Friday 26th May Having sweated at window cleaning in all that heat yesterday I determined to get up early and work on the plot before it got too hot. To that end I arrived on site at just after 7am. Before I started I put up the notice warning of another Hutton period when the blight fungus can proliferate, having had an email from the BlightWatch website. I had brought a sweater that proved totally unnecessary and set to earthing up my potatoes. I found I could bury the Sarpo Mira, not that it is necessary for that variety, and almost cover the King Edwards. As I dug out the soil next to the asparagus bed I came across thick white roots like bindweed. Disappointed I started digging them out stopping only when they got close to the actual asparagus plants. It was only later while digging out bindweed along the fence that I realised I wasn't digging out bindweed but actual asparagus roots! By then it was already warming up so I quickly earthed up the Maris Piper, but when I started on the second row of Sarpo Mira I found there was a mass of real bindweed root along the fence that took ages to dig out. As Sarpo Mira is so blight resistant, I decided to leave the row for now and earth them up when they have grown a bit more. The far patch needs digging over for squashes but the overgrown rubbish filled strip showing on the left is where I want to plant my courgettes and needs alot of work. As the temperature rose I opted for the less strenuous task of giving my peas something to climb. I had bought a roll of 2 inch galvanized wire from InExcess so I rolled it out on the grass outside the plot and cut a length. Unfortunately the roll was only 6 metres long, not the 10 metres I had optimistically misread from the label so I will only get 2 rows of support from it. (I should have bought the longer roll which would have worked out less expensive per metre!) It took a while to flatten the mesh and stake it down with some old garden stakes (given to me by a neighbour) interspersed with some old canes I had lying around. Each stake/cane had a yogurt pot fixed on the end to stop me gouging an eye out and to stop the netting catching on the tops. Unfortunately the netting, though long enough, had quite a few splits in it so I needed to buy a new length at the Trading Hut. It is also barely wide enough to reach down to the ground on either side, a problem I will have to resolve by reducing the height of the mesh support in some way. I had brought down a few bags/bins of grass cuttings from my neighbours at home which I added to the compost bin. A good layer of dead leaves is called for to balance the green/brown mix of materials. At 9.30, as other plotholders arrived, mainly to water their plots, and the temperature rose, I got into the car and went home for a second breakfast feeling very good with myself. Tuesday 23rd May My experiment in sowing parsnips using seed tapes has been a failure. I sowed a double row of 'Tender and True' parsnips and there are less than a dozen plants growing. I had sown a row of spinach with similar results but the carrots which I sowed using compost in a deep groove have really done well. All were treated, and watered, the same so I am still trying to work out what went wrong. In the meantime, I decided to sow into the row using the seed of 'White Gem' the seed I had intended to use this year but had mis-remembered and bought the wrong variety. It is right at the end of the sowing period so I am not sure we will get a result but I followed the instructions very carefully, watering the drill before sowing 3 seeds at each station between the few plants growing in the row. I went on to thin out my carrot seedlings. When I watered the drill for the parsnips I had also watered the carrot seedlings so they could be thinned without all coming out in bunches. Even so it took me the best part of an hour to do the whole row. It is a very long time since I have had such good germination of carrots so I am not very practised at it. Not knowing how far apart to thin them I just thinned out any growing together. As long as I could get a pencil between the remaining seedlings I left them. As they grow the young carrots can be harvested leaving some to mature. I watered both newly sown seeds and thinned out seedlings before replacing the fleece covers. I plan to make a sowing of carrots later for the winter. Having done the two main jobs I moved on to clearing the end of the plot of weeds and mess. I started by digging out the old beetroot and spinach bet plants that were going to seed and over 3 feet tall. Then I started digging out the weeds along the boundary fence that my new neighbour had cleared on his side. Sliding the plastic windbreak sheeting away I was able to get to the chicken wire fence and cleared a good ten feet before meeting the root of the plum tree sucker that has grown through from the next door plot. It was too late to get stuck in to removing it so I just left the hole ready for next time.
I then harvested the rest of the radishes growing as markers for my 'Gladiator' parsnips that I sowed first and have come through successfully. There were quite a few. I also cut four asparagus spears then hoed off the weeds in the bed coming across a couple of extremely thin spears from the asparagus plants I put in last year. I was about to give up on them and planned to buy in new plants in the autumn! Thursday 18th May My runner beans had grown vigorously in their root trainers in the greenhouse at home so needed planting out. I had sown one newly bought seed and one collected from last year in each module. I used 'Moonlight' a white flowered variety that produces very tender beans as it is one of the new climbing French/ Runner bean crosses. I had expected quite a failure rate with the saved seed but almost every cell had two strong plants in. They had spent a few days in my grow-house hardening off so were well ready to go out. Before I could plant them, however, I needed to set up the canes. I used a framework of posts with a rail at waist height supporting the canes. Normally I laboriously tie the canes to the rail but this year I had produced a new rail with holes drilled along it. Unfortunately the holes were not big enough for the canes so my first job was to enlarge them with the drill. This entailed dismantling the rail, drilling each hole out and then reassembling the three parts. Then I had to feed the canes into the holes before lifting everything into place and screwing it down, quite a rigmarole! Next year I shall make the holes big enough to drop the canes through. Once the canes were set up planting went ahead smoothly. I thought about removing the second seedlings in each cell but decided to leave then for now and will thin them down once they are well established. I finished off by giving them a good dose of water, a sprinkling of slug bait and a strip of doubled fleece wrapped round to protect them from the weather but, more important, the attention of the red legged partridges which love to peck of the growing points. Once they have grown more than a foot high they are safe from the birds. Once done I picked a large trug full of beans. Some were quite young and I shall try cooking them whole. Finally I cut 5 asparagus spears, a cabbage and some kale before going home. Tuesday 16th May Having weeded the strawberry bed I wanted to plant up the runners that I have nurtured all winter. They are from the 'Elsanta' plants that grew and fruited vigorously. The 'Hapil' and 'Honeoye' plants I bought at the same time have not been so successful. Of the dozen plants set out only 3 of each have survived. That it's despite 'Hapil' supposedly being good for dry sandy soils. And 'Honeoye' was to give me an early crop! I had enough plants to start a second patch to follow on when the first set get older (that should be after the third year fruiting) but first I had to rearrange the left over 'Honeoye' plants. However I soon had a patch of new runners clearly labelled so I renewed the labels on all the strawberries, including the 'Mara du Bois' perpetual strawberries in the end patch. The finished strawberry bed with the patch in front cleared of the huge old 'Purple Sprouting' plants that I have finally removed. Having put up a warning notice about potato blight, I decided to earth up my potatoes to cover the leaves up as much as possible to limit their vulnerability. The first earlies were almost completely covered as they have been hit hard by the frosts. The second earlies had much more foliage and show well above the bigger ridges. The maincrop potatoes were easy to cover completely. I moved on to setting up my climbing bean canes. I had constructed a beam with holes for the canes at 10cm. Intervals which I fixed onto the 3 sets of stakes along the row. Unfortunately when I tried to push the canes up through the holes they were too small so next visit I will have to enlarge the holes! I then cut some asparagus but tripped over the stake marking the row of what I thought was Sarpo Mira potatoes. Putting it back I was horrified to see it was the 'King Edwards' row, the most vulnerable potatoes I grow! A quick session with my cultivate and a draw hoe had them well covered before I went home.
Sunday 14th May
Today I planned to spend some time on the plot after the Working Party. That work was pretty exhausting so I planned just to plant the strawberry plants I raised from runners last autumn. However the plants I bought last year had not performed well. The variety Hapil, meant to cope with light soil and dry conditions, only had three plants out of fourteen surviving and Honeoye, for early crops, performed similarly. Mara du Bois has survived and produced a reasonable crop so I hope for better this year. Only Elsanta grows prolifically, producing lots of fruit and runners, hence the plants. I planned to move the few surviving plants to the (sheltered) end of the bed and start a fresh patch of Elsanta in the space left. However I soon realised I needed to clear the weeds from the bed first. I had just finished that when I got the call to say lunch was served at home so the planting will have to wait. Before going home I went round with the chicken manure pellets to give some of the growing crops a fillip of fertilizer and picked bunches of sprouting shoots from the kale and curly kale. I even got a good sized bunch from the the purple sprouting plants that I thought were done. Thursday 11 May 2017 - and Friday and Saturday! I came down to how some of the weeds off as they are getting much too big. I concentrated mainly along the path edges and made good progress. However I was interrupted by a cheeky blackbird that started picking over the ground I disturbed. I stopped working for a rest and he came closer and closer so I got my phone out to take a picture. He got very close! Eventually he got a huge beakfull and flew off to his nest and chicks. I carried on for a while and he came back but never came as close. When I had finished hoeing the path edges I was able to sweep the path clear, making the whole plot look much tidier. The blackbird was still at it! Having done quite a bit of hoeing and thinking that the rain that was forecast would undo my work if I tried hoeing the weeds in the beds I moved on to re-cover the carrots and parsnips with fleece I found in the shed. I also found more small wire hoops ideal for supporting the fleece. That done I harvested a few asparagus spears, some leeks and a mixture of brassica sprouts. The next two days were almost a repeat, though I managed to hoe some of the beds, especially the onions. They we easy to hoe as I had done them before but it is annoying the way you always miss those weeds growing closest to the plant. I finished up hand weeding then having to hoe out my footsteps again. Of course when it came to hoeing the rows of seedlings all you can hope to do is deal with the weeds between the rows, then laboriously hand weed the actual row. I left doing that until I get round to thinning the rows. I think I need to use the hoe just to create a tilth on the surface to retain the moisture in the soil and do weeding as a separate activity.
Monday 8th May
Having discussed the impending week of frosts with Hugh Merrett at coffee on Sunday, I decided to protect my early potatoes with some fleece. I found a couple of supermarket plastic bags in which I had stored some of my 5m lengths of fleece and that the rats and mice had not found and nested in. I pegged the fleece down at either end and used staples to clip it down at each side so the wind couldn't dislodge it. After that I set about hoeing the weeds from between my onions. Having done some hoeing before there were only a few weeds to deal with but loosening the soil also helps retain moisture. I soon found I was hoeing between the garlic and shallots on the other side of the plot and dealing with much more established weeds to good effect. There are areas of my plot which are riddled with weeds some of which are well established. I need to attack them progressively or they will overwhelm me. I went on to emptying the bags of grass and garden waste, as well as my kitchen waste bin, into the compost bin and then covered them with a layer of leaves. I left for home with a few heads of sprouting kale and some kale leaves. Sunday 7th May Having started last Thursday by planting my summer cabbages, I wanted to plant the rest of the brassica plants I had nurtured in the greenhouse at home. They had spent the last week hardening off in the grow-house and were ready to brave the Roeshot weather. I started with the dwarf curly kale plants given to me by my neighbour. They crop right through the winter so needed to go in the second, left hand, brassica tunnel that next year I will move on to its new patch after the other one. I had so many plants I could plant a whole row, in the spaces I had mistakenly started preparing on my last visit. Scrape patch in mulch, cut out hole with bulb planter, lime, stir in lime at bottom of hole, and finally plant out of the 9cm. pots. Ten plants in a row down one side of the tunnel, out of the way during the summer. I then moved through to the other tunnel to plant the crops that will mature in the autumn or early winter. Cauliflower and Savoys down the side away from the summer cabbages and a row of Brussels Sprouts down the middle leaving space for autumn cauliflowers and similar crops either side. Having watered everything, including the seeds, and sprinkled some slug bait, I covered the carrots and neighbouring parsnips with fleece tunnels against carrot fly. Normally I don't bother covering parsnips but carrot fly will attack them, especially if they are attracted by the next door carrots. That done I harvested some purple sprouting, some leeks that were going to seed and a cabbage before going home. Thursday 4th May I didn't get down to the plot until after 6.30pm with little time to do much before sunset. I went to prepare things to plant the cabbages I had brought down, only to find a tray of pots with young Dwarf Curly Kale plants left by my neighbour. Despite major health issues, with a little help from surrounding tenants, his plot has remained well kept and almost weed free. I noticed he had been down and planted quite a few curly kale plants for himself. I shall sort out a place to plant what is one of my favourite winter veg. I cleared the few weeds growing through the mulch from one of my Brassica tunnels and excavated through the mulch the patches for planting. Then I suddenly realised that it was the other tunnel (on the other side of my plot) would need to be moved first next spring and therefore needed to have these summer cabbages planted in there and harvested and cleared before spring. After weeding and spreading the mulch evenly, I cleared 10 patches and excavated a small pit about 3/4" deep in each patch. A hole excavated with my bulb planter had some lime scattered in and around. I had cabbage plants in sets of five in pots which dropped nicely into the holes so I finished with a row of five 'Greyhound' plants and five 'Golden Acre Primo'. A dose of water and a sprinkling of slug pellets and it was finished. I then watered all the rows of seeds and scattered a few slug pellets on those susceptible areas. I moved the fleece tunnel that had unsuccessfully protected my potato sprouts from the frost over on to the double row of Parsnip seeds. It will keep the soil from drying out as well as protect the small parsnip plants from carrot fly that attacks parsnips as well as carrots. While planting the cabbages I had noticed the huge purple sprouting broccoli plants had actually produced some more small sprouts! I picked over them and got two handfuls of sprouts. I also looked over the kale and curly kale which was also producing sprouts so I picked them as well. Nothing I collected would have got onto a supermarket shelf but will make a very tasty veg with my dinner over the next few days. Once again it was dusk as I went home and once again I was the last to leave so I locked the gate on the way out, remembering to scramble the number. Tuesday 2nd May Having recovered from my tummy upset I had on Sunday, I came down to deal with some of the weeds. I was going to stay clear of my shed until I'm sure I have totally recovered so I started on the thistles I had sprayed with glyphosate a couple of weeks ago. The tops had died off completely but I knew the roots would go down deep. However before I started on them I saw that my neighbour had removed the weeds on his side of the fence so I began digging them out on my side. He came to help when I found nettle roots over an inch thick tangled into the chicken wire mesh. I have never seen nettle roots so thick. However, with his help we dealt with the roots along the fence right to the front of the plot. I then returned to the thistles. The soil was nice and friable so I was able to tease out the roots easily. I managed to dig deep enough to get out at least some of the deeper run of roots that had produced the rash of surface growth. Hopefully the weedkiller has weakened the system so they cannot grow again. A tub of nettle and thistle roots for the tip and a pile of weeds for the compost heap
After raking the soil back level I unloaded the bags of horse compost into the greenhouse ready for my tomatoes and pulled some sticks of rhubarb before going home for lunch. |
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May 2023
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