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Beth Otway has entered Compton Allotments into the Best Allotments in Britain competition run by the Daily Telegraph

Peas and thank you's

The remains of the peas have now all been taken down and the juicier tops fed to a pair of grateful pigs.

The roots and some small nettles were dug back in and the soil given a dressing of blood, fish and bone.

In the empty space we have put up a wigwam of hazel poles and sown some late climbing French Beans... hopefully this will give us some crops before October when this part of the patch will be used for Autumn sown Onions, Shallots and Garlic.

The foliage on the Sante potatoes has withered and shrivelled back to almost nothing. I lifted one plant to see if there was any problems with the spuds. There wasn't, we have some very big bakers and I will leave the remainder in the ground until needed.

And on the seventh day...

This is Cynthia and Babe having a peaceful snooze in the mud after snacking on the tops from the broad beans we had cleared from the patch this morning.

There are a few peas left and these will be cleared away in a few days and the rows will then be ready for some catch-crops before we plant Autumn Onions in October.

The early maincrop potatoes, Sante, are looking a bit sad with the foliage shrivelled and yellowing, but we have plenty of spuds this time of the year and I want to keep these until later... so will just have to leave them and trust to good luck and learn from the experience.

Beetroot : Bull's Blood v Cylindra

We have lifted a few more spuds for the weekend and thinned out some more carrots and beetroot.

We will have the carrots raw with a bowl of garlicky aiioli dip.

Some of the beetroot will be cooked Indian style in a thoran and the rest will be pickled.

The globe shaped Bull's Blood has a more pinker flesh than the long roots of Cylindra and seems to be a bit more tastier when freshly boiled. However, the Cylindra is more sweeter and the dark red flesh looks nicer when pickled.

Potato and Courgette Rosti

Heather cooked this rosti using potatoes, courgettes and onion from the patch and it was served with a couple of fried eggs on top for our supper.

The onions were softened beforehand, but they should have actually been fried golden to add a bit more bite to the dish.

The potatoes and courgettes were grated, squeezed to remove the moisture and then added to the onions with salt and pepper to season. The mixture was spooned into a frying pan and cooked until the bottom layer was browned. The recipe states that the pan should then be placed under a grill to brown the top layer, but this can be achieved by turning it over onto a plate and then replacing top-side down in the pan.

Nice flowers... shame about the carrots !

We have found some of our carrots have been attacked by the dreaded Psila rosae or Carrot Fly. We know what to do next year, so will just have to profit from the experience and hope that the little buggers save some of the crop for us !

Mark from the neighbouring patch has been taking some pictures of our plot using a very technical looking digital camera and his partner, Beth then e-mailed them to me. The pictures were all of a very high quality, but I think this one showing our Dahlia : Gallery Art Nouveau is especially nice.

This is our first real attempt at growing Dahlias and whilst we are delighted with the beauty of the flowers, we were a bit disappointed that they had not grown very high. We have also grown two other varieties, Canary Fubuki and Ferncliff Illusion. These have budded, but not yet flowered and we are hoping for some larger blooms.

Back to Work

We've only been away on holiday for a few days, but the growth has been tremendous !

From left to right in the picture are : Leeks, Celeriac, Carrots, Beetroot, Fennel, Parsnip (with Radish intercrop) and Potatoes.

We have lifted some of the Beetroot and now have three jars of pickled beetroot. One each of the Charlotte and Orla Potatoes have been lifted and I was surprised at the size of the spuds in so little time. The smaller Charlottes have been cooked boiled with butter and the larger Orlas have been baked. The flavours are OK, but not exceptional.