Ruby Red Race

At the allotment, everything is growing like crazy, including the weeds. I have been focusing on gathering our growing hoards of soft fruits. The Strawberries have provided us with a great crop. the Red Currants have also had a good year and I have deployed nets to thwart the birds.

Our Summer Raspberries are going great guns; the superbly tangy Loganberries (a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry), which I planted last year are ripe right now. The juicy, sweet Tayberries, a slightly different cross between a blackberry and a raspberry are just ripening too.

It's like a delicious red race and there is so much bounty and so little time that I tend to simply pick as much as I can of everything and lob it all in the same box (or my mouth). Those that make it home are made into family favourites Clafoutis or Summer Pudding!

Cherries in our garden are also ripening on the trees and it is always tempting to eat them early when they are red but it is better to wait until they turn black, as long as you can keep the avian hoards at bay.

This year, at the allotment, I decided to create a wild-flower garden patch by collecting seeds from poppies, cornflowers and other things that took my fancy last year. It has been a real success and is already looking absolutely lovely.

Fruitopia

The sizzling Summer in the UK has parched parks and over-mown lawns to a hay-like shade of beige. We have been struggling to prevent our allotment turning into a dessert. If we had more time, this would not be a problem, but we often find it difficult to visit more than once per week.

Our Blackberries are finally ripening along with summer Raspberries, Loganberries, Blueberries and Blackcurrants (yuk!) and they are abundant. 

Picking Blackberries this year is going to be so easy and unsurprisingly, a lot of fruit seems to be arriving early. Even Hazelnuts seem to be arriving sooner than they normally would and they seem to be very plentiful too.

This weekend we got on our bikes and visited our favourite Mulberry tree, which we would not normally expect to be ready yet, but sure enough, we found many sweet, juicy, red/black fruits awaiting us. 

That evening the children made the most delicious fruit salad, with Mellon, Raspberries, Strawberries, Mulberries and Blackberries (Topped off with vanilla Ice cream) just perfect for a sweltering hot summer evening.

Wandering about in Winter

Long Shadows

Hopefully, you have all had a pleasant and peaceful time over the Christmas/New Year period. 

Frosty

I had a good rest despite having to build a couple of wardrobes and a book case. Actually, to be fair, my son did a lot of the work; he's very good with instructions and apparently, I am not!

Crab Apple Warfare

I even managed to purchase a small Apricot tree, which I will soon plant in our allotment.

the remains of the Naked Man

We did get outdoors quite a bit during the holiday and enjoyed walking with friends in the New Forest and Micheldever Woods. Micheldever wood is a nice place to wander, especially when the bluebells are out but it is a bit too close to the M3 motorway for my liking and the constant rumble in the background can be distracting. 

Difficult to Navigate on Foot

The last walk in the New Forest was an old favourite of ours that takes in beautiful open heath, what's left of the Naked Man (where, in ancient days, highwaymen were hung in a gibbet), some lovely woodland, a disused train station that has been turned into a tea shop and a walk down the Avon water.

Assistance from the Children

However, after a fairly heavy rainfall the last section alongside Avon Water was extremely boggy. This did not bother the children who were well equipped with Wellington boots but our walking boots and shoes could have done with being a few inches higher to help us through the quagmire.

Good Landscape for Wellies

It was challenging at times but, as I like to say, nobody died!

Pre-Peared for Winter

As any busy parent will testify, you cannot always find the time to do the things you enjoy, even at the weekend. However, after a big storm, my son's midday football match was cancelled due to pitch flooding and his bedroom had only just been re-plastered, so we could not paint that. So, we decided to get out for a short wet, chilly walk in the New Forest.

I was on the lookout for Sloes, which seem to be in short supply this year but we ended up yomping about in boggy heath-land. So I simply enjoyed photographing the astonishing pallet of colour and texture present in the  sodden landscape.

We also managed to get up to our allotment, which has been a little neglected recently. My son planted his own Apple pip in a pot about 7 years ago. This seed germinated, grew steadily from a tiny twig into a small stick and then, in 2013 we finally transferred it to our allotment, where it continued to develop, until it out grew my own 6' height. 

A Brilliant Bowl Barrow

Every time an Apple pip is planted and allowed to grow into a tree, it creates a completely novel variety, with a unique fruit. This Spring we were delighted when it flowered for the first time and, when it finally bore fruit, it was crisp and sweet. There was only a few apples but what a great reward for his enduring patience.

On our return home we were treated to a roast dinner followed by Pear Tart Tatin, freshly baked from our stash of delicious Pears, which do need consuming.

Earlier in the week I had utilised a load more by knocking up a double batch of Pear and Walnut chutney in readiness for those cold Winter nights. It took ages to reduce and the house smelled of vinegar for a while but I'm sure it will be worth it.

Allotment Cardboard & Seedling Guards

Fed up with the endless futility of hacking back the weeds that grow over our allotment in the spring, I decided to try using corrugated cardboard as a biodegradable suppressant. 

Where I work we get large 2m x 3m sheets, which ordinarily just end up in the recycling bins. I covered the cultivated areas at the end of the season last year and weighted them down with bits of timber.

After a Winter and Spring of storms my initial efforts were beginning to look a bit tatty and shredded, but no weeds had grown. So, I laid down a second  layer in April to keep the weeds at bay and hold all the old bits in place. 

This system seems to work really well, nothing had grown beneath the cardboard and it also adds a layer of insulation, which helps to warm up the land. New plants and seedlings can be individually planted directly through the cardboard.

My other recycling initiative employed old pallets, which I had dismantled and cut to size during the Winter. Then with the help of some enthusiastic child labour, the timber was fashioned into frames and then covered in netting to protect young seedlings from birds, mice and cats. 

In the case of our garden based raised beds, these guards can even deflect stray footballs!  On the allotment plot, once the frames are deployed, they also help hold the cardboard in place, and I figure they can be turned upside-down during the Winter months to make them even more effective at this job.

Once the crops at the allotment are pressing against the netting, the plants are tough enough for us to remove the guards and place them over our next new batch of seedlings. This system seems to be working very well so far.

Pest Control and Border Patrol

We have finally worked out what has been attacking our Cherry tree. The leaves were getting decimated in some areas and the young fruit was suffering too. I thought initially that it was pigeons or other avian pests. We initially installed a make-shift bird scarer but closer inspection revealed that the culprit was in fact SNAILS!

The pesky molluscs had climbed up the tiny tree trunk and slithered out along the bendy branches to feast on the fresh foliage and even the precious immature fruit. We found over 25 on our first security sweep and the tree is only about 2m high. We plucked them all off and threw them as far away as we were able. I then painted a ring of fruit tree grease around the trunk as a deterrent to further incursion. The children are now mounting a daily fruit based border patrol- and removing any further slimy insurgents (their reward will be obvious, they both love cherries).

In further pest control news, I have also had to take defensive action in our allotment rustic fruit cage. The roof is not totally bird proof, being made of 10mm wide mesh and my red-current bush, which is full of quickly ripening fruit was being ravaged (definitely birds this time). I have now covered the upper branches with finer netting and hope to harvest the currents soon.

Triangular Leeks or Wild Garlic

We visited Devon for a short break in April and as we walked around the countryside and woodland paths, we could frequently smell the pungent aroma of Wild Garlic.

There are places where whole banks are swathed with Garlic plants, many of them now in flower.

There is a plant in Devon that is related to the Wild Garlic and seen by some as an invasive weed; locals call it the Triangular Leek, it tastes and smells very similar to the garlic.

Our children like to make Garlic bread by finely chopping Wild Garlic leaves, mixing it with butter, then spreading it on toast. It makes for a very tasty substitute; we have also done this with chives that we found growing wild at our Southampton allotment, we toasted the bread on a fire this time.

Elderflowers are now blooming in the hedgerows, heralding the onset of the Summer months. Plums are ripening and I have already seen red cherries in some early trees.

Awesome Autumnal Update

Trick or Treat

We might well be heading for a cold/wet/windy/frosty Winter, but no one complained about the sizzling summer that ripened everything, ready for the bumper Autumnal harvest this year.

Crab Apples at Mansbridge Community Orchard

Elderberries were abundant and we picked a sufficient amount to make a gallon of Port from one tree, during a Picknik at Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort.

Red Devils at St Mary's

It’s hard to get across just how many Apple trees there are on public land, loaded with free fruit. We live busy lives like everyone else, yet the children and I collected over 200 Kgs of delicious ripe apples this October and that was before we even ventured into Mansbridge Community Orchard.

Apples by the Bucket-load

Our Apple store is filled to the brim, a stock which should easily last us into next Spring. We created 11 Gallons of Cider, so that  should last longer, even after talking thirsty friends and Christmas into account. It beats me why anyone buys apples from the supermarket.

Autumn Beeches and Holly

A couple of brief but timely visits to local Walnut trees yielded more than enough to see us well past Christmas. Hazelnuts were also prolific this year, these I mostly gathered by filling my pockets during lunchtime forays around Hedge End; I didn't need to look anywhere else but I'm sure there were plenty everywhere.

A Great Year for Shuffling Through Dry Leaves

Some of our favourite pear trees have been shamefully destroyed but fortunately friendly neighbours came to the rescue and we poached some and added a load more to the cider; judging by the taste, this was a good idea.

Plenty of Nuts for Xmas

We seemed to be too busy pressing apples to collect many chestnuts this year. I visited Telegraph Hill, but spent most of my time simply soaking up the special atmosphere.

Squash Army!

My son scrambled up the Medlar tree in the University grounds and in about 10 minutes we had picked enough to make a new batch of wine. I also picked enough Sloes, during my lunchtime wanderings around Hedge End, to make Sloe Gin and Sloe Wine.

Crackling Lightning

We are still eating our way through the army of squash that we grew at our allotment; it was a very good year here too and my shelter and fruit cage are still standing after all those exciting storms. 

Selling Mistletoe for the School Xmas Fayre

This Winter, if I find time, I will be building a compost heap, from up-cycled pallet wood on the site (that's how exciting my life is). 

Bye Bye Office, for a While Anyway...

Enjoy your Christmas holiday and let's hope for a brilliant New Year.

Loads at the Allotment

When the Summer sun is shining, there’s nowhere better to be than deep in the UK countryside, and we were lucky to have a fantastic fortnight in Devon. After returning from our holiday we knew we had to get back up to our allotment, to see how the weeds were growing.

We were a tad concerned that no one had been available to water our vegetable plot during all that scorching hot weather. However, on arriving, we found to our delight, a burgeoning crop of Super veg; well we thought it was super (not too bad for our first year) but it wouldn't win any agricultural show prizes.

We rummaged through the undergrowth and found Squashes, Runner beans, Cucumbers, Potatoes, Beetroot, Onions and Courgettes, some of which had turned into massive Marrows. The fruit cage had a few raspberries available and there were masses of blackberries all over the place, not that we had propagated these.

One of the huge marrows was finally transformed by the Head Chef into six jars or scrummy Chilli and Courgette Chutney.

I also used the Raspberries and a couple of stray Blueberries to make another bottle of summer fruit liquor, which will be ready later on. So far I have tried Cherry Brandy, Sloe Gin, Mulberry Gin, Blackberry Vodka and Summer Fruit liquor. I’m not sure which will be my favourite but it should be good fun finding out…