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Plot #59

Harvesting our Onion, Shallot and Garlic Crops

Jo and I have not long returned from an eight-day break down in beautiful Devon and Cornwall, touring gardens, sampling the regional cuisine (particularly the ice cream section of the menu) and quaffing a few of the local ales. I’ll be talking more about the rather wonderful gardens we visited – RHS Rosemoor, The Lost […]

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Plot #59

Our Allotment Year in Review: 2016/17 Edition

A year has rolled on by since I posted the first Year in Review piece here on Notes From the Allotment, and a lot has changed down on Plot #59. After three years of hard graft, we’ve finally reached the point where almost the entire plot has been transformed from a weed-choked, debris-strewn nightmare into […]

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Plot #59

It’s Garlic Planting Time

One of my very favourite jobs of Autumn is planting out next year’s garlic crop. For me, it marks the first step towards growing a whole new year’s worth of tasty food, even though this year’s are still very much in evidence and harvesting will continue for some time. For the past few years I’ve […]

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Monthly Updates Plot #59

Plot #59 Update: June 2016

June was a quieter month than you might think, down on Plot #59, thanks to a combination of wet weather and exam revision. Nevertheless, Jo and I forged ahead as best we could and kept things moving on several fronts. Projects / Maintenance The ground was too wet for most of the month to allow […]

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Harvest Monday Plot #59

Harvest Monday for July 4th 2016

Summer is here! Although you wouldn’t know it to look at the weather records of late. But the crops are starting to come in down on Plot #59 and we’re beginning to enjoy a wider range of the fruits of our labour. Here’s a quick photo-montage of the foodstuffs that we’ve been able to harvest […]

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Plot #59

Lifting This Year’s Garlic

Last week I decided to lift the bulk of this year’s garlic crop. It’s technically a little early – according to a recent email from The Garlic Farm, at least – but as you can see below, one variety was quite badly hit with allium rust and I’d spotted signs of onion white rot in […]

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Plot #59

A Quick Mid-June Plot #59 Photo Update

Phew! That’s the exams done and dusted. Until I start the next RHS Level Two course in September and sit the next set of exams in February 2017, that is. My pre-exam weekend was spent down the allotment, on the grounds that I’d already crammed about as much into my head as was going to […]

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Harvest Monday Plot #59

Harvest Monday for June 6th 2016

It’s been a while since I posted a Harvest Monday piece, mainly because about all we were harvesting from Plot #59 from February through until early May was the last of last year’s leeks. But finally, I have something new to report. Garlic Scapes As seasonal delicacies go, you can’t get much more seasonal than […]

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Monthly Updates Plot #59

Plot #59 Update: May 2016

May was a manic month down on Plot #59, and no mistake. My plate is particularly full at the moment with revision for my RHS Level 2 exams in mid June, so please do excuse me if I whizz through this month’s update. Projects / Maintenance As well as sorting out an old compost bed […]

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Plot #59

Our Allotment Year in Review: 2015/16 Edition

January is the traditional time to post a year-in-review piece, but for me, the start of the sowing and growing season – with the last of the previous year’s over-wintered veg crops being harvested or cleared away and the first of this year’s plants being sown and planted out – seems a good time to […]