Category: AllotmentLife

Allotmenteers growing courgettes on their plot might be thankful if they stockpiled loo roll during the lockdown as it has emerged that a batch of zucchini seeds may contain seeds that will grow into toxic hybrid plants. The courgettes that grow from these hybrids contain high concentrations of a natural plant steroid called cucurbitacin E, which is very bitter but also acts as a potent laxative.

A warning about the putative lavatorial impact of these courgettes was first reported in June on the Brighton and Hove Allotment Federation web site. A lively discussion with frequent interruptions has grown on their site ever since. Members eventually worked out that the source of the seeds was Mr Fothergill’s. Within the last hour, the seed company has posted a recall notice on its website, Twitter and elsewhere:

URGENT PRODUCT RECALL NOTICE

It has come to our attention that a batch of our Courgette Zucchini seeds, labelled batch code "I", could contain a small number of seeds that could produce bitter-tasting fruits. This could be due to unusually high levels of cucurbitacins...

So, if you’re harvesting your courgettes (zucchini) this weekend check your seed packet batch number before starting that stirfry and don’t eat any courgette that tastes very bitter.

Interestingly, the toxic effects of cucurbitacin E exists in this family of plants to protect them from aphids, it acts as a natural insecticide. However, it may also have medical applications. The compound and its chemical cousins are being investigated for their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and even anticancer properties. Of course, the pharmaceutical scientists will have to modify the structure to reduce the alimentary effects of the compound if it is to be a successful medicinal drug.

A nice big package has arrived from the lovely people at Seedball. As I mentioned previously I am hoping to wild two patches of our front and back gardens to provide a couple of localised ecosystems for invertebrates, such as bees, butterflies, and moths and also to invest in those for the sake of the bats and birds.

Indeed, the various mixes that have arrived after discussions with Seedball are their bee mix, butterfly mix, shade mix, and a bat mix. Each has a wonderful mix wildflower seeds in their clay seed ball system that one simply spreads over the surface of a roughly prepared patch of soil (or in tubs). The balls have added nutrients and even some chilli powder to keep pests of them until the seeds have germinated.

I will be taking up turves from the lawns over the next couple of weeks (some of it will be used to make some dividing footways for #AllotmentLife. The remainder will be used to create some mounds behind at least one wilded area of the garden to add a bit of three-dimensionality to an otherwise flat and featureless garden. However, as with last year’s parallel project to the allotment we have #Pondlife and those plans were all a bit ad hoc and improvised when I pulled on my wellies and started doing the work. Thankfully, it seems to have worked, plants in the pond are growing, there are lots of snails, and we definitely have frogs using it as well as birds drinking from it.

The Bee Mix contains Seedballs to grow: Foxglove, Viper’s Bugloss, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Wild Marjoram, and Red Clover

The Butterfly Mix contains: Forget-me-not, Red Campion, Yarrow, Purple Loosestrife, and Musk Mallow

The Shade Mix has: Forget-me-not, Red Campion, Meadowsweet, Bellflower, Oxeye Daisy, Ragged Robin, and Meadow Buttercup

The Bat Mix contains: Evening Primrose, Cornflower, Corn Marigold, Borage, Wallflower, and Night-scented Stock.

We’ve done a lot of digging this year…me with the pond and half the allotment and Mrs Sciencebase the other half of the allotment. On a misty Sunday morning in November, there was still digging to be done and a few peas to be shelled for a sweet snack, but I opted to snap

Mrs Sciencebase and I been working fairly hard on our allotment. We have planted potatoes, onions, Brussels sprouts, sunflowers, rocket, fruit bushes, French beans, squash, tomatoes, and strawberry plants and seeds. Some seem to be doing rather better than others, though none brilliantly.

The thistles and other weeds are thriving, of course.

A couple of days of good rain for the first time in a while has muddied the soil, and given a good dose of H₂0 to the weeds and seeds. The rain is also hopefully washing in the well-rotted horse manure mulching one patch of the site.

Meanwhile, the monstrosity that was the pallet-sided compost heap left by the previous occupants has been dismantled. The mound itself was actually mostly soil and that has now been scattered over the patch we are yet to patch, needs digging over and raking level. The pallets have been relocated for my friend, another David, to burn for us. We’re hoping to get the rapidly growing patch of couch grass mown soon.

The work always turns up lots of invertebrates, this time several different types of rather large arachnid, and an abandoned wasp nest. It’s paper thin, very low density, but feels strong, nevertheless, as you might expect.

Some of the more astute among you may have spotted the occasional recent allusion to our acquisition of an allotment…well half an allotment to be precise, with a shed. For years, we had been toying with the idea of taking on an allotment, the site is just five minutes walk from our house, it’s almost a peppercorn rent, and it’s safe from the dog digging up seedlings and eating the veg.

So, back in February, I contacted the chair of the local charity that manages the allotments and as spring rolled on, got a reply from the trustee in charge of assigning them. We took a look at a possible “quarter” plot on 4th April, it had been sprayed with weedkiller it looked like a lot of work, but would be fun to take on.

Of course, as soon as we went back to start the arduous tasks of digging it over, we realised that we needed to take on the full half so that we’d have the shed attached to that half plot. And so it is that we’re paying double the peppercorn rent, which is still just two peppercorns, but have a half plot to grow on it whatever we fancy and a shed to keep a couple of camping chairs in for when we’ve finished weeding and feel we’ve earned a rest, maybe with a couple of beers or a flask of tea.

Before we started digging over the plot, we salvaged a chunk of rhubarb and what looked like a raspberry plant. Then it was down to the business of raking off all the dead couch grass, thistles, and other weeds and turning over the soil to a depth of our spade. I reckon I’ve spent 5 hours doing that task by now and have aching muscles I didn’t know I had. It now looks like a plot into which the seedlings I’ve seeded at home might ultimately be transplanted. Seeds for beetroot, beans, courgettes, and some squash courtesy of Roger the bassist in C5 the band. Meanwhile, the digging turned up maybe half a dozen moth pupae, I feel guilty that I didn’t bring them home to raise to adults. Maybe more will turn up with the next digging session.

We’ve also put in a few sunflower seeds at one end and some freesia corms, just for the glamour. Doug, great name for an allotmenteer gave me some onion sets, and they’re now in two rows. Mrs Sciencebase dug out some of the (wild) strawberry plants from our garden at home where they were doing very little and they now have their own protected bed.

Meanwhile, we cleaned up a patch that seemed to have some surviving fruit plants, which Cliff, our allotment neighbour, reckoned might be three or four different species, but they mostly look like raspberries. I dug over and cleaned up a 2x4m patch closer to the shed to seed with California poppies, Ox-Eye Daisies and spread a few pellets – bat mix and butterfly mix – from the kind folks at Seedball, whom I mentioned the other day.

We cleared out the shed and salvaged some fish bone meal, which I used to fertilize the aforementioned onion sets, there were lots of spikes and canes and compost bags, which are all coming in useful too. We have two or three Jackdaws that are keen to sample the worms revealed by my digging, a couple of Blackbirds and a very friendly Robin that loves to pose on the handle of the spade, as they do. Classic.

The camping chairs are in place, we just need to get the rest of the work, done (hahah, yeah, right), the Pinot chilled, and find a fine, warm evening to sit back and enjoy the putative fruit and veg of our labours.