Katrina’s Allotment Diary
Happy Apple Day! Since today is the day that we, in the UK, celebrate the versatile fruit we all love eat, drink and grow, I thought I would share my home-brewing cider process so far. Continue reading “How I Made Home Brewed Cider Part 1”
I was wrong all along! Well…kind of. Let me explain. I got the keys to my allotment in September 2014 and one of the reasons I chose it was for the apple tree growing at the back of the plot. The first apple I ate was sour and must have been an underripe one because for the last THREE YEARS I thought my apple tree grew cooking apples.
It’s been almost a month since my last polytunnel post, when I planted out the tomatoes with string supports. Everything is growing well, the tomatoes are loving their support system and have lots of flowers and fruits. I keep the polytunnel door open permanently to prevent blight even though it’s quite cool. I also feed the tomatoes every Friday with a liquid feed. Check out the video at the botttom of my post for a tomato tour! 🍅😄 I’ve just harvested the first of honeybee tomatoes and they’re so sweet! I can’t wait to try these in a Mediterranean veg tonight.
I’ve put a lot of effort into producing a good strawberry crop this year and my hard work is paying off!
Early in the season I mulched the strawberry patch with manure, removed all the nettles that stung me last year, I kept them well watered throughout the dry spell and even made a strawberry cage to protect them from the bird.
With these improvements along with the warm, dry weather (bye bye slugs! 👋🏻) I’ve been harvesting a good punnet or more every day or so!
How do you like to eat your strawberries? I’m enjoying lots of brandy snap baskets with ice cream topped with berries! I also love to make rhubarb and strawberry crumble which I only discovered last year as I didn’t have enough rhubarb! You should try it, it’s devine!
There’s been a lot of construction and heavy lifting on the allotment these past few weeks and the plot is really starting to look organised! At the weekend I focused on the strawberry patch. I have three beds of plants, one of which is entirely runners from last year’s plants so I’m not expecting much fruit from them in their first season. None the less, all the plants are in bloom and I’m expecting a bountiful harvest. As soon as the flowers drop and fruits begin to form, it’s time to protect them from hungry birds.
I learnt the hard way to not use netting. If you use it m on your allotment please take care not to make it a danger for other animals! Last year a fledgling robin got caught in my strawberry netting and it was an awful experience. Continue reading “Building a Strawberry Cage “
Homegrown Garden 