Earth room

I took my first trip to New York last month. Although it has the tallest buildings I've ever set eyes on, it also has lots of pockets and snaking ribbons of green. From the great breathing spaces of central park and the botanic garden out in the Bronx through to the sympathetically planted overhead railway, offering a nature walk along the highline with views to match.

Perhaps more unexpected were the garden plots we chanced across when exploring Manhattan. La Guardia Corner Gardens is one such instance, located between Bleecker and Houston. The plot was developed by neighbourhood gardeners in 1981 on a piece of city property which was just barren land. It is a beautiful if unexpected intervention into the cityscape. Peering through the chainlink fence we watched sparrows hopping between plants while monarch butterflies and huge black bees took advantage of the buddlia bush.

Sadly, as with all city space there, land is money which makes this green space far from secure. NYU have plans to develop ‘superblock’ accommodation towers which would shade out the garden effectively killing it. A campaign has been launched to protect it but you have to wonder if planners will value the importance of this backyard wildlife habitat.

Late sun

I was almost tricked into thinking that it was high summer today even though the evidence was against it. The sun has now sunk down in the sky casting a warm filtered light. Bees are outnumbered by yellow jackets busing themselves with investigations of each freshly dug heap of soil in a slow zig-zag meandering flight. Enjoying the unseasonably warm day I edged and weeded the beds - pulling out long stolens of the subterranian roots of couch grass as it wound its way through the beetroot and chard. Though growth is slowing the plot is still producing well and showing promise for the winter: the cabbages are hearting up, the sprouts are beginning to bud and the purple sprouting broccoli is starting to stand tall, although covered with those pesky whitefly. Does anyone know of an organic way to treat them?

jam today

There is something rather yesteryear about having an allotment and the act of picking ripe blackberries from the bramble bushes on the perimeter certainly provoked a stab of nostalgia. Pulling away the fruit, some of it so ripe that it immediately gave way on first touch, felt like the definition of high summer. Fingertips stained ruby pink with juice we ended up with a bag full of berries. The undergardener even tried his hand at jam-making as well as cooking up a batch of chutney from homegrown onions and marrow.

Cooling off

This visitor appeared when I was filling up the water butt. I've no idea how long he has been in there but the water level was so low that there was no possibility for escape. When the water neared the top I used a trowel to fish him out, fully expecting him to make a leap for freedom. Instead he sat happily on the trowel checking out the surroundings.

Red arrows

I keep seeing brief flashes of red as I am walking about. It's not that I need to get to the optician but that there are rather a lot of cinnabar moths about this month. Their scarlet and black wings mean that you might easily mistake them for butterflies. On the wing during the day they are seeking out ragwort plants on which to lay their eggs. The lottie seems to be providing a good playground.

In the back of the net!

The World cup is well and truly underway which means that the under-gardener is a little distracted from his tasks. Nevertheless I did manage to prise him away from the screen this morning for a little help around the plot. Everything was in rude health, the potatoes are flowering, the chard and lettuce are thriving and the kale I planted out (under protection) is going from strength to strength. Even the peas and red cabbage have made a surprise recovery now that they are tucked away from the pigeons under the safety of some sturdy nets.

Stop the pigeon

Well someone is reaping the harvest of homegrown food. Unfortunately it isn't me. I'm blaming the wood pigeons as something of a feathered variety has scoffed the red cabbage, rocket and young pea plants. I have now netted the brassicas but I think this is a bit like bolting the proverbial stable door. The rocket will I'm sure grow back but I'm not confident about the peas making a recovery as they have been taken back to their stalks. I'll certainly be more careful when I plant out the next bed.

Bright spots

Every year plants appear on the plot which I have not sown or planted. Often, as my blog posts will document, these unplanned visitors are weeds. However, wild flowers also make an appearance pushing their way through in the grassy paths and quiet corners. Right now there are wild primroses, forget-me-knots, and bluebells lighting up the grass with pools of delicate blue and yellow.

Flights of fancy

Really enjoyed working on the allotment yesterday. With Iceland's volcano still erupting the only noisy traffic overhead was the honking of ducks flying to the nearby park. The recent good weather means everything is beginning to grow; the tulips were out, the rhubarb has shot up and the weeds are creeping in again... Dug over a bed and have sown some parsnips. I have never tried growing them before and understand that they can be slow to germinate so we'll have to see how this experiment goes.

Keep clear

Not a lot to report at the lottie. The winter cold has kept the plants in check so we have only just got the first blooms of Narcissus. Thankfully all that cold weather has also kept the weeds at bay, allowing a bit of time for a clear up of the beds. They are inspecting the plots this weekend so time for a bit more digging...

Twelfth Night

Time to take the Christmas decorations down. Our tree is looking pretty dessicated after weeks in a room with the heating cranked up high. Meanwhile the trees outside are a perfect seasonal picture.

red alert

Two. That's the number of ripe tomatoes we have had from our plants. We ate them in a ceremonious salad tonight and they were very tasty. It's October but let's hope the frosts keep off until the others ripen up.

One potato, two potato...

On a recent trip to Ireland we had a day out at Lissadell House and gardens. It’s a grand 19th century house overlooking Sligo Bay with two fantastically well stocked gardens – one for alpines and the other for crops. The house was completed in 1833 but had fallen into poor repair in recent years. New owners have carefully restored it and cultivated the gardens which were overgrown for over six decades.


To mark the UN ‘International Year of the Potato’ they planted 169 different varieties of spud along the circumference of the walled kitchen garden. Many of the potatoes were from the heritage collection of David Langford which was donated to Lissadell. Their most popular varieties are the Orla, an early, blight resistent potato bred in Carlow in 1999; the Arran Victory, a maincrop potato first bred in 1918 and the Pink Fir Apple, a salad potato bred in 1850.

Underneath the pavement

So often I seem to be dashing out of the house and hurrying off to do something. Head down and scurrying along pavements you often don't spot the changes, a different type of city regeneration. There is lots going on unplanned within the built environment. Like the blogger of Organic Allotment I too have spotted a self sown tomato plant growing out from a crack between the pavement and the wall of a city college. Seeded no doubt from a discarded sandwich filling of a passing student.

This might go unobserved by most of us but nature is always on the look out for opportunities. In the neglected front yard of a terrace house a colony of cinnabar moth lavae are munching their way through a ragworth plant. These beautiful black and vermillion moths only lay their eggs on this plant. The warning stripes of orange and black a message to birds that they have ingested the toxins from this weed and won't be good to eat.
A buddleia bush growing down a crack in a nearby wall offers nectar for bumble and honeybees. They are so attracted to the flowers that there is a bit of jostling going on. It's crowded at this new nectar bar in town.

a barrow of marrow

Things have been really busy with work meaning that trips to the plot have been put on hold. With the recent combination of rain and sunshine the courgettes which have been busy changing into marrows while our back was turned. We have given a few away to family and neighbours but there are plenty more to get through.

Jane Grigson's vegetable book if really handy for courgette recipes but also has advice for those of us who have left them too long on the plant:
'For a small family faced with a huge marrow, it is best to slice it down into rings about 2-3cm thick, allowing one or two per person. Do not peel the rings, but blanch them for five minutes only, after removing the seeds in the middle. Place the rings in a buttered dish and fill the centres with stuffing, allowing it to spread a little over the marrow in a domed shape. Allow 45-60 mins at 190C/375F.' Sounds like a plan.

Hello ladies!

There are lots of ladybird lavae going walkabout on the lottie. This is good news as the lavae are voracious feeders and will munch their way though lots of aphids. I am reliably informed by wiki that they pupate after about three months depending on how much food there is about.

Spotted lots of lavae at the pupal stage as I was weeding. As I was peering at one of the pupae it began flicking up and down. I thought this might mean that a ladybird beatle was just about to hatch but have since learned that this was actually a demonstration of annoyance. I like the fact that it doesn't let a little thing like undergoing morphological change get in the way of telling me to keep my distance.

Running away

It's the first time I have grown strawberries. The six plants potted up in grow bags are doing well and each are showing a promising branch of green fruits. Apparently plants are more productive in their second year so I'm not sure how much fruit I will have this summer. They have each sent out a set of runners which I could try to root by pinning the plantlets into a pot of soil. Geoff Hamilton's Organic Gardening book suggests this as a good method if you want to force strawberries in the greenhouse. However he warns against restocking beds with plants grown this way in case they spread virus disease. Not sure if the same applies when using grow bags but I think I'll try rooting a few of them.

Bolt thrower

Everything is growing well at the moment but most of the veg is not yet ready for picking. The first set of broad bean plants have produced pencil thin pods which are slowly fattening up. The second set of beans, planted out a month later, are in flower. The peas are also in flower and are setting their first pods. Thankfully the salad leaves are ready. I picked a bag full of rainbow chard and handfuls of salad rocket. Rocket doesn’t like hot weather but I managed to catch it just as it was starting to produce flowers but before it had well and truly made a blot for it.

Plot summary

The recent rain and long hot days have resulted in everything growing like fury. Sunday was the first visit to the lottie for a couple of weeks so the change was rather dramatic. The shallots and onions look like a real success story which is good news as last year the heavy rain practically drowned them. The chard and beets are coming along too, adding colour to the planting.

Our feathered friends have been feasting on the cabbages I planted out recently but neglected to net. Still, there are a couple of survivors which are doing well and I have planted out some red kale to keep them company. The broad beans have not yet been attacked by black fly so I must remember to pinch out their growing tips when I visit next. The Observer allotment blog is worth checking out for a useful list of jobs to do this month. There are certainly lots of tasks to do in June but it is rewarding when you see everything growing so well.

Turned out nice again

Recently got back from a short trip to Nice. Noticed that the municipal planting often included edibles amongst the flower displays. From bold red stems of chard to frills of red kale and silvery spikes of cardoons. I could not resist a trip in to a garden centre to see what varieties might be on sale. I think I showed considerable restraint by only coming back with a couple of seed packets in the suitcase.