I am sorry, I am just so PROUD of my GREEN FINGERS!

I apologise for all these posts over the last few days. I just can't seem to help myself...I feel the need to share...apparently share everything!!!

You'll know from an earlier post this week that some little monkey has been nibbling at my radishes at the allotment....grrrrr....well today I dragged myself up there to plant my rhubarb plant and saw that there were two little red heads just poking out of the soil. I think that it might have been a few days too early, they could have grown a bit bigger...but I just couldn't wait at all!!!

And then, to my surprise...some of the spring onions were ready too!!!! I can't apologise enough, I am just so excited about it! Everything was VERY yummy in my tuna sandwich this afternoon.

today's harvest

I am ashamed to admit this, but I feel I must...when I struggled to wake up this morning and saw that the sky was overcast I prayed that the morning weather report would forecast rain for the rest of the day. I had planned on riding my bike to the allotment, but after a restless night's sleep I wasn't in any mood. Really I was just searching for any excuse that would satisfy my own mind...

Downstairs, with a cup of tea, the weather forecast was not what I wanted to hear...dry in the South East...oh man!

Really I wasn't be entirely selfish. Yes I wanted rain to justify being lazy today, but I ALSO wanted rain to water my plants (and my weeds) seeing as we haven't had a drop of rain in two weeks. Seriously...don't roll your eyes, I wasn't just thinking about myself! Poor poor plants, right?

Well, on my bike I got eventually and...yes...I was happy for the exercise and fresh air and to get out of the house and blah blah blah. Once I arrived at the allotment and trucked over to my little plot I was happy to have made it. I even decided to pop on the Ipod and yank out the few weeds that just haven't got the message yet!

ooooo swiss chard looks good, ooooo beetroots are coming along, oooooo radishes.....wait a minute! What in tarnation??? My poor poor poor radishes! Some tiny rodent/bird has been having a feast! There were four...count 'em....four perfect, round, bright red radishes, ready for the picking and what's happened?? They have been nibbled to smithereens WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. Now, if it were July I really wouldn't give a hoot seeing as Radishes take, like, four weeks to grow...no biggie. EXCEPT it is nearing October and I was just so looking forward to a small bunch of my first radishes to have in a salad, or in a sandwich, or to be tres francais...avec le beurre!!! yum yum yum....sadly ce n'est pas possible WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.

And so, taking no chances with my beetroot, I yanked up a good handful of plants ready for the picking (no delaying those ones) and also cut a heap of swiss chard leaves to serve as our side for tonight's dinner. The swiss chard plants are producing like maniacs and I can't keep up with the bountiful harvest...yum yum yum.

Check out today's pickings:

Oh, there are also a couple of baby romaine lettuces in there....

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDS! ugh

Admittedly it has been 10 days since I went to my allotment. It isn't like that is a long time, but since my allotment is still in the "getting established" phase I really can't afford to be so lazy. And boy! don't i know it now!!

I swear that I was going to go on Tuesday this week, but it rained and poured all day long!! And while that abundance of water was beneficial to my poor neglected crops, the weeds were equally happy! I suppose, when you think about it, the bounty of weeds slowly taking over my allotment HAS to be a sign of rich and nurturing soil...right??

The sight that met me yesterday was slightly sole-destroying:


I mean, come on! I spend more time weeding than I do tending to my lovelies :(


But because there has been so much rainfall this week the soil was remarkably soft and made it easier than EVER to dig up the blighters!! Because I go to the allotment in the morning during the week there is rarely anyone else about...creepy, but soothing at the same time. And even more excitingly I can pop on my Ipod and sing out loud to my hearts content. Trust me, it makes annoying tasks like repetitive weeding an easy chore!

Tada!!!


I can't even begin to quantify the amount of time it took me to accomplish this! But, judging by my Ipod, I am going to go with about 3 plays of the most recent Killers album...so....you do the math.

And then I decided, because the soil was was lovely and malleable and soft and luscious and....sigh...anyway, I decided that it would be best to dig up the other half of this half of my plot. And so, I dug and dug and raked and turned and weeded and...well:


so now everything is ready for the onions and garlic OH MY!

This morning when I woke up and could barely move I told David that he would be helping me come early spring dig up the section in the second picture under the tarp...so we'll see!!!

How do these old guys do it??

Digging for Victory

This week the BBC is screening a number of programmes dedicated to remembering "The Week We Went to War". It is hard to believe that it is 70 years ago this week that the UK entered into war with Hitler's Germany. In memorial Welsh songstress Katherine Jenkins is presenting a programme exploring what life was like on the home front during the war. It has been poignant and touching, and I wonder why it couldn't be broadcast at a time when those who work are at home. It is a reminder that we are very fortunate to live in a world where the corner store stocks foods and goods from all corners of the globe.

Every afternoon this week they are also broadcasting a new 5 part series called Land Girls, which follows the stories of a mixed bag of girls who have joined the Women's Land Army to work the land and provide food for the nation. Two episodes in there is less emphasis on the work and more on the social lives of the girls, but it is nice to have a more human element on a scheme that you could easily find statistics for in the library or on the Internet.

In anticipation of this mini-series I have started to re-read The Lost Garden, a beautiful and touching novel by Canadian author and poet Helen Humphreys. Taking place in 1941, it is the story of loner Gwen Jones who is sent from her post at the Royal Horticultural Society in London to an estate in Devon to be warden for a section of the Women's Land Army. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Land Girls history or just gardening in general.

In connection to this I am also reminded that the allotment site where I grow my own vegetables was developed during the same time period to grow for the local community and, I assume, the nation. It makes me happy to think that the need to feed the people of Chelmsford created an ordered system that continues to support the community 70 years on.

mary mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

As soon as David and I knew where we would be living and when we would be moving in I started to plan how I would spend my time. As a social historian I make a concerted effort to acknowledge the shift between when time was passed to when we started to SPEND time. But I digress, at this point, of course, I wasn't fully aware that my role as the unemployed female partner would swiftly turn into the role of housewife. Regardless of the title, I knew that I would have time on my hands to spare, and obviously to pass (not to spend!).

My London friends and I were, also at this point, avid watchers of Hugh Fearnley=Whittingstall's River Cottage Spring/Summer series. The romantic (if not laboursome) ideal of producing your own crops and livestock, becoming self sufficient...sigh...romantic I say, because let's face it...highly unlikely! But, one ideal that I wanted to try to achieve and embrace was to grow my own vegetables. The small yard of our new house was not going to cut it, but never fear Hugh's fantastic Landshare project came to my rescue!

The basic philosophy behind Landshare is people getting together, sharing land, and growing fruit and veg. I joined the project and found a listing to share a portion of an allotment plot in my new home town, I immediately contacted the lister and no we share her allotment! She has generously loaned me the use of about a quarter of her plot, and believe me it is large enough for the two of us to be almost self sufficient (once things get underway!) !!!!!

The first day i worked the land I couldn't stop myself! I was toiling away, sowing and watering and weeding and oh my! The only sad thing about the whole experience is that we moved at the end of the summer's sowing season so our little plot is very limited. Currently growing Swiss Chard, Beetroot, Spring Onions, Lettuce, Radish and Carrots. I just love the sensation of watching seedlings grow into plants in their own rights, battling with the throngs of weeds I can't seem to banish and finally (today) the cutting of the first 9 swiss chard leaves ready for harvesting and lovely lovely braising in butter for tonight's supper!

I loaned a few books from the library about organic gardening, and allotment gardening and seasonality but to be honest I couldn't really follow all the prescriptive text and methodical procedures. I figure, and this is where my 21st century mindset comes in, if it grows it grows, if not I am out the price of a few seed packets. I am ashamed, I promise I am, and come next summer when the plot is lush and fruitful and teeming with courgettes and tomatoes and peppers and cabbages and all those wonderfully productive plants I will reflect on my 21st century mind and scold it, I promise.

Links to Landshare and River Cottage sites for seasonal ideas and Landshare postings:
http://landshare.channel4.com/
http://www.rivercottage.net/