The Haunting...

Went down the lottie today, the allotment supervisor (B) had a present for george, a skull, of a vicious animal that was found dead in his plot..
Apparently, 3 years ago, at the crack of Dawn B was woken up by an awful racket... Something was fighting in the plot, scream, howl wail it went.. Then Silence... When they investigated in the morning the heart of a red cabbage had a huge gouge in it, from the top claw, to the bottom claw was a handspan's width, several plant where destroyed...Down on plot 19th a grim discovery...A headless fox, we think we found the head..

Seriously, an ocelot (wild cat) was seen walking across the plot back in 2005, one night a huge fight occured in the plot between a fox (skull above) and this cat, they eventually cornered it in cricklewood, excuse the artistic license it is a true story..

Here is the scary thing in the hands of indiana george..


Back to reality... Rich put together some beds today they look fantastic..
6x2 beds we got them from a reclamation yard (Comley in Farnham) they where old ceiling joists.

Wandering around the plot, the sprouts are doing very well towards the back of the plot.
The parsnips are enormous, for reference I put my finger by it...
They where only started back in febuary and they are supposed to stay in until December..Scary... Might have to lift one soon.


The pentland javelins are over now, they are second earlies so are on track there.. I'll let you know how it looks, we are getting about 1lb per plant from the maris peers, so things are hopefully the same here..
Finally, the eco pond is looking fantastic....

Good Night readers..

Quickie..

Hi Readers,

Quick update...Was not going to post today but had a suprise when I went down to the culvert, what a difference a day makes, remember the bone dry culvert, well 24hours later it is full...
Remember last week..Bone Dry, this week, 2ft of water...Amazing what a rain storm will do for you.. Turning around you can see it free flowing out of the allotment into the main lake at the back..
Well whilst I am here....Lets take a look...Here's some sweetcorn.We are using the three sisters method, sweet corn, squashes and peas...Here is the squashes..

Our purple sprouting is finally..Sprouting!! So the leafy jungle is now productive..
So we will have loads of that... Where next.. Calabraese is massive, this is the over wintering type...Beautiful, will have to take one tomorrow!
The rhubarb (take a look back in january) is now a triffid.... I am sure we could use some of these leaves as umbrellas..
Finally, looking back over the allotment...A new use for 4litre milk bottles, no need to buy those build a ball things, just use the bottles..
Finally...Answers on a postcard, who is taller , the bean poles or the richard?

Good night..

Wildlife and Great Food

Hi all,

Bet you didn't think you'd see another post so soon!! Suprise :)

Anyhow, we left the last post rather depressed by an empty culvert and no water..Good news, still empty culvert, but some water (rain) kissed our allotment briefly on friday and saturday, although the sahara days seem over (32-35 degrees) it is still dry, bone dry..

Anyhow, on with the post...Last week we harvested the purple cauli and the question was asked will it turn the water purple? First we sliced..

As you can see...Drum roll..It's white in the middle!!! Another victim was also picked on this day....Calabrase (Unfortunatley blown due to the heat) and out first lottie spuds..Maris Peers...

We then had the technology, the know how and the will power to convert this bunch of malicious, vicious audacious veggies into a meal.... Note we did not grow or slaughter the pig in the middle of the plate ..


This was a lottie meal...Swiss Chard....Calabarase, potatoes and purple cauliflower. Food was delicious and tasty, vegetables where fantastic..

Big question...Was the water purple?...Drum Roll.........



Yes.. Disclaimer...No artificial colours used in this product, no artificial sweetners or preservatives.....Ahhh on with the show..

Went down today, planted a row of sugar snap pea anne...Hope she is a queen and grows proud...
Around 30 in the bed...The old garlic bed..We turn things around very quickly on Plot 13.. Inside the mad fruit bed it looks very calm, the raspberries are gowing.

The gooseberries are also growing well...

The raspberries are nice little treats on the allotment at the moment, go down and pick a few a day, beautiful sweet raspberries. I also was lucky this year and got a load of gooseberries this year..Upto now I would say we have harvested probably a pound or two of raspberries, remember this is the first year so lucky to get some.. Todays harvest:
Finally, a look out over the allotment the beans are growing well!!


Good night all, until the next time...

Where has all the rain gone?

Hi Readers,It's been a long time again, but hey sometimes life takes over.

One question where has all the rain gone?

Anyhow long time readers will wonder what has happened since I last updated? Well the cabbages, and cauli's came and went (tasty too)...

So now things are coming along well.. We have been busy and trying to conserve water on the allotment is critical right now, as soon as we put water on it just drains away or turns to steam.

Ahh you maybe wondering what that is next to the greenhouse...Runner beans, where there were once cabbages there now be beans!...In the front there is the mulch on top of the old fallow bed, it had anyas in it...

These where then harvested into 3.5kg of Potatoes.

It was quite a small crop really but very tasty and beautiful texture.. Again all due to the rain..

Moving around the harvest we move over to the garlic.. Here is an old drying rack we salvaged from Rachel's grandads..All full of our garlic...Don't stand too close to the shack everybody...It's a bit stinky :)

On the bottom there are some lovely onions.. Here is the elephant garlic..

You can see it is almost twice the size of the normal cloves..

Moving over to the greenhouse it is like a jungle, it is hot in there darn hot hence the shading.. Tomatoes are on one side and peppers on the others with melons at the back..

Moving over to the fruit section now, we have netted out the monster cage, the raspberries are gorgeous to eat, very tasty and the blackcurrants are coming along nicely...On with the fruity show...

Again you can see the water saving things we need to be doing with the carboard, also it saves ritch's back, 2.5 hours one day he was in there weeding.

Back to the veggies...George has a purple cauliflower!!

Wonder if when we boil it it'll turn the water purple...I'll let you all know :)

Finally winding down, lets look at a typical lottie takeaway..Rich collected this tonight...Spring onions, swiss chard, nastursiums and radishes...

Oh rich has put in an eco pond, it's fab, he has an eye for these things, his aquarium at home is also a work of art..!!

What out..Frogs crossing ;)

Finally I leave you with this sobering thought....Last year the culvert was full of water we took the liberty to clear it down, darn good humus for bulking out the soil....

This year dry as a bone first time in 20yrs apparently and a heatwave coming......Good night readers...

Grow Grow Grow

Hi Readers,

Here is our currently monthly update..

It's been a busy month, rich has built the massive skyskraper fruit cage frame, we are preparing for tatties, we had snow, then it went, then we had severe cold snap, then we had high temperatures, then we had more snow and rain...What a start..Coldest winter in 18 years. So how is the plot looking?

Well the difference 2 weeks makes to cabbages is seen below... 1st is Feb 16th Bottom is today....

Feb 16th..



















And Today....















Growth is going really well.Here is one of our wintessa savoys.

You can see the pidegon damage from earlier in the year, but the centre of the cabbage is forming a heart now, we'll be looking to harvest in April by all accounts. As you can see our brassica bed is a bit crowded, we'll be cutting out some spring greens in the next week or two to thin them out so the rest can grow nice and large..

Another nice looking brassica is in the other bed, I believe the variety is punch.

Not sure if this variety will form hearts or we will just take loose greens.

Our blackcurrants have survived transplanting and are starting to sprout nicely..

Continuing in the fruit vein, rhubarb is looking bigger.

Rich has been very busy again, his latest construct is the fruitbed skyscraper, remember he is over 6ft 6 tall ;). Inside the sky scraper we have gooseberries, white currants, red currants, black currants and raspberries....

This construction is going no where and with stood the latest nasty winds we had this week.

Finally no look at the lottie would be complete without looking at our garlic...

We are going to have a good crop here me thinks...The leeks are looking fantastic as always..

Finally our new construction on the plot our heath robinson raised beds constructed by me :)

Here will be potatoes...Being planted this weekend (First batch)

Until next time...Byee!

Winter Wonderland

Hi Folks,

Had the day off today so spent an hour going down to the lottie to check it out after our little snow storm this week... Well what a difference a couple of days make huh?


Snow bound...At least you can see clearly the stuff in the fruit bed now ;)

The green house is the only area that looks moderately warm...Trust me it was about 0.5 degrees out there today..



Whilst it looks nice and pretty there is a serious note to all of this, the snow has actually caused a little bit of damage to the netting...
The nets are intact but the frames took a bit of a hammering, they just need another nail in them, the plants underneath are mostly fine, it stopped just short of squashing the cabbages, poor things have been through the wars, wind, rain snow and birds...All to end up on my dinner plate ;). Some more netting views..
Took a little bit to clear all this up, problem is some of it is frozen which means the snow forecasted for tonight (5-10cm) will just clog up again...So it might be another visit (When it is safe) back to the lottie to rescue the nets, the roads down by the entrance to the plot where a bit slippery...

The next thing is so thats the cabbages...Lets play spot the onion/garlic:

See them?

How about some leeks...


The plants are ok under this snow, it keeps them warm apparently.. Finally, one brave soul pokes his head up above the snow line...The rhubarb...


Good night readers!