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

Afternoon!
It is beautiful here.
I have just spent a lovely hour at the plot - more forking/weeding, 2 more barrow loads of compost spread. I went and did some housekeeping in the brassica cage, picking up and pulling off dead leaves from the sprouts and kale. The sprouts are getting to look about right for picking some soon :)
I then picked cavolo nero , leeks and some of the sad , rooty celery - surprisingly some lovely fresh green leaves on them ( I assumed the frost would have done more damage)
I am trying a new recipe tonight. Necessity brought on by 2 of my butternut squashes getting some mouldy bits...... So its a warm salad of puy lentils, kale and roasted butternut coming up for tea.

I LOVE butternut squash and lentils together. It's so dark and sweet and wintery! Do enjoy!!

Your kale looks wonderful book - mine is still getting munched by caterpillars. In horribly murderous mood, I'm hoping the frost has wreaked its havoc with them.

Your leeks are a class act, as usual!!

munched by caterpillars shove - still? :( . The butterfly netting has on the whole done a good job here. One day I did see some white cabbage butterflies that managed to squeeze through , so I had to go and squish some caterpillars on a hunt.. Clouds of white fly on everything though , mind you.
Sadly, I didn't get to cook the tea tonight, tomorrow will have to do. Poor DH is not particularly well atm , ( nothing horrible, but may well have a chest infection) so I pandered to him needing comfort food .. lots of carbs, and apple pie and custard seem to have helped :)

How are you still getting caterpillars Shove? Don't these creatures know it's winter!

Hope your DH is feeling a bit better today bookbook. Chest infections are horrible. Do you rinse and chop off the roots of your leeks at the plot before bringing them home? They look lovely and clean.

My DH made a nice little side dish of fried leeks, spinach and peas the other day. He put some wholegrain mustard with them. It was really tasty. We used some of our not great celery in a casserole at the weekend. So we are eating it, even if it feels like a lot of work for not much return. We have still got some of last year's seeds left I think so I might try again next year.

After a couple of nights with proper ground frosts its a bit warmer here today. No plot for me though as I have to work. That's the disadvantage of this time of year - by the time I've finished work there's no time to go to the allotment as it's already getting dark.

I KNOW cedar! I feel persecuted by frost-resistant super-evolved caterpillars. I may be developing a complex about it. I haven't been up since that heavy frost earlier in the week, though, so I'm hoping that did the trick.

On the other hand, I am being followed, whenever I go outside by robins, both at home and at the plot. I love how suddenly visible they become this time of year - not just because they're redder but the way they hop around you in such an apparently-friendly-but-really-opportunistic way. I wonder how they learn about gardeners - maybe the adults teach the chicks?

book - sorry your DH is unwell. Hope things improve very soon. There's a lot about at the moment. I dare say another couple of days of apple pie won't go amiss!!

Leeks and peas and spinach = also my idea of heaven! To be honest, I could just eat that as a main and be very happy!

Morning!
Just had a quick hour down at the plot, now a cup of coffee , a bite to eat and then the dreaded trip to town for .. Christmas shopping ( hopefully the last one too!)
DH is much better this morning, thank you for the well wishes , still a bit rattly though.
Cedar - I tend to trim all the veg I can at the plot, it all then gets tipped into the compost bin -( apart from brassica roots, which I don't try to compost. They get put straight into the green recycle thing.) I don't rinse anything - the leeks get the roots chopped off , the extra long leaves are cut a bit shorter and then I just pull off the one or two saddish layers off the outside. It saves a lot of mud at home, and keeps the compost bin at home under some sort of control. Leeks, spinach and peas sound lovely - putting that on my list of 'to-do' :)
shove - the robins are just lovely aren't they? I have one at the plot who chatters at me, as if to say 'get a move on' . He comes and sits on the edge of the compost bin to scavenge, but is a bit shy - doesn't like me too near. I do hope the frost has killed off the caterpillars .The lady next door but one goes on caterpillar hunts with a little bucket, and the chickens next door to her go beserk - they know she will throw them into their run

Afternoon!
no plot, but I did this to my ex bread bin seed box

I LOVE your seed box book! I saw it just after I got in from a trip to Ikea during which I bought a much less ecofriendly and less attractive plastic box for mine!

I've had a weekend of enforced working on my extension, during which I felt mighty grumpy because I wasn't outside in my garden even though it was lovely and sunny and the leaves aren't going to tidy themselves. I find decision-making that involves money anxiety-provoking at the best of times, let alone when it involves things I do not have a clue about. There are SO many choices for every single surface imaginable I feel scared and overwhelmed. I know that it is normal grown up stuff and I need to get a grip, but WAAAAAH. I am going to spend tonight sorting my seeds in an effort to calm down.

Evening!
shove - I bought it in a charity shop for very little about 3 years ago - before that I had a Quality Street tin just stuffed . :) DH cut me a bit of hardboard to go down the middle, so it was very hard to do!
and commiserations on the non gardening weekend . It positively hurts, doesn't it. But it is so important to deal with stuff at an early stage with building , that way you can mull over the decision, and look at it from all angles. When we had our kitchen done ( a much smaller thing) I used to wake up in the middle of the night with-'what if I hate it.'. My biggest problem was seeing what I wanted, and having to be realistic that it was out of our budget.
The seeds will be beautifully sorted though I'm sure....

Part of the problem is that I don't know whether budget is an issue for me, because I don't really have accurate costs from the builder! Also, I have what you might call a rather 'Blue Peter' aesthetic about things, which is making my DH and the architect despair: 'No, shove, you can't just build kitchen cupboards out of shoe boxes, it won't work' etc. etc. etc. Our house is an ex-rental that was in a right state, and I think this has enabled me to live like a student for far longer than is healthy, so there is a whole growing up process having to happen very quickly now. I'm just not used to spending money in the kinds of quantities that you have to for building work and it is scaring me, even though we have been saving that money for years and years precisely to do this.

I have been assiduously reading Beth Chatto books and getting my HPS seed scheme order together to compensate. Also, in great news -drumroll please - my Cedric Morris daffodils are coming up! I am delighted because I am really, really keen for these to work, to the point that I built them a special cage so the squirrels wouldn't eat them. I have been running outside literally every morning when it is light to see if they have come up, and day after day there has been nothing - which made me scared that they had rotted, or been eaten by some underground beastie, or had failed. So HOORAY for spring bulbs!

This is me the last few weeks with my daffs (though they are not quite a forest yet): vimeo.com/15165227

Morning!
A bit of a hard frost here today, so may have to forgo the plot ( I did do a couple of hours yesterday though)
shove - it sounds as if you have saved a long time for this, so you are bound to be stressed - it is a lot of big decisions, no doubt. Can you maybe do it on an objective 'intellectual' basis , rather than emotional ? So - pretend you were advising someone else on it. But builders are a bit that way - cost is a piece of string , with no end......
daffodils already up? I have a pot outside my door, and the crocus stems are determined - they keep popping their heads up, and I keep covering them with more compost, to no avail :)

The ground was absolutely frozen here all day yesterday! I gave up pretty quickly. I was complaining about it on t'internet, and then my friend who lives in Montreal sent me a video of the horrendously icy and snowy conditions they currently have, which put it all into perspective a bit! I think it's due to get a bit warmer now, though?

book - yes, you are right about just taking some decisions dispassionately now - not least because the rising level of panic cannot be sustained! I am comforting myself with the spring bulbs - the Cedric Morris are very, very early (they're supposed to be out on Dec 25th) hence the fact they are through!

Afternoon - quick dip in as have DGS
freezing fog here this morning, and its still only 3º and still foggy - brrrrr
Hoping to wrap up and rake leaves this afternoon.
That looks a lovely little daffodil - and so early - worth the wait, hopefully !

Morning!
It's warm....... :)
May have to get gardening gear on and go, go , go ...

What on earth is going on with the weather! I am confused! Pretty sure the plants are too!

Me too. Freezing cold for ages, we finally get our new boiler installed yesterday and lo and behold spring is here. House felt like a sauna this morning!

At least you will be cosy when the temperature drops again WhoKnows !
In our house, that is called 'sod's law' :)
Well, I did go this morning- It was damp and a bit misty, but the sun came out eventually. I decided the priority was the almost emptied compost bin. There was a little more left in there than I anticipated - about 5 big barrow loads. But I got it all shifted onto the plot, and then started the task of filling it back up with the top of the heap that I had put in the next door manure bin. Not quite finished doing that, but trying hard to properly layer it - I had quite a lot of asparagus stems and the like, so I am using that as my woody bit.
Picked leeks and perpetual spinach for tea.
Rain forecast for tomorrow.......

You're doing so well book!

I managed a bit of leaf raking yesterday, but had to go out so didn't manage to get it all done. And .iIt's caning it down with rain here today! I was up extra early running DH to the station as he is giving a talk in London today, and was surprised at how busy everything was even at 6.30 in the morning. I guess everyone has a million and one things to do this time of year!

Have you been without heating through the cold whoknows? Glad you've got the boiler sorted - I'm sure you'll get to put it through its paces very soon.

Morning!
it's pouring down here too .. I'm surprised, as the forecast is always wrong
It is a busy world these days, no doubting - fairly regularly I drive to DD's to babysit DGS , so need to set off at 7 - the stream of traffic with no gaps , going both ways is always a shock- people really need to travel a long way to work these days.
I am getting to feel comfortable with were I am at with the plot. I have a few winter jobs that need/want to be done , but DH needs to be fighting fit to help, so I am not going to angst about them - they get done, or they don't. But I want it shipshape, in a ready to go shape as we go away for 3 weeks towards the end of January.

We were indeed without heating through the cold snap, 5 weeks I think. We used up all our winter logs in the woodburner and had an electric heater upstairs, so could have been worse (we also have an immersion heater). Of course after hard frosts last week it's shirtsleeves weather here now.

Haven't been up to the plot for a couple of weeks. Oh well, it will still be there.

Shove - you have my sympathy re building work, we are just the same, our house could badly do with a bit of patching up in places but there are so many little jobs needing different trades and in different orders that we are paralysed by indecision about it all and nothing gets done unless it's DIY or essential.

Bloody hell whoknows - 5 weeks is AGES! You're tough as nails, you are!

And YY to the indecision thing. DH has now lived here 10 years, and I've lived here 7. The hall and kitchen badly needed doing when we moved in, and we're only just getting around to it now so you can imagine the state they are in! That's largely because we knew we had a long list of problems with the house (lack of storage being a major one), but we weren't sure how to solve them. The architects have been superb at diagnosing and solving all of those problems in one fell swoop. However, the fellness of it means that we are going to be living in rubble for much of next year! I'm pretty sure I will be crying by the end of week 2.

wow WhoKnows - I agree with shove - thats a long time without a boiler. (My DH would have nearly died. He has a chronic illness which is exacerbated by the cold so he sits in the house, nicely heated with more layers on than I care to think of ....mind you his sister has bad Raynauds, and I often wonder whether that is a factor)
House sorting, decisions - its not nice. We have lived here for many years now, and the discussion starts about 2 years before with DH saying - we need to decide on what we are going to do about x...We then research, google, ask anyone we know with any/no knowledge, discuss, google some more...and then try and put off actually doing the work until absolutely it needs to be done. !
You need to have a plan shove - I had my kitchen done a few years ago, so I filled the freezer to the top with meals I could pop in the microwave, or make using a kettle and a single hob. I turned my utility room into a very small kitchen, and had to wash up in the shower room sink. But I didn't allow myself to ask when it would be finished, that would have been too demoralising! I felt that as long as we could eat well on an evening, I could cope. ( Or maybe thats just me? - food is important in my life )
And it was only 4 weeks , so I am feeling very sorry for you..

Our regular plumber retired recently, so we had to start from scratch finding a new one, getting quotes, deciding which one to choose and they were all very booked up, it's the busiest time of year. Our old boiler was 25 years old and we had 15 years of almost faultless service out of it so can't complain really.

Our problem with refurbishment is that this house has very small rooms (Coronation St style terrace) and they are all fully furnished so there is nowhere to move stuff to in order to permit plastering, decorating, new carpets. Also all rooms are in use at all times. It was fine before the DCs came along, but very hard to do anything major now.

bookbook said it was ok for me to come on here. I am possibly going to become an allotment renter. I have been offered one after a longish waiting list. I will go to look at it on Saturday. I hope you will all be able to give me some guidance.

aww, I'm not the thread police, honest!