Allotment/Veg Patch - Thread 7 - The Harvesters Arms

[bookbook]

Well, it's been an interesting summer, to say the least.
We are now heading into the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness :)
Everyone welcome to join in and ask for advice , share their woes and just enjoy growing!
previous thread here

A plot holder about 4 away from me grows grapes in a polytunnel. He had a bunch in our little fruit and veg show . Red ones - they looked lovely.
We stayed at an Estelgem in Caiscais a few years ago -I have truly fond memories of Portugal , so enjoy!
shove - my eldest DD is learning to crochet, and doing well with it, and basic sewing. ( I tried to teach her years ago with no real success ) So go, and enjoy - sewing is a wonderful thing.

I gave up trying to nest my pots. I just nest the more common ones and have one of those huge garden bags and sling the lot in there. Next spring I get the hose and hose the lot out and then start with the smallest ones for the first pricking out and go from there.

My best grapevine here at home is a £2.99 one from Wilco. It wasn't happy for about 3 years, then when I put another plant in front of it - it perked up and have been cropping each year since. I'm well happy with it.

I'm impressed by grapes. We went to Portugal this summer and had a lovely time. Hope to go back sometime - some sunshine right now would be lovely.

Shove I'm sure sewing will be easier than you remember it. Good to have a go at something new.

Book I am slightly worried that taking on the new plot will mean neglect of the existing half but at least we can get a head start this winter rather than starting in the spring which is when plots will normally change hands.

Afternoon!
well, very foolishly decided today was a good day to go and try to sort out dreaded Christmas present shopping. Glorious day today - tomorrow rain . We zoomed home earlish , but only time really to pick some curly kale and check all the nets and fleece are still soundly bricked down. It is getting dark so early it seems to me.
Cedar - it is always a bit of a push for me, but so worth having the extra space to do stuff you didn't really have room for!
Roll on Sunday..

Oops, thread feel off "I'm on" . I will have to read through and catch up. Just got back from a 15 min tidy up at the plot between shopping and school run, but otherwise haven't done much for a few weeks. I was waiting for the first hard frost to kill off a few things before pulling them up, so I have disposed of French marigolds, cucamelons, sunflowers and sweet peas into compost today. There is a patch about 10' square full of weeds that I really want to dig over at some point, and I am going to remove a useless tiny raised bed. Other than that not much planned at the moment.

My mystery summer/autumn raspberries did turn out to be autumn, I was harvesting until about 2 weeks ago, thank you to everyone who advised me a couple of months ago.

A huge bag of amazing magic seeds has arrived from eBay!! Thank you chuck!! There are so many varieties I have never even heard of in there, it's like an Aladdin's cave.

Cedar- I am sure you are right that the time of year makes a huge difference here. You have time over the winter to get on to of the new plot before that amazing but rather stressful time when everything needs sowing in spring. It'll be really worth the effort too. I'm so excited for you!

Book- I'm so impressed that you're getting organised early. I get very anxious about Xmas presents. But my own family don't celebrate it at all, so that does really reduce the workload. The rain tomorrow looks wall to wall, doesn't it? I think we will all be glad to get a glimpse of the sun after that!

Who knows -hooray for your autumn rasps. Mine were rubbish (viruses) so I'm really jealous. I have new canes coming soon, along with some of those white strawberries that are supposed to be very strong and sweet.

hello - glad you got some raspberries !
shove - well, maybe organised, but didn't get very far with it. I have a very picky DH - it has got to be 'right' or it is not worth wasting the money. Plus everyone gets something I have made, so I am always catching up on knitting/sewing/baking ....

Hello. I haven't posted for a couple of weeks but I'm still trying to get my head round my huge overgrown plot.

I've done some more clearing but can't do much more until we have the legal stuff sorted - I'm buying the plot and I don't want to invest too much time or money until it's actually mine, and now there's been a delay so I'm getting frustrated!

I cleared around some current bushes and pruned them the other day. There's some blackcurrants, and I found a gooseberry. But I also found these and don't know what they are. Can anyone help?

One is embedded in a currant bush. Is it a pear possibly? It doesn't look like it to me, but the previous owner said he'd left a pear tree half planted in about this spot.

The other is one of two which I suspect is a redcurrant, but I'm not sure. There are no leaves left on it so might be difficult to identify.

Morning!
glorious it is too
mm - goodenough - one definitely seems to be a currant . The other I am not sure if it is a pear tbh - it looks like the wrong shape leaf to me, (more like a prunus if anything) , but I am truly rubbish at identifying plants! We need shove and Chuck :)
Well, I have tidied up the fruit cage, so that is ready for my last few barrows of manure. I did 5 barrows on the last bit of empty plot. Did some last minute bindweed digging before it disappears underground.
It was lovely - no wind , sun. Manure heap more like a slurry pit......
Dug up a celery root and a couple of leeks to make some soup.
And the lovely man who offered his dahlia to me weeks ago, came especially this morning to dig it up for me ( I really didn't want to go and do it while he wasn't there) and while I was there gave me some sweet william cuttings too.
I am very lucky, I know - it is an enormous dahlia root. Didn't someone say you can eat them upthread? Not that I shall - it is a glorious purple flower ! So photo of non -edibles today

I'm not much good at the identification - more enthusiasm than knowledge I'm afraid! Pretty sure that's not a pear though - the leaves look too folded, almost like a viburnum or hydrangea.

book - that's a dahlia and a half! What a lovely big tuber! I understand they are edible, but it seems like such a shame, doesn't it?

No plot for be because I am ill with a really bad cold, and DH is worse. I have been doing some Christmas shopping online instead! Managed to find embossed rolling pins with greyhounds (for BIL) and rabbits (for MIL) - both great biscuit-makers!

Glad the seeds arrived ok, took their time!

Cant see those pics, as am in forrin at the moment and am on the baby ipad and can never see MN pics on here.

I was away on Friday and Saturday, so it was probably me rather than the postal service chuck. I spent a really happy (if sniffly) afternoon sorting through them all yesterday! So many amazing beans. I am fascinated by Major Cook - such an old variety.

Have a wonderful time in Portugal. You deserve a really great break!

Morning!
sounds like a lovely treasure trove there shove - I hope you are starting to feel better soon. They are horrible, misery inducing germs .A good excuse to snuggle inside and drink honey and lemon . So don't just run around your DH - take care of you too!
Chuck - hope the weather is lovely for you - but I didn't expect you to come and try and do an id - thats a bit like taking your work away with you! :)
It's rather grey and miserable here, but hoping to go down to the plot this afternoon. It's not nearly so imperative now - I feel as if I am on the home run for winter.

Thanks for the attempts at identification!

I'm planting some onion sets in my backyard today, shifting attention away from the fact that I can't really get on with clearing the allotment yet. I've got a veg trug in the backyard which I've used for peas and leaves and stuff over the last couple of years. I've never tried onions so thought I'd have a go, and I've also ordered some garlic to try too.

I've got some green tomatoes in the trug (from a plant my 5 year old DD brought home from school) - are any green tomatoes ok for green tomato chutney or do they need to be a bit ripe or anything?

I have got a raspberry cane in the trug too, one my DD bought for me at Lidl - it appears to be autumn fruiting and has been doing quite well.

Ha! I just tried to do a reverse Google image search on the photo of the plant that's not a pear - it said "Best guess for this image: plant"

I always take my work away, I've been loving the Aloe Vera planted up in the municipal planters, with random leaves taken by the locals and tourists with sore feet I imagine. Also the huge Rogersias here that dwarf the one in my garden, the fruiting mountain spinaches again, over 8ft tall with lovely black peppers on them and the humungus trees in the parks here with amazing root systems in and out of the ground. We went to the botanical gardens today but it was closed for renovation. Which was annoying. So I had a lemon verbena pannacotta and chocolate caramel pudding to make up for it (half of each, we get two differing deserts and have half each if we can't decide what we both want)

Apparently it is considered cold here at anything under 15deg C. I am here with sleeveless tops on sitting with people in their winter jackets. It is so warm and lovely here.

I am BEYOND jealous! It's drizzling here and about 5 degrees. The autumn sunlight in Portugal has such a lovely quality to it as well. Perhaps it's because the sea is quite close by?

One of the most wonderful things about being abroad is seeing all the different plants!

I'm sure you've already been, chuck, so forgive me for stating the obvious, but I just feel compelled to rave about Sintra. It was one of the great garden experiences of my life. SO many wonderful, amazing places to see. I think my favourite might have been Quinta de Regaleira - so theatrical, so over the top in many ways - but just so much fun, with caves and catacombs and towers and forests of tree ferns serrating the sunlight! In the very grand residence there, they built a room with bookcases on every wall, and a narrow mirror set into the floor just at their feet around the edge - so it feels like an infinite bookcase that stretches down forever! (I approve of this concept). But the other gardens - including Monserrate, that cost William Beckford his fortune - are also amazing.

I love Portugese desserts too. I would be enormously fat if I lived there!! I would eat custard tarts morning, noon and night and drink all the red wine.

We would chance it, but it being out of season so many things are closed and if we were here longer, then we would go over for the day. We are coming back tomorrow. It does look amazing though. Perhaps next time we will stay on the west side and spend a day or two over that way. Am very happy with the number of vegetarian restaurants here. Have eaten well.

Yes, I have only been once (to Portugal and Sintra) but I really enjoyed it. It's definitely a day trip, a long day too as there are at least 3 major gardens to visit, plus a big castle thing, which I didn't even make it to! So definitely a great excuse for another trip!! (I'm always planning my second holiday before the first one has finished! ).

If you stay in Lisbon, it's an easy train ride. But you could actually stay in Sintra itself- judging by the amount of mosses and ferns of all kinds, and the number of residences for the aristocracy to escape the city, I think the hills would be quite a lot more pleasant in the summer. (I am rubbish at sitting still on a beach and want to run around like an overexcited child, so don't cope well above about 30 degrees).

That's really good to know about the restaurants. I struggled a bit as a non-fish eating veggie in Lisbon (but I am happy to eat cake 3 times a day, including for breakfast, so was by no means miserable). I am going back next summer, so hoping to find some better places then!

I went to Sintra as a day trip from Lisbon once, we didn't have long there, it was very hot and we were with DCs so didn't see everything but it's definitely on my list of places to go back to. I'm think stay in Cascais next time for easy access to Lisbon.

Evening! .... eventually.
I have had DGS today, and we were at his house today, so I could plant up a couple of long term pots for the front of her garden. Then flew out to a committee meeting this evening.
goodenough - green tomatoes - it may be worth picking the tomatoes and putting them somewhere cool and cover with a newspaper. With luck, they will ripen ( mine are, bit by bit) . You can use them for green tomato chutney as well :) I love the reverse google though. Just a tweak unspecific !
I loved Sintra too - though I didn't get to see the gardens. DH and I looked around the palace in the main square, and the sat around in the sunshine for a late lunch, and a lot of people watching. My memory though is of the hair raising drive along the coast road from Caiscais to get there- only to find there was a motorway to get there as well......! And yes, there was a fabulous tram/train thing into Lisbon

I just shoved all my green toms into a chutney goodenough - you can just use them without ripening. Isn't putting them in an enclosed space with a banana also supposed to help if you do want them to redden?

Hooray for all our Sintra trips! I am terrible at doing hair-raising drives book. I don't even like walking alongside drops - the idea of going across Striding Edge is my idea of hell. I'm even rubbish at scrambling, with a tendency to panic and freeze. When being driven alongside a cliff, I end up with my eyes closed in terror, white knuckles clinging wildy to the car door. How I think that a door represents any kind of security in the event of a plunge into the abyss, I do not know!

Today I am hoping to sow some seeds - of black scabious and a bright pink thistle, Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum'. Both snaffled from a friend's garden! . It's complete madness, but part of me feels a little bereft right now. I want to sow my spring veg already! Even though that would be totally wrong.

oh, hair raising drives - DH still loves them, but knows I am very bad at heights. Worst was in Covadonga National park ( igardener will know about that I bet) I thought I was going to have a heart attack. We turned back , which was even more hair raising. I didn't breathe until we got to the bottom.
Well, DH and I decided today was a good day to go to the plot to lift paving slabs around the shed and sort them all out. But it is a bit breezy, and DH really doesn't cope with wind, so I suspect it will be shelved for a better day. We shall see- it needs to be done soonish, as I have a bit of grass digging up to do afterwards and would like to get on!

I have never heard of Covadonga! I had to Google image it. It looks stunning. But yes, terrifying! I had a similar experience in Skafia on Crete - remote roads with hairpin bends, no rails at the side, crumbling edges, sheer drops and terror if you meet another car going in the opposite direction. DH loved it but I had to get out and be sick.

Blustery here too today! I was expecting remaining leaves to be whirled off the trees the moment we had any kind of wind. But while those on the ash and sycamore are long gone, those on my apple and acer are well and truly green and still stuck on! Perhaps I am misremembering previous years -but it feels quite late for them to be barely turning??

Afternoon!
well, I managed a nice trip this afternoon - sunshine, and the breeze died down. It was lovely. I have officially finished putting manure on, the heap has now gone < ta-da!!> . I also tidied up as the green recycling trailer was there, so managed to get rid of every bit of rubbish that I don't like to compost. I then started the next lovely job of taking the top off the compost heap, and turning it into the empty manure bin. Another go will finish that, and the compost underneath is to put over my asparagus beds. They really need cutting down now.
Picked a little bit of sprouting broccoli, and then couldn't resist picking a savoy. DH will tut, as it's only little .. :)
Its weird really shove - nearly all the leaves have gone on the majority of my trees and shrubs, but my little red acer is still giving me a lovely bit of colour.