Full Steam Ahead

Ok I'll start by apologizing for not making Friday's post, but then that was down to the weather. I did manage a couple of hours digging on my parents-in-law's allotment before the rain moved in pretty much on schedule with the weather forecast for once.

Saturday, whilst not brilliant was at least dry and I managed another hour before having to dash home so my son could make it to a birthday outing for one of his friends. At this stage I'm about half way down half of this years potato bed.

After this Saturday turned into a bit of a marathon. I'd aquired three plasterers baths from freecycle and had decided that they'd make suitable instant beds for my allotment. Having drilled drainage holes in one I needed to sort out some soil for the center section so I can sow carrots in about three weeks - they'd grow better in my light soil than the clay loan of the allotment, although that would be better for the onions and for water retention. The soil was going to come from last years bean trench, but that meant sorting it out for this year, which would solve another problem, all my compost bins were full.

Using one of the baths as storage I emptied half the bed, then set about emptying the first of the compost bins. Anyway I managed to refil about 2/3 of the bed before the bin was exhausted of usable compost - not bad since the bed is 2 feet wide, 12 feet long and I'd taken out the soil to 10" deep, refilling with 5" of compost then 2" of manure, 2" of compost, then 3" of soil. Having exhausted the first bin I moved to the second, only to discover that the weeds I chucked in there last year hadn't composted completely. Having turned it all and mixed in 60 litres of fresh manure, to help the process I returned to finishing the bean trench. With no usable compost I had to improvise. Mixing manure with semi-composted saw dust I shoved this into the bottom of the trench, then covered it with the contents of one of last years growbags, before replacing the top soil.

Trench done and with excess soil moved to the veg bed, I started on the first earlies. By the time I'd finished the light was beginning to fade and the temperature was reminding me that we were still in March.

Sunday dawned a much brighter day, which meant my wife was off the the car boot. Having dropped the kids off with their grandmother, I returned home to collect the plumbers bath, soil, onions, potatoes, and necessary tools before heading down the allotment.

Whilst I could have just dropped the bath, fillled it with soil, and then planted, this would have left the underlying problem - all that couch and bindweed root. Of course having decided on the digging course of action, things didn't go as quickly as I'd hoped but after an hour or so the ground was cleared and I could fill the bath and plant the outer ring of onions.

Filling the bath also solved my other problem the excess soil from the first raised bed, enabling me to plant the whole 32 feet length with one row of each of my two main crop, Maris Piper and Pink Fir Apple.

By the time I made it home it was 2:30pm and the "couple of hours" the kids were to have been at Granny's had turned into nearly four, well past my grace period.
Having retrieved the monsters and managed some lunch I set about tidying up from the weekends activities. This lead me to taking the photo of the pots I'd promised for Friday's post.

I've left out the dustbin and standard potato bin, the sort that you can get from most major suppliers such as Dobies. The rest are a representative selection of my choice for pots. You'll notice a couple of interesting items.

Firstly there is the green growpot, behind the 2 litre milk carton, and its recycled alternative, the Nescafe coffee tin. With a grow pot you plant your tomatoe/ cucumber/ melon/ courgette in the middle and water via the outer ring. The Nescafe tins works similarly. You cut out the bottom, plant in the middle and then apply the bulk of the water to the growbag. This forces the plant to put down long water roots into the growbag, whilst keeping the shorter feeding roots in the tin. If you're using growbags I highly reccomend this method.

As I've mentioned the milk cartons I deal with those next. I'll try and post a few more pictures this year, but if you want a sneak preview you'll have to look at last years blogs to see how they're used. The 4 litre ones are great for carrots and the 2 litre ones for lettuce.

The rest of the pots are nothing special other than they are all 10" or more deep. Photos taken and with the palletes "out" I decide to rebuild my leaf mold compost heap, a job I'd been meaning to do for a few weeks. Keeping it in a lidded bin was allowing the top to dry too much so I needed to replace it with an "open" bin. By the time I'd finished it was getting late again so you'll have to wait till next time for a photo.

To finish off this week I've a couple of other photo's. The first is of this years garlic. I'm really pleased with it after last years no show.

The second is a plant we have in our front garden that I've never been able to identify, not that I've tried particularly hard. If you know what it is I'd appreciate knowing. Since I'm away for Easter I'll see you the weekend after next.