Plant Sortout

Still trying to get ahead with jobs before the big rush in spring. The garden plot beds needed sorting out. Some plants needed moving either to make space or spread them out. I tend to plant too close together at times. Some of the grasses have spread out so they needed digging up. The space where the greenhouse was needs filling in with soil. So far i have filled it with turf cut from extending and tidying the edges of the beds.

Saturday. Cold but sunny. The ground was too hard to dig so i tidied one of the beds and hedges in the garden plot.

Ordered potatoes for this year. Belle de Fontenay, Juliette and Vivaldi.

Before and after on the south facing bed

The snow has finally gone so a good chance to catch up on some jobs before spring. Most of the beds have now been manured and a couple more turned into raised beds. Lack of wood has stopped this for now. The new greenhouse from the garden plot is now in place and just needs finishing off

Manure and Garlic

I am on holiday now for a couple of week so i can spend a bit more time on the allotment. Not much to do plant wise but lots of tidying up and setting things out ready for next year.

First job for today was manure. As you can see I dont have a trailer so I use a large builders bag, tie up the corners and shovel it in. Then all i need to do is fork it into the wheelbarrow and on it goes. Granted the car does stink afterwards but i dont mind it too much. Anyway I managed to get 4 car loads on today before it got too cold. The weather forecast is cold and snow but at least there was some blue sky mixed in

The next job was to plant out the garlic. I put these into individual cell earlier in october in the greenhouse. There is plenty of strong growth to get them going and the cold weather will encourage the cloves to split.

These are some autumn onions. They are a little late but they should grow ok for pulling next summer when the autumn onions from this year have run out. The yellow onions grown this year are keeping well but the red ones have started to rot, I believe red dont keep too well so next year i will use them up first instead of storing.

End of Year Review

Since i last posted i have been busy with other things and as the season come to an end i have not had too much to report, plus i broke my camera phone so i have not been taking photo's which serve as a reminder to what has been going on.

Most of the summer fruit and veg has now been picked and eaten. The potatoes lasted well into november, onions have been dried and stored. Leeks are still being picked as is kale. Most of the plants in pots have been put into the green house

The compost bins have been emptied and refilled hopefully ready for next year. the secret seems to be adding lots of fresh horse manure to get them going. The leaf mold is coming on nicely and another layer from this year has been added

So what have i learned this year?

Dont sow too early especially beans and courgettes. not too many seeds sown at one time, succesional sowing is a must, not too many potatoes.

Most veg was successful especially carrots, sweetcorn, chillies, tomatoes, potatoes

Next year: no broad beans, better tasting varieties, lots of chillies and tomatoes, hopefully some asparagus and artichokes.

To do: move greenhouse up to top plot, raised beds

Another nice weekend with warm and sunny weather. I finally finished tidying up the large conifer next to my shed. It does take up quite a bit of space but provides shade for the salad beds and partially hides the shed from the roadside. Beacause of the dry weather everything needs watering, sometimes twice a day! Some of the mizuna and pak choi in pots i have planted out to give them a better chance. Sunday was another hot and sunny day, too hot to work too hard so i sowed some fresh poppy seeds, pricked out the echinaea seedlings and put up some netting for the kids peas. then it was a rare time to put my feet up and have a snooze in the sun.

All the trees and plants attrct a variety of wildlife from insects, birds, frogs, toads and even rats! They come through from the chicken pens. I dont mind them too much but they do make you jump. There are plenty of birds nesting and feeding nearby. This baby coal tit was taking a rest in the trees

You can never have enough pictures of clouds and sunsets. Nothing more to say. Let the picture speak for itself

Finally, these are 'charlotte' potatoes that were grown in pop up bags. These were planted 8/3, three seed potatoes per bag on 4" of compost and covered with 2" they slowly filled up as the shoots grew. I was very impressed by how many were in the bag when i emptied out though i did notice the soil was very dry. So even with good watering they didn't rot and they grew well.

Charlotte

On Tuesday i emptied the bag of 'Nicola' potatoes and these gave a similar result, 1 1/2- 2lbs of new potatoes. On Wednesday it was 'Juliette' potatoes. The weather turned very wet and windy and they were in danger of damage, well thats my excuse anyway. I love new potatoes! The weather stayed cool and cloudy for Thursday but managed to plant out lupins into nursury bed, fennel and chard next to the peas. Harvested spinach, spring onions, turnips and radich for salads. I needed to build some kind of windbreak around the asparagus as they were in danger of damaging the crowns. The next to be tried was the 'Belle de Fontenay' of all the varieties tried so far these are my favourite. They have a nice old fashioned taste and hold their shape well quite sweet too.

Juliette

Belle de Fontenay

Another Bank Holiday

The forecast was good and it didn't disappoint. Saturdays weather was sunshine and showers but by mid afternoon the clouds had moved away for a glorious evening. Usual mix of jobs, sowing, planting and weeding. I bought some more asparagus, connovers collosal to compliment my other varieties. So now i have two beds devoted to asparagus, 32 crowns all together which does seem quite a lot but considering how expensive and delicious it is, well worth it. I also ordered some artichoke, green globe. These came for weekend and have been potted up until i can deside where to put them. They will need somewhere sheltered because they grow quite tall.

All the beds in the veg plot were weeded and tidied up.

On Sunday it was very hot so we went for a bike ride first before relaxing in the garden allotment. Just tidied a few beds and moved things around a little. Time to chill out with family. Chippy tea with croque monsoiur and pineau. Fabulous.

Bank Holiday Monday was another hot day. An early start before it got too hot painting the fencing and sheds. Weather turned a little cool towards the end but another relaxing day with much done.

Friday was another day of rain. Whilst always welcome for watering the plants it is difficult to be motivated. However my first attempt at pak choi was a good success as this picture shows. These went into a nice stir fry with sweet chili sauce.

Saturdays weather was a little better quite sunny in the morning but then the rain came back. I try to work outside in the good weather and inside when it is not so good. It sounds pretty obvious but i try to save jobs for inside when the weather turns. So in between showers i cut some new pieces for the staging from old pallets. This gives me more work space and frees up a section of staging to make a complete section for the back of the greenhouse. The bottom photo shows the salad tray pricked out into respective pots.

The next job was to make a large cloche for one of the salad beds. Both the beds are the same size so the cloche can move from bed to bed depending on requirements. These will be handy for protecting early and late crops. The design is similar to geoff hamiltons from gardeners world. A rectangular frame is made from 4"x1" treated timber. Blue water pipe is then fixed to the insides with screws. A ridge of timber helps hold the pipes and rigid and supports the polythene which is then stretched and stapled to the wood. The cloche can be propped up for ventilation and access. The crops inside really do grow better under protection. Next step a polytunnel i think! The smaller square raised bed has a similar cover made from a timber square with a polythene cover. Finally i planted out some lettuces between to strawberries. It's good not to be tied to certain crops in certain beds, with salad leaves etc they can go anywhere there is a gap without affecting any crop rotation.

Sunday was a good planting out day. I put the green calabrese and dwarf kale in their permanent positions 12" apart and covered them with netting to prevent cabbage white butterflies and other pests. The sprouting broccoli's (Italian, early and late purple) are put into the nursery bed for transplanting later. Apparently the calabrese not good for transplanting. I also started off the compost heap properly. I got a load of fresh manure, grass, cardboard and materials from last years heap and built up in layers so there wasn't too much of one material. The compost heap was filled to the top but a few days later it was starting to heat up and the heap has settled down. in a week or so i will turn the heap over and mix everything up so that oxygen can get in and rot everything down quicker. The heap needs enough heat to kill weed seeds etc but not too hot or it will kill useful bacteria and worms.

On Tuesday i planted out the peas, celebration, alpine strawberries origen improved and the second sowing of delphiniums. The tomatoes in the greenhouse are doing well and the first strawberries. These are aromel which are an everbearing variety. The last picture is the asparagus bed. Most of the crowns have taken and are sprouting. It's just a case of keeping them clear of weeds, a little feed in summer and patiently wait

The recent windy weather has prompted me to buy some windbreak material to put between me and George's plot to try and protect the plants. Now that the border between our plots is finished off i can carry on planting up beans and some hardy annuals for colour and to attract pollinating insects. One plant that is doing really well is an honesty plant, grown from seeds found on a walk a couple of years ago. It has very dark purple flowers and the seed heads are round and flat like paper coins hence its nickname, popes money. The comfrey next to it is doing well and i may have a go at comfrey 'tea' to use as liquid fertilizer.

On Saturday the weather started out quite sunny tho still very breezy. The next few photo's show the raised bed i edged with leftover timber and how the rest of the allotment is coming on. The salad potatoes are doing really well from and earlier planting after warming up the soil with polythene.

The next shots are of the salad leaves in the greenhouse either waiting to be planted out or taken home to be eaten!

These plants are waiting to be planted out later when they have hardened off, mostly brassicas and some mini sweetcorn. The potatoes in bags are doing fine, i just need to make sure there is a enough drainage when it rains too much but also enough moisture because the leaves can deflect any water away from the soil.



These onion set are doing really well now. i may have to net them off to prevent onion fly. The herb bed looks well. It has a mix of mints, origano, tarragon, garlic chives, sage, thyme and lemon balm. I also have some pot marigold for colour and the attract beneficial insects to the plot

And finally look at the size of that! One of the asparagus spears is reaching for the stars. Most of the crowns have now produced one spear which means they have transplanted well. I do have some younger plants that are in the seed bed now but i am tempted to buy some more older crowns to get earlier crops.

Too Busy to Blog

It has been well over a week since i last updated my blog. As you can imagine its quite a busy time of year getting things started, sowing seed, potting on, pricking out, hardening off, too frosty, too sunny, not much rain. As well as those things to think about the allotment is still being finished off with fencing, top soil for beds, cuting grass etc. Hopefully next year will be a little easier. The garden plot is much easier with just a little maintenance and moving plants around.

Wednesday was the start of work for a guy called Richard, a neighbour of a gardning customer who wanted some raised beds building. Unfortunatly the timber suppliers had no suitable timber in but i got seven pallets for free. Thursday was spent making fence panels and another hour at Richards digging over the beds ready for the timber surrounds. On Friday i planted out the leeks and onions grow from seed into a bed prepared for them. The other two photos show the early potatoes and onions growing well but could do with some rain on them as could everything else. The sunny weather means everything is drying out and slowing down, but rain is forecast for next week.

Leeks and onions planted out

Onion sets

Early potatoes

Saturday looked like being poor weather so i stayed at home and tidied up the front garden. Is amazing how much material comes from cutting back and pruning. Later the weather turned reasonable so i was able to finish off the fencing down the pathway, tidied up some beds and took some fuscia cuttings. Sunday i planted out some sweet peas in the border and topped up some beds with seived soil. Later i got some plants from a friend Judith. I got some grasses, huechera and hosta and swapped for some geranium seedlings but i have some other plants to dig up for her later

On Monday it finally rained so into the greenhouse to sort through seedlings and plants. I pricked out the early sowing of brassicas into pots ready to harden off and plant in seed bed for later. Tuesday was more rain but Wednesday picked up and was quite hot and sunny. I finished off the raised beds for Richard and continued seiving top soil to top up borders and got some manure from the farm to mulch the hedging and plants.

Richards raised beds

Salad potatoes in bags now outside

Next are a couple of views, one of the fruit border which has space along the front edge for peas and beans. The tulips are just starting to fade now but have been a welcome addition to brighten up the plot. I have some hardy annuals to put in between hedges and plants to attract bees etc