Wow, what a difference to last fortnight - hot sunshine and a cracking good thunderstorm on Saturday night, with lots of much needed downpours. With not watering last weekend, the warm sunny weather and rising temperatures was causing concern. Still, I bought a tap fitting for the hose pipe as I intended to give the plot extra water to be on the safe side.
It was warm on Saturday but you could tell after the thunderstorm that it was going to be a balmy Sunday. It really felt like being overseas on holiday - the back patio was heady with the fragrance of the fruit tree blossom. I don't ever remember the cherry tree smelling so wonderful before. And you could feel the heat of the early morning sun as you stepped outside. My greatest concern was the chickens - under their clear plastic corrugated roof, they would be in a greenhouse so I got the foiled backed bubble wrap and put them on the roofs before letting the girls out (ever see a chicken freak out when putting something on their roof - you discover they can fly, albeit not very well) and then made sure they had lots of fresh clean water before giving both runs and coops a thorough clean out. However, I had no intentions of taking the bedding to the allotment as I did not want to get heat exhaustion digging it in. In fact, I had planned 3 little tasks for myself - sort out the onion bed, water everything and put weedkiller down on the foot paths. No digging involved whatsoever.
Part of the plan was also to get there early and enjoy it while it was still cool on the site. I arrived at 7.30 am and found I wasn't the first. I took the fleece off the onion bed and - about 20 or so sets had been pulled up even under the fleece. They could have been like that for the past 2-3 weeks since I put the fleece down so they might not recover. On the other hand, quite a lot had sprouted up to about 3 inch long. There was also a lot of weeds ... as I had not intended to do any gardening as such, I hadn't brought any gardening tools so it was a picking job. Took a lot longer than I would have liked. I wanted to get the watering done as soon as possible.
I probably spent about an hour and half giving all the beds a thorough drenching and some more. The beds already looked well watered from the rain but I wanted to make extra sure the water had reached the roots. So all the garlic, onion, asparagus, broad bean and potato beds as well as the gooseberry, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry and fruit trees got special attention. For good measure, I also did the rhubarb and Jerusalem artichoke beds too, and added more water to the pond. As I peered into the pond, we have tadpoles! Some were quite big.
Next task, take down the cage over the winter cabbages. With just 2 left and just about to go past it, they were harvested. I left the outer leaves and stalks for the pigeons and slugs (again with the no dig day) and used the canes to erect a cage over the onion bed. This is a bit of a trial as I have never caged onions before - I am a bit concerned that the debris netting will create a humid atmosphere and cause problems of its own, but the other reason was to see if it will prevent onion root fly from getting to the onions (as well as let some of the less well developed sets to start growing before being pulled out by the birds) There were a few holes in the netting where the canes had punched through but fingers crossed the flies are not that intelligent. I'm convinced the onion fly is the main cause of some onions doing poorly and rotting rather than some disease in the soil, so we'll see if netting them improves the yield.
By now it was already 12.00 pm and I still hadn't done the weed killer. Getting it down was starting to become a priority now that the grasses were putting growth on. However, I need a new sprayer - or rather, a new nozzle. The spray is like a trickle and even when the handle was released, it carried on working The job took forever. After a refill, I managed to get all the key foot paths done, the weeds at the back of the shed along the pallet fence and I also did the neighbours (vacant?) plot. The people who took it on last year have not been around since last summer so I think they must have given up. However, they had not done a very good job of putting plastic down and if anything, have encouraged the brambles and other weeds to flourish. One particular weed spreads like wild fire so I made a point of treating it and also the grasses growing next to the foot path. As I sprayed, I was aware that there was a lot of rubbish on their plot (and it was rubbish) and then I noticed next to it a big pile of soil on my foot path - it was brown rather than the usual black, so I know it wasn't something I had put there. And it's right where I saw the foot prints across the pond bed ... so the culprit is someone from the other side (and I've got a very good idea who now) The sooner I get the fencing up, the better
I packed up and left at 1.30 pm (so much for a short stint at the allotment) It was lovely and cool when I got into the house, and that cold beer in the fridge was like nectar. By late afternoon, I still had another task to do. The chitted sweetcorn was just starting to sprout and needed to be planted. I spent much of the evening potting them up in compost with a pinch of dried blood (I would have preferred chicken manure but I didn't have enough) - 10 trays with 5 pots per tray - but I'm not finished. I reckon there is another 30 seeds still to plant but it was late. I put the trays on the pasting board in the south facing back bedroom where it was really warm from the sun and gave all the pots a thorough watering.
I didn't get to sow much else - my seeds that I bought had not arrived in the post in time. And looking at the weather forecast, the heat wave is not going to last with cold weather by next weekend. An update on the Jonagold apple tree - it still hasn't started to grow and I now know why - it's dying. The little branches were dead although the main trunk is still green. When I once moved an apple tree in my garden, I had to chop the tap root and I think that was why it never recovered - I seem to remember seeing one of the new trees with the tap root cut but at the time wondered if being bare rooted, it didn't matter. It's possible this was the tree but I can't be sure. I gave it a good soaking when watering and we'll see if it recovers. It would be sad to lose it as I was really looking forward to trying the fruit.
Make sure you complain to the shop. And say what you noticed. They may give you a replacement or repay. But of course they won't replace the lost year waiting for fruit.
Mo wrote:Make sure you complain to the shop. And say what you noticed. They may give you a replacement or repay. But of course they won't replace the lost year waiting for fruit.
I didn't keep my receipt so not sure where I stand.
This morning the birds in the garden were in full voice before dawn, it was quite amazing if not a little annoying to be woken up at 4.00 am. It's a funny time - if I had managed to drop off to sleep again I'd overlie and then be late for work, so I decided to get up. The time wasn't wasted - after an early breakfast, I got on with planting more of the chitted Lark F1 sweetcorn. The ones still to be planted had really put a spurt on since Sunday night with roots over an inch long and the leaf shoot pushing through so had to be handled rather carefully. I planted another 31. In total, 76 now potted up with another 16 still to plant - and 100% germination. I'm really happy about that ... the next question will be, is the proposed bed on the allotment big enough for all of them LOL.
EDIT - so annoying, my seeds haven't arrived yet and the mini heatwave is about to end and return to below average for this time of year. Forecast of possible overnight frosts by the weekend, unbelievable.
Worth a try. If they quibble you could print out your bank statement to show you paid them. Was it a garden centre or online? I had a mislabeled tree* replaced with no evidence - just went in and said 'that greengage turned out to be a Merryweather damson' - and that was a year or so down the line, when it fruited. If you don't ask....
*Lots of other mislabeled trees I didn't bother asking about. Had 2 Victoria Plums before getting the Czar I wanted (and I already had 2, 1 old 1 new). And the Russett apple turned into a duplicate James Grieve.
This year I decided to go for 2 garden waste bins to try and get on top of the ever growing mountain of privet trimmings that I seem unable to get on top of in my garden. The big pile at the bottom of the garden is so bad that I've not been beyond it to reach the pergola and I know the bottom fence has been taken down ... I can see that there are gaps that shouldn't be down there. So I decided to forego an allotment visit and instead concentrate on the garden. I've been aiming for a "low" maintenance garden but the brambles taking over have decided otherwise. So it was time to take action.
The first task was to clear the leaves and ash tree seeds from the neighbour's tree off my patio. Normally a task I do in autumn but the rain never stopped and before I knew it, had turned into a big pile of mush. Now that we have some dry sunny weather, the leaves had long ago broken up but the seeds were germinating so time to clear them off. So satisfying to be able to see my patio floor again. The next task was to put weedkiller down on the patio. In the past I used to pull them up but the previous owner of the house never put a hard core down and in time, the patio has subsided in places so the only thing to do is use chemicals.
With building the chicken runs, getting a bin down into the garden is now very difficult so the only way to take garden waste out is to use my flexi bucket. I made a start on the pile by the glass greenhouse because I had been planning on making another run there for quite some time (not sure whether to get more chickens or ... I'm tempted to get some ducks) However, I barely moved a fraction of the old trimmings and one bin was already full. I had hoped to trim some of the privet hedge by the apple trees because the branches were being crowded out and last year the Braeburn did not do so well. Now, the previous neighbours used to keep their side of the privet hedge well trimmed but the new ones have been letting parts of it grow taller. It's a long story, but my boundary is 18 inches into their garden so I decided to lop the privet hedge on my side down to the height of the 4 foot high fence. I have to say it made such an amazing difference to light levels especially for the apple tree and the chicken run. The next apple tree down, the James Grieve, had also got a bit tall so, although a bit late to be trimming, I lopped some of the branches off to hopefully give the Braeburn a chance to recover.
Suffice to say, not only did I fill the 2nd garden waste bin but the pile next to the greenhouse has got even bigger. I think I'm looking at a skip job at this rate Earlier in the morning I had decided to wash my embarassingly very filthy net curtains and was an opportunity to retrieve the big sheets of cardboard stacked along the wall that I'd been saving to take to the allotment. I decided they would be better put to use in the garden where the brambles had got a foothold in the fruit tree bed and I was clearly not winning. After cutting the brambles down to ground level, the cardboard sheets were laid over and weighted down. In time I will put weed suppressant membrane down over the top after I have lifted up the daffodil bulbs which are still in full leaf. Also an opportunity for a frog to move out as I'd clearly disturbed his hunting patch.
I worked my way down to the Bramble apple trees, trimming off dead twigs from both the pear and plum trees. The oldest Bramble was planted when the bay tree next door was barely a 2 foot bush, but is now over 20 foot tall ... the Bramble has brutishly decided to match the height and one branch is as tall. I'm at a loss of what to do - to cut my tree down, the bay tree would swamp it and it's not so easy to trim it on my side with the tree in the way. So I have left it. I had hoped some of the really cold winters would have killed the bay tree but it is instead thriving.
With all the cardboard in place as far as I could go, time to clear the weed suppressant membrane I had laid down at the side of the polytunnels. For the most part it has done what I wanted which was to keep on top of the weeds and grasses. I used to have a lawn but I struggled to do the mowing - the best mower I had that did the job was a petrol one but I could never get it to start (nothing wrong with it, just me not having the strength to get it going) So I replaced it with an electric one .... it was okay but much smaller and the basket would fill so quickly so I opted for a Flymo (with a collection basket) but that was like pushing a concrete block and thereafter the lawn deteriorated because I was put off using it. Eventually I got a cheap Flymo but at this point the lawn was more like a meadow. That's when I decided to get rid of the lawn altogether. After sweeping the membrane, I made some more weedkiller up to start treating the garden at the bottom. A few docks had taken hold so the sooner I treated them, the better.
I was quite pleased with the day's jobs, not so happy that the garden waste has expanded. This year I have decided not to grow anything in the greenhouses / polytunnel and instead spend my home time trying to rescue the garden. I was particularly happy about the bit of privet hedging trim and I'm tempted to do the same on the mammoth one on the other side. For now, my goal is to try and reach the bottom of the garden so when the waste bins have been emptied, I will make a start on the pile from there.
On another note, my seeds eventually arrived on Wednesday. I had originally put my home address on the order but I think the non-payment saga had disrupted the changes and defaulted back to the works address. I decided to "chit" some of the seeds and leave them on top of the computer at work (it really is very warm there) - within 2 days, the cucumber, courgette and beetroot had started to germinate and I spent Friday evening sowing them in compost. They are now on suitable warm sunny places at home to grow on. The parsnip alas are going to take longer (even in ideal temperatures, at least 2 weeks) I still have to do the swede seeds but May is the time when to sow them so still on target. I have to admit that reducing the bed space for vegetable growing on the plot has also taken some of the pressure of me. I'd say we are still on target to get everything done and with less panic.
A colleague at work who knows someone who works on the community plot at the allotment site told me yesterday that there had been break ins of most sheds and plots had been vandalised over the weekend Typical - the first time I haven't been to the plot in a while. I have absolutely nothing of value in my shed and is mainly a dumping place for all my wood, canes and netting. Even the wheel barrow is falling to pieces LOL but I was worried about all the work I had done on the plot especially my newly planted fruit trees which are more like twigs and especially the pond ... So on the way home from work I called in at the site. When I unlocked the gates, there was a police notice inside informing people of the break ins and a possibility of another visit from whoever had done the damage.
My first impression when I reached my plot is that it looked scruffy but nothing to do with any vandalism. Everything looked so dry and messy. Even the garlic which had shot up since the weekend before were looking a little wilted. I can't believe the plants were short of water as I had given them loads and we had heavy downpours that weekend, but then again I did add loads of sand to aid with drainage and we did have a very hot Monday (... followed by a wet Tuesday ). The garlic in the bed at the side of the blueberries on the other hand looked so much better. The netting over the onion bed had come loose at one end which is not surprising so I pinned it down again, and rescued the fleece I'd forgotten to put away after I had lifted it off the bed. That's when I noticed the weeds and grasses were not just looking parched but I think the weedkiller treatment was starting to work, hence the not so tidy appearance.
As I walked up the shared path to my shed, I noticed all the potatoes were breaking the soil surface, and the strawberries have just grown so much into lovely healthy plants. No sign of the broad beans though - odd, they should have come up by now. The pond bed looked fine - trees all in leaf, the tadpoles swimming around in the pond (and a big cluster of duck weed has appeared from nowhere ) To the shed door and ... it was still padlocked. I opened it and everything was fine although I did find my glass recycling bag which I had used to carry stuff was still there (complete with my name and home address) so I decided to take that home with me. As the shed has twisted with subsiding at the back, the door doesn't fit well in the frame so it's possible someone could have just looked in to see there was nothing of value and left my shed alone
Last night I was so tired that I went to bed early - the consequence is that I was also up early this morning. So an opportunity to sow some of the Tweed F1 swede seeds - a tray with 15 modules. That should be more than enough for me. And a quick glance in the back bedroom and the courgettes are just breaking the compost surface There was a disaster with one tray of sweetcorn - I had tried to squeeze it on the dining room windowsill, but unbeknown to me, at some point it had overbalanced and fallen off. I managed to rescue about 5 of the pots. At work to check on the parsnip seeds this morning and ... I don't know if it's my imagination, but I think I can see a tiny root starting to push out of the seed. I'll check again before I go home tonight because I will need to plant the seeds as soon as they start germinating to make sure the roots grow straight. It's all happening now
p.penn wrote:It's such a shame when allotments are vandalised, all that hard work
You sound so busy and productive LL! Its a joy to read your diary
thank you - spring is always a busy time but I'm also trying to put things into place to make life easier for myself especially as I'm getting older and finding it more hard work, and the weeds keep winning ....
An update on the break ins - apparently the damage was a number of sheds at the allotment and mainly theft. They had got in by cutting a mesh fence that borders onto the businesses on the main road (mainly car hire / garages). Luckily it was spotted by someone on their chicken rota and he noticed that the fence had been carefully put back hoping no-one would notice, hence the suggestions that there might be more break ins. A more robust fence was put there so fingers crossed.
On Friday, I noticed many more parsnip seeds had germinated so I decided to take them home to plant. I deliberated whether to plant into pots or direct - on the one hand, at home they would be protected and I could keep an eye on them, on the plot they risk being dug up by cats and birds, or eaten by slugs and snails. However, my experience is that parsnip grow long roots before the leaves show and disturbing the root turns long slender parsnips into fat swede-like shapes. Taste the same. Anyway, I decided planting direct would save me another job later ...
On Saturday I decided to repot some of the pond plants into bigger pots. I had hoped to get some pond compost but there was always one reason or other why I didn't get any. But the more I thought about it, I wondered if ordinary compost would be alright as some of these plants can be grown on the soil surface just as long as their roots never dry out and prefer it boggy, and I would never hesitate to use compost on "land" plants. So it was also an opportunity to split a couple of plants and that way it'll look more natural if there was a cluster. I gave them lots of water and put the pots into a deep tray of water. It doesn't seem to have done them any harm but I'll leave it for a couple of weeks before deciding whether it was a bad idea or not. I suspect the problem will come when I move them to the pond and any nutrients that leach out into the water. It would be true to say that this is all very new to me so I'm just making this up as I go along LOL
On Sunday, I was up fairly early and after sorting the chickens out, moved the 3 weeks bags of soiled bedding to the side of the house ready to load the car. I also moved my tray of germinating swede out on to the patio - a bit of sunshine should get them growing quickly. Next weekend is the Spring bank holiday weekend coming up which I'm looking forward to. However, my bins are normally collected on Mondays and usually that means a Saturday collection during a bank holiday weekend ... as I'm determined to keep on top of the garden waste, I really ought to fill the bins but then I had already missed my plot visit last weekend due to the garden waste bin fill up Meanwhile, I have to plant the parsnips so I just have to go (plus, I'd already moved all the bags of chicken bedding and poop) In the end, I thought I'd try and fill at least one bin ...
It was surprisingly humid down at the bottom of the garden. Armed with secateurs and loppers and my flexi bucket, I lopped some of the branches off the Discovery and Cox apple trees so that I could get further down the garden. Nice to see the weed killer was working on the docks but the brambles seemed to be flourishing, and the horse tail was coming up too (yes, I have the dreaded weed on both plot and garden) I broke up a few branches from the big pile of old trimmings and actually got quite far down the garden - that's when I realised the trellis fence I could see at the bottom of the garden was in fact mine as part of the pergola and the fence panelling right at the back was unchanged. However, something is still not right - far too much light coming through so I need to make an extra effort soon to find out what. Maybe a tree is down? After filling a bin with the trimmings, I got another batch of weedkiller made up - this time, a more potent mix for brush and hardwood (which I found very effective against the horse tail on the allotment, but also good for killing off brambles) It doesn't look like much but from the house end of the garden, I can definitely see an improvement. However, I got bitten twice for my troubles
It was well after 11.00 am before I finally got to the allotment. High on my shopping list from the allotment shed shop was slug pellets for the vulnerable parsnip seedlings! The shop used to buy slug pellets in bulk and bag up into smaller lots which worked out much cheaper than from elsewhere, but some legislation means they are no longer allowed to do that (being a "hazardous" chemical) so I had to buy a commercial pot - apparently it still works out much cheaper than if you got it from the garden centre because the profits from sale are small and just for general upkeep of the site shop. I also needed some fish, blood and bone (a 3kg bag) for the parsnip bed. Total cost: £4.50p
At the plot, the first thing that greeted me was the distinct yellowing weeds and grasses that I had treated 2 weeks earlier with weedkiller, and everything else had just taken off especially the fruit bushes. The comfrey was already up to 2-3 feet tall and flowering (I'm sure 2 weeks ago they were still at ground level as I decided they had not grown big enough to put in the potato beds) The garlic are all now at their full growing height - for the most part look healthy, but I still haven't figured out what causes the yellowing tips on the leaves. In the past this has been down to water-logging, too dry, not enough nutrients (or the right ones), too hot, too cold .... it's not going to affect the bulb but I would like to know what causes it. I also noticed some yellow speckling on some leaves - I don't think it is rust, but possibly some insect like maybe a leaf miner. For the moment though the damage seems small and random (I'm sure that might change) The Thermidrome and Harnas garlic on the other bed look very good and healthy so The onions under the debris netting have come along nicely with good healthy leaves but worryingly, so many missing or leaning over. A few weeds in the bed need taking out soon but generally the bed looks fine.
My first task was to make a start on the parsnip bed - I chose the one with the least weeds though to be fair, the beds I cleared over Easter still look fairly weed free for the moment. Rather than dig over the bed again (and move weed seeds to the surface where they'll germinate) I decided to dig holes where I intend planting the parsnip. Then partially fill each hole with compost mixed with the fish, blood & bone, back fill with the soil lifted out and use a spade to mix it altogether. Seems like an easy task if I had perhaps not already spent 3 hours in the garden before going to the plot.
The sun was very warm, it was humid but not uncomfortable. I seemed to take a lot of breaks before it was finally done. Next, I needed to give the bed a thorough drenching of water but then I also ought to water the whole plot - despite recent rain, the top soil was very dry especially in the garlic and asparagus beds ... probably the improved drainage was too good? I also wanted to start feeding the garlic with potash - only a small amount for the moment as the plants are still growing and using up the last lot of fertilizer but it won't be long before they switch from growing to bulb development/flower production. So I made up a watering can up with some solution and went round the beds giving them a little bit. I pulled a few weeds up as I went along including a few bindweed seedlings (hopefully I got them all up) Then I got the hose pipe out and went round and gave all the beds on the plot a thorough watering - I always underestimate how much water the plants need as it so easy to think the rain we get is enough but every year I regret not watering more often (so that's my 2016 resolution to do more watering, especially the garlic / onion and potatoes for better bulb / tuber development).
After paying a lot of attention to the parsnip bed, each planting hole getting a load of water, it was time to start planting the germinating seeds. I used the end of a cane to make an inch deep hole and popped the seed in ... trying to make sure the root went in first was not always easy. In total, 24 seeds planted. Rather than back fill the holes with soil, instead I filled the watering can and watered them in - the soil in the hole should in theory, naturally collapse in and bury the seed and root. We'll just have to wait and see if it worked or not. I followed it by giving the bed a good sprinkling of slug pellets.
Other beds that got slug pellets included the broad beans. Despite my disappointment a couple of weeks ago, all but 2 of the seeds had germinated and looking well. Alas, the asparagus has been a disaster - I know they were all doing well when I planted them but the cold snap knocked them back. However, I know they were recovering but on Sunday there are barely 5 plants that have come up. Even the ones that were doing well had nothing. I suspect it is slugs and snails so after weeding the beds and a thorough watering, I scattered a load of slug pellets around and fingers crossed they will recover. One last task to do and that was to spread the soiled bedding. Already it was 4.30 pm and just starting to spit with rain so I only had time to empty the bags on the top soil of 3 beds - hopefully it will keep the moisture in the soil and stop any weeds from germinating before next weekend. Then I'll dig it in ready for my beetroot, courgette and cucumber when they are ready to plant out.
Another failure is the triangle bed of raspberries, Tadmor. I planted 6 canes and only 3 have grown. One of the canes was clearly in leaf but is now dead and shrivelled up - I'm not sure what killed it. Was it short of water? I find that odd. I'm sure I didn't spray it with weedkiller as everything else looks fine but I suppose there was a risk when the stupid sprayer didn't switch itself off when I released the handle. Or maybe pest or disease? The others do seem to be struggling and slow to come up. On the other raspberry bed, all but 1 Polka and 1 Glen Fyne haven't come up, but miraculously, the extra weedy looking Malling Minerva that I nearly threw away has come through fine. Compared to the All Gold raspberry canes still in pots at home, the plot raspberry plants aren't thriving as well as I would have expected. Maybe it's colder on the plot than at home as the ones in pots are in ideal growing conditions and look lush green and really taking off after I had split them up. Very odd.
The strawberries and pond fruit trees are looking well, and all the potatoes are up. Lots of dead slugs too where I'd put slug pellets down when planting so makes me wonder about the disappearing new asparagus. The pond water is remarkably clear and I could see both of the pots with the plants in at the far bottom. All the tadpoles seem happy swimming around, the water hyacinth looks like it is recovering after that cold spell and the area of duckweed has quadrupled since I last saw it but still just a little floating island. As I stood looking at the pond, I saw a little damselfly swoop down and land on the duckweed - you could say it's the first "live" damselfly I've ever seen before. I can feel a wild life photography project coming on ..... I do like the pond even at this early stage with barely any plants in - it is quite mesmerizing watching the pond surface ripple with the reflection of the sky and then seeing the tadpoles happily swimming around in the water.
Fingers crossed for a dry spring bank holiday weekend as I'd like to make another big push on the plot to "finish" off and also keep on top of the weeds before they take over - it's definitely that time of year when everything is germinating and growing rapidly. I also want to get the last beds planted up / seeds sown. I get an extra day off so an opportunity to (hopefully) get more done. Busy busy busy!
All of the swede have germinated so I'm very happy about that - considering I put one seed per module, it is a good indication that the seed was fresh when I bought it. Normally I'd plant 3 seeds per module and pull out the weaker ones if they germinate. As I don't want to waste time hardening them off, the tray has been outside for a couple of days and only brought in at night, more as a preventative against the army of slugs and snails as well as the chilly nights. The slug pellets should protect them for a little while.
The beetroot in the back bedroom has also germinated- out of the 15 modules, 4 are not showing but some of the others have 2 or even 3 seedlings coming up because of the seed clusters. As the seedlings seem to be growing a bit leggy, I thought they ought to go outside too so they also got a scattering of slug pellets and were well watered before being put outside. The back bedroom gets really warm when the sun shines through the window but now that it is higher on the horizon and the neighbour's ash tree is bursting into leaf, the light levels are slowly diminishing. That's when plants start leaning towards the window and growing thin and weedy. It won't be long before the sweetcorn will be moved out but as there are so many trays, once outside I won't be able to bring them back indoors so easily. So that means waiting for a quiet balmy week of warm sunshine ... I wonder when and if that will happen. At least the patio is well sheltered for the most part so a good way to harden off before planting out on the more exposed plot. And I still need to dig over their big bed - I hope to get that done this weekend, and sow some peas and carrots too, plus necessary weeding to keep on top of things.
Not such a good weekend - I only visited the plot on Sunday but I did get a bit done at home.
On Sunday 29th May 2016, I was all ready to go at 7.30 am but I really didn't feel like going. I usually get into the mood once I'm there so I set off. The weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday did not sound clever with heavy rain from the continent moving up with strong winds from the north east driving down temperatures, so I'd set myself with quite a number of tasks. First and foremost, get some weedkiller down on the car parking space (when I have gone round with the sprayer, the car has already been parked up) so I hopped out of the car and started to spray .... except the pump sprayer decided not to do more than a second of less than ideal spray before it stopped working. I tightened the lid even more, but there was a definite leak that I could not fix This is a second sprayer that has died on me this year - they are more expensive but I prefer them to the cheap single pump sprayers (when you have a lot of ground to cover, it is not only more hard work but less controllable than the pressure ones)
My next task was watering. Despite the weather forecast, I'm sticking with the once a week watering especially as the soil was very dry. You'd think we'd had scorching hot weather for weeks but I suspect the reason is the wet winter had knocked the soil and made it more compact. I concentrated on the onions, garlic, potatoes, asparagus, raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries and the new fruit trees but also the lavender which was not bouncing back so well - I think I may have cut them back too much. Another raspberry cane in the triangle bed had died leaving just one surviving out of six. I think something else is wrong here because the ones on the other bed are doing fine - of the 2 remaining canes that had not been showing life, one was starting to grow so only one of them (Polka) is still to grow. I'm seriously wondering if the problem on the triangle bed is Raspberry blight?
Symptoms You may see the following symptoms:
During summer, leaves on fruiting canes wither and the canes die
Well, it's not summer but I can't think what else could be the problem. I think I might contact the supplier because it seems odd that it is only these ones that are affected.
The fruit trees on the pond bed are still doing fine. A peek into the pond and there seemed to be fewer tadpoles or, they were resting on the bottom which is slowly disappearing with a carpet of Elodea - the bunches I dropped on the bottom seem to have produced loads of shoots but still quite low in the water. Maybe by summer the plants will grow up to the surface? The leaves of the water lily have reached the water surface - quite small leaves and a sort of brown colour. I think I was expecting big green pads like you see in lakes LOL. And the duck weed cover has once again quadrupled - amazing growth in just a few short weeks. It won't be long before I start skimming some of it out. And the water hyacinth are definitely recovering from the cold snap.
There are loads of flowers and developing fruit on the strawberries. I will be netting them off soon otherwise the blackbirds will be feasting on my fruit! For freebies, they are doing very well. All the currants have lots of fruit set but I'm not so sure about the blueberries. I've neglected them for so long that they may take a full season to recover fully but fingers crossed all the extra compost and fertilizer is working.
I spent a good couple of hours watering. Next, hand weeding. The weeds were starting to take off in the onion and garlic beds so I really wanted to clear them before they got too big and especially too deep rooted. I was surprised that the garlic beds were not too bad - the odd grass or speedwell with the occasional dock or bindweed. Next, the onion bed - the downside of going for a netted cage is that it is very awkward trying to weed with the cane frame in the way. Again, not too many but there were some docks that were growing too well for my liking. Most of the onions were now about 8-9 inches tall but so many have not grown at all. This is the first time I've grown an F1 variety which were more expensive than my usual Sturon, and I have to say I'm not impressed. I think I'll be going back to my old favourites ....
Some of the weeds were right in the middle of the onion bed and the downside is that the bed was wider than usual so I really struggled but determined to get them out. The result is that I was stretching and straining to reach them and didn't feel so clever afterwards. On top of which, my neighbour turned up and decided to strim the grass on his plots - I was down wind of the noise and the fumes. One thing I did notice is that some of the onion leaves had a distinctive chewed look - slug and snail damage I think these are in greater numbers due to the mild winter and may have been the reason for the non appearance of most of the new asparagus. So I went round with the pellets in not only the onion bed but another dose round the asparagus and potatoes.
In the asparagus bed, there were a few more spears appearing but the Mondeo and Arienne are not doing too well - I'm so cross because they were definitely emerging earlier in the year and were knocked back by the return of winter. I'm still hopeful they will recover.
Still no sign of the parsnips but at the moment I'm not too worried It can take a while for germination but I'd be a whole lot happier if they made an appearance. The broad beans on the other hand are doing well - leaving it this late, I'm worried about black fly but one thing I definitely noticed was a lot of ladybirds around. I suspect they too are in greater numbers because of the mild spring. The bumble bees are enjoying the comfrey flowers - the plants have already grown up to 3 feet tall in such a short space of time and really need to be cut back but surprisingly, there's not many other flowers around just yet so it would be cruel to take away the only food source. I like bumble bees - they always make me smile.
By now, my neighbour had moved down to where I was working and the strimming was making me ill. A powerful petrol driven motor, it was excessively loud and he really throttled it to tackle the long grass. It never ceases to amaze me how selfish people can be - he may be wearing ear defenders, but I wasn't. And even more annoying is that he knows I only go to the allotments on Sunday mornings and as a retired gentleman, he has any other day of the week to do a noisy job like that. In the end, I couldn't take any more and left the site at 12.30pm. I had so wanted to get the sweetcorn bed dug over and ready, grrrr.
Bank Holiday Monday 30th May 2016 - the after effects of all the hand weeding took their toll and instead of doing gardening, I spent the day indoors recovering (maybe an exaggeration of my "condition" - call it laziness) On Tuesday, I was up with the larks and after getting the girls up and fed, I was out with the loppers and secateurs to try and fill the second garden waste bin. The council seems to have changed the bank holiday weekend collections - maybe paying the dustmen to collect on Saturdays is too expensive and instead they do everything on Tuesdays now. I trimmed the small bit of hedge on the patio side and lopped the buddleia that was growing in the gap between my fence and the neighbour's extension. As I peered over the fence, there were several growing, including a tree sapling (possibly silver birch?) I need to spray them with potent weedkiller (the "gap" is actually in my boundary and I don't think the neighbours had intended for the buddleia to grow there as it self seeds quite readily round here) but with the forecast of rain looming, it would be better done on another day. As it was, the wind was really gusty, and incredulously cold - more like a winter's day than end of May!
I also lopped a few branches hanging down over my patio and shed from the other neighbour's ash tree, then gently "raked" all the twigs and debris off the shed roof. All I seem to remember is doing a lot of sweeping. I also emptied the old pots of compost from last year's outdoor chillies (can't believe they were still there) and also disposed of a load of garlic that had been left hanging outside since last year that had not dried properly/stored well. The second bin filled and was put out ready for the collection with the other bin by 8.30 am.
Next, I tackled a load of clutter (plant pots, crates and tubs full of water) that had collected on top of a home made chair (I remember making this with bits of pallet on an old office arm chair frame way back when I lived in my other house - it must be 20 years old and surprisingly, the pallet wood is still fairly strong ... not that I'll ever test it as I don't think I'd be able to get out of it if my bottom went through the base LOL) There were old trays (such as meat or mushroom trays) that had become brittle as well as some broken pots so they went into the bin, and I finally got rid of solar lamps that had stopped working (or never worked at all) It was quite liberating to see the patio all clean and clear of rubbish. The only downside is that the subsidence was more evident than ever - the previous owners had not done a good job when laying the paving down (a serious lack of hard core I think)
Three bags of bark chippings were still were I left them a year ago, the print on the plastic fading. They were part of my plan for a low maintenance garden and also cover the fruit bush beds at the allotment but the bags were so heavy that I had intended to break them up into smaller bags. Well, I finally got round to it - now about 18 or so smaller bags waiting to go to the allotment. More sweeping, then I decided to move the plant troughs on the patio further back and make it more compact.
I so wanted to get on with filling the bins again so that I didn't have the dilemna of whether to do the garden or go to the allotment the next time the bins were collected, so I started to fill the empty chippings bags. Alas, the bin men were late - it was 3.30 pm by the time they came and I immediately brought the bins in to start filling them. In the garden, the wind had pulled the length of weed suppressant up so I decided to pin it down with the plastic barbed pins and that's when ... it started to rain. Aarrrgh! I tried to work through the light rain but it got heavier and more persistent and I had to abandon the bin fill.
After about an hour, the rain had stopped so I pushed on with the bin fill. I managed to get most of the recent trimmings from a fortnight ago in to the bins and they are now full and ready for the next collection in 2 weeks time. I also managed to clear a path to the polytunnel door and able to partially zip it closed as the wind was really buffeting the cover. As a whole, the garden doesn't look too bad but there's still a lot of work to be done. I have been making plans of how to go about it - it is going to take a lot of work! Meanwhile, I have my patio back - so much space now. And it even looks bigger too.
I love reading your diary LL, it always inspires me. I've got a big, overgrown garden too and it takes such effort to try and get some control back. There's nothing more frustrating than filling the green bin in a day, then knowing you've got 2 weeks to wait before you can do anything else! I need to have a big clear up of all the junk in mine too, it's amazing what accumulates isn't it!
Karen Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
Finally, summer has arrived During my Saturday morning supermarket shop, I bought a load of ice cream so I'm almost ready (forgot the beer - it isn't summer without the beer but I've got one can in the fridge for an emergency) I moved all the sweetcorn out of the back bedroom, including the cucumber and courgette and onto the patio. Alas, a few of the sweetcorn had died - I suspect the drop in temperature and under/over watering may have been the reason for their demise but the others especially the ones on the windowsill were about 10 inches tall so light must have been important too. The neighbour's ash tree top spread covers 3/4 of my garden width so my house gets shade for most of the day (there is an upside - it also means the back of the house isn't baking in strong sunshine during a heatwave so my house stays relatively cooler than usual in summer!)
KarenE wrote:I love reading your diary LL, it always inspires me. I've got a big, overgrown garden too and it takes such effort to try and get some control back. There's nothing more frustrating than filling the green bin in a day, then knowing you've got 2 weeks to wait before you can do anything else! I need to have a big clear up of all the junk in mine too, it's amazing what accumulates isn't it!
Thank you Yes, the junk was quite embarrassing actually - I think I start a job off with intentions of finishing and before I know it, something happens, maybe a change in the weather or I've had to get on with something else and then it gets forgotten.
Well, Sunday was as forecast - cool and cloudy at first, but when the sun came out at about 9.00 am, you could feel the heat building up. For the most part it was quite pleasant with a slight cool breeze at first. I planned on sowing dwarf French beans and peas this weekend, clearing the winter brassica beds (they will be the courgette and cucumber beds when they are ready to plant out), planting the pots of oca (New Zealand yams) and digging over the proposed bed for the sweetcorn (in this warmth and sunshine, they should start to grow quite quickly now) So I loaded the car, including 4 bags of soiled bedding from the coops and set off at 8.00 am.
As I approached the plot, it actually didn't look bad at all - the beds next to the shared footpath with the comfrey, gooseberry, garlic and potatoes looked well organised. As I parked the car, the garlic on the other hand looked a bit on the yellow side. A closer look at them and there is definitely rust starting to make an appearance, and the tips of the garlic were yellow but the other leaves were still green. Also, the scapes (the flower heads) were just starting to come up - my task next week is to trim these off. The soil also looked dry ... I poked my finger into an asparagus bed and it was bone dry - no wonder they weren't growing. So, first task - watering.
The onions on the other hand did look good, most now a good 10 inch tall and even some of the smaller sets that had failed to grow were making a show. Some were still a bit wonky and flopped over but overall, I'm feeling a little more optimistic than last week. I gave them all a thorough drenching. Onto the garlic beds and I can see the "shoulder" of the developing bulbs appearing on some varieties - apparently Albigensian Wight is notorious for this, as if the bulbs are lifting up as they bulk up. A good sign because Illico and the Albigensian are early maturing and I might be lifting them up in about 3-4 weeks time. In the past I've been a bit remiss and failed to water them enough so I'm hoping this bit of TLC will work.
I spent a lot of time watering the asparagus beds - at first, I could only see about 7 had produced stems / ferns and was feeling very disappointed because of all the time, effort and money spent on them but then, as I looked more closely, all of the 4x Mondeo, 4x Arienne and over 3/4 of the Pacific Purple were producing spears I think the dose of slug pellets last week must have given them chance to start growing again. Onto the blueberry bed and I'm pleased to see most have responded well to the fresh compost and fertilizers - lovely green foliage and looking much healthier than before. Only one is still bearing pale leaves tinged with red - it might just be a late developer. In the triangle bed, only one raspberry cane from the 6 I bought is alive although the leaves on the latest casualty had not died completely. The annoying thing, if it is raspberry blight then I can't plant raspberries or strawberries in that bed - I wonder if it affects blueberries because, come to think of it, the blueberry not doing so well is next to the triangle bed.
The potatoes are cracking on, and so are the weeds. So far, the dried blood and potato fertilizer treated plants are not showing that much difference - in the Vivaldi bed, the potato fertilizer plants appeared slightly bigger, not much between the Isle of Jura but in the Arran Pilots, the dried blood treated looked slightly bigger and a shade darker green. Maybe early days yet. In the parsnip bed, no sign of the seedlings ... I did expect to see something coming up by now. There were a couple of seedlings but not distinct enough to decide whether weed or parsnip. The broad beans have doubled in size and looking fine - no sign of the dreaded blackfly yet so I'm hoping the ladybirds are keeping them in check.
The strawberries are a mass of flowers and developing fruit. The raspberries are still slow - I'm hoping it's because they are establishing themselves as they are not thriving as well as they should. The All Gold raspberries in big pots at home are so different with lush green leaves and lots of flowers, even the weeny ones from the initial bunch that I'd teased apart was doing better than the plot ones. Maybe they need a pick me up or just waiting for summer to arrive? Only one cane has not grown, a Polka, and it doesn't look like it will come up now. The fruit trees on the pond bed look well, as do the Chinese artichokes and horseradish. Round to the back of the shed and the Jerusalem artichokes are all coming up. Again, I think the problem was slugs and snails and using slug pellets was a good call. Lots of weeds coming up in that bed too ...
Watering took well over an hour and half to do and at this point, the sun was now out and everything warming up quickly. I decided to get on with turning over the soil in the proposed dwarf bean and pea bed - last time I brought chicken bedding, I had dumped it on top of the soil, so I needed to turn it in. Considering I had not watered the empty beds, the soil under the surface was surprisingly nice and moist as well as a healthy black colour with the humus. Maybe the bedding had acted like a mulch and kept the soil from drying out? Thinking about it, I put plenty round the asparagus so maybe when I poked through it, I was just poking the dried mulch layer?
At 10 am I heard the squeak of the allotment shed doors opening so I popped round with my tray of spare oca. I hoped to sell them but got a bit of a telling off instead - apparently we are not allowed to sell spare plants and that honour is only for the garden association to drum up some money for maintenance. I distinctly remember the last time I bought cabbage seedlings that someone from the site had grown them, not the association. A strange conversation followed on as I said they could be given away as I didn't need them - so, on the one hand being told it wasn't allowed but at the same time, being asked how much I was asking. Well, they were surplus to me so I said 10p each ... by the time the shop closed at 12 pm, 13 had been sold so I made £1.30p. Maybe next time I'll try and sell them at work instead (the chilli plants last year went like hot cakes) In the meantime, 4 free yellow tomato seedlings were palmed off on me - where am I going to plant these? Apparently a nice tomato, not cherry so maybe worth finding a spot at home (I do have 2 empty greenhouses and a long polytunnel standing idle this year)
I got back to the plot and started to weed the broad bean and the proposed oca bed. Lots of tiny seedlings springing up everywhere amongst the broad beans so it took a while to pinch them out but does look better for it. The oca bed was still under the old chicken bedding and the top soil was dry so probably why there were only a few weeds and didn't take as long. I scattered some potato fertilizer over the surface (I didn't have any Growmore on me and you grow Oca much like potatoes .... we'll see LOL) Like the other beds, the soil underneath the dry surface was surprisingly moist - I dug 12 planting holes, put a couple handful of compost in each and in the row facing the front, put a pinch of dried blood, and in the back row some chicken manure pellets. I had 10 plants in pots, and 2 plants surplus from the sale. After backfilling, I then scraped the loose soil and straw from the soil surface and "earthed" up - this should hopefully keep the soil underneath the plants moist. The plants did well in the railway sleeper bed but the compost often dried out especially during heatwaves but I'm hoping the soil bed will produce bigger tubers if the plants can flourish better. The downside of using a soil bed is when it comes to digging them up and the smaller rogue tubers get left behind to sprout again.
By 1.00pm the sun's strength was peaking and although it wasn't particularly hot, I was getting tired. I still had the seeds to sow. I made a shallow trench with the spade and filled with compost and sprinkled a line of Minidor yellow bush beans (saved seed from 2014) and in the back row, Borlotti beans (dwarf not climbing ones) I had brought along saved seeds of Cherokee climbing beans but I was not up to making a frame. Likewise, it was getting too late to put the pea netting frame up and sow those seeds. Besides which, I've suddenly realized that I may not have enough beds for what I was hoping to grow ...
You've no idea how many times I've been counting the beds in my head and what was going to be in each - cucumber, courgette, oca, parsnip, dwarf french beans, peas, beetroot, swede and turnip. That's all the 9 beds behind the asparagus bed, so where was I going to grow the climbing beans or put the last of the raspberries. I think perhaps my plan to fill beds with permanent plants was not such a good idea. I do need to grow the Cherokee to make sure I can save some fresh seed for another time - maybe I'll make a wigwam? Meanwhile, pleased with how the soiled bedding had been a good mulch on the empty beds, decided to spread the 4 bags over the remaining 3 beds.
Before I left, another watering session to start the beans off and water in the oca but the broad beans, parsnip, garlic and asparagus beds got another watering for good measure. With a "heat wave" forecast, I had to make sure everything would be fine until my next visit. The disappointments was that I didn't get the sweetcorn, courgette and cucumber beds cleared and ready but will be high on my next list of things to do (with the rest of the weeding, sowing seeds, watering etc etc etc) I can feel the stress levels rising - maybe I need to book a day off work to get on top of things again? I got home at about 2.30 pm.
We've had a few glorious hot sunny days and the seedlings on the patio have really responded well. Some of the sweetcorn are now a good 10 inches tall, a few still lagging behind. The courgettes and cucumber are "toughening" up and not looking quite so indoor sappy but maybe not growing as quickly as I would have expected - it's possible they are still not getting as much sunshine that they need due to the neighbour's ash tree shading the patio. On the other hand, I've really appreciated the shade on the house - so nice not to come home from work (and a broiling in the car while sitting in traffic the jams) to a stifling hot house.
The beetroot are a little slow too - I've noticed beetroot seedlings in pots never seem to thrive as well as those sowed direct. The plan is to plant the seedlings when ready and also sow a row of seeds in the bed .... call it successional sowing so that you don't end up with a glut all at the same time. The swede however, have really put a massive spurt on. Although they all germinated, they kind of stopped growing at the 2 leaf stage - probably the result of that cold spring bank holiday weather - but in just a couple of days they have grown 10 fold and at this rate, might need to be planted out on the plot a lot sooner than I had planned.
My repotted pond plants in troughs of water on the patio are not really doing much apart from the "Fibre Optic" (Scirpus cernuus) which has responded well to the fresh compost. The others haven't died off so that's a blessing but I would have liked to have seen some new growth by now. Maybe using compost was not such a good idea - it could be the compost may have additives like lime to raise the pH and from what I read, pond plants tend to like conditions slightly on the acidic side. Oh well, we live and learn.
We had an amazing thunderstorm on Friday afternoon after lunch - end of the world kind of storm that just went on and on - with very heavy downpours. And that was the end of summer ....
My poor potted plants in trays on the patio were sat in about an inch of water. And the rain didn't stop. The forecast for Sunday was just as dire but there was a morning respite with rain not until after 12 pm. So if I got to the allotment early, I could still get a few things done. The girls were starting to get used to waking up early and at 5.00 am, the Bluebelle decided to "crow" (more like a loud hiccup) - my neighbours are going to love me for this. So I hurriedly got them up with a breakfast and cleaned their coops out (I'd already done a poo pick of the runs and filled their drinkers with fresh water on Saturday night) After a quick breakfast, wash and change I loaded the bags of soiled bedding in the car, along with some other things and set off at 6.30 am for the allotment plot. It should not surprise you that I was not the first there.
As I drove round the site, the transformation from the weekend before was worrying - weeds and grasses were well over 2 - 3 feet tall, and most plots looked very weedy. As I approached my plot I was expecting the worst but surprisingly, it still looked remarkably tidy, possibly one of the few to be honest. Like last week, the side of the plot along the shared path looked really quite good, the potatoes now big enough you cannot see between the plants. Part of the comfrey in the first bed had fallen over but a closer look and someone must have driven into the bed because the wood boundary was flattened and my plot number board was knocked down. If we'd had strong winds recently I might have thought it was weather related but it's been still and muggy for days, even in the thunder storm.
I know it was forecast rain later but I still had a good 5 hours so I had brought some weedkiller along in the hope of treating the long grass on the other shared footpath. I'm not sure why but that part of the path always seems to get missed in the first spray every year. Then I went round and spot sprayed the bind weed and horse tail coming up. It was hardly an arduous task but the sweat was pouring off me - the humidity really was quite high with no wind at all. The sprayer was still not getting enough pressure when pumped up and I had hoped my quick repair (a nitrile glove over the bottle top with a hole for the head fittings into the bottle) would have helped to stop the leak, but I'm wondering if it is something else now.
Anyway, an opportunity to see the state of the plot - I'm really pleased that most of the asparagus have come up - all 4 each of the Mondeo and Arienne, 9 out of the 14 Purple Pacific (the extra smaller ones were always going to be iffy) The oca looked fine, still no sign of the parsnip but the broad beans now a good 8-10 inch tall. And the dwarf french beans were germinating - the Minidor emerging first, the Borlotti just starting to push up. And damn, the packet of Minidor seeds were left there on the bed from last week (in a sealed plastic bag so the seeds would have been roasted in the hot sun. I'll have to make sure I save seeds from this year, fingers crossed we get some!) The garlic are not looking so good - rust seems to be rife this year, and this humidity is not helping. The onions so far are looking good and healthy in their cage but the bed is just a stride away from the garlic so the risk of developing rust will be high. The raspberries in the bed next to the lavender look fine, the last Tadmor in the triangle bed just about holding on. Fruit trees look fine, and behind the shed the Jerusalem artichokes have shot up. The whole bed seems to have loads of plants so I suspect these are the rogue tubers I missed as well as the planted ones. The gooseberry plants look lush - maybe too lush, and flopped over from the water weighted down the leaves but generally, look very healthy.
The next task was to get the sweetcorn bed ready.
I moved all the wood and bricks off the carpet that had covered the bed since last autumn, then rolled the carpet to alongside the onion bed. The carpet is threadbare and falling to bits in places so it's unlikely I'll get another season out of it. I might try cutting it into lengths to cover foot paths later. Meanwhile, I started to fork over the bed. Bear in mind we had a very wet winter and although the carpet protected it, there would still have been a lot of water that would have seeped underneath so not surprisingly the soil was compacted, but at the same time gritty and much looser than expected. My plan was to move the pile of compost from the front and spread it across the bed - the pile started in autumn 2014 from the annual autumn bed clearance and then topped up with bags of soiled bedding especially in winter when it was too difficult to walk on the plot. Last week I had cut the grasses (most likely wheat and barley from the chicken feed and picked up in the poo pick of the runs) and I thought it would be an easy case of forking and raking. Ha.
If I was honest, it took me longer to move the compost than it did to dig the big bed. I seemed to have an awful lot of plastic bags in various stages of rotting or filled with stuff, not to mention a piece of carpet I had used to cover the pile had got partially buried and was not for being moved. Eventually I got as much as I could out and raked it all across the bed. I came across a couple of yellow orange sock like structures, felt like cloth to the touch but looked like honeycomb that got pulled out of the compost. Too soft and flexible to be honeybee wax comb, but I've no idea what they are. Maybe bumble bee? Very odd. And at this point, the first spits of rain was starting. I hurriedly emptied the 3 bags of soil bedding onto the bed and before long, the spits were now rain drops and coming down fast. I took shelter in the car while the rain turned into a downpour which lasted a good 20 minutes. By the time the dark clouds had rolled away, it was 10.30 am - I guess the weedkiller applied earlier will have got washed away I should have known better than to rely on the weather forecast getting it right.
The plot was already saturated before the downpour and now all the footpaths were a mass of puddles and mud. I hauled the last of the alfalfa and spread it across the new bed, and raked it and the hurriedly applied soiled bedding, using a a chop and raked motion to lift the soil up and break any clods and spread it evenly around. I then moved on to the new pile of rubbish built up from the old compost pile and started to bag it up to take home and throw away. That's when I decided to tackle the comfrey that had fallen over. I'm not sure why, but there seems to be 2 different comfrey - the ones at the front were planted a year before the ones at the back but that was years ago and yet, the front ones always grow about 4 feet + while the ones at the back barely reach 3 feet. All the plants were in flower and covered in bumble bees, the sound of buzzing really loud. So I decided to just cut the front and leave the back ones alone.
And the cuttings were dumped on the site of the old compost heap, followed by the grass cuttings from last week on top. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the pile looked no different from earlier on LOL. As I looked up at the sky, the grey cover was starting to look a lot darker. I so wanted to sow my pea seeds but I didn't have time to erect the netting. Instead, I marked the 2 rows with canes and dug a shallow channel along the length and put a bit of compost in. In the front row I carefully sowed the Kent Blue mangetout seeds (zig zag pattern, 2 inches apart) but by the time I covered them and started on the next row, it was starting to rain. So the seed sowing was less than satisfactory with a rather rushed sprinkle of Shiraz purple podded mangetout peas and a quick cover up of soil before sprinkling some slug pellets over the bed. In all this rain, the slugs and snails had been coming out in hoards.
As I slipped and slithered my way back to the car, I spied the cabbage bed - there were a couple of enormous sow thistle, easily 4 feet tall, covered in flowers and seed heads. If I didn't get them out, I'd end up with weed seeds forever. It took some doing but eventually I got them up, including a few other weeds and dumped them on the vacant plot I actually don't feel that bad - I've already killed off the brambles and some bindweed on there that had been invading my plot. Finally, I dug out a huge cabbage plant - I'd harvested the head weeks ago and left the stalk behind which had regrown and produced loads of spring green leaves, and now the flower heads were making an appearance so time to lift up. It has surprised me how the pigeons have not eaten the leaves by now - I took the netting off a while back and they didn't seem to be bothered with them. Oh well, my girls should have a nice feast.
After putting my tools and cabbage into the back of the car, I got in to shelter from the rain. It was 11.55 am ... the 12 o clock rain had arrived so I saw little purpose of staying, and as the gates are shut at 12 pm, if I left straight away I wouldn't have to mess around unlocking and closing them after. So I set off.
By evening the rain had eased off but the cloud cover was menacingly dark. I had to rescue my potted plants on the patio or they would drown - nearly every tray was filled to the brim. I rearranged the pond plant trays so that I could use collapsible crates to put the pots of sweetcorn - as I hope to plant them out next week, they didn't need to be in trays and the crates would allow the excess water to drain off. The swede were sown in a tray liner so I lifted it out and put it in an open tray (stacklable plastic mesh blue tray you sometimes see in garden centres / veg stalls) That left the courgettes and cucumber - I drained the water out of the trays but put them back on the old mini greenhouse racking and put a piece of glass and plastic on top to protect from further rain. I also drained the beetroot and tomato trays and put them on the racking too. Fingers crossed we don't get too much rain this next week although the forecast temperatures are for dropping as low as 14oC by Friday (what?!)
All last week we had heavy rain and thunderstorms every day, usually about the time I finished work and walking to my car. Friday night was like the climax to the week, the storm started at 6.00pm and just raged on for a good hour and half, the deluge was so intense that I looked out from my back door at the patio to see a lake forming where the paving have subsided, and down by the chicken runs the water was ankle deep in water. Quite spectacular. Saturday was dry and Sunday looked promising ....
I had booked the week off work so had planned lots of gardening jobs. I set off for the allotment with the courgette plants and arrived at about 7.30 am. First task - another attempt with the weedkiller but I think some of last week's spray may have started to work as the weeds and grasses didn't seem to be thriving so maybe not washed off as I thought. So far the horsetail seems under control so perhaps last year's treatment had been effective - non-treated areas such as on the neighbouring "vacant"plot were well established so fingers crossed that we have finally got on top of the problem.
Next task, giving the garlic a dose of potash - potash is essential for encouraging bulb formation (and tuber development in potatoes) as it is used by plants to move and store food (sugars) With all the rain we'd had, I was reluctant to water it in and we were forecast rain on Monday so hopefully it will get washed into the soil naturally. I then went round the asparagus beds to pull the weeds out. One thing for sure, the asparagus had responded well to all the rain and all but one had grown so I'm very pleased with that. I think slug pellets were key to them finally emerging and the plants clearly like wet conditions.
Then it was time to tackle the old cabbage bed - surprisingly there were very few weeds which were easily lifted, and even the 3 little horse tail plants coming up were dug out without problems. I had brought along 3 bags of soiled coop bedding and forked it in before digging 5 planting holes. Each hole had a couple handful of compost followed by a handful of chicken manure pellets and a sprinkling of fish, blood and bone. The courgette plants are not as well developed as in previous years but I'm putting that down to a late cool spring (and obviously my late sowing) and a lot of cloud cover (plus my patio is shaded by the neighbour's tree so sunlight in short supply)
I then went round the plot and weeded some more beds especially the Jerusalem artichokes, broad bean, Oca and dwarf French beans. I was a bit disappointed that the peas had not germinated and a little worried the seed was not viable.
Before the allotment shop closed at midday, I went round to get some more chicken manure pellets, fish blood & bone as well as lime to make sure I had plenty for the rest of the planting still to be done. I asked about all the weedy plots and it would seem there are a lot of vacant plots. I'm actually not that surprised - the rent has gone up and next year's will be a lot more. I also think the surge of interest had been the result of several tv programmes and some people just don't realise that allotments are a lot of hard work, frustrating when things don't work and sometimes not very rewarding (growing your own still costs money, and the end result can be disappointing - I can see the appeal of just popping down to the supermarket) When plots are vacant, they quickly grow weedy and once taken on, you really need to visit the plot at least once a week or more to keep on top of everything especially in late spring and early summer - it needs a lot of dedication to keep it going.
I seemed to be at the plot a long time and yet didn't seem to achieve much. I was also tired as I was still recovering from the extra work I did before taking annual leave (you'd think I was taking a month off but everyone was worried we'd miss out on a financial deadline for funding at the end of the month if it wasn't done before I finished, plus I had to do a big stock up so moving a lot of heavy stuff didn't help) Still, I finished at 1.30 pm so perhaps I'd done more than I realised.
- about 20 or so sets had been pulled up even under the fleece. They could have been like that for the past 2-3 weeks since I put the fleece down so they might not recover. On the other hand, quite a lot had sprouted up to about 3 inch long. There was also a lot of weeds ... as I had not intended to do any gardening as such, I hadn't brought any gardening tools so it was a picking job. Took a lot longer than I would have liked. I wanted to get the watering done as soon as possible.
Some were quite big.
Earlier in the morning I had decided to wash my embarassingly very filthy net curtains and was an opportunity to retrieve the big sheets of cardboard stacked along the wall that I'd been saving to take to the allotment. I decided they would be better put to use in the garden where the brambles had got a foothold in the fruit tree bed and I was clearly not winning. After cutting the brambles down to ground level, the cardboard sheets were laid over and weighted down. In time I will put weed suppressant membrane down over the top after I have lifted up the daffodil bulbs which are still in full leaf. Also an opportunity for a frog to move out as I'd clearly disturbed his hunting patch.
). The garlic in the bed at the side of the blueberries on the other hand looked so much better. The netting over the onion bed had come loose at one end which is not surprising so I pinned it down again, and rescued the fleece I'd forgotten to put away after I had lifted it off the bed. That's when I noticed the weeds and grasses were not just looking parched but I think the weedkiller treatment was starting to work, hence the not so tidy appearance.
a few bindweed seedlings (hopefully I got them all up) Then I got the hose pipe out and went round and gave all the beds on the plot a thorough watering - I always underestimate how much water the plants need as it so easy to think the rain we get is enough but every year I regret not watering more often (so that's my 2016 resolution to do more watering, especially the garlic / onion and potatoes for better bulb / tuber development).
It can take a while for germination but I'd be a whole lot happier if they made an appearance. The broad beans on the other hand are doing well - leaving it this late, I'm worried about black fly but one thing I definitely noticed was a lot of ladybirds around. I suspect they too are in greater numbers because of the mild spring. The bumble bees are enjoying the comfrey flowers - the plants have already grown up to 3 feet tall in such a short space of time and really need to be cut back but surprisingly, there's not many other flowers around just yet so it would be cruel to take away the only food source. I like bumble bees - they always make me smile.
Yes, the junk was quite embarrassing actually - I think I start a job off with intentions of finishing and before I know it, something happens, maybe a change in the weather or I've had to get on with something else and then it gets forgotten.
