Vortex's Veg Patches

Remiss

2010-04-29T21:29:00.002+01:00

Yes, I've slipped back into the old ways and failed to make proper records, at least for the past 3 weeks. So I suppose I'd better start with tonight's planting. With 5 weeks to go till the end of May, and supposedly 3 till the last frost date - at least for us, I've sown 4 rootrainers of Daniels Defiance - my heritage runner bean. I've also sown one of Bridgewater (climbing french bean), one of Brightstone (dwarf french bean), and one of Duke of Albany (heritage pea). I've also sown one tray of each of my open polinated sweetcorn, a red corn called "Strawberry", and a popping corn called "Blue Hopi".In addition last night I finally managed to get round to sowing the seeds I rescued from the supermarket pumpkin.
Now to attempt to catch up with what is where. I've got second batches of greyhound and all-year-round (cauliflower) on the legde in the greenhouse. I've also got what's left of the all-year-round (lettuce) after the mice got at them, in the same place, and a tray of Lanro (Kohl Rabi).
In the cold frame are trays of Brightstone, purple teepee, mangetout, and either purple podded or Duke of Albany peas. The trays of Hurst green shaft and ?????? I planted out on the plot the weekend before last. At the same time I put one row of rooster and one row of cara potatoes in. My memory is now confusing me because if I'm right the "Crimson" heritage broad beans were sown 3 weeks ago direct into the ground.
If I am right on these dates, then I also sowed carrots and parsnips in the garden. These are now about 3/4" tall seedlings, although if the weather forecast is anywhere close to right keeping these alive over the next week may be a challenge.
This also applies to my tub grown potatoes and the lilies, all of which are now outside and have been for most of the last 3 weeks.
Also outside are the remainder of the onion sets, sown in module trays about 10 days ago. These occupy the top shelf of my coverless mini-greenhouse frame. Beneath them are trays of brussels, one each of Early Half Tall and ????, one tray of greyhound, and one tray of calebrese. Hopefully after the weekend the Romanesco and All-year-round cauliflower I pricked out Monday night will have recovred enough to also go outside to harden off.
This just leaves the 3 short rows of Mayan Gold planted in the garden veg patch on Tuesday night.

Hard Graft

2010-04-12T23:23:00.003+01:00

After a rest at Easter, down at the Wychurst Project, laying 4m³ of concrete to try and secure the site gates and then helping to put down the first 30m² of wooden floor - that's excavating the soil, putting down brick sleeper walls, then a timber deck, then the foor boards - I spent the weekend on the allotments digging (just for a change).
Friday and Sunday afternoon, after a visit to the Wokingham Beekeepers Assosication Apiary, saw me on the Bracknell plot. The first task on Friday was to clear enough space to transplant some of the self sown Salsify to the adjacent bed as it's in the way of this years potatoes. This meant diggin this section of the bed then leveling. It also enabled me to treat the remaining section of the bed with Armillatox so I can plant my remaining onions in about 3 weeks.
Sunday, saw me weeding last years french bean bed, the newly constructed one, to stop the weeds gaining to much of a hold, then transplanting some more of the salsify, before catching up with weeding the over-wintered onions. I estimate I've lost about 30% over the winter. It was then back to digging this years potatoe bed, before emptying the plasters trough, so I can use it as a composting space for couch grass and bind weed roots - it's my aim to be able to tackle the final strip down the edge of the plot where I've dumped all the couch and bind weed to date this year.
I've about 8 ft of the bed left to dig so with a fair wind this weekend I should get the Maris Piper and PFA planted.
Saturday (afternoon) saw me sweating heavily in the glorious sunshine on my Sunningdale plot. I managed to dig a strip about 4ft wide about 2/3 the way across to plot, so again with a fair wind I should be able to get a row of Cara or Estima and a row of Roosters in this weekend.
Saturday morning I'd actually spent emptying the green house so I could then spray the inside with a strong Armillatox solution. Hopefully this will kill off any malingering powdery mildew spores which did for all my cucumbers and melons last year. I also must make a greater effort and get and install a louvre window to imporve air circulation at the end of the greenhouse most badly affected.
On the record front I've now sown Black Russian, Green Nutmeg (heritage Melon), Marketmore, and Gardeners Delight in the propogator. The sowing of Tumbling Tom has been a disaster an I think I've 2 plants surviving - much like the previous sowings of Marketmore and assorted melons. All the previous sowings in the propogators, including the mint, have now been removed and the Super7 switched off.
Using this as a resevoir I've sown another batch of Greyhound and another batch of All-Year-Round (Cauliflower). This is not to be confused with the All-Year-Round (lettuce) also sown. In addition I've also sown Kohl Rabi (Lanro) and Sweet Basil.
What I now need to do is try and catch up with some of the pricking out, including getting the remaining onion sets into modules.
I should also not that I sowed French beans Brightstone and Purple teepee last Thursday, and have tonight moved both lots of peas (the first sown ones) to the cold frame.
All the lilies and tubs of potatoes are also now outside, and most of the potatoes have required earthing up. If nothing gets caught by a late frost I should have potatoes in about 6 weeks.

Frantically Paddling

2010-03-30T22:46:00.003+01:00

No it's not a reference to the weather, but rather one to the serene swan gracefully sailing down the river, all the while it's feet going ten to the dozen frantically trying to keep it on course. So that's me the serene plot holder, frantically trying to find the time to get everything done.
My Sunningdale plot progressed a little further at the weekend with the installation of the wooden edging down 75% of the long edge, the digging of a 4ft wide strip down the entire length of the plot, and the planting of the first two rows of potatoes - one row of Maris Bard and one row of Charlotte. Only another 5ft strip and 2 more rows to go here then, that is of course ignoring the two rows on my father-in-law's plot and the two rows on the Bracknell plot.
I also managed to get about 2/3 of the onion main crop planted, 3 10' rows each of Sturon and Red Baron. Now all I've got to worry about are the brassicas and where to put the remainder, remembering I need 3 weeks between treating the Bracknell plot with Armillatox and any planting there.
In the greenhouse I'm faring almost as badly, a combination of lack of time, poor germination of old seed, and my little furry friends eating seed and digging up seedlings. As a result I've had to plant 2nd batches of Alicante, Moneymaker, Marketmore, World Beater, and Honey Dew melons. This is only possible due to the high temperature in the last week enabling me to clear the super-7 propagator. In addition I've planted the remainder of last years Sunflower seed and some more mint - maybe some of this will germinate and stay alive.
The Peas planted two? weeks ago are showing signs of germination, so I've sown 2 more lots, one of my heritage Duke of Albany, and the other of the new mangetout purchase Carouby De Mousanne. I'm now also going to have to start seriously thinking about sowing french and runner beans.
Lastly I've sown carrots, Early Nantes and Autumn King - one short 8' row of each, and 2 rows of parsnips in the garden veg plot. I can only hope I get some germination and the slugs don't eat them all. I don't have very much success with either of these crops.

For the Record

2010-03-21T19:22:00.002Z

Just a quick post in line with my new improved attempt at keeping better records.
Over the past week I've moved various things out of the propagator, last Monday (the 15th) the Veg Spaghetti cmae out with I think 100% germination, then on Saturday I removed the Sweet Heart (75% germination), Telegraph (75% germination), and Butternut (100%) germination although I think I may lose one of these.
In the available slots I've sown Turks Turban, Pepper (Nardelio - Heritage), and another variety of butternut squash. I must remember to find some space for the pumpkin seed I saved.
In root trainers I also sowed Purple Podded and Hurst Greenshaft peas. I was going to sow mangetout but discovered I'd run out then ran out of time today, after having to replace the nearside trackrod end ball joint on the car after it failed it's MOT. What is more interesting is that they apear to have chalked the draglink ball joint which has a split gater but there is nothing on the observation report about it. I'm now going to have to replace this before I submit the car for a retest.
With a fair wind and some decent weather I may be able to get the first of my potatoes in next weeked. I can't make up my mind whether to put my onions in or not at the same time.

Nearly

2010-03-08T21:15:00.002Z

Yes, this is a reference to the last post, and not recording what I've sown and when.
So...
After the week of reasonably fine weather the plots have dried out but not to a substantial enough degree to consider serious digging. With all the immediate jobs sorted on the Sunningdale plot, I managed to get down the Bracknell plot on Saturday afternoon.
Expecting the over wintering onions to be buried under a sheet of weeds I pleasantly surprised to find the beds comfortably clean, although I recon I've lost about 30% over winter. Not having to weed the onions meant I was able to tackle a few other jobs, digging over the bottom corner bed and removing the couch grass and bind weed that had invaded it, pruning the raspberries, digging out the volounteer jerusalem artichokes, and stripping out the dead brassicas. I also managed to get about a third of this years potato bed dug over - all I've got to do now is coincide available time with the right weather and I can get the manure I need for the plot.
Sunday was principly taken up with a group craft day and battle practice, which at least proved I wasn't quite as unfit as I believed myself to be, or perhaps it just showed how unfit some of the rest of my group are...I'll leve you and them to make up your own minds.
What I did manage to find time to do was get in the greenhouse and fill the propagators, so here goes with the 11 varieites I managed to plant, melon: Honeydew and Sweet Heart, tomato: Super Roma, Alicante, Money Maker, and Tumbling Tom, squash: Butternut, pumpkin: Veg Spaghetti, courgette: Defender, cucumber: Telegraph and Marketmore.
I also rescued the brassica seedlings moving them from the propagating bench and onto the much cooler raised bed - it's getting surprisingly hot in their these days when the sun is out for any length of time; a fact that has not failed to escape the notice of my lilies which are doing their best to be in bloom by the end of April.

Must Try Harder

2010-02-28T15:19:00.002Z

No this is not a reference to getting down to the plots, that's very much dictated by the weather at the moment, and as my Sunningdale plot currently looks like a small version of the Great Lakes, I'm not even going near the Bracknell one.
No the must try harder refers to maintaining propper records of sowing times and results. I was trying to work out when I sowed the onion sets in modules last year but can't find any reference to it. I might leave it another couple of weeks with the aim of planting out in late April - I must remember I need 3 weeks between treating the Bracknell plot with Armatilatox and planting out.
Despite all the rain, and it was last nights downpour that flooded the Sunningdale plot I have been able to get somethings done. I've managed to sort part of the top end of the Sunningdale plot out, allowing me to construct another compost bin. This means I've been able to move all the leaf mold to this one, and turn all the rest of the compost into the bay this freed up. The end result is I have 2 turned heaps and a completely spare bay.
I've also managed to complete all the weeding which has also revealed I can't remember what the middle row in the over-wintering onions bed is; other than it's an allium of some kind.

Once more unto the Allotment

2010-02-13T19:28:00.002Z

The question is has the weather turned or is it just lulling us into a false sense of security? My asparagus at least seems to think spring is here which means I'm going to have to get something of a shift on in getting the bed weeded - I managed about 6 ft today, but then that wasn't today's primary job.
The job for today was to clear last year's brocolli bed, dig it through, and plant this years garlic and shallot crop. Rather than going fo 3 rows of each this year, I've only planted 2 rows of garlic, and therefore 4 rows of shallots. Whether any of them will actually get used is a different question entirely.
In the greenhouse, things are progressing slowly, but the signs so far are better than in previous years - I've actually managed to germinate my Mammoth Onions. If the weather were warmer I'd be able to prick out the Brocolli and Cabbage seedlings, but for the time being they're just going to have to stay in their tubs under a cloche cover. So far joining them are both onions and leeks, sown 3 weeks ago.
Now I have space in the propogator, I can sow Cauliflower, Radichio, my heritage onions, and brussle sprouts. That's a job for tomorrow, along with harvesting more of last years tub potato crop, and replacing them with a selection of the currently sprouting potato's I have. All these are last years harvest as this years seed potatos have just arrived and been put into trays to chit.
It doesn't seem possible that in 6 weeks I'll need to be planting them. Doesn't time fly?

It's that time of year again....

2010-01-23T13:00:00.003Z

When I specifically make time to write entries in my blog. If you've just discovered this blog then I use it mainly as an aid memoire for future reference, something I can look back on to know what I was sowing and planting out the previous year. The problem is I don't always record the outcome, and from the lack of posts last year higlights this problem.
Whilst on that subject I should make a few notes. The potato crop was good, and I had no problems with blight. Millipede, worm, and slug attack meant I completely lost about 5% of the crop, with another 30-35% requiring a good "Hack" to leave usable potato. I sort my crop after drying it for a few days, and we finished the "holed" potatos just before Christmas. At our current rate of consumption we should have enough potatoes to last until the end of April, requiring us to only buy those need for my son's cookery classes at school - apparently potatoes only come from supermarkets.
Other crops did equally as well, our heritage runner beans were superb, and I now have enough seed to grow only these this year. Equally my heritage dwarf and climbing french beans did really well, and I now have enough seed to grow this in "crop" volume this year. My normal sowing of frenchs beans were a mixed bag. The early crop of Purple Teepee did okay, not as well as the year before, but the harricot variety did better. The later crop of both was pretty dismal however. The Blue Lake sown around the rose arbour did really well, but the blauhilde sown under my sweetcorn did appallingly - about 5% germination from fresh Thompson & Morgan seed.
The sweetcorn itself was pretty poor, and most of it ripened whilst we were away in August. The courgette crop was poor but I did much better on the squashes, even if 4 of them went rotten before we could get to eat them.
My over winter onions did well on the Sunningdale plot, but really badly in Bracknell, and the lack of a decent hot spell to dry them in the summer, meant most went rotten before my wife could be bothered to use them. My main onion crop was pretty much a disaster everywhere, but the shallots and garlic did really well, resulting in my best crop todate - now all I've got to do is persuade my wife to actually use them.
Early and mid season cabbages were good, as were the cauliflowers and calabrese, but all the later ones either failed or got wiped by the "white cabbage" plague that appeared in late August.
And so onto this season and my pending appointment with the greenhouse to plant onions, leeks, and possibly early cabbages. This does remind me of the one outstanding job I need to do, which is to spray the place with Armilatox in an attempt to kill off all the powdery milldew spores which decimated the cucumbers and melons last year. The problem is I need it to be a nice 14 or 15 Centigrade before I can do this. It's a job that'll just have to wait.

Never believe the forecast.

2009-04-27T22:08:00.002+01:00

Well it's been a long hard weekend, not help by the expectation that most of it would be wiped out by heavy rain; at least according to both the Met Office and BBC last Wednesday and Thursday. So it was I took Friday off to ensure I got the bulk of the remainder of my potatoes in before the expected deluge.
Friday actually went quite well and after buying in this years stock of grow bags, and replenishing my stock of fish/blood/bone and chicken manure pellets, I made it down to the plot in the early afternoon. The afternoon passed far too quickly but I did manage to clean and dig over most of the section of my father-in-laws plot that I use, and get 3 20' rows of potatoes in, 2 of Rooster and 1 of Cara.
Saturday did actually see some rain, mainly in the early hours, and it was nearly 2:30 pm before I got to the plot; not because of the rain but due to shopping. With rain forecast I'd planned on taking a trip to B&Q to get the materials necessary to mount the new auto-vents in the greenhouse. As usual I came out with a few other bits and pieces I'd not intended to buy, although the new gate latch proved to be far inferior in quality to the one that broke.
I started by doing some much needed edging and weeding, before moving to dig over the end of bed 1, before moving the cages about in preporation for this seasons planting. This leaves me about 6' of bed 1 to dig over to complete this years digging, excluding the remaining 6' of bed 2. Whilst there my plot neighbour offered me some cauliflower seedlings, as she'd been offered 2 trays of 20 herself. As she found out "seedling" was not the correct description, young plants is more apt. I thanked her for her offered, and immediately began to work out where I was going to put them.
By Sunday lunchtime, having had to amuse myself planting up 5 tubs and a recycling bin worth of potatoes, whilst my wife went shopping at the local car boot, and walked our boisterous hound, I had a plan; one that required more digging.
I originally hadn't planned on using the bed that had the brussels in last year for brassica's but.... Anyway 2 hours later I'd dug and manured it, leveled it, given it a dose of lime, and put the cauliflowers in.
This just left digging the remaining section of my father-in-laws plot I started on Friday, so I could get another row of potatoes in, intersprersed with sowing the middle square bed on the plot with bumblebee flower mix, and sowing 4 short rows of carrots across the end of the incomplete long bed. This left just enough time after getting home to make up another batch of seed compost before dinner interrupted things.
It was therefore tonight, Monday, on returning home from work, before I could put it to use, sowing a tray of Scarlet Emperor (runner beans), a tray of Blue Lake (climbing french beans), and two HDSL seed selections, 10 each of Lazy Housewife and Bridgewater Beans - both climbing french beans.
Apart from planting the remaining potatoes, I've got enough Cara for another 25' row, jobs for the coming weekend include, planting out onions, possibly planting out cabbages, and pricking out seedlings. I might even get to a car boot and see if I can off load some of my tomato plants grown for the purpose.

Reoccurring Themes

2009-04-20T22:16:00.002+01:00

Well after two busy weekends I was back on the plots this weekend. During one conversation yesterday, Richard asked me how I was doing. "I'm about 2 weeks behind" was may response. "That's what you always say" he replied. Well it's certainly been the pattern for the last couple of years, but maybe next year will be different.
Anyway, enough speculation, back to reality. This weekend was an attempt to catch up and get some crops in the ground, most notably this years potato crop.
I started on Saturday, on the Sunningdale plot, with a little tidying up and weeding, before completing the digging of the raised bed I'd started digging a month ago. Digging completed I leveled the bed, applied a dose of lime, then planted my early cabbages and calabrese.
After a quick lunch in the sunshine on the plot, I moved to the main task for the day. First up was moving the manure heap, but prior to that I had to sort the edging out and remove the docks, couch, bits of bind weed, odd volounteer, and self sown comfrey. Space cleared I moved the heap, before commencing on planting three rows of spuds, Maris Bard, Charlotte, and Estima. With the time now approaching 7 o'clock I just about had time to plant out my up-to-date onions, water both them and the cabbages, and make it home by 8, thoroughly exhausted.
My exhertions on Saturday meant that Sunday morning was a rather slow affair and it was early afternoon before I made it down to the Bracknell plot. My first task was to sort the onions from the weeds which seem to have run riot in the last three weeks. This took the best part of two hours minus half an hour for lunch. Then it was onto clearing the cabbages I'd left as spring greens which had used the last three weeks to run to seed. I small movement of soil from one end of the potato bed to the other meant I could level it a little better before getting in 2 26ft rows, one of Maris Piper and the other of Pink Fir Apple.
My attention then moved to planting this years onions. Having failed to bring a hoe with me, judicious use of both my small 12" rake and the landscaping rake, took care of the flourishing weed crop, allowing me to put in 6 rows of 12 onions. Once I work out how much room I need for this year french beans I can determine how many more I can squeeze in.
Despite the amount achieved I'm still miles behind, and the Bracknell plot in paticular is looking a little untidy. I did manage to get a couple of other jobs done on my return home. I managed to sow all my saved Daniels Defiance, another batch of brussel sprouts (as I can't seem to work out where all the previous ones have gone), and a batch of Kohlrabi.
Next weekend it's back to planting potatoes, until then it's time to work out where I'm going to put the mangetout.

Lost for a title

2009-03-31T23:09:00.013+01:00

Lots more photos - well at least all the ones off the phone from the weekend before last. Been a bit of a polaver to get them downloaded mine and I had to borrow the mother-in-laws vista laptop to download them.

I'll start with the series covering the planting of the asparagus. So from top down we have, the view of the last 5 feet of the bed prior to addition of manure and replacement of a couple of inches of topsoil prior to the creation of the planting ridges, seen in the second photo.
Ridges created the next step is to actually plant the Asparagus. Picture 3 is one of the plants in its pots, and picture 4 is the same plant knocked out. Whilst not brilliant it does demonstrate how healthy and pot bound the plants are.

Next on the list is the crown after it's had it's root teased out, in planting position on the ridge, followed by the bed ready for covering. By this point it had started sleeting so I'd put the phone away somewhere dry, so the picture of the filled in bed is actually the second photo I took that afternoon, and shows the bed as I'd left it the previous week.

This photo also shows the edge of the new improved supports for the bean and pea frame, which is better seen in the next photo. Having now done this to one of the frames I've decided I'm going to have to do the same to the other one, as I nearly managed to knock it over when completing the remainder of the asparagus bed at the weekend. It's amazing how time just seems to vanish, and the 4 hours I spent at the plot just vanished, and all I managed was to dig out the last 3 feet of the bed, constuct the bed end, level the soil to the base of the sides, add the manure, add a couple of inches of soil, create the planting ridges, plant 6 asparagus, and top the bed off. Still it's one job complete, next on the list is this years potatoes.
The last picture in the series is a shot of half the plot, taken from the same position as the ones last year. If you want to see the changes then the original post showing the pictures is here. The covered bed closest to the foreground is the half dug bed refered to in the post a few weeks ago, and the covered bed on the far left is the one where the brussels are going this year. The one of the right of this one is the bed with this year crop of onions and garlic in, and the middle bed in the foreground is the one with the winter onions in.

Actually looking back at the photo's now reminds me I actually managed to get something else done that day, as the remnants of last years brussel crop are now gone, and the pigeons have destroyed the head of one of the two plants I left in as it was running to seed. I was going to pull it but it has a second stem much lower down which is untouched so hopefully this will produce seed, assuming it's not been destroyed by this weeks frosts.

Okay, I don't know about you but I've lost the thread, so I'll just have to pick up on Sunday's activities. Having fixed a few remaining things on the car, I'd managed to replace both brake front brake calipers on Friday without too much trauma, I trolled down to the Bracknell plot with the aim of not doing alot, well specifically with the aim of treating bed 3 with Armillatox ready for the onions which are doing their best to out grow the modules they're sown in.

Having treated the bed, and spent a certain amount of time conversing with some of my neighbours on the site, I decided I might as well get on and do a little digging. All prepared to start on that last 6 feet of bed 2 I realised that one of the mats I'd put down last year to suppress the couch was covered with several inches of soil. Actually it was considerably more as I found out as I started working my way through it removing couch root and the odd bit of bind weed. With the soil pile rising I shifted a load of it one bed 1 which has settled more than a little since last year, and is a little low in places. So is the top end of bed 2 but I'll correct that when I pull the remaining spring greens out for the potatoes to go in in a couple of weeks.

Having excavated the matting I set about digging, but managed only a couple of rows as the soil under the matting was just that bit too wet and heavy to crumble nicely off the fork.
With time not yet pressing I turned my attention to bed 1 which is in severe need of weeding in places. Why is it that they grow considerably better than the spring cabbages you carefully nurture, which have done nothing except fail and die over the winter.
I'd made a start on the weeding a couple of weeks ago, and managed to complete another 4 feet. It's still a bit of a mess in sections, but so is the half of bed 3 that has the over-wintering onions in. I really must find time to get down there and weed it.
With the arm of the clock now passing half past four I headed home. There were a couple of other jobs I wanted to get done. The first of these was to replace the window openers in the greenhouse. However, like the door wheels, the standard replacements available don't fit. This means, that in addition to the new sliding door rail I need, I'm also going to have to get 4 pieces of aluminium angle and make mounting brackets to fit the new openers too before I can have automatic ventilation in the greenhouse again.
Abandoning this task I set about getting the first of this years potatoes in the ground and getting the next batches sown in tubs. In all I've now sown 1 9ft row of Mayan Gold, 2 9ft rows of Maris Bard, 1 dustbin and 1 potatoe bucket of Mayan Gold, and 1 dustbin of Maris Bard. Since both dustbins are sown with identical soil mixes it will be a useful comparison, to see if last years results hold true.

Pictures - Not at an Exhibition

2009-03-22T22:14:00.009Z

Okay, so I've managed to take a few pictures of the Bracknell plot. I've also managed to take a number of the Sunningdale plot, but having forgotten the camera yesterday I had to use my phone. Now all I've got to do is work out how to get them from the phone on to the computer - no Bluetooth, no Infrared, and no Tariff to send them.
So we'll start with one from the top corner of the plot, much the same perspective as the one in the February 2007 post. In the immediate foreground are my impressive (Not) array of spring cabbages which have done nothing over winter except die, and appear to be continuing in the same vein. Just behind these on the right hand side, standing on its edge are one of my cages - a freecycle give-away from a couple of years ago. I moved it later onto bed three, behind the one in the foreground in the next picture.

In all three of these pictures you can see my "drying" bin at the far end of bed 2. I ended the day by moving it to just left of the foreground of picture 2, at the top left corner of the plot. This clears the last 6' of bed 2, which should mean that I can get it dug in time to get this years potatoes in.

Picture 3 is the reverse angle of picture 1. In both pictures 2 and 3 you should be able to see bed 2 just before I finished installing the new 12' side sections and leveling it to just before the drying bin was.
Due to a blown head gasket on the car, and having to have the head skimmed as a result, I'd dug the last 3 feet on Thursday, which enabled me to get the sides installed to day. I also used the time to re-attach the lid on the drying bin, after the winter wind snapped it from its plastic fixings. The bin is supposed to dry out everything in it since it's divided halfway up by a heavy steel wire mesh, which means it should get really hot inside with the sun on it. This means that I should then be able to compost the crispy fried couch roots that are currently filling it.
My enforced time off from work also meant I was able to get into the greenhouse on Friday and prick out my tomato, cucumber, and courgette seedlings. As usually I have far too many tomatoes, especially the Alicante and Supa Roma. In the end I pricked out 24 Alicante, 20 Supa Roma, and all 16 of the Black Russian.
Pricking these out meant I was able to sow a few more batches of seeds, more Defender - I only had 3 of the first batch germinate, some squash, Telegraph for in the greenhouse, melons, early sprouts, more greyhound, and some more cauliflower- again because I only had a few germinate the first time. All this means more pricking out in a few weeks, but I'll need to do both the sweet and chilli peppers next weekend, assuming I can get the brakes on the car done without any hitches.
I also sowed a few bathes of peas, both sweet and edible. Given last years record with the edibles and the age of the seed, I'm not overly hopeful of much germinating, even having sown 4 peas per cell. I shall leave sowing my heritage peas and beans for a few weeks yet.
Well, that covers everything, except the Sunningdale plot, which was Saturday afternoons work. I've now all bar completed the asparagus bed, and once I can get the photo's off the phone I'll post them so you can see how I've done it and the state of the crowns in their pots. I now need to dig the last 30 inches before I can complete the bed and put the last 6 crowns in. This leaves me with 20 crowns which I'm selling off at £0.50 per crown or 5 for £2.00. Unfortunately as they're pot grown and sprouting they need to go in really quick and are only available for local collection. Click the link if you're local and interested - Asparagus Sales
Apart from almost finishing the asparagus bed I also installed the last but one retaining plank, that divides the high side of the plot from the low side. I've just got one more short section to do, before needing to make a few more decisions about "levels" across various sections of the plot.
As part of the installation process I also weeded to top end of the pea/bean trench and have come to the conclusion I need to install retaining vertical scaffold poles on that section of the frame as well. Thankfully I do have 2 more, although they're not in brilliant condition. Hopefully they'll suffice.

Cold and Wet

2009-03-08T21:56:00.002Z

And I'm not refering to the weather, I'm refering to the state I found myself in at two thirty this afternoon, having spent three quarters of an hour getting the asparagus planting finished. It's one thing to have a waterproof coat with integral hood, but unless you've waterproof trousers as well, the water just pours off the jacket onto your jeans and into your boots.
Having watched the BBC weather forecast online before I'd left for the plot this lunchtime I'd hoped we were going to escape, and allow me to plant the first 13 feet of the bed, and if possible prepare and plant the last 5 feet. The turn of the weather with 5 feet left to plant put paid to the last, and I planted those 5 feet in a contineous combination of light and heavy sleet showers.
The upside, if there is one, is that I'd fprgotten to take the camera with me, so it didn't get drenched. I had wanted to photograph the bed before I started planting it, and to photograph some of the crowns as I knocked them out of their pots, teased their roots out, and laid them on their ridges, before carefully covering with soil. In some cases it was very carefully as some of the crowns already had 8" spears, and virtually all had several spears of at least 1" in length. I must try and remember when I next get down there to prepare and plant the remaining 5 feet of edged bed. I still can't make up my mind wether to make the bed the full 21 feet in length I'd originally planned.
Now today's planting was made possible by yesterday's leg work, installing the sides of the bed, moving 12 feet worth of soil to the last 5 feet of the bed and the small clear area beyond, raking out the manure down the 13 feet length of the bed exposed, putting back 2" of the soil, and creating the three ridges on which to plant the asparagus down the length of the bed. If that wasn't enough I decided to start on digging over the last but one of the raised beds, the last one still having sprouts growing in it. I managed to dig and manure half the bed, before failing light, falling temperatures, and depleting energy reserves caused me to call it a rapidly aproaching night.
Anyway back to today. Having dried out, put on dry clothes, and fed my face, I trundled out to the greenhouse to continue with the seasons planting. One of the primary reasons for wanting to get the asparagus in, apart from the obvious that it was sprouting left, right, and centre, was to clear some space in the cold frame in order to harden off the onions which are also doing likewise.
In fact it seems everything is doing it's best to get the better of me. I've had to take the peppers and tomatoes out of the propagators to stop them getting to leggy, which of course means I'm left with space. In turn moving the onions means I've space in the greenhouse. So into the propagator has gone more tomatoes, momenymaker and gartenperle this time, marketmore (outdoor cucumber), and defender (courgette). Into the second propagator, that's the one my mother-in-law gave me which works perfectly, went greyhound, primo, and bedfordshire fillbasket (brussel sprouts).
Seeds sown, it was then time to prickout the broccoli (olympia) and the first batch of greyhound, which as a consequence revealed how few of the All-Year-Round cauliflower have actually germinated. I'm going to have to find some time to sow some more.
Well that's it for this week. I'll try harder and see if I can get some pictures, most likely not next week though as I've an appointment with a copse that needs the attention of the 2-stroke deathwatch beetle.

Overdoing it

2009-03-01T20:50:00.002Z

It's been another busy weekend of digging, and I'm now feeling more than slightly the worse for wear. Progress has been good though, even if the Bracknell plot hadn't dried out as much as I hoped.
I managed a couple of hours on Saturday, breaking up the clods I'd dug out and left last weekend. I also managed to dig another 3 feet, although with it deing soggy on one edge I've left another dozen large clods to dry out.
Sunday afternoon saw me back on the Sunningdale plot, where finishing the remaining 8 feet for the Asparagus bed seems to have been about 3 feet too far. At least now I'm in a position to install the timbers. Once done I can move the soil to the top end, level and manure the bottom of the bed, then start planting. Maybe next week then.
In addition to finishing the digging I also managed to install the second scaffold pole which will hopefully prevent a repeat of last years collapse, should we get another windy August.
It was then a case of returning home to plant more of this years crops. This week it was the turn of the tomatoes, with Black Russian, Allicante, and Supa Roma, finding their way into the propagator. I've also acquired a second propagator from my mother-in-law. The problem is I don't know wether it works or not. It's been lying around for some time so may be well past its use buy date. I've got it on test at the moment so I'll know if it works in a couple of days.
Apart from the digging I've managed to get a few other jobs done around the garden. The first was to denail the remaineder of the joists I bought last summer, primarily as I need two for the asparagus bed and two for bed 2 on the Bracknell plot. Next on the list was to wash the super 7 propagator trays. Having made up the jeyes solution I also took the opportunity to commence washing a number of the flower pots that have spent the last year lurking about the garden.
The other major job was cutting the Autumn raspberries down to the ground in preporation for this season. I'd cut them down to 3 feet in late November, mainly to give the birds some cover during the winter without having the rasperries blown over. Having finished the rasperries, and since I had the secataurs to hand I decided to prune the roses. At least now I won't have to find time to do it later.

Progressing

2009-02-22T19:14:00.003Z

Well February is renowned for false springs and then last week has seen it live up to its reputation. The warm days and lack of precipitation have enabled the plots to dry and the sunny warm weekend weather have enabled me to stress my back with two two hour digging sessions.
Saturday was the warmer day and saw me in the greenhouse to start with. I have to say it was actually too hot in there and I suspect that both of my automatic openers have given up the ghost. Whilst the onions, leeks, and cabbage seedlings planted 4 and 3 weeks ago are enjoying the warmth - a little too much perhaps, it has led to a few other problems. My lilies which are overwintered in pots in there are all starting to grow, and the asparagus, which was put in there to keep it away from the frost is also doing likewise; not a good sign as I'm at least 3 weeks away from having the bed ready - more on that a little later. I've therefore had to improvise another cold frame and move it all outside again, where hopefully the cooler temperatures will hold it back.
The other reason for being in the greenhouse was to repot two of the Aloe Vera, and to pot up the surviving Fuschia cuttings - shame I haven't a clue what variety they are.
Lunch over and done with I made my way down to the Bracknell plot. First job of the day was to finish bed number 3. On the way I stopped off in Wickes and brought myself a new rake. I've been looking around for a while. Whilst my standard 12" garden rake is okay, it's not really up to leveling large areas. Having looked around the Wickes Builders Landscaping rake seemed to be the best value for money, and at 30" wide it certainly makes life a lot easier. My only gripe is that the handle is a little too short. I'm over 6' and an extra 12" in the length of the handle would make it more comfortable to use.
Bed 3 finished, as far as I'm able until the over-wintered onions finish in June, I moved to sorting out bed 2 below the cabbages. The main reason for doing this was that the soil level had dropped since the bed was created last year, and I needed to clear a little more space to enable me to keep digging. Soil redistributed I moved to dig a further section of the bed that until now has been covered with heavy duty matting of the sort found in children's play grounds. The council had dumped a load on the site this time last year, and most of the plot holders took the opportunity to acquire some. As I progressed down the bed I noted that whilst where the bed had been uncovered the soil was actually drier than that that had been covered. The matting was now working against me. Having dug out another 3 foot stretch, most of it remaining as 9" square sods laid along the top of the bed, I called it a day. My final act was to remove the next section of matting in the hope that we don't get deluged again in the week and it will have dried to a more workable state for next weekend.
Sunday saw my return to the Sunningdale plot, principally to make some progress on the asparagus bed. First job was to sort out the scaffold poles supporting the runner bean frame. I'd had to hastily put two angled poles in place last August to stop them all from being blown down a second time. Both of these poles were resting with one end in the middle of where the asparagus bed will be. Having removed both poles I repositioned one vertically at the end, marked the position of the foot, removed it, dug a 9" square hole 3' deep, dropped a load of pea shingle in the bottom, replaced the pole, refilled it tamping it down, then scattered the remaining shingle on top. I'll give it a couple of weeks to all settle in properly then do the other pole at the other end. Hopefully these will provide enough resistance to stop the beans and peas from being blown down again this year.
After weeding the 3 foot section of the bed I'd done in the middle of last year, I shifted what was left of last years manure pile to this point. I was a little disappointed that it hadn't rotted more. Perhaps covering it with the carpet to stop it drying out had actually stopped it from getting wet enough.
Manure pile moved I cracked on with the digging, getting about 7 foot done. The problem I can now see is that, I'm going to have to pile a lot of soil somewhere whilst I create the bed. The crowns need to be planted on ridges, the top of the ridge being about 2" down from the final soil height and each ridge being about 4" high. After the crowns are planted then the soil can be replaced filling the bed. This means to create the beds I'm going to have to move a 4" depth of soil across a 4' wide by 21' long bed somewhere else, create the bed, then move it back again.
I'm now considering digging enough of the bed to get the next timbers in, which will add 15' to the length of the bed, moving the soil to the undug end, planting the first 15 feet, coving this, then sorting out the remaining 6 feet. Time and weather will I think dictate the outcome.
To round things off I planted the first of this years potatoes, well actually the left overs from last years late planting, and a few self-chitted leftovers from last years early crop. I haven't actually got a clue as to what variety any of them are. We'll find out in about 16 weeks.

Perennially Racing Time

2009-02-15T20:11:00.002Z

After last Tuesday's deluge, we had one months rainfall in about 12 hours, the plots were remarkably workable all things considered.
Saturday saw me on the Bracknell plot primarily progressing raised bed 3 with the aim of being able to progress raised bed 2; they're the far left and middle beds respectively from previous posts. I cleared through all the spits I'd previously moved, and then cleared a load more off the rubber matting on bed 2. The fact that 30% of it was still frozen didn't particularly help matters. With a section of bed 2 now accessible I started digging working away from the top section currently in use by the remainder of last years late cabbages, now running to spring greens. I managed a couple of feet before the action of my own feet on the wet clay put a stop to digging.
A phone call from my wife at this point also gave me reason to stop. Prior to making my way to the plot I'd responded to an offer on freecycle of home made compost; it's all very well encouraging people to recycle and compost providing they can use it. In this lady's case she wasn't much of a gardener and after 2 and a half years here compost bins were completely full. Anyway the upshot of the phone call was that the compost was available, all I had to do was to go and get it. So bags and spade duly in hand, that's what I did.
The standard problem with emptying compost bins, if you don't have an empty bin to transfer the top half of the bin you want to empty into, is that you can excavate about 25% of the compost from the bottom of the bin before the whole lot drops into the hole you've just created, curtailing excavations. Having created some space in bin 1, I was able to move about 25% of the contents of bin 2 into bin one, enabling me to excavate more from bin 2 before it's contents gave way. Total extracted, about 180 litres of compost. It wasn't bad, the usual odd flower pot, plastic bag, avacardo skin and stone, broken piece of stick etc. Future extractions, yes I've signed my self up to empty the bins once or twice a year, should be better, benefiting from the action of the poo from her chickens and absence of eggshells, the latter of which are now crushed and fed back to the chickens.
One thing emptying the bins did show up was the need for me to fix the tire on the wheel barrow. It's a job I've been meaning to do for a while having become completely exasperated by continually having to pump it up. I'd acquired another tire on a wheel of a different design some months ago off another knackered barrow which had suffered the fate of most barrows, it had lost its bowl; it having parted company as the metal where it is riveted or bolted to the frame rusts and degrades - which reminds me, I need somebody to weld mine up before it to suffers a similar fate.
So late Sunday morning I set about swapping the tire. Problem one was undoing the machine screws that retain one of the wheel bearings. Why don't companies that make wheel barrows use bolts? At least then when the head gets covered in concrete its easy to chip of and get a wrench onto, rather than trying to have to chip enough of a slot back into the machine screw head to hold it with a screw driver. Machine screws removed I encountered problem 2, in exactly which tool box, yes I have several, had I put the two tire levers. These were another acquisition I made several years ago, one of those "They'll come in handy at some point" acquisitions.
Anyway after half an hour of turning the workshop upside down I located them and set about swapping the tires. This turned out to be no problem at all, but has demonstrated that the inner tube on the old tire most likely has a puncture, which I'll repair just as soon as I get around to getting a repair kit; sometime next year then.
Next on the list was seed sowing. The Up-To-Date, Pandora, and Greyhound sown 3 weeks ago are all now of a size where they no longer need to be on the propagator, giving me three slots for more seeds. Taking up the slack therefore are All-Year-Round (Cauliflower), a red onion of unknown variety curtosy of Lidls, and the remainder of the Olympia (Brocolli). Hope fully they'll all germinate nicely and enable me to get an early crop of brassica's in the ground in April again.
With lunch on hold whilst the bread defrosted, I decided to get the visit to the Bracknell plot to deposit half of the compost out of the way.
As is the way of things I ended doing slightly more than I had intended but both of the "kids" beds are now weeded and cleaned, and the raspberry/strawberry/artichoke bed (last not by design) is more presentable.
Bed 3 is also now virtually complete after I was able to dig through the dried and thawed spits moved yesterday. Bed 2 is also a little closer to being clear as I moved a further load of spits across onto bed 3. Weather permitting I'll be able to get to these this weekend.
Following a long lunch, and via a detour to get diesel, it was down to the Sunningdale plot to plant the garlic which had arrived with the seed potatoes on Wednesday. I'd unbagged the potatoes yesterday morning and laid them all out in seed trays in the workshop to chit. Garlic planted I set about tidying the 3 4ft square beds in the middle of the plot, distributing the remainder of the compost amongst them. Last on the list was liming the bed I'd dug and manured 2 weeks ago. This technically goes against the grain, but as the manure is dug in 6" down the two won't interact, but the lime will lower the ph for the brassicas and the manure will provide the sustenance the soil needs.
With the light starting to fade, I was tempted to start digging over the remaining "vacent" bed but in the end thought better of it. It was as I was contemplating this that I considered I was doing reasonably well this year, then remembered I still have the asparagus bed to do, all 21 feet of it, and the other half of bed 2 on the Bracknell plot, thats another 18 feet, but this time of pristine undug couch grass ridden clay, and all before the end of March.
May be next year I won't be racing time.

Apres Snow

2009-02-01T16:33:00.002Z

Well its the 1^st of February and their forecasting heavy snow for tonight and tomorrow; the Met Office have even issued an "Extreme" weather warning. Now according to the forecast we could get between 2 and 5 cm of snow or even as much as 15cm, for those of you not bilingual thats 3/4" to 2" or upto 6". Now to my mind that's not heavy snow, 2 to 3 feet would be heavy snow. Neither is it extreme weather; a 24 hour blizzard with 40mph winds, 8-12 feet of snow and temperatures of between -15 and -10 would be extreme weather. How badly the country falls apart due to a little snow the next 48 hours will tell.
Snow forecast aside, I've managed to get quite a bit done this weekend, despite the non-arrival of this years seed potatoes, onion sets, and more importantly garlic.
Saturday afternoon saw me on the Sunningdale plot, which had dried quite considerably since last weekend. I managed to dig through two of the 10ft x 4ft beds, manuring one as I went - I chose not to manure the shallot/garlic bed resorting to a liberal dosing of fish/blood/bone, growmore, and pelleted chicken maure. Beds dug I set about planting this years shallot and garlic crops, most of which had been given to me by a friend who gave up her plot due to emigrating to Cumbria or yorkshire or some other place North; she's not actually decided yet.
Anyway the donation of garlic, shallots, and onion sets, all of which should have been planted in October/November has enabled me to get started. I put in three rows of shallots in total, one row of Jermor, one row of Golden Gourment (I actually bought these), and one row of whatever variety it is I've grown for the last 2 years from the year befores leftovers. I was also able to pick through the 3 Germidor garlic bulbs and plant only the biggest cloves, giving me nearly 2 rows. I'm going to have to squash my own Solent White in when it arrives.
Today saw a foray to the Bracknell plot. I wasn't really expecting to be able to do a great deal, what with the week's rain and last night's frost, however conditions turned out to be considerably better than I expected. I therefore managed to complete the woodwork of the righthand most of the three main raised beds, and clear the bulk of the spoil heap made when I cleared the first bed 2 years ago. The downside of this though, is that I'm going to have a major plague of horseradish thongs as its roots were everywhere, and although there were at least half a dozen plants in the heap only one was of decent enough size to bring home in the hope of turning into horse radish sauce - all I need to do now is find a decent recipe.
Apart from clearing the bulk of the heap, and digging through the soil along side that section of the bed, I also cleared the pile of sods I'd extracted off bed 2 last November, and then extracted a further pile with a view to letting to forecast frost a snow do their worst on the now exposed couch grass roots.
Further progress as ever at this time of year is very much weather dependent.

And so it begins....

2009-01-25T18:00:00.002Z

It's now the end of the third week in January and for me at least this years season has started, albeit slowly at present.
One third of the garden plot has been dug, mainly to turn in the remained of the manure I got last weekend. Primarily the manure was for the greenhouse, to refil the beds with some goodness; and as the manure was steaming warm and barely 3 weeks old it should do the job nicely.
The section of the garden plot dug will take this years first earlies, and knowing my soil there will be little evidence I manured it when I come to plant in about 8 weeks time ... boy doesn't time fly.
I also cleared the brassica's from the beds on the Sunningdale plot, but the soil was just to saturated to warrent digging it at this time. That's one of the dig differences between all threee of my veg plots. My garden plot I can dig as soon as the surface water is gone without noticing a huge difference in texture or effort. The Sunningdale plot requires a week or so to dry, depending on the time of year, although it's somewhat flooded at the moment, and my plot is at the "top" end of the site. Digging the last of my father-in-laws potatoes out this afternoon was a slurping experience.
My Bracknell plot I avoid at this time of year, it's heavy clay means, that even with the raised beds I shall have to wait until the middle to end of March before I can do much. Having said that I did foray down their last weekend to dig out the Jerusalem artichokes, and returned with half a 40litre full. Some are already spoken for but as we don't like them I shall have to find a home for the remainder. Hoepefully I got them all out this time.
In the greenhouse I've started this years sowings with onions and leeks. If I had more space in the propogator then I'd be able to sow more varieties early, and as I haven't I've had to limit myself to the remainder of the Mammoth onion seed, the remainder of last years HDSL pick up-to-date , another onion, pandora, which if I remember is a late leek, one head from the leeks which flowered this year, the problem being I'm not sure which variety it is, and lastly the first of this year's sowing of greyhound, which is a pointy summer cabbage.
I sowed them this time last year as an experiment, and they produced a better and earlier crop than the Excel brought as plug plant from Marshal's. Given my Olympia (calabrese) also did better then Marshal's variety, and the cauliflowers were a disaster, I shall not be buying plugs again.
Now I have to count the weeks until I can free up the propagator and make the next sowings. In the mean time I have plenty of digging to be done........weather permitting.

Reflections on a New Season

2009-01-12T16:47:00.004Z

Well as usual I'm behind, the recent old snap having helped none.
My Bracknell plot is still much as I left it in November, bed 3 still incomplete, and bed 2 still requiring half to be dug and cleared of couch grass and bind weed before this years potatoes can go in. I've also yet to manure any of it or finish digging out the winter crops or this years crop of Jerusalem Artichokes, grown from those I missed when digging them all out last year.
My Sunningdale plot fares better, although this has progressed little since the beginning of December. The potato plot is covered in 4" of manure, and has been for about 6 weeks now. This is also true of the area I used last year on my father-in-laws plot. However I still haven't managed to get all his potatoes dug out. I think there's about half a row of what I believe may be Maris Piper - not sure what state these are going to be in now though.
What I really need to get done is the asparagus bed - the manure is all piled up waiting and the plants are enjoying their sojourn in the greenhouse and/or cold frame, although most are showing little inclination to wanting to die back. Still they don't need to go in until late March, like the potatoes, so I'm going to be fire-fighting again then I think.
Having just check last years entry for January I'm already late in sowing this years leeks, onions, and cabbage from seed, although considering the prolonged cold snap we've just had I'm inclined to think not. I'll see what the weather does though this week and weekend before deciding whether to sow then or not.
The cold snap did enable me to get one job partially done - concreting in the deep bed in the greenhouse. I should have really done this when I built the foundation, but didn't, hoping the silver birch in next doors garden wouldn't cause a problem. But after 4 years of having the bed invaded by its roots and the failure of the paving slabs to make much difference I've given in. The bed was dug out to 16" below floor level, shuttered, and a 2-3" wall and floor of concrete poured to completely enclose it. I've refilled it with soil to floor level, but as the soil is completely dead I now need to put a good 6" of manure into the bed before completing the refill. Hopefully this will regenerate it's fertility and allow me to grow anything other than silver birch roots in it.
In other respects I'm more organized. I've 95% of the seeds I need for this year, and having ordered onion sets, garlic, and shallots, have just been given a load by a friend. Most of these are autumn planting varieties that should have gone in in October, but I'm going to put them in anyway. Nothing ventured is nothing gained and they wont keep till next October.
I've also changed my potato regime slightly this year. I'm only growing one early variety, and one second early as a second early. All the rest will be grown as maincrop. As usual my early is Maris Bard, with Charlottes my choice as 2nd early - mainly because I like them and they do well both in the ground and in tubs. My maincrops are therefore Maris Piper, Cara, Estima, and Rooster. This is the first year of growing the latter so I'll be interested to see both how it does and what it's like. I'm also going to plant a row of Pink Fir Apple from this year's left over.
One of my trials last year was Mayan Gold in a tub, from 3 potatoes I was given. Having been really impressed with them, even though I harvested them a little early, I'm going to grow them again this year, mainly in tubs, despite the fact that they're more expensive than most other seed potatoes. If you're interested in growing these then you'll need to order them from Alan Romans.
Away from the allotment I've managed to get a few other things done. I've re-potted a number of the cacti that needed doing including my mother-in-laws-tongue. This had gotten to the state where it was distorting the pot it was in, not bad considering that when I got it 2 years ago, whilst collecting some other freecycle goods, it was in severe need of some tlc. So my one mother-in-laws-tongue has now become 9, and given that to buy any one of these would cost between £1.99 and £25 in a garden center I think I've done quite well out of the deal. I don't have a picture of mine I'm afraid so I'll have to make do with a link to a library picture for those of you not familiar with the variety, Mother-in-laws-tongue.
On a completely different note, if any of you are interested in dragons, have a passing interest in role-playing games, and have some time to waste, I've been playing an on-line game for a while now. It's called Dragon Hearts, takes a little getting used to and is far more complex than it first appears. If you're interested click on the following link - dragon hearts. If you decide to play and want help or guidance then my Dragon Name is Pyrocantaes - just click on my name in either players on-line, chat, or send an email to ID 11549.
For those of you who may want to try something along a gardening theme why not try MoleHill Empire.
Both of these games are free, other than at the expense of time.

Reflections

2008-12-13T15:38:00.001Z

It's reached that point in the year when the weather has beaten me into submission, temporarily, and I have time to sit down and write my end of season report.
If I look back to my August post then things were very positive but it rapidly went down hill form there. Two weeks after I wrote that entry we had the spate of gales which demolished my beans and peas, resulting in me losing 80% of my heritage peas and 50% of the runner beans.
We then went away for our usual working holiday and returned to find that the slugs had completely demolished my onion crop - healthy bulbs but no leaves left. I then made the mistake of leaving them too long in the greenhouse to dry which meant they all got damp and started sprouting.
I had a minor successes with my late crop mangetout, French beans, and mouli (it didn't bolt as it did earlier in the year) but a complete disaster with the late sowing of kohlrabi, shimoto (leek like japanese onions), and senshu (globing japanese onion).
Other major success this year have been the Bracknell sown Pink Fir Apple, Red Cabbage, French Beans, and Runner Beans (despite the August gales). Reasonable success was also achieved with my calabrese, onions, garlic, shallots, summer cabbage, parsnips, salsify, butternut squash, potatoes (all except the Bracknell sowing of Pink Fir Apple),and the early sowing of kohlrabi. Set against this is the abysmal showing of my cauliflower, sweetcorn, carrots, lettuce, early peas, late sown turnips, and the impending disappointment of my sprouts.
The sprout went in on time in June and have been netted to keep both pigeons and cabbage whites off, yet there are few if any sprouts on any of the plants and they're small compared to what they should be like. This applies equally to the early variety which should have been ready at the beginning of November or the late variety which should just be starting to produce for a January harvest. Whether this is down to the weather this year, or my belief that the soil is exhausted (new plot for me this year) I don't know.
As to next year, I'm ahead in some areas and behind in others. The potato growing area of my Sunningdale plot has been covered, for the last 4 weeks in a 5" layer of manure, and I have a large pile ready to go on the asparagus bed, when I can get it dug and built - this is now getting towards being a major fire state, as I really needed this done about 6 weeks ago. I did managed to obtain enough timber to complete virtually all the raised beds on the Bracknell plot and the asparagus bed but so far only part of the Bracknell plot has benefited, bed 3, which is the far right hand one of the 3, which whilst I've now dug it's entire length has still to be filled. This will then allow me to dig the other half of bed 2, which is next years potato bed; so I suspect I'll be fighting yet another fire in March.
Another chore which I'm going to have to do over Christmas is to dig out the beds in the greenhouse and line with concrete - the silver birch roots are just doing too much damage and having too great an influence - I may take the opportunity to refill with a large amount of manure. I need a whole load more anyway for the garden veg plot and the bean plot, and a couple of bags from last years pile for use in the potato bins next year. I lost my second crop to blight again, although we have managed to get enough for a few meals. I'm saving the rest for Christmas.
I've more or less got all my seeds sorted for next year. With the prices and methods the big six are charging for seed potatoes I've gone to Edwin Tuckers for my seed potatoes again. They sell by the kilo (typically 3kg bags) and charge postage separately, so you can get 6 bags of seed potatoes for £28 + £7 P&P as opposed to £42 for 6 bags of 20 tubers (approx 2Kg) from the big six. The only ones they didn't stock were the Mayan Gold, which really impressed me this year, so I've had to go to Alan Roman's for these.
I'm actually looking forward to getting started again, counting the days till I can so my first leeks and onions, even if I'm not looking forward to the amount of digging that needs doing. Perhaps I aught to try and find time to strip and rebuild the carburettor on the rotavator.
Till January then..

Early Harvests

2008-08-03T20:02:00.003+01:00

This is another of those posts I was going to make 2 weeks ago and never go around to - despite having for several years a round tuit. The pictures are of the Sunningdale plot as it was then; 2 weeks can be a very long time at this time of year.
Since then The onion and garlic bed, back left 1st picture has been completely cleared, except for the few parsnips, and resown with a variety of seed. If I can remember correctly there is 1 row turnips, 3 rows of carrots (different varieties), and sown this weekend 1 row Japanese radish - hope these don't bolt like then did in the spring, and 1 row aliens - sorry Kohl Rabi.
To the left of this you can see where I had made a start on the next raised bed, which when completed will given me six to long beds to rotate crops around. I have now completed the first 4' section and need some more timber before I can continue. I've also started the Asparagus bed, which again is now waiting on timber before I can continue.
The second picture shows the bean and pea line, a bit sparse when the picture was taken but is now more heavily populated by both. In the first section I have scarlet emperor and a mix of Hurst Greenshaft and my heritage Duke of Albany. The second section did have some Kelvadon Wonder, but to my mind I only wonder why they didn't do anything other than fatten a few slugs. Behind them are my Painted Lady, now reaching the point where I'm prepared to pick them to eat; I wanted to ensure I have enough seed for next year without having to buy any. I pursuing the same course with my heritage Daniels Defiance in our front garden, except they're not growing as well an they may end up as just a seed supply this year.
The Bracknell plot has yielded the last of its purple tee-pee, and these have now been replaced with a fresh batch of plants - about 18 days from sowing to planting out. I've also got enough seed off the few remaining beans for about 20 plants next year. I've left the barlotti variety in to finish fattening the remaining pods.
It has also completed the yield of both this years onions, a poor result from the Red Baron, and nearly as bad from the Sturon, but no sign of white rot in the areas I treated with Armatillox. I'm reserving judgment until next year, after this year's over-wintering crop are harvested, before ratifying (or not) their claims that its an effective treatment for white rot - other than not growing any member of the allium family in the ground for 20 years.
The ground vacated by the onions has been used to absorb some of the second batch of French beans and to provide homes for a few straggly cauliflowers that I didn't have space for earlier, and a batch of swede and Chinese cabbage.
In the garden I've been harvesting both container grown and soil grown potatoes. The container grown Vales Emerald seem to be a match for the other container grown varieties in terms of yield but aren't anything special as far as taste goes and are really only useful as a mashed potato - the slightest fraction of over-cooking and they split all over the shop. I've also harvested one line of the Estima from teh Sunningdale plot. They yielded about 1/3 of what I expected and showed signs of drought, despite the ground being sufficiently wet to have sustained them for another month or so until their proper harvesting time. The rate at which they went over suggested a blight attack, but the lack of rot in the halums below ground doesn't bear this out. The fact that all four rows (Estima, Estima, Charlottes, International Kidney) all went over at the same time leaves me a little puzzled. I've also harvested about 8ft of both the latter and again the yields are way down on what I would expect.
Where I've taken the potatoes out in the garden I've used part of the space to so a 6ft row of mangetout. It was old seed and I wasn't expecting much - I'd had germination problems earlier in the year in root trainers, so was very much surprised to see a massed row of pea shoot heads on Saturday morning - even more surprising since they were only sown last Sunday evening.
Things in the greenhouse have been mixed. Our cucumbers are now getting into the swing of things and we're about to become buried under massed cucumbers; despite almost having lost one plant which I've had to cut back to half its previous size. The only thing I can think of is that it got too hot and dehydrated at the beginning of the week, as after its trim and a feed it seems to have perked up again.
The other strange thing is that it appears to be the only plant affected. The tomatoes continue to set small green tomatoes which point blankly refuse to ripen, and the melons are setting fruit, well some at least and more than last year - we have 3 baby melons now, yes 3!
Both the outdoor cucumbers and tomatoes appear to be mimicing the melons - loads of flowers and no set fruit. Perhaps it's the lack of bees. Its been strangely quite this year and even the massed bank of budlia around us have been strangely quiet.
Anyway the last picture is the onion crop on the Sunningdale plot - all I have to do is try and remember which variety I planted where.

A Mixed Bag

2008-07-14T23:26:00.017+01:00

Well its been a busy few weeks, what with Wychurst work weekends, shows for the Henley Rowing Museum and Royal Gunpowder Mills, and film work for Hardy pictures current production - apart from the rain, spent a great couple of days messing with the longships and killing Saxons.
In the garden and on the plots its been a bit of a mixed bag. The french beans in the garden have been a little disappointing, whilst those on the Bracknell plot have so far yielded about 9 lbs, about 1.5lbs the weekend before last, and the remainder last weekend. With a fair wind I should be able to gather another 5 lbs or so before they're spent. I'm going to experiment with a second crop and see what I get.
The runner beans in the garden are starting to produce a few tentative beans but the one's on the Sunningdale plot are still being rather reluctant - although I've put a ban on picking the Painted Lady until I have enough seed pods for next year.
I've also got tow other problems on this plot - all my garlic went down with rust, so I've had to pull these. I recon they were only a couple of weeks from harvesting away so its no great loss. On the up side I've a good harvest of shallots and winter onions, and my main onion crop are coming along nicely. Weighed against this though is the fact that I've lost about 50% of my first and second earlies to blight, although it's not got into the tubers. It's just I'm only getting 3-4 golf ball sized tubers per plant plus a handful of marbles. The Maris bard in the garden are more than making up for it though.

My first picture this time is the harvest from 4 of the potato bins. I should have photographed the Mayan Gold when I pulled them two weeks ago but just didn't think of it. Anyway from top to bottom we have, Vales Emerald, Maris Bard, Anya, Estima - although the Estima were actually some leftovers from Sainsbury's planted last November in the greenhouse but which didn't actually start growing till March. Whilst the yield of the Vales Emerald is comparable to that of the Maris Bard, they don't cook well, being prone to splitting, and are a little bland. The Mayan Gold were much better, and I'm considering these for next year - we'll see what happens to prices.

My second picture is a promised update on the milk carton front. Normally I'd be well into the lettuce crop by now but after the mice ate the first two batches of sowings I'm late this year - having said that I picked the first of the Little Gem (upper rear row) and Buttercrunch (lower rear row) on Sunday. You can also see the parsnips are progressing, sown 4 per 4 litre container, and the carrots are now starting to come along - although the ones in the cartons are about the only ones that have survived the slugs - they're had all three sowing I've made in the waste bins, and both sowings made in open ground.

Things are also progressing in the greenhouse as you can see from the next two pictures. We've picked 4 cucumbers so far, 3 in the last week, but with the eratic weather we've been having I don't think we'll be getting anymore for a week or two. Perhaps we'll have a tomato or two at that time as well as there are several set and growing.

The asparagus is also coming along nicely, although when the sun's actually out I'm going through my water supply quite rapidly keeping them fed and watered - weeding the pots is also somewhat tedious. Still £4 for two packets of seeds to produce 70 year old crowns is better than £16 for 5 crowns, and I still have half a packet of each seed left - I might just think about sowing that next year and selling the crowns off at £1 each.

I'll end this update with more pictures of my lilies. The picture of the pink ones was taken about 10 days ago as they are now past their best, whilst the yellow ones are just coming into flower now, so I'll have these to enjoy for another 10 days or so before they go over. Having been ruthless earlier in the year I also seem to be completely free of Lily Beetle.

Escaped

2008-05-26T22:04:00.004+01:00

Sometimes things go right. With frost forecast last Monday I had two choices, do nothing and hope, or attempt to run round and try and cover everything up. I chose the later and thankfully fate smiled on me. Whilst various other plots on both the Bracknell and Sunningdale site suffered minor damage to potatoes to devastation of an entire row of runnerbeans I escaped with no damage to anything.

I had hoped to get more done this weekend but the weather had other ideas, especially today. On Saturday I did manage to get all bar one tray of onions in; I would have planted them as weel but found them lurking in the coldframe when I got home. I also managed to get all of my maincrop potatoes earthed up on both the Sunningdale and Bracknell plots. The one thing preventing me from having space available on the Sunningdale plot is not being able to earth up the International Kidney. Whilst the maincrop are all 12" out of the ground, the Internation Kidney are barely above it and they went in two weeks earlier.
I also managed to get various bits of digging done. On the Sunningdale plot I put in an hour and got another 6 feet of what will be the next raised bed done, then I went down the Bracknell plot and put in another couple of hours. I managed to get the top end of the 3rd raised bed in place, broke up the pile of sods I'd created at that end a month ago, then started in on the pile of couch, bind weed, and globe artichoke's I'd created last year when clearing the first bed. Having sprayed it last summer 90% of it's dead and composted nicely, its just the remaining 10% that is growing like crazy that's giving all the problems.

I hope I now have a solution, having taken my original square compost bin down to the plot, and installed a heavy duty wire mesh half way down, to turn it into a dryer. Everything coming off the moon pile is getting loaded in the top in the hope it gets cooked in the hot summer sunshine, assuming we get any.
So that was pretty much everything up until last night. I went out early this morning in the rain, picked up a few supplies, then returned to the workshop to cut timber for a pair of new protection fences for the Bracknell allotment. I can then shuffle the existing ones about and get another 20 of the sweetcorn in.
The rest of the day, up until about 4:30 was then spent twiddleing my thumbs and watching the rain run down the windows. By about that point it had eased off to a drizzle and I opted to get on with the big job of repotting the asparagus. It's all pretty much done noe having taken just over 140 litres of compost mix, 75 litres of fresh multipurpose, 5 litres of old compost as a bulker, 30 litres of topsoil, and 30 litres of my home compost - although this is more like topsoil than multipurpose.
Now I just need to get that digging finished and that raised bed done so I've got homes for my brussel sprouts and the rest of the sweetcorn. I must also get around to sowing some more lettuce and remember to get it out of the greenhouse before its gets too leggy to be usuable.
Last on the list is a quick run down on this weeks photos. From top to bottom, the Sunningdale plot from the bottom left - potatoes in foreground, bean frame behind, then the bean and pea framework - there are still a couple of nets missing, the plot from the bottom right - calabrese in the foreground, early cabbage and calabrese behind, and lastly a low shot of the shallot and garlic bed. I did have one of the asparagus and the liles but I took these tonight and in the low light the digital couldn't cope, so I'll have to wait until the weather improves.

Racing Against it - Again.

2008-05-20T23:28:00.004+01:00

Yes I know its a bit of a recurring theme, but that just seems to be the way its is.
No matter how much of my weekends I spend, and for the past two its been about 11 am till 5pm on the plot then until about 9pm in the greenhouse both Saturday and Sunday, I don't seem to be able to keep up. It probably wouldn't be as bad if I already had frames and covers and raised beds already built or available but getting to that point seems to take forever.
Anyway I have managed to get some things done as you can see from the photos. I'll try and take some on the plots at the weekend so you can see how things are progressing there, rather than relying on my descriptions. I now have the runner beans in, the first batches at least both at home and on the Sunningdale plot, which means I've also got the frames up and the bean trench done. As things stand I've 30 of my home grown beans in alongside the greenhouse, planted 2 per pole. These are an Enorma derivative I think, saved year on year for the past 3 years. I've another 32 in the greenhouse if they all germinate that I sowed about 10 days ago. In the front garden I've a wigwam of the 10 Daniels Defiant that germinated. With the house between the two types they shouldn't cross pollinate. In an attempt to stop this on the allotment I'm putting peas in between the two varieties, Scarlet Emperor and Painted Lady, although I've only got the modern peas (Kelvadon Wonder) in at the moment. Can't remember what the heritage variety are but I must get around to sowing them. So far I've only got 9 Painted Lady in (I only had 10 seeds) and 12 Scarlet Emperor, although I've supposedly got another 32 in the greenhouse, although having sown them 3 weeks ago they're being very reluctant at the moment.
I've also earthed up my first earlies at home, filled most of the tubs to try and keep up, and done half of the second earlies on the Sunningdale plot. The main crop could have used it but I was just too shattered on Sunday to do it. I just hope the frost hasn't got at them too badly.
On the Bracknell plot I've put all of the French beans in, 50 in total a mix of Purple Teepee and an unnamed variety from B&Q (I think). I was supposed to put the Mangetout in as well but I don't have enough deer fences made so they've had to go in at home. I've also filled up the space quota available for onions, which means 90% of the sets are in. Now all I've got to do is find space for the 120 seed sown ones and the 160 leeks although once I've earthed up the potatoes on the Sunningdale plot I think I'll get a chunk of them in there.
Also on the Sunningdale plot I've got 18 of the Calabrese given to me by a friend in Wokingham in and 9 Kohl Rabi. I've also got 9 of the Brocoli(Olympia) grown from seed in, with the remaining space in that bed reserved for Cauliflower, when it arrives from Marshals. I'm actually disappointed with their early Calabrese and Cabbage, as mine are doing much better, especially the greyhound I sowed in early February.
Now if you think thats not enough, I've just completed planting up the greenhouse, with this years tomato, cucumber, and melon crops. From left to right, and back to front we have Tasty King and Telegraph, Black Russian, 2 Alicante, Sweetheart, 2 Telegraph, 2 Early Sweet, 2 Supa Roma, and 1 Black Russian. I've still to sort out the Marketmore and Moneymaker for outside, and the peppers desperately need potting on - along with a whole gamut of other stuff.
I've also put the first of the sweetcorn in for this years 3 sisters bed. This uses up 20 of my 100 seedlings. These were in the greenhouse and getting too big. The others have been outside and are slightly smaller. The race is now on not only to sort out space for these but also for the rest of the cabbage and brussel sprouts.

Anyway to end I'll just round up the remaining photos. At the very top we have the raspberry patch. As you can see I don't do anything to train them other than provide a wire to stop them falling over in the autumn when they're heavy with fruit. What you can't see from the photo is exactly how far they've escaped into what we laughingly call the lawn.
At the bottom is an update on the potatoes/lilies. The shot of the single bucket didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. I had wanted to show what a healthy bucket of, in this case Estima, looked like when a standard potatoe bucket is planted with 3 seed potatoes.

Late Again

2008-04-28T20:00:00.007+01:00

I've got lots of photo's this time. I actually took them about 10 days ago and was going to post them last week, but last week turned into a disaster and I didn't have time. It all went wrong on Tuesday, when the mainshaft on the gearbox on the Landrover decided that it'd like to view the world. Only the self sacrifice of the clutch meant it didn't get a good view of the engine as well.
Having waited for the recovery truck, I nearly got a complete rear-end repair as hiw which cable snapped with the car 3/4 the way up the tilted back. Only my long arms and quick reactions averted that calamity - thank the designers for having thought of lside steps.
Anyway my enforced day off meant I got a chance to spend time sorting the veg patch in the garden out, planting the onions that were getting too big for their modules, the French beans which were crying out to go out, and the Mange Tout; which subsequently have been got at by something.
Anyway back to the pictures. From top to bottom we have my lilies - they've been out of the greenhouse 2 weeks now, my tubs of spuds, with in the background the Blanche a Collet Vert Hors Terre that I overwintered in the greenhouse. Next are the Asparagus I planted in February and pricked out at the beginning of the month. Then there are various seedlings from the brassicas, through the assorted squashes, and finally the onion seedlings and French beans and Mange Tout as they were in the cold frame.

The next picture is my propagating setup in the greenhouse, with the electric propagator in the middle of the lower shelf. Last but one are the Fushia's I saved from my mother-in-laws clear out. I took a load of cuttings, none of which survived, cut the stems right back, shoved them in pots and left them in the greenhouse over winter. The last one is another mystery plant. I can't even remember where it came from but I think its quite attractive. Any body care to enlighten me as to what it is?.

On the allotment front things are progressing. On the Bracknell plot, I've got
my left over Pink Fir Apple in, but something has had all my strawberies and some of the raspberries, which have died as a result. It could be rabbits, but I've seen no droppings so it most likely the deer back. I've moved on of the cages. If it's rabbits then it won't help as they can get underneath, but if it's deer then it'll keep them off.

On the Sunningdale plot, and at home the potatoes I planted 3 weeks ago are starting to stick their heads through. I've now finished digging all the existing raised beds, have installed part of the level divider, and put a 5m bean trench in 18" wide and 9" deep, filled 6" with manure then covered with 3" of soil. I've another 4m section to go in when I can get around to digging the last 6ft of the bed. This does rely on it drying out sufficiently for me to do so. I've also started on the digging for the next row of raised beds. Having dug a strip 6ft wide and 4 spits deep, and given the level of infestation of couch grass along the edge I decided to complete the strip all they way across to the center of the plot, about another 3 feet, although by the time I got there it was only 2 spits deep due to the way the edge of the plot is angled.

The next job is to get the bean supports up, both on the plot at home so I can get the beans, which are straining to get out of the rootrainers into the ground. I may even manage a few more photos at that point. Till then...

No Rest!

2008-04-13T21:32:00.003+01:00

It's been a long weekend. At the close of play last weekend this one was going to be busy, but it got worse on Monday. I'd ordered the early brassica collection from Marshals, with a supposed delivery of late March, but late March came and went and no brassicas. They had to turn up sometime but why Monday, since they were supposed to go in immediately it was about the worst possible day for them to arrive. All I could manage was to stuff them into a pot, give them some water, and leave them in the greenhouse all week.
There was, I suppose an upside, I put in some extra time at work early in the week and was able to leave early on Friday, making it to the Bracknell plot just before six. I raked out enough of bed 1, the potato bed from last year, to sow the bulk of the onions. I think I managed 3 rows of 13, a mixture of Red Baron and Sturon. In between these I put in two rows of carrots, one Early Nantes and the other Autumn King.
I then raked out the two beds supposedly for my kids use, but they're only taking a superficial interest, and re-established the wire grids that divide them up. I then put in the onions according to plan, and broadcast Early Nantes in the appropriate grid square before watering it in. By the time I made it home it was nearly quarter to eight.
Saturday started with me doing a few things I'd neglected the previous week, like watering all my house plants, which were definitely in need of a drink. It was then off to load the trailer with manure, whilst playing dodge the hail shower, a game that lasted most of the weekend.
After lunch it was down the Sunningdale plot, and after unhitching the trailer, the first order of the day was to get the brassicas in. I'm pushing the spacing a little putting 4 rows in a 4ft x 10ft bed,but won't have room for everything otherwise. The Excel (cabbage) went in 6" from the edge with 12" between plants, with the calabrese (Marathon) at 12" from the cabbage, giving 12" between the two rows, again with 12" between plants. I've actually got enough space for another row of 4 on the end - may put the greyhound in there when it's a little bigger.
The whole bed is covered with a cloche made from water pipe, and a 2m wide 10mm square net, under which I've put the fleece. Unfortunately the fleece is only 1.5m wide so doesn't cover the last row of cabbage. I have arranged it so that the windward side is protected and hope we don't get any severe frosts.
All I'm now waiting for is the cauliflower, although I've changed my mind as to which bed it's going in to. Marshals are also out of stock of the original variety offered, Baldo, but should be sending Aviron as a replacement in a couple of weeks - probably arrive on a Monday again though.
Brassicas planted I changed location to my father-in-laws plot to unload the trailer. When he arrived and offered to help me unload, I found it difficult to refuse the offer, and the two of us made short work of it, although we did have to stop twice whilst rain stopped play. I then set about finishing digging the potato bed, a task which was hampered by another rain interlude. By half five I'd had enough and packed up with 4 rows left to dig.
Refreshed with coffee and bakewell tart, I made my way home, to spend another hour and a half in the greenhouse, discovering that the ****** mouse had taken the tops off all the salsify seedlings, and eaten yet another batch of lettuce seedlings.
Faced with having to resow the lettuce I took the opportunity to clear what hadn't germinated from the propagator and resow. So in went what was left of the Defender and Tosca seed, the remainder of the Turks Turban and Buttercup, and the remainder of the Telegraph and Marketmore. In another tray I sowed Worldbeater (pepper) and De Cayenne (Chille). I was going to sow my Gartenperle along with the Moneymaker in the last tray, until I opened the sealed foil packet to discover no seed. I await Thompson & Morgans response to my email with interest - especially as I've had two packets of White Gem parsnip seed bought from them last May chitting in the boiler cupboard for 18 days now with not one sign of anything wanting to germinate. I wasn't a happy bunny as you can imagine.
Things looked up this morning though, even if though the weather didn't look that promising. I opened the greenhouse to find Mr Mouse caught under the pint glass we'd left invitingly for him - he's now residing either in a tree somewhere a long way from my greenhouse or more hopefully an OWL.
Inspired by the turn of events, I decide to fit the net to the mini-greenhouse frame I picked up last weekend, in order to put the Greyhound I'd potted on last night outside - its been in the cold frame for the last couple of weeks so there shouldn't be any problems. I also took the decision to move everything out of the greenhouse, lillies, carrots (the Blanche a Collet Vert Hors Terre), and all of the potatoes ,except the Mayan Gold which aren't through yet. I suspect I'm going to have to cover these with fleece during the week as there are a few cold nights forecast.
It was then off to the plot to finish the digging and get the maincrop spuds in. I'd got as far as raking 3/4 of the bed level and finishing the digging before the prolonged shower, hail included, arrived. By the time it stopped and hour later I was the only one left on site, although I had been the first to retreat to my car. I'd watched that storm roll up and wasn't going to sit sopping wet whilst it finished deluging.
Rain over, I finished the raking, the soil somewhat heavier now, and then set to planting. I'd discussed the options yesterday evening, and had decided to push the spacing, putting them in at 12" apart rather than 15", and 24" between rows (to get 4 in), rather than 30". As it was the presence of the fruit bushes meant the 4th row was short by 3 spuds, I'll have to find somewhere else for these. I suspect I'll have to build the wrong half of the last raised bed at Bracknell first, so I can get the Pink Fir Apple left from last years crop in, and these will probably go in with those.
I finished my time at the plot by starting on the last of the existing raised beds on the plot. It's been covered with carpet since November, and had previously been used to grow parsnips and carrots, all of which had been left in the ground. Whilst the parsnips were intact, if not usable, the carrots were serving as a reservoir for millipedes. With this in mind I'll put the cauliflower in here, as putting any sort of root crop in this bed for a couple of years is asking for trouble. All I've got to do now is finish digging it.
The final job of the day, other than writing this, was to get the remainder of my Vales Emerald and a chunk of the remaining Charlottes into the dustbins, now that the weather is, hopefully, warming up. I normally only put 5 potatoes per bin, but I had 6 Vales Emerald left so put the lot in and 6 Charlottes to match. It'll be a useful comparison.
Perhaps I'll have a chance to take some pictures in a couple of weeks, assuming I have time, by which time there may be something to see. Until then...

Late Snow

2008-04-06T23:44:00.002+01:00

I was up early this morning for a change, a side effect of the persistent cough I seem to be suffering with at the moment. In between coffee and a few forum posts I watch the white stuff cascade down. By 9.00 we had about 2", and by midday the sun was trying to break through, and by 15:00 it had virtually all gone and I was digging on the lotte for a change :-);
I got about two hours in before I ran out of manure, and about 2/3 the way down what will be the bed for my main crop potatoes. I'm hoping the weather is going to be ok for next weekend so I can fit getting another load in, in between planting out my onions, sowing the first carrots, finishing the bed for the main crop spuds, and planting them out.
I did manage to pick up a few things on freecycle whilst the snow was preventing me doing anything else, an old 4 shelf plastic mini-greenhouse minus cover, which I'll put a net over and use for bringing on my cabbages after potting on, 4 more pallets including one of the 8' long ones, and some terracota plant pots. The three standard pallets will go to make the second compost bay at the Sunningdale plot, and the long one I've already dismantled for use in making raised beds.
Yesterday, was almost a busy but I did manage a lie-in, even though I've had to sleep sitting up most nights to stop coughing. Not the most practical or comfortable way to sleep and it does my back no good.
Having set to I dug out the escaping raspberry runners, some of which had made it 3 feet into what we call the lawn. Loading these and the strawberry runners I'd potted up back in February I escaped to the Bracknell plot. Given the sunshine I'd have expected to see a hive of activity but yet again I was the only one present, although it does look like the council have decided to reclaim the two jungle plots that according to them, at least the last time I asked about them, didn't exist.
Strawberries and Raspberries planted in what was the Jerusalem artichoke bed last year, I then set about breaking up the clods of couch I'd dug out last time I was there. Most were workable but one or two were still saturated and a few were baked rock hard - at least on the surface. The plot, other than the raised beds is still to saturated to work, but I did dig out another two rows of sods. If we get a reasonably dry week then may be I'll be able to deal with them next weekend, after the onion and carrot planting is done.
I must also get to and sow the first batch or runner beans and the sweetcorn. I've still not had any success with chitting parsnips, but the scorzonera is growing away quite happily in its tubes. I've even got sprouts from some of the sets, I sowed in modules last weekend, although the mouse tried to carry one off, and has snapped off one of the Convers Colossal. It also ate all my lettuce seedlings, forcing me to resow. In addition I've sown the second batch of greyhound, a batch of primo, a second batch of the late brussel bedford fillbasket, and another brassica although which currently escapes me.
I must sort out the tomatoes, the Black Russian haven't germinated, so these need to be resown. I also need to sow Moneymaker, Brandywine, and the tumbler. I've had the same problem with the marketmore so I'll need to resow these as well.
Now if I had some cloches I could get the first batch of greyhound out. They've come on well in the cold frame, but I don't think they're quite up to the open ground of the plot. If the weather is better tomorrow I may pot them on and put them on my new shelves. I think I'll move the onions onto them as well, then I can move the sweet peas and mangetout to the mini-greenhouse, and the onion seedling from the greenhouse to cold frame. If I've got room I'll move the calabrese in there too.

Taking the plunge.

2008-03-30T19:36:00.002+01:00

It's certainly been a strange 4 days. Thursday was loverly but after the heavy rain of Wednesday night I decided to leave the plot to dry out and do a few other jobs that needed doing, like pruning the apple tree and the shrubby bush thing next to it.
I also pricked out another load of germinated salsify and ditched the parsnips which point blankly refused to show any signs of doing anything. Having put another load of seed in their place and a second batch on Friday afternoon so far 1 have show any sign of germinating. Given that both packets I got from T&M last September and they have an expiry of Aug 2008 this is pretty appalling. I can only wait and hope.
Friday was better but not brilliant and I managed about 3 hours of digging. The soil was much drier than I expected so I made the decision to plant my spuds. Saturday dawned sunny but by the time I made it to the plot around half eleven it was beginning to cloud up. Any way I managed to get three rows planted by the time the rain forced me home for lunch at 1:30. The Estima went much further than I expected and I had enough for 2 30' rows. Having measured up the plot on Friday and laid it out on visio , not a right angled corner in sight, I knew I would only be able to get 4 rows in if I wanted to plant anything else. This meant that I could only put one row of Charlotte's in although I still have enough left for 3/4 of a row.
Lunch over and with no sign of the rain abating I sat down in front of the computer, made a few posts on various fora, and then checked our freecycle mail. Low and behold, a nice lady who I've corresponded with a couple of times, and who is local to me was offering Calabrise seedlings, she'd sown the whole packet, which were a little out of date, expecting a few to germinate but the whole lot had. Any way a quick exchange of emails, and I was off to fetch some, in exchange for a few of my excess Musselburgh leeks. In the way of things I came away with a few more seeds, had an interesting tour of her setup - envious of her polytunnel, and promised to return later with some Globe artichoke roots. I've also promised her some seed from my Blanche a Collet Vert Hors Terre (long name for White Carrot), assuming I get some.
Then it was into the greenhouse to prick them out - I've done 32 not sure what I'm going to do with the other 50 odd.
Today was a much better day again, digging in tee-shirt weather this afternoon. I turned over the section of the veg patch in the garden where the Maris Bard were going and planted them, stopped for lunch, then set off down the plot to get the row of International Kidney in that the rain scuppered me over yesterday. Why is it you always have 1 potato left over?
I then pushed on with digging the rest of the plot, until the squelch of the sod as I extracted it determined I should stop. Another 5 feet and that strip'll be completed and I'll have dug 8/19ths of the plot - considerably more if you take into account the area where the compost bins sit, 5 of the six raised beds and their surrounding paths. Tomorrow weather permitting I shall move onto the strip of my father-in-laws plot where I had the cabbages last year, and where my maincrop potatoes are going this year. Until I get a weeks fine weather my original plot is going to remain too wet to work and I don't really want to wait until the middle of May to get the maincrop spuds in.
The other job which is also now looming is to pot on all the onion seedlings, and also all the brassicas which I sowed two weeks ago. Anyone fancy pricking out 100 assorted brassicas?

Decisions, Decisions

2008-03-24T18:10:00.002Z

Well here we are at the end of the most dismal Easter I can remember. Unlike those further East and North we escaped the snow, although we did manage a few horizontal hail storms.
The bulk of my plot has been to wet to dig so I've resorted to doing other jobs. I've moved 3 trailer loads, approx 400kg and 1.5 cubic meters per load from my manure source to the Sunningdale plot. This stuff is virtually fresh having been laid out in the last 3 weeks. The stuff I had earlier was well rotten but she'd spread this out across the paddock so collecting it would have been a real pain. I've got a couple of weeks before I need to use it so I've put it in two piles to compost down a bit more.
I've also managed to get another of the raised beds on the Sunningdale plot dug through. That just leaves 1 more bed and three sections of path. If we don't get a dry spell through the week, this'll be next weekends job, along with the garden veg patch. I can then get the Maris bard in.
Having discovered the first shoots of the December tub sown Estima poking through at last on Saturday morning I also took the decision to plant up the five easily movable tubs. The five tubs sown are Anya(4), Maris Bard(4), Vales Emerald(4), Anya(2)+stray, Mayan Gold(3), the number in brackets indicating the number of tubers sown. I also remembered to label them this year so I know which is which. I'll wait for the weather to warm a little before sowing the outside dustbins. One will take the bulk of the remaining Vales Emerald, and the other either Maris Bard or International Kidney or Charlottes - I suspect this decision will wait until I what's left after sowing the Maris Bard in the veg patch.
I've also taken the plunge and tried chitting the scorzonera and parsnip seed. So far after 48 hours in the boiler cupboard I've got shoots from a few of the scorzonera but nothing from any of the parsnips. If the parsnips are still a no show by tomorrow evening then I'll try a fresh packet. One they've sprouted they're going into newspaper tubes. I think I've made about a hundred so far but I suspect I'll need about another 50 or so. We'll see if this give me a decent crop this year - it'll certainly be the first time I've managed to get any of the scorzonera to germinate.

And sow it begins...

2008-03-20T17:45:00.002Z

Well almost. As I sat here a week ago contemplating the up coming season, I realized that in 3 weeks, 2 weeks as I write this, it would be the middle of April and time to plant out my onions.
The problem was that I wanted to treat the bed against white rot with Armatillox, and needed to leave 3 weeks between treatment and planting. The additional problems were that heavy rain was forecast for the weekend and I needed to complete a whole bunch of repairs on the car before I could put it in for its MOT.
Anyway, it didn't rain anywhere nearly as bad a forecast and the repair works, replacing the exhaust, both rear slave cylinders, and the rear brake shoes all magically went without a hitch, leaving me free to toddle down the plot Sunday afternoon and turn and treat the relevant beds. This now means in two weeks I shall be able to plant the onions which are now in a varying state between just sprouted and 8" tall. I can also think about sowing the remaining sets to get a second later crop.
Having got the car through its MOT this morning, and with the duly forecast rain arriving I decided to investigate the state of play of things in the greenhouse and cold frame.
The onions are doing nicely, even the seedlings which I think I'm probably going to have to prick out over the weekend if I can find space. The leeks on the other hand had defiantly reached the point where they needed pricking out. This meant moving the trays of onions to the mini-greenhouse to clear space in the cold-frame. Now I've sowed 3 tubs of leeks, 2 Musselburgh and 1 Atlanta. Taking the larger of the two tubs I started pricking out. After 126 the cold frame was full, and I still had another 30 left in the tub. Not sure what I'm going to do about the other tub yet as I suspect there's another 150 in there, at least there's only about 40 of the Atlanta to worry about.
The asparagus had also reached the point where it to needed pricking out. I'd mentally reserved the space for this in the greenhouse, so it wasn't going to compete for space with the leeks. After another hour, I'd duly pricked out 45 Martha Washington and 36 Convers Colossal. If I get all of these to maturity, this time next year, I may end up with a dozen of so of each available for sale.
Things had also started germinating in the propagator, so I pricked out as necessary to stop them going leggy. So far this amounts to 1 Telegraph, 1 Cobnut squash, 1 Tosca bush courgette, 1 Turks Turban, 3 Super Roma tomatoes, and half a dozen Alicante.
I'm still debating whether to plant any of my spuds this weekend. The soil's still cold, even in my light loamy garden, and the forecast is none to good. I can't even make up my mine whether to plant any in bins in the greenhouse.

Keeping Records

2008-03-09T18:47:00.002Z

Some people religiously record what they plant and when, what the temperature was, and how long it takes to germinate, and what the germination rates were. I'm not one of those people and the only records I keep are here, assuming that I've got the time to write something and that I remember to do so.
Having been kept off the plot by a combination of weather and an attempt to get my car ready for its forthcoming MOT, all I have managed to do is get some sowing done.
Having kept an eye on the weather forecast all week, and expecting the weekend to be rained off I snuck in half a days leave on Wednesday and finished digging the strip I started last weekend. I also removed the asparagus from the propagator, freeing it up, and put 6 trays of compost to warm for a couple of days.
This meant that this afternoon I was able to sow into warmed compost. Where I've been planting large and easily handleable seeds I've been sowing 6 seeds per half tray, whilst with the tomatoes I just sowed a pinch. As always I ran out of room so haven't been able to plant several of the tomato varieties I wanted, most notably the outdoor ones - Money Maker & Gartenperle.
So for the record by tray
1) Squash - Turks Turban(loly) and Buttercup(loly)
2) Squash - Cob Nut(loly) and Cucumber Marketmore
3) Cucumber - Telegraph and Tasty King(loly)
4) Melon - Sweetheart (loly) and Early Sweet (loly)
5)Courgette - Defender and Tosca
6) Tomato - Black Russian and Suer Roma
7) Tomato - Alicante and Pepper - Worldbeater (loly)
loly = left over from last year- Basically the seeds left after I planted what I needed last year.
I also sowed half a rootrainer with each of Purple Tepee and another french bean I brought last year, and another margarine tub of leeks - Pandora this time.
The carrots I sowed a few weeks ago, haven't done very well at all, despite being in the greenhouse and under glass. I guess only about 30% germinated and their very slow. For this reason I've held off sowing any more and also planting any tub potatoes. If things start to warm up a little during the week I'll consider planting next weekend.
Last Wednesday I also moved both the onions, those grown from seed and the sets in cell trays, and the leek seedlings into the cold frame generating a little more space in the greenhouse. They don't seem to have suffered at all as a result of the move, but the cold frame is now full. Until I've got the plots for the potatoes done I'm not even thinking about moving any of them to the plot. I also want the leeks to put on a little more growth before I attempt to prick them out. If all goes to plan I'll be planting them out in mid May.
The problem is that as time creeps forward so the volume of seeds that need sowing increases. My wife is already muttering about sowing flower seeds and I haven't even got the bulk of the veg sown yet.
I'm now off to consult my sowing plan so until next time, happy sowing.

Whot No Title?

2008-02-24T17:38:00.006Z

It's been a busy three weeks, and after another 3 hours on the plot today I can't think of a clever title for the post.
Things have been progressing. On the Sunningdale plot, photos right and below, I changed tack and rather than dig the remaining two raised beds, the two in the foreground covered in carpet, I decided to move onto the main section of the plot, starting at the far left hand side. It took me 3 two hour digging sessions to dig through an level a 4 foot wide bed the length of the plot, which I guess is about 25ft. Depending on what the weather does I may get back there next Sunday, after I've pruned my mother-in-law's bay tree. Apparently somebody has complained to the council and it's now going to have to be pruned back hard, which is probably going to kill it. I've got a few small ones taken as root cuttings, but they only grow slowly, and my mother-in-law's is about 40 years old so is a nice size now.
Anyway with the dry weather we've had during the past three weeks I decided to take a look at the Bracknell plot this weekend. Unlike the Sunningdale plot which is on a nice rich loam, the Bracknell one is on heavy clay, and doesn't really become workable until late March, but if I left it till then I'd have no chance of getting this years potato bed ready. So I spent two and a half hours digging yesterday, and another 2 today. I managed about 3 feet yesterday, I'm digging a 6' wide strip as the raised bed will be 4' wide with a 2' path, but today was spent weeding and breaking up the clods I dug out last thing last night, which had dried out enough in the overnight wind and morning sunshine, and then turning out another load of clods, adjacent to the section I'd done yesterday and at the top end of the bed near the couch root pile I created last year. I had hoped to be able to clear this last summer but as the weather didn't co-operate, ie it wasn't blazing hot like the year before, I never got around to it. I'm now going to have to sift through it as I go, but that'll be in a few weeks yet, weather permitting of course.
Things are also progressing in the greenhouse, although the continues mouse presence is making like difficult. I've had about 30% germination of the sugar snap peas, and about the same again for the second batch of sweet peas. No sign of any of the Early Onwards though.
The second batch of onions, sown three weeks ago are now up have have more or less caught up with the earlier batches. Shame I forgot to label them. The rest are progressing, and are in the colder environs of the main section of the greenhouse, on top of the raised bed. Once I get around to repairing the cold frame I'll move them to it along with the rest of the onions which are now all sprouting nicely. I should note that my overwintering onions on the Bracknell plot are doing Ok. I've lost one or two, and there are about half a dozen which appear to be "slow". There is no sign yet of whiterot though so the bulb planter/top soil plug seems to be working.
I've now sown my asparagus, which is cluttering up the propagator, so it's going to be 3 or 4 weeks before I can start the cucumbers/tomatoes/courgettes/squashes unless I use the top of the boiler. I must check last years planting schedule and see what else should be going in as we advance into March.
On a non vegetable note, most of the lilies have started sprouting so I planted the ones I rescued from the vine weevil/lily beetle larva in the autumn. I've had them under saw dust all winter which seems to have prevented them drying out too much. Provided I can work out which ones are which I'll have a dozen or so crowns I can sell in 2 or 3 years time.

Best Crop of the Year?

2008-02-03T18:53:00.000Z

Like a lot of allotmenteers I'm always experimenting with new crops either to see if they'll grow, find new varieties we like better, or to try something new. This year it was Jerusalem artichokes, supplied by another allotmenteer and orchid grower in Marlow. Having grown them, and harvested a few at Christmas we decided we didn't like them, so today I managed to get down to the plot and clear the 1.5m x 1m raised bed I'd planted them in - I knew they'd spread if not contained so I took the precaution. So having taken about a pound off at Christmas and knowing they were quite densely packed I was expecting quite a bit, but not the 56lb sack I ended up with. Since we're not going to eat them I've done the decent thing and offered them on freecycle. All I have to hope now is that I've got them all out otherwise their going to have an interesting time competing with the Autumn Raspberries I shall transplant in about a month.
On other fronts, the ******* mouse is back, although I'm better prepared this year. He got what was left of the sweetpea seeds, and about 10 of the Early Onwards, I'd left to soak overnight - they'd absorbed more water than I expected and hence were accessible - the mangetout survived intact. These have now been sown in rootrainers which are covered so he can't get at them. I've also used two of the old windows I'd acquired to turn my staging into a greenhouse inside a greenhouse, and sealed the ends with some 10mm square wire I acquired by chance from a skip this morning. We'll see if this stops him from eating the onion and leek seedlings.
I also managed to get two other jobs done last weekend, although one is only partially completed. Sunday I spent at my Sunningdale plot, cleared the couch grass reservoir that had doubled as the compost area, constructed two new compost bins from reclaimed pallets, the heavy blue ones are the best, and finished digging the bed I'd failed to complete the week before. Hopefully the weather will be ok and I can get down there next weekend and dig the two remaining raised beds. This will mean I've got 30% of the plot done and therefore be just under halfway to the required target of 65% cultivated. Although the inspection isn't until the end of April, I suspect I'm not going to be able to spend much time there in March as I shall be frantically trying to get the Bracknell plot sorted so I can plant my main crop potatoes.
The other job I'd almost completed was the manuring of the garden veg plot on the Saturday. I'd collected a standard builders bag worth in the morning, but it didn't go as far as I'd hoped. Another job for next weekend, which sort of fits since I want to manure the bed that had the Jerusalem artichokes in as well as the two 1m square beds I'd prepared for the kids last year. Perhaps they'll show more interest this year and grow something.
Following discussions on various fora I also took the plunge an sowed this years peppers in the propagator, and another batch of onions to keep the mouse fed ....

A New Season - A New Half Plot

2008-01-22T16:33:00.000Z

Its always the same. When you want to take a picture of something you never have a camera with you - or in my case keep forgot to take it with you. I had wanted to start this update with a picture of the new half plot but may be next time.
Anyway its a lot cleaner than my existing half plot and its not on clay, but on a nice medium loam at the top of the plots, so despite the rain of the last month was nicely workable last Sunday.
My intention was to clear a couple of the "raised beds", although raised is the wrong word - surrounded by 5" boards would be closer to the truth. I'd actually cleared on of the 4ft square one last November when I put the last of my over-wintering onions in, but hadn't had the chance to return since - decorating and Landrover problems kept getting in the way.
Anyway the onions hadn't faired that well - something had either dug or pulled over half of them out. Still it was better than them going to waste.
My main problem with this half plot is that the former owners had covered large portions of it with carpet many year ago, and that the carpet has now become the problem not the solution, being the receptical and conduit for the couch grass roots.
During my visit in November I'd removed the worst of the carpet and repositioned what was left to actually suppress weed growth. My first task was therefore to reposition it yet again so I could get at the two beds I wanted to work. This also involved removing the strips that formed the paths so that soil spilling over the beds didn't coat the carpet - and yes I forgot to take a broom with me.
Having done this I realised that not only was I going to have to dig the beds but also the paths as they were nearly as badly infested. Anyway having dug one bed and its surrounding paths I stopped for a bite to eat, before planting my garlic and shallots, all last years crop that hadn't reached a suitable size for use in the kitchen or hadn't been used yet. Strange isn't it when you grow things, harvest them and leave them in the veg rack they don't get used, but when you break them up, put them in a tin in the cupboard they do.
Planting complete I moved to the second bed. Having started in one corner I quickly discovered I had a major bind weed problem as well. The problem was most of it was under the path and the 4ft square bed on the other side of it. Leaving this bed I cleared this section of path and the square bed, before returning. Failing light and my back put paid to me completing it however, although I managed to complete 3/4 of it. I'm also refilling the beds making the plot look less like the Somme in the process.
In the greenhouse this are also progressing. The Musselburgh sown two weeks ago are now about 18mm tall and doing well away from the propogator. The Atlanta sown at the same time are doing nearly as well although the germination rate has been a little less. Also sown at the same time were Bedforshire Champion and Mammoth onions, but the germination of these has been very poor compared to the leeks and both trays are still on the propagator. The Greyhound are also doing ok, but have gone a little leggy. These were sown as an experiment so we'll have to see how they do.
With space in the propogator, I've now sown another batch of Musselburgh, half the Up-To-Date heritage onions, and a batch of Alisa Craig.
My seed potatoes, ordered from Edwin Tuckers, in November have also arrived and are now sitting in seed trays in the workshop chitting. I'm trying three new varieties this year, Estima, Cara, and International Kidney. The latter are supposed to be the equivalent of Jersey Royals, which are salad/new potatoes. It was interesting to note that most of the seed potatoes were bigger than those for the main crop Maris Piper.
With this order came the bulk of my onion sets, Red baron and Sturon. Following on from last year I'm planting these into cell trays, and now have approximately 50 of each in the greenhouse. From a message on the BBC Allotments forum it seems I'm not the only one to have discovered this method for getting ahead with your onion crop.
All I have to do now is ensure the plots are all dug in time, although I shall be racing the weather again with the Bracknell plot to get it cleared in time for planting potatoes - this is the bed I didn't get done last year and only started digging in October.

Time

2007-11-10T22:42:00.000Z

Its one of those things you never seem to have enough of. I've been trying to locate some for months to update the blog and now I have some the seasons all but over, just those winter sprouts, overwintering leeks and onions, the spring greens - which have gone in more in hope than anything else but I may get to that later.
There have been at least two updates that got planned in my head but never managed to make it into print. The first had some corny title based upon saving my onion crop from white rot during the wet spell and the second, well I'm not actually sure what that was going to be about now - probably something to do with Christmas potatoes, but they got taken out by blight at the end of September. I must remember to spray them next year and I might actually get decent crop out of them. Still you live and learn.
Any way lets try and pick up where I left things in July with a couple of photos. The first one shows the potato bed in the fore ground with the mixed sweetcorn and leek bed behind. The potatoes yielded really well, a 6ft section yielding a large trugs worth of Maris Piper and Pink Fir apple, although my wife still hasn't worked out how to cook the latter. Whilst weight wise its a good yield, the pest quotient was high and I've only managed to get about 20% that will store. Still this is better than off my father-in-laws plot. There was something drastically wrong with the manure he had this year and it has played havoc with ever crop, except for some reason the brassica's. The 28ft row of pink fir apple I planted on his plot yielded enough to fill a standard seed try, in weight about half of what I planted in the first place. The Maris on the other hand did crop, only we're getting about 30% that are usable or edible.
The sweetcorn turned into a real success, although our annual summer working holiday and the additional shows that seem to appear in the weekends following means that a lot of the crop spoilt - although this gives me an abundance of seed for next year.
The early leeks have also been good, although with the onset of recent wet weather some have shown signs of white rot infection which nearly did for the earlier onion crop. I've planted over-wintering onions, in pockets of clean top-soil made with a bulb planter in the hope of getting an early crop next year. However, before I plant next year's main crop I'm going to treat the bed(s) with Armatillox in an effort to eradicate it.
I do have an alternative now though, having been granted a half plot on the same allotments where my parents-in-law's plot is located. Its in need of a tidy up but it gives me space for more potatoes, carrots, and onions next year, although the year after this space will be curtailed by an asparagus bed. I shall be sowing seed for Connovers Colossal and Mary Washington in late February with a view to having 40 crowns ready to plant in 2009.

On my own plot I've actually made a start on next years potato bed, this is the meadow strip in the foreground of the second photo. Rising behind my daughter are the Jerusalem artichoke canes, which if the weather is ok tomorrow I shall get a chance to check on after a busy 3 weekends away. I may even get a chance to do some more digging, but that depends on how wet the ground actually is. I've started at what in the spring was the wet end, with a view to being able to progress at the drier end once the clay becomes too claggy to separate easily from the couch and bind weed roots. My dowsing with glyphosphate seemed to have a greater effect on the root pile than on the bulk of the plot, although it did retard its growth for several weeks, following the haircut I'd given it.

I've also now distributed the bag of leaf mold that was lurking in the foreground of the picture, to provide organic sustenance to the half of the bed that had the potaotes in but doesn't have the onions and leeks in. If I do manage to get there tomorrow I shall also find out whether my measures against white rot have been successful so far.

No Time

2007-07-12T23:21:00.000+01:00

The title pretty much sums things up at the moment. I've wanted to do an update for a while but just haven't had the time. I've also wanted to take some photos of progress, especially the milk cartons, but again haven't had the time.
I have managed to get a few things done in between fixing cars, attending shows, doing DIY, and wrangling the kids.
I've managed to harvest 3 bins of potatoes and resow, two bins of carrots, again resown, and sort out the crops in the greenhouse - even had the first couple of cucumbers. I've managed to get 40 odd cabbages planted, harvested with my parents-in-law's help a dozen greyhound, and replant them. I've managed to redig and clear last years cabbage/brussel bed and sow with this years crop. They were supposed to go into my own plot but I just haven't had time to get to and dig the bed. Where I'm going to put the winter cabbages and Spring greens I don't know yet.
I also took the decision that I was going to hit the meadow that the undug half of the allotment had become with glyphosphate, managed to cut it down, leave for a week to recover and then spray. I'll hopefully get a chance in a couple of weeks to check on how successful its been and respray if necessary - its likely to be September before I can get back to digging again.
In the bed where my early potatoes were I've now planted this years celery crop, which had actully come on nicely in pots in the cold frame, and some of the second batch of leeks - that only leaves me about 40 to find space for.
And to cap it all I've managed to post an update, even if only a short and wordy one.

Into the Nettle Patch

2007-05-20T21:34:00.000+01:00

Its been a busy fortnight, although not much of it has been spent gardening. We're now coming up to show season so I'm having to cram in work on the allotment, potting on, pricking out, and sowing, in between these, car maintenance, child sitting, and decorating.
Friday I managed to sneak down to the plot for an hour and earth up the potatoes. The Maris Piper could have done with being earthed up last week whilst the Pink fir apple were 4-5 days away depending upon the weather. Still they're done now so I shall pretty much forget about them until harvest time in 8 weeks or so.
Today I managed another couple of hours of digging. The soil is just right now, not soggy and clingy as in March or dry and solid as per two weeks ago. I can now dig up a thick clod of couch grass and shake the soil off - leaving me a nice knitted mat of roots. As you may guess from the title I've now made it sufficiently far down the second bed so as to hit the nettle patch - thats gives me three out of the five nasties. Thankfully there's no sign of either Mares Tails or Ground Elder. Of course nettles do have their uses, as plant feed, as an insecticide, and as a haven for beneficial insects - its just in their current position, sla bang in the middle of the plot, they're in the way. Provided the weather holds I shall get the second raised bed built next Friday. I have the day off and refuse to do decorating on my birthday.
On other fronts things are moving along. My father-in-law has done a stirling job this year and dug 70% of his plot on his own, including moving and erecting the cabbage cage - sort of a fruit cage but protects cabbages from pidgeons and some butterflies/Moths - single handed. This meant is was a quick trip down there on Saturday morning to plant the 17 Greyhound which were about to out-grow their 1.5L 6" pots. This in turn freed the pots for replanting with Ormskirk(Savoy) and Advantage(spring/summer cabbage) which were about to outgrow their vending cups, and in turn freed the vending cups for refilling with Celtic(Winter Cabbage). Thankfully I'd been saving cups again for the last couple of weeks, as had a couple of other people, which meant we just about had enough to prick out the 1 kilo(Chinese Cabbage), turnips, and swedes. I now need to find some more to prick out the next batch of Greyhound.
After a poor start and after sowing the whole of the remainder of the packet - that's about 14 seeds in total I now have enough Defender(Courgette) to plant out. The problem is that they're a good 6 weeks behind the Orelia(Yellow Courgette) which is typical since its the Defender I prefer. I still haven't managed to get my squashes to germinate. I'm considering resowing, but its really annoying especially as the Black Forest are £2.25 for 6 seeds.
Things have moved on in the greenhouse, although the space I managed to clear so I could plant the Early Sweet melons was userped by my wife for the pricked out turnips. I have managed to clear enough space to get the sweet heart in, which are now doing fine, the cucumbers - I had to resow with Tasty King as I couldn't get Bella at short notice, and two of the peppers. I'm now waiting for the early carrots so I can get the rest of the tomatoes in, which are now rapidly outgrowing their pots.
My other tubs of carrots have now all gone outside, actually they went out about 3 weeks ago, and are going from strength to strength. I'm hoping to be able to harvest some of these in a week or so. The first batch of potatoes have also come into flower which means they're nearly ready as well.
These are the two crops I seem to have got right this year, and have actully managed to have a successful successional sowing. If all goes to plan I'll have fresh carrots from now until christmas. The milk carton sown ones are now all coming up, along with a percentage of the parsnips - they've germinate in 3 of the cartons but not in the fourth. The carrot barrow looks like its also going to be successful again this year.
I'm hoping that by the time the tubs are harvested I'll be able to resow with the new Nantes type Autumn sown carrot that Thompson and Morgan are selling this year. If they live upto expectations I'll have fresh carrots on Christmas day as well.

Rain, Rain, Where art thou Rain?

2007-05-07T19:52:00.000+01:00

I was expecting rain last week and it didn't happen. I was expecting a prolonged spell of light rain overnight and it didn't happen. It stayed dry all morning until we went out to a car boot, at which point it started drizzling, before giving us an hour of heavy rain - enough to refill my water butts to 3/4 full and give all the weeds a new lease of life next week but not really enough to give the veg a much needed soaking. Unless we get some more in the week I shall have to go back to watering by the weekend.
On the bright side the prolonged dry spell has meant I've been able to push on with digging the second bed on the allotment. Pippa, having finished her raised beds found she had timber spare and being the generous soul she is donated them to a good cause - me. The four planks will enable me to get just over a third of the remaining two beds done, provided I can get them dug.
The current plan is to get to half way on the second bed, construct it then use it to plant up my sweetcorn and leeks. Having done this, I'll clear the couch and bind weed pile I created at the top of the plot, and dig the top half of the third bed for my winter and spring cabbages.
Things are also moving on, on the home plot. With the sweetcorn and climbing beans coming on I've been forced to plant them out into what will be the 3-sisters bed - all I need now is the squashes to germinate - they're being remarkably stubborn at present.
I've also been trying to clear space in the greenhouse so I can get the tomatoes, melons, and cucumbers into their grow bags. So far I've got as far as putting the the wire supports for the melons, and a set of supporting canes to go with these for two of them. With this station ready I put two Early Sweetheart - now all I have to do is work out what to do next.
I've also managed to find space and get 3 of the Alicante in. Sowing the other three is currently blocked by the first carrot crop which is 2-3 weeks away from being ready. The fact that I've got trays of marigolds and cabbage in various states of growth isn't helping at the moment either.
I can't see the space situation improving for a while. I've had to resow my brussels, second batch of greyhound, and lettuce after a complete failure in germination - probably due to using up last years seed. Having brought a new packet of White Gem I now have parsnip seedlings both in gutting and outside.
The runner beans, planted last week, are doing ok. One succumbed to sun scorch and one appears to have been moused - having had its lower hard outer coating stripped which means it keep s falling off the pole. I've now planted out the second batch, mainly because they were about to outgrow the rootrainers, and were staring to wilt after a long day in the sun. In some instances these were bigger than the first batch despite being sown 3 weeks later.
The next task will be to sow the next succession of carrots, most likely Autumn King, when the next root day occurs on the calendar, which according to The Gardeners Calendar is Wednesday.
All I need then is the right amount of rain and sun and I'll have prize winning carrots, maybe.

Not a Bad Weekend

2007-04-29T21:44:00.000+01:00

After three weeks I've finally managed to spend a weekend gardening, attempting to catchup on some of those necessary jobs for the growing season which is just about upon us.
First on the list was to prick out the remainder of the sweetcorn. I'd saved the seed last year and thrown a handful into 3 margarine tubs. I'd not expected much to germinate but about 95% did leaving me with 75 seedlings to pot on. I only need about 30 for my 3 sisters bed.
Next were the 90 leeks, that I'd ordered from Dobies. I don't actually recall ordering 90 but that's what they sent me. All of these went into recycled vending machine cups. They actually make good second stage flower pots. They're about 1.5" at the base and 2" at the top and about 3" deep. The sides are also ribbed like roottrainers forcing the development of a good root ball. The leeks will go out on the allotment in about 4 weeks - assuming I've managed to get the bed dug by then.
Then it was onto the tree seedlings - I lost count of the number of beech saplings then didn't bother to count the oak saplings but I used the best part of two builders barrows of soil/compost mix to pot them into 2L pots.
With it being too hot in the greenhouse I moved outside to sort the bean frame out, first burying the 4" soil pipe I'd extracted from the allotment down its center. This means I can now stick a hose in one end of the pipe and leave it to water itself without any evaporation problems, as the water disappears directly into the compost layer 3" down. By the time I'd finished the frame it was still to hot to plant the beans so I went back into the greenhouse to pot on the 15 greyhound into 1.5L pots. They should have good enough root balls to go out on my parents-in-laws allotment in about 3 weeks, when I can try the anti-club root mix the blind guy used on Carol Kleins Grow Your own Veg. Having placed these outside and covered with a net to keep the pigeons off I headed inside to start dinner before returning outside to start planting those beans. I've had mixed fortune in the past with germinating runners but this was seed I'd saved last year and had 31 out of 32 germinate - problem is the frame only has 30 poles. Like last year I'm going to double plant and the second batch, planted 3 weeks later have almost caught up - trouble is I'm not sure which are the french climbers and which are the runners as both trays were planted at the same time and I forgot to label them.
I'd intended to go to the allotment Sunday but with temperatures rising I decide to leave it till later and try and catch up on a few more jobs - which always take longer than expected. First up was to remove the flower pots from the water butt of Jeyes fluid that they've been soaking in for the last 6 weeks - just one of those things I haven't got around to. These were the last of the pots I'd acquired either from Freecycle or from Colin at work. They were also supposed to be the last that needed sterilising but typing this reminds me I have a load of seed trays that need doing.
I then decided to start fixing the milk bottle frames. Where I'd attached them to the brackets last year I'd only used a single screw, and the battens being softwood had twisted as a result. I'd therefore decide that bolting them with two bolts at each end would be better. It was at this point I discovered that the bolts I had were two short and a trip to B&Q was necessary to acquire ones of suitable length.
I'd promised to take some closeup pictures so you can see how its all put together. The first is some of last years bottles on their batten. Now I cut the base on these so they're hinged on the non-handle side, although John says to cut them with the hinge on the handle side. To be honest the bottom flaps are more trouble than they're worth so I'm dispensing with them this year - I'll let you know if this makes any difference.
When you're preparing the battens to support the bottles they need to be a tight fit through the handle - even so with 4 litre bottles you may still have to secure the bottle to the batten through the handle. I haven't done so yet but if I do I'll add a photo later. For short spans - up to about 4 feet softwood battens are ok, but longer than that they bend and twist severely under the weight of the bottles so you need to use hardwood - a lesson I've learnt from last year. The row of 4 litre bottles - I thing there are about 20 in total is 78 inches post to post. The batten is about 65mm wide and 23mm thick, with the corners chamfered off. As you can see from the photo all I have to do now is fill them with compost. I'm adding a 5" pot of 30/70 mix perlite/vermiculite to a 2 gallon bucket of fresh compost/used compost mixed 50/50 this year. I'm adding 1 scoop of fish, blood, and bone to this, and 10 5ml spoons of slow release fertiliser. This should improve on last years results - which weren't that bad; but I'm still very much on a learning curve with this growing method.

Having erected the row of 4litre bottles, which will get sown with carrots, and parsnips - this years trial veg, I headed off to the allotment - the time now approaching 17:30 and the temperature starting to wane. Some people think I'm a little insane but no so insane as to try digging a weed infested in the heat of the afternoon sun - especially as it felt more like June than the end of April.
I managed to get another couple of feet done, before giving the potatoes their second soaking in as many days. Normally I wouldn't water potatoes but they're in a raised bed and we haven't any any significant rain in 6 weeks so they need it. It's interesting to note the difference in growth rates of the different varieties. Most of my potatoes went in with in 3 days of one another, the chitted Maris Bard (first earlies) first then the main crop Maris Peer and Pink Fir Apple. Now the Maris Bard, on the plot at home - trench planted, are only just starting to show through, as are the Pink Fir Apple, but the Maris Peer are a good 4" through in most cases - there are a couple that are lagging- and I shall have to earth these up next weekend. The Charlottes and the remainder of the Fir Apple didn't go in till last weekend, the result of having to do DIY and then change the steering box on the wife's Landrover.
Hopefully next weekend I shall get some more digging done - otherwise I'm going to be looking for space for 90 leeks.

Full Steam Ahead

2007-04-01T22:58:00.000+01:00

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.

Ready to go

2007-03-26T19:47:00.000+01:00

I've done it! Well I've done the first one anyway. So next weekend it'll be out with the trowel and in with the maincrop potatoes, one row of Pink Fir Apple and one row of Maris Piper.
I should say a big thankyou to Sandra in Whitchurch-on-Thames for the donation of the timber to complete the first bed and enable me to build the second.
My attention will be diverted to my parents-in-law allotment to get the bed for the second early pototoes dug and manured. With a large quantity of manure now available I can also get my first earlies in at home using the same trench method as I used last year - I may even take a couple of photos for inclusion here this year.

In addition to completing the "potato" bed I've also finished the kids beds, using wire to lay in their planting grid. I've had to usurp some space as my onions, which I'd put in cell tray when the sets stated sprouting in February, have started out growing their cells. I'm not sure where I'm going to put the rest yet as they were due for bed 3 on the allotment which I doubt will get dug now until late Summer. As it is I've had to make space for the shallots next to the garlic at home and put them in, even though it is a little late.

After a number of questions on growing veg in pots and containers on various forums I subscribe to I was going to include something in this entry but I didn't have time to take the photo's I need. I'll try and get around to it on Friday and make a post accordingly.

Lastly I should record the state of the sowings in the greenhouse. I managed to pot on all the melon seedling and most of the cucumbers. All are currently in bottle propagators because of the low overnight temperatures. I'm not sure if this is what has done for the Bella, or whether some bug thing has done for them. In both cases their stems just above the surface of the compost have gone thin and the tops have wilted. I'll have to see if I've got any more seed and resow.
I've also got germination of the Alicante, at least enough for my needs, and nearly enough of the peppers. The pot sown onions have all germinated badly where as the ones sown in the bed have germinated really well. The pot sown leeks have also done ok but not as well as I'd expected. The Greyhound have also germinated but the peas are still doing badly with no new seedlings appearing. I'm sure I sowed something else but can't remember what - perhaps I should reread my last couple of posts.

Till Friday then...

One down - well almost

2007-03-18T18:15:00.000Z

I had hoped to get the first bed finished this afternoon, well at least the digging but it was not to be. Between my son and wife going down with flu, and my mother-in-law breaking her hand my plan got somewhat disrupted.
Things started well on Friday with the car passing its MOT leaving me free to spend 3 hours digging in the afternoon. By the time I finished I had about 9 feet of the bed left to go. The two hour slot Saturday morning turned into nearly 3 and I cleared 6 feet by half the bed width. The rubber ground tiles the council donated by dumping them at the allotment, and which now adorn portions of most plots, were actually working against me preventing the ground from drying, so I moved them over to where the next bed will be and went home for lunch.
I managed another couple of hours in the afternoon, running the 3 feet section left through to its complete length. I then managed another 4 feet by 18" strip before my back, the fading light, and the cold wind got to me. Tomorrow I thought I'd finish digging.
With my wife dashing off to look after her handicapped sister whilst my father-in-law took my mother-in-law to the hospital, I decided to trundle down to the workshop and assemble a few more bed sections. The last of the fly-tipped fencing I'd reclaimed, along with the 4"x4" post provided enough material for another 4 sections and the bed end.
After my wife returned I loaded the bits into the car and headed allotment wise. I decided the first task would be to get the first two bed sections into place, a task that was rudely interrupted by a squally sleet shower. Shower over I set the sections in place and then turned my attention to the end section. I moved part of the extraneous soil from where the path at the end is going to be, then set about digging out enough of the remaining strip to allow me to clear the rest. I cleared about 4 feet, enough to allow me to get the bed end in place. And there I finished. Hopefully if the weather is not atrocious during the week and the soil doesn't get too wet I'll be able to finish the digging next weekend. Not sure what I'm going to do about timber for the sides yet though.
On other fronts there's not much to report. I've sown another 6 bins with carrots, 2 with Autumn King, 2 with Parano, and 2 with the last of my heritage 'Blanche a Collet vert Hors Terre'. If all goes to plan, I'm going to try and over winter one of these in the green house and collect the seed next year. The only other news is that one or tow of the Alicante and Peppers are showing signs of germination, along with a large number of the Musselburgh leeks.
That's it for this week. Catch you next time.

Other Events

2007-03-12T22:09:00.000Z

Nothing survives contact with reality like a plan. Anyway, I did make it down to the plot to take those photos I promised. I'll start with the subject of yesterdays post and the growing pile of mixed roots and grass. If it keeps growing at its current rate I'll need to clear it before I can even start constructing the third bed.

The other photo is really a progress update. Because I didn't make it down to the plot until after 5pm I took the photos before I installed the second section of bed, which you can see in the mid-ground of the photo. Having installed the section I took the opportunity to level the bed, rather than having to try and do it at the end. By my calculations I'm now halfway through digging, and will require another two timber sections per side to complete the bed.

And now onto the subject of the title, a quick roundup of other things. The carrots sown in bins a month ago are now about and inch high, as are the ones sown in the greenhouse bed two weeks ago. The latter are from seed I saved a couple of years ago and just goes to prove that you can store carrot seed. I'll keep you updated and may take some photos once they get a little bigger.
Of the seeds sown in the propogator, virtually all of the cucumber and melon have germinated but I've yet to see anything from either the peppers or tomatoe.
Of the seed sown in pots using bottle propagators, I've a reasonable germination of the Tumbler, and signs of some germination of the onions. Of the seed sown in the guttering, there is as yet no signs of germination, neither is there from the seed sown under my home made cloche - I think the latter may be due to my soils' ability to shed water why dry rather than anything else.
On other fronts I've sown the first of my potaotes in bins, sowing one with Maris Bard, and the other with some Anya I saved from last years crop. I also took the opportunity to empty out the bins that my blight stricken Christmas crop in, only to discover lots of nice healthy potatoes. Amongst these were a sufficient number of edible size to provide us with potatoes for two meals.
I've also sown the first of this years greyhound crop, my first batch of sweet peas, and picked the last of last seasons sprouts. With a bit of luck I shall be picking a decent amount of Purple Sprouting this coming weekend.

And the weed pile gets bigger

2007-03-11T19:12:00.000Z

All things considered its been a good weekend. I had hoped to do more but the affects of this weeks flu bout sent me scurrying back to bed after an hour and a half on Saturday. I decided to take a little easier on Sunday, aiming to do two two hour stints, with a 2 hour lunch break in between. Things turned out a little differently.
The progress I'd made on Saturday meant I'd enough of the plot dug to be able to start constructing the first of the three main beds. Assembling the end, and two sides at home, I loaded the pieces into the Landy, along with the timber strip for the plot edge, and headed down the plot.
I set the edge strip in place, then set the end, driving it into place. I'd made a jig yesterday to enable me to set the spacing and height without having to keep measuring it. I placed the first side and began driving it home, only to find the center post hitting stones. Thankfully I'd brought a trowel with me and a quick poke about enabled me to set it in place. I then realised I hadn't brought a long straight edge with me so that I could set the other side level. A quick scout about and I located a metal post that would do the trick. The second side went in much easier, but then it was on the run of where the Globe Artichoke roots had been - they are a real pig to get out , some have been over 2.5ft deep and the top end of the plot is riddled with them. I'm not sure which is worse them or the couch (twitch).
After a quick chat with Pippa, who had assistance on had to construct her raised bed frames for her, I returned to a little digging managing another 2ft before returning home for lunch.
An hour and a half later I returned to the plot. I'd barely started when the first of the two Sarah's arrived, I'm not sure if one's a Sara as opposed to a Sarah, so I'll use the latter for the time being. Its amazing how much quicker digging goes when you've got someone to talk to, and before I knew it I'd got a strip 3ft wide by 6ft long dug. The first Sarah left at about this point and the other Sarah's husband turned up. I did a little more digging before wandering over for a chat, after enquiring if they wanted any rhubarb or Globe Artichokes, neither of which feature in my crop plan. They gratefully accepted the latter. By the time we'd finished talking there was a noticable chill in the air and the sun had disappeared behind the houses. Time to push on.
Anyway, my two hour afternoon slot had turned into nearly three but I've now got half of the first bed dug. As I've got the day off tomorrow, principally to get the car MOT tested, I hope to get down in the afternoon, and this time take the camera with me, so you can see some photos of my progress.

Some Progress

2007-03-04T22:35:00.000Z

When the sun came out on Thursday, and it failed to rain Tursday night and Friday I had a vague hope of getting a reasonable amount of digging done on Saturday, the the waether as usual had other ideas and chucked it down Friday night. So it was with little zeal I made it doen to the plot on Saturday afternoon.
My first job was to unload the 850l of last years leaf fall I had collected that morning from the Landrover into a builders bag. The collection of this had come about as a part of the conversation I'd had with Linda when I'd collected the 4 pallets she'd offered on freecycle (http://www.freecycle.org) a fortnight ago. She had a large pile of leaves she wanted shot of and I had a use for them.
Anyway leaves unloaded, and two of my fellow plot holders greeted, I stuck the spade in at the bottom of the plot, to continue the bed I'd started last week. It was a little squelchy but I dediced to give diggin a shot, after all you never know how wet the grounds going to be until you turn the first sod. Well it was pretty bad, far worse than last week. I did about a foot before giving up and trying my luck at the top end of the plot.
The soil up here was much drier, aleast dry enough to make digging a reasonable option. It also seems that this bit of the plot has been better tended as the couch here was not a thick, or maybe thats down to what ever crop had been grown here. As digging progressed I began to wonder what I was dealing with. What ever it is it has deep thick roots. My first reaction was that it was horseradish but now I'm not so sure. I'd ruled out asparagus and a conversation with my father-in-law confirmed this. As I dug out a couple of smallish clumps of rhubarb from the same area it has to be capable of competing, and my current suspiscion is that its globe artichokes; from what I know of Sea Kale I don't think this is what I'm dealing with. I'm sure I shall find out as the season progresses and those roots I haven't yet dug up produce some leaves. Anyway I managed to get just under 3ft of my 6ft wide bed dug before fading light and an aching back sent me homeward.
Whislt Today dawned dry, the forecast was not good, and the exhaust on the beast needed some attention. By the time I'd finished it was raining again so I headed for the greenhouse. After beign 80 in there on Friday and 82 yesterday it was a might chilly in there today, so I retreated inside to retrieve my fleece.
Insulated against the chill I returned to sow my greenhouse crops for this year in my new propogator. After last years problems germinating the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and melons I'd made the decision to get an electric propogator this year, and had treated myself at Christmas to a Super7; effectively a heated window box tray with 7 6"x2" mini seed trays with vented lids. Each mini-tray comfortably accomodates 6-8 seeds which is more than sufficient for my needs, when I only require 2 or 4 of a given plant. So with 7 tray I set about sowing. In tray 1 went the Allicante. In tray 2 went my 2 remaining Bella ( I thought I had more), and 3 Perpinex. In tray 3 went 6 market more - why do you get a dozen or so outdoor cucumber seeds per packet but on 4 F1 greenhouse types?. In tray 4 went a dozen world beater, what was left in the packet. In tray 5 went 6 Sweetheart (cantelope melon), and in tray 6 went 6 Early sweet - another melon variety. Since I only had 2 Bella I sowed the remaining two Prima Top in tray 7, incase the Bella don't germinate. now I have to wait and see if the investment was worth while.
With the current warming trend I also decided to push some other crops along. I've sown a rootrainers worth of Early Onwards, and assuming these germinate ok I'll sow another tray in 3 weeks time. I also decided to experiment with sowing parsnips and scorzonera in guttering, after all it can't be any worse than last years diasterous first outdoor sowing. Retrieving the guttering I'd stock piled when I changed it on the house a few years ago I cut it into 3ft lengths, filled with compost, and sowed 2 with White gem and the other with scorzonera. These were then placed on the raised bed in the greenhouse.
Taking the remaining seed and a packet of Early Nantes, I made my way out to the polycloche I'd made about a month ago, which has been sitting over a section of the veg bed since its construction. Lifting it off the bed revealed nice dry soil - so its obviously been doing its job. I sowed one row of parsnips down one edge and 1 row of scorzonera down the other with two rows of Nantes between. I'm hoping I'll be able to pull the carrots before the Scorzonera and Parsnips swamp them, and then get another row of late carrots, or possibly leeks between them. Watering well I replaced the cloche and retreated back to the greenhouse.
With the light beginning to fade filled 6 6" pots and made a liberal sowing of leeks - this is the first batch I've grown from seed; usually I buy them as seedlings from Dobies. These too I transfered to the raised bed and then covered them with a sheet of glass.
I'm away next weekend so the sweet peas are going to have to wait until I return. I'm hoping the weather is going to be a little better as felling chestnuts in the rain isn't going to be fun.

Rained Off

2007-02-25T17:36:00.000Z

Well the weather has pretty much put paid to any work on the allotment for the last couple of weeks. I did manage a couple of hours down there last Sunday but even then the ground was pretty saturated. With the persistent rain Thursday and Friday, and the deluge Saturday night I didn't even bother today - which is just a well as it's near enough rained one hour on, one hour off since 11.00 this morning.
With no real work possible on the allotment I've turned my attention to other things. Having taken the day off a week ago Friday I cleared the green house of plants and things likely to be damaged by the sulphur candles, then fumigated it. According to the manufacturers instructions I should have used 4 candles but money's tight so I made do with 2.
Of course this meant that last Saturday I had to move everything back, in the process discovering that we had mice in my shed - the seed potatoes have thus been moved back to the greenhouse which I know is now mouse resistant.
I then decided to turn the raised bed inside over, leading to the discovery that it had been thoroughly infiltrated by new root growth from next door's silver birch. This led to a three hour digging escapade whilst I removed them and dropped some paving slabs in on their edge to divert growth around the bed. If I get a problem this year then I'm just going to have to use a concrete jacket.
Having nicely turned the bed over an leveled in out I took the opportunity to sow some of the carrot seed I'd saved. If it germinates I'll at least know its viable even if I don't get any decent carrots.
That was about it for last weekend. Yesterday I was working on the car, installing a new set of Turbo hoses and do the well overdue 6000 mile oil change. This morning I dropped down to the parents-in-law allotment and harvested a few more sprouts, the last but one brussel top, and the first of the purple sprouting. Next week will be the last of the sprouts and brussel tops. All in all a good result.
With the persistent rain I moved back into the greenhouse this afternoon. My onion sets are starting to sprout so I've planted them all into cell trays. This should enable them all to start developing roots. I'll transplant them into their growing positions when the weather warms up a little more.
With temperatures creeping up now, it hasn't been below 44f in the greenhouse for two weeks overnight, and with day temperatures picking up to the mid 60's (Fahrenheit), I've decided to try growing some onion from seed. I've got both Brunswick and Bedfordshire Champion, acquired as part of a job lot we brought last year, so I've sown about 20 seeds of each in 9cm pots with 2litre bottle propagators. I've also sown my F1 tumbler tomatoes in the same way. All I have to do now is wait and hope they germinate.
Whilst doing all this I noticed that the Lilies, I'd moved into the greenhouse last November to overwinter, had started to sprout. Their previous location, under the staging was no longer suitable, so I decide to move them out onto the back edge of the raised bed, so they can take advantage of the warming rays of the sun - when it decides to show itself.
Anyway the planter I planted three years ago with my bargain 50p for 3 bulbs end of season clearance Asiatic lillies was covered in shoots, with tiny lily bulbs pushing out of the compost. I decided to do a little thinning only to discover lots of small white grubs. Lily beetle I thought, but I was wrong, as pointed out to me by a couple of the very generous contributors on the allotment forum. No I've got vine weevil - not sure which is worse. Any way if you're interested in knowing more about either pest you can do no worse than go to the following two sites
Lily Beetle http://www.rhs.org.uk/research/projects/lily_beetle.asp
Vine Weevil http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0600/vineweevil.asp
Anyway, back to my planter and to cut a long story short, I spent a couple of hours extracting all the myriad of lily bulbs from the soil, and as many vine weevil grubs as I could find, then repotted the largest of the bulbs in fresh soil in the planter. The rest I planted in 3 new 12" diameter tubs, and 7 margarine tubs - not a bad return on £1.50. Once I've acquire some more margarine tubs I'll tackle one of the other tubs which is also looking a little crowded.
Anyway you're interested in growing lilies I found a really good web site on the subject, called Mike's Backyard Garden. Well worth a look.
Hopefully the weather will improve during the week and I'll get a chance to get back to the long dig, otherwise the potatoes will be going in late this year.

Slow Going

2007-02-11T18:34:00.000Z

Well its been another hard weekend. This weeks deluge of water whether frozen or otherwise has made my life far more difficult, the plot being on clay soil.
My first phot this week show the progress I'd made by the end of Saturday, although I finish installing the second raised bed in the rain. I had thought the rain on Saturday night would make the plot unworkable on Sunday, but it didn't actually make much difference.

Just to show you what I'm up against I took some closeups, first of the couch on the plot so you can see just how dense it is, and then of the roots so that you can see how dense and matted they are.

With the ground as wet as it now is I've also had to change tactics, or risk losing too much soil from the plot, so I'm creating a couch root pile in the top corner. When the weather warms up and I've cleared the rest of the plot I'll return to the pile and sort it out - even if it means dowsing the lot with glyphosphate. I suspect I'm going to have to treat the new paths in this way to kill the couch under the bark chippings the council put down to mark the boundaries of the plot.

By the end of Sunday afternoon I'd completed the installation of the remaining raised bed that defines the lower edge of the plot. Next weekend I'll clean the excess soil out of the base of the compost heap and bring the soil level in the bed to the top; I can then plant the Jerusalem artichokes I was generously given in mid January.

Whilst on the subject of planting, I put my garlic in this afternoon. I'm just hoping it grows this year rather than just vanishing without trace like it did last year. Just as an illustration of the difference between the garden plot and the allotment it took me 15 minutes to fork through and weed the 2ft by 8ft section of bed for the garlic as opposed to 2.5 hours it took me to dig the 3ft by 6ft section for the artichoke bed.

I'm also indulging in another experiment. I acquired half a dozen steel waste paper bins 12" square and 16" deep from a skip before Christmas. Having sterilised them by soaking for 7 days in a strong solution of Jeys fluid and drilled 5 20mm drainage holes in the base, I filled two of them with compost and sowed Early Nantes. They are now in the greenhouse, with a sheet of glass over them. With a bit of luck I'll have a nice batch of carrots in about 12 weeks.

Anyway I'll leave you with another shot of the plot. I've set up a string line along the right hand edge of the plot in preporation for the big dig - getting a bed ready for my potatoes by Easter.

Welcome to Couch and Chaffer Central

2007-02-04T19:31:00.000Z

Well its been a busy weekend. Yesterday I spent making preparations, cutting bits of timber I'd accumulated over the years to make edging for raised beds, acquiring a few pallets with which to put together a compost heap, and assembling some old scaffold boards into 1mx1m boxes to make the raised beds which my son and daughter want to grow things in.
With it brightening up after lunch and with my wife off to a craft day with my daughter my son and I made our way down to my new allotment. The council had dropped a load of bark chippings in place marking the boundaries between my half plot and my neighbours, and as you can see from the photo - my son is standing at the lower left corner of the plot - its been growing grass for some time. Talking to Sahra and Chris, my immediate neighbours on the right, the double plot, now divided into 4 half plots, hasn't been cultivated at all for 16 months and had been poorly maintained for a couple of years before that - they've only been on the plot for 3 years.
I had hoped to get a lot done but once I started I knew this was not going to be the case. I suppose it must have taken me a good couple of hours to laboriously dig the 1mx1m square into which I was going to place the raised bed, which in the fullness of time, will be the bed my son is going to cultivate (I hope :-)). Out of this square came 1 muck bucket of couch roots and enough chaffer grubs, leather jackets, and cut worm to keep several birds well fed for a week.
With time moving on and the continual sound of "I'm cold", "My feet are freezing", "When are we going home", ringing in my ears I decide that the second raised bed would have to wait as its frame is more transportable that the pallets for the compost heap.
Decision made I moved to the other corner of the plot and started on the space for the compost heap. I thought at first that this corner was a little better but a couple of muck buckets later in the fading light I'd managed to clear the bulk of the 1.5m by 1m space for the compost heap. Complaining as he had most of the afternoon he managed to extract himself from the car whilst I assembled the heap all for the chance to take my photo :-(.
Just to finish things off I took a photo of the whole plot again just for a record. Given the light levels I'll have to take a better photo next time I go down, probably next weeked if I'm going to stand a chance of getting the potatoe bed done in time for Easter.

Prelude to a new Season

2007-01-09T20:07:00.000Z

Yet again I've been meaning to write for weeks but haven't managed to get around to it. In a way I'm rather pleased as it was going to be a bit of a spleen vent of the loss of all my second crop potatoes to blight.
On the bright side, I can report a good crop of sprouts, and a few peppers - yes the plants did produce a few eventually, even though they weren't very big.
I'm now looking forward to 2007. All my seed potatoes have been ordered and I've received two varieties, Pink Fir Apple and Charlotte, delivered with my new Super7 electric windowsill propogator. This has of course meant sorting power out for the greenhouse but then we can't have everything, can we.
Given my lack of ground space, the pink fir apple are all going in bins. I'll also plant one bin of Maris Bard, one of Charlotte, and one with the Anya I had left from last year.
Carrots will be done in much the same way as last year, although I've managed to acquire five steel waste bins approx 12" square and 16" deep which I shall convert for carrot growing.
Given my poor germination of parsnips, Scorzonera, and ground sown carrots last year, my next project is a cloche based upon a design by Geoff Hamilton of BBC gardeners world fame. I'm also hope to get some 4m wide agricultural polythene for the frames at the allotment so I can use them as cloches as I did last year.
My other experiment for the year is going to be Jerusalem Artichoke, inspired by the new BBC series "Grow Your Own Veg". Whilst not a fan of Carol Klein this looks to be an interesting vegetable to try.
Think that's about it for now. See you all later in the year.

Seasons End

2006-10-13T22:15:00.000+01:00

I've been meaning to write an end of season update for several weeks now but never seem to have the time. I've published the draft I wrote in July without changes, purely because I've forgotten what else I wanted to say.
For me this entry is really a what went right what went wrong memory jogger for next year. I think I'll start on the subject of beans. Its not been a good year and in the end mine turned out better than my mother-in-laws and went on producing well into September. Looking back I don't think the early start benifitted them and starting them three weeks later next year shouldn't do any harm.
Whilst we had some peas, we didn't have many. Judging by this years planting, not necessarily a good thing to do starting them in root trainers and planting out may be the way to go next year.
Picking up on the July update the one thing that went right this year were my potatoes. Other than the Red Duke of York everything went well, an I'm really impressed with the Charlotte so I shal be definately planting these next year. I had wanted to plant these as a second crop, but D.T.Browns had run out and sent Nicola instead. I can't specifically tell but the germination of these seems bad and I guess I've lost about 50% whilst I think I only lost one of the Carlingford. The problem I now have is blight I've lost two bins and a couple of plants in the rows in the garden. Last time I checked on the ones in the allotment - a couple of weeks ago - several of these were also suffering. They've all been earthed up now for about 4 weeks so I shall see what sort of crop I end up with.
The other successes of the year have been the milk carton carrots and the courgettes - if I ignore the Orelia. The carrots, all varieties have cropped faily well, and unlike the ground sown ones did actully germinate. Whilst the carton carrots have now all been harvested we still have the wheel barrow to harvest and the additional tub carrots.
Based on this years performance if anybody is thinking of growing courgettes I would recommend defender, they are still flowering and producing both in the garden and on the allotment. The allotment ones did go through a bad patch with mildrew about 4 weeks ago but a concerted hack with the knife and the removal of most of the affected leaves seems to have spurred them back into life.
Things have not all been rosy though. The lettuce has been something of a hit and miss, and the cabbage whites/moths did for most of my winter cabbage, sprouting broccoli, and turnips (again). I suspect they also did for 90% of my spring cabbage seedlings.
The dry weather and my soil have again stunted my leeks and produced a feeble sweetcorn crop, certainly compared to last year. The ones in my garden did considerably better than the ones on the allotment where we managed 6 decent cobs from 18 plants.
The other success from the garden plot has been the celery - my judicous application of water and the rains arrived at the right time to give me a viable crop. As this is the first year I've tried celery I'm more than happy with the results.
Things in the green house have been rather mixed. The tomatoe crop has been rather poor given the size of the plants, and about 70% of the tomatoes have split, this despite providing a gallon of water per day per growbag. I'm beginning to suspect that the splitting has more to do with temperature and humidity fluctuation than water provision.
The Cucumbers suffered badly in the hot spell in August, two of them nearly succumbing to wilt (I think). They recovered briefly, but have faded badly in the last few days - I suspect they are also being affected by something else but can't determine what.
The other greenhouse crop, hasn't been a crop that is. Having initially had a disaster with germination, the peppers have done nothing except grow leaves. The one's I gave my mother-in-law that she stuck in the border flowered in early September and produced a few pitiful fruits. The ones in the greenhouse have until the last week refused to flower at all. Yes they are now flowering but I suspect its too late for any sort of crop, let alone ripening one.
The other failure in the greenhouse, to date, has been anything sown in the raised beds. I haven't worked out why. Even the late lettuce, all-year-round, has refused to grow and yet its doing ok in the cold-frame. If I can get a load of leaf mould I'll try adding that to get some moisture retention and see if it help any. I'm also going to add a heavy dose of lime and see if I can lift the ph closer to 7.
Think thats about it for now. The tomatoes are going out the greenhouse this weekend, and possibly whats left of the cucumbers. I shall also have to think about bringing the cacti indoors and moving the potatoe bins into the greenhouse, just so I can ensure their survival to provide my christmas new potatoe crop.

A Mixed Harvest

2006-07-23T13:16:00.000+01:00

A mixed harvest, says it all really. As we approach the end of July and crops begin to ripen what has worked this year and what hasn't becomes apparent.
The Red Duke of York (first earlies) did really badly both in the ground, at two golf ball sized potatoes per plant, and in the potatoe bin, where they did slightly better. The Charlotte did considerably better. From the potatoe bin I got nearly 3lb of slightly larger than golf ball sized potatoes, but up on the allotment, the two plants I've so far dug have yield about 4 lbs of potatoes each ranging in size from golf balls to double tennis ball size (ie put two tennis balls side by side).
The single main crop maris which I stuck at the end of the row yielded fewer but larger potatoes, about the same weight though.
My first early Maris Peer have also yielded about 3lb per plant of slightly larger than tennis ball size, not bad considering this is the first year this ground has been productive. A testament to how hungry my soil is, is that the Maris were trench planted into a mix of horse manure and sawdust covered with newspaper, 70% of which has gone in the 16 weeks since I planted.
My peas have been disappointing, and my runner beans are yet to do anything substantial, despite the ones I grew for my mother-in-law having now virtually finished, ever though they went in over 6 weeks later.
My chinese cabbage was a sort of success although most of it bolted, which is what is happening to my lettuce, at the allotment, currently. The lettuce in the milk cartons is doing far batter and I'm very pleased with the results. Of the three varieties I'm currently growing the Webbs do best followed by the little gem, and lastly the rusty. Also after a poor start the carrots have picked up and are a match for the ones in the "Carrot Barrow" and the pots.
The tomatoes have all reached the greenhouse roof and I have a number of trusses set but no ripe fruit as yet from these, although I've had a couple of handfuls from the tumbler in the hanging baskets. The cucumbers continue to produce in batches, so we get 5 or six ripe over a period of two days then have to wait a week for the next batch. The peppers continue to grow but there's no sign of either flowers or fruit.

Ups and Downs

2006-06-19T22:15:00.000+01:00

Another photo update really although hopefully it won' turn into another essay like last time.
First up the potatoe saga. I planted these early in bins in the greenhouse hoping to steal a March and get nice new potatoes. Unfortunately I'm still learning on this one. As you can see the foliage had gone yellow, so I thought they were ready. There were sort of. They could have done with more water or another week or both. So I have 1lb 6oz of mixed Anya (we think) and the odd Maris Bard.
Next a quick run around the other bigs of the garden plot. First in the greenhouse. I've still got potatoes in the bins in the foreground, although they're getting to the "need to be harvested stage". After the first bin I've been watering them alot to try and swell the tubers so I get a decent crop.
In the right hand foreground corner are the tomatoes - all Alicante I think - we had a little problem with mixing up labels. If I'm lucky the Tumbler ended up in the hanging baskets. Next we have the six peppers, although I've only got 3 in at present. The others aren't big enough yet.
Lastly at the back and intent on taking over are the cucumbers, two per grow bag. We've had one cucumber off them already, and should get a load more this weekend.
Next the plot outside. The section upto the Pea enclosure is the new bit this year, and actually seems to be doing better than the piece I've been working for 5 years. Ho-Hum.Anyway, in the foreground we have sweetcorn interplanted with leeks. Next we have three rows of self-blanching celery. It should be planted more in a block, but thats the space I had left after the sweetcorn went in.
Normally in this sort of dry weather I'd be watering but with a hose pipe ban I'm saving all the water for the greenhouse and containers. Next we have the potatoes, Two rows of Maris Bard with a middle row of Red Duke of York.
One the container front, things are progressing. Starting with the 4 litre milk cartons, which I've had to secure with screws, the lettuce are going great guns, whilst the carrots are plodding a bit. I've a mixed planting in alternate containers of "White Carrots" and Early Nantes. It would appear that cutting the timber to exactly fit the handle space is critical. Whilst it's thick enough with the 4-litre bottles its not wide enough and they sag - hence the screw fixings.

On the 2-litre front I'm much happier.
The timber is both thick enough and wide enough and supports the bottles better. The lower row, with the established lettuces went in two weeks ago, 3 days after the 4-litre row, whilst the upper row only went in last Friday.

Elsewhere I'm giving containers a go for various things. I'm still trying to work out what works in window boxes, apart form lettuce which seems to grow anywhere. I've got beetroot in in at the moment - sorry no photo - but am not overly happy with it. Time will tell. In the mean time I've pressed all my large pots into service. The 3 deep 10" pots all have carrots in as does the big blue planter. The shallower 15" pots have beetroot, baby turnips, and something else. When it comes up I might know what it is.

Thats's about it for this time. I'll leave you with the first Lily flower of this year. Not bad for a 50p end-of-season pack at Wyevale 3 years ago.

Too little time

2006-06-01T00:02:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I've had time to write much. We're into show season and the last few weeks have seen a lot of Regia activity, something that will occupy the next two weekends.
I'm trying to keep up with things in the greenhouse, veg patch, and lottie, and just about succeeding - the cold weather slowing things down is helping. I should make it down the lottie tonight (Thursday) after work to get some more lettuce and chinease cabbage in - One Kilo as opposed to the China Blue already in.
This update is really about pictures of progress.

We'll start in the greenhouse with the potatoes. The photo on the left is the two big bins which were planted first with a mix of Anya and a few odd Maris Bard. The one on the right is the mixed Maris Bard/Anya bin planted about 3 weeks later and the Red Duke of York. By the looks of things these two will be ready first.

The potatoe bins are actually taking up most of the centre aisle in the greenhouse and as a result a couple of them have suffered a little as my wife and I go in and out. At the back of the greenhouse are the four cucumbers, this should be the hottest and most humid part. Next round will be the peppers - these will go in their bags next week.
Finally in the stretch to the door are the Tomatoes. I managed to get these in tonight so should now push on. I've also got a few tumbler which I'm going to try in the hanging baskets - all in an attempt to maximize growing space. The ones in the bags should all be Alicante - due to a mix up in labling they may not be.
Moving outside we have the sweetcorn which I interplant with leeks. You'll also notice my experiment with milk containers after seeing John's site dedicated to growing in this fashion. If I could remember the web address I'd link it in but I can't at the moment and I'm pushed for time. These have just been put up and are planted with a mix of lettuce (in the 2 litre containers) and carrots ( in the 4 litre containers).Next are the potatoes, three rows, the outer two being Maris Peer - 1st Early - and the middle Red Duke of York - another 1st Early. These all went in at the end of April so should be ready in about another 4 weeks.
Then its onto the pea cage. I had very poor germination so started a second batch in rootrainers in the greenhouse. I managed to get these planted Tuesday evening. You may also notice a block of China Blue in the foreground.

Lastly for the veg patch is the onions - which are doing ok and the miserable failure that is the rest of it - there's half a half row of parsnips, no scozenoza, a few spring onions, the odd bit of perpetual spinach, a dismal row of second sowing carrots, and 5 garlic out of 30 cloves planted.

Away from the plot propper is my carrot barrow. Its an old builders barrow that doesn't function as a barrow any longer. Last year I was successfull in growing carrots in it so am repeating this year again. Like last year I've sown Autumn King. The seedlings are about three weeks old.

Foiled by the weather - Almost

2006-04-23T22:52:00.000+01:00

It's certainly been a busy weekend, although when I got up this moring things were looking rather bleak in respect of completing the tasks I'd set myself this weekend. Saturday started with me killing time waiting for a phone call to arrange a pickup of the galvanised water tank that had been offered on freecycle (http://www.freecycle.org). I used the time to earth up the potatoe bins in the greenhouse as they're now growing out the top (see photo below right).
Then it was off to collect the tank and do a little shopping. I needed some nylon string to build the bean frame. A quick run round the cheapshops, market and Woolworths, yielded a suitable candidate, although not what I actually wanted. It also yielded another 4 packets of flower seeds (Cloeus, Lavender, Penstamens, and Sweetpeas) and two packs of Lilies, and a planter to put them in. Woolworths have all their seeds/bulbs/plants on buy 1 get 1 free at the moment.
Back home I set about the bean frame, as you can see frome the photo (left), and planting the runnerbeans out - they're all 12-16" tall so I couldn't keep them inside any longer. My mother-in-law has given me 10m of fleece so I can cover them if it looks like we'll get a frost.
After lunch I mixed up some more compost, I add 1 shovel of washed sharp sand to a barrow of peat free compost when sowing or potting on as it improves the drainage. This enabled me to get on with sowing the Frnechbeans, Lettuce, Chinease Cabbage, and Broccoli. Since I only sowed 16 french beans I sowed half the Sweet peas in the other half of the rootrainer tray.
My wife then joined me to prick out her Mesmeranthiums, Nicotiana, Cornflowers, and Lupins, as well as to sow the Lavender, Coleus, Penstamens, and Holyhocks. We also gave the kids a seed tray each in which to sow French Marigolds, from seed we collected last year.
All this activity in the greenhouse meant we ran out of space, so I was forced to adjourn to the workshop to try and put together a second set of staging. I haven't forgotten that I was going to put some plans together of how to make one - I just haven't had time to do it yet.
By this time the sun was fast disappering, and the temperature was dropping rapidly. Having not checked the weather forecast I feared a frost and duely got the fleece out :-(
So dawned Sunday morning, with my wife racing off to the cancelled car boot - yup it was raining saturating the fleece if nothing else. It also looked like my well laid plans would be well and truely sunk. With nothing else for it I proceeded to the workshop to complete the staging - digging through my store for suitable material.
Staging completed we reorganized the greenhouse, finding room for at least another 3 seed trays, before adjoruning for lunch. By this time the weather was showing signs of significant improvement.
Duely fed and with overcast skies but no rain I proceeded to the allotment determined to get the potatoes in.
If you remember I'm working part of my parents-in-law allotment. I've been given the bed in the left half of what used to be the fruit cage - which I shall fill with Brassicas of various descriptions, and the short bed on the otherside between the Asparagus and the path (see photo below right). The gent gamely digging away in the background is my father-in-law who's trying to catch up after spending the last 4 months building his garage and shed/workshop. He's currently digging the area where his Broard beans, Beetroot, French beans, and carrots will go.
Having managed to get down to the allotment on Friday evening I only had about 5 feet of the potatoe bed to dig, which I achieved in just over an hour. My father-in-law had managed about 7 feet of the bed he was working, but then that bed has been worked for the last 5 years and had potatoes in last year - the bit I was digging hadn't.
Digging completed I got out the rake and levelled it off, whilst my father-in-law got out, line and measure to set the rows out for me. At 7'6" wide the bed in only just large enough for 3 rows, and I managed to shoe horn my remaining stock of pototoes, which had got muddled up when I dropped the box I was carrying them in, into the 17' of usable bed. You'll note the scoflding plank depressions I use to avoid walking on the bed.
Potatoes planted I retired home to sort out a couple of those odd jobs that needed doing, amongst them digging up the rasperry runners from where they escape the bed into the grass patch - one day it may become a lawn- and moving some of them into spaces in the bed itself.
In the fading light of eveing I then set about sorting out the tank I'd collected. One of the taps had been bent down, enlarging its mounting hole and creasing the tank, and the galvanised header tank was also still attached. A few taps with the sledge hammer sorted the tap out, so I could remove it cleanly with the angle grinder, and 10 minutes of careful work, again with the angle grinder saw the removal of the header tank. 20 minutes of work with a large ball pein hammer and a suitable timber block has repaired the creased area of the tank, so now all I need to do is find two suitable blanking fillets, and the tank will hold water again.
So that's it for this week. In parting for this week I thought I'd show you what the veg patch currently looks like. Not much to see really, although there are definate signs of peas coming through in the pea cage. So until next time, Waes Hael.

Its the weekend after Easter

2006-04-22T00:01:00.000+01:00

With a fair wind this will be the first of a double update this weekend - hopefully the second will be mostly pictures so you can see what I've been upto.
No update last week because I was away on my other project - http://www.wychurst.co.uk if you're curious.
Anyway things are now progressing. The potatoes I planted in Feb in the bins are now growing out the top - that's nearly 18" of growth in 2 weeks. I'm now desperately trying to get them earthed up. I moved the runnerbeans outside to harden off on Tuesday and since they're now nearly 12" tall I need to get them in the ground this weekend. I'll keep an eye on the weather and cover them with a fleece if it looks like we'll get a frost.
From the other plantings, all the sweetcorn is up with about 85% germination, I've had 90% on the sunflower seeds, and 80% on the rye. The second batch of lettuce and brussels are growing nicely, and the strawberry's that went in in early March are at last showing signs of doing something. I've still not got any peppers, and the second batch of Alicante are doing as badly as the first - although I've had three more from the first batch come up. I'll get a couple of Roma, a plum tomato, from the garden center in a couple of weeks.
The beetroot sown in the window boxes is putting on good growth, but why when you sow in neat rows do they come up all over the shop - I'm going to have to re-organize them over the weekend. I've also got good growth from the rocket, but the American Salad is refusing to do anything.
Outdoors, the onions are growing although a little slow compared to others at my mother-in-laws allotment. The first batch of peas are also starting to show through although its a little early to tell how good a germination I've got. As to the other outdoor sowings - still no sign of anything.
On the allotment front I'm 2/3 of the way through the potatoe bed. I need to get that finished this weekend so that I can get the rest of the potatoes in. It's going to be a bit of a squash but I need to get three rows in, so I may end up trenching them rather than digging holes and dropping them in.
Apart from that I want to get some more sowing done. I'm going to sow Purple Teepee (French Beans) in the rootrainers released by planting the runner beans, and split a seed tray, sowing One Kilo (Chinease Cabbage), Purple Sprouting, and Webbs Wonderful, each to a third of the tray. If I can find room I'd like to get in another couple of rows of carrots, and of course I've still to sow the old wheel barrow that worked so well last year.
I think thats about it - if all goes to plan I'll see you Sunday for another update.

Winter's Back and Seed Muncher's Revenge

2006-04-09T19:48:00.000+01:00

Yes its been an 0dd week. 88 in the greenhouse yesterday and a short snow shower today - lasted all of two minutes. Forecast is for frost tonight but as it's still raining I'm not putting the fleece out; just hope the onions survive.
No sign of much else outside although there may be a hint that the peas'll be through in the week - hopefully later rather than early with the cold snap projected.
What ever is getting into the greenhouse, god only knows how, is really beginning to bug me. It's had over 40 runner beans, the same quantity of sweetcorn and sweet peas, and to cap it all it chopped off one of the cucumbers, after I'd potted them on, at soil level last night and then ate the leaves off every one of the pepper seedlings. I really can't afford to keep having to resow, especally the cucumber.
Anyway, my potates in their bins go from strength to strength. I've had to add 8" of soil to one bin as the potatoes in it reached nerly 14". Those in the second bin are an inch or so behind so I can get away with leaving those till mid week. It has however been a potatoe planting weekend. The trial Red Duke of York, first early, I planted both in another bin and in a row outside. I've also put in two rows of Maris Bard (remember my rows are only 8' long - the width of the veg patch), and two rows of garlic - my first attempt so we shall see what we get.
In the green house, apart from sealing every hole I could find, it's been pricking out time. I've done the chinease cabbage (primarily for the tortoise), lettuce (both Little Gem and Rusty), Cabbage (Greyhound), and the first batch of Brussels - I only had 9 germinate and three of those are rather weak. I want 16 so I can try the "block" planting technique which seems to be favoured at the allotments where my parents-in-law's allotment is - of which I'm working about a third this year. The wisdom seems to be, throw out the book and plant them 12" apart with a 24" wooden fence about them and a net over the top to keep the pigeons off. We'll see if it works. I've also repotted the courgettes, very carefully, into 6" pots - they'll go directly into the ground once the temperatures rise sufficiently.
With the day time highs, most of what was sown last weekend has germinated. I'm leaving the covers on though until I determine if I've cured the seed/seedling muncher problem.
Down on the allotment I've finished digging over what will be the Brassica bed, and raked two thirds of in into a fine tilth. It'll now have 3-4 weeks to settle before I need to plant anything. My next priority is going to be the potatoe bed. I'm away over Easter so nothing further will get done until the weekend after - I shall try and do what I did this week, get down on the Friday night after work for an hour or so and then, with no birthday party to interupt the weekend, I stand a chance of getting it dug over by Sunday evening - weather, wife, and kids permitting of course.
I almost forgot, as I'm using this as a diary I need to record this weeks sowings. So apart from the replacement cucumber (Prima), Runner Beans (Prizewinner), and Peppers (World Beater), there was also a second batch of Brussels, Little Gem, and Rusty, and 4 of the outdoor bush cucumber Marketmore.

Spring is Sprung

2006-04-02T18:55:00.000+01:00

Hasn't the weather been good, intermitant showers and bright sunshine during the day and much needed heavier rain at night.
Apart from the weather other things are moving on. The onion sets put in two weeks ago are starting to sprout although there's no sign of carrot seedlings yet - put in at the same time.
I've now added another three rows of seeds, 1 row parsnips, 1 half row spring onions, 1 half row Scorzonera (Salsify), 1 half row perpetual spinach, and one half row swiss chard.
I'm still waiting for the potatoes to chit but what ever happens most will go in next weekend - I'm not waiting much longer.
Things are progressing in the greenhouse now I've fixed the broken lower panes to keep Albert (the mouse who ate the sweet pea and sweetcorn seeds) out. It means I've had to resow both. I've also sown Beetroot, Rocket, American Salad into the window boxes I had spare - these are sitting on top of the wall round the raised bed in the greenhouse.
As far as previous sowings go, the first batch of runner beans (sown early Feb) are now aout 3" tall with 4 goodsize leaves. One tray of the second batch are through, with about 80% germination - the second tray with a different variety are just starting to show signs of coming through.
My 4 cucumbers have germinated, but I've nothing yet from the peppers, tomatoes (Alicante and Tumbler), Strawberies, or Celery. The Brussel sprouts have had a poor showing so I've sown another batch. The Chinease cabbage, Greyhound, Lettuce (Little Gem and Rusty), and Onions (Brunswick) are all through so I'll be pricking out next week (I suspect). The Courgets only went in last week so I won't expect anything from them till next week.
Oh the other things that went in this week were Melons (first try this year), Sunflowers (mainly for the birds), Rye (again for the birds), French Marigolds (from last years seed), and Sovoys.
I've also made a start on the beds I'm taking over on my Father-in-Law's plot. With a bit of luck I'll finish the first bed (8'x18') next Sunday, Saturday's out - a "must attend" birthday party. This bed's actually for the Brassica's. Then I need to push on and dig the other bed which is for the potatoe overflow from home - probably the Maris Peer main crop.
Think that's about it for now - see you all next week.

Much needed rain

2006-03-27T09:38:00.000+01:00

Why do we always complain about the weather? When its dry as it has been we always complainwe haven't any rain and when it rains we complain because it's not dry and it stops us getting on.
So it's been this weekend.
Saturday I managed to get one side of the pea cage assembled, then down came the rain and forced a halt to proceedings. I was then fored back into my workshop to resaw enough timber to create the rest of the cage.
Sunday morning was again dry and I started it the same way as I had done on Saturday, by sifting another 3 builders barrows of soil nto the raised bed in the greenhouse - I guess I'm about half done now. Then it was back to the pea cage.
With this completed I put in the row of peas and assembled the cage about them. I also managed to sow a row of carrots next to the onions.
After lunch, and my wife has had enough of the kids squabbing so I'm forced to take my son with me down to my father-in-law's allotment - they're turning about half of it over to me this year so I've got some digging to do. Of couse as I pull up there's to first sign of the arriving rain on my windscreen. Still press on. I managed about 40 minutes before the rain drove me back to my mother-in-laws for a cup of coffee.
Here's hoping next weekend is dryer - it can rain at night.
Oh and a name check for my wife, Elisabeth, since she complain I'd named the kids and not her good self. Happy Now?

Another day out of the office

2006-03-24T23:15:00.000Z

As March draws to a close I'm being forced to use up the last of the current years leave - shame :-)
The plan for today was fairly simple, drop my son off at school, go down to my mother-in-laws, take a look at her allotment and discuss which areas I could use for my veg, then off down the garden center to get the compost for the raised bed in the greenhouse and the growbags for this years tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers.
It was then a case of deciding which job to do next. Prior to the greenhouse being where it is and it being a veg patch the area to the rear I had used as a dumping ground for all my grass sods and other rooty rubbish. I hadn't bothered to clear this when it was a veg patch and had only cleared some of it when I'd put down the footings for the greenhouse. This left the ground at the rear left hand corner a little high.

Now one of the jobs I needed to do was to install one of my unused water butts to save the water runoff from the greenhouse. Now I put all of my water butts on homemade wooden stands about 16" high - it makes filling watering cans easier if I don't want to dunk them. The stands sit on a paving slab laid on the ground. So to fit the butt I needed a stand, and to have room for the stand and butt I had some digging to do. I also have that raised bed in the green house to three quarters fill with soil before I add a mixed layer of soil and compost.
So four and a half builders barrows of sieved soil later, and an hour in the workshop the water butt is installed. Onto the next task, to finish the seed tray staging, or at least as much as I've spare timber for. That's another two hours gone - well I'm entitled to a lunch break arn't I?

Next on the list is the net frames to cover the peas. Back to my wood stack to see what I've still got left from the Ebay lot I brought last year. Then its time to start cutting, well until the table saw shuts down because it's getting too hot - I'm going to have to strip and clean it at some point, when I've got time.
I've still got and hour or so of daylight left so I think I'll get some onion sets in. They're going at the far end of the patch closest to the fence. I've not dug that area this year so hopefully I'll get a better crop this year. First I've got to move the anti-pigeon frame I constructed last year to keep the B****rs off the cabages, then extract the support I put up for the french beans, do a little weeding, apply rake, apply feet, apply rake lightly, form shallow drill with hoe along edge of board, place onions, lighty replace soil with fingers ensuring sets remain up right. Repeat with second row.
All in all a good day's gardening.

Trials and Tribulations

2006-03-22T00:00:00.000Z

Its been a couple of interesting days. Yes a couple of those Chinese Curses sort of days. I duly rang the parish council on Monday morning - first question where do you live; Ah so you're not in the parish then - simple answer no chance unless hell freezes over.
So strike one. I then set about further researching the allotments managed by Bracknell council. There are some about as close to me as the Winkfield ones - the waiting list according to the web site two years. I'll have to see if I get a reply to my email as to what happens next.
My wife meanwhile had been taking to her mother - they have and have had an allotment in Sunningdale for more years than I've known my wife - and its our 15th Wedding Aniversary this year.
So this morning when I dropped my daughter off, I spoke to her on the subject of allotments. Now they're not working their allotment to its full potential and can offer me some space - at least enough to cope with the potatoes, brussels, and cabbages for this year - all I need to do is protect them from the badger(s), flock of Pigeons, and the more than occasional Muntjac or Sika Deer.
She's also spoken to the parish clerk and got me on the waiting list for a plot - which is interesting since up until last year there were at least 5 overgrown plots on the site. We'll see what happens.
Anyway I promised some pictures of the completed veg patch So here they are. The first one is taken looking across the gap between the end of the fence and the compost bin, which if you look at the second will give some explanation If you're wondering why the patch is fenced and sleepered then there are three reasons. The first is furry, weighs 22Kg and is named Remus. The second is smooth coated, stands 6'6" on his hind legs and is called Merlin, and the third is currently in her vivarium, can beat any hare you care to choose in a race and also the most dangerous as far as vegetables go - she's a tortoise if you haven't worked it out yet.
So now all I've got to do is wait for the weather to warm a little, the potatoes that are chitting to sprout, and build a couple of net cages to protect the peas from the local pigeons, doves, and sparrows and we'll be away.

Done Digging

2006-03-19T19:24:00.000Z

It's been a loverly day, bright sunshine until well into the evening - a day when digging in a tee-shirt was a necessity.
Anyway the digging is over now for this year - apart from possibly trenching the potatoes ; that's if I the grass grows so I can cut it and bung it into the trench.
I've also completed the edging and fencing which means it should now be tortoise proof. That's how my brother got her in the first place 26 years ago. For the third year in a row she'd broken into her former owners vegetable patch and cleared it of nice young juicy seedlings. She's only broken into mine once during high summer and the only damage was to flatten the marigolds and leeks.
I'll try and get out with the camera first thing in the morning and take a couple of photo's. Taking pictures directly into the setting sun is never a good idea which is why I didn't do it this evening. It maybe Tuesday before I get to edit this post and add them though.
I also managed to get into the workshop and start on the additional staging for the green house. The design should carry 13 seed trays and with a bit of luck I'll have it assembled and installed next weekend.
I also managed to get out and take a look at that water tank in the skip - unfortunately they'd cut it up when getting it out so no use to man nor beast. Whilst out I also dropped into the Winkfield allotments which are the closest to me. Had a chat with a couple of the allotment holders. Seem like a nice bunch. Unfortunately there are currently no vacent plots, in fact the parish council have been asking if any of the holders would give up half their plots because of the waiting list. It's a nice site so all I can do is add my name to the waiting list on Monday and hope it's not a 5 year wait.
The other thing to come out of today's good weather is that I now know both the automatic window openers on the greenhouse work so that's one expense I won't be incurring. I'd like to be able to grow through the winter but that means incurring the expense of a biogreen heater, change-over regulator, and a couple of gas bottles. Come October I'll have to see whether we can afford it this year. Since the green house is 10'x12' I'll need a 4KW heater, even with insulation.

Nearly Done Digging

2006-03-19T00:55:00.000Z

Perhaps an odd title for a first post but then I've nearly finished digging the new veg patch.

As the blog description says this is just a diary of what I've been doing. At some point I'll update my main web page "Vortex's Veg Patch" with stuff I've posted here.

As tomorrow (today) looks like its going to be another fine dry day I should get the digging finished.

I also need to think about additional shelving for the green house. With 3 additional trays planeted with Runner beans and sweet corn in tubes, 4 trays for the mix of lettuce, cabbage, onions, plus the trays of lupins, mezmaranthiums, and others that my wife planted we're going to rapidly run out of bench space. And before I forget there's the 6 6" pots of marigolds and the previous half dozen trays of stuff planted 3 weeks ago.

We also repotted a number of the bay trees. This particular variety is a prolific root sprouter and one of the young trees yielded an additional 3 cuttings. Hopefully with them in the green house this year whatever took the shoots out last year won't this and the main tree will put on some growth - its still got some way to go to reach the 6ft tree on my father-in-laws allotment.

I've also been looking around for bins for the potatoe crop - I'm not going to have space on the patch for all that are chitting. The local cheap shop has dustbins at £8 a pop which should do the trick. I must also try and get out to see if I can rescue that water tank off the skip. If its ok that'll give me another 40 gallons of water storage.

As I've just noticed the time I suppose I should get some sleep ;-)