One day one photo - 10: Harvest festival

Actually no harvest festival has taken place. Maybe I should have one. It just reminds me of when I was a kid and the school used to do one around this time of the year.

We always had to take something in to school that could then be donated to less fortunate folks (this was in pre-food bank days).

My mum would generally give me a tin of baked beans or tomato soup to take in, and I would feel a bit embarrassed that we we weren't taking something that had come from a farm, like the word "harvest" implied. If only we had an allotment or vegetable patch back then.

So this is the latest release from my allotment. Everything there came from packs of seeds that cost around £2. Actually, I confess that the tomatoes came from my neighbour's allotment.

Apparently this has been a good year for tomatoes and people just can't give away enough. So he's been dishing them out to everyone who comes by.

I have had a great supply of courgettes though - green ones, yellow ones, and ones the same colour as marrows. The corn has been good too, though in these busy times I ended up picking them a bit late so they were a bit dry to eat.

As for pumpkins - I am just glad to know I have got something in time for Halloween. The last time I grew pumpkins was a couple of years ago, and I planted them so late in the season that they weren't ready until late November!

For someone who could never even manage to keep a cactus alive, I don't think I do too badly now. This year was quite challenging in the excessive heat, and I had to get down to my plot two, sometimes three times a day to water everything, and going away even for a weekend was out of the question. I was morphing into a farmer!

But it's paying off now, and I can also look forward to chicory (endives), fennel, and nasturtium, which conveniently need less attention than some of the other crops.

Furthermore, the secretary of the allotment society will be happy to see that I am making an effort. So hopefully I won't be on his list of people to get a warning letter! This good life isn't so bad!

One day one photo - 3: The Good Life

Courgettes and nasturtium from my allotment for dinner - hmm!

I've had an allotment since May of last year. It's been hard work getting rid of all the weeds on the whole of the patch, and I have only managed to plant crops on half of the plot. However, I have been pleased with the yield. Last autumn I harvested eight pumpkins of varying sizes from 1 kg up to 5 kg. I have only recently finished eating them all. I also harvested a load of nasturtium, which was great because it meant for a time I didn't bother buying any rocket or spinach! The nasturium were a good enough substitute. Sadly, I was a bit slow to pick them all and they ended up being destroyed when the frost arrived.

This year I have tried to be a bit more organised with my crops, though the success has been variable. The pumpkins have not done so well. I planted around eight and all but one were destroyed by slugs or foxes. I am not sure that the remaining one will sprout and ripen before winter comes. The beans had a similar fate, though one of them remained and I was able to harvest a few before it got blighted. However, the big success story has been the courgettes. They have just been sprouting the whole time, giving me about four a week. I just can't eat them quick enough. They are also pretty big - a lot bigger than the shop size! As a consequence I am constantly eating gratin de courgettes, courgette quiche, I've also made courgette soup, fritters, and the loaf I used to make with bananas is now, you've guessed it, a courgette loaf! Any other recipes for courgettes would be most welcome!

The nasturtium are growing nicely too, so I look forward to using them in salad, and making pesto with them. I also have some corn which seems to be ripening well too. My allotment neighbour, Barbara gave me some lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes from her harvest as she had a surplus. I tried to give her some of my courgettes but she declined as she said she's awash with her own yield of crops from her plot that she has had for around 30 years!

In short, having an allotment rocks! It's surprising how much food you can get just by planting a few packets of seeds that cost a couple of £s. There's something really satisfying about eating a meal that consists of homemade food that you have grown yourself.

You just have to be ready to spare a few hours to weed the place and do a bit of digging, but that keeps you fit. I am beginning to feel like the folks in the 70s sitcom The Good Life. Though I won't be moving to Surbiton any time soon!  

One day one photo - 8: Cyclist turns to allotment life!

I like riding my bike, watching cycling and writing about cycling. But the news is I'm not all about cycling!

Every so often a cycling friend of mine may find themselves out of action due to injury and is unable to ride their bike for a few weeks. At that point they lament about what they're going to do, how are they going to spend their day, life will be dreary.....Sometimes after spending 3 weeks following the Tour de France folks say that they feel at a loss for what to do in the evening.

I definitely don't fall into that category! I enjoy cycling but if I didn't have to do it again there'd always be a few things queued up behind waiting to get done, or even just new hobbies that I've always wanted to try.

One of those things is horticulture. Funnily enough I never grew up being mad keen on gardening. It might have been because I used to get forced to do it by my dad.

But since I moved into a house with a garden it has got me thinking of things to do to make it look pretty. I have also learned to appreciate how the benefits of colour on wellbeing. So right now I have a burst of orange and yellow marigolds, plus sunflowers in my front garden. I look forward to having fuchsia-coloured nasturtium blooming as well.

The other thing I have done is to acquire an allotment. I thought it would be a long complicated process including a 2-year wait. But I got it pretty much on the spot. When I approached the secretary of the Beck Lane Allotment Society he did look me up and down a bit saying "Are you sure you can do this? Have you got a garden? You know you can't just turn up once every couple of months. You will need to put in a lot of work." I pitched my case convincingly, and I got it in late May.

I must admit, I am no expert at all, and I have spent a lot of time on the Royal Horticultural Society website and also on BBC Gardener's World. There have been many trips made to the plot in the early mornings or late evenings to dig, weed, plant things, and a lot of watering over this dry summer in London. At last, I am pleased to see that after a few false starts where seeds were planted but then nabbed by worms, slugs and birds, it now looks like I may have something to harvest this year. My pumpkins have grown!

My target had been to cultivate 25% of the plot by the end of the year, and with the beetroot and carrots I have also planted I will have managed that.

My allotment neighbours are friendly, and it provides a different view on life. It's a way of escaping all the pressures of daily life, and is a place to relax. (It is a mobile phone-banned space for me.) Allotment life is the perfect antidote to thrashing around on your bike or feeling the pressure to perform at races or be Queen of the Mountains on Strava!

Furthermore, there is a really satisfying feeling about eating stuff you have grown yourself. I look forward to eating some delicious pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie later this year.


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