The berry patch, living a simple life in the city.

Gardening season has started!

For me it has, I'm happy to say. Sunday a week ago I went to my allotment after the first real winter in years. I have to admit that I neglected my allotment since early fall, so it was a bit of a mess, but less than I expected. Not so for my hubby who came along to help with the rototiller, he thought it was a big mess . So I started clearing all the dry stuff, which immediately made it look better.  I had hired a rototiller, but it wasn't cut out for my soil, which is mostly clay. But Frank and I did manage to do a part.
Yesterday I went back and prepared the first bed and sowed some spinach! I will have 11 beds this year, I'm going to move my compost bin to the part where the water pump is, so I can divide the rest into 11 beds.
They will be: rhubarb, strawberries, 2 cabbage (kale and brussels sprouts, white cabbage and kohlrabi), tomatoes, pumpkin (together with some corn), cucumber (with red peppers in the small green house), runner beans, green beans (with spinach before them), saladleaves and  root vegetables (onion, carrot, red beet).
I will have less pumpkins and hopefully more beans and tomatoes. I am going to make a cover for the tomatoes, only over the top, which will shield them from too much rain and give them a bit more warmth.

Yesterday I also did some clearing and cutting in our front garden. I always leave it alone during the winter, so all kind of insects can hide there. I still have to remove some stones and move some plants, so I will have room for a pear tree, a plum tree, raspberry bushes and blueberries bushes. Frank did the hard part last weekend, he took down a horse chestnut tree, which I grew from a horse chestnut myself. It was getting rather big and I wanted to plant a fruit tree near to it.
No news on the secret project yet, Frank will do that this Friday and Saturday.  I'll keep you posted.

This morning was a busy one, first I ground 2 kg (4.4 pounds) of wheat. Well the grain mill on my Bosch did that, it takes a little over an hour to do that. While that was going on I mixed up a batch of cookie dough with dried cranberries and chocolate chips (it's in the fridge now). Then I made bread in my Bosch, two big whole wheat loaves and one big white one (the kids rather like white, so they get both), which are rising at the moment. This afternoon I will bake the cookies, make some blueberry (I still have those in the freezer) muffins and bake the bread. I'm also straining some buttermilk to make 'hangop' (literally 'hang up'), which is a nice dessert with some (canned) fruit. I think I will give it with my own canned peaches. The hangop will also give me some whey, which I can use for soaking beans or rice, or maybe I will try to make some lacto-fermented red beets later this week. My sauerkraut turned out great, Frank and I are enjoying that regularly.

blessings, Ellen

Untitled Comment

{ 05:56, Monday, March 9, 2009 } { Posted by joshields }

I hope the garden goes well for you! It sounds like you've got a lot planned. We haven't been able to start any of our seeds yet, but I think next weekend it should be alright to do them. I'm very excited!

Best wishes,
Jo

:-)

{ 06:36, Monday, March 9, 2009 } { Posted by klrtmomof3 }

Good morning!! I stumbled across your blog and just wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed reading it. I'm waaaaaaaay across in ocean in the Southern States in Mississippi. I had never heard of allotment gardens before, so I'm enjoying reading about what y'all do.

I'm adding you as a friend. :-)

Garden

{ 08:04, Monday, March 9, 2009 } { Posted by Anonymous }

Ellen, you are way ahead of me. Our tiller is down right now. Dh plans to work on it if we ever get a weekendwithout either snow or rain. LOL It would be way too wet to plant right now anyway. Sure sounds like you use all of your space wisely. Good luck with this year's garden. Winona