Showing posts with label Kale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kale. Show all posts

Saturday, 9 May 2009

Payment

Yipee - looks like one of my poems will be on EverydayPoets http://www.everydaypoets.com/ next month. Complete strangers will get to comment on it. I'm up for it!
Saturday had a good evening at a fundraiser at my son's school. It was a karoake evening and yes I'm afraid I did sing and dance a little. Would have danced more but my son was mortified. I was far too self conscious at his age to care what my parents were doing.
Went to the allotment today and sowed my parsnips. I used a dibbler to make holes 6 inches apart and put a soil and peat mix into the hole to provide a easier medium for the parsnips to grow in - did the same for my carrots as we have clay soil which makes it hard work for root veg.
Here's my kale. In February my mother-in-law told me that if you snap off the tops then you get lots of flowering shoots. Before they open into flowers you can eat them like broccoli (delicious). Just don't let it flowere or it will stop producing new shoots.
Potatoes came up a couple of weeks ago -wasn't expecting them so fast. My father-in-law did a grand job.
Daughter's forgotten dresses
danced all day and night
quickly drying under
the bright blue sky

Sunday, 8 February 2009

snow, prints and vegetables

So lovely to make it to the allotment yesterday. kids weren't keen to go but once we got in there they loved it. the snow on the pavements and roads near us had turned to grey slush so they (and us) were so excited to see the allotment still blanketed in white snow. round the trees the snow was pockmarked with zillions of dots and then the kids found some alien and animal footprints. Here are the pictures from the allotment:-

I've still got leeks (in foreground) they are brilliant coz the cold doesn't bother them at all and you can just harvest a couple as and when you need them through the winter to early spring. Behind them the dark green plants that look like they've got tens of mad waving hands are Black Tuscany kale. Unfortunately I have found out i prefer curly kale so will grow that next year instead. Fortunately my neighbours guinea pigs like it and again just break off some leaves as and when required.




This picture looked a lot better in my memory than it did when i downloaded it. Anyway it's one of my brussel sprout plants given to me as seedlings by another plot holder. With brussels you harvest them from the bottom up breaking off leaves as you go. As you can see we are near the top now so not many left but still nice to have some veg off plot.

I love brussels even the shop ones and these taste much better.





Some rosehips.








Think these are monkjack(?) deer prints but not sure. Drop me a line if you know what left these tracks.






Couldn't see how the broad beans were doing as they were buried and didn't want to damage them looking for them. Garlic stalks were sticking up on plot number two -forgot to take photo. Snow had left onion stalks buried.