|
I didn't get down the plot much last week as we were away for the weekend and then I was sorting three bulk bags of soil improver for the garden for the rest of the week.
I arrived down on Saturday to check on things and managed to spread some compost on one bed and planted the onion and shallot sets. The weeds are certainly growing apace! On Sunday I arrived to find my son had started on the 'volunteer' blackberry shoots growing through the fence to next door. It is the remaining roots of the rampant thornless blackberry I dug out to transplant to the other side of the plot where I thought I could control it! When I lost control of it again I dug it out and bought a smaller hybrid. He removed masses of stems and roots, including the ancient thorny blackberry left by a dim distant previous neighbour. However, he was defeated by the clump of nettles with roots entwined in the fence netting. I need to talk to my neighbour about how best we deal with it. Meanwhile I spread more compost/leafmould which I had left heaped on each bed several months ago - far too long - so each heap is covered in a blanket of weeds. I started weeding one heap of compost and found myself having to dig out bindweed from along the fence. There was so much growing along the fence line I finished up bagging it up to take to the tip. Normally I compost it but there's so much I dare not risk it! We stopped for a brew using my Ghillie kettle and decided that there was only time to fix the front of the central compost bin using some special screws I had bought from Wickes as the the compost had forced the old screws out and threatened to burst out onto the track. That done we looked to what could be harvested. The rhubarb, both forced and normal, is growing well so we harvested some off the forced plant. We also dug out the last two rows of the parsnips, not thinned so just a few small ones, and shared them. Finally we dug out some of the leaf beet and each took a bagful of leaves, together with a few from the last row of leeks. Given the time of year - a good haul!  Last week I had finished digging over the rest of the patch behind the leaves bins. So on Sunday, with my son helping me, we transferred the bags of leaves stacked in front of the plot into large builders bags stored behind the bins. They can stay there until those in the bin have rotted down to leave space for at least some of them. However, in the meantime, they will rot down anyway where they are.  I now have collected the last of the autumn 2023 leaves!
My neighbour, whose garden is the source and surrounded by mature oaks and beech, reckons I've had 30+ bags of leaves this year. Each bag is a small builders bag which holds about half a cubic metre but, unless the leaves were completely dry, we only half filled them as otherwise they get too heavy. The bin is full and the rest of the bags are currently contained in bags in front of the plot waiting to be stacked on the plot behind the bins. Unfortunately that patch was full of bindweed and rogue raspberry shoots, the latter having grown from the remains of the original row transplanted elsewhere on the plot. It needed clearing before I cover it with a stack of full storage bags while we wait for the level in the bin to subside. In clearing the patch I have dug out a barrowload of bindweed as well as lots of rooted stems of the raspberries. The latter are suitable for growing on. They are autumn raspberries, Joan J variety. I've already given some to other plotholders including my nearby new tenants but unfortunately can't remember all those I've promised to last autumn! I've put a note on Plotters. It has been a long time since my last posting! There have been a few issues, caused partly by my wife's hospital stays for sepsis, then a minor stroke and my hospital visit following a collapse from blood poisoning. That resulted in both of us catching Covid for the first time in the epidemic, but fortunately the last vaccination meant only a minor infection.
Last season was not the most productive and I am aware the bindweed overwhelmed some parts of the plot, especially the fruit! Compost and 'leafmould' heaped round the plot is ready to spread as a mulch and I've started digging along the boundary fence to remove the bulk of the bindweed and laying down a thick layer of woodchip to try to reduce regrowth. While trying to be 'No Dig' I'm probably best described as being 'Minimum Disturbance' (as per an article in this month's Kitchen Garden p49)! However, the autumn plantings of garlic, shallots and onions seem to be coping and there are still some leeks and sprouting broccoli to harvest as well as some self sown chard/leaf beet. Trees are pruned but I'm already behind with my sowing programme if I am to follow Charles Dowding (of No Dig fame).  Tuesday planting out peas.
I was dropped off at the plot together with Missy the dog and a tray of legumes to plant out. Missy will chase anything that moves and cannot be recalled so she was attached to the extending lead which I hung from a steel rod fencing spike driven into the ground part way up the plot. She was happy pottering about and sniffing at all the plants and weeds, a sign the rats etc visit! For the legumes I needed to clear the bed of weeds, including lots of bindweed, and raspberry shoots growing through from next door where he has, as last year, dug the front of the plot but planted nothing, and left the back half almost untouched. I then planted out a double row of 24 pea plants out of the root-trainers they had grown in inside the greenhouse at home. Fleecing them will, hopefully, avoid having to harden them off. As I finished off the pea planting I realised the next door patch covered in weeds and overhung with nettles was where I planned to plant the first batch of runner beans. It took a little while to clear everything, including the thorny brambles that had encroached from the wilderness on the next plot. That done I raked the part composted woodchip my son had left heaped on the early potatoes so they were earthed up more. It will need more. While I got ready to harvest the next batch of asparagus I noticed that bindweed was appearing in quantity between the rows of seedlings on my 'Roots' bed so spent some time pulling it up. The thinking is that the plant will exhaust itself as long as you remove the chance it has to use sunlight to feed itself. While most snapped off a short way below the surface at the soil/mulch boundary, there were plenty of satisfying occasions where I pulled long lengths from the mulch. The 'No-Dig' philosophy does not allow for digging it out though I do sometimes use a fork to ease more root from the soil. I also break the rules along the boundary where the bindweed grows through across the boundary both ways and it would be un-neighbourly to just pull it from the surface. Finally I gathered the harvest of asparagus spears to take home. The forecast of gales along the coast made me think about my brassica tunnels that I had un-pegged ready to move to their new positions. In the past I've seen heavier structures bowled over and sometimes smashed to bits by strong winds. So I decided I needed to stake them back down temporarily.
Collecting a few stakes, a club hammer and screws and screwdriver drill, I prevailed on the wife to run me down early this morning. On the way in I saw one plastic lightweight greenhouse already in pieces resting against the shed beside it. Hopefully that is where it will stay! While the stakes would not go in at the best places in the corners I did get two stakes in each end of both tunnels and screwed to substantial posts. Before I left I weighed down several lightweight items, moved my chair into the greenhouse and replaced the closing system on the tunnel doors as the wind was blowing them open already. Home in time to get ready to go to John Bachelor's funeral later today. A sad loss of someone who did a great deal for Roeshot Hill - and Christchurch. Another shopping trip by the wife gave me the lift I needed to get down the plot after my visit being cut short by rain yesterday.
I deliberately only brought a carrier bag so if necessary I could walk home at lunchtime. I first planted the few broad beans that had germinated in plugs in the greenhouse. Of 15 plugs only 9 had sprouted so that made just a single row, not the double row I had hoped for. This is the 4th row in the bed sown so far - I'm beginning to plan for succession! Then in the Roots bed I sowed a row of Resistafly f1 carrots as well as a couple more rows of beetroot, one of Chioggia and one of Cylindra. As I watered all the seeds I set up planks to shade the rows of carrots to avoid them drying out and not germinating. Finally I sowed a row of Kelvedon Wonder peas, again in succession to the row I sowed a couple of weeks ago as well as those sown in plugs at home. However one batch in the greenhouse shows no sign of germination - old seed? As it was nearly lunchtime I pulled some rhubarb before I phoning home for a lift. We agreed I should walk over Lyndhurst Road into the Hoburne estate to be picked up as driving out from the site this morning had been very difficult with the holiday traffic.  After blagging a lift to the plot with seed potatoes and seeds, I managed to plant up my First Earlies (Red Duke Of York) squeezing 9 plants into each row in the 2 rows of the bed.  I also sowed half of each of my two raised tubs for carrots. The nearer one has mixed colour carrots for my son's family and the farther one my early carrots. I also have carrots sown in the normal beds but they may suffer from the carrot fly while these will be protected by tents of Enviromesh netting. (I have Resistafly seed this year as a trial but understand the taste might not be so great - worth a try!)
It came on to rain so I retired to the greenhouse and began to empty last year's growbags (Horse Manure Compost bags) onto the beds but only got half done as my return trip home appeared and I needed to leave. My cataract treatment is causing me considerable problems! Can't drive, can't read easily and banned from gardening and DIY for a month. That is causing problems with the blog as I cannot write easily on the phone and struggle tapping in on the keyboard of the laptop.
When I complained saying I had an allotment I was given permission to garden - if I wore goggles! My visits to the allotment have, therefore, been rather limited but I have put together some posts and now use the bigger screen of my tablet to read and write. However the work on the website, together with not seeing the changes clearly, have meant I have not published the posts. When I sort them into order I will post them! Wed morning Following my first cataract op I am unable to drive and have had problems initially and still struggle to read. The instruction "No gardening or DIY" was a bombshell but when I protested I had an allotment they agreed I could wear goggles to garden, This also stops me touching or rubbing the eye which is painful still!
However, I am dependant on my wife driving me down (or walking!) so this morning I was dropped off while she shopped in Sainsbury's. First I tried to screw the front back on the compost bin my son had emptied for me but found the one next to it had come adrift and my attempts to repair it were unsuccessful. I need my son's help to fix it! I turned my attention to the supports for the summer Raspberries. With the posts already in place I started dismantling the cross bars and wire from the old supports. Old screws do not always come out and I failed with the last one! Using packing pieces to brace the cross bars onto the round posts I finished the first post and started the middle one but ran out of packing wood. I think I might just rely on some thick screws for the rest! My return lift arrived as I struggled with the remaining old screws so I had to stop there. However, I did harvest the broccoli sprouts from the Black Kale for my evening meal! |