Beautiful nature, allotment love, no-dig beds & a recipe

Stuffed beetroot

I took the photo above early one morning this week, this planet is just

B E A U T I F U L.

Sunday morning found me getting up to black night skies that gradually lightened as I went about my early morning. No lights on in the windows across the street, everyone still snugly in bed. That used to be me, but I’ve come to appreciate these early morning hours, where the silence is deep and you can swim through still waters as the day, gradually, paints itself into being.

A fox tiptoed behind a car and the tree out front stirred. Cold frosty air clung to the outside windows and everything was fast asleep. Except me and the fox.

It turned into a charcoal day with heavy cloud filled sky. But, yesterday was bright sunshine low in the sky, painting everything gold. I went to visit a friend in Bath who isn’t well and we discussed plans of possibility, wellness, and laughed about stuff.

I wended my way back to Bristol from Bath, watching the sky turn from light to dark and appreciating the twinkling lights on a giant Christmas tree outside the abbey, to the smell of people drinking mulled wine at the Christmas market.

I was content to just wander the streets back to the train station watching the moon and drinking in the atmosphere. The moon’s full tomorrow but last night it was already full and huge in the clear black night sky. Owls will have been terwit terwooing somewhere, with people walking hand in hand under the moon and stars. Beautiful it was, perhaps the sky will be clear again tomorrow.

Allotment love

I went over to the allotment I’ve been leant by my neighbour. She, like me, is a no-dig grower, so fixed vegetable beds exist under the couch grass, bindweed and creeping buttercup.

I needed to dig over a bed to get my broad beans in, but the rest I will cover with cardboard and then put compost on top of that next year, and plant into the compost topping. Or, with things like potatoes, tomato, cucumbers, courgettes and squash plants, I may just plant through the cardboard—the weeds should have broken down by then—and the following year I will compost over.

Here’s a photo of all the bindweed I pulled out from one bed.

Some of the beds have wood round them, the one I cleared had lots of bricks. People often put a physical boundary like this to stop the weeds and couch grass getting into the bed, but in the long term it doesn’t stop it, and all those weeds and roots tangle up between and around the bricks or wood, then move into the bed if you don’t keep on top of it. With bricks it’s then hard to stop that happening, so I also untangled and took out all the bricks, recreated nice clean sides by digging out a narrow trench around the bed and putting that earth on the bed, raising it up so easy to keep separate from the couch grass pathways. I still have a little of the bed to finish this morning before planting my broad beans. Here’s what I have achieved so far.

The freshly planted bed beyond is one that just needed weeding before I popped my garlic in.

The above photo shows the nice clean edges to the bed I cleared and how creating a little trench gave the bed height. It’s just a case then of keeping the couch grass pathways trimmed low and back. Each year you weed, crop, then add a layer of compost for the following seasons seeds and plants. No walking on them so they don’t get compacted, and so no need to dig. This means that the lovely Microbiome beneath the surface isn’t disturbed and the roots of my plants will be able to fill with minerals and nourishment.

Here’s a close up of my garlic bed.

And here’s a few pictures of what I have left to do.

And here’s how great it’s going to be next year.

If you are new to growing and would like to learn the no-dig method, follow along, I’ll talk you through it. When my sons were young, I was working and going to university, and I had two allotments. It was doable because I did no-dig beds—easy to keep on top of. I talk more about those growing years here.

Joy dots

Living soil

Little robin

Creatures

Frosty morning

Full moon large and low in the sky

Frosted leaves

Possibility

Foxes in the city

Recipe

Stuffed beetroot

Here’s an easy stuffed beetroot recipe. I boiled the beetroots skin on. Once cooked the skins slide off easily. I coated these with olive oil and cut a cross into each one which I filled with a cream cheese filling. For the filling I mixed together cream cheese and creme fraiche in equal amounts, then mixed in some finely chopped shallot sautéd in garlic butter, chopped walnuts, freshly chopped dill, Little Rock salt and black pepper, squeeze of lime juice. Really simple but tasty. I served with a little bit of faro, but I think it would have been nice with some date or prune chutney as well. And maybe a little hot something too.

The light is beginning to go on this little piece of the planet where I’m getting ready for the week ahead, before putting up my feet with a good book, a hot drink and some nice music.

And then, as I’m falling asleep, I will dream about my favourite falling down wood where three streams flow through, weaving together across dark earth, and wild garlic grows in the spring.

Wishing you the warmest,

Lucy x