Autumn on the Plot

I had to scrape the windscreen last week and the nights are creeping down so we moved the pumpkins into the greenhouse. We had to do a bit more clearing in there first. The cornichons are all picked but we're not sure if they'll be very tasty as they've got so huge. We're still waiting for the tomatillos to go purple and they still seem to be growing. I found this lovely dried husk, but the ones on the plant are still green.

 We read today that the husk is meant to go brown when the fruit is ripe... Hmmm.

We got 11 good-sized pumpkins from our 6 plants on Plot3. We were pleased to see that the slugs hadn't got to them.

September wasn't a good time to go away for two weeks as we missed out on so much harvest - look at that waste of lovely tomatoes and we composted lots of cucumbers today. These are our Radish Rat Tails, they're pretty hot. The photo on the seeds showed the seedpods should go red but I can't see that happening.

This photo is evidence for my sister Joanne that I've used the drink jar she gave me!

The tomatoes are blighted so they won't be going into the compost bins - we'll clear them off site very soon.

I was pleased to see we have one (only one) swede that has actually formed properly and we found a courgette that is still edible, though rather big! We pulled a Kestrel potato and have a good supply of spuds for the next week or so - there should be a couple of good ones there for baking - yum!

We're storing manure in the compost bins while we plan what we're doing next year. We haven't got a lease extension beyond April yet!! :-(

Home Again...

From our two week holiday in lovely Puerto de la Cruz in the north of Tenerife. It's such a beautiful part of the island and we feel so at home at the Casablanca Apartments.

With the fantastic El Limón vegetarian restaurant nearby in the old town and the bus stop just up the road it's the ideal location for us. The bus journeys are an adventure in themselves and you get to see great views and can peep into the lives and gardens of the locals! It was extremely hot and the hills and heat took their toll so we were quite relieved when the clouds were drawn down from the mountains - still sweltering but you didn't feel the burn quite so much!

Anyway, we're home now so we popped up to the allotment to see how it's looking. I'm pleased to say the sun was shining and though about 10 degrees down on what we've been used to it was lovely to sit for a while. The plots are not so overgrown as we'd expected - the clearing we did before we left was obviously very timely.

Some of the pumpkins are ready - a bit early but they'll keep and we need some for the Hungerford Food Festival next week. And the Cornells Bush Delicata squash are looking good.

The Lizzano and Sungold tomatoes have trusses of lovely ripe toms for us. Some of the tomatillos are huge and have burst through their lantern sheaths.  Thanks to our plot buddies (Neal & Ted) for keeping the greenhouse watered!

The gherkins haven't quite grown as intended - they were meant to be tiny cocktails gherkins...

An unexpected bonus is the radish rats tails. The plants appeared to be devastated by weevils but they had a new lease of life and they're now covered in flowers, bees and tiny radish-flavoured 'chillies'.

While we were away the local newspapers had photos from the Hungerford in Bloom awards. I don't actually call nyself 'Belinda Thompson' but it's all good publicity for the allotments!

Composting and Clearing

The weather was reasonable at the weekend so we managed to spend about 6 hours on the plot. Jamie was clearing a section on plot 3; digging out raspberries and couch grass to have a new position for compost bins on that plot - just to store manure in for a bit.

I was dealing with the compost bins on plot 7. I emptied them both out onto a tarpaulin and then layered the contents, along with straw and some manure, into the new bins. The 'wet' bin was full of worms - lovely fresh looking red ones. They do such a good job turning all that waste into new soil!

'Dry' Compost which has been left alone since April

'Wet' Bin we've been filling since April

Someone dropped off two unwanted compost bins on the site a couple of weeks ago so we swapped one of our smaller ones for a nice big one; we now have two matching ones on Plot 7. I dug them down a bit and they're more level than they were previously. The stones round the edge are a haven for snails but they're also a vain hope to stop mice making a winter home in them.
Both of the bins are pretty much full but they won't take long to decompose and the compost will probably be usable in the Spring.

I cleared all the overgrown lettuce, chinese radish (which went to seed) along with the dried remains of the mangetout. I also cleared the cucumber and pepper plant from the greenhouse and chopped back lots of the tomatillo, which was trying to take over half the greenhouse! That all got chopped up and added to the compost bins so we can actually see the bottom of the gherkin plants again now.
The chilli pepper plant is now outside to see if that can be shocked into going red, some appear to be going black (not in a bad way) - perhaps the label is wrong and that's the colour they'll end up as.

This was part of Saturday's harvest. All those tomatillos came from the branches I chopped off. Some of the fruits are quite large. They taste quite nice as part of a salad, but will be interesting to see if any go purple and then taste them.

The fruit is really sticky inside the papery lantern. It doesn't taste like a raw tomato. If I get a chance I'll see about making some salsa with them - which apparently is what they're used for generally in South America. (They aren't Cape Gooseberries, although their lanterns look similar).

(Almost) All the Colours of the Rainbow

Love that little hoverfly in the background!

Because it's that time of year even if the weather has forgotten!

The Tenerife potatoes are still in full flower, although the foliage on the potato bags aren't looking so healthy.

One of the cornichon plants seems to be forming a flower on top. That can't be right, but we have the two other plants and lots of little gherkins are forming so we'll wait and see what it does...

The row of pot marigolds along the greenhouse were all self-seeded and are looking beautiful with all their different oranges and yellows.

The tomatillo fruits are forming their little lanterns - one fruit at each branch joint.

The wild flowers are coming on nicely but would probably appreciate a bit more sun (and so would I).

The chillies are producing well, I really hope they're not too hot to eat.

Shame we didn't see the Beechgrove Garden episode which included information on growing peppers as cordons till this week; perhaps we could have helped the plant produce more than 3 fruits.

Even the compost is colourful today.

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet - well, I got close but my rainbow includes pink rather than indigo I think!

Lens-Shaped Things and...

...other stuff.
I had to use that title because of these clouds we saw just as we were leaving the site at about 9pm this evening. I understand they're called Lenticular Clouds e.g. lens-shaped or lentil-shaped! Cool, huh?

Hmm, so what else is lens-shaped..?
This stone - we're certain this is a worked stone tool (we're always hoping to find such things!). Jamie found it on Plot 3. It's lovely and smooth on the flat sides.

 The edge definitely appears to have been worked - that can't be natural surely??

Er.... Lens-shaped...?

No, but pretty

Ok, I've run out of lens-shaped things, so this is what we achieved during our very long day on the allotment.
Jamie did a lot more digging on plot 3 and made a raised bed to go on that plot. We want to grow more chinese radish on there under cover so they have nice white skins.
I sorted out the greenhouse and we're now all planted up - no room for anything else. In fact, there may not be room for the things we've got in there if they grow well!

I'm feeling rather smug about the frame over the gherkins as I cannibalised several old cages to make it. I've hung strings down from the roof for the gherkins to begin their climb before they grab hold of the mesh.

Three Cornichon Paris Vert (mini gherkins)

Thanks to plotholder, Jonathan, for this healthy looking plant. Long cucumbers, so it's got some mesh to grab onto and hopefully the cucumbers will hang down through the shelving.

Burpless Cucumber

Thanks again to Jonathan for these two Tomatillo plants. They're like cape gooseberries, with Chinese lantern style fruits. Good for salsa when they're green (apparently) and jam when the fruits go purple. These are liable to grow out of control - they really need a metre to spread all round, so may need moving if they don't use the mesh as intended...

So, including two peppers (one chilli and one bell) and 2 tomato plants, there it is. All planted up. We've put some marigold in front of the tomato plants - to encourage bees/hoverflies for pollination and deter whitefly.

Yay! The asparagus peas have developed flowers. So pretty.

The plants always look sad initially as they grow flat to the ground, but they should bush out in time.

And here's the start of the courgettes...