[Subversive_plot]

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.

[Candide]

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

[Rob the rake]

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.

[Subversive_plot]

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.  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.

[Hampshire Hog]

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.

[snowdrops]

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 .

[Rob the rake]

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.  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...

[snowdrops]

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.

[Subversive_plot]

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.

[Hampshire Hog]

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!

[Snow]

Planted peas for shoots and pods, will pant the onions and shallots today and sow some parsnips, carrots. leeks will be multisown in modules.

[Candide]

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

[rowlandwells]

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 

[Hampshire Hog]

Dug a bean trench yesterday and added some homemade compost together with some newspaper today. Just finished before the blizzard conditions struck !

[Subversive_plot]

(We'll call this what I did over the holiday weekend.       )

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.