It was just over a year ago that I started writing this blog and so a whole year’s story of me on the allotment comes full circle. This time last year I wrote that I had already planted our Anya potatoes. This year, based on the unusually harsh winter we’ve had in Devon, and another year’s worth of experience, I’m feeling confident about delaying the potato planting until after Easter. I’m certainly starting the growing season in a more relaxed manner and the fact that I haven’t already filled a thousand seed-trays with every possible vegetable is evidence of that. 

Today, I feel almost nostalgic reading those first blogs. I had never written a blog before and the last diary I wrote probably talked about boys and arguments with my parents! I have really enjoyed recording what I’ve done on the allotment, the successes (sweet peas and crown prince squashes spring to mind) and the disasters (the badger’s attacks on the carrots and the destruction of our brassicas by caterpillars were probably the most significant) as well as my joys and frustrations. Although I will be in my wellies and on the allotment for many hours again this year, I won’t be recording it in the blog. As a free service, Vegswap, has for the time being, run out of funding and so unfortunately, paying for a blog just can't continue. I think Vegswap is a great way of putting this growing community (pun intended) of people who grow their own in touch with each other. There will always be too much of something and to swap your surplus courgettes or beans with someone else’s raspberries or sweet corn means less waste and a real reason to feel good about growing your own food.

Besides, you shouldn’t be sat in front of the computer reading about me on the allotment, you should be out there digging. Go on now, out you go...

In the last blog I wrote about using up the last of the Nicola potatoes. This week the last of the Kerrs Pink ended up in the recycling bin as I was put off by the sight of their alien tentacles that were poking out of the top of the potato sack.  If potatoes know that spring is on its way then who am I to argue? It was with great joy therefore, (for the coming of spring as well as the prospect of a morning mooching around a garden centre) that I purchased my bags of seed potatoes. Based on last year’s success, I decided to go for Nicola and Pink Fir Apples again and in addition, a bag of Vivaldi seed potatoes as recommended by my next-door allotment neighbour, Lindsey.  Sainsburys had some small Vivaldi potatoes on offer this week which I bought so I’d know what to expect come July sometime. They have a very smooth skins and a pale yellow flesh. When I steamed them they kept their shape and the texture was very creamy although I found the skins to be quite chewy. I’ve heard that their claim to fame is that they make such creamy mashed potatoes that you don’t need to add butter or milk. I imagine that they would be absolutely delicious with a splash of milk and a large knob of butter! 

Of course, I didn’t go to a garden centre and just buy three bags of potatoes. I also bought seeds. Rather a lot of them. I do this every year – get carried away with the possibility of it all. Actually, I think I’ve been rather more conservative this year and although I’ve gone for some different varieties, for example, Lady Di runner beans instead of Streamline, I haven’t bought anything weird or wonderful like Winter Dumpling squash (yuk) or baby corn (waste of space), or blue potatoes (very odd). Oh, hang on, I’ve just remembered – as I had bought so many packets of seeds, I was given a free packet of yellow radishes. Now that’s pretty weird.  

Potatoes know when spring is coming!

These our just a few of my new seeds - I've still got a whole tin of them left over from last year.

It’s even snowing in Devon! The children have never seen the front garden covered in more than just a sprinkling and this morning they woke up to a full inch of the stuff! I sent them out early to throw snowballs but they were absolutely gutted to discover that their school wasn’t on the list of school closures. After a huge row, school uniforms went on and off they went. Oh well. Last night, it was also with disappointment that I used up the very last of our Nicola potatoes. They were dug up in July and have stored brilliantly in the potato sacks I got from the local chip shop. No sign of green and they’ve kept their firm texture. I shall definitely grow them again this year. I cut them into long quarters and roasted them for about 40 minutes with sprigs of rosemary, garlic and olive oil. Meanwhile I baked a whole camembert for the last 25 minutes with a little garlic and a drizzle of white wine. We dipped the potato wedges and some celery into the runny cheese well accompanied by a good glass of red (I’m supposedly on a January detox but the cheese demanded it). It was a good send-off. 

I’ve just received an email from the school and due to the severe weather conditions the school is closing at 1pm. Oh well.

This is nothing to do with growing veg or running an allotment but I just have to tell you what happened to me this morning. The boys and I braved the icy roads at 7.30am to go and pick up our turkey from the butchers. As I stood in the queue – a queue, can you believe it! -  I noticed a sign stuck to the display cabinet saying that the credit card machine had broken and so they were taking only cheques and cash. My purse was empty and I never carry a cheque book. Aagh! The car was parked on double yellow lines and even at that early time I was worried I would get a ticket (I’m such a rule follower, breaking any kind of law sends me into acute anxiety). What to do? But I didn’t have to worry as the man behind me in the queue offered to give me the money for my turkey so I wouldn’t lose my place in the queue. As I write this I still can’t believe it. Was he an angel? Anyway, thank you so much to the man in Luscombes the butchers in Totnes who paid for my turkey, you really are the Spirit of Christmas.  

In case you were wondering I ran/slid/ran down to the cash machine to pay him back.

And to everyone who has been reading my blog this year, I wish you lots of Christmas Spirit and a very happy growing New Year.

Julie        

A winter’s day on the allotment:

The week before last we had a day of sunshine. I seized the day and strode over to the allotment with a flask of coffee and a dustpan and brush. My mission: to sort out the shed. Simple as that. It really was a mess. Anything the size of a hand tool or smaller lay tumbled in one large plastic box, muddy and messy. Plant labels, string, coffee mugs, babywipes, tools and rubbish. I’m not the most patient of people and looking for a pair of scissors or some such item, I’ve been known (well, I’m not actually known for this as I don’t generally throw my toys out of the pram if anyone is within earshot, but I’m admitting it to you now) to throw everything out of the box in frustration. So I spent a very satisfactory morning sorting everything out, cleaned and organised in separate containers. I used the dustpan and brush to give the walls and floor a really good sweep. And it really did need it – onion skins, dried soil, wood lice, chicken manure, spiders and snails. A rake or spade just wasn’t going to cut it. I’m slightly embarrassed about the dustpan and brush thing though. I even put it in a bag to take it over to the allotment in case anyone saw me. I guess it’s because if I’m honest, if I’d seen anyone else on the allotment with a dustpan and brush, they wouldn’t have heard the end of it. At least I didn’t take over the handheld vacuum cleaner!

I’ve just been listening to Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 and he has a ‘resident’ allotment holder called Terry Walton on the show who grows veg in the Rhonda Valley in Wales. Terry has just been talking about his parsnips and how he is concerned for their welfare due to the amount of rain we’ve been getting. Great. It’s not enough that our parsnips weren’t cooking very well, now I have to worry about their survival. I’m guessing that they start rotting if they get too soggy. We also had our first frost this week and I bet a hard frost would spell disaster for a soggy parsnip.However, it’s possible that the problem we’ve been having with cooking the parsnips is the particular variety we’ve been pulling out of the ground. This weekend Thomas pulled some parsnips from a different row. These ones were ‘Countess’ and the results were much better – not so tough and much creamier on the inside. I’m not sure which variety we were using before – they were either ‘White Gem’ or ‘Albion’ – but from now on I’m going to pay attention as it will help us decide which variety to plant again next year. Another factor though is that we roasted them in the goose fat that I’d bought from the supermarket ready for those Christmas roasties, so perhaps that helped.

Well swept!

We are really getting some wild weather at the moment. On one hand I love strong winds – your hair whipping your face so that you can’t see, the pressure on your back pushing you along and billowing out your waterproof coat which you’ll probably need: where there’s wind there’s often rain;  but at the same time the power of the wind makes me a bit nervous. I’m not keen on walking in the woods in a big wind in case I get hit in the head by some flying piece of debris and it doesn’t help that there are some big trees right outside our house. Looking out of our living room window at the wind in the branches of the cedar that towers over our little bungalow makes me feel quite vulnerable. And of course, the wind can cause a lot of damage, not least on an exposed allotment. 

I didn’t get that far though. This morning I drew the curtains to find the trellis that provides a screen along the front of our garden had fallen head-first into our garden onto the newly sprouting daffodil bulbs that I’d planted a month ago (seems early doesn’t it?). The wind and the top heavy weight of jasmine, honeysuckle and various clematis had broken the supporting posts where they were fixed to the wall. There’s nowhere to hide now! One of the small plastic greenhouses in the back yard also went headfirst but luckily there was nothing in it. 

I went over to the allotment expecting to find carnage and was pleasantly surprised to find very little evidence of any damage. One of our water butts had fallen over, despite being full of water, and our two plastic watering cans had wandered up to Hilary’s shed, but that was it. All the sheds were still standing. Even the enviromesh covering the brassicas was in place and the wigwams of french beans that I still haven’t taken down were standing straight and tall. I think it was good timing that last week Thomas cut down the asparagus ferns and the jerusalem artichokes - I think I might have found them horizontal if not. I dug up some parsnips, spinach and leeks, took a few photos and came straight home. The grey sky, the cold wind and the lack of company made the allotments feel quite desolate. I needed a hot cup of coffee and the heating on. 

Tonight I roasted the parsnips for the boys’ dinner (although I’m not convinced they were the right accompaniment to fish fingers!) and yet again, they were tough. I am having real problems with these parsnips. I dig them out of the ground and they look fabulous, full of such hope (see photo), but when I roast them they refuse to behave. I want soft and fluffy on the inside and slightly crisp on the outside and all I get is tough and chewy, inside and out. It hurts me to say this: I’ve never had this problem with shop-bought parsnips. If you have any ideas, I would be eternally grateful because at the moment the parsnips are turning into a bit of a white elephant.

Our fallen down trellis

The sun came out for a moment today

The allotment looks a bit sad from this angle. I promise to do something about the brassicas under the enviromesh!

Those parsnips deserve an award for looks! Shame about the taste.

Susan is the brains behind vegswap. She came up with the idea last summer when she had too much rhubarb and watched most of the apples from her four apple trees rot on the ground. Her husband Chris, had recently given up his job to start his own web design business and it occurred to her that they could create a website that would enable gardeners to swap their surplus fruit and veg as well as the things that they made with them. They got to work in autumn 2008 and the website went live to friends and family at the end of January this year. Having completed a summer of testing and debugging they are now starting to promote vegswap and the number of visitors has been increasing steadily. She has personally swapped her produce for some delicious apple juice, lettuce, beetroot and some aubergine plants.  Her aim for the site is to see communities swapping across the country and perhaps even the world!

Sue with one of her apple trees today.

Name: Susan  

Age: Not telling

Family: My husband Chris and 2 little girls aged 3 and 5

Job: Founder of Vegswap, Locum Vet, Mum, housewife and general dogsbody

Lives: Stoke Gabriel in Devon 

How long have you been growing your own vegetables? About 6 or 7 years in some shape or form. 

What got you started? The first house my husband and I bought together had this beautiful wooden hexagonal green house which is where I had my first attempt at growing tomatoes. They grew like a jungle as I did nothing to them and produced tiny tomatoes – even though they weren’t a cherry variety. But they tasted great! 

What crops do you always grow? Tomatoes and wild rocket (it grows like a weed in my soil and is so expensive to buy). 

What are your favourite varieties? I'm really rubbish with my varieties –I always forget to write down what I used last year so end up buying whatever I  can find that is cheap (or even better, free). 

What’s the most exotic thing you’ve grown? I’m growing globe artichokes at the moment. They haven’t flowered this year so I’m not sure I’ve got it right. But they are beautiful –spiky, almost like a cactus. 

What have been your successes and failures of the season? We’ve had the builders in this year so I put lots of stuff in too late (sweet corn, squash, beans, mange tout). I grew two new crops in my greenhouse from seedlings I acquired last minute (one from a swap and one a gift), aubergines and cucumbers. They both did really well with virtually no effort from me. I will definitely be trying them again. 

Where do you buy your seeds? Online mainly but I have to admit I subscribe to a gardening magazine and stash all the free seeds for the following year. 

Do you buy plug plants? No –I’m too tight to spend the money! 

What do you put on the soil/plants to help them grow? Definitely not as much as I should! If a crop needs TLC it won’t grow in my garden. We did build big deep raised beds about 3 years ago and filled those almost completely with compost so I’ve been able to get away with being lazy –so far. 

What do you do about slugs, birds, butterflies and badgers? I swear by Nemaslug for slugs (little worms that kill the slugs). The cat takes care of some of the birds but I grow most of our soft fruit in a cage and net the rest. I let the butterflies lay their eggs and the girls and I spend many a happy hour together squashing caterpillars –truly gruesome! And I have to admit that my husband can be found out many a night peeing round the garden to keep away the badgers (It’s supposed to be young male urine so I’m not sure how much longer that will be effective for...).  

Do you grow things at home? My plot is in my back garden so yes. 

What’s in your shed? It’s so full of junk I can’t get in to it. The hoe and fork are by the door but beyond that its most definitely male territory. The green house is mine though. 

What’s your best freebie? Mmm... 

What do you wear to work in the garden? Usually whatever I’ve got on. I’m usually dressed to deal with young kids or animals anyway so a bit of mud won’t make much difference. 

What activity do you find the most satisfying? Picking and cooking. To be honest, for me it’s all about the end product. 

What’s your favourite tool? Hoe 

Do you sing or whistle while you work? No. My kids are at an age where there is noise everywhere and I really appreciate the silence of my garden or greenhouse. 

What do you think about while you work? I day-dream mainly. 

What’s your favourite time of year? Early spring –it’s that realisation when that winter is ending and the garden is coming alive again. It’s so full of hope and anticipation of the summer ahead. 

What’s the best thing about growing your own? Having fruit and veg that tastes like nothing you can buy. Warm strawberries straight off the plant, mangetout that is so so sweet.... 

Do you have a gardening hero? No not really. 

Who cooks the food you grow? Me. 

What’s your favourite meal? Goodness that’s a hard one. Usually anything cooked by someone else!!! 

Which of your produce to you eat the most of? It depends on the time of year. Right now it's tomatoes. 

Did you enter the village horticultural show? No –I’m nowhere near a good enough gardener!! I would be laughed out of the hall... 

Tell me a funny story. I’m really struggling with the funny story.  

Tea or coffee?                                    tea                 

Strawberries or raspberries?              raspberries

Raised beds or traditional?                 raised beds

New or main crop potatoes?              new

Runner beans or French beans?         french beans

Onions or shallots?                             onions

Dig or no dig?                                     I dig but I don’t enjoy it! 

If you could give one piece of advice to a new veg grower what would it be? Just plant it and see. Don’t worry too much about all the jobs you’re supposed to do. You would be surprised how much you can grow by popping some seeds in and doing nothing else.  

Sue and Chris inherited this useful raspberry cage when they moved into their house.

Contents of the shed - it's obviously been tidied since the interview!

The greenhouse still has tomatoes and chillis.

Everyone has been busy on the allotments clearing away spent foliage and digging over the soil ready to put their allotments to bed for the winter. We now have a huge pile of horse manure that we have all been spreading over the empty beds. Some of it hasn’t rotted down yet so that will be left under a sheet of plastic until it’s ready to use next year. Thomas (very helpfully?) joined the dung shifters and spread manure over some of our empty beds that I had planted green manure in. Mm. But to be fair, he also lugged barrows of it over to where next year’s potatoes will be planted so that’s a job done in good time (last year we left it until the spring and it was all a bit of a rush).  

There are still quite a few things growing so we won’t be able to manure that ground until they’re gone. The winter veg like leeks, parsnips and swede will stay where they are until we are ready to use them and there is a bed full of young spinach, pak choi, chervil, watercress and coriander. Our asparagus is still green so we can’t cut that down until it’s died off, the same with the jerusalem artichokes which won’t be ready to dig up until February. Otherwise, we still have some rows of spring onions, parsley, oregano and mint as well as the brassica seedlings I planted a few weeks ago. The horseradish was stripped of leaves by the caterpillars so I’m going to pull that up soon and make some horseradish sauce with it. The french beans are coming to an end now as are the last of the butternut squash plants that have produced a measly few tiny squashes. I don’t know what happened to them, or didn’t happen, but we did so well with them last year that I’ll certainly give them another go next year. 

There are some other things however, that we have decided not to plant again next year. Baby sweetcorn is a waste of time given the number of cobs you get but I might use it as a windbreak instead, especially as I have some seeds leftover. The leftover seeds of spicy leaf salad have gone in the bin as none of us liked it. I’ve given up on ‘easy to grow’ celeriac. If you consider tennis ball sized celeriac a decent crop then they are easy to grow, but I don’t, and this is the second year they’ve failed to do their thing. The mange tout was lovely but it is impossible to pick and eat often enough before it gets big and flabby. Lindsey and Stuart grew sugar snap peas which didn’t have that problem and they produced lovely peas if they didn’t get eaten in time so I think we might try those instead. Carrots will be grown at home in a box where they won’t get eaten by the badger and at home, I have decided not to bother with tomatoes due to the cost of the grow-bags, the inevitable blight and the need to water all the time.  

So, with this in mind, I sat down late last night and sorted through this year’s seeds and pulled out the unwanted and finished packets. I threw away the leek seed heads as they were providing a home for a swarm of moths. I put the seeds from a crown prince squash we’d had for dinner last week in a brown envelope and put the whole lot in a tin and put it away. Time for bed I thought.  

Our allotment from the front: parsnips and leeks. The herb bed is in the middle and the asparagus ferns still looking very green are on the right.

The clary sage is still attracting bumble bees.

Clearing the ground ready for potatoes next year. This should be enough space for three rows which should give a much more realistic amount of potatoes for a family of four!

I brought home a string of shallots that had been drying in the shed and some Prizetaker leeks to go in the chicken pie.

Maggie is also a member of our allotment ‘family’. You may recall I’ve mentioned her in previous blogs and memorably, her scarecrow that stood guard over her allotment over the summer. Maggie and her husband also keep bees and have won many awards for their honey at local honey shows and at the Devon County Show.  

Name: Maggie

Age: 61

Family: Husband Rod and two grown-up daughters who have their own families

Lives: Stoke Gabriel, Devon 

How long have you been growing your own vegetables? Probably about 30 years some of that professionally. When we first lived in Stoke Gabriel about 25 years ago, Suttons Seeds had their trial grounds behind our house and when the children were old enough I got a part-time job there looking after the plants from seed to harvest. I even learned to drive a tractor. I’ve always grown my own vegetables and I’ve had an allotment for six years; this is my first year on this particular allotment though. 

What got you started? My dad used to grow vegetables and as a child I was very interested in anything to do with nature. Growing plants was a natural progression. I was 11 when I saved up my pocket money to buy my first greenhouse. 

What crops do you always grow? At home I have apple, pear and plum trees and I always plant carrots, parsnips, spinach beet, peas, runner and french beans, beetroot, cucumbers and tomatoes. 

What are your favourite varieties? Potato: Linzer Delicatesse; peas: Hurst’s Greenshaft; climbing french beans: Blue Lake; lettuce: Little Gem 

What’s the most exotic thing you’ve grown? Yard long runner beans. 

What have been your successes and failures of the season? I grew Sturon onions from seed that were great: they didn’t go to seed or catch any diseases and grew huge for a standard cooking onion. Also, I beat the badger with my carrot defences. My swede didn’t do very well as I’d planted them with the carrots under fleece and I think the microclimate didn’t suit them very well. 

Where do you buy your seeds? All over the place so long as they’re this year’s seeds so they’re viable. I like to buy seeds when we’re on holiday in Spain as you get different varieties, they’re cheaper and you get more seeds in a packet. 

Do you buy plug plants? Not normally, I get everything started at home in the greenhouse. 

What do you put on the soil/plants to help them grow? Nothing this year as it was the first time anything was grown in the soil. Sometimes I’ll use an organic liquid seaweed fertilizer early in the season and in the autumn I’ll spread manure over the soil and cover with weed suppressing barrier until the spring. 

What do you do about slugs, birds, butterflies and badgers? In the garden I’ll go out at night with a head-torch and pick off the slugs but it’s not so easy to do that on an allotment. Keeping the grass cut very short around the beds can help as slugs like to hide in long grass and weeds. With birds I encourage the little ones but deter the big ones like pigeons and rooks. Using bird netting helps and starting plants like peas off at home stops the rooks pecking the seeds out of the ground. Butterflies can be deterred by spraying or watering over water that has had crushed garlic steeped in it. And badgers, well, I nailed down enviromesh then covered the lot with netting which went over the paths and pinned down with fence posts!  

Do you grow things at home? I have espalier fruit trees and strawberries and I grow cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes in the greenhouse. 

What’s in your shed? Tea making stuff, tools, netting, mesh and windbreak material. Round the back I keep my canes and my waterbutts. 

What’s your best freebie? Julie said I can have some autumn fruiting yellow raspberries canes but I haven’t put them in yet! 

What do you wear to work on the allotment? Anything comfortable and stretchy - I have a couple of pairs of tracksuit bottoms I keep for the purpose. But nothing too ugly or revealing! 

Who do you go to the allotment with? On my own – I try to avoid bringing anyone as I’m a bit of a perfectionist! 

What activity do you find the most satisfying? Picking the produce. 

What’s your favourite tool? I like all my tools equally. 

Do you sing or whistle while you work? I would sing if I could. 

What do you think about while you work? What I’m doing. 

What’s your favourite time of year on the allotment? Around July when the weather is usually nice, the Spring worry of what will grow has passed and the excitement of harvesting the first potatoes and peas. 

What’s the best thing about having an allotment? The peace and quiet, the social atmosphere of being with like-minded people and the joy of growing food to feed your family. 

Do you have a gardening hero? I like Geoff Hamilton for being a good all-round practical gardener; Alan Titchmarsh for his jovial personality; Monty Don and Carol Klein for their enthusiasm. 

Who cooks the food you grow? Me. 

What’s your favourite meal? Roast dinner with a huge pile of vegetables – roast potatoes, roasted sweet peppers, carrots glazed on orange juice, french beans and peas and home-made gravy.  

Which of your produce to you eat the most of? Potatoes. 

What do your friends and family think of your allotmenteering? They probably think I spend too much time up here instead of being available. 

Did you enter the village horticultural show? I got a first for my onions, carrots, jam and chutney and second for my cucumbers, runner beans and Housewife’s Choice basket. 

Tell me a funny story. I had been for a walk on Dartmoor and had collected a bag of sheep manure (it’s like an organic version of growmore!). I  had sprinkled it over some of my beds and thoroughly enjoyed winding Nick up by convincing him we had a problem with a giant rabbit. 

Anything embarrassing? Probably wearing a top that revealed too much or wearing too short shorts – there’s lots of bending over required when gardening! 

Tea or coffee?                                    coffee

Strawberries or raspberries?               strawberries

Raised beds or traditional?                 raised, but without the woodwork

New or main crop potatoes?              both

Runner beans or French beans?         french beans

Onions or shallots?                             both

Dig or no dig?                                     minimum dig 

If you could give one piece of advice to a new veg grower what would it be?

Get rid of all the couch grass before you start on a new piece of ground otherwise you’ll be pulling it out forever.

The top half of Maggie's allotment that she is in the process of cultivating. She is growing strawberries through the holes of her compost bin.

The fencing around the beds was to try and keep the badgers out but although they managed to get through the wire fence they couldn't get to the carrots.