Transition Ashtead

We hope you can come to The Brewery 8pm Monday 23rd August for Transition drinks.

Find out about Transition Ashtead Garden Share, how to save money on home energy and all things Sustainable!

An informal evening – a glass of wine, a few beers… no presentations, no agenda, just a drink or two and a chat! Hope to see you there.

We hold Transition Drinks on the second and forth Mondays of every month – so make a note in your diaries!

Anniversary!

Before (July 2009)

...and after (August 2010))

Bonus blackberries!

It whizzed by so fast, I missed it! I was slightly distracted by the celebrations for my husband’s 60^th birthday on August 1st, but the allotments FIRST birthday was on 30^th July! The before and after pics tell some of the story…when I took delivery of it a year ago, you could loose small children in the tall grass (I did in fact glimpse Hansel and Gretel at one point…) Now, it is mostly under control and looking pretty organized. A whole year of allotmenting! Do I count as an old hand now? I have learnt a thing or two along the way…like asparagus needs to be protected by netting to prevent infestation by asparagus beetle. And you do need to water potatoes when it’s really dry, even if they are planted quite deep in the ground – I think the crop has suffered from water deficiency, it has been an incredibly dry summer. I went down today to check how the French beans were doing, planted where I had grown the onions and garlic, and I’m pleased to report they are doing well so far, more growing to do but a good start. But it was bonus day on the allotment. – there were loads of blackberries! Not planted by me, just growing wild in the hedge next to my plot. I’ve got blackberry-coloured fingers now and a saucepan full of blackberry & apple (windfalls from the garden) Looking forward to eating those!

We hope you can come to The Brewery 8pm Monday 9th August for Transition drinks.

Find out about Transition Ashtead Garden Share, how to save money on home energy and all things Sustainable!

An informal evening – a glass of wine, a few beers… no presentations, no agenda, just a drink or two and a chat! Hope to see you there.

We hold Transition Drinks on the second and forth Mondays of every month – so make a note in your diaries!

Hello Charlotte…

Jewels in the Ground...

Let the cropping commence… I have dug up the first potatoes, some Charlotte salad ones and they are DELISH! Just plain boiled, with a dash of butter, they are an adornment to any meal…although I say it myself.

They have much more flavour than bought ones (…possibly a hint of rose-flavoured tongue, do you think?)   It’s really good to dig them up, like buried treasure, trying not to spear them with the fork – there have been a few casualties so far but not too many…It’s great to be able to harvest them at all, after they got badly nipped by that late frost.

They’ve made a good recovery. The red onions have also been pulled up- actually they seem to fling themselves out of the ground somehow – once the green tops go floppy, they kind of fall over, out of the ground. I’ve not grown them before, so onion behaviour is all new to me. I have to report that they are not as huge as they looked when they were growing – they had quite broad shoulders sticking out of the soil but are a bit on the skinny side – maybe they haven’t thrived in this hot weather, although I have been devoutly watering them at least every other day. Perhaps that isn’t enough when it’s this hot.

They are currently drying in the shed – I thought I’d tie then in plaits, à la Français…then I can cycle home with them on my handle bars….

We hope you can come to The Brewery 8pm Monday 12th July for Transition drinks.

Find out about Transition Ashtead Garden Share, how to save money on home energy and all things Sustainable!

An informal evening – a glass of wine, a few beers… no presentations, no agenda, just a drink or two and a chat! Hope to see you there.

We hold Transition Drinks on the second and forth Mondays of every month – so make a note in your diaries!

Ta-raaa!

Young and tender carrots for dinner...

After the disappointing Autumn carrot crop at the end of last year (see blog of 24^th December…)

I am very pleased to announce a “win” for the human gardener at the allotment. I thought I’d thin out the carrots, as they are looking a bit squished up, and the “thinnings” are quite thick!! Marvelous!

I’d left them to grow without thinning, as I’d read somewhere that you shouldn’t thin carrots, as it  gives carrot fly a sniff of “eau de carrot”, and they come flocking to ruin the roots.

Don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve got no carrot fly! So I’ve beaten the rabbits and the pesky carrot fly…Guess what we’re having for dinner tonight – yep, nice, sweet, young and tender carrots!

Some good news…

Carrots and beetroot, with rhubarb and butternut squash in the background!

Onions, garlic and loads of spuds...

Parsnips galore...and last seasons leeks

After my last rant about garden pests, I thought I’d report the good news on the allotment – that is to say that most things are growing really well!

They have needed a fair amount of watering as it’s been so dry, but water plus sunshine plus a bit of warmth equals much growing!

The crops so far that are shooting up (we won’t mention the asparagus…) are the parsnips, red onions, garlic, potatoes (Cara and Charlotte), celeriac, carrots, beetroot and butternut squash.

On the soft fruit side, there are gooseberries, autumn raspberries and blackcurrants, with a transplanted rhubarb crown doing well for a first season. I’ve just put in a row of leeks and they are standing to attention nicely!

Today, as a little diversion, I collected all the old packets of flower seeds that have been in the shed for ages, (all out of date, most going back to 1997) and sprinkled them all on a rough bank by the compost heaps – if any of them germinate, it will be very pretty… and if they don’t, well, it was worth a try!

We hope you can come to The Brewery 8pm Monday 28th June for Transition drinks.

Find out about Transition Ashtead Garden Share, how to save money on home energy and all things Sustainable!

An informal evening – a glass of wine, a few beers… no presentations, no agenda, just a drink or two and a chat! Hope to see you there.

We hold Transition Drinks on the second and forth Mondays of every month – so make a note in your diaries!

Here is the much-anticipated result of the FREE raffle held at Ashtead Village Day and the Information Event at Ashtead Park Garden  Centre.

And the winners are, in the order drawn:
 
Ticket number 107 1st prize -  2 bottles of wine, from the local Denbies  vinyard               
Ticket number 136 2nd prize – 3 tomato plants, grow bag supports & Tomorite, kindly donated by Ashtead Park Garden Centre
Ticket number 110 3rd prize – 2 jars of locally-produced honey
Ticket number 117 4th prize – Fork & trowel set
Ticket number 194 5th prize – Opia Chrome Basket Bath Care set (basket with loofah, brush, nail brush etc
Ticket number 124 6th prize – Gardener’s Cuttings book and The Gardener’s Pocket Bible
Ticket number 106 7th prize – Long string necklace and bracelet by Moi Design, made from paper-beads (using recycled magazines) by craftswomen in Uganda
Ticket number 130 8th prize – Suttons children ‘Fun to grow’ Bugs Galore kit

How to claim your prize – contact Transition Ashtead at info@transitionashtead.org.uk or phone Derek our secretary on 01372 378914. We can arrange for collection or delivery of your prize. Or come to the next Transition Drinks on 28th June 8pm and collect your prize at The Brewery!

Thank you to all who participated. See below on the web page for the result of the Survey done alongside the raffle.

While  you are on the the Transition Ashtead website,  have a browse, check out the links and tell your friends about it!

Asparagus outrage!

I know I keep going on about my asparagus, but it’s all new and exciting as I’ve not grown it before…there I was, down at the allotment, doing a bit of general tidying, and I noticed the stalk of the asparagus nearest me was CRAWLING with little black caterpillars! The sauce!

They had striped the frondy leaves from the plant, which was looking pretty sad. Well, it would, wouldn’t it, being bereft of it’s frondy bits….I checked out all the other plants and they ALL had a posse of predatory munchers roaming about their foliage.

I spent quite a long time picking the pesky critters off, then Keith and Mo popped down to visit and Keith joined in the picking process too! It’s not a nice job, so thanks Keith. I Googled it when I got home and it seems it’s an Asparagus beetle larva.

There were also some adult beetles on the plants – I was hoping the beetle-y things would be eating the grubs, but no such luck! The web site said this about them:
“Sanitation is one of the principal preventative strategies for suppressing these pests. This usually involves autumn/winter burning of dried fronds and other “trash” to eliminate sites where the beetles overwinter.
(2) However, this may be undesirable if it leaves the soil vulnerable to erosion. On small acreages, enclosing the asparagus beds and letting hens (Hmm, lack of chickens for this method!) forage on the beetles is one possible strategy for control.
(3) Rotenone or rotenone-pyrethrum mixtures are an organic control measure for larger acreages. Natural predators include a chalcid wasp and lady beetle larvae.”

I’m a bit late for prevention, I think! I’ll have to keep an eye on the situation and see if it improves. Those greedy gobblers may have won the first skirmish but they haven’t won the war…