eleven pole

catching up

2008-04-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

Well its been a while, been busy doing stuff at the flat so blogging took a back seat but here are a few pics from the end of last year. One of our monster parsnips and our Halloween pumpkin...more to come soon.

little fella

2007-09-02T11:09:00.000-07:00

Spotted this wee dude mooching around the pumpkins - hope he eats a few of those darn slugs

August part2

2007-08-28T14:19:00.001-07:00

The pumkin is swelling nicely now we've had some sunshine and we hope to bring you a pumpkin special in the near future, charting the turbulent life and times of a Dundee pumpkin.

This is how half the plot is looking at the moment, beetroot, spring onions and leeks closest, Italian and French beans and sweetcorn behind. Sweet..totally.

Flowers - poundstretcher and freebie in cereal packet finest

August part1

2007-08-28T14:15:00.001-07:00

Its been a little while since our last post because we've been moving house and have a new gardening challenge, yep its the one with towering weeds.

Meanwhile at eleven pole our apple tree has truly surpassed itself and produced an apple, from what we hear it will be the second in about 20 years so it shall be treated like royalty.

The grushovka tomatoes are plump and pink and make a very tasty sweet pizza sauce

We pulled up the rest of the carrots, a motley selection but very successful in terms of the amount we've had since june - more carrot cake is on the menu.

harvest time

2007-07-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

Time to show off the fruits of our labours and the bountiful produce of eleven pole!

We had a grand jam making session after brief forays out in between showers. These boxes of fruit are now five jars each of raspberry and goosecurrant and two each of blackcurrant and redcurrant. Sticky. The carrots became spicy soup and the next lot we pulled turned into this rather delicious cake which was ravenously devoured.

These are our spectacularly plump and nubile courgettes which Large couldnt keep his hands off, they were made into fritters then dished up with stuffed courgette and pumpkin flowers.

You make the fritters by adding garlic, about a handful of parmesan, a bit of flour, egg and seasoning to grated courgette. Just dont leave them too long before cooking or all the water comes out and makes a big gooey mess.

beauty and the beast

2007-07-01T04:26:00.000-07:00

The water butts are full to overflowing, as are the buckets in the shed...but it doesnt seem to have set anything back too much and there are lots of courgettes starting to form, the tatties are all flowering, strawberries fruiting, tomatoes appearing and beans still being decimated by some unknown pest.

The cabbage are looking good.

We've got these fantastic poppies although they only really flower for a couple of days.

Don't think we'd win top prize for all our carrots but they still taste just as good.

Beetroot is coming on, this is it just before planting out a couple of weeks ago.

We've just planted out our outdoor tomatoes only for it to pelt down with rain a couple of hours later so now we're hoping for some sunshine to warm them up again and bring them on.

broccoli, bangers and beer

2007-06-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

Nearly all the ground is planted up at eleven pole with the purple sprouting broccoli and kale being the most recent additions tucked under a rather fetching floral net curtain. Apparently what everyone buys in the shops as broccoli is in fact calabrese which only takes 3 months to grow rather than almost a year for the real deal - it'd better be worth it.

We had two firsts this week, the first carrot which got scoffed almost the instsnt it was pulled up and the first strawberry from which we managed to restrain ourselves long enough to document the evidence.

Weary, aching and with our fingers worked to the bone etc, etc we got out the stove and cooked up a few bangers, had a couple of beers and decided job well done.

Oi! Bring back our worms

2007-05-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

Its been all work, no play and lots of bashed fingers at eleven pole in a frenzy of building and planting...

We built a greenhouse - thus the bruised and battered fingers and requirement of several cheeky brewskies. We just put all our gardeners delight and gigante tomatoes into it this morning so we hope they like their new home and should be hitting the roof in another couple of months.

We planted out seventy-five leeks. Enough said.

Our cabbage frame is full, the last gaps taken up with winter cabbages donated by the ever optomistic Freddie. We are giving him a cucumber plant next week in return, did consider offering a melon too but fear the words of doom that would follow.

The new dwarf beans are coming through and have escaped decimation so far.

This cheeky little opportunist watched us digging with great anticipation and then proceeded to massacre all our worms. Some may find the following images distressing!

its like fried eggs and sausages.

2007-05-13T13:24:00.000-07:00

We walked onto the plot today after a week away on holiday to find that our dwarf beans had been DECIMATED! This is the lone survivor in the row - is it charmed or did whaetver ate the rest just get too full to finish off the row?

We planted some more out under fleece and hope they fare a bit better...as in resemble plants rather than sticks.

On the up side our flowers are looking rather fantastic.

The fruit bushes are looking good and all setting plenty of berries, the gooseberry and redcurrant we planted last year are producing their first fruit.

We were a bit indulgent this morning and made hot chocolate in the shed to drink with croissants and just to push the boat out a scotch egg for lunch. A meal in its self! Also finished the first crop of radish and rocket which made a very peppery salad.

party on the plot!

2007-04-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

This week we built a cube...

Its new occupants are cucumbers, courgette, tomatoes, pumpkin, basil, sorrel and parsley.

We also constucted our acme cabbage empire with the help of our hired muscle Nick. Into it will go all our cabbage, broccoli and sprouts to protect them from being the pigeons next meal.

Larges moment of the weekend was cracking open the homemade compost and spreading it on the sweetcorn bed. He leads a rather sheltered existence.
Littles moment of the weekend was reorganising the contents of the shed in an obsessive compulsive manner.
Just call us adrenaline junkies.

sow, sow, sow...

2007-04-08T14:36:00.000-07:00

Seed packets have been feverishly ripped apart this week at eleven pole in a planting frenzy. Plot inspections have noted every stray weed and the sun deck is COMPLETE!

Here is the evidence of Little and Larges hard work and grubby fingers....

In the shed under plastic:

tomatoes - three kinds
chillies - three kinds
long red peppers
dwarf french beans
courgette - two kinds
pumpkin
beetroot

In the cold frames:

leeks
red and green cabbage
brussels sprouts
bunching onions
runner beans
a window box waiting to go on the shed

We tried a handy tip for growing parsnip nice and straight which involved some crowbar action from large. The crowbar makes a lovely parsnip shaped hole in the ground which you fill with crumbly compost and plant into. Mighty parsnips ahoy!
Alongside them are some rather splendid looking Red Baron sets - onions to the uninitiated.

The tatties are all in now despite Large's best efforts to sabotage proceedings by attempting to dig straight lines while nursing a hangover after a few too many shandies the night before. Little came to the rescue and put in the work while himself directed from the sidelines.

Seeds & Scavenging

2007-03-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

Great Disapointment! having just finished our carrot box and spending hours sieving stone free soil into it we excitedly opened the carrot sachet only to find it full of stinking lettuce seed. We are now boycotting Gardening Direct and we expect all our avid readers to do the same.

On a lighter note we liberated some old decking from a demolition site. We'd like to give a big thanks to Harriet for being a fine accomplice to our crime.We now have grand plans for a sun deck.

We wove a rather natty little fence with our holly trimmings. we had ruthlesslly hacked it back a couple weeks ago as it always spiked us in the bum when we dug our potatoes.

This year we have sown 3 varieties of tomatoes - grushovka(russian pink), gardeners delight, and gigante vine. should be tasty. These seeds were supplied by the Real Seed Company which we fully endorse!

a new year

2007-03-04T07:59:00.000-08:00

We're back!

The garden has been sitting a little abandoned for a short time while the rain kept raining but now we're back again with lots of grand plans.

We've been digging - LOTS

Putting a new window in the shed ( possibly increasing the lean in the process)

Making and edging new beds

Setting off some garlic, broad beans, leeks, spring onions, peas, radish, cabbage and rocket

Excavating a fantastic new seating area for boozing and general merriment

Making alot of brews

We came in at the beggining of the year to learn that a whole skipful of lovelty compost had been delivered to the site for everyone to get a bit of, only the canny committee buggers who ordered it nabbed the lot before anyone else knew it was there, so none for us . We wondered why some of the plots looked so good.

Freddie has been in good form lately, we have reason to suspect he may even be starting to believe we can manage the plot and we've shared a couple of bags of potatoes with him. We've got Premiere, Wilja and Kerrs Pinks - the KING of roasting tatties! Looking forward to a few of those with a good steak pie.

overview

2006-11-09T16:14:00.000-08:00

well this will probably be the one and only post written by the large... so savour it.

heres a wee pic of about a quarter of the allotments taken by the little one.

well thats it.

hey i just dig.

reaping rewards

2006-11-05T06:57:00.000-08:00

Well its come to the end of the growing year and we just have a few lone survivors like the winter cabbage, sprouts and leeks that will be sitting it out for the next month or two until its their time for the pot. But we do have lots of photos of the garden at its best especially for you...our one dear reader.

we had some rather luscious tomatoes, including Polish Pinks which have a great colour - bright yellow!? Also some giant beef ones which practically pulled the plant over they were so heavy. There are a few still in the fridge waiting to be used along with a box of hot red chillis, very good on these cold nights.

There was great excitement last week when our strawberries arrived, three different kinds so that we should have fruit right through into autumn next year. Raspberries are also on the way. We also attended the AGM at which the hot topics of potatoes, hosepipe use and where to get the best manure were discussed at great lengths, Little narrowly avoided being press-ganged onto the committee and Large narrowly avoided falling asleep.

Its been all action since then tidying everything up, building new compost bins and planting bulbs for next year. Next job - paths

wombling free

2006-08-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

First up a picture of our glorious beans all nicely dried for the winter. We had a rather pleasant afternoon up at the allotment when it was too hot to do anything but sit and shuck them all out of their pods and here they are. We've picked out the best 50 and put to one side for next years planting.

In the interest of self sufficiency we went on the scavenge at the weekend and filled up a big box full of brambles which have made assorted pastries and crumbles but the best find of the day was a wild plum tree growing in the hedgerow, not many of them but very good.

we've also been given some rather deadly chillies by Jeanette which went in very small quantity into tonights meal. Think we'll have a go with the seeds from them next year too.

Catching Up...

2006-08-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

Its been quite some time since our last post and lots has happened in the garden. We've had an incredibly hot rainless few weeks which has been great for some things like the tomatoes but not so good for some of the others - our peas are wizned little brown ball bearings only good for pea shooting pigeons with.

We have had an abundance of cabbage which was great until something started munching it, now Large is waging war on them with each one he brings up there is a mad flurry of hacking and cabbage leaves flying everywhere. On the theme of cabbage we' ve been waging war on the cabbage butterflies and the sight of Large rampaging around the garden in hot pursuit taking mad swipes at them with a cane - to a rather depressing degree of success. A cabbage recipe we like;

Fry up some onion and a clove of garlic with plenty of olive oil and add some ham or bacon, when they are nicely cooked and the oil is well flavoured put in the cabbage chopped up into cubes and fry until it had softened. Plenty of salt and black pepper on top.

We went away for a couple of weeks holiday recently and on our return found the coldframes had become a jungle and there was a courgette the size of a babies arm (according to Large) bulging at one end of the plot.

Had a jam making session with all our berries and felt very pleased with ourselves for the 10 or so jars ... until we met Willie who informed us he'd made 200. Smartarse ( in the best possible way!).

We've lifted all our early tatties and the broad beans are drying in the shed for what the gardening guru John Seymour describes as food that will give "strength to face the winter"

The photo is from at the start of the growing season, around May when everything was just put in. Hopefully some more pictures soon to bring everything up to date.

hurrah for radish

2006-06-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

Well since our last post we have had our first taste of something other than rhubarb! We had some lettuce and radish for lunch there at the weekend with some left over potato salad and it was all rather good. At last something to show for our efforts.

We have put in another two lines of radish seeing as we seem capable of growing it without too much incident. There is something very satisfying about seeing the red tops just start to poke above the soil. We're picking them young but already they have a good heat and the colour is just amazing especially when shiny from washing under the garden tap.

The broad beans are full of flowers and almost from nowhere several sweet peas have appeared in among the fruit bushes. Our other success so far is the sprouts which were pushing at the tops of their polytunnels and now the wind has died down a little we replaced the tunnels with netting so that everyone can see how good they are and we can bask in the glory!

The ants are still around but not creating the havoc they were and we had great fun giving everything a good watering with our new hose although it did involve Large rampaging up and down the path whenever it unattached itself from the tap and sent water everywhere. We like the hose...

All is calm on the tomato front at the moment and our own few suvivors are actually recovering and looking quite strong.

So watch this space for some exciting radish recipes because thats probably be all we'll eat for the next few weeks - supplemented of course by rhubarb...radish and rhubarb crunmle anyone?

ups & downs

2006-05-21T13:51:00.000-07:00

So here we are once again reporting to our legion of readers...

It has been a trying couple of weeks up at the plot, rain being the main culprit of our misery, with tomatoes coming a close second. To top it all off we have become the proud owners of a rather large nest of ants. Hungry ants.

So after all the old boys grumbling about the lack of rain their prayers were answered and after a week of near solid rain they are now grumbling for a bit of sunshine "to lift the spirits". Admittedly the rain has perked everything up and our weeds are coming on fantastic.

On the topic of rain, it and the wind pulled our cold frame apart a bit the other week and our poor little tomatoes didnt really stand a chance when combined with an army of very hungry ants. Basically the next visit after planting them they were dead, after mourning their loss we ripped them out, regrouped and planted new ones from a generous friend, Willie. On the bright side his look great!

Aside from that our beans are loooking good, potatoes are just showing their tops, chillies are coming on and the herbs we sowed a week ago are popping up as is the radish.

Finally a cheery chap at the top of the hill called Dennis has kindly donated a box full of red brussell sprouts to our cause. Everyone on the site has been great and our plot is now overflowing with all the seedlings we've been given.

We are at this very moment sampling some rhubarb jam made yesterday on top of freshly baked bread mmmmm...
Very easy to make -
2lb rhubarb
1 1/2lb sugar
zest of one orange and one lime
2tbsp lemon juice
small block of ginger
put everything in a pan on a low heat for about 20 min until everything is melted down and juicy then increase to a boil or fast simmer, stirring regularly for about 20 min until it starts to thicken. Test for setting on a saucer.

As you can tell we have vast quantities of rhubarb and very little else at the moment. Thats it for now, will hopefully update more often from now on. ta ta.

p.s.The photos are from a month or so ago and there has been quite a bit of change since then .

spring has arrived

2006-05-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

Well, quite a lot has happened since then and gradually it is beginning to resemble some sort of garden. We are now reliably informed by almost every plot holder that the brambles which met a fiery end were " the best ah've ever tasted", "great big juicy ones" "used to come and pick them every year the plot was empty" ah well...

We get a daily dose of "enthusiasm" from new friend Freddie who has had a plot here for 50 years after settling in this country from Italy. I seem to recall his first words to us were "what you take on this garden for?" accompanied by a knowledgable shaking of the head..."they seen you coming didnt they" More about Fred to come.

He gave us some real Italian garlic the first week we arrived and even admits that its growing better than his own - don't know how we managed that! Large has been giving him a hand with digging and such like in return for all the bits and pieces he has given us not to mention all the advice - which resulted in Large rather sheepishly rebuilding our fence three times, there was just too much head shaking and teasing to leave it be.

After months of unexpected snow which froze our ground solid and then enough rain to turn it into a quagmire we now have sunshine in unexpected quantity and yesterdays digging was more like being in a desert.we've got a few things in though.

The top of the plot is taken up with our rather ramshackle shed which Large has grand plans to rebuild with the help of his Dad, it also has a couple of cold frames we are rather proud of ourselves for building. One side is taken up by fruit bushes including goosecurrant which neither of us had ever heard of before and a couple of good sized rhubarb plants. In the main beds are potatoes, cabbage, the afore mentioned garlic, broad beans (also courtesy of Freddie), leeks (from neighbours Andy and Wendy), onions and peas. At home the living room is also festooned with various pots of tomatoes, peppers and chillies waiting for warmer weather and it is something of an obstacle course getting to the window.

here is a little taste of spring in the allotment:
Take a few sticks of slender young rhubarb and saute in a little butter with plenty of dark muscovado sugar and if you want a little cinnamon and squeeze of orange. Cook until caramelised and soft but not falling apart then serve on greek yoghurt mmmm.

the beginning...

2006-04-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

After a good few years of looking, longing and deliberating we finally took the plunge this january and got ourselves an allotment. Its not far from the house, only just up the road and nothing very special, behind a row of tenements and overlooked by a housing shceme but its our eleven pole of land.

There are a few others in town, some by the railway lines and some on the hill above with views over the estuary and out to sea, ours doenst have much of a view and it almost chose us rather than the other way around. So here's what happened, the story so far.....

As Large has nothing to say at the moment so it shall just be me, Little, bringing you up to speed. Well we went along on a Saturday (or it could have been a Sunday) morning, the only time the gate is unlocked and invitingly open and with a little trepidation entered the allotment store and stronghold of stalwart committee members. ( A fair few characters to be sure!) And proclaimed ourselves interested in an allotment "What size? medium or large?" Well actually we were just thinking of small...

Half an hour later, enticed by the silver tongued charm of a fellow named Jim the deal was done and we were the proud tenants of the largest plot on the site. Its current status more akin to a patch of industrial wasteground than a functioning garden- (but nothing like the scorched desert we were to encounter a few weeks later after Jim had "given us a hand" and taken his flame thrower to it in a vain attempt to get rid of the weeds).

So here it is, pre-flame thrower.