purple sprouting broccoli

Purple sprouting broccoli is one of those great reasons for 'growing your own'. The major supermarkets offer 'broccoli' throughout the year even though its season  in our English soil is June to October. The 'broccoli' we buy in the supermarkets is in fact calabrese - another member of the brassica family. It is a short plant that is easy to grow, has a good flavour and freezes well.
True broccoli is pictured - purple sprouting broccoli. It is pungent, having a tasty, peppery flavour and is very different to the 'broccoli' available to supermarket shoppers. The mature plants are 1.5metres high and need staking to stop them falling over, They need netting to provide against their nemesis - the wood pigeon. Its florets are harvested around Mothers Day and the season has already peaked due to the warm weather we have had recently. Just boil in a little water for a delicious vegetable.

the amish have landed!?

In the USA the Amish eschew the trappings of modern life.


They reject modern technology and live an agrarian existence believing that this brings them closer to God.


The mens' appearance is marked by simple clothing, broad brimmed hats and beards. They use horse power on their farms and visit markets and church in horse drawn vehicles. They stand at odds with twenty first century values and this contrast was brilliantly drawn in a short sequence in the film 'Witness' by a tiny horse and cart travelling along a highway being dwarfed by a massive lorry.


What has this got to do withe price of fish you wonder?


I had my own little 'Amish' moment in the week, having a sense of how different I might be seen.


At our new home, the front lawn was in need of a cut and infested with broad leaved weeds. So, I got out my old push mower and my 'daisy grubber' which is like a forked screwdriver. Under the dandelion it goes and with a lever action the weed is removed! Beside me on the drive was parked my old and dirty Ford Focus.


As I performed my lawn duties I was aware that during entire time, the man next door but two was playing the hose over his gleaming, new, black BMW.


A more stark difference in life styles could not have been created. He must have looked at me, sweating over the manual mower and kneeling to grub out weeds and thought 'The Amish have landed'. Presumably he had a good laugh in front of his large plasma screen TV that night.

good books

A perfect evening after the hectic Christmas and Boxing days: supine on the sofa luxuriating in good books.

Our visit to the Lowdham Apple Day alerted me to to 'Success with apples and pears to eat and drink' by Alan Rowe (Groundnut). I put it on my Christmas list and Santa was kind! Wonderfully subjective, irascible, opinionated and quirky, I made loads of pencil notes throughout the book and finished it in one sitting. Particularly interesting were his sections on the history of apples, his sections on recommended varieties and his descriptions of cider and fruit juice making.

Began a new find for me - Roger Deakin whose 'Notes from Walnut Tree Farm' (Penguin) was another Christmas pressie. His writing about the environment is lyrical, erudite and readable - some gift! His references to other writers have done that marvellous thing - opened unexpected pathways for me to follow in 2011.

Made good progress on Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' (Vintage) which is another of those bleak futuristic novels that chimed with Kazou Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go' read earlier this year. A compelling and completely believable narrative and one that will be recommended.

'the weather outside is frightful...'

This time the snow has missed Nottingham but the rest of the country seems to be badly affected. The garden, frozen of course, waits.

Really frustrating for me because I have a garden full of shrubs to dig up and move to the new site. The frozen ground will now continue until the New Year. There isn't much more we can do.

Hey ho. Today we walked from the 'Mushroom Farm' site around the former quarry that is adjacent to Bestwood Country Park. Here too, it was frozen and the exposed sandstone was crazed with these ice crystals.

The quarry area will be fascinating to explore in spring and summer. It has been reinstated as heath and we can't wait to claim this area as 'our patch' for longer term study over the coming years.

november snow

Earlier than I can remember come the snows of winter.

Winter stayed too late in 2010 and has come back so quickly that we have forgotten the bits in between!

But this was a good year nationally for our migratory birds with breeding successes for house martins, reed warblers and spotted flycatchers reported on BBC Radio 4 'Saving Species'. Great news because we have seen so many species decline over the past twenty or thirty years.

Perhaps this cold northerly wind will bring a bonus of overwintering birds?

Here we have a photo of our back garden for the family album.

improving productivity!

My previous post set out a grand vision of where we hope to be in a couple of years.

In the meantime, the rhythm of the seasons beats as we enter 'the fall' and the prosaic work of the garden must be done! Leaves provide vital organic matter for the soil: it's that time of year when acquisitive gardeners barrow them to gardens.

A lot of time is taken travelling backwards and forwards during this activity. Surely this can be done more efficiently?

It can - and here's my patent way of getting even more into each barrow.

Nearly seventy shovel fulls can be packed into my mesh cylinder. A wire is hooked around its waist to keep the shape and when full it is tied to the barrow for its journey to the allotment. Good old baler twine!

The leaves (even when packed in tight) have little weight and so the increased load is not too difficult to push. Three or four wheelbarrow loads are now reduced to a single journey.

The following post will show 'the fruits of my labours'.

october

Nearly a month since my last post: a busy time at home and at work.

We have come through one of the busiest gardening periods but graced the allotment with little of our time.

But we seem to holding up quite well, despite the neglect, as the photo shows.

Foreground left: potatoes lifted and stored and beds planted with overwintering field beans and one bed of overwintering broad beans (aquadulce). First early potatoes were harvested early in the season and now phacelia flowers, giving a late pollen and nectar source for the last bees and hoverflies.

Back left: our robust beanpole frame constructed from locally provenanced hazel rods has stood well throughout the season. Beans are being left to harvest as dried beans towards the end of the season.
It has not been a great year for sweet corn (maize) but beans have yielded big green beans which grace salads perfectly. Hidden from view are beds of overwintering mustard in the quarter of the garden that wil be given over to brassicas and leaf vegetables next year.

Back right: our early purple broccoli and brussels sprouts will last in the ground until spring, as will the chard. Calabrese is finishing its season and will be replaced by overwintering red and white onions and garlic. Those parsnips that survived the upheaval of mole activity will be harvested after the first frosts. Trefoil has been sown beneath brussels and broccoli.

Foreground right: our onions and garlic have been harvested and green manures phacelia and overwintering grazing rye have been planted to protect the soil. Two blocks of leeks will be harvested over the winter.

Patches of flowering marigolds, comfrey and borage provide late forage for insects.

Compost has been turned and left to rot ready to be used as a mulch next spring.

Still to do:

• complete apple harvest and prune apple and pear trees
• lift few remaining pink fir apple potatoes
• weed around blackberries
• tidy shed
• stake broccoli and brussels sprouts
• harvest last beans
• harvest squash
• burn wood and prunings

Late summer sowing and planting

Bare soil is the last thing a gardener wants to see! Let's make that ground as productive as possible!

In what was our 'onion bed'...

Onions, shallots and garlic have been harvested.

Our garlic did especially well and overwintering white onions were also good.

Overwintering red onions produced a meagre crop ( they were planted in a bed that was shaded through much of their growing period - doh!).

Shallots 'reverted to type' and produced another disappointing harvest.

Summer onions were affected by the long dry spell and slow start to the growing season but at least don't seem to be affected b

y rots (yet).

So now to use the ground before it becomes the potato bed next year and then has a good mulch of manure and compost.

We have sown beds as follows:

phacelia - 'green manure' that is a wonderful nectar source for bees

Autumn King carrots have been sown in three of the beds

Musselbrough leek seedlings have been planted in two beds and spring onions have been sown to complete one of these beds

Annual grazing rye seed has been broadcast onto the soil in the final bed as a green manure.

We have left in chives, calendula (pot marigolds) and anthirhinnums around the edge of the beds because they are so attractive to beneficial insects.

Primroses and cowslips have also been established around the edge of the beds: these are not only very pretty in the spring but provide a useful nectar source for early flying insects. They will be swamped by potatoes if left in their position next year. I hope to find time as soon as possible to lift this years potato crop, re-establish the beds and then transplant the cowslips and primroses across to their new position.

dry dry dry

The driest summer since 1929: bad news for gardeners whose plants begin to shrivel in the scorching sun.

We lifted a handsome crop of garlic last night with 'Thermidrome' doing especially well. It now lies in the greenhouse 'curing' in the heat. Garlic enjoys May rain and we had enough to bulk the bulbs.

But potatoes need rain when in flower - at the end of June and beginning of July and the ground is not moist. We prepare ourselves for a disappointing crop which will contrast unfavourably with last year.

Brassicas don't seem affected yet and neither have the early peas. Later peas (for instance 'Maro') will have yields reduced.

Insects, of course will thrive in this long period of hot, dry weather. Our phacelia has now finished and has been pulled up and composted. But other flowers like comfrey and borage are a magnet for bees.

And the forecast goes on being sunny and dry. Not good news for two legged gardeners but great for six legged ones!

clever cousins

Gardeners are proud of their gardens. They should be - hours go into designing and maintaining them throughout the year.

The most confident open their gardens for others to visit. Open gardens have become a feature of the British summer and it is always a treat

to look around someone else's patch, taking photo's, admiring - and pinching ideas.

I come from a gardening family. My grandfather was an allotment holder, dad is a keen gardener - and my two favourite cousins carry the torch on their side of the family.

Both Sue and Jenny opened their gardens to the public over the past few weeks and it was an absolute pleasure to support them.

summer hanging baskets

Our English boys disappointed in the soccer world cup on Friday. They play Slovenia in a 'must win' game this afternoon. The nerves of the nation are frayed!

To inspire them and to bring them luck, I show one of our red-and-white themed hanging baskets. They've still got some filling out in months to come, but I'm pleased with their progress so far.

I used peat free organic compost and I feed weekly with dilute comfrey 'tea'.

So, not for my car, the waving flags. Not for our windows the big England banners. Not for me the football shirt.

What is more English than gardens and hanging baskets? Add to that a patriotic colour scheme and you can bet Wayne Rooney will perk up!!

Good luck boys! Come on England!

hazel beanpoles

In vegetable gardens across the land, gardeners are erecting frames for climbing beans.

Almost every gardener will use regular, straight, imported bamboo canes.

The sustainable gardener, wishing to reduce the inputs in his organic garden, might wonder whether importing and using bamboo canes is the best option for supporting climbing beans.

'National Beanpole Week' was introduced some years ago to encourage gardeners to use hazel poles taken from local nature reserves. Taking the stems from hazel 'stools' in native woodland in a planned and regular way is a necessary part of woodland management. By cutting back the hazel on a frequent basis, light floods into the woodland floor, allowing a diverse range of native flora to flourish. It is a practice that goes back hundreds of years and it is this practice that has helped shape our woodlands and countryside.

If this work doesn't happen, our woods become much less wildlife friendly and rare flowers, insects and birds are lost.

Gardeners can make this necessary part of nature conservation work more likely to happen by creating a market for the hazel poles. This renewable resource is grown locally and does not need to be imported from thousands of miles away.

So, this year, we made a small step towards this by getting our wildlife trust to deliver poles for sale to allotment holders.

Demand exceeded supply!!

Because there weren't enough for everyone to use, I had to 'stretch' mine to make our beanframe. But, here it is, robust, rustic and rather too widely spaced, but, at last, my beanpoles are in and my bean frame is formed.

an english country garden..

Photographs from the Rose Garden at Belvoir Castle.


A wedding reception in early June.

A warm summer's afternoon in a classic rose garden.


Lots of bumble bee activity on the thrift and cranesbill (geranium) flowers.

This striking cornus took my eye.


The sky above Belvoir Castle should have been alive with the chatter of summer swallows and martins. It wasn't ... so once again .... no house martins.

potatoes in!

Traditionally, gardeners have always planted their potatoes on Good Friday. A national holiday, Good Friday is thus a key milestone in the gardening year.

We had already planted two rows of First Early Colleen and one row of First Early Edzell Blue. These are under a fleece cloche to stop icy winds and frosts getting to their tender shoots. The warm duvet of their protection should speed their growth, giving us early early potatoes!

On Sunday we planted:

• Four rows Second Early Nicola (an excellent salad potato)
• Four rows Second Early Kestrel (ideal for jacket potato)
• Four rows Second Early King Edward (ideal for mashing)
• Three rows maincrop Pink Fir Apple (in a good year - the greatest salad potato)

to complete the bed. I have 'earthed' the potatoes (drawn the soil up into ridges) in the traditional manner to protect shoots against late frosts. They will need more 'earthing' as shoots emerge.

This completes one quarter of the allotment and it feels great to say that!

No dig gardening

We have had our allotment for ten years, and our gardening practice has steadily developed over that time.

Take the preparation of the ground for potatoes as an example. Our soil is a light but fertile loam.

Ten years ago, I would dig the entire bed over, chucking in forkfuls of manure as I went.

Then I moved to adding the manure to the surface and then going over the ground, forking the manure in.

Two years ago we had moved to

our version of raised beds and I only dug over the compacted strips between beds and then mulched the entire bed with compost.

This year I have only mulched the entire bed with compost, leaving the soil undisturbed. The compacted strips between the beds have been mulched with leaves throughout the year, as some compensation to our worm population as we walk over their homes.

When we began, our potato harvest was often badly affected by slug damage. Perhaps the move from rich manure to compost enriched with manure has reduced this damage , or perhaps it is a judicious choice of varieties or - none of the above! Gardening is a complex business!

The reason for the move to mulching and not disturbing the soil is out of respect to our worm population. Worms excrete a gel as they make their burrows that is nature's own fertiliser. By not disturbing the sol and by mulching, we hope to increase the worm population, and therefore the fertility of the soil.

Of course, this is further evidence, if it were needed, that we are in the left field of organic gardening. I get the impression that we are introduced to new plot holders as the oddities!

One clear advantage of not digging is the time saved. I wrote yesterday about the slow start to the season. Two hours of barrowing compost and spreading saw our potato bed prepared and ready to go! I like that kind of gardening!

still waiting...

Our winter goes on, and although the weather men tell us that spring arrived on 1 March, no one has told the garden.

By now, our shallots should be firmly rooted, our peas germinating in the greenhouse and I should have given a thick mulch of manure to prepare the potato bed. Our overwintering broad beans should be beginning to show signs of fresh growth but were all killed by the cold weather. Spring sown broad beans will take their place but not while the ground remains chilled.

None of this has happened yet, nor will it for a couple of weeks.

The result will be a compressed growing season, with much work to do once the ground has warmed.

In the meantime, the allotment looks serene on a cold March morning.

green tomatoes

Growing tomatoes on the same latitude as Labrador brings certain challenges.

This has been a superb year for tomatoes grown in our greenhouse with bumper crops and a long season.

But the nights are cooler now and the hours of daylight are reducing. It is time to take the tomato plants down and to strip them of their fruit.

We have bowls of juicy red tomatoes waiting in the cool of the garage to be used. And 4lbs of green tomatoes that will not ripen.

So, we use the old gardeners' fall back: green tomato chutney. While I was out enjoying watching Nottingham Forest beat Newcastle United, Jill was making jars of green tomato chutney for use over the coming months.

colourful october

October, and the air is cooling at night. The nights are drawing in, and the first frosts may be with us this weekend.

Both allotment and garden are lively with colour.

The alysum (Little Dorrit) won't stop flowering and we work around flowers like the calendula (pot marigolds) to ensure that there is pollen for insects as late into the season as possible.

In the photo on the left, mustard has been sown as a green manure. A tidier, less wildlife friendly gardener, would have pulled up the marigolds that are still in full flower.

I have left them in. And the seedling borage that is coming through.

They will all provide cover for soil invertebrates during the cold months ahead.

all is safely gathered in...

A corner of the garage that is part of our winter food store.

Potatoes (Nicola and Kestrel) are bagged (reused paper sacks).
Summer and winter onions have been dried in the greenhouse and are now easily to hand.

As we collect our apples we store them in reused plastic trays.

The freezer is full to bursting with sweetcorn, beetroot, raspberries, blackberries, green beans, calabrese, peas, asparagus ...... it goes on!

The cupboards are filled with jams and pickles.

Dried peas are in jars and we wait now for the beans to dry so that they can be stored too.

There is a programme on television called 'Land Girls' about women who worked on the land during the second world war. Although we don't have rationing, those land girls would certainly feel at home with us!

a great year for tomatoes

This has been the best year we have had for tomatoes. We grow ours in our small greenhouse and have the tumbling variety in hay baskets beneath windows.

Growers of outdoor tomatoes have been hit hard by blight this year. But we have been lucky - none of ours have been affected. In fact they continue in robust health with thick green foliage and abundant fruits.

The fruits are so abundant that for the first year we have suffered with mice nibbling them. And the garden bantams have become addicted to pecking tomatoes straight off the plant and will dash into the greenhouse as soon as the door is open.

We have used our favourite varieties this year - Gardeners' Delight (sweet, small red tomatoes) and Costaluto (big red and juicy).

It has been a heavy week at work including evening meetings each night. It is an especial treat then, to celebrate the weekend with a delicious breakfast of home made pikelets, home made houmous and a generous helping of fresh, home grown tomatoes cooked in olive oil and served with basil. All eaten outside in the morning sunshine.