The diary of two novice gardeners and chicken keepers
Posted in Allotments on Aug 23rd, 2010
Surprisingly the pear tree is a relative of the rose and the quince. Of our three pear trees in the garden only one has given us a decent amount of fruit this year. The Red Williams, a Minarette, did have three baby pears but only one has reached maturity. It is a corker however and [...]
Posted in Allotments on Jul 31st, 2010
The final count of baby call ducks for this season is twelve. I have four sets of ’babies’ of different ages to look after. I shall have to find new homes for some of them which is always a wrench. The difficult bit is deciding who to keep and who to sell.
Posted in Allotments, Cooking on Jul 31st, 2010
The kitchen window ledge is now full of jars of jam made from the fruit harvested from the allotment. I do still have some picking to do but I am nearly at the end of it. I have kept a few for ourselves which are in the fridge, given some away and have thirty two [...]
Posted in Allotments, Cooking on Jul 15th, 2010
It’s that time of year again. Time to pick the fruit and make the jams and jellies. To date I have made four jars of red gooseberry, one of yellow gooseberry and six jars of blackcurrant. I have already used up all my saved jars and freezer boxes and there is still a load to pick. [...]
Posted in Allotments on Jul 9th, 2010
We have had weeks of hot sunny weather meaning we have had to do a marathon with the watering cans but the results have been good with lots of salad, vegetables and strawberries to eat and freeze. This has been a very good year for cauliflower and cabbage but the peas have been few and [...]
Posted in Allotments on Jun 18th, 2010
Once again I have brought home a large bowl of strawberries and a couple of massive butterhead lettuces. I also managed to get enough potatoes Sharps Express for a meal tonight. The potatoes have been slow to grow as we had a cold start to the season followed by a very long dry period. The [...]
Posted in Allotments on Jun 18th, 2010
Rob came and met me at the plot and we planted forty Leek plants. The long awaited rain came just as we were finishing. We use the popular method of planting Leeks which is just dibbing a good hole and dropping the plant in while pouring water in to settle the roots but not back [...]
Posted in Allotments on Jun 18th, 2010
Today we have planted fifteen Celeriac Monarch plants which were given to us by a friend of Robs at the Post Office, They were tiny seedlings when he gave them to us and I potted them on to make good sturdy plants. We have never grown or eaten these before so I shall be doing [...]
Posted in Allotments on Jun 17th, 2010
Posted in Allotments on Jun 16th, 2010
These are the parsnips that I chitted at home. They were a devil to transplant but look worth the effort now. The curds are forming in our first caulis of the season. The flower bed is quite overcrowded and has been left more or less to its own devices but is doing its job in [...]
