Allotment Geekery

This Saturday there wasn't roller derby training because the team were playing in Plymouth, sadly as I am crawling on my hands and knees towards payday I had to go for free activities, i.e. clearing up weeds on the allotment.  Monty said we should bring our pumpkins in to avoid frost damage so bring the pumpkins in we did and very happy I am with them too.  Not only that but we had two medium sized flower pots filled with tomatoes, a basket full of runner beans, four butternut squashes, two peppers, four leeks and a large handful of spring onions.

Oh and in case you're wondering I'm going to save the seeds from the sunflower.  This one grew from the sunflowers we grew for the wedding so I want to see if I can keep the same 'family' of sunflowers growing next year 

Allotment Geekery

Ahhhh this is probably the best part of the allotment year in my opinion.  We're still harvesting loads of veg but we're also clearing down the bind weed and other nasties and drying them out ready for the bonfire season which starts in October.  We've cleared down a far amount, this is some of what we have left:

Now, the following compost bin might not look much to you, but it's been a long time in the making on our plot.  We've had one of those plastic council dalek do-dah compost bins since we started but they're rubbish and MozzyMr has been talking about building one out of palettes for AGES, and now we have one!  Shame it's almost full already...

The polytunnel is teeming at the moment, our little plot is full to the brim with tomatoes and a couple of other bits, including a baby melon!  How exciting, can't wait for it to be big enough to eat.

The following bits of veg aren't ours but I had to take some photos to show you how others are using their polytunnel plots.  We do have some chilli's and peppers growing but frankly we grew too many tomatoes and they haven't got as much light as they needed, next year we won't bother with so many tomatoes, they're nice but I am OVER tomato soup.

Micro Harvest Festival

Yep, we got pumpkins.  Got so many of them we have one each to carve, two each to eat, and another three on the way, the kitchen looks like a micro harvest festival.  Thankfully my lovely friend Kathy Swan gave me the River Cottage Veg Everyday recipe book for my Birthday so I can't wait to tackle some of the dishes. 

The last of the sunflowers we grew for our wedding have flowered and gone to seed, we had one large trug full of seeds, many went to friends and family and the rest have been feeding the birds.  I'm all about getting animals to our allotment that eat slugs and snails, as much as I don't like frogs I don't like slugs more so was happy when Laura (who we share a plot with) lifted the rhubarb and discovered Brian:

Cue Marsha from Spaced style "Hello Brian" every time he ventures out.