Blueberries and Blackcurrants

Growing Blueberries

Apart from being rather tasty (must stop using the word 'yummy' about everything), blueberries are are high in antioxidants and Vitamin C and (like blackcurrants) can be frozen to enjoy throughout the year.  

I've been reading about blueberries recently where it says that they're very rewarding to grow, so long as certain details are borne in mind. 

This came from the interesting site Garden Fresco (http://www.gardenfresco.co.uk/growing-fruit/blueberries):

Apparently they like to grow in acid soil.  As the soil here is on the alkali side, adding pine needles and conifer clippings to the soil around them helps make the soil more acidic. Also put some ericaceous compost around the base of the bush at the end of April and end of June.


In order to help with pollination, and thus produce more fruit, it's recommended that we plant more than one blueberry bush.

Also add potash in spring (potash helps balance nitrates), so we will use ash from any bonfires and from our wood burning stove.


If it's any interest, this diagram came from the potassium development association website: 

Blackcurrants

So far as growing blackcurrants is concerned, here are a few notes from the Saturday Telegraph newspaper 5/4/2014:

Like blueberries, growing blackcurrants is great value as they're so expensive in the shops.  The flavour is incomparable to the shop-bought fruit, so long as we let them mature beyond when they're fully dark.  

The most reliable plants tend to have 'ben' in their name - best for flavour and for hardiness (Ben Conan, Ivory are early, probably July with Big Ben and  Ben Tirran following on later).  

Harvesting is easier if all the fruit ripens at the same time then they can be pruned and the berries picked at the same time.

They like a sunny spot with fertile soil, a metre and a half to spread out, and a good soaking in dry spells.

Their branches become less productive over time so every year remove a third of the oldest wood to allow new branches to grow through.  This can be done in the winter but it's easier to do this when the berries are ready to be harvested, put the stems into a jug of water and use the berries and leaves when needed.

Once picked, they'll keep for a few days in a fridge.  To make into a puree, which can be then frozen and used at your leisure, simply put them into a pan (no need to top and tail them) with a tiny amount of water and cook over a gentle heat, stirring occasionally.   Then sieve and freeze, unsweetened.  It's a fine base for sorbets, cocktails, ice cream.  And don't forget that the leaves make a wonderful herbal tea.

Pumpkin time of year

I didn't have much luck this year growing pumpkins, well to tell the truth I've never managed to grow them successfully, perhaps next year? ...

1. 

Anyhow, we bought two pumpkins today and I wondered how to store them.  The seller suggested keeping them somewhere cool and away from direct sunlight to prolong colour and quality. Put something underneath in case it weeps, allow air to circulate, and store them in a single layer, covering them with a blanket or similar it's likely to be very cold.

If they start to go soft:

• cut out the soggy bits and use the rest.
• toast and eat the seeds, so long as they aren't mouldy
• any flesh which is not mouldy can be fed to animals
• as a last resort put on the compost heap which it will add useful moisture - or bury it in your garden.

Now to find some recipes ... 




From this site: http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/138154/Pumpkin-and-orange-soup

Pumpkin and Orange Soup


375g pumpkin, peeled and roughly chopped (or could use butternut squash)
150g carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
300g onions, peeled and chopped
1.3l vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
100g red lentils
s&p
Finely grated rind and juice of one large orange

Put all ingredients, except orange, into a pot, bring to the boil and simmer about 25 mins, until vegetables are cooked.
Cool slightly, add orange rind and juice and blend, seasoning to taste.
(variation: could add 1 tsp curry powder)


4 November: finally got round to making this today although unfortunately didn't have any carrots so substituted a stick of celery.    It tasted pretty good but looked rather bland as it didn't have the marvellous orange colour which would have been obtained from the missing carrots.


See also  http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/pictures/24610/20-ways-with----pumpkin/2

Too wet to dig!

Too wet to dig - but although end of October I found two courgettes lurking amongst the soggy foliage this morning.

It's not quite this muddy but I thought it was such a lovely picture!

Aubergines, Courgettes, Tomatoes and Peppers from the Allotment

With so much suitable produce from the allotment, Ratatouille seemed good to make for dinner tonight.  Being a great fan of Nigel Slater here is his take on this classic recipe, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/27/nigel-slater-classic-recipe-ratatouille:

The recipe

2 onions, sliced
4 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 aubergines, thickly sliced
2 courgettes, thickly sliced
2 red or yellow peppers, seeded and quartered
4 plum tomatoes, sliced
2-3 sprigs thyme
1 handful basil leaves

Sweat 2 sliced onions in 4 tbsp of olive oil until they are soft, add 4 sliced garlic cloves and cook until soft. Remove to a deep roasting tin or baking dish. Fry each of the other vegetables separately, adding more oil as necessary, until each is pale gold. Remove as each one is ready and add to the tin or dish, followed by 4 thickly sliced plum tomatoes, seasoning with salt, black pepper and thyme. Bake at 180C/gas mark 4 for about 40 minutes until soft and tender. Stir gently with a handful of torn basil leaves and serve.

The trick

One reason ratatouille may have lost favour is because it is too often cooked like a stew, with all the ingredients lumped in together. It takes longer to cook them separately, but the individual attention allows each ingredient to keep its own character. You end up with layers of flavour rather than a casserole. Like quiche, this is better served warm than hot.

The twist

I often make leftover ratatouille into a savoury pie. A crumble top of flour, butter, thyme leaves and grated cheese forms a suitable contrast to the soft ingredients underneath. I also like it cold, as a salad. So versatile is this mélange of summer ingredients that it often ends up as a pasta sauce, working well with larger, tube-shaped pastas. I have also seen it cooked in tiny metal moulds and turned out to form a neat mound on the plate with a surrounding drizzle of tomato sauce and perfectly positioned basil leaves. In which case it might be better called rata-twee.

Thank you, Nigel, am looking forward to making what's not eaten tonight into a crumble for tomorrow ...

courgette ideas: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/top-10-things-do-courgettes

Marigolds

I sowed marigolds and other flowers at the allotment to encourage useful insects and to deter the baddies.  They've been remarkably successful.  These photos were taken in the middle of October where the marigolds still growing really well and have needed no maintenance, except for a bit of deadheading every so often.

This site gives tips for other goodies in the garden or allotment: http://toadstoolponds.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/why-plant-marigolds-in-your-vegetable-garden/

Another good idea!!

To save poking my eye on on sticks at the allotment, it was suggested to me to put a milk container on top of each one.  
This worked well but didn't look great, so ... my idea was to use the tiny bottles which contain pro-active drinks (which I love so it's a great excuse to have them), but I don't like advertising, not on sweatshirts, shoes, or even at the allotment. So, for fun, have painted some with acrylic paint:

These have just had two coats of paint and will be taken up to the allotment this afternoon.

Very stylish?!

Weather Forecast

An excellent site for looking at the weather forecast which I find very useful for deciding whether it's a gardening day is: http://uk.weather.com/weather/10day-Paignton-TQ3 and it's also useful for looking to see what the weather's like elsewhere.

PHGAS

At the Annual General Meeting last week I became Secretary for the Paignton Home Garden & Allotment Society - why? did everyone else take one step back and I wasn't looking!?


Anyhow, am now in the process of sorting out the waiting list - as long as King Kong's arm - and the list of plotholders. There are about 120 plots, most are full plots and some are shared, over three sites: Oakleigh St Michaels, Derrell Road and Lower Penns.

Nearly everybody grows vegetables, some flowers, fruit bushes and trees, there are several people with chickens, some bees and one loft of pigeons (not for eating so far as I know!).

 The allotment in 2010, when we first took it over

We have a super website: http://www.phgas.org/

My Notebook

Like many people, my blogs are for me as much as for others, so - I'm starting a notebook of what is happening in the garden and allotment, together with 'must-do reminder lists'. NB If you find 'My Notebook' boring, do look at other pages as they're far more interesting.

First Day, 8 October 2011 - partly sunny, no frost.

• Sweet Corn: Checked for insects in the tops of the sweet corns and decided it's time to pick the last of them and put the stalks on the compost heap.
• Rubbish: Nearby was a message left, presumably by a fox, ditto into the compost heap (using a piece of newspaper, also good for compost heap).
• Courgettes: Picked some courgettes and checked the plants as am leaving one on each plant to become marrows as they keep longer.  (We love cutting them into large rings, par-boiling them, then filling the hole with cooked mince and topping with grated cheese, herbs and breadcrumbs and grilling. Yum Yum, I can't wait. Will put a pic on here very soon ...)
• Runner Beans: Picked a few stray runner beans, am leaving the big, tough ones to ripen, to use as seeds next year.  When they're ripe will cut the plants at the base, remove the foliage (compost heap) and retrieve the sticks. The roots can stay in the soil to fix the nitrogen.
• Tomatoes: Picked the last ones to ripen on the kitchen window sill, stalks to compost heap.
• Marigolds still look lovely, I keep deadheading which has no doubt helped. 
• Spinach: Picked some leaves to have tonight, put tatty/diseased leaves and stalks onto compost heap.
• Beetroot: Second crop are still rather small so will leave and see if they grow big enough to harvest.
• Leeks: planted out over the past month are settling in well.
• Parsnips: Hand weeded.
• Pests: Lots of snails and whitefly (note see what to do about them).

Note: 
Must collect some seaweed from the beach (before the Council cleaning truck gets there)
Take a photo of the Marigolds.
Time to plant:

• Broad Beans for next year (less chance of black fly, which was very bad this year)
• Red Onions (buy)

On Gardeners' Question Time yesterday on Radio 4, they said in August it's a good idea to plant lettuce, potatoes, runner beans, beetroot and others, just in case we have an Indian Summer, when it'll be possible to harvest late goodies.  If we don't, the price of seeds used will be minimal.  Will try this next year.


Sunday 9th
No time for any allotment work as spent a fruitless two hours helping Dorothy, but David was busy moving paths and starting to dig.  May get some done tomorrow....


Monday 10th
David still moving paths and I'm digging the bits in between and removing the stroil, ready for covering the soil to supress weeds, to make running the patch much easier next year.  I read somewhere that digging in the Autumn is preferable as it doesn't dry the soil out so much as digging in the Spring, a real problem here with our dry Springs and sandy soil.
Today picked the large runner beans which were left to grow large on purpose and they will be left in a paper bag to dry, read to plant next year. 
Also noticed that the green manure which was planted last week is coming through, must remember to chop it up and dig back into the soil before it flowers.


Tuesday 11th: digging, finding lots of stroil and then strew some green manure on the site.  We love this - a fairy or other friend must have written on it!:

Wednesday 12th: Planned to go to the allotment but thought first I'd attach the ivy which is parasitically clinging onto several trees in the drive, including a pear tree which is gradually losing the battle.  Started by making cuts all around the bottom and then pulled off as much as possible, leaving ivy in the top of the tree of die off and release the trees to become themselves again.


Thursday 13th: As it had been a bit damp it was a good day to start digging out the weeds in one of the side beds at home, moving the unwanted plants down to the bottom, near the summerhouse.




14 October: There was a light shower in the night but the ground had dried out enough by this afternoon, so we were able to go up again today and do some more digging.   We are making four long, fairly wide beds with grass paths in between (note: must take photo of this).
The Green Manure is coming along well, the Vetch that is, but the Rye Grass hasn't yet sprouted.


15 October: did some more digging and took some photos of the new beds taking shape:

19 October: Forecast of frost tonight so went up to allotment and harvested remainder of marrows. Dug over and applied chicken manure and green manure to dig in later.


31 October: still no frost, have now picked last of courgettes and consigned foliage to compost heap. Still picking a few stray raspberries. 
It's been rather wet so the digging isn't proceeding as fast as we'd like. However, what has been dug over has either been planted with green manure or covered with breathable membrane (so water can permeate).  The green manure planted is vetch and rye grass, will leave it 'til Spring, then chop and incorporate into the soil.


Autumn Recipe time - Smashed Curried marrow:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/smashed-curried-marrow

Three Ways to. ... Detect Nutrient Deficiencies

According to this week's Torbay Herald Express:


1   Insufficient nitrogen can cause foliage to turn pale green and for the plants to become spindly.  Apply a high-nitrogen fertilizer to improve conditions 


I can think of two ideas for this:
Firstly, chicken poo pellets (as can be seen from RHS site http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?PID=297) they contain lots of nitrogen: 

Typical analysis of dried and pelleted poultry manure (can be variable):
N(nitrogen)         4%
P(phosphorus)    2%
K(potassium)     1%

"Happy to Help"

Secondly, leaving roots of peas and beans (legumes) in the soil after harvesting the legumes helps to fix nitrogen in the soil, using the nodules, see pic below (from : http://www.gardenhelp.org/food/nitrogen-fixing-root-nodules/)

2   Plants can develop yellow leaf edges spreading between the veins if they are short of iron.  This is most common on alkaline soils and you need to apply a product containing chelated iron (liquid or granular form) to ease the problems.

Chelated iron is a mixture of sodium, iron and a chelating agent to make the iron soluble in water and accessible to plants.  Perhaps this is why years ago old gardeners used to leave rusty bits of metal buried in their gardens (or were they just being untidy?!).  It can be purchased from garden centres and is also present in many general purpose fertilisers.

3   Lack of calcium - often experienced when plants are too dry to absorb it - causes distorted leaves, spots and cracks on fruit as well as blossom-end rot. Keep your plants moist to enable them to absorb calcium.

Remember - what my father told me years ago: 
Nitrogen (N): For green leafy growth
Phosphorus (P): For healthy root and shoot growth
Potassium (K): For flowering, fruiting and general hardiness


Ideas for problems and remedies from the excellent RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) site: http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?PID=456

Other essential minerals include:

Magnesium: to give green colour to leaves, with leaves turning colours such as yellow, purple, brown or red. Older leaves suffer first, and will die if they're not given any treatment. The nutrient can be leached out of light, sandy, acidic soil by high rainfall. or if there is too much potassium in the soil the plants absorb that instead of the magnesium.  As with our bodies, it's important to have a calcium/magnesium balance (eat plenty of bananas for potassium, that's why roses love banana skins).

For a long term solution, apply a yearly mulch of home-made compost.  This will conserve moisture, prevent the leaching of nutrients during heavy rainfall, and provide the soil with sufficient quantities of magnesium to keep the plants health.

An alternative is to apply Epsom Salts as a leaf spray for a quick, temporary solution in summer. Or Epsom Salts or calcium-magnesium carbonate can be applied to the soil in autumn or winter to remedy the deficiency for the next year.

(From: http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/problem-solving/magnesium-deficiency/)

For other minerals necessary in your soil there's an excellent site giving more information: http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=57. For instance this pic shows strawberries deficient in boron: