The River Cottage Seasonality Table

http://www.rivercottage.net/SeasonalityTables/Default.aspx?fid=1

This is a great Seasonality table of whats good at the moment in July and August,
fruit,Veg, Meat etc...

A trug of Veg

Well this is my Trug of Vegetables from my allotment,the trug was bought from the Only Foals and Horses sale at the farm for 50p so I am well impressed with that bargain! lots of peas,broadbeans,broccoli,spring onins,a green pepper,beetroot,and some maris piper potatoes,collected yesterday. The Peas are lovely and sweet. The Sweetcorn is growing well now and already has a flower on one of the biggest plants,the tomatoes are turning red (slowly) and everything else is just taking it's time. Ya just can't rush nature!

Here are some photos from around the allotment...

Chives

Poached egg plant

I just wanted to tell you about the book I am reading at the moment,

My life on a hill side allotment by Terry Walton, Known for his allotment slot on Jeremy Vines show on Radio two,and for growing a 12 stone pumpkin for charity..Bless Him..

For those of you who watched The Big Dig series on UK TV Gardens all about Allotments in London and in Whales,Terry Walton was one of the people on there (the one trying to grow Salsify which didn't grow properly.. bless him) and he has written this book,its really good,it goes right back to his childhood of when he used to go to his dads allotment,it has recipes and tips all the way through the book,this was a Birthday present from my Brother (Thanks Clive and Rob) and its brill I recommend it 100%.

More soon B-J x

Leave your comments if you have any fave books your reading or have read...

Winter Veg, holidays and eggs...

It's time to start thinking about sowing and planting the Winter Vegetables,

seems strange thinking of winter when we feel like we havn't even had a summer,I mean the Tomatoes havn't even turned red yet and it's already nearly the end of July!

The Parsnips have gone in along side the Leeks and the swede,lovely long rows of them ready for picking around October-November hopefully,if the summer has barley reached temperatures of 60oC then whats the winter going to be like? hopefully not as wet as May-June-and July,I can't cope with this cold and wet weather so were off to Greece in the next couple of weeks. Lot's of snorkelling,sun,fresh just picked veg and doing basically nothing,thats my kind of Holiday. The Broadbeans are nearly ready for picking now and the Pea pods have done great so there are pounds of them to be picked. All the Chickens are happy if only they would start laying soon,the new pullets are about 1-2 weeks away from laying now,it's really dissapointing going to the allotment only to find one egg! and i don't know which one is laying as she lays before I get there. We have 15 Hens and 3 Cockerils in there now so hopefully soon we should be getting 12-15 eggs a day.

I came accross this picture of lovely plant tags,I will try and make some of these i think they are nice and can be re-used,
I was interested to know what you use for plant tags,got any good idea's?
Send your comments.


The rain has stopped so i'm out of here up to the allotment...

more soon

B-J x

Meet Rothwell.....

This is Rothwell........

The newest member of the Chicken family down at O.A.V!

But wait it's a Rabbit! Yes it's Rothwell the Allotment Rabbit,(Rothers for short) found by Paul at the top of Rothwell Ave and this is how he got his name,he lives with the Chickens,eats with the Chickens and sleeps with the chickens,none of them mind at all, except Molly my white silkie Hen but she has gone broody again and spends most of her day sat tight on imaginary eggs and clucking to herself, so she doesnt count at the moment. How do I know its a HE you ask?

Well, much to my amazement I actually caught the Rabbit yesterday sniffing at one of the chickens and yes actually trying to mount it! Is this normal behaviour? has it been heard of before? or is this a breakthough in animal behaviour? I dont know, but whats even more stranger is the Chicken didn't even mind,it just carried on pecking at the floor minding it's own business whilst a big fluffy thing with floppy ears and no beak was minding it's own business. BIZZARE!.

So I went to buy it a ball to save the poor chickens embarrassment and frankly it's pride amongst the group, and I threw this soft small football in the run and the Rabbit just sat there and looked at it whilst all the Chickens ran after it to see what it was! SO that didn't work and within minutes it was back to following one of the Chickens around again,Oh well they all get on well so leave them to it. Jack said we could have furry eggs and Paul said they will be nice for Easter. :-o

Stranger things have happened....

Don't Forget to vote on the right hand side --------------------->

More updates soon B-J x

Beans and Chickens...

The Broadbeans (Sutton) are growing really well now and already some lovely big pods on them.

Despite the rain and the flooded beds they have kept going through it all,well done the Beans.

The Chicken's also have a new bigger area now,we have moved further into the next plot and extended the run for them,4 Cockerils went and I got 3 new pullets and 2 new little black and white spotted chickens,havn't worked out what breed they are yet they are very young about 10 weeks old. I put down 2 bails of straw on the run floor which has now stopped it being so muddy and they love to scratch about it looking for bugs,slugs and other mini beasties they can find,so the chickens are happy in thier new home.

Please Stop Raining!

Ok hands up who wants a green house like this?

Me that's for sure,but let's face it most of us only have enough room and enough money in the bank for a humble 8x6 aluiminum one!

I got a new Green House this week (Well new to me) and we have put it up on the new part of the allotment,a shed is being put up there too soon, but first we have to sort out the this flippin Green House,we bought it from Swinton and got it home in one piece (or so I thought),so we started putting it up and realised 4 panes of glass had broken,so off to Victoria glass we went to order 4 more new panes costing £13 which I thought was reasonable as the green house was cheap in the first place,but one big problem! every bloody time we get near to going to the allotment and arrange to repair the green house and carry on finishing it off,low and behold it RAINS! (STOP RAINING! no seriously now STOP raining,it's day after day after day)for one afternoon please it's driving me mad now,and only to be reliably informed by Jack that the only nice day we are going to have is on the 15th of July (Sunday) then more rain till August!
I have wanted an allotment for years,I have wanted a Green House for longer,Ive wanted Chicken since year dot and finally I have them all and it rains like there has never been rain before! is someone up there stopping it all from happening? AND do you see me giving up? NO.

This is my Greenhouse finally up in place minus 2 panes,it all got a bit too boggy around the greenhouse from walking on the grass,it has dried out a bit now so I am waiting until it dries out a bit more before I go squelching around there again. Oh and I got a free water butt with it too.

I wanted to put this picture on,it was one of those rare moments that the rain stopped and the sun came out,and there in the distance was a rainbow going right into the little white farm house on the hill.
Prize Pumpkins!

3 lovely Pumpkin plants treated better than the Queen! they better appreciate this.

The sunset over the allotment the other night,couldn't resist sitting there waiting for the sun to go down. We havn't seen many of these in June or july this year.

Can Cabbages and Chickens Swim?

Well, the last few days has seen sooo much water on the allotment that I am begining to get webbed feet I think! The Chickens apparantly don't seem to mind the wet weather at all,they are still running around in the mud,clucking and crowing as usual but if the water gets any deeper they will have to learn to swim. The pen is soo muddy and slippy and yes, I did fall in there the other day and did a full on slam dunk to the floor in the mood whilst chasing one last chicken around trying to get it in the hutch in a torrential downpour!

have I got any photo's of me falling in the mud? NO I havn't...lol

The Summer Cabbages have been underwater a couple of times this week so if they survive it will be a miracle!

On a more positive note I did go to pick up my new greenhouse today from Swinton,which we took down and put up in this awfull pouring rain,Why do we do this? After all allotments arn't about being a fair weather gardener,to me they are about getting stuck in no matter what the elliments throw at ya! because UK weather, being UK weather, ya would end up never doing anything because it does rain most of the time.

This morning we pulled up the first crop of carrots,perfectly formed bright orange carroty carrots,it's like a suprise when ya start pulling the carrots,grab hold of all them green leaf tops that you have been looking at and watering and caring for for weeks,checking everyday to see if they are big enough to pull out and eat and when ya finally do pull them up it's a relief that the one ya pulled up is actually big enough to put on your plate rather than a matchstick size orange thing ya wish you would have left in to get bigger!

So all in all a very wet but productive week....more soon

just flicking around allotment website's (like ya do) and I came accross this site,take a look, I think it's pretty good...

http://www.gardeningwithadam.com/