Purple Sprouting tastic

had to take a picture of this before it went to the pot. All my P sprouting is doing well at the moment which means saving a fortune at the grocery. Have you seen how expensive this stuff is!!

Oh and I thought Id sneek a couple of shots of the local neighbours hard at work namely Lionel and Fran who are always on hand to give advice to us novices!!

Finally some photos

Well I got my 'taters in at the weekend with the aid of some advice from neighbour Fran, which i documented and went a little over top with the photos due to being so proud of the job!

The before shot!


you may be able to spot Lola our Bulldog (above) happily blending into the background while making a pest of her self on Lionels plot (but dont tell him!!!!)

The during shot




the final result!


Potatoes complete now on to something else....

Finally i get time to do something!!!

Well I finally this week got to spend time on the plot. Apart from the odd hour (if I was lucky!!) here and there Ive had very little time to turn round let alone keep the plot tidy, what with the new family edition and all!

Anyway, a full day on Saturday before the rain got the better of me meant I have prep'd the potatoe patch in readiness for next week when I plan to get them in the ground. 1 row of Charlottes, a row of Wilja and 3 rows Maris Pipers should do the trick. Thats not to mention the 4 buckets I have in the greenhouse happily growing away since the end of February.
Hmm I wonder if that will that be enough!!!!! - as the rest of my family badger me all the time for potatoes, onions and broccolli, sending a few their way will earn muchos brownie points!!

As for pics this week, I forgot my camera! sods law says ur gonna forget something and it just happened to be the camera so all my hard work has to be put into words not pictures! Believe me the plot was looking nasty, covered in chickweed and generally looking in need of a good make over!
Having a full day has really turned it around, I now have a lush freshly dug, brown plot, and although brown isnt the most exciting colour in the world there is something about it that is beautiful after a hard days graft.

That said, its not all brown, my Garlic is doing exceptionally well, as are my spring cabbages and purple sprouting.

Coming up is the Rhubarb which is looking very healthy and heres a question for anyone reading this - I planted a row of carrots in between my onions as an experiment and so far, no root fly! Is this because of the winter or could it be due to the onions disguising the smell????? answers on a postcard to...

It was nice to see so many faces on the plot this week, it seemed everybody took advantage of the early sun, I even managed to scrouge a cuppa and some essential spud planting advice offa Fran a couple of plots down.

Hazel did you manage to palm off all those parsnips or are you stocked up on soup until 2020? My parsnips were awful, full of canker (is that how you spell it??) so any advice on avoiding this this year would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway that will do for now, I best go take some pics of my progress, at least I can put them up!

Here's one I grew earlier!

Ok so its slow on the plot this time of year but here's something I planted from seed back in April that proved to be an all round success!! Great to brighten up those winter months and warm the cockles of your heart as they say!! I highly recommend trying out this fruitful crop, although the 'latham' variety is strictly reserved there are millions more to choose from that Im informed are just as good!



Baby Latham was born on Christmas Eve, a week late just like his mother, at 9.50pm and weighed in at a mighty fine 7lb 6.

Now so far so good but very tiring so not sure when Im going to get my routine back and get down to the plot, but hey its january and theres not much to do so im not worried at the mo, although I would like to get down there just for an hour or 2.

The most beautiful ugly pumpkin ever!!

Ok i know its been a while but due to studying ive had to neglect my blog! anyway im back and as promised i have shots of the bestest ever pumpkin. Forget biggest competitions and all that what about ugliest? after all they are for Halloween!!
Check him out!!



Anyway what else has been happening? well pretty much sorted for the winter, today i did a bit of digging for Barry and took up few leeks for myself. The compost heap for next year is built, ill post photos in my next blog but its lookin ok for now and i intend to grow pumpkins and courgettes in it, im told they'll love it.

The coveted Pumpkin Competition!

Today was Pumpkin day!! Is that how you spell pumpkin or is it pumkin?? I dunno, anyway I didnt have one myself this year but I did agree to keep an eye on Hazels while she was away. We fully expected to clean up! ahh, there lies the problem, we didnt! Hazel in this pic yours is the one at the forefront.



Well done Reg for 2nd prize!! Im hoping as we are neighbors you'll pass a little of the 'knowledge' my way!!
Not sure of the winners name, i was in a rush and it wasnt someone id heard of. Well done anyway!



thats it for now! See you all at the AGM on Tuesday.

A weekend of diggin' n weedin'!

Ok I have a 3 week break due to work commitments and what happens? WEEDS that what happens, sometimes it feels like Im growing them not vegetables!!!!!

Anyway a productive weekend none the less. I started by clearing the old brassica patch and setting out some rye as green manure. Im sure the pigeons are gonna love that! I found them on the seed Id put down when I went round on Sunday.

















As you can see the Asparagus patch has been cut back in readiness for next year. There was some debate as to whether or not I should be doing that but in the end we all agreed (me, Barry the Teacher, Alan Running Man and Neighbor Lionel) that if it sez so in the book then its good enough for me! - The was also a lot of talk about 'these modern, new fangled veggies!!' and 'takes to bloody long to give anything back!!' but anyway cut it back i did!


I then got told off for dumping all this lovely green stuff in the skip when it could quite easily go in a trench, and to be honest I agree! I was being lazy, so Sunday I set about digging trenches for both me and Barry for use over the winter. I have to say here, that "Im still helping out Barry!!!" if your reading this. "If I catch you digging again theres gonna be trouble! As far as Im concerned if you can help me out on my plot then I can help still on yours! LEAVE THE DIGGING TO ME!"

















Ive then set about planting more onions and garlic. In my opinion you can never have to many!! and with the left over one I plan to disperse them among the other veg as pest deterrents.

















Ok on a final note I thought Id post this pic of the cabbage patch, look at these beauties!! Oh n Hazel Im sorry to say that when I went up to the club house I spied another pumpkin, it was the size of a house! Cinderella could live in it! so 2nd prize is looking even further away!! never mind we'll beat em at their own game next year, Team 1617!! (a!)

















Excuse the weeds theres only so much you can do in one weekend!

To build or not to build, that is the question!

In my last post I posted a pic of the plot with the manure I'd just shoveled in place. This got me thinking... I have access to a load of logs. I think it would look nice and would improve the front of the plot if I were to build a foot high fence type thing around the manure out of these logs. I could fill it and it would be somewhere to keep the manure until ready to use. During summer I could use this to grow Marrows and pumpkins in and let Nasturtiums cover. I think it would also encourage the right kind of wildlife to the plot but im unsure????

Is this a good idea? What would be the down sides?

Shit shovelin'! til twilight.

Excuse the profanity but it is what it is and after all I shoveled it so I can call it what I like!


I havent updated for a while. In truth Ive been a little lazy, not at the plot but at bloggin'. Sometimes there always seems something more important to do! Anyway what have I been up to, well Ive shelled a whole load of runners which im drying out for storage. Not sure what Ill use them for but at a guess they will go great in a stew.

On the plot Ive planted a row of carrots in hope to have something, even if they re very small, for Christmas. Ive also planted 2 rows of Japanese Onions for over the winter, some Swiss Chard, Radish, Elephant Garlic and a whole bunch of Brassica's.


As for take homes, as every body else im inundated with runners at the mo. On top of that I have a very full fridge, French Beans, tomatoes, peppers and chillis from the greenhouse and at home, cucumbers, courgettes, marrows, beets, parsnips, carrots, turnips apples, blackberries and cos lettuce from both plot 19 and 17a. I only have so much space! ...and of course theres still the potatoes in the shed! Ive also had 3 jars of capers from the the Nasturtiums which ive pickled in hope they will store.





So all in all Id say not a bad month as far as veg is concerned. For my first year this is what makes it all worth while! ...and the moral to this little story? ...no matter how much shit you have to shovel at the end of the day you get your rewards ten fold! (I tried to think of something witty and funny here but my brain failed me miserably so instead Im writing this as a half arsed excuse!!)

Red Hot Chilli Peppers!

No, No, No, not the ultra cool rock gods from the U S of A, but the menacing looking devil in the greenhouse. I cant really say Ive grown these myself as that would be a barefaced lie but thnx to Barry we have these gr8 looking chilli's! Now comes the dilemma... One half of me can't wait to try these devils and the other half is scared of what they might do to me when I do!

Anyway, latest pic of the plot, whats under cover is what stands accused of knackering my back! You may sit back in your seat and admire my handy work with the hoe and you would be right to, its nothing short of hard-ass labour!