There is so much to do at this time of year that today I planned carefully to stop me getting sidetracked. I went prepared to do two jobs, plant a row of Broad Bean seedlings and prepare one of my big net tunnels for moving to another patch. Of course before I started there was unfinished Association business but it took me only a short time to bang in some posts and rope off the horse litter 'bin' beyond the Trading Hut before arriving at my plot and emptying the kitchen waste into the compost bin. I then set about the first task off clearing the mulch of horse litter from the strip where I planned to put the Broad Beans. What to do with the old mulch is a bit of a problem as I don't want to dig it in unless I bury it deeply. I used some to mulch between the rows of beans and peas and a barrowload went into the bottom of my compost bin. Hopefully the wood shavings will soak up some of the fluids and rot down before I use the compost. While clearing the mulch I noticed quite a few raspberry shoots so I decided I had better dig the strip over, not easy without my Backsaver spade but I should have realised there would be a problem from when I dug the other side of the raspberries last week! I actually found it easier to use the fork to tease out the roots and shoots even though I had to go down nearly as far as I had to on the other side of the raspberries. The picture shows how strong the shoots were. Why is it that the roots always seem to find something to hide beneath like the brick? The strip was only a couple of feet wide so I had to use the spade to cut down each side to avoid digging chunks out of the neighbouring rows. When I had finished I had a huge amount of raspberry roots and shoots for such a small space - especially as I had dug the pathway alongside the raspberries ostensibly to cut off all the wandering roots! Raspberry roots are almost as bad as Bindweed so I was very careful to collect all the bits into the barrow and took them to my incinerator where they will dry out before going up in smoke. When I looked at my watch I realised it was lunchtime and too late to plant the seedlings and there was no time for the preparations to move the tunnel. So the seedlings came home and will have another couple of days hardening off. No work on the plot either yesterday or today as I was busy with Association work. Yesterday I put up notices and new ropes around the horse litter dumps and cultivated part of a plot for a new tenant, though I did get time to pick some purple sprouting broccoli and pull a few leeks. Today I had an appointment that meant I only got to the site in the late afternoon. I got out the Association's cultivator, which is running beautifully after being serviced by a volunteer. Another new tenant had forked over a patch of very rough ground so the machine was able to break up the soil very easily. Given the effort put in by the tenant I worked the cultivator over the patch three times to smooth out the humps and create a good tilth. The main problem was the rubbish in the soil. Three times a buried brick stopped the engine and once the brick became jammed in the tines. Fortunately a neighbouring tenant helped me prise the brick free. I also had trouble with chicken wire getting tangled in the times and when I finished there was yards of string etc. wrapped round the shafts. Normally the problem is weeds clogging the machine and stopping it doing a good job but this time the previous tenant left the plot in such a state it has taken several sessions clearing just to get it suitable to let - and still there is lots of rubbish to clear! However, I did get to realise how good the machine is at cultivating previously worked soil that is relatively weed free. It is not so good at rescuing neglected weedy ground! I hope when I have to give up my plot I leave it in a reasonable state. A whole day at the allotment - well after a late start! I arrived after 11 o'clock. I came prepared with a short list of three jobs so I am ready to glaze my greenhouse when the clips I've ordered arrive. First I sowed a row of peas. I had to scrape aside the horse litter before cultivating the soil so I could dig out the drill. I took the opportunity of hoeing in a few handfuls of chicken manure to give the peas a start. I hope the fertiliser is not too strong for the emerging seedlings! As normal I scattered two packets of (cheap InExcess) seed in the 6" wide trench which leaves plenty of seedlings after the mice have had their fill! I might scatter a few drops of paraffin over the soil to deter the mice as well. (The peas I sowed in a gutter at home have performed poorly. 16 plants have emerged from over 100 seeds sown!) Then I set about emptying the middle compost bin. I decided to use the compost under my courgettes. To do so I had to dig out 2 ft. squares where I want to grow them and double dig the compost into the bottom of the hole then backfill. I now have three mounds ready for when the plants can be put out - after any danger of frost. Finally I set up the frame that will support the canes for my beans. Simplifying the setup meant I had some sawing to do before I could screw it together. I cut some Spinach Beet leaves for dinner and went home pleased that I have completed what I set out to do but annoyed that on checking the diagram showing plot layout and the rotation of crops I have in the shed, I have swapped the potato patch and Miscellaneous patch over - and they are not even adjacent to each other! I will have to think about the ramifications for the rotation in future years. Today was a flying visit as I had an appointment for Sunday lunch. Quickly preparing a good tilth with my cultivator I planted a row of Santero onion sets, the recommended variety for our site, leaving plenty of space (8") between them. I hope they grow huge. I then prepared the next strip of soil and, after creating a shallow trench to help with future watering, sowed half a row of Spinach, F1 Reddy. I plan to sow the rest of the row in mid-May then leave a gap until August as Spinach tends to bolt in the heat of mid-summer. Then I decided to try an experiment with the rest of the sets. Across the path I had half a row of Escallion onions that I had bought at the supermarket and tried planting. They have sat in the ground for nearly a month and show no sign of growing! I guess they probably have been treated. So I removed them and cultivated the soil before planting my remaining sets in clumps of four. When sowing seed onions if you leave several seedlings together you get a clump of small onions. I wonder if sets behave in the same way. We will see.
Note the moribund Escallion onions in the top of the picture. I then scattered some Pot Marigold seed where I am going to plant my beans - to encourage insects that will attack any greenfly and also pollinate the flowers for a better crop. I then dashed off to get ready for my fancy lunch at the Chewton Glen. On my way to the allotment this afternoon I collected half a dozen bags of garden rubbish from one neighbour and a huge builders sack of grass cuttings from another. The large sack was so big I almost had to abandon it so I was very grateful to my colleague on the plot opposite when he helped me lift it out of the trailer. It took me quite a while to use the grass cuttings in my bean trench and add the rest to my already overflowing compost bin. The half dozen bags will have to wait in a stack until the bin is less full.
I then added a good layer of my compost into the trench before filling in it in with the soil heaped alongside. The climbing French Beans that are just emerging in the greenhouse now have a home to go to when they are fully ready. That achieved I spent some time bracing the posts for my summer raspberries so I can add a taught top wire to tie them to. (It is these raspberries that have been causing me so much trouble in my potato patch.) No photo as I am not proud of the carpentry as I found cutting notches in posts very difficult! I just hope they stay in place. I had the plastic glazing for my greenhouse in the car but once again it started raining so I just pulled up some leeks and cut some Perpetual Spinach and went home. Tuesday was clear for a whole day on the plot - except for a couple of trips with the trailer to the tip, one from home and one with rubbish from a vacant plot on the site. During the winter I had lost a good row of Douce Provence peas which disappeared gradually as either the mice or slugs got them or they couldn't cope with the weather so I sowed a new set in the gutters at home. The germination had been very poor but there were just enough to fill half a row so I raked aside a strip of horse litter and cultivated the soil to loosen it before scraping a groove to take the strip of compost and the peas. Previously I've always had difficulty sliding the compost out of the gutter into the groove. This time I watered the gutters just before trying to empty them and they just slipped out into the groove so easily. I hope the few plants in the row give me a good crop. I have another pair of gutters with peas growing in the greenhouse for the other half of the row but this time I have sowed Terrain, a variety I got cheap in a trial pack from Thompson and Morgan with some plants I ordered. At lunchtime I collected the rubbish from the vacant plot and went home to eat. Afterwards I returned via the tip to dump the rubbish. My plan was to first plant a row of Cara seed potatoes then move on to other jobs. To plant the potatoes I first had to dig over the rest of the patch. There were some sprouts of raspberries that had spread from my row which I knew I would have to dig out but I was in for a bit of a shock! There were lots of roots and shoots beneath the surface and I had to dig down two spits to get some of it out and at one point I went down over two feet to dig out the root. What a hole! For once I had to use a normal spade and fork as my Backsaver spade was useless!
I was once told a weed is a plant growing where you don't want it and this is certainly true of these raspberries! It's unusual for me to visit the plot on a Saturday but I had missed various routine visits recently and I wanted to catch up.
I ran my cultivator over the rough dug ground in the potato patch and was able to plant a row of Sarpo Mira and a second row of King Edwards. By alternating the blight resistant Sarpo Mira with the susceptible King Edwards I hope to limit any attack. - We'll see if it works! (Again I used my bulb planter in newly dug ground as a time saver. I hope that works!) I then went up to the top of my plot to sow my root crops. I was surprised to find all my seeds were old. The parsnip (Tender and True AGM) was in a new packet but dated for last year. Cheap seed from InExcess is normally OK but parsnip seed should be absolutely fresh for good results. I am sure I ordered new parsnip seed but seem to have mislaid it! To make matters worse, having sown a clump of seeds at 6 inch stations I thought I had no radish seeds to sow as an indicator of where I had sown the slow germinating parsnips. (I found the packet after I had covered them over!) I then sowed a row of carrots; half a row of Amsterdam Forcing and half a row of Early Short Horn. Expecting poor germination from the old seed I sowed very thickly, hoping I will get enough plants and not have to do too much thinning. The next row I sowed was half beetroot (Detroit 2) and half turnips (Purple Top Milan), again sowed thickly hoping for a reasonable germination. Both rows were sown in a shallow trench so watering will be easier later on. While up at the top end of my plot I lifted the cover on my rhubarb to discover another good crop of pink shoots. I shall really enjoy the sweet taste in the next few days but I need to start picking normal rhubarb from the other plant and give this one a rest. Before going home I lifted the rest of my leeks, about 20, and heeled them in between rows of potatoes where they will survive, I am told, for a few weeks. That cleared the way for me to prepare to dig over the ground for the last row of potatoes (Cara). I managed to dig the trench ready to use my Backsaver spade again before finally calling it a day and going home well pleased with what I had done - apart from having to use old seed! The priority for this morning's visit to the plot was to get more of my potatoes planted. I had dug over part of the this year's potato patch and a row of King Edwards went in very easily. Again I used my bulb planter but it occurred to me that I only use it because the soil had been dug over very recently. If the soil had been more compact any potatoes forming underground might be crowded into the soft soil of the bulb planter's hole.
Having planted my row of King Edwards, a row of Spinach Beet was in the way of the next row. I dug up the whole row and collected the plants together. I then trimmed off the leaves and extracted the best to take home, leaving the rest in the compost bin. The roots, however, I had to chop up with the spade before adding to the bin. Having cleared the Spinach Beet, I dug over the area with my fancy Backsaver spade in record time having cut a line in the soil with my normal spade to make sure the neighbouring row of leeks were not dug up - yet. They need to lifted as soon as possible for the next row of potatoes so I will have to heel them in somewhere else as I cannot eat that many immediately. The arrival of the rain cut short my visit but the wind would have made sowing my root crops very difficult anyway so the carrots and turnips etc. will have to wait until my next visit. The rain stopped just at the right time for me to spend this Monday afternoon on the plot as is my normal routine.
I carefully collected together everything I needed before leaving the house as I had several separate jobs I wanted to complete. My first task was to plant the extra strawberries I had sent away for. I say "extra" as I duplicated my order with two separate suppliers, having forgotten I had ordered the first lot! Strawberries seem always to come in dozens so my first order was for a dozen 'Honeoye', a prolific early season AGM (RHS Award of Garden Merit) variety, and a dozen 'Hapil', a mid-season AGM variety that suits dry sandy soils. They took half my strawberry bed. The second order also contained a dozen 'Honeoye' which I shall use in containers at home, and a dozen 'Mara de Bois' a perpetual strawberry, also an AGM variety, which took a further quarter of my strawberry bed. What remains of the old plants is a mixture of some cheap 'Elsanta' plants and some donated by a neighbour. Both are mid-season varieties but with a short season. The spare plants went to my new neighbour to help him stock up the empty plot he has cleared so well. Hopefully I will get a good harvest over a longer period with my new stock! I then planted two more rows of seed potatoes; one of Charlotte, my second earlies, and one row of Sarpo Mira, my Blight resistant variety which I will intersperse amongst my more susceptible varieties. I then spent some time putting in braces for my raspberry support posts using some bits of posts left from the dismantling of the Horse Litter bins. In the last 15 minutes I put two barrow loads of my compost into the new runner bean trench to provide a rich source for the plants which will retain the moisture as well. I will dig in some chicken manure as well when I backfill the trench to give the plants a real boost. A lovely Sunday morning and I made my usual visit to the allotment. Having emptied the weeds and kitchen waste into the compost bin, I decided to visit the café for my coffee and cake before I got stuck in to the main jobs. A bit of crack and sharing hints and tips is always welcome. My first job was to plant my young broad bean plants to replace those sown/planted in the autumn which can be seen in the background looking very bedraggled. Grown in toilet roll tubes, once again my bulb planter proved very useful making the holes to drop the plants into. I then planted the 2 asparagus plants I bought from Waitrose. Not the usual source for my plants but the normal suppliers offer dozens of plants and I only needed 2 to fill the gap. If you look carefully in the photo you can see the freshly dug patch (no grass growing!) in the raised bed behind the broad beans where I had a gap caused by two plants failing last year.
Finally I dug over where my parsnips grew ready for my early maincrop potatoes. As there were no weeds my Backsaver spade made short work on the 2 by 4 metre patch. I cultivated it straight away to break up any lumps before they dried hard, giving me a lovely patch ready for planting. I checked my cauliflowers but, although the leaves are curling over nicely, there is no sign of any heads. I may have to wait until May! However, there was quite a crop of Purple Sprouting in the other tunnel and I picked off the Brussel tops and a number of shoots where blown Brussel Sprouts had grown out. They make a lovely, strong tasting, green veg similar the Spring Greens. I then dug up a lovely large celeriac. I also dug up a few Leeks, sharing them with my new neighbour opposite, who has done a magnificent job of clearing his plot ready to rotavate it. I remember nice neighbours doing me a favour this way when I started and had yet to have crops to harvest. Interestingly another neighbour queried with me about whether his Leeks were ready and I explained about them running to seed about now. I then noticed one of mine had done so and when the ones I had harvested were prepared to eat this evening some already had the solid core that is the developing flower/seed head. |
Your Comment!To add your thoughts to any of my posts, click on the title and then go to the 'Reply' box that should appear at the bottom of the post.
Otherwise go to the 'Contact Us' page. AuthorHi! As "Webmaster" for this site I feel a bit of a fraud. CategoriesArchives
May 2023
|