Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: JayG on January 01, 2022, 15:36
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Happy growing everyone!
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Went and looked. Son covered mine in black weed suppressant to give me a fighting chance when I get the ok from the surgeon. Son planted green manure which needs cutting down and digging in. Lovely to be getting out and about.
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Haven't started on veg plot yet , but i was able to cut down some shrubs this morning it was just good being in the garden for a while :)
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Checked on plot. Still there. That’s good. :)
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Looked out the window at the garden whilst chomping on a bacon sarnie.
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Just checked the garden. The lettuce is a little beaten up from all the rain but should get back on track if it ever stops raining. Spinach and Swiss chard both are looking great, like they could care less about all the rain.
Snow and snap peas are 6 to 12 inches tall but trailing on the ground, and a bit leggy. I'll get them on the trellis after a few weeks of colder weather pass through.
My few Brussels sprouts plants were knocked to the ground, I propped them up, still hoping they'll produce eventually.
New carrot seedlings look ok, radishes that are inter-cropped with them have gotten very leggy after several warm, wet, and mostly sunless days. Newer radish plantings are just coming up, I should get something from those.
The turnips I planted are also leggy for the same reason. It shouldn't matter too much, as I planted them mostly for turnip greens. I think they will be Ok.
Fescue overseeded in the lawn is starting out OK. I planted a turf-type, endophyte-containing variety that has improved drought, heat and disease resistance (but not a pasture type due to the endophytes). I'll apply some fertilizer during the next dry/mild spell that promises some rain and mild temperatures after.
I still have a couple orchids outdoors, a Cymbidium that has 4 flower spikes coming along, and a Coelogyne cristata (snow orchid) from the Himalayas that may also be getting a flower spike.
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Today I planted 2 bags of autumn onion sets & 2 bulbs of garlic that I was donated from Dobbies along with a trolley full of the same!! A garden club member & fellow allotment holder who who works there rang me the other day to see if I wanted them as they needed to clear the decks before a stock take :) so I said yes please- wasn’t expecting quite so many, but they’ll be a bonus for our members when the store reopens next Sunday & they come to renew their membership.
I planted some outside & some in the tunnel. I also disturbed a large rat :ohmy: in the compost bin that I was adding to.
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Today I planted 2 bags of autumn onion sets & 2 bulbs of garlic that I was donated from Dobbies along with a trolley full of the same!!
Good old Dobbies ! I think it’s great that usable stock is recycled in this way . We should all cultivate (!) a good relationship with our local GC , so that they think of their local furtlers before binning :)
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fingers crossed will visit plot tomorrow forecast cold but sunny.
I need to burn cut down asparagus ferns
Checked this pm ground wet but not too bad. Garlic and leeks look ok.
Some signs of life at home with daffodils starting to poke up through lawn.
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I found an old pack of aubergines, which was three years out of date. I sprinkled them on some compost in a tray and put them in my propagator. I think they've all come up and now they're a bit leggy. Doh!
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Planning how to convert a wonky shed to a wonky greenhouse. I also walked around the whole allotment and was quite surprised how many people don't use their plot over winter. Most greenhouses with no salads etc, not much in the way of winter hardy crops outside.
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Planning how to convert a wonky shed to a wonky greenhouse. I also walked around the whole allotment and was quite surprised how many people don't use their plot over winter. Most greenhouses with no salads etc, not much in the way of winter hardy crops outside.
It’s the same on my allotments , can’t understand why really , we are on an alkaline soil , so brassicas would do splendidly , but very rarely seen . :)
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picked all the sprouts cleared the ground ready to winter dig that patch yesterday today helped the wife blanch the sprouts for freezing
then went out in the garden took all the Christmas lights down and packed them away then it started snowing that turned to rain so we made a sharp exit out the garden in the house
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not to much put the wood the wood ash that had been collected for a month through a sieve to get any nails etc out then had an hour and half in the workshop sharpening tools and cleaning plastic plant labels then got cold so packed up for the day ;)
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We are due for some cold tonight (-3 °C), and this coming weekend, so I have covered the 2 raised beds with tender plants in them, and pulled pine straw over the top of the snow peas to protect them.
We may actually get to either snow, or an ice storm, this coming Sunday.
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picked up another loaded trailer of horse muck lovely stuff the only downside was I had to barrow and stack it on our home garden because its to wet to take the tractor down the allotments till spring meaning I will have to reload it all back up come spring :(
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Spent the gardening days this year shifting compost from containers and piles around the plot onto growing areas. Not the greatest compost ever made but useful. Just one more bin to go - will be ready by March I'd say.
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Last summer I had an old treehouse pulled down (the children aren't children anymore, and the treehouse was in bad shape; for safety I wanted it down).
Today I'm getting around to dismantling it, some of the wood that's still fit will be re-purposed to make raised beds.
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put some new horse manure we picked up last week in our empty Darlick bins for using next year
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Good and bad yesterday. Went to the plot to check leeks and garlic both attacked by rabbits!! Seems as though this is caused by the rampant building of new estates in our village driving the rabbits on to our allotments.
Only good news was I decided to cut down my raspberry canes as I had some time on my hands as I wasn’t harvesting leeks. Met a fellow gardener who said his leeks had been damaged too.
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After harvesting a few greens today, I covered my raised beds to protect against a -6°C cold snap tonight. Most of what's I the ground is hardy stuff, but better safe than sorry.
Picked up a little sand today, to mix with some clay soil and compost for starting rhubarb plants. The plants are small, going into nursery pots until they get started, and I've made a raised bed for them.
Also picked up some Red Baron and Stuttgarter onion sets.
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Cleared the weeds off the potato bed, covered with 75mm manure/compost mix
Cleaned out the polytunnel and turned over one side and mixed in a few handfuls of 6x
Very frosty there @10am but soon cleaned, a busy enjoyable 4 hours
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I went with the intention of some path strimming, but the grass was too wet.
Ended up just tidying up a bit and chatting. (Mostly chatting really :lol:)
Came home when my feet were numb ::)
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Was late getting to the plot this afternoon after doing more than I anticipated in the garden. So nothing done at the plot apart from closing up the tunnel that I’d opened this morning & of course dealing with the chickens morning & afternoon.
In the garden I shredded the raspberry prunings I’d trundled home on Friday, then I continued clearing the back border & mulching it all with the well rotted manure I’d collected on Thursday , 12 of 15 bags gone, but boy does it look good :D then I trundled the shreddings to the plot & added them to the heap that’s waiting to go in the compost bins when I’ve emptied & turned them :wacko: a job for another day
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Planted the rhubarb on Sunday.
Planting at least some onions this afternoon.
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happy planting
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nothing today Thursdays our garden rest day or going out day but had a good day yesterday sorting plants out so its back to Gardening tomorrow plenty to do if it keeps fine not started on the allotments yet its still to wet
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I'm really late getting to the fruit trees. Pruned the espalier apples the best I could, it will take a few years to get them back into shape, I need to buy some more posts as the 3" fence post I'd used as end supports have rotted already. Moved the sweet 16 and an unknown cooker which had been pulled horizontal with the weight of fruit. I'm hoping to straighten them, otherwise I'll have to graft again as both are nice. I cut the blueberry bushes back down to 6 inches in an attempt to get them under control, either they grow nicely or they're out - it's their last warning, no mater how much I like them.
I still need to fight my way over to the espalier pears and sort those out before it's too late to do it this year. I've not done anything out there since last June and it's really noticeable, it all looks very neglected :blush: Couple of days hard work and a box of matches should improved matters considerably.
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Knocked some holes into the top of some big stumps in my "forest edge" garden area, then put urea nitrogen fertilizer into the holes to promote rotting. It should make chopping the stumps out with a pickaxe an easier job in the autumn.
Also, I continued pulling apart an old treehouse to salvage the wood for more raised beds.
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A better garden fence is needed, so I took so I took some measurements to design and construct a new one, and also to determine the materials I need to buy.
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Started to cut back the jasmine I'd left to run rampant and was threatening to cover the bottom greenhouse :ohmy: I only managed about an hour before I was too knackered lift the trimmers above my head any more. I need to get it done before the birds start nesting in it again otherwise that'll be another year of growth to deal with.
Found a blueberry bush in a huge pot buried in there, didn't look overly healthy so that got a trim down to 6 inches too. The rhubarb in pots also overrun (which must be well rooted into the ground by now) was starting to show I expect it to be flowering shortly :lol:
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Got some fertilizer down on the lawn, as it's starting to green up.
Stuttgarter onions (sets) are up in flats, ready to be planted in the beds this weekend. The Red Baron onions are rooted, but no top growth yet. My little rhubarb divisions are growing in their containers (still quite tiny).
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Slipped, slided my way to the chickens :wub: very wet here
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Harvested some purple sprouting broccoli and last of the sprouts. Did some weeding, slugs have eaten half of the spring cabbage that have overwintered. Still lots of beetroot in the ground, don't have the will to eat them at the moment as I grew far too many. Broad beans have germinated but not pushed through the compost in modules just yet.
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Sowed a lot more seeds, all frost hardy veg either in trays to prick out: mixed lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower or multisown in modules: peas for shoots, dill, coriander, parsley, spring and main crop onions, shallots, beetroot, radish, Turnip.
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Lifted the last of the leeks. Repaired the polytunnel after recent storms - not sure how much longer I will be able to use it. Hopefully it will survive this year. Mostly held together with gaffer tape in places!
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Purchased materials for replacing fence around the raised beds, and started construction.
Also bought materials to start seeds for flowers (Mrs. Subversive's garden). Man does not live by bread (or courgettes and peas) alone :D
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Mostly worked on garden fence construction and mowing the lawn. I also potted some cucumber seeds, recently chitted.
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Finished burning last year’s raspberry canes on Monday.
Pleased there’s no more to clear on the plot.
No chance to do any more prep this week rain stopped play!
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I potted on rocket and dug
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I popped round to the plots to try out my new stirrup hoe, to see if they are as good as they look, and I'm very pleased with it tbh.
Stopped to chat to friends and was given some Brussels sprouts :)
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Finally put the Stuttgarter yellow onions in the soil. Worked some more on the fence around the raised beds. Mowed the grass in the front and back yards. Harvested a bunch of spinach to saute, had that with chicken schnitzel and noodles for dinner!
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Spread the March application of fertilizer on the lawn, front and back yard.
Tidied up the area near where I planted Stuttgarter onions yesterday, planted a few Red Baron onions today.
Harvested a few greens and radishes to go with lunch.
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Watered the poly tunnel, tickled my peach blossom in there lol. Back home, continued weeding,pruning & mulching, nearly all done & the bonus was all the tomato pots from the greenhouse are now empty as are all the sacks of saved compost. Need to bring some manure back from the the plot to finish mulching.
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I put on a life vest and swam out in the rain to pick some spinach. At least it's good spinach this year; best I ever raised!
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Record cold expected tonight -7°C, so all vegetable seedlings have been moved indoors for the next 2 nights.
I still have some onions and pea seedlings that are not in the ground yet. Those will get sheltered outdoors, maybe planted tomorrow.
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Been down the plot for a few days on the trot ( well, more of a hobble than trot cos of arthritis ).
had some shallots and elephant garlic in pots so put them out alongside their chums that went in earlier.
Dug four pits for squash plants and put in horse manure . Piled up soil on top but its quite claggy so scattered gypsum over it. its supposed to help with clay soil.
The first hoverfly lagoon went under the apple tree and used tatty old chard leaves to fill it.
Looked at the compost slum. Got some more pallets yesterday to rebuild but need to recoup strength before turning out the existing heap....now when I were a lad....
All three goosegogs planted over the winter are showing green shoots. Whoopee
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Been down the plot for a few days on the trot ( well, more of a hobble than trot cos of arthritis ).
had some shallots and elephant garlic in pots so put them out alongside their chums that went in earlier.
Dug four pits for squash plants and put in horse manure . Piled up soil on top but its quite claggy so scattered gypsum over it. its supposed to help with clay soil.
The first hoverfly lagoon went under the apple tree and used tatty old chard leaves to fill it.
Looked at the compost slum. Got some more pallets yesterday to rebuild but need to recoup strength before turning out the existing heap....now when I were a lad....
All three goosegogs planted over the winter are showing green shoots. Whoopee
Lime is the traditional product for clays and produces a much more friable (ie diggable) soil. It's inadvisable , though, to apply lime-like products at the same time as manures/fertlisers as this can result in them reacting chemically with one another so neither do their work properly. The advice is to allow several months between applying lime and manures/fertilisers. Try digging in sharp sand, which will give you an instant and lasting improvement in soil texture.
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Been down the plot for a few days on the trot ( well, more of a hobble than trot cos of arthritis ).
had some shallots and elephant garlic in pots so put them out alongside their chums that went in earlier.
Dug four pits for squash plants and put in horse manure . Piled up soil on top but its quite claggy so scattered gypsum over it. its supposed to help with clay soil.
The first hoverfly lagoon went under the apple tree and used tatty old chard leaves to fill it.
Looked at the compost slum. Got some more pallets yesterday to rebuild but need to recoup strength before turning out the existing heap....now when I were a lad....
All three goosegogs planted over the winter are showing green shoots. Whoopee
Lime is the traditional product for clays and produces a much more friable (ie diggable) soil. It's inadvisable , though, to apply lime-like products at the same time as manures/fertlisers as this can result in them reacting chemically with one another so neither do their work properly. The advice is to allow several months between applying lime and manures/fertilisers. Try digging in sharp sand, which will give you an instant and lasting improvement in soil texture.
Rob: Gypsum does the same trick as lime regarding clay soil, it just accomplishes it faster because it is more soluble.
Both lime and gypsum improve the balance between calcium and magnesium (both favorable) and sodium (unfavorable). The Ca, Mg, Na balance is called the Sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). Too much sodium, and certain clay types become more sticky and the soil is less permeable. See https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/help/defn-sodium-adsorption-ratio.html (https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/help/defn-sodium-adsorption-ratio.html). Gypsum has the advantage of not raising pH, if your goal is improving soil structure without changing pH. Epsom salts can also do this, adding Mg rather than Ca. The gypsum may avoid the problem you mentioned with manures and fertilizers, since nutrients are more plant-available at specific pH ranges.
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Erected my flyaway greenhouse at home and added a new plastic cover that I picked up half price end of last season. Doesn’t fit totally but it’s enough to offer some protection to seeds the conservatory is getting too hot when it’s sunny. Down at the plot I planted out some onion sets under a fabric cloche to keep the birds off initially. Bonus of two plastic chairs which were left by the entrance gate for free. Lovely sunny day.
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Finished emptying all the compost bins, spread all of the contents all over the plots, turned bin #1 into bin#2 whilst adding dug out litter from the chicken pen in layers. Hubby helped to barrow all the rest of the deep litter into an empty bin & then about 4 barrow loads of clippings were barrowed into the chicken pen after the ground was sanitized. A rather lot of heavy work for a very warm day but needs must :).
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Been down the plot for a few days on the trot ( well, more of a hobble than trot cos of arthritis ).
had some shallots and elephant garlic in pots so put them out alongside their chums that went in earlier.
Dug four pits for squash plants and put in horse manure . Piled up soil on top but its quite claggy so scattered gypsum over it. its supposed to help with clay soil.
The first hoverfly lagoon went under the apple tree and used tatty old chard leaves to fill it.
Looked at the compost slum. Got some more pallets yesterday to rebuild but need to recoup strength before turning out the existing heap....now when I were a lad....
All three goosegogs planted over the winter are showing green shoots. Whoopee
Lime is the traditional product for clays and produces a much more friable (ie diggable) soil. It's inadvisable , though, to apply lime-like products at the same time as manures/fertlisers as this can result in them reacting chemically with one another so neither do their work properly. The advice is to allow several months between applying lime and manures/fertilisers. Try digging in sharp sand, which will give you an instant and lasting improvement in soil texture.
Rob: Gypsum does the same trick as lime regarding clay soil, it just accomplishes it faster because it is more soluble.
Both lime and gypsum improve the balance between calcium and magnesium (both favorable) and sodium (unfavorable). The Ca, Mg, Na balance is called the Sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). Too much sodium, and certain clay types become more sticky and the soil is less permeable. See https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/help/defn-sodium-adsorption-ratio.html (https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/help/defn-sodium-adsorption-ratio.html). Gypsum has the advantage of not raising pH, if your goal is improving soil structure without changing pH. Epsom salts can also do this, adding Mg rather than Ca. The gypsum may avoid the problem you mentioned with manures and fertilizers, since nutrients are more plant-available at specific pH ranges.
I've not come across this info before...thanks, it's valuable know-how and very much appreciated. Now, where's my nearest gypsum dealer... :D
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Had a rest today after yesterday, 2 trips to the chickens & ventilate the tunnel, watered the strawberry hanging baskets & collected another wheel barrow of chippings & tipped them in the chickens pen.
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Put 13 cu ft compost and manure on Mrs. SubP's flower beds. Cleaned up area for new herb beds. Worked on garden fence. Cut the lawn, pulled weeds, added greens to compost bins.
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Short visit to plot to cover early spuds with two layers of fleece in light of cooler nights expected this week. Also weeded strawberry bed and collected some purple sprouting broccoli. Much colder than last week!
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Planted peas for shoots and pods, will pant the onions and shallots today and sow some parsnips, carrots. leeks will be multisown in modules.
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Mostly tidying or similar. Carted 4 bucketloads of apple tree and blackcurrant prunings down to the incinerator before remembering I'd left one of those collapsible drums by the compost; used that instead and saved myself 4 more trudges.
A bit of hoeing and scatter of some Growmore ( run out of BFB ) as a token bit of gardening proper before...
having another go at the carpet under the apple tree. 3 layers in some places with black membrane underneath that! Weeds had got their toes into it but also raspberry suckers and even a forsythia had got into it. Only tactic was to cut smaller bits out with a Stanley knife. Got half done.
Plum and damson have got blossom just a Arctic winds due...hey ho
Brought some chard back for dinner
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yesterday got some ground ready planting peas that we started of in the greenhouse put metal stakes in and chicken wire for the peas to climb up so today planted the peas out of the pots put plastic net round the peas to stop the pigeons feasting
already planted overwintered cauli and spring cabbage in raised beds been busy in the greenhouse seed sowing summer cauli broad beans spring onions bulb onions 3 varieties of cabbage pointed and ball and lettuce and leeks trying turnip seed in modules
not yet planted our seed potatoes waiting to see what the weather going to do still more seed to sow in the coming week if its not to cold in the potting shed :D
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Dug a bean trench yesterday and added some homemade compost together with some newspaper today. Just finished before the blizzard conditions struck !
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(We'll call this what I did over the holiday weekend. :wub: ::) :D)
Finished my new raised bed (this is bed #4).
Purchased a cubic yard of compost, which turned into 1.5 cubic yards of wet compost once it was loaded into my truck! A good $10 US well spent. Unloaded that into the new raised bed before it rained.
Saturday I transplanted some tomato and courgette seedlings into pots of the same compost. Planted 2 hills/towers of cucumbers, also using that compost.
Put fertilizer around the base of each of my 4 potted rhubarb plants, cut the grass in the front yard, and washed up all of the various (many dozens of) seedling containers and nursery pots before storing until the next time.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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/
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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.
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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.
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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 :D
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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
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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.
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I did some weeding today and put a net over my cabbages, broccoli and sprouts. Also planted two beer traps for slugs
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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.
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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.
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Dug 1/4 of a 12ft bed. Potted up two upside-down tomatoes (Maskotka), currently growing "right way up" until they're established. Frightened the bejasus out of a rat that didn't see me coming!
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This week has been mostly the final preparation of my sweetcorn and bean beds.
But also built a small fence on one side that never had a proper fence of my potato bag bed, now fully enclosed with a small picket style fence and gated.
All done with old recycled wood I'd collected from other garden alterations and reused some posts from my neighbours fences that recently got replaced, removing the bottom rotten parts, with rest of post in good condition.
Don't you just love how easy Postcrete makes it all these days.
On my knees around the plot pricking out weeds and a lot of hoeing up all the weeds within the broad beans.
Sprinkle sowed out in many pots around the garden my saved Marigold seed.
Sowed in greenhouse for planting out next month a mixture of Chard; Bright lights, White Silver and Rhubarb Vulcan.
Sowed in greenhouse, also for planting out next month Red Russian Kale.
Sowed in greenhouse Hunter and Pantheon flat climbing beans, that will grow up one end of my runner bean canes, hopefully planting out mid next month.
Yesterday.
Planted out the sweetcorn (my Golden Bantam saved seed), runner beans (Scarlet Empire) and climbing french beans (Blue Lake).
Replaced one of my outside Gherkins (Cornichons de Paris) with one of the spares I kept back in the greenhouse as it for some odd reason got tangled with one of the canes and had actually broken its stem.
Just checked this morning and all my beans are looking very happy, have strongly wrapped to their canes and settled in well.
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Finally got some much-needed rain.
I harvested the last of the usable spinach, pulled the plants out to compost. Planted Malabar spinach in New bed 5.
Chitted seed for okra, tromboncino, sunflowers, put those in pots, I now have small plants growing.
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Put up the frame and netting for the tall peas, at last.
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Busy day yesterday.
Planted my purple sprouting broccoli at the plot and erected a hoop cover to keep them safe from assorted wildlife.
After lunch crossed my fingers and planted out my crimson crush tomatoes into a couple of growbags and some pots. Hopefully they will acclimatise before we go on holiday. At least next week I can fleece them if the weather turns really bad. Also at home I planted up a courgette and a few runners in a broken plastic box for glass recycling. Pleased I have now stopped the in out dance with the tomatoes and runners hopefully no more frosts!
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Planted out all my greenhouse and outside tomatoes this week.
Added the strings too for them to grow up in the greenhouse and a few small canes and strings outside.
The welcome rain has made everything really come to life including many more weeds.
So a good two days of hoeing and on knees picking out weeds trying to start on the paths.
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Thoroughly cleaned out beds that had turnips greens, lettuce, and spinach. One bed will have Kentucky Wonder pole beans, the other will have Cherokee Wax bush beans (I think many of you would consider these French beans (?). I'm chitting these seeds now, I hope to sow the chitted seeds outdoors later in the week.
I also picked some snow peas, will pick the first courgette later today.
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Planted 2 cucumbers I’d been given & 6 tomato plants in the tunnel. I know it will be worth it but it’s such a faff, trying o remember to loop the string around the crop bar first in a method hubby devised last year for me, then put the other end ,with a big knot under the tomato but threaded through the plant halo first, then install the halo & make sure it’s all in contact with the soil & then plant the tomato, burying the string & knot & then filling up the central ring, readjust the string without pulling out the plant, add the label to the open end of the string. No wonder I only planted 6 :D just got another 2 dozen to go, be done by September :wacko:
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I've been making bamboo tripods for growing Kentucky Wonder people beans. I hope to finish the tripods today, plant either tonight or tomorrow.
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More tomatoes planted, plus some french beans- yellow & green & various lettuces, in the tunnel. Outside, planted out module sown petit pois & various areas weeded & plantings watered. All looking a bit better now
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After putting in Kentocky Wonder pole beans over the weekend, I put in some Cherokee Wax (French beans), which are a bush wax bean; they have a short runner, so usually need a little support.
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Watering, and hand-pollinating yellow squash.
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Too much :lol:
Planted out the chilli’s & sweet peppers in the PT, watered of course plus all the toms & cucumbers in there too plus the peach & apricot. Mulched the rest of the central bed. Got up most of the outside onions & all the garlic, weeded the bed & swept up the paths. Also swept up round the chicken pen & got the weeds out of the cracks.
Back this evening on chicken duties & watered all the beans outside & the pea transplants from yesterday & the first 2rows of potatoes (earlies) that have flowered
Picked 4 punnets of strawberries
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watered, watered and watered...and looked in dismay at what appears to be a bad year all round :mad:
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Watered plot again at 7.30 this morning. Think I will have do a rain dance!!
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watered, watered and watered...
Snap!!
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Yesterday I was at the plot for 6am & hoed a couple of beds that the weeds had grown a foot on in what feels like a week but in all fairness is probably 3, with our holiday & then getting covid. Sorted chicken girls a bit of watering that didn’t get done the night before & the 1st of the twice daily squish of asparagus beetle & their prodigy. Then I picked a few remaining black currants & a load of cherries.
Back after breakfast with hubby & we removed some of the corrugated plastic sheets around the secure chicken run to give them more airflow for the next few days.
Back in the evening for chicken duties, asparagus watch & watering in the tunnel.
Today I was a bit later but there for 7:30 to give the girls some more bolted lettuces, water the climbing beans-so much easier now I’ve got the 2 bottles next to each one & the difference to their growth since I installed them last week & little water evaporation too.
1x asparagus squish
Home for breakfast for 8:30 :)
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Yep, watering but just the newer plantings and owt likely to bolt
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Down at plot just after 9 am a lot more civilised than of late.
Weeded four beds and then planted out some beetroot. Had to water the bed really seriously as I had been drying some onions on it and the soil was like dust. Three watering cans full of water and then another once I had planted out the beets. Also created a maze of string in amongst my bean poles as I think it is birds that have been attacking my french beans before they could even start growing. I thought it was slug damage but a fellow plot holder reckoned it was birds so I’m hoping the maze will deter them. Fingers crossed the weather will be better for them too.
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Back to watering at just after 7.00 am.
Getting a bit bored with the sunshine now!
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Yes, all I seem to do just now, is carry watering cans, with just the occasional bit of harvesting, to mix things up a bit ::)
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Dug out the pea bed and added lime ready to plant out spring cabbage seedlings.
Also potted on the seedlings fingers crossed they will be big enough by end of September to go into the prepared bed. All a bit behind due to the heat. Decided I had better grow my own seedlings when I looked at some in a local garden centre. I was shocked to see that they were selling cabbage plants that had been severely damaged presumably by cabbage Whites. Too many staff in the coffee shop and not enough tending the veg plants.
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As it is sunny I done weeding and fed my tomato plants and took out carrots that aren’t growing at all. Checked the beetroot and onions and they are doing fine and soon can be harvested. Bad weather on the way
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Planted out some spring cabbages. Fingers crossed they will survive the slugs and cabbage white butterfly and make through to 2023. Made me realise we must all be optimists as we sow seeds for the future. Let’s hope this coming winter is relatively mild even if that encourages the slugs!!
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I have a bunch of lettuce varieties that I've chitted, including 'Flashy Troutback Romaine', "Really Red Deertoungue', 'Merlot Batavian', a gourmet blend, and some iceberg, Romaine, and Bibb. Also some Giant Noble spinach. Today I put most of those sprouted seeds into flats, except some that are slower to germinate, which hopefully will go into flats over the next couple of days.
Here, my 'salad days' come mostly in the winter months! :lol:
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Planted all my garlic today. About 140 cloves, mainly softnecks this year but also an early hardneck called primor.
Spread some compost over them.
Picked salad leaves, the first sprouts of the year and carrots.
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Mending fences to keep deer and other wildlife out.
Also, seedlings of lettuce, spinach and other greens are getting larger, some will be transplanted into small pots to grow on further, but I am also direct-planting some in my beds. So, I have been clearing out beds to plant greens as well, as small clumps of plants, which will be thinned and the culled seedlings used as micro greens.
This coming week, I hope to get my broad beans planted. So, I'm getting that bed ready as well.
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Planted a rhubarb. Planted two a year ago and they both failed to come back in spring. I really, really want this one to thrive; I'm already a year behind for crumble.
Also planted 6 elephant garlic cloves. Tried last year and they never got beyond scrawny. With hindsight I should have left them in to bulk up.
Got a small broad bean patch sorted. Will sow some more in spring after the leeks are lifted.
Ooh yes, and decanted some comfrey tea into milk cartons. Smells good!
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I soaked broad bean seeds, they bulked up nicely. They are in a container now, between two damp sheets of kitchen paper. I'm hoping they will sprout roots and get in the ground later this week. Semantics: If you chit a seed, and a plant starts to form before you put the seed in the ground, do you consider that sowing, or planting? :lol: :nowink: ::)
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Digging yea! And that’s no sarcasm to
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Digging yea! And that’s no sarcasm to
No I get you :) There is something very deeply satisfying about turning over soil in the autumn and seeing the plot put to bed and ready for the next season. If it is just a touch chilly, but bright, with autumn leaves blowing around in the air …. Perfick :)
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Digging yeah
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Got most of week off so I get to prep some more I had an operation and let it get a head of me but like you say new shoot it’s satisfying after the effort to know you are ready also I find it beats a tread mill new shoot I have access to some part aged manure do you reckon I could top dress the soil or would it make it to sour planting potatoes in the beds and I know they prefer acidic leaning soil what’s ya thoughts
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I would have thought top dressing beds now will be fine. The rain will wash away anything that would sour the soil way before you get around to putting spuds in next year.
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been carting well-rotted horse manure to the allotments as though it's going out of fashion already done 5 loads another 2 loads should clear it, I was asked if I could clear the heap by a friend of ours you know the saying never look a gift horse in the mouth :D or to put it another way don't refuse a heap of well-rotted horse
manure :D
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Planted some Spring cabbage :)
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Cheers new shoot😀😀👍
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Today I haven't done squat. Yet.
Over the past week, I've been managing lettuce seedlings during an unseasonably cold snap. I've also been transplanting said seedlings out of community flats and into pots, hope they will be in the ground late this month or early next.
Chitted and planted out broad beans, autumn planting of snow peas, and snap peas.
I hope to have spinach seedlings in the ground later today. I may need more spinach to fill in.
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yesterday we replaced the fence I took down to get the trailers of horse manure on the allotment 6 holes 6 posts' then put the wire netting back to the posts' tidy a good morning's job just got to spread the manure before ploughing the ground hopefully this week weather permitting :D
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Caught a rat in a trap in my shed. Spread a bit of compost, picked some beetroot.
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Got three 'Taunton Deane' cuttings from EBay, they were in the post for five days so I was a bit concerned. They look strong cuttings and all potted up now, fingers crossed.
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In the last week:-
Threaded all the 2 litre bottles I use for deep watering on to their bamboo canes & hung them up in the chicken pen until next year- I worked out some of these bottles must be 20 years old as I had them at the old house & plot! Talk about being ahead of my time/ upcycling/recycling, us old uns can show the young ones a thing or two, can’t we :lol:
Sorted all the bamboo canes out & sawed off all the split damaged ends & bundled & fastened them into same lengths, ready to be stored in the roof of the chicken pen, but that bits got to wait as I must have done it differently other years as they’re not fitting in. So today I’ve bought very large hook things to fasten to the long backside & they should rest on those.
I weeded the fruit cage & put the swoe over it all. Put the table & chairs away. Hung up some pipes onto the frame of the fruit cage, hubby came down & used up almost the last of the gifted fascia board to fashion an upstanding between my plot & B’s to hold his flower border back so now we can have wood chippings down between us so it can be kept swoed/hoed & stay on top of the weeds & flowers that self seeded in between the hexagonal slabs & membrane that have now been removed
Sunday morning I’ve watered all the tunnel.
Still picking tomatoes,peppers,chillis, parsley & today will pick the first turnips from in there . :lol:
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And taada just like that look what I managed. I put up the four hooks & then for the smaller canes I contrived the bottle storage, let’s see how long it last :lol:
Then I found another few canes loitering round & about, so although I didn’t feel like it I cut off the string & labels & sorted them into rubbish, trimmed the ones that needed it & stored them all away. The really small ones are in a tub in the shed. And should I find more & I’m sure I will, I’m intending to sort & store. Probably not the best use of my time this week but as I’m still recovering from a nasty bout of illness I’m doing strenuous things in short doses & at least I won’t be tripping over the bottles & canes over the winter & the canes won’t be rotting, plus whichever path I put them on “temporarily “ they’re always in the way! I’m sure I’m not alone in that :lol:
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Today I emptied another potato tub, which turned out to be Pink Fir Apple rather then the Cara I thought they were...one day will everything get labelled? Just leaves 2 buckets of Blue Danube, on the plot, and 2 of Sarpo Mira in the garden.
Also did a bit of tidying up, which is when I found 2 more Tromba squashes now the leaves are beginning to die back and some Autumn Calabrese which I'd missed.
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This morning I took six Buddleja cuttings and potted them up. Everything seems to be growing still in the warmth so I thought why not. I priced one Buddleja 'Black Knight' on a national online site and they wanted £69.99 plus delivery. One of my projects is a new wildlife garden, I am about 18 months in and its taking shape but its not cheap getting new plants.
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I moved a perennial Kale to its new home. Its not a year old yet and its huge, put three stakes in ready for the winter battering.
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Caught another mouse, composted lower brassica leaves, forgot to pick more salad leaves
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With serious cold on the way ( -10 °C), I tarped over raised beds of broad beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, beets, tatsoi. Three beds out of six. I haven't bothered with tarps over carrots, but might do so before the worst of the cold hits.
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I harvested my dwarf artichokes. Its my first time growing them but the tops have gone over so here we go. The next job will be the all important taste test. Handing them over now to my assistant for cooking!
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I harvested my dwarf artichokes. Its my first time growing them but the tops have gone over so here we go. The next job will be the all important taste test. Handing them over now to my assistant for cooking!
Best wait till it’s warmed up a bit in my experience…….as it needs to be warm enough to open the windows in readiness :mad: :D :D
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Too late! :ohmy: