Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: New shoot on January 03, 2024, 07:57
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A shared thread to post news of your latest veg growing tasks.
Link to last years thread:
https://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=137153.0
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More lettuce planted, and battened down the hatches (storm coming in).
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Took some 'kitchen compost' to the plot and tidied up the area where I want to construct my last raised bed - its now all clear and ready for construction!
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3 trips to the chickens today, 2nd trip was to take water as theirs was frozen. Yesterday I collected & delivered 63 bags of manure, did have help from my friend D & his flatbed truck :lol:
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Did a plot 'dash' to drop off more kitchen compost and check for any damage after the various storms! Amazingly, the shed is still standing AND the guttering is still all intact! Cast a despairing eye over the remaining (VERY well rotted by now) muck heap and vowed to be back at the weekend to finish the last raised bed and spread out the rest of the heap.
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Finally managed to complete the last raised bed on the plot - Hurrah! Spread the last of the muck around and called it a day
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Did a bit of digging but was very heavy. My plan of planting potatoes to 'clean' the red shank roots doesn't seemed to have worked
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Yesterday & today, I emptied the dumpy bag of my oldest compost, filling 16, 30 litre tubs, to be mixed 50/50 with commercial compost for my potatoes.
The rest went on five of my 1.2x3.2m beds in the back garden - 90 litres per bed every year.
Still have another 0.4m³ of compost to do the last two beds & the rest can go on the plot.
Harvested the last of the leeks - left it a little late & maybe lost 25%. The rest are now several litres of leek & potato soup (using the last of my stored charlotte potatoes, as they are starting to sprout).
Picked another feed of kalettes (flower sprouts) & they are definitely far better tasting for having stood some hard frosts.
Plenty of winter lettuce & rocket but the mustard's decided February is the time to bolt...
Forked over my seaweed compost, as for some reason it's gone all wet & soggy, right when I wanted it ready.
Going to pick up 3, 205 litre barrels for water storage tomorrow - £5 each.
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Wow Odders - that's a LOT of compost! Makes my efforts seem very poor indeed (Must try harder!)
...... last plot trip, I built a small step down at the end of one path and was VERY pleased with myself :lol:
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Managed to clean up the strawberry bed at last. It was full of foxgloves . Replanted some plants as many had popped to the surface with the ground shrinking in last years dry weather. Hopefully they will do better this year . it’ll be their third year so have quite a few runners planted in another bed ready for replacing this years cropping plants.
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Planted a couple new Victoria rhubarb crowns to replace 2 that didn't survive last summer; the new arrivals joined 3 older crowns that are sprouting now.
Also sowed snow and snap peas (previously chitted).
Chitted Dark Green Zucchini and Early Prolific Straightneck went into modules, as did broad beans Aguadulce and Windsor (the Windsor seeds all came from a single plant that survived very cold temperatures).
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Put the swoe over the perennial brassica bed whilst picking some of the leaves for the chickens & me ( the netting was already up :) )
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Sowed celeriac and celery seeds in my heated propagator. Gosh the seeds are so tiny!
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Amazing day actually dry this morning.
Took the opportunity to burn my asparagus from last season.
Delighted that they all burnt in 15 minutes.
Also cleared some of the weeds from the asparagus bed and the garlic.
Whilst it rained tonight I’m hoping I can add some manure later in the week.
Running a bit behind this year. Hopefully the weather will be more predictable this season.
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Hand pollinated the apricot & peach tree in the poly tunnel, well hopefully I’ve done it right this year !
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Short visit today to strim the grass on plot.
Also potted up some tomatoes which had germinated very rapidly in my heated propagator. Fingers crossed I’m not too early!
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I did some hedge trimming, too many scrawny blackberry plants are growing through it :(
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Finally managed to complete the last raised bed on the plot - Hurrah! Spread the last of the muck around and called it a day
Ali T - Is that wood chips on your paths, can't quite see, if so, looking to do that on my new path which I cleared of weeds, do they stick to your boots if you been on soggy earth on the plot?
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Nice sunshine first thing so I managed to take the old grow bags to the plot along with a old bag of manure. Ground pretty wet so I just crudely upended some weedy grass in a bed and covered with some of the grow bag soil. Will give it a proper dig/fork over before planting some salad or beetroot in that bed when the soil is drier & warmer.
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Lovely day today so cut the grass in my back garden and took the clippings to the allotment and layered it in a blue barrel mixing in shredded paper and horse manure at the same time
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Put some sugar snap peas in and made a net cage to keep those pigeons off them
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Finished spreading a dumpy bag of mushroom compost. Doesn't spread as far or as thick as I hope ( again ).
Tidied up a bit - old scraps of wood left by a previous tenant, plus some grass clumps and a couple of raspberry runners. No standing water now but still pretty sodden
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Had put a plastic cloche over one strip a week ago and sowed beetroot this morning.
Did some hoeing but more weeds need digging out.
Might do more modules in home greenhouse later
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Brief visit to plot after cutting lawn at home.
Weeded a strawberry bed and checked the asparagus. Ground is still pretty wet but improving. Hopefully i won’t have too much more rain to come before I manage to sow some seeds!
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On the 2nd of 3 trips to the plot today ! I weeded the asparagus bed as I’d spotted a load of little weeds had appeared & in a matter of days were beginning to flower. So 2 buckets of weeds are now waiting to go to the chickens tomorrow :)
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Ali T - Is that wood chips on your paths, can't quite see, if so, looking to do that on my new path which I cleared of weeds, do they stick to your boots if you been on soggy earth on the plot?
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Bobbyt - SO sorry for not responding sooner (Been sowing seeds like a woman possessed!) Yep, I guess they would do - but the reason I have wood chipped paths is so that I dont have to walk on any of my beds, so I dont get sticky muddy boots any more (Hurrah!)
I must say that all through this horrible wet weather, the paths have been brilliant - I'd highly recommend them :D
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I completed construction of the connecting 'path' between my water butts and the 'top' beds, so I can now (at last) focus on planting rather than woodworking :lol:
Transplanted my rhubarb from the house garden to the plot a few weeks ago and it seems to be settling in okay (fingers crossed!), unfortunately no rhubarb for us this year whilst they get established :(
Got first earlies in a couple of weeks ago and have taken a risk with some early sowings of roots (Turnips, early carrots, beets)
The greenhouse and windowsills are stuffed to bursting.....
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Visited plot to strim the grass paths etc.
Took the opportunity to roughly dig over two beds and remove weeds.
Transferred a couple of strawberries from an overgrown bed to my main strawberry bed. Covered the main bed with a cloche.
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2 full dry hours on the plot - luxury! :lol:. Planted out my second early potatoes, sowed a line of rocket, planted out a bought rosemary bush as a start to the herb bed, constructed a couple of (slightly wobbly) wigwams for the beans, spotted and took a piccie of the first asparagus tip of the year Yay! and sowed some hardy annual flower seeds in the 'pollinator' bed. The little apple tree is in full bloom as is the cherry and the foxgloves are thriving under the fruit trees, happy morning!
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After enormous quantities of rain, I've finally taken advantage of a few dry days this month to get stuck into the plot. Preparing beds for growing by digging over and adding compost, sharp sand for the carrot beds. Lots of weeding and hedge/shrub cutting, with dandelions the main weed this week.
I've also made the decision to put raised beds on a non-raised area, to improve drainage and the growing soil condition. I got some decking boards to make the frames. A lot of digging needed, then will put a layer of hardcore in each, and fill with topsoil mixed with cattle manure and home made compost. A busy time, but I am behind due to the weather conditions during February and March.
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Visited plot this afternoon once the rain stopped.
Raked 3 beds and spread with multipurpose compost.
Planted some red onions as the soil is actually now workable.
Also planted out a strip of lettuce as mine seem to be rather behind.
Pleased to actually do something constructive after the annoying weather.
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Good visit to plot this morning.
Dug a trench for beans and incorporated manure.
Then erected a frame for the beans.
Collected my first asparagus spear of the year.
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Went over the plot again with my hand mower today. Yesterday I went over all my beds with a hand rotavator(cultiavtor?). Was pleased with how that went, even my plot neighbours were impressed
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Had a couple of good days on the plot - put some new blue hoops up for the black kale bed (Seedlings doing well in the greenhouse for now) and put up some protection for my nibbled asparagus :mad: protection consists of a wire fence, pinned down, and some peppermint water (Diluted peppermint essential oil in water) just dribbled around the edges. I suspect it's rats, but if its slugs I'll have to rethink the strategy! I also took an hour to clear out the shed, give it a scrub and get rid of any rubbish. Thanks to the peppermint essential oil the shed now smells incredible! :D
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Finally a lovely day here, so got loads of hoeing done, went around with the strimmer and at last planted the charlotte potatoes :)
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Off on short hols next week so went up this morning and put in last 16 broad beans. Those root trainers do make em look good.
Summat's had the marigolds i put in last week ... slugs or climate?
Gave rest of beds a hoe to discourage weeds.
And brought back enough chard for us and neighbour and 1 leek
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Strimmed the grass paths and collected some asparagus
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Another superb day, planted the little gem I had in plugs next to the peas under the pea netting. Did more hoeing. Also turned my hot compost bin - what a smell!!
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I topped up the potato bags, did the weeding and gave all the green veggies their seaweed feed.
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Rain is too heavy to do anything outside ::)
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Cut the grass paths at plot with my petrol mower in the rain.
Not ideal but I’m rather busy helping my daughter with grandchildren as she’s been under the weather after a bout of flu & chest infection.
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Went over the paths with the hand mower and a bit of hoeing. Built a cold frame and it got to 38c in there earlier!
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Crossed my fingers and planted out some French beans.
Just in case they struggle I also sowed some seeds as well for succession or back up.
Seriously hot on the plot today and weather forecast doesn’t seem to show any frost risk now. Mini heat wave by weekend!!??