A new project

I have my name down for an allotment in Kenilworth... trouble is, allotments are more prized than real estate here, and it's been over 2 years and counting since I applied...

A section of the 'Odibourne' allotments in Kenilworth

I think a lot of people in the area have cottoned onto the good life recently, partly because of the current austerity; but also because it has become 'fashionable' again thanks to Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall amongst others.

OK - I admit, I'm a bit of a River Cottage fanboy, and Jamie Oliver's an Essex boy like me... so, austerity didn't get me here, put it that way...

Back to the story - recently Em's mum bumped into an old acquaintance - a lady called Maggie, who used to be a dinner lady at Em's school.

It turns out that she and her daughter have a wonderfully large garden with lots of raised beds, and not enough time to keep them all, and so they have invited me to take on as much as I want! 

I'm blessed, what can I say.

So, I have this new project... I've started the season comparatively late, but there's still an opportunity to get some growing done this year.

The plot before...

I've started small with a plot roughly 6ft x 12ft - as you can see from the 'before' picture left, it was overgrown with all sorts of grasses.

The first task was to clear it, break the soil up and get some air into it - I have Em and Anne to thank for their hard work in helping me do this.

A lot of the grass came out of the ground with great clods of soil at the roots - I spent most of the time shaking soil from root balls... I now know why one version of the single dig method just buries the grass rather than extracting it...!

...and after

Anyway, having finished, I was definitely pleased with the result. The soil is a rich loam, so hopefully that will make a good medium for growing all sorts of veg.


I'm in the middle of sowing the plot having divided it up into sections... in the next post I will tell all and explain the grand plan...

Strawberry yields forever...?

Strawberries are great!

It's the season for them right about now, and of course Wimbledon has just come on the telly, so sales will be going through the roof.

If you have never tasted a home-grown strawberry, you are missing out. They're one of the first things that I started to grow, they're relatively easy and pretty hardy... I left my plants out over a harsh winter, and they have just got on with it.

The strawberries about a week ago

I have to thank my mother-in-law Anne for repotting them earlier this year... she saw the potential in some pretty grotty looking plants - and sure enough, they've produced another reasonable bounty.

My variety is Honeoye - I started with one plant, but at the end of the first year it sent out a whole load of shoots and I was able to split them into a number of pots.

I got a couple of decent strawbs in the first year.

The second year was a different story - I couldn't work out whether the pests were pigeons or mice, but before I could get my mitts on the juicy red gold they were systematically picked at and eaten...!

So, as soon as I saw them growing and beginning to ripen this year, I got them undercover and protected in my mini-greenhouse.

 I just picked the first one earlier this evening...

The colour is so vibrant, and eaten straight from the plant is about as tasty as you can get.

Once picked, they lose their flavour over time, and by the time you get them in the supermarket they will have been in refrigerated conditions for up to a couple of days, losing even more flavour.

Deliciously juicy, and with a sharp tang, there's a world of difference between these and the supermarket ones.

Just waiting for the rest to ripen up now...!

Give peas a chance...

This is the third year now that I've been growing peas. I've gone for the Kelvedon Wonder variety, which are short plants that are pretty easy to grow in tubs in the garden.

My current pea plants

I've not been growing on any kind of scale, so I couldn't expect to make a decent bowl of pea soup even if I had a high yield! Year one results were pretty good - I had eight plants and got a couple of handfuls. They taste amazing straight from the pod - in fact, if you get there while they are young the pods taste great too...

Year two, my yield was pathetic - from six plants I got less than a handful. Branching out I'd taken to growing pea shoots for adding to salads - easy to grow and they bring a subtle pea flavour to the mix.

It's probably down to overwatering, but I also have had trouble with the plants turning brown at the bottom, looking like they are dying from the base up... perhaps some of you more experienced grow-your-own bloggers will know why that is...?

Year three, and I've only got two plants on the go at the moment, but look at the beauties (pictured above)! Not a more satisfying sight than the sun shining through the pods revealing the developing peas.

I was amazed though when I went over to my mini-greenhouse yesterday. I had a number of seedlings in there which I've pretty much let run to seed, due to a lack of time to care for them.

Amongst the wilting dwarf beans and flowering radishes, were some of the most sorry looking pea plants I have ever seen...

...but lo and behold! Pods! Couldn't believe that the plants had managed to grow any, given I hadn't watered them for a couple of months. You can see the plants to the left... bereft of care and attention...

I popped the pods and turned out the best peas I've produced thus far...! I confess to devouring them shortly after the photo was taken.

It makes me wonder why I bothered with all the fancy cane work, training them tenderly up supports, and finding the best spot for them in the garden... looks as though the most productive method is hard labour!

Still, I'm waiting on my couple of tenderly cared-for plants to produce, and hopefully enough of a yield to compliment a meal for two.