Getting ready for Winter

I managed to get to the allotment for an hour at the weekend, my first visit in about a month. My wife gave birth to a baby boy, Reuben, 3 weeks ago so I haven't had time to go to the allotment much lately. I popped down after a night of very strong winds to survey the damage. The mini plastic polytunnel that I set up at the start of November (see previous blog post) to cover the newly sown Broad Beans had been blown about quite a lot - so I had to put that back together. Inside it however, the Broad Beans were starting to grow quite nicely (see above) and are about an inch tall now.


The Onions (above left) and Garlic (above right) continue to grow well, but the Shallots are being very slow and haven't sent up many shoots yet so I've left the netting over them until they're established. The Leeks (see right) are still healthy, so I picked another half-dozen of them. I also picked a cabbage, only a few usable ones left now as the rest have rotted. I was surprised to find more Broccoli to pick, having assumed the plants were on the way out. But I collected enough small heads of Broccoli to have for dinner that night.


Above are photos of the 'old' plot (21B) looking up and down. From the front (right hand photo) there is a Pile of manure, followed by an area covered by black plastic, then: Garlic, Parsnips (not yet dug up), polytunnel with Broad Beans, black plastic, weedy area with the remaining Cabbages, black plastic, Leeks, Shallots (covered by netting) and Onions. On the 'new' plot (34B shown below) I rearranged the black plastic covers that had been blown about, and added more covers so the entire plot is now covered for the winter - apart from the areas where the Rhubarb, Raspberrys and Asparagus are. Since I probably won't get to the allotment very much over the next couple of months, it's good to know that most of the unused areas are covered over to stop the weeds taking over. It should make things a lot easier in the Spring when I come to start planting and sowing. I also paid the Rent for the plots for next year - a total of £18 for the two!


I inspected my collection of Pumpkins and Squashes that are stored in the garage. Sadly one of the 6 remaining Pumpkins had gone rotten, so I binned that. There were also a couple of bad Butternuts, but apart from that all the Squashes are keeping well and still taste great. We cut open another Pumpkin (see below) which my wife then used to make Pumpkin Pie (we still use your American recipe Becks!) and Pumpkin Soup. It's great having a large supply of Squashes and Pumpkins in the garage that we can use throughout the winter, now that the supply of fresh vegetables from the allotment is much slower.