Update From Number 7

It's been a while and I apologise- unfortunately that little inconvenience known as work has kept me away from the blog, the allotment and my social life...

Anyway- an allotment update with pictures ought to win you all back round eh?

Disasters.....

My beautiful red cabbages have fallen foul of the slugs and snails- it breaks my heart a bit because they are so pretty, almst beatle-y, pearlecsent-y green-y, purprl-y....

My calabrese and purple sporuting have faired worse, despite the addition of a couple of little chive plants and some baby marigolds. I just dont know what to do...do you think they stand a chance? I've planted out more in another bed at the other end of the plot to see if they fair better...

And some success....

Two out of the Three Sisters are growing wonderfully- I have the beans ready to go once the sweetcorn gets a little taller but I might not bother as they seem to be growing well without them...

The broad beans have been a surprise success. I have been eating them as fast as they can grow, definately before they're big enough to be stored for winter soups etc as was originally planned...whoops!

Now the peas have had a healthy dose of compost they are growing well, they're not tall but they are flowering so I'm feeling hopeful. If nothing else they look terribly pretty on my wonky home made mini-frame.

The radishes have become the runaway success, I'm tempted to turn the whole plot over to radishes as they are the only things which grow without any help at all. I have instead bought a more varied selction, from white to red to purple...we'll be sick of radishes by July!

The strawberries which all came from last years runners are doing magnicently, free food tastes even better!

The sweet peas I grew to try and cover up the ugly fence at the end of our plot took a while to get going but they do look pretty- if a little sparce. More next year.

The ever present comfrey, always full of beas grows faster than we can use it! I intend to plant a big block of it in the wildlife section I'm building over the next few weeks, along with a small "pond", meadow flowers and a log pile...

Come on then slugs...

This weekend I set about waging my (organic) war on the slugs who are treating my plot as a buffet bar...

After a quick trip to a local carboot sale we were loaded up with smelly, herby, slug repelling, slug-muncher attracting plants, yet more organic slug pellets and all the copper rings and tape we could carry.

Now all the slugs favourite cabbages are now inter-planted with smelly chives, yummy sage and pretty marigolds and surrounded by little shields of copper rings and organic slug repellent. I’ve also planted what felt like hundreds more calendulas and nasturtiums in the flowers beds surrounding the plot, alongside some huge lavender plants. I’m hoping this will do the trick...I’ll be back tonight to check.

I had a chat with our lovely allotment site manager Marina about the possibility of getting a pond constructed on our communal plot, in order to encourage frogs, toads and other slug lovers into the site- I even offered the boyf has manual labour. Unfortunately space is an issue and the council are not keen on unsafe structures like ponds. However, she has promised a workshop in July to encourage plot holders to construct small, shallow pools out of plastic basins on their own plots. I will definitely be doing this- and maybe moving some of the hundreds of tadpoles into it before the chooks get them!  I’m also going to get serious about a log pile and other wildlife attracting features...

Any tips?

Also I would be interested to hear if you encourage birds on your veg plot or scare them away? There's a real split at our allotments, people with bird feeders strung up everywhere next door to those who do everything to scare them away!

The Things I Gain #4 slugs and snails....

I have suffered a devastating slug attack at the allotment, in which my beautiful red cabbages, purple sprouting broccoli and calabrese all suffered a serious munching- the same plants I posted pictures of earlier in the week boasting of their beauty and vigour (what’s that about counting your chickens before they hatch?) I’ve never really experienced an attack on this scale, photos of which would be far too distressing and horrific for your delicate eyes dear readers, and it has really made me question my organic methods. My immediate reaction was to blast the buggers with any chemical spray or pellet I could get my hands on, indeed I don’t think I’m quite out of the woods on that one...I need to fortify my organic-ness.

So why do we garden organically? Why not pump in a few chemicals, kill all the bugs and leave contented with enormous, non munched, healthy looking veg? Why sweat and toil, laboriously catching slugs by hand, cutting up old plastic bottles, encouraging friendly beasties, companion planting,  picking nettles for fertiliser and making the trip up and down the garden to the compost bin three times a day when a few quid and a few chemicals would do the work for you?  

For me, it just feels better- I. I can’t see the point in all the time and expense that goes with growing your own vegetables if ultimately you will end up with exactly the same thing as you could buy in the supermarket for significantly less money. I don’t want to eat chemicals, so why would I feed them to my food?

As an animal lover (I have to look the other way when the chickens eat a woodlouse) the last thing I want is to introduce more damaging elements into their food chain, we do that enough already. I want to encourage animals both in my garden and at the allotment- I love to see hedgehogs and frogs, even a vegetarian fox or two wandering through, perhaps it’s a hangover from my Animals of Farthing Wood phase. As a hedgehog can eat it’s body weight in slugs in one evening, I don’t want them to be eating poisoned ones if I can help it.

Aside from the animals, the taste, the chemicals... organic gardening is cheap. Once you’ve got a compost heap (our are made of breeze blocks we scavenged from a building site) you’re half way there! You just need to get creative and stick with it. Think about it, the stuff you would usually chuck out, the old veg peelings, the plastic bottles, even old beer, can become a useful and productive tool and ultimately feed your tummy!

And that is what it is all about...I want a tummy full of yummy veg with the satisfaction of knowing that I grew it without harming the soil, or the animals. So even though the slugs have broken my heart...I sense that they may have escaped a chemical massacre, although that definitely doesn’t mean that they live to munch my cabbages another day...

I’m waging (organic) war...

Free Rangin'

So we’ve had Maude and Mildred for a month now and I have finally plucked up the courage to let them free range around the garden. Despite my best attempts at fencing the boyf has  persuaded me that with a bit of supervision the girls would be fine wandering around- unfenced.

The girls with their security guard... in his PJ's...

We had a bit of a shaky start, which mainly involved me near tears shrieking at the boyf that they were going to run away or get stolen by a fox despite the fact that I was a mere foot away... I’m such an over protective chook mama, I think he has definitely been put off the idea of ever having human babies with me. But with a lot of persuasion, I have begun to feel more comfortable about loosening the apron strings. The girls know exactly where to go when the door of the run is open and leg it straight into my pa’s “woodland flowerbed” which unfortunately for him contains some expensive plants but also a rockery and lots of bark chippings which the girls adore.

It’s funny how their personalities change when they’re out scratching about, Mildred who was our first Houdini and I always thought, the naughty one, won’t go far from me and the snack box and comes straight to me when she’s called. Maude on the other hand is a bit of a nightmare! I thought she was the quiet, less dominant one but once she gets a sniff off a worm she’s gone! The boyf had to retrieve her from underneath next doors hedge- luckily some ancient chicken wire prevented her from getting too far!

One last glimpse of Maude's bottom as she disapears off into the bushes...

I’m so glad I have relaxed enough to let them out, it’s no good being over protective if they don’t get to have a little fun. They absolutely love digging and scratching and running about (who knew they could run so fast!?) and the little noises of content when they find a beetle or a caterpillar are so sweet! I just wish I had more time to play with them instead of this work lark...

Mildred, my blonde bombshell and total mamas girl...



Our first harvest...

So at the end of last week we had rain. Not a lot, not enough by any means, but a couple of hours of this wet stuff has made everything green again (including the chicken decimated sections of the lawn) and my allotment has burst into life.

We have our first crop! This is very exciting as we have never grown anything edible on the allotment before, the only thing we've taken off the plot is rocks and weeds! I'm excited despite the harvest being a small one.Four little radishes which I took home and munched in a salad for my tea. I shared them with the boyf of course!

The weediest, greying of all the seedlings, my calabrese and purple sprouting broccoli have come back with such vigour I am now fearing the gluttiest of all the gluts...

The current darlings of my plot, my beautiful red cabbages have sprung up and are looking even more lovely now than in their purple seedling state. I never thought of myself as a cabbage fancier but these girls have got it going on...

On the advice of a friend, as well as Alys Fowler in The Guardian I have begun a rigorous regime of mulching with lawn cuttings. Luckily the boyf always has a van load from his gardening round so there’s no problem with supply. I covered the raspberry plants a couple of weeks back and the soil which was once dust and concrete dried clay has now become soft, moist and full of worms. My three sisters, corn, courgettes and beans, (currently two sisters as my beans are taking a while to get going) have got a specially thick layer as I am out to prove to the boyf that companion planting is the way forward...

As you can see, his onions are growing obediently in their perfectly uniformed lines. The jig is up though and he’s noticed my little carrot seedlings popping up in between. I’ve just about convinced him that my carrots and his onions are a dream team....time will tell.

Have you got any successful companion planting pairngs? I’d love to know, I’m all about trial and error at the moment! Parsnips and artichoke? Rhubarb and sweet potato?

"Cowpie" Rally

Yesterday I inadvertently ended up in what appeared the be the mating ground for middle class Surrey types- the Surrey County Show, AKA The Cow Pie Rally. For the last few years I’ve missed what has always been the highlight of my family calendar (if only for the free jam!) what with living in Leeds and all it was a bit tricky…

I couldn’t move for tweed and Barbour jackets, sports cars and Land Rovers. Naturally, I bypassed these boring stalls, leaving the boyf to peruse whistfully, and found myself in the livestock tent.

I ended up speaking to very nice man from the Reigate Beekeepers Association. I’ve always wanted to keep bees but our garden backs right on to a school playground so it’s never really been possible. However, lovely bee keeping man has informed me of a land share scheme, where people with land suitable for hives let you come and set up on their land…sounds perfect! I will definitely be investigating, but don’t tell the Boyf!

I also got chatting to a lovely couple who keep highland cattle on their farm in Surrey. Being a big cow fan, I was first to hop over into the pen to give the cows a brush, knocking small children to the ground in my wake… These cattle were so gorgeous, with their enormous heads and long shaggy hair they were like a dinosaur meets Barbie- needless to say I’m hooked. Unfortunately, I don’t think my little garden can cater to these huge beasts- probably save that one for the dream small holding…

After chatting to lots of experts about goats, wellington boots, terrier racing (!?) bobbin lace and compost I headed for the food tent…

Dangerous territory- local producers were selling everything from homemade jams, cakes, breads and most importantly cheeses and ciders. As the Boyf tucked into a zebra burger (eew!) I got to work on the free cheese and cider samples- before being wheeled home at lunch time drunk and engorged on local diary produce- I like to support the local farmers…

All in all a good Sunday well spent and I managed to keep the Boyf off the dodgems long enough to buy me some candy floss!

Ice pack for Maude...

The magic of the first egg still hasn’t worn off. After hours of bank holiday weekend watching I discovered that it was Maude, my fat ginger bird...sorry vulptuous flame haired lovely (a title I would like to go by myself...) who has been my star layer. However, it didn’t take long for skinny blonde Mildred to catch up and this week we have been getting two eggs a day. I thought nothing could top this...

But then one afternoon, I found THIS in the nest box....

Looking bigger than ever next to Mildred’s teeny tiny second egg...

It turned out to be a double yoker too, she's such a clever girl...

Thank you Maude!

She's not just a pretty face...

Grow your soil...

I love my allotment. Well I love what we’ve done to it. But we have an ongoing problem. I think I’ve mentioned before that the soil we have inherited is poor, very, very poor. When we were first introduced to plot 7, Marina, our lovely site manager, gently broke it to us that our little corner had been used as a dumping area- not just for fly tippers and other allotment holders but for the council. Apparently a load of rubble destined for the bike jumps down the road was deemed too unsafe for cyclists, so the council arranged for it to be dumped- on our plot. Now obviously it is not just my little square which has been affected by this, but as we were the last in, I’d say we’ve got it worst.

Courgettes are not normally rockery plants...

When we first arrived we thought that moving the enormous concrete blocks and piles of old metal were the worst of our problems, these massive objects were actually the easiest to deal with. After me, the boyf and the dad spent two long weekends wheeling on average 40 wheelbarrow loads of rocks a day off the plot, we gave up- if we carried on we would have been left with a hole- the plot is rocks, the ground is gravel...we had to build up.

We essentially spent the whole winter scavenging wood and building raised beds and last weekend, finally, every bed was built. The next step was filling them...no not with veg, that bit is dead easy...but with soil. We have three massive compost heaps which are heaving with offerings from a friends cafe, the chickens bottoms and all the grass cuttings and odds and ends from the boyfs gardening round, we also have a huge leaf bin in our plot and a communal one for everyone to chip into. But compost is a slow process and as yet nothing from our bins is ready. So the soil remains dust and rock. We’ve planted into it, but nothing seems to be happening.

This weekend we had to part with some cash to sort this situation out, for this summer at least. We bought 12 bags of (peat free) compost from a local garden centre, setting us back about £40 but we decided it was a necessary evil. The soil would not produce anything without it.

We’ve also hacked back the enormous comfrey which was given to us by the boyfs dad as a mere seedling. Some we’re drying, some we’re turning into liquid feed and what’s left has gone straight into the beds.

The boy even composts in rows...

Things look healthier already and things are starting to grow. Luckily we managed to protect everything from the sudden frost which decimated so many of our neighbours produce on Tuesday night. Looking around the site, it seems that potatoes have taken the biggest battering, with piles of black mush where healthy plants once where.

I vow to spend this winter green manuring, composting and generally feeding the soil. I can’t have another growing season where I live in fear that every time the wind blows the dust which makes up my plot will be gone...

They’re high maintenance these allotments! Between them and the chickens and that little old job fella, I haven’t got any time for anything else! Love it though...

A long weekend with the chooks...

Somewhat unsurprisingly I have spent the whole long weekend cooing over my lovely girls. Not that I’m one to hold a grudge, but the boyf still hasn’t chicken proofed the garden and with next doors dog frequently making little trips through the hedge I’m still on high alert re: chicken free ranging.  So, in an effort to keep Mildred and Maude happy, and for me to continue my chicken training activities the boyf has had to think fast and come up with a stop gap solution....

It ain’t pretty that’s for sure. It’s certainly not a permanent solution, but this hideous orange plastic fencing is cheap as chips, rolls away and for the time being, gives the girls a chance to stretch their wings...they love it the little nutters. 

Even the boyf who harbours a deep but very secret fear of chickens (as much as he plays it down...) got involved with the girls in their little run.

I think I might have to give up on the boyf chicken proofing for now (he’s far too busy extending the drive for the mum’s massive new car to fit in...) and invest in some Omlet chicken netting. It seems like the best compromise for the time being, although it is expensive!

Any better ideas?

H&M Conscious Collection

 H&M was my first port of call when I started my ethical lent way back in February, for a long time their righteous little green tags have encouraged me to part with my cash on the grounds that “it’s good for the world, right?” However, with my ethical head on I delved deeper into the little green tag, and to be honest “40% organic cotton” was not going to cut it with me anymore.  In fact, I was a little annoyed that they could promote green credentials without actually doing that much, I mean if The Body Shop can do cosmetics that are made from fairly traded ingredients, support local farmers and protect animals from cruelty on the high street than surely H&M could up their game from 40% organic cotton t-shirts.

And it seems they have...

Launched to coincide with April’s Earth Month, H&M have released their new “Conscious Collection”. The organic cotton is back but this time it’s partnered with Tencel, and recycled polyester. So far so good. 

The womenswear collection features white and lots of it. Broderie anglaise, blouses, tunics and pretty detailing combined with minimalist tailoring give a modern but romantic English summer feeling. However, the visual merchandisers at H&M are a sneaky bunch, and their big “conscious collection” promotional section instore also features some of their not so conscious collections. With a few white, summery non conscious items stuffed in between the well meaning collection, H&M loses points with me, obviously hoping that people would get caught up in the eco goodness and forget to check for that little green tag! Cheeky.

Some of the clothes are lovely and the price points are spot on which is one of the most important things about make conscious fashion work on the high street- I can’t be the only one who walks away from brands like People Tree because I can’t quite stretch to £80 for a summer dress... H&M are offering a well designed, well thought out collection which, crucially, combines fashion and eco credentials at an affordable and accessible high street price.

I definitely appreciate the effort here but we are still a long way away from having the much needed fashion equivalent of The Body Shop.  A good start and from a fashion point of view, a good, relevant collection  but I believe that there is further to go, H&M have thrown down a gauntlet, showing that it can be done and other high street retailers need to take note and step up their eco game.  Be wary when you shop though, that little green tag doesn’t always mean guilt free shopping- always check what you are actually buying.