The Marmalade Patch

Starting again - A new cycle for 2011

2011-02-28T04:29:00.000-08:00

I neglected this blog last year despite all my good intentions. This year I intend to do better. So with that in mind this is where i'm at right now ...

All cleaned up and ready to go!

and set for the new season..

More to follow ....

A year in pictures - 2010

2011-02-27T13:26:00.000-08:00

Snow! January 2010

sewing peas

seeds from the seed swap

mid summer

first harvests

best tomatoes ever

fennel

lettuce

potato harvest

the winter patch

preserving summer

quince brandy

cabbage

green manure (looks like grass to me)

Summer's End

2009-09-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

Despite having not bought a vegetable since late spring, I still feel like we haven't made the best of the plot this year and as I've said before, I think it's lack of planning - or lack of manure!

However, the dried bean harvest is the best we've had for 3 years - the past two years have been too wet.

I have enough beautiful flageolet beans and borlotti beans for stews all winter long.

The Sweetcorn crop has been dissapointing ... although it LOOKS ready, the cobs inside are barely formed. I'm putting this down to poor soil.

My fennel didn't bulb up. It ran to seed quite soon. I have very large flat bulbs which smell delicious but are very woody inside.

The squash patch is doing well, I have big butternuts coming

.... and a few little pumpkins which I stuff and roast.

My winter brassicas ... booooo hooooooo! Look at them! Despite protecting them with butterfly net as soon as they were planted, they have been utterly savaged by the cabbage white caterpillars. The butterflies still got in, and their offspring seem very happy in their number! Next year I will use envirofleece as it seems the best solution. It's more expensive, but in the long run, better all round. It also stops those clouds of little white flys which float up as soon as you so much as look at a cabbage leaf! Next door have taken to more "chemical" methods of caterpillar control. It breaks my heart to see all that poisonous squirting. It's so unnecessary. Do people not have a care?

We also harvested the last of the Broad Beans - I have a freezer full, enough for the whole winter. Maincrop potatoes have done well - also enough for the winter and spring. As for the beetroot - even though the mice took a good 70% helping of the crop, I still have more than I can cope with quickly!!

So between potting, pickling and processing of all this bounty, we are writing lists and more lists. Budgeting to buy something each month so that we are not overwhelmed with expense as things come up next year. It's not that we need much, and it's not that alot should be spent on allotmenteering, but things like wide swathes of envirofleece are expensive to buy when there are other things which might crop up too (haha pardon the pun!).

August Musings

2009-08-17T03:11:00.000-07:00

After our holiday the allotment was looking rather overgrown. It's very disheartening to find fields of weeds on previously perfect plots, and enough grass to provide a hearty meal for a field of sheep! But an hour or two of tidying makes everything seem plausible again.

Although our harvest this year isn't too bad, I can't help feeling that we have to change a few things for next year, and plan better. In previous years, when i've planned plot by plot well in advance, we have had better yeilds and more variety. This year, I think I put too much into my broad beans and not enough into everything else! I have enough broad beans for the whole of winter safely residing in my freezer!

Add to that, the mouse problem and I think I need a bigger greenhouse, or a potting shed at the allotment because it's impossible to plant certain seeds directly into the beds without 24 hour security in situ!

The crops so far this year

The first Butternuts are setting..

One of the raddiccios bolted quickly and made a show of some beautiful flowers, I haven't got the heart to cut them down yet!

There is a fennel forest. Not very happy with the fennel. Although I followed all the instructions to the letter, and earthed them up regularly, the bulbs are flat instead of round, quite bland in flavour and seem to have bolted without me noticing! Dissapointing, so I will try a different variety next year.

The first sowing of greyhound cabbages are all but finished, but red cabbages are coming on nicely. I have decided that this 'envirofleece' is the best protection against those pesky (but nonetheless beautiful) cabbage white butterflies. I have 'butterfly netting' on the rest of my brassicas, but somehow, it is not an adequate deterent, and those clouds of tiny white flies are also far too apparent in them!

However, when it comes to the taller brassica's like sprouts and brocolli, the envirofleece just isn't big enough. Here we have the first brussels ... these are the best of quite a measly crop.

We have two apple trees in the allotment and although the apples LOOK ready, they are not. Still bitter, so a bit more 'cooking' required.

Drying beans Borlotti are coming along nicely and are such lovely colours!

Of the 4 artichoke plants I put in a few weeks ago, two of them are looking very healthy indeed. The third is still a little puny and the fourth seems a little dead ... but I gave it a little TLC - it might come back. Otherwise, I will plant a Jerusalem Artichoke in its place.

There are sweetcorns and carrots yet to harvest, along with all the maincrop potatoes, beetroots, raspberries and blackberries.

At this time of year, there is still time to plant a few things. Strawberries, parsley, Japanese onions, new potatoes (for xmas), various salad crops, turnips, and spinach.

I've been looking at the other allotments on site, and will blog about them next time.

Poo

2009-07-14T13:32:00.001-07:00

I have noticed that our plants this year aren't quite as vigorous as usual. This is because we didn't dig manure into the ground last autumn and we ran out of chicken poo pellets early in the season and never quite got round to replenishing the stock. So our plants have suffered. We wont make the same mistake again. There are piles of manure available around the field so we have nabbed some and will make sure that every bed which is vacated will get a liberal dose before being dug over ready for spring.

However .. roots and brassicas prefer compost!

I've discovered this year that when the beds are planned a year in advance, crops turn out better. This year I have been rather haphazzard with my planting and it shows with haphazzard crops! We have hardly had any peas, and no carrots. My sweetcorn I think was planted too late, and what with the lack of 'food' in the soil, they are not doing well at all.

That said ..

We have picked our entire broad bean patch.

We got a lorralorraLORRA peeling to do! These will all be de-shelled and immediately frozen. No blanching.

And we have the best cabbages we've ever had ..

Even though some have exploded! This is due to heavy rain causing a very fast growth spurt - I think! Still plenty left in various stages of growth, and more planted for over wintering.

We have also harvested lettuce and beetroot

Gooseberries

and French beans.

Hot Stuff

2009-06-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

The cabbages are ready to harvest. Greyhounds, sweet and delicious.

And a few iceberg lettuces. Crunch and tasty.

Sprouting brocolli sprouting, Brussels Sprouts sprouting, and more brassica's planted, brocolli, sprouting brocolli, grehounds, Kohl Rabi. All netted over with 'butterfly net' which is cheaper by far than 'envirofleece' and easier to deal with. I could have sworn I planted cauliflower but it doesn't seem to have materialised...

Fennel bulbs are bulbous and now earthed up. This has to be done every few weeks. The thinnings make a delicious addition to salad already. I think it's still ok to plant some more.

Sweetcorn planted in blocks of two to aid wind pollination.

All sorts of climbing bean, mainly for drying. You just leave them on the plant and the sun does all the hard work. When they are nice and dry, around September, de-pod, store, and add to winter casseroles.

The mice are still at large, and multiplying. This is what they did to the peas. Burrowed underneath them and nibbled the roots. Grrrr... I have decided that the best way to deal with mice is to note the location of the burrows and runs and avoid them. Mice, like rats, rarely change course.

They ate all my carrots.

It's officially an offical hot and dry summer. How do I know? My onions rotted. This only happens in hot dry summers. I can't plant onions in this bed now for 8 years apparently! So I planted artichokes instead. Lots of space between them for another short term crop. Perhaps some salad or herbs.

The first courgette. I am prepared for the onslaught with lots of recipies and soup freezing bags. Courgette and basil soup is particularly nice.

We have succumbed to the temptation of rotovation ... somebody loaned us this one because the ground was like cement having been covered up with polythene since last summer. Not a weed in sight, so we thought it would be safe. It did a smashing job. And FAST. So now we have a bed for winter veg which will be ready to plant probably by next week. We have got a rotovator. It is somewhere on the field after somebody offered to mend it, but never returned it. I expect it'll turn up when we look for it.

I have changed my mind and now think that this is an essential tool for busy people!

It looks like rain ... but it did yesterday, and the day before, and so far, nothing..

Anti Consuming

2009-06-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

I've been talking to The Coffee Lady about Supermarkets this week. Have you read the book "Shopped"? I'm telling you, it's frightening. We all know how supermarkets treat their suppliers, how wasteful they are, their effect on the environment, how they have destroyed small business etc., etc., but this book has more information than that. It also includes information on how we the consumers, are manipulated into spending much more than we actually need to spend. Everything in a supermarket, even down to the tone of the lighting in each section, is designed to subliminaly help you part with your cash. It's more than buy one get one free, uniformly tastless food and loyalty points, and I tired of the whole experience years ago. which is one of the reasons why we got an allotment. The sad thing is, that despite making every effort not to put myself through the torture that is 'shopping' each week, there are still occassions when convenience wins the day and we have to go. I try to limit this to once a month , preferably via the internet and I never ever buy veg or meat there.

So it makes me doubly happy, when at last our produce begins to flow... Those bags up there are just two of the three that we carried back from the allotment yesterday, and here's what we have:

Sprouting brocolli, peas, broad beans, beetroot tops, cabbage and new potatoes ... lots of them.

This is just 2 rows worth. We still have 4 to go, and then we start on the main crop. With any luck we'll have enough to last us through until next spring (slug permitting). We store them in thick brown potato sacks in the shed.

This is a Greyhound ... no not a dog .. a cabbage. I grow these because they are good both raw in coleslaw, and cooked. They are sweet and crunchy both ways.

Beetroot tops from thinning the beetroots. You just remove the red stalks, boil them or wilt them like spinach or leaf beet and add butter if you like. They are a delicious bonus!

Do you peel your Broad Beans? No need when they are tiny, but well worth peeling the big ones, I know, I know, life's too short you might say... but trust me it's a whole new tastebud experience which has converted even the most vehement of broad bean haters, I promise you. Trust me. I like them in a pilaf with cumin, rice, garlic and onion. Here's the recipie from Cranks Bible.

90z Basmati rice
7oz Broad beans
2 tsp olive oil
3-4 large shallots (or one small onion)
3 garlic cloves finely sliced
1 tbsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp plump raisins
1oz whole almonds slivered and toasted
salt and pepper

Cook the rice in it's own volume of water, keeping the saucepan tightly lidded and the heat very low. When it has absorbed all the water, leave the lid on and let the rice 'steam' for another 10 mins. Meanwhile cook the broad beans for 5 minutes or so, drain and refresh, and then, if you have the patience (and it's worth it beleive me), peel them.

Heat the oil in a large pan, fry the shallots until richly coloured and crisp in places adding the garlic about half way through, then when the shallots are nearly done, add the cumin seeds and stir in for a minute or so. Add the cooked rice, the broad beans and the raisins, return to a safe heat and stir it all together. Sprinkle with the toasted almond slivers, and serve.

First Harvest

2009-06-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend we have mostly had "Allotment Mess" for lunch. What's Allotment Mess? It's like Eton Mess but with freshly harvested vegetable produce. I lightly "smash" (as Jamie Oliver would say) the cooked new potatoes, and then mix that mash up with very slightly cooked fresh peas, and beans - broad or french. Add a healthy knob of butter and a smattering of parsley and/or chives and there you have heaven on a plate. Yum yum.

There are many more beans where they came from.

The lettuce isn't quite ready yet, but the thinnings make delicious 'baby leaf' salad.

Broccoli is coming on, we had a few spears for tea this evening.

Cabbages are hearting up nicely. These are Greyhounds.

The fennel is getting fat. Must plant more within the week. I love it braised as well as thinly sliced in salads.

Redcurrants are doing their job. They are almost all gone, but we still have a whole bush of green blackcurrants. I wil get them before the birds do!

And the roses are in full bloom. I wish you could smell them!

More Pestilence

2009-06-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

As i've been ill for the last 2 weeks - and all the way through the hot weather - I feel exceptionally behind on the Patch, but even so, we did manage to hobble down there for a mid-illness inspection. There was good news, and there was bad news....

The broad beans are very very healthy, much to my delight. I put allorralorra energy into getting a good broad bean crop, but bizarrely, VERY bizarrely ... can you see what I don't see? Look! No blackfly! Where are they??? I took this picture last week, and on tonight's inspection, there are still, no blackfly! This is almost unheard of. There are no blackfly in evidence on anybody else's beans either.... where have they gone? It's a mystery!

The peas are looking good, not as many as i'd hoped but there's still time to plant more. I love them straight from the pod.

Note to self: No need to grow radishes next year. They look lovely, they taste nice. But we never eat them. They end up in the compost.

And the bad news?

Can you see that hole? We have new residents in the 'root' patch. The mice have moved in, burrowed under the bed, and undermined half of the crops there. Most annoying. Despite anything you might have seen at Epcot, plants do not like growing in thin air.

So this is what happens ... they die. Half my beetroot is gone, I have only 2 radiccio's out of the whole row I planted, and there are some fennel casualties too. When the remaining beetroot matures, the mice will eat the tops if I don't get to them first. The beetroot or the mice you say? hmmm.... I haven't decided yet.

Battles and Beanfields

2009-05-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

What GLORIOUS weather we've had this weekend. So it's been busy busy busy down at the The Marmalade Patch. We feel like we haven't been there for so long what with life and rain. So this weekend was catchup time.

We don't have a rotovator like many people do. We don't want one either. Although it would make the early work of the season easier, the beds quicker to prepare for sowing, it isn't good for long term weed eradication. All a rotovator does is chop the weeds up, and make more of them. Which means more weeding when the crops are in and since we have alot of bindweed in these parts, and nettles for that matter, we don't need extra!

Over 6 years of hand weeding, we have found this year the easiest yet as far as our beds are concerend. That's not to say we don't have weeds because we do - obviously ... but we don't have as many as the rotovated patches and so therefore, our weeding workload is lighter throughout the growing season.

The bad news this week from Marmalade Patch is that the garlic seems to have rotted!!! Every single one that we planted... suddenly and without warning .... yuk... One of the wonderful things about allotmenteering is that there is always someone on had to ask advice from. It seems that a common reason for garlic failure is tunnelling ... Damn mice/moles/rats again. The bulbs don't like growing in thin air. So, no garlic for us this year. Humph.

Good news everywhere else though. We have the best beanfield ever! I LOVE broad beans so I've planted lots ... and I'm still planting. A few weeks left to go.

The currants are very prolific this year. We have one blackcurrant bush flanked by a redcurrant bush on each side. There is a reason for this. The birds are so distracted by the shiney pretty red berries, that they completely ignore the more useful black ones.

The carrots have come up under the peas. They like the shade that the peas provide. No picture, but the pea pods have started to appear too.

We have two types of climbing beans for drying. Borlotti and Flageolet. I aim to plant some more of these. They can be eaten fresh as they grow, but mostly, I leave them on the plant to dry. Hopefully, if we get the promised heatwave, this should happen with no trouble. Last year they all rotted due to the rain. The year before that, Mr Marmalade thought he would do me a favour by picking them all. Oh how I cried when he proudly gave me bags full of the bumper bean harvest! The year before that, we had dried beans all winter.

We've only planted a few dwarf French beans and runner beans as I can't bear frozen beans. It seems to me that their vibrancy is lost in the freezing. They become inane and they don't get eaten. Better to have them fresh and in season, when I can eat plateful upon crunchy plateful, with nothing but butter and black pepper.

The squash patch is started, with butternut squash, mini pumpkins and courgettes. The pumpkins and butternuts usually last us the whole winter in dry storage. The surplus courgettes make soup for freezing, and marrow chutney which is delicious. My surplus cucumbers will also go into this chutney.

Upon the discovery that beetroot wine is much nicer than pickled beetroot, I have planted lots!!

The best things to plant ofcourse, are the things which cost alot to buy. Fennel is very expensive. I've planted two rows so far to use in salad and also for braising and roasting. I will plant another row or two soon so that it lasts well into the autumn. Next year I want to have another bash at asparagus, and also Jerusalem and Globe artichokes.

Two's Company...

2009-05-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've been planting carrots this weekend - amongst other things.

Carrots don't do well in our heavy clay soil, so this year, in this bed, I have mixed in 2 bags of builders sand. I am sick of stumps!! Last year, to combat the stump problem, I grew round carrots, like raddishes but carrot flavour. The trouble is, I think carrots have to look like carrots, don't you?

I marked the rows with the empty seed packets. I've seen some of our neighbours doing this.

If the ground where you have planted carrots is recently manured, you get forked roots, but i find that they don't fork with a few of chiken poo pellets ontop.

The best carrots I ever had (despite the clay soil) were the ones I planted underneath the peas. It's a bit tricky to weed them, but I think they like the peas and quiet they get under there!

Carrots like growing with peas and with onions. But peas don't like onions or dill, or parsnips for that matter. Which means that IF I grow parsnips this year, I will have to put more sand in a different bed. I have tried parsnips for several years, and just cant seem to find success with them!

Sometimes gardening is like formulating a seating plan for a wedding! You've got to be quite careful about who sits next to who!!

Blowing Raspberries to the Birds

2009-05-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

Did you know that if you cut your raspberry canes down in February, they don't fruit until September, by which time the birds are well and truly bored, and leave them alone! It means you don't get your raspberries till later, but at least you will get ALL of them!

On the allotment last weekend ... nothing much has changed, but the beetroot is coming through! We shall mostly been making wine with these for next summer. Yummy yummy.

And our next door neighbour, is growing alorralorralorra garlic!!!!!!

Spotty Potty

2009-04-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

Have you been watching Gardner's World? Have you noticed Alyce's co-ordinated green spotty potting shed complete with green spotty t-pot for watering plants? I too have an old teapot which is now installed in the greenhouse. Brilliant idea! Brightens things up no end and is gentle enough pouring for seedlings.

Alyce's tips last week also included the answer to a question I have often asked. Which way do you plant your courgette seeds? The answer is with the pointy end pointing DOWN as that's where the root comes out. Otherwise they get confused, bless them. The same applies to butternut squash and pumpkin seeds.

Whose Patch is it Anyway?

2009-04-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

There's only one way to keep your brassicas from being savaged by pigeons, and that's to keep them covered at all times by "envirofleece". It's a bit of a pain to keep removing it when watering and weeding, but if you want cabbages etc., then it's got to be done. There are lots of pigeons loitering around The Patch, just waiting to swoop down for a feast the moment your back is turned! Last year, I wasn't prepared and they wiped out my entire crop of Khol Rabi in one afternoon!! grr..

In the background you can see my first planting of Broad Beans. I have more in the greenhouse sprouting. They have to be started off in the greenhouse to keep the softening seeds away from the rampant mouse population at the Marmalade Patch (perhaps I should rename it The Mouse Patch!). When the shoots are big enough, the mice leave them alone. It's getting to that stage which is the problem!

After that, all there is to worry about is the slugs and snails. I have found that snails particularly like Broad Beans and have once found myself with a severe deficit of beans thanks to these meddlesome molloscs.

We have a very heavy clay soil which is plagued with slugs, and whilst I try to garden as organically as possible, there's just no other way to cope with the slugs, other than to use slug pellets.

This year, I am going to use nematodes on the potatoes because slug pellets don't really affect the slugs who live IN the soil (and eat the potatoes). I have used nematodes before and have found them to be extremely effective! That year, our potatoes were so good and so undamaged, that the crop lasted all winter.

Sweep and Soot

2009-04-15T04:46:00.000-07:00

When we had our chimney swept last October, I asked the chimney sweep what he does with the soot. He told me that he drops it off at his local allotments for people to help themselves to. Apparently it's good for potatoes - keeps the slugs away. My chimney yielded 2 large bags of soot which Mr Sweep gladly left here for me. And now it's snuggling up to my newly planted potatoes. I wonder if it will work? Will it give my potatoes a 'smoked' flavour? It certainly smelled like it might!

Barbed Wire Friends

2009-04-11T03:51:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I planted peas. I've discovered a thing or two about planting peas over the years:

a) mice like to eat the softened seeds just as they begin to sprout
b) if the mice miss a sprouting seed or two, the vine weavils get them in the end

But I discovered a strange thing. I call it 'Barbed Wire" though it's actually bramble branches which I get from the thick bramble hedge which borders the Marmalade Patch on one side. Very handy, and i thoroughly recommend the planting of several for this purpose for not only are the branches useful, but at the end of the 'season' you have a delicious crop of blackberries for preserving or piemaking!

The mice won't go near the spiky branches when they are placed over the planted seeds, and the vine weavils don't seem to like it either (that's the curious part). But you have to put lots over the area you're protecting. Infact I would put more around the plants than what I have in the picture above. Those pellets you can see are compacted chicken poo manure pellets. These smell very strong and serve as another deterrent to the mice.

This book lives in my gardening bag. I refer to it all the time, not least because it has an excellent chapter on 'companion planting'. I like companion planting not only for the benefits that each plant brings to the other, but it is in some cases, an excellent way to save space. Therefore, I always sow carrots under my pea frames, a space that might otherwise be wasted. The carrots are sheltered, from too much sun (haha!) and also protected from carrot fly who are put off by the surrounding pea plants. There are many resources to be found on Companion planting on the web. Here is a good one to start with.

The Italian Job

2009-04-11T03:30:00.000-07:00

In Italy, in the mountains south of Milan, everyone has a veggie patch. And a vineyard. And some livestock - chickens at the bare minimum. It's the mens job to tend to the plants and the vineyard, and make the wine (for which they have extensive equipment), and it's the ladies job to look after the chickens, kill one on sunday, gut it and cook it.

Whilst shopping for bread one morning last summer in Perino, Mr Marmalade ventured into the local hardware shop and came across one of these. He had seen the men using these and thought they looked jolly handy. He made his own handle on arriving home with a piece of Hazel, and hey presto! This is now our new favourite tool. It's wonderful! It renders a boring old hoe into something which may well be as useful as a chocolate teapot. It has a sharp blade which is excellent for cutting through weeds and roots, and it breaks up our heavy clay soil as if it were made of cake crumbs not rocks. When we return to Perino we shall definitely buy another - it cost all of 3 euros and you can't seem to get them here - at least not for under a small fortune.

This is my other favourite tool

It's an onion hoe and great not only for weeding between crops which is it's purpose, but also for making a fine tilth when sowing seeds. I like it because generally I like working the soil with my hands, and this just adds a little help for breaking up the soil when it's been compacted down by rain.

Because we have heavy clay soil, by the springtime when it's time to start planting, we often have large solid lumps to break down. After long periods of sunshine or rain, these are quite difficult to break up. So after forking over, and then evening out with the new Italian Job, the smaller more solid lumps are 'watered' with a watering can and left for a few minutes, by which time they break down easily when raked over.

Simple!

In the Greenhouse

2009-03-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

At this time of year, when it's still a bit cold to plant directly in the soil, I sow lots of seeds at home in the greenhouse so that they get a good start in time for the warmer weather. My greenhouse isn't heated, so it's more like a giant coldframe! In residence at the moment are:

Veg:
Broad Beans
Peas
Brocolli
Cabbage
Brussels
Tomatoes
Onions (from seed)
Cucumber
Garlic Chives

Herbs:
Common Fennel
Creeping Thyme
Rosemary (from a cutting)
Calendula
Soapwort
Chamomile

Flowers:
Dwarf sunflowers
Sunflowers
Pansies
Sweet Peas

I also have some plants in the house:
Tomatoes
Chilli
Sweet Pepper

I usually plant tomatoes in January in the green house. They take a long time to germinate. so this year I did an experiment. I planted some in January in the greenhouse as usual, but I also planted some at the beginning of March and kept them on the windowsill in the house. You can see the difference between them.

These are in the greenhouse and have only just popped through - about a week AFTER the ones in the house.

And this is one of the house-dwellers, now potted on, planted later, but indoors.

Ofcourse the ones which are used to the greenhouse are used to the cold. The indoor ones are slightly feeble in that respect and i'm having to harden them off. When I potted them on, I nearly killed all of them by leaving them in the greenhouse overnight by mistake! Luckily the following day was very warm so they soon perked up thank goodness. I have three varieties growing:

Saucy - an outdoor bushy variety (no supports required)
Harbinger - an old heritage tomato with 'classic' flavour
Marmande - bushy habit with large fleshy fruit

Last year, our ENTIRE tomato crop rotted. Fingers crossed for this year. I really missed not having a stock of my own tomatoes for sauces and soups.

A Potted History

2009-03-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Marmalade Patch, our virtual allotment! Here I am in a pic taken in 2005, I think our second year. My boots aren't quite this shiny anymore!

We've had the allotment for 5 years, this is our 6th and I'm hoping it's going to be the best yet. Last year was pretty dismal on the weather front and most people had limited crops due to the cold and damp. The year before that, was worse with severe flooding. We are surrounded by three rivers, including The Thames, and all of them burst their banks. Our village was on the news for days! At one stage the whole 2 allotment fields were under at least a foot of water. Nobody had potatoes that year.

We've grown lots of things in the allotment including a variety of dried beans and different squashes which lasted the whole winter.

As (past) vegetarians, we had hoped that we may become almost self sufficient, but that hasn't quite happened yet. Winter veg in the UK can get tiresome after 3 months of cabbage, leeks, potatoes and parsnips.

We have a raised bed system because that's how it came and we find it easier that way.We try to be as organic as possible, but the heavy clay soil is a haven for slugs, so we have to use slug pellets too. We have found that nematodes work quite well, especially in the potato beds, but they are expensive and so we have to top up with slug pellets. Otherwise, we don't use any pesticides, and we nurutre the soil with manure, compost, and chicken poo pellets.

The year that Mr Marmalade broke his ankle was a difficult year as he was unable to dig for the whole spring/summer, which was a problem as there was still alot of digging to be done!

And the grass grew, and grew ... and grew ..

Summer at the allotments is a blaze of colour.

I particularly love the sunflowers

We love The Marmalade Patch and were lucky to get it when we did, because now there is a very long waiting list. For Mr Marmalade the physical aspects of allotmenteering provide relaxation and thought clearance.

For me, it's a deep part of my spiritual practice. Connecting with the earth, my earth and finding nourishment from it in every way.

And so we have alloted jobs. He does the digging, the and the manual labour. I sow, plant, weed and harvest.

This is how The Marmalade Patch looks today, and I hope for this blog to be my record of the year to come. So far, i've been usless at keeping any other type of diary!