Spade Work : From Plot to Plate

2008 Planting

Being something of a lister recording what I've planted each season, when and how it crops, comes naturally. So far this is what's in the ground and growing away or nearly hardened off and ready for transplanting.

Potatoes

Charlotte, Cara, Sarpo Axona, Home Guard and Shetland Black (in pots). Planted end of March and showing through early May when they were earthed up for the first time.

Peas

Norli, Taiwan Sugar (sown in gutters in November, transplanted March). Norli and Taiwan direct sown end of March as with Ne Plus Ultra. Supports put up end of April.

Kale

Nero di Toscana and mixed winter kale seeds sown May 5 along with Brussles sprout Noisette.

Chicory

Palla Rossa and Grumolo Verde sown May 5.

Leef Beet

Perpetual Spinach, May 5

Salad leaves

Wild rocket (early April sowing failed), Franchi mixed lettuces (early April sowings now about 3inches high). Flat leaf parsely, coriander. More lines planted May 5.

Beetroot

Boltardy and Tonda di Chioggia, May 5

Beans

Aquadulce Claudia broad bean (sown November), climbing beans Corona D'Oro, Marvel of Venice and Kew Blue.

Parsnip

Tender & True (Carrot, Long Red Surrey to follow in same bed in June

Chilli

Apache and Ring O' Fire

Tomatoes

San Marzano, Golden Sweet, Mortgage Lifter, Copia & Black Prince but the last three lost their labels so I'll have to wait until the fruits set to know which is which.

Leek

St Victor

Sweetcorn

Swift germinated May 5, transplanting end of the month.

Onion

Sturon, Red Baron and Longor (shallot).

Garlic

A bit of overload here but fun to grow and compare. Cloves obtained from Patrick at Bifurcated Carrots   as part of a seed swap - Susan Delafield, Inchelium Red, Kransnodar Red, Korean Red, Silver Rose, Prim, Uzbek Turban, Creole Red, Vekak Czech, Gutemalan Ikeda, Colorado Black, Gypsy Red.

Survivors

If these were my children they'd be taken into care and I'd be up before the court before you could say 'deadheading'.

I can't say these auriculas have thrived but they have survived neglected by the ivy clad fence only to be rediscovered today when I moved a table so as not to disturb the nesting robins when we sit out for a drink in the evening.

I'll have to tidy them up and pot them in attractive terracota pots maybe even display them in mini auricula theatre made from wooden wine boxes?

Asparagus varieties

For several years now I've enjoyed a decent harvest of Connovers Colossal aparagus.

But I'll probably be giving up the allotment to my neighbour next season  as I'm going to concentrate veg growing efforts at home. So I'm looking for recommendations as to what variety I should plant in the new asparagus bed.

Connovers Colossal has done well for me but is there a 'if you had space for only one variety' that you would recommend? Of course I could always plant several crowns of different varieties but which ones?

The First Potatoes

These are the first potatoes out of the garden this season. I'd be lying if I pretended they were early earlies - I don't expect to be eating my Home Guard much before end of May or early June.

These were left overs I missed from last years harvest (quite how you can miss fairly large spuds is a mystery) and they stored in the ground pretty well until I dug over the soil this weekend.

Rhubarb rhubarb

Back from a very enjoyable ride from Seville to Salamanca, averaging 40 miles a day with the longest being 60 miles.

The Spanish really do like their meats (had some mouth watering secreto iberico, along with the chorizo, chuletons....) so it was something of a relief to get home to a bowl of home grown.

If you've only space for one variety of rhubarb then I'd go for Victoria. It's one  of the most popular and deservedly so. Thick reddish pink sticks and flavour wise it beats the Timperley Early and Champagne that I've got growing on the allotment. I don't stew it with sugar, instead I drizzle some runny honey in the bowl and serve with low/no fat yoghurt.

Time Taken

It's been a busy week and we've tried to pack a lot in as we leave in less than a week to cycle the Via de La Plata from Seville to Salamanca. Seventeen days away from the garden so there was plenty to do. All my seedlings will be looked after by friends who come to stay and look after the house and mind the dogs.

Catching up on the gardening magazines last night I was struck by the references to 'weekend vegetable growing', 'the one hour a-week allotment' and my favourite ' low maintenance gardening'. Yeh, like there is something called 'safe smoking'.

So I thought I'd look back over last week and tot up how much time the garden took up. As it was Easter we had two extra days. Heaven, but hell as it hailed, snowed and rained on Saturday and Sunday.

So here's the tally. The Friary garden. A quick trip there after Easter to inspect some cherries that aren't performing well. Patrick, one of the friars, offers us soda bread, tea and fruit cake. Energised by this and with tools in the car we are sucked into an hour tidying and pruning the Cloister garden.

The allotment. Dropped by on the way to the Friary and it's clear the grass needed mowing. I tried to skin it as we'll be away when its starts growing strongly. While I'm there I prepare 3o feet of potato trenches for a main crop, sow Red Baron oninon sets and harvest my first rhubarb of the year, Timperly Early. Two hours.

The home garden. More potatoes here, 40 feet in all to grow earlies and salad potatoes. Ten foot rows of mixed lettuce, cornsalad and wild rocket which I'm hoping will germinate and grow away whilst we're gone. Also ten foot rows of peas, Norli, Taiwan Sugar and the vigourous climber Ne Plus Ultra. And finally I transplanted the sweet pea plants I'd hardened off. They are now tied into netted wigwams and hopefully will make it through the cold spell. They are from saved seed so I'm looking forward to see what colours emerge. Three hours all in.

Six hours in the garden over a weekend. Is this average?

Anyway no time to stop now as I've got to box the bikes for the trip. Buen camino and I'll be back in three weeks or so.

On The Table 22 March 08

The white hellebore, front left, dominates but we've combined it with a plant more usually used as a ground cover, Brunnera or Siberian Bugloss with its forget-me-not like blue flowers as a display this week. 

I don't know which varieties these are as we've inherited them with the garden but Brunnera also comes in white (not pictured) and pink (in the background).

I suspect they won't last long in the vase but it brightens the table on a dreary day. In the garden Brunnera likes moist soil, will tolerate some shade and flowers March to May with its leaves making a good ground cover.

Purple (Non) Sprouting Broccoli

I looked at last year's alloment plan and I'd noted down transplanting five PSB plants on 30/03/07. They seemed to grow away fine.

Nearly a year later I've just pulled them up with nary a PSB worth talking about. Anyone else failed with this crop? Reading the catalogues I had high hopes. You wait a long time but harvest when little else is available. Maybe I should have left them in longer but I needed to prepare and plant up the potato beds before I leave on holiday and they were in the way.

On The Table 15 March 08

The cornus stems (right) which I used to prop up the top heavy amaryllis have set leaf. Just shows how easy it is to propogate some plants. All I did was spring prune them and place them in the potting soil. In a few weeks they'd taken.

Fragrance during the week was provided by this hyacinth (below left) a present a couple of weeks ago from a writer friend who came to help bathe the dogs. She's working on a book and wanted the experience so she could write about it. We were only too happy to oblige with that chore.

Anyone writing about dish washing, household cleaning, ironing  or lawn mowing? We are happy to oblige. Please form an orderly queue.

It will be a week since my last visit to the allotment and I'll probably have to fix the netting on the cages and clear up debris since the storms we had at the start of the week. Fingers crossed there's nothing else.

On The Table 8 March 08

Hyacinth, anemone, daffodil, snowdrop and muscari provided a colourful, miniature and fragrant display this week.