When we first started growing our own, one of our annual targets was to have our own parsnips to roast on Christmas Day.  As we have become more experienced, and had access to more space, other harvests have become important.  These include the asparagus that heralds spring, the first peas showing that summer is almost here and the first new potatoes that might go with them and the first tomatoes and sweetcorn that indicate that high summer has arrived.

Despite the many highlights we now enjoy, the Christmas Eve harvest still remains a moment of satisfaction and undiluted pleasure.

Christmas Harvest 2020

Merry Christmas everyone.

Most years we have a small household competition to see which of us can grow the biggest pumpkin.  These contests are often decided by a growing disaster, such as a broken growing tip or the plant that inexplicably started to die back leaving a promising pumpkin in early August no bigger by mid-September.

Our first effort was titled “shrimpy” to reflect its diminutive stature.  The following year we did rather better – the larger size earning this one the title “prawny” and also first prize at the village show.  At about 45kg this is still a midget in the world of giant vegetables, but big enough to impress the neighbours’ kids!

Prawny

One of the great things about pumpkins – like most of the cucurbits is the speed at which they grow.  This makes them great candidates for enthusing new growers (providing that you’ve got a bit of space).

The pictures below show how one of our plants has developed over the past few weeks.

Pumpkin plant 19 July – before a fruit was selected

Pumpkin plant 9 Aug

Pumpkin plant 16 Aug

Pumpkin plant 24 Aug

Hiding away is the selected fruit.

Pumpkin 9 Aug

One week later it has grown noticeably…

Pumpkin 16 Aug

… and after a further week it looks as though the slab underneath it may not be big enough if it continues to swell at this rate.

Pumpkin 24 Aug

So fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong now!

As ever the months of June and July have seen progress in the allotments zipping along.  Seeds sown in open ground have germinated and rapidly turned into sturdy young plants and the seeds sown under cover earlier in the year that were planted out as young plants are now established and in the case of the greenhouse thriving.

Roots 20 June

Greenhouse 20 June

We have even got the first tomatoes starting to ripen.

Tomato 20 June

Nowhere is progress more visible than on the squash frame.

Squash frame 29 May

Squash Frame 20 June

Squash Frame 16 July

Squashes 16 July

However, the most exciting development has been the emergence of our first cauliflower of the summer.

Graffiti 16 July

Our last allotment update mentioned the wet weather of the winter and early spring, but since then we have had almost unbroken sunshine, with records being not just broken but smashed.  As most of us have been confined to homes, gardens and an hour of outdoor exercise for the last two months this weather has been very welcome, but of course we growers are now starting to think that we need some decent rain in pretty short order.

our outdoor exercise has been spent in large part on the allotments, although our bicycles have been cleaned up and lubricated to get a bit more of a cardio workout.

We got the new fruit cage erected in April so by the time that the fruit bushes start to set this year’s fruit they will be well protected.

New plot 17 April

As the warmer weather kicked in the potato crops started to take off.  We did get a late frost in early May that blackened off the growing tips, but the bulk of the plants were well earthed up, so they soon recovered.

Potatoes 20 May

On the left of the photo above you can see the start of what will be a permanent flower bed to provide both flowers for cutting and bait for pollinators.

As the last risk of frost has now gone, we have planted up the new squash frame with Uchiki Kuri squashes.

Squash frame 29 May

Over a pretty soggy winter and early spring we have been doing the groundwork on our newest allotment plot. Over the past few weeks as the threat of Coronavirus has loomed ever larger over the country, investing time and effort in developing cultivated ground has been a great comfort.

We’ve put up new fencing and joined this plot to its neighbour to make a full size 10 pole plot.  The fencing is necessary as we have rabbits, deer and badgers on the site.  The last of these are voracious feeders on sweetcorn and have noses that are sensitive enough to work out the sweetcorn cobs are ripe a day or two before we’re ready to start picking.

New plot looking north 31 March

We’ve built a frame for growing squashes in the hope of increasing yields while reducing the amount of land that the plants take up.

The picture above also shows a run of fruit bushes that will eventually be protected with a fruit cage and a neighbouring rhubarb patch as well as leaf mould and compost bins.

We’ve also established a new raised bed for alliums.  The other two plots both suffer from White Rot so we’ve dug this new bed out, lined it with thick cardboard and filled it with new compost and rotted manure.

New onion bed 31 March 2020

We’ve turned quite a lot of the main body of the ploy over to poatoes for this year and as the picture below shows we’ve gone for a split between growing them in open ground and in bags.

New plot looking south

Over the past month or so, we have been putting some effort into getting the newest part of our allotment into production, by getting some summer and autumn crops into the ground.  So far we’ve only got about a third of the area planted up as at this time of year the existing plots need a lot of care with weeding, harvesting, feeding and watering all high on the agenda.

Nonetheless the new plot is starting to take shape.

New plot 24 July

We’ve rigged up a brassica net in one part and have got spare tomatoes and aubergines along with a squashkin (Autumn Crown) in a second patch.

Brassicas July 2019

Summer crops 24 July

As usual, we’ve put watering pots in to support the thirstier plants. As well as ensuring that we’re getting water down to the plants’ roots, not splashing water all over the soil surface will help to reduce weed growth while the weather remains dry and warm.  We know that we will have weed problems to overcome in this plot.  In addition to the annual weeds that had colonised the site while it wasn’t being worked, we have mare’s tail (Equisetum arvense) and field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis).

Field Bindweed