A year on the allotment: December 2016

In December it's all about the sprouts. The plot is looking very sparse at this time of year, but this crop thrives in cold weather. We've never grown sprouts before and I'm so chuffed with the amount each stalk has produced.

We wanted to eat homegrown sprouts on Christmas Day this year. Having an allotment means planning ahead, so we were thinking about the festive dinner way back in April when we planted the tiny plug plants.

It was so lovely to walk to the plot on Christmas Eve as a family to pull up our sprouts. They are tough plants and take some effort to get out of the ground. It's amazing to see the small seedlings transform into these tall, tree-like plants.

On Christmas Day my Mother-in-Law and Mum set to work preparing our homegrown brussel sprouts. Mr. M was in charge of cooking and he decided to lightly fry the sprouts with onion and bacon. I prefer this way of cooking them to the traditional 'boil 'em to death' method. They were delicious and couldn't have been fresher.

This is my final allotment post for 2016. I have written a blog post for each month of the year and gathered them all together over on the "Our Allotment" page. Looking back through the posts brings back so many fantastic memories. I love watching the seasons change and to see all we've achieved over the past twelve months. We don't have masses of time to dedicate to the plot due to work and home commitments. But even so, we've managed to harvest lots of tasty homegrown veg.

Back in January 2016, I wrote a post about "Five ways an allotment makes family life better". I still strongly believe owning an allotment gives you a better understanding of food production, contributes to health and well being, promotes a nurturing and patient attitude, you get to eat fresh produce with low food miles and you feel part of a community.

I've posted lots of pictures of our harvest over the past twelve months, so I'll finish this post with a rare photo of me and my gorgeous girl together on the plot. Here's to 2017 and hopefully it will be filled with lots more muddy boots, seed planting and harvesting...

This week I'm linking up with these lovely blogs:

"How Does Your Garden Grow" over on mammasaurus.co.uk

"Country Kids" over on www.coombemill.com

A year on the allotment: November 2016

We were gifted some beautiful Autumn sunshine last weekend so we grabbed the opportunity to get down the allotment. There's still lots of clearing to do - it was time to say goodbye to the sunflowers.

This year's crop had grown incredibly tall, most of them were easily ten or eleven feet high. I'm always amazed at how tough the stalks of sunflowers are, it's like felling a tree. Magoo helped to stack them into a neat pile, we always leave the seed heads for the birds and insects to feast on over the Winter months.

We've had a good crop of celeriac this year too. I love the smell of the leaves when you pull them out of the ground - they produce a zingy aniseed fragrance that hits your nostrils as soon as you touch them.

Who's that hiding behind the celeriac leaves?

Celeriac are a funny looking vegetable, but they taste delicious. One of the joys of growing your own veg is seeing a plant in it's raw state, straight out the ground. I have to say that I had no idea Celeriac produced so many roots until we started growing them. It always amazes me how a little plug plant can transform into a sturdy vegetable...

Now the crops are finishing, there is more exposed soil for Magoo to play with. She spent ages digging a hole where the beetroot used to be. We love seeing her enjoying the allotment, especially as we don't get to visit so much in the colder months.

I blogged about our butternut squash harvest in October. Magoo, ever the creative, thought they looked like little people and decided to decorate them after school one day...

May I present - Mr and Mrs Butternut Squash!

Only problem is, I don't want to cut them up now...

I will be back in December for my final post of the year - there will be a brussel sprout update, you can't have Christmas lunch without them!

I'm always looking for new ideas for our allotment. I've put together an 'Allotment Inspiration' board over on Pinterest. I love connecting with other pinning fans, so it would be great to connect with you over there...

This week I'm linking up with:

"Country Kids" over on www.coombemill.com

"How Does Your Garden Grow" over on mammasaurus.co.uk

A year on the allotment: October 2016

Things continue to wind down at the allotment - but there are still crops to harvest and jobs to be done. This year we have had a good crop of butternut squash.

We thought nothing was happening with the plants, but suddenly little green fruits began to appear in August. These soon grew into much bigger squash with beautiful cream-coloured skin.

Our sunflowers are at their peak in September, sadly they start to fade in October. Despite the sunflowers being past their best, they still add some warm colour to our plot in Autumn.

Our Cosmos seemed to take forever to get going this year. When they finally flowered at the end of August, they put on a stunning display throughout the early Autumn months. Better late than never...

One thing we've never had any luck with is growing our own pumpkins. Magoo has always wanted to carve her own homegrown pumpkin for Halloween. Our plants always get eaten by the slugs. Not sure what the secret is, but lots of other plot holders had grown some enormous ones.

We had to settle for admiring other people's pumpkins this year. I noticed lots of allotmenteers grow them directly in compost heaps, so maybe that is the way forward.

We were pleased to see fruit appearing on our mini-trees. So far we've only seen one pear, so we can't get too carried away. Think we might have to have an arm wrestling competition to see who gets to eat it...

One of the main things we need to do at this time of year is clear the plot. We seem to produce tons and tons of garden waste in October and November. We have been overrun with nasturtiums this year and they are threatening to take over the plot.

Whilst pulling loads of the plants up, we spotted a huge frog, one of the biggest I've ever seen. My Mum screamed because she hates them, I managed to get up close and grab a photo before he/she hopped off. I felt a bit bad about ripping all the plants away and ruining the frog's cosy home...I'm sure they will find somewhere else to settle.

We were still picking fat blackberries in October, we've left the rest of the fruits for the birds. I will be back in November for my penultimate 'Year on the Allotment' blog post. If you'd like to catch up on my previous posts from 2016, you can see them here.

I'm always looking for new ideas for our allotment. I've put together an 'Allotment Inspiration' board over on Pinterest. I love connecting with other pinning fans, so it would be great to connect with you over there...

This week I am linking up with:

'How Does Your Garden Grow" over on the beautiful mammasaurus.co.uk

A year on the allotment: September 2016

I'm a little behind with posting my September update. I am now training to become a Teaching Assistant and started the associated college course three weeks ago. The last time I was in that particular college was *cough* twenty years ago. As I head towards my 40th birthday this December, it's good to set my sights on a new career path and keep my grey matter ticking over.

So, in between college work, a school placement and my Shared Lives work, my poor blog is getting neglected. Sadly, I don't have as much time for the allotment either, but things are winding down on the plot now, so I wont stress about it...

September was all about harvesting and sunflowers. Last year I blogged about our huge sunflowers, which were short but had flower heads like dinner plates. This year our sunflowers grew to over ten feet tall, but had much smaller flowers. Throughout the Summer our sunflowers have been covered in bees. You can see the beautiful pollen dusted all over the flower head, no wonder the pollinators love them.

We also dug up the last of our potatoes. The last bed to be harvested completely took us aback. We have never grown such big potatoes. We did put lots of coffee grounds onto that particular area, so maybe that helped. Magoo, as ever, loved digging up the spuds and was flabbergasted by their size.

The allotment has kept us in spuds throughout July, August and September. In fact I only had the need to buy our first bag of shop-bought potatoes last week in early October.

We also did really well with our courgette harvest. We had so many and if you turned your back for five minutes they morphed into marrows overnight. One particular large example doubled up as a Snozzcumber when Magoo went into school in fancy dress for Roald Dahl day

When they weren't doubling up as Snozzcumbers, I like to roast our allotment courgettes with peppers, onions and homegrown herbs. Once roasted I mix the veg with cous cous and drizzle with plain yogurt and sprinkle with fresh mint.

We're now clearing the plot and covering the soil ready for Winter. We still have some parsnips, sprouts, butternut squash and celeriac to harvest on the plot, so I'll be back in a couple of weeks for an October update...

Before I go, I thought I'd share one more photo. Magoo took one look at our huge allotment potatoes and decided to decorate them with pieces from her Mrs Potato Head kit...as you do :)

I'm always looking for new ideas for our allotment. I've put together an 'Allotment Inspiration' board over on Pinterest. I love connecting with other pinning fans, so it would be great to connect with you over there...

This week I'm linking up with these lovely blogs...

"How Does Your Garden Grow" over on mammasaurus.co.uk

"HomeEtc" over on www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk

November on the allotment: sunshine, sunflowers and our memory bench

The weather over the weekend was glorious. There was beautiful warm sunshine & a mellow stillness in the air that you only seem to get in Autumn. We thought we'd make the most of the weather & try to make a dent in the weeds on our plot. The more work we do now, the less back-breaking preparation will be needed in Spring. That's the plan anyway...

I blogged back in early September about our huge sunflowers. They are now way past their best. We wanted to clear the area so we can plant a green manure crop over the Winter. I have never seen sunflowers with such robust stalks. It was like felling trees. Our loaded wheelbarrow was destined for the communal compost heap, but a neighbouring plot holder asked if she could have the seed heads for her bird feeders. Nice to know nothing goes to waste on an allotment...
Magoo helped my Mum to dig up the last of the beetroot & load up the wheelbarrow with weeds. Magoo loves walking back & forth to the communal compost heap, she likes to look at all the other plots. She was particularly jealous of some huge pumpkins growing in a raised bed. They are on our 'to do' list for next Spring...would be great to carve our own homegrown pumpkins next Halloween.


Magoo took full advantage of the wooden bench we've recently installed on our plot. This particular bench is special to us because it came from my Granny's garden. My Gran grew up in a poor mining community in Wales & everyone was far too busy working to take pleasure from gardening. She then spent over forty years living in a first floor flat in Clifton in Bristol. So when my Gran moved to her bungalow in the early 1980s, she was overjoyed to finally have a garden. We would often sit on this bench at the end of her garden drinking tea & enjoying the sunshine. My Gran sadly passed away in late Decemeber 2014 & her bungalow has recently sold to a new owner. I was really keen to rehome the bench on our plot. So now when we want to take a break from weeding or digging, we can sit down & remember how much she loved gardening.

This week I'm linking up with:
Whatever the Weather over on monkeyandmouse.co.uk & www.lifeunexpected.co.uk
How Does Your Garden Grow #HDYGG over on mammasaurus.co.uk
Point + Shoot over on youbabymemummy.com and Snowing Indoors
Country Kids over on www.coombemill.com
Let Kids Be Kids over on letkidsbekids.co.uk

October on the allotment: parsnips, beetroot and more weeding

I blogged a few weeks ago about looking forward to eating our first ever homegrown parsnips. I planted some tiny plug plants back in May. We've been watering our parsnips & watching the root vegetables grow bigger. I really wanted to eat them on Christmas Day, but impatient as ever, I pulled one up the other day. Well, it's not going to win any prizes in a beauty contest...but then homegrown veg is about taste over aesthetics. Or that's what I'm telling myself anyway...


Magoo has worked her socks off helping out with watering over the Summer. Her favourite thing is to harvest the veg she has been lovingly pouring water over. We have had tons of beetroot this year. One of our favourite meals is 'pink mash'. You basically boil the beetroot with the skin on for about 20-25 minutes. You also boil some potatoes. Once the beetroot has cooked & cooled, you can easily pull the skin off. Then you grate the beetroot. Finally mash the beetroot into the potatoes with loads of creme fraiche, butter & seasoning. Magoo loves 'purple mash' with sausages from our local butcher & oodles of gravy.


The Russians call beetroot 'blood builder' and it is packed with amazing nutrients. I find the 'purple mash' recipe is a great way to get Magoo to eat beetroot. I also like to mix raw grated beetroot & carrot with a little oil, seasoning & some sesame seeds to make a simple dish to have with salad. Raw beetroot packs even more of a nutritional punch.
We've had a mild Autumn this year, so we've managed to spend quite a bit of time at the allotment. But it is getting to the time when the crops have been harvested and the beds are getting empty...and that's when the weeds take over! We've got to have a major Autumn tidy-up & then cover the soil for the Winter months. We have toyed with the idea of planting a green manure crop, but we haven't been organised enough this year.
That's the good thing about gardening & allotments - there's always next year to plan for.
This week I'm linking up with:
"How Does Your Garden Grow" over on the beautiful mammasaurus.co.uk

"Whatever the Weather" over on www.lifeunexpected.co.uk and monkeyandmouse.co.uk
"Let Kids be Kids" over on letkidsbekids.co.uk
Country Kids over on the Coombemill Blog
Image of the Week over on www.trulymadlykids.co.uk