Tony Hatfield's Retired Ramblings

Hooligans from plot #12

Last of this year's crop of squash- hooligans Read more →

Spring Clean

This afternoon, before the seed potatoes were stored for chitting, Anne cleaned out the garden shed. Garden Shed Seed potatoes- Desiree- chitting. Ready for planting out in a well prepared bed on Plot #12 on Good Friday. Read more →

Trifurcated Parsnip.....yummy!

This is the last of our parsnip crop from Plot#12. It's a rather odd shape. The cause of the bi- or even tri-furcation is when the growing root meets an obstruction in the soil. It is usually a stone that... Read more →

New Crops Plot#12

This year Anne has tried a couple of new crops on Plot 12. These are squashes- variety Jack O' Lantern- and the plants, grown from seed, each contain two or three full grown specimens. Cauliflowers are often difficult to grow.... Read more →

First of the season's spuds from plot #12

Anne tells me that vegetables are always a wee bit later to mature up north. Today, she has cropped the first early spuds. They are a variety called "Rocket". Read more →

Runner Bean Beans!

Yesterday, we removed the old runner bean plants from Plot #12. The roots were left in the soil to enable the nitrogen fixing virus in the root nodules to fertilise the soil. We thought we'd managed to collect most of... Read more →

Plot #12 offers up its crops.

Even after a particularly poor early summer Plot#12 has been particularly generous. Read more →

Tricolore

The first crops from Plot #12 Broad beans Early spuds Strawberries Acqua Dulche Maris peer "Marshmallow" "Claudia" Read more →

"A Little Turnip of My Own"!

The last of this year's vegetables are being harvested. There are still leeks, red cabbage, turnips and some broccoli to come-and even the odd yellow courgette! Those turnips remind me of this from Black Adder iii Episode One- "Dish and... Read more →

3rd Place!

Each year, our local authority awards prizes for the allotments in the borough. This year our plotters at Springfield Park won third prize Read more →