Organic Catalogue Order

Gave in last night and stuck the order on the credit card as I want to get stuff planted soon so I'm not always behind like I was last year.

This isn't a full list of everything I'm growing as I've got seeds for a lot of things, I'll post the names of the others soon.

1 x CALABRESE Pacifica

1 x GAILLARDIA Large Flowered (fancied some colour on the plot and cut flowers!)

1 x CHRYSANTHEMUM Tricolour

1 x CUCUMBER Stimora Mix F1 (Gherkins)

1 x CLIMBING BEAN Neckargold (to be grown in the back yard)

1 x SWEETCORN Sweet Nugget F1

1 x TURNIP Golden Ball

1 x SWEDE Willemsburger

1 x SPINACH Matador

1 x SQUASH Turks Turban

1 x SQUASH Trombolino

1 x SQUASH Butternut

1 x PUMPKIN Vegetable Spaghetti (you can tell we like squash in this house!)

1 x PUMPKIN Tom Fox

1 x PARSNIP Tender and True (this is the variety I grew last year, they were fab)

1 x MARROW Minipak

1 x COURGETTE Nero di Milan

1 x CABBAGE Marner Early Red

I'm not growing anything that overwinters because as I've said I won't be renewing my lease in January, thus we have early cabbage and suchlike, hopefully we will be harvesting in December still if I've done my planning right.

I went to the plot for an hour or so yesterday, I need to get into the routine again now that the weather is picking up. I finally weeded the onions and I also hoed a few beds. I'm hoping in a fortnight to get all the spuds in so those beds are where they'll go, when is everyone else planning on spud planting? I tidied the shed ready for seeds to be sown, I'm raring to go now, need to finish my list of what needs to be planted when and also finish reading the Square Foot Gardening book so I can use my beds properly (also need to dig those beds but DH has said he'll attend with me to help put in the spuds so I may get him to dig a couple more while he's there!). I want the final beds (4 more 4x4 foot Square Foot beds and 1 large bed for squash) finished by April at the latest so I'm not in the position I was last year of not having enough beds for my plants.

My little boy is supposed to start mornings at Nursery in May (if we get him potty trained in time, we've only just started!) so I will hopefully be able to grab an hour or so at the plot while he's there which will be great and mean that we aren't harvesting just a couple of times a week and not watering enough.

Note to self must ask if there's another water butt going as 1 wasn't enough last year.

Someone had taken it upon themselves to cut the very tall hedge between my plot and the newly vacant one before it down to about 4 foot (from about 14 foot). I wouldn't have minded but they left the branches all over the place and also trimmed my side hedge leaving branches everywhere and knocking down part of my fence. Plus they left a pile of branches on my end bed where they'd cut something down near my compost bins... Had I asked for it to be done or even known it was happening I wouldn't have minded but I'm not keen on someone tromping around my plot when they've not told me about it....

Spuds

My potatoes arrived today from Thompson and Morgan, nicely timed for me to give my Mother her part of the order when I see her soon! My seeds arrived at the end of last week so I'm happy with their delivery times.



Now I just have to figure out where the hell I'm going to chit 100 potatoes... Guess I will stick them somewhere out of the way and hope that by the first weekend in March (if it's not raining of course!) they are ready to go in the ground as that's when I plan to plant them.

I've still not ordered my seeds from the Organic Catalogue, I really must do it soon or else I won't get stuff started. Mind you, it's still so cold at the moment that I don't think things will do that well in the shed anyway, and we have a plant eating cat and no space here anyway to do it so I don't think I'm that far behind.

I am going to try and make it to the plot this weekend for sure, didn't go Sunday due to very heavy rain, but I need to get into the routine again or else I'll fall behind and I want to make the most of this year to try out Square Foot Gardening and see how much of our food we can provide. I'll post a lit of what I'm intending to grow as soon as I've placed the order.

Forgot to say that I cooked my 3 small pumpkins the other week as they were starting to go off, just halved them, scooped out the seeds and baked them for about 45 minutes. I made 2 lovely loaves of pumpkin bread and still have a little bit in the freezer when I figure out what to do with it. I soaked the seeds in salted water for about 36 hours and then baked them for a short while and they're wonderful, and keeping really well in a little tupperware container. Can't wait for more pumpkin this year, I'm growing big ones and little'uns for a bit of variety!

Potatoes and Prizes

I have just placed my potato order from Thompson and Morgan. They sell them in bags of 20 which is the perfect amount for my size of bed. This year I am using the middle 5 beds down the left for potatoes which should hopefully provide us with a harvest that will last a good long while. The varieties I'll be growing are Aran Pilot, Aran Victory, Cara, Yukon Gold and Pink Fur Apple.

I am just about to ring them again now and place a seed order from their Rewarding Gardens From Seed catalogue. They very kindly sent me a £5 voucher and you can also get 2 packets of seed for free from them at the same time. If you order stuff less than £5 it's free and you just pay the 99p postage so don't go chucking the catalogue out if you get one! I am ordering outdoor cucumbers, mini aubergines and Gardener's Delight tomatoes all to be grown in the back yard in tubs and then Gypsy summer Cauliflower and Bright Lights Rainbow Chard for the plot. All of that is setting me back just £1.51, you can't argue with that!

I still need to do my Organic Seed Catalogue and Robinsons Catalogue later on, my Mother and I will be swapping half packets here and there as neither of us need 80 of anything really! I am also going to have to do some kind of chart to show me when I need to be planting stuff, especially with the Square Food Gardening that needs to be worked out, but I have cut my list by quite a lot not having overwintering stuff this year and also deciding not to do garlic or onions as I'd rather use the space for courgettes and squash which cost a lot more in the supermarket than onion and garlic do.

I was asked how big my plot was and to tell you the truth I have no idea, I never measured it! It doesn't say on my receipt either. I don't know why our rents are so high, I can only assume it's because we have so many vacant plots on our site (high water table and a lot are unusable as they flood and apparently some have very deep old wells on them, eeek) and Liverpool City Council are trying to get some money from the place. When you look at the cost of the plot, all the money I put into getting it going and all the money spent on seeds and suchlike it is quite clear that I've really not saved much money, but saving money is only part of the reason I do it, what I learn now will save me money in the future when I get my own garden and make my way towards being self-sufficient when it comes to vegetables. Anyway, from a quick calculation on how many 4 foot beds, 2 foot paths, 6 foot beds and how much ground the shed stands on I'd say it's about 50ft end to end, I use about 40ft of that as beds and paths with the compost in the back corner.

I went to the AGM of the allotment society last weekend and was pretty put off by what I saw. It seemed to be a small group of older men who would not let anything go, even if it happened years ago. I asked a question about whether we could do anything about the cars parked on the road (double yellow lines, they're people attending martial arts lessons) and almost ended up with a huge row going on between everyone at it appears that I wasn't aware of 15 years of history over the car park and suchlike... Had someone told me calmly the situation and left it at that we all could have gone home 15 minutes earlier. I also asked a question about how the rents were worked out, just out of interest as to whether there was a price for the whole site divided by active plots or whether it was just charged on a plot by plot basis and ended up with the Treasurer being quite off thinking I was having a go at him because apparently I paid a service charge that those who'd had their plots longer hadn't. Had he actually listened to me rather than just assumed that I was having a go at him (I have no idea how much people pay, you don't go up to other plotholders and ask what their rent is really do you?) things would have been a lot nicer. And they wonder why they don't have anyone volunteering for the committee...

Anyway, Plot C81 was awarded an Honorary Mention (basically 3rd prize) for 'Most mproved Plot' which was nice. We didn't get any money (second place got a fiver!) but we did get a certificate.

I'm undecided whether to frame it and hang it in the shed!