MY WEEK : 46 ( 27TH NOVEMBER)

Welcome to this week's update from my allotments. The week began with our allotment association's AGM which I hope after my election as the association's new Chairman, heralds a new and improved future for our allotment site. The turnout was the highest that I can remember in the 5yrs that I have been attending, with plotholders who had previously stopped attending years ago as a result of the commitee's failure to listen and inaction making the effort to attend and support my election, I hope that with their support and others we can move forward with improving our allotments site for the good of all the plotholders, both present and in the future, thankyou all. Also I must congratulate Malcolm & Pauline on their election to the committee, I know that we share the same aspirations for our allotment site and working together we can acheive these, thankyou both for your support and I look forward to working with you.

For the benefit of the plotholders on my allotment site who visit my website I was sent this photograph during the week, which I would like to share with you and as you may be able to tell it bears an uncanny likeness to a certain member of our allotment site, guess who ?

The majority of my time spent at my allotments this week has been spent on adding well rotted manure and compost to my raised beds where I intend to grow non-Root crops next season, I will leave this for a couple of months and then rotorvate it in to the soil before adding Lime to improve the PH of my soil to suit the crops to be grown in the specific beds, hopefuly giving my crops the best possible growing conditions. Last week I described how to make your own compost and I should add, that to tell when your manure or compost is well rotted enough it should not have a bad smell or odour, be a nice friable texture and it may also have some seeds starting to germinate on it's surface which they only do if it is rotted enough.




On my allotments this week I have planted a row of Lavenders across the bed that I created around my Apple trees, these should give me a good supply of material suitable for my wife Sarah to use as Pot Pourri around the house and also attract plenty of insects around the Apple trees which should help with their pollination as well as giving me the pleasure of their scent at the allotments. Also this week I have added a support frame work to my Runner Bean bed, so that when the Beans are in full production they will be well supported from any strong winds which I had to guard against this year.



The Garlic that I planted last month is really growing strongly and will have produced a good root system by now, their growth will slow as the weather turns colder but then when it starts to warm up again in the Spring they will grow away strongly . The Calabrese is still producing a decent supply of smaller florets, enough for us to enjoy them with a couple of meals a week which has been the case since they produced their main heads in September.





Although suffering from the Alium Fly damage that I described recently I am still able to harvest enough Leeks for our needs, they are delicious topped with a cheese sauce and browned under the grill, the Celery is still very tender and with the addition of a few leeks, Carrots and Potatoes I have been making plenty of warming vegetable soup which goes down a treat even with Daniel who after it has been whizzed through the food processor doen't realise just how many vegetables he is eating, which in this day and age is a difficult thing to get children to eat in any quantity.



December is the time of year when Brussel Sprouts are usually at their best, after the frosts that most parts of the country experienced a couple of weeks ago their flavour would have improved. When you harvest them you should cut them off the stem rather than trying to pull them off as this can damage the plants themselves. Also this month is a good time to prepare the ground for several crops such as Potatoes, Peas, Lettuce, Brassicas such as Cabbages and Cauliflowers all of which will benefit from adding plenty of well rotted compost or manure to their proposed growing places.



Well that is almost it for this weeks update, I would like to thank all of you who voted on my poll regarding whether or not you would like to see me write a book about my experiences on my allotments, as you probably noticed when you were voting the results were YES 80% & NO 20% which has encouraged me to keep writing in earnest, thankyou. I would also like to let you know that because of the Christmas period my next 2 updates will be fortnightly ones, so the next update will be on the weekend 16/17th December and then again on the weekend of the 30/31st December, thankyou all for continuing to follow my progress on my allotments during this time of the year, I did not realise just how many of you would still follow through the Winter, I am glad that I decided to keep updating throughout the Winter months, speak to you all again in two weeks time, regards Steve.