This year I planted most of my tender veg in cold-frames and hoop tunnels, but I left some outside so I could compare how well they coped with the winter weather. Up until the first really hard frost (-8C) the lettuces that were growing outside did slightly better than those...
It’s a wonderful frosty day on the allotment and I’m struggling to find things to do. Ideally I’d be out hiking, but I have a stress fracture in my foot so I’m taking things easy. The allotment provides a perfect distraction, composting, I turned one of my big bins –...
We planted five oca (New Zealand Yam) tubers this year, our first attempt at growing them. Only four of them survived and only three thrived. They didn’t grow much in spring, but put on a lot of growth in late summer. The tuber’s don’t seem to grow until late autumn...
Most of my cold-frames are only protected by a single layer of polythene. This is great for protecting from, wind, snow, hail and heavy rain (light rain is welcome) but it’s not a great insulator. Last year I insulated one of the frames with an inner layer of fleece and...
This is the first tour of winter and almost everything continues to grow well, somethings too well. The green salaonvas are suffering a bit, but the miner’s lettuce is growing faster than we can eat it and we eat a lot. We had a few very early frosts and these...
Today is a milestone for us as we finally finish the overhaul of Jennie’s plot. Our objectives were to: get the weeds under control in the orchard area, get rid of the grass paths, widen the paths and raise the beds so that we could put down a thick compost...
Today’s video is a quick tour of the kitchen garden and there’s not much going on, so I also check in on the store room. We mainly use the kitchen garden for berries, but we also have a few raised beds that we stock with our most commonly used veg:...
*** Edited to include a link to the correct video! Almost everyone else that I know puts their leaves in a big wire cage and then forgets about them for a few years. I don’t have the time or space for that, I want my leaves on the ground (in...
It’s all change on Jennie’s plot this month. The growing is slowing down, so it’s the season for projects. Debbie has laid a patio, trimmed the hedges and shifted the pile of rubbish and compost bins. I’ve pruned and cleared out the weeds at the bottom the the hedge. Together...
This month’s tour is very simillar to the last, as there’s not much changing in November on Debbie’s allotment. The beans, New Zealand Spinach and Oca are dying back after the frost; the Lambs Lettuce, Miner’s Lettuce and brassicas are thriving. Everything is as it should be. We will be...