Whittling down the stored squashes, February 2025

I thought there were only two left, but I have photographic evidence:  there are three squashes on my windowsill;  I've been having trouble keeping track of this batch ever since I grew them in 2024!  Before we cooked the Big One, which was far too big for the windowsill, they were all on the living room floor on their own two mats;  one of the remaining squashes, at the left of the photo, does overhang the windowsill by a little bit--it's about half the size the Big One was (it's also the furthest left in the photo in the second linked post).

Three squashes left, February 2025

Something I noticed last year;  while these squashes started out green, and were fully ripe when picked, they have gradually been turning yellow/light orange while in storage.  The photo above doesn't really pick up the color, but the one below does, cooking in the slow cooker.

Cooking it up for puree, February 2025

The flavor and texture has been excellent again this year;  the Big One mostly got cooked into puree, as it was just too big for the fridge after cutting it open.  I had both my slow cookers running for a couple of days to get through it all, and the cut open squash stayed on my kitchen table until I got through it all.  When I make puree, most of it gets packed into my silicone muffin pans to freeze in small portion sizes (about 3/4 of a cup) and then these "muffins" get packed into freezer bags, really handy for taking out what I need.  

What do I make with frozen squash puree?  I like to put a couple into a stew or curry to thicken it (with a dash of vinegar it's very similar in taste/texture to a tomato-thickened stew);  I've found a low carb muffin recipe we like (link opens to another website);  as a vegetable side dish on its own (add extra butter);  or maybe a pumpkin pie or two.

And I definitely saved seed from my Big One;  I've been saving and growing from my own seed for many years now.  Some of my colleagues at work requested some, and I suggested we have a growing contest for the biggest squash between us--I hope they'll all get a huge one, and we can bring them in to work to show off!

Ducks and chickens, February 2025

Recently I read that Wales has imposed an enclosure order for domestic birds because of the spread of avian influenza.  We live within about an hour of the Welsh border as the crow flies, so I am expecting the same for our birds any time now.

Free range, February 2025

Because of this, I'm implementing as much free range for my own birds as I can;  the two ducks are getting it in the morning, including the veg patch.  I've covered over the most delicate plants with netting (including a newly planted row of strawberries) and they can help themselves to the rest;  while omnivorous, they tend more towards the carnivorous/insectivorous side--chickens tend towards herbivorous.  The ducks don't much bother about my plants (though they do dig/dabble a bit and can trample).  I want them in there for slug patrol right now, their favorite treat.

Envious, February 2025

In the afternoons when I get home from work I usher the ducks back into their own yard, shut the gate to the kitchen garden, and invite the chickens out for their turn on the lawn:  they get to free range until dark.  Chickens are not yet allowed into the kitchen garden and the fencing around it is low enough for them to jump/fly over;  I have to be home to supervise their free ranging.  Where the ducks might unintentionally flatten a few things, the chickens would scratch and peck everything down to nothing;  there are plenty of weeds I'd like them to annihilate (and hopefully they will later in the spring) but right now my cauliflowers, cabbages and pak choi are too precious.

The different preferences of chickens and ducks really complement each other in the veg patch:  one cleans up the pests and the other cleans up the weeds.  Both give excellent fertilizer too.  My chickens are laying a few eggs a week, and Girl Duck does keep sneaking off by herself, to Boy Duck's dismay;  but I haven't found any duck eggs yet this year (she doesn't lay in a dedicated nest).  

We are ready to cover our chicken yard completely if we get an enclosure order;  the ducks will have to join the chickens in there (not fun for anybody) but there is enough space in both the house and the yard for all eight birds.  I might even see about putting in a few perches into the yard to give the chickens a place to rest out of the way of Boy Duck:  he is pretty aggressive to them, though luckily he isn't very fast or sharp.

A little bit of pruning

After a very sunny and pleasant Sunday (for the beginning of February, that is) I had managed to get a couple jobs done in the kitchen garden at home;  normally I prefer to visit the allotment on the weekends--as I'm more likely to strong-arm the husband and son into coming with me--but there's been too much going on at home recently (we've had the whole house rewired and what a mess!). 

The fig tree after a little haircut, February 2025

It was so nice though that I left my housecleaning and went out for some gardening instead:  I lightly pruned the fig tree and tied down a couple longer branches next to the fence (pictured above).  I also made sure to pick off all the medium sized immature figs;  these won't go on to ripen properly in my climate but I leave the tiny ones to grow into new season figs.

Ruthless with the redcurrants, February 2025

I already pruned the blackcurrants, whitecurrant and the mature redcurrant in the perennials section earlier this winter;  I was pretty ruthless with the blackcurrants--for a couple years I've not been able to harvest them in time so I wanted to make it easier for me to get to them:  maybe this will motivate me!  I also have several younger redcurrants grown from cuttings which I really need to move to the allotment;  these I chopped down by half to make them easier to transport:  hopefully by next weekend, rain or shine.

Incidentally all the prunings go to a woodpile to dry for next winter's kindling;  I have a pretty big pile already.

Planning for 2025

Wintertime gardening--I'm still not quite in active gardening mode.  Just a little bit of harvest once a week or so (leeks, radishes and swede this week).  I'm really enjoying having some fresh veg regularly;  most winters it's all run out by now, bar a small leek or two.  I credit this foresight to actually writing down a garden plan last winter.  I guess it's time to write the next one, though as the first was fairly successful I don't anticipate making any major changes.

I originally divided my available space into six major sections at the allotment, plus another two in the kitchen garden at home (a much smaller space).  I decided which crops I would focus on for these sections, going for bulk rather than variety.  The allotment:  tomatoes, beets, squash/corn (interplanted), beans, leeks, pickling cucumbers.  Home:  zucchini/salad cucumber (interplanted), brassicas (mainly kohlrabi, with cabbage and pak choi).  

I also allowed for succession planting, starting certain seeds later in the year to follow on;  for instance lettuce, pak choi and spring cauliflowers to follow the two beds in the kitchen garden.  I also put later sowings of radishes, turnips, beets to follow on from broad beans and snap peas.  This way, I was able to pad out my harvest totals, and keep the beds in production rather than going back to weeds.

This year the slight deviation will be to grow some potatoes.  We are a low carb family so I don't grow potatoes very often--every few years is plenty.  However, I'm ready to buy a small bag of seed potatoes for this spring, probably to grow in my big containers at the allotment.  I'll also try sowing all my beets directly this year (the first bed in the spring were all transplants), hopefully to increase my yields even more.  Other than maybe a few fine tweakings, my plan is ready to go.

After the ice

It did finally melt, though the last vestiges of ice took another several days after my last post.  However, I made it to the allotment to pull some big leeks, small turnips and baby beets--these last two from the late sowing in July/August (I picked all the big beets and turnips in early autumn, all the little ones in late autumn, and couldn't believe there were any roots left!).  I still have quite a few leeks left, but only a couple turnips now (and probably a few more baby beets too).  I also have a couple radishes both black and white, and a couple of swedes (rutabagas) ready for harvest;  my garlic bed is up and growing, as is the purple sprouting broccoli, both for harvest later this spring and summer.  

I also have recommenced sheet mulching, having been stalled by the weather: a few cardboard boxes at a time,  a couple times a week.  So far it's just the sheets, as I haven't been able to face digging out any more mulch (straw/manure from the stables at the one end of the allotment site). 

At home my overwintering cauliflower plants seem to have survived the weight of snow/ice on them for a week, as did the komatsuna, tiny pak choi and white radishes.  The few Savoy cabbages I have left weren't pressed down under the snow like the others;  these are fine--ready for harvest really, despite being small.  The lettuce however, looks like it bit the dust. 

I bought one bag of potting compost just before the ice, to start a few seeds with--so far I have a pot of onion seed, just starting to emerge.  Soon I'll be moving on to tomatoes and broad beans:  either at the end of this month or the beginning of February.  I haven't even finished yet and already it's time to start!

Frozen

 

The view from my back door, Jan 2025

After our two week break from school/work, we got a snowfall;  I was hoping it would melt in an ensuing rain, but there was too much snow and not enough rain--it froze and stayed that way for more than a week.  No harvesting vegetables in those conditions.  I'd missed our allotment visits the week before too as the daughter had been sick--in fact she had such a high temperature on Christmas day we took her to the hospital.  Thankfully she's fully recovered now but it meant no trips out until she recovered.  Then it snowed.

Cranberry flavor, Jan 2025

At least she (and the rest of us) were well enough to enjoy the surprise snowfall.  We made snow ice cream (above)!  I would have liked to make it with homegrown ingredients, but as we had such short notice, we made do with half a liter of cranberry juice poured over a bowl of snow. 

Made by the daughter (age 4), Jan 2025

The kids also made a snowman each, we had a short snowball fight out on the street, made hot chocolate and cookies, played board games...it was a fun snowy day.  It was the first day back at school the next day, so we tried to make the most of it.  

And since then, complete frost, with the whole garden iced over.  I had wanted to pick leeks and turnips at the allotment, but I knew they wouldn't come out until it melted;  I'll try to get over there later today.  I've got some cardboard to sheet mulch with too, but again, no point sheet mulching on top of snow.  I'll have to see if the turnips survived;  hopefully my overwintering cauliflowers at home are also ok, buried in snow with temps down to -6C at night.  In fact, I was so worried about the ducks in that cold, I let them have full free range including the patio and left the garage door open for them just in case (they won't normally sleep in a shelter;  they're waterproof after all and prefer to be in the open).  They were ok, as were the chickens who mainly stayed in their coop.

Grand total of garden food, 2024

Vegetables: 318 lb, 10.5 oz (incomplete)

Fruit:  2 lb, 7 oz (incomplete)

Eggs: 1262

What a year!  I broke my record of 2023, which was 277 lb.  However, I must state that some of 2023's veg wasn't recorded until 2024:  of the more than 100 lb of squash (!!), around 82 lb of it was grown in 2023.  We ate fresh squash every month of the year except August (and then we ate it from frozen!);  we ate our last 2023 squash in July of 2024.

Other notable amounts:  26 lb of plum tomatoes and 20 lb of cherry tomatoes (unlike the previous year, almost every tomato ripened by the end of the season), 16 lb of beet roots (plus 12 lb more of the greens) and 15 lb of kohlrabi.  I marked the total as incomplete as there are indeed some more squashes from 2024 to be weighed and eaten in 2025 (though probably not a full 82 lb).

Fruit was actually better than the previous year (though still rather sparse), but like most years I didn't record it faithfully, so the totals are similar.  We had probably 20 lb at least of apples, plus a couple more lb of raspberries, but I only recorded a few ounces of the berries, few figs and one pear.  I don't have a good method for recording fruit like I do vegetables, probably because I don't prepare fruit like vegetables (I weigh veg before cooking, but fruit rarely gets cooked in our house, just eaten).  

Our newest adopted four hens, the Specklies, did us proud and really bulked up the egg production in the last year, more than double the previous.  Sadly we've lost two of them this winter;  as a high-production breed, they are also short-lived.  Hopefully we can adopt another four to join our flock later in spring, when it warms up a little. 

See previous grand totals:  2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016