My Tiny Plot

Look! It’s the tame magpie. He’s famous on our allotment, everyone is talking about how he likes to land on your shoulders while you dig. I didn’t believe he existed until he came to visit while I was digging up the last of the potatoes a few days ago. He landed on the wheelbarrow first to check me out then hopped over to see what I was digging. He was right underneath me and busied himself with eating the woodlice that had been unearthed while I was digging. And he wouldn’t leave – I had to literally nudge him with my fork so that I could carry on digging. He didn’t like that and so hopped into the basket of plenty and pecked my courgettes a few times – just to annoy me. He’s sweet though, magpies are very colourful close up – his feathers are bright blue, black and green – with a shimmer on them like oil on water. You can see the green manure has gone a bit mental in the background.

We’re continuing with the opening up of the former fruit patch and we’re about half way there (when I say we, of course I mean Ryan). The plan is to leave most of the bushes intact but to remove some strategic specimens to create lovely wide beds that will house the big stuff next year, such as sweetcorn, pumpkins, and main crop potatoes – leaving mtp free for the more delicate crops such as salad leaves. We already have a line of very successful summer raspberries but I plan to add an ‘even more successful’ line of autumn raspberries – I’m thinking Autumn Bliss (or the variety that Monty was talking about last week Joan something). We’ll also be extending our fruiting bush portfolio into the blackberry market, either Oregon Thornless or Bedford Giant if I’m feeling adventurous. Maybe even dabbling in a few blueberries – we’ll see how the funds go.

Headed up to mtp to start the big winter dig. I had sown some green manure a couple of weeks ago (mustard seeds) and cut it down to lay flat on the bed to die down. I dug that in some more. Also I lifted the last of the potatoes and trundled off to the manure heap that has been quietly festering all year. It’s all good stuff, well-rotted and full of worms. I loaded up the wheelbarrow and trundled back – nearly came a-cropper while navigating the corner – and dumped it square in the middle of the bed. Yummy… For now though we are mostly eatiing….French beans. I tried a recipe that I think I saw once on TV which involves boiling the beans, draining them then mixing them with some tomato puree, a bit of olive oil, seasoning and a chopped chili. It works!

Is it just me or has everything slowed down to a humid drone? I go to mtp every couple of days, do a bit of weeding, a splash of watering, cut a few things for the basket-of-plenty and head off home to spend the day in the kitchen, pickling, chopping, washing, eating… It’s like the summer will never end. Even my artichoke plant has poked it wee-tiny head up (even if I did have to chop it off). Ominously though, Clive my next door (plot) neighbour rocked up the other day, leaned on his spade and said the following: “Ah…it’s all coming to an end now…!” My stomach turned “Nooooo!” I felt like yelling, “that simply can’t happen. Clearly, my tomato plants will carry on producing tiny gems for ever, the lettuce bed will always be full to brimming with more crispy leaves than a normal human being can consume and mtp’s beds will never be empty again.”
Deluded, I know.

It happens every year (apparently) – Bathford Flower Show. You can enter your produce in a veritable plethora of categories including your common or garden flower categories (including the minature flower arrangement section). Your basic veg categories (like the five tomatoes on a plate category – seen here) or your more unusual entries such as the ‘homemade pizza’ (must not exceed 9 inches) category and the ‘largest dug potato’ category. I must admit I’d never been to a village flower show. Flower shows were an alien concept in the northern mining town where I grew up. If you wanted flowers you went to Blackpool or Cheshire and if you had an allotment you grew veg on it – not dahlias! So I was intrigued when David mentioned that there would be a flower show and that he had 17 (!) entries in it. I had to go. It started at 2:30pm, was 50p to get in and actually was rammed with visitors. It was nice – I wouldn’t say exciting – but I’m sure if you had 17 entries it would be seat edge stuff. Predictably though, I was sucked in. When I heard the words, ‘my cucumbers are better than those’ come out of my mouth I knew I would be entering next year. 50p or no 50p.

I had no idea what lettuce looked like once it had gone to seed. Most people warned me that I had planted too many lettuce and that they would go to seed before I could eat them all and well, they were right. I admit it, 70 lettuce was a tad too many. But what no-one tells you is that when they do run to seed they look as attractive as ever, more so I would argue. So I have left a few of them in the ground to become these tall, architectural statues and I think they give mtp a certain majesty (but then I would). They’re just about to flower and after that hopefully I can collect some seed for next year. I also let some of the Pentard Red go to seed and they turned into amazing deep purple pyramids about two foot high. But the rain battered them down and I had to pull them up. They’re now rotting nicely in the compost pile. But you can’t win them all…