14 May 2013
Allotment

Weed Suppressing Fabric

Allotment 2013May7-0480

Pete faces a constant battle with grass over at the allotment. No sooner has he strimmed and weeded it all away so he can focus once again on the tasks of actually growing things for our own consumption than it has asserted itself once again. The petrol-powered strimmer he bought last year makes this immeasurably easier, though it still feels like a losing battle.

pf-Allotment 2013May7-0481 Allotment 2013May7-0483

So we’ve decided to give ourselves a small helping hand by covering those areas in which we neither want grass nor crops to grow (beneath the fruit trees and bushes) with heavy duty weed suppressing fabric.

This 50 metre roll cost about £50, so it wasn’t cheap, though it does feel far sturdier than thinner, cheaper weed suppressing sheets we’ve used in the past. The metal tent pegs Pete’s using to secure it to the ground are a bargain though – £1 for a pack of 10 from Poundland, and we’ve purchased several!

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07 May 2013
Allotment • Garden

Slow Progress

But progress nonetheless!

I managed to get all the early potatoes in the ground before the end of April (just!), along with onions and beetroot.

In the greenhouse, the tomatoes are settling into their growbags and I’m rushing around trying to find enough containers to take all the chillies, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers that have all germinated with impressive success and are just waiting to escape their windowsill pots.

There’s blossom on most of our trees, the raspberries are waking up nicely and the currants and gooseberries are dripping with flowers too.

If I can just keep the weeds under some vague control, this year is shaping up to be a great one!

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21 Mar 2013
Allotment • Garden

Is Spring Here Yet?

It’s been very quiet around here, both on the blog and outside. Winter was quite cold and spring has started fairly wet, so the amount of work I’ve managed to do has been limited. This is my feeble excuse for such a lack of posts!

That said, the allotment is looking better than ever before at this time of year; the grass is under control, the paths are trimmed and a growing area has been properly dug over. Even the fruit bushes are looking fairly tidy, although the trees have remained fairly unpruned as I seem to have misplaced my pruning saw.

In the garden, the greenhouse has been cleared out and filled with chitting potatoes and the beds, while not exactly weed-free, aren’t looking too bad at all.

The weather is still bitterly cold, which means very little actual planting can start yet. However, the things destined for the greenhouse are now cooking in the propagator – tomatoes, peppers (both sweet and hot), aubergines and cape gooseberries.

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The tomatoes are a mix of ones we’ve had success with before – Sungold and Tigerella – along with a couple that failed to grow last year – Black Krim and Black Russian.

I still had a few ageing Orange Bell sweet pepper seeds, and a couple of hot peppers too – Chocolate Habanero and some freebies from Wahaca.

The last two – Black Beauty aubergines and cape gooseberries – are seeds I’ve tried before and never really got to germinate and grow into functioning plants. Fingers crossed this year!

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06 Nov 2012
Uncategorized

Tools For Self Reliance Cymru

Tools For Self Reliance Cymru collect old and unwanted hand tools, mostly those used by gardeners, and their volunteers clean, repair and sharpen them. They send their refurbished tool kits to grass roots community groups in Africa.

As they explain, “Tools mean work, and the chance to shape their future, just as important to a young person in Tanzania or Ghana today as it is in Britain.”

Abergavenny-2003

In addition to sending tools to Africa, TFSR Cymru also buy tools and items made by blacksmiths in Africa, those they have supported in the past, and bring them back to the UK for sale.

TSFR Cymru also sell a large number of tools that they receive for refurbishment but which are not required by their African partners, either because they are easily made locally or are not needed there. These tools are also cleaned and sharpened, fitted with new handles where necessary and often have much more character than modern tools.

Abergavenny-2004

We encountered TSFR Cymru at this year’s Abergavenny Food Festival when their box of rakes, hoes, cultivators, dibbers caught our eye. When we saw how reasonable the prices were, Pete could not resist purchasing a cultivator, which shall be put to good work in the garden and allotment in coming months.

There were also some smaller gardening and other tools available which would be ideal for gardeners, or as gifts for gardening friends.

Abergavenny-2005

Tools For Self Reliance Cymru are an independent registered charity based in Crickhowell in South Wales, and they collect tools from across Wales.

For those outside Wales, if you have friends and family closer to TFSR Cymru  or are planning a holiday, do look at whether you are able to contribute any old and unwanted tools for them to refurbish. TSFR Cymru have four groups in Wales as well as a network of collectors who also help them gather suitable tools.

 

(There is also a separate UK Tools for Self Reliance organisation which does similar work and may have centres near you).

 

With thanks to Abergavenny Food Festival for press passes to attend the festival.

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20 Oct 2012
Uncategorized

Photos from A Hop Garden

Aaaah. August! When the sun was shining and the sky was blue… it seems so long ago now…

On the last day of the month, Pete and I were invited to visit a Hop Garden in Kent, and learn more about how hops are grown, harvested and processed before being used to make beer. Our hosts, Shepherd Neame are based in Faversham, and are committed to using British hops as much as possible. They took us for a tour Mockbeggar Farm in nearby Teynham, where owner Tony Redsell showed us around.

You can read more about the visit on Pete Drinks.

For my part, I’d simply like to share some photographs from the day. (Click on individual images to view at larger size).

Out in the fields:

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Stripping hops from the bines:

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ShepherdNeameHopWeekend-1721

Drying the hops:

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Packaging the hops:

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Chatting to owner Tony Redsell and Shepherd Neame’s Head Brewer, Richard Frost:

ShepherdNeameHopWeekend-1770

A London Gardener visited Mockbeggar Farm as guests of Shepherd Neame.

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12 Sep 2012
Garden

Last Of The Hops

final-harvest-1

I’ve finally cut down the hop bines, and taken off the remaining hop flowers.

The majority of the flowers were taken off a couple of weeks ago to go straight into my green hop beer; this small collection was all that was left, but it’s still a much bigger crop than I had dared to expected when I planted the hop earlier this year.

It only took a couple of hours in a very low temperature oven (with the door open) to dry them out properly – they’re now all safely tucked away in the freezer waiting for me to decide what beer to brew with them!

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25 Aug 2012
Uncategorized

Eden Project 2012

During our summer trip to Cornwall, we spent a lovely afternoon at the Eden Project, near St Austell.

Registered as a charity, the Eden Project is not only a beautiful place to visit, but a hugely educational one, and we loved exploring the enormous biomes and gardens.

In one is the world’s largest "rainforest in captivity", large enough that there are many distinct environments such as the mangrove swamp, a large waterfall and rainforest, mini rice paddies, vegetable fields and soya plantations and an absolutely incredible collection of flora.

The smaller Mediterranean biome doesn’t feel quite as real, in some ways, though it’s still delightful.

In the gardens, we admired plants more suited to our climate, and a range of sculpture and art.

The educational centre is more geared to children, but we did appreciate the immense stone egg sculpture inside – a shame it’s not on display in the gardens, where one could enjoy it from all around.

We were very impressed by both the quality and the price of the food served in the enormous Eden Bakery. All the food and drink offerings use local, seasonal or fairly traded products wherever they can. I also loved my baobob ice cream, from the small stall just outside the rainforest biome.

edenprojectcollage

 

Our visit to the Eden Project was part of a week-long South West Tour courtesy of The Eden Project and The Food Travel Company. The Food Travel Company offers specialist trips for food lovers, with group departures and customised itineraries available.

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22 Aug 2012
Garden

Hops In Bloom

hop-1

This year hasn’t been too kind to us on the crop front – the weather has confused everything, and usually for the worse.

However, somehow it’s worked out very well for the hop plant I planted this spring – not only has it grown more vigourously than I ever expected in it’s first year (it’s finally reached the end of the absurdly long string I gave it to climb), but it’s also bristling with hop flowers.

I hadn’t expected to get anything off it in it’s first year, but not only am I going to get some hops – I’m going to get enough hops to make more than one batch of beer, by the look of it.

Oh, and the bees seem to love these flowers too – they’re everywhere. It was hard finding a bee-free flower for the photograph!

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07 Aug 2012
Competition

First Potatoes

potatoes

It looks like blight has arrived in North London, although rather selectively. Half of our second earlies – the Yukon Gold – were totally wiped out, which has caused me to harvest them rather earlier than I would have chosen to otherwise.

Curiously, the Ratte plants sitting right next to them appear to be completely unaffected. This might be a lesson for the future – assuming they taste as good, it’s worth choosing Ratte in future years for a demonstrated blight resistance!

As for the Yukon Gold – as you can see, it’s a pretty small harvest of just 800 grams from four plants. The extremely random weather probably hasn’t helped, and the early harvest forced by the blight only compounds the problem.

Still, we will be able to eat our first potatoes of the year this evening!

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03 Aug 2012
Garden

July’s Harvest: Yellow Mange Tout

This year hasn’t been a great one in the garden or allotment but we did have a few small harvests in July. Alongside some summer berries (more of which to come soon) we harvested some yellow mange tout from the back garden. Not as vivid in colour as the seed catalogue promised (the variety is called Golden Sweet), but that’s probably a factor of the variable weather, they were nonetheless pretty and tasty.

YellowMangeTout-0529 YellowMangeTout-0538YellowMangeTout-0541

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