IN & OUT SEPTEMBER TO OCTOBER 2021

 

A little something from the poly tunnel to enfreshen my day! Alas, after having mountains of tomatoes last year, I only had 2 fruit from my plants this year. Most got blight...

One of the 'house arrest' odd jobs done was to clear the ground behind the pond of bramble and nettle. Plans are taking shape as to what to fill it with. Liz has ideas of stuff she can give me cuttings off too...

Post confinement, my 3rd excursion on the first day of post-covid freedom was a plot trot. Preceded by a shopping excursion and a coffee-shop trip, the plot produced a few items Liz had overlooked.

The patch behind the pond has been cleared, as I mentioned before. I have now inserted the azalea that originally lived in the front yard, then moved under the kitchen window and then to the hedgerow flower patch. I also have 2 strigs mint that may or may not take, a honeysuckle seedling, and 2 clumps lychnis.

This is the last of the 2021 corn harvest, collected the first Monday of October. It took me almost 2 hours to take off the kernels to bag up for the freezer - but I now have a third bag full of homegrown juicy sweet corn kernels to last me thru til next August.

I had a few other crops that day - this lot and a few green beans. Finally for today - here is the bag of corn from that pile of cobs I harvested....1 big and 1 small bag already in freezer.

IN & OUT August-September 2021

 

More crops! Mooli, raspberries, corn, nasturtiums, potatoes, turnip, munchkins, and one bean.

Of course, harvesting the crops is only stage one...Stage two is preparing them - some for eating directly, others for storing. The sweet corn for example was separated into kernels for freezing and baby corn for eating.

I am of course also preparing crops now for later - such as this eggplant, no growing on the coffee lounge windowsill as I appear to have a mouse that likes to eat it in the poly tunnel.

I have picked out a few corn kernels to dry so that I can use them next year - if this works, I may not need to buy corn seed again.

the crops kept coming.....

I had the misfortune to have to self isolate, following one of our drivers at work going down with Covid. Liz therefore had the job of collecting my crops. Here is the first week's haul.... Thankfully, I had these fresh veg to cook with thanks to Liz...

And here comes the cooking, my part in the play....

IN & OUT JULY-AUGUST 2021

 

July is that time of year where crops from the allotment plot litter every surface in the kitchen as they dry out ready for storage.

Garlic, shallots, onions, spuds, fruits and other crops arrive home with me on nearly every visit from May thru September.

Multiple meals and bags of fruit in the freezer arrive, reminding me of summer harvests that outfill the autumnal ones.

The kitchen is not alone - onions dry on the unused heater in the coffee lounge, too. This year has been a good year for shallots and onions - but not so for peas, beans, garlic, chilies, cauli...

Broad beans did ok this year....but not many other veg from the plot. Thankfully, I have tons of lettuce, herbs, and spuds from the poly tunnel!

August arrived and...bad news with it! Every single tomato plant I had at the plot caught blight and spoiled. I came home the first Monday of the month with a dozen green salvaged tomatoes...and no hope of a big enough crop to freeze this year. I do have two plants in the poly tunnel though, so fingers crossed I will get a dozen or so fruits from 21. Also from the poly tunnel I cropped the following in the first week of the month. (UPDATE: this years edible harvest of tomatoes equals 2)

The plot produced some goodies, if not the ones I had hoped for. 2 strawberries a handful of blueberries a large ammount of blackcurrants, a half dozen raspberries, 3 munchkins and the green toms...

Well, my poly tunnel spuds are ready to harvest next week and the corn won't be too long...and I picked the first pea pod....

The crops kept rolling in during the month...peas, raspberries, munchkins, potatoes, blueberries and the garden's Bramley apples...

IN & OUT MAY-JUNE 2021

 

Along the left hand side, we have everything from eggplant, onion, and basil seedlings to cabbages.

Along the back, i have the seedlings ready to transport to the allotment, salad crops, and a few odds and ends. This includes attempts to grow a cherry tree - in case the one I think I have isn't actually a cherry - and chives, lettuce, mustard greens, and mint. I also have repotted chili/capsicum/eggplant/brussels sprout seedlings ready to take to the plot.

I currently have 5 readyish soonly and 2 new potato pots. I just dug up one this week, or there would be more. if I have space/soil enough, I could pot up a shooting spud every 1-2 weeks to keep myself in spuds - alas, wireworm forbid me planting in ground at the plot.

Here come the new season's crops!! lettuce, endive, chive, basil, mint... poly tunnel salad!

Mmmmmmm, I do enjoy strawberry season. Nasturtiums from the plot to add to the poly tunnel saladaria.

Hello onions, garlic, shallots, but bye bye kitchen floor!!

Updating you visually on the strawberry pallettes....

IN & OUT MARCH-MAY 2021

 

Along with the cavity wall insulation project, I had another workman/DIY problem arise. Since the last lot of work was done, debris and dust has fallen through the window frame into my bedroom onto the windowsill.

The culprit, a gap where silicon is not present, is my next project to get workmen to attend - hopefully just to silicon the gap - but possibly to refix the entire frame of the bedroom window.

The tool and supplies have been bought - now to do the job - myself.

My next update comes from the allotment plot. I began to buy new strawberry varieties to fill my new strawberry planters.

I bought a total of 6 new plants - 6 differing varieties. one is an ornamental/alpine mini, and the other are full size 'normal'.

I tried to get a shot of all 6 labels, so as to ensure that I know what is where - in case winds or thieves pinch the labels.

Meanwhile, May presented the opportunity to get busy in the poly tunnel.

IN & OUT MID-MARCH 2021

 

The workmen took 1.5 days to remove the cavity wall insulation and clear up after themselves. Above you can see the state of the front bathroom drain after they had finished the job and departed. Hopefully I will not have to get the plumber out yet again to unblock the drain, rather than pipe.

Whilst they did a good job - for workmen - on clearing the resultant muck up after their job, being a fuss pot I had to despair at the mess left behind after the clean up. Not too much, but a few bits of fluff/insulation remained lying about the yard/porch.

However, on the plus, my clematis survived the ordeals of 3 sessions of exterior work on the house in 6 months, and the new air-blocks look nice. But, oh dear....whattamess!

Around the back was much the same - the usual mess that even the tidiest of workmen leave behind after their job is done was in situ. Rubble and dust around the rear kitchen drain.

The two down pipes were not in much better shape - and I wonder if within the month the plumber will get paid once more from the aftermath of the latest work on the property.

Both rear....and front....looked clogged with debris and dust. Hopefully not enough to cause the plumber to take early retirement.

IN & OUT MARCH 2021

 

To start this post, here is the final cropping of Brussels sprouts from the plot. They were a good crop this year - feeding me from late October 2020 thru til this final haul in the middle of March 2021.

The plumber has been to unblock the bathroom pipe twice. The first time he unblocked the basin, the second time he had to unblock the shower which had burst through the pipe joint again. On the second trip he had to make a hole in the wall...

That was not the only dramatic work done by myself or workmen in or on the house in March. As you can see above - we have finally gotten around to the removal of cavity wall insulation. This is the mess it left due to insecure window fittings. Both the poor workmanship on the windows and the insulation were due to the former owner of the house we live in - my late father. He accepted anything free/discounted that the government told him he should have. Above/below is the kitchen windowsill after that wretched unwanted-by-me insulation was removed middle of March.

The following photo was taken the night before they finished the job showing how it was left overnight.

They began promptly and politely on time on the Wednesday, and although expensive, I have to admit they did a good job. There was a lot of mess however, and I felt quite deflated on Thursday morning when I began to vacuum, wipe, clean and otherwise clear up the interior of the house. It was dusty again soon afterwards, too...

You can see that they left holes in the wall, which were made with a loud drill - reminding me of an upcoming dental appt....and keeping my son awake. This was not the workmen's fault, just the job...which was naturally a messy one.

There was a lot of rubble and dust left behind after they extracted the disgusting muck my father allowed to be pumped into his walls. This sort of mess deflates me dreadfully - and once again, deep breaths and sighs drag me to the surface, wishing all work was done and I was also done with the clearing up afterwards....