[Candide]

My soil is very dry despite being clay so watered carrot bed, spring onions, rocket, beetroot and cabbage.  Place I was going to put Chinese artichokes is like lumps of concrete so put them in a bed that had compost over the winter.
BB in flower but not that high

[Hampshire Hog]

Cleared a bed for some courgettes and planted up with little gem lettuce till the weather is warm enough for the courgettes. Weeded my onions and put a bit of lime on the bed I plan to use for next year’s purple sprouting broccoli. Ground pretty dry so watered a few things including strawberries.

[Subversive_plot]

Hauled 3 cubic yards of yard waste to the composting facility, hauled 2 cubic yards of compost home.

Pruned hedgerow and shrubs.

Watered newly planted vegetables.

[Hampshire Hog]

Planted out a row of peas sown in gutter. Covered the row with a cloche will give them a larger cover and support as they grow. Also cut grass paths and used the cuttings to help protect my spuds from frost. None on the forecast at present but I’m not normally safe till mid May. Weeded my garlic again under a cloche due to rabbits!

[Rob the rake]

Treated the greenhouse seedlings to a weak seaweed shower to give them a fillip, though most are doing pretty well. No harm in a bit of pampering, eh?

Scattered the requisite amount of organic chicken manure pellets into two recently turned-over beds and incorporated them with my trusty crome. After levelling them with the rake, they'll be hosting various brassicas, which are looking healthy and ready to go. Maybe some celeriac, too, if the weather holds. Rain forecast for tomorrow, which will be nice; I was thinking of breaking out the sprinkler to artificially break the "drought".

I sprayed the weeds in the paths a couple of days ago, using a non-toxic Epsom salts/Ecover WUL/white vinegar mix that I'm trialling. The grass weeds are as dead as a doornail but the more stubborn characters, most notably dandelions and nettles, will need a further spray or two to finish the job. The first spraying was very light, in order to see just how effective it is. I'll give them a bigger dose next time out. My neighbour used a watering can to apply the same solution (in the heat of summer) and they were dead in no time, so maybe I'm under-doing it.

[New shoot]

I sprayed the weeds in the paths a couple of days ago, using a non-toxic Epsom salts/Ecover WUL/white vinegar mix that I'm trialling. The grass weeds are as dead as a doornail but the more stubborn characters, most notably dandelions and nettles, will need a further spray or two to finish the job. The first spraying was very light, in order to see just how effective it is. I'll give them a bigger dose next time out. My neighbour used a watering can to apply the same solution (in the heat of summer) and they were dead in no time, so maybe I'm under-doing it.

And that’s the main problem with homemade weed killers. People think ‘oh it is safe natural stuff’ and spray more and more when their original recipe doesn’t work.

The vinegar and salt combo dehydrates leaves so kills annual weeds, but is not going to be effective on the roots of perennial weeds. Overdosing can lead to build ups of salts and other materials in the soil. Or even worse, people then upgrade to more potent horticultural vinegar, which needs treating with a lot of respect.

That is why we have a site policy of generally not recommending diy weed and pest remedies. What you do on your own plot is of course your choice. A bit of washing-up liquid spray for aphids is not going to do much harm, but we are not keen on going much further than that.

[Aunt Sally]

John has some information about the use of home made weed killers and pesticides:

https://www.allotment-garden.org/gardening-information/home-made-pesticides-unlicensed/

[Rob the rake]

Yes, I see the inherent problems now. In fairness, I'm unlikely to use anything more than the absolute minimum and it's on the flagged central path, not the chipped paths between beds where it's easy to dig 'em out. However, I accept that I'm not "everyone" and others may not exercise the same degree of care.

[Rob the rake]

Well, the first of the sprouts and the first successional sowings of calabrese and cauliflower went in today, with the small space left at the end of the bed filled by a few salad bowl lettuce plants. The handy (and heavy) rain showers did the watering-in for me, which was nice. TBH, the lack of rain was becoming a little worrying, since the natural stuff always seems to do a better job than artificial irrigation.

Taking cover during the wet bits, flat-grown seedlings of Blush celery were pricked out into 3" pots in the greenhouse. Excess brassicas and celery, barring a few held back as spares, were happily accepted by my neighbours.

[rowlandwells]

today's our shopping day or allotments rest day but yesterday we planted out some onion sets the ground was dry but then after we got home the heavens opened rain of plenty just the ticket 

[Aled]

Planted the veg patch up fully now. Lettuce, French Beans, Potatoes, Carrots, Radish, Beetroot onions sweetcorn, and Leeks all planted. Outside in pots i've potatoes. Growing house being set up next week, and cucumber, tomatoes, and pepper seedlings being put in.
Cheers Aled

[Aunt Sally]

Yes, I see the inherent problems now. In fairness, I'm unlikely to use anything more than the absolute minimum and it's on the flagged central path, not the chipped paths between beds where it's easy to dig 'em out. However, I accept that I'm not "everyone" and others may not exercise the same degree of care.

Rob, we don’t care what you do at home, even when you are breaking the law in a small way.  But if you publish it here we do care, as we don’t want the trouble of having to check all your posts before they are published.

[Marijke Jones]

I did some weeding today and put a net over my cabbages, broccoli and sprouts. Also planted two beer traps for slugs

[Rob the rake]

Cleared and tidied the big greenhouse ready for the main plantings, scuffled some fertiliser into the top couple of inches of soil in the island bed to augment the seaweed mulch, which has pretty much been absorbed, and planted the first half dozen tomato plants. Even remembered to crumble a soluble aspirin in each planting hole. Plants are two types of Gardener's Delight, one of which is a friend's own special strain, and Sun Belle, a lovely sweet yellow tom. Sungella and Sungold will follow when the first trusses are fully open (very soon) and the other few varieties will have to slum it in buckets along the back wall. Maskotka plants are just about ready to become upside-down tomatoes hanging on a south-facing wall at home. Finished transplanting the chillies into 6 inch pots. All the seedlings are growing like crazy now the temperature's taken an upswing.

[snowdrops]

Tuesday, hubby accompanied me today & put some screws in the recently constructed Munty frame to strengthen it, then he built a shelf in a newbies shed over the way. He also removed by hand a load of volunteer potatoes from the onion bed & sunflower seedlings whilst I planted out the broad bean plants that were long overdue, plus weeding of the strawberry bed in prep for netting it in the next week or so. All in all a good few hours.