The Allotment Geek

🌱 Hey strangers! 🌱
How are we all? We had a good growing year?
Its been a little while since posting, and man alots happened! After 2 lovely years at my last plot, I've upgraded! I had the opportunity of taking on a plot over 2 times the size of my old one, and couldn't refuse! Meant alot of swear words moving the damn greenhouses, bricks and general rubbish, but we made it!! I'll give a proper tour of it soon, but here is a little nosey at it!

I know it's Thursday.. but let's pretend it's 🤣 I am a massive lover of growing tomatoes, if I could turn it into a job and grow them everyday, it would be a dream! What one veg would you grow forever?!
 

ROSEMARY FLOWERS
Did you know these are also edible? And very yummy too! A new ingredients for me this year from the allotment, they're quite nice munched on their own but they also compliment chocolate so well! We make rosemary chocolate buttons as inspired by .by.fern they don't last long at all 😅 well worth checking out!

FORAGING
Foraging is something I've started learning the last few years, and it amazes me how much knowledge we have lost about the edible plants (and toxic!) around us.
Does many people on here Forage as well as grow their own?

Growing carrots has to be one of the most enjoyable tasks at the allotment, you have no idea if you're going to get a straight carrot, or an octopus is going to emerge from the soil and be impossible to clean!🤣
What's your tricks for growing carrots?

Pink to make the boys wink 😉
Peppermint chard, have you seen anything so beautiful?
your own

Have you spotted any hedgehogs this year?
I've been keeping a distant eye on the hedgehogs this year (less handling) so they don't become quite so reliant on me for food, and it's been a joy to still see so much activity in the garden! We have tracks all over the garden, along with a lot of poops, I'm confident the population is thriving still in our area! The young winter hedgehogs will be out foraging for their own food, and a mate! So if you hear any bizarre wood cutting noises in the night, it will most certainly these little ones getting busy!

🍓 Strawberries! 🍓
Ours are coming in thick and fast now! However make sure you look out for the flowers with black centres, these sadly won't fruit as they've had a sneaky kiss with Mr Jack Frost and have died! We have been very lucky this year with no late frosts, damage has been minimal! Have you lost any this year?

Garlic scapes! How do you cook yours?
Last year was the first year I really ate these, and they are delicious! We only really used them in stirfrys and froze the rest. This year I want to experiment ! I've really got into preserving food to make the season last longer, so I'll be freezing some again, I'll also be trying infusing them with oil, and making a new garlic butter to follow on from my wild garlic batch ( we love garlic here!)
Incase you're wondering, the variety here is elephant garlic which I keep in the ground year after year!

A pod full of happiness! Does anyone manage to get any of their peas home without eating them all?! I failed last year 😅

Don't mind me, just admiring my roses! Slightly addicted to David Austin Roses as within a year we went from 1 rose, to 6! Do you have any flowers you just can't resist? What's even better is even though they smell divine, I found out a few weeks ago they're also edible too! Rose jam here we come!

KIDS AT THE ALLOTMENT! How do you keep them entertained?
As you'll have seen on my stories, I'm having a massive move around and redesign at the allotment, purely because I want it more friendly for both Archie and Poppy, and I want them to enjoy it too!
I'm looking for more 3ays that I can keep them entertained for longer there. We have a area for archie to dig, he is in charge or watering and digging. What else do you recommend we introduce for Archie to get the gardening bug Too?! Would love to hear your thoughts!