Allotment – too much rain!

I don’t know about you, but our winter digging programme has been totally derailed by the amount of weather we’ve had this week. Every time we’ve tried to get to the plot to dig, it’s either rained heavily just as we’re about to set out, or we’ve got there to find that the ground is too wet to work.

It’s very annoying, as winter digging is one of the things that we failed to do adequately last year, mainly because we were still pulling out six foot thistles and enormous clumps of rampant horseradish and suckering raspberries, so we were determined to get everything properly double-dug and manured this year. I can only hope that as November continues it will get colder and less wet or we’re going to have to rethink our plans – we have so much unworked ground still to dig that it will take us all winter to get it into reasonable shape.

My seedling globe artichokes are looking a bit sad – I’d hoped to get them into the nursery bed this week too, so that they can have it as a bit of winter protection before being transplanted in spring to take their place with the plants I set out last year. I really have to get that done this weekend, as well as putting the strawberries in their new raised bed, which at the moment resembles a paddy field surrounded by wooden walls!

Labels: allotment-artichoke, allotment-digging, allotment-strawberries

Growing artichokes on the allotment

We have two lots of artichokes: the ones in the ground, grown from a sliced-up globe artichoke root and the ones at home, which were grown from seed and look pretty healthy although they are not big enough yet to survive a winter up on the plot, where the winds are awesome and the temperatures can drop to semi-glacial on rare February nights.

So the ones in the ground have been thriving, and a few days ago I went around and did the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do since I got the allotment – I cut off every single bud. Did you know that the globe artichoke is actually related to the thistle? Well I did, as soon as I tried to remove those heads – I speared myself on a dozen different spikes and prickles at once! If you’re growing perennial globe artichokes (not that weird variety that is grown as an annual in the USA) then in the first year, you should remove all the flower-heads because (a) they are pretty well inedible and (b) taking them off strengthens the plant so that it can cope with the winter and produce better and more edible buds the following year.

It was a tough thing to do though because the buds are so pretty, even if you’re not going to eat them, and I notice that most people don’t bother to use them as a crop, perhaps because they are a bit of a faddle to prepare. Anyway, I told myself that the end justified the means, and got on with it.

On the other hand, a crop that we grew to run to seed is doing very well – the sunflowers are looking gorgeous and should be able to provide some winter food for small birds on the plot, as well as the damn squirrels and mice.

Labels: allotment-artichoke, allotment-perennials, allotment-sunflowers

Celeriac, cold frames and peas

I’m very worried about our celeriac seedlings – they are, not to be too polite about it – scrawny. Soilman said on his blog that these were difficult creatures to grow, but really I think all ours are going to give up the ghost. The only thing to do is try and give them enough light (without too much heat) and see if they pull through, but I shall be starting off another tray of seeds this weekend, to see if we can’t get a later germinating bunch to still produce tubers by harvest time.

On the other hand, the peas are great – they’ve got to go in the ground this weekend because the second crop we set to germinate last week are already appearing. We can put peas on both 235 and 201 so we stand a good chance of getting a big harvest and as we and Dunk all like peas, I don’t think there will be complaints about overstocking! They freeze well too.

The cold frame on 201 looked ridiculously big when we took over the plot in October last year, this week it’s half full and starting to look worringly small …

You can see rhubarb potted up to share with other allotment holders, wallflowers, those sturdy peas I mentioned earlier, blackcurrant and redcurrant cuttings taking root, the asparagus seedlings I came back with last week and a globe artichoke that seems to be deceased but might still surprise us by putting out some growth. A good haul, I think.

And today's task, after committee meeting, will have to be planting out our first early potatoes - watch this space!

Labels: allotment-artichoke, allotment-asparagus, allotment-celeriac, allotment-cold-frame, allotment-currants, allotment-peas

Allotment or Garden? Globe Artichokes

Why? Well if you grow them from seed, artichoke plants tend to be variable with only 60-70% of the plants producing big edible chokes – almost all plants will produce small ones though. So on the allotment, grown from seed, there can be quite a disappointment if nearly half your plants don’t produce a good crop, however, in the garden, tucked in among other plants, the globe artichoke looks great even if it doesn’t ‘choke up’.

The answer is probably to grow both!

It’s a fussy old thing, insisting on good soil, regular watering and feeding, and frost protection in winter, but the reward is delicious. On top of all that cosseting, it doesn’t last forever – canny allotment holders will plant rooted suckers each spring so that mature specimens can be disposed of after a few years.

Use offsets (rooted suckers) that are about 9 inches tall – they must have roots attached or nothing will happen. Raising plants from seed is possible, but often considered too much trouble for the reason given above. Assuming you do grow seed stock (I do) look for the American variety Imperial Star, which is much more uniform in choke production from seed than previous varieties. For purple globe artichoke, relatively tolerant of both heat and cold and good when grown from seed, seek out Purple Sicilian.

Seed sowing technique: Sow thinly in one inch deep drills mid March to April – the drills should be a foot apart. Thin to nine inches between plants, protect over the winter, and plant out in ‘permanent’ positions in the following spring.

Labels: allotment-artichoke, allotment-crops-from-seed, globe-artichoke