Veg Plotting

After all that wind and rain on Sunday it was good to get out into the garden yesterday for a good breath of fresh air. Some of my Dahlias have been a bit late to the party this year and as it's November, I wanted to celebrate them with you before the frosts finally turn them to mush. The top one is D. 'David Howard': I thought I'd lost him over the winter, but at last a lone stem appeared, then this single bloom last week. The bottom two are from the ones I ordered after seeing the spectacular display of some of the National Dahlia Collection at the RHS Inner Temple Show last year. Unfortunately I've lost the order form, so I can't tell you which ones they are. They were also late in flowering as they suffered from a capsid bug attack early in the summer. As they've all struggled against the odds, I'm especially pleased to see them, no matter how briefly. Update: I've looked back at my photos from the Inner Temple Show and the pink one is D . ...

Some dates have a resonance. Your birthday is one of these of course, plus any where one of life's milestones is met along the way: graduation or marriage for instance. Sometimes other dates acquire significance, seemingly at random. For me, today's one of the latter. Five years ago, it was the date I finally 'phoned in sick at work and told them I couldn't take the stress anymore. A year later, it was when I and several of my colleagues commenced our Diplomas in Business Analysis *. Then two years ago I decided to join my local choir and I also finally realised my career break really needed to become a little more permanent. It was that very same day I decided to start this blog without a clue about what I was doing and where it might lead. Your company on the rollercoaster is much appreciated, it's been heaps of fun over the 800+ posts I've made. However, now we're at the notorious terrible twos stage, who knows what tantrums I'll find alongside the ...

Rotary Glade, Westonbirt Arboretum Why blow'st thou not, thou wintry wind, Now every leaf is brown and sere, And idly droops, to thee resigned, The fading chaplet of the year? Yet wears the pure aerial sky Her summer veil, half drawn on high, Of silvery haze, and dark and still The shadows sleep on every slanting hill. How quiet shows the woodland scene! Each flower and tree, its duty done, Reposing in decay serene, like weary men when age is won, Such calm old age as conscience pure And self-commanding hearts ensure, Waiting their summons to the sky, Content to live, but not afraid to die. Sure if our eyes were purged to trace God's unseen armies hovering round, We should behold by angels' grace The four strong winds of Heaven fast bound, Their downward sweep a moment stayed On ocean cove and forest glade, Till the last flower of autumn shed Her funeral odours on her dying bed. So in Thine awful armoury, Lord, The lightnings of the judgment-day Pause yet awhile, in mer...

About 5 miles from here is the village of Bromham where the surrounding fields are currently crammed with leeks, cabbages, parsnips and kale, plus one littered with cushion-like pumpkins. Unlike my clayey lime garden and plot, the soil here is light, reddish in colour and a good loam: just right for growing vegetables. However, the local farm shop in this area (belonging to V & P Collins) has just one thing on its mind at the moment... NB Hurrah, I have a couple of biscuit (aka cookie) themed guest posts today: the first one is here and the second one is winging its way through the ether at dusk.

We're enjoying an Indian summer during the last days of October here in England, but the heavy weather forecast for Sunday means that we should get out tomorrow to places like Westonbirt Arboretum (pictured above) and enjoy the last of autumn's fiery leaves before they're all blown away. Once the storm's over, you might like to seek out one of the events the You Ask, We Answer team have found to help while away the darker days of November. All month: A couple of writing events - you can either release your inner novelist by signing up for National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo), or if that sounds a bit like too much hard work, you could elect to post something on your blog every day this month instead. It's called National Blog Posting Month , aka NaBloPoMo and you can write about anything and make it as long or short as you like! 2nd-8th November : British Sausage Week . A celebration of all things banger and rather apt in view of the other events sc...

Unlike last year I was going to be quite restrained with my bulb buying this time, honest guv. But when packets like the one shown above wink at you from the shelf, who am I to say no? Besides, when I went to see Anna Pavord's talk on her new book, Bulb recently, her parting shot was Splurge, it's the only way . It was a bit of a siren call and I now find myself buying them at every opportunity. BTW Jane Perrone went to see her at the Garden Museum recently and has saved me the trouble of translating my notes for you from the ones I wrote in the dark , by publishing a full account here . It's a good year for bargain bulbs: EmmaT's been potting up some tulips and I've found a further selection at Chippenham's Focus DIY store (including species tulips and Quail daffodils) at 3 fat packs for a fiver. The pictured bumper pack came from a small nursery in Somerset ( Rocky Mountain ), so it's not just the big chains getting in on the act. It's not too la...

... Open Pollinated Seed Varieties Crumbs - what a mouthful. Do bear with me on this, as I'm trying to make things clear for myself as well as for you. If I'm not succeeding, let me know in the Comments! This one's also for Karen because she asked which seeds I'd grabbed in the swap at the bloggers get together in Oxford on Saturday. Let's get the non-seed items out of the way first shall we? Ben from Real Seeds gave me a couple of blight resistant Will potatoes he's been growing. From garlic guru Patrick I had a very healthy looking head of Music and who could resist a couple of Tristan's (who has an organic market garden) enormous cloves of elephant garlic? Emma didn't either! Any saved seed, like the packets you see here from Ben (tomato Tomatito de jalapa and Morton's secret mix of very different lettuces) and Vicki from the Heritage Seed Library (Bean Cherokee Trail of Tears , Leek Colossal and Beetroot Long Blood Red ) were from what...

Previously here on Veg Plotting , I've told you about how I got involved in trialling a new method of growing vegetables using an Air-Pot , a rather strange looking planter riddled with holes. I also updated you a while ago on how well things were going and also told you about how I was comparing them alongside using old compost bags . Today it's time to reveal the final results and the photo shows the total number of potatoes from both trials. From left to right we have Edzel Blue potatoes from the compost bag, followed by the Air-Pot, then Yukon Gold potatoes from the compost bag and finally the same potato variety from the Air-Pot. As you can see the results aren't that spectacular for pot or bag, nor for each potato variety. In terms of weight the pots yielded 575 grammes of potatoes and the compost bags 950 grammes. So the bags have yielded nearly twice as many potatoes in terms of weight, from a slightly smaller number of them. I've been asked by the company...

I thought last year's inaugural event couldn't be topped, but once again Pat and Steph (aided by Juleanne of INASP ) did us proud and laid on a packed programme for our get together in Oxford on Saturday. The venue was most apt for us - a tranquil garden in the heart of Oxford at Restore . This project helps people with mental health issues learn life skills, including horticultural ones. The result is two productive allotments, plus the pictured garden. It's looking good despite the pouring rain. Our meeting's even made YouTube as Soilman filmed Emma giving a Q&A session on her Alternative Kitchen Garden. Thank goodness he didn't choose me giving a preview of the post I've planned for later on this week on the results of my airpot product test ! Vicki gave a talk on the work of the Heritage Seed Library , Ben from Real Seeds illustrated very succinctly some of the issues surrounding GM, Dr Simon Platten introduced us to the anthropological side to allot...

I'm indebted to Daryl for sending me this image from her marvellous blog about life in New York, which in turn she got from a friend . I often return to it, even after 18 months or so as it still makes me giggle and ponder a little. That bottom section's painfully true - I managed to lose an entire packet of autumn onion sets up at the allotment the other day within minutes of putting them down 'somewhere' *. I also wonder what to replace Working with - Blogging in the winter and Gardening in the summer perhaps? If you were to sum up your life in a pie chart , what would it look like? I'm off to Oxford tomorrow for the Food Growing Bloggers get together (yippee and hopefully another slice of Cat's delicious marmalade topped apple pie will be available just like last year ), followed by a workshop on potatoes on Sunday. Have a great weekend everyone and see you on Monday :) Oh, and UK bloggers don't forget: there's the possibility of an extra hour...