Spade Work : From Plot to Plate

Winter Clear Up

The vegetable garden is a sorry looking mess at this time of the year. The tomatoes have browned off in the frost, the beans are shrivelled and the bolted rocket has been devoured by pigeons. And there are lots of weeds poking through. It's so easy after the harvest of August and September to sit back and then winter is soon in on us.

With the days shortening it's hard to muster any enthusiasm to get out there and clear up the beds when it's cold and the sun is thin and watery. It's tempting to let the garden slumber through the winter in its decrepit state.

But a little work now will set me up for Spring. And maybe if I didn't put the work in now I wouldn't have this nice crop of Brussels sprouts coming on or the black kale and the turnip top greens.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get to putting a spade in the ground.

Golden Wonder Tasting

I'd intended waiting until the New Year to taste the Golden Wonder potatoes - they improve with storage so I've read - but my wife perpared a helping last night. They are so different to my waxy favourite, Charlotte.

Loads of starch and very floury, they crisp up really well when roasted and there's a nice contrast between the crust and the floury inside. I can imagine that they fry well, soaking up a nice bit of fat in the process. This helping was cooked peeled, next time I'll leave the skin on to see if it makes any difference.

I was won over by their deep earthy taste, quite sweet almost, and I'll sow at least one row of these next year.

Let's see how they improve in store.

Harlequin

I thought things were getting intense when I brought the chilli plants and tomatoes into the bedroom to ripen but when bugs got there too I knew something serious was going on! These ladybirds (US ladybugs) might be Harlequin ladybirds, a recent introduction here and one which is spreading fast.

I didn't see many in the garden this year (and I didn't see much aphid activity either - connected?) and I'm wondering why they are colonising indoors?

Failures

Naturally we are all ready to trumpet our successes but we can learn from our failures as well, even if it's to say 'never again'. The vegetable beds were at their most productive this year, with lots of interplanting, careful succession sowing and plenty of water thanks to the rains but very little heat to bring things on.

Parsnip Hollow Crown - 100% germination failure! The wet spring wasn't kind to them but the Tender & True, sown at the same time in the same bed, came through. I've tried one already, long, creamy colour, no canker like last year but again a fairly woody core. The first frost is predicted so hopefully they'll get even sweeter.

Windsor Broad Bean - the ultimate aphid hotel. Never again! Stick to Aquadulce Claudia, earlier, tasty and hardly touched by aphids.

Celeriac - 28 planted as plugs. When I got back to the allotment a week later all had been eaten. Slugs or mice I reckon.

Sweet Corn - 85% germination and I did get about two weeks worth of eating but the ears were small and not as sweet as last year. I blame the wet summer and lack of heat.

Butternut Squash - well I have (tiny)  fruits but they're hardly going to ripen at this time of year. This was the first year trying them and I sowed the seed in situ. I think next year I'll bring them on in pots and plugs and try getting them in the ground a little earlier.

Grellos / Turnip Tops - a hit and miss affair. Poor germination on the allotment and those that did soon became slug food. The garden sown seeds did fine (sown around mid August). I should have sown more in September but with half a mind to the end of the season I never got around to it. A pity really as there is a lot of ground that could have been used for spring greens. But then there is only so much spring greens you can take.

And  for next year? More, lots more peas, Norli and Alderman especially. More interplanting, worked well this year squeezing more productivity out of the same space, more parsley as I'm now enjoying the frozen blocks of pesto. Wild rocket in preference to the hotter cultivated rocket. More onions (everything we cook seems to start with an onion and some garlic (of which I'll have plenty thanks to Bifuracted Carrots). And dare I say it, a few less potatoes but some early varieties to start the season off.

New crops? Well because I may have less veg space I'll try shallots for their multiplier effect, bush beans and I'd like to try blueberries in pots.And if I remember I'll sow more greens at the back end of the season and overwinter crops like chard/perpetual spinach.

The Year Ahead

I lost most of the pictures I took of the new garden so I quickly snapped these last Sunday - a dreary overcast morning.

They don't tell the whole story particularly the drain run and inspection chamber I unearthed in the previous owners vegetable patch. A bit naughty back filling and planting over these I think. I'll just cover that area with some containerised herb - mint and the like that I don't want spreading.

I cleared these beds and found many tiny Charlotte potatoes which made an excellent warm salad. Most of the beds are 6foot by 4foot so easy to work, in all about 180square foot of growing space. Still have to clear the dahlias.

I've never had one before so I'll experiment with green house growing. Any book on this topic that you'd especially recommend?

And a pond was not high on my wants list but having seen the insects, damsels and birds it attracts it  really is an addition to the garden! Don't worry - a pond net has since been bought! The fruit trees, quite old now, lanky and difficult to pick from are familiar - apples (Cox, I think), plum and damsons. I like their lichen covered bark.

And finally the strimmed area is a possible site for another vegetable area. But since I'm keeping the allotment on for another year I'll carefully trace the sun through the season to be sure there is enough to grow decent veg. The tree and hedge roots I'll combat (optimistically) by growing in raised beds. All the work involved...... Now where's the corkscrew?

Golden Wonder

Patrick of Bifurcated Carrots posted recently on his harvest of Mr Little's Yetholm Gypsy Potato and it reminded me that I put a reasonable crop of  Golden Wonder in store.

Grown from tubers given to me by an allotment neighbour they are said to be an excellent fryer and there is even a crisp (potato chip for North American readers) named after the variety.

I don't have a deep fat fryer so I'll quick roast them instead.

I was happy with the yield and the size of tuber. They were a bit scabby but this is because I ran short of fresh grass clippings with which to line the trench when I was planting. It'll do no harm to the taste and I could even skin them if it bothered me.

As for the taste. Well that will have to wait as I've read they benefit from storing into the new year. I'll keep you posted!

Chilly Out, Chilli In

With temperatures dropping it won't be long until the first killing frost strikes so the windowsills are being filled with plants I've brought in.

The chillies here stand no chance of ripening red outside so I'll baby them a few days on a south facing windowsill and then place them in the lean to at the back of the house. With luck, I've read, they'll continue to flower and fruit providing fresh chillies throughout the year.

Anyone had success with this? I may be better off putting them in a warm room and treating them like a house plant than an unheated lean to.

All of the rooms in the house are threatened with becoming 'garden' rooms and here I'm hoping to ripen up a bunch of San Marzano tomatoes which I planted ridiculously late in the year so they had no chance of ripening on the vine. I did this last year with Illdi and they ripened a treat from hard green marbles to juicy yellow fruits in a few weeks.

A New Vegetable Plot

Operator error means I can't bring you any pictures of the vegetable plot at the new house but I'll try to sort the camera out after I've finished stamping on it and kicking the cat.

But I've got a few practical questions. I've been tracing the sun from September 4th to see where it hits the garden throughout the day and see how many hours different areas get. The veg area (southwest facing) gets full sun (when it's out!) from about 9.30am to 3.30/4pm. I'm expecting that I'll get more than this six hours or so in spring and summer as the sun will be higher in the sky. But does anyone know the minimum number of hours of sun needed by most vegetables? And what does asparagus like? Can it take some dappled shade? Am I best laying the raised beds out on a north/south alignment (so the plants don't throw shade...?).

Now back to the camera manual. Could I really have pressed  delete?

Trading Diversity

I've been silent for several weeks now and have only come up for air now that our house move  is nearly complete. So the garden and blogging have been neglected but as the pile of boxes shrinks I've been able to get out on the plot and begin the end of season tidy up.

But it's also a time for planting and this picture is just some of  the garlic sent to me by Patrick at Bifurcated Carrots.

Thirteen varieties in all it will be interesting to see how they do on the allotment and also in the vegetable plot at the new house (I'll post seperately on this). Maybe  later next year the recepients of Patrick's generosity would post their experience with the different varieties and we can see what does best, where and possibly guess at  why?