Gardens grow by 11%

Spending on West Midlands gardens was... "up 11% on average from April through to August", according to Barclaycard. In the context that...

"Consumer spending across the West Midlands was up again in September, growing 2.2% year-on-year" (David Gibbons, Barclays Retail Director for the West Midlands)

New Vic pics

If you happen to be at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, pop upstairs. At the back they currently have an exhibition of photos of local people's gardens.

Autumn is a'coming in

Weather: mild, overcast, a stiff westerly wind.

Up to the plot, after a while away. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The tall grass at the top hasn't got taller. Sheltered plants seem to be still growing, and I had to hand-weed out the buttercups from the strawberry bed (which is in a shallow brick bed).

All the apples are now off the tree.

I did a basic hoe and clear, getting rid of most of the weeds.

Took up all the remaining onions.

Picked a few new courgettes. Most are dying back, but some are still producing flowers and courgettes...

Came away with courgettes, potatoes, spinach, onions. There are still potatoes left to lift, but they can stay in the soil for now.

I found a newly refurbished 'vole hole' in a little mound in the long grass at the top... I shall have to make a close inspection of the exterior debris and see I can find some species-identifying spoor.

A light first-frost is possible in the grass on Thursday night, according to the five-day forecast, when a rather stiff north wind will be a'blowing.

View to a plot

An alternative view of the Richmond St. allotments. Picture made today, from high up in the old Spode factory in Stoke town...

Restore the Spode rose garden

There's a now a crowdfunding campaign to raise £2,500 to create a ceramic rose as part of restoring the Spode Rose Garden in Stoke town, the town just below my allotment...

TomTato

Cool new plant, a £14.99 TomTato that produces tomatoes and potatoes from the same plant. Available from Thompson and Morgan in the UK. Although, arguably, spending £15 at the supermarket would probably get you almost as many potatoes and tomatoes.

'Seed Collection Champions' needed in the Midlands

The UK's Woodland Trust currently wants Seed Collection Champions in the "central" region of the UK... "Beginning late October / Early November" of 2013.

Bonfire day

Weather: overcast and warm, hazy, with a very light south breeze.

Perfect day for a bonfire yesterday, with just a light south breeze to blow the smoke away from the road. It was slightly damp and dewy, but the carpet "rain hat" had kept the centre dry. It took me about half an hour to get it lighted, but with the aid of pages from The Sentinel it eventually took...

Then it went roaring away, and frazzled to ashes everything put in it — even the green stuff.

Home greehouse

At home I have big full-length south-west facing French windows. For the first time, this year I've been experimenting with having it serve as a basic simple greenhouse. So in addition to the allotment, at home I've been growing peppers and chillis in big pots with standard compost...

It's not been especially economical the first year. I've probably put in nearly as much on the pots / compost / seeds as the value of the crop I'm getting off them. I haven't used any feed, other than topping up with fresh compost as the level settles. I might try letting a couple of the pods get ripe, and then save the seeds over the winter. And next year I might go with a half soil / half compost mix. That should make them much cheaper than just popping down to Sainsbury's.

Allota-chop

Weather: glorious day, bright sunshine and light high clouds, light wind. Not too hot.

A long three-hour stint on the allotment today, in the light of the glorious Sunday weather. Possibly too long and exhausting, to also take advantage of the nice weather forecast for tomorrow — but I'll see.

I took a woodsaw and secateurs and tackled one of the big jobs. I cleared all the fading honeysuckle off the roof of the shed, tidied up the currant at the front, and sawed back some of the dead tree that the honeysuckle had been climbing. Although I kept enough of the tree so that honeysuckle can reach the shed roof again next spring. So I now have a nice clear shed roof, reading for some felt and nails at some point before the autumn storms...

It's also left me with big amounts of woody material, which has made for a nice-looking bonfire...

I also hauled out a thick heavy 5ft dead branch, which I've stashed under the back hedge as a "beetle bank", rather than burn it. I already have a little beetle bank, in the form of a little pile of the more rotten of the stepping-planks.

I cleared off the broad beans as well, and dug out some more potatoes. I hauled up one that was fused together: if H.P. Lovecraft had grown potatoes, this is what they might have looked like... :)

I plucked four cooking apples from the community orchard. Cooked apples are not generally my thing, but a bit of a taste is nice once in a while. I also pulled some rhubarb to liven up the apple a bit.