Ladbird vs. Blackfly in The Battle of the Beans

Didn't get down the plot till late today. Chronically hung over all morning and afternoon but had a nice sleep by the river surrounded by dragonfly.


Discovered that my Broad Beans have a serious black fly problem. On the plus side there were a lot of ladybirds about. I read recently that if beneficial bugs are at work it can be best to take no action and let things re-balance on their own. So, instead of spraying with soapy solution I decided to let the little red bugs keep munching.


*Edit 8 June - The blackfly are now gone, but they have completely decimated the beans. Waiting to see if they'll recover.

It's been another glorious day! I made it down the allotment feeling pretty hungover last thing this afternoon, I was at a wedding in Harlow last night.

I've almost finished digging over the plot now, I've just been slowed down by some serious stinging nettle roots down the boundary fence with the allotment next door. She's got carpet on her path and doesn't pull the weeds that come out from under it, so they encroach on our plot with their roots coming through the chicken wire fence. I've ended up just reaching over and pulling both the plants and roots up from her side of the fence as well.


I should get some spuds and parsnips soon, I just need to start thinking about where I'm going to put everything first though!

Up the creek

After both getting stuck with poor Sunday train services, Henry and I attempted to get some manure on Sunday. The first load went OK. We went back to the farm we got it from last year, forked the well rotted cow manure into the trailer and dumped it down the end of our plot.

It was on the way back with the second load that it all went wrong. A tyre on the trailer burst and we didn't have a spare. We had to wait around for an hour to get it picked up by the breakdown recovery truck. Then, rather than get it to the plot, it had to be taken to Henry's house. This meant that we had to shovel it all out into wheel-barrows and take it down the end of the garden, and we still need to find some way of getting it to the allotment!

Moving in to Plot 18

Today we officially moved into our plot. I cycled down earlier this afternoon to have another look at what we've got to sort out. Unlike some people I know who have taken over new plots recently, ours isn't too overgrown. It's currently arranged into overgrown beds with overgrown carpet paths in between them all.


We're probably going to pull most of it up, make bigger beds, re-lay some carpet covered in wood chippings and put down some horse manure and/or a green manure over the winter.


While having a look I found some left over veg from the previous tenant. It felt a bit like a post mortem on someone else's growing season. Found dried French beans, Carrots, loads of Fennel, two pumpkins, a butternut squash, some knobbly cucumbers and some bush runner beans.

Adventures with Jam!

On Bank Holiday weekend, Rosie and I went to stay with her Grandad, Reg, who lives in the tiny village of Campsea Ashe in Suffolk. The hedgerows in the fields near his house are full of ripe damsons (or wild plums... can anyone explain the difference?) and sloes. We picked loads to bring home, along with some early apples from Reg's garden. On the way back we stopped off at 'Jimmy's Farm' (of TV fame) to feed some sheep, see the pigs and the herb/veg garden and buy some fresh organic pork (Rosie's a veggie but I still buy organic meat from farms if I know it's had a good life).



We'd be hoping to pick lots of blackberries but they're not ripe in Suffolk yet. We made up for it this weekend by picking a few kilos in Kingsley on Sat along with more sloes. We got surrounded by a herd of about 30 curious cows at one point who kept trying to creep up to us by the hesdge before following us all the way accross the feild, keeping about 5 paces behind the whole time. Although it was quite funny, there was also something slightly unerving about a gang of cows breathing down your neck!



Once back at Rosie's we made 12 jars of sweet damson jam, a lovely Apple and Blackberry crumble and a few litres of sloe gin. On Sunday we noticed a heavy cropping wild greengage tree oppposite her house, so had to make a few jars of that before going on to make of 10 bramble jam and 3 spiced apple chutney. Mmmm.... I ate so much jam this weekend!



In other news, Henry and I are going down to see our new allotment tomorrow night! Going to measure it up and then go down the pub to mull over our plans...

August Update - bumper post!

Well, as usual, this Summer I've been enjoying the great outdoors too much to spend anytime inside communicating online. I spent the end of July at festivals in floods, on farms and and in fields. August has involved lots of BBQ's, bike rides and a week at the Heathrow Climate Camp.



Vegetable wise, we've had a few more mange tout, loads of runner beans and courgettes (modelled by Rosie) as well as our first few carrots which were really tasty, and tomatoes which have continued to be dogged by blight. The rocket's still going strong, and I've also sown some Chinese Baby Leaf to compliment it.


Slugs (as featured on the news lately) have continued to gnaw away at everything, and I'm sure contributed to both the early demise of my peas and a lower courgette output (we have to pick them small to get there first). The main casualty has been my purple sprouting broccoli though, which is all on its last legs and riddled with holes. Sprouts seem to be doing alright still though, touch wood.


The big news is that as of Sept/Oct, I'll have my first allotment! Yes, that's right, after an off chance visit to my nearest allotments - where Rosie and I had a look round and were given armfuls of runner beans to take home - I put my name down for a plot. I was delighted to hear only a week later that I have been granted Plot 18!


I'm going to share it with Henry as we're not too sure how much additional work it's going to be. We should be able to have a look round in the next few weeks (having already been down for a sneaky peak) and will take ownership not long after the current tennants have moved away. I'm very excited, we can't wait to measure it up and get planning what top plant!