UN-CULTIVATED ALLOTMENT PLOTS, SHAME AND NAME!

ALLOTMENT SITES WITH LONG WAITING LISTS AND OVERGROWN PLOTS

Our allotment site has a few plots that are not well-cultivated. Some have been vacant for a time.

One plot next to mine is a real disgrace.  The tenant is the local Adult Education College, where courses are held under the heading 'GARDENING AND HORTICULTURE'.

The thug grasses next to my plot

Every year this plot is left to grow a waist high covering of thug grasses, interspersed with thistles.  Every year the seeds from this plot blow over to my plot and the two other plots which are its neighbours, as well as further afield.

In the prospectus for 2013/2014 there are 19 Gardening and Horticulture courses listed at the college.  In the past a group of students have arrived in summer, for three or four morning sessions, presumably as an aspect of one of these courses but they do very little.  This spring and summer I have not seen anybody.

We are luck to have a new  keen committee, and under 'self-management' our committee are convinced of the necessity of getting tenants on all the overgrown plots and to give notices to quit if the allotment holders do not or cannot cultivate their little piece of south London.

Unfortunately the college, up to now, has not acted on notices of 'non-cultivation' that has been sent to it.

I should be so pleased if they do decide to quit, so that somebody can take on the plot and reap the rewards of growing vegetables and fruit.  It would make my life easier too!

HOW TO FIX THE PESKY PROBLEM OF HOSES NOT CONNECTING TO THE SPRAY GUN

AMAZON.CO.UK FOR GARDENING STUFF

I have written earlier about my problem with hose connections and watering.

You see, I have a grand total off 5 hoses, bought or given over the years.

The yellow and pink ones and spray guns

Two at home, one yellow for the short distance from the tap and the front garden, and one pink long one for the end of the garden, where there is a fig tree and a micro pond.

On the allotment, I have two plots, 45 rods each, separately.  So I have this arrangement:

Two hoses, one yellow and one blue, connected to one another  (some distance from the communal tap) and yet another, green, for the second.

 We are lucky that our allotment site permits the use of hoses, but not sprinklers.

I BUY STUFF FROM AMAZON FOR THE GARDEN  - here is the link

Have bought some Hozelock fittings from Amazon.co.uk this summer.

HOZELOCK WATERING FITTINGS - here is the link to Hozelock's website

These promise to be superior quality to the ones I have been struggling with up to now.  So far so good.

There is a metal tap connector.

There is a metal and plastic fitting to go on the end of the hose, for connecting to the tap.

There is a small metal spray gun.

Like I do with plants, I have over the years collected spray guns.  They don't  seem to last long, in my experience.  They tend to clog, and there is no easy way to clean them.

Have bought stuff in the past from B & Q, Homebase, and The Garden Centre, but now have put my trust in this new metal Hozelock equipment, thanks to Amazon.co.uk.

Time will tell if it is worth the extra money!

HERE IS SOMETHING I READ ON THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL WEBSITE

My comment is, oh well, its so necessary to be an optimist, otherwise you would just give it all up!

"Although watering sounds like a simple task, supplying just right amount can be a challenge.

• Too little and plants can be prone to bolting, powdery mildew and nutrient deficiencies such as blossom end rot in tomatoes
• Too much water can cause leafy growth, which is great for lettuce, but not for root vegetables such as carrots which can split
• Overwatering can exacerbate slug and snail problems and encourage foot and root rots"

THE BIG GARDEN PROBLEM, HOW TO KEEP ON WITH THE WATERING!

The green one

The blue one

WATERING, WATERING, OH WELCOME, RAIN!!!

Last night, we had rain here in the South East.  So lovely to wake up in the night and hear the drenching noise of heavy raindrops.

HOSES

I wonder if anyone else has problems with hose fixtures?  It drives me wild when the connections part company with the hosepipe, water sprays everywhere and I have once again to walk back to the tap, turn it off, reconnect stuff then walk back to the tap and turn on the water again.

The yellow one

I have loved the blue sky and the pleasure of sitting outside for an evening meal, but after nearly three weeks of hot, dry weather I have got really cheesed off with the task of keeping plants alive.

Some things in the front garden, like michaelmas daisies, have definitely given up the ghost, where the soil is dry as a sandy dessert, no possibility of it holding moisture.

There is a link to advice from the Royal Horticulture Society on watering vegetables, here.

Royal Horticultural Society advice

SARAH RAVEN 'FOR A BEAUTIFUL AND PRODUCTIVE GARDEN'

SARAH RAVEN - SEEDS AND PLANTS

I have read Sarah Raven's column in the Saturday edition of The Daily Telegraph, for some years now.

LINK TO DAILY TELEGRAPH GARDENING PAGE

She used to write primarily about flower arranging, and the courses she runs at her holding at Perch Hill.  Now she has branched out quite a lot.

Go to SarahRaven.com http://www.sarahraven.com/ and you see the company provides plants, bulbs, vases and all sorts of extras like a Sloe Gin Kit (minus the  gin and sloes).

The autumn cataloge from Sarah Raven

Annual flower seeds in my order

I ordered some of her seeds a few weeks ago and they arrived promptly.  I shall plant some of them in the autumn.  The french beans I can start in pots and then try them on the allotment this summer.

Now in the post today arrived the Autumn catalogue!  Oh dear, will it be autumn that soon?

It has some delightful tulips and lilies featured;  I am very tempted.

She also has an interesting web site with a link to a blog, here

 GARLIC AND SAPPHIRE COM

GIANT WATERLILLY

WATERLILLIES, THEY GET SO BIG!

Picked this morning from my pond

I made a gamble a couple of years ago.

There on the Allotment rubbish heap (which includes junk as well as green stuff) I found a huge, woody root of waterlilly.

Obviously somebody had found it too big for their pond, and chucked it out.

My gamble was to grow it in my small pond for a couple of years, and then do the same thing, chuck it out when it got too big.  I cut a couple of pieces off the large root and tied string round them.  Then I lowered each piece into my two ponds, one small, one minute.

THIS YEAR, RESULT

The flowers are truly beautiful, but the leaves are very large.  This morning I cut off all the biggest leaves, which were hiding the flowers and I picked a bloom to put in a vase.  It is getting a bit droopy already, but is still lovely.

Next year I really might have to get that  root out and chuck it away, meanwhile I love it.

My pond is a real pain though, so much work removing exuberant pond irises and sundry water plants, not to mention the problem of finding small holes in the butyl lining.  I think these leaks are caused by herons, who come into the garden looking for the fish.  I have a few sticklebacks.

I have also seen herons fly off with frogs in their beaks.  Its a hard life if you are a frog.

NATIONAL GARDEN SCHEME - PADDOCKS ALLOTMENT AND LEISURE GARDENS

NATIONAL GARDEN SCHEME - GARDENS TO VISIT IN LONDON AND NATIONWIDE

http://www.ngs.org.uk/


I went to see the Paddocks Allotments yesterday, (at 12 pm the temperature was probably over 30 degrees).  The Allotments was open for one afternoon as part of the National Garden Scheme.

SCARECROWS

The Society had arranged a Scarecrow competition and us visitors were asked to put three in order of preference.  I chose this one first, Prince William and The Duchess of Cambridge, then Elvis, then Goldilocks and the three bears.

Which ones would you have chosen?

Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, still waiting

Elvis in  all his glory

Goldilocks and the three bears

I also liked these

Forget its name

Grandad Scarecrow?

GARDENERS SHOP

This site has a very good shop, where you can become a 'Garden Member" for £3, and buy your compost,  manure, tools, seeds, fertiliser - you name it they have it, very well stocked. I am a member and I am also a obsessive purchaser of plants, so yesterday I bought a bay leaf rooted cutting, an aloe, a dianthus and something they called 'Hawaiian Honeysuckle.

Plant sale, I could not resist!

More plants for sale

 THE ALLOTMENT WAS A MIXTURE OF HIGHLY CULTIVATED PLOTS

 and those like mine which are in need of more care and attention, in fact taking over your life and leisure....

Here are some more views of things I liked the look of

Lovely old watering can

Through the netting

Good idea to support nets

Follow route to find scarecrows

Bean poles go straight up, unlike mine which are twiggy

Ranunculas don't look real 

Grandad's pot

Nana's pot

Raspberries jostle for space

Carrots in pots seem to do OK

Lovely yellow argyranthemum

They took on this plot four months ago

Hanging baskets are on a lot of the sheds

What a good idea for flower pots fixed to a hanging basket frame

I liked this shady corner under the tree

Mega broad beans

Cherries and roses, what a lovely mix

Some plots were suffering from the heatwave

So get out there and visit all the other gardens in the National Garden Scheme ....well I tell you this, but I am a bit lazy when it comes to trecking out into Surrey or North and South East London, especially in the heatwave.

I prefer to sit in the shade and enjoy looking at my own garden.

SPINACH QUICHE FOR SUPPER

SPINACH I GREW THIS SUMMER WAS PICASSO F1 VARIETY

I got three pickings off this spinach.

The final one was of plants going to seed, so I used 1 lb of leaves for this quiche.

my favourite quiche 

This basic recipe I used from my battered old favourite cookery book, "How to be a Supercook and work as well" by Lyn Macdonald, 1976 (Elm Tree Books).  It is an old library book which I bought when the library was selling off old stock.  The quiche recipes are excellent.  Lyn Macdonald suggests an 11 inch dish but mine is smaller than that.

Here it is

Make the short pastry (8 oz flour, 4 oz mix of lard and marge) and line a dish, then pre-cook it, lined with greaseproof paper (about 20 mins) in hot oven

The filling is as follows
Put in a bowl:
Three eggs, about half a pint of single cream (or more if your dish is bigger than mine), about 2 ounces of cheese (I used Swiss Emmenthal, grated but she suggests Gruyere). A little salt, pepper, grated nutmeg.  

Cook 1 lb spinach leaves in a little butter for short time, until soft, then chop it up roughly.
Add spinach to the mix of eggs, cream etc.  I added a little chopped streaky bacon, which I blanched first in boiling water, but I think back bacon would be nice.

Cook on a lowish oven for about 35 or 40 minutes, depending on your oven. Mine is a Fan Oven.  I used 150 degrees.  Lyn suggests 200 degrees C (400 degrees F) or Gas 6.  

Do not cook too hot, you do not want the mixture to boil!

We really enjoyed this last night, with some peas off the plot.  Thank you, Lyn Macdonald!

 My other success so far this year, a row of Meteor Peas.  I grew them indoors in my greenhouse to start them off, in three lots of Root-trainers which I covered with their lids, because the mice love peas and have snaffled them all in previous years.  

I had to cover the peas with netting too, when they started to produce pods, because of pigeons, the bane of my existence over there, along with the other banes, foxes, mice, slugs, snail, bindweed, couch-grass,  etc.  Ah well, you have to keep trying....

ALLOTMENTS ARE JUST A PAIN, AT THE MOMENT!

HAVE BEEN TENANT OF MY ALLOTMENT FOR LONGER THAN I CAN REMEMBER

I am not a newby when it comes to growing vegetables, but it still is a struggle, every year.

This year we have a heatwave, last year we had cold, grey skys and rain.  The slugs and snails flourished.  The tomatoes and potatoes all got blight.

At the moment I have to go and water stuff.  The spinach has gone to seed already.

Today I decided to make a spinach quiche, and reflected that growing your own gives you a huge amount of extra work in the kitchen too!  You have to eat it all, and you get gluts. (Are you listening, courgettes?)

Washing lettuce (mind the slugs)

Scrubbing potatoes

Shelling peas

Slicing beans

Preparing strawberries and gooseberries, and more.....

Its just one long wash, wash, wash!  Water, water, water.

There are always other people on the allotment site who also want to water, and we all have our hosepipes at the ready.  Only one tap near my plot and this can lead to bad feeling if somebody hogs the tap with their hose

But we get on well, on the whole, and my neighbouring plot-holders have become my friends.