November 2002

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Saturday November 9th

Loaded up the car with onions to go and plant. Which promptly fell off the seat and landed upside down when I braked at the end of the road. Grumble. But they mostly survived. Spent a couple of hours planting in muddy conditions, but now there are 70 little onions (three more had been eaten) and 10 garlics from saved bulbs planted. The Thermidor garlics (big white ones) are still in their modules. Hacked a fair bit of the bramble back, but need the long armed lopper really to get the bottom of the old stalks out. Decided which of the blackcurrants are going to bite the dust (quite a lot of them, since I don't really want the big bud to spread into new ones). Hopefully I will have plenty of room then to plant the autumn raspberries and any new currants I acquire. I currently (har har) have my eye on the Marshalls four bushes for £20 offer. Except they're bare rooted so won't flower first year. If I get potted ones they will, so will look at Chessmount and Chenies first. Picked up some of the larger fallen Bramley's: they are huge. Not sure I could fit many more in the freezer space we have left! Also picked the broccoli over. They are still producing little side shoots happily. Amazing for November.

Sunday November 17th

Up to parents and to Chatsworth: went hunting for new soft fruit bushes and succeeded in getting a variety of different red and blackcurrants which were somewhat cheaper than Marshall's. And in pots, so I can delay planting them if necessary. So now I have quite a selection.

Blackcurrant Ben Connan  (mid season - July)

Ben Sarek (Late season – early to mid-August. Dwarf bush, can be tart.)

Wellington XXX (Mid season - July)

Redcurrant Red Start (Late season – early August)

Jonkheer van Tets (early season – early July)

Now all I have to do is wait for decent weather and dig out the old ones!

December 2002

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Sunday December 1st

December at last. Left Cambridge in the rain and en route it turned very sunny, so after unpacking the car, dashed out again to the allotment. Managed to stay till it was quite dark, managing to dig out five of the reverted blackcurrants. Of course it took Liz at church to point out that reversion means just that – reverting to wild forms, hence the loss in fruiting and leaf shape change to smaller ones. Anyway, three came out easily, the fourth one was the monster bush. Took a lot of circling, digging roots out gradually until finally it rocked over. And the fork survived. The other four are the two by the Bramley, one at the very back, which stops there being a clear route to the gooseberry bushes (that was less of a fruiting problem than access) and the tiny one in between the eater and another bush. Overcrowding. They are supposed to be 4' apart!  The place looks much bigger now! Will manure it and dig it over and plant up the autumn raspberries when they make an appearance. And hopefully I will find room for the new bushes! May need to dig a few more out…

Pruned the dessert gooseberry by the forsythia, and also hacked the forsythia itself back a bit. Pulled three whopping verina leeks (definitely only growing them next year!) and escaped with the last of the daylight.

Tuesday December 10th

The autumn raspberries have arrived! Pity they're not going to get planted for a while…

Sunday December 22nd

Popped to allotment before daylight disappeared and pulled three large leeks to cover Christmas. The grass that's growing in the old beetroot and turnip plots isn't getting much taller thank goodness, and the rest isn't looking too bad. Still looks astonishingly empty without the giant blackcurrant – still need to manure that area and clear out the remaining pruned-out currant branches before planting the raspberries. Haven't been doing much recently (as usual). However I do have several nice new organic books to read!

Wednesday December 25th

Dry Christmas day for once! Took some photos out of the window but that was all. Home-growns include a marrow (one of about 8 left!), runner and French beans, the sage in the stuffing and leeks. Hopefully next season the onions will be up to scratch again, as will carrots (the few I had I forgot to eat!) and I'll hope also for more French beans, which I'll grow up at the allotment.

Saturday December 28th

Mum and Dad down for the weekend, and I now have a heated propagator. It may have been the cheapo one, but it's still a Sankey and so the only difference in the packaging must have been the colour box and the extra seed trays. They are crafty, making the one with the extras (which cost very little) look like a better buy! It doesn't have a temperature control, but then neither does Dad's and his was a lot more expensive. Here goes at getting early germination in my marrows in the coming season!

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