LottiePlotFour is now expanding

No, we have not made the site bigger - we have been offered half of the plot next door (five-a).

Many crops on LottiePlotFour are still producing. The bluberries have the last few berries.



The Dahlias are still going strong.



Leeks are starting to thicken up....



...and the autumn raspberries are at their peak.



The parsnips are still looking green. Hopefully the roots are still growing too!



The courgettes are slowing down, but are not over yet!



I am not sure the buttersquash will ripen - they went in too late, but I can keep hoping!



We have starting clearing beds for the winter...



...but, many of the beds are still full!



The herb bed is still very productive.



2010 was a great year for softfruit. These 2 strawberry beds are full of runners. Today's job was to clear the runners out and transplant around 50 to set up another bed in the spring.



Ant shows off a carrot. These were brilliant this year! (all hail enviromesh!!)



We harvested a load of carrots today to use in a large batch of bolognaise and soup for the freezer.



These are the first of our leeks. They are still tiny, but will be finding their way into a pie tonight.




Tomatoes ready for skinning. I will be making a batch of chilli jam tomorrow.



More courgettes - again pasta sauce for lunch whilst at work.



Yummy raspberries. They might even be made into a crumble with apples if Ant is really lucky.



Our new empire...

LottiePlotFiveA!

Our lottie neighbour is going down to a half plot due to work commitments, but the plot has been under cultivation this year. It is in good condition will just a few annual weeds. There is a bit of couch in the flowerbed and around the raspberries, but we will start tackling that over winter.

we have finally cracked carrots!

I am so happy with these carrots. We have a full 10x4' bed jam packed and haven't found any fly damage yet!



Also beans-a-plenty and the parsnips are good (as always)




Finally, is there anything more perfect than a homegrown autumn raspberry! Our plants went in last year and they have just started producing this last week or so. Lots of unripe berries and flowers though so I am hoping we are going to get a good crop.

Potatoes doing well alongside other root veg successes

This time last year blight had already struck, but this year is faring better. The crops are generally good, but the drought has increased scab problems. This is 1 plant of each variety we grew this year.



The anya's have done impressively well. Many of the plants easily had double the harvest of this one and they are really tasty.



International kidney (jersey royals) have been another reliable cropper and they also make decent large potatoes as well as new spuds.



Blue danube was a new variety for us this year. It is meant to be blight resistant, which was why we decided to try these. We haven't been able to test this as yet, but the yields are good and the skins are a nice purple colour.



Rooster have done well again.



I thought this was a great comedy potato!



The Dahlias are flowering well and hopefully they will produce some nice blooms for our allotment show next weekend.





Finally carrots and swedes have been amougst this years successes. We have grown carrots before and had some good ones, but we have never been able to fend off the carrot fly pest. This year we invested in some enviromesh. This was expensive, but seems to have done the trick and we have huge yields of carrots. This year is also our first year we have grown swedes that are bigger than a golf ball! These went in much earlier than in previous years and this seemed to help.

I am now a proper allotmenteer!!

I am feeling rather chuffed with this purchase of a basket for my bike. The basket is removable and reasonably large. Plenty of room for collecting crops for tea! I can now cycle to the plot and collect a reasonable quantity of crops. Cycling with a plastic bag hung over your arm is not good for your circulation!



Tonight I brought back new potatoes, baby carrots and swede, herbs, the last of the strawberries and some wind-fallen apples. Our lottie neighbour also gave us 2 cucumbers.

Dinner and sweetpea delights

Wahoo we can finally have a full meal with this years crops. Baby carrots, broad beans and new potatoes. We will be having this delightful harvest with sausage in onion gravy (our onions) and the strawberries for dessert.





The sweetpeas are also really taking off. Not edible, but pretty none-the-less.



I am really impressed with this variety - 'cupani'. These were grown as a trial to see if we could find a suitable variety to use on tables at our wedding next year. They are a deep dark red colour. Many flowers per stem as well. We could be onto a winner with these!

The gluts have started!

We are now regularly picking 2 full punnets of strawberries every few days at lottieplotfour. In addition many of the other summer fruits are producing good crops. This weekend we have picked gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and even more rhubarb!



The bramley apples are looking good.



This year we put in a cut flower bed. The dahlias are still quite small, but the sweetpeas are producing the first few flowers.









The potatoes are are bit behind due to the frosts, but last week we did have the first new potatoes.



The clemantis on the pergola looks well established now and is full of buds. Hopefully it will not be long before it is flowering.



The wildlife is enjoying the new herb bed and small pond. Thyme's are now in flower and we have tadpoles.







Many of the other vegetables are looking promising.

Lettuce with leeks in the background (nearly ready for transplanting)



Parsnips



Runner beans



This weekend and last Sunday we harvested are japanese onions and overwintering garlic. These vacated beds have been replaced with some late cabbage, cauliflowers and squash. The garlic and onions are now drying in preparation for storage.

In the background you can see a mini rotation which contains garlic, broad beans, swede, carrots/beetroot and blue danube potatoes.