Let the New Year Begin!

Happy New Year and all that jazz to you all. Welcome to Mal and Is the Wiz. Congratulations to Hazel, she started laying her eggs just before Christmas. You can see from the egg count on the right that we now have three hens laying and they are being very productive for me, I’m getting 2-3 eggs a day at the moment. I’m a little worried about Chestnut though as she doesn’t seem to have started to lay yet, I’ve had them 11 weeks now and they were bought at ‘point of lay’ so I would have thought she’d have had her first egg before now. Knowing my luck, she will turn out to be a he!!! Then we will be in trouble and so will he, it’s the neck chop if she is a he, we’re not allowed cockerels at the allotment and I’m sure my neighbours won’t put up with him singing a dawn chorus.

So work has started in preparation for this New Year. I’ve started to clear the back yard which had 3 raised beds in it (a 4 x 4, 5 x 4 and 3 x 4 ft). This is so I can erect my greenhouse; which is 6ft x 6ft. This is where I will raise my seedlings ready for sending them off to the allotment. I will also be fixing my existing shed (6 x 4ft) as the floor is rotten and the roof leaks and re-locating it elsewhere in the yard, final position yet to be decided. I also aim to build an ‘outhouse’ storage area at the back of my extension. Here I will store some of my harvest, because at the moment, I really don’t have anywhere for winter storage of my crops.

I spent a couple of hours at the allotment on Sunday also. It was lovely to get back into it, although I didn’t do any digging (whey too wet and cloggy still), I did start on the area which is where I have been storing my bricks and pallets. This area is were I anticipate putting my two apple trees, so my couple of hours was filled moving some of these pallets and bricks to the hard gravel area which I gained back in May last year.

I’ve placed my potato order• First Earlies: Pentland Javlin (again as they were so good the first and second time) Swift and Arran Pilot• Second Earlies: Kestrel and Lady Christl• Early Maincrop: Maris Piper, Sante and King Edward• Late Maincrop: Druid
• Salad: Charlotte

I’ve also sent off for some Rocket and Pink Fir Apple from magazine offers. With all these I think that I should have enough to keep me going.

More work hopefully over the weekend.

How Could I Forget - My Chickens!

Gosh, I don’t know how I’ve done it, but yesterday I forgot to mention the most important happening of the weekend - I’ve ordered 4 chickens. When I say I’ve ordered them, I’ve put in a request to a friend who has a small holding (1 acre) to rear me some chicks, she will look after them until they are at ‘point of lay’, which is roughly about 18 - 20 weeks old, and at which point I’ll have returned from my holiday and it’ll be all systems go, eggtastic!

Quick update on the sowing - I’ve started to pre-chit some parsnips, done the old wet paper towel trick; we’ll see how they get on. I also sowed 3 of each of the tomato varieties: Gardener Pearl, Roma, Red Cherry and an Italian big beefy one I can’t for the life of me think what it’s called now, I’ve put them in little peat pots so I don’t need to prick them out and pot on, I’ll just pop the peat pot into the next size up which will probably be a 3” pot and carry on from there. Did this with a couple of plants last year and it seemed to work out ok, so I’ll give it another go.

Had another look at my potato plans last night also, I was going to put the 2nd earlies into tubs as I’m doing with the 1st earlies, but again the seed potatoes seem to be multiplying, I don’t know where they are all coming from, but they will go in the ground as I haven’t enough of the potato tubs.

At Last I have Broad Beans

I’ve been pacing up and down for the last couple of days like an expectant mother waiting for signs of life from my broad beans, and at last beginning to emerge from those little pots of compost are the signs of new life. I’m filled with glee.

Nothing new to report from the plot, it was snowing again yesterday, today has been rather chilly but the good news is that there has been no snow and the day has an awe of spring about it. Things could change within the hour though, considering what the weather has been like over the last few weeks. It is forecasted (in Middlesbrough) for the weekend weather to be cold with further light wintry showers. I hope it holds off for a few hours on Sunday so I can give it another try to get something done on the Lottie, even if I build a few beds in anticipation of winter digging, it’s a step in the right direction.

Advice needed: when my seed potatoes arrived, the maincrop arrived at the same time, now it says in most magazines/books you don’t need to chit maincrop potatoes so I’ve left them in the box until needed for planting in April. I checked on them the other day as I went to get out my 2nd earlies to start chitting them, and the maincrop spuds had started to grow big white shoots, not little ones, big ones. How do I stop these growing, and will it hinder the spuds when they are planted out, giving me a inferior crop. Any advice would be appreciated.

What to do with all these Potatoes

So with the snow once again arriving here in the North East at the weekend, well at least it did here in Middlesbrough, all plans of getting on with things came to a shuddering halt. It’s very frustrating, is it always like this, the constant battle over the winter months with the weather? I suppose I’ve not taken much notice or been interested about the weather in the past, if it rained it rained, if it snowed it snowed, if it was sunny, it was a bonus. But now I’m very interested.

Remember last week I got my order of seed potatoes, and the extra that had been delivered, well call me keen (more like stupid) when I visited ‘Potato Day’ at Nature World on the 31st , I only went and bought some more. 4 seed potatoes of each of the following Maincrop varieties: Nicola, Cara, Markies and Anya. So now I’ve gone and given myself a conundrum, what will I do with all these potatoes?

I had planned on a 5 year (4 beds) rotation policy, with roots and potatoes in the bed together, (now now). Given the amount of potatoes I’ve now got, I’m now thinking of a 6 year (5 beds) plan and having potatoes by themselves and all other roots together. With that in mind, I’m even keener that the weather starts to play nicely.

Interesting Fact: Did you know that in October 1995, the potato became the first vegetable to be grown in space? NASA and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, created the technology with the goal of feeding astronauts on long space voyages, and eventually, feeding future space colonies. Maybe I should send NASA some of my seed potatoes to plant for me, lol

I’ve found a little website all about potatoes, go to www.lovepotatoes.co.uk its got some interesting bits on it.

The Cat that got the Cream!

Did you hear that loud whop of delight coming from the North East around about 12.30pm today? If you did that was me. My potatoes have arrived so I can start to get my earlies chitted, I can almost taste them. Samson almost did, when I was looking through the box to check they'd all been dispatched, he's stuck his nose in and pinched a bag, I think i've got myself a little pilferer (well a big one, he's a Dogue de Bordeaux). But do you know what the best part was, we had ordered 5 seed potatoes of the 1st early ‘Rocket’ for Caleb to grow, and when I opened the box, they’d sent us 20 at no extra charge, I feel like the Cat that got the cream. Great stuff eh, funny what little things make us happy. Now the only problem is I’ll have to have a think of where I’m going to plant the extra 15 as I’ve not budgeted for them in my space, oh the decisions we plotters have to make, lol.

If you live anywhere near Middlesbrough, you may be interested to know that Natures World is holding a potato day on Sunday 31st January between 10am and 2pm. I think I’ll have a pop along and see if I can get myself a few tasters to try, in view of growing a different variety next year.

Potato Order

Last year was the first time I’d grown any vegetables other than the odd tomato plant as a child. I’d always wanted to grow my own but had always lived in houses with no garden (just a back yard) and never really thought about getting an allotment, they were something that old men had, I know please don’t shout at me for my ignorance!

I found these wonderful patio potato planters in the local garden centre. I got some seed potatoes (Pentland Javlin) from a DIY store, planted them up and some weeks later pulled out the most wonderful potatoes I’d tasted, I couldn’t believe the difference in taste. And there the journey began, I was hooked.

Remembering how wonderful my potatoes tasted, when all the seed catalogues started arriving I thumbed through to the potato selection and was spoilt for choice, I was like a child in a candy store. The final list, decided with a little help from Caleb (my son) was:

• First Earlies: Pentland Javlin (for me as they were so good the first time) and Rocket (for Caleb)
• Second Earlies: Yukon Gold
• Early Maincrop: Rudolph (Caleb’s choice - I wonder why) and Blue Danube (only 99p due to size of order, so we thought we’d give them a try)
• Late Maincrop: Golden Wonder and Pink Fir Apple
• Christmas Collection: Orla - First Early, Vivaldi - Second Early, Carlingford - Second Early, Sarpo Una - First Early

So here I am, seed potatoes are in the shops, and I’m waiting anxiously for mine to be delivered so I can start to chit my earlies!