Blog Archives - Roeshot Hill Allotment Association

Roeshot Hill Allotment Association

More Horse Litter

30/11/2014

When I arrived this morning (Sunday) my main task was to use my trailer to get horse litter to cover next year’s potato bed. Having stopped off at the Trading Hut to buy landscape fabric to line the empty compost bin and posts for the wires to support the raspberries, I stopped by the compost bin and spent a while loading the trailer. As the heap was higher than the trailer it was quite easy to load it though unloading and barrowing it to the right patch of ground certainly kept me warm.

Some time ago I promised a photo of my over-wintering peas’ protection.

Here it is.

There are pea shoots in some of them already so I am encouraged!

Preparations for over-wintering

28/11/2014

Apologies to those of you who came here and found a blank entry! Technical issues with the website!
Here is what should have been here for you to read.

I brought my trailer down to the site yesterday (Thursday) full of bags of garden waste from home so I was then able to use it to transport Horse litter to the plot. A trailer load is about 10 barrow-loads so much more labour efficient. It was especially easy, though warm, work as someone had left a manure/hay fork by the 'manure' bin that was excellent for filling the trailer/barrow. That's another tool I can add to my Xmas present list!
The contents of the trailer just covered one 3 metre square bed on my plot. Very convenient!
I spent too much time chatting to various other tenants so only had time to do a couple of jobs.

I had grown on some Broad Bean plants (Aqua Dulce) at home in toilet roll tubes and they were big enough to plant out now that the recent chilly spell had finished. Once again I used my bulb planter to produce a nice hole to drop the tube and seedling into, just using a trowel to ease the soil around the tube before firming in. I make sure the cardboard is well buried as I've read that it can act as a wick allowing the moisture to be drawn up and evaporate. Then, after a light scattering of slug bait, I erected a net tunnel over the row to protect the plants from strong winds - and the birds.

I also managed to hoe and rake off most of another bed, ready for covering with horse litter. I do have most of a packet of Vetches (Green Manure) seed but there is no sign of it coming through amongst my Ryegrass where I sowed it a few weeks ago so it is probably too late in the year for it to germinate. Perhaps the rest of the packet will survive until next year, - if I keep it dry!

The chatting was not completely pointless as I now know what I need to do to my grapevine at home in the way of pruning. In return for the advice I will tow away to the tip the old decrepit trailer Dudley found at the back of the vineyard, together with any bulky rubbish he can fit into it.

Never too wet to work!

25/11/2014

This title is somewhat Ironic! The working party last Sunday was a washout as it was too wet to work! Next working party will be at the end of January, possibly even 1st Feb. as I'm not back in the country until late January!

Despite the heavy rain we have experienced recently Monday afternoon was dry enough for me to get down to my plot.
It was too wet to work the soil but I managed to finish transferring the compost into the middle bin where it will mature for the winter - ready for using next spring. I have already managed to nearly fill one of the emptied bins with material from the garden, my neighbours and some weeds from the plot. The garden waste at this time of year is better than in summer when there is too much grass cuttings. Together with the herbaceous plant tops, the Sweet Peas and Morning Glory have been added to by the Passion Flower vines I have had to cut back before building a wall at the bottom of my garden. Chopping them up with a spade means they will rot down nicely, I hope.

However, I did not go home empty handed as there was lots to harvest.
Now the frost has come, I am using my parsnips though it will need more cold weather to make them really sweet.
I have also started on the leeks as they are fattening up nicely even though they went in rather late.
The calabrese plants, that were meant to crop in September/October are still producing a bit, though I will probably pull them out next week as part of tidying the Brassica bed. The Purple Sprouting Broccoli is now producing well though.
There was also a good helping of Chard. I might get one more meal out of the row before they stop growing for the winter and I wait for the plants to re-sprout next spring.
Finally was pleased to get a good picking of Brussel Sprouts. Last year all my sprouts were blown and, though I got some greens off them they did not have quite the taste I like so much. I shall miss them at Christmas! I shall be in the States and in an area where most are of German extraction and the traditions are rather different! Hopefully my son will make good use of some.

Next time I come down I hope to plant out the Broad Bean plants that are progressing well in my plastic greenhouse at home. If you missed sowing yours they are available at the Trading Hut. Good value at £1 a pot of around a dozen.
They can still be sown direct but the later you leave it the more likely it is that the mice will be hungry enough to dig the seeds out before they can grow.

Preparing for winter

20/11/2014

As I am going away over Xmas and New Year, I want to have done all my winter preparations. However, there are always those little jobs that get in the way.
I realised that I still had not planted the Loganberry donated to me as I mentioned in a previous entry, so I got busy digging the far end of my plot. I expected lots of bindweed roots and, while there were some thick white roots, most of what I dug up was old roots from some sort of bush and runners of ivy. I then planted the loganberry ready for a framework to tie it to.
I also needed to dig up the rest of my carrots. The 'Early Nantes' had to be lifted but the 'Eskimo' are supposed to be suitable to leave in all winter. However, the dry September followed by all the rain since means many of them have split and the slugs are munching through them so they have to be lifted.
I have cleared all the vacant ground (except the bit where the greenhouse frame is standing) but it is too late to sow any green manures. I plan to cover the remaining open ground with the horse litter (I don't like to call it manure) to stop the weeds growing and the soil 'capping'. Lots of my colleagues do it so I am sure it will not do any harm. I may rake it off in the spring and add it to the compost bin or even dig it into the bottom of trench when digging. The amount of wood-chip in the current supply of horse litter makes it less good than the old-fashioned straw based horse manure.
I have nearly finished digging out the second compost bin and transferred the contents to the middle bin. The first bin is already filling up with fresh material and there are bags of garden waste from my neighbours to add to the bin.
I am a bit concerned that the late autumn means many of the friends who save me leaves have not yet asked me to collect anything from them. I have a big empty leafmould bin waiting and a very short time before I go away for Xmas.

Cleaning pots and labels

18/11/2014

I am feeling very pleased with myself as, this year, I seem to be doing some jobs at the right time - not all in a rush at the last minute - or even late!
With the wet weather we've had over the last week or so there's been little chance to work on the plot. So I've done several jobs around the house and in the workshop, but I've also done a fair amount of cleaning old pots and labels. This is a job I hate but I've managed to make it bearable - as well as effective.
Recently I found a pot brush in the shape of a small toilet brush which I find much better at cleaning the inside of pots. The normal kitchen pot brush in the shape of a roundish scrubbing brush with a long handle, takes alot of dexterity to get into the corners of the square pots I prefer using, but the 'toilet' brush does so with just a twist of the wrist.
I set myself up with a bucketful of warm water (I'm a real softy!) with a dash of detergent and a dash of Jeyes Fluid in it and drop a stack of pots into it to soften the dirt. Then it is just a matter of a twirl of the brush inside the top one and then a rub over the outside of the bottom one before taking the bottom one off the stack and adding it to the top of the stack until the whole stack is done. Routine and boring but, with the radio on, I get alot done and can be sure each pot is clean.

Cleaning labels is a similar job. Most of the time I use sections cut from some old venetian blinds but I do use some large labels I have bought at great expense! I have finally returned to writing labels with a soft pencil as the only way that remains readable through the season. Cleaning the old labels is hard work but I have found a spray of, of all things, some old caravan cleaner (any other strong anionic detergent would do) and a scrub with a Scotchbright removes all the old writing. After a quick scrub of both sides, using a piece of an old plastic cutting sheet as protection for the work surface, they are then dropped into a pot of the pot-cleaning solution to make sure there is no chance of transferring diseases etc.

The biggest problem is drying everything!

Fruit bushes

15/11/2014

Earlier this year a friend asked me to look after his plot as he was ill. Unfortunately the illness turned out to be terminal so I have spent the year trying to look after the plot and taking him some of the veg and fruit.
Now the season is over his wife has asked me to take any fruit bushes I can use. This is the sort of 'freebie' that allotmenteers are happy to get. I just wish it was in better circumstances.
There are some lovely raspberries but I have a couple of very productive rows already.
However, I have found space for a couple of blueberry bushes, some gooseberries, a loganberry, a tayberry and a thornless blackberry and look forward to many harvests.
I have taken care to dig each bush out with as big a root ball as I could manage even though it meant barrowing them round to my plot and then barrowing soil back from my plot to fill in the holes left behind! I am giving each bush a good home by digging an oversize hole and digging over the bottom with some compost added.
I am a bit worried about my blackcurrants as there are some very big buds on them and this may mean I've got a 'Big Bud Mite' infection. Perhaps I'll take some cuttings from my friends bushes as they are far too big to transplant. That's a pity as they produced a magnificent harvest this year.
Hopefully, I can hand the plot on in a reasonable state to the next tenant, though the raspberries are going wild and there are far more weeds than I would like.

Just a reminder that there are some Broad Bean plants on sale at the Trading Hut if you have space. No problem if you haven't as you can sow them next spring but overwintered plants do crop earlier and do well in this area.

Oh and another thing! - If you are around on Sunday 23rd, please come and give us a hand with the Working Party. Please come to the Trading Hut any time after 10am. on Sunday morning even if you can only spare half an hour or so.

Help arrives!

11/11/2014

This is a third attempt to update the blog! Apologies to those of you who checked the blog only to find a blank space! Technical glitches!!!
It had been my intention to send out a reminder to have your seed/potato/onion order in at the Trading Hut by last Sunday. Hopefully you didn't need reminding!

Last week I had the help of my Grandson, Jake, who came down from Yorkshire for a 'holiday'. Thanks to him most of the contents of my two outer compost bins are now in the central bin for the final stage of composting. I hope in the spring to have a repeat of the black, crumbly, sweet smelling compost I dug out last month. However, I've realised I forgot to add a sprinkling of the 'manure' from the communal heaps and a handful of the compost accelerator at roughly 6" intervals. I probably need to construct some extension panels to the central bin to contain the last of the material to be transferred and will add the extras then. Perhaps use of my compost aerator tool will help!

Jake also hoed and raked off the weeds from my old potato/cucumber patch ready for me to put on a mulch of 'manure', as many allotmenteers do at this time of year. I actually prefer to use green manure but I ran out of seed of Italian Ryegrass which is the only one that I know of that has a chance of succeeding this late in the year.
I have made sure I will have plenty for next year when I posted my seed order at the Trading Hut on my way up to Yorkshire to deliver Jake home and visit my daughter.

While Jake was doing the heavy work, I got the chance to sow my over-wintering peas.
I have used an idea from a neighbour, Neville, and sowed in clusters of 3/4 seeds every 9" then covered each cluster with a bottomless plastic (milk) bottle. That should protect the plants from the worst of the weather. It might also keep the mice from feasting on the germinating seeds and, just to make sure, I have sprinkled a few drops of paraffin into each bottle. Later I shall add a few slug pellets to each bottle as well.

Finally I managed to clear the jungle of weeds that had sprung up next to my shed. That clears the decks for my winter job of laying the rest of the slabs, dismantling the old wrecked shed and setting up my greenhouse.

Catching up

4/11/2014

For the last 2 weeks I've been coping with a bug; looking after my wife at first and then trying to survive it when she gave it to me. Not that I have been flat out in bed or anything, just coughing my heart out, but my visits to the plot have been necessarily brief.
I did manage to tidy up the old courgette plants ready to add them to the compost bin - when it is ready and harvested a few crops before my grandson comes to visit.
I also managed to plant out the savoy cabbage plants that I have grown on from seed. They are in a bit late and may well not be ready until well into spring but I do so like savoy cabbage it will be worth the wait.
The other task I was pleased to at least start was transferring the outer compost bin into the centre one - now it is empty. I will leave finishing it until my grandson arrives as he will probably volunteer to complete the job for me. It will be great having a willing helper, if only for a few days while he is down from Yorkshire taking a short 'holiday'.

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Hi! As "Webmaster" for this site I feel a bit of a fraud.
I am neither an expert at IT nor at growing vegetables. I do enjoy playing at both, however.
I have a 10 rod plot in the middle of the site, having transferred in 2012 from a 5 rod plot I had been cultivating for about 5 years. I needed to give myself space to grow a wider range of crops.
I will be recording my thoughts and activities on the allotment as well as sharing any knowledge and information I gain in my 'travels'.
I constantly seek hints and advice from my neighbouring, and usually more knowledgeable, plot holders and will pass on anything I think is of general use via this blog.

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