May (May Day (http://projectbritain.com/year/may.htm))

"A swarm of bees in May 

Is worth a load of hay; 

A swarm of bees in June 

Is worth a silver spoon; 

A swarm of bees in July 

Is not worth a fly."

Overwintered Marigolds - - - - -

12 May: We haven't had opportunity to work at the allotment recently.  The month started with bad weather, then when the soil was dry enough we had masses of work to do at the house, getting it ready for viewing by prospective purchasers.  Then I went away visiting for a few days.

baby lettuce plants with onion sets behind

Now I'm back we've just had two busy afternoons at the allotment.  It's amazing how the weeds have grown in our absence - a mixture of plenteous rain and sunshine - just what plants (and weeds) love.

I've spent a lot of time hoeing and weeding, adding the good stuff to the compost heap and putting the 'stroil' aside for drowning and/or burning - and in the process stamped on a legion of snails who've taken up residence in the spinach (see above).

 strawberry flower

 comfrey plants

 potatoes

It's time to sow seeds, in fact rather late for many, but 'better late than never' now the soil's lovely and warm.

This week I've sowed brassicas, tomatoes and aubergines in the greenhouse and will soon plant some peppers.  Earlier sweet corn and cucubits were sown inside, along with beetroot and Swiss chard at the allotment.  The beetroot and chard have yet to show themselves so must remember not to hoe over their areas by mistake.

shallots

Sunday 13 May: More hoeing and forking over. Planted a row of peas - better late than never, so they say.  It's surprising how hard the ground is in some places, even though the soil's pretty moist underneath.
The first broad bean pods are starting to form so have pinched out the succulent broad bean tops. Picked more calabrese, although they are running to flower quicker than we can pick them.  The bees love it.
Monday, 28 May: So long since I've written on here but that doesn't mean nothing's happened.  We've been up weeding and picking.  The spinach has now gone to seed unfortunately, ditto the broccoli which is quite a disappointment as last year we were eating them right through the summer.  I put most of that down to neglect with sorting out the house.
Today I picked broad beans and leeks and made a sort of stir fry with some butternut squash, with couscous and lentils, yum.




The front garden on a sunny day:

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

All Those Courgettes (Zucchini if you live on the west side of the pond)

What to do with courgettes (and other cucubits):

• courgette cake - see my item 'Comparatively Healthy Cakes.
• grate into soup and cook for a couple of minutes
• ratatouille soup, will give recipe* later
• saute in oil with garlic, herbs and seasoning, adding a little stock from cooking the vegetables
• ratatouille, with aubergines, peppers, onions etc
• steam 
• chargrill
• cut in half lengthways, scoop out middle (put middle bits into the soup!), fill with any mixture of your choice and put grated cheese on top and grill and/or serve with a tomato sauce 
• a mixture of grated courgette and carrot with some sesame seeds makes a fine salad, can add dressing if liked
• courgette chutney (recipe* to follow)
• aubergine and courgette crostini (recipe* to follow)

(* my reminder)

On the Paignton Garden Home & Allotment Society website  (http://www.phgas.org/) I put a query about what to do with all those excess courgettes.  I await ideas, but in the meantime here's a site with a few suggestions:
http://glallotments.blogspot.com/p/courgette-recipes.html and these people may be able to help: http://uktv.co.uk/food/homepage/

Allotment - Mid August 2011

I spent a couple of hours at the Allotment this afternoon, digging up some potatoes and harvesting runner beans, courgettes, lettuces, a couple of onions.  Then I carried on tackling the new bit which hasn't been dug over yet, removing lots of stroil and feeling very virtuous.

There was a frog in the pond today but photos of it didn't come out clearly, so are some of the rest of the photos:

 Glorious nasturtiums amongst the onions

 Bumble Bee on the runner beans

 Beetroot, onions, marigolds, lettuces and windmill:

As you can see the beetroot looks rather sparse - that's because we've picked so many. I'm pleased to say that there are some tiny ones coming along for later.

 Spinach, tomatoes, cucubits, broad beans, peas, marigolds (above and below)