It only seems like yesterday we were on holiday in Cornwall. September went by in the blink of an eye, mainly because my wife and I got married. We are now in the middle of October, and we have started putting the allotment to bed for the winter.
Prepping the Allotment for Winter
We have emptied most of the beds and begun mulching them with homemade compost and well-rotted manure. There are still a few things left; we need to pick and harvest loads of beetroot, the runner beans are just hanging on, and the pumpkins are ripening up and will be ready for Halloween.
Unfortunately, the weather battered the leeks, and they don’t look great. We’ll start harvesting them soon, as I doubt they’ll make it through the winter.
We picked the remaining apples and pears from our fruit trees, and I’m happy to say we had a decent crop this year.
We harvested and froze the remaining sweetcorn. It’s one of our favourite crops, and we look forward to harvesting it each year. We’d quite happily fill the entire plot with sweetcorn if we could.
The tomatoes in the greenhouse are still producing fruit and thriving. Normally, by now, we would have harvested all the fruit and composted the plants, but this year they are doing exceptionally well. I really want to have fresh tomatoes in December, so we’ll see how it goes.
As we wrap up the allotment for another year, it’s satisfying to see the results of our hard work, even though some crops thrived while others struggled. We always learn something new from each season, and we’re already thinking about what to grow next year (in fact, our onion sets and garlic just arrived today).
Until next time, it’s time to enjoy the fruits of our labour—both in the kitchen and in life.
It finally feels like summer is here. We’ve been harvesting plenty of fruit and veg from the allotment and took our first holiday of the year to Cornwall.
We managed to have our first dinner where all the vegetables on the plate were picked fresh from the allotment just hours before. There’s something satisfying about knowing where the food comes from and the effort it took to grow it.
We had chicken cooked in sweet chilli sauce, accompanied by a medley of freshly harvested potatoes, courgettes, carrots, spring onions, and sugar snap peas. It went down a treat and reminded us why we love our allotment so much.
Onion harvest
A couple of days before heading to Cornwall, I spent some time at the allotment to ensure everything was in order while we were away. One of the jobs involved harvesting some of the onions. I pulled up half my onions and left them to dry in the greenhouse. There’s something so wholesome about the smell of freshly pulled onions; it’s one of my favourite times of the year. The remaining half was pulled up when we returned from our trip, and they are currently drying out in the greenhouse, waiting to be stored.
Our Cornish Adventure
Cornwall was a breath of fresh air. We stayed just outside Lizard and spent a lot of time exploring the local area and Cornwall itself. I’ll let the pictures do the talking here:
Mullion Cove
Sunset at Lands End
Fishing Boat at Lizard Point
Lizard Point
Kennack Sands
Back to the Allotment
When we arrived back from Cornwall, I popped down to the plot for an hour; first to feed the chickens and second to see if there was anything to harvest. To my pleasant surprise, the allotment had thrived while we were away. I harvested runner beans, more peas, beetroot (one of my favourite vegetables), raspberries, tomatoes, cooking apples, and some of the onions that had completely dried out.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time, so I had to head back home, leaving quite a bit still to harvest. This week, I plan to spend more time at the allotment to gather the remaining crops.
It’s time for a July 2024 allotment update. Things seem to be growing ok; some plants are loving this weird weather while others are taking their time to get going.
I woke up yesterday, and it felt like autumn. In fact, I had to turn the heating on in the house. It feels like summer passed us by completely and autumn arrived abruptly.
Plot-wise, things are growing slowly. The cooler weather certainly isn’t helping. My potatoes look okay, but my first early potatoes are a hit-and-miss. Only four plants are growing in the bed, although I planted eight. The second early potatoes are fine though, and all of these are growing. The potatoes in my containers seem to be doing okay, and I harvested some last week for dinner.
Unfortunately, pigeons have battered my second batch of peas, and most of the leaves have been eaten. I’ve covered them with netting and gave them a feed; hopefully, they will recover and produce a crop. However, my second sowing of peas looks amazing and has been planted out. I start my peas off in some old guttering, and once they are 4-6 inches high, I slide them off the guttering into the bed. It makes planting out a lot quicker and avoids disturbing the roots.
Elsewhere, I’m glad to report that my onions are starting to bulk up and look really healthy. These were sown in the autumn and put on a lot of growth before winter set in. It’s only in the last few weeks that they’ve started to perk up.
The strawberries I planted in late winter are doing really well. I bought 10 plants off eBay to create a new small strawberry bed. When they arrived, I honestly didn’t think they would do much, but they’ve put on a lot of growth and have started to produce fruit. I really need to net them before the birds and other animals eat them before I do.
I had a little win last week—I spotted the first fruit on my tomato plants. They are tiny, but they are producing fruit. Hopefully, the plants won’t get hit by bacterial wilt like they did last year.
I was meant to publish this post last year, I’ve only just got around to writing it. Oops, sorry about that….
Anyway, it was autumn 2020 and we were discussing Christmas presents for our families. We wanted to make something, but wasn’t too sure. After a week of going back and fourth with ideas, we settled with fruit Gin.
So off we went, foraging through the local hedgerows and came back with a haul of elderberries and blackberries.
I know elderberries contain cyanide and this can be removed by cooking them. Not wanting to cook them down to a pulp, I thought the best option would to microwave them for a couple of minutes. In fact we done this with the blackberries too, just to get the juices flowing.
Bottled and ready to go
Ingredients
500g of fruit
100g of sugar
70cl Gin (we used a supermarkets own brand of Gin)
How to make Fruit Gin – Method
Remove the fruit from their stalks and remove any unripe fruit.
Place the fruit in a microwavable bowl and heat on full power for a couple of minutes.
Place the fruit and sugar in a large sterilised jar. Pour over the Gin and give it a good shake for a couple of minutes.
Over the next week, give the jar a good shake twice a day until all the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, store in a dark cupboard for around 4 weeks.
After 4 weeks, strain the berries and mixture and discard the berries. You should be left with a sweet tasting gin. If not, add a little more sugar.
Return the Gin to the jar and store for another month or two before bottling and drinking. We used some bottles we found on Amazon that cost around £20 for 10 bottles.
Wow, a year since my last update and a lot has changed. I’m posting more videos on YouTube at the moment, so go check out my channel and don’t forget to subscribe.
Things have been a little hectic recently. I’ve had a lot of work on recently that’s taken most of my time up, so my time down the allotment has been rather limited. I’m hoping to get down there this bank holiday weekend as the list of jobs is piling up. That said, on Easter Sunday, myself and the other allotment committee members, held a volunteer morning followed by a BBQ in the afternoon.
For as long as I can remember, the allotment association has always held volunteer mornings a couple of times a year to help keep the communal areas nice and tidy. This was the first one we organised since been voted in as committee, so we wanted to get a lot done.
It was a great morning, we managed to get the portacabin painted, weeded the communal flower beds and also tidied around the compost bays. We had an excellent turn out too and everyone got stuck in.
The afternoon BBQ was a great success too. We had an egg hunt for the kids, egg painting competition and various raffles. I’m looking forward to our summer gathering.
Me after everyone left, acting the idiot as always
Some of this can be found in my about page, but I thought I would introduce myself properly. My name is Steve and I live in the West Midlands, England. I’m self-employed working in the IT industry. When I’m not at my office or working, I can be found either down my allotment, down the gym or enjoying the outdoors.
I must point out, my spelling and grammar isn’t the best. In fact I left school unable to read and write.
Allotment and Gardening
My interest in gardening started at an early age when my dad allowed me to have a small patch of ground behind the shed in his garden. I mainly grew nasturtiums and marigolds that would get devoured by caterpillars every summer. After moving house and not having the room in the new garden, I lost interest in gardening, until I moved into my own flat in 2012. Within a couple of months of moving into my own place, I managed to get my hands on a small allotment measuring 12 metres by 5 and my interest in gardening was sparked again.
After a couple of years, I managed to get myself a much larger plot and gave up the smaller allotment. I now have a large allotment plot within walking distance of my flat, and I grow a variety of fruit and vegetables, and also keep a flock of chickens.
I’ve recently took on the Chairman role for the site.
Other Stuff
Away from my allotment, I’m self-employed working in the IT industry. I run SJH Computing, specialising in IT support for home and small business customers.
I also enjoy the outdoors in general, so I may will be posting about my adventures. I’m a lover of food, so again, I will be posting about it 🙂
