2025 The Results

Potatoes (and Apples)

It's been a long time and you would be forgiven for thinking I had abandoned my blog - or even my plot.  I can assure you the latter is not the case.  With all the events, good and bad, of the last year something had to give and it turned out to be the blog. Another consideration is that I have always blogged from my laptop at home. My smartphone is so much more transportable and fine for accessing information wherever you are but not so handy for generating considered content.  

Without further ado here goes.  

Maincrop Rooster Harvest

The first picture shows the potato crop in all its verdant glory on 22nd July. I had already dug up my first earlies but these are 2nd Early Charlotte, Maincrops Rooster and Pink Fir Apple. All cropped heavily with larger tubers. This was a big surprise because the Edinburgh spring was so dry and I did not water at all. When the rain arrived it was enough to bulk up the crop.  Special mention goes to Rooster which in the previous year had been a disappointment as the tubers failed to reach baking potato size. This year we have baked potatoes on a regular basis and plenty more in store. The apples that appear in this shot also remind me what a fantastic year it has been for them too.  This tree was bought as a 'ballerina' but not pruned as such since planted at the plot. Elsewhere on the allotment site the James Grieve really had a mast year. I have bought a dehydrator and have been drying apple rings for weeks now but still have plenty more wrapped in newspaper in boxes and bags!

Now if the potatoes performed better than 2024 then the carrots (which failed for me that year ) restored my confidence in 2025. I sowed more than was reasonable to compensate this year and doubled up with a late sowing where the new potatoes were grown more in hope than in expectation. Guess what:  It is feast not famine.

Carrots Late

Parsnip and Carrots

I have been going big on climbing beans in recent years and set up three wigwams again this year. In addition to Runners I grew Berlotti beans and Greek Gigantes for drying. I will be scaling up the production of these next year as we use all we can grow and surprisingly home grown dried beans are actually tastier and better in texture than the shop bought which one suspects might have been harvested years  and years ago.

Beans X3

Another late season sowing that came up trumps was the mangetout Oregon Sugar Pod. Not sown until July these came up trumps in September.  Others have hailed this variety as a surefire success and I agree it is a winner.

Oregon Sugar Pod 

Another banker on the plot in recent years has been Winter Squash. They need room as they ramble promiscuously but if you hem them in they will clamber upwards. Buttercup, Uchichi Kuri, Crown Prince are all winners. Six plants, a dozen fruit,  is more than enough for us particularly as the need shelter from frost and rain in order to last throughout the winter.

Winter Squashes

One final curio for 2025: The plant below is Blue Fenugreek which I have photographed in flower as this is the only blue bit of it!  Native to the hills and cuisines of the Caucasus you will need to grow this if you want that authentic flavour. I can confirm it grows very happily in the Edinburgh climate!

Blue Fenugreek

So somethings old somethings new in 2025!

 

Hot X Buntime

 

Easter is upon us and my shed building project is soaking up all my gardening time.  This is the current state of play. I have sown two rows of carrots and one of parsnips. Also a row of asparagus. It will be potatoes next.

My shorter term project is to bake HXB.  

The Shark has Jumped...

Been a bit busy since my last post. Too much gardening, and especially weeding to do. The school had a plant sale to be prepared for. To add to the mix I was allocated a place "on the shelf" at our allotment site just as the growing season got into full swing. Happily there have been family events too. The shark is a visitor to Alnwick Castle Gardens - a great otherwise safe place to take grandchildren without foregoing horticulture! (Mind you they do have "The Poison Garden" behind a closed gate.) Excuses aside, here is the current state of play at the plot:

Pride of place goes to the potatoes.  Here's the maincrop

and here's the earlies:

The soft fruit has only recently been netted

This shot takes in the broad beans, cucurbits and bean wigwams. (There are two Shark's fin Melons amongst them!!)

And here is the reverse view of the broad beans with Jerusalem artichoke, rhubarb and peas in front

This picture shows the end of the spring cabbages with short rows of parsnip, celeriac and celery beyond

And on to the brassicas hiding under their protective netting.

and the alliums all grown from seed.  (The bed to the left is going to be carrots now that the rain has finally arrived.)

 

Hope you enjoyed this brief tour.

January Fare

 Now that the frost has lifted it has been harvest time for Jerusalem artechokes:

Carrots (protected by straw and netting)

and leeks.

Here are some breads to bring some winter cheer too.

Cinnamon Buns

French Bread and Kulich

(The kulich is an Easter bread so a bit out of season, but I had plenty of dried fruit to use up from Christmas when I rather overbought.)  

Summer Plot Review

 

A lovely morning of sunshine, after what seems like weeks of wind and cloud - but no rain to speak of.  So off to the plot to water.

Alliums in the foreground. The leeks onions and shallots are green, but the yellow strip is three rows of garlic.  (Digging up the first few they are rather disappointing.) The potatoes behind are looking really happy. 

And what pretty flowers on the Blue Danube!

Beside the alliums the brassica patch is looking a bit sparse, but is nearly full up now and will come into its own later when the seedlings put on some leaf.

The cucurbits are showing plenty of leaf now. Fruit will follow and an avalanche of courgettes is anticipated.

Separated by a row of broad beans that has been cropping for weeks we have celeriac, celery and runner beans. I have high hopes for all three. The runners have just reached the top of the canes and I pinched out the tops today.

One rather unsightly crop is peas  (alongside a second,later, row of broad beans). The pigeons discovered the peas, but not before they had podded. While they decimated the leaves and stems the pods were not to their taste, so we humans got them!  Next year either taller pea sticks or netting will be deployed.

Last word goes to the carrots. Not pretty due to the protective net, but they deliver for months provided you keep the net on and the root fly out.

So, all in all, I am pretty happy with progress on the vegetable plot so far this year.

End of Year Report

 

Pride of place has to go to the brassica patch. Brussels, kale and PSB still to come. Far left is a short row of mooli that I keep forgetting to check for root development. 

The old potato patch looks like a building site, but there are garlic bulbs planted at this end and two short rows of potatoes left under the fabric. 

At the far end are parsnips for this winter and 10 bags of farm yard manure to beef up the fertility for next year.

The contents of the fruit cage looks suitably dormant. I am currently half way through pruning . The net has been removed to avoid the danger of snow damage.

My customary "view from the end" looks a bit bleak but the leeks in the foreground should come on in the spring. The net hides the end of this year's carrots and next year's spring cabbages. To the right of the net are the last of the celery and celeriac.  Both were high on expectation and a little short on delivery. ( The white piping is just awaiting deployment as protection for plants)

Just for completion, here is the pumpkin patch, currently fallow. There are beets, root and leaf, under the net, and some spring onions.  Beyond are strawberry plants and a wannabe asparagus patch.

Carrots are King

I have started harvesting carrots.

They don't look very pretty under their mesh tent, but without it the crop would be devoured by root fly larvae.

The reveal:

The tent is only lifted for harvesting.  This crop should see us through to Christmas and beyond .

Here Comes The Summer

 

Broad beans flowering, runner beans planted, salads setting off.

Brassicas putting on a spurt, onions and carrots on the go.

It won't be long before the garlic is ready for harvesting.  The potatoes have been mounded.

One crop currently in full flower: blackberries. The bees are loving it.

The blueberries flowered earlier but are fruiting up nicely.  

After a cold miserable spring we seem to have flipped to a hot dry summer at the end of May. Whoopee!

Allotment Tour May

It is raining again today, but yesterday was a surprise sunny day.  I took the opportunity to take some snaps of the allotment.  First, appropriately, the potato patch.

The shaws are appearing above ground and very soon it will be time to mound them.

Beyond the potatoes is the fruit cage.  The first of the three bays was strawberries.  Notoriously these have to be moved around in order to avoid build up of disease.  So currently this bay is garlic,  Elephant to the left, ordinary to the right.  In between are two rows of parsnips which are indistinguishable from the germinating weeds currently.  But believe me they are there!

The remainder of the fruit cage is more conventionally raspberries and a mixture of currants and berries:

Reaching the turn at the end I am most pleasantly surprised by these autumn planted red onion sets.  I had given them up for lost but come the new year they have reappeared and are thriving.

Also at that end are spring planted onion sets (tent to the left ) Carrots (temple to the right) and leeks between them.  Next  is onions and shallots from seed (I went a bit mad on alliums this year) and the start of the brassica patch in front of that in the picture below.

Working back to the start I have covered the ground, temporarily with weed suppressant fabric.  This is going to be the the other half of the brassica patch and the legume/cucurbit patch which currently only has broad beans and a row of peas on the go along with some salads.  The runner bean poles are up in readiness but the runner beans are only now germinating back at home.

Broad beans (under netting)

For the sake of completeness here is the last section with strawberries and blueberries to the left, rhubarb to the right and asparagus bed featured in my last post in the middle.

 

So there you have it.  Together with the seedling nursery at home this is my vegetable home!  Hope you enjoyed the tour.