tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36176164242707081502024-03-13T20:41:28.019+00:00Slow Growing in ScotlandSlow allotment gardening in the life of a busy familyLindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.comBlogger203125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-48191470831793912492015-05-17T10:52:00.001+01:002015-05-17T10:52:14.204+01:00Plodding on<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Seven months since I last posted here, so Blogger kindly informs me, as it keeps track of my absence from its clutches. I've lost track of how many about-turns we've done as to whether we keep the allotment or give it up. For the moment we've decided to stop being so...introspective about it and just get on and grow what we can in the limited time we have available. Here's a quick tour of the plot in its post-winter state.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">First, the brassica cage. Actually the cage may be our best growing item! It's stood up to some ferocious gales this winter. We haven't had any real snow, however, and that's the weak point of any netting-covered structure. I saw recently in the Harrod catalogue (that's Harrod Horticultural, not Harrods of London) that they've improved on the 'build-a-ball' construction of our cage and now sell a locking system that keeps the poles lodged more securely in the joining units. Given how much it cost in the first place we're not about to abandon ours for a newer model, but I do have my eye on it for the future. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Inside the cage from left to right we have kale, which has been a great success and kept us supplied with greens throughout the winter, although some of us more happily than others. Let's just say that my husband doesn't share the love I have for kale. Next is a row of what I was convinced was sprouting broccoli but which grew painfully slowly, failed to sprout, and is now flowering. Then there's a row of something I will reveal in my next post, followed at the right by the leafy stuff which I thought was spring greens. Really, I must label what I plant rather than thinking I'll remember. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Beyond the cage is the leek bed, variety Musselburgh. They look like all of us at the end of the Scottish winter - a bit tattered, blinking in the stronger light of spring and realising we need to smarten up a bit because people can now see what we look like.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then come two and a bit rows of overwintering onions, variety Senshyu. They seem to be suffering from that other Scottish affliction, lack of sunlight and warmth. Can you tell that it's still very cold here, and I'm grumpy about it? Did you know that in this month's 'Living France' magazine you could buy a 'charming stone property with pigeonnier and pool, private but not isolated, near all amenities' in the Lot for 248,000 Euros? To the right of the onions is this year's nameless garlic, probably feeling even more grumpy than I am. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Back to reality, and some rather late planted onion and shallot sets. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">They've since started to put out green shoots, so fingers crossed that they'll pull away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A little bit of help from a labourer never goes amiss. Our daughter was home recently from university for a few days and kindly set about weeding the strawberry bed. This is probably the last year for this bed. I'm undecided as to whether to take runners from the plants this year or start afresh with another variety. The fruit hasn't been great<i>, </i>and I'd also like to extend the season with fewer plants of several varieties. <i>Of course</i> I can't remember the variety I have at the moment, but I'm </span> <span style="font-size: large;">sure I will when I start to look at catalogues. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This was our surprise harvest last weekend. Surprising because I have got into a mind-set of thinking that we are just doing maintenance rather than anything productive. But we are actually eating what we're growing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">From top of the 'display plank': what was meant to be spring greens turned out to be cauliflower. Well, it would have been if I'd left it to grow. There was a miniscule cauliflower head nestled deep inside, about the size of my thumb nail. The leave were quite tasty steamed however, and made me realise how much waste there is in supermarket cauliflower presentation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The rhubarb has suddenly forged ahead, and it's delicious. The leeks are getting to the end of their run, so I'm going to dig up the rest next weekend and freeze them. And finally the rainbow chard has made it through the winter and is fresh and exuberant, and very tasty steamed and sprinkled with chilli flakes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Throughout the winter I haven't felt that I needed to blog about our forays to the plot, but now that I've returned it's interesting how the act of writing seems to solidify and give substance to the scattered bits of activity that have been going on. Now we just need a bit of warmth so that I can get that other allotment essential out of the shed - the deckchair. Otherwise I'm going to be seriously tempted by the 'charming stone property', if a bit uncertain about the pigeonnier. </span> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-67742220077146082102014-09-17T08:44:00.000+01:002014-09-17T08:44:11.108+01:00Anguish and absence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Another long absence - this won't do at all. I feel I owe some explanation, and it's been due to a combination of anguish (not too strong a word) and absence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I'll take them in reverse order, but before I get onto absence, note my patriotic breakfast above from way back in July, during the Tour de France. Blueberries and alpine strawberries from the garden - seems very far away now that we're well into autumn in Scotland. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, onto absence. We've had a busy summer of being welded to our respective work desks, lots of travel to visit elderly parents, and much work at the allotment. In early June we had a brief trip to France for a walking holiday in the Tarn valley. We started and ended the trip in the beautiful city of Albi, and of course I had to take in some gardens while we were there. Very formal and orderly, from the grand to the potager variety.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And back to the allotment. We have committed ourselves to it in a big way this summer, and have enjoyed getting it into more productive order. At the moment we're dealing with the courgette glut. Some have escaped to become marrows - you can see the scale in the shot below if you realise that I have size 8 (European 42) feet. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I love the artistic bunching of vegetables. My husband thinks I'm mad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And our shed has had a makeover - panels of wood replaced to make it watertight for the winter, and recently a bright but tasteful paint job, of which more in a later post.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And the anguish? As you probably know - inescapable if you live in the UK - tomorrow we face a vote that will decide if Scotland will become independent and the UK split up. I have found it impossible to have any creative, positive thoughts that would let me blog, but at this point I have to speak up for what I feel, and say that I am deeply upset and depressed at the prospect of losing my British citizenship. Not only that, I am distressed for the sake of the future generations. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">If the vote goes the wrong way and is in favour of independence I don't know if I will have the heart to return to blogging. I suppose the consolation with gardening and growing is being able to concentrate on something more eternal than politics and the ebb and flow of empires. </span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-56770312499642315992014-03-16T09:13:00.000+00:002014-03-16T09:13:31.176+00:00Garlicking along<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">In January the annual allotment fee invoice came in, and we had another stocktake about whether we had the time to keep the plot on. We hadn't got to the end of that when, what seemed like a week later, a red final demand notice came in. The waiting list for plots near us is very long - between 5 and 7 years - so although we hope not still to be in Edinburgh by that point, we couldn't face giving up and plot and going back on the waiting list. So here we are, committed for another year and watching the garlic grow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I planted garlic on 4 January. By 16 February it was showing green shoots. When I was at the plot two weeks ago it was higher still, but I didn't get any photos. I'm just about to go along for a morning's work and will check on its progress then. Thankfully, despite the late planting we have had some days of frost to help bulb development. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Meantime, potatoes have been chitting away. Charlotte and Desiree, not too many of either because we want to leave space for more interesting things. Not that a home grown tattie isn't a delight, but there are other things which cost more and taste of nothing in the supermarket. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And finally - our new weed for this season. Foxglove seedlings, liberally strewn across the plot by the wild floxgloves on our inherited weed heap/compost pile. I'll dig a couple up for the garden, but the rest will have to come out. It seems a shame, but they are definitely a 'plant in the wrong place'. </span><br />
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<br />Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-64642930758920542612013-12-31T20:26:00.003+00:002013-12-31T20:26:58.812+00:00Persuasion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here's something that might give me some enthusiasm for the plot this year. Rhubarb compote, at 2 quid a pack! One of our favourite puddings is stewed rhubarb over <a href="http://www.mackies.co.uk/" target="_blank">Mackie's</a> butterscotch ice cream. Try it - divine! With rhubarb for the taking at the allotment we've come to take it for granted. The prospect of having to buy it is rather horrifying.</span><br />
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<br />Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-16229109526062204112013-12-28T15:18:00.000+00:002013-12-28T15:18:32.910+00:00It's a shed thing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">The decision had been made and I was comfortable with it - happy even. We had rationalised that with parental illness on both sides and the need to travel more frequently to help out in house and garden (and both parental houses have large gardens) our time for allotmenteering was going to be even more squeezed. Add to that my husband starting a new job, and our wish to get out of Edinburgh more, and everything seemed to add up to a sensible decision not to renew our allotment lease. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Having made the decision, I tested it out on my emotions when I visited the plot in early December. What pangs of regret would I feel? I tried not to dwell on the 'glad to see the back of', such as the endless battle with couch grass, the heavy soil, the feeling of obligation at spending sunny Sundays at the plot instead of out on the Scottish hills. Perhaps because they were the only things growing, I did feel a pang about leaving the blackcurrant bushes and strawberry plants. But once home again I returned to my calm, settled conviction that giving up the plot was the right thing to do, and began to plan for weekends away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And then the gales came. We dutifully visited the plot afterwards to check the state of the shed roof. Although we were giving up very shortly, we didn't feel we could hand over a shed that we had let deteriorate through the worst of the winter months. A section of tar paper had blown off, and it was decided that husband and son would return the following weekend to repair it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">They were out all afternoon, returning after dark. A good, solid repair had been carried out, and another decision made. We were keeping the plot for a further year, on the basis that so much investment had been made in infrastructure that we should try to maximise our return.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I sat and thought about the infrastructure. Blackcurrant bushes? Strawberry plants? Two compost bins? Posts for wires up against which to train non-existent raspberries? There is nothing else - no paving, no fencing, no greenhouse, no fancy border edging or raised beds. So I concluded that the only possible 'infrastructure' was the shed, and set about doing a mental U-turn towards planning and sowing. And perhaps hopefully still some weekends out of Edinburgh. </span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-82645974113125464582013-11-05T19:56:00.000+00:002013-11-05T19:56:25.156+00:00Another garden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">For the past month, because of my dad's illness, I haven't seen my own garden in daylight, far less the allotment. Instead we have spent the past five weekends here on Speyside. So I'm more familiar with the progress of autumn in my dad's garden than in my own.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">These photos are from mid-October. The warm colours and late blooms are fading now, battered by rain and wind, and by the first frost of the year last night. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> We'll see if the holly berries make it through to Christmas. The resident flock of sparrows is very partial to them. Some people net their holly bushes to preserve the berries, but I wouldn't go to those lengths, and certainly not when we're not here all the time to free any birds that might get caught up in the netting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Dad is now out of hospital, so we may be visiting the allotment this weekend to see how the weeds are faring. </span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-57234739524128362202013-08-31T08:29:00.001+01:002013-08-31T08:29:47.963+01:00Summer update - blackcurrants<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Despite lack of blogging activity, things have been happening at the allotment. It's not in a fantastic state, but it's not critical either.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Rather than try to update all at once, I'm embarking on a mini-series of updates. First up, our bountiful blackcurrants. Or they would have been if we hadn't gone away for two weeks just at the peak of the crop. We picked frantically the night before, and I froze 9lbs of berries. Our little camping chairs provided the perfect way to avoid back strain while picking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">When we returned, the crop was on the ground and the wasps were having a merry time. I did take another 1.5lbs from the bushes and made a few pots of jam straight away because the fruit was so ripe that it began to spoil once picked. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Difficult to know when to go on holiday as a gardener! If we'd gone the two weeks before we would have missed the strawberries. Are just-picked strawberries</span> <span style="font-size: large;">in smaller quantity worth more than probably unmanageable loads of blackcurrants? There is complex exchange rate of gardening which I haven't fully worked out yet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What crops did you miss by going on holiday this year? </span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-56143063372052205212013-07-23T22:21:00.000+01:002013-07-23T22:21:36.937+01:00Decision made - perhaps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBSsMXRWlo4iTLGTK37qrqbZ_zZ_DJoXCTKeBDU21j_0vAhEipobo9h_Q6DjTNV4GsZJVoybrYXlomCYNsfcZphKwmnMvhnPjzkwK1cxsF9ZogGkS_n76vG5636R2NqOgr0PB1RlfVUYQN/s1600/July+20130006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBSsMXRWlo4iTLGTK37qrqbZ_zZ_DJoXCTKeBDU21j_0vAhEipobo9h_Q6DjTNV4GsZJVoybrYXlomCYNsfcZphKwmnMvhnPjzkwK1cxsF9ZogGkS_n76vG5636R2NqOgr0PB1RlfVUYQN/s640/July+20130006.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">All Spring we've been swaying one way and then the other as we discuss whether to keep on with the allotment. First of all I was absolutely convinced that we should give it up. We would have so much more time for all sorts of things we keep meaning to do but never get round to. Escaping Edinburgh and going walking at weekends. Staying in Edinburgh and discovering parts we have never visited in 28 years here. Tidying the loft. Painting the house.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My conviction was absolute. Then we went to the plot one glorious May evening, and I wavered. The next day I swung back to my original gut feel. The following weekend I sowed lettuce, Swiss chard, beetroot, carrots, spinach, rocket, and veered sharply in the opposite direction. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDukbqZv_BGesiBHG-qYC0nfNDj9_KhvfrHq7gbTFtMkWH_xguulMHGtoIrk_IBkgwY1Qniacg3-fSHC593f0UveTCCx3hpnUZK9wm_CmDIsoqjipUQ0MHpuEW1hSjGdaSkt2kkMJrjdbu/s1600/July+20130007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDukbqZv_BGesiBHG-qYC0nfNDj9_KhvfrHq7gbTFtMkWH_xguulMHGtoIrk_IBkgwY1Qniacg3-fSHC593f0UveTCCx3hpnUZK9wm_CmDIsoqjipUQ0MHpuEW1hSjGdaSkt2kkMJrjdbu/s640/July+20130007.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And so it has continued, and at the moment we are being swayed by a bountiful harvest of strawberries and blackcurrants.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTZTxBFPX5XiM67puQiNBTj8gKN_QQenNIJ9bCTl72KxNHC7UIccrUZE9zqUXjKwHmPMQx-8reFO3s62DbeDkHEzOTzFARW4OH56-lZR4vAygR_wUknCzW2KvLOsMAkJE5AE4qpGTVJz5H/s1600/July+20130018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTZTxBFPX5XiM67puQiNBTj8gKN_QQenNIJ9bCTl72KxNHC7UIccrUZE9zqUXjKwHmPMQx-8reFO3s62DbeDkHEzOTzFARW4OH56-lZR4vAygR_wUknCzW2KvLOsMAkJE5AE4qpGTVJz5H/s640/July+20130018.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We have more lettuce than we can handle. Our neighbours are resorting to making soup with what we inflict on them.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEZce-P9IFnlfZ4OaxWqXAaLaKDZX61at0_M2VgDq0xCOEwwdGRntItKuhUGQoyZCRxhzR2IcyMC4fiAUv1i-4A4GZ1YqFPctwmnMwNKoBrPPjmpzbNSbqYJuSRjO4MoJyUKnjdMkW5h8a/s1600/July+20130013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEZce-P9IFnlfZ4OaxWqXAaLaKDZX61at0_M2VgDq0xCOEwwdGRntItKuhUGQoyZCRxhzR2IcyMC4fiAUv1i-4A4GZ1YqFPctwmnMwNKoBrPPjmpzbNSbqYJuSRjO4MoJyUKnjdMkW5h8a/s640/July+20130013.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The onions are filling out, and it looks as if we will have a crop worth lifting this year.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRLbqlJdShvfmNo0ci4jFqPglasJpn8YXZxow1WF1hIrmQ1ML4iSNo3gUIaWma3pasKGtfBs1jCLJZ7C8x59QIhdV_YOy45B3iVqsBt-eHoq-rcaClpiUuhdA_XYI8d5ijymY8r_xvB2zh/s1600/July+20130012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRLbqlJdShvfmNo0ci4jFqPglasJpn8YXZxow1WF1hIrmQ1ML4iSNo3gUIaWma3pasKGtfBs1jCLJZ7C8x59QIhdV_YOy45B3iVqsBt-eHoq-rcaClpiUuhdA_XYI8d5ijymY8r_xvB2zh/s640/July+20130012.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And even the neglected and weedy pile of earth (a former compost heap/weed dump of the previous plot-holders) has put forth a stunning display of self-seeded foxgloves.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitNXVkfirIdR51qngapCOZRMPS1YxtASOcBjk8ome_Ay1nuPXlR9YFFIwVAKGeYv5NpWw101MyO2L0xyMH8K6YgiN5ESdsRqmL_IIwmHZrlSASqvMFAs3y-wi4qOULgjpkW8GOI269Ltak/s1600/July+20130011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitNXVkfirIdR51qngapCOZRMPS1YxtASOcBjk8ome_Ay1nuPXlR9YFFIwVAKGeYv5NpWw101MyO2L0xyMH8K6YgiN5ESdsRqmL_IIwmHZrlSASqvMFAs3y-wi4qOULgjpkW8GOI269Ltak/s640/July+20130011.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For the moment it seems as if we are staying put for another year. But we still have to find time to squeeze in our list of 'must-do' and 'nice to do'</span>. <span style="font-size: large;">A few more hours each day, and a few more days each weekend would be good. </span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-67911941043946133042013-04-14T18:00:00.000+01:002013-04-14T20:48:15.031+01:00First deckchairs of the year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzW1CJfCVRvbmhLwxMOPh-Av1WM_5BLzdZIoyj4HYAJ9fRA4-roUXuFke0mrHBeKM5h38WUYOHPGzwdauyYZgdiqjt4kMlZ1kHsuNA9UxDKlspavXEOQiHOauxFDMQ7v3v1VumOjoN_y0n/s1600/April+20130001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzW1CJfCVRvbmhLwxMOPh-Av1WM_5BLzdZIoyj4HYAJ9fRA4-roUXuFke0mrHBeKM5h38WUYOHPGzwdauyYZgdiqjt4kMlZ1kHsuNA9UxDKlspavXEOQiHOauxFDMQ7v3v1VumOjoN_y0n/s640/April+20130001.JPG" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Until now it's been a case of keeping moving to keep warm, but yesterday at the plot it was <span style="font-size: large;">warm enou<span style="font-size: large;">gh to take a break from digging and soak up the sun. All of 10 degrees, but it felt blissful after a w<span style="font-size: large;">inter that has seemed never-ending.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not much blogging has been done, but a fair amount of digging. The blessing of this cold <span style="font-size: large;">Spring has been t<span style="font-size: large;">hat the weeds haven't got going, so <span style="font-size: large;">digging the grou<span style="font-size: large;">nd over hasn't been as hard as it might have been. Hard enough, tho, and <span style="font-size: large;">the ground has been hard through lack of rain. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Below, the strawberry bed in mid-clean. It's finished now, and plants dressed with sulphate of potash. Couch grass seems to love strawberry plants, twining itself around their roots and popping up in mid plant. I don't doubt that it will return to the fray.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The bare ground below holds the newly-<span style="font-size: large;">planted potatoes. Two rows of R<span style="font-size: large;">ed Duke of York, two of Mayan Gold (hoping that they will live up to Monty Don's praise of them), and one of Ratte, a salad potato<span style="font-size: large;">. The<span style="font-size: large;"> tubers had been chitting for so long that I'm concerned that they will be over-chitted - they had started to <span style="font-size: large;">wrinkle up - so I hope they will <span style="font-size: large;">get going and grow.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqudr8vMUBK7qk5ZiqZVf87C_v1f8kHbrDL2dvP-MWAxWFEZVWNwMe3mzssJVt5cM4IC49vvozVadDewnbHke1M4zrJBONEKB39LyTqyY6FqeTTy-XkLx4rOQl8o_0cugPh6JMsf3CuHT_/s1600/April+20130003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqudr8vMUBK7qk5ZiqZVf87C_v1f8kHbrDL2dvP-MWAxWFEZVWNwMe3mzssJVt5cM4IC49vvozVadDewnbHke1M4zrJBONEKB39LyTqyY6FqeTTy-XkLx4rOQl8o_0cugPh6JMsf3CuHT_/s640/April+20130003.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We have had a p<span style="font-size: large;">altry harvest of brassicas. The purple and white sprouting broccoli has still to sprout, and frost has killed most of the calabrese. However some new s<span style="font-size: large;">hoots of calabrese have surviv<span style="font-size: large;">ed, as has the purple ka<span style="font-size: large;">le and savoy cabbages. I'm in two minds about the purple kale. It does look lovely<span style="font-size: large;"> as a plant, and <span style="font-size: large;">steamed with a plateful of green lentils, but it made a bizarre addition to my traditional Scotch broth, turning the whole thing a pale lilac.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirtBfJhyphenhyphenNQrIBPz4kQWAQDU4t4puaSoILYrjY69N6N4ZK1V7lZUjqDq3S-lXIwVgYDbDqBbNlaaYdKoPSzHEw35LdKnP8j0lDXO8-m8GyRDLGyGm1wiH7NustiW_nUJ4DqZSPOGPzKykoZ/s1600/April+20130004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirtBfJhyphenhyphenNQrIBPz4kQWAQDU4t4puaSoILYrjY69N6N4ZK1V7lZUjqDq3S-lXIwVgYDbDqBbNlaaYdKoPSzHEw35LdKnP8j0lDXO8-m8GyRDLGyGm1wiH7NustiW_nUJ4DqZSPOGPzKykoZ/s640/April+20130004.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As for the leeks, they have sulked all winter<span style="font-size: large;">. I'm making the best of it by thinking of them as g<span style="font-size: large;">ourmet baby l<span style="font-size: large;">eeks.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUuROnQY7wGfY3msQnLTXCFt8by4R6nLTnjDeRU1Wy1v8SJR0vqn6tGiKr1g-ReVV-Sb-vPMOf0r1pSJ2T_3JtFO9aEtr5CrtJ1itmXfv15k7-Gx6MVGQ_Ue_aEcVdQ3c95xuBpT2bLUCt/s1600/April+20130005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUuROnQY7wGfY3msQnLTXCFt8by4R6nLTnjDeRU1Wy1v8SJR0vqn6tGiKr1g-ReVV-Sb-vPMOf0r1pSJ2T_3JtFO9aEtr5CrtJ1itmXfv15k7-Gx6MVGQ_Ue_aEcVdQ3c95xuBpT2bLUCt/s640/April+20130005.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There has been curiously little sign of life at the allotment site over the past <span style="font-size: large;">few weeks. The weather <span style="font-size: large;">has been fair, if bitterly cold, and it seems as if people <span style="font-size: large;">are reluctant to emerge from hibernation. <span style="font-size: large;">Everything feels suspended, and it's been difficult to think ahead to a time when winter will end. <span style="font-size: large;">When the tempe<span style="font-size: large;">rature rose during the night yesterday, with rain and wind, I felt like Laur<span style="font-size: large;">a Ingalls Wilder in 'The Long <span style="font-size: large;">Winter', when the chinook started to blow.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-3409915330166359882013-02-17T20:18:00.000+00:002013-02-17T20:18:31.264+00:00A hazy shade of winter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnDZN9pC0o8XKBvHjsOdWFyXom8NvtirR6cdW5lcXsj9NGy3WvEcX45ztuDq_4QIbYcm7MdvwmkMLaI8PAVO1ge1jdoWjF7Qxnz0BfB6Sk6vhjJoFRFYLjYW9MHfl5pwiMLLh3Qj6BW3V/s1600/February+20130025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnDZN9pC0o8XKBvHjsOdWFyXom8NvtirR6cdW5lcXsj9NGy3WvEcX45ztuDq_4QIbYcm7MdvwmkMLaI8PAVO1ge1jdoWjF7Qxnz0BfB6Sk6vhjJoFRFYLjYW9MHfl5pwiMLLh3Qj6BW3V/s640/February+20130025.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A number of song and book titles/lines sprang to mind for this post, among them 'All the leaves are brown', and '50 shades of <strike>grey</strike> brown'<span style="font-size: large;">. The <span style="font-size: large;">problem with the second was <span style="font-size: large;">that I anticipated a spike in spam traffic <span style="font-size: large;">directing me to sites I really wasn't interested in. In the end Simon and Garfunkel won over The Mammas and <span style="font-size: large;">The <span style="font-size: large;">Pappas, perhaps inspired by Dancing Beastie's '<a href="http://dancingbeastie.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/the-dangling-conversation/" target="_blank">The dangling conversation</a>' post. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">So here's a stocktake of a predominantly brown allotment, with a few tinges of green.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">First, the bed that was reclaimed from under years of corr<span style="font-size: large;">ugated i<span style="font-size: large;">ron. Mostly fallen leaves, but with worrying signs of creeping buttercup infestation. Beside it is the<span style="font-size: large;"> previous plot-holder's weed dump, now mostly earth but given to sprin<span style="font-size: large;">ging to life with a lively array of weeds. <span style="font-size: large;">The<span style="font-size: large;"> year before last it was couch grass<span style="font-size: large;">; this past season<span style="font-size: large;">, <span style="font-size: large;">out of now<span style="font-size: large;">here, it was a fine c<span style="font-size: large;">rop of foxgloves. We left these as bee-at<span style="font-size: large;">tra<span style="font-size: large;">ctants, but it will need to be cleared soon and the ear<span style="font-size: large;">th sieved over existing beds.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Interestingly almost weed-free is the bed that had <span style="font-size: large;">an application of home-produced compost in the autumn. Spot the rogue garlic shoot. The light grey sub<span style="font-size: large;">stance is <span style="font-size: large;">the indestructible remains of teabags. We go through a whopping amount of teabags in our <span style="font-size: large;">family<span style="font-size: large;">. The mesh bags which tear if you so much as look at them in the wrong way when making a cup of tea seem <span style="font-size: large;">as if they'll</span> <span style="font-size: large;">have a half life of several hundred thousand years once composted. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">W<span style="font-size: large;">ell, this is pretty dull, isn't it? You know you're a nerdy allotment <span style="font-size: large;">person when you can write about a bit of bare earth with some grassy tufts here and there. This is wher<span style="font-size: large;">e our failed potato crop 'grew' las<span style="font-size: large;">t summer. I have a suspicion that there are still some pot<span style="font-size: large;">atoes down there somewhere<span style="font-size: large;">, and that this bed will benefit from a serious digging over in the spring.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Strawberry plants looking rather sorry for themselves, and with the ever-present couch grass making a come-back. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This weed<span style="font-size: large;">-stopper cover has been on since early autumn. Who knows wh<span style="font-size: large;">at's underneath<span style="font-size: large;">?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Miniature l<span style="font-size: large;">eeks, anyone? Probably put in too late, these have failed to thrive over the winter. They may have a 'late surge', to quote </span>Bill Nighy in 'Love Actually'. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here's a surprise - something growing! <span style="font-size: large;">Purp<span style="font-size: large;">le sprouting broccoli and kale are holding out well under the anti-pigeon netting. No sign of any<span style="font-size: large;">thing purp<span style="font-size: large;">le sproutin<span style="font-size: large;">g yet, and our life has not been in the mo<span style="font-size: large;">o<span style="font-size: large;">d for kale, but we may yet get somet<span style="font-size: large;">hin<span style="font-size: large;">g edible<span style="font-size: large;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Not so with my ea<span style="font-size: large;">gerly anticipated calabrese, now <span style="font-size: large;">blasted by frost. A reminder that we are in Scotland, and that<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: large;">a covering of fleece might have been wise.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<br />Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-18830513753007210012013-01-13T12:00:00.000+00:002013-01-13T12:00:03.485+00:00In suspense<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">This blog certainly is, and I am too about what is happening to my brassicas at the plot. November, December - busy, busy months, also quagmires of mud months. Followed by being away for Christmas and New Year. Then work starting up again - aargh.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">These are the latest shots I have from a visit to the plot on the 25th of November. Actual broccoli, like the kind you buy in the supermarket<span style="font-size: large;">. Savoy cabbage, hearting up but also being munched. And purple sp<span style="font-size: large;">routing growing steadily.</span></span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My husband was at the plot last weekend to repair the she<span style="font-size: large;">d roof, which is <span style="font-size: large;">covered with tar paper.</span> It's been leaking, and with the h<span style="font-size: large;">eavy rains we've had there's been quite a bit of <span style="font-size: large;">water coming through. He had to wait until the <span style="font-size: large;">temperature reached 10 degrees to apply the tar sealant, and luckily <span style="font-size: large;">last weekend was warm enough. </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Today <span style="font-size: large;">it's snowing - not nice fluffy fla<span style="font-size: large;">kes, but wet snow falling heavily in raw, damp air</span>, so although I have a free day when I could pop along and see what's happening, I feel <span style="font-size: large;">in full Scottish hibernation mode. </span></span> </span></span></span></span></span>For the moment I'm not really thinking too much about the plot - my concentration is all at home, on m<span style="font-size: large;">y gorgeous Christmas cacti and on spring bulbs both inside and in the garden. January and February are long winter months in Scotland. There will be time for <span style="font-size: large;">planning once some signs of spring appear. With no greenhouse and very little suitable <span style="font-size: large;">window<span style="font-size: large;">sill space I can't do early <span style="font-size: large;">indoor <span style="font-size: large;">sowings, but <span style="font-size: large;">I'm quite content to wait<span style="font-size: large;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-18470704155968400582012-10-22T22:02:00.000+01:002012-10-22T22:02:12.189+01:00Compost, at last<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">For years, it seems, we<span style="font-size: large;">'ve been tipping</span> kitchen waste into our two compost bins, but very little compost has emerged. This has mostly been because of lack of time to <span style="font-size: large;">e</span>mpty them out. I have wondered if </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the bins have Tardis-like properties.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">At last on Sunday we got round to emp<span style="font-size: large;">tying one of th<span style="font-size: large;">e bins<span style="font-size: large;"> and relocating it round to the shady side of th<span style="font-size: large;">e shed. The spot where we plonked the bins when we took on the plot turns out to be the corner which get<span style="font-size: large;">s <span style="font-size: large;">the last of the afternoon sun once the rest of the plot is in shade. Far too valuable to waste on compost!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The contents ha<span style="font-size: large;">ve composted down nicely<span style="font-size: large;">, except for the supposedly compostable bin liners<span style="font-size: large;">. Thes<span style="font-size: large;">e resem<span style="font-size: large;">bled nothing more than supermarket carrier bags, even after several years. I've resolved <span style="font-size: large;">not to waste any more money on them, but to line the <span style="font-size: large;">kitchen waste bin with newspaper instead.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">When it came to spreading the compost over freshly dug beds, I discovered that a lot of compost goes a little way. Still, it feels good to have fed the soil more than we've been able to do s<span style="font-size: large;">o far.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<br />Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-13884904545745136342012-09-17T22:03:00.000+01:002012-09-17T22:03:59.462+01:00Decision time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">How can it have been more difficult to get to the allotment in a summer where one 'child' has spent 2 months in Nepal, and the other has divided her time between France, Greece and working? And now that they're both away at university (although only very recently), we still don't seem to have found the time. Work, visitors, time spent as a family and time spent preparing for departures - all have taken priority over working at the plot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We've made some small gains, despite our hectic summer. Onions and shallots have been harvested, such as they were. The hay (our pseudo straw) has been cleared from the strawberry bed and the old growth cut off. Leeks have been planted, and are coming along oh so slowly. The blackcurrant crop has been appreciated by the birds, and the fallen berries are creating a rich mulch beneath the bushes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For the moment, the kale, broccoli and spring cabbage are holding their own beneath the bird netting. Some signs of snail attack, and a healthy underplanting of grass which I'm gradually and painstakingly clearing by hand. The soil has been too wet to use the hoe, so hand-weeding is the only option.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The old strawberry bed has become completely overgrown with grass, so to give ourselves an easier time we've covered some of it in light-stop membrane which I unearthed from the shed - ordered in 2004 and never used.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">At our last visit a couple of weeks ago we came to a decision: we're going to give the plot two more years, during which time we'll aim to have it productive and in order. If at the end of that time we're still struggling for time, we'll give it up. Longer term plans are beginning to take shape now that the children have finished school, and we want to have time to work towards these.</span> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-74462099164321628712012-07-13T16:18:00.000+01:002012-07-13T16:18:16.448+01:00Dodging showers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAPtsoR-42GoVC-TLtknaxJD9_uRhbH8bTN_yAqUIbB5ABirIN-6zrl6ZclL0kj64S3RP-adVZ9ZdU8TDB0I44xHJ2x7vo3nFt_CBCj3TZYvpWDb_Qwcax5FP4WKBQwb1-y7aZ3RYijnU/s1600/July20120016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAPtsoR-42GoVC-TLtknaxJD9_uRhbH8bTN_yAqUIbB5ABirIN-6zrl6ZclL0kj64S3RP-adVZ9ZdU8TDB0I44xHJ2x7vo3nFt_CBCj3TZYvpWDb_Qwcax5FP4WKBQwb1-y7aZ3RYijnU/s640/July20120016.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I heard on a TV weather forecast this week that Edinburgh has only had 1.5 hours of sunshine so far this July. It certainly feels like it. We have almost given up expecting anything of this summer. Getting any work done at the allotment has been a struggle: June is always a busy month for us, and this year with the end of our daughter's schooldays it's been especially hectic. But constant rain, particularly at weekends, has held us back even more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The arrival of an order of brassica plants this week from <a href="http://www.organicplants.co.uk/index.html">Delfland Nurseries</a> meant that rain or not we had to get to the plot at the weekend. I expected that the soil would be waterlogged, but wasn't prepared for the depth to which my foot sank into the soil when I stepped on to the strawberry bed. Actually it wasn't so much soil as liquid mud.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Still, a few strawberries had ripened despite the lack of sun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A very kind work colleague who keeps horses supplied me with several leaves of hay to spread around my strawberries. It was fun getting the hay home on the bus</span>. <span style="font-size: large;">Of course I now realise after reading Monty Don's '<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ivington-Diaries-Monty-Don/dp/140880249X">Ivington Diaries</a>' that it would have been smart to put organic slug pellets down before I spread the hay. So I may have created a snug home for slugs and snails, but at least the berries are raised off the <strike>soil</strike></span> <span style="font-size: large;">mud.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ideally we would have moved the netting cage that is over the broad beans, peas and French beans, but the chances of being able to fix the poles in the liquid mud made us abandon that idea. A floating fleece protection against pigeon attach was the best we could do, but we'll have to loosen it as soon as we can. We're away from Edinburgh at the moment, so the plants will have to survive until next weekend. Two types of sprouting broccoli, calabrese, two types of kale, spring cabbage and winter cauliflower. Planting into liquid mud was a horrendous experience. I'm not sure what the plants will make of it. All instructions to 'firm the plants well into the soil, drawing it up round the stem' had to go by the board as I inserted them into the mud as best I could.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Otherwise, not a lot is happening. One of the garlic varieties has rust. The shallots, seen behind it, are rather thin and weedy and I can only hope for some sun to plump them up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The broad beans, alas, are what we call 'couped' (pronounced 'cow'pd') in Scots, i.e. fallen over. They were supported by twine, but since I only had metal poles to hand (ex-children's climbing frame) the twine has slid down the metal with the pressure of the bean stalks. We had no time on Sunday to put things to rights, so this may be another casualty of weather and lack of time. The beans on the lower part of the stalks are forming well, but higher up the pods have all shrivelled away into little black remnants. Advice please, from any experienced broad bean growers!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For the moment we are up on Speyside, where conditions are pretty much the same as in Edinburgh. Perhaps slightly drier, as there hasn't been the absolutely constant rain we've had, but everything in the garden is very backward and shrunk in on itself. I have the left overs from my brassica order up with me to plant out in my Dad's garden. The soil here is lighter, since it's on a river plain and was once good arable land rather than inner city goodness-knows-what. It will be interesting to compare the fortunes of the two brassica plantings.</span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-25250015634033502292012-06-17T09:43:00.001+01:002012-06-17T15:17:59.644+01:00Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - June 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">And a very soggy Bloom Day it was too. It has rained steadily here since Friday morning - the rain is still coming down as I write on Sunday morning. Yesterday I squelched out into the garden to take these photos. The camera makes it look brighter than it was. It really has been a case of Darkness at Noon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Above and below, a sadly nameless foxglove. I only bought it a few weeks ago at <a href="http://diydecora.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1">Decora</a> in Elgin, but such is the pace of life at the moment that my good intentions to <i>write the variety in my garden book</i> came to nothing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Below, everything that is green is lush and vibrant. A bit too lush for Scottish tastes. The growth is sappy, and that's a problem in high winds. The fern on the left is self-seeded from a now defunct fern I had in a pot. It's relishing its freedom, but is getting a bit out of hand. The alchemilla in the foreground loves the wet weather and is putting on a show of rain-drop diamonds. At the right, the spears of crocosmia are the forerunners of its red flowers in late July.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My oriental poppies are monstrous this year. They have responded to my attempts to dig them out in the autumn by putting out huge growth and massive flowers. And I thought I'd cleared every last scrap of root...</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Below, a Swedish flag-themed pairing of geranium Johnson's Blue and a yellow potentilla.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Beaten down by the rain:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This was meant to be a homage to my Albertine rose, which is rambling far and wide this year. The blooms are not getting a chance to flourish in the wet conditions. In trying to capture this bloom sheltering under my dwarf plum tree I seem to have concentrated more on the wonderful fact of a decent-sized plum. We have had a total of 2 plums from the tree, but this year it has put on a spurt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Last year we took out a scruffy conifer hedge, put up a windbreak fence, and widened the suburban strip of a border slightly. (The garden is city-centre tiny, so there's not much room to play with.)</span> <span style="font-size: large;">I ordered plants from <a href="http://www.crocus.co.uk/home/">Crocus</a> - they're happily establishing in the rain, but there are very few blooms yet. A delicate exception is this Aquilegia stellata 'Ruby Port'. I know the name because I can look up my Crocus order online...</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">To finish, the frothy exuberance of my Hydrangea petiolaris. The bees love this, but it's been so wet that they haven't been flying. The powerful upward shoot to the left is a Clematis Jackmanii, which I leave to its own devices apart from a chop back in February each year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">More gardens from around the world, some with sunshine, are at <a href="http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/2012/06/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-june-2012.html">Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day</a>.</span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-26875055461714032562012-06-14T08:07:00.000+01:002012-06-14T08:07:38.247+01:00Benign neglect<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Benign neglect, of this blog and the allotment, sums up my approach at the moment. It's been a busy family time, including university student son leaving today to spend the summer volunteering in Nepal. The weather hasn't helped either. The cold and rain of May have continued into June. Temperatures are grim - a maximum of 13 degrees C</span> <span style="font-size: large;">(55 F) tomorrow, before falling to 9 degrees (50 F) for the rest of the week. The shots above and below were taken on a rare sunny afternoon a couple of weeks ago. The onions and shallots are continuing to do well, if a bit weedier between the rows when we had a quick foray to the plot recently. The potatoes are coming along strongly, and we've now earthed them up. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Below, my first attempt at transplanted lettuce rather than sowing direct into the soil. Last year my direct sowings failed completely, but these cos are coming along nicely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I caught Gardeners' World on Friday for the first time in ages. At the end of the programme Monty Don spoke about his shooting onions, caused by the weather veering from hot and dry in May to cold and wet in June. The thought did pass through my mind, 'at least we won't have that problem, since we've only had the cold and wet sort'. But no - my garlic is starting to shoot. Perhaps it's been a case of the weather veering from very cold and wet to cold and wet. Anyway, I followed Monty's advice and lopped off the flower bud, so we'll see what it ends up like.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The first time too for broad beans. I have a particular fondness for broad beans - not so much for the beans themselves, which are not top of my list, but for their flowers. They have such a beautiful perfume - if it was bottled I would buy it in preference to any major perfume brand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I realise now that my affinity for broad beans came from of all things a description in a book by Rosemary Sutcliff, 'The Lantern Bearers', which was a great childhood favourite of mine and which I continue to reread. Set in the time when the Roman legions abandoned Britain, there's a passage where the Roman hero has escaped from thralldom in a Saxon camp and is fleeing from the part of England occupied by the Saxon invaders. He finds sanctuary with a monk who has also fled the Saxons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Yesterday's rain was gone, and the still-wet forest was full of a crystal green light. In the cleared plot before the huts, the man in the brown tunic was peacefully hoeing between his bean-rows...the beans were just coming into flower, black and white among the grey-green leaves, and the scent of them was like honey and almonds, strong and sweet after the rain."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I had always thought that bees pushed their way inside the flower trumpets, and in fact this is what Rosemary Sutcliff described: " The little amber bees were droning among the bean-blossom, and at that moment one fell out of a flower, the pollen baskets on her legs full and yellow. She landed sizzling on her back on a flat leaf, righted herself, and made for another flower."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But down among the beans while weeding between the rows I noticed the the bees making for a tiny hole on the top of the flower, near where it joins the stalk. A momentary lapse in Rosemary Sutcliff's usual attention to detail!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Below, evidence of some dasterdly deed among the beans. My heart sank when I saw the feathers inside the cage - my fear is that a bird will find its way inside and be unable to get out again. But in this case there was no corpse, so I assume there had been an arial fight of some sort above the cage.</span><br />
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<br />Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-60578176652815200362012-05-17T21:57:00.001+01:002012-05-17T21:57:14.756+01:00A watched potato<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">A watched potato, like a kettle, never seems to boil (or in this case, chit). I was late buying seed potatoes this year. The seed catalogues had all sold out, and I was resigning myself to a year without potatoes. But I came across boxes of them, several desirable varieties, in that wonderful emporium A&I Supplies in Elgin. The A must stand for 'agricultural', and the I 'industrial'. Chicken coops, gigantic rakes and hay forks, protective clothing of every sort, steel toe-capped boots, mucking out boots, vast bags of dog food, bird seed....</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My goodness they took a long time to sprout. But here they are just before planting, spread out on the sports pages of the newspaper, which are the section no-one in our household reads unless it's a report of a Scotland rugby match (husband) or rowing or cross-country skiing during the Olympics (me). The cricket report above is written in a strange foreign language of trajectories and spin and bounce. I haven't a clue who the footballer below is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">However the potatoes are now safely in the ground - Duke of York and Charlotte. No growth showing yet, and I don't blame them. Temperatures here are bumping along at 8 or 9 degrees. The ground is cold. Trees are struggling to come into leaf. I'm not even thinking of sowing seeds outside. I go to work wearing my down-filled winter coat and gloves, so the thought of pushing seeds into stone-cold earth is not attractive, either for them or me.</span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-24630824554613321182012-04-30T21:19:00.000+01:002012-04-30T21:19:52.593+01:00Beauty and the Beast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">The 'Beauty' was very lovely, if short-lived. Is there anything more evocative of the fleeting joy of Spring than plum blossom? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The 'Beast' is the tree bearing this blossom. I had such good intentions when I planted a dwarf rootstock plum several years ago, but the whole pruning and training regime has been too much for the limited time I have to spend on it. On the positive side I do manage to prune in summer, which I gather avoids the tree bleeding to death. The training regime however has been feeble. What we should have done was to fix wires into the wall before planting the tree. The mish-mash of bamboo canes which we used instead was no match for the will power of this dwarf. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now it goes its own sweet way. I'm waiting to see where it goes next. This year's blossom has been the most profuse yet, which is encouraging. A few more plums would be welcome - last year a total of 2 made it through to ripening, and the wasps got those before we did.</span><br />
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<br />Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-1423298446009804062012-04-04T21:38:00.000+01:002012-04-04T21:38:48.474+01:00Getting going<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">At last - some growth. I have B&Q to thank for the kick-start. They had healthy looking packs of vegetable seedlings. I've never grown broad beans, but had a hankering to try. (and yes, those are unorganic slug pellets. Has anyone used the wool pellets that swell up when wet and are meant to deter slugs and snails? I'm looking for alternatives.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We're still clearing up from the winter, in minimal time. Could someone please give me an extra day a week?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Below, the 'before' bed where the fork and bucket are. The mist, by the way, is actual mist rather than camera error. A good thick 'haar' (sea fog).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The following day, broad beans in place with anti pigeon netting</span>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Look at the warm Spring light in the shot above. We planted the beans at the start of the recent warm spell, when temperatures shot up to 21 degrees. Since then we've been away, and won't get back to the plot until this weekend. Meantime temperatures have returned to a more normal 3 degrees, complete with gales, snow and hail. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW-DqoF3inFT9U_Gf3ypSPv-8HDSkyu_rLTEqjjRzuzflO49pqIL-pZtpwRkYd8B0PQ00lXa-UeE4vusJ_YHro03Tr5iQ0dSQpHIqnuvAif35o5zWgwW5yHTB4jjeLwha2I9E0NWYiA5qW/s1600/April20120003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW-DqoF3inFT9U_Gf3ypSPv-8HDSkyu_rLTEqjjRzuzflO49pqIL-pZtpwRkYd8B0PQ00lXa-UeE4vusJ_YHro03Tr5iQ0dSQpHIqnuvAif35o5zWgwW5yHTB4jjeLwha2I9E0NWYiA5qW/s640/April20120003.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And just to continue with my green manure fixation, here's the current state of the one patch of grazing rye that came through. It's getting on for 3 feet high now. All I need is something to graze it.</span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-89016697583227597842012-03-11T10:37:00.000+00:002012-03-11T10:37:00.104+00:00Almost digging<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGNu-RdLAH3OTOoSU5RXJDbjhwGLHjknbllb5r__4Z9mP1vFCXf8oMy1ld4tmbatPrlveSai9-2B1jK4sNzMjYvDFFc6SBhmWLwkTiK2AuJocdaUMVKcqXy3AIs-x4oB9WJJwsZ8PEs1M/s1600/March20120010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGNu-RdLAH3OTOoSU5RXJDbjhwGLHjknbllb5r__4Z9mP1vFCXf8oMy1ld4tmbatPrlveSai9-2B1jK4sNzMjYvDFFc6SBhmWLwkTiK2AuJocdaUMVKcqXy3AIs-x4oB9WJJwsZ8PEs1M/s640/March20120010.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A very gentle start to the Spring dig last week. I went to the plot with the week's kitchen waste, and to pull a couple of leeks for a cheese and onion bread pudding (Cranks recipe). I loved it - the rest of the family was lukewarm about it. All the more for me!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Because we've been so tight for time the thought of the backlog of tidying up at the plot has been nagging at me, and so I thought I'd dip a toe in the water, or fork in the soil, and at least make a start. You can see the paltry results above. The plan for this winter was to have a no-dig, or minimum dig start to Spring, by sowing all bare ground with green manure. It's been a very mixed experience. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Below, the wilted-down phacelia. This has been a success again after a trial last year. For most of the winter it's stood green and robust, only recently giving way to frost. But it still covers the ground and inhibits most of the weeds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Grazing rye, of which I had high hopes, has been literally patchy. This is <i>the</i> patch. Another whole bed sown twice with rye failed to come through at all. Interestingly, although the rye hasn't come through, neither has much in the way of weeds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">At the front of the photo below you'll see the first shoots of garlic. Although we've had hardly any snow, there have been some good frosts, so hopefully the garlic will have got the cold it needs to form bulbs. </span> <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The lighter straggly stuff below is what remains of the white mustard. It was useful to mask weeds in the most difficult bit of the plot - under sycamore trees, with shade from mid afternoon onwards in summer, a buffer zone between the blackcurrant bushes and the main access road, and prone to infestation by creeping buttercup. I've tried daffodils, dahlias as a summer display, a wildflower mix, and am thinking of putting spinach here this summer. The soil is in good heart, rich in leafmould. Some escapee daffodils meantime are cheering up the rather desolate remains of the mustard.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhywTDLrb_ZjfuBAHqWtYhkAV4iXJoj7lLI1PniLsFN3Dm9OSDLmPerqSprsVL545r7BcRtOYuHanO-_0My-s7hcO7pKF76Q740KNuOmSVgWpU9y7Vv_xSa1OuDtosp_IbL7qyA-t1mzmrH/s1600/March20120007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhywTDLrb_ZjfuBAHqWtYhkAV4iXJoj7lLI1PniLsFN3Dm9OSDLmPerqSprsVL545r7BcRtOYuHanO-_0My-s7hcO7pKF76Q740KNuOmSVgWpU9y7Vv_xSa1OuDtosp_IbL7qyA-t1mzmrH/s640/March20120007.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As for this bed - this is the site of the complete failure of the alfalfa. Unlike the rye, the alfalfa's failure to germinate seems to have encouraged a mat of lawn-like grass. This is going to make for painstaking digging.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjJbGqaFSiEhphzjjT3K8wJ46izLH3iFywR79jQRHPd2LYZlMvI4JF_fhEDjhWbowpwmsHX-4tG5XotzS41RwIkdvL7-1M81HwjwWz-VkVahnCDUVjpVndM1ueWVUkhEXhD6Ssrq5gmre/s1600/March20120009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjJbGqaFSiEhphzjjT3K8wJ46izLH3iFywR79jQRHPd2LYZlMvI4JF_fhEDjhWbowpwmsHX-4tG5XotzS41RwIkdvL7-1M81HwjwWz-VkVahnCDUVjpVndM1ueWVUkhEXhD6Ssrq5gmre/s640/March20120009.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the event I didn't dig long. The ground was very heavy - 'clarty' is the Scots word that springs to mind. A sticky, heavy consistency. Not to be confused with 'glaur' (wet, squelchy mud), or 'dubs' (drier, forming clods, and often marking the passage of a tractor along a tarmac road).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfi2-pgEpgJDkK46wHgCfA-OHTohp4L7MvJtGguSzIMUxDjWBKBoH3xksYOy_GX4M3fTtWA2sgTRH0hflh01wwXE0TnT9pxuOx7PsdYpxVN6CTTJLlpL7CMFEL9EZBfH9VYtMxlWyfUCjv/s1600/March20120011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfi2-pgEpgJDkK46wHgCfA-OHTohp4L7MvJtGguSzIMUxDjWBKBoH3xksYOy_GX4M3fTtWA2sgTRH0hflh01wwXE0TnT9pxuOx7PsdYpxVN6CTTJLlpL7CMFEL9EZBfH9VYtMxlWyfUCjv/s640/March20120011.JPG" /></a></div>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-22225540575099147582012-02-12T15:47:00.006+00:002012-02-12T21:49:26.280+00:00Allotment beauty<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuF-Eb6mgf9MlX8fTdtSCcfWN9qwTZAl0Edd3HTktbZ6VRQLHRqfZiALmeEU0zd5mPE04GSQ3ZIIVCbx5uKbvtYcR928jYHQStcew0TMKeGpmacIyojHMlZn4kKKI1MrR89PlETqtRach4/s1600/January20120062.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuF-Eb6mgf9MlX8fTdtSCcfWN9qwTZAl0Edd3HTktbZ6VRQLHRqfZiALmeEU0zd5mPE04GSQ3ZIIVCbx5uKbvtYcR928jYHQStcew0TMKeGpmacIyojHMlZn4kKKI1MrR89PlETqtRach4/s640/January20120062.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708365764740414978" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">The plot isn't very beautiful just now. It's either frosty, with friable, crusted earth, or frost-burnt, wet, sticky and weedy.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KxxNiJ2DCnbLSCwxGl4hM_WJfsundwWOS_31kBZUaJ2LNK8m-iCk9q10f8SJAmXY8p2xVfY4VDl8boFfqVoj9taeekUlNCH2Cizz-0khJtCvrprS9ZIcIlWGfpquk2MPARuLIzWI1HXf/s1600/January20120064.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KxxNiJ2DCnbLSCwxGl4hM_WJfsundwWOS_31kBZUaJ2LNK8m-iCk9q10f8SJAmXY8p2xVfY4VDl8boFfqVoj9taeekUlNCH2Cizz-0khJtCvrprS9ZIcIlWGfpquk2MPARuLIzWI1HXf/s640/January20120064.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708366357167473138" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8wDk_NaZBPVqT1X9h5HG4P_6iXq96uAxvMrfKGVdd9NjaBIduj3MCdTmoqsuLoxo9UilLnCQdp-ICNiTGSo5SF1ZU5UvkHmsnNFBlEyje-17qv9EBPHM9MLMAUBGcmZDhCKAM8bwCp5OG/s1600/January20120063.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 480px; height: 640px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8wDk_NaZBPVqT1X9h5HG4P_6iXq96uAxvMrfKGVdd9NjaBIduj3MCdTmoqsuLoxo9UilLnCQdp-ICNiTGSo5SF1ZU5UvkHmsnNFBlEyje-17qv9EBPHM9MLMAUBGcmZDhCKAM8bwCp5OG/s640/January20120063.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708366355139573618" border="0" /></a><br />But occasionally there's an unexpected glimpse of beauty.<br /><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA84UUZ9CvGWBzrQ6pxwJhvV00IqsnziJzg_dysBr4UXVUQtEXtSxxwsd0yasa06v87SDiBg-8XzYGlDdE_znXvbE8Bq8FmpbOp13UcfNDzO248H1oRH_-dmIG_l3pYkh2oK9ey955hHEk/s1600/January20120055.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA84UUZ9CvGWBzrQ6pxwJhvV00IqsnziJzg_dysBr4UXVUQtEXtSxxwsd0yasa06v87SDiBg-8XzYGlDdE_znXvbE8Bq8FmpbOp13UcfNDzO248H1oRH_-dmIG_l3pYkh2oK9ey955hHEk/s640/January20120055.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708277149460349506" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwAroWHtutxBgped3T1JzW_zPjmaghY19-zyJp-Vadfw65T1ota-XdahG4_OCcNIXJQYTzo53XSQadq1EXeSzsMQkTnjJzbPvzukKvbLMHuM43rmBl0NSYTuurmBBGHy9etxmFWpa7aZ_W/s1600/January20120056.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 480px; height: 640px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwAroWHtutxBgped3T1JzW_zPjmaghY19-zyJp-Vadfw65T1ota-XdahG4_OCcNIXJQYTzo53XSQadq1EXeSzsMQkTnjJzbPvzukKvbLMHuM43rmBl0NSYTuurmBBGHy9etxmFWpa7aZ_W/s640/January20120056.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708277142872414962" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">These chinese lanterns and polyanthus are part of a little flower bed tended by a group of plotholders who try to counteract the gloom of the site in the fallow months. During the winter it can seem nothing more than a sea of huts, black plastic, sagging netting and tatty cabbages.</span> <span style="font-size:130%;">But here's a reminder that allotments needn't always be dour and functional.</span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-18623388402019039882012-01-29T21:09:00.003+00:002012-01-29T21:33:01.289+00:00Getting tiresome<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglA4DGN4L_8HvcTt2sgPF1G_OfefVAt-7eop73TBtqqXcudHtKvIbsvgsv_ZQC_t63OwrsaFk4vBnjn5WvL6tZRLShJpcOQ-hdb_4e8VTlJlXoKhSQ8IPa7Pz_Qw1IMRjB6knOdXGuzCT/s1600/January20120054.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglA4DGN4L_8HvcTt2sgPF1G_OfefVAt-7eop73TBtqqXcudHtKvIbsvgsv_ZQC_t63OwrsaFk4vBnjn5WvL6tZRLShJpcOQ-hdb_4e8VTlJlXoKhSQ8IPa7Pz_Qw1IMRjB6knOdXGuzCT/s640/January20120054.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5703164462873283202" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The fourth break-in at the shed</span>. <span style="font-size:130%;">This is really getting tiresome. A notice at the entrance to the site alerted me that there had been break-ins on the night of 12 January. As before, metal cutters had been used to break the hasp. The still-locked padlock was lying on the grass in front of the door. You can see in the photo how the cut ends have rusted since 12 January.<br /><br />Nothing seemed to have been stolen, however. We had taken the strimmer motor back to the house before Christmas, making the strimmer head alone a much less attractive prospect. Our forks and spades were grimy with dried mud, which I had fretted about slightly but which turned out to be a blessing.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Time seems to be passing strangely during January. I could have sworn that I had been to the plot since the 12th. It seems like months rather than weeks since Christmas. Perhaps it's the short, dark, busy days that create this effect. But just in the past few days it's been noticeably lighter by the end of the afternoon. With the growing light has come frost, which is often the case in Scotland, so no digging just yet. Still, I feel the first stirrings of Spring interest in the plot. It's been a long, fallow winter with many other preoccupations.</span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-51560296624282118542012-01-08T22:00:00.007+00:002012-01-09T21:14:19.054+00:00Wish they were mine<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQcuMlYCUvCGX0OHk7jxGsrKnC3hJSwN0w5o7p4o-3-TzcRHd0hVDehtGXxnBISDFQ6QfqCtruZTlNAOxUolWsbk_gOuyGqjWph2Qu2NYeFNAkABgffDyXMrojblt-wzqlR-Zroi4fBE4Y/s1600/December20110013.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 480px; height: 640px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQcuMlYCUvCGX0OHk7jxGsrKnC3hJSwN0w5o7p4o-3-TzcRHd0hVDehtGXxnBISDFQ6QfqCtruZTlNAOxUolWsbk_gOuyGqjWph2Qu2NYeFNAkABgffDyXMrojblt-wzqlR-Zroi4fBE4Y/s640/December20110013.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695735064781318818" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Healthy new raspberry canes, with a sprinkling of sulphate of potash lightly forked in around them. How I wish they were mine, but following our persistent raspberry failure syndrome we're not rushing to try again. For the moment I can practise on my Dad's raspberries. </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvalUrWGRrBj_2TJFsYIzVEbw9ubi_uy1ibRYD9c6kt7T4ePeAOmorirrDdoStOXE9ipGEseq8HPl6YO01PQFCR-DzBqnL1sg2E0IE6Iqi7Oh2pD7bpqa6zPXMQqx6f5kull7TOe-PTsg/s1600/December20110013.JPG"><br /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkvUSBzG5jzkiR1V9R4OnEg7cRilKSYgr7YUW_XnVJWYB6F_3y6CtD2IZSsugjWCnqdExjc0NNDWPZqXg0cRNKsFwhrwPEX8iS-qux_vKa7okoIXXcza2PgI3FPs1AaiANn7p1CPoh9buh/s1600/December20110008.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 480px; height: 640px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkvUSBzG5jzkiR1V9R4OnEg7cRilKSYgr7YUW_XnVJWYB6F_3y6CtD2IZSsugjWCnqdExjc0NNDWPZqXg0cRNKsFwhrwPEX8iS-qux_vKa7okoIXXcza2PgI3FPs1AaiANn7p1CPoh9buh/s640/December20110008.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695385786229829138" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Perhaps it's our soil. Although the soil in these photos looks dark, that's only because of recent rain. Forking in the potash, I was struck by the difference. Here, it's light, slightly sandy, former farmland, river plain soil. At our Edinburgh allotment the soil is black, heavy, shot through with clay.</span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCgxFi-_gA4mBh30-i5g7uwTtoDc-wXtCm6tFnDF15CReqOvkM5AB2NAAc_U5nuG66A0xLISFJ4xWY6RshgAN20_tqcjQDHU-27mlTkZdzdevxPf5u6nX-d4WTPP1N_v72iI9_mxUBpdgS/s1600/December20110011.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCgxFi-_gA4mBh30-i5g7uwTtoDc-wXtCm6tFnDF15CReqOvkM5AB2NAAc_U5nuG66A0xLISFJ4xWY6RshgAN20_tqcjQDHU-27mlTkZdzdevxPf5u6nX-d4WTPP1N_v72iI9_mxUBpdgS/s640/December20110011.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695740615864086610" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">You can see my usual hit or miss approach when it comes to quantities. How much IS 25g per square metre, anyway? </span><span style="font-size:130%;">Perhaps this shot will be interesting to look back on in the summer. Will the third cane from the right turn out to be a poor, weak specimen? Will the one at the right with the generous application be a super-cane? Or will I have killed it with kindness?</span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-87722090302426056562012-01-01T21:14:00.003+00:002012-01-01T22:54:03.433+00:00Looking back - and forward<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO8MLZSAYkVmJBNXPGVFMlPuGrTRb3RH3AK7wON0DEDByY4nVxncqtZlqgwMsKmijPYF43mOoyJyjkquQeINROByQNai78hHZ_0F0OPbTI9lILILTu5-H9RcDUbdXLi8mUKUIu5pBNqmbu/s1600/December20110019.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 480px; height: 640px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO8MLZSAYkVmJBNXPGVFMlPuGrTRb3RH3AK7wON0DEDByY4nVxncqtZlqgwMsKmijPYF43mOoyJyjkquQeINROByQNai78hHZ_0F0OPbTI9lILILTu5-H9RcDUbdXLi8mUKUIu5pBNqmbu/s640/December20110019.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692776028432341282" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Looking back - at my overly optimistic promise of a post before Christmas and lots of blog-visiting. Where did the autumn go? Weekends were swallowed up, and for the most part the plot has been unvisited. A question of out of sight rather than out of mind: I've been very conscious of it just 10 minutes walk away, hibernating under its (patchy) covering of green manure. It will be quite a reunion when we do get along after the New Year.<br /><br />Looking back also at these retro illustrations. They almost have the look of engravings from a Victorian gardening treatise.<br /></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvzZNinG4pHUsxu1_NnIn9zw2pPhejopn5eralsGlUC-2VKa5CXOO8sCgeiw0Q4oasilgRkIdF2g098nhCmpEYqIHnOaPL0v9X0OxT76l-TlbZZiTVC9D9GIkBXfcZnJ2i61BYmWjwyFZR/s1600/December20110022.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 480px; height: 640px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvzZNinG4pHUsxu1_NnIn9zw2pPhejopn5eralsGlUC-2VKa5CXOO8sCgeiw0Q4oasilgRkIdF2g098nhCmpEYqIHnOaPL0v9X0OxT76l-TlbZZiTVC9D9GIkBXfcZnJ2i61BYmWjwyFZR/s640/December20110022.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692776020116678498" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEietrA7JKzm1O7A5TK_nl3QQZcgoSfFMtDFROlOud81z9U9CHYzjlY6YjhqlodYAaG2bqj5j6zRPR25xLeYeUcNPKncY8NGC6bpt3e0P3KGelSnhSdTc52rnzwHCI8ggR-5OurOHyE1Xarn/s1600/December20110021.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 480px; height: 640px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEietrA7JKzm1O7A5TK_nl3QQZcgoSfFMtDFROlOud81z9U9CHYzjlY6YjhqlodYAaG2bqj5j6zRPR25xLeYeUcNPKncY8NGC6bpt3e0P3KGelSnhSdTc52rnzwHCI8ggR-5OurOHyE1Xarn/s640/December20110021.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692776010682092354" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_N2eWRJ42GzPvXjSXRQ0Amy1joavDXcBtmB4s9JJnBTApvf4cKsdvy-WKbmmMNInt6irJ31kS9sB1idOVyUPoy0mQvAW13LtCFzc3V3uDLWfvBVOJTawyCG4M8N_7uwcH39DPYzzBrYQc/s1600/December20110020.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_N2eWRJ42GzPvXjSXRQ0Amy1joavDXcBtmB4s9JJnBTApvf4cKsdvy-WKbmmMNInt6irJ31kS9sB1idOVyUPoy0mQvAW13LtCFzc3V3uDLWfvBVOJTawyCG4M8N_7uwcH39DPYzzBrYQc/s640/December20110020.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692776007878153874" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">In fact they're from the Reader's Digest 'The Gardening Year', 1968. Don't you love it? "rewarding but seldom grown vegetables".</span> <span style="font-size:130%;">Courgettes, seldom grown??? But who grew courgettes in 1968, at least in Scotland? I remember my first taste of green pepper - in 1977. Incredibly exotic. I remember the first time my mother and I ventured to use garlic in a</span> <span style="font-size:130%;">recipe</span>, <span style="font-size:130%;">circa 1976. We asked the greengrocer (NB greengrocer) for two cloves of garlic, being wholly ignorant that garlic was sold in bulbs.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">I've been sorting through boxes of books in my Dad's loft this week, and have been enthralled by the discovery of The Gardening Year. A first edition too. Perhaps it'll be really valuable in about 200 years time.<br /><br />Among the lurid-hued photos of bedding plants and flowering shrubs, the instructions for pruning newly planted floribunda roses, and the never-ending list of 'general tasks' for each month, was this little global warming prickle of anxiety.<br /></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qdti8Ax6Gb9enhtacqoekC0Alz0BWTUh3RMSey_FbiLbMWYFHb1SlyJeLcgshyphenhyphen8WUaxbvCbig0jERQJ0foWKv6jvVdyLIqF7bZbwk1e05b2T2na1_jwikTbGW3j3OTYsJHSPeVQhAE99/s1600/December20110018.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qdti8Ax6Gb9enhtacqoekC0Alz0BWTUh3RMSey_FbiLbMWYFHb1SlyJeLcgshyphenhyphen8WUaxbvCbig0jERQJ0foWKv6jvVdyLIqF7bZbwk1e05b2T2na1_jwikTbGW3j3OTYsJHSPeVQhAE99/s640/December20110018.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692776031874067858" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">This December's temperatures have seldom dipped below 4 degrees, it seems. And taking as a yardstick the year of my son's birth, 21 years ago, I remember watching for the first spikes of crocus and daffodils in February. For the past few years, despite frigid December temperatures, the spikes have been showing before Christmas.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">But the looking forward I'm doing just now is to carving out a bit of time for the allotment. Perhaps I'll use The Gardening Year as my guide. So, for January: "The coldest month is the time to plan ahead with seedsmen's (sic) catalogues and to send mowers and other equipment for servicing."</span> <span style="font-size:130%;">And "General Tasks: order seeds, gladioli, onion sets and shallots, and garden sundries such as tree stakes, pea sticks, bean poles, string, canes, insecticides, fertilisers and weedkillers." How many different kinds of stakes and sticks and poles and canes were there in 1968?</span>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3617616424270708150.post-8243489361226964022011-12-06T13:45:00.003+00:002011-12-06T14:22:50.914+00:00Getting the garlic in<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg1S18xSOGNabaohRbykve3v20yK1DK3ykMwCEhOKWH4g6w3xPhGmpvo-8WiInQ1LitvfriehTbjcEda5QPa3mdJFmg_E_E5zUzXWvqeIaXnFY8aDEJKL11kS_JLixLM49F8i1r9HOIhPL/s1600/October20110003.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg1S18xSOGNabaohRbykve3v20yK1DK3ykMwCEhOKWH4g6w3xPhGmpvo-8WiInQ1LitvfriehTbjcEda5QPa3mdJFmg_E_E5zUzXWvqeIaXnFY8aDEJKL11kS_JLixLM49F8i1r9HOIhPL/s640/October20110003.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683013321948812802" border="0" /></a><br />Just in time too, before the frost and snow came this week. I was even later than usual in ordering garlic this year. Somehow I was trying to avoid my order arriving too early and starting to sprout before I could plant it. Too early turned into too late, and my supplier of preference, the Scottish <a href="http://www.reallygarlicky.co.uk/">Really Garlicky Company</a>, had sold out. I did the rounds of the Organic Gardening Catalogue, Suttons, Thompson & Morgan, and finally found some at <a href="http://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/">D T Brown's</a>.<br /><br />Above, my first foray into elephant garlic. And if you look closely, you can see a little triangular shard of glass just to the left of the bulbs. Where does it all come from?<br /><br />Below, Tuscany Wight, a softneck grown on the Isle of Wight and said to store well. I hope it stores better than the bulbs I was sent, one of which was soft and rotting. Of course I should have sent it back, but life was far too busy for frills like that, so I popped in the good cloves and will hope for the best.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-LY9bhzqGqsq4Ts6gea-XbjUX_y2EToEkXabYNJOw5HDGse7k7SXYaaF6qtClPVwRmP5BNbJZc8wmv2srgDHCrpVT-b1J7ZTAj2tzN_tUVBhKOM2a4SvDgv9n_79JU46LUYGADIFKaac/s1600/October20110001.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-LY9bhzqGqsq4Ts6gea-XbjUX_y2EToEkXabYNJOw5HDGse7k7SXYaaF6qtClPVwRmP5BNbJZc8wmv2srgDHCrpVT-b1J7ZTAj2tzN_tUVBhKOM2a4SvDgv9n_79JU46LUYGADIFKaac/s640/October20110001.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683013309688553458" border="0" /></a><br />The Chesnock Wight bulbs below were in much better condition. A hardneck bulb, meant to have a distinctive, strong flavour.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVl4s1dY5dEO8PFTFcRtaTUFMLAVe7pNoU-AnGZ96KjTzxwjFAQCztjyCs4nHhZfzvSMkmpk02WZkDTUXIVy0EomxGQU9mC_qVSCwOOfFRqmwJu6Fh-MRRoOCWyPtotwcYvACZEasrLth6/s1600/October20110002.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVl4s1dY5dEO8PFTFcRtaTUFMLAVe7pNoU-AnGZ96KjTzxwjFAQCztjyCs4nHhZfzvSMkmpk02WZkDTUXIVy0EomxGQU9mC_qVSCwOOfFRqmwJu6Fh-MRRoOCWyPtotwcYvACZEasrLth6/s640/October20110002.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683013284656412338" border="0" /></a><br />I meant to take a photo of the green manure, but it took all the time I had available to dig over the bed where the garlic was to go. Not much change really - the phacelia and white mustard were growing strongly, the grazing rye most definitely was not, and the alfalfa was being taken over by a vigorous crop of shepherd's purse, which seemed to relish its bed of alfalfa seed.<br /><br />Soon I expect to feel the first stirrings of winter planning fever, when gardening books and catalogues will suddenly become compulsive reading. It hasn't stirred yet, however. Perhaps it's because of our exceptionally mild autumn. Now that the cold has arrived, I'm relishing it, and want to enjoy the season rather than gloss over it and look ahead to Spring. It feels like a physical lifting of the spirits to have frost and snow. A bit of balance has come back into the world.Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11269887100694066103noreply@blogger.com21