Garlic, leeks and parsnips

The last week or so brought frosts that didn't really give all day, but the weather broke with a warmer, windy and very wet day, so the day after the ground had properly thawed. We went to gather some more leeks and parsnips. The ground was as claggy as you might expect and it will only get worse until the spring. We need to stay off the land as much as we can now.

The leeks were in beds covered with netting to keep the pests off, which we have not had to do before. The leeks are really tasty, but not as big as we would like. If we leave them now they won't grow much and we are ready for them. We finished off the first bed and I packed up the canes and netting from the covers.

Jean dug some parsnips. They have done very well this year with great long roots and not very woody in the centres of the really big ones.

I pruned the black currant bushes - probably rather later than was ideal. I planted loads of prunings both near the moved raspberries and in the hedge bottom too. Too much of the hedge is elderberry and it is dying back leaving a bare and useless hedge. I think a hedge that produces black currants would be great. We will see how well the prunings do - I'll need to cut down the weeds in the hedge bottom to stop them out-competing the currant bushes.

Jean planted some garlic. Again this might be a bit late, but it will probably do well in the spring. Sweet, home grown garlic is too good to miss, so if it doesn't grow I'll try some spring-planted ones.

The broccoli is still looking good in its covered frames. No sign of spears yet, but it is probably still too early.  It would not be there without the covers. Norman on the next plot has had cabbage, sprouts and leeks all eaten to the ground by pests. Some were covered but not perfectly. We still think it is rats. The ground is very soft after the rain but there were no animal tracks we could see. People are putting out rat poison and it is still been taken in volume, so it feel like a losing battle.

As the rent for the plot relentlessly goes up year on year, maybe the parish council could spend a little getting some help dealing with the rats. The water bill for the year (previously quoted as a major cost) must be low this year - no one needed to water much this year.

Fat parsnips

It has been a couple of weeks since we visited the plot. It looks fairly tidy and mostly in good order. The rats seem to have left us one way or another. The felt on the shed needs repairing - job for a calm, dry day. I hope the wooden roof under the felt is intact so we only need to cover it with some more felt. Broccoli is looking good, so we might get some spears in a couple of months or so, just when fresh veg is hard to get.

Today we took some leeks and some parsnips. The leeks are not quite as big as previous years after being badly eaten in the summer. They are, nonetheless, quite respectable and some may yet fatten up some more. Cleaned and trimmed they look great. The parsnips are huge. They seem to have benefited from the extra rain this year. Their leaves are dying back so we pulled seven to bring home, the straightest ones are pictured (I'm not going to show the worst ones now am I?). The really big ones can get a bit woody in the middle, so we discard the core. All of these were cut up into chunks or chips, blanched and frozen ready for making into stews and soups. We have hardly touched the crop so parsnips will be available all winter and most of next year from the freezer I think. The flesh seems white, soft and creamy and the smell of freshly cut parsnip make my mouth water.

Autumn

The leaves on the trees are turning golden and beginning to fall. The hedgerows are full of red berries of hawthorn, rose hips, rowan and white beam. We collected up the remaining onions from where they were drying on greenhouse shelves, ready for taking home. A few were soft and headed for the compost bin, but the crop is far better than I realised. Now stored in the cool, dark cupboard at home they look as good as last year, which was a good year.

The leeks on the plot are slowly fattening up. We might have been tempted to take a few by now in previous years, but they have been so small that we have waited. I think they will be fine and a good number too. I hope their slow growth, even slower than most years, will make them even tastier.

Our first proper try at growing broccoli is looking good, though they do seem to have some white fly. The plants are looking sturdy and growing taller. They are protected by frames and netting to keep the pigeons off, who, I'm told, like broccoli. No sign yet of any spears to take, but that might not be until January or February.

The asparagus was yellowing so it all got cut back to the ground, before any storms rock the roots and cause damage. Monty Don suggests covering the ground with compost to feed the plants for next season, which I will do, compost topped up with blood, fish and bonemeal. Mind you, Monty Don suggests covering everything with compost or digging compost into everywhere, which would be nice but our compost heap doesn't make enough for a fraction of what we would need. 

Jean sowed some spinach which grew slowly. We decided to plant it at home in tubs to make it easier to look after and pick. We'll see how that goes.

We are still feeding poison to the rats, who dutifully consume it. One dead rat has turned up on Geoff's plot, but still they go on. I think we need to use a different tactic.

Greedy rats

I have now used a full tub of rat poison and started the next one. Each time the suggested dose of poison has gone completely. When I put down a tray with some in, the tray disappeared too. I feel like I'm feeding them rather than poisoning them. Something, maybe the rats, ate the last of our sweetcorn, so the stalks got pulled up and the patch dug over. I'm beginning to wonder if the rats are also under the shed, so rat proofing the spaces around it with wire netting or bricks might be on the cards. I wish I'd thought to do it when we put the shed up - it would have been much easier. I'm also wondering about the best way to stop creatures burrowing into the bank below the hedge. That really lies outside of our plot in the adjoining field, but a bit of netting might benefit us and the farmer.

This allotment is beginning to feel like a battlefield and a minor civil engineering site this year. I hope we get back to better times next year.

A good year for pests

Very fresh sweetcorn is a delight and something worth growing. It seems that others agree. Two of the largest cobs have been partially devoured in yet another pest attack. If this year has been notable for anything it has been for the range of new ways to have our plants eaten by pests.

We have had some lovely sweetcorn this year, and today we took some more. Most of the remaining cobs are small. If they ripen there will still be enough more to enjoy, if the pests leave them alone.

On the rat front, or rather the rats at the back of the plot under the compost bins near the hedge, I have decided to put down rat poison. It is easy to drop it into their hole and cover that with a small plank to stop anything else eating it. All we have delivered has been quickly eaten - I'll see how soon the current batch disappears. Once the rats have been dispatched I intend to find a way to cover the bank they, and before them rabbits, burrow into so easily. Concrete would be effective but not possible, so chicken wire mesh laid across the bank and buried at the edges might be effective. I think I'll dig out the compost bins and lay chicken wire under them too make they whole area hard to use. I'm sure the key is making things difficult or unpleasant so pests just move elsewhere, but when they are resident firmer action is needed.

You dirty rat

More Autumn digging and we're about done. In the bank behind the plot there's a new hole which heads our way. It is freshly dug but looks fairly small - a bit too small for rabbits. Gary found a dead rat, so the hole is probably a rat hole. I need to discourage them, poison them, scare them away or do something to remove them - I'll give it some thought. I had to hack through nettles to get to the field and part of a now-dead elderberry broke off as I pushed past it, so now there is a big gap in the hedge. It is supposed to be a hawthorn hedge, but much of it is elderberry and much of that is on its last legs. I think I'll plant as many hawthorn berries as I can to try to grow a new hedge. Mind you, with a decent hawthorn hedge, how would I check what is digging in the bank?

The shed has a felt roof, and I found part of it on the plot. I climbed up to look and found the felt is torn and has holes in many places, so a new covering of felt is required. Getting the old stuff off will be easy, getting the old felt nails out may be harder and fitting the new felt along the join with the greenhouse, without dismantling the greenhouse roof might be awkward. I don't trust the strength of the roof to sit on, so I will have to work from the edges.

We thought about growing leeks over the winter then forgot. I hope it is not too late to start some now for harvesting in the spring.

New Gooseberry Bushes

We want to move the blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes, but we don't want to lose them. They don't like being moved at all. I have pruned the gooseberry bush today and some of the woody prunings I turned into cuttings and planted six of them in the new spot we want the bushes in. If any of them have taken in the spring, I'll choose which ones to keep and remove the rest. Once the new bushes are doing well (assuming any take that is) we can decide if we want to try moving the original bush or just dig it up. I'm going to repeat the process with blackcurrants in a week or two - they still have most of their leaves.

As well as getting thoroughly scratched by gooseberry thorns I tied in the green growth of the raspberry canes. They have done really well in their new home, although they didn't have much fruit this year they have put out masses of new shoots that should all bear fruit next year. Now they are tied to wires supported at each end by posts they stand a better chance of surviving the winter winds without breaking.

The Autumn dig is under way, with about half the plot dug over and weeded. The small hazel trees around the edge of the plot are now much bigger and some have nuts on them. I'll harvest the nuts when they are ready and then prune them quite hard, which I've done to the ones with no nuts.

Sweetcorn is doing well, with more cobs to eat today. They are unbeatable. The beetroot has finished, the beets have stopped growing, so got composted. The remaining cabbages were full of caterpillars so they were pulled up and composted. The compost bin is quite full and needs turning soon to help encourage the rot. Some of the lovely compost from our bins has helped the raspberries do so well. The rhubarb is dying back, so its leaves and stems will add to the compost too.