VLOG EPISODE 106

Date: 19th of April, 2022

Enjoying the Allotment – Harvesting the first Asparagus and Nine Star Broccoli

This week on Plot 37:

Lily was down at the gate ready to collect us this morning, so she leads us up the allotment first off.

Trip to the Refuse Centre

Over the past few days mum and I have been gathering all the rubbish off the plot ready to take to the dump. Included in that is any plastics (old bags, broken pots, Lily’s cat food pouches), things that we don’t want to put into the compost like perennial weeds roots and diseased growth. I won’t be putting any of the larger chunks of wood in the pile though because we have started stacking that up behind the wildlife pond for the bugs and beetles to use.

The dump is really a recycling centre and it’s changed a lot since I was a kid. Before it really was an actual dump where almost everything went into landfill. Luckily now it’s mostly recycled or composted for mulch.

While we are filing at the place though, there was this man that just didn’t move! I kept moving out of the way and he slid back into shot… very odd!

Taking down the Greenhouse Insulation

When we get back to the plot the first thing on the agenda is to take down the bubble wrap that’s been up in the greenhouse over winter as added insulation. I’ve been told that some people leave it up all year and it acts like sun shading during the summer months but I had some get stuck to the window last year so I’m not going to that. Instead, we will just pack it all away into bags ready for use again next year!

Sowing Parsnips

The next job on my endless list is to sow parsnips. I’m doing 4 varieties:

• Gladiator
• White Gem
• Tender and True
• Palace F1

I’m trying a slightly different technique this year with the parsnips. Normally you would sow them around 20cm apart in little groups of 3 seeds because parsnips are notoriously bad for germination and by sowing 3, you’re hoping at least one will come up and then you can nip out the other 2 (if by some miracle all 3 came up!). What I’m going to try this year is sowing them singularly but closer together so that the parsnips that need to be thinned out can be allowed to get to the size of baby carrots before being pulled and so are actually a crop in their own right rather than wasted and then leaving the rest in the ground, now with plenty of space, to form great big whopping parsnips! That’s the idea anyway.

I’m being quite careful about sowing them because one of the reasons that the germination is often poor is (like carrots) if they dry out in the early days they are done for and will not recover. I’m sowing them into the bed that we mulched with horse manure last week and am being careful to scrape that surface away and sowing them directly against the damp soil beneath. I’m also putting a half inch of soggy compost on top of them and firming them down before brushing over the mulch. The mulch should be pretty effective at keeping the moisture levels high enough for them to get going!

Planting Out Broad Beans

Into the same bed I’m going to plant out the broad beans that I started at home in little pots. they are very floppy and desperate to get into the ground. I’m planting them between the rows of parsnips as a bit of a space saver because the parsnips are going to be in the ground and very long time and the beans will be long over by the time, they need the space. I will probably sow salad or radishes in their place afterwards allowing the parsnips to just carry on!

The broad beans are going in in pairs, 10 to a row.

The Pond Area

So, while I’ve been pottering around with that mum has been doing some weeding around the wildlife pond area. We have a large sweeping flowerbed coming up from the side of the pond and it had got a bit infested with weeds and grass but she’s cleared it all and its looking fantastic. I am planning to extend the boarder of the bed upwards towards the new compost bin area where we will plant the Jerusalem Artichokes out later on.

Planting a Honeyberry

So, one of the reasons she has been clearing in this particular spot so so we can plant out the honeyberry that we picked up a few weeks ago. A honey berry is a type of Lonicera (a honeysuckle) but one that produces elongated dark berries that are apparently absolutely delicious. Somewhere between a raspberry and gooseberry in flavour but texturally more like a blueberry. I can’t wait to try them.

It’s going in against the side of the wildlife area and will hopefully grow up to cover the trellis I’ve bashed tother on that side of the allotment. Providing fruit and cover!

I also get the Black Iris into the ground to go along with the paler ones and the burgundy/yellow ones we already have. Should look stunning when they come out!

Onion sets

I don’t normally grow onions from sets, it seems like a bit of a waste of time to me but when I was away with Johanna in February, I came across this variety called Pink Panther and I quite fancied them. Finally, they are going in today. Into the same raised bed as the broad beans and parsnips from the other day. Surprisingly there is just a little strip free on the end but at 12cm spacing I manage to fit all 50 sets in the ground.

Picking Asparagus

Something else exciting that happened this week is the first of the asparagus is up!

I absolutely love asparagus but we don’t eat it for the whole rest of the year. Just pretty much every day for the 6 weeks between mid-April and the end of May and then nothing for a whole year. But the stuff you can buy in the shop’s tastes nothing like homegrown so it’s always a disappointment if ever we do decide to buy any.

Potting up the Cucumbers

So back in January I was listening to Gardener’s question time and Bob Flowerdew was on and he said he always sows a couple of cucumbers in January and just keeps them indoors for super early cucumbers in April/may! It sounded a bit of a stretch to me but I thought I’d give it a go and it turns out he was absolutely right! And we have cucumbers! In April!!

Anyway, they need to be potted up desperately so I’ve brought some larger pots back from the allotment to pit them up into. They will stay in the conservatory until they’ve exhausted themselves and buy the then hopefully, we will have the cucumbers that we will be sowing at the normal times coming along beautifully in the greenhouse by then!

Thank you very much Mr Flowerdew!

Picking Oyster mushrooms

So last week I started off some mushroom kits in the sitting room and one of the was a white oyster mushroom. Well, it’s grown so incredibly fast that I was isn’t watching it closely enough and it’s started to produce spores and so I need to pick them asap!

These mushrooms came from marvellous mushrooms and I’ve been so impressed by them. I’ve currently got half of what I harvested in the dryer hoping to be able to keep them jarred for soups and stews!

Enjoying the Plot

On easter Saturday mum and I made a point of just going up the allotment to relax. It’s not often we do this because there is always something that needs doing and as soon as you sit down you see the to-do list rising up in front of your eyes but the forecast says that this might be the last of the sunny days for a while so we’ve decided that’s what’s we are doing! Nothing!

I make some lunch while we are chilling out. Pasta soup with spring onions, oregano, parsley picked from the plot plus I brought up some frozen Cobra Beans from last summer to throw in and also double as an ice pack for the couple of beers I packed too.

Nine Star Broccoli

So, I’ve said before that I’m really keen to expand the perennial plants that we have on the plot and the Nine Star broccoli was something I’ve been looking for ages! And a chap called Scott was selling cutting s via Instagram last summer and I picked up 7. Kept 4 and gave the others to other people on the allotment site. Well! Today is the day we get to pick the first harvest from them and I was so excited!

We picked one beautiful big central head and a few side shoots. The side shoots will be going on the BBQ tonight smothered in butter and salt. No idea how I’m going to cook the big beast yet!

Before we head off, I’ve got to collect the eggs from the girlies and then its home to get the BBQ going!

So that’s that for this week my lovely chaps. Next week I’m going to be sowing seed like a daemon!

Cheers!