's a cherry sized tomato. I tried immediately to source it on the internet but couldn't get anything in England. Fortunately I have a 'almost' Auntie in Italy, she brilliantly sourced me a couple of packets. The other variety I am keen to grow is Cuor di Bue, which top chefs Giorgio Locatelli and Raymond Blanc both champion as a cooking tom. Finally I realised last year I absolutely love beef tomatoes so I am also planning to have a couple Marmande plants.

Mmm.. what else shall I be growing?

Oh yes, Diary: today I planted some broad beans, Super Aguadolce variety in the ground which I prepared with some pongy poultry manure and lime. I covered them with my cold frame which I made last year. Note, last year I put the broad beans in in October and over-wintered them, they did quite well. I wanted to try starting them in root trainers this year, which I will but today I saw an opportunity to see what would happen if I tried them this way - we'll see eh?I also pruned the autumn raspberries to the ground too. They need to be weeded around and be fed/ top dressed.

Onions and Garlic

It's hard to believe I've not written much on my blog the latter part of this year. Well, it is a diary and I have not been doing much at the allotment. Life has been keeping me busy but I did plant some japanese onions and some thermidrome garlic a few weeks. (-maybe a couple of months ago!?!)

Today we went to the allotment to pull carrots and look at the overgrown cauliflower. It is past its best - which is criminal seeing as how hard they are to grow.

Strawberry fields forever...

In The Grand Plan, I was following my hero Geoff Hamilton's advice and had my bed all ready to plant strawberries in August. Although I was stumped when I went online in July to order some plants and all the big sellers quoted delivery dates in October!?! Last weekend I was at Wisley, my favourite garden centre and I bought six Pegasus strawberry plants and six Cambridge Favourite plants. I really wanted Symphony but alas they didn't have them. The plants I bought looked so healthy and strong so I'm really looking forward to seeing them grow and fruit next year. I planted them through membrane to save on weeding.

I've been clearing up the plot today. I cut the beans down to the ground, leaving their roots in because of their nitrogen fixing quality. I pulled up the very successful courgette plants and pretty unsuccessful sweetcorn plants. My little one and I dug for treasure in the form of perfect potatoes and fabulous carrots that have been safe underground for months. Looking back I planted the potatoes in April and I've been digging up them all summer. Next year I want to grow a few International Kidney and also Maris Piper (-if they are blight resistant). The potatoes I grew in bags were fine although I think they were smaller and this is probably due to them drying out more than the ones in the ground. I am going to start my broad beans in root trainers next year and do them in two batches - probably Super Aquadolce again.

Bye Bye Summer

I've been neglecting my blog for ages now, I am sorry.

The allotment has been ticking over well. We've harvested untold beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes. The sweetcorn was okay but not fab the cobs were not very uniformed and I wondering if I should have watered them more when it was dry and the cukes for that matter. The carrots have never stopped coming, I should have sown some more. The tomatoes never really got blight, I don't know if it's thanks to the bordeaux mix or the change in weather conditions. We are enjoying a huge cabbage which grew spectacularly out from the bed where the broad beans had grown before.

Raspberries are a bit unwieldy and definitely shall have to construct some support system for next year.

I'm really looking forward for the cooler weather and a chance to finish clearing the rest of the plot and completing the paths.

The B word

It's like mentioning that Scottish play backstage. The 'B' word on the allotments brings fear into the hearts of all.

"BLIGHT!!

Two days ago I received an email from the Allotments Association warning of blight on the allotments. Recommending Spraying with Bordeaux mixture. Warning not to compost any of the plants but destroy them.

So let me tell you briefly about blight. It is caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans. It produces sporangia on infected leaves and fruit which love moisture and riding in the wind for hundreds of miles infecting potatoes and tomatoes alike. You can spray the plants with a copper based fungicide (Bordeaux Mixture) or mancozeb (Dithane) both are nasty chemicals. I checked on a couple of forums about blight yesterday and read that Bordeaux was acceptable by organic standards.

Off I went and got this horrid bottle of blue powder read on the bottle "NOT GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT" - strong words, also they were strong warnings about harming marine life. As I got to the allotments I saw my friends, 'the vegetarians' wheel-barrowing off their tomatoes - some of the first to be noticed with the dreaded blight. They showed me other plots that had it. Pointing out the brown marks on tomatoes etc. They said that mine looked great and no sign of any nasty blight. I was encouraged to 'save' then with the Bordeaux mixture. Regrettably, I very grumpily mixed up the solution and sprayed all my plants. Just to reiterate, I do not have any blight on my tomatoes (yet!)

I was miserable when I left the plots. What have I done? Sprayed some terrible poison on to my plot to save tomatoes that now I'm not sure I want to eat!! What should I have done? Picked all those little tomatoes (most are still small) and made chutney, and composted the plants? My innocent tomatoes are now all blue. And me all blue too.

And to make matters worse when I trawled the web looking for more info on blight last night, I find that bordeaux mixture is not accepted in organic growing and is banned in large scale use. I do not know what or who to believe. I shall fall back on RHS advice I think.

To quote the RHS website:

Tomatoes grown under glass are not always infected. Plants likely to be attacked - especially outdoor tomatoes - require protective sprays of mancozeb (Dithane) or copper (Murphy Traditional Copper or Vitax Bordeaux Mixture). Apply these before the symptoms are seen as a protection against attack. They will not totally prevent infection, but slow it sufficiently to save crop.