Kennyhill Cottage

May update

2009-05-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

Back to my bad habits of not keeping up with my promises of blogging!

April has been pretty rubbish on the gardening front. Hard to do anything between the showers (I don't mind getting wet but the two apprentices in the buggy do!), visitors and a couple of weeks in France introducing the apprentices to the family!
Still managed to plant potatoes just before Easter. This year we've got Red Duke of York, Charlotte, Pink Fir Apple and Saxo Arpona - supposedly blight resistant - all from my trusty Alan Romans, a Scottish family business based in Fife. As local as can be ...
I also sowed a couple of row of broad beans at the same time and they are now about 10 cm tall, which means the mice didn't get them to my relief!

Thankfully I have managed quite a few afternoons since our return from France and the plot now looks in a reasonable state. Nowhere near as good as it did last year but I'm not setting the bar very high this year!
I've sowed some parsnips and carrots, hoping for the best. If we get just one, that will be an improvement on last year anyway!
I've also got peas and beans organised. Some dwarf peas called 'Hatif D'Annonay', some mange tout 'Norli' and a variety called 'Asparagus Pea' which is actually nothing like a pea but looks like a crinkly bean and tastes a bit of asparagus (surprise surprise). For the beans I went for 3 climbing varieties: 'Soissons' (a green flageolet), 'Borlatta di Fuoco' (a borlotti) and 'Cherokee Trail of Tears' (an old variety of green beans). I also got some dwarf beans, which name I can't remember just now. And finally some runner beans 'Red Rum' to cover the metal fence at the bottom of the plot.
The asparagus are now coming through but because they're only in their second year, there's still no picking!!!
The strawberry bed needed a serious tidy up with lots of last year runners still attached to the mother plants and lots of weeds too. It looks a lot better now and I can't wait to pick my first strawberries of the season - still a long wait though, we're only getting the first flowers now!
I have now picked the last of the purple sprouting broccoli - we had a great harvest this year for the first time and it was delicious. Well worth the space it takes!
I leave you with a general picture of the plot taken from the lawn area a the top.

In the first bed on the left are the potatoes, followed by parsnips and carrots on th other side of the path. On the left, in one of the small beds by the old greenhouse, I have the garlic which I planted back in January. Then the strawberry bed and an empty bed in which the brassicaes will go and at the bottom, barely visible are the last plants of the PSB which I have now removed to make way for the sweetcorn and courgettes I have inside in propagators (that is if they ever get big enough to be planted!). I'll have to take more photos next time but the apprentices were complaining I was taking too long ...

Back for good?

2009-03-11T05:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, can't believe it's been almost a year since I last posted here ...

Last summer was not ideal, rain and cold don't make happy gardeners. The plot did ok, considering the weather but the main concern was some growing being done elsewhere...

It seems that my habit of double sowing was to follow me in life and on the 23rd of November, these two wee boys made their grand entrance into our world:

Noah and Liam

Their first visit on the plot was on the 5th of January - very cold and dark and not much work could be done. Rather a case of assessing the damage after an autumn where I was simply too big to do anything and a winter of frost and snow ...

Yesterday though the sun was shining again and I managed four hours on the plot while the boys were sleeping peacefully in their buggy.
I sorted out the Jerusalem artichokes corner, digging out the last tubers and replanting 12. I also managed to do a bit of weeding as some beds really needed it - the bump got in the way of a lot of tasks at the end of last growing season! And finally applied a good layer of compost on the asparagus bed - better late than never.
The boys seemed to enjoy their first proper session - that or the fresh air! - and they were all smiles when we got back...

Now I better check out my seeds, order my potatoes and start doing some sowing ! Tomatoes and sweet peas first I think.

March Big Catch-Up

2008-03-30T22:59:00.000-07:00

Although I haven't been posting much in March, I have been out on the plot pretty much every weekend, dodging snow and hail showers ! Hopefully the cold unsettled weather is behing us now and we can finally look forward to spring "proper".

But before I thought I'd post a bumper update of the various jobs I have been doing on the plot in March.

- Early this month, I finally did some tidying up in the strawberry bed - removed all the runners that escaped my attention at the end of the summer, pulled the weeds and cleared dead leaves and debris. I also decided to cover the whole bed with black fabric; this will keep the bed weed free and also will prevent the fruit from rotting down on the soil. I also moved the bushes that were at the back of this bed and transplanted some of last year runners. So that's me hoping for a bumper harvest of strawberries this year !!!

Before and after pictures of the strawberry bed . I have a row each of Mara des Bois and Elsanta bought from Ken Muir last year and the rest are an unknown variety, kindly donated by my neighbour.

- I finally dug up the remaining of the Jerusalem Artichokes. In the pictures below are a couple of plants worth; I planted about 10, which was enough for us to have a meal of Jerusalem Artichokes pretty much every week from October till March - pretty good, I think. As an experiment I blanched and froze the last harvest - I'm not sure if JA freeze well, I guess we'll see! I also saved 14 of the best tubers, which I replanted straight away. Two weeks on, they're not showing yet, but I didn't really expect them to anyway!

- We planted a row of red onion sets, next to the two rows of overwintering white onions and a couple of rows of shallots. They are a kind of banana shallots and we're trying them for the first time this year. I also found some stored red onions from last year sprouting in a drawer in the shed (not sure why they were left behind really ...). I have planted them up in the "odds and ends" bed as an experiment.

Top row: Red Onion - Baron and bottom row: Shallot - Jermor

- I transplanted the fig, orange and lemon trees from Lidl in big pots, wrapped them in a lot of horticultural fleece and left them outside. And yes, I know, this was a big silly gamble.

The results are rather mixed so far. The orange and lemon trees are doing great but the fig trees are clearly a lot more fragile and lost their leaves to some pretty heavy frost. I have now rescued them and brought them back inside where they seem to be recuperating well. I have spotted a few buds already and I'm pretty confident they will make a full recovery. Fingers crossed !

- On Good Friday I planted potatoes.

- A couple of weeks ago, I sowed some peas, 40 each of Kelvedon Wonder, Early Onward, Norli (mange tout) and Sugar Bon (sugar snap). Our clay soil was still a bit too cold to sow direct, they are in modules in a cold frame. No show so far but it's been so cold, I can't blame them!

- Today I also sowed some broad beans. And to contradict myself, they went in direct! But I have a pretty good reason for that; last year, the mice ate all the broad beans in the cold frame but didn't touch the peas - I know, funny mice ... But they also didn't touch the broad beans when they were planted direct. I do not try to understand how Glaswegian mice work. I just learn from past casualties!

- I also did a few tidying up jobs around the beds, building and rebuilding path and bed borders. But as it started hailing when I was finishing I didn't hang around to take pictures! You'll have to wait to judge my bricklaying skills!

And finally, the usual view from the top of the plot taken this afternoon in between two hail showers.

Good Friday potatoes

2008-03-21T22:54:00.000-07:00

On our first summer, a few eyebrows were raised when the "old boys" found out we were not growing “tatties”. Our excuse was that we got the plot too late for planting potatoes but we could tell they were disappointed. To redeem ourselves, we tried to plant some “Christmas potatoes” at the end of the summer. But we lost them all in “The Big Flood - episode 1”. So last year, we were determined to grow tatties!

Potato bed, early June 07

I thought potatoes were simple things. Until I looked at the seeds catalogues. Pages and pages of them. First earlies, second earlies, early and late main crops, salad potatoes, blight resistant, eel worm resistant (what the heck is eel worm anyway?!), frost resistant, high yielder, grow better in the North, white, black, red, blue … My head was spinning!

Last year , we picked small amounts of a few varieties to experiment with, see what would grow well on our plot and which ones we like more. Well, one year on, we are still none the wiser as we lost our entire crop in "The Big Flood - episode 2". So this year is the real trial !

I got them all from Alan Romans, a family run business based in Fife. By the way, they also sell a good selection of seeds at dirt cheap prices - much recommended!

Our choice this year is:

- Red Duke of York and Duke of York for the first earlies

- Charlotte, a second early and salad potato

- Cara, a late maincrop, which I believe is blight resistant

- Pink Fir Apple, which is also a late maincrop. They are knobbly looking and a heritage variety and despite being very tasty, they are rather hard to get hold off in supermarkets or greengrocers.

- Mr Little's Yelthom Gypsy, an early maincrop but also a conservation potato. This is my "fun" potato of the year - I absolutely love the name and it is apparently the only known potato to show blue, white and red together in the skin.

Clockwise from top left corner:

Pink Fir Apple, Cara, Charlotte, Red Duke of York,

Mr Little's Yetholm Gypsy and Duke of York.

With regard to planting, there are two schools out there, the “chitters” and the “non-chitters”. Chitting potatoes means getting them to sprout before you plant them, like they do when you forget them in your veg basket. The "chitters" argue it speeds up the growing process. Last year, I didn’t chit mine, not on purpose, I simply forgot. And when I remembered it was too late. But it didn't seem to bother my potatoes too much and they grew regardless. This year I got them a bit earlier and I was a bit more organised so they have been chitted.

Once again, I decided to stick with a gardening tradition in which potatoes are planted on Good Friday. So, this Friday, the potatoes went in despite all my concerns. After all Easter is very early this year and we could still get frosts and awful weather. Although I'm glad to read that such an early Easter is not going to happen for at least another 150 years! The bed in which they went is now covered with black fabric, hopefully keeping the soil warm enough ...

Thank goodness for the blogosphere (and Lidl)

2008-03-08T10:26:00.000-08:00

As I was just finishing the fig and cinammon jam my wife's cousin gave me for Christmas, I was thinking one more time how much I would love to have my own fig tree. Where I am from, figs are in plentiful supply in summer and autumn, but here, when the shops have them, they cost an absolute fortune. I mean £2 for 4 figs, what are they made of, gold?

Fruit tree extravaganza - Fig, orange, lemon and fig again (and potatoes chitting away)

The Urban Bumpkin brought to my attention early this week that Lidl were having one of their big gardening extravaganza this week and were practically giving away fruit bushes. Lucky she did as I was convinced it was next week and would have certainly missed out.

After a first failed attempt, I went back on thursday night and got a couple of fig trees. At £2.99 each, it's almost too good to be true, so we'll see how they get on. But I am already dreaming of fig and cinnamon jam!

And because I was prepared to pay a lot more at a garden centre, I also treated myself to a lemon and an orange tree. They will probably have to come back in during the winter or be seriously "fleeced". We'll worry about that when the time comes!

The weather forecast for this weekend looks atrocious and I don't think we would have done much on the allotment. Just as well we are off to Budapest tomorrow - although my birthday was at Christmas, this is my belated birthday present! Very excited!

I leave you with a couple of dwarf daffodils which flowered, right on cue, on St David Day.

Blooming marvellous!

2008-02-23T22:21:00.000-08:00

There isn't much colour on the plot at the moment, apart from that lonely crocus that appeared in the middle of an empty bed ... The snowdrops below were actually photographed outside the flat!

Last week I was seeking inspiration for spring and summer blooms and inspiration I found on a couple of trips to Poundland and Poundstretcher last weekend - not your usual suspects in terms of garden centres but they actually have a very good selection of seeds and bulbs at a fraction of garden centres' prices. Here is what I came back with !

I spent a large part of Sunday afternoon deciding what should go where and finally came up with a plan: the larger, bolder plants will go in the long border on the left side of the plot and the smaller ones will go on the new flower border in front of the lawn. I filled the long border last Sunday and am now waiting for milder temperatures and the end of the frosts to plant the rest in the smaller border.

So in the long border we've got: dutch iris, physalis, lupins, gladioli, gysophilia, red hot poker, triteleia and acidanthera.

In the small border will go: lillies, freesias, tigrida, sparaxis and probably some annuals.

I also got a bit carried away with the annuals and now have a selection of seeds which should get doted around the vegetable beds: nasturtiums, sunflowers, poached egg plants, mimulus, nemesias, nigellas, nemophilias, forget me nots, marigolds and snapdragons. That seems a little ambitious though and I have a feeling that some of them might not make it out of the seed packet! Only time will tell I suppose.

I've sowed some sweet peas inside last week, some seeds I saved last year and some "High Scent" variety I bought this year. One week on, a few are already poking their heads through the compost !

Hopefully that will mean colourful bouquets throughout the summer!

Cut flowers

2008-02-13T14:18:00.000-08:00

Now that I have made final plans as to what goes where in the vegetable beds, I have started fretting about flower borders. I’ll grow the usual suspects amongst the vegetable beds: nasturtiums (I always grow those, my wee sister is called Capucine, which is nasturtium in French), poached egg plants and marigolds to attract butterflies and hoverflies. And sweet peas will cover the unsightly metal fence at the bottom of the plot. But I have a newly cleared long border which I would like to use for growing flowers for cutting – I normally grow sunflowers and I have seen some gladioli in Poundland (30 bulbs for £1!!) but I am uncharacteristically lacking in inspiration. I would prefer to grow perennials but will probably mix in a few annuals. What are your personal favourites? Any suggestions for a sunny border and clay soil? Please feel free to inundate my comment box!

Germination log

2008-02-10T19:31:00.000-08:00

- Aubergine - Melanzana Violetta Di Firenze - 4 cells, 2 seeds each - 0
- Aubergine - Halflange Violette - 4 cells, 2 seeds each - 1
- Radish - 3 varieties - outside - 0
- Chilli peppers - Cayenne - 4 cells, 2 seeds each - 0
- Chilli peppers - Jalapeno - 4 cells, 2 seeds each - 0
- Chilli peppers - Peach Habanero - 4 cells, 2 seeds each - 0
- Sweet peppers - Californian Wonder - 8 cells, 2 seeds each - 2
- Tomato - Moneymaker - 8 cells, 2 seeds each - 12
- Tomato - Gardener's Delight - 4 cells, 2 seeds each - 0

Repairs and new build

2008-02-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

Another nice day, unseasonably warm (not that I am complaining!), although not quite as sunny as yesterday.

Equipped with hammers, nails and cable ties, we were all set for today big jobs. After a generous amount of swearing (me) and a few bruised fingers (me again), we had a strong and hopefully wind proof fence and a brand new compost bin.

The back fence

Single compost bin yesterday

And its twin today - so that we can now use them in rotation

The struggling broad beans were offered a little protection with a glass roof.

And the fruit bushes were moved to their new permanent position, to make way for a bigger strawberry bed.

Left, strawberry bed and fruit bushes at the back before they were moved; right, fruit bushes in their new border, with a few of last year runners planted underneath

What a difference a week can make!

2008-02-09T21:55:00.000-08:00

Last saturday, we woke up to a white landscape and freezing temperatures.

This morning however, I was woken up by a bright ray of sunlight filtering through the curtains and this has not happened in a very long time I can tell you! Today felt like spring had come early ... Of course we all know it won't last but it was a much welcome break in the misery of a long Scottish winter!

The allotments were buzzing with activity, people repairing fences and greenhouses, clearing up abandoned plots, digging up new beds or rebuilding burnt sheds.

Jobs at number 52 today included:

- turning over the big bed at the bottom of the plot. It was covered with a thick layer of manure back in October and I want to use the bottom half as a brassicae bad. Seeing as it's been covered in manure for over 4 months and it is under a big pine tree which is constantly shedding a lot of needles, the soil is too acidic for brassicaes and I will have to incorporate lime before long. As I can't add lime over manure, it had to be dug over and I'll lime it in a couple of weeks. Luckily I wasn't on my own today and my assistant gardener did all the hard work!

Before - back in October - and after - today

Leeks in the forefront, you can see quite a few have now been harvested.

- removing the rotten fence at the back of the plot, one of the victims of the winter storms. Again, my assistant gardener was on hand to handle the removal and even managed to find a couple of pallets on his travels (well, at work actually) which we'll use for the repairs.

- digging up and replanting horseradish roots. We planted them at the shady end of the plot last year and they didn't seem to like it much there. They have now been replanted in a big wooden planter and moved to a sunny place. Hopefully that'll do the trick!

Horseradish - not looking like much just now

- weeding and tidying up the herb border. This was actually quite enjoyable, being surrounded by all the wonderfully strong smells of thyme, rosemary, marjoram and lemon balm. Everything seems to have survived the winter, apart from the tarragon but I still have a hope it might spring back to life as it did last year. The lemon balm, marjoram and fennel got a good haircut too and it won't be long before they start growing back again.

Clockwise from top left: sage, marjoram, thyme and fennel

- planted out some of the broad beans (Aquadulce) I sowed in October; they have spent the winter in the cold frame, quite a few got eaten by mice and the survivors looked really white and weak. I am not going to get excited about an early broad beans harvest just yet.

- sowed some radishes in a "recycled" grow bag from last year tomatoes. I know that's very optimistic of me but it's only a few seeds and who knows ...?

- thoroughly weeded the flower border at the bottom of the plot and relocated the iris bulbs and potentialla that used to live here - more of that in another post coming soon ...

Cleared up border

In other news, there is still plenty of overwintering vegetables to harvest. Apart from the usual suspects (jerusalem artichokes, leeks and sprouts), the "3S" bed with Spinach, Swiss Chard and Sorrel is still going strong as well as a small patch of rocket. We made pizza tonight with some of the spinach, rocket and marjoram - they beat Domino Pizzas everyday!

From left to right: Spinach, Swisss Chard and Sorrel

Overwintered rocket

Jerusalem Artichokes - the story so far

2008-02-04T20:54:00.000-08:00

Jerusalem Artichokes are one of the most under-rated vegetables. In France, there are fed to pigs and cattle and hardly looked at. My grand parents refuse to eat them - but maybe because that's all they ate for weeks on during the war ... I got weird looks when I told them I was thinking about growing them but went ahead anyway.

That must have been one of the best decisions ever! They are one of the easiest vegetable ever to grow: put the tubers in the ground between now and March and watch them grow. Come October, the leaves start yellowing and the tall stalks are just cut to ground level - I left a couple of inches to make sure I could spot them easily (and make sure I don't leave any stray tubers as they tend to go rampant the next year if you do!) Dig them up as you need them from October onwards, they keep in the ground all winter and have survived despite the rain and frosts we've had. I'm going to save the last tubers and plant them on.

The rise and fall of the Jerusalem Artichokes bed

The taste is hard to describe, I have heard anything from nutty to oyster flavoured; personally I think they taste a little like artichoke hearts. And they must be the most versatile veg ever: boil, roast, mash, in soups or even raw sliced or grated in salads. There are definetely one of my favourite vegetables! Here are a couple of recipes we sampled this winter.

Jerusalem Artichokes with Pancetta and Parsley

Ingredients (serves 4):

450g of Jerusalem Artichokes
50g of pancetta or smoked bacon
50g butter
salt, pepper and a small bunch of flat leaved parsley

Method:

Scrub the Jerusalem Artichokes and cut them in half.
Melt the butter in a large pan and fry the artichokes for a few minutes, add the pancetta or smoked bacon and keep frying for another 4 or 5 minutes.
Add 100ml of water, cover with a lid and cook very slowly for 30-45 minutes. Check that they do not dry and add a small amount of water if necessary.
Taste and season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the chopped parsley.

Jerusalem Artichokes and Leeks Gratin

This is perfect to use up those two winter staples!

Ingredients (serves 4)

700g Jerusalem Artichokes
3 medium size leeks
100g butter
30g flour
500ml milk
200g cheddar, grated
salt and pepper
nutmeg

Method:

Scrub the Jerusalem artichokes, boil for 8-10 minutes until par-boiled, drain and leave to cool.
In the meantime, clean and thinly slice the leeks. Fry in 20g of butter until soft but not brown.
Peel and cut the Jerusalem artichokes into slices. Preheat oven to 350F/180 C.
In a small saucepan, make a béchamel (white sauce) using 50g of butter, 30g of flour and 500 ml of milk. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Add 100g of grated cheddar and the cooked leeks.
In a shallow ovenproof dish, arrange sliced artichoke in a layer, and pour the béchamel and leeks mixture over the artichokes.
Sprinkle over the rest of the cheese, dot with butter and bake for 45 minutes and until brown.

PS: and everything you have heard or read about their side effects is true. Do not eat before important meetings, job interviews or a crucial date. You'll live to regret it.

Let the growing commence!

2008-02-03T21:40:00.000-08:00

It is difficult to believe that a new growing season is upon us when just yesterday, the allotments looked like this:

It had snowed overnight and the ground was covered in about an inch of snow. It did not last very long though and by lunchtime everything had melted away. The plot looks quite miserable at the moment, the overwintering vegetables looking sad, wet and windswept. But on closer inspection, I noticed the first signs that Nature has decided that winter had lasted long enough and spring should come soon...

That was all I needed to decide it was time to get the 2008 growing season underway!

So today, the first seeds went in:

- Chilli peppers - Cayenne - 4 cells, 2 seeds each
- Chilli peppers - Jalapeno - 4 cells, 2 seeds each
- Chilli peppers - Peach Habanero - 4 cells, 2 seeds each
- Sweet peppers - Californian Wonder - 8 cells, 2 seeds each
- Tomato - Moneymaker - 8 cells, 2 seeds each
- Tomato - Gardener's Delight - 4 cells, 2 seeds each
- Aubergine - Melanzana Violetta Di Firenze - 4 cells, 2 seeds each
- Aubergine - Halflange Violette - 4 cells, 2 seeds each

They are now in the heated propagator in the spare room and I'll be watching them closely over the next few days; I'm always looking forward to seeing the little seedlings poking their wee heads over the dark compost !

I have also sown some Alpine Strawberries in a small tray that I will keep inside for now and transfer later to the "wild" area at the back of the plot. That's where the raspberries grow already and it's in the shade most of the time, which alpine strawberries like.

To be perfectly honest, these are not exactly the first plantings of the season - I already put in a couple of row of onion sets and some garlic bulbs back in October and November. But the first seeds of the season are always that little bit more special.

Garlic Lover Collection - Spanish Roja, German Red, Solent Wight & Purple Wight

28 October 07

Onion sets - Autumn Champion and Swift

25 November 07

I also bought a blueberry bush in Lidl today (99p, bargain!) to join the rest of the berriy bushes: 2 gooseberries, 2 blackcurrants and a redcurrant. The strawberries bed is getting extended this year and as I said, I'm putting more alpine strawberries at the back of the plot. I'm still toying with the idea of getting some raspberry canes. We have some canes growing wild at the back of the plot and we have harvested several punnets over the summer but I'm thinking about an autumn fruiting variety (possibly Autumn Bliss). Space is tight but I love raspberries so watch this space!

Wind damage

2008-01-13T17:07:00.000-08:00

The weather since the beginning of 2008 had been pretty awful everywhere in Britain, snow, heavy rains and flood. In Glasgow, it's not been much worse than usual with a lot of rain and some pretty cold temperatures! But last week we had gale force winds, which caused a bit of damage in the city and of course, on the allotments. A few fences came down (like the Urban Bumpkin's) and bits of shed and greenhouses went flying everywhere. At No 52, the biggest casualty was the plastic greenhouse which I hadn't dismantled, hoping it would survive the winter. Turned out I was wrong .

My small greenhouse, standing proud in March 07

Not so proud anymore in January 08

So I braved the very cold weather and finished what the winds had started. I will put it back up later this spring, but it will need a bit of repair first as some of the metal frame has been badly twisted and the plastic cover needs patching up.

I had a bit of fun playing with my new camera in the brassicae bed and managed to harvest a few winter veggies: leeks, turnips, jerusalem artichokes and a bit of raddichio (survivor of the frosts!).

And I leave you with a couple of views of the plot, looking a bit sorry for itself in the pale winter sunshine...

What to do with your free Metro?

2007-10-08T16:11:00.000-07:00

A lot of people complain about Metro, the free newspaper that you get in public transports in most large British cities. The idea is that you can either take it with you and share it with colleagues at work or put it back where you found it or in another Metro stand (depends if you travel by bus, train or underground…) for someone else to “enjoy”. But unfortunately, a lot of them end up tucked between the seats and windows or scattered all over the bus or train floor and are simply binned at the end of the day by the bus and train companies instead of being recycled.

I always take mine back with me and I have actually come up with a few ways to recycle or re-use my free supply of newspaper pages. All of them on the allotment of course…

- You can shred them and add to your compost heap. It does actually help with the compost balance if you’ve added too much “green” material and is particularly useful after adding a lot of grass clippings to avoid your pile turning into a sorry slimy mess.

- Shredded again, you can lay it under your strawberry plants as a mulch. It also helps to keep the strawberries clean and mud-free. Cheaper than straw and get people talking!

- You can lay them on the ground in thick layers to act as a biodegradable weed suppressant. In thick enough layers, they will last over the winter and you can dig them in when they start decomposing. As you can see on the picture, I also use cardboard to the same effect. For no-dig (lazy) beds, you can also cover them with topsoil, compost or manure and they will slowly decompose with time.

- You can use them to make biodegradable seed pots. There are a lot of detailed instructions available on Internet, more or less advanced. And you can even buy paper potters as you can see on the picture (not mine; I’m more of an origami or “roll around a cardboard cylinder” kind of girl). It certainly beats peat pots for eco-friendliness and is really versatile as you can make them in all sorts of heights and sizes to accommodate all your plants needs! By the way, egg boxes are good too for little plug plants and toilet rolls and kitchen paper tubes are ideal for peas, beans and sweet peas, which all need room for long roots.

- You can roll them up to make thick cylinders which you can use to blanch leeks or celery. In the picture, this weekend handiwork!

I think that’s about it now. Have you got any more ideas to use up old newspapers at home or in the garden?

Why?

2007-10-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

You always hear stories of vandalism on allotments, crops being ripped off the ground, tools being stolen or even worse, sheds being burnt down.

For some reasons, I have always considered our allotment safe. After all, Riddrie is a fairly quiet residential area, home to many families with small(ish) children, young professionals and older folks. I have lived there for well over a year now and always feel safe walking around even late at night, I've never witnessed any trouble or seen any broken windows or stolen cars. I sometimes go to the allotment after dark to pick some bits and pieces for our tea and never worry about meeting unsavoury characters on my way. The only person I normally see down there “out of hours” is the cat lady feeding the local wild residents.

Of course, I did hear the stories : the greenhouse on our plot many years ago at which the kids threw so many stones that nothing is left of it now apart from the bricks foundations, the many failed attempts at shed burning on the plots at the back and a number of thefts. But I guess I really didn't take them in, I was naive or deluded and I continued to believe our allotments were safe and we didn't have a vandalism problem.

On Saturday, when I found that the lock at the gate had been sawed, I didn’t think much of it. It’s only on Monday night that a chat with my neighbour revealed what had actually happened: the lock had to be cut open by the fire brigade last Thursday evening when a neighbour reported a fire on the allotments. It turns out our secretary’s beautiful shed had been burnt to the ground. He’s on holiday at the moment and doesn’t know anything about the destruction. He will be devastated when he comes back. His shed was without a shadow of a doubt the nicest shed on the allotment, a work of art, it looked like a small chalet, neat and painted, not like the normal allotment sheds made of all sorts. It must have required hours and hours of work and I can imagine a fair bit of investment. You could see it from the entrance gate and at the weekends, guess the shadow of the secretary through the windows reading the paper or listening to a Celtic match on the radio. Now all you can see is a big pile of ashes. It really breaks my heart and I really don’t understand why someone would do that to another human being. What is the point? Does it make them feel strong and powerful to destroy someone else’s properties? What are their motives? I don’t get it.

Time to dust off the knitting needles!

2007-10-03T12:55:00.000-07:00

When I work in town I like nothing better than an Innocent smoothie to go with my lunch, they are the best around, 100% fruit, no sugar, additives or preservatives. Almost as good as the ones I make at home but a great deal more expensive! And now, I would be buying them for a good cause.

They are raising money for Age Concern, a charity helping older people. They have launched the Big Knit project, in which they are asking people to knit little woolly hats for their smoothies bottles. The behatted smoothies bottles will be sold in Sainsbury’s in November and for each bottle sold, 50p will go to Age Concern. The money raised will be used to provide support to older people in winter including hot meals, blankets and advice on how to keep their houses warm. Last year, £115,000 was raised - that’s 230,000 hats! This year the aim is to raise £200,000 with 400,000 hats being knitted.
Thanks to the Urban Bumpkin for reminding me about it. I had a look at the patterns on the website and those little hats are really a doddle to knit. I made those 4 little ones in just one evening. They are the plain and boring type but some people are a great deal more creative, check out the Hats of the Week section for inspiration!

My contribution to the Big Knit project - more to come!

Sloe gin

2007-09-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

We spent the last bank holiday weekend in Lancashire. It was a bit too late to go blackberrying, the berries were almost all gone, eaten by birds, and the remainder was just getting mouldy on the bushes.

Instead, we went sloe picking. Sloes are the tiny fruits of the blackthorn bushes which are found in hedges all over Britain. Sloes are far too tart and bitter to be used in cooking, even with plenty of sugar added to them! However, they make a wonderful fruity liquor when mixed with alcohol and sugar. Vodka or gin are particularly suitable but I personaly prefer gin. We managed to pick a couple of bags full and have been making sloe gin. There are lots of recipes out there, but we like to follow Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's from the River Cottage Cookbook.

Ingredients:

2kgs sloes

1kg sugar

3 bottles of cheap gin (use vodka if you prefer)

Method:

Prick each fruit with a pin or a fork (that's the VERY boring bit!), then transfer to a large Kilner jar, demijohn or any suitable container with a stopper or tight fitting lid. Add the sugar and pour in the gin. Seal and leave in a cool place away from direct sunlight. Every week or so, turn the jar on its head, then back again. After 6 months, strain the liquid through several layers of muslin then bottle and seal tightly (we keep empty bottles of spirits for this). Leave for another 6 months. It will be even better after 2 years.

One of the two Kilner jars with the sloes steeping in gin

We made a couple of bottles last year. As you can see HFW recommends waiting up to 2 years but there’s no chance this is going to happen in our household! It was hard enough to wait a whole year, two would be torture. I had a glass on Monday night after a long pricking session and it was just perfect, rich flavoured and sweet. Nothing like the artificial sugary taste of the Gordon’s version – although I have been known to enjoy a glass or two before ours was ready!
I’m not sure how two bottles are going to see it through till’ next year though…

Apples

2007-09-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

Overladden apple tree!

These are the sweetest red apples ever ...

Guess what I'm doing this weekend? Yes, picking apples! I have been collecting the windfalls for a while but I think most of them are ripe now and it's time for a good picking session.

We have another three apple trees on the plot, two are cooking apples - very tart - and the other one, I'm not sure as the apples are really small and I only used them for juicing last year and I don't remember actually tasting one!

Last year, we had tons of the cooking apples and only a few of those red ones. We had plans to make cider but didn't in the end for lack of time. We just ate a lot of apple related desserts and apple sauce!

We were hoping to have a go at cider this year but the cooking apple trees only have a few fruits on because it was very windy when they were flowering and not many flowers actually stayed on the tree! I'm not sure we'll have enough for cider and I think the red ones are probably too sweet ... Looking forward to apple and blackberry crumble though!!!

Not quite an indian summer then?

2007-09-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

After a terrible summer, we were led to believe by some clever people at the Met Office that we would get an Indian summer. September has come and almost gone and still no sign of it!

And actually, I think it might have been the coldest September I remember since I have been here, with some surprisingly early frosts. More Artic Summer than Indian!

I had suspiscions we had a couple of frosts last week after I found black and floppy leaves on my beans and squashes and some soft rotting small pumpkins. My doubts were confirmed when a fellow allotmenteer at Kennyhill allotments reported similar symptoms affecting her beans. But this morning, it is official : the cars and grass outside the flat were all covered in those white little crystals that tell me that winter really is on the way.

Time to start winter preparations on the plot, protect the last of the fragile summer plants with fleece and mulch the hardy and perennial ones ...

Runner bean chutney

2007-09-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

I mentioned it in my previous post so I thought I'd post the recipe here. This is a very good recipe if you have a glut of runner beans. It is absolutely lovely with cold pork or cheese !

Ingredients (makes 6 to 7 lb / 2.7 to 3 kg):

900g (2lb) runner beans, weighed after trimming and slicing

700g (1.5lb) chopped onions850ml (1.5pts) malt vinegar

1 heaped tbsp cornflour

1 heaped tbsp dry english mustard powder

1 heaped tbsp turmeric

2 tsp pilau rice seasoning

225g (8oz) soft brown sugar

450g (1lb) demerara sugar

Method:

1. Place the chopped onions into a preserving pan with 275ml (0.5pt) of the vinegar, bring to simmering point and gently simmer uncovered for 20 minutes or until soft.

2. Cook the sliced runner beans in salted water for 10 minutes, strain and add the cooked runner beans to the cooked onions in the preserving pan.

3. In a small bowl or basin, mix the cornflour, mustard powder, turmeric and pilau rice seasoning with a little of the remaining vinegar to make a smooth paste. Add to the onion and beans mixture.

4. Pour in the rest of the vinegar, mix well, then simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

5. Stir in both quantities of the sugar until they dissolve and continue to simmer uncovered for a further 15 minutes (or until your chutney reaches the desired consistency).

Note: You can add more cornflour paste if you like a thicker chutney.

6. Put the chutney in hot sterilised jars, cover with a wax lid and screw lid. Store for 1 month before eating.

Runners

2007-09-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

After a slow start due to flooding and generally miserable summer weather, the plot is now in full production: lots of courgettes, more salads than we can eat, some late strawberries, indoors and outdoors cucumbers, onions, shallots, potatoes and turnips...

And now the runner beans have started … I grow them against a wire fence that separates us from another plot and they have been beautiful this year, climbing and covering the fence in masses of red and white flowers. I grow 2 varieties: White Emergo and Scarlet Emperor. The red ones were first to fruit but now the whites are catching up and soon the whole fence will be overloaded with beans. We’ve already had enough for 2 meals and I know we’ll be sick of them soon when the glut is in full force! Last year I gave loads away and made runner beans chutney which was really nice. I’ll probably make a few jars again this year even though we still have a couple left from last year and of course I'll freeze some for the winter months. Any other ideas and recipes are welcome!

Runner beans collage

Apart from weeding and picking beans, another big job last weekend was to sort out the strawberries bed. Whilst we were away in August, they have been very busy throwing out runners which started rooting all over the bed. And it was getting pretty crowded! I spent the best part of Saturday afternoon transplanting the runners, trying to find space for them all. Our strawberry bed is certainly going to get even bigger next year: I think we have in excess of a hundred new plants! But you can never have too many strawberries, can you?

Some of the runners settling in their temporary bed

Two of my favourite courgette quiches

2007-09-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

We got our first allotment when we were living in Chesterfield, in England. At the time we really didn't know anything about gardening AT ALL! We made up things as we went along, learning from successes and failures. We did loads of silly things which we laugh about now. One of our biggest (funny-ish) mistakes was to underestimate how many courgettes a courgette plant can produce over the course of a summer.

We planted 8 plants, and being a reasonnably warm summer, our courgettes went in total overdrive. From early July until late September, we were harvesting more than 10 courgettes a week! That is A LOT of courgettes. We had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I started collecting all the recipes I could find, my mum sent them in, my grandmothers revealed their secrets. But that wasn't enough: we got sick of them and so did our friends!

These days we are a lot more sensible with our courgettes and get to appreciate them more!

Courgette plants - yellow and green

(before my weeding craze!)

One way to use courgettes that people don't necessarily think about is to use them in quiches. These are two of my favourite courgette quiche recipes.

Courgette, Feta and Mint Quiche

Ingredients (serves 6 to 8):

250g shortcrust pastry

2 medium size courgettes

125g of feta cheese

1 handful of mint, finely chopped

4 eggs

200ml of semi skimmed or full fat milk

200ml of single cream or liquid "crème fraîche"

salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F/GM6

2. Line the pastry in the tart mold (butter the mold or use greaseproof paper)

3. Wash and grate the courgettes finely, place in a colander and press to extract as much water/courgette juice as possible.

4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and incorporate the milk and cream. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Add the grated courgettes, the crumbled feta cheese and the finely chopped mint to the egg mixture. Pour into the mold.

6. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until set.

7. Serve hot or warm with a side salad.

Courgette Quiche with Shiitake Mushrooms and Goat Cheese

Ingredients (serves 6 to 8):

250g shortcrust pastry

2 small courgettes

250g shiitake mushrooms

150g soft goat cheese

1 bunch of flat leaf parsley

4 eggs

200ml full fat milk

250ml of single cream

10g of butter or greaseproof paper for the mold

1 tbsp of vegetal oil

2 pinches of cinnamon

nutmeg (to taste), salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 200C/400F/GM6

2. Line the pastry in the tart mold (butter the mold or use greaseproof paper)

3. Wash and dry the shiitake mushrooms and fry them for 2 minutes in 1tbsp of vegetable oil.

4. Wash and grate the courgettes finely, place in a colander and press to extract as much water/courgette juice as possible.

5. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and incorporate the milk and cream. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

6. Add the grated courgettes, the crumbled goat cheese, the mushrooms and the finely chopped parsley to the egg mixture. Pour into the mold.

7. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until set.

8. Serve hot or warm with a side salad seasoned with walnut or hazelnut dressing.

Both are also great for summer barbecues or picnics served cold!

Weeds weeds weeds ...

2007-09-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

I have to admit to a rather unhealthy obsession with weeding.

Of course, weeding is almost vital around small seedlings and young plants but larger plants are normally strong enough to fight the weeds off. But I think I have been reading too many gardening books or watched too much Gardener's World and I want neat lines of vegs and weed free beds ...

Since the beginning of spring, I weed, hoe and mulch to try and keep the weeds at bay, a war most gardeners know too well. And this year, I was doing well, keeping on top of the new growth. That was until we went on holidays. As soon as my back was turned, the weeds started growing as if their life depended on it (well it does actually...) and I came back to a seriously weedy plot. A friend of my plot neighbour asked me if I enjoyed growing weeds. I felt like crying! The thing is, my plot is actually tidier than most but I am a control freak. So I have spent the last few weeks weeding with a vengeance.

But this weekend, I realised this was becoming seriously unhealthy. On saturday morning I drew up a list of things to do on the plot, a rather long list from which I purposedly left out weeding. When I got back home on saturday night, I could not cross a single thing on that list. I have now a weed free allotment but I have to realise that it is not what's going to feed me through the coming months !!!

So next year, I'm going to try and chill on the weed front, grow things through weed suppressant membranes, mulch as much as possible and undersow larger plants with flowers or green manures. And maybe I'll get my life back!

2007-08-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

I know I said that I would come back with an update of progress and harvest on plot 52, but this week has been very busy with our last minute preparations for our holidays. We're leaving tonight for 2 weeks in Montpellier and the Pyrenees where we should enjoy some well deserved sunshine and sample the local delicacies! I do promise however that I will come back with loads of pictures and details of what we've been up to on the plot during July!

I'll leave you with some pictures taken last weekend ...

The plot from the bottom and the top

Newly laid lawn in the sitting area

Pretty flowers - Chocolate Cosmos, French Lavender, mixed Nasturtiums and French Marigold

Baby tomato

Rampant nasturtiums amongst the broad beans and Jerusalem Artichokes!

Back on the saddle

2007-07-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

I've just realised it's been over a month since I last posted anything here. To be honest, after the flood, I was pretty disheartened. Going down to the plot and assessing the damage was bad enough, I didn't feel like writing about it.

But things are looking up, we've started harvesting quite a few things and I feel a bit more optimistic about the whole thing. Just keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't start raining heavily again!

Just for the record, the extend of the damage...

- The 3 sisters bed (where we grow sweetcorn, french climbing beans and squashes) dried out the quickest. The growth was slow to start again but nothing died.

- In the legumes bed, the broad beans were ok, but the roots of all the peas rotted down, the leaves turned yellow and the harvest was nowhere near as good as it had promised to be from the abundance of flowers we had at the beginning of June. The first sowing of borlotti beans did struggle for a while but has now put on new green leaves and its first flowers. The second sowing rotted in the ground as well as all the french beans. I have sowed again and the seedlings are showing now. It will make for a late harvest I suppose!

- The potatoes bed remained waterlogged for weeks and the roots rotted down too. All the early cropping potatoes which were at the bottom end got hit the worst, all the leaves turned yellow and they all died (Arran Pilot, Duke of York and Maris Peer). We have now lifted them all and got very mediocre yields of sometimes very small new potatoes. They taste fab though!

The maincrop were in a pretty bad way for a while but they are now putting on new leaves so I'm hoping all is not lost there!

- And it turned out that I picked the worst year for my experiments on outdoors tomatoes!

Well, that's enough feeling sorry for myself! Things are not that bad and I'll post an update later on progress on the rest of the plot and harvest. But for now, it's a lovely sunny day and I'd better spend it outside!

Summer flood

2007-06-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

On Friday night, we suffered very heavy downpours all over Glasgow, causing disruption on the roads and rails. I was out having dinner in town but managed to make it back without problem, albeit with very wet feet! It's only on saturday afternoon when I walked down to the plot that it occured to me how heavy the rain might have been...

The bottom of the plot - looking wet and miserable

The bottom of the plot was under several centimeters of water, and the top end was very badly waterlogged - walking around the brassica bed near the shed was close to a quicksand experience ! This has happened in the past. But it was October and it had rained solidly for over two weeks, so that was kind of understandable. But it is now June and you just don't expect this ...

We should have gone for rice, rather than sweetcorn

I was pretty gutted on saturday and very frustrated too. Because there was absolutely nothing I could do. Just checking the weather forecast, hoping for the rain to stop and all that water to go away. Keeping my fingers crossed that we hadn't lost everything. This would have been absolutely devastating, after spending so much time breaking our backs digging the beds, shifting tons of horse manure on them, patiently sowing hundreds of seeds, nurturing the seedlings, watching them grow fighting the cold wet weather... I now understand how farmers must feel when a run of bad weather totally destroys a year's harvest.

Wet, wet, wet peas and beans ...

On Sunday night, the rain finally stopped. Today, the water level has gone down and it looks like everything might survive - even though I still have my reservations about the potatoes.

Soggy leeks and potatoes
(leeks on the right, still very small!)

The good news is I won't need to do any watering for a while!

I should rename this blog "Les Hortillonnages"

(floating gardens in Amiens)

I only went to pick up some salad ...

2007-06-25T23:21:00.000-07:00

And got back to the flat with this:

Which was a bit of a surprise after this weekend flood and considering that only a few days ago, they still looked like that:

There was enough for two large portions, which didn't survive long after the photo was taken!

These are the first strawberries of the season, they are such a bright dark shade of red, and the flavour is without comparison with anything you could buy even from the best of greengrocers! The smallest ones are called "Alpine Strawberries". They are similar to woodland strawberries, grow happily in the shade of an apple tree and will produce the smallest, most flavoursome little berries throughout the summer. They don't normally make it to the flat as I tend to eat them on the spot! But I made an exception for the first strawberry feast of the year.

Alpine strawberries growing under one of the apple trees

Jerusalem artichokes

2007-06-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

In February, I received a bag of earth from the Organic Gardening Catalogue. I thought they had made a mistake and was going to send it back when I realised it contained what looked like small black shrivelled up sweet potatoes. They were my tubers of Jerusalem artichokes (or topinambours in French. )

Strange looking roots, aren't they?

Despite its name, the Jerusalem artichoke has nothing to do with Jerusalem, or even artichokes for that matter. Apparently, when the Jerusalem artichoke was first discovered by Europeans it was called Girasole, the Italian word for sunflower, since the Jerusalem artichoke belongs to the same family than the classic yellow garden sunflower. When the tubers were imported in Britain, the name Girasole transformed into Jerusalem, and its flavour reminiscent of the globe artichokes’ gave it its full name. I haven’t eaten it since I was a kid and don’t remember what it does actually taste like but my mum loves it and I trust my mum’s taste buds. It is also making a sort of come back at the moment, but is still difficult to find in supermarkets. It is apparently very easy to grow and I like "no hassle" vegetables! I picked the Fuseau variety as they are much smoother than other varieties and should be easier to peel.

I planted them in a corner of the plot on the 25th of March and nothing came through for ages. They started poking their heads through the ground at the end of April, initially quite tiny, they have recently put on a massive spur of growth and are doing extremely well : high (almost as high as me!), strong stems with lots of foliage. I am really looking forward to them flowering : large yellow flowers, resembling the classic sunflower and of course to the harvest comes the autumn.

Small plants - 20th of May

A month later - and the nasturtiums are doing well too!

The longest day

2007-06-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

Today is the longest day of the year. Literally for me as I've been up all night, playing nurse for Amber!

I love this time of the year in Scotland, the days are just so incredibly long, light from about 4 in the morning until after 11 in the evenings ... I love staying out in a beer garden or on the plot, enjoying one of my favourite summer tipples (in no particular order, Pimm's, gin and tonic or a chilled glass of rosé !), enjoying the evening sunshine and savouring those times, storing them mentally for the long cold dark winter nights. As from today, the days are going to start shrinking again, depriving us of a few minutes of daylight everyday. But I don't want to think about it just now!

If the showers stop for long enough, we might go down to the plot later to toast the longer day of the year and the fact that exactly a year ago today, we were getting the keys to our flat, putting our first foot on the "property ladder". That year has gone so quickly, I can hardly believe it !

Enjoying a summer evening on the plot with a bottle of rosé and a barbecue

PS - I'm having a little thought tonight for everyone enjoying the "Fête de la Musique" in France or elsewhere. I have a lot of great memories of 21st of June in Montpellier ...

Normal service will resume shortly

2007-06-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy over the past few weeks, at work, at home and on the allotment, where I spend most of my spare time (weather permitting of course!), that I have not been able to really update this blog as much as I would like - I still prefer to "do" the gardening than write about it, it must mean I'm not totally addicted to blogging yet! I have still kept a record of everything in a very old fashioned way : a paper diary. Yes, they still make them!

I am staying at home today to look after my little Amber who got butchered, sorry spayed, yesterday and I'm going to try and write a few bits and pieces I should post over the next few days.

Lovely irises greeting me by the gate

Garlic

2007-06-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

Last year I was not very organised and did not start any crop in the summer to see us through the winter (eg leeks, sprouts and other brassicaes, etc) so we went hungry. Well, not really … Tesco is still open 24h so we survived. But this year, I am more prepared and hoping to grown a variety of vegetables to take us through the seasons. The big master plan started in December with garlic.

I love garlic - I’m French, after all, it’s in my blood - and has always wanted to grow my own and then tie the heads into one of those plaits you see all over French markets. Growing garlic is apparently easy, you put a clove in the ground in winter or early spring and comes summer, you crop a full bulb for each clove you have planted. Traditionally, garlic is planted on the shortest day and harvested on the longest day. As I like those kind of gardening traditions, I put mine in on the 22nd of December (close enough, it was actually pouring with rain on the 21st!). It took a little while for the green shoots to appear but it is now doing very well. The picture was taken in April and the stems have now doubled in size, I assume it means the bulbs underneath are healthy! Not too long till harvest time … I’d better find out how to make those plaits!

Getting started

2007-05-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I posted pictures of the plot as it looked when we took ownership a year ago. We got very excited on the first day and then, it started raining for two solid weeks. Every single gardener worth his salt will tell you NEVER to do any digging when the soil is too wet. We decided to ignore the advice but we badly regretted it. Because double digging waterlogged, weeds ridden, heavy clay under the pouring rain was tough work. We got wet, we got muddy, we got tired and I got in a very bad mood … But we were desperate to get the plot into some reasonable condition to grow something over the summer. After many hours of clearing all the rubbish, digging, and pulling out weed roots, the plot started looking a little better.

The plot from the bottom – we can see the paths and we’ve got beds!

Around the shed – and a brand new home-made compost bin

We actually managed to grow quite a bit last summer despite a late start: lettuces, all sorts of salad leaves, a few onions, some cherry tomatoes, a lot of green and yellow courgettes, radishes, peas and beans, sweetcorn, turnips and even some strawberries.

Our first lettuce!

Young alpine strawberries under one of the apple trees

A lot of it, we just made up as we went along, planted where there was space, not worrying about soil type, companion planting, crop rotation, etc. It works but I suppose it’s not the best way to manage your plot if you want years after years of tasty and healthy veg!

Last winter, I spent a bit of time reading, planning and preparing and hopefully, this year, we’ll do even better.

Ready for the growing season at the beginning of March 07

One year ago ...

2007-05-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

So here we are, one year on, hooked on our home-grown vegetables, addicted to our little plot of land, and forever fighting the war against weeds (I seem to be winning at the moment but how long for…?).
But sometimes, when things don’t go quite so well, when the weeds seem to grow faster than we can pull them out, when it rains so much that our plot turns into a very large pond, when it feels that we’ll never be able to keep it as tidy as our neighbour, I need a little reminder of how far we’ve come. So, what did plot 52 look like a year ago?

Well, it looked like a very overgrown tiny orchard!

View from the entrance gate - the central path was hardly visible and the weeds were flourishing!

Another view from the bottom of the plot

The previous tenant obviously loved his apple trees (we’ve got 5 on our little plot!) but didn’t seem quite so keen on actually cultivating the rest of the land. What had previously been carefully delimited beds and paths was almost totally covered in a thick mat of weeds – couch grass, bindweed, horsetail, the lot! Our predecessor was also keen to squirrel away all sorts of bits and pieces of various interests: a large number of glass and window panes, piles and piles of wood in various rotten stages, plastic pots scattered all over the place. Even an old orange fridge and a rusty filing cabinet!

Rotting pile of wood, old windows and the filing cabinet at the back!

We picked this plot out of the 3 we were offered because it had a shed and the old foundations of a greenhouse. Said greenhouse had been vandalised by kids from another neighbourhood some time ago and we still find bits of shattered glass surfacing everywhere.

The greenhouse foundations and more rubbish!

And the shed …

The shed with loads of glass and the broken orange fridge at the front

The roof had not been looked after for a long time and was full of leaks. But that wasn’t the worse. The inside of the shed was where the Squirrel had stashed away all his most treasurable findings: dozens of packets of out of date seeds, bottles of unlabelled pesticides, old tins of paint, plastic containers of old children toys (creepy…) full of stinking water, piles of broken CDs, computer games, an old computer keyboard, and the worst of all, rotten carpets, inhabited by slugs and unidentified creepy crawlies. The smell in there was almost unbearable and my brave boyfriend volunteered to do all the clearing – he was almost sick on several occasions, disturbed several mice, and had to make countless trips to the skip. Not the most pleasant memory of our time on our plot!

Apple trees' blossoms

Banana and pecan nuts bread

2007-05-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

I am in the middle of sorting out my allotment pictures, eating some "just hot from the oven" banana bread so I thought I'd post the recipe. This was supposed to be made with walnuts but I didn't have any and I much prefer pecan nuts anyway!

Ingredients:

225g plain flour

100g sugar

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 large or 3 medium bananas mashed

2 tbsp melted butter

1 tbsp milk

1 egg

50-75g pecan nuts roughly chopped (or walnuts)

1tsp lemon rind

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C /350F/GM4.

2. Mix all the ingredients from the first group in one bowl.

3. Mix all the ingredients from the second group in another bowl.

4. Mix the contents of both bowls together.

5. Pour into a loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1 to 1 and 1/4 hours. When it's ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out clean. Cool down on a wire rack and slice before serving.

Should make 8 to 10 slices.

PS. There wasn't much left by the time I got round to taking the picture!

A little bit of an introduction

2007-05-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

If you're coming from Il pleut, il mouille! (my other blog), hello again and thanks for visiting here! This blog will be written mostly in English for a number of reasons which I might elaborate on one day. Hope you don't mind too much, it's easier for me and it makes more sense.

So where does this blog come from?

Once upon a time, before I broke my mum's heart and crossed the Channel, I lived in a big-ish house with a big garden in a small country village and my grand dad was growing very tasty vegs in his potager. For the past few years now, I have been taking more and more interest in what I eat, where it comes from, how it has been grown or raised and how far it had travelled before ending up in my plate. I am not quite Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - even though I would dream of leaving the River Cottage lifestyle in my older years! - but I wanted to be able to grow my own vegetables and eat fresher ingredients seasonally. Some might think it's just a pipe dream when you live in a tenement flat in Glasgow with a tiny shared back garden. Well, when we bought our flat, the answer was just staring us in the face. It was there, just across the road.

Kennyhill allotments - run by Glasgow City Council. The website told us there was a waiting list but we still sent an application letter and within 2 weeks, we received a phone call: one of the plots had become free if we were still interested... You bet we were!

We have now been tenents of plot 52 for just over a year.

It's not always fun and giggles, sometimes it breaks your back, you get wet, cold and muddy, or you lose all your crop to the tiniest of flies. But I wouldn't give it up for the world.

I just needed a place to record what we do on the plot, what goes well and what goes wrong so that we can learn from it and do even better the next year. Another thing I enjoy doing is cooking, so I'll probably post a few recipes here too!