Multiveg's plot ramblings on

Potato Day 2012 – Ryton Gardens

M. — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:31:41 +0000

Another year begins for me with Potato Day. It was a lovely day, not as cold as I thought it could be. It was not as busy as previous years, but were lucky to get a spot in the main car park.

We made a bee-line for the potato marquee, in a different place from previous years. We went round selecting many different potatoes, coming with strong shopping bags to carry these heavy things. 20p a tuber, and we came out with 94! We should have enough space for them all down the allotment! List of varieties can be found on a separate page.

I also took some seeds in to swap. In hindsight, I now know the names of a couple of the saved seeds grown from HSL seed are – Coco Bicolor and Czechoslovakian. I’ll have to remember to take photos of the bean seeds for easier identification in the future! I also picked up the HSL seed order (saves on postage and packaging) and got all first choices. The HSL seeds I picked up from the order or swapped for are :

Tomatoes:- Yellow Russian, Veepro Paste, Orange Heart, Wild Tomato Columbianum, Queen of Hearts

Climbing French Beans:- Turkey Craw, Kew Blue

Dwarf French Beans:- Yugoslav II

Pea:- Purple Flowered Russian

Turnip:- Kaskinuris

Carrot:- Manchester Table, Scarlet Horn

Squash:- Maltese Marrow

Multiplier Onions:- I can’t read my writing for the variety

Also bought some garlic (Pink, Elephant, Picardy Wight, Solent Wight), onion sets (Rumba, wanted to get Red Karmen but they had almost all gone), broad beans (Witkiem -went a bit overboard, over 200 seeds, oops!), peas (Rondo), Phacelia, and a purple cauliflower from Franchi.

There is a seedlist in a separate page. We haven’t ordered any seeds for this season yet, other than chillis (a present for my mother!) but these aren’t on the list.

Seed catalogues

M. — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:17:09 +0000

Some seed catalogues have arrived and I am salivating over them. Want more chilli seeds, some for my mum to grow – she likes the Friar’s Hat ones because they look pretty.
Son wants to grow Atlantic Giant pumpkin. Pumpkins have done well this year though a couple of the squash plants became separated from their labels.
Didn’t grow so many peas and beans, or onions but there are plenty of leeks and the brassicas are doing well.
Hubby wants to try strange root things again. We tried without success some yacon and ulloco. Had a meal or two with Oca.

Potato Day

M. — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:45:06 +0000

We went to Potato Day last Saturday at Ryton Gardens, headquarters of Garden Organic. We came away with many different seed potatoes, some varieties we’ve not grown before. Should be an interesting year then. Shall be putting a page up shortly.
We also went on a tour of the Heritage Seed Library. We enjoyed the talk given by a member of staff and learnt a lot. We also picked up our HSL seed order (dropping it off there too…). Luckily, we got all our first choices as well.
We should visit Ryton again in the growing season. The weather wasn’t too bad, but there wasn’t that much to see. We went there in May and September in 2004! and Pumpkin day in October 2005 (there was an apple tree with blossom!!).

Oh my! Where have I been?!

M. — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:16:07 +0000

I can’t believe that it has been several months since I last posted, and the penultimate post was almost a year ago.
Well, is this year going to be any different? I hope so.
Last year was a mixed year with the weather – early summer followed by wet and windy weather in July (when the rest of the UK was in a heatwave). Still, managed to get a number of things cropping – cabbage was good, beans good too, and now, the leeks are still good with coping with the snow in November & December 2010.
I haven’t sown anything yet for the coming season, but perhaps next week, the windowsills will be full, and the makeshift greenhouse in the garden will be cleared for the overflow…
Here’s hoping that 2011 will be a good year for me and for all of you too.

Spring update

M. — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:59:08 +0000

Things are coming along nicely. The weather can still get cold and there is still a risk of frost. The potatoes have been earthed up. We should have parsnips this year – the seedlings are doing well.
Fruit bushes and trees have has flowers and blossom on plus some fruit has even set. The bumblebees have been busy.
Things are looking good so far. There is a plastic cloche thing, under which there are lettuces and some other salad stuff.
Fingers crossed.

Ryton’s Potato Day

M. — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:26:43 +0000

Just returned from Garden Organic’s Ryton Gardens where they held members’ Potato Day for 2010. Bought 100 seed potatoes (well, we were going to get 98 but my son wanted to make it a nice number so he chose a further 2 seed potatoes). Also took some seeds for the seed swap.

Today’s haul:

First Earlies – Accent, Foremost, Rubis, Sharpes Express, Ulster Sceptre, Winston

Second Earlies – Bintje, British Queen, Catriona, Edzell Blue, Kestrel, Yukon Gold

Maincrop – Dunbar Rover, Mayan Gold, Picasso, Rudolph

Late Maincrop – Arran Victory, Blue Danube, Fortyfold

Peas – Feltham First, Progress, Stephens’, Salmon Flowered

Broad Beans – Bunyards Exhibition, Witkiem Manita

Climbing French Beans – Selma Zelma

Shallots – Minogue, Mr. Stiff’s, Onion White, Yellow Moon

Onion – Batun, Rossa Savonese, and Red Baron (sets)

Garlic – Thermidrome

Lettuce – Bronze Arrow

Squash – Zapallito

Beetroot – Bull’s Blood

Achocha

I also met some people from Allotments 4 All community, which was nice.

Earlier this week, I was able to visit the allotment. I wanted to take a few pictures at the start of the year! Unfortunately, most of the leeks that weren’t already harvested were soft (frozen and then defrosted?) – perhaps they were an early or autumn variety.
Better news, I harvested the central head of purple sprouting broccoli, and a small romanesco cauliflower, plus a few leeks that survived the freeze.
Autumn planted onions, shallots and garlic have sprouted.

Weather here has been cold, and snow settled for a couple of weeks. Then, it thawed. Now, there has been a small sprinkling. I am looking forward to spring! Though perhaps the cold weather will kill off a number of pests & diseases.

end of summer update

M. — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:53:14 +0000

Potatoes have still been good, even though the foliage didn’t look great, and there have been a few holes in the spuds. Carrots, the maincrop late sown ones, have been excellent. Very little carrot root fly.
Runner beans have been doing well, as have the marrows & pumpkins (though the pumpkins aren’t as big as last year).
Onions have been good from seed this year although a couple had split at the base (probably due to the heavy rains). Sets also did well. A book I have just finished reading, Forgotten Fruits by Christopher Stocks – one of the HSL varieties of onions I have is mentioned in this book, as another name for Bedfordshire Champion. The book is well worth a read.
French beans are doing well, we are letting them mature for drying.
Leeks look good too.
I visited my mother last month and saw tons of fruit on her tomatoes. The plants themselves don’t look as healthy as the ones I have in my “greenhouse”, but they are certainly cropping well, with fruits of all colours and sizes. Her peppers, both chilli and sweet are far more advanced than mine (which unfortunately, have greenfly…).
Got fed up of fruity pies/crumble! Next year…!!!! the currants on our second plot should do even better (planted in 2008) – ideas please for what to do with currants – what would go nicely with them in jams & jellies, or drinks (I’ve put some fruit in alcohol….)
Have already ordered some seeds for next year!!

End of July update

M. — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:37:36 +0000

Harvesting has continued. Potato foliage may have a touch of blight. We’ve had a few “full smith periods” – ideal conditions for blight. We have had some good spuds though.

Some onions needed to be harvested – the leaves had gone yellow or disappeared. White Ebenezer had even started to get some sort of rot/mildew in the top couple of layers near the neck – I’m not sure if the affected area was on the predominantly wind/rain facing side – perhaps that’s a factor. Other onions, apart from some Tondo Musona sown onions that are about the size of “sets”, look fine.

Shallots also have started to be harvested. Some are a fair size, though I have not been wowed this year by Topper. Pikant (late buy!) and Yellow Moon have done better.

Runner beans are cropping, and are still covered in pretty red flowers. The climbing french beans are also doing well – pretty variegated pods. All the french beans we have are also suitable for drying. Broad beans and peas have filled the freezer (well, almost!). Got 4 bags of broad beans to deal with from this week – no (or little) blackfly, and chocolate spot appeared relatively late on.

Early sown carrots – Amsterdam forcing look more like those expensive “baby carrots” sold in supermarkets but even smaller – some weren’t even an inch long or a centimetre thick (though still tasty!!)! Cleaning was done using a new (but cheap) toothbrush (we did at one time have a vegetable brush with the handle looking like half a spud). Some root fly damage too. Later sown carrots are doing better, including a white carrot.

My mother phoned me today to say she was eating a lovely red cherry tomato. Her tomatoes and peppers (which she had sown, but I potted on for her) are doing a lot better than mine. She has fat peppers, thin but long peppers, large peppers, red tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, ….. She came to visit us for the week and laughed at my “pathetic” looking peppers and tomatoes. I haven’t even got any tomatoes turning colour. She lives in Lincolnshire and the weather is generally better there. There are both tomatoes inside the greenhouse and outside. Mine are inside a “greenhouse.”

Soft fruit has done exceedingly well. Not sure really what to do with it all. We have redcurrant jams & jelly, blackcurrant jelly, whitecurrant jam (perhaps a bit overcooked, but not burnt), eaten various fruity pies & crumbles. I’ve also put fruit in alcohol too.

Greengage is doing well. Fruit are yellow and are almost all ready. Yummy. Tree was bought from Morrison’s supermarket – though I can’t remember which variety they are.

Thinking of having more fruity trees. Not sure what yet, or what would do any good – more plums perhaps. We had an apple tree but it split in the wind. A second tree is doing ok. There is also a cherry tree (Stella, perhaps) and a pear tree.

In the garden, we had a cherry tree (Sunburst) we had 4 cherries (first year).

Yay, I have small tomatoes

M. — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:00:26 +0000

Ok, they are only green, but still. The tomatoes at my mother’s have already started to turn colour – I am jealous!

Currants still loaded. Need to have a serious harvesting session soon. On the lookout for more jam/jelly recipes and drinks to make with currants…

OH is really happy with Shetland Black potatoes. We want to have those again.

Hoping that the later sowing beetroot will work – earlier sowings didn’t have good germination.

We’ve got jam + update

M. — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:35:35 +0000

We have been harvesting lots and lots of soft fruit – these have gone into fruity pies & crumbles. Last week, I also made redcurrant jam with over 5 and a half pounds of red currants, and for the first time, blackcurrant jam. Used various sugars to hand (light muscovado, demerara, caster…). Still have lots of jam from last year. Am intending to make redcurrant jelly this year.

Peas have all been picked. Broad beans are all ready. We’ve even had to give broad beans away (no room in freezer).

Runner & french beans now in flower. Onions are bulking up nicely (only a couple threw up flower stems which we’ve picked off).

Teasel down the plot is huge, didn’t realise they’d grow that big and magnificent. Hope the birdies will like it.

Strawberries almost all finished. The raspberries on our second plot were planted by previous tenant and are coming to an end – they don’t taste as nice as our ones. We might cull these and plant fresh elsewhere on the plot. The raspberries there are also hiding a gooseberry the previous tenant planted – the fruit are about the size of black currants.

Recent sowings of carrots are germinated. More peas have been sowed. Pak Choi too, I think. Will sow some more beetroot too.

Planted out some more brassicas and leeks.

Shetland Black potatoes are yummy.

I can’t think of anything else at present.