Worthing and District Allotments and Gardens Association

Tuesday, 28th September

The weather was kind on Sunday so, as planned, Mrs N and I took the bus to Brighton to take part in the Walk4Life event. We all met by the Peace statue in Hove to register and collect our bright yellow T-shirts. The slight distraction was a great big food festival on the lawns right next to us. It was mighty tempting but this was meant to be promoting Walking for Health so we were all very good and abstained from indulging - at least before the walk. Meridian Tonight covered it so it was on the telly on Sunday night but we didn't spot anybody we knew. The walk went westwards past the pier and the aquarium and up the hill stopping by the lift. We were rewarded with some leaflets and a few promotional coasters but we didn't do it for the reward - just as well!

As we were in Brighton we had to take a stroll along the pier before meeting our eldest and his other half for lunch. Then it was back on the bus to Worthing by which time the weather had turned decidedly cooler.

No allotmenting over the weekend then but I did put in an appearance yesterday afternoon collecting raspberries (not many now), runner beans, courgettes, a cabbage, carrots and some potatoes. I brought home a couple of bags of rubbish too to take to the tip; not much else you can do now as there's no site collections anymore. While I was down there a neighbour drew my attention to a bright blue shed. If you can't read the writing on the side - if you can, sign up for the RAF as a fighter pilot - it says "Tarring Hilton". I don't think so but if you spot any other interesting sheds let me know and I'll nip down and take a photo. Or better still, you send me a photo and save me the walk.

Tonight is Pub Night at the North Star on the Littlehampton Road from about 8.30pm onwards if you fancy a congenial jar or two then on Saturday Ferring Country Centre down by the Rife are having a Charity Plant Sale from 9.30am until 4.00pm if you're after a few cheap plants or just a cup of tea and a cake. Roll up! It's all in a good cause.

Friday, 24th September

Mottistone Manor Gardens I.O.W.

Just got back from a little holiday on the Isle of Wight with Mrs N. And a lovely time we had too: lovely weather (mostly), lovely B&B and lovely walking including red squirrel spotting. We have been to the island several times before but always stayed on the coast whereas this year we went inland a few miles to the village of Newchurch, or Langbridge to be precise. We stayed in a B&B called Rosemary Cottage and I would recommend it to anyone thinking of a stay on the island. I always think you get more personal service in a B&B compared with a hotel and this was certainly no exception. Mine host, David, was a very congenial fellow and very helpful. More importantly he, or his wife, Emma, did a fantastic breakfast with locally sourced ingredients. And the room was nice although we did have some teething problems with the shower. Turned out the water company was messing about up the hill with water all over the road.

We needed somewhere to eat in the evenings and - blow me down - just up the hill was the village pub, the Pointer's Inn. 10 minutes to get there, 5 to get back as the little hill was a bit steep. Well worth the climb though. Some old friends of ours who live on the island said it was just about the best place to eat and to prove it they joined us there for dinner one evening. It's not particularly cheap but not over the top either and there's a list on a board in the bar saying where the produce came from that week: plums from Sid's orchard, tomatoes from Graham's plot, beans from Helen's garden, etc. Brilliant! If you fancied a cheap meal there was a pub in Wooton called the Sloop which did a carvery for £3.95 and plenty of other pubs.

Our B&B was very near the Isle of Wight garlic farm which I had to visit as that's where our Association gets its seed garlic from, a variety called Solent Wight. Well, I had to buy a bulb even if it did cost me £2 and I can get the same thing for £1.20 from our stores. I resisted the bottles of garlic beer though and stuck to the ales offered by our local hostelries.

Anyway, back home now but shan't get to the plot until Monday, I'm afraid. Meant to be doing an ITV-sponsored walk along Brighton seafront on Sunday so hope the weather holds good.

Saturday, 18th September

Frost ?????????!!!!!! That's a bit previous, isn't it? When the weatherman said there was a possibilty of ground frost last night I was out there covering my orange tree in fleece and wrapping up the container in hessian. It doesn't really like temperatures much below 7°C. While I was at it I collected up all the onions in the back garden too and put them in the garage. Don't know if they're frost hardy or not. I don' t think I need have worried too much as when I got up this morning my frost indicators, the begonias, were all OK and they usually keel over at the slightest whiff of frost. And it's been so mild, hasn't it? The grass has been growing like billy-ho and I've had to mow the lawns again in the last few days.

On the allotment I'm still picking the odd raspberry and the courgettes are still going beresk but the supply of runner beans could only be described as steady. I obvously grew far too many cabbages and they're no easier to give away than the courgettes, tomatoes and apples. I'm still gathering courgette recipes and sticking them on the Recipes page; the other night when we had some friends round for dinner we had courgette lasagne and it wasn't bad. (I'll see if Mrs N will give me the recipe to share with you.) They didn't get any of the apple and blackberry crumble because I'd finished it off the day before.

Otherwise it's been very quiet on the horticultural front but at least the bathroom is now finished and the builder has gone so I will be able to get out a bit more. Decorating next. What joy!

Tuesday, 14th September

What on earth is this growing in my greenhouse? Does its presence explain why my peppers have been useless. Please tell me it's not some kind of cyanide puff ball that's likely to explode. I suppose the time of year has something to do with its appearance; that and the damp conditions. Spiders seem to think it's Autumn already judging by the number of webs I walk through on my way up the garden. The worst one, which I always forget about of course, is the one across the greenhouse door - gets you right in the face every time. Still the tomatoes don't seem to mind but I don't think I'll grow Alicante again. They may produce plenty of tomatoes but they're not the tastiest, are they? I think you've got to go a long way to beat Gardeners' Delight for flavour but they're not very big of course being a cherry type.

Outside the greenhouse the grass is growing like the clappers again so I gave the front lawn a cut with the push mower today. I tried it on the back lawn but it wasn't having any - the grass there is too long and wet. It's also strewn with apples every day and the wind isn't helping. Everyone seems to have had a glut of apples this year. I think it's our third or fourth glut after the courgettes and runner beans with the tomato glut coming up fast. I don't know whether to count the raspberries or not. Oh, nearly forgot the cabbages. Then there have been the failures: squash didn't produce any squash, potatoes very average, carrots hit and miss and rather late doing anything, onions rather small. The nettle crop, however has been excellent!

Sunday, 12th September

Until today I hadn't been out of the house much since last weekend's show - it's taken me all that time to upload the pictures to the site! (And we're having work done on the house) At the moment the photos are on the News page if you want to take a butcher's although I suppose I will eventually get round to putting them on the Photo Call page. But today I came up for air. First this morning I reintroduced myself to the allotment with some cutting and trimming gear as it had begun to get a little dishevelled and I could do without a "non-cultivation" notice, thank you very much. I'm afraid the nettle bed just had to go. Still I'm sure they will be a valuable addition to my compost heap as they rot down.

Back home one half of the greenhouse is in full swing with bright red Alicante tomatoes but on the other side the Tamina are only just starting to turn. They'd better hurry up or they'll still be ripening when the frost puts in an appearance. I've also got peppers in the greenhouse but they've hardly produced anything except the chilli peppers and I only grew them out of curiosity because someone gave me some seed. I doubt they'll be used in the kitchen as Mrs N can't stand anything spicy. As I was listening to the radio while doing the washing up - yes, I do sometimes - I heard someone asking Jean Griffin on Dig It about a problem with her peppers but I doubt even Jean Griffin could do anything with mine. Someone else was asking about potatoes turning to slurry when cooking. "Don't boil them for so long, you plonker," I thought but then lo and behold the Desiree spuds I was cooking dissolved in less than 10 minutes! Unfortunately I missed Jean Griffin's answer which serves me right for being so disparraging.

This afternoon Mrs N and I went into town walking in along the prom and not getting knocked down by any cyclist even though the prom was very busy indeed. Amazing what a bit of sunshine can do. Mind you, it was "Pier Day" as well with stalls and entertainment organised by the ever-enterprising Dan Thompson. It was nice to see everything so lively with even the band stand in the Lido being used by some group, not that their music was to my taste; they don't do music like they used to. Moving from there we joined the festive mood and bought an ice cream on our way to the pier. Below is a selection of pictures giving a flavour of the goings on and one of Dan himself. For some reason he was dressed in a sailor's uniform. "Lots of people have asked for my photograph today," he said. "I'm not surprised, looking like that," I replied. Then I nearly got roped into putting in an appearance next year.

Sunday, 5th September

What a hectic few days! Of course, much of that was to do with yesterday's show, trying to find any fit produce to enter and loads of baking and arranging flowers (Mrs N, not me) and things. And I had a fair bit of stuff to do on the computer designing and printing certificates, exhibit labels, signs and so on. I suppose Friday was near fever pitch and Saturday just plain kna exhausting. I'd left it until Friday to pick my apples and pull my carrots. I picked some tomatoes earlier in the week and put them in a drawer with a banana to try and ripen them. I handed in my entry form on Wednesday, confident they would be ripe in time but I'm afraid they didn't really make it and came nowhere. When I went to pick the apples I was amazed to discover how many of them had been attacked by maggot or birds. I ended up with only 6 clean dessert apples and 8 clean cookers so trying to get 4 of each roughly similar was probably a task too far. Under the circumstances I was quite please to get a 2nd for the eaters and a 3rd for the cookers as the apple section turned out to be one with quite a few entries.

The carrots were the only thing I had grown specifically for the show and the first one I removed from my barrel of 7 was a beauty; 2 more like that and I was practically guaranteed a coveted red card. Alas, it wasn't that easy. Of the next 3 I pulled out 2 had warts and one was bent. Fortunately the others, though not as big as the first, were more or less blemish free and I must admit I felt pretty confident when I set them out on display. And they won! So I might try again next year although maybe not in one big barrel again. Growing just 7 in one big barrel was a bit of a gamble really and I was lucky to get three similar decent carrots. Still, musn't moan and the show was very enjoyable even if I didn't make a big splash. (Must have been really tiring - I didn't wake up this morning until 9.30am!)

A report of the show, with pictures, will appear on the News Page in due course.