Allotment 26/6/10

I’m making a sad face because I have had a crop failure, one that I usually do pretty well at as well which makes it doubly annoying.

 Garlic is usually so easy to grow, last years were great for instance, but this year nothing has happened. I don’t know what it is, whether it was the very cold winter or the cloves that I planted which were saved for last year, but something went wrong leaving me with no crop, thank goodness for Waitrose.

 It hasn’t been all bad though. The old faithfuls keep plugging away and this week Significant Other took her life in her hands and offered to do the forearm shredding task of gooseberry picking. Apart from a little light sunburn and arms that look like she has a serious self harm problem it all went really rather well and a very large amount of fruit was bought home.

 We have also had a good crop of rhubarb so we have been making jams and chutneys.

 Significant Other has made 5 jars of Gooseberry Chutney and I have made Rhubarb (with a hint of Ginger) Jam (also 5 jars) and Gooseberry and Elderflower Preserve (7 jars).

 The recipes for most of things that I make often, including the Elderflower Cordial and this Gooseberry and Elderflower Preserve recipe, can be found in the utterly fantastic “Food for Free” by Richard Mabey.  It is one of the two books that I use most, as you can see from the picture of my copy; the other is “Dough” by Richard Bertinet which is a fantastic book about bread making.

 “Food for Free” is a guide to edible plants basically but it also contains recipes and useful hits and tips. Really it is great.

Allotment 21/6/10 (Guerrilla Gardening)

I’m not sure if this should go on the Allotment blog or my general one so I’ve put it both, I’m not sire what I’ll do in the future.

 So I've been doing a little more Guerrilla Gardening. There is some bare soil near my house and so I had put plants in it.

 On the Guerrilla Gardening website there is a section on how to create seed bombs but I didn't want to do that. The small area is “looked after” by someone who is a supposed professional but can't tell the difference between weeds and plants and has already removed other things that I have planted there that were in flower. This then would need some stealth and cunning. And then I had a thought, plug plants.

 I still have some trays left from some Lobelia that I had bought and would be perfect for my little plan. There was a packet or two of wild flower seeds hanging about, under the sink I think, so a little compost in the tray and a sprinkling of seed on top. Now water in and leave for a few weeks, with some regular water obviously, and then you will have little pods of wild flowers that you can plant quickly and with minimum fuss.

 Under the cover of darkness, well the middle of a Sunday afternoon anyway, I went over to my little plot around the tree and to the bare earth patch that I wanted to bother and within 15 minutes my work was done and my little plugs of wild flowers were watered in. Give it another couple of weeks and they will be flowering and giving a little joy to all who see them, well that's what I rather egotistical hope.

 Oh and for the person who regularly returns this area to bare earth I have made these little signs,

Allotment 4/6/10

I come before you to report a rare success today. I have been a little failure heavy recently but some things are going alright.

 I have finally managed to get some carrots seeds to germinate. I know that this is usually very easy for most people but I seem to have a problem with them and I don’t know why. Anyway this is my 3^rd lot of seeds and some of them have germinated, this makes me very happy. Look at their tiny little green leaves,

And then there are the chillies on my window sill,

How lovely is that?

The elderflower is finally out here so there is only one sensible thing to do, until my gooseberries are ripe and I can make gooseberry and elderflower preserve that is, and that is make cordial. It is the loveliest thing in the world and it is really easy,

Take 1kg of sugar and pour over 750ml of boiling water and dissolve the sugar, then add 10 heads of elderflower, they look like this, if you don’t know,

Add 5grams of citric acid and a sliced lemon, you can grate a bit of rind in if you like, give it a stir and leave it for 24 hours. Then strain it and put it on sterilised bottles. It can last for 6 months in the fridge but won’t because it’s lovely. You can also put it in plastic bottles and freeze it until you need it but remember to leave room in the bottle for expansion.