End of October I've had password problems courtesy of Microsoft and it took several days, and much frustration, to sort it out - so this posting has to be a catch up for the last 10 days or so. During this time I have managed to get down to the plot quite a few times so there is much to report. I have finally emptied the middle bin of mature compost and spread the lovely crumbly mixture over where I plan to plant my garlic, shallots and Autumn onions. I have dug in the compost in the strip where I had sown the green manure and raked it smooth ready for a couple of rows. The blackcurrant bush next door had died and was pulled up after I had trimmed the thorny gooseberry bushes next to it which thankfully are still alive. They all lost their leaves very early so I thought I had lost the lot! On the other side of the plot I have spread the compost but not yet dug it in. I have fixed the front on the empty middle compost bin with battens to make it stronger than before. (I don't want my compost spilling out all over the road next time.) Removing the front to the left hand bin I have already dug out half the semi-mature compost and shovelled it over into the middle bin. It was a bit easier than I thought it would be and took very little time. I have also fixed the square netting onto the side of the brassicas tunnel and cut the butterfly netting so I can roll it up on the inside and stake the roll up on the middle batten. Now the smaller birds can get in and feast off the whitefly - I hope! I will probably have to buy the netting for the other tunnel at great expense. Wilkinson's used to sell it at a reasonable price but have withdrawn it now the 'gardening season' has finished! Checking my traps after a couple of days I found that one had caught a rat - the first ever. I left the body on the path and forgot it. When I came back a day or so later it had disappeared, food for some animal! The open packet of poison left inside the shed had completely disappeared as well so some animal has taken the bait. The last off my compost I spread over the strawberry bed, ensuring the plants were not covered. It looked pretty smart when I had finished though the thistles still had to be dealt with. The rat trap shelter can be seen in the foreground.
Monday 17th October
Having to wait in for deliveries meant I arrived on the plot quite late in the afternoon and would only have a short time on site as I had to have an early dinner before an association committee meeting. I started by digging out some more compost and spreading it on a strip of the patch where I had just sown the green manure. This was because I realised my winter onions and garlic would not fit between the blueberries and the row of fennel that is still growing. So I will have to plant some of the onions on the patch of newly sown green manure! I raked the barrow loads of the compost out into a 3 ft wide strip before spending some time setting out rat poison in shelters made from plastic milk bottles with top and bottom cut off. I also put my two rat traps into two cut-down plastic bottle shelters placing each shelter close to a hole made by the rats. I have never caught a rat in the traps (lots of mice - but no rats) but I live in hope they will work sometime. That done I harvested the raspberries which seem to go on and on and the 'wild' raspberries are getting juicier and more succulent. There were a few blackberries as well, though they need training as they have sprawled all over the neighbouring beds. I already have the 6ft posts as I plan to train them up on wires along the fence. I pulled up a cabbage from the brassicas tunnel as it had it had started to split. Most of the row were just loose clumps of leaves but two more were forming a heart. Next to them was a picking of broccoli. Fortunately the masses of whitefly tend to settle on the leaves, not the heads. I need to lift a section of the meeting and replace it with the roll of 2 inch square netting I have. Then the small birds can get in and hopefully gorge themselves on whitefly. Sunday 15th October
My usual Sunday morning session is normally more about chatting to other plotters than working but I try to get something done. I started by cutting more compost out of my mature compost bin and barrowing it onto the rest of the brassica plot I was preparing, then went for a coffee. On the way back from the café a colleague walked with me and as we chatted outside the plot we encouraged his dog onto my plot to check if there were any rats. (I had seen a couple last time down and found some holes around the brassica tunnel and strawberry patch.) She was soon snuffling amongst the strawberries and digging. A rat shot out and she gave chase but, unfortunately, it got away. When they had gone I turned my attention to the wrecked strawberry patch. I cut back the foliage, something I meant to do last month, and started removing the runners that had rooted all over the place, mainly Elsanta which has flourished this year. I soon had a bucketful of runners to take home to sort out and a much tidier strawberry bed. As it was lunchtime by then I left the harvesting until tomorrow apart from a fennel that was growing very well and too close to another. I went home for lunch just as the afternoon shift of plotters was arriving. Monday 17th October
Having to wait in for deliveries meant I arrived on the plot quite late in the afternoon and would only have a short time on site as I had to have an early dinner before an association committee meeting. I started by digging out some more compost and spreading it on a strip of the patch where I had just sown the green manure. This was because I realised my winter onions and garlic would not fit between the blueberries and the row of fennel that is still growing. So I will have to plant some of the onions on the patch of newly sown green manure! I raked the barrow loads of the compost out into a 3 ft wide strip before spending some time setting out rat poison in shelters made from plastic milk bottles with top and bottom cut off. I also put my two rat traps into two cut-down plastic bottle shelters placing each shelter close to a hole made by the rats. I have never caught a rat in the traps (lots of mice - but no rats) but I live in hope they will work sometime. That done I harvested the raspberries which seem to go on and on and the 'wild' raspberries are getting juicier and more succulent. There were a few blackberries as well, though they need training as they have sprawled all over the neighbouring beds. I already have the 6ft posts as I plan to train them up on wires along the fence. I pulled up a cabbage from the brassicas tunnel as it had it had started to split. Most of the row were just loose clumps of leaves but two more were forming a heart. Next to then was a picking of broccoli. Fortunately the masses of whitefly tend to settle on the leaves, not the heads. I need to lift a section of the meeting and replace it with the roll of 2 inch square netting I have. Then the small birds can get in and hopefully gorge themselves on whitefly. Saturday 15th October After lunch I hoped to do a bit before the forecast rain arrived. First I emptied the kitchen waste onto the compost bin and covered it with a neighbour's grass cuttings. It was quite hard work lifting everything up to the top of the pile now it is over 5 feet high. I had brought some cord so I was able to put a lashing round the extensions to the top of the compost bin where it threatened to collapse outwards. Then I got out the new 'Roundup' ready-to-use spray pack I have bought and sprayed some of the bindweed and other perennial weeds around the edge of the plot. It is a bit late in the season and I hoped the rain would hold off long enough to let it work but I felt I had to do something. Finally I started on the rest of the brassica patch. As with the first half the problem was the bindweed along the fence. It was complicated however by the addition of raspberry roots and a weed that also produces white adventitious roots that look very like bindweed and may be just as much a nuisance. Once again the roots were intertwined with the chicken wire and I found myself leaning over into my neighbours plot and digging out roots. Not something I recommend unless you are sure they won't mind but with his recent operation and subsequent heart attack I'm pretty sure he will be happy to have a bit less bindweed! As can be seen in the photo the roots were pretty numerous.
I had just about finished the six feet of trench when it started to rain so I packed up and went home before I got wet. Thursday 13th October Having found my store of 'in-date' green manure seeds, my first job was to over-sow the old squash patch. Using Tuckers seed, a whole packet of Italian Ryegrass followed by half a packet of Vetches was just right for my 4m. by 3m. Patch. The forecast rain should help it to get going before the winter. I then got distracted dealing with various rat runs that I discovered. I saw a couple of rats, one by my compost bin and one at the far end of my plot but I heard two or three more. I spent a while sorting out traps and bait boxes and weeded more of my strawberries while checking for rat holes. Hopefully I can discourage them as it is impossible to get rid of them totally. Finally I got round to planting my brassicas. I planted a mixed row of cabbage and kale and a row of curly kale. I could just cover both with plastic hoops and netting though the curly kale will outgrow the tunnel sometime. I could just cover both with plastic hoops and netting though the curly kale will outgrow the tunnel sometime.
Note that each plant has had a good dose of lime in the planting process. Monday 10th October After a very successful working party yesterday, I went on to the plot to do some harvesting. The quantity and quality of the raspberries continues to decline but they are still nice to eat, I just wonder how long they will crop. I also picked some turnips. There were so many that I offered some to neighbours, taking a couple home. I did the same with my beetroot. Some of the first sown row are now absolutely huge and probably only useful for juicing, and I don't like beetroot juice! However the second row is just coming to its peak. In return for my gift I was offered a pair of leeks (mine are still too small) and a pak choi - lovely! Finally I found a good helping of broccoli shoots to take home. Today I arrived at the plot quite late in the morning but prepared with a packed lunch to stay for the rest of the day. After doing a couple of quick jobs for the Association, I set about hoeing off the weeds, along with the old vines, that had grown on the squashes patch. I raked up a huge pile of growth for the compost help and then sowed a mix of Italian Ryegrass and Winter Tares. Unfortunately I discovered the seed was 5/6 years old so probably won't germinate! Following that I moved on to digging out my compost and spreading it on next year's brassica patch. Having removed the front panel, I cut 2 or 3 inch slices down the front to further mix the layers in the heap. It was lovely, black and crumbly, the best I have ever made! I soon had covered half the patch with a nice thick layer which I raked smooth ready to dig in. Then I started digging over the patch ready to plant out some spring brassicas. Digging out the trench along the fence took ages as I teased out masses of bindweed roots. All these went into a bucket ready to be drowned with water (see photos). I needed to use my normal spade and fork too start with as the bindweed had spread. At least I also managed to weed much of the asparagus bed while trying to deal with the bindweed roots. When I had finished the whole bed was 8 or 9 inches higher than the path and needed treading down ready for the brassica plants as they need firm soil.
All this took some time and it was after 5 o'clock when I went home! Thursday 6th October I spent most of the day finishing off painting the beach hut so only got to the plot around 5 o'clock. After emptying my kitchen waste bin onto the compost bin and covering it with grass cuttings from my lawn to stop the smell affecting my neighbours, I picked some raspberries. The quantity and quality are declining but there was still enough for a pudding. Then I harvested mangetout/sugar snap peas before moving on to the remaining dwarf French beans. There was also a couple of nice fat fennel and a few yellow courgettes. The green courgettes had a couple of small ones developing but have been a real disappointment this year. I then pulled up a cabbage that should have matured in late spring but did not heart up until August and had become very large. There was a large amount of waste but the heart was still huge! Finally I started forward progress on the work needing to be done. In the little daylight left I began rescuing my strawberries that had disappeared under a carpet of weeds. I was surprised how healthy the plants were beneath the carpet of green. However as you can see, I only had time to clear a small patch and I had to leave the thistles that had grown through from the neglected plot next door so I can use glyphosate weedkiller and kill to roots. I was pleased at how I am getting on with the winter dig. On the left the old potato patch dug over with leafmould added. In the middle the leafmould before being dug in and on the right , the next patch ready for a compost mulch to be dug in ready for Brassicas next spring. Before I left I pulled the front off the central compost bin to expose some lovely dark compost ready to spread next time I come down. I went home with some beds clear and ready for the winter and, with the evenings drawing in, a lovely sunset as I locked the gate.
Wednesday 5th October I volunteered to peel the potatoes tonight and picked out two of the huge Sarpo Mira tubers from the "Eat now" sack - containing all the tubers with damage from slugs etc. or the spade. Each was at least 10 inches long and as thick as my forearm - absolutely huge! As I peeled them I was pleased that almost all of what looked like slug holes were surface marks so I had no digging out to do. However, as I cut them down into usable pieces I came across holes in the centre. Investigating, I found internal splits or cavities probably caused by uneven watering. Just the one hole, on the right nearest the peeler, was from slug damage. Fortunately the tubers were so big that the ends of both made enough potato mash for two meals! Monday 3rd October Having made so little progress yesterday I set to spreading out the leafmould I had left in heaps. Then I prepared for digging. Using my 'Backsaver' spade means digging a trench along the fence before I start and barrowing the soil to the other end. Having done that I started digging soil into the trench with the spade. It is easy to work up a rhythm and, if I could keep going, it would take only 20 minutes to dig the whole 4 by 3 metre patch. However, I normally take a break every yard out so and go and do something else. (At my age pacing yourself is important!) One interruption was to cut a slice down the side of the patch butting on to the raspberries because there were raspberry roots invading the digging area making life difficult and it is essential I remove them as many were already producing shoots. The photo shows how even very thin roots can produce very strong shoots. Once the patch was dig and the soil heaps used to fill in the final trench, I moved on to the next section of my plot (the other side of the raspberries) and hoed and weeded out the weed infested pea haulms. I had hoped most of the patch last week but with the rain we have had the weeds have survived. This time I talked them off and piled them on my compost heap, extracting the canes and sticks used to stake the peas, leaving a clean patch ready for mulching with compost ready for next year's brassicas. I then needed to do some harvesting. After picking the Autumn raspberries and one measly thin cucumber, I started picking the dwarf French beans. There were quite a lot even though I had picked them last week. I gave up half way down the second row as I had a bucketful and needed a break from bending. I had decided I would take most of my squashes home to finish ripening in the greenhouse. The vines had withered and the weeds were shielding the squashes from the sun so I cut them free, leaving a longish stalk. There were so many, and they were so large I needed 6 carrier bags - and one of those split as I carried them to the car. By then, after I had cleaned and packed everything away, it was after 6 o'clock so I drove round the allotment checking I was the last on site ready to lock the gate. However, as I opened the gate a car drew up with another allotmenteer wanting to make a quick visit before dark so I left the lock ready to snap shut as he left. |
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May 2023
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