Saturday 2nd March
Given that I am told our President, Hugh Merret, normally sows his leeks in mid-February, I thought I had better get some sown. Having run my cultivator over the surface of the onion bed near the fence in line with my new 'no-dig' policy, I sowed a packet of Musselburgh in the first row next to the fence. I then sowed some 'Joliant' early leeks next to them, though there were not enough seeds in the packet to fill the whole row.

Next I carved a strip for the path through the horse litter on the bed nearest to the shed. This is the bed I shall use for brassicas once I have moved my huge net tunnel. I will probably have to dismantle it and rebuild it as it needs quite a bit of repairs!

Next I pulled the last of the cauliflowers in the current batch. It has grown well in the last week with the good weather and looks ready to 'blow'. It is big enough for a couple of meals and I pulled it so I can hang it in the garage for a couple of days while we eat the 'Autumn' broccoli that is still producing!

​One January King has started going to seed and will contribute to the broccoli and its blown partner will make nice spring greens.

​The last cabbage is hearting up and hopefully will give me a good cabbage.

​I then turned my attention to the second bed of green manure. This patch of Phacelia has survived the winter rather better but I was still able to rake off the top growth fairly easily making a generous contribution to the compost bin. There is still enough leaf mould left to mulch this patch.

​Finally I was able to harvest a few leeks and some purple sprouting to take home.
Once home I had time to prepare some buckets for growing extra early potatoes in the greenhouse. I cut out three panels round a cheap plastic bucket from Wickes using a hole saw and a sheet cutter.

That bucket then nests inside a second bucket before I part fill it with compost and plant two Casablanca seed potatoes.  Once they have grown (and I have earned them up with more compost) I hope to lift the inner bucket out and extract potatoes before my earlies mature out on the plot.
​The first one I manufactured a week or so ago, as a test, already has a shoot emerging from the compost.

Monday 25th February
It was such I nice day I set about tying in my Loganberry. It went quite well until I had nearly finished when I mistakenly cut off one of the longer canes while trying to remove a short, weak one. I had pruned out a number of thin canes and planned six stronger ones each tied to a support cane. Now I have only five!

At that point I wandered up the track to offer a neighbour some Jerusalem artichoke roots. In the short time he has been on his plot he has doing wonders and it just so happened that he likes Jerusalem artichokes and wanted to grow some. I was about to clear part of my patch as it was growing through onto my neighbour's plot. I only grow it to shade the greenhouse in the summer as it gives me terrible wind if I eat it. I therefore returned to the plot and dug a trench along the fence removing all the root as I went. I finished with a bucket full which I gave to my friend. Enough for him to plant some and eat the rest. I found it interesting that I could distinguish the two varieties I had growing. The red skinned roots which I bought in and the white ones which someone gave me.

​I finished up with a strip along the fence that was clear of the roots and a patch next to the greenhouse where the new crop will come through.
Then I spent some time moving bags of leaves from next to my leaf mould bin so I could undo the netting. Then I fetched my barrow and dug out several loads which I spread as a mulch where the green manure had been growing. This patch is now ready for sowing the first row of peas.

​While I was doing that my friend from up the track came by and offered me a Honeyberry bush which I was happy to accept and try alongside my other soft fruit. Unfortunately it took quite a while to dig out the bindweed roots that had established themselves

It is a tiny spidery bush at the moment (just visible if you look carefully!) I smoothed the soil and then mulched with horse litter.

Sunday 24th February
Having dropped by the Trading Hut to buy a bag of Vermiculite for my seed sowing and helped deal with a dispute between allotment neighbours, I arrived on the plot very late.
I had looked back through my blog photos at home I finally could sort out which leafmould bin to empty this year. However that meant I had to clear a stack of poles and bricks from on top of the rescue of last year's leaves so I can move them out of the way to get at the bin. That done I could drag several bags out of the way and up on top of the others and then open up the chicken wire retainer.
That enabled me to dig out a few barrow loads of part decomposed leaves and spread them over the bed that used to be covered by the Phacelia, green manure. I also spread some 'leafmould' under the blackberry vines to improve the soil and stifle the weeds - with the help of the worms etc.
I was then called home to have lunch at the beach hut which, given the weather, was impossible to refuse.

Thursday 21st February
Another warm day so when, I started clearing the green manure from the bed for peas and beans, I realised that it would be better to do something less strenuous and more fiddly. So when I had cleared one half and moved a heap of dying greenery to the compost heap I left the second half and started fixing the canes for training the Loganberry.


​The poles have been there for some time and, after adjusting the position of a few screws and nails so the canes rested on them easily, I wired them into place. There was then only time to wind the Loganberry vines round the canes. I will tie them in later.

While doing this something unexpected happened! I looked up from my work to see an adult fox in the next door but one plot. The animal totally ignored me, stopping to sniff something by the fence. Perhaps I should have whipped out my phone to photograph him but instead I grabbed a stone and threw it at him. Far from dashing off he just moved away a bit but the second stone sent him running towards the main road.
​Shortly after I saw a rat dash across the next plot as well!



​I then spent a while dealing with the disposal of the heap of blackberry vines.

​Once that was done I returned to the other half of the bed and pulled out a second barrow load of greenery and heaped it into the compost bin and the patch was ready to be mulch with leaf mould.


To finish I checked my cauliflowers and was horrified to see that they are swelling and ripening at a tremendous pace with the warm weather. We still have to eat the last one!
​I also checked the beetroot and pulled up the whole row as there were lots of tiny and useless roots. The few good ones were bagged up to take home.
As I cleared up I noticed a Mooli radish that was very exposed with 5 or 6 inches sticking out of the soil so I pulled it.

​The rest of the root was huge and so I had a radish that was a foot long or more and was almost as big as those on sale in the market, imported from the continent!

Monday 18thFebruary
The grass from a neighbour's first cut of the year was waiting for collection on my way to the plot and was added to the compost bin.

Knowing that my potatoes were chitting nicely at home I wanted to be sure the soil was warm enough for an early planting of the first earlies. I found some landscape fabric in the shed and rolled it out in the brassica tunnel ready for when I move it to its new position. Then I added the tunnel cloche!
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I also covered the patch where want to sow my parsnips using some landscape fabric and some pop-up cloches lent to me by a neighbour.

That done I turned my attention to this year's bed for peas. The green manure has grown well and them been cut back by the frost to some extent. With my 'no-dig' policy I need narrow beds I can work without treading on them so I cut a thin pathway using a spade as an edging iron before shovelling the soil out onto either side. (I later regretted this when I wanted to rake off the top growth to put it on the compost heap before mulching.)

With rain threatening,I moved into the shed, banging in nails into the ridge beam to hang some of my bags of netting that currently are cluttering up my greenhouse, dropping onto the floor and making ideal nest sites for the mice! I will need to plan carefully where I do this as I soon found the hanging bags blocked access to the far end of the shed!

When it was time to go home I checked my cauliflowers to find one small one had already been covered with fungal growth so I pulled it and shredded it into the compost heap. I was concerned that the three remaining heads might blow before I returned so I pulled the largest which was only about 5 inches across but big enough to make a meal for two.

Sunday 17th February
Arriving for my regular Sunday morning visit I stopped at the Trading Hut to buy half a dozen 8 foot canes to train up the wayward Loganberry. I also visited the plots where rotavating had been requested. One lady had done so much work the machine was not necessary. The other had a small patch covered with plastic where I could rotavate but I need to check.
Finally getting to the plot and after emptying the kitchen waste, I left the canes alongside the Loganberry ready to install when I have the right tools.
I was then offered the use of some plastic cloches by a neighbour which I will use to warm the soil for early crops.




I then set about mulching the path beside the autumn raspberries. As I moved the horse litter from the heap on the bed next door I came across a green shoot. Digging down I found it was a 'volunteer' spud in the soil below the heap with a foot long shoot growing from it!


















​I soon had the path covered and firmed down and moved on to planting my sets.

​The shallots, Golden Gourmet, were absolutely huge and I only had enough for one row of nine. The remaining four I gave away to a neighbour with the rest of the Red Baron onion sets left from the last session.







​In the late brassica tunnel I pulled up the cauliflower that had gone mouldy and covered over the others by bending leaves over the curd. Normally this is done to protect the curd from the sun but I did it to protect it from frost.
While in the tunnel I harvested a picking off purple sprouting.
Exiting the tunnel I took a roll of landscape fabric and covered over the strip where I plan to show my parsnips in a couple of weeks.
I finished off by clearing some old poles from on top of the bags of leaves so I could reach more of the crab apples on my tree and start stripping them from the tree. I got nearly half a bucket full which went straight on the compost heap as most had already started rotting!
Before I went home I remembered I had an empty margarine tub to turn into a slug trap. I had found half a dozen slugs under a plank left on the ground by the chard so I removed it. I cut two long slits in the side near the top to form a slot with the flap pushed inwards. A stone weight to stop it blowing away and a slug of beer completed the trap which I placed next to the chard.

​As a temporary measure, while I wait to empty another margarine tub, the rest of the beer went into a plastic bottle pegged down further along the row.

Friday 15th February
Managed a break from looking after a wife sick with a bad cold to get down to the plot this afternoon. First I delivered the fire extinguishers etc to the Cabin and checked the plots where I had been asked to do some rotavating. This and chatting with those I met used up almost half the time I had available but.......!





I started by digging over the path on the other side of the autumn raspberries, teasing out the adventurous raspberry roots. I was surprised to come across shoots of thistles still pushing up from well below spit depth. I can see me having to use spot weed killer again this summer! Fortunately the soil was drying out well and broke down quite finely.














​Next time I will have to mulch over the path with horse litter to fertilise and give a good walking surface.

​Next I planted out the red onion sets that came with my seed potato order. Although I have enough seeds for 5 or 6 four foot rows I only did three as I already have 3 rows of Radar autumn planted sets growing nicely (at the bottom of the pic) and I don't need too many onions!
​Anyone want a few (smallish) red onion sets?
Sorting out plastic mini-bottles and poles to mark the row ends from the greenhouse, I came across a mouse nest in the materials which I had hung from the framework but had fallen down onto the ground. I need to do a tidy up before things get too messy! Using the greenhouse as storage is a real waste!
Looking round at the end of the session I noted that the Phacelia Green Manure had finally begun to succumb to the winter and frost.

​I also noticed that the spring cauliflowers were also beginning to head. One is already mouldy but the two others still look good for future harvesting.

Monday 11th February
With the warmer weather I thought it a good idea to deal with some of the weeds before they start growing. I had brought my small hoe to use between my onion sets and garlic. The soil was quite damp but hopefully the next few days will be dry enough to kill off the seedling weeds I 'unearthed'.

When I had finished I realised it was a good idea to hoe the asparagus bed before the shoots start to emerge and only hand weeding is possible.

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​I then realised that it also might be worth covering the soil to warm it up where I plan to plant my first early potatoes. I had a roll of landscape fabric but had to pull up a few brassica plants to clear the space. One small cauliflower had already begun to go mouldy and the Romanesco plants all were struggling as this is not the normal time of year for them to crop.

​I then moved on to pruning my gooseberries. There were some shoots growing up through the middle of each bush to remove and a few long twigs but the major task was to cut them back to avoid them trying to grow through the netting. Generally this meant removing a whole branch where there was a younger one ready to replace it or cutting back to remove the end of the branch.
That done I fetched my large (6 inch) hoe and hoed off the last of weeds growing round the base of the bushes. There were so many weeds I had to rake them off afterwards and put them in the compost.

​Following that I just fetched a few barrow loads of horse litter from the heap on the 'Roots' bed and spread it as a mulch. While doing that I spread the mulch to cover under the blackberry plant at the end of the row. I hope that will make it easier to keep it from rooting into the ground so much.

To finish I spent a few minutes pulling some of the rotting crab apples off the tree by the leaf mould bins. I got half a bucket and there is at least three times as much still to remove!

Thursday 7th February
After the gales and heavy rain we had overnight my priority was to finish fixing down the new felt on the roof of my bike shed (my old beach hut, relocated to my back garden). The day dawned fine and dry with a blue sky and a slight breeze, ideal for allotment work but that had to wait until the afternoon after I had completed the shed roof.
After lunch I was able to get down to the plot. I had brought down a bundle of birch twigs, blown off my silver birch in the front garden. They make good supports for flopping plants and some of the transplanted broad beans were struggling to stay upright. It took very little time to remove the net tunnel and prop up the wayward plants. I was pleased that only a few needed propping up though one had gone black at the base of the stem so was pulled up and removed.
My next task was to finish digging the path beside the raspberries to cut off and remove the spreading roots. To control the natural tendency for raspberries to spread I dig up the path either side of the row annually if I can. I start by cutting down the side of the row, preferably with my stainless steel spade which is fairly flat and cuts a straight line. Then I can dig up the path without disturbing the raspberry crowns. I have to be careful to remove all the fine roots as it only takes a thin root to send up a shoot and create a raspberry cane in the wrong place.

​I found more than one rootlet with a strong shoot just emerging. 
When I had finished I then spread a thick layer of horse litter to give a good surface to walk on. If my neighbour at home has collected the pine needles from his garden for me, this makes an excellent path surface for raspberries or blueberries as they rot down very slowly giving an acid humus which they like.
​There was a short interval while I was digging while I stopped to watch a large flock of (Common?) gulls fly over. I've not seen such a large group together like this other than at the beach.

As the sun began to sink lower and the clouds gathered, I took my secateurs and started pruning my crab apple tree. It had cropped so well that its thin branches are bending down under the weight of fruit, none of which I have used. I have offered the chance to 'help yourself' to all my neighbours but no-one seems to have taken any and not even the birds seem interested. Part way through a friend passed by and advised me that crab apples shouldn't be pruned so I stopped. He suggested the solution was to harvest the fruit so, as quite a proportion has started to rot on the tree, I will return with a large bucket and pick what I can reach and add them to the compost bin!
As it became a bit chilly I started harvesting. The curly kale had hardly grown since the last picking but the cavolo nero (I've seen it spelled so many ways) gave a reasonable picking. There were quite a few small sprouts of purple sprouting and I dug out two of the thickest leeks.
With bad weather forecast for Friday and Saturday I will probably not get down until Sunday - for the Working Party!

Thursday 17th January
My broad bean plants, grown in toilet tubes, have been hardened off for some time in my garden and waiting to be planted out so I brought them down to plant out today.
I started preparing a strip as normal at right angles to the path but then remembered I was trying to do less digging and that it's easier with each of my 3 x 4 metre beds divided in half and rows parallel to the path.
The bed I was planting in had a mulch of homemade compost on it so I used my shovel to scrape the mulch off a strip down the middle to form a path and prepared a strip along the boundary on either side. Laying a line as a guide and using a board to walk on, I drilled a double row of planting holes on each side with my trusty bulb planter pushing it in nice and deep so as to bury the tubes completely. Otherwise if they are exposed at the surface I'm told they act as a wick drawing water up to evaporate and so dry the soil and roots. A dozen plants fitted nicely on each side of the new path.

​Last year I lost plants to mice digging up and eating the seeds, pulling the plants out in the process. With that in mind I dropped a couple of drops of paraffin beside each plant hoping the smell and taste will put them off. I had to be careful that I didn't get any on the plants as I know it kills the leaf it lands on.

​That done I stretched a net tunnel over both rows to add to the shelter of the plastic sheeting as the plot is more exposed than my garden. The board resting against the tunnel give a little more shelter.
I then harvested three cauliflowers, one large, one small and one in between. To that I added a few baby parsnips (none of mine have grown to normal size this year), some Mooli and some broccoli. I will take most of it with me when I visit family this weekend.