This weekend we finally had some weather that was good enough to get to the allotment. We went to do a few odd jobs and ended up spending all afternoon. In the end we managed to get the potatoes planted as well as some leeks, beetroot, carrots and parsnips. Everything has gone in so late this year due to the cold and wet weather but hopefully we will soon see something starting to grow. I still have a number of crops left to plant and will hopefully get these in the ground in the next week or so.

A keen gardener myself I can’t say that I have yet resorted to playing my plants music. Perhaps I am missing something, however, Chris Beardshaw, a gardening expert, recommends playing your plants heavy metal to make them bloom. Whilst plants seem to like heavy metal, music by Cliff Richard was not so popular as it killed all the plants in the experiment. During the experiment four greenhouses were set up and different music was played in each. There was one control house which was silent whilst the others had classical music, Black Sabbath and Cliff Richard. The plants that were played classical music grew slightly shorter, those played Black Sabbath were shorter still but had the best flowers and those played Cliff Richard died, although sabotage was suspected.

If this article is to be believed gardeners are thinner and tend to have a better diet. The article suggests that women gardeners are up to a dress size smaller and were 46% less likely to have a weight problem. Researchers found that exercise is not the only benefit of gardening, the home grown fruit and vegetables can also make your diet healthier. Previous studies have found that gardening carries a host of benefits such as raising your zest for life and increasing happiness. All of these things make me think that those many hours at the allotment are well spent.

The past few days have been almost warm compared to the cold and wet weather of the past few months, and I have been hopeful spring is finally here. Most of our crops will be getting a late start this year but seeing some sunshine means my thoughts have turned to planting. It is with some dismay then, that I read this article. It suggests that gardeners should be braced for a slug invasion this year as last year’s wet summer provided ideal breeding conditions. At this rate it could be difficult to get anything to grow. I might have to resort to the slug pellets.

Those that grow their own vegetables might be interested in a recent study which has found that organic tomatoes contain more vitamin C. Although the fruits tend to be around 40% smaller than those grown by more conventional methods it seems the organic alternative is healthier. The reason could be down to the fact that the plants suffer more stress as they are grown, having to fend for themselves rather than being treated with pesticides and artificial fertilisers. I do try to grow most of my fruit and veg without resorting to any chemicals although sometimes have to resort to the odd slug pellet out of desperation.

I am often amazed at how long some plants can go without water. The spider plants in my office being one example, despite watering only every few months they continue to thrive. This article, however, is about a bottle garden that is still alive despite having only been watered once in 53 years.

David Latimer planted a spiderworts inside the bottle in 1960 and last watered it in 1972 before sealing it shut. The plant has continued to grow and looks like this today. I wonder how much longer it will continue to do so.

Having an allotment plot, I’m not a great lover of slugs and spend a lot of time making deterrents and traps to keep them away from my crops. I was disturbed to read about a new variety of so called “killer slug” that it seems could be making an appearance. The slug which appears to have been imported on salad leaves from Spain can grow up to five inches long and eats among other things other slugs. It seems the coming year, then may be another battle with the slugs.

Despite having been a keen gardener for a number of years I have so far not had to remove tree sap from my hands. On removing the Christmas tree from the house it left quite a lot of sap behind on the floor and also on the hands. Finding it didn’t come off with just soap and water I looked up the best way of removing it and found with surprise that mayonnaise was recommended. After leaving the mayonnaise on the hands for a few minutes and washing it off with warm water the sticky sap was gone. This article where I found the information also contains tips on how the remove tree sap from other surfaces.

According to this article TV gardening programmes are too blame for a rise in neglected allotments as they make growing vegetables look too easy. As someone who has an allotment I am fully aware of the hard work involved in preparing and maintaining a neglected plot. It seems, however, that many people are seduced by TV gardening programmes that seem to promise fast rewards. Faced with the prospect of an allotment that needs first hard digging and then constant maintenance the reality appears to hit rather quickly and many allotment plots taken on by new tenants are being quickly abandoned.

Our local allotment association currently has the same problem. There is no shortage of people waiting for a plot but the very neglected plots are hard to find tenants for and those that do take them on often only have them for one year before handing them back often in a much more neglected state.

Perhaps gardening shows need to show a bit more of the hard and boring double digging and the constant weeding and grass trimming, which if not done at least on a monthly basis soon catches up with you, and can soon turn the plot back into a patch of brambles. I love having our allotment but easy work it is not.

The new part of the allotment is already starting to look a lot better. After a couple of days work it has already been largely cleared of brambles and we can see the ground underneath. Now starts the harder task of taking off the top layer of grass and digging out the roots. This is likely to be a long process but with any luck we will have a mild winter to help with progress.

In the meantime the task of keeping the already dug beds free of weeds is on-going. We currently only have onions planted but the potato's have been ordered ready for planting and with any luck we will have some of the new area dug and ready by the new year ready for more crops.

We have had our allotment for a while now and have gradually been claiming it back from the initial bramble patch that it was when we first took it on. A constant annoyance has been the neighbouring plot which having fallen into neglect seeds all over our plot. In a moment of madness we recently made the decision to take this plot on as well. Pictured is the plot as it looks today so as you can see we have quite a lot of work to do. I’m sure it will be worth it once we are able to plant as the growing area is more than doubled. I am quite looking forward to the new project. 

This is interesting, it’s the unusual situation when a field of carrots were left exposed by floodwaters. The water washed the soil away from around the roots leaving the carrots looking as though they were pushing out of the ground. At least it makes them easy to harvest.

I am always amused to come across pictures of vegetables that look like other things. The most recent of these is a tomato shaped liked a duck. The tomato was found in a green house in Lincolnshire where the surprised gardeners decided to take a picture of it rather than eat it.

It has long annoyed me that supermarkets force growers to discard so much fruit and veg just because it doesn’t conform the expected size and shape. I was interested then, to see that Sainsbury’s have relaxed their rules on the appearance of fresh produce this year due to the poor harvest. It seems that we have more misshapen and ugly vegetables this year due to the unusual weather conditions and wet summer so it looks as though in Sainsbury’s at least there will be fruit and veg of all shapes and sizes.

We grow a lot of our own fruit and veg and I must admit that one of the things I like best about it, is the often unusual shaped vegetables that I find. Whilst its encouraging that some supermarkets are relaxing their rules in my opinion this should be common practice. If people want to pay for vegetables that conform to a certain size and shape then perhaps these should be packaged separately, I think I would still prefer the uglier alternative.

If you are looking for a pumpkin this Halloween then you may find it harder than usual. That’s according to this article which says there could be a pumpkin shortage this year. The pumpkin crop is down by 20% this year and many are still green due to the bad summer weather. I was hoping to grow my own Halloween pumpkin  this year but unfortunately none of my seeds actually made it into plants so if there are none in Sainsbury’s we may be pumpkinless this year.

We have several apple trees in our garden and the harvest this year has been noticeably down on the previous few years. I was wondering whether it was simply down to the conditions in our garden but it seems I’m not alone. This article claims that apple growers are facing the worst harvest in 15 years. It seems the problem has been the wet weather which has meant bees have been unable to fly and pollinate the blossoms. We have had apples this year but barely enough to eat and make a few pies, whereas usually we have a good enough harvest to fill the freezer for the winter as well as ample for eating. The pears have been disappointing as well, lets hope we see more fruit next year.

With mushroom season well under way and experts predicting there will be a good harvest year, come the warnings to know your mushrooms. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has issued a warning about the dangers of poisonous mushrooms and has warned foragers it can be easy for even experienced mushroom hunters to mix up toxic and non varieties. With some types of mushrooms being fatal when they are eaten and the poisons still being present even after they have been cooked it really does pay to know your mushrooms and if in doubt leave it well alone.

Many crops seems to have suffered this year due to the persistent wet weather but it seems mushrooms are not one of them. The wet summer followed by recent sunshine appears to have created the ideal conditions for mushrooms. If you know which varieties to pick, it seems now is a good time to head out for a bit of foraging. Unfortunately my knowledge of mushrooms is fairly limited and I’m a little worried I will accidentally pick a poisonous variety.

I was interested to see some of the giant vegetables from this years Harrogate Autumn Flower Show. This giant marrow is pictured being lifted by a weightlifter. The giant onion weighed in at a massive 18lbs 1oz (8.16 kg).

The world’s longest parsnip has recently been exhibited  at the National Giant vegetables Championships. Measuring 18.5ft or 5.607 metres the parsnip is 36 times the size of a normal parsnip. It was grown in a pipe in order to encourage it to grow long and thin. It certainly is a long parsnip but I’m not sure it would be that appetising being so spindly.

This weekend saw the Sevenoaks Allotment (SAHA) Autumn Show. As our allotment is still in the early stages I hadn’t submitted any entries this year but was keen to go along and look at what was on offer.

The poor weather conditions this year have proved challenging and this showed with some categories being a little thin on the ground.

There was none the less some impressive vegetables on show, the the biggest pumpkin and the heaviest onion being some of the highlights for me.

The onions category certainly had some good sized entries although one or two of this years specimens from our allotment might have made the grade.

The beetroot and French bean categories had quite a few entries with some looking a little undersize in my opinion.

One of the more unusual categories was the children’s animal made entirely from fruit or vegetables with this little critter winning first prize. Perhaps next year Penny might be able to make an entry. Either way I will certainly try to enter something in next years show.

This year has been disappointing for many crops with the constant rain, meaning a lot of things have simply rotted in the ground. We have been lucky with the potato crop. It has been unaffected by the blight that seems to destroyed some crops at the allotment. We have new potatoes, and baking potatoes by the bucket load at the moment and it will be a challenge using them all before they go off.

The runner beans at the allotment are just starting to be ready and there is a bagful every time we go to water the crops. We have had a good crop of the smaller and sweeter French beans from the garden and as I personally prefer these to the runner beans I think I will plant a few rows of these in the allotment next year.

The courgettes are also starting to produce fruit. We only have 6 plants this year, down from last years rather excessive 10. The resulting crop gives us one or two fruits every week and I have rediscovered my love for them after getting a bit sick of the glut last year. So far the tomatoes have been a little disappointing and I’m unsure whether there will be much of a crop at all again this year.

We have a fair amount of damsons, plums and blackberries to collect both from the garden and the allotment and jam production is very much underway. At this rate I will enough jam to see us through the winter and that’s before the apples are ready. 

We have had a really good crop of strawberries and raspberries from the garden this year, despite the wet conditions. As there has been too much to eat I have been making it into jam. The fruit doesn’t go very far and we tend to only have one or two pots for each bowl of fruit but it should keep us in jam for a few months. After my basic strawberry jam, I have made a rather successful strawberry and chill jam. I also made a few batches of summer fruit jam, mixed strawberry and raspberry. By far my best jam yet, however, was an experimental morello cherry and raspberry jam. Surprisingly the bitter flavour of the cherries and the sweetness of the raspberries creates a nice slightly tart jam. I would like to make more of this but the cherry harvest has been limited and I think it will prove difficult to source bitter cherries in the supermarket.

A new project hopes to build up a picture of the UK’s bumblebee population. BeeWatch has developed a tool which it hopes will collect vital information on the UK’s bees. The tool lets people upload a picture of a bee which can then be identified by an expert and the location recorded. 24 species of bumblebee are found in the UK and up to six different species are often found in each garden. I must admit I have never really looked very closely of bees but I will certainly be out with my camera taking a few shots to see which species are frequenting my garden.

That’s the findings of a study which looked at the roots of pot plants. The research looked at MRI scans of various pot plants and found that plants restrict their growth when they are in a pot. The roots are able to sense the size of the pot and restrict the growth of the plant. Within as little as two weeks the plants roots are able to stretch to the edge of the pot and from this time onwards the growth is restricted. Re-potting a plant into a pot double the size results in the plant growing half as big again. Unfortunately, however, even the largest pot is not large enough not to limit growth. It seems then plants should be in the ground. I feel a little guilty now and will be re-potting all my indoor plants to give them bigger pots. The outside ones I will have to find spaces for in the ground.

We have finally put the beans in at the allotment. They are quite late this year, having only been planted 3 weeks ago. This time last year I already had them in the ground at the beginning of June but once again the wet weather has set us back. Hopefully we will still get a decent crop despite them being a bit delayed. On the up side we should have passed all risk of frost.

The vegetables in the garden have also suffered due to the rain. I have tried seeding beetroots, carrots, parsnips, rocket and radishes. It seems, however, that too much rain is as bad as none at at and nothing has come up at all. This means I have a fair bit of space in the vegetable patch. I think I will take advantage of this and buy some mature tomato plants to fill the gaps.

I have been a little cautious with the courgettes this year and have only grown 3 plants. Last year we had ten plants in total between the garden and the allotment and we had way too many courgettes, in fact I still have lots in the freezer even now. I’m hoping my 3 three plants will provide enough fruit for us to have one or two a week rather than the bags of 15 to 20 we had last year. I do like courgettes but everything is better in moderation. The plants this year will be going in the garden vegetable patch as they require a fair bit of water so will be easier to maintain at home.

The recent rainy weather has meant that staying on top of the weeds in the garden and at the allotment is something of a losing battle. It has only been 3 weeks since I last visited the plot at the allotment but it looked like it had been neglected for several months. I spent a day weeding and cutting down the nettles and it is just starting to look good again. The potatoes are coming along nicely and now have flowers on them. The onions i planted in October have now got to a decent size and I was able to harvest the first few. I am really looking forward to trying them as I have never managed to grow good sized onions before.

I love making jam so always look forward to the summer fruits. My first effort this year was a strawberry jam. The fruit was too good to waste and so I held off trying experimental flavours and just made a basic strawberry jam. I mashed the fruits to leave some nice big chunks of strawberry in tact. I am looking forward to trying some on my toast in the morning. Perhaps i will add a hint of chilli to the next batch.

Progress at the allotment has stalled somewhat due to the recent wet weather. It has rained everyday for the last three weeks, which makes getting any work done rather difficult. The rain means that the weeds are growing thick and fast and the garden looks so green and lush. It really is becoming a jungle out there. I’m hoping we will soon get a couple of dry days to make a dent in the weeds and perhaps get a bit more digging done. A lot of veg is likely to be delayed this year as I lack an covered outside space to pot up the seeds. Fingers crossed this weekend will see some progress.

I spent some time digging over the vegetable patch in the garden ready for planting and last weekend started to seed some areas. I already have a line of asparagus growing which I had thought we might have lost in the winter. I can now see little spears of asparagus emerging from the soil so it looks like it is coming along well although being a long term crop it will be another year before we harvest anything from it.

The raspberry canes I planted last year are coming along nicely with lots of new growth so I am hoping we will see a good harvest this year and all the fruit trees are covered with blossom so I have high hopes of a good harvest. I  have planted some potatoes in the garden and some parsnips and beetroot. I’m hoping the crops will do well this year despite the obvious challenges of watering during a hosepipe ban. As things start to grow I will post a few pictures of the emerging crops. With a small baby I am hoping we have a good crop of organic veg this year as it will help with all the purees and baby food I am currently making.

We spent yesterday at the allotment putting the potatoes in the ground and doing some general weeding. So far we have onions and leeks growing and now two lines of potatoes. With the help of my father we are gradually digging out the next area of ground ready for some more crops. Meanwhile we have carpeted as much of the ground as possible to kill the weeds in preparation for digging. The carpet makes a great home for a variety of creatures and I spent much of the day amusing myself trying to catch the slow worms and frogs. We have also come across a mouse hole which we disturbed whilst digging. I had so much fun catching creatures that I didn’t get an awful lot of work done. The plot is starting to look a lot better and judging by all the blossom on the damson trees we should have a good crop this year for some more lovely jam.

I was unaware of the Shed of the Year competition until I saw this article. This one is based upon a pub. Others have been turned into churches, railway stations and even a Tardis. They are great, I wonder what I could turn my shed into.

It is getting harder to find time for the allotment now that we have Penny but that doesn’t mean there is any less work to do. We are lucky that we can leave Penny with the grandparents whilst we spend a few hours on other things, so we took the time to start preparing the beds. The onions (right) seem to be coming along well and last years leeks (left) are still growing. Other than that it’s a case of digging over the beds that have already been double dug and covering them with carpet to prevent the weeds coming through. We have also pruned the damson trees and taken out some of the smaller suckers. In the coming weeks and months we will gradually start to double dig the rest of the yet untouched ground. Between the allotment and the garden vegetable patch I am hoping to grow the majority of our vegetables this year, something which should help out when we come to move Penny onto solids.

It seems egg prices are due to rise as suppliers face shortages. This article claims that we will soon be paying about 20p more for a box of eggs due to shortages in Britain and Europe. Suppliers have been affected by a ban on battery cages and rising costs for free range producers. This has caused the wholesale prices of eggs to double in the past year. The wholesale cost of large eggs is now 97p up from 45p whilst medium eggs cost 83p up from 40p. Eggs are one of the only staple foods I currently can’t produce at home although we do get quite a few from our nice neighbours across the road who have chickens. I wonder whether it might be be time to invest in a few chickens myself?

A Rare seahorse has recently been found in the River Thames suggesting that there could be a colony present there. The short-snouted seahorse (pictured) was discovered in the river at Greenwich. Although they are usually found along the south coat this is the furthest upriver that they have been found. The one which was found was a juvenile measuring just 5cm long which strongly suggests a breeding colony could be present in the river.

I was lucky to find some quince in a hedgerow the other day. Although there was not really enough to do anything useful with, I thought I would make them into a jelly. I did only get a very small pot but it tastes wonderful and is so simple to make. It’s just a case of boiling the quince until soft, straining them and then adding sugar before boiling to the setting point. I’m sure the jelly will get eaten very quickly.

According to this article 130 people have been poisoned by wild mushrooms this autumn. The Health protection Agency has issued a warning about the dangers of eating wild mushrooms unless you are completely sure what they are. Although many of the cases have been of children eating mushrooms there have also been 40 cases of adults deliberately eating them.  Mushroom identification can be tricky and some experts have even been caught out mistaking a poisonous variety for a similar looking edible one. I guess the message here is, if in doubt don’t eat it, it just might kill you.

Looking to use up some more courgettes I thought I would give this recipe a go. It really is quite simple to make and it turned up surprisingly well. I didn’t have any hazelnuts so left these out but otherwise my version pictured was fairly faithful to the original recipe. I decided to  separate mine into two smaller cake tins to make two halves to sandwich together rather than making one large cake. Once the cake is cooked you can’t actually taste the courgettes as they have grated into the mixture. They do add a really moist texture to the cake that makes it a little bit special. I will definitely make this again.

It seems you read another article every week or so claiming that you should eat the next new “superfood”. The latest appears to be blackberries which it seems have all sorts of health benefits. Apparently they are a great source of vitamin C containing twice as much as blueberries. They also contain more fibre than most other fruits, in fact a handful of berries has as much fibre as two Shredded Wheat. If that’s not enough they also contain anthocyanins which are thought to inhibit the growth of cancer cells and lutein which helps prevent eye damage caused by ultraviolet radiation. Lastly they contain manganese which is vital for building bone structure and folate or folic acid which helps healthy cell division and growth and is particularly recommended for pregnant women. It’s all very interesting but none of these things will make me eat more blackberries. What will is the fact that they are currently readily available and free and make wonderful pies and great jam.

This week has brought the first corn from the allotment. So far I have eaten them boiled on the cob with a nob of butter but with plenty more coming will no doubt be looking for new corn recipes soon. I do plan to freeze about half of the crop if I can so I have plenty of veg to see me through the winter.

My latest courgette experiment has been courgette chutney. The courgette jam was a lot nicer than expected so flushed with success I decided to try a chutney. I used a good 10-14 courgettes chopped into small pieces some tomatoes, a couple of onions, a few pints of cigar vinegar and a couple of bowls of brown sugar. This was all boiled until thickened and actually smells quite nice. It needs a few months to mature so the final taste test will have to wait but its looking like a good way to use up a large batch of courgettes. Now what to do with the other 30?

After a few months of eating courgettes for pretty much every meal, I am exhausting the recipe possibilities. Having tried many of the nicer sounding ones I came across an idea for courgette or marrow jam. I haven't really made mine to a recipe but have basically used about 15 courgettes and a good sized piece of root ginger which I chopped and boiled until tender. I then strained the courgettes through a sieve and added the equivalent weight in sugar before boiling to the setting point. It’s an unusual taste similar to a marmalade but is quite tasty. I still have many more courgettes so might make another batch although I do also have an interesting chutney recipe I might give a go.

With both the allotment and the vegetables in the garden coming along well we still have no shortage of vegetables. We are still knee deep in courgettes despite me freezing a massive batch. The latest crop to be to ready is the runner beans and once again there are far more than we can hope to eat. I spent an evening processing them by blanching them for about 2 minutes in boiling water, cooling them and bagging them for freezing. We now have a freezer full of beans and courgettes so there should be plenty to see us through the winter.

According to this article our garden birds are currently being hit by an avian pox virus. The virus which leads to warty tumour like growths on birds has been affecting a wide range of birds including dunnocks, house sparrow, starlings and wood pigeons. The worst affected birds, however, seem to be great tits which seem to suffer from much more severe infections. Conservationists are calling for member's of the public to help track the spread of the disease by looking out for birds with symptoms and reporting them to the RSPB Wildlife Enquiries Unit on 01767 693690. It is thought the virus is spread through direct contact between birds and also indirect contact via perches and bird feeders where the birds congregate. You can help by keeping any bird tables and birds feeders disinfected to try and prevent the spread of any disease.

I spotted this interesting looking plant at the allotment the other day and not knowing what it was took a picture so I could later identify it. I was guessing from the colour that it would turn out to be something poisonous and after looking up poisonous red berries on Google came up with this. It seems it is something called Arum maculatum or more commonly known as wild arum or Lords and Ladies and cuckoo pint. The plant I found didn’t appear to have any leaves as such (the leaves in my picture belong to surrounding plants) and the plant was formed of a single stalk. It appears the berries of the plant are extremely poisonous and can produce allergic reactions such as irritation of the skin, mouth and throat, difficulty in breathing and upset stomach.  Based on this I won’t be handling it but it certainly is a very attractive looking little plant.

I harvested a huge batch of damsons and blackberries from the allotment where we have both growing wild on our plot so decided to make some jam. The damsons were washed and put into a pot with about a pint of water to boil. Any bugs float to the top so are quickly removed. The damsons quickly cook down to a pulp and then all you need to do is remove the pips, add the sugar, approx. 500g to the same amount of fruit and bring back to the boil until it reaches the setting point. The blackberries were processed in much the same way. I salted them first overnight in warm salt water to draw out any maggots. Then boiled them in about a pint of apple juice until soft. Drained them through a sieve to remove the pips. Added the sugar, I used jam sugar here with the pectin already added, and boiled until the setting point was reached. Both jams taste fantastic, the damson jam is a little on the tart side but nice and the blackberry is just the right sweetness without being too sickly. The best part is it was all made from free fruit.

A penguin who recently turned up on a beach in New Zealand after getting lost is soon due to be released back into the wild after receiving treatment. Happy Feet as he has been nicknamed has been recovering at Wellington zoo after he became ill due to eating sand which he may has mistaken for snow. He has now gained some weight and is due to be released offshore in the next few weeks. Hopefully he will be able to find his way back home.

With both the allotment and the vegetable patch in the garden coming along nicely, we have a ready supply of vegetables. One thing that has been really successful this year is the courgettes and we really do have many more than we can ever hope to eat. Having given lots away to all the neighbours with a lot still left over I decided to freeze them. I processed over 40 courgettes in batches, by first peeling then and cutting them into small chunks. Then I boiled a pot of water and blanched them in batches for just a minute before draining and cooling them. They were all packed into small zip lock bags and frozen and should keep me in courgettes for the winter. The next job is to do the same with the turnips.

If your garden vegetables are showing symptoms similar to that shown on the left then they might be a victim of something called aminopyralid poisoning. The problem is caused by the residues of a hormone mimicking pesticide called aminopyralid which is used by farmers to kill weeds growing in fields of grass.

Government approval for the pesticide was suspended in 2008 after cases of cross contamination but it appears farmers are still able to use it under strict guidelines. This includes spraying it only on fields which are grazed directly by cattle and not on fields where silage or hay is grown. Manure from animals kept in the pastures should be used only on the farm and farmers must confirm in writing that they have been instructed in the use of the pesticide and in manure management issues. All of these measures should be enough to prevent further issues of cross contamination but it appears this is not the case.

The article highlights the case of a market gardener who lost their entire crop of vegetables to this curling disease. The problem was that the manure they had used was contaminated. It seems that somewhere in the process someone had not followed the stringent guidelines related to the use of aminopyralid. It seems many cases of this poisoning are simply put down to other factors such as poor weather and diseases and so go unreported with many gardeners unaware of the problem or indeed the real reason why their crops might have failed. Reading this I am reluctant to purchase any manure without knowing where it has been sourced from and think I may stick to simply using compost from the garden.