An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

We have had gales and torrential rain...again! These photos were taken on the 20th,so the pumpkins have probably grown somewhat by now.The 5 monsters are clearly visible now through the foliage and are like giant sunspots in the gloom. The 3 on the top of the bank,Zwena plants pumpkins up here each year but this year is going to see record weights I think This one is the same one in the header pic with Aoife.Zwena usually organizes a harvest day when all the pumpkins and gourds are freed from their foliage and weighed, the kids love all the excitement and seeing which one is the heaviest. Zwena then divides up the booty to any of the children who want to make a really scary Halloween lantern. Work on the plot is maintenance now for the winter, clearing beds and debris. The green manure on this bed shot up in a few days, I have since cleared the sweetcorn and bean beds and sown more green manure on them which should be up any day this week. Our lone pumpkin which broke from its stem, I ...

We have lost a lot of time to clear the plots and get ready for winter due the the weather recently.I spent a few hours there on wed when the sun shone unexpectedly. I dug out the roots bed and brought home some unusual specimens! It took me the best part of an hour to dig out 8 parsnips!Last year we had a 4 kg monster and that was just the part I was able to unearth. This year I specifically picked seed which was recommended for small gardens and containers?!They were long and big, most of them coming in at a kilo weight.The seeds were planted back in late Feb as parsnip seeds are supposed to be the first to go in, because of slow germination I planted more in late May and they were of a much more acceptable size even though only 4 of them grew! I spent the whole evening scraping ,peeling, blanching and freezing parsnips.I know they can be saved in sand but I don't have the space to keep them over winter like that so freezing is the best option for me.For all of their size I ended...

I have not been to the allotment for over a week because of torrential rain every day and I have not been able to get on to the blog because Blogger is so slow!I am not sure if it is Blogger or my Internet provider is at fault, I tried up loading photos but they took so long I just gave up.The new header pic was done last week and took nearly 20 mins to upload, which is why I am on here on Sun morning hoping nobody else is online yet! Our leeks have settled in at last and are looking a little more healthy and whatever was nibbling on them has stopped. I cleared the bean bed leaving the roots in the ground to rot down to provide nitrogen.The Lollo Rosso is not alone a splash of autumn colour but a tasty addition to our salads. The strawberry bed was cleared of all old leaves and debris, the near row was 3 year old plants and were pulled up.Some of them had a second flush of strawberries so I left them but with the wet weather the slugs got to them first so now this side is completely cl...