Veg Plotting

I've made a guest appearance this week on the Thompson & Morgan (T&M) blog with some of my top tips for allotment growing alongside regular Veg Plotting commenter Sue (yay!), plus a whole host of experienced allotmenteers. Those of you who read my National Gardening Week post last May may be a little surprised as I confessed then I no longer have an allotment. My response to T&M's questions apply to what I've been doing here at VP Gardens and show grow your own is feasible whether you have just a windowsill right through to a full-blown allotment. My update on progress since then is long overdue. In a nutshell I produced more in 2019 than many an allotment year despite the more restricted space. It's not been a perfect time owing to family circumstances, so I look forward to 2020's growing season confident even more progress can be made. Two of my key projects last year were to improve soil health and to increase my growing space with some ...

Today is the last day of National Gardening Week and this year's theme of edible growing. To celebrate, I've posted daily photos on Twitter, plus some on Instagram and it's great to use this post to look over the week and see the visual diary of what's happening in my garden right now. What you won't find is the confession I've waited a while to tell you: I gave up my allotment last year. I cried when I made the decision, but my renewed enthusiasm for gardening this year shows it's the right one. You'll see from the photo at the top of this post that I brought my lovely Woodblocx raised bed back home. It soon became clear that I didn't have the right space for it here, but there is a very happy spot available for it in the community garden at Midsomer Norton station, which is where NAH has his steam engine. I look forward to going there later this year to see how it's settling into its new home. So now I have an exciting new...

It's major catch up time this week, with seed sowing underway at last*. Quite a few have been sown at home, and the others are set to be dealt with at the allotment this weekend, once I've cleared the raised beds of all the naughty weeds that have sprung up. I'm particularly looking forward to trialling the new Optigrow seeds I've been given (at the bottom centre of the picture) as they might just help me make up for lost time. So far I'm particularly impressed with the cucumber seeds I'm trialling courtesy of Mr Fothergill as they all germinated within 4 days. These come with their own mini greenhouse and coir based compost; the latter was great to watch grow from its 1cm high starter disc to an impressive 5cms when I added the water**. Our curries have been transformed this year by the use of fresh turmeric, which in turn gives a wonderfully fresh flavour. I was delighted to find there's lots of information about growing and the use of this i...

I'm delighted to offer a different kind of cuppa for #nationalteaday as I'm allergic to the usual stuff*. Instead I'm exploring a different kind of tea via those found in Henriette Kress's Practical Herbs 1 . For those in the know, Kress's double volume has been available in a pdf format for a number of years and it's clear from the interweb she's a well regarded herbalist in her field. Now it's available in book form and for me, the first volume I received to review for today's tea blog tour has the clearest and most detailed explanation I've found of the preservation of herbs and their use as herbal oils, salves, syrups, vinegars, tinctures and teas. There's the added bonus of what to do when it all goes wrong - which is often omitted in all kinds of reference books - and here we have the voice of experience to help make things better, in the herbal world at least. We're quite early in the foraging season which combined with ou...

Yesterday's gardening section in The Telegraph was HUGE! I had a little slot in there thanks to my friend Naomi . Sadly the weather forecast is against most of the tasks mentioned, though today's weather looks generally OK for a spot of raised bed making or plot mulching*, and there's plenty of opportunity for sowing seeds indoors**. It was so relaxing (and less painful currently) to do this over the phone rather than bashing it out on the computer. Thanks to Naomi who did the latter as well as our call. There are lots more hints and tips here  -  not just from me - with some that are doable whatever the weather. Note that the full online version is only available to subscribers. As NAH says, now I've got to get on with it myself. What are your garden projects this weekend? * = unless you have a broken wrist ** = which I will be doing... gingerly!

It's Apple Day tomorrow and what a bumper crop we have chez VP Gardens and on the allotment this year. Today's post comes as a slightly premature celebration as we have family matters to attend to over the weekend. We enjoy fruit juice as a weekly treat on Sundays with our roast dinner, so it was a natural step to invest in a juicer. I swithered between this and an apple press, and in the end I plumped for a juicer as it's cheaper and fulfils our immediate needs. I did have a daydream about pressing oodles of juice for a full year's supply, but practical matters such as pasteurisation and storage swiftly brought me back to reality. I'm enjoying the process immensely and it's a great way of using up loads of apples, especially any windfalls where only the damaged or bruised bits should be left out. It takes around 12 of them to produce enough juice to fill 2 glasses. Our season started off last month with single variety 'Scrumptious' and I'm ...

I'm still getting to grips with dahlias as a cut flower and it's important I do as they're the one flower still pumping out masses of blooms this late in the season. I've found picking time is crucial to success - too early and the flowers don't open; too late and they simply fall apart. They're not the longest lasting bloom either, but they form an important connection with mum as dad used to help organise the annual dahlia show where he worked. Reaction has proved key to success for my Flowers for Mum project this year. As well as the dahlias, bright blooms get a thumbs up, as does anything with a scent or strokeable leaves. Sadly mum's special Portmeirion vase has gone AWOL for the time being; she loves pointing out the bee and butterfly in the design, so I hope it returns to her room soon. My kitchen windowsill is now a colourful laboratory where I test which flowers last well in the vase. Whilst I have plenty of cut flower books to guide me, it...

Once upon a time I wrote about potatoes and the excellent service called Blightwatch which warns when weather conditions become ripe for an outbreak of potato blight . Back then the service looked out for a Smith Period i.e. a time during the potato/tomato crop season when the weather served up 90% humidity over an 11 hour period in temperatures above 10°C for 24 hours, and for both conditions to exist over a period of two days. If this occurred for my postcode area, then I'd get an email warning me that a Smith Period had happened, or one saying there was a near miss if the conditions only occurred for a day. These emails usually started around July/August time and I always received them with a sense of impending doom. Now since May this year I've had several emails called a  Hutton  Alert from the same service instead. This is much earlier to receive a blight warning and slightly worrying. Is my practise of growing early spuds to avoid late blight in danger no...

As found in the fruit display at RHS Wisley, July 2016.  According to the British Summer Fruits website , today's the first day of the summer berry season - hurrah! English strawberries found in the supermarket today will probably be polytunnel grown due to the vagaries of our British weather. I've had good results with 'Mae' and 'Christine' grown outdoors on the allotment in previous years if you're looking for a good early variety to grow for 2018. They have a sweet flavour and high yields. I can't guarantee strawberries for May 1st, especially after the recent cold weather - mid to late May is a much better bet. I have some frost-blown flowers on the allotment, but with plenty of unscathed ones showing promise. Stand by with the fleece if more frosts are forecast down your way and you should avoid flowers with the dreaded black middles.

Gorgeous scented daffodils in mum's special Portmeirion vase have made life in a nursing home a little bit better.  I've referred to my Flowers for mum project a few times, but not really explained what it's about. Since she's been in a nursing home, I've vowed to keep mum in fresh flowers for as long as she stays there. It also means I'm going to grow cut flowers for the first time. Until now, I've preferred to view my flowers in my garden, particularly as they bloom for longer that way. However, I received such a strong reaction from mum when she had her first bunch of flowers, it's seems a simple yet effective way to make her life a little bit better. She also reacts strongly to bright colours and scents, so that's informed my selection of what to grow for her, along with lots of hints and tips gleaned from  Georgie when she gave a talk at Bath University Gardening club late last year. My growing list for this year: Lavender Swee...

Our local paper has a weekly From the Files feature and it's always interesting to see a snapshot of local life from 25, 50 and 100 years ago. A Chippenham snippet from 1917 particularly caught my eye as it refers to the town's allotments: "The Town Council are sparing no effort to provide allotments for all who require them. The total of applicants is about 120: of these 27 in the London Road district have already been provided with land and a portion of Harden's Farm has been secured for the remaining 27 applicants. To meet the requirements of those in the Hawthorn and Tugela Road district, and those who had chosen land at the back of Marshfield Road, negotiations are practically completed for a portion of the arable land of Cocklebury Farm and Miss Dickson has consented to give her pasture field behind Hawthorn Road." This has set up all kinds of questions in my brain... Were these the first allotments in Chippenham?  Who cultivated them? Who ...

It's been a couple of years since I took my first cut of comfrey for my compost heaps, and I'm really pleased how my plants have filled out in their allotted space on the allotment. They make a neat boundary between the compost bins/water butt and the upper growing areas on the plot. I really like the flowers too, they're rather reminiscent of the frilly pantaloons my mum used to wear. I wonder what else can be tempted in to admire them more closely? Ah yes, the ever acrobatic and hard working bees simply can't get enough of comfrey flowers. A pause to watch their antics reveals they use the hooks on their legs to cling onto a flower whilst taking their fill of pollen and nectar. There's always something new to learn about bees. I took these photos before I went on holiday, and seeing it's National Insect Week , now's the perfect time to show them to you. The bees have taken their fill and the flowers have faded, so it's time p...

The journey from our holiday cottage to the market town of Helmsley proved a favourite one over the past couple of weeks. It took us up Clay Bank (as shown on Sunday's Postcard ), then over Bilsdale and Ryedale moors through the most exquisite of upland scenery and a scattering of stone-built villages and farmsteads. Our main objective for the first of these trips was to visit Helmsley Walled Garden - a blog treat reserved for another day - which I've wanted to visit for quite some time. A stroll around town afterwards proved equally rewarding, especially when I found the Yorkshire version of the Allotment Folk I wrote about recently. I particularly enjoyed seeing the chap on the left. Evidence of May's Tour de Yorkshire  greeted us in most places we visited or travelled through, with all kinds of brightly painted yellow and blue bicycles, oodles of bunting and proud Yorkshire flags providing evidence of the route taken by the race's cyclists. They may have ...

Last weekend saw Chippenham's main event of the year, the Folk Festival  and I'm delighted to find a couple of allotment folk appeared at the same time up at the plot. Coincidence? I don't think so, let's consider the evidence... With that stance and style of hat, our first character has to be a folk dancer of some sort, and with a stick in her hand, I'd wager she's of the Morris persuasion. At first glance our second character seems to have a more Cavalier attitude, but those dangling bells are a giveaway. It's another Morris dancer for sure. I love the ribbons used - they say, "You are my sunshine". I wonder which folk dance fits that tune?

Garlic 'Bohemian Rose' showing strong early growth. It's leaves are reputed to grow over a metre high  No allotment season at VP Gardens is complete without an experiment or two, and this year is no exception. First up this year is a garlic trial using 3 new-to-me varieties courtesy of Marshalls , where one of the trio (Red Duke) is reputed to have some rust resistance. I didn't grow any garlic last year because rust was so rampant on my plot in 2014. I did harvest plenty of usable bulbs back then, but of the fiddly, hard to peel kind, rather than the bulging fat cloves which are a joy to cook with. Winter's been constantly wet here in Wiltshire, so I've been unable to get onto my plot to plant out my cloves. As you can see that hasn't held me back as I've resorted to my usual potted solution instead - handy for anyone who gardens on clay and loves their garlic. The pots mean I've also been able to take advantage of the few frosts we'...

I've grown Alstroemeria  aka Peruvian lily for the first time, inspired by a bunch Victoria  gave me around this time last year. They lasted for weeks in the vase and helped to brighten the dull days of autumn. In the spring I planted a bag of mixed tubers on my allotment to edge part of the big Woodblocx bed NAH installed for me last year. I'm pleased my mixed bag morphed into solely deep red flowers which are gracing my kitchen windowsill. Just four stems more than adequately fills a large vase. They came into flower in late June and by pulling the flowering stems when needed, they've continued to flower well into November. They're such good-value plants. Sarah Raven experimented with hers and managed to extend their flowering even more, though I don't know if that exhausted her tubers in the process. I've grown mine separately as for once I'm growing flowers for cutting. However, they'd also look quite at home in my mixed borders, so my bul...

Malus domestica 'Scrumptious', October 21st 2015 

Stir frying the courgettes - you can see they're just beginning to brown.  Our courgettes went from zero to glut within a week and our continuing trips away means I'm not keeping to my pick small and often philosophy. Faced with yet more courgettes reaching for marrowdom, I came up with this simple recipe which can be used in a number of ways. It's inspired by my memories of holidays in Greece where walks to the beach were scented with wild thyme crushed underfoot and us brushing past lemon trees. It makes a change from the Italian twist I usually add to my courgette glut. You can adjust this flexible recipe to suit your circumstances. Ingredients 1 large courgette Half a tablespoon good olive oil Leaves stripped from 3-4 large sprigs of freshly picked thyme Juice of 1 small unwaxed lemon ('cooked' on high for 20 seconds in a microwave to release the juices) Freshly ground black pepper Method Cut the courgette in half lengthways, then halve ...

I've learned a pause to enjoy the garden is even more important in harder times, with this month's Big Butterfly Count forming the perfect excuse to do so. Gatekeepers (pictured) and Commas are doing well at VP Gardens this year. It feels like I'm keeping a load of plates spinning in the air owing to lots of family woes (boo hoo) and a longer-than-usual holiday (hurrah) occupying most of my time. My garden and allotment are in danger of suffering badly; thank goodness I've found the following help to keep things going... In the garden We've been away a lot and there's not always a friendly neighbour around for watering duties. After all, it's holiday time for them too, so instead I've... Concentrated on bigger pots - a few years ago I counted the pots in my garden and was shocked to find I had 130. Most of them were teeny tiny ones filled with annuals, which I'm gradually replacing with much bigger pots filled with mainly perennials....