Dee's "Allotment " garden

Well, they have been in the ground for a while now. Planted in April and pretty much left to their own devices, with no molly-coddling from me what so ever and on occasions completely forgotten that they were ever planted – I remembered last week that they needed to be dug up in November !

I think i planted six or seven tubers, cant remember now. which gave me four trays full.

These are now sitting on various window sills for two/ three weeks, soaking up a little sun. Apparently you need to do this as they are very bitter when first dug up.

They have a lemony flavour and you cook these like potatoes [boiled or mashed] Wonder if you can boil them in their skins ? Need to look that up, as they look like they will be a right palaver to peel

So, i’ll let you know if i love them enough to keep some tuber’s back to grow next year. At the moment i’m not sure they were worth taking up the space for such a long time..

I wanted to try something different!

“I managed to get down to my plot on Saturday”. The first time in three weeks. What a day to choose – heavy rain and strong winds, the worse day of the weekend.. I so desperately wanted to harvest a few things, Leeks,Carrots,Beetroot, hopefully some Brussels. I decided to chance it and waited for a break in the weather then made a dash for it.. So, there i was in the drizzle that was made worse by the wind, wearing hubs old Parker – “It has an hood… Something i don’t own, a coat with an hood” – which was four sizes too big for me flapping around my ankles.
Why the hell did i bother? I brought home some sprouts and a couple of leeks.The leeks were refusing to give up; i slipped on the path twice, which was like a mud bath. If anyone was watching from the street they would of seen a coat holding a fork fall flat on its back with flowery wellies waving about.
My beetroot and carrots came straight out of the ground and into the compost bin.. Actually! i had no Beetroot, when i pulled it up there was nowt there, one by one i had a little dig around with my fingers and couldn’t feel anything. “I thought Beetroot was easy”? and as for my Carrots, i have longer finger nails than the ones i pulled up. I knew i would not get many, as only a few germinated but i thought id get a meal out of them..
I will try again next year, with Carrots…Third time lucky! I may just crack the secret this time..
And as for my Beetroot [bolthardy] im not sure what went wrong – sown too late possibly.. July?

Iv been trying to clear the back of my plot [ 5 rods in total] which is overgrown with brambles and small plums for two years now. My plot is in the middle of the site and its pretty slow going because of the rules about burning I try not to burn when there are too many people around, also we cant burn during the summer and at other times we are asked to try and burn at night. Almost every one burns when there’s not many people around during the day. Well, this weekend i had a bit of a run in with my lottie neighbour She suddenly appeared from behind the trees, which was a surprise saying I was smoking her out and before i could apologise and say I hadn’t realised she was there; ill stop. [in fact I couldn’t get a word in edge ways] she became quite condescending and started to quote the rule book at me which i felt was totally unnecessary. She was pointing towards the notice board and saying you can only burn at night [wrong] which suggested to me I should go and read it and frankly put my back up and annoyed me.[i know what the rules are] I started to think bloody double standards who does she think she is telling me what I can and can’t do. She burns things during the day. Her attitude was over the top and not necessary.. I wouldn’t of started burning if id known she was there.I didn’t see her when i arrived, i think she was chatting to a plot holder at the back of the site. After that though, all I could think of was to keep burning which would really p her off. Its been really slow going trying to burn it all, iv even asked the council in the past if I cut it all down could they dispose of it,they refused. In fact they are no help what so ever, they’ll not even compromise.
So between bad weather, restricted times for burning – A council that’s no help who think I can wave a magic wand and it will disappear and plot holders that are not that understanding, im stuck between a rock and a hard place. I’m starting to ask myself if its all worth it ?
I’m now considering hiring a shredder for the day but need to check with the council as they are noisy beasts “sigh”

A few more weeks and these will be ready to pick – Hubs has already picked a few from the bottom and ate them raw. He prefers them raw than cooked along with raw cauliflower.. He cant understand anybody who would want to eat them cooked “much nicer raw” blah…
I will have to hide some to have with my meals as he snacks on them

A couple of fruits still on the plant

Only one fruit on the plant – probably the crap summer we had. Did not bother taking a photo